Zveroboy1

In this map I make heavy use of the small sheds or barns present in the editor, in order to try and recreate a realistic looking Ukrainian village so I recommend downloading the mod I made : Also the dark wooden fences.

Nikishyne / Nikishino North-east of Donetsk and south-east of Debaltseve. map size : 2100 X 1900 m type : village Nikishyne saw a lot of fighting in 2015 during the battle for Debaltseve. I might post more in depth background info later. But at the end of the battle, it was basically a field of rubble with barely any house intact. Google Earth view : View from the South West : From the North East : Notes : Again the setup zones aren't that big. They're sufficient for a small force. I added objectives and setup zones for a meeting engagement so people could give the map a go and have some fun either as a pbem or a hotseat game. Historically the setup zones don't make a lot of sense though. I am aware of that. As far as I understand, the Ukrainian forces were reinforcing the village from the North and North-West and the separatists were coming from the South or South East. I picked these setup zones because I think they offer the most interesting tactical options and are more or less fair for both sides but they're not historical at all. Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j5vfid5og72t0c7/cmbs map nikishyne.rar?dl=0

The TACAI for micro actions isn't bad at all though. I see vehicles backing into mini compounds formed by buildings to break LOS in a way that makes sense instead of just in reverse down a street. The way a squad sets up inside a buildings with automatic weapons using windows in priority over simple riflemen and how it reorients itself on the fly to face new threats is quite good too. In CM1, the flags you talk about, they were actually objectives. There were big and small flags with different point values. And it attracted the AI like magnets.The AI didn't use any scripting, it just moved towards the flag in a humongous mass of men, like some sort of blob, usually through wooded areas. But it was pretty bad. You could setup the worst kill sacks with mines, barbed wires etc if you guessed which covered approach the AI would use and then dump arty onto it. It was a slaughter. It was autonomous though and sometimes it surprised you but the AI just did a zerg rush basically. That worked with tanks more or less, but generally speaking it was a bad idea to let the AI attack.

They are fairly useful during the later stages of a battle for mopping up or for the final push, once you have won the tank vs tank or tank vs anti tank engagement. Of course in practice you can never be sure that there is not an anti tank gun hidden somewhere. But since even a HMG can wreck them, it is never really safe to use them even if you keep them in the rear at first. So long range, hull down and in a key hole position with only a line of sight to a small part of the battlefield, the area you want to target. Fire once or twice then pull back and either reposition or do it again from the same spot 2-3 minutes later. Yeah there is no magic trick.

Oh I see. Yeah only eight AI slots clearly isn't enough if you want to do something a bit fancy. Nice workaround. Well it is not so much the textures themselves, it is the way they don't blend together at all. But yes it is a good title and I have always found Afghanistan fascinating.

Did you try setting the exe in windows 8 or windows 7 compatibility mode?

Cool. I like low intensity battles with a low troops/terrain ratio, lots of space to manoeuver etc. Not all the maps I have are as big as Maryanivka though. Nikishyne is only 1500 X 2000m. Well I am thinking of expanding the area a bit in one direction, which is why it is taking a bit longer than planned. I want to include a setup for a meeting engagement, but struggling to find one that both makes sense historically and where the objectives are more or less equidistant for both sides. Ideally what I try to do is create maps that are designed around a meeting engagement with several possible entry points but that can also be played as an attack from several directions in order to maximize replayability. Multipurpose if you like. Because spending 2-3 months on a map and then toying with it once or twice isn't exactly that great a time investment. So it has to be framed right during the early stages. How do you use exit zones for your system? I have CMA but I don't play it very often because I find the ground textures too pig ugly.

Thanks. I have some more, three or four. Nikishyne/Nikishino is next. South east of Debaltseve. Lots of fighting took place there.

The map has been updated with Combatintman's suggestions. I also reworked the village quite a lot. I added lots of bushes, hedges and a couple of walls around houses. It looks more detailed and should offer more concealment. There is a bonus winter map included, designed to work in conjunction with Barbarico's CMBS Winter Mod. I added a [snow] mod tag to it but also replaced all the crops with dirt. Because obviously even with modded snowy textures, since it is just a cosmetic change, wheat still reduces visibility. So with so many fields on the map, that wasn't going to work. Link to Barbarico's mod : The dropbox download in the second post has been updated with the reworked map. Get it there.

This is the way it was in CM1. I don't want to harp on too much about the old CM1, but I find it interesting how the modelization of infantry combat has evolved between the two. Troops would go to ground much more easily. Soldiers would go down and stay prone, often pinned for several turns if incoming fire was too heavy. Advancing against enemy fire was a struggle. It really was. It can be argued that it was too punishing. Now personally I think the pendulum has swung too much in the other direction though, but that's just my opinion. Others might disagree. You should give it a try. It hasn't aged too well visually to be fair. The graphics were never cutting edge even when it was released but now it looks really dated and there are lots of things that CM2 does better. But I think you might quite like the way it does infantry combat. And I don't mean "if you don't like it, go play CM1". You might find it interesting, that's all. I have been reading your posts on the forum and often share your point of view.

The Channel is not the best environment for u-boats. It is fairly shallow. Until the Germans conquered France and u-boat bases were transferred to Brest, Lorient, Saint Nazaire and La Rochelle on the French Atlantic coast, u-boats were based in Kiel and Hamburg. And to reach their hunting grounds in the Atlantic ocean, they travelled around the British isles, avoiding the Channel completely. It was a very dangerous area with little chances to escape if detected. Besides at this stage of the war u-boats had become more preys than hunters, being harassed by air patrols often as soon as they left their pens. Destroyers in hunter killer groups exacted a heavy tolls on them when they tried to attack convoys etc. I don't know how many u-boats were tasked with patrolling the Channel before D-Day, but it can't have been a very pleasant assignment. And even if they managed to spot the invading fleet, they wouldn't have stood to chance to inflict any significant damage with all the escorting crafts. The waters must have been teeming with asdic equipped destroyers. And in order to contact their base to warn them of the attack, they would probably have had to surface. I know they had snorkels but not sure whether they could transmit or not while using them. As far as surface boats are concerned, wasn't most of the German fleet confined to harbours at this stage of the war? Apart from the occasional night raids to lay mines and a couple of torpedo boats and mine sweepers staying in close proximity to the ports, I doubt they ventured out too far at sea.

It resets really fast yes. Much faster than in CM1 where you could get pinned for several minutes. It felt that the various status/morale effect were more "sticky". Now a unit stops receiving incoming fire for 30 seconds and it is often back to normal it feels like. Maybe a slight exaggeration on my part but I remember it surprised me when I made the transition from CM1 to CM2 how fast they recovered from suppression.

Yes I had a look at street view. I didn't realize it was available until I had already done half the map. I didn't think of checking at first because the areas I had mapped previously in the Donbas region are barely covered at all by street view. It was useful for the little shrine and picnic area and also the thickness of the vegetation on both sides of the road. I made it impassable by vehicles because it just looked too thick, except in a couple of spots because otherwise it would limit movement too much and be a death trap. It already kind of is actually, on the eastern half. I mean I have never driven a tank but I don't see how you could cross that. Maybe it is possible, I don't know. Anyway great feedback and tips thanks, especially the parking spots. Easy to implement too.

Ah good, glad you managed to find why it wasn't working. I might have a quick look at the village and check all the interior walls. Shouldn't take too long. Good call.

Anyone else having a problem with the map? @Kaunitz Thanks a lot! Much appreciated.

Hmm I will look into it. I have heard of the tool before but never tried it. I only have RT and FB though for WWII titles. But really someone who is already experienced with the conversion tool should do it and post the results here. I'd be grateful if someone could do it because these maps are very time consuming to create.

Maryanivka 4750 X 3200m 230km from Kyiv and 95 km to the Russian Border, located on the M02 road. Google Earth : View in game from the North : And from the South side : From South West corner : Notes : Included in the download are both a version with setup zones and objectives for a meeting engagement and a raw version with nothing, only landmarks. While the map is quite large, the setup zones are not that big, so either enlarge them a bit before playing or pick a relatively small force. There should be plenty of time to deploy though given the length of the map so even if it gets a bit crowded at the start it shouldn't be that big of a deal. How to Install : Extract in the following folder : documents/battlefront/combat mission/black sea/game files/scenarios Download link : https://www.dropbox.com/s/0zr7pmcjy79pybf/CMBS map maryanivka.rar?dl=0

So I have been toying with the map editor in Combat Mission ever since I got Black Sea a couple of years ago and I have half a dozen maps that I am fairly happy with, pretty much all of them 90% complete. Most of them are maps of the Donbas region where fighting actually took place but there are also a couple that I simply picked because the topography looked interesting. I have downloaded tons of stuff over the years from other people, scenarios, campaigns, maps and loads of mods so I thought I'd post what I have here. Is not purely unselfish because I also hope it might encourage other people like me to share their work with the community. All these maps are based on real terrain and topography, using google earth, tons of photos and a bit of creative license from time to time. But I tried to stick as much as possible to the real terrain. I am going to provide a couple of satellite pictures for each one because some people might find it interesting to know where they are located. But obviously you're free to use them for whatever purpose you like and pretend it is a place in Greenland or Kentucky if you feel like it. I decided to post them all in a single thread and plan on releasing them in the next weeks as I put the finishing touches to them. I got one of Nikishyno and Logvynovo in the Debaltseve area in particular that people might like. Again feel free to use these for whatever you want. All I ask is that you link to this thread if you end up using them to create a scenario with one of them for instance. Also if you are some sort of genius or mastermind who knows how to create an AI plan for quick battles and make one for one of these maps, please post it here.

One way to do it and follow this model would be for the next iteration of CM to have less core games perhaps. One for the west front, one for the east front and a modern title. It would make the paradox route more viable. As it is now, yeah it is not really a good option. Too many drawbacks. But yes even then, I am not sure I would like this approach better regarding patches and upgrades.

I don't know if other people are still having crashes but I think I might have found a quick and easy fix for the CTDs so I thought I'd post in this old thread in case it is useful for other people. I got a new PC last summer with windows 10 and the game has kept crashing on me with a CTD with an uncanny regularity ever since. The game has always been rock solid and super stable before. It wasn't the end of the world because I only experienced these crashes after 2 hours, 2 hours and a half of play. But it was every session and it was bugging me a little. I tried all the suggestions in this thread, toying with nvidia settings, having the exe in admin mode, excluding it from the anti virus etc. But no luck. I was about to try different drivers for my graphic card as a last resort because I don't particularly like updating these all the time just to gain 1-2 fps when all the other games I play work fine. Then I right clicked on the game exe to access the properties and set it to launch in windows 8 compatibility mode. I have tested it for a week to make sure it wasn't just a fluke. I have had zero crashes since I did that.

You need to open the scenario editor, load a battle and in the drop down menu on the left side, under mission, click on the mod tags button at the bottom of the list. Then click on import and load the text file that includes the mod tags you want, in this case snow.txt. Don't forget to save. That's all. Alternatively, you could just rename every single file in the winter mod and remove the tag at the end like so : ground brush [snow].bmp -----> ground brush].bmp And just swap it in and out or your mod folder according to your needs.

They might yes. I don't have CMFI though. Perhaps I will get it but I am not sure yet. In any case, retexturing a model from scratch is far from easy. I told myself I would never do it again for infantry, it was just too painful. Sorry but probably not. At least not in the near future.

Not really. The forum is a shadow of its former self. It still has a decent activity I suppose but a lot of the best posters have left. It used to be much more vibrant and interesting. Where is the Peng challenge thread, Jason C and all the grogs? While I don't particularly regret the threads with people arguing about the numbers of cogs on the wheels of russian tankettes there are a lot less historical or even tactical threads. I used to visit this forum daily, now it is once a week at most.

There is Scipio Silhouettes but it only adds colours to AFV's and air force not weapons.