Hapless

I feel like actually launching a Mercedes Benz S class at a building is something I would like to see.

I feel like actually launching a Mercedes Benz S class at a building is something I would like to see.

I feel like actually launching a Mercedes Benz S class at a building is something I would like to see.

One of my CoC colleagues found and posted this British Army 1983 training film on fighting the Soviet Advanced Guard. In my 11+ years as a Soviet Threat Analyst, I never saw anything like this. It's fantastic, and that's an understatement. This sort of thing was my bread and butter at Hughes Aircraft Company Missile Systems Group, since we built both TOW and Maverick and were involved in work on what eventually was the Javelin, as well as deep strike systems, such as Assault Breaker and WASP. 
 
Regards,

John Kettler

Yup. ATGMs are essentially one shot weapons, but if that one shot trades efficiently with a Bradley, you're up significantly.
I typically try to fire one shot then Fast move to relocate. ATGMs are best used in at least pairs, and dispersed - this creates a C2 problem to solve, but it means that you can more easily score flank shots (more important for Abrams), and can't have both assets suppressed at the same time. 
When relocating it's important to pop back up in a different position (i.e., far from the contact marker you'd be leaving behind as you break line of sight). This means when placing ATGMs it's important to think of primary and secondary positions for them, with a covered route in between. Tertiary positions are usually not needed, since if you had a chance to use them, you're probably winning already.
The BMP smoke won't block thermals, so it's no good versus Bradley's or Javelins. It will help in the infantry fight, since anything that cuts down the incoming small arms is worthwhile - in the final stages (of the optimistic scenario presented), most of the actual infantry fights will be won by the afvs - the infantry are there to spot and maybe clean up cowering targets.

Best to treat enemy held buildings like landmines:

If you can go round it, go round it.
If you can't go round it... blow it up before you go near it.
If you can't blow it up... shoot the crap out of it in the hope that you'll hit something important that stops it going off.

Clearing the building is the equivalent of stepping on the landmine- don't do it unless you literally have no other choice.

Here's my first attempt at a video AAR. The voice isn't fantastic (hopefully fixed for the future) and its a quick battle against the AI so this could seen as a training exercise in more than one sense. Here's all the action:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oRNHcjmIaA
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvYEWHQ0lEM

Greetings
I wanted to let everyone know that we at Developer Dialogue had the incredible opportunity to interview the founder & creator of Battlefront.com, Stephen Grammont. During the interview we dove into the history of the Combat Mission franchise, discuss the company’s latest partnership with Slitherine and uncover some bombshells.  We also uncover why Battlefront never released on Steam, until now.
 
Special thank you to Stephen for taking part in this interview, it was an amazing experience.
 
If you guys are interested you can listen to it here:
 
YouTube: 
 
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/developer-dialogue/id1524192396 
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/33DiH9pCrcV9bVw4WeDWmS 
Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3ByZWFrZXIuY29tL3Nob3cvNDUwNTYyMi9lcGlzb2Rlcy9mZWVk

I think I'd like to clarify the "zero casualties" remark a little:

Take a basic react to contact/squad attack. The lead element comes under fire and goes to ground, then the rest of the squad builds up a base of fire, suppresses the target, clears them out and gets on with their life.

Assuming proper movement discipline, you can't do much about the initial contact - losing a chap here might be impossible to avoid. You also can't suppress people with 100% certainty, since there are too many random or unknown factors, so it's always possible to lose people randomly whilst engaging in the firefight, or whilst assaulting.

However, you can prepare for the situation, and take every step to minimise losses. I can make sure that the trailing element has LOS to the lead, so that when they go down, the trailing element can react straight away, maximising their chances. I can make sure that I'm not running everyone at the same time, so that they are best placed to react. I can use the tools I have to put down the most suppression I can, and can make an informed guess as to when is good time to assault.

So, it's not that taking casualties is per se a problem, but it's certainly possible to do everything right. I don't think it's all that useful to think about things in terms of "I only need to expend 3 men to take this position", instead "I did everything right and only lost 3 men".

That means that acceptable (indeed, expected) casualties are hard things to give a rule of thumb for. Clearly some situations are more bloody than others.

Can confirm mods will work.

They need to go in a folder named "Z" in SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Combat Mission Shock Force 2\Data. You'll probably have to make the folder, but it works. They don't work if you put them in UserData/Mods, which confused me for a while.

Can confirm mods will work.

They need to go in a folder named "Z" in SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Combat Mission Shock Force 2\Data. You'll probably have to make the folder, but it works. They don't work if you put them in UserData/Mods, which confused me for a while.

And just like that it’s all over.
 

