hank24

I grew up just 8 km from the inner-german border and never felt any fear or such - today I think that is strange.
Just the opposite, there are many nice memories concerning the military of that time. We often had the 16/5th Queens Royal Lancers on exercise at the farm of my father. They were stationed at the town of Wolfenbüttel nearby and everybody loved to see them, my mother because we talked english all day, the soldiers because they had warm places to sleep and a shower, and my father because he had an agreement to get a bottle of Famous Grouse for each day of their stay. We did things you never get elswhere, driving a Ferret Mk1 (I called it armored Dune Buggy), a Scorpion tank and even firing a Sten SMG on the meadow behind the barn. Once my father and me visited their barracks for some claybird shooting and the officers invited us to the officers mess. Wow, never saw so many silver cups and a living tradition like that.
When I served at PzAufklBtl 1 (Armored Recon) from '79 to '83 (just the proper time for this game) we were not even allowed to keep our battalion coat of arms, it was from the Black Hussars from Brunswick who fought with the British against Napoleon, but was too similar to the SS sign. That happens to military traditions when you loose your wars.
At that time I met kind guys from the 2nd Armored Division on Reforger exercise near Brunswick and found some nice friends there (Cpt. Hutto somewhere around here?).
And I served as contactperson for the team of 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards during the Boeselager Cup, an international competition among reconaissance forces. Still remember the 'Biwak' on the last evening.
One day I heard the sound of a Huey helicopter nearby and it did not disappear. So I looked for the source and found some thee or four Huey Cobra hovering directly at the outskirts of the village. I immediatly fetched my brothers and we tried to follow them with my Renault R4. Tough job, soon they were gone. But suddenly they reappeared one after the other over a ridgeline and took my car as a training target. Oh, man, that was exciting. I tried to make their job as difficult as I could but these helis were really fast and agile. I would love to ride one of those, must be like a flying Kawasaki.
I think Germany really lost something important with all these kind soldiers who are gone now and with them the BFBS radio and the British Wargamers Association with which I had so nice times at Rheindahlen and elsewhere.
And, by the way, a german Recon Btl was a complete all arms force in '79, ideal for a Bundeswehr expansion one day. There was a ground surveillance radar plt, two companies with Luchs and Leopard1, and a heavy company with grenadier plt (on Schützenpanzer kurz, later Fuchs), engineer plt, and 120 mm mortar plt.
And now I am here, working as an engineer on military simulation and looking forward to my retirement next year being excited to have all the time necessary to play my favorite game then, CM:CW.
 
 

OK, I need to say this because clearly noone important in your life has. 
Customer feedback is good, but so long as it is constructive feedback. Everything you have said, and the way you have said it, has been destructive. Being polite isn't about making friends with me or other members. It is about not being a jerk and raising the chance that your complaints get listened to. Ever heard of the critique sandwich? You say something good, something bad, something good. Far more likely to get taken seriously. When everything you say is negative, it is very easy to just tune it out. 
Notice how your posts were promptly ignored by the staff/devs/beta testers? And they were still replying to people with honest, polite questions? 
I am of the opinion you owe them an apology not only for derailing a thread, but spreading falsehoods about a DRM conspiracy. This simply isn't the case, as Kevin's solution shows. 

