HUSKER2142

When the free download of trial version CMBO came out, I fell in love with Combat Mission.
CMBO, CMBB, CMAK are, in my opinion, the best war sandbox game of WW2 I have ever played.  I haven't posted here in forever, but I used to run a website supporting CMx1 mods.  Game was brilliant. 
Here it is, over 20 years later.  I've turned 64, retired, but still playing CMx1.  I was playing tonight and realized I'm still playing CMx1 and not CMx2.  I own all CMx2, but find them tedious, not enough play aids, etc.  CMx2 forgot it was a "war game" and went to "war simulation" and it might have satisfied the grog nards, but not me, a gamer. 
20 years later, my high resolution monitors are still playing CMx1, even CMBO, though not at wide screen and Windows 10 for some reason does not allow "fog" effects, but everything else works fine.  I play CMx1 NOW instead of CMx2, because, well, it is just more enjoyable.  And the models and textures are still incredible. 
I spent 25 years with IBM as an electrical engineer who did software development in the area of network routing (multicast mostly), then system management software.  CMx1 still remains the top of my list of most respected software achievements that I admire most.  CMx2 does not compete, because I feel it got confused in trying to deliver every grog nard complaint about "realism".   It looks prettier, but no, very tedious to play.  Why remove play aids, make things more difficult to tell what is going on, etc.  Oh, that is how combat really is, oh please, next "game"...
Man, what I would give to have CMx1 re-released with the CMx2 graphics, same gaming engine.  Yea, I know a lot of work to get models covering the periods it covered, but that was it's charm and what made it far superior to the CMx2 of delivering small  chunks that "pay more attention to detail" for that period.  As far as I'm concerned, it has not been satisfactory at all.  But my opinion is pretty much worthless, so everyone will make their own.
Still, Combat Mission is an all time favorite, regardless if I think the direction it went was not satisfactory.  CMx1 rules still, after 20 years.  That is quite an accomplishment.  And on top of that, there are still those of us playing it after 20 years and ignoring the installed CMx2 games.  Go figure.
 
 
 
 
 

I apologize for my bad english.
Hi everyone, my name is Denis, I will briefly tell you about myself. I served in army RF for 12 years with 16.5 years of experience. I served in the infantry and mountain troops. He began his service as a conscript soldier, finished his service as a company commander in the rank of captain. I became an officer when I entered the officer courses and after 3 years received rank of lieutenant. I left army because of my health after being wounded, alas, with a metal rod in my leg, they write off, so I'm retired at 30 years old. I have plans to get a second higher education, I have already entered college and still want to get a flight license for an airplane. 
The Combat Mission series was introduced to me by a friend of mine in 2014, my first game was CMBN and it is my favorite part of CM. 
I am ready to answer your questions, to which I can give an answer. I will not answer provocative questions. Ask questions.
 

Since the original thread already go hijacked by a discussion about foxholes, I thought it best to start again.  Am hoping we can restrict this topic to a list of weird stuff we have experienced playing CM2 - as that may be helpful to the developer.  
Been playing a lot of CMSF2 (latest version) recently and noticed many oddities and eccentricities that may not all be bugs as they may reflect RL or some incompatibility with older scenarios and campaigns.  But, perhaps other players might want to list things that they have encountered in other CM2 titles - WW2 or modern - that don't make sense or are simply weird. 
To start off, here are the CMSF2 items so far:
Re CMSF2 (so far):
1)  Spotting issues.  A two man scout team with no binoculars can spot enemy units at close to 3,000 meters much better than an FO (with super dooper optics tech) or an HQ with binocs.  
2)  Related to item 1) Once can have a scout team, an FO, an HQ, a Jav team etc all in the same location, literally lying on top of each other.  The scout team sees an enemy units - but even after many minutes the other teams cannot see it - they do not communicate.  There is something wrong with the C2 system.
3)  The M1046 TOW Humvee crew can dismount and take the TOW launcher and missile with them.  According to the UI it takes something like 1.7 minutes to deploy the TOW and a lot longer to pack up.  But it never seems to deploy. 
4)  Related to item 2) It is very very hard to use any vehicle mounted ATGM in CM2 as "hull-down" doesn't mean that only the vehicle optics on the roof are exposed.  Instead the top of the vehicle is exposed and can be easily seen and fired at and destroyed.  Without being able to dismount the TOW in this example, it's usually suicidal to attempt to fire the TOW even from a hull-down position.
5)  Same is true for the M707 Humvee and other "Arty Spotting vehicles" with Laser and other high hech on the roof.  All of these cannot be safely used in CM2 "hull-down" as they can be easily seen and destroyed.
6)  The M1114 AGL (Automatic Grenade Launcher) Humvee crew can dismount with the AGL.  However, it must be a spare from the trunk as an AGL remains mounted on the Humvee and can be crewed and operated by another crew or inf team.  Is it correct that the M1114 carries two AGL's?  (Note that the crew of the M1114 with the 50 cal can also dismount and operate it, but in this case the Humvee no longer has the 50 cal mounted.)
7)  HQ's in CMSF2 cannot spot for arty or air.
😎 Heavy arty falling on top of enemy troops often doesn't incapacitate them.  While it's true that shrapnel may miss, the shock wave of a large explosion alone is usually deadly as it can liquefy one's innards.
9)  Several vehicles (including the M1046 TOW Humvee) have quantities of regular ammo eg: 5.56mm etc.  But it seems impossible to acquire any of it.  The crew cannot acquire it, and if you dismount em and mount an inf team, they also cannot acquire any ammo.
10) LOS issues.  While CM2 is supposed to be WYSIWYG it often doesn't work that way.  One can get down to level one and eyeball a situation.  But, what one sees from a location often is not what a unit will see at that same location.  Eg: The AI can see pixel-wide gaps in what human examination considers completely blocked LOS.  A related issue is that one can eyeball a situation like a road in town and there is no obstruction down a street to target a building.  But one finds that when one places a unit in that location, it cannot see or shoot at the building.  
11) Another LOS/LOF issue.  Frequently we find that a crew served weapon can see and target an enemy only to discover that it's only the 3rd ammo loader who can see the enemy, not the main gun/gunner.  However, it is usually impossible to move the MG or gun a few inches to a position where it can see and fire the primary weapon at the enemy.  
 
 
 
 

