theforger

I am a bit behind you guys but here is are brief comments about Mission 2.  Am enjoying this campaign.  There are never enough German attack campaigns.
 
******* SPOILERS ********
 
I found it easy to take the town, and then I simply sent one company north up the eastern woods, and the 2nd west and then north up the western woods.  It's hard to KO the bunkers without satchel charges unless Fausts are facing the front.  Actually regular inf can kill the small bunker crews by firing through the front arc. 
However, one can also simply go north up the eastern woods and then into the "triangular" woods at the north map edge without encountering any enemy and that is sufficient to "occupy" the objective without killing any bunkers or enemy units on the west side.  I did this and CF'd and got a Major Victory.  However, without looking at the map I will go back and try it the hard way - by advancing north up the western woods to KO the bunkers.  
BTW: I did look at the start of Mission 3 and found that if one CF'd immediately, one gets a victory.  May want to check the victory conditions...
 

Played two, Won two. Now for Mined the Gap, which I am assuming in set on the London Underground. And will involve a crack Fallschimjager unit led by Mad Addy himself dropping behind Allied lines four stops short of Dagenham East. Or, possibly not.

A note on the difficulty level of the campaign so far: I actually appreciate that it's not super difficult.
I have played the games for years and can manage hard scenarios, but I think the game really could do with more easier battles for new players.
Also of course it matches the historical events at this point, with the possible exception of Lanzerath, but I'm not sure how much fact and how much fiction there is in that story.

When making a quick battle map only two things are needed, terrain occupy objectives and AI orders. Everything else is determined by the battle type; meeting, probe/attack/assault. The game sets 1000 points for each quick battle with the casualty parameters as well as the amount of points for terrain objectives adjusted automatically. I don't know the numbers off the top of my head but in an assault battle terrain is worth more than casualties for the attacker where as a meeting engagement should be closer to 50/50.
When I am making a QB battle, I use the size of the map and battle type to determine how many objectives are reasonable. I then set the points for each objective as a ratio, for example lets say the battle is an assault on a small town with a few outlying houses. Those houses are objective 1, the town center is objective 2. Based on the narrative I want to tell with this QB map, the town center is far more important for the attacker to capture so it is worth 3 times as many points. I would name objective 1 "*" and give it a value of 100 points. Objective 2 would be named "***" and have a value of 300 points. Players should be able to determine Objective 2 is worth more points and worthy of expending greater effort to capture. This ratio system will ensure whatever type of battle you set, Probe vs Assault vs Meet the game will attach 3 times as many points to the more important objective. 

Quick battles must have occupy objectives, and occupy only, as touch objectives and objectives working as triggers don't do anything.
The occupy objectives for attack and assault are closer to the defender, in a meeting engagement there is usually one occupy objective closer to each side and one or two closer to the middle.
No need for units as they are choosen in the quick battle option window.
No need for briefing notes.
You do need to have AI-plans for booth sides if you want them to be possible to play as a single player.
You also need to make sure that you designate a size for the quick battle so people can find it when they look for a certain size.
You need to designate whether the quick battle is an attack, assault, meeting or probe.
An advice is to open different quick battle maps in the editor and check what has been done to them.
I'm sure other people will fill in what I forgot to mention.

Buchholz secured. I found this mission much better.
Enemy surrender.
Own casualties: 8 killed, 7 wounded.
Enemy: 49 killed, 29 wounded.
Used my Stummels to good effect. One of them had 39 kills. Only used Stummels and two platoons of Fallschirmjäger actually, so the mission is quite generous with the forces it gives you.
On second thought, I could have benefited from using the AA vehicle too, as it's better against buildings than the Stummels - I just like those support halftracks, so it's nice to see a mission where they can shine a bit.

Alright, finished this mission now:
Rememeber when I said my least favourite part of your huge Mission to Maas scenario was having to plot hundreds and hundreds of waypoints for dozens of vehicles through winding roads?
It seems like you took that idea and made a whole scenario based only on this :^) There are 9 vehicles in this mission, and they all need about 30 waypoints manually clicked in by hand. Needless to say, I'm not exactly a fan...
However, I understand your point about trying to show various parts of the campaign, not just the main clashes. The map itself is beautiful, and looks atmospheric in the darkness and fog.
Since the mission was called "Minen the Gap", I assumed there would be mines somewhere, and indeed there was. However, the gameplay problem is that the player has first of all no way of knowing where the mines are, and secondly no way of doing anything about them.
On my first go, I put one of the Panzer IVs in front, since I'd rather lose that than a Panther. Ok, the PZIV did not trigger the mine, but the following Panther did. I then decided not to re-route all the following vehicles, and in the beginning, it looked like they were smart enough to drive around the immobilized Panther. But then the SPW with the pioneers for some reason drove straight through the Panther, and triggered the mines, killing everyone on board. I reloaded my last save because that's not the way I want to take casualties.
After reloading a couple of times and trying out various things, I found out that the mission can be skipped simply by clicking cease fire. Despite not having exited any units.
 

Lanzerath is finally in the hands of the Germans. Or at least the objective area. I did not clear the whole ridge.
Spoiler:
Enemy casualties: 11 killed, 7 wounded.
Own casualties: 6 killed, 7 wounded.
Two of my casualties happened in the very last minute when I took out a bunker with a Panzerschreck. As the bunker got K/O'd, it turned transparent to the US MG team hiding behind it, and they promptly gunned down the Schreck team.
Debriefing:
In general, I was overly careful with this mission, as I wanted to avoid getting gunned down like what happened in reality.
This also meant I took a very long time to clear Lanzerath town. I did not manage to catch any of the trucks leaving (I don't know if there were more than one). But I did feel my platoon tactics worked quite well to take out the HQ team (again fighting to the death despite massive suppression fire) and the sniper.
I then decided to approach the exit by flanking right through the woods. This took a very long time, as I had to stop and rest often.
I set up my mortars in positions where they would be able to lay smoke. While I waited for the maneuver element to get into position, I bombarded the foxholes I spotted. Unfortunately, my bombardment was very inefficient, as most of the foxholes were empty, and the airborne mortar is not very accurate at range.
As everything was getting ready for the assault, I suddenly realised that visibility was decreasing. I thought it wouldn't as it's still daytime. The decreasing visibility threw a spanner in the works and I had to scramble my mortars and get them ever closer to the ridge. The final attack got a bit uncoordinated but I did manage to get a few smoke bombs in to shield the attack element moving through the triangular forest patch at the objective.
Then disaster nearly struck when I found out there was an extra bunker covering the flank, just as the smokescreen was lifting. I managed to get a few last smoke bombs reasonably close to refresh the screen, and sent in a flanking team. This team was then intercepted by enemies in a previously unspotted foxhole.
I was getting a bit desperate at this point because the smoke was lifting and most of my assault force had not yet crossed, but fortunately finally a Shreck had arrived after walking a long distance. I was able to take advantage of a smoke screen to run out into open ground and take out the key bunker covering the flank. Then I could get more assault elements across.
This last maneuver was covered by massive suppression fire from my side of the forest opposite the ridge, where I put all my MGs. Unfortunately, despite having each US macinegun position hammered by two HMG42s, the US bastards still managed to pop up and return accurate fire once in a while, taking out several German MG crew.
Looking at the map after the battle, I was surprised how few Americans were actually on that ridge. I guess that's exactly the feeling the Germans would have had after the real battle.
Also, I was surprised that there was nothing guarding their right flank. I could have crossed the open ground and rolled them up that way, if I had known.
In conclusion, I liked the scenario and felt it was very well done.
One thing that could be improved is a confusion in the briefing: It says the battle is scenario representing a kind of combination of several attacks taking place that day, but at the same time, it also tells the player that he has to attack again after several attacks already failed. The actual scenario doesn't seem like the final of a series of assaults, but as the first assault (the US forces are taken by surprise but retreat - if it were the latest of a series of attacks, the US probably wouldn't be towing their guns and driving away like that).

The mortars are standard with the Fallshirmjager units / table of equipment, so no additional heavier arty were purchased for these early engagements, I probably should have been more specific. Arty is a bit of an issue for Peiper... the 150mm seemed to be stuck in traffic... a lot.
This campaign covering the first 48 hours finds the Amis very much on the back foot in a state of shock, and it should be quite a straightforward for veteran players. However in testing the A/I did react in different ways units so there's an element of replay ability but not much in Part 1. On the plus side there's 30 or so related scenarios available over the next 6 months in the 3 campaigns that give a large variation in degrees of difficulty.
I'm happy to provide any of the individual scenarios/maps/campaign script, if anyone would like to take the degrees of difficulty up a notch or develop what ifs. 
 

I think that if troops are already carrying a lot of ammo, they are unable to buddy aid because that would bring their total carry weight above the limit.

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-final-blitzkrieg/rollbahn-d-part-i/
Part 1 of the Campaign available for download. 
Covers the first 48 hours of KG Peiper and nearby units. Should be ready to download thanks to BornGinger's Wordpress advice 😀.
It should be a relatively straightforward campaign compared to parts 2 and 3. I'm waiting for my copy of a recently discovered and on order book covering Knittel.  
https://www.boekenbestellen.nl/boek/gustav-knittel/9789492475541 
by Timo Worst, before making some final changes to Part 2 (12x scenarios, all built). 
Part 3, 17x scenarios are also all built but again waiting on Part 2 before posting.
Thanks to Rastamon for advice and Kohlenklau for mods included in Baugnez/Malmedy scenario.
 
 
 

The map for Mission 2 looks great. But it didn't take long for me to make my first mistake. I assumed that the fog was thicker than it actually is, and didn't give my scouts Target Arcs. Predictable result, a long range firefight. Wish me luck.

Last year sucked for soooo many reasons. The BFC bosses may want to get their newly vaccinated selves out into the sunshine having fun for awhile. And if that isn't their plan I've got to ask WHY ISN'T IT??!!
😷

The mortars are standard with the Fallshirmjager units / table of equipment, so no additional heavier arty were purchased for these early engagements, I probably should have been more specific. Arty is a bit of an issue for Peiper... the 150mm seemed to be stuck in traffic... a lot.
This campaign covering the first 48 hours finds the Amis very much on the back foot in a state of shock, and it should be quite a straightforward for veteran players. However in testing the A/I did react in different ways units so there's an element of replay ability but not much in Part 1. On the plus side there's 30 or so related scenarios available over the next 6 months in the 3 campaigns that give a large variation in degrees of difficulty.
I'm happy to provide any of the individual scenarios/maps/campaign script, if anyone would like to take the degrees of difficulty up a notch or develop what ifs. 
 

Just completed Mission 1, and greatly enjoyed it.  Seems easy, but some nasty surprises - which is what makes scenarios fun.   Just curious - are there alternative AI plans to make the missions replayable?  
Looking forward to Mission 2.
BTW:  The Briefing refers to organic light mortars, but they all seem to be 81mm.  I thought maybe light would be 50mm? 

https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q=*:*&f.oldScope=online&f.recordGroupNoCollectionId=373&SearchType=advanced&f.locationIds=29&rows=100

Congrats you've reached Page 134 if you have Pallud's Then and Now 😀. Like the spoiler reveal.

Congrats you've reached Page 134 if you have Pallud's Then and Now 😀. Like the spoiler reveal.

As luck would have it, this is on the floor next to my bed 😄.  Alongside Normandy Then and Now...

First mission complete.
Spoiler, select text to reveal:
US losses: 21 killed, 7 wounded, 1 missing.
Own losses: 6 killed, 9 wounded.
Nearly all losses were a squad that was almost wiped out in a building by an AT gun shot.
 
Tactics: Sent most of my troops the direct route towards the town centre, but I flanked around with one squad and a mortar through the forest to the north. Then tried fire and movement to assault the lonely medieval looking building midway between the two objectives.
The two US teams put up a ferocious fight to the death despite only being regular quality and despite being under suppression from several MG42s from various angles. In general, I think regular troops fight much too hard in this game. This kind of last stand should only be for elite units and fanatics.
But a nice little scenario all in all. I liked the focus on using all the tools in the toolbox - airborne mortar for smoke, suppression, and taking out key targets. Even using the Panzerschreck in a building-busting role. Not hugely effective, but both my PZschreck teams got a kill.

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-final-blitzkrieg/rollbahn-d-part-i/
Part 1 of the Campaign available for download. 
Covers the first 48 hours of KG Peiper and nearby units. Should be ready to download thanks to BornGinger's Wordpress advice 😀.
It should be a relatively straightforward campaign compared to parts 2 and 3. I'm waiting for my copy of a recently discovered and on order book covering Knittel.  
https://www.boekenbestellen.nl/boek/gustav-knittel/9789492475541 
by Timo Worst, before making some final changes to Part 2 (12x scenarios, all built). 
Part 3, 17x scenarios are also all built but again waiting on Part 2 before posting.
Thanks to Rastamon for advice and Kohlenklau for mods included in Baugnez/Malmedy scenario.
 
 
 

Holy Cow, really good looking new campaigns coming out for so many CM's right now.
Real Life™ is getting in the way...

Lovely.  Thank you...  Yes, RL...   
 

Same here with RL but love to see new campaigns.  Thanks @theforger and keep up the great work.

I've been looking forward to this - will definitely give it a try once I have time. Probably next weekend.