I grew up just 8 km from the inner-german border and never felt any fear or such - today I think that is strange.
Just the opposite, there are many nice memories concerning the military of that time. We often had the 16/5th Queens Royal Lancers on exercise at the farm of my father. They were stationed at the town of Wolfenbüttel nearby and everybody loved to see them, my mother because we talked english all day, the soldiers because they had warm places to sleep and a shower, and my father because he had an agreement to get a bottle of Famous Grouse for each day of their stay. We did things you never get elswhere, driving a Ferret Mk1 (I called it armored Dune Buggy), a Scorpion tank and even firing a Sten SMG on the meadow behind the barn. Once my father and me visited their barracks for some claybird shooting and the officers invited us to the officers mess. Wow, never saw so many silver cups and a living tradition like that.
When I served at PzAufklBtl 1 (Armored Recon) from '79 to '83 (just the proper time for this game) we were not even allowed to keep our battalion coat of arms, it was from the Black Hussars from Brunswick who fought with the British against Napoleon, but was too similar to the SS sign. That happens to military traditions when you loose your wars.
At that time I met kind guys from the 2nd Armored Division on Reforger exercise near Brunswick and found some nice friends there (Cpt. Hutto somewhere around here?).
And I served as contactperson for the team of 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards during the Boeselager Cup, an international competition among reconaissance forces. Still remember the 'Biwak' on the last evening.
One day I heard the sound of a Huey helicopter nearby and it did not disappear. So I looked for the source and found some thee or four Huey Cobra hovering directly at the outskirts of the village. I immediatly fetched my brothers and we tried to follow them with my Renault R4. Tough job, soon they were gone. But suddenly they reappeared one after the other over a ridgeline and took my car as a training target. Oh, man, that was exciting. I tried to make their job as difficult as I could but these helis were really fast and agile. I would love to ride one of those, must be like a flying Kawasaki.
I think Germany really lost something important with all these kind soldiers who are gone now and with them the BFBS radio and the British Wargamers Association with which I had so nice times at Rheindahlen and elsewhere.
And, by the way, a german Recon Btl was a complete all arms force in '79, ideal for a Bundeswehr expansion one day. There was a ground surveillance radar plt, two companies with Luchs and Leopard1, and a heavy company with grenadier plt (on Schützenpanzer kurz, later Fuchs), engineer plt, and 120 mm mortar plt.
And now I am here, working as an engineer on military simulation and looking forward to my retirement next year being excited to have all the time necessary to play my favorite game then, CM:CW.
 
 

Just for fun I wanted to see how close I could get to that M60A3-crossing-the-bridge pict. Not half bad for 10 minutes playing.

Wow, that picture looks exactly like the landscape where I grew up; east of Brunswick, north Germany. Rolling hills, much agriculture, very small woods between fields and larger forests on hilltops. Villages typically two kilometers apart. North of the Autobahn A2, the Lüneburg Heath starts with less hills, larger distance between villages, and more forest, because the soil is not that good. To the south, the Mittelgebirge starts at the Harz mountains and the Weserbergland with steeper and higher hills and more forest.
So, long lines of sight here, this is the perfect ATGM country.
Cocerning the compensations farmers received for damages. My father was not really pleased when three or four Chieftains rolled over one of our fields. The destroyed crop was compensated, but MBT's compressed the soil so much, that far less grows in these lanes for some years.

I grew up just 8 km from the inner-german border and never felt any fear or such - today I think that is strange.
Just the opposite, there are many nice memories concerning the military of that time. We often had the 16/5th Queens Royal Lancers on exercise at the farm of my father. They were stationed at the town of Wolfenbüttel nearby and everybody loved to see them, my mother because we talked english all day, the soldiers because they had warm places to sleep and a shower, and my father because he had an agreement to get a bottle of Famous Grouse for each day of their stay. We did things you never get elswhere, driving a Ferret Mk1 (I called it armored Dune Buggy), a Scorpion tank and even firing a Sten SMG on the meadow behind the barn. Once my father and me visited their barracks for some claybird shooting and the officers invited us to the officers mess. Wow, never saw so many silver cups and a living tradition like that.
When I served at PzAufklBtl 1 (Armored Recon) from '79 to '83 (just the proper time for this game) we were not even allowed to keep our battalion coat of arms, it was from the Black Hussars from Brunswick who fought with the British against Napoleon, but was too similar to the SS sign. That happens to military traditions when you loose your wars.
At that time I met kind guys from the 2nd Armored Division on Reforger exercise near Brunswick and found some nice friends there (Cpt. Hutto somewhere around here?).
And I served as contactperson for the team of 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards during the Boeselager Cup, an international competition among reconaissance forces. Still remember the 'Biwak' on the last evening.
One day I heard the sound of a Huey helicopter nearby and it did not disappear. So I looked for the source and found some thee or four Huey Cobra hovering directly at the outskirts of the village. I immediatly fetched my brothers and we tried to follow them with my Renault R4. Tough job, soon they were gone. But suddenly they reappeared one after the other over a ridgeline and took my car as a training target. Oh, man, that was exciting. I tried to make their job as difficult as I could but these helis were really fast and agile. I would love to ride one of those, must be like a flying Kawasaki.
I think Germany really lost something important with all these kind soldiers who are gone now and with them the BFBS radio and the British Wargamers Association with which I had so nice times at Rheindahlen and elsewhere.
And, by the way, a german Recon Btl was a complete all arms force in '79, ideal for a Bundeswehr expansion one day. There was a ground surveillance radar plt, two companies with Luchs and Leopard1, and a heavy company with grenadier plt (on Schützenpanzer kurz, later Fuchs), engineer plt, and 120 mm mortar plt.
And now I am here, working as an engineer on military simulation and looking forward to my retirement next year being excited to have all the time necessary to play my favorite game then, CM:CW.
 
 

Yes. The "liquidators" were the people (military and civil) tasked with "dealing with the consequences" of the 1986 nuclear accident. Among other things, it was deemed necessary to drill a large hole in a wall to let a large draining pipe pass. Using "normal" devices to drill the hole would have been too time consuming, given the level of radiations, hence they thought an ISU-152 could approach and rapidly "blow" a hole in the wall with a 152mm anti-concrete round, limiting crew exposure. They tested this concept with a wall distant from the contaminated site and it worked well. Unfortunately, they found that the hole was too small to let the pipe pass, and they dropped the idea althoghether. However the assault guns were not sent back but were used as bulldozers.
 
 
Well, as far as I know, until the late '60s early '70s, ISU-152 were still to be found in frontline units in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. I mean tank and motorized rifle divisions, as one can see in this 1971 photo depicting an ISU-152 column of the 16th Guards Tank Division:

I presume that their role was mainly direct-fire support. Indirect fire was possible (as it was already during WW2) but the peculiarities of the gun installation (closed top, relatively cramped space, limited elevation, few ammo etc.) clearly made this AFV suboptimal in the SPG role limiting range and sustained fire capacity, although one has to say that ammo capacity was increased already with the ISU-152K (from a 20 rounds to a 30 rounds loadout, IIRC).
Later (from the mid '70s) ISU-152's in units near the German border, were typically found in separate tank and tank-destroyer regiments and training units, as can be seen here in this video from a GSGV veteran (1972-1974):
Reading a few veteran's comments on the net, my understanding is that these independent units stationed near the Inner German Border equipped with obsolete or obsolescent AFVs were assigned the task of driving to nearby prepared positions, in case of a surprise NATO attack (!), and basically die in place there, buying time for the mobilization of their comrades. The explicit "not a step back attitude" was confirmed by a former company commander that said that in its unit, equipped with IS tanks, the machine were crewed by a three (and not four) man team, because, once in place, the driver simply had to stop the engine and go into the turret to act as loader. 
And yes, there were still IS-2M tanks in Germany until the mid '70s in these "blocking" units. According to some veterans of the 119th Separate Tank Regiment, IS-2s were discontinued (i.e. shipped back to the USSR) in 1976 and the unit acquired T-55s that were, in turn, replaced by T-62s in 1979.
I don't know whether during the 1979-1982 timeframe there still were ISU equipped units with the GSVG in East Germany. For sure, there were units in the Soviet Union still using them, as the previously posted photos show. It's confirmed also by a table contained in a 1982 CIA report:

I might add that I remember reading somewhere that the remaining ISU assault guns were intended to be used in special urban assault support units in the second echelon, tasked with reducing pocket of resistаnce in bypassed West German urban areas, but I can't give you a reliable source now.
Speaking about the LCUs, yes they are "Tapir" (NATO: Alligator) class ships. One is the Aleksandr Tortsev (bort 399) the other is the Tomskii Komsomolets (bort 072).
 
 

 

I've considered designing a few scenarios when the module is released that basically incorporate a combination of exit zones and touch objectives to better convey what recon is up to than stuff like the explicit "probe" rules. Exit zones in particular seem very important to me as recon would rarely be camping anywhere for very long. The pressure is to push on forward and outwards and continuously verify the Division's path ahead. As we can see from your demonstration, armored recon need not much concern itself with scattered infantry remnants-probably most the Division won't either. Infantry Divisions in the next echelon can handle that...

A pleasure. Do you happen to know what the Infantry Divisions would typically have in the way of a recon? How it was configured etc? Were they expected to behave differently from their armored counterparts? 
I guess the doctrine split could be expressed as "Russian School" and "African School" and was influenced a bit by the way in which German Officers observed the Russians using tanks in their recon squadrons. What better way to shut down the enemy's recon than to just kill it right? That's the Red Army for you. "All or Nothing". It's not that the Russians didn't do recon, it's just that when they did it was pushed quite aggressively and seriously or just not done at all. 
The Sherman was favored for this job because its mobility and rubberized tracks made it a great road cruiser-the Valentine was also handy because it was tiny. Both of them were becoming surplus as the war went late...
It doesn't seem that armored recon in the Red Army was ever up to local or Division Commanders though, it was a General HQ asset. Although there was always a Division/Corp recon group-it seems to have been quite small. The Russians had a very atypical approach to battlefield intelligence gathering it seems. They didn't seem to value it much since they figured it was a waste of time-the Front's assault was meticulously researched at higher levels and all they want subordinates to do is execute time tables without much thought as to whatever is in their way. This kind of top-down imposition of control is still pretty alien to western observers who see the "two way street" of interaction, communication, and feedback between commanders and subordinates. 
So i'm to take it that "African School" of doctrine resembles something much like the lighter armored-car and infantry style reconnaissance of the early war period. You're not expecting to fight predominantly-just find the path of least resistance. So it's pretty handy when you've got something like the Luchs that can sneak through someone's backyard and give no hint of its presence until you see the tire tracks it left over the rose garden next morning. 
Off-topic a bit but the Americans seem to have generally rolled up reconnaissance into the Combat Commands-which operated in theory like Kampgruppen but not nearly as well in practice due to the way the Americans seem to have been unable to divorce themselves from old Cavalry traditions. Kampgrupper were tailored formations designed to match a highly specific scenario-Combat Commands existed for their own sake and about the best they managed a lot was...not getting killed? Since they were Armored and Mechanized they were hard to kill but if they ran into something like a full-strength Infantry Division they were too small to overrun it and most of the time their story ends with "withdrew to own lines-reattached to Division and fought as 7th Armored". Anyway I promised myself i'd stop looking for opportunities to roast the Combat Commands but here I go lol. 

Interesting discussion here, recon is not subject of CM scenarios often.
@SimpleSimon, you are right in principle, Abteilung means department. But here it is different, in the Wehrmacht it was used for battalions when applied on tank or armored recon forces, e.g. Aufklärungsabteilung 33 (in short AA33). The recon forces had and still have a strong relationship to the cavalry and their traditions. The 24. PzDiv (sign see above), which was converted from 1 . Kavalleriedivision in 1942, retained words like Rittmeister instead of captain and Schwadron instead of company.
I served with PzAufklBtl 1 of the German Bundeswehr from 1979 to '83 and as far as I know, in '79 (Heeresstruktur 3) it was organised and had the same doctrine like its counterparts at the Wehrmacht from 1944 on. In the late war, the PzAufkl grew heavier and heavier and the task shifted from scouting and road recon (Viel sehen, ohne gesehen zu werden - See much without being seen) to the ability to fight for information, flank security, and rearguard on delay operations. The AA and later PzAufklBtl was always a divisional force and did recon to some 40 km depth. There are always leichte Spähtrupps (light recon troop) of two eight-wheelers (SdKfz 234/1 (2,3,4), later Luchs) and hvy. recon troops (StuG III, later three Leopard1 - you fire into something, if it fires back, it is enemy occupied). The AA were often misused as line manoevre element, because it was a complete all-arms battalion (in '44 and '79).
The vehicles were precisely built for these tasks, the Luchs is so quiet, you hear nothing from 1 metre distance, except breaking twigs. Eight wheel drive to operate on soft ground, rear driver, powerful radios, and even able to swim (Luchs). So, nearly no problem to infiltrate enemy lines at night.
During the buildup of the Bundeswehr, there were two doctrine fractions, the russians and the africans. First the russians prevailed with the M-41 Walker Bulldog as recon vehicle, later doctrine changed to the african model, therefore, the Luchs.
For information on recon procedures, see 3 part video from 1957 below, narration is in German language, but there are a lot of informative drawings used, also.
The next two days it will rain here, so, I will try to set up a Quick Battle with CM:RT, for recon behind enemy lines. Objective is to reach opposite edge. Huge map, meeting engagement, low force concentration, two or three light recon troops.
Maybe later one for infiltration at night.
Might be interesting and thanks for all the tips and tricks.

Interesting discussion here, recon is not subject of CM scenarios often.
@SimpleSimon, you are right in principle, Abteilung means department. But here it is different, in the Wehrmacht it was used for battalions when applied on tank or armored recon forces, e.g. Aufklärungsabteilung 33 (in short AA33). The recon forces had and still have a strong relationship to the cavalry and their traditions. The 24. PzDiv (sign see above), which was converted from 1 . Kavalleriedivision in 1942, retained words like Rittmeister instead of captain and Schwadron instead of company.
I served with PzAufklBtl 1 of the German Bundeswehr from 1979 to '83 and as far as I know, in '79 (Heeresstruktur 3) it was organised and had the same doctrine like its counterparts at the Wehrmacht from 1944 on. In the late war, the PzAufkl grew heavier and heavier and the task shifted from scouting and road recon (Viel sehen, ohne gesehen zu werden - See much without being seen) to the ability to fight for information, flank security, and rearguard on delay operations. The AA and later PzAufklBtl was always a divisional force and did recon to some 40 km depth. There are always leichte Spähtrupps (light recon troop) of two eight-wheelers (SdKfz 234/1 (2,3,4), later Luchs) and hvy. recon troops (StuG III, later three Leopard1 - you fire into something, if it fires back, it is enemy occupied). The AA were often misused as line manoevre element, because it was a complete all-arms battalion (in '44 and '79).
The vehicles were precisely built for these tasks, the Luchs is so quiet, you hear nothing from 1 metre distance, except breaking twigs. Eight wheel drive to operate on soft ground, rear driver, powerful radios, and even able to swim (Luchs). So, nearly no problem to infiltrate enemy lines at night.
During the buildup of the Bundeswehr, there were two doctrine fractions, the russians and the africans. First the russians prevailed with the M-41 Walker Bulldog as recon vehicle, later doctrine changed to the african model, therefore, the Luchs.
For information on recon procedures, see 3 part video from 1957 below, narration is in German language, but there are a lot of informative drawings used, also.
The next two days it will rain here, so, I will try to set up a Quick Battle with CM:RT, for recon behind enemy lines. Objective is to reach opposite edge. Huge map, meeting engagement, low force concentration, two or three light recon troops.
Maybe later one for infiltration at night.
Might be interesting and thanks for all the tips and tricks.

Another word, the full title for German reconnaissance formations was Aufklarungsabteilung which was something of a translation complication in western circles for years because the term abteilung is used frequently in German documentation and has no direct English translation-but generally means office of  or administration. So the whole term could properly be thought of as "Office of Reconnaissance" but native German speakers are more than welcome to correct me on this.
In theory the Panzer Divisions would always have an armored recon attachment with attached infantry and anti-tank guns too, sort of functioning as a "mini division". Posting in the Aufklarung was considered both prestigious and risky and they had higher-than-average casualty rates even in good times. Many of a given Division's best Officers and staff would be assigned to it, and the combination of talent pooling and mechanization frequently and unfortunately meant that as the war went sour Panzer Aufklarungs would frequently be asked to serve as Armored Infantry-aggravating the casualty rates of such valuable troops. 
Aufklarung's were predisposed by training-and reality-to prioritize evasion and subtlety over direct fighting. Being armored meant that there were many kinds of threats the Aufklarung could in fact-ignore and bypass like outposts or suppressing artillery fire or enemy light recon-much of which for the era might well just be some guys on horseback or on bicycles. Otherwise, priority was on finding the path of least resistance through enemy lines that the rest of the Division could exploit later on. As is well known, the Panzer Divisions were ridiculously good at disappearing and seemingly reappearing out of nowhere, taking catlike advantage of the narrowest unobserved ground between enemy observers to appear abeam or even behind enemies before leaving them in the dust of a glorious Blitz. That ground-sometimes no wider than a single dirt track-had been inspected by the Aufklarung ages ago and the reason you can't get through to your Regimental HQ is because by the time you all realized this had happened the Panzer Division had already overrun your HQ. 
As the war went on it got harder and harder for the Panzer Divisions to gather reconnaissance. The Russians checked German recon formations by putting battle tanks in their recce groups when able-squadrons of Valentines and Shermans as much as possible, especially as the lend lease stuff wasn't as critical to compose Mechanized and Tank Corps anymore.  Which also had the effect of confusing German commanders as to where the main body of Red Armor actually was. Increasing head counts and frontline densities meant that the fighting became positional again-in many places resembling 1918-and there was little use for armored cars in such circumstances. Any road you pick is likely to be under observation...
Loss of air supremacy meant that the Aufklarungs were frequently restricted to moving at night and were more likely to stumble into bloody disasters without the Luftwaffe providing advance warning of local enemy Armored Divisions. Then of course they were favorite picks of all those Kampfgruppen commanders who needed them to serve in rearguard duty-another great way to get them all killed... 

Here ya go:
OK, pause and edit might be made to be quite easy, but it would break up the whole idea of a commander biting his nails during that WEGO minute where he's just an observer.  Plus, the devs would have to develop such an edit method, which I'd guess isn't trivial.
The idea of WEGO is to break up the battle into useful chunks to balance commanding and action playing out, to best simulate real life combat; mostly that works well. This is just one of those situations where it results in unrealistic behaviour - temporary paralysis when a reaction would happen IRL - so it would be good to come up with solutions that still fit within that WEGO time chunk approach.

Glorious March to Victory Post #13 - "The Song of Small German Town 1980"
So on the very next turn Bil has offered ceasefire...we have playing together for a long time.  We have decided to do the final debrief at the same time, so I will wait for Bil to catch up a bit.
But I could not leave the second to last turn hanging because it represents this battle so well:
You remember the stand off on the Red Knoll at the end of turn 31...well here is how it played out:

My T62 got off the first shot and it was a killer (note the now-deaf-est Soviet Pl HQ in the ETO circled)
Then this happens:

Seriously, this is like the freakin ending of Reservoir Dogs at this point.  BTW I found out later, that M60 is immobilized by my heroic second squad.
So here we are at what is essentially End Game:

I will leave you to speculate as where things landed....
I can tell you that the fight over this non-descript little town in West Germany created so many pixel heroes in less than an hour.  I hope you have enjoyed it a fraction of as much as it was to play.
 

It's stuff Steve has said on this forum. There are five heights that the heightmap uses - crawling man, standing man, small, normal and tall vehicles, and the LOS table is built from each height to each other height, in each square.

I check the BF website and I saw the cold war post and my first reaction was WTF is this.   I could believe it.. Someone posted they thought they were having a dream.. I know it's funny and possibly strange for someone to feel this way about a game, any game.  I guess the kid in me and possibly most of us love history and our respective countries military.  With all the books fictional and otherwise written about and east and west clash would play out.  It for would not be without great loss and destruction.  As in the movie Patton George C. Scott said, "God help me I love it so".

The Twenty-Third & Twenty-Fourth Minutes – Saga of Tank Section 1
“If the tanks succeed, then victory follows.”
Heinz Guderian
 
Tank Section 1... quite an exciting turn to watch actually... well, it was for me.   
As tank 1/8 came around the corner it immediately spotted a T-62 presenting its flank.  It appears that Warren did not see their approach!! 


Kill 1 - T-62 While the crew of 1/8 was exchanging high-fives a BMP-1 popped into shooting range and fired it's gun... which surprisingly hit 1/8 and penetrated! 
 


Though shocked and surprised 1/8's crew got its siht together, neatly pivoted its turret and destroyed the BMP.  Damage from the BMP's gun  round was minor, though the crew would remain shocked for the remainder of the turn and would start to withdraw in the next.

Kill 2 - BMP-1 Tank 1/9 drove up alongside 1/8 and while it was dealing with the BMP, 1/9 spotted and destroyed another T-62... these were almost simultaneous actions.


Kill - 3 T-62 So overall a successful foray.  Warren did have some infantry teams in this area by the way... luckily none were in position to attack my tanks and they were following his armor up the hill.  After these two turns some of these teams started skedaddling back to the woods.
Tank Section 1 will now withdraw a bit and wait to see what Warren's response is.
 
One of the Dragon teams joined in the fun launching a Dragon at another BMP.


 
After these turns Warren started to pull back on this approach. The following image shows his high-water mark...  if he had kept pushing he would have run into my three M-150's kill zones... Warren's foremost BMP was meters from entering the killing zone of the M-150 shown in this image when it started to retreat.
The three surviving Dragon teams are withdrawing to their next line, in case the Soviets decide to push their luck.

Oh I went Allesuberderplatz but only passed through Braunschweig on the British Military Train to Berlin and back.

I grew up just 8 km from the inner-german border and never felt any fear or such - today I think that is strange.
Just the opposite, there are many nice memories concerning the military of that time. We often had the 16/5th Queens Royal Lancers on exercise at the farm of my father. They were stationed at the town of Wolfenbüttel nearby and everybody loved to see them, my mother because we talked english all day, the soldiers because they had warm places to sleep and a shower, and my father because he had an agreement to get a bottle of Famous Grouse for each day of their stay. We did things you never get elswhere, driving a Ferret Mk1 (I called it armored Dune Buggy), a Scorpion tank and even firing a Sten SMG on the meadow behind the barn. Once my father and me visited their barracks for some claybird shooting and the officers invited us to the officers mess. Wow, never saw so many silver cups and a living tradition like that.
When I served at PzAufklBtl 1 (Armored Recon) from '79 to '83 (just the proper time for this game) we were not even allowed to keep our battalion coat of arms, it was from the Black Hussars from Brunswick who fought with the British against Napoleon, but was too similar to the SS sign. That happens to military traditions when you loose your wars.
At that time I met kind guys from the 2nd Armored Division on Reforger exercise near Brunswick and found some nice friends there (Cpt. Hutto somewhere around here?).
And I served as contactperson for the team of 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards during the Boeselager Cup, an international competition among reconaissance forces. Still remember the 'Biwak' on the last evening.
One day I heard the sound of a Huey helicopter nearby and it did not disappear. So I looked for the source and found some thee or four Huey Cobra hovering directly at the outskirts of the village. I immediatly fetched my brothers and we tried to follow them with my Renault R4. Tough job, soon they were gone. But suddenly they reappeared one after the other over a ridgeline and took my car as a training target. Oh, man, that was exciting. I tried to make their job as difficult as I could but these helis were really fast and agile. I would love to ride one of those, must be like a flying Kawasaki.
I think Germany really lost something important with all these kind soldiers who are gone now and with them the BFBS radio and the British Wargamers Association with which I had so nice times at Rheindahlen and elsewhere.
And, by the way, a german Recon Btl was a complete all arms force in '79, ideal for a Bundeswehr expansion one day. There was a ground surveillance radar plt, two companies with Luchs and Leopard1, and a heavy company with grenadier plt (on Schützenpanzer kurz, later Fuchs), engineer plt, and 120 mm mortar plt.
And now I am here, working as an engineer on military simulation and looking forward to my retirement next year being excited to have all the time necessary to play my favorite game then, CM:CW.
 
 

This video is excellent! Best presentation ever.

This video is excellent! Best presentation ever.

This video is excellent! Best presentation ever.

The Eighteenth Minute - Relearning Old Lessons
“Lost in a blurred confusion of yells and groans... down, and down, and down, he sank and drowned, bleeding to death. The counter-attack had failed.”
Siegfried Sassoon
I seem to be relearning the same old lessons over and over again.  I had my 2nd Platoon tanks driving through the open to get to the low ground for the Short Option… the lead M-60A1 was spotted by both the T-64B and the BMP-1P across the map, and after exchanging fire with them, the BMP (of course) hit…

…at least the smoke from the burning tank should mask two of the three tanks which are following.  They are too far forward to reverse and use a covered route, so pedal to the metal boys!
Lesson learned.. again.
The 2nd Platoon tanks that are already on this “open route” will continue as fast as possible behind the burning and smoking wreck of their comrade… the tank that hasn’t broken cover yet will remain and take a safer route. 
3rd Platoon will also be taking a safer route.  Details next turn.

1st Platoon Tank Section 2 moved forward slightly and was able to take the T-64A in the blocking position tree line under fire...

...actually got a couple hits, but alas, no penetrations.  However this tank did start to withdraw from the line.  By the way, this was the final undamaged T-64A... but these things are very hard to kill.

Wow, that picture looks exactly like the landscape where I grew up; east of Brunswick, north Germany. Rolling hills, much agriculture, very small woods between fields and larger forests on hilltops. Villages typically two kilometers apart. North of the Autobahn A2, the Lüneburg Heath starts with less hills, larger distance between villages, and more forest, because the soil is not that good. To the south, the Mittelgebirge starts at the Harz mountains and the Weserbergland with steeper and higher hills and more forest.
So, long lines of sight here, this is the perfect ATGM country.
Cocerning the compensations farmers received for damages. My father was not really pleased when three or four Chieftains rolled over one of our fields. The destroyed crop was compensated, but MBT's compressed the soil so much, that far less grows in these lanes for some years.

Wow, that picture looks exactly like the landscape where I grew up; east of Brunswick, north Germany. Rolling hills, much agriculture, very small woods between fields and larger forests on hilltops. Villages typically two kilometers apart. North of the Autobahn A2, the Lüneburg Heath starts with less hills, larger distance between villages, and more forest, because the soil is not that good. To the south, the Mittelgebirge starts at the Harz mountains and the Weserbergland with steeper and higher hills and more forest.
So, long lines of sight here, this is the perfect ATGM country.
Cocerning the compensations farmers received for damages. My father was not really pleased when three or four Chieftains rolled over one of our fields. The destroyed crop was compensated, but MBT's compressed the soil so much, that far less grows in these lanes for some years.