Hardradi

Right Flank:

Uncons A - the MMG on the roof - spot a single enemy in the Obj Steel area ( some way ahead of my Uncons C )

The vehicles of Uncons B will push forward as shown, with the lead vehicle moving to gain LoS on some of the Obj Steel buildings.

Last pic shows Uncons C moving forward more, but still cautiously. Also - some of these uncons are not Fit, so small movements is best.

Turn 1 : ( bear in mind that I wrote up the info as I was doing each turn, so even though the battle has moved on in time, these are the thoughts I had at the time ).
Well, first blood to us.
It seems that Bil had a similar set of 3 Uncon vehicles. They were over-cautious and did not move.
My Watcher in the Woods turned out to have even better views than I hoped - it spotted the lead vehicle and took it out with some 30mm fire ( initially it fired short, but corrected before the end of the turn ).

Overwatch of the two hills. The Scimitar in the Orchard/Olive grove also has LoS to the Apprehension Height.

This shows the other movement in this area - the Scimitar unlabelled is waiting for the infantry recce squad to confirm a lack of enemy in Obj Gold - I would have pushed on, but there's always a risk of an RPG7 in the flank which would ruin anyone's day.

Setup and Initial moves
I'm operating under the assumption that no one is going to see the other for at least the first 30 seconds. So I'm pushing forward fast to reach decent positions from which to observe or cover. 2 Scimitars head for Obj Gold - as you can see, the ground slopes down in that area, so we should be out of sight relatively quickly. The infantry recce team will also be moving towards it from the orchard.
One Scimitar "The Watcher in the Woods" is moving up into a small copse which offers an excellent overwatch position.

Pushing the furthest is one of the German Fenneks - it looks like the touch objectives Diamond 1 & 2 and Ruby will be tough to reach as the intervening ground may be extremely exposed.
So these guys "The Sacrificial Lambs" will be attempting to get there early. If they don't make it, it's unlikely that anyone will until the enemy force is largely neutralised ( which may not happen ). So I'm hoping to grab a quick win with a largely expendable unit ( c3k would be proud ).

On the left flank, the rest of the German recon platoon is moving up as far as the Dig Site. My plan is somewhat nebulous here, but I don't want to leave this edge of the map un-observed.

Uncons A, B ( not shown ) & C
As you can see, I'm being cautious with these guys - spreading out and moving forward in bounds. Possibly unrealistic, but most of them are conscripts, albeit highly motivated, so I can imagine them peeking around corners, then again, then again and then moving.

And here's the first look at where this is all going down - this is a pretty magnificent map ( I tried to make a small map once and it was a fairly miserable effort, hence my admiration for well made maps knows no bounds ).
Looking North ( my deployment zone is top left )

Looking South

Another view South ( just a bit to the right of the above shot ) showing what I like to think of as an abandoned archaeological dig site.

Rolling hills - check.
LOS nightmare - check

Well, this certainly isn't Sunday, nor is it two weeks ago.
My apologies.
 
The fighting around Casa d'Antonio will go on for quite some time yet, the battle has settled down into a skirmishing action.

The weekend just wouldn't be the same without this.

Here it is folks.. the time has arrived for the CMSF2 BETA AAR.  I will be adding to this thread later today,, but wanted to get the thread started. 
My opponent?  My nemesis from the CMFB  BETA AAR, Baneman ,agreed to a rematch.  I really do owe him a more thoughtful game than I gave him the last time.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with that game, Baneman beat me rather soundly.  Hope that doesn't happen again!   
This game is well under way, we have completed 16 minutes of action, so there are a lot of turns to come in relatively quick succession and the Blood Board™ is filling rather alarmingly.  
For those of you who were following my "Lesson in Defense" AAR in the CMBN forum.. sorry about not updating that thread for a while, but I can really only do one of these at a time, and this one takes priority.,  Once I started this game it took up my full attention.
More anon.  Bil
 
LINKED CONTENT MENU:
OVERVIEW & SCENARIO PARAMETERS MAP ORIENTATION SCENARIO BRIEFING METT-T - MISSION METT-T - ENEMY METT-T - TERRAIN METT-T TROOPS METT-T TIME INITIAL SETUP, ORDERS, & INTENT MINUTE 1 MINUTE 2 MINUTE 3 MINUTE 4 MINUTE 5 MINUTE 6 MINUTE 7 MINUTE 8 and 9 MINUTE 10 MINUTE 11 MINUTE 12 MINUTE 13 MINUTE 14 MINUTE 15 MINUTE 16 TACTICS & BATTLE PLAN DISCUSSION MINUTE 17 MINUTE 18  

Ze Chermans :
The Germans appear to favour smaller units and have only 4 vehicles in their recon platoon. 2 of their Fenneks are armed with an MG, 2 have some sort of HE chucker (vehicle shown).

And some tank porn - ok, technically there are no tanks on the field yet, but we do what we can  

Lastly, a slightly zoomed shot ( so a bit foreshortened ) looking directly east of my deployment zone.
As you can see, what I have called Apprehension Height and Worry Ridge are dominating features.
I can't see Bil not sending units up there, so several of my units will definitely maintain an overwatch on them.

My Mortar Control team are posted on the roof of the one building I fortuitously have in my deployment zone and they have good LoS as shown
I will definitely be dropping some rounds on the Height to dissuade any spotters/Javelin wielders. When the mortars are available anyway.

We're up against joint US-Syrian forces - how that happened is hard to imagine, but I'm going to go with the US having been bribed with oil money to pull out of NATO and now they're trying to keep our filthy grubby NATO hands off that same oil.
Feel free to speculate !
I'm going to assume here that Bil will have far better screenshots of the map and its objective areas since he also has mad skills in the photoshop department, so if you're unhappy with what I'm showing or cannot make something out - go read his thread !
Right, so here we have an overview of most of the map, showing our brave UK recon force - 8 Scimitars, a Mortar Fire Controller Team in a Spartan and an infantry recon section in a FV432.
In the distance you can see 3 groups of uncons henceforward referred to as (A), (B) and (C). A & C are infantry and B is a group of 3 armed "bakkies" - that's "pickups" to non-South-Africans.

Eastern aspect of the map showing high ground which is a concern and worry for me. I have named these features accordingly.
Dig site is the "abandoned archaeological site" I mentioned earlier. ( Bil's deployment zone is more or less between Worry Ridge and Obj Garnet )

This shows uncons A & C, but is primarily to give a feel for the map with its many Heights and dips. LoS will be crazy, but at least there will be places we can hide.

Some close up shots.
This shows Uncons A & B again and more detail of the map. As you can see, the rear vehicle has an SPG9 mounted. Front vehicle has a 12.7mm DShK and the middle a 7.62 MMG.

Well folks, here we are again. Your favourite ( I hope ) underdog is once again risking everything ( because I have a named unit on map  ) against Bil, the evil genius.
This battle is essentially a classic Meeting engagement between our recon elements and will escalate as our main forces enter later.
Bil and I are both using forces from 2 nations and the makeup is essentially the same:
Each nation has a platoon of mechanised recon and an infantry company with a couple of attached tanks.
The battle area will also have some local guys, some of whom are on our side and some who have been seduced to the dark side.
In my case, I am fielding elements from the UK and Germany.
The battle is set up ( thanks to George MC ) as follows :
Turn 0:
Scouts - on-map in the set-up zone at the start:
British recce platoon (Scimitars);
German Aufklaring platoon (Fenneks).
Turn 5 Advance Guard:
2 x Leopards;
German PzGr Company HQ and Obs section and the 1st Platoon (Marders);
Artillery ( some 105's ) and on-map mortars;
Myself as the German body HQ - performing a classic c3k manoeuver by waiting until it's safe.
Turn 10 Main Body:
2 x Challengers;
Brit Arm.Inf company (all elements) - Primarily infantry mounted in Warriors.
Turn 15 Rear Guard:
Remainder of the German PzGr company - 2nd and 3rd Platoons (Marders).
Bear in mind that I've never played CMSF1 and barely touched on CMBS due to my preference for WWII.
So I am ignorant of many of the weapons systems and their capabilities.
Just pointing out how underdoggy I am ( gotta get the excuses in early - yeah, I learned that from c3k too !  ).

A British MG position in Sicily.  


A British AT gun waiting for information about interesting targets. Note that there is an FO team (+radio) with the gun. I tend to do this because the FO team can deliver all information about enemy sightings to the gun. The frontline units spot stuff and tell their superiors. The superiors (battalion level) of ALL units on the battlefield stick together at the command post so that they can share information verbally, even if they' don't share a common superior. By this method, all sightings are shared to all units but it may take a while. So here the FO team is very busy listening to the radio and spotting while the gun-crew has some tea. Of course this only really matters if you roleplay a bit and don't let units area-fire at targets they don't know about. 

 
 

FYI:
http://www.helion.co.uk/
For years, one of the most essential sources for study of the Normandy invasion was known only to a select few, and nearly unobtainable even to those who knew of its existence. It has never before been translated. None of the major English language histories of the Normandy Invasion refer to it, even though it is the history of the only German armored division that was in place in the Caen area at the moment of the invasion. It reveals key facts that are missing elsewhere.
At long last, Werner Kortenhaus' history of the 21. Panzer Division has been published in English. Kortenhaus' account of the division's subsequent commitment, in the Lorraine-Saar Region-Alsace area provides intriguing detail on this little-known sector as the southern wing of Patton's 3rd Army strove for the Upper Rhine area of Germany. The last section follows the division after its hasty transfer to the Oder Front, facing the final Russian onslaught on Berlin.
In revising and updating his account, originally released in two massive typed volumes, Die Schlacht um Caen, 1944, Caumont, Falaise Seine, der Einsatz der 21. Panzer Division in 1989 and Lothringen Elsaß, der Ostfront, der Einsatz der 21. Panzer Division in 1990, Werner Kortenhaus has exhaustively researched all available sources in German, French and English to supplement his own experiences and those of his fellows and the many individuals whom he interviewed. The result is a seamless account of the Normandy Invasion in the British sector from the German viewpoint that sheds new light on many controversial issues.
The account continues, following the division and surrounding events during the retreat to the Seine and the division's later commitment in Alsace-Lorraine and, finally, on the Oder Front against the Soviet Union, and its eventual demise in the horrors of the Halbe pocket. The account is not restricted to the history of the 21. Panzer Division, but includes detailed analysis and exposition of actions of adjoining divisions and of the larger picture, from the German viewpoint.
Helion's English edition includes a large number of rare photographs and a separately-bound book of newly-commissioned color maps. Werner Kortenhaus' study represents a significant contribution to English-language material available regarding a Heer Panzer division, besides its extensive coverage of German armored operations in Normandy, Lorraine, Alsace and elsewhere.
245mm x 170mm
520 pages
circa 80 black-and-white photos
diagrams/charts
21 color maps in separate map book

1st Battalion HQ is not yet aware of the Marder II.

 
Bravo Co. radios 1st Battalion with the report of the Marder.  1st Battalion HQ shows an icon 6 seconds after Bravo Co. received the report. (Again, fast)

 
4th Battalion HQ is not yet aware of the Marder II.

 
Nine minutes later 4th Battalion received no reports of the Marder. With no common higher HQ between 1st Inf. and 4th Tank Battalion the 4th never did receive any chain of command (Vertical) reports about the Marder.

 
Bravo Co. / 1st Inf. sent their XO Team over to 4th Battalion’s A/O to report.  

 
Bravo Co. / 1st Inf. XO came to within close visual C2 range (12 action spots) and reported the Marder & some friendly unit dispositions to the 4th Battalion team (Horizontal information sharing).  The 4th Bn. team is selected and displays the new contact icons.  Also note that the 4th Bn. team is in distant visual contact with HQ.

 
In a minute or two the 4th Bn. team would have reported the Marder up the 4th Bn. chain (vertical) using distant visual C2. However the contact icon for the Marder was fading badly due to age of the Marder contact information.  So I moved a radio jeep up.  The 4th Bn. Team shared the information about the Marder with the radio jeep.  The radio jeep passed the information to the recon HQ and then from there to the 4th Bn. HQ.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The scouts move to report to 1st Platoon HQ which still has no contact icon for the Marder II.
  
 
The scouts emerged from the woods in close visual (the eyeball) C2 range of 1st Platoon HQ and reported the Marder II location.  When selected 1st Plt. HQ now shows a contact icon for the Marder. 

 
Bravo HQ is not yet aware of the Marder II. 

 
1st Platoon radios Bravo Company with the report of the Marder.  Bravo Co. HQ shows an icon 7 seconds after 1st Plt. received the report. (That was fast)  
 
Additional to follow.
 
 
 
 

The next part, taking us up to turn 80.

These are pdf's with large, labeled pictures for every QB map, covering CMFB, CMFI, and CMRT. I always get frustrated trying to remember which QB map is which, and having to load up the scenario editor just to find one gets really, really old. So I created these.
I'll eventually put these on CMMODS. As soon as I finish the CMBN one, which is a significantly bigger task, and has had to take a back seat to a different project I'm now invested in. So I decided to just post these here, now.
Can someone please let me know if these links work for plain ol' public download / access? If not, I'll repost proper links in a new thread. Dropbox recently got rid of its "Public Folder" feature, and the new way to accomplish almost the same thing is not very intuitive....
Here ya go:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jffokwaq2w017bj/CMFB - All QB Maps.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3l4xpbdhps0mgq6/CMRT - All QB Maps.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rh9ya8wbe3tldr/CMFI - Alol QB Maps - lower quality.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p9vhj33u708h0f9/CMFI - All QB Maps.pdf?dl=0
*NOTE:  the "lower quality" CMFI pdf is actually the same quality as CMFB's and CMRT's -- plenty good enough. The higher quality CMFI pdf was my first, though, and features lossless images... which is great, except that the file size is almost 300MB.
 

Emphasis quoted in bold are mine.  Specific to them, can consideration be given to publishing something that shows all those differences?  My biggest struggle with QB's (besides my own lack of knowledge ) is a lack of detailed information explaining how German Fusiliers differ from Grenadiers or American Glider Infantry from Airborne Infantry, etc., etc., etc.  The community created Dealership mods fall short in this regard.  I would really appreciate documents or spreadsheets showing how platoons differ from each other, ideally for all the CM games but R2V might be a good place to start.  I would volunteer to help if it's just a matter of time and labor.

Our coverage of Casa d'Antonio continues as I react with my reserve platoon.
Some assumptions are made about enemy strength, and I begin to use my "spend bullets to avoid casualties" philosophy.

Greetings! 

This is my first real attempt with the editor - which started out from this real-world Luftwaffe aerial shot I came across for the village of Golynki, west of Smolensk...



...which I stretched to fit more neatly into a CM-friendly grid, and came out with this map:





It is a 2000m x 1792m map, covering a few types of terrain: a peat bog in the northern half, a wooded area and the near-pristine village of Tregubovka to the southeast, and the larger village of Golynki to the soutwest, which has been largely demolished and abandoned under the German occupation. The map is divided in half by drainage ditch running north-south (both it and a secondary ditch on the northeast side are passable 'shallow ford' throughout), and has a major rail line running east-west in the bottom quarter of the map. 



At the moment, I have no data on any actions that took place here - all I learned is that this area was recaptured by the Soviets in October 1943 (I originally thought it was part of the CMRT timeline in 1944, but it is not so). 






It's a very detailed, handcrafted map - it may still need a bit of optimization as I went very heavy on the flavour objects (so the frame rate might drag down in certain areas, depending on your system). On the upside, it's very pretty in places





I'm trying to figure out what to do with it in terms of scenario - and since I have absolutely 0 experience with scenario building and AI programming at the moment, any help or advice would be appreciated! What would you like to see on this map?

At the moment, there is no AI and all the parameters, objectives, etc. are placeholders only. It's only really usable in the editor right now.

You may download my current WIP version of it here: 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hA9cr80cdMmHkGK8mhhbNgZz_LAefsyH

...or in the forum attachment.

If you have anything that you'd like to create on this map yourself, or use it or any part of it for your own scenarios - you're very welcome to do so (with credit for map given).

Thanks for checking it out! 
CCIP - Golynki (v01 map only).btt

Since you asked nicely:
 

Based on my limited testing it appears that the number of textures is directly related to "3D Texture Quality" setting. "Best" allowed me to view all of the stock textures and all of the textures I had in the mod directory.

SpetsNaz, I think, vs muj in 1986. Russians are desperately trying to interdict Stinger shipments and capture a sample. Lots of war toys, including Mi-24V HIND/D. Really well done show, with real characters, not caricatures. Am finding this more than a bit surreal, for I was at Rockwell then and can well recall the electric sense of excitement we all felt in Operations Analysis when we got DOD Betamax footage of a muj downing a MI--17 HIP with a Stinger, We knew this would have a profound impact on Russian ability to use air power, especially helos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXo0ILflfYs
Regards,
John Kettler

Thanks @General Jack Ripper for the intro
 
You have almost answered the question yourself, but there are a few aspects that impacted my decision making which I don't think were "observable" from your POV.
 
The attack on Casa Fanella didn't start on the conditions of my choosing. That stray private walking onto that HMG was pretty much like firing a flare up into the night sky, as my line engaged yours. I wasn't ready just yet, or more exactly, I hadn't the forces I thought I needed to breakthrough all the way to the top of the hill completely in position. Hence the delay in breaching the wire. The engineers were still on their way. In hindsight, perhaps, the rational decision would have been to call off the whole thing. I wasn't very sure I had the combat strength to push all the way to Casa Riposa in the units I had in position. And I was very aware that as soon as we had made contact, there would be artillery coming my way.
 
My calculation is that I would have like 6 to 8 minutes before the shells started coming... but I did that on the back of wishful thinking, as you had a TRP right on top of Casa Fanella. That was great forward thinking and probably the second small decision which saved the bacon of your left flank. The first was to put down wire
 
In any case, it is fairly evident that I had enough combat power to gain fire superiority over your forward line and the defenders you had in Casa Fanella. I was actually surprised to see them routing (or falling back) after 2 or 3 minutes in the firefight.  It was also one of the most intense firefights I have had in a CM game in a while. Yet, I wasn't in position to exploit that success because the wire effectively preempted me advancing further. The only unit I had able to move forward was the platoon on my right flank. I could have squirmed a squad or two more... but it felt like I was feeding my men in dribs and drabs to the maws of German machine gun fire. So I stayed frosty.
 
The right flank platoon wouldn't be able to make much progress. The quality differential between my force and yours became apparent then. You mention in the video that one of your HQ teams was able to pick one by one several members of a squad. That wasn't my choice. My squad had jumped over the wall to move across the road,  and then got a casualty and became suppressed/pinned. The platoon commander was too far to provide support, and the TacAI  wasn't going to take them anywhere but backwards.
 
First thing I did was to bring forward the HMGs and the light mortars and start putting some hurt on your guys... which I thought would be reeling (and they were). Your position shuffling tactics reduced considerably the effectiveness of the mortars. Here the diminished Commonwealth squad firepower failed to reduce the mobility of your higher quality troops, which as a consequence avoided those little shells of death (which were falling quite close from what I can see in your video).
 
Eventually, I breached the obstacles and was able to move forward in strength. But then your artillery arrived.
 
In hindsight, it is clear to me that I should have made my engineers a more integral part of my plan, so I could have brought them forward way quicker. The initial success of my infiltration was squandered because of lacking engineering support at the right time.
 
 
 
 

The fight for Casa Fanella finishes.
 
 
The big question I have is: "Why did Miguel stop his advance?"
I suppose that will be up to @BletchleyGeek to explain.

@Hardradi can you confirm in your option settings that you have 3D set to best. This not only affects how things visually appear but also how many textures are loaded into the pregame cache. Fastest settings load only texture 1 and 2 to save virtual drive space whereas Best quality loads everything. Just a hunch.