HerrTom

Some screenshots from a PBEM I finished up.
B Troop infantry take out a BRDM-2, they end up picking off a pretty significant amount of them in the first stages of the battle but in the long run it gives away their positions and uses up precious Dragon rounds.

After a long preparatory bombardment, a thick curtain of smoke is dropped and the lead elements of the first infantry company swim across the river. My M60s and Dragons get quite a few but they can only get keyhole shots through the smoke.

Artillery dropping on a section of 100mm anti-tank guns set up on a road on the far side of the river.

Despite the good half-dozen BMPs either sinking in the river or burning on the banks, Soviet infantry press on. My M60s take a serious beating and I lose 3 in one turn and don't really have the manpower or firepower to counterattack and push the Soviets back across the river so I hit surrender after a few more minutes. Good decision because there was another entire company in transit across the river and what looks like another company in reserve.

It was a tough but very fun fight despite getting my butt kicked. The smoke barrage on my side of the river was what really did me in, I think, my opponent was able to mass his entire force at one small point in the crossing and I couldn't deliver any flanking fire across the river due to the smoke.
 

I think writing in more complete thoughts might help people engage with you, I have to admit I have a lot of trouble understanding what you're writing.
Most of the discussion in this thread, really.  For example, these great insightful posts:
 
I'm not sure what you mean here. There's good discussion in the thread The_Capt linked to. I would say I'd like some better controls over what your squads do when they get shot at, like whether to stop and drop or sprint off, etc.
Also, it's not visually represented but I recall our pixeltruppen get a little "saving throw" to represent taking cover in microterrain not represented at the game level that increases their survivability.
A truck that can't drive on grass isn't very useful, even as far back as the Great War that was the case.  But ultimately, don't drive them through tough terrain. They're not tanks or jeeps!  What's really the problem here?  That a truck gets stuck if you drive it somewhere it could but really shouldn't go?
--- skipping a bit since I don't have that much time ---
I mean, you're the one making the accusations here.  Give some evidence why something's wrong, let us engage you on the game-mechanics level!  Hell, sometimes they just don't agree with you (like, *cough*, artillery fragments against light armour!) but you at least get an interesting discussion about it.  Look at it this way, if I tell you the world is flat, that goes against the current understanding, it's my duty to give you reasons to believe that.  Similarly, if a game mechanic doesn't seem right, show us why.
You might need a couple of well thought out paragraphs on this one. I don't think anyone understands what this means.
I'm going to stop here. Cheers!
 
(also @The_Capt I 110% support the idea of CM:Z, but only if I get my Bundeswehr and Nationale Volksarmee first! 😎)

Right?!  The idea is growing on me I have to admit.  We would have to model the zombies, which would be a big job on both behaviour and their ability to absorb damage.  And the there is the zombie melee which would be different.  But we already have all the “living” equipment including arty and air.  I mean you could do a whole “escape from NY campaign”.
I mean Steve will never go for it but a boy can dream…

I've only had a chance to play with Killing Time at Kirtorf in detail so far and am having a blast. Everyone has done an amazing job and deserves all of the kudos. I'd like to say it feels like we've come a long way, every CM title has better and better maps. (Plus, I'm a sucker for really big maps)

Aside from what The_Capt says above, there's also a mathematical reason why three tanks would be preferred for a platoon. The reason usually given is that three tanks are more efficient, because there will be less chance of two tanks targeting the same target at the same time (and therefore wasting shots).

One example of this kind of testing:
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA395368.pdf
Where the three tank platoons were demonstrated to be more survivable, and of about equal effectiveness, despite their smaller numbers, although the conclusions were concerned with the noisy data.

Since the three tank platoons are supposed to be used as a single unit, on-line, it doesn't really make a ton of sense to go to four or five, in the Soviet context, where there is always going to be another unit available to support a move.

In the NATO context, this situation is reversed - the combined arms company is supposed to be able to fight independently (and possibly overrun), so it's very important that a tank platoon can operate without the requirement for external help - that means splitting into two groups (either 2/2 or 2/3) is much more important in that context.

So yes, mainline tank platoons were 3 tanks, because the minimum unit you'd engage with would be a tank company (and more realistically larger than that). The tank platoons that were supporting formations like the Forward Security Element would have to operate in a more flexible fashion, so four-tank platoons would make more sense.
 

As a new player to CM (CMBN specifically) I admit I'm probably not qualified to be making change proposals without earning my stripes so to speak, but hey, I will anyway.
I'll state up front I'm absolutely loving CM and as a new player I wish I'd found it sooner.  I feel like I've missed out on years of fun.
Anyway, from my relative noob perspective and having now played and experienced both "games" I'll make what is probably a sacrilegious comparison with a different game series, Graviteam Tactics and suggest some changes I think CM would benefit from and because once you've had them - you miss them when they're gone:
1. Campaign generator.
2. AI capable of reacting to the players actions.
3. Dynamic strategic campaigns and battlefields that leave destruction, lost units and vehicles in place over the course of future battles on the same terrain.  The immersion and feeling of awesomeness this gives you as a player when you notice it for the first time is seriously cool.
4. Ability to review, assign reserves your troop and vehicle load outs between engagements.
5. Better review and breakdown of engagement statistics and casualties etc.

Well, the (map) editor would be one way to open up a little and get a lot of help to the user.
If maps could be imported and exported in XML format (or whatever known format), we could:
- write a program to move that village on the map 200m to the north
- convert maps between different games without too much guesswork
- if people are enterprising enough we might get automatically generated Quickbattle maps back (don't forget to put ponds on hills)

Trying to replicate that old Kodachrome look. Not quite there yet.  Props to @Pete Wenman for honestly the best maps I've seen in CM to-date!  It's a lot of fun to play missions that aren't always knife fights in a phone booth.

Well no, because you didn't say that. But it's still wrong!
Wrong because it's a value judgement about how much control you want in a game. At one extreme of the spectrum you could have everything controlled by the AI - wouldn't be much of a game because they'd be nothing left for the player to do. A large scale RTS game like Wargame or Total War really has to have lots of behaviours controlled by the AI, otherwise the player would be tasked out, overwhelmed! Playability = 0
CM however is not that sort of game, there are no higher level strategic or operational game functions to task your brain with. CM is a tactical turn based game. And many of the micro-management functions like this are commensurate with a game that deals in function details. 

To illustrate the point further, let's assume you are right and it should be controlled by the AI. Another forum user drops by and like you rudely demands that all fire commands should be controlled by the AI. What do you think about that suggestion? Another ill mannered individual drops by and demands all types of movement should be AI decisions... 

We wouldn't have much of a tactical turn based game anymore would we? Playability = 0.
Now granted, I realise unless you knew about cover commands in CM (though "Hide" and its respective animation should provide a clue), the newbie will suffer at the hands of a more experienced player. But that's characteristic of the learning curve for any game. The newbie needs to learn to play, just as he/she might with Wargame, see that is part of the experience. Sorry you can't dig this one!    

S-Tanks (with working flotation screens)? 
TBH I'd be much more interested in seeing the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. 

Are you serious? Why would *anyone* rap a fire mission? I think a US New England accent or southern drawl, for example, would add some flavor to an otherwise bland trooper. I'd also forgive if both were mixed given the current engine limitations...
You need to engage with folks who didn't see when "Leave it to Beaver" first aired. Or, you can keep forcing the world to remain exactly the way you like it. There's comfort in that for sure which you don't seem to want to extend to others...
We older folks don't need to understand nor agree with what passes for current societal norms. Our norms were formed in a bygone time. We engage with society today by following what is currently accepted. We don't have to like it.
I'm not picking on you specifically - I'm ranting against 'reactionary' group think.

Megalon Jones,

The ammo types you listed all fly more slowly by far than HVAPFSDS and therefore have looping trajectories compared to the KE forming your baseline. In turn, this increases the likelihood of top hits. Would say that these days, HESH/HEP would be the lest penetrating--for multiple reasons. For starters, HESH/HEP, unless vs a very weak target, doesn't penetrate at all. that's not its kill mechanism. Instead, it creates massive spall on the far side of the armor plate struck. How massive? Pie plate size and, say, two inches thick! That piece of armor steel is now tearing through the fighting compartment, demolishing men and equipment throughout, not to mention wiring, hydraulaics and ammo. Have seen a classified pic from the 1967 War in which a T-55 took a turret rear hit from what I recall as 105 mm HESH/HEP. The spall pie plate cored out the large radio and kept going. There was no further coverage of the damage in detail, but that hit would've taken the TC apart and the gunner, too. For openers. But, to my knowledge, HESH/HEP has no such capability vs modern composite armor, because the layers of various materials grossly interfere with the detonation shockwave, preventing the all-important massive spalling. Armor arrays designed to defeat HVAPFSDS KE would not find HESH/HEP much of a challenge. Thus, the last Russian tank I would deem HESH/HEP effective against frontally would be the T-62, for everything after that, from the T-64 onward, has composite armor.

HEAT can be very effective, but how effective depends on a) the armor array struck, and the particulars of the HEAT shell used. For example, Russian HEAT is designed to take advantage of impact speed as well as the primary HEAT charge. Recall, too, that an obsolete 76.2 mm Russian HEAT round recovered during the Yom Kippur War was found to be able to frontally penetrate the Gen One Abrams. And while in Desert Storm Saddam's hardened steel KE harmlessly stuck to the sides of Abrams turrets like darts, 125 mm HEAT was no joke.

Summing up, in ascending effectiveness there is HESH/HEP, then HEAT, then KE, with pride of place going to the 120 and 125 mm gunned tanks. 

Regards,

John Kettler

I would be incredibly surprised if it wasn't NVA/Bundeswehr (plus, I'd love to see a professionally done version of my mod!)
I have his book, Kriegsschauplatz Deutschland. I'll see if I can dig anything interesting from his maps.
Edit:
Found a map. He was in V. Armee so naturally his data is about its role in the "united armed forces" as he puts it.

Oh some translations to help you guys:
GSSD = Gruppe der Sowjetischen Streitkräfte in Deutschland, Group of Soviet Forces Germany
OK = Oberkommando, High Command
GdMSD = Garde-Motorisierte-Schützendivision, Guards Motor Rifle Division (likewise MSD for w/out guards)
GPD = Garde-Panzerdivision, Guards Tank Division (likewise PD for w/out guards)

I would be incredibly surprised if it wasn't NVA/Bundeswehr (plus, I'd love to see a professionally done version of my mod!)
I have his book, Kriegsschauplatz Deutschland. I'll see if I can dig anything interesting from his maps.
Edit:
Found a map. He was in V. Armee so naturally his data is about its role in the "united armed forces" as he puts it.

Oh some translations to help you guys:
GSSD = Gruppe der Sowjetischen Streitkräfte in Deutschland, Group of Soviet Forces Germany
OK = Oberkommando, High Command
GdMSD = Garde-Motorisierte-Schützendivision, Guards Motor Rifle Division (likewise MSD for w/out guards)
GPD = Garde-Panzerdivision, Guards Tank Division (likewise PD for w/out guards)

I would be incredibly surprised if it wasn't NVA/Bundeswehr (plus, I'd love to see a professionally done version of my mod!)
I have his book, Kriegsschauplatz Deutschland. I'll see if I can dig anything interesting from his maps.
Edit:
Found a map. He was in V. Armee so naturally his data is about its role in the "united armed forces" as he puts it.

Oh some translations to help you guys:
GSSD = Gruppe der Sowjetischen Streitkräfte in Deutschland, Group of Soviet Forces Germany
OK = Oberkommando, High Command
GdMSD = Garde-Motorisierte-Schützendivision, Guards Motor Rifle Division (likewise MSD for w/out guards)
GPD = Garde-Panzerdivision, Guards Tank Division (likewise PD for w/out guards)

I would be incredibly surprised if it wasn't NVA/Bundeswehr (plus, I'd love to see a professionally done version of my mod!)
I have his book, Kriegsschauplatz Deutschland. I'll see if I can dig anything interesting from his maps.
Edit:
Found a map. He was in V. Armee so naturally his data is about its role in the "united armed forces" as he puts it.

