The_MonkeyKing

"You only get one chance to make a good first impression."   BF has a very smart policy of not releasing anything till it's completely ready and it applies here as well. 
People are looking for, and eager to jump all over, flaws in a new scenario.  This system of MOS is so good I hope it inspires many other designers to stretch the envelope.  But, it's a very sophisticated concept scenario and it has to be as perfect as it can be to really showcase its features.  Due to its length, it's doubtful many will want to play an updated version if there is a problem with what is released.  
 

Everything is present, almost everything works, what doesn't is beyond @MOS:96B2P's abilities to fix, but not his abilities to mitigate.....Just a matter of pacing and final rebalancing IMHO, based on about 33% of the latest beta. 
It just ain't possible to speedrun this one and still generate detailed feedback, there's a hell of a lot going on, the player is left to devise his own plan, but the seperatists have plans of their own.....Put it this way, I thought I came up with some pretty radical stuff here & there, but testing this has made me completely revise my ideas of what is possible with the CM engine.
This genuinely is a campaign in a scenario, consequently there's a campaign's worth to get just right. 
PS - In my current play through I was a bit too casual about something and now I'm in a world of hurt.....But it's awesome watching it develop and trying to extricate myself from the mess is proving hugely challenging!   

Not gonna happen unless you aren’t expecting CMSF until Christmas 2919 . Nuff said 

Cant wait to dust of Road to DInas and Uprising when CMSF2 comes out...

Actually, that lack of total control is fundamentally what appeals to me. 
Versus AI it makes life that bit harder, and thus a more interesting game. The AI essentially gets an advantage over me, but only as much as I let it through lack of planning, foresight and reaction. Thus majesty fight trickier, without artificially buffing the AI (I only play Iron anyway). 
Versus Humans, the above 3 mental requirements are even more important, adding in the random elements of human deviousness, incompetence and bad luck.

It all depends on size of scenario.  When CM1 came out I was convinced that RT was the only way to play for the reasons you stated.
But, as I became more experienced (and aged) and started to play much larger scenarios, I became a religiously fervent WEGO convert.  Apart from playability, it's so much fun to replay sequences all over the battlefield to see all the small pixeltruppen stories get told.

Fulda Gap! Very few strategy games out there to get my cold war fix... My absolute favorite setting.

Going through what I hope is the last Beta test.  Long scenario (static campaign) so it takes awhile.  But it's looking good so far. Just minor easy to tweak stuff so far.  Thanks for the interest.  

Very well put!

Well, it's damn near unanimous! If given the choice between Afrika Korps and Early War Europe,  Fulda Gap would win!
 
Mord.

Fulda Gap! Very few strategy games out there to get my cold war fix... My absolute favorite setting.

Thank you! First step to this is not to have forgotten about this for a year... Crunch time at work always ruin good things!

+ 1  YES!!!  I'll probably buy anything Battlefront makes but Fulda Gap would be very, very cool. 

Hello all!

Does the community need a few tutorials on what to do once you figure out how to move all that stuff around on the battlefield?

I am a currently serving US Army infantry officer who spends an aweful lot of his free time these days playing CMSF. The Army is getting more and more into simulations so my interest shouldnt come as a surprise to anyone here. However, I first started playing CM ten years ago and was very prolific in the Forums back then as "ScoutPL." If you are bored cross eyed one night and looking for some entertaining reading, do a search for my username in the CM archives. You'll be laughing and crying all at the same time at the catfighting that went on back then between a bunch of grown men. I also had a number of tactics tutorials that were very popular and I eventually put on my own website for people to access. Alas, that website and the attached tutorials are long gone.

I am currently playing a number of different opponents in PBEM and through my various discussions have found that perhaps there would be some interest in some new tutorials for CMSF. Particularly considering we are now playing with modern weapons and equipment, which correspondingly, work best when they are used as they were designed doctrinally from the ground up.

I am not proposing to write tutorials on how to get your squad to maneuver into a building and clear it using the game mechanics. Nor how to get a tank to shoot and scoot. That stuff has been adequately covered already. I want to cover topics such as the Mechanized Platoon in the Attack, Company Team in Urban Operations, that sort of thing. The sort of things that after you graduate from CMSF basic and have an understanding of how to move around without getting your butt handed to you, you might want to learn how to maneuver all those units around the battlefield so they are mutually supporting and your fires are massed in the right place at the right time. In other words, how to hand your opponent his butt!

You can read all sorts of FMs and go to fancy schools where you learn how to gauge the length of the lecture by the number of powerpoint slides to be presented, as I have done for thirteen years, or with enough encouragement I would be persuaded to take all that knowledge and real world experience I have and put it into some easy to read and understand tutorials for all you wee little grognards in training out there (yes everyone has Grognard potential).

So drop a reply on here if you might be interested in this sort of thing and let me know what medium would work best (powerpoint, word document, video - this would take longer of course but doable). Given enough interest I will get on it (at least while I am in another one of those tedious Army schools and have nothing better to do).

This all looks amazing. Shock Force is easily one of my favorite CM games, and this upgrade is my most anticipated upcoming release. I would have been happy with an engine update, so the new content and TO&E tweaks being added or potentially added is a great bonus. Also very glad to hear that the trenches will remain in game as ditches. The more options the better.
It's going to be a long two months waiting for this.
Forgot to mention, but the $35 price tag is a steal!

Beta 8 is in the Dropbox.  This is probably the last one.  Maybe a few minor tweaks and then the final version for release, I hope.  

Why is it that infantry units often spot other infantry units moving through forests before spotting armored vehicles moving through forests? 
The reason I ask is because I just witnessed a Russian BMP move into a forest about 10 meters from one of my Ukranian infantry units. Russian infantry units dismounted from the BMP - these were promptly spotted by the Ukranian infantry unit (basically right after they dismounted). But the BMP was not spotted even though it is closer. I suppose they'll notice it next turn. 
I guess I'm supposed to imagine that foliage and brush not graphically modeled in the game is hiding their view of the behemoth 10 m next to them? 
All I'm saying is that it doesn't seem right to for them to be able spot infantry and not the BMP in this case. I have witnessed this spotting behavior once before. 

Yes. That's it!!  

Every day I come here hoping I would find the announcement for CMSF2 or CMBS addon. Every time I have been disappointed but I know that someday my patience will be rewarded.

FULDA GAP!!!

That was a dangerous article to read... So many links to other interesting articles with even more links!

Ballad of the QRF
The forward observers crawl into their positions overlooking the control tower and surrounding defenses.

They are unable to spot anything on the airfield, even after a few minutes of observing. No matter, as they can call for fires on the airfield, which is precisely what they do.

The fire mission is a low rate of fire, long duration, HE. This will allow me to keep the target under fire for a long time while conserving ammunition. However, there is a catch; the fire mission will take 12 minutes to arrive. This is a painful delay that will put both the FO team and the QRF at increased risk.
Meanwhile, the QRF has arrived.

No time is wasted as they are immediately ordered to move along the ravine providing defilade into their support by fire position.

As the QRF moves into position, enemy spotting rounds begin to land near my FO team.

Shortly after a second spotting round falls, this one even closer to the FO team.

Time to displace. I am concerned by the fact that the enemy is able to observe my FO team in this position, while I am still unable to observe anything on the airfield. Fighting this action at night as the Syrians (who lack night vision devices, BMPs included) is going to be very difficult.
At the same time, the BMPs roll up into their support by fire position. They immediately begin firing 30mm into the control tower, as this is a likely enemy observation post.

The FO team displaces.

Its just in time. Right as they go to ground at their new position, an airburst mortar barrage lands where they were only seconds before.

The airburst shells creep closer to my FO team, and for a moment I worry that I may lose them. This would be a massive blow to my efforts, as it would essentially remove my ability to call for fires. Without fire support, I have little chance of taking the airfield.

Luckily, the barrage ends. No one is killed or wounded.

That was too close. Note the incredibly fast time on target the British mortars have compared to my fire support assets. This is one of the chief advantages of NATO forces, their ability to call for fires and get fire for effect extremely quickly on a given target. The amount of time that passed between the first spotting round landing and the first round of the barrage was roughly 2 minutes.
The BMPs have been pumping 30mm into the control tower for a minute now, but their rate of fire is very slow. I believe this is because of the low light conditions and their lack of proper night optics making it hard for them to see what they’re shooting at. So, I decide to move two of the BMPs up the ridge a little more to allow them to fire their ATGMs at the building. The leftmost BMP has a large enough target to engage with his ATGM from where he is.

At the same time, I order a headquarters section from the anti-tank units occupying the resistance nests up to get more eyes on the airfield.

The leftmost BMP fires its ATGM at the control tower.

Which promptly falls out of the sky hundreds of meters short.

Bad luck. This is either operator error, or the missile’s motor failed.
The other two BMPs get into position and begin firing their autocannons. I was hoping they would fire their ATGMs instead, but in Shock Force there is no way to order a unit to use a specific weapon system. I’ve given all three BMPs ‘Target’ commands, which generally prefers heavier weapons, but this time it didn’t pan out that way.

These BMPs were given pause commands of 20 seconds. This is because the position they are in is more exposed, and I don’t want them sitting there long enough to be engaged by the dug in Brits. The idea is for them to move up, fire an ATGM, then fall back into better cover and reload.
Both BMPs fire off a few rounds of 30mm, begin reversing, and…

Javelin. The best laid plans…
 Once again, the speed of NATO forces shows. The Javelin operator likely only had 20 seconds, or less, to acquire and lock the target. A few of the infantrymen in the back spill out of the burning vehicle, the only survivors.

Its worth noting that a fair few of the infantrymen, including one crewman, survived the initial hit. However, as they are evacuating the vehicle, a secondary explosion goes off, killing close to half the survivors. This infantry element is now combat ineffective.
After seeing this and kicking myself for making the mistake of not dismounting sooner, I order the rest of the infantry out of their tracks. I also ensure the BMPs are in proper hull down positions relative to the control tower defenses.

The HQ section arrives at their observation point, and immediately take fire.

Its machinegun fire from the looks of it, probably an M240, coming from the barracks on the airfield. The fire causes no casualties and doesn’t really cause any suppression effects either. Despite this my men are unable to get a solid spot on anything on the airfield, even the enemy shooting at them.
As this is happening, the FO team comes under spotting fire again. They’ll have to displace again.

This has been a tough, though not unexpected start. The QRF is doing its job. I have a rough idea of where some of the British strongpoints are, and I know they have Javelins. I also know that these British paras must be set to very high training and motivation levels based on the quick spotting and firing times thus far.
Right now, my single biggest problem is my lack of offensive combat power on the field. Indirect fires can help make up the difference, but with a 12-minute call-in time and my FO team being harassed by enemy artillery, the advantages of indirect are pretty well negated. Add on to that the fact that I have yet to get a solid spot on any British positions, and the advantage disappears.
I still have plenty going well for me though. I still hold the initiative as the attacker, I know I have more combat assets on the way, and I’m developing the battlefield and getting an idea of where the enemy strong points are. I am in no way close to being down and out.

@grunt_GI and @Andy_101 thanks for showing an interest.  Just polishing up some things in the late part of the scenario.  Also trying to mod tag some mods. RL got busy for myself and my PDF adviser/tester.  I'm hoping by the end of this month to have it out the door.  Below is a link to a few screenshots. 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/117778-unofficial-screenshots-videos-thread/?do=findComment&comment=1741829
 

I assume this is the case but I wanted to check before I pull the trigger.  If I buy the version 4 upgrade bundle today and next week I decide to buy another CM title will the version 4 upgrade apply to that new game?