danfrodo

I'm had 20 years of enjoyment from playing the various Combat Mission games, having bought every title and module except 'Afghanistan'.
There's a lot to learn, in terms of gameplay, tactics, unit capabilities, and so on - it's endless. Mistakes are messy.
That's why it remains such fun.
When you want something different - there's a whole world of map, scenario and campaign design (I love making and playing my own QB maps).
It's an amazing game - the frustration is part of the challenge. Just buy it

I bought CMBN first ~5 years ago.  And still haven't played all of it, there's just so much if you get the big bundle.  Part of that is that I now have all the games except Afghanistan, so bounce between them.  You have hundreds of hours of epic battles -- jump in.  Learning curve just takes a little time; watch gameplay & tips videos from youtube, you'll be a pro very quickly.  And you'll still lose battles sometimes, that's what makes these games such an enduring challenge.

Considerably less than I got in my last game.
I don't wish to talk about it.

Thanks everyone.
Please don't fall prey to the "simple solution" bull****, like it's all some easy fix -- that's just propaganda so that folks don't have to face the really difficult reality.  Like the lies told last year ("they won't release water from the resorvoirs" - lie; "they sent all the water to the ocean"-- lie).  Classic blame the victims stuff.
 Western US had a dry & hot summer following a relatively dry winter.  And recently had very hot w abnormally low humidity, so perfect for fires.  Once fires got going we had many days of crazy strong east winds, driving the fire  -- we almost never get east winds this time of year, especially ones that strong.  Plus lots of lightning.  This is not due to negligence or some lack of effort, it's a natural disaster that came from a perfect storm of conditions.  CA already has a plan w forest service to clear dead wood out of 1 million acres a year (hundred of millions of dollars per year) -- except that there's 20 million acres to clear, at least -- so many years and many BILLIONS of dollars (and that's just CA).  100 years of fire suppression, plus millions of dead trees (much of this due to warmer climate that has caused bug infestations), plus ridiculous weather, and we get catastrophic fires.  We always have summer fires, we don't always have this kind of catastrophe.
Commanderski:  orange skies in NH?  welcome to the club!  that is crazy you have smoke ~2000+ miles away.
And combat mission is indeed the only bright spot these days -- oh, that and football.

Thanks everyone.
Please don't fall prey to the "simple solution" bull****, like it's all some easy fix -- that's just propaganda so that folks don't have to face the really difficult reality.  Like the lies told last year ("they won't release water from the resorvoirs" - lie; "they sent all the water to the ocean"-- lie).  Classic blame the victims stuff.
 Western US had a dry & hot summer following a relatively dry winter.  And recently had very hot w abnormally low humidity, so perfect for fires.  Once fires got going we had many days of crazy strong east winds, driving the fire  -- we almost never get east winds this time of year, especially ones that strong.  Plus lots of lightning.  This is not due to negligence or some lack of effort, it's a natural disaster that came from a perfect storm of conditions.  CA already has a plan w forest service to clear dead wood out of 1 million acres a year (hundred of millions of dollars per year) -- except that there's 20 million acres to clear, at least -- so many years and many BILLIONS of dollars (and that's just CA).  100 years of fire suppression, plus millions of dead trees (much of this due to warmer climate that has caused bug infestations), plus ridiculous weather, and we get catastrophic fires.  We always have summer fires, we don't always have this kind of catastrophe.
Commanderski:  orange skies in NH?  welcome to the club!  that is crazy you have smoke ~2000+ miles away.
And combat mission is indeed the only bright spot these days -- oh, that and football.

Thanks everyone.
Please don't fall prey to the "simple solution" bull****, like it's all some easy fix -- that's just propaganda so that folks don't have to face the really difficult reality.  Like the lies told last year ("they won't release water from the resorvoirs" - lie; "they sent all the water to the ocean"-- lie).  Classic blame the victims stuff.
 Western US had a dry & hot summer following a relatively dry winter.  And recently had very hot w abnormally low humidity, so perfect for fires.  Once fires got going we had many days of crazy strong east winds, driving the fire  -- we almost never get east winds this time of year, especially ones that strong.  Plus lots of lightning.  This is not due to negligence or some lack of effort, it's a natural disaster that came from a perfect storm of conditions.  CA already has a plan w forest service to clear dead wood out of 1 million acres a year (hundred of millions of dollars per year) -- except that there's 20 million acres to clear, at least -- so many years and many BILLIONS of dollars (and that's just CA).  100 years of fire suppression, plus millions of dead trees (much of this due to warmer climate that has caused bug infestations), plus ridiculous weather, and we get catastrophic fires.  We always have summer fires, we don't always have this kind of catastrophe.
Commanderski:  orange skies in NH?  welcome to the club!  that is crazy you have smoke ~2000+ miles away.
And combat mission is indeed the only bright spot these days -- oh, that and football.

Thanks everyone.
Please don't fall prey to the "simple solution" bull****, like it's all some easy fix -- that's just propaganda so that folks don't have to face the really difficult reality.  Like the lies told last year ("they won't release water from the resorvoirs" - lie; "they sent all the water to the ocean"-- lie).  Classic blame the victims stuff.
 Western US had a dry & hot summer following a relatively dry winter.  And recently had very hot w abnormally low humidity, so perfect for fires.  Once fires got going we had many days of crazy strong east winds, driving the fire  -- we almost never get east winds this time of year, especially ones that strong.  Plus lots of lightning.  This is not due to negligence or some lack of effort, it's a natural disaster that came from a perfect storm of conditions.  CA already has a plan w forest service to clear dead wood out of 1 million acres a year (hundred of millions of dollars per year) -- except that there's 20 million acres to clear, at least -- so many years and many BILLIONS of dollars (and that's just CA).  100 years of fire suppression, plus millions of dead trees (much of this due to warmer climate that has caused bug infestations), plus ridiculous weather, and we get catastrophic fires.  We always have summer fires, we don't always have this kind of catastrophe.
Commanderski:  orange skies in NH?  welcome to the club!  that is crazy you have smoke ~2000+ miles away.
And combat mission is indeed the only bright spot these days -- oh, that and football.

Guitar riff in Rebel Rebel: coolest thing ever.  How come sh*thead musicians seem to live forever and all the good ones die early.  Pat Boone is still alive. 
I wonder if BFC will have Steam RT release going before F&R release?  that would be cool for the Steam folks. 

Very sad.  I remember buying his scenario sets (nowadays called DLCs) for games like Wargame Construction Set: TANKS! by Norm Koger.  this was ~100 years ago it seems now.

Very sad.  I remember buying his scenario sets (nowadays called DLCs) for games like Wargame Construction Set: TANKS! by Norm Koger.  this was ~100 years ago it seems now.

UK seems like a terrible place to me.  It's like The Purge with all the murders!  Even the little college town of Oxford has huge murder rate.  I know this because I've been watching a documentary series on it called "Endeavor".  Oh, not to mention all the killings in Hastings area in another totally true not made up series called "Foyle's War".  Sounds dreadfully dangerous.

UK seems like a terrible place to me.  It's like The Purge with all the murders!  Even the little college town of Oxford has huge murder rate.  I know this because I've been watching a documentary series on it called "Endeavor".  Oh, not to mention all the killings in Hastings area in another totally true not made up series called "Foyle's War".  Sounds dreadfully dangerous.

UK seems like a terrible place to me.  It's like The Purge with all the murders!  Even the little college town of Oxford has huge murder rate.  I know this because I've been watching a documentary series on it called "Endeavor".  Oh, not to mention all the killings in Hastings area in another totally true not made up series called "Foyle's War".  Sounds dreadfully dangerous.

In the "uk". When you were "a school". Ah, that sums up life in Murdoch's Dictatorship of the Semi-Literate.

I also love it, but not everybody does.
It's like watching a Scandinavian crime series.

British taxpayer dollars being used wisely IMO.  And best of all British taxpayer dollars being used to make BF more viable and able to make more stuff for us so we can play w our little toy soldiers and tanks.  Win win.  Modern Brits vs Russia does sound rather fun....

Paddy raise his eyes. "Feck off! The Field Marshall's family were from County Donegal, and I'm a Meathman, brits me arse." 

No 'like' button for this.  So 'LIKE'.

read the briefing, it's your intel report take you time looking at map, especially from ground level, moving along a path you are considering for your advance Then read the briefing again

Oh, my two best friends are getting married.  Congrats!  All I ever really play are CM (~90% of gaming time) and field of glory empires from Slitherine so I like and trust both companies.  I hope for greatly increased sales and community!

now, that is funny 😃
I love playing as the brits though I don't know why.  All that goofy gear, goofy tanks

"Possible anti-tank gun spotted."
"Four 25 pounders until we're out of ammo. I can wait."

Sublime, that was a joke right?  That was you parodying an ignorant racist white male who believes really stupid things, correct?   ha ha, great job, you really had me going for a second.

oops, I have now used up my total allotted file size. 
 

After Action Report UK Armoured Assault
This is one of George MC's excellent scenarios, originally made for SF1.
Summary
A battlegroup of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards in their Challengers, supported by mech infantry and engineers, with arty and air support, attack Syrian positions.

Challenger on overwatch
AAR:
Firstly, one of the nice touches is you have recon in position when the game starts. It is a minor gripe of mine that you often go into battles blind, and have to expose a few hapless soldiers to incoming, to find out where the enemy is: Reconnaisance by Taking Fire. I don't like it or think it is realistic.
It's a fairly big battlefield. I decided on a quite conservative plan, given that I seemed to have plenty of time (2 game hours) to achieve the objectives. Basically I was going to hide in the deployment zone and take the first enemy position which is in a dip then move forward and see what revealed itself. I pushed some Challys into overwatch. Two were promptly hit by ATGMs – both survived, one with its 120mm knocked out, the other with its commander dead.
I pulled back immediately and dialled in my artillery and the Harriers that were on station.
I spent 20 minutes pounding enemy positions with 81mm, 155 mm and one of the Harriers (keeping the other in reserve, which proved to be a wise move). So I destroyed all of the AT threats I could find.

A recent portrait of Syrian ATGM team No. 2
Digression – We are fighting with the Jocks here, and the infantry brigaded with the RSDG maybe should be the Black Watch, so we have two units that fought together at Waterloo. Not having Scottish accents irked me (it's some form of orcish, I believe 🤣) I couldn't get HQS sound mod and George MC's and Mord's Cuss mod* to work together – they seem incompatible, so I wasn't entirely happy, as it didn't seem right to have legendary Scottish units speaking rather plummy English.
(*further investigation by @George MC , it seems that the Cuss mod won't work with SF2. I might be wrong about the Black Watch – George checked when he wrote the scenario and the Orbat should be correct for the right time in an imaginary war.)
(Politics Alert! British rankers traditionally come from the poorest parts of the country – Wales, Scotland, the North/Midlands of England, Cockneys (East End of London), and Ireland. It is probably nitpicking, but it would be good to hear more of these sort of authentic voices in BF games. /Rant over.)
The first advance
My forces moved forward. The infantry took the first dug-in position directly to the front, backed up by Challys and Warriors. I sent forces to the right to take a good position for the Javelin team. I didn't bother flanking to the left.
After I'd bounded forward I consolidated then moved on to the next set of objectives, using light bombardments of 155mm to mash anything that seemed to be well hardened. I was taking hardly any casualties. Identified enemy tanks didn't last long, either hit by the Harrier or Challenger gunfire.
One of the Static Tanks was still functioning, having been under an intense artillery barrage, and been struck by 2 x 155mm rounds and a 66mm to the back of the turret. I didn't find that believable, even if the crew had survived, I think they would have abandoned the tank. /End Rant 2.
 

Infantry and armour advancing in close co-ordination, having taken the central farm. Out of shot to the right, the engineers are about to flank  OBJ Elgin
Infantry and armour move forward and consolidate on the next enemy positions
I'd moved forward on OBJ Elgin and Keith. My leftmost troops were closing in on OBJ North Queensferry from both front and flank. One of the nice things about this scenario is you can use the terrain to move infantry forward under cover.
SPOILER COMING BELOW PICTURE

A Challenger advances, the commander is an ancestor of James T. Kirk.
Enemy armour reinforcements arrived. My Challengers in overwatch and the second Harrier dispatched them without any losses. One Chally took a 125mm hit to the added lower hull front armour pack, and survived. So that is 2 ATGMs and a 125 KE round that failed to penetrate.
Pushed the enemy out of North Queensferry, a mainly infantry assault, supported by Warriors.
 
(CM WEIRDNESS – BUT IS A SPOILER)
 
Bizarrely, when the game ended I found that there was a static tank in the middle of one of my positions that I had overlooked. In RL I can't see how this could have happened, given that one of my observer teams was in an adjacent house and my footsloggers and armour were all around. As I prepared for the assault on the final objective, South Queensferry, I saw that my forward infantry were tired, so I mustered the engineers as a 2nd assault wave, bussed them into FV432s and drove them at high speed to the E of North Queensferry. The muster area was within metres of the static tank. I guess the high speed move must have not given it time to spot, because they must have crossed its gunsights....
 
The Final Assault on South Queensferry
 
I sent my infantry and armour forward under a smokescreen over one of the bridges. I had miscalculated (again!) as there were a few enemy infantry in the vicinity of the N/S Queensferry Bridge. I thought they were suppressed/destroyed/surrendered, and I had sent a Warrior to finish them off, but I gave it Hunt orders and it stayed where it was. A brief firefight took 2 of my 3 man scout team down. The Syrians were neutralised, but it felt an unnecessary loss.
Some of my engineers were speeding to the other bridge to cross and flank. I was laying down immense amounts of small arms and MG fire on all known enemy positions.

The final assault on South Queensferry - armour, infantry and engineers attacking under covering fire. The Challenger has run out of ammo and is parked in a safeish position.
Time was running out. I was – typically – less careful about moving forward and took some more casualties, which were unnecessary. Most of the enemy troops were forced to abandon their positions and as they crossed the open streets, were gunned down in a deadly crossfire, from smallarms and vehicle MGs, and Chaingun/50 cal from Challengers a long way off.
Another digression – I've become inordinately fond of the L94A1 Chain Gun and often use it in preference to other weapons. It saves the too few, and valuable, HESH or HE rounds for when you really need them.
Results Screen
I achieved a total victory: 30 British casualties to 410 Syrian, knocked out all but two tanks for the loss of none. I lost a few Warriors and 432s. Nevertheless some of my lads should not have copped it. I'm arranging to court martial myself. Oh wait, I'm a general. That will never happen. Queenie's going to pin another medal on me.
 
Amusing moment of the game:
Road Traffic Accident – one of my 432s rearended a Warrior on the bridge, entirely due to my inept vehicle handling. You can see it in the image above. Classic. I hope I don't get a ticket.
 
Music
I think appropriate music really heightens the enjoyment of a video game. Usually I find the in-game music track palls, however good it is. So I turn it off and have YouTube open in my browser. So I can do a quick search and find something that is atmospheric and feels right for the moment, then save it as a playlist. I have game music on my computer, like the Doom era soundtrack of pumping metal, which can work, but YouTube is more convenient and you can just search again and use something different if it doesn't feel right.
For example, for fantasy games, Lord of the Rings soundtrack works brilliantly, but feels completely wrong if I am playing Shogun 2. There's lots of westernised Japanese samurai movie and anime soundtracks which really juice that game up.
 
For this CM scenario I was playing various heroic tracks, and I also interspersed this with Scottish martial bagpipe music. My boys love it!
I have also been known to play Ride of the Valkyries when the attack helos go in...
 
Conclusion
I enjoyed this game a lot. However the British side has a considerable advantage, in technology, military competence and arty/air support.
(SPOILER)
The armoured counterattack could be deadly if the T72s ganged up on the Challys – which are already zoned in by Syrian troops. But the AI can't do that, and just drove around aimlessly, getting shot.
I could have improved with better fire discipline: I wasted a lot of rounds that I should have saved for later, running out of ammo at the last stages of the game. I thought Challenger 2s had 52 rounds but the game only has 48. Could really do with those four shells.
In longer games, keeping track of ammo is very important. I blasted away with the 81 mm when more careful use would have kept some in reserve. Use more “Target Briefly” rather than using T and hitting a target with area fire for the full minute. I've been doing TB for 30 or 45 seconds so I don't shoot up something ( and forget about it) for several turns, and run short of MG ammo in a Chally (which I did!).
Finally, if there's anybody who's good with sound, perhaps contact GeorgeMC and Mord to upgrade the Cuss Mod. It might be something simple like needing reformatting? It's a mod I would like to see operational again. I could listen to it fine in my media player so there's nothing damaged.