(Just to prove that yes Volkssturm are indeed in the game. )
There isn’t much different in terms of positioning of each of the Kampfgruppe compared to my last update with a battle map image.
A victory is a victory but it was damn close. I never saw the human wave assault coming towards the end to try and break into OBJ Beer. My pixeltrüppen Fallschirmjäger were panicking quite heavily after that – a second wave right behind it would have meant a contested objective and a different outcome. Virtually all of my infantry and panzers are rattled morale wrecks.
 
Pic - The "Wall of Aluminum." It seems like a solid line but all of these troops are rattled and hanging on by a thread.
 

The scene of the crime:


 
 
Things that I felt worked:
          Rushing holus bolus towards OBJ Beer from the opening as per my initial plan. My pixeltrüppen had to run quite a way and a Soviet Tank showing up in the right place at the wrong time would of meant utter failure in the first two minutes. I was expecting Soviet tank riders to be rushing towards the objective at the same time as me, but I was lucky BFCElvis decided to take a slower approach.
-       Slicing and dicing the map down those main roads running down the centre of the map by the JzPzIV’s and other vehicles. This prevented or at least slowed down the redeployment of Soviet Armour through most of the battle. Infantry managed to slip around the back unnoticed but good terrain analysis up front meant I could be pretty confident and squeezing Soviets into a slither of the map from early in the battle limiting their options.
-        The map. You’re going to enjoy @benpark ‘s Berlin effort once you get your hands on it. Once you’ve had your IS-2 and King Tiger fix do yourself a favour and load up one of the two Berlin master maps (but go grab a coffee for 20+ mins) and just go exploring. It’s a masterclass of urban map making.
-          The new TacAI changes are just in time for the more urban fighting that is coming with this module.
 
     The final death toll at the 'Intersection of Death.' I felt this personal objective to lock down this part of the map with my own armour worked very well.

 
Things that didn’t go well:
-          I got a bit lax midway through the battle with my vehicles thinking I was on top. It was entertaining but there was quite a bit of waste there.
-          We agreed no off map assets (except the aircraft to show off the Ostwind) so I took infantry guns thinking they could still provide some heavier on map indirect support beyond 81mm mortars. That didn’t work as the map was too tight with the multistory buildings and too small. Bad selection on my part. Oh well.
-          I started running out of ammunition towards the end and didn’t manage some of my squads the best as a result.
 
Finally, how all of the Kampfgruppe Commanders faired at the end of the battle:
-          @Hapless = Dead and crispy. Shot through the head by a Soviet LMG fire. His tank crew followed him to the grave late in the battle after being taken out by the last remaining Soviet piece of armour on the map. The tank went up in flames and was doused by a flame thrower for good measure.
-          @DoubleD= Dead and burning in his tank. Didn’t stand a chance with a single catastrophic shot to the hull.
-          @Josey Wales = Dead. Shot down in the street after exiting his armoured car.
-          @Bootie = Alive! Spent the last ten minutes cowering under a window from a wave of SMG fire. He’ll have some mental scars but has survived the war.
-          @mjkerner = Alive and shooting. He raced up to the ‘wall of aluminium’ after the human wave assault to try and rally his men. They didn’t really listen to him but he’s joined the front line getting a few shots off with his pistol in the last few minutes.
-          @benpark = Alive. Spent the whole battle back at OBJ Vodka living the life relaying fire missions to mortar teams.
Big thanks to @BFCElvis for an entertaining and bloody battle.
Thanks for checking in everyone, if there are any final questions post them below and I will see what I can do. Oh and no I have no idea about pre-orders or when it will be ready.
 

I just about managed to watch it all- mostly trying not to backseat command from the comments.
Sometimes it's more interesting to watch someone who isn't 100% familiar with the game play than someone who makes it look easy- after playing CMx2 for an entire decade it's easy to forget how different it is from other games (and how punishing it can be).
He did pretty well in Allah's Fist though: a little bit of patience and he killed 5 Abrams and left one immobilised. That's a glorious victory for the Syrians!

I just about managed to watch it all- mostly trying not to backseat command from the comments.
Sometimes it's more interesting to watch someone who isn't 100% familiar with the game play than someone who makes it look easy- after playing CMx2 for an entire decade it's easy to forget how different it is from other games (and how punishing it can be).
He did pretty well in Allah's Fist though: a little bit of patience and he killed 5 Abrams and left one immobilised. That's a glorious victory for the Syrians!

I just about managed to watch it all- mostly trying not to backseat command from the comments.
Sometimes it's more interesting to watch someone who isn't 100% familiar with the game play than someone who makes it look easy- after playing CMx2 for an entire decade it's easy to forget how different it is from other games (and how punishing it can be).
He did pretty well in Allah's Fist though: a little bit of patience and he killed 5 Abrams and left one immobilised. That's a glorious victory for the Syrians!

We're close gents. Probably one last big update once it's all done and dusted.

Of course I could only think of one question. Kinda wanting the Professional version now though.

Of course I could only think of one question. Kinda wanting the Professional version now though.

Of course I could only think of one question. Kinda wanting the Professional version now though.

A while back I reported on a series of tests of SMG's, rifles and machineguns in CMBN 4.00: 
Basically it is about measuring the number of kills per unit time achieved by a single soldier with the tested weapon against a standard target, a group of 4 soldiers in foxholes, again and again, under the same condition. It attracted some interest, so I returned to the project 2 years later and did everything more thoroughly in CMBN 4.02. The tests were automated with python, which allowed me to do lots of test runs - each result represents an average of more than 500 runs. It quickly got out of hand and in the end cost me much more effort than it is worth, but after a few months, hundreds of hours of CMBN clocked overnight on my backup computer and over 80 million rounds of ammunition fired, it's done and ready for release.
Although this was done in CMBN, I think the results will apply to other CM WW2 titles, too.
Read the full report here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/enmae2qpysgkace/CMBN Weapons Tests 2020.pdf
Inside you will find:
How different kinds of weapons, from the Walther P38 pistol to the M2 HB machinegun, perform against infantry targets from 40 to 312 m in terms of number of kills achieved per unit time and ammunition expenditure How Gunners differ from Soldiers when firing LMG's (they don't, or at most very little) How Marksmen differ from Soldiers when using scoped rifles (they do, a great deal) The effect of experience (Green, Reg, Vet and Crack) And perhaps the most interesting stuff - results for individual weapons added up according to the TO&E of almost fifty U.S., German and British infantry platoon formations, giving an estimate of the firepower of each at different distances, and also recalculated per QB purchase cost to see where you get the best "value for money" from this perspective.

Bullets to the left of me, bombs to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you...
There's at least two aircraft flying overhead dropping bombs and raining .50 caliber rounds. Three bombs so far. The Ostwind is working overtime. No sign yet that I've scored any hits but those large 37mm shells are from the Ostwind are causing the aircraft to veer off target most of the time.
North
As per my little teaser I thought I had this flank in the bag. The Panzer IV started roaming shooting up every Soviet infantry spot it had. Then out of no where a heavy round at close range took it out in one hit from a gap between the buildings. I've had no spots in that location and swear a tank couldn't squeeze through that gap!
Soviet watches Volkssturm, Panzer watches Soviet.


Then he added some fuel to the fire.

Meanwhile KG @Bootie moves across the main street and starts a close range firefight with handful of troops. Their morale is already shattered and they break quickly when coming under fire. Their leader rouses them multiple times but they'd rather bury their heads in the ruined buildings than shoot their guns.
Meanwhile the Soviet aircraft are focusing on my forces at the end of the street on my side of the map but the only kill they've got is a lone ammo truck.

 
Centre
Actually very quiet. The JzPzIV amongst the other tank wrecks is still safe and has been destroying a number of infantry remnants but nothing much else has happened.
 
South
Elvis takes many casualties as my PanzerIV in the south moves up and saves KG @benpark. It then comes under attack from the aircraft with many hits, but luckily only strafing and not from bombs.

Meanwhile Elvis drops a heavy load of mortars right on top of OBJ Elvis causing a few casualties and causing my entire 'Wall of Aluminum' to hunker down and panic again. THye poke their heads up just in time to see Elvis' recon element that is quickly taken down.
"... it was in this moment that Ivan realised, he f****** up."

The main attack in the south comes but not where I expected. I run into the main Soviet infantry force which is still on the main road creeping forward behind the wrecked T-34. A brutal short range firefight opens up but my last Panther in the area manages to spot the fire and unloads MG and HE fire into the blob of infantry, breaking up the approach. I'm counting my lucky stars here since my fallschirmjaeger are questionable at this point. I'm surprised Elvis had no idea I still had the Panther here.

With that I send the last PanzerIV in the south (that just survived the air attack), down the main Soviet road to join the JzPzIV. It's time to go hunting that OT-34. Revenge will be surved this night.

Finally the map. The number of stars reflecting enemy fire really picked up in these last ten minutes.

10 mins on the clock.

Outstanding job on these videos! 
 
These should be used as a sales tool for CM.

Spent months looking forward to your videos  hope you get back onto another campaign soon!

After a full year and a half I've finally finished CMBN's original Road to Montebourg campaign. Only took me a decade to get round to it after buying CMBN!

Here's the full playlist, there should be a link in the top right of the embed you can use to swap between missions:

After a full year and a half I've finally finished CMBN's original Road to Montebourg campaign. Only took me a decade to get round to it after buying CMBN!

Here's the full playlist, there should be a link in the top right of the embed you can use to swap between missions: