Panzerpanic

Honestly?
I like hanging out here on the forum with you guys.
However, what I LOVE is the M1 Garand.
I love it a lot more than you guys.
Sorry.

I’m with that old timey British guy above; I love WEGO. Home made war movies all day long!

I just love that Battlefront has been around for 18 years (since release of CMBO, I know they were around before developing it)  and continues to produce the Combat Mission line when they could have done other things, probably for more money. I have never been in combat but nothing else comes close to providing the, to me, realistic immersion that Combat Mission has.   Perhaps the dogfight sims would but I don't play those. I prefer time to think, which may be unrealistic I suppose. The shooters certainly do not provide the realism to me.

All they need to do is make a trailer with this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxeWuwOXHbE
I picked up Flashpoint Campaigns on sale yesterday, still haven't tried it out.

None of us believed that we would actually use those tactical nuclear weapons. I was nuclear artillery qualified back then. The most important thing we learned was how to use the explosive charges to blow them into tiny pieces so they didn't fall into the Russians hands when we got overrun. 
NO ONE believed we would nuke West Germany to save it. Everyone believed that once any nuclear weapon was used, it would be impossible to contain it to a strictly "tactical" exchange. That was the entire reason for the INF treaty. The weapons covered by it are very destabilizing as they leave almost no reaction time for the other side to make a decision on what to do. And there were  A LOT of them. 10s of thousands.

Did you ever read Red Army by Ralph Peters? It came out in the late '80s, which is when I read it. It covered some of the same ground and I found it to be in many ways the most plausible book in this genre at the time. Of course a great deal has changed since then, but if we are talking about a Fulda Gap scenario, it would be well to study this.
Michael

Dont get me wrong - I loved BFCs originally stated roadmap for all the CMx2 games.
However as time goes on its becoming more apparent that perhaps the games arent coming out as quickly as BFC thought and often mention of CMx3is made, the x2 engine is starting to show its age.
Which is unfortunate because I was MOST excited about whats really received the least love by far IMO - CMRT and the Ost Front.
Perhaps same roadmap plan with the newer games with a new engine bigger so theyre not modules but releases? Otherwise we.ll be using upgraded CMx2 even in 5 years JUST to finish all the modules IMO let alone start covering the rest of the Ost Front.
I really love CMx2 and really want some modules still to come out for it - but its going to be obsolete eventually.

My experience comes from being a CV9030 gunner.
 
Let us start with a very real live example. CV9030 company is moving along a road surrounded by dense forest. Enemy contact is possible but not imminent. The company is "traveling" so mounted and expected to move somewhat quickly. Leading CV9030 is moving slow enough to be 100% ready to open fire instantly, the gunner is constantly "pre-aimed" to the next corner on the road ext. and the gunner will engage on his own initiative.
So let us say a meeting engagement happens. What happens in the lead tank?
- Gunner sees the enemy AFV and opens fire.
- Commander knows without words what is happening (gunner shooting + direction the gun is pointed) and acts out his part of the script. Says to the intercom: "reverse, fast!" and flips a switch that pops smoke. Gunner gives a report as fast as he can while/after shooting: "IFV, destroyed"
- Commander informs the platoon/company radio shortly: "contact, heavy" (heavy meaning mechanized force) Also sometimes lead tank intercom is directly connected to platoon radio so the information is as fast as possible and if the lead tank is lost the information is not.
- Commander gives the driver instruction on the reversing (left, right, hard left...)
- Commander and driver have packed up a short distance to the side of the road and the commander gives "dismount, left" order for the dismounts. Same time more information to platoon/company radio.

We were instructed to not use laser rangefinders when possible. Because of time you lose by using it (around a second or two) and the new detection systems. CV9030s bushmasters APFSDS-T rounds are so fast (near flat trajectory) that you can set the guns range to 700m and hit any AFV sized target from 0-1500m when aiming center mass. We called this "battle sight".

Considering the amount of historical research (TO&Es, battle plans, wargames) on the Fulda Gap scenario, I think it's a much more believable scenario than either BS or the two SF games.
It's ripe for all sorts of DLC. From all the various nations in the Warsaw Pact/NATO to additional theaters like Scandinavia and Balkans -- even if they stick to one time period.
Heart.

All this being said, I do think that BFC has plenty on their plate before making a completely new CM with a completely new setting. From what I gathered their most immediate focus is on new modules for existing games. Frankly, I'd love to see all the CM games get the CM:Normandy treatment.
New Fortress Italy Module in production...
New Red Thunder Module in production...
New Black Sea Module?
CMSF 2's like a new CM game -- new SF2 Module?
I doubt we'll get any more love for Final Blitzkrieg though -- it is aptly named "Final" after all.

Ive always wanted a CM Fulda Gap ideally with modules not just say for new servixe branches but also maybe a new year say original is 1985, 3rd module is a 1978 bunch of units you could do on same maps.
 
Though seeing as theyd have to make a lot of new stuff Ive always held a candle maybe if enough of us got on board we could persuade BFC that a good finisher title for the CMx2 engine after west and east are done to take the models etc from east amf west and germany and do a WW3 1945 scenario. Even the TO&Es would be the same only maybe different for a reconstituted Wehrmacht if the Allies did that.  Frankly I dont think we would have done it. Maybe a few small units and volunteers but Germany was just tapped out by 1945.

Given the limited resources of Battlefront ( look how painfully slow is the proces of remaking SF ), I don't think Fulda is even on the horizon. But in some unspecified future - why not? It would sell like crazy. 

As I recall, Steve once said Battlefront was not interested in doing a game on something that never happened. Now some of you will say CMSF never happened, but at the time it was developed the setting was still in the future , so CMSF has been, as they say, "Grandfathered in" as an exception now. Black Seas is also still a future setting. Any way I just wanted to enquire if Battlefront's position on NATO vs Warsaw Pact has not changed and is likely to never be in the cards. There is still a lot to do for the existing families and completing the Ost Front after all which is a desire for Battlefront.
 
And can I call for a bit of restraint in posting your favorite setting wish in this thread please?    

Wish the Stryker crews exhibited the same care.  I see them being killed regularly when they pop up to reload the 50 cal.

Did someone just say Fulda Gap? 🤩

Please be advised that every post containing the words "Fulda Gap" gets upvoted by me.
Best regards,
Thomm

Wow, I'll have to give this a try. Let's see...maybe the first ten chapters of my autobiography...

Michael

It’s worth pointing out that Battlefront is a small enough company that a major emergency for any one of the employees would be enough to wreck any posted delivery windows. Sometimes those emergencies are the kind that really consume you, and it may not be possible or appropriate to publicly talk about it because, a) it would reflect poorly on the business, and b) it’s just too personal to share with customers, at least while it’s happening in the moment.
I know some would say the customer is owed a notification about this sort of event, that it’s the burden of running a business. However considering Battlefront’s size this is a good reason why they might prefer to keep dates less-than-defined. If one person becomes suddenly unavailable or OBE, it’s not like there are other teams that can have their priorities switched to ensure a certain deadline is maintained.
I say: why freak out? If you are a preorder customer and you feel like you’ve been swindled, just cancel your order.If you have difficulty with that, have your credit card company reverse the charge on grounds of unrendered service or w/e. If it doesn’t bother you so much then continue to hang out and live your life while the gamesmiths finish forging their newest title. Nuff said.

If I won the lotto, I think I would invest in making it happen.

4. What about peeking (or even shooting - with one man) around a corner in urban settings? I assume it would be incredibly hard to get that into the engine and might be consiedered a bit too "micro" for the engine's scope. But I think it would be nice if a unit positioned at a corner would get some LOS around the corner - it could very well be low quality LOS, only giving you suspected contacts, not confirmed ones. The current method - moving the whole unit "around" the corner blindly and potentially exposing them to devastating fire - has little appeal. 
5. I applaud CM to the relative spotting- and also the information-sharing system. As we all know, however, it can't be brought to full effect because the player can still let units area-target spots without good reason (the firing unit has no suspected contact-marker there). The player = god problem prevails. So I still wonder if the whole information-thing could be enforced to actually produce effects and have a high influence on how the game is played. There is such an awesome communication-system under the hood, yet players don't really have to pay attention to it if they don't want to. I guess it has been discussed ad infinitum, but why not allow area-targeting only on/close to spots with suspected contact markers? For precautionary fire on suspected positions, players could make use of target reference points. The maps are not that huge so that a few TRPs should suffice to cover all the obvious spots on the map?
 
Or else, what I'd like even more: give area-fire directed at a spot at which a unit has no "suspected contact-marker" a chance to be directed at an adjacent spot (instead of the original target) or make the fire much less effective to simulate the same effect.

I've posted Combat Mission on Pornhub. No one can stop me.

I don't mind the wait.  It's Battlefront's repeated unkept promises that I find quite irritating.  If you run into unexpected issues that slow down progress, let us know you can't make the target date, we would surely understand.  But to disappear for over a month and not give any status update is unprofessional by my book.

Oh,this will be good! I look foward to see your aar and, as i canadian, see ianL destroy your forces! 
 
Seriously your aar are always a thing to look foward too and i hope that both side fight well so that we witness some glorious CCSF moments!

I had not thought that far head. @Bil Hardenberger and I had not even decided on who was taking Red and who Blue.
How about I take the Canadians?