Josey Wales

Windmills are present in FB's archives but not available in the editor despite Holland being depicted as one of the locations. Here is a way to enable windmills...
It's triggered by a "bogus" bitmap. Simply add the bogus bitmap to your Z folder. I included a snow roof too.
The windmill will appear in the editor as the last (bottom right) independent 4 story commercial building.
The windmill works exactly as in CMBN, but it's snowbox is square. So in deep snow conditions the snowbox around the bottom floor looks a bit wonky. 
 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jtX0EIDwY6OLKPYiIp2JgYSM6lk7V3aU
 
This discovery leads me to ask what else can be enabled by bogus bitmaps...? There is a lot of content in the brz files of FB that don't appear in game like various others bridges e.g canal bridges.

You are making decisions from too small a sample base.  Yes it looks from the posts like something, but it is all information in a vacuum.  I purchased multiple copies of CMSF2 on my CC and no issues.  What you don't see here as Steve noted is the folks not having an issue posting.  Your call as to what you are comfortable with, but if you saw 3 accidents in a row involving a red car would that make you never purchase a red car?

Like this?  This is the last shot in the CMSF Marines screenshot gallery.  Check out the look on the MG guy.  I just love this pic.  The uncon by the way escaped.  The shooter missed.  I think this is a Jihad commercial for Converse.  The shot itself is from the @George MC scenario Circle the Wagons. And it is in movie mode @Bil Hardenberger  no mods

 

LOL. Good stuff.
 
I watched a few vids and most of the players were so zoomed out they were moving NATO symbols around. What's the point of the detailed graphics if you are so busy clicking you can't enjoy them? It's idiotic. If you can't play the game utilizing the graphics WHY HAVE THEM? That immediately killed it for me.
 
Mord.

Ok, here's a couple:
1. Vehicles get dropped from airplanes (called "heavy drop"). Rigged with several parachutes, they are strapped to steel platform skids, with honeycomb cardboard crushable padding. The battery commander's jeep and trailer (with all his belongings), each get one small skid and parachute. Occasionally we lose a vehicle when the chutes malfunction. Occasionally. Two drops in a row, the only casualty was the BC's trailer. Tent, all his personal gear for a deployment...  BOOM.  Upside down. Nothing but the flat bottom of the skid visible.  Two times in a row. On another occasion it was the #3 gun. #3 is always the senior gun chief, and the gun we use for registering the batter, adjusting fire before FFE. They are the most experienced and best performing gun. SSGT Perry was looking for his gun. Its parachutes had detached as it slid out of the plane and it fell 1200'.  BOOOOM.  Upside down into the sandy drop zone. SSGT Perry almost started to cry when we told him "It's under there. That's your gun."  It ended up on display in the motor pool after they dug it out. It was about a foot tall, wheels out sideways, gun tube cracked in the middle and driven down into the chassis. Incidentally, it's for this reason that in training the vehicles drop first, then the  people drop. In a real situation you'd drop the people first to secure the drop zone, then the vehicles, but as you can see, that can be dangerous.
2. Two gun raid.  An artillery battery is comprised of 6 guns. In the 82d, back then we had M102 105mm howitzers. Nice guns. Towed by M561 Gamma Goats. But being a 105 the range is somewhat limited. A two gun raid takes two guns, and a couple of people from the Fire Direction Center (the LT and one enlisted man) forward with the two guns.  The FDC LT gets to play Fire Direction Officer and XO at the same time (calculate the firing data and lay the guns). The guns get slung with enough ammo for the mission, the two gun crews and us (The FDC - I was the LT), ride the 2 Blackhawks that are carrying the guns (Hueys early on but then it took 4 to do it). Placed forward in the front lines to be able to hit a lucrative target in the enemy rear, you set up, shoot, and rig up to be removed again, all very fast. In peacetime, Ft. Bragg, NC, you have strict range safety. A firing box to fire into from a specific surveyed firing point. When the helicopters set us down and flew off, the senior gun chief and I huddled with a map and quickly realized they had set us down on the wrong spot. We were a mile down the road from where we should be (and where I had safety data for), with no transportation. Radio silence, the choppers would return in 30 minutes. So we lay the guns, calculated the data and dry fired for the practice. No live rounds - that would have been a disaster. Had we fired the mission as given from the wrong location we would have fired rounds onto a road. A real road. Luckily the sergeant and I were familiar enough with the area that we could tell we weren't in the right place.  If it was real it wouldn't have been much better because back then with no GPS, you are dependent on doing your own survey.  We were in the trees with no readily usable landmarks. Who knows where the rounds would have gone, except not where the target was. And in real life we may not have recognized the error. 
3. And I've already told the story of the final protective fires. Danger close with infantry company mortars (I was a FIST Chief then). Rounds kept creeping closer to us. They were already close and getting closer. So we radioed "Check Fire" and received the reply "Rounds Complete".  Mortars are quick firing with a long time of flight. There were still about 15 rounds in the air. We bugged out. The last rounds hit our former position. The mortar baseplates were sinking in wet ground with every shot, causing the tube to rise, which shortens the range. They hadn't noticed until it was over. So we had good FPF fire but had to retreat in a hurry anyway. This one could easily be applicable to CM games due to the close quarters of most battles.
Not very exciting stories, but examples of if something can go wrong it will.

Source? I've never seen anyone complain about that, and I've been a regular here for years  I remember pretty much every thing players have been clamouring for - MGs to be more deadly - done. The Stug bug - fixed. Tank commanders to duck down faster - fixed. Troops running in long lines and sitting on top of each other - fixed. Etc. The game has improved. But I can't remember ever hearing anyone ask for troops to get up and run away when under a barrage. 
 
Programmers have a strict technical definition of what a bug is, but to most regular people, a bug is something that doesn't work as it should. 
Call it a bug or not, the running-away behaviour was erroneous, because it happened only with off-map artillery, always triggered immediate fleeing no matter the morale state and quality of the troops, and no matter the cover they were in. Usually, CM models these things quite nicely, but not in this case. "Some players" objected to it because they realised it was not working right.
The patch should be here any day now, and I'm looking very much forward to it. The issues haven't stopped me from playing, and they should not scare anyone away from buying the game either. But will be great to see the patch released.

The Relationship between Soft Factors, Morale & Fatigue 
 
Preface
Hi all, I'm pretty new to the BFC forums but I've been milling about over at the FGM for a little over a year. I recently created the below post and it received a lot of positive feedback to the point that it has now become one of the sitcky threads over there.
I have been prompted to post the thread here and after a conversation I had in another thread on this forum, I thought that by placing it here, then non-FGM members can have a read through without me having to copy and paste snippets from the original post at the FGM.

Introduction

Whether selecting unit attributes in a quick battle or whether in game wondering if you should use your +1 Leadership squad or +2 Motivation squad to assault a farmhouse. it can be difficult to make an informed decision due to the fact that there is not a lot of information in the manual which explains how the attributes of Experience, Leadership, Motivation and Fitness (hereby collectively known as the 'Soft Factors') affect certain game concepts such as Morale, Suppression, Firepower and Fatigue.

The forums can be slightly misleading as some posts describe exactly how something works whilst others are more how people feel something is working and it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.

The information below is based on a painstaking process using the editor to separate out the impact of different factors by isolating them and testing them under different conditions. By isolating and testing these factors, the mechanics behind the concepts of Morale, Suppression, Accuracy, C2 and Fatigue start to reveal themselves and after several red herrings, dead ends and lots of repetition the information below has been teased out from the game.
2 videos accompany this post to explain some of the findings, however all of the findings can be backed up by video evidence.

The editor used was the one for Fortress Italy v2.00 Engine 4.0.

SPOILER ALERT - if you prefer the murkiness of not knowing how the Soft Factors affect gameplay then please stop reading.

Having said that the following information does not quantify the game concepts affected by the soft factors but instead generalises as what is likely to happen within a certain concept under certain conditions to units with high and low values for the soft factors.


Morale

Before being able to explain the characteristics of the 'Soft Factors', it is imperative to understand how Morale works in the game.

Morale reflects the psychological state of a unit and determines its ability to respond to orders and fight.

Morale states from highest to lowest are;
 
Ok > Cautious > Nervous > Rattled > (Shaken) > (Panic) > Broken
States shown in brackets () are temporary states.

The states Ok through to Nervous are simple gradations and a Nervous unit will not behave differently from an Ok one.

Rattled troops which become Pinned (or highly suppressed) will dash for safety, even if they are stationary when they become Pinned (or highly suppressed).

Shaken troops will cower in their current position in the hope that the pressure will ease. They will not respond to orders or fire their weapons.

Note: Shaken troops observed running for cover have been Pinned (or highly suppressed) in the Rattled state prior to becoming Shaken.

Panicked troops will try and run away from the perceived threat to save their own hides. They will not respond to orders or fire their weapons.

Shaken and Panicked states are temporary and will eventually revert back to one of the other persistent states depending on the situation and the Experience, Leadership and Motivation of the unit.

Broken troops will respond to orders but are 'Brittle' and will quickly become Shaken or Panicked if fired upon. Broken troops will remain Brittle for the remainder of the battle irrespective of their Experience, Leadership, Motivation and Fitness.

Morale is affected by 2 conditions of the battlefield and each of these conditions impact on Morale in different ways.
 
1. Combat Stress

Combat Stress has a persistent impact on Morale and is caused by casualty build up.

Casualties sustained reduce the Morale of the unit for the remainder of the game and is therefore known as a persistent effect.

Morale affected in this way cannot be regained (except under one specific condition - see Leadership). The impact of Combat Stress depends on the number of casualties sustained over time and the Experience, Leadership and Motivation of the unit.

Not only does taking casualties effect the Morale of the unit directly impacted, other units organisationally closely connected are also affected in the same way but to a lesser extent. The persistent Morale effect of casualty build up only effects other units via organisational connection regardless of geographical proximity.

Example 1 - 1st and 2nd Sqd of 1st Plt are separated by 500m. As 1st squad sustains casualties and suffers a persistent Morale impact, 2nd Sqd will also suffer a persistent Morale impact even though it is 500m away and has no LOS to 1st Sqd.

Example 2 - 1st Sqd of 1st Plt is within 10m of 3rdSqd of 2nd Plt. 3rd Sqd of 2nd Plt receives incoming fire and half of the unit is wiped out and the Sqd is instantly Shaken. 1st Sqd of 1st Plt receives no impact to their persistent Morale state due to the fact that they are in a different Platoon. 2nd Plt would have to take far more casualties before any of 1st Plt become affected.

The way that Combat Stress is distributed to other units is vertical between different platoons and companies although it is horizontal between units of the same platoon.


2. Combat Shock

Combat Shock has a temporary impact on Morale and is caused by suppression.          Suppression has a temporary impact on Morale and the affect is removed once the suppression is lifted.

         The duration the unit remains suppressed for depends on the amount of incoming Firepower, the immediate casualties sustained, Experience & Leadership of the unit.

         The temporary impact on Morale of being suppressed depends on the amount of incoming Firepower, the immediate casualties sustained and the Experience, Leadership & Motivation of the unit.


Suppression Indicator

The Suppression Indicator is not merely a measure of incoming fire, more accurately it represents the units perception as to how much danger it is in based on the incoming Firepower, the immediate casualties sustained, and the Experience, Leadership & Motivation of the unit.

Inexperienced, poorly led and unmotivated units suffer the greatest Morale impact from being suppressed whilst inexperienced and poorly led units can remain suppressed for sometime after the last shot was fired in their direction.
 
Pinned

If the Suppression Indicator becomes full the unit becomes Pinned. Stationary Pinned (or highly suppressed) troops will return fire but will not respond to movement orders until the suppression has reduced.

Troops which become Pinned (or highly suppressed) whilst moving to a waypoint will attempt to dash for cover. If no cover is nearby, they will hit the deck.

Rattled troops which become Pinned (or highly suppressed) will dash for safety, even if they are stationary when they become Pinned.

Experienced and well led troops recover from being Pinned quicker than inexperienced or poorly led troops.
  C2 - Command & Control

C2, or Command and Control, reflects the effect of having a unit being able to receive orders from and deliver information to its HQ team.

Being within a C2 link does not provide resistance to the persistent impact on Morale caused by Combat Stress.

Being within a close C2 link (Close Visual/Voice) does provide resistance to the impact on Morale caused by Combat Shock - troops within C2 range of their HQ unit are less affected by the temporary impact of suppression upon Morale as they are less stressed by being shot at and the immediate impact of seeing team/squadmates killed & wounded is reduced.

More experienced units pass on information to their buddies and superiors quicker than less experienced units. This includes verbal, visual and radio communications.

The range of visual and audio C2 is fixed for all Soft Factors, Morale and Fatigue states but will vary by terrain. In open ground;
: Voice range < 50m (unless the HQ is hiding in which case voice range drops to <25m)
: Close visual range <100m

  Experience

Experience reflects the amount of training and combat experience the unit has.

Experience levels from least experience/training to most experience are;
 
Conscript > Green > Regular > Veteran > Crack > Elite
Experience has 6 characteristics which impact on the unit;
 
1. Spotting - troops with higher experience are able to spot enemy contacts sooner than less experienced troops.

2. Firepower - higher experienced troops will engage at longer ranges and have greater accuracy than less experienced troops. They therefore tend to cause more casualties to the enemy than their less experienced counterparts during a firefight.

3. Resistance to Combat Stress - more experienced troops are less affected by the psychological impact of losing team/squadmates.

This characteristic is cumulative with Leadership and Motivation. 

4. Resistance to Combat Shock - experienced troops are less affected by the temporary impact of suppression upon Morale. They are more used to being shot at and better desensitised to the immediate impact of seeing team/squadmates killed & wounded than less experienced troops.

This characteristic is cumulative with Leadership and Motivation. 

5. Suppression Recovery - experienced troops recover quicker from being suppressed (including being Pinned), they realise when the incoming fire has shifted away from them sooner than less experienced troops do.

This characteristic is cumulative with Leadership.

6. More experienced units pass on information to their buddies and superiors quicker than less experienced units. This includes verbal, visual and radio communications.

Leadership

Leadership reflects the quality of NCO's or other team leaders in the team or squad to organise and support the troops. Leaders can be of varying quality.

Leadership is shown as a simple modifier ranging from;
 
-2 > -1 > 0 > +1 > +2 Note: A Leadership modifier only applies to the unit with the Modifier (like all other modifiers). In other words it does not filter down to sub-ordinate units (see HQ Leadership Modifier Example).

Leadership has 3 characteristics which effect unit behaviour under duress;
 
1. Resistance to Combat Stress - better led troops are less affected by the psychological impact of losing team/squadmates.

This characteristic is cumulative with Experience and Motivation.

2. Resistance to Combat Shock - well led troops are less affected by the temporary impact of suppression upon Morale. The NCO's are better at encouraging the troops under fire and getting them to remember their training when faced with the immediate impact of seeing team/squadmates killed & wounded.

This characteristic is cumulative with Experience and Motivation.

3. Suppression Recovery - well led troops recover quicker from being suppressed (including being Pinned), they realise when the incoming fire has shifted away from them sooner than poorly led troops do.

This characteristic is cumulative with Experience.  Unlike the characteristics denoted by Experience, if the Leader of a team or squad is incapacitated, the Leadership value of the unit will change to that of the next most senior member who steps up as the Leader. This value can go up as well as down, for example, a unit with a +1 Leader incapacitated and replaced by a -1 Leader will suffer a hit on Morale which may be enough to cause a persistent drop in the unit's Morale state. Similarly however, if a -2 Leader is incapacitated and replaced with a 0 Leader, the unit will receive a boost in Morale which may be enough to cause a persistent increase in the unit's Morale state.

Note: In Engine v4.0 manual page 68 it states that a Leadership bonus will help "direct fire to be more effective". However, this has not been possible to reproduce using various tests. Whereas the difference in accuracy between Crack units and Green units is repeatable and obvious, the effect of Leadership on accuracy is not apparent.

  HQ Leadership Modifier Example

Reading some posts, there is a lot of confusion over how this Modifier works with HQ units. So I will clarify it here.

The Leadership (Ldrshp) modifier for all units (from Btn Hqs through to Plt Hqs down to squads and teams) only effects the unit that the modifier is for, in the same way that a -2 Fitness modifier only effects the fitness of the unit that the modifier is for.

In fact, it helps to think of the Leadership modifier in the same was as the Fitness modifier. An unfit Plt HQ does not make all of the squads in that platoon unfit aswell.

So a squad with a -1 Ldrshp modifier is not offset by the +1 Ldrshp modifier of its Plt HQ. The squad will still suffer the penalties of having -1 Ldrshp.

So how does having a Plt HQ with a poor leader affect the performance of the Platoon?

This is best illustrated with an example;
  Lt Bike is the Plt Leader of 1st Plt. He has a Leadership modifier of -2. All 3 of the squads in 1st Plt are Regulars with average ability NCO's so no Ldrshp modifiers for the squads. For reference 1st Plt HQ is also Regular.

1st Plt are on a patrol and 1st Squad makes contact with an enemy force. After a couple of minutes, the casualties from 1st Sqd begin to mount. Not only does this have a persistent Morale affect on 1st Sqd, it also has a persistent Morale affect on the other 2 Squads and the Plt HQ because of their close organisational link.

However, because the Plt HQ has Lt Bike with his -2 Ldrshp modifier, it suffers a greater impact on Morale than 2nd or 3rd Sqd does from the build up of 1st Sqds casualties.

After another minute of combat, the persistent morale states of the Platoon are;
  Plt HQ - Rattled
1st Squad - Rattled
2nd Squad - Nervous
3rd Squad - Nervous As the combatants manoeuvre for position, the Plt HQ comes under fire. As the HQ team is already Rattled, it doesn't take much suppression to drop their Morale state temporarily into Shaken.

Now that the HQ unit is Shaken, the C2 link between the HQ and the 3 squads is cut. This makes the squads more vulnerable to the Morale effects of suppression (see C2 - Command & Control).

As 1st Squad is already under suppressive fire, its Morale state instanteously drops from Rattled to Shaken because of the loss of the C2 link (see C2 - Command & Control).

The HQ will take longer to recover from the supression than it normally would for a Regular unit because of its -2 Ldrshp modifier, meaning that as a consequence, the C2 link is broken for longer.

So we now have the following situation after 5 minutes;
  Plt HQ - Shaken
1st Squad - Shaken
2nd Squad - Nervous
3rd Squad - Nervous If we rewind the clock and give Lt Bike +2 Ldrshp modifier, then re-run under exactly the same circumstances the situation would have been after 5 minutes;
  Plt HQ - Nervous
1st Squad - Rattled
2nd Squad - Nervous
3rd Squad - Nervous This is because the Plt HQ would not have been so affected by the casualty build up of 1st Sqd so that when the HQ came under some suppressive fire, it was still in a high enough Morale state not to become Shaken by it and therefore the C2 link between the HQ and the Squads and the benefits it brings (see C2 - Command & Control) would still be intact.



Motivation

Motivation reflects the units dedication to the cause and their willingness to sacrifice themselves for their squad mates and commanders.

Motivation from best to worst ranges as;
 
Poor > Low > Normal > High > Extreme > Fanatic Motivation has 3 characteristics which effect unit behaviour under duress;
 
1. Resistance to Combat Stress - better motivated troops are less affected by the psychological impact of losing team/squadmates.

This characteristic is cumulative with Experience and Leadership.

2. Resistance to Combat Shock - highly motivated troops are less affected by the temporary impact of suppression upon Morale. They are less psychologically affected by being shot at and better desensitised to the immediate impact of seeing team/squadmates killed & wounded than their less motivated counterparts.

This characteristic is cumulative with Experience and Leadership.

3. Resistance to Panic and Breaking - highly motivated troops can be Shaken but are less likely to Panic and try to run from the fight to save themselves. They are also more likely to recover to a positive morale state after being Shaken than less motivated troops and are less likely to become Broken and Brittle.

Fanatic units will not surrender.
Fatigue

Fatigue is the physical effect of running around and using up energy.

Fatigue states best to worst are;
 
Rested > Ready > Tiring > Tired > Fatigued > Exhausted
Tired troops cannot Fast Move.

Fatigued troops cannot Fast, Assault or Hunt Move.

Exhausted troops cannot Fast, Assault, Hunt or Quick Move.

More tired troops do not move slower than less tired troops moving at the same movement command, ie Unfit troops moving at Fast Move, cover distance at the same rate as Fit troops moving at Fast Move, they just won't be able to keep up that pace for as long.

Keeping troops stationary recovers their fatigue relatively quickly. Hiding troops has no additional benefit.

Troops will recover fatigue whilst at the Move but it is at a slower rate.

Experience, Leadership and Motivation do not effect Fatigue states or recovery times.

Fatigue has no effect on Morale either from Combat Stress or Combat Shock.

Fatigue has no effect on accuracy nor the range at which targets are engaged at.


Fitness

Fitness represents a units physical resistance to Fatigue.

Fitness states from best to worst are;
 
Fit > Weakened > Unfit  
Fitness has 3 characteristics which effect unit behaviour under physical exertion;

1. Fitter troops tire less quickly from Fast Move (sprinting), Slow Move (crawling) and Quick Move (jogging).

2. Fitter troops recover from tired states sooner than less fit troops.

3. Weakened and Unfit troops recover fatigue on the Move extremely slowly.  
Closing

All of the conclusions made above have been arrived at through thorough isolation and testing procedures which can be backed up by video evidence.

There is more stuff in the CMx2 engine to dig up than what has been uncovered here but for now I'm unable to go further into this rabbit hole.

Hopefully the information presented here clears up some of the historical confusions that have been around on the various forums. It may also affect the way in which unit purchases are thought about, and hopefully it allows players to make better informed tactical decisions and enhance the way their game is played.

Josey Wales updated 24/09/17

In the game the ability to call for artillery fire is not based on having a radio but instead on the authority of the caller.  It is often referred to as the field telephone abstraction.  As an example you will notice if an FO team's officer becomes KIA and the RTO is still alive with a working radio the FO team can no longer call for or adjust fire.  
So the US XOs can call for arty even when they don't have a radio.  As a result I will often have an XO accompany a maneuver platoon.  Then when the platoon needs to call for indirect fire support the XO team will handle leaving the platoon HQ team free to move about keeping the fire teams in C2 and facilitating the sharing of OpFor contact information. 
Also when I have different formations in the same scenario I may use XOs, 2ICs, etc as liaisons.  Example you have an infantry company from 1st Infantry Battalion and a tank company from an tank battalion.  I will put the two Bn XOs in the other Battalion TOC so they will horizontally share OpFor contact information between the two formations.   See the below link for an explanation on C2. 
I also sometimes assign them to the TOC as a TRP officer.  They are responsible for calling in fires in the area of Target Reference Points (TRP)s to support the scheme of maneuver.  They generally have one off map 105mm howitzer platoon I reserve for their use.  They can call for fires from the safety of the TOC to impact in the area of the TRPs which were placed to support the planned Avenue of Advance.  At the appropriate time the TRP officer (XO) will call for a maximum duration, light, low tube count mission which lasts for about 34 minutes.  The XO will adjust this mission between TRPs to support the maneuvering platoons.  I like to have the TRP officer in the relative safety of the TOC because if he is KIA while the maximum duration fire mission is ongoing control of those tubes will be lost and they will fire on the last adjustment until dry (I had this happen once in a PBEM).   
At times I have also used them as medics.
This should give you some ideas 11Bravo.  Keep swervin and happy hunting!!   
 
     
 

That's a VERY good point. The individual. The only time that concept came into play was when the "individual" was the guy with the power. Everyone below him was a cog. Grist.
 
The idea freed us and maybe softened us at the same time.
 
Mord.

There are 2 things I hate in mission combat
It
and that "shark teeth"

As for the distortion in the ploughed fields, Kieme's mod brilliantly solved the problem.
But for shark teeth alas, it is a constraint related to the engine of the game.
Some scenario maker and map maker make a lot of effort to avoid them.
I am thinking of the Bulletpoint "front contact" scenario where no shark teeth are visible, which gives you some of the most beautiful and realistic map. some other map makers , shift the bend two or three turns to avoid the effect of shark teeth.
However for historical scenarios that rely on a precise map of places there is sometimes no choice.
I recently tried the scenario The Carillon 1 It's Quiet-Too Quiet and I noticed this curious road with an unknown angle of 22.5 °
Revelation !!
The author, (I do not know who) is a genius who managed with the highway tiles to do this feat, opening a new field of possibility in the design of the maps.
The only flaw is the visual
So I created this little mod to give a coherent visual.
Now I like everything !!
Road of Carillon

Change on the map of "Liking up and breaking out"
then and now

this one to compare with the one above that I hate

the different angles of the road

Combat Mission is so slick you'll frequently see your pixeltruppen sliding into position...  

But isn't it funny, CM2 sucks so bad that 12 years later they are still playing and b****ing about it? Some of them even create scenarios and mods. When a normal human dislikes something they usually ignore it.
The solitary dude whistling in the empty room is Lewis, he's been banned more times than a taco in Karen Carpenter's kitchen.
 
Mord.

I was just able to finish the entire article and wanted to say another well done! I really appreciate that you cite your sources and include them at the bottom. Aside from it lending credibility and support to what you're writing, it also provides readers with some good book recommendations which is always a plus. 
One of the many reasons I like CM so much is how well it simulates soft factors, such as suppression and morale. Most games don't even bother to include these factors, and most that do try to simulate them fall short in my opinion. Speaking of those soft factors, @Josey Wales put together an excellent video series detailing how the soft factors work. Highly recommended for those who have not seen them. 

FWIW, I made my peace with CM's massively ahistorical casualty levels by presuming many casualties are not in fact hit, but rather gone to ground and unavailable for further orders in game terms. 
In the same way, I mentally reconcile CM and historical timetables by presuming 'lulls' in the action during which neither side is doing very much beyond skulking around, observing and medevacing. Not every minute is an on the clock mad minute. I don't know if that helps anyone else.
Perhaps it's my hex wargaming background that lets me comfortably apply these filters and not take the visual literalism of CM2 too, umm, literally. Those brought up on FPS might have their own. 

On the question of moving and deploying AT assets in the attack.
The following document, published by the Oberkommando des Heeres (German army high command) 1 March 1942, details the experiences gained on the Eastern Front. Anti tank combat 
42.) Employment
The appearance of enemy tanks must be reported by all parts of the spotting- and guard sections by the fastest possible means to warn the troops.
Due to their immobility, the 5 cm Pak must be placed into position, in accordance with the anti-tank plan, at an early stage. Because of their greater mobility, the 3,7 cm Pakcan be kept ready behind cover, or concealed near already prepared positions.
Positions must be set up around bushes, hedges, etc., maintaining good traversability, but above all good camouflage. Foxholes must be laid out, without creating earth mounds, for the gunners and ammunition. Laying out mines around the position prevents tanks from overrunning the position.
 

I get it. It's that whole muscle memory thing. When you use something enough it becomes second nature. I tried GIMP when my old Adobe Elements wouldn't work on my newer computer. I spent a half hour trying to figure out how to crop a picture. That's all it took. I spent the money and got the newest Elements. It was like putting on a favorite pair of jeans. Twenty years between versions and it took me all of five minutes to be back in business. Good luck, learning a whole new program can be tedious. On the bright side, you'll probably end up with a much more power and artistic options.
 
Mord.

I use DaVinci Resolve, and it's quite powerful, but I'm not sure how easy it is to compose text. There are tools to do it but haven't done it in a while.

@Josey Wales I second DaVinci Resolve. It is very powerful, and free. I'm also not sure about composing text, but based on everything else DaVinci is capable of, I'm sure it's possible. The difference between the paid version and the free version is primarily technical software that allows for rendering 3D special effects and the like using a physical hardware bench. they provide a comparison between the paid and free versions on the website, and you'll see that you have all the capability you'll need using the free version. There are no ads or anything like that either with the free version. Here is the website:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/
The only thing to note is that, if you use Nvidia Shadowplay to record gameplay, sometimes there can be some audio stuttering after rendering footage with DaVinci. Apparently the reason is because Shadowplay uses a dynamic framerate in its file recording format, which sometimes causes some hiccups with DaVinci. 
If that poses an issue, I know people have had a lot of success with recording CM using OBS, which is also free. Though I myself have not used OBS to record CM. 

I've just been using Windows Photo's... it come's with a "Movie-maker-lite".
Although now, thanks to these suggestions by other posters, I might try branching out.

Sony Vegas Pro 13 is my go-to when I can't use Windows moviemaker (you can still download it from legacy sites). Vegas allows you to crop out the UI without having to tinker with recording software and is quite easy to overlay text. Don't waste your time with Hitfilm, you're better off sticking with DaVinci in that case. 
Vegas is expensive though, and I'm not going to encourage you to use extralegal means of acquiring it. 

They discontinued it with Win 10. Just like they screwed up Sound Recorder with Win 8. You know, creating a better user experience for the consumer.
 
Mord.

Not playing CM because of a couple of bugs is just silly, guys. You're missing out on a lot of gaming fun.

"The prevalent culture here is that the customer is little more an an irritant and liable to be ignored for months on end - except when it comes to promoting new product and 'upgrades'. It is hardly surprising that these games are such a niche market when even the small current customer base is treated with such continued disdain"...
I think that's bit (lots) over the top. Battlefront is by all accounts a small company with limited resources, and its games and upgrades don't cost a lot (as far as I can tell from the position of somebody who only buys Battlefront games). They seem passionate about quality, and often warn fans that projects can drag out, and they'll only issue them when they're right.
There's still no game that comes close to the realism and playability of Combat Mission (largely thanks to the WEGO system), and I play only CM WW2 titles. Sure, it's annoying when troops jump out of their trenches into mortar barrages, or don't react quickly enough to enemies right in front of them, but I just put that down to the craziness of stressed-out troops on the battlefield, which I imagine often wrecked the carefully laid plans of real life battalion commanders...

I think these slightly different reactions for  AT crews are in the game to some extent to compensate the fact that if the crew "bails out" the gun cannot be recrewed. So you don't want them to run away - making the crew braver to incoming fire - and the engine possibly grants the crew some magic resistances - essentially "saving throws" against spotting checks, fragments etc. - in exchange for the lack of flexibility and to avoid them being plastered like flies caught in sticky paper. As @George MC says though, I have never found an ATG hard to kill, provided that I spotted it first
Crews in general haved different behaviours than infantrymen. Somebody observed that truck drivers perform generally much worse than their infantryman counterpart (that followed from a discussion around a bug test being invalid because it was using drivers rather than first line troops). AFV crews also have or used to have slightly different behaviours, fighting like panthers with rabies sometimes (that may have been a bug fixed years ago).
Great thread @Swervin11b plenty of great contributions here.