Am hoping we can restrict this topic to a list of weird stuff we have experienced playing CM2 - as that may be helpful to the developer.  
Been playing a lot of CMSF2 (latest version) recently and noticed many oddities and eccentricities that may not all be bugs as they may reflect RL or some incompatibility with older scenarios and campaigns.  But, perhaps other players might want to list things that they have encountered in other CM2 titles - WW2 or modern - that don't make sense or are simply weird. 
Note: Some of the items are only pertinent to modern titles and other items are relevant to all titles.
Re CMSF2 (so far):1)  Spotting issues.  A two man scout team with no binoculars can spot enemy units at close to 3,000 meters much better than an FO (with super dooper optics tech) or an HQ with binocs.  Folks have opined that it's because one of the riflemen has a "Thermal Imager" attached to his rifle and that is why they spot so well.  However, if that is accurately simulated in CM2 then why don't all RL units have thermal imagers and scrap the expensive and heavy laser designators and other high-tech optics that seem so inferior in the game?
2)  Related to item 1) Once can have a scout team, an FO, an HQ, a Jav team etc all in the same location, literally lying on top of each other.  The scout team sees an enemy units - but even after many minutes the other teams cannot see it - they do not communicate.  There is something wrong with the C2 system.  Again... apologists say that in RL they often cannot see what their buddy can see.  However, since the Thermal Imager is so much more effective, wouldn't they simply borrow the rifle with the Thermal Imager so they could see for themselves and then line up their super dooper optical gear on the target so they could finally see it?
3)  The M1046 TOW Humvee crew can dismount and take the TOW launcher and missile with them.  According to the UI it takes something like 1.7 minutes to deploy the TOW and a lot longer to pack up.  But it never seems to deploy. 
4)  Related to item 2) It is very very hard to use any vehicle mounted ATGM in CM2 as "hull-down" doesn't mean that only the vehicle optics on the roof are exposed.  Instead the top of the vehicle is exposed and can be easily seen and fired at and destroyed.  Without being able to dismount the TOW in this example, it's usually suicidal to attempt to fire the TOW even from a hull-down position.
5)  Same is true for the M707 Humvee and other "Arty Spotting vehicles" with Laser and other high hech on the roof.  All of these cannot be safely used in CM2 "hull-down" as they can be easily seen and destroyed.
6)  The M1114 AGL (Automatic Grenade Launcher) Humvee crew can dismount with the AGL.  However, it must be a spare from the trunk as an AGL remains mounted on the Humvee and can be crewed and operated by another crew or inf team.  Is it correct that the M1114 carries two AGL's?  (Note that the crew of the M1114 with the 50 cal can also dismount and operate it, but in this case the Humvee no longer has the 50 cal mounted.)
7)  HQ's in CMSF2 cannot spot for arty or air.
😎 Heavy arty falling on top of enemy troops often doesn't incapacitate them.  While it's true that shrapnel may miss, the shock wave of a large explosion alone is usually deadly as it can liquefy one's innards.
9)  Several vehicles (including the M1046 TOW Humvee) have quantities of regular ammo eg: 5.56mm etc.  But it seems impossible to acquire any of it.  The crew cannot acquire it, and if you dismount em and mount an inf team, they also cannot acquire any ammo.
10) LOS issues.  While CM2 is supposed to be WYSIWYG it often doesn't work that way.  One can get down to level one and eyeball a situation.  But, what one sees from a location often is not what a unit will see at that same location.  Eg: The AI can see pixel-wide gaps in what human examination considers completely blocked LOS.  A related issue is that one can eyeball a situation like a road in town and there is no obstruction down a street to target a building.  But one finds that when one places a unit in that location, it cannot see or shoot at the building.  
11) Another LOS/LOF issue.  Frequently we find that a crew served weapon can see and target an enemy only to discover that it's only the 3rd ammo loader who can see the enemy, not the main gun/gunner.  However, it is usually impossible to move the MG or gun a few inches to a position where it can see and fire the primary weapon at the enemy.  
12)  Finding Hulldown positions is often problematic.  Some folks seem to like the "Hulldown Assist routine" available in the game.  But, often it simply leave the vehicle with no LOS to the desired target and one has to waste another turn (in WEGO obviously) manually moving the waypoints to get a hull-down position.  So, one may as well do it manually from the start.  The additional problem is that in the scenario am playing right now it is common that vehicles go from having "No LOS' to "Partial Hull Down" with no "Hulldown" option being able to be located in between.  One can spend many minutes dicking around with moving waypoints the shortest possible distance in this, that or the other direction to find a hull-done position (relative to the desired target), but one can only find either "No LOS" or "Partial Hulldown" positions.  It's unclear if this is an issue with the map, (maybe the terrain is strange), or the LOS routine.
13) Some vehicles like Bradleys when targeted vs a building don't use the desired weapon - their cannon - but instead fire their missiles - which often makes no sense.  (Target Light makes em use their MG's.)
14) SMOKE and buildings...  Smoke acts as if there are no obstructions or walls and will drift through a building as it is made of wire.  This is actually very helpful when one is attempting to assault a multi-room building.  But, doesn't reflect RL.
15) When one orders a SMOKE artillery strike and run out of SMOKE, the battery obviously still has all its HE rounds.  However, if you first order HE, when all shells are gone the battery has no SMOKE rounds left - they seem to have been used up as HE.
16) Some SNIPER teams in CMSF2 carry 50 cal rounds, even though they possess no weapon that can use 50 cal rounds.  
 

Exercise West-2021 is ahead 😉 .

Am hoping we can restrict this topic to a list of weird stuff we have experienced playing CM2 - as that may be helpful to the developer.  
Been playing a lot of CMSF2 (latest version) recently and noticed many oddities and eccentricities that may not all be bugs as they may reflect RL or some incompatibility with older scenarios and campaigns.  But, perhaps other players might want to list things that they have encountered in other CM2 titles - WW2 or modern - that don't make sense or are simply weird. 
Note: Some of the items are only pertinent to modern titles and other items are relevant to all titles.
Re CMSF2 (so far):1)  Spotting issues.  A two man scout team with no binoculars can spot enemy units at close to 3,000 meters much better than an FO (with super dooper optics tech) or an HQ with binocs.  Folks have opined that it's because one of the riflemen has a "Thermal Imager" attached to his rifle and that is why they spot so well.  However, if that is accurately simulated in CM2 then why don't all RL units have thermal imagers and scrap the expensive and heavy laser designators and other high-tech optics that seem so inferior in the game?
2)  Related to item 1) Once can have a scout team, an FO, an HQ, a Jav team etc all in the same location, literally lying on top of each other.  The scout team sees an enemy units - but even after many minutes the other teams cannot see it - they do not communicate.  There is something wrong with the C2 system.  Again... apologists say that in RL they often cannot see what their buddy can see.  However, since the Thermal Imager is so much more effective, wouldn't they simply borrow the rifle with the Thermal Imager so they could see for themselves and then line up their super dooper optical gear on the target so they could finally see it?
3)  The M1046 TOW Humvee crew can dismount and take the TOW launcher and missile with them.  According to the UI it takes something like 1.7 minutes to deploy the TOW and a lot longer to pack up.  But it never seems to deploy. 
4)  Related to item 2) It is very very hard to use any vehicle mounted ATGM in CM2 as "hull-down" doesn't mean that only the vehicle optics on the roof are exposed.  Instead the top of the vehicle is exposed and can be easily seen and fired at and destroyed.  Without being able to dismount the TOW in this example, it's usually suicidal to attempt to fire the TOW even from a hull-down position.
5)  Same is true for the M707 Humvee and other "Arty Spotting vehicles" with Laser and other high hech on the roof.  All of these cannot be safely used in CM2 "hull-down" as they can be easily seen and destroyed.
6)  The M1114 AGL (Automatic Grenade Launcher) Humvee crew can dismount with the AGL.  However, it must be a spare from the trunk as an AGL remains mounted on the Humvee and can be crewed and operated by another crew or inf team.  Is it correct that the M1114 carries two AGL's?  (Note that the crew of the M1114 with the 50 cal can also dismount and operate it, but in this case the Humvee no longer has the 50 cal mounted.)
7)  HQ's in CMSF2 cannot spot for arty or air.
😎 Heavy arty falling on top of enemy troops often doesn't incapacitate them.  While it's true that shrapnel may miss, the shock wave of a large explosion alone is usually deadly as it can liquefy one's innards.
9)  Several vehicles (including the M1046 TOW Humvee) have quantities of regular ammo eg: 5.56mm etc.  But it seems impossible to acquire any of it.  The crew cannot acquire it, and if you dismount em and mount an inf team, they also cannot acquire any ammo.
10) LOS issues.  While CM2 is supposed to be WYSIWYG it often doesn't work that way.  One can get down to level one and eyeball a situation.  But, what one sees from a location often is not what a unit will see at that same location.  Eg: The AI can see pixel-wide gaps in what human examination considers completely blocked LOS.  A related issue is that one can eyeball a situation like a road in town and there is no obstruction down a street to target a building.  But one finds that when one places a unit in that location, it cannot see or shoot at the building.  
11) Another LOS/LOF issue.  Frequently we find that a crew served weapon can see and target an enemy only to discover that it's only the 3rd ammo loader who can see the enemy, not the main gun/gunner.  However, it is usually impossible to move the MG or gun a few inches to a position where it can see and fire the primary weapon at the enemy.  
12)  Finding Hulldown positions is often problematic.  Some folks seem to like the "Hulldown Assist routine" available in the game.  But, often it simply leave the vehicle with no LOS to the desired target and one has to waste another turn (in WEGO obviously) manually moving the waypoints to get a hull-down position.  So, one may as well do it manually from the start.  The additional problem is that in the scenario am playing right now it is common that vehicles go from having "No LOS' to "Partial Hull Down" with no "Hulldown" option being able to be located in between.  One can spend many minutes dicking around with moving waypoints the shortest possible distance in this, that or the other direction to find a hull-done position (relative to the desired target), but one can only find either "No LOS" or "Partial Hulldown" positions.  It's unclear if this is an issue with the map, (maybe the terrain is strange), or the LOS routine.
13) Some vehicles like Bradleys when targeted vs a building don't use the desired weapon - their cannon - but instead fire their missiles - which often makes no sense.  (Target Light makes em use their MG's.)
14) SMOKE and buildings...  Smoke acts as if there are no obstructions or walls and will drift through a building as it is made of wire.  This is actually very helpful when one is attempting to assault a multi-room building.  But, doesn't reflect RL.
 
 

Somehow I became interested in armored vehicles, which did not go into production. I was a little terrified what monsters were building, how engineers could build them. And how many have not yet been embodied in metal 😎.

I'm deeply suspicious of Red vs Blue in CMSF in a multiplayer sense. I'm sure it's possible to win as Red, and it's possible to have balanced scenarios, but the disparity is so large that this is extremely difficult - even in an ideal situation, you'll be working significantly harder than the Blue player to keep level.

Still, if you're up for the challenge, this is the theory:

Imagine a Quick Battle, where the enemy are a US Bradley platoon. These are three squads with attached assets, javelins and the Bradleys themselves. Each element outperforms you in every way.

The main threats in order are then:

- Javelins
- Bradleys (TOW and 25mm)
- Infantry

So, how do you take this apart in the attack?

You obviously have cheaper forces, so you can build around an infantry platoon (say, BMP-1 or BMP-2 mech infantry), and attach assets to them.

- The Syrian army is derived from the Soviet army, which means the single most important asset is your artillery. Planning a good fire mission (or missions) are critical for success. The main artillery at this level would be 120mm mortars (on or off-map), ideally with a TRP or pre-planned. This assumes great recon, since the call in times are inflexible. Mortars aren't going to hurt the Bradleys, and can't be relied on to kill the infantry, but they will do an excellent job of suppressing the Javelins, so a lighter, longer fire mission is what you're aiming for. This obviously implies taking an FO.

- The second most important asset are reconnaissance forces. Having a squad or two available for recon - even just doing a leader recon with the platoon's HQ and the FO - is tremendously important. You need to know where they are. 

- The Bradleys badly overmatch either model of BMP, so you'll need something to improve the odds. Typically Soviet platoons would have a single armour asset attached, so bung in a T-72 or T-62 there. Either should give you a chance to hole a couple of Bradleys at least, but obviously the more modern the model, the better the chance. ATGMs are also possible here - all of them can take out Bradleys, but the AT-7/AT-13 are the ones designed for use in this scenario, since they're a little more mobile. The ATGM can join in the leader recon quite effectively, especially with the better models.

- Then, when the primary threats are dealt with, the BMPs can be fully engaged. There's been a lot written on these forums about keeping a chap in the commander seat to increase spotting, but I actually disagree with that (partly as you need the space for additional attachments). You should dismount BMPs later than you would with a Bradley, keeping the troops inside for a little longer, and making use of their forward-firing smoke for cover. When deployed, the BMP and squad should (at least initially) stick within 4 action spots or so, so that they can share information with each other effectively - that way the dismounted infantry are the eyes of the BMP. The BMP-2 is a significant upgrade on the BMP-1, but points may be a premium here, and the points may be better spent on the previous assets.
The infantry attack is basically mopping up. With the co-ordinated artillery, armour and ATGM attacks you should have shifted the odds significantly in your favour, so quality differences in the infantry are wiped out by excessive firepower. Tactically, the BMP plays the role of the squad's HMG - it's a fire support asset, with the squad as the manoeuvre element.


The thing is, this is *really hard*. It's inflexible, and relies on you using all of your assets effectively and in concert, to identify and counter each threat in turn. It relies heavily on having solid recon, and if something unexpected happens, you may not have the tools to deal with it. You also need great timing and a little luck. Blue needs none of this, so the balance is firmly in their favour.

Physically then, the battle will look a little like:

- Recon phase. Scouts out, find the enemy, start setting up ATGMs and plotting a fire mission.
- Move the armour and BMPs into a forward position, out of sight.
- When the suppression has started, the ATGM and tank can start taking out their vehicles
- With the Bradleys mostly dealt with, the BMPs can roll up with infantry mounted, in line, and slowly advance under the cover of the tank and the continual suppression.
- At a reasonable distance (300m?) the BMPs fire smoke and dismount infantry, who move ahead of their transports. Again they advance in line and move towards the enemy positions, whilst the mortars are still falling, under cover from the MBT. Infantry and BMPs now clean up, mopping up any survivors.

In Russian army, an artillery fire spotter is allocated at the company level. In platoons, platoon commanders are ready to direct artillery, but usually a few more soldiers are trained to correctly direct artillery, this difficulty was encountered in Syria when it became clear that more artillery spotters were needed. As a result of Syrian campaign, a couple of years ago, forward air controller began to be allocated to the company level, usually these are guys who once flew but they were written off due to various diseases, but there are already those who were trained in military schools.
Honestly, I would also like to have a trained artillery fire spotter at platoon level.

The full installers should be patched to the latest patch. 

Speaking as a former mech soldier, there is one FO per platoon plus a FIST team at company level. The platoon FOs are usually SPCs, and the Company FIST team comprises a LT, a SSG and a PFC/SPC RTO, who ride in a M7 Bradley FIST/V.

In the US Army Forward Observers used to be embedded with an infantry company, and would usually be with the Company Commander to provide fire support calls. That's how things were in WW2, and in Korea and Vietnam. Post Vietnam (mid-70s-ish) the FIST came about. FIST stands for Fire Support Team. The idea was to provide FOs down to platoon level. In the 82d, a FIST would have a 2LT (FIST Chief), SSG (FIST Sergeant), and SP4/PFC RTO (all 3 with radios) as its HQ unit and they would be with the infantry Company HQ. By TOE an E5 SGT + PFC (RTO) would be with each infantry PLT leader. The FIST provides a more responsive fire support element. (We never had the 3 RTOs that were suppose to go to the platoons and most of our E5 FOs were E4s). 
In a mech unit it's a bit different. They have their own vehicle, and could detach one of the personnel down to platoon level, but the FIST vehicle allows them to be mobile so that's not as necessary (and doesn't work with armor unless they want to ride on top 🙂  The FIST vehicle provides all the radio nets they need to monitor and use, plus a laser target designator. Having an FO down to platoon level in a mech unit would be most useful if they were dismounted, I would think, and not so much when mounted.
Artillery battalions also deploy Fire Support Officers, who are usually CPTs or senior 1LTs (and they come with a SSG/SFC and a PFC) to infantry brigade HQs as a Fire Support Team to do fire support planning with the infantry brigade (now Brigade Combat Teams but in SF2 days a brigade). 
Back in WW2 you'd just get a 2LT Forward Observer, usually down to company level. But in general, things were more compact then. In a modern battlefield platoons tend to be spread more than they were in WW2, and the FIST is a way to have the artillery be more responsive.
Hope that helps.

Dave   (ex US Army, FIST Chief, Battery Fire Direction Officer, Brigade Fire Support Officer, FA Bn Asst S-3, FA Bn Fire Direction Officer).  All Airborne so my knowledge of the mech units is a little less detailed.

WW2:
Arty falling on top of buildings doesn't penetrate the thin roof to explode inside the building. Troops are safe on the top floor against even 150mm shells.
Bunkers can be taken out quite easily by 75mm HE rounds.
Foxholes and trenches offer little protection.
Flamethrowers are redundant in this game, as there is no defensive position that can't be easily destroyed by 75mm HE direct fire or even small arms in many cases.
You can order any vehicle in the game to go to a location and open fire from there (by giving a target order from the last waypoint). But this does not work with mortar halftracks.
Unbuttoned vehicle crew sits way too high in many cases, looking silly and leaving them needlessly exposed.

Been playing a lot of CMSF2 (latest version) recently and noticed many oddities and eccentricities that may not all be bugs as they may reflect RL or some incompatibility with older scenarios and campaigns.  But, perhaps other players might want to list things that they have encountered in other CM2 titles - WW2 or modern - that don't make sense or are simply weird. 
To start off, here are the CMSF2 items so far:
Re CMSF2 (so far):
1)  Spotting issues.  A two man scout team with no binoculars can spot enemy units at close to 3,000 meters much better than an FO (with super dooper optics tech) or an HQ with binocs.  
2)  Related to item 1) Once can have a scout team, an FO, an HQ, a Jav team etc all in the same location, literally lying on top of each other.  The scout team sees an enemy units - but even after many minutes the other teams cannot see it - they do not communicate.  There is something wrong with the C2 system.
3)  The M1046 TOW Humvee crew can dismount and take the TOW launcher and missile with them.  According to the UI it takes something like 1.7 minutes to deploy the TOW and a lot longer to pack up.  But it never seems to deploy. 
4)  Related to item 2) It is very very hard to use any vehicle mounted ATGM in CM2 as "hull-down" doesn't mean that only the vehicle optics on the roof are exposed.  Instead the top of the vehicle is exposed and can be easily seen and fired at and destroyed.  Without being able to dismount the TOW in this example, it's usually suicidal to attempt to fire the TOW even from a hull-down position.
5)  Same is true for the M707 Humvee and other "Arty Spotting vehicles" with Laser and other high hech on the roof.  All of these cannot be safely used in CM2 "hull-down" as they can be easily seen and destroyed.
6)  The M1114 AGL (Automatic Grenade Launcher) Humvee crew can dismount with the AGL.  However, it must be a spare from the trunk as an AGL remains mounted on the Humvee and can be crewed and operated by another crew or inf team.  Is it correct that the M1114 carries two AGL's?  (Note that the crew of the M1114 with the 50 cal can also dismount and operate it, but in this case the Humvee no longer has the 50 cal mounted.)
7)  HQ's in CMSF2 cannot spot for arty or air.
😎 Heavy arty falling on top of enemy troops often doesn't incapacitate them.  While it's true that shrapnel may miss, the shock wave of a large explosion alone is usually deadly as it can liquefy one's innards.
9)  Several vehicles (including the M1046 TOW Humvee) have quantities of regular ammo eg: 5.56mm etc.  But it seems impossible to acquire any of it.  The crew cannot acquire it, and if you dismount em and mount an inf team, they also cannot acquire any ammo.
 
 

Good evening gents.
I have found and bought recently on steam this game:
 https://store.steampowered.com/app/871530/Radio_Commander/
The action take place in Vietnam and the player has only a radio and a map.
I don't know if I could call it realistic but for sure it has a fresh approach.
Anybody else has this game? Your opinion?
                                                                Sandokan

Exercise West-2021 is ahead 😉 .

In his phenomenal Four Stars of Valor, Thorndyke describes a terrifying encounter the 505th had near Groesbeek, Holland. It was described as a Mark IV with the turret removed and two cannon fitted that could rotate. Cannon size wasn't listed, but believe reasonable options would've been 37 or 40 mm. Firepower was devastating, and the AFV was found to be hard to kill because of the screens on its sides. A Moebelwagen can't possibly be what's described because a) neither had a twin mount of the sort of weapon described by the lucky to survive it paratroopers and b) have never seen a pic of one with screens of any sort fitted. 

The.closest thing I've ever seen to the possible FlakPanzer was this one off Panther FlakPanzer imaged in, I believe, Poland.



 Regards,

John Kettler

Has BF ever thought about a Map Pack with several master maps and other large maps of regions, of course in great detail?I would gladly pay 15-20$ for something like that.

Yeah, I know, not happening.  But big stompy robots will always be at the top of the cool factor chart for me.

Splitting this off from another topic to steer it back on track.
I struggle to understand why CMFB is a separate title and not a module for CMBN.
I do not own CMFB and perhaps I am missing something, so I'm genuinely interested to find out what others think of this.
Here's how I see it:
1. Geographically, CMBN and CMFB are separated by less than 200km of land. While the Ardennes is different from the Normandy region - it is not more different than Market Garden is different from Normandy. Quite the opposite actually, Market Garden differs from Normandy more than the Ardennes.
2. In the time domain, CMBN and CMFB are separated by merely a few months of time - which is a similar amount of time between Normandy and Op Market Garden. I find it hard to believe there were such dramatic changes in Winter 1944/45 which would invalidate anything present in Summer-Fall 1944.
3. On the TO&E side, 90% of CMFB heavy equipment is represented in CMBN and all of personal equipment is identical. There is only nineteen items unique to CMFB - not even enough to flesh-out a module. It is also either niche pieces - things like the Jagdtiger, Sturmtiger, flame tanks, etc - or things which could've also been represented in Normandy and Market Garden - US Armored cars and extra Sherman versions. On the other hand, the Commonwealth module, introduced something to the tune of four dozen new pieces and an entirely new combatant.
4. The only real difference between CMBN and CMFB is the winter setting and the appearance of snow. While I can see snow being an issue to add to CMBN, as it would appear the game engine is currently not set up to swap textures based on a season. Which is not to say the game can't swap textures dynamically - the introduction of mod tags allows different scenarios to display different textures without any manual file swapping by the user. Beyond a few snowy textures, CMFB did not seem to introduce actual snow mechanics - neither actual visual effects, nor an abstracted representation of deep snow or frozen conditions.
I'm being very careful not to sound salty or accusatory, but it seems that while CMFB is an aesthetic re-skin of CMBN and adds the content equivalent of a $10 "battle pack", due to the sheer volume of art that had to be re-done in "whitewash" BFC could not justify the time investment unless the content was released as a full-price title.
 

FI +, FB you will buy later.

All of FI is available now.  The Commonwealth module for FB will be a while, so that's another reason to wait on it.
Speaking of which, always wanted to play both sides of a Peiper campaign with British defenders.

FI +, FB you will buy later.

Here are some screens of a CMFI map: