theforger

that engagement near the Chateau convinced Pieper to withdraw from Cheneux and Stoumont to La Gleize, and to the capture of Major McCown. Hope you enjoy PP, I think it's a fun one to play. Getting the Tiger operational adds some jeopardy.

US Tank Destroyers could be mobile M10/M36's or 3" towed guns operated by Tank Destroyer units. Such as the 823rd TD Btn. C Company of the 823rd, had 1x platoon of mobile M10's and 2x platoons each with 4x 3" towed guns. The AT guns were 57mm operated by Infantry units, AT Companies within Infantry Regiments. Hope you enjoy the rest of the campaign.

Skorzeny's troops don't make another appearance in my campaign, probably for the best The Ami proximity fuse arty had a devastating affect on the Grenadiers. https://mikesresearch.com/2019/12/29/malmedy-1944/

it is one of the toughest scenarios in the campaign. It took me 3 or 4 attempts to come up with tactics to win without heavy losses..and I knew where the enemy were! The Ami arty can be devastating. Whilst your own is very much not. It can give adequate smoke cover, but you need the tanks with HE and machine gun fire to suppress and remove the threat of the the TD/ATs and machine guns of the Amis before committing the Grenadier/FSJ. It can be tricky to achieve local fire superiority without bunching the troops making them vulnerable.

Nice work! Mods look and sound great.

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-final-blitzkrieg/cmfb-sn35-katz-und-maus/ All 35 individual scenarios are now uploaded. I've modified some of the battles to reflect campaign losses, however you may want to do more. It may be worth amending some and releasing as Quick Battle maps.

On to Au Rosier -a different challenge altogether, and with only a few Puma recon units, much smaller scale than anything else.

Love the screenshots...and AAR, really capturing the spirit of why this campaign was built, thank you. Bouck's outfit had spent the week prior improving the ridge position with overhead cover. A bit tricky to model in the design as you go from foxholes to a more formidable bunker structure. I went with bunker in the end, to provide some mortar protection, making the scenario more of challenge. Also the scenario abstracts the fighting in the area throughout the day, showing the earlier bug out of TD teams, leaving Bouck's men to fight it out. The Devil's Adjutant provided much of the information and timeline within the campaign build... so a good accompanying read to use as a comparison as you progress.

that's some effort. It kicks off with a big one day 4...Duel in the Mist. Do you have a highlight so far?

Yep, not a scenario just for future reference by other designers. If for example someone wanted to focus on Knittel or build a Stavelot only campaign. All the tanks are individually numbered and commanders named. All the Kompanie commanders are named. For Knittel naming goes down to the Zug level and the Spitze down to SPW driver level. I've used a broad mix of uniform options and troop experience is mixed, green, regular and above. The pic on the few goodmen is the last status report before the offensive. Unfortunately its not a particularly good copy. The November ones are good quality but don't reflect the new equipment and reorganisations in that last month of preparation.

looks like I'm not as smart as I thought I was. No surprise there, may as well had him stood on the bridge with a target on his back. He is never a unit objective but still...

now that never happened in testing! I thought tucking him away in that bunker he'd be nice and safe.

posted the core units file. Not all units make an appearance. https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-final-blitzkrieg/cmfb-rollbahn-d-core-units-file/

Yep, will issuing the singles off the album soon.

+1. Can be tricky, concentrated for fire superiority, but also dispersed, to avoid whole squads being taken out. I often refer to @Hapless fantastic videos, I'm still learning 15 years on. Unfortunately you don't have heavy artillery at this stage...but you do have time and a lot of follow on Panthers, Stummels, and AA from 12./Kompanie, so you can afford to be cautious, keeping casualties as low as possible before crossing the bridge. The Germans blasted their way through, quite hard to model, and not a particularly good option in CMFB. Fortunately, the Amis for that mission don't have much in the way of supporting Arty...not the case in the later scenarios. In regards to what happened, the Germans did suffer casualties during the 3-4 hour battle, notably Kremser the Panzer Regiments commander, and Tomhardt commander of the 11./Kompanie whom were both wounded. From the Liebstandarte IV/2, Tiemann pg60 "each individual group of follow on Panzers and SPWs had to fight its way through Stavelot and the undiminished enemy resistance" "there were no forces, nor any time, to suppress the infantry of these durable defenders in house to house and street combat"

Agreed, I should have tried ways to slow down the Ami reaction. Where possible get them facing them the wrong way at the back of buildings, and test the effects of weakened/unfit status. Good points for next time.

Glad you are enjoying it. Feel free to pass comment and ask questions, happy to respond. I think you may be referring to this scenario...To quote Obersturmfuhrer Sternebeck, commanding the Spitze... "In the town, standing on the right side of the road in our direction of march, was an armoured (recon) column. Since I thought it was from Einsatzgruppe Grief I stopped next to the column to make contact. I dismounted from my panzer and looked for the Z designation. Unfortunately, my search was in vain. I was standing next to the enemy who dozed." With all the poor visibility and early confusion, particularly in the early part of the campaign, this sort of thing happened. Although it's quite tricky to model in a scenario.

Is there a definitive list of the available mod tags?

Unfortunately not this time. There are local counter attacks and triggers in some scenarios, so different enemy activity may happen at different times. It was tough enough testing and retesting with one AI plan TBH! My next campaign will most definitely will have...this is my first and I had learned an awful lot.

Definitely you'll find a most diverse mix of tactical situations! I think there's something different to all 35 scenarios, so hopefully not too repetitive. It is a walkthrough historic reenactment, an attempt to get a low level understanding for what happened when, as opposed to pure gameplay. It can be difficult to achieve both. There are different player skill levels to consider too. There's no way you can please everyone across all scenarios at this scale. Some later scenarios are difficult to get a draw or better, so in the initial list I included the minimum level to progress, some of which are Major/Total defeats. There are some massive engagements, which may not be to your taste, such as KG X at Malmedy, Butchers of Baugnez and Ster Way to Heaven. All I can say is you generally have plenty of time, 2 1/2 hours for the larger scenarios, so you shouldn't be up against it time-wise, which allows full recon, prep fire, smoke, changing initial approach to plan B, hiding units in cover that you don't necessarily need etc. In addition to the situations you mention, some interesting ones This one is caveated...as its not "fun" but Minen the Gap is included because... the Scheid Bridge, blown up by the Germans in their September retreat, caused initial delays for the KG, alongside them trying to use the same road as a 12th Volksgrenadier Division. The Spitze lost Bersin's and Bahrendt's Panthers in the area, as well as a little later Sternebeck's Panzer IV. So historically significant events to warrant including the scenario. Plus the map may be worth reusing at some point and was fun to build. It would be a nice CM feature if you were allowed to use the AI to control some troops on your own side, as would a follow command. But not to be as yet. Captured equipment from both sides make appearances Exit / sneak lead core units through enemy held village Capture fuel dump intact Armoured pursuit versus rear echelon Recon Pumas attack versus ??? Tactical withdrawal, including rescuing a King Tiger, the idea "borrowed" from a CMBN campaign, adds some tension to a fighting withdrawal. https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-final-blitzkrieg/cmfb-closing-the-door/ Meeting engagement where both sides are attempting a tactical withdrawal through each others positions Major McCown makes appearance(s) Air attack, versus exit asap AA and Gndr defending, love those AA units Watching on map 150mm IG shells travelling across the battlefield...and the results, one of the benefits of keeping the maps huge. Gndr and nebelwerfer (they do make an appearance!) versus ...you'll find out, hopefully!

great stuff...and the option is there so why not. It should have been worth looking at Then and Now for the Poteau map. And maybe behind the German position at Recht to see the Kaiserbaracke crossroads sign in situ. Stavelot map is based on this from 30th Div. http://www.oldhickory30th.com/Stavelot PDF Map File.pdf And Timo Worsts book on Knittel. And a lot of postcards. The map features 6 times in the battle and is the largest. It's quite tricky to add increasing amounts of battle damage and shell craters in a consistent way. It would help a lot in campaign building if this feature was in the next version. The 1./Zug of Panthers is lower in number in this scenario than historically but I needed to ensure at least 1 Panther was available from that Zug for the up coming scenarios.

little bit of both really. Rest and resupply is detailed in the later briefings, but pretty limited. Generally some resupply overnight Day3, 4 and 5. To help out, the Fallshirmjager do get mortar ammo replenished and some resupply at Bullingen when you capture the fuel dump, SN06.

yep

Nearly two years. It's my first crack at a campaign having issued Mission to Maas V2 scenario in Feb 2020, which ended up like a mini campaign in a single scenario. At one point I decided to break Rollbahn D down into a trilogy, hence there is a part one earlier this year. I issued it just as Cold War and Fire and Rubble was released...great timing! In the summer I changed my mind and rolled up parts 1, 2 and 3 together and pressed on, aiming for Dec 16th as a release date, which almost didn't happen. No idea how many hours went in to it...I do still have a day job... if you do check out famous Ardennes pics from 44 you may be able to recognise buildings, down to even lamp posts and trees in some cases. The Church at Merlscheid, Buchholz Wirbelwind, SPWs and US prisoners being escorted back into Honsfeld from the NW, Church in Bullingen, destroyed Panther at Cheneux, Trois Ponts bridge, destroyed Panthers at Stoumont Station to name a few. Fortunately much of the area is unchanged, the exceptions were Malmedy and Recht which were more difficult. For the most part Google Earth and pre war postcards came in handy, along with Duel In The Mist 1-3, Then and Now, Timo Worsts book on Knittel. I even took a punt on spending a few hundred euros on a copy of Roppelts 700 page memoir auf der Spur. So I guess Google Translate deserves a mention too. I hope to make my first trip out there in 2022. Previous to this campaign, in 2017 I published a couple of CMBS scenarios, Summer In The City and Korsun 2017.

@Bootie, thanks for uploading to its rightful place, and using my draft page with the recreation of the staged Kaiserbaracke image.