Aquila-SmartWargames

More interesting possibilities for the new Flavor Objects created by @Aquila-CM. 
 

Foot chase, northbound, crossing Dekker Avenue. 


 

No causality implied but also good to keep in mind that the affected object is the most numerous flavor object on the map.
Was your map "just" large or did it also feature a ton of flavor objects either of a specific given type or in overall quantity?

No causality implied but also good to keep in mind that the affected object is the most numerous flavor object on the map.
Was your map "just" large or did it also feature a ton of flavor objects either of a specific given type or in overall quantity?

WINSPMBT/WINSPWW2: Active development, 2D, turn-based. On first glance graphics, menues, and controls have an (too) ancient feeling but you quickly realize that its mechanics are pretty good. Probably the biggest nation and vehicle database I´ve seen ever in a ground wargame. In these two games you´ll find almost any vehicle from late WW1/early WW2 up to Future/Planned 2025. Tons of campaigns and scenarios you´ll find something about any (post-)WW2 conflict there. Dynamic campaign generator. Mechanic-wise not as deep as CM but still some sort of Combat Mission 2D as you need to apply authentic tactics and considerations in order to survive the engagements. Comes with the same core force+linear/tree campaign  idea which you have to lead through missions. My favourite campaign mode. However the campaigns and briefings often lack background, soul, and immersion which is very important for me. I also had the feel that it can get heavy on micromanagement but I don´t have much experience yet with the controls & capabilities so can´t tell.
Graviteam Games: Active, probably the most popular choice in the countless "CM vs X" fanboy debates. Somebody nailed my opinion pretty well. I like the fact that it models some exotic conflicts almost never touched by games.  But it indeed feels clunky and the UI is not my case. Often mentioned strongpoint is its dynamic campaign. Lot of players love dynamic campaigns so if you´re one of them take a look but for me it is also resulting in one of the biggest flaws. It generates these generic battles which often end up in simple line-defend line-attack situations and the TACAI almost never looks very good. For me no competition to the handmade scenarios/campaigns of CM. If they would offer handmade campaigns with the core-forces principle similar to CM more being focused on these big open terrain battles I certainly would dig into them.
Armored Brigade: Active, 2D, real time, also turn-based modes, cold war, good visualization. Powerful dynamic campaign generator which can be generated from real maps from Italy, Germany, US Desert. When you win you advance on this map and vice versa. For me again this problem that the campaigns and briefings have not the depth of CM. While CM campaigns surprise me even after countless hours and years the missions of ABs dynamic campaign tend to become very similar in short time. There are some premade campaigns but well they don´t offer much more from what it seems. Nonexistant briefings and background. Hope that this department improves. Still a great game.
Distant Guns 1.5/Jutland Pro: inactive for several years, devs presumably gone, They´re in full flight mode but servers are running. Shop, purchase, and DRM app is a mess but from my channel I know that brave ones recently managed to overcome the "Dark Souls" of online shops in order to buy the game. It is basically Combat Mission on Seas and the best modern real time 3D naval simulation available.
Scourge of War Gettysburg/Waterloo: active, US Civil War and Napoleonic Wars, very complex, some fantastic ideas like runners and AI/manual control. Not easy to get into it but there are plently of tutorials on yt. Best pre-World Wars battlefield simulation.
Close Combat Games: 2D, real time a new engine 3D WW2 title is planned for release. CM and CC not just share a similar name but both also have a long history. However while CM did improve alot, CC did less, graphically as gameplay-wise. But its okay if you love the formula which is small unit engagements consisting of up to a dozen squads and vehicles + fire support. The often recommended Ostfrot Release (Iron Cross?) comes with similar campaigns as CM where you can purchase and I think upgrade units and the newer ones come with a sort of small map/operational layer where you can move your assets around etc.. Lots of mods. I am not focused on graphics but this lagging unit sprites are really borderline painful for me. There were modern releases including "Marines", "Modern War", and "The Road to Baghdad". I am looking for the Close Combat The Road to Baghdad Iraq War release, it is NOWHERE to be found as from what i´ve heard there were licensing issues and they removed it from the market pretty quick, furthermore it wasn´t well received. Doesn´t matter I need to see it with my own eyes. Contact me if you own a copy of Close Combat: Road to Baghdad 
 
I end up often buying (war)games and spending just a couple of hours on them even when they´re decent. Not one of the mentioned here kept my attention for years and dozen of hours like CM did. Only 3 wargames did this to me: CM for tactical ground warfare, CMANO for strategic modern air/naval warfare, and Dangerous Waters for (anti-)submarine warfare with clocked hours in favor of the first. For me I see CM´s success not just in its mechanics but especially in its deep detail of immersion. Extensive Information about situation, forces, map, war effort, historical outcome  vs "MISSION 1: MEETING ENGAGEMENT DESERT. HAVE FUN! may not be important for others, for me this makes a major difference. Some mission designers even go further with campaigns like KG von Schroif, Task Force Panther, or Dragonwynn´s work by providing you with individuals with their names and own stories for you to take care of. In the CMSF Battle of Ramadi, Iraq scenario there was well-researched the historical situation explained and even links provided for an documentary which I then watched. I hope official BF designers will draw some inspiration from these custom creations. Nevertheless for me this is all next level stuff you almost can´t finde somewhere else.   
 
 

Relax in the Sand Method
Also known as IED Incident / Surprise Explosion Method
Imagine you playing casually CMSF2 managing your units at the FOB and suddenly a big explosion happens somewhere on the map. What was that? Should we send a patrol to check out?
How to setup:
1) Setup a pile of enemy IEDs and Spotters or setup a VBIED on a specific spot.
2) set a friendly vehicle/infantry as reinforcement (it can be also a BLUEFOR Taxi, Pickup, Ural Truck so when your units reach the scene it looks more authentic), set the time according to your preference. Place this vehicle into the IED/VBIED spot.
3) when the vehicle spawns it instantly triggers the explosion, visible to the player. Spotters+IEDs require 1/some seconds. VBIED trigger instantly so fast the player won´t even see the reinforcement vehicle.
 
- Use it for surprise, alongside reinforcement message to make the player curious or give him the task to setup a patrol in order to investigate
- Spawning infantry into the IED spot also trigger them (do not use BLUEFOR civillian spies etc. as they are hard to spot)
- max out the triggermen´s or VBIED stats to speed up their spotting and detonation.
- The VBIED or the Reinforcement Vehicle can be switched with custom 3D Models or even made invisible. An immobilized reinforcement vehicle also triggers the explosion.
- Use this in combination with a mission objective: Example: "Intel reports insurgent leader Al Grognardib aquired an operational radioactive dirty bomb and plans to detonate it in this heavy populated are in the next 2 hours. Gather intelligence, find him, and stop the WMD attack".  He then could be the Triggerman of the IED spot or there could be several of them there. If he gets successfully interrupted or killed in time, the "victim" reinforcement vehicle/individual will spawn without blowing up. The reinforcement´s destruction would result in alot of victory points for the enemy. In case of player success the sudden reinforcement spawn could be explained in the briefing. Example: EOD team "Briefing:When located kill/capture Grognardib and secure the bombsite. Wait for the special EOD team/vehicle to arrive, they will aquire the bomb and transport it. Ensure the safe passage to exfil/fob".
- the explosion also works on a start of a scenario although the player will see the victim vehicle of course in the SETUP phase. Can be used for scenarios such as: "Quarterback 2-2s Humvee patrol in Town A was calm so far, the weather is fantastic. Just in this moment the lead Humvee is approached by a friendly looking fella who is carrying a big chocolate cake. Looks like the day is getting even better."
My over the top solutions for alot of smoke. You obvisouly don´t need to go so extreme:


 
- 

Yes both methods are possible:
 
1) This was done with "Destroy BF109" objectives but as you can guess you can do it with everything.
2) The destroyed objective was a Bedford Truck replaced by a BF109. Make copies of the custommodel.mdr of your choice and replace the main mdr and lod mdr files. For weapon caches you can simply take the vanila "crate1.mdr" and rename it to "vehicle-taxi.mdr", then make copies from it and add "-lod1" up to "-lod4" to it. You could also replace the VBIED vehicle as I believe these have a chance to explode when fired upon, so players would be extra cautious and call an armored vehicle to do the EOD job.

3) Very good for replacement are casual/transport vehicles (Jeeps, Civilian cars, Humvees, Wolfs, Trucks etc etc,) as you can remove their crew in the editor and they don´t give away so much "?" intel like bigger stuff. The crew can then be removed by extraction zone or simply placed somewhere else as enemy force.
4) It looks like the removed crews are accounted for victory points (in this example I had every BF109 set to 9999 but as you can see I received around 6000 or ca. 60% of the victory points. The Crew (Supply Platoon HQ) is sitting on the map edge in this demo. Keep that in mind when doing your mission´s victory point calculations.
3) When replacing vehicle, turn them to "IMMOBILIZED" so they won´t make engine noises when spotted.
4) You can either use them for hidden TOUCH, OCCUPY objectives (reach the downed bf109 and search it), for SPOTTING and like in this example for DESTROY objectives (destroy the bf109). These can obviously used for the player and for the AI aswell. Scenarios like "we lost an important asset in this region. Locate it before the enemy does" or "defend the asset from destruction/search" and many more become possible.
5) You can also replace sturdier objects as (Wooden) Bunkers or armored vehicles, this would require the player to use specific weapons (satchel charges, launchers, grenades) to get the destruction objective done. For example you could replace some armored vehicles with the train for an "Ambush the Train" scenario requiring to fire rockets or missiles into the trains.
6) And again these objects can receive AI plans and do movement like the replaced vehicle. You could simulate something being slowly towed away or trying to escape (like the example with the MIG-21s that try to get airborne (evac zone) in order to escape.)
7) Same goes for reinforcements, you could let them spawn when and where you want.  Pretty good for these mentioned "patrol and locate weapon caches" big sandbox map scenarios. Combined with the methods used in the CMBS "TOC" sandbox scenario, there are ALOT of options just requiring creativity and out of the box thinking.
8 ) placing these custom model objectives into ground caves (deeper as in my showcase) and cave labyrinths which then are covered by the Underground Cover Mod, and with the edges made inaccessible either by mapping or the various methods we have (invisible walls, bushes etc.), would the player demand to go into these caves to locate/destroy objectives otherwise not able to be spotted.

Tent (All CM games)

 
 

Camo-Net Emplacement Release (All CM games)


- camo texture can be quickly changed, retextured, and/or modtagged ([snow] etc) as required
- hide vehicles, crates, emplacements, trenches, at guns, atgms etc. beneath
- height/width can be quickly resized in Blender
- combine sandbags, bunkers, buildings. As a flavor object it can be placed in/on buildings.
- if you want it to be spotted and not being always visible on the map: Replace an unused emplacement with it (sandbag, trench, wooden bunker) or an vehicle (taxi, kübelwagen) which then is turned into a wreck. The replaced emplacement/vehicle will not be visible but the camo net (or other objects released here) will inherit the "needs to be spotted" ability. 
- again if you have an hard time hitting the shelter in the editor. Remove all blank.bmp files from your Z folder in order to see the shelter and make it easier for you while editing.
- combine 2 or 3 nets that are displaced 1-2 tiles to make it denser.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Agho21MGTssHaTHHgpIcaQWqWpU?e=5rKEzK
Video:
 

Relax in the Sand Method
Also known as IED Incident / Surprise Explosion Method
Imagine you playing casually CMSF2 managing your units at the FOB and suddenly a big explosion happens somewhere on the map. What was that? Should we send a patrol to check out?
How to setup:
1) Setup a pile of enemy IEDs and Spotters or setup a VBIED on a specific spot.
2) set a friendly vehicle/infantry as reinforcement (it can be also a BLUEFOR Taxi, Pickup, Ural Truck so when your units reach the scene it looks more authentic), set the time according to your preference. Place this vehicle into the IED/VBIED spot.
3) when the vehicle spawns it instantly triggers the explosion, visible to the player. Spotters+IEDs require 1/some seconds. VBIED trigger instantly so fast the player won´t even see the reinforcement vehicle.
 
- Use it for surprise, alongside reinforcement message to make the player curious or give him the task to setup a patrol in order to investigate
- Spawning infantry into the IED spot also trigger them (do not use BLUEFOR civillian spies etc. as they are hard to spot)
- max out the triggermen´s or VBIED stats to speed up their spotting and detonation.
- The VBIED or the Reinforcement Vehicle can be switched with custom 3D Models or even made invisible. An immobilized reinforcement vehicle also triggers the explosion.
- Use this in combination with a mission objective: Example: "Intel reports insurgent leader Al Grognardib aquired an operational radioactive dirty bomb and plans to detonate it in this heavy populated are in the next 2 hours. Gather intelligence, find him, and stop the WMD attack".  He then could be the Triggerman of the IED spot or there could be several of them there. If he gets successfully interrupted or killed in time, the "victim" reinforcement vehicle/individual will spawn without blowing up. The reinforcement´s destruction would result in alot of victory points for the enemy. In case of player success the sudden reinforcement spawn could be explained in the briefing. Example: EOD team "Briefing:When located kill/capture Grognardib and secure the bombsite. Wait for the special EOD team/vehicle to arrive, they will aquire the bomb and transport it. Ensure the safe passage to exfil/fob".
- the explosion also works on a start of a scenario although the player will see the victim vehicle of course in the SETUP phase. Can be used for scenarios such as: "Quarterback 2-2s Humvee patrol in Town A was calm so far, the weather is fantastic. Just in this moment the lead Humvee is approached by a friendly looking fella who is carrying a big chocolate cake. Looks like the day is getting even better."
My over the top solutions for alot of smoke. You obvisouly don´t need to go so extreme:


 
- 

Yes both methods are possible:
 
1) This was done with "Destroy BF109" objectives but as you can guess you can do it with everything.
2) The destroyed objective was a Bedford Truck replaced by a BF109. Make copies of the custommodel.mdr of your choice and replace the main mdr and lod mdr files. For weapon caches you can simply take the vanila "crate1.mdr" and rename it to "vehicle-taxi.mdr", then make copies from it and add "-lod1" up to "-lod4" to it. You could also replace the VBIED vehicle as I believe these have a chance to explode when fired upon, so players would be extra cautious and call an armored vehicle to do the EOD job.

3) Very good for replacement are casual/transport vehicles (Jeeps, Civilian cars, Humvees, Wolfs, Trucks etc etc,) as you can remove their crew in the editor and they don´t give away so much "?" intel like bigger stuff. The crew can then be removed by extraction zone or simply placed somewhere else as enemy force.
4) It looks like the removed crews are accounted for victory points (in this example I had every BF109 set to 9999 but as you can see I received around 6000 or ca. 60% of the victory points. The Crew (Supply Platoon HQ) is sitting on the map edge in this demo. Keep that in mind when doing your mission´s victory point calculations.
3) When replacing vehicle, turn them to "IMMOBILIZED" so they won´t make engine noises when spotted.
4) You can either use them for hidden TOUCH, OCCUPY objectives (reach the downed bf109 and search it), for SPOTTING and like in this example for DESTROY objectives (destroy the bf109). These can obviously used for the player and for the AI aswell. Scenarios like "we lost an important asset in this region. Locate it before the enemy does" or "defend the asset from destruction/search" and many more become possible.
5) You can also replace sturdier objects as (Wooden) Bunkers or armored vehicles, this would require the player to use specific weapons (satchel charges, launchers, grenades) to get the destruction objective done. For example you could replace some armored vehicles with the train for an "Ambush the Train" scenario requiring to fire rockets or missiles into the trains.
6) And again these objects can receive AI plans and do movement like the replaced vehicle. You could simulate something being slowly towed away or trying to escape (like the example with the MIG-21s that try to get airborne (evac zone) in order to escape.)
7) Same goes for reinforcements, you could let them spawn when and where you want.  Pretty good for these mentioned "patrol and locate weapon caches" big sandbox map scenarios. Combined with the methods used in the CMBS "TOC" sandbox scenario, there are ALOT of options just requiring creativity and out of the box thinking.
8 ) placing these custom model objectives into ground caves (deeper as in my showcase) and cave labyrinths which then are covered by the Underground Cover Mod, and with the edges made inaccessible either by mapping or the various methods we have (invisible walls, bushes etc.), would the player demand to go into these caves to locate/destroy objectives otherwise not able to be spotted.

WINSPMBT/WINSPWW2: Active development, 2D, turn-based. On first glance graphics, menues, and controls have an (too) ancient feeling but you quickly realize that its mechanics are pretty good. Probably the biggest nation and vehicle database I´ve seen ever in a ground wargame. In these two games you´ll find almost any vehicle from late WW1/early WW2 up to Future/Planned 2025. Tons of campaigns and scenarios you´ll find something about any (post-)WW2 conflict there. Dynamic campaign generator. Mechanic-wise not as deep as CM but still some sort of Combat Mission 2D as you need to apply authentic tactics and considerations in order to survive the engagements. Comes with the same core force+linear/tree campaign  idea which you have to lead through missions. My favourite campaign mode. However the campaigns and briefings often lack background, soul, and immersion which is very important for me. I also had the feel that it can get heavy on micromanagement but I don´t have much experience yet with the controls & capabilities so can´t tell.
Graviteam Games: Active, probably the most popular choice in the countless "CM vs X" fanboy debates. Somebody nailed my opinion pretty well. I like the fact that it models some exotic conflicts almost never touched by games.  But it indeed feels clunky and the UI is not my case. Often mentioned strongpoint is its dynamic campaign. Lot of players love dynamic campaigns so if you´re one of them take a look but for me it is also resulting in one of the biggest flaws. It generates these generic battles which often end up in simple line-defend line-attack situations and the TACAI almost never looks very good. For me no competition to the handmade scenarios/campaigns of CM. If they would offer handmade campaigns with the core-forces principle similar to CM more being focused on these big open terrain battles I certainly would dig into them.
Armored Brigade: Active, 2D, real time, also turn-based modes, cold war, good visualization. Powerful dynamic campaign generator which can be generated from real maps from Italy, Germany, US Desert. When you win you advance on this map and vice versa. For me again this problem that the campaigns and briefings have not the depth of CM. While CM campaigns surprise me even after countless hours and years the missions of ABs dynamic campaign tend to become very similar in short time. There are some premade campaigns but well they don´t offer much more from what it seems. Nonexistant briefings and background. Hope that this department improves. Still a great game.
Distant Guns 1.5/Jutland Pro: inactive for several years, devs presumably gone, They´re in full flight mode but servers are running. Shop, purchase, and DRM app is a mess but from my channel I know that brave ones recently managed to overcome the "Dark Souls" of online shops in order to buy the game. It is basically Combat Mission on Seas and the best modern real time 3D naval simulation available.
Scourge of War Gettysburg/Waterloo: active, US Civil War and Napoleonic Wars, very complex, some fantastic ideas like runners and AI/manual control. Not easy to get into it but there are plently of tutorials on yt. Best pre-World Wars battlefield simulation.
Close Combat Games: 2D, real time a new engine 3D WW2 title is planned for release. CM and CC not just share a similar name but both also have a long history. However while CM did improve alot, CC did less, graphically as gameplay-wise. But its okay if you love the formula which is small unit engagements consisting of up to a dozen squads and vehicles + fire support. The often recommended Ostfrot Release (Iron Cross?) comes with similar campaigns as CM where you can purchase and I think upgrade units and the newer ones come with a sort of small map/operational layer where you can move your assets around etc.. Lots of mods. I am not focused on graphics but this lagging unit sprites are really borderline painful for me. There were modern releases including "Marines", "Modern War", and "The Road to Baghdad". I am looking for the Close Combat The Road to Baghdad Iraq War release, it is NOWHERE to be found as from what i´ve heard there were licensing issues and they removed it from the market pretty quick, furthermore it wasn´t well received. Doesn´t matter I need to see it with my own eyes. Contact me if you own a copy of Close Combat: Road to Baghdad 
 
I end up often buying (war)games and spending just a couple of hours on them even when they´re decent. Not one of the mentioned here kept my attention for years and dozen of hours like CM did. Only 3 wargames did this to me: CM for tactical ground warfare, CMANO for strategic modern air/naval warfare, and Dangerous Waters for (anti-)submarine warfare with clocked hours in favor of the first. For me I see CM´s success not just in its mechanics but especially in its deep detail of immersion. Extensive Information about situation, forces, map, war effort, historical outcome  vs "MISSION 1: MEETING ENGAGEMENT DESERT. HAVE FUN! may not be important for others, for me this makes a major difference. Some mission designers even go further with campaigns like KG von Schroif, Task Force Panther, or Dragonwynn´s work by providing you with individuals with their names and own stories for you to take care of. In the CMSF Battle of Ramadi, Iraq scenario there was well-researched the historical situation explained and even links provided for an documentary which I then watched. I hope official BF designers will draw some inspiration from these custom creations. Nevertheless for me this is all next level stuff you almost can´t finde somewhere else.   
 
 

It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a thread as much as this one.
Talent, nostalgia, and breath taking looks at CM's future.
 

I have spent hours on this game, only good memories.
In development, there is also Steel Tigers, that is normally the sequel of Steel Panthers. But, there is not much information about it.

WINSPMBT/WINSPWW2: Active development, 2D, turn-based. On first glance graphics, menues, and controls have an (too) ancient feeling but you quickly realize that its mechanics are pretty good. Probably the biggest nation and vehicle database I´ve seen ever in a ground wargame. In these two games you´ll find almost any vehicle from late WW1/early WW2 up to Future/Planned 2025. Tons of campaigns and scenarios you´ll find something about any (post-)WW2 conflict there. Dynamic campaign generator. Mechanic-wise not as deep as CM but still some sort of Combat Mission 2D as you need to apply authentic tactics and considerations in order to survive the engagements. Comes with the same core force+linear/tree campaign  idea which you have to lead through missions. My favourite campaign mode. However the campaigns and briefings often lack background, soul, and immersion which is very important for me. I also had the feel that it can get heavy on micromanagement but I don´t have much experience yet with the controls & capabilities so can´t tell.
Graviteam Games: Active, probably the most popular choice in the countless "CM vs X" fanboy debates. Somebody nailed my opinion pretty well. I like the fact that it models some exotic conflicts almost never touched by games.  But it indeed feels clunky and the UI is not my case. Often mentioned strongpoint is its dynamic campaign. Lot of players love dynamic campaigns so if you´re one of them take a look but for me it is also resulting in one of the biggest flaws. It generates these generic battles which often end up in simple line-defend line-attack situations and the TACAI almost never looks very good. For me no competition to the handmade scenarios/campaigns of CM. If they would offer handmade campaigns with the core-forces principle similar to CM more being focused on these big open terrain battles I certainly would dig into them.
Armored Brigade: Active, 2D, real time, also turn-based modes, cold war, good visualization. Powerful dynamic campaign generator which can be generated from real maps from Italy, Germany, US Desert. When you win you advance on this map and vice versa. For me again this problem that the campaigns and briefings have not the depth of CM. While CM campaigns surprise me even after countless hours and years the missions of ABs dynamic campaign tend to become very similar in short time. There are some premade campaigns but well they don´t offer much more from what it seems. Nonexistant briefings and background. Hope that this department improves. Still a great game.
Distant Guns 1.5/Jutland Pro: inactive for several years, devs presumably gone, They´re in full flight mode but servers are running. Shop, purchase, and DRM app is a mess but from my channel I know that brave ones recently managed to overcome the "Dark Souls" of online shops in order to buy the game. It is basically Combat Mission on Seas and the best modern real time 3D naval simulation available.
Scourge of War Gettysburg/Waterloo: active, US Civil War and Napoleonic Wars, very complex, some fantastic ideas like runners and AI/manual control. Not easy to get into it but there are plently of tutorials on yt. Best pre-World Wars battlefield simulation.
Close Combat Games: 2D, real time a new engine 3D WW2 title is planned for release. CM and CC not just share a similar name but both also have a long history. However while CM did improve alot, CC did less, graphically as gameplay-wise. But its okay if you love the formula which is small unit engagements consisting of up to a dozen squads and vehicles + fire support. The often recommended Ostfrot Release (Iron Cross?) comes with similar campaigns as CM where you can purchase and I think upgrade units and the newer ones come with a sort of small map/operational layer where you can move your assets around etc.. Lots of mods. I am not focused on graphics but this lagging unit sprites are really borderline painful for me. There were modern releases including "Marines", "Modern War", and "The Road to Baghdad". I am looking for the Close Combat The Road to Baghdad Iraq War release, it is NOWHERE to be found as from what i´ve heard there were licensing issues and they removed it from the market pretty quick, furthermore it wasn´t well received. Doesn´t matter I need to see it with my own eyes. Contact me if you own a copy of Close Combat: Road to Baghdad 
 
I end up often buying (war)games and spending just a couple of hours on them even when they´re decent. Not one of the mentioned here kept my attention for years and dozen of hours like CM did. Only 3 wargames did this to me: CM for tactical ground warfare, CMANO for strategic modern air/naval warfare, and Dangerous Waters for (anti-)submarine warfare with clocked hours in favor of the first. For me I see CM´s success not just in its mechanics but especially in its deep detail of immersion. Extensive Information about situation, forces, map, war effort, historical outcome  vs "MISSION 1: MEETING ENGAGEMENT DESERT. HAVE FUN! may not be important for others, for me this makes a major difference. Some mission designers even go further with campaigns like KG von Schroif, Task Force Panther, or Dragonwynn´s work by providing you with individuals with their names and own stories for you to take care of. In the CMSF Battle of Ramadi, Iraq scenario there was well-researched the historical situation explained and even links provided for an documentary which I then watched. I hope official BF designers will draw some inspiration from these custom creations. Nevertheless for me this is all next level stuff you almost can´t finde somewhere else.   
 
 

The weapon model has an arrow named "weapon muzzle"  attached that tell the game engine where to create an effect. You can freely move it to match your model but for most CM model swaps it isn´t required as naming conventions are almost always the same for all CM2 engine games.

Some examples for engine specific arrows/markers you will see in Blender: 
 
weapon eject (1,2,3...) where brass is thrown out.
driver, gunner, commander, loader, radiooperator soldier (1,2,3,4,5...), leader etc.: tells the game the position of crew member and passengers. However what stance he has (sitting, standing etc.) is I believe defined by the internal part of the game. There are often duplicates an a or bc attached i. e. "commander a" and "commander bc", don´t know exactly what it means.
gear (1,2,3...) see the post where I explain it
-option (a,b,c...) see the post where I explain it
groundpoint (1,2,3...) for what spot crew/passengers will leave the vehicle
firespot (1,2,3...) where a flame is created when the vehicle burns, but I believe when this is not defined the engine randomly assigns firespots.
hatch (1,2,3...) hatches and doors of vehicles that may be opened by the engine when crew/passengers exit. Model swaps have the tendency to use wrong hatches. For me the unbuttoned commander hatch is important, especially in WW2 games, so I check ingame which wrong hatch opens up and then go into blender and rename the hatch names (for example hatch 2 and hatch 4 switch names) and eventually the correct commander hatch then opens up. Can be used to define hatches or bulkheads on boats and other custom models.
exhaust (1,2,3...) where fumes are coming out
turret/mount/weapon (1,2,3...)don´t know exactly how they work but I guess they tell the engine what part is what so it can be moved/animated properly the turret will traverse, the mount will elevate/slightly traverse depending on the type and the weapon may have a recoil animation. Also seen the term "fixed-gun" on the Tiger model its probably the part of the gun that doesn´t recoil 
wheel (1,2,3...) all tire wheels and track wheels are called wheels in CM models, don´t know if their rotation/jerking is defined by the engine internals or if the rotation information is stored in the models metadata or both. Could probably used to create rotating radars or boat propellers but I did no tests in this direction.
clip defines the part that is removed when an infantry weapon´s mag is reloaded

Relax in the Sand Method
Also known as IED Incident / Surprise Explosion Method
Imagine you playing casually CMSF2 managing your units at the FOB and suddenly a big explosion happens somewhere on the map. What was that? Should we send a patrol to check out?
How to setup:
1) Setup a pile of enemy IEDs and Spotters or setup a VBIED on a specific spot.
2) set a friendly vehicle/infantry as reinforcement (it can be also a BLUEFOR Taxi, Pickup, Ural Truck so when your units reach the scene it looks more authentic), set the time according to your preference. Place this vehicle into the IED/VBIED spot.
3) when the vehicle spawns it instantly triggers the explosion, visible to the player. Spotters+IEDs require 1/some seconds. VBIED trigger instantly so fast the player won´t even see the reinforcement vehicle.
 
- Use it for surprise, alongside reinforcement message to make the player curious or give him the task to setup a patrol in order to investigate
- Spawning infantry into the IED spot also trigger them (do not use BLUEFOR civillian spies etc. as they are hard to spot)
- max out the triggermen´s or VBIED stats to speed up their spotting and detonation.
- The VBIED or the Reinforcement Vehicle can be switched with custom 3D Models or even made invisible. An immobilized reinforcement vehicle also triggers the explosion.
- Use this in combination with a mission objective: Example: "Intel reports insurgent leader Al Grognardib aquired an operational radioactive dirty bomb and plans to detonate it in this heavy populated are in the next 2 hours. Gather intelligence, find him, and stop the WMD attack".  He then could be the Triggerman of the IED spot or there could be several of them there. If he gets successfully interrupted or killed in time, the "victim" reinforcement vehicle/individual will spawn without blowing up. The reinforcement´s destruction would result in alot of victory points for the enemy. In case of player success the sudden reinforcement spawn could be explained in the briefing. Example: EOD team "Briefing:When located kill/capture Grognardib and secure the bombsite. Wait for the special EOD team/vehicle to arrive, they will aquire the bomb and transport it. Ensure the safe passage to exfil/fob".
- the explosion also works on a start of a scenario although the player will see the victim vehicle of course in the SETUP phase. Can be used for scenarios such as: "Quarterback 2-2s Humvee patrol in Town A was calm so far, the weather is fantastic. Just in this moment the lead Humvee is approached by a friendly looking fella who is carrying a big chocolate cake. Looks like the day is getting even better."
My over the top solutions for alot of smoke. You obvisouly don´t need to go so extreme:


 
- 

Yes both methods are possible:
 
1) This was done with "Destroy BF109" objectives but as you can guess you can do it with everything.
2) The destroyed objective was a Bedford Truck replaced by a BF109. Make copies of the custommodel.mdr of your choice and replace the main mdr and lod mdr files. For weapon caches you can simply take the vanila "crate1.mdr" and rename it to "vehicle-taxi.mdr", then make copies from it and add "-lod1" up to "-lod4" to it. You could also replace the VBIED vehicle as I believe these have a chance to explode when fired upon, so players would be extra cautious and call an armored vehicle to do the EOD job.

3) Very good for replacement are casual/transport vehicles (Jeeps, Civilian cars, Humvees, Wolfs, Trucks etc etc,) as you can remove their crew in the editor and they don´t give away so much "?" intel like bigger stuff. The crew can then be removed by extraction zone or simply placed somewhere else as enemy force.
4) It looks like the removed crews are accounted for victory points (in this example I had every BF109 set to 9999 but as you can see I received around 6000 or ca. 60% of the victory points. The Crew (Supply Platoon HQ) is sitting on the map edge in this demo. Keep that in mind when doing your mission´s victory point calculations.
3) When replacing vehicle, turn them to "IMMOBILIZED" so they won´t make engine noises when spotted.
4) You can either use them for hidden TOUCH, OCCUPY objectives (reach the downed bf109 and search it), for SPOTTING and like in this example for DESTROY objectives (destroy the bf109). These can obviously used for the player and for the AI aswell. Scenarios like "we lost an important asset in this region. Locate it before the enemy does" or "defend the asset from destruction/search" and many more become possible.
5) You can also replace sturdier objects as (Wooden) Bunkers or armored vehicles, this would require the player to use specific weapons (satchel charges, launchers, grenades) to get the destruction objective done. For example you could replace some armored vehicles with the train for an "Ambush the Train" scenario requiring to fire rockets or missiles into the trains.
6) And again these objects can receive AI plans and do movement like the replaced vehicle. You could simulate something being slowly towed away or trying to escape (like the example with the MIG-21s that try to get airborne (evac zone) in order to escape.)
7) Same goes for reinforcements, you could let them spawn when and where you want.  Pretty good for these mentioned "patrol and locate weapon caches" big sandbox map scenarios. Combined with the methods used in the CMBS "TOC" sandbox scenario, there are ALOT of options just requiring creativity and out of the box thinking.
8 ) placing these custom model objectives into ground caves (deeper as in my showcase) and cave labyrinths which then are covered by the Underground Cover Mod, and with the edges made inaccessible either by mapping or the various methods we have (invisible walls, bushes etc.), would the player demand to go into these caves to locate/destroy objectives otherwise not able to be spotted.

Tent (All CM games)

 
 

Tent (All CM games)

 
 

I add everything to the same folder.
Do not download the complete folder multiple times. 

About Model Part Exchange and Mounting Different Weapon Stations and Guns
Stryker with 30mm Mount (Proof of Concept Prototype, no Release)

 
British Scorpