SergeantSqook

I didn't watch the video because I can't stand Rice for more than 3 minutes, but I suspect the issue is that BFCs pro-US bias meant that the Soviets did not perform as they historically would, along with the lack of nukes and chemical warfare in-game.
 
@IICptMillerII

I didn't watch the video because I can't stand Rice for more than 3 minutes, but I suspect the issue is that BFCs pro-US bias meant that the Soviets did not perform as they historically would, along with the lack of nukes and chemical warfare in-game.
 
@IICptMillerII

I really don't get why they didn't make things like visability and weapons costomizable, while CM is quite mods-friendly in terms of skins and visual effects. Instead they chose to make it pro version feature.
And why "homesty is 60%"?😁 after thermals - maybe, but why it should be so before, it's a mystery foe me. 

The thing that M60s sometimes don't see something doesn't change the fact that on average all Soviet tanks are much, much worse in spotting than their American opponents, and it makes them really uncompetitive. 
Your "Deathride to Schweben" video clearly illustrates it. 
Basically it shows just that: in present state Soviets in CM are doomed to fail. If you read comments section on Youtube, you'll see that they don't hesitate to speak out this obvious truth. 

If those videos teach us anything it's that "Soviet dictrine" in CM doesn't work.
Halpless virtually lost most of his tanks early in the game simply because they couldn't see enemy. 
Those theories on "Soviet doctrine" look nice and clever on paper, but the simple truth is if your units can't see enemy which is right in front of them they can't win.
Competition of blind and sighted person is predetermined. 

No worries, great stuff.

A couple of points on this.

A representative line from the Gefechtsausbildung der Panzergrenadiere (Helmut von Wehren, 1944), translates as:

"The squad fights mounted from the vehicle, as long as enemy fire, terrain and mission permits."

There has been a very common trend, both on this forum and elsewhere, of focusing more on the first part of that sentence than the last.
Indeed, that same manual has a lot of examples of squad attack, and the majority of them are dismounting for combat, with the SPW in support.

I'd suggest that the circumstances where "dropping grenades from the halftrack" are reasonable are going to be those similar to the use-case of the Flamm SPW 251/16 - e.g., used as a reactive force against a counter attack (as per that Panzergrenadier training film, which itself is rather optimistic), and employed against the enemy occupied trenches after the firefight has been won. You can see this kind of situation rather more clearly in Combat Mission that something with the granularity of the WRG rules - since spotting can be on an individual soldier basis, it's not impossible that you can "clear" a trench position, but actually miss an enthusiastic individual with an ATR, who could recover and shoot you in the rear.

A burst of flame or two against an "empty" trench is a quick way of ensuring that there's no surprises waiting for you. This is going to be of chief importance when under significant time restraints, as with the counter-attack example. In that kind of use-case you're trying to seal up the breach in your lines very quickly, before the follow-on forces can exploit it. The expectation, though, is that the fight has been won, so any enemy extant are having some kind of emotional event, and you can reasonably expect to roll up to within grenade range of these trenches without return fire.
Further, the above manual was produced in 1944, but would have been derived from earlier in the war. Earlier in the war, infantry-held AT options were limited, and that's inevitably going to be the chief concern with this.


The second is the essay that John Curry wrote in the back of his publication of the Contact! rules, about the way the BAOR intended to fight. I've asked him for sourcing, since it's the best description I've read for the BAOR doctrine from the strategic to the combat team level. He mentioned that "This should be considered first hand testimony. I was there as an officer. I worked with a number of units and I was briefed on lots of things including the BAOR operational plan."

In that, he discussed the relative paucity of offensive doctrine in the BAOR. Specifically in terms of dismounting FV-432s, and how close this should be to the objective. In that essay, he makes the claim that opinions on this varied, and there wasn't a definitive answer in the British doctrine.


For what it's worth, my opinion on this is that whilst dismounting inside grenade range gets you across the last 300 yards, it represents a tremendous risk. You can't ever know for certain that 100% of their AT assets are supressed or out of action, especially from the back of a vehicle, so leaving the vehicle blind and potentially under fire seems like a huge roll of the dice to me.

It's also worth considering tactical problems such as these: http://armchairgeneral.com/tactic-101-103-bradley-platoon-attack.htm

Where the (modern) Bradley platoon is dismounted a full 2km away from the objective, to make the most use of the Bradley's weapon systems, with the mounted element advancing once the dig-in BMP has been removed. Clearly this increases the time of this platoon attack significantly - pushing it up to 90 minutes, but I suspect it's a good indication of what this kind of thing should look like.


Incidentally, there were two things which I really hoped Battlegroup would do, and was disappointed to see that it didn't really do either. The first was a comparative study on the various NATO concepts of the battlegroup, for instance how British, US and German doctrine differed on the subject, especially at the Combat Team and Battlegroup level. My sources on the Bundeswehr are distressingly limited, and the aforementioned John Curry, uncited essay is the best I've seen on the BAOR. I'm desperate for more on this subject.

The second is a lot more rigor around outlining your methodology. I'm very much a proponent of the power of wargaming as a instructive or investigative tool, but it's extremely hard to understand your conclusions in this case. There's a lot of telling, but not much showing. To use the IFV assault example, I'd have hoped to have see some diagrams and discussion illustrating your attempts to make IFVs work under the WRG rules, and where and when those failed, even if the examples were only representative. Without that grounding, it's very hard to engage with the argument, because an argument isn't really being made - there's no listed assumptions or method to base things on, so the only element the reader has is the claimed result.

When my pixeltruppen deserted me and started to retreat on their own accord I thought I had lost it all. Sure I had asked a BTR company to charge an entire Abrams battalion task force, but I didn't think that after having suffered 50%+ casualties that theyd turn tail and run! After two full years of conscription those perfidious pixeltruppen pounded pavement and left me to face the commissar, alone! Some of the other commanders even told me that they had deserted the army to join NATO instead. Then I called my local pixelspell caster, Deckard Cain. I talked with him about my situation and using the power of crystals, soothing chants, and a pact with a being whose name is unpronounceable by the human tongue and whose twisted blackened visage is split into uncountable thirsting maws, he brought my pixeltruppen back to me! And all it cost me was 5.99(per minute), some time, and the souls of myself and everyone I've ever known. Did I unleash an unspeakable horror from its immortal prison? Maybe. But it was worth it to win back the hearts of my truppen. Literally! If you want to transform your life too, dial 1(900)NYARLATHOTEP (and dont forget to accept the charges!) 

HEDP is a shaped charge, which is more or less synonymous with HEAT. (It's just naming convention really)
Plus it's rated for 63mm of penetration, and while the post-effect won't be great owing to the round size it's more than capable of destroying a BMP.

HEDP is a shaped charge, which is more or less synonymous with HEAT. (It's just naming convention really)
Plus it's rated for 63mm of penetration, and while the post-effect won't be great owing to the round size it's more than capable of destroying a BMP.

A quiet set of turns, the building calm before the storm I should hope.
1806-1807
The stonk on the Pak40 goes in, blissfully on target. Rounds straddle the trench, hopefully injuring the crew or forcing them to hide. A direct hit is likely in its future as the barrage is ongoing as the turn ends. 

While the artillery goes in the remaining three cruisers from 10 Troop, C Squadron 5RIDG (which has been forward supporting C Coy of the Rifles) shifts left and coils up near the copse of trees. My intention is to move them into overwatch positions among the trees if the need arises. They are liaising with the Companies 2IC who remains mounted in a halftrack. 
The scouts, for their part, have begun to ford the second little tributary and probe towards Farm 001. 
Overall, there's very little to report on the right this turn, asides from the fact that the German mortar barrage continues to hammer that offensive piece of French terrain. I am, naturally, perfectly content for my opponent to expend indirect ammo in that way. 
1807-1808
The lead dismounted scouts are ambushed as they push up to a raised dirt road, losing (inevitably) a Bren gunner. He is killed outright by a MG at point blank range, situated in the reverse slope of the raised road. They do not actually spot the offending MG and therefore automatically continue with the pre-planned "hunt" waypoint given to them. This promptly gets the section leader shot; wounded by a rifle. The third able man reports possible contact - but from a different direction and location than expected. There seems to be more enemy contact further to the right, in addition to the MG to the front. 

Draper has evidently outposted the immediate vicinity of Farm 001. The surviving man crawls back to the rest of the section. 
In fact, this turn I detect similar outposts on the extreme right flank as well. I am not sure if these were already known due to pre-battle intel or some intensely lucky scanning by the armoured car crews, but in any event Draper clearly has units forward of the water obstacle across the entire area of operations. I am speculating that most of these are squad-sized tripwires at best, rather than forward fighting positions.
1808-1809
On the right "OAK" is reached and touched by an armoured car without incident.

I think the time has arrived to slowly start applying some actual combat power from my massive tactical reserve. I've identified a good OP for the battlegroup's FOO to bring some supportive fires down on the area in and around Obj "TOM". This will help support the movement of dismounted C Company, surely, and more importantly help organise smoke missions to facilitate a crossing by the heavier units. 
Below you can see the selected position, with the mortar stonk still falling on the Pak40s fighting position still on going in the distance.

I'm hopeful that Pak40 is toast, which means we now are dealing with two ATGs known to me from starting intel on the left flank: one in TOM and the other on Hill 204.1. From the above position we can put down some speculating fires on the area to try and stir up some movement and determine the status of the enemy guns, if possible.  

Thanks for the patience, it has been a bit of a crazy week and a half back for me and I didn't have the time to type this all up. Let's get back into it. Last update, we were engaging a Puma which had made a sudden appearance...
1803-1804
All the action is on the right this turn.
The Puma reverses a few feet, just so that the OP can still see it but not the Cromwell, who does not fire a second time. This Puma is soon joined in the west village by a Panther, but the position the big cat takes makes it no immediate threat. 

Enemy artillery fire begins to fall on my right rear at this point, impacting along the muddy riverbed the armoured cars used to move forward. I don't recall seeing any spotting rounds so it seems self-evident that there's a reference point in this dead ground. Right idea, wrong timing from my opponent here; he's punching empty air. 

1804-1805
More movement is reported on either flank this turn. More Panthers are spotted moving along a road behind Farm 002, and again in front of Hill 206.5. OBJ Tom is being built up into quite the Hornet's nest. Likewise, an OP spots a single German moving through west village, armed with just a pistol - someone of import, perhaps?
For all the weaponry facing me, I don't believe Draper really has a clear idea of what is going on. The recce have continued to push up without further incident. 
1805-1806
The call for fire is finally approved on the Pak43. Another 'fire for effect' is satisfyingly called on the Pak40 - and I strongly suspect and worry the mission on this latter AT position shall be off target. 
On the left, C Coy of the Rifles is preparing to ford the first of the two smaller river tributaries and has begun to dismount in anticipation of that. Their harbour is the treeline in which the carrier section had earlier established an OP/LP, you will recall.

On the right, the lead armoured cars have pushed up practically to the edge of the north village, which we know from our starting intel is occupied, without event. The west village continues to play host to its two dangerous armoured guests, but neither have pushed forward into threatening positions this turn either. 
I think it's time for a SITREP.

I think a picture is starting to firm up of Draper's defensive disposition and his intention re: the Panthers. It appears that "THORN" - the sandy ford on the left - is being dominated by fires from high ground near Farm 001 and 002, and the adjacent orchard. I'm a bit surprised so far, as none of my movement - if he can see it - has really suggested "I'm heading there now!" but given that he has a Pak40 covering the stone bridge leading to Farm 001, he likely feels confident he has this much better route covered. Anti-tank guns are like good and bad things, they tend to come in threes, and so far we've identified two Pak40s that can fire into the area leading up to Farm 001. Contrary to some, and I put this mildly, strange beliefs, anti-tank guns are tough to spot at range and tougher to kill when placed in fortifications and we know for a fact the Pak40 on Hill 204.1 has survived a considerable barrage already. I dare to hope the Pak43 on OBJ DICK will be knocked out, but that is equally doubtful given it is entrenched and in a good position. 
At this point I think its safe to say Draper has evenly distributed his defences. This makes selecting a course of action a bit frustrating. I've been able to bring up the entirety of the C Company tactical group, less the loss of that unfortunately exposed Cromwell, up to a position where they can get into action. So I am starting to lean towards COA1, the left flank. By contrast, B Company team remains stuck behind Hill 207.8, with the trailing Firefly. I'm well aware that trying to move over that ground once more risks fire from the Pak43. Every shot it gets will help it get on target and its only a matter of time before it strikes a fully loaded HT. The movement will only result as well in these infantry being dumped in front of a Panther (possibly more) in west village. So things appear, for now, a bit stuck. I will press forward on the right with what I have up there, but there's only so much they can do without infantry. At the very least, and despite the massive risk it poses, I want to test the fordability of the river in front of the west village. I should be able to do this while remaining out of sight of the Panther. 

Hello,
Today I am going to be playing the What-If scenario "A Man Can Die But Once." Its fairly simple, the remnants of 2nd Para under Lt.Col Frost have to hold out for about an hour until the spearhead from XXX corps can arrive to liberate them. In this first post, I'm going to go over my disposition and the first few turns.

Here's the general map setup, I've already positioned my forces; red lines indicate German advances. My overall strategy is going to be a fairly simple one. Hold Bridge W and Bridge E open to make the eventual relief by XXX corps as smooth as possible.

 
Let's go over individual strong points, starting with bridge west:
 

Bridge East:


 
My limited supply of AT mines have been used to help keep the main bridge secure in hopes of keeping German vehicles from being able to use it as a platform to support advances onto the two bridge objectives.
 
Forces not in these two objectives have been generally clustered around the middle around the town prison:
 

 
My hope is that this central position keeps them relatively safe from german firepower and clever use of breach charges may make it possible to sneak through the building complexes and set up ambushes.
 
An isolated AT ambush has been set up along the main road:
 

The first few turns go fairly relatively smoothly. A heavy German motor barrage wipes out 8th platoon HQ with a direct hit to their building. Other than that, the barrage wounds a few but doesn't prove too disruptive.

Down the street the first few German vehicles are spotted as they begin their advance at 1 hour 57 minutes. The first vehicle spotted is a basic Stug with some supporting infantry.

Shortly after, an armoured car is spotted.

Then a Panzer III makes an appearance.

More German infantry are spotted and move up to the destroyed buildings on the far left of the main road.

A few surprises await them:


The German MG42s try to return fire
 
But the mixture of crack Vickers and sniper teams begin to take their toll:



A German Stug moves up to try and support the infantry, the British Paras decide to punish this brazen action:


I have put them on a brief pause and fire command, before they are to hightail it out and through the backyards. Another team is meeting them:

One PIAT team misses, but the other scores a direct hit on the Stug's armour skirt, forcing it to retreat. Obviously, a kill would have been better, but forcing the Stug to retreat does at least deprive the advancing German infantry of direct fire support for a moment.

 
The Paras escape without a casualty and blow holes in the walls so that they can escape:

While all of this is going on, a German squad has been trying to flank around through the Church, they are met by a relatively intact Para squad with plenty of ammo:



The bodies keep piling up, and eventually the German squad is basically wiped out. The Paras sadly lost a single squad member (a rifleman) and will likely be occupying this position for a few more turns.
 
That brings me to the end of this first post, we are about 7 turns in. So far, so good, but the increasing number of German vehicles worries me.
 

So Let's cover a few more turns. I ended off with about 1:50:00 left in the match, this post will take us up to about 1:30:00ish.
We start where we left off, with the remnants of the first infantry attack continuing to try and get into the buildings on the far left of the main highway. It isn't going well and casualties continue to mount for the German infantry. What's more, the casualties are piling up among the most important members of the squad (squad leaders, MG gunners, etc.).

A German squad manages to infiltrate somewhat up the road.
 

 


An adjusted target arc on the Vickers MGs takes care of that quite easily.
A foolish German rifleman crouching in a ruined building decides to challenge the superiority of .303

He is quickly shown the error of his ways by a sniper.

In the meantime, an assault howitzer has been spotted

The squads that see it are quickly retreated back into the vast array of buildings (though not before a Bren gunner decides to take a few pot shots at the exposed commander, who thankfully did not immediately return fire when he buttoned up).
While the German infantry advance has largely begun to lose steam, there are still teams and remnants managing to find their way up the street.

A 2 man MG team (or perhaps the leftovers of a squad that was roughly handled) are seen by a PIAT team I had infiltrated into a building. The PIAT rifleman opens fire on the German MG team, killing both (the PIAT gunner let off a round but it didn't kill anyone).


.303 Round: 2
Puny German Weaponry: 0
Not wanting to be outdone, a German Rambo with an Mp40 slung over his back picks up an MG42 and begins to open fire on the snipers (no doubt enraged by what he just saw).

In an event that will no doubt enrage the German attackers even more, a German rifleman is spotted doing buddy aid on a dead comrade

Sadly for him, the British snipers show no mercy

 
Worryingly, while this infantry combat has been going on, the German vehicles have been inching closer. 


I have begun a retreat of most of my forces (such as the  MG teams) away from frontline buildings where they are vulnerable to direct fire from the vehicles. Sadly, before all of the men can get away, the assault howitzer pulls of a beautiful shot and wipes out 2 of the snipers.
Thankfully, I still have some 6 pound AT guns on hand to meet the German vehicle push.
The first German vehicle to try its hand is the Stug III

The 6 pounder scores a direct hit, forcing the Stug to drive off, I'm unsure of the extent of the damage, the status of the main gun is unknown.

The next to try its luck is the PZIII

It manages to survive a first direct hit

But a second direct sends the Panzer III directly to Mars

 
Some of my men hear German vehicles moving down the (mined) main road.

The first vehicle falls victim to the mines

The poor victim is spotted and its whatever this monstrosity is

The mines quickly claim another armoured car variant

Meanwhile on the AT gun front, the assault howitzer has tried its luck against the AT gun


Two direct hits are scored against it, but sadly the AT gun had no AP left, so these are HE rounds. Still, there is hope that maybe the gun was knocked out.
A PIAT team I snuck up to try and take out the assault howitzer miss and take a casualty while trying to escape.

One of my biggest worries is the German wirbelwind vehicle that they have sitting near the beginning of the road (near where the first infantry attacked occurred). A PIAT team was also brought up to try and deal with it.

Sadly they missed, but they did hit a nearby tree trunk, with the resulting shrapnel killing one of the crewman inside the Wirbelwind. The team manages to escape to fight another day.
My session ends with a worrying sign, a new German attack from a different direction.

This attack is coming from the right flank, and it is heading directly towards bridge east. Thankfully, no heavy vehicles have been spotting but they have yet another German armoured car variant supporting the attack (Germany had a lot of armoured cars it seems). Also working to my advantage is the fact that I had already begun pulling weapons teams away from the highway attack, so I can quickly shift them to meet this new (largely infantry) attack.

Would you say these are the contender for Fortress Italy's Battle Pack? A combination of all three? (You've had 6 years to work on it 😜)
What I would hope for is focussing the pack for Fortress Italy on filling out the Italian roster in Sicily, then moving on to add Partisans, RSI and Co-Belligerents. The upcoming Steel Division 2 DLC, "Tribute to the Liberation of Italy" is doing just that.
Working on the Italians would add diverse content for the full period from 43-45.  Much of the equipment and vehicles could be used in a great variety of scenarios, and by a variety of forces under the Italian Banner, RSI, Co-Belligerents, and impressed into German Service. It's the most bang for your buck! 
I hope you take this under consideration, as Italy's continued role on both sides after the Armistice, as well as the Italian Civil War are often forgotten, and I think there are some opportunities here for very unique OOBs and TOEs adding a lot of diversity and fitting well into existing modules and scenarios. 
 
Happy New Year!

Get a better computer, man, idk
 
Wait I thought you saying the games run like crap was just me cherry-picking in the first place?
Can you fill me in on your narrative, I'm getting confused.

It's posts like this that really make me wonder if anyone on this forum actually plays CM

Get a better computer, man, idk
 
Wait I thought you saying the games run like crap was just me cherry-picking in the first place?
Can you fill me in on your narrative, I'm getting confused.

It's posts like this that really make me wonder if anyone on this forum actually plays CM

It's posts like this that really make me wonder if anyone on this forum actually plays CM

It's posts like this that really make me wonder if anyone on this forum actually plays CM

Blatantly borrowing from @Bil Hardenberger's blog to practice some scenario creation and pound the podium a bit...some screens:



Read it here: https://rinaldiaars.blogspot.com/2021/12/combat-mission-as-visual-aid-bringing.html

Ratio lmao

Apologies, this one is text heavy - I didn't believe it was worth taking too many screens for what occurs. Let me know if you'd prefer otherwise. 
1751-1752
On the right
A second Panther is soon spotted. As the rest of the armoured car section crests the hill and makes its move to cover, they all report in succession the movement of this section of Panthers in the general direction of the East village and Objective "HARRY." 

On the left
The carrier section leader has dismounted and is hoofing it to a nearby wooded area to establish an OP. Since the troop 2IC remains mounted with the rest of the carriers (he doesn't have binoculars, sigh) it is hoped the rest of the carrier teams will still benefit from his leadership. The carriers remain at a brief halt while they give the Sarge a few minutes to reach his intended position. 
The OP will, it is hoped:
a. Provide some BDA on the barrage on hill 204.1; and
b. Ascertain if the troop movement spotted earlier was incidental, or a deliberate reaction to my movement - namely to cover the exit from the draw I am using to mask my movement as much as possible.
1752-1753
The lead armoured car on the right axis of advance bogs and promptly immobilizes. The crew will dismount and move to establish an OP on a nearby high ground and keep their eyes in the fight. The fellows obviously do not have any form of man-portable radio and will either have to run any intel to another unit or head back to their stuck car to get on the net and report.

1753-1754
The armoured car that now finds itself in the lead sees, but fails to positively identify (or, less likely, can hear) an armoured contact moving in the wheat field behind OBJ "HARRY". 
The platoon of cruiser tanks operating in close support with the B Company team begin rounding Hill 207.8 and crossing the dangerous bit of open ground traversed earlier by the armoured cars. By the end of the turn the lead tank has crossed back into dead ground- unscathed .
Comments:
I'm fairly sure at this point that Draper is fully aware of the armoured car's approach, or is strongly suspicious of it. Surely, he must have caught some fleeting glimpses as they crossed between dead ground. Nevertheless, the recce is past the most dangerous point on this potential course of action. So, unless the Panther's now unduly expose themselves with very forward battle positions I should be fine. Draper is not that gung-ho. Way back in the mists of time he once handed me my burned ass on a platter with a single well-positioned, carefully husbanded Panther; he remembers that lesson very well, it's better to play it safe and let the attacker come to you with such assets. 
What I do hope is happening is that he is starting to focus, unduly, on what he can see. Moving up Panthers so quickly does smack of a bit of an overreaction - and I'm seeing a lot of movement generally. 
1754-1755
He is definitely aware of movement on the right - as the second cruiser in the file traversing the "danger zone" takes fire. 

At the time and despite my painstaking efforts to get a good screenie of the incoming round I was legitimately unsure of whether I was taking direct fire or indirect fire. I am fairly sure now, as I type, that it is a direct fire weapon of some kind. The salient point of course is that, whatever it is, it misses.
If this isn't proof-positive that paying attention to terrain and taking pains to reduce your exposure as much as possible pays off, I don't know what is. The unseen assailant chances again on the third tank in file and likewise misses, badly. The troop's Firefly, a more sluggish and conspicuous vehicle, is ordered not to chance it and takes a rough turret-down position near the crest of Hill 207.8. From here it can join in from afar and inch forward into a battle position if the need and opportunity arises.
At this point I am confident the fire is coming directly from Obj "TOM."
1755-1756
I'm well pleased thus far with the recce's progress on both axes of advance. Not only have they drawn ineffective fire - which ultimately does help build an intelligence picture - but they've positively identified key enemy assets and have allowed me to anticipate their likely final positions. 
More importantly, they haven't taken any casualties yet and have managed to establish some decent forward OPs. On that note, the carrier section leader has taken an excellent concealed position that still provides good line of sight to Obj "TOM" and 204.1. Can you see them?

On the right, the armoured recce is now within effective firing range of the North Village and has guided three Cromwells up to excellent positions in which they can provide overwatch. We'll slow our pace here and conduct a series of bounding overwatches as we try to ford the river on this side and pierce his MLR or slip past some outposts. 

 

Since the other thread got locked, hoping that people will behave themselves in this new one. (A fool's hope, I know)
 
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