Bubba883XL

May you have 4 weeks of rain and fog. Amen. 😷😀

I recently described one of the scenarios in the game as a a 'shooting gallery' scenario, but with the difference that you're playing the role of the duck. This title is not CMSF2 M1A2 Abrams versus Syrian T72M.

The terrain shift when shifting between Germany and NTC region in QB is dramatic. I can see people playing faux Yom Kippur war engagements on the NTC landscape, its like having two separate games.

A weird thing about this timeframe. No US marksman rifle in the TO&E. The M14-based sniper rifle had its problems and wasn't considered a reliable weapon. Troops got sniper rifles only if HQ saw fit to dole them out on an as-needed basis. There was no trained marksman in the unit. Yeh, that kind'a shocked me too.

Game engine 5 is in the future. They release Fire and Rubble module - BAM! They release Cold War - BAM! Then we see what comes after that. Its been a long time that they haven't been secretly juggling two or three (or more) projects at the same time. What's next on their to-do list (scratches head).

CM Cold War takes place on the cusp of big changes happening to both the American and Soviet armies. The arrival of Abrams and Bradley changes the nature of the fight in Europe. Also in this time frame we get a fashion change! See attached, the Americans switching to battle dress uniform. This is new-new art that's still not in the current Beta so you won't see it in any of the posted screenshots. Please forgive my crappy graphics card.

Mystery solved! John in Tech Support uncovered that this scenario requires the Vehicle Pack. Once I purchased and activated that all five panzers showed up.

I want to thank all of you for your responses and input. Thanks everyone, stay safe, and let's all have a great 2021!

I totally see the logic behind doing CM:CW and think it will be a huge hit. However, I agree on the timing. CM:FR is so close. Why not let it get out the door before sucking all of the oxygen out of the room? Especially after all the delays...seems a bit of a kick in the nuts.
I guess it boils down to Steam. My understanding is that CM:FR won't be released there until RT makes it to Steam in a few quarters. So, my guess is that the structural pieces and market big picture where such that BF and Slitherine decided the initial buzz loss for CM:FR was worth the positive impact of a brand new CM title on Steam + BF's store.
I won't be getting both right away. I'll pick up FR on day one and save CW for a possible purchase in the future.

The timing of release of Cold War is very bad and typical for the way Fire and Rubble has been handled the past years. 

The coming CMRT 'Fire and Rubble' module is the cat's meow, too. Its (almost) too bad the Cold War announcement is stealing its thunder somewhat. Buy both! If not immediately, then with a decent interval between the two. The games ain't going anywhere.

Great looking map! Making maps in CM's editor certainly requires a bit of artistic ability. 
I'm a dog person myself. Will you take a woof? 😁

This is an issue in other Combat Mission games as well:
- The Panther D (Late) has a main model without turret tracks modelled, but strangely the lower detail one has a turret full of tracks.
- King Tiger main model shows turret tracks, lower detail model does not.

A lot of the bug testing to death was to get the TO&E to work. It's *possible* you may need to play around a lot with dates on QB setups to get the vehicles you want, because a lot of work went into not only having all the correct formations and vehicles, but also the dates that they would be available.
Playing around with some QB setups I don't see the "latest" versions either. Yet.
 

Thanks everyone!

It is the most demanding type of movement.

And yes, it takes a long time to recover from "exhausted".  Some players say they run their troops so they are tired most of the time.  I think it better to rest em b4 that.

Think of it in real world term. You crawling on your belly while carrying infantry kit for half a kilometer on a hot day would probably come close to killing you.

Hi
Just tested it myself. As far as I can tell, it works like this:

"Dismount" only works for vehicles carrying spare ammunition - like trucks for instance. When you select a truck to be dismounted in the editor, it automatically becomes an ammo dump.
For other vehicles or if you want a truck to be "normally dismounted", then you just leave it at the default "OK" status and deploy you troops. Once it has been deployed on the map you then give it the "dismount" order (for some vehicles it is "bail out" instead of "dismount" for some reason - I dont know why BFC has made that distinction there).

Hope this helps?
Edit:
If you by "abandoned" mean that you would like the crew to be able to reman the vehicle, then do as above. If you just want the vehicle to be there for decorative reasons, you can always use "destroyed" or "immobilized".
Second edit:
Your post prompted me to try an old idea once again, namely: Can you make a scenario where you need to get a tank crew back to their abandoned tank? Alas, that seems impossible, because even though you can get the crew to dismount the vehicle in the editor, it seems that it always automatically remounts the tank, once you start the scenario in the "Battle" menu. A real pity ☹️
 

NVA: Nationale Volksarmee (German Democratic Republic Army).

Nationale Volksarmee-   The East German Army.

I know everybody is excited and would like to know what is next after the Base Game... believe me we are all excited too!
As far as follow-on modules go.. yes several are planned, but what they are specifically we will keep to ourselves until after the game is released.  For now the focus must stay on the base-game for us, but feel free to conjecture and dream, I enjoy those threads, but we won't be confirming or denying anything until after this one is on the street.
Just so you guys know that we aren't ignoring you in those discussions, we are trying to stay focused and not get sidetracked so we can deliver this thing in time.
Cheers, Bil

He didn't say possibility, he said he would add it to the game and it would also be a single vehicle option, so it's all good.

I believe there is only one version of the M4A2(75) in Fire and Rubble.

March to Glorious Victory Post Number One.
  So Bil and I have a loose-agreement (I would say gentlemen's but that is probably a stretch) to not peek at each others threads.  The dirty truth here is that this isn't really an AAR per se, it is more of an IAR (In Action Report).  Full disclosure, we are only about 6 mins into the thing, so I can't really put a spin on my plan or anything because I have no idea how this will end.  So far so good  but we are in early days.  We should start posting turn summaries tomorrow but for now may I present an end-product of about roughly 32 years of military training in both line and staff positions...The_Capt's glorious Mission Analysis!  
So here we are on this grubby little peice of West German real-estate (seriously, Pete Wenman is a freakin wizard with these maps btw) facing off against what I am sure are overfed, overpaid and over-entitled Yankee capitalists all huddled in their vehicles waiting for something to happen.  So like they taught me back in the day..let's start with terrain:

So my guys are coming from the bottom, Bil and his jerks are up near the top.  I have a bunch of woods except for this defile behind a hwy bridge that I have to deploy my main force out of.  We have a big valley between us and the town of Dollbach in the center which is the golden goose we are both lining up to grab, whilst killing the other guy.  Not much to see on my map edge except a bunch of woods with some dirt roads cut through them.  
Bil has the high ground ridge up there and there are three major wooded areas that him and his ilk are no doubt hiding out in.  It is more one on the left but pretty much that approach along with the Valley is dominated by Bil's thugs.  In short, this is not an optimal starting position.
Bil's Plan.  So I have learned some time ago that you are not fighting vehicles and equipment, you are fighting a person (Capt's rule #1).  So spend time understanding and getting inside the head of that person.  With Bil it is easy because we have been sparring in CM for just about 2 decades now.  So here is what I am thinking, that Bil is thinking:

So Bil is probably going to be cautious and build a nice path to victory here.  First he is going to put out Eyes in those woodlines, then he will reinforce with teeth because why stick his neck out if he does not have to?  Then once I have watered the West German countryside with my blood (and other fluids) he will make his reach for Dollbach (Hands...dirty, old, wrinkly hands with yellow fingernails).  I will be at a significant disadvantage at this point because I will be dead, and you do not fight so well when dead (Capt's rule #2).  So my role here is to play peeky snipey from a really crappy position with Soviet gear that does not see as well as his sexy US optics...hmm...Capt no-likey, no likey...one bit.  So now the Plan:

My end goal is to make Bil more dead than me, not to get heavily invested in the West German real estate market.  So we are going to try something simple and blunt.  First, I will get Eyes on my woodline, gotta see what I can see (Capt's Rule #3).  Then I am going to put out hands...fingers really, to make it look like the land grab is my only game.  Then once my art start dropping (could be wait here cause he has EW turned on), I am going to bull rush that corridor and swing up into those hills to kill Bil (Teeth).  This is going to be tricky and I am going to take losses but I can afford them.  I get a MIC FSE in 5 and another Tank Coy-ish in 10, so I will have mass because I am betting the best he has is an Armd Cav platoon, maybe two.  So basically we will play Bil's snipey peeky game for a bit, push recon out into that town to make me look desperate and then freakin charge on the left.  Questions?
 

Creating models is a huge job, but we were lucky as a solid portion of the in-game models already existed but they all needed tweaking and re-skinning.  Our involvement here really became that of gophers for the artists and modelers (they would probably say we were more pains in the ass).  Uniforms, webbing, radios etc all had to be researched and good pictures found, doing all that was a team effort but the artists really make the game shine.