danfrodo

1st SS attacks

Progress but not done yet.  Final battle (#16) on US + Brit path in Damascus.  CharacterCount: your destiny awaits!  this is a really fun campaign, enjoy.  I will finish this and then at some point go back & take alternate path.

Progress but not done yet.  Final battle (#16) on US + Brit path in Damascus.  CharacterCount: your destiny awaits!  this is a really fun campaign, enjoy.  I will finish this and then at some point go back & take alternate path.

On the German right, the enemy Rooster Gang armor forces friendly infantry there to hold fire and hide in fields and buildings while American infantry gets ever closer.

 
And, as if things weren't bad enough already, the Rooster Gang Sherman spots some of the German infantry grouped with the Hetzer HQ on the marsh road. It opens up on them with its .50 cal.

 
Then, it takes a shot at the HQ Hetzer.

 
Luckily, the angle is bad and it does not penetrate. However, the resulting shrapnel takes out several men. One of them is the squad leader nearby. The blast and casualties shake the morale of the Germans and more units start falling back, as does the Hetzer.

 
And finally, to put a pretty ribbon on things, with the German left suppressed by US artillery, the GIs there have recovered their nerve and are pressing forward again. 

 
 

I'd buy that for a few dollars.  CM:Rome, Carthage, Egypt etc.  It might get a bit like Total War but would be a lot better.
Anyway, that's still war, so not allowed in this thread.  Game-wise I'm a bit stumped, but I play music quite a bit - does that count?

he's got a jazzmaster?  I always wanted one of those, would sound good thru my AC15.  Does he have other nice guitars? -- we should confiscate all these until we get F&R

Don't mention Jagdtigers! 😄

He he he, I meant jazzmaster from his avatar. I don't know if he has any guitar.
*reality mod on*
I have jazzmaster and it sounds great thru my '72 Princeton reverb. Yesterday I got Gibson SG 61 Standard - what a joy to play.
*reality mod off*
I'll let Elvis play my SG, but I want to see some pictures (F&R) of partisans first.

speaking of 1973 war, did anyone watch Valley of Tears on HBO?  Some good tank action -- fast forward through the rest.  but they were using chieftans -- which I am sure we will see in a CMCW DLC one day.

ahhh, yes, and this song is now the theme song for the excellent "Deutschland 83" TV show from Germany.  Young East German Lt. forced to spy in west germany.  Three seasons, all excellent, available in US on Hulu. 

Bil's videos & screenshots have me so excited I think I'm gonna pee my pants.  This is great stuff.  If I am that happy, I wonder how much more happy the actual 1980s army vets must be.  (I was close to joining US military since didn't have enough money to continue college, but lucked into a job at GM (generous motors) just a couple weeks before I planned on joining up -- GM paid a LOT more than the ~minimum wage gas station I have been working for years)
The add-ons for CMCW are gonna make the 2020s worth living -- Germans, Brits, Dutch, French maybe.  Perhaps some snow campaigns up north.  Maybe some mid-east fights.  Yeah, keep it coming.
 

Ordered via PayPal!  this is great. 
And what a deal -- I spend $75 a month for 5 months per year just to watch football, so CMCW for $60 is great bang for the buck, hundreds of hours of playing w armymen in the dirt.

Bil's videos & screenshots have me so excited I think I'm gonna pee my pants.  This is great stuff.  If I am that happy, I wonder how much more happy the actual 1980s army vets must be.  (I was close to joining US military since didn't have enough money to continue college, but lucked into a job at GM (generous motors) just a couple weeks before I planned on joining up -- GM paid a LOT more than the ~minimum wage gas station I have been working for years)
The add-ons for CMCW are gonna make the 2020s worth living -- Germans, Brits, Dutch, French maybe.  Perhaps some snow campaigns up north.  Maybe some mid-east fights.  Yeah, keep it coming.
 

Bil's videos & screenshots have me so excited I think I'm gonna pee my pants.  This is great stuff.  If I am that happy, I wonder how much more happy the actual 1980s army vets must be.  (I was close to joining US military since didn't have enough money to continue college, but lucked into a job at GM (generous motors) just a couple weeks before I planned on joining up -- GM paid a LOT more than the ~minimum wage gas station I have been working for years)
The add-ons for CMCW are gonna make the 2020s worth living -- Germans, Brits, Dutch, French maybe.  Perhaps some snow campaigns up north.  Maybe some mid-east fights.  Yeah, keep it coming.
 

We should all buy everything that BF can throw at us. A company like this will never appear again. Mind you, I'm driven by sheer egoism. 😉

Fourth Minute - First Contact!
Forgive me for a second AAR post today, but I will be traveling tomorrow and wanted to get this one published tonight.
 
“One should not be diverted by geographical objectives, but should concentrate on the destruction of the enemy’s military forces.”
Classic Russian Military Principles
 
A little excitement during this turn, and first shot fired (all times are in Game Time, counting down from 40:00).  Yellow text for contacts equals a tentative contact, red text is for solid identified contacts. 
@36:47:  Early in this minute M150 (1/5) got a firm spot on an enemy BMP moving to the edge of the woods, then immediately lost the contact as it continued forward slightly.  Positive ID: BMP-1P.  Note:  this is a resolution of the tentative spot from the third minute.
@36:35:  M150 (1/4) noticed some movement near NAI3.  Appears to be a light armored vehicle, suspected to be a BMP.
@36:21:  The 36:35 spot becomes a positively identified BMP-1P as it nosed slightly out of the treeline.   This BMP is oriented directly toward M-150(1/4) but does not have a spot, it could be overwatching the ridge the Tank Hunter is sitting on.

Note the type of ATGM (AT-4 I believe) and the mast antenna.  The ATGM makes it a BMP-1P, the mast antenna makes this a BMP-1PK, a Company Commander's personal ride.  One Company HQ identified... make a note.
As the BMP halted at the edge of the treeline it gave M-150 (1/4) enough time to aim and loose a TOW, which alas, fell well short of the mark probably due to my smoke screen.  The contact was then immediately lost, probably due to the smoke, missile destruction debris etc.

With any luck, the enemy commander will have missed the missile launch and will think the missile’s impact with the ground is a spotting round.

@36:04:  M150 (1/4) noticed some movement within NAI2.  Appears to be a light armored vehicle, suspected to be a third BMP.  One full Company or parts of two?  Time will tell.  
Only one adjustment was made to my positions this turn.  After a quick check, M-150 (1/4) is only Partially Hull Down to the BMP it fired at this turn so will be reversing into a full Hull Down position to this enemy vehicle, and will also be narrowing its cover arc to focus on the location of this enemy BMP.
A note about Hull Down… just because you are Hull Down to one piece of ground, does not mean you are Hull Down to another.  You should check and recheck this as a scenario unfolds, especially when you have firm contact sightings.

Bil
COMING UP NEXT:  The Return of the Famous Blood Board!!

First Three Minutes!
 “Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.”
A Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi
 
The initial phase of this action will be me positioning my units to get eyes on the most likely enemy avenues of approach, especially EAA1 (NAI 1). 
After two minutes of action:
M113A2s and Scouts: Reached their drop off points and the two Scout teams have dismounted and are continuing on foot in order to get into positions where they can look into EAA1.  The Platoon Leader will stay mounted in his M113 for now.

M-60A1 (Rise+) Section 1:  Arrived in hull down positions with views of NAI 2 and 3. M-60A1 (Rise+) Section 2:  Arrived in hull down positions with views of NAI 2 and 3. Tank Section 1 moves into position:


M150 TOW Tank Hunters:  Both now in hull down positions overlooking NAIs 2 and 3.
Artillery Smoke Screen:  After two minutes I have cancelled the fire from both batteries.  Mainly because I want them available once my Scouts start to see into NAI 1.  The screen should build for a few more turns as laid then should last for several more.  It’ll be interesting to see how effective it is at messing with the Soviet spotting-targeting cycle.
FIRST ENEMY INDICATOR:  In the third minute M150 1/5 (1st Platoon, 5th Vehicle)) noticed some movement in the woods between NAIs 1 and 2.  Nothing is known about this contact other than that it is a light armored vehicle, suspected BMP from the Recon Company.

Now to place this image in context... in case you ever wondered what a Hull Down M-150 Tank Hunter looks like from the Soviet perspective:

Bil

Ok, lemme weigh in on this because there are going to be more questions.  What made it into the game...and why?  What did not make it into the game...and why?  Not easy answers to be honest.
First we took a deliberate design choice to try to stick to a policy of "historical introduction +/- 6 months".  The primary reason was to not artificially limit the choices of the player and leave more constraints/restraint decisions in their hands...they are the customer.  There will be purists out there - god love em- who will want to play with extreme historical accuracy and this game is set up for that.  Then there will be 'experimenters' that will want to see what happened if X showed up earlier/later, so we took a look and tried to keep the aperture open for them too.
Second, unlike most historical conflicts, the Cold War never went hot so the geopolitical or strategic situation never really evolved to mirror what is happening in our game.  For example, having spent a lot of time looking at committee records and  logistical after action reports, the reason that vehicles or weapons systems were introduced at a certain date was not the same context as, say, WWII.  These were not shaped by technical, industrial or operational realities as much as they were by good old fashion bureaucracy.  Vehicles and equipment were held up for funding shifts or strategic logistical SNAFUs, not anything "real".  So within a "what if" context saying "Nope the M2 Bradley cannot be in Europe in 81-82...sorry player" makes no sense if the primary reason was "it got delayed because we forgot to include a support package"  or "there was a congressional district issue"  or "the delivery process got held up in a contracting screw up".  If there had been an escalating strategic reality, all of this red tape would have been cut through and the vehicles, which were being manufactured (i.e. well past the prototype stage) and many of them in warehouses, could have easily been pushed forward.
So what?  Well if you see an odd vehicle date to your eyes, trust me we know about it and considered it.  If you want to play with the highest historical accuracy possible you can do that easily within the game.  If you wish to push the envelope of what could have been, well you can do that too...within reason.  You will not be seeing M1s rolling across the plains in 1979, there is a point between ahistorical and complete fantasy but some equipment, particularly US will be available earlier or later than its actual arrival date in the ETO but all of these vehicles were 1) well into manufacturing and 2) had been already delivered to the US military, contracts cut and the machine in motion.  
And finally, what got left out.  Ya, there is simply no way we were going to win this one...we still get beat up by the beta team for leaving out vehicle Z.  Here the tyranny of time kicks in.  Spending an extra 6 months modeling and testing in-game systems that were niche and that most players will never see or use, simply does not make sense.  And then some pieces of equipment would break the game engine itself (e.g. AVLB...breaks my heart as an engineer).  So hard decisions to leave some babies on the roadside had to be made...and they were.  What is in the game are the essentials (plus) and we are likely going to have disagreement on what was "essential"...now let the healing begin.

So we just surprise-won the combat mission lottery for $50Million, and all folks talk about is "too bad it wasn't $51M"???  geeeeez, tough crowd 🙂
All I have to say is THANK YOU to Bill H, The Capt, et al.

So we just surprise-won the combat mission lottery for $50Million, and all folks talk about is "too bad it wasn't $51M"???  geeeeez, tough crowd 🙂
All I have to say is THANK YOU to Bill H, The Capt, et al.

So we just surprise-won the combat mission lottery for $50Million, and all folks talk about is "too bad it wasn't $51M"???  geeeeez, tough crowd 🙂
All I have to say is THANK YOU to Bill H, The Capt, et al.

So we just surprise-won the combat mission lottery for $50Million, and all folks talk about is "too bad it wasn't $51M"???  geeeeez, tough crowd 🙂
All I have to say is THANK YOU to Bill H, The Capt, et al.

So we just surprise-won the combat mission lottery for $50Million, and all folks talk about is "too bad it wasn't $51M"???  geeeeez, tough crowd 🙂
All I have to say is THANK YOU to Bill H, The Capt, et al.

Just picked up Red Storm free on library loan online on audio.  First listen in 30+ years.