Oh some translations to help you guys:
GSSD = Gruppe der Sowjetischen Streitkräfte in Deutschland, Group of Soviet Forces Germany
OK = Oberkommando, High Command
GdMSD = Garde-Motorisierte-Schützendivision, Guards Motor Rifle Division (likewise MSD for w/out guards)
GPD = Garde-Panzerdivision, Guards Tank Division (likewise PD for w/out guards)

Also important:
Ausgang Tag 1 (2,3 ...) = Outcome or Result  Day 1 (2,3...)

I would be incredibly surprised if it wasn't NVA/Bundeswehr (plus, I'd love to see a professionally done version of my mod!)
I have his book, Kriegsschauplatz Deutschland. I'll see if I can dig anything interesting from his maps.
Edit:
Found a map. He was in V. Armee so naturally his data is about its role in the "united armed forces" as he puts it.

Oh some translations to help you guys:
GSSD = Gruppe der Sowjetischen Streitkräfte in Deutschland, Group of Soviet Forces Germany
OK = Oberkommando, High Command
GdMSD = Garde-Motorisierte-Schützendivision, Guards Motor Rifle Division (likewise MSD for w/out guards)
GPD = Garde-Panzerdivision, Guards Tank Division (likewise PD for w/out guards)

I would be incredibly surprised if it wasn't NVA/Bundeswehr (plus, I'd love to see a professionally done version of my mod!)
I have his book, Kriegsschauplatz Deutschland. I'll see if I can dig anything interesting from his maps.
Edit:
Found a map. He was in V. Armee so naturally his data is about its role in the "united armed forces" as he puts it.

Oh some translations to help you guys:
GSSD = Gruppe der Sowjetischen Streitkräfte in Deutschland, Group of Soviet Forces Germany
OK = Oberkommando, High Command
GdMSD = Garde-Motorisierte-Schützendivision, Guards Motor Rifle Division (likewise MSD for w/out guards)
GPD = Garde-Panzerdivision, Guards Tank Division (likewise PD for w/out guards)

I would be incredibly surprised if it wasn't NVA/Bundeswehr (plus, I'd love to see a professionally done version of my mod!)
I have his book, Kriegsschauplatz Deutschland. I'll see if I can dig anything interesting from his maps.
Edit:
Found a map. He was in V. Armee so naturally his data is about its role in the "united armed forces" as he puts it.

Oh some translations to help you guys:
GSSD = Gruppe der Sowjetischen Streitkräfte in Deutschland, Group of Soviet Forces Germany
OK = Oberkommando, High Command
GdMSD = Garde-Motorisierte-Schützendivision, Guards Motor Rifle Division (likewise MSD for w/out guards)
GPD = Garde-Panzerdivision, Guards Tank Division (likewise PD for w/out guards)

Thank you all for alot of positive feedback, it seems needy of me but sometimes you need a pick me up, engaging with new communities has always been difficult for me anyway.
It's been a while since I looked back here but now I have taken the time tor ead everyones response fully. There are some very good points about community interaction in general.
Also I'm very pleased to have recieved a number of messages asking me for games which is going to be awesome so I will be replying to those.

Young people work longer hours than any other age group. They work longer, get paid less, sometimes have multiple jobs, and with the rising cost of living, are priced out of things older generations enjoyed. They are also expected to retire later than previous generations. Many young people are not too optimistic about the future and don't even expect to be able to retire at all.
The generational divide among wargaming is interesting though. It doesn't surprise me that that might be a source of conflict within the community. Most people are pretty friendly and helpful, though I haven't done much PBEMing myself.
I wonder what the average age is among forum users here. It kinda surprised me when CM Cold War came out to see so many posters who were active duty military during the time the game takes place in the late 70s or early 80s. That was before I was even born.

Here I sit in front of my screen playing CM huge scenario it is 8 am and hopefully finish it at 8pm. Age 71 living of my pension. Young people are welcome to drop in and play against me.

What the hell? Why would you be so brazenly offensive, for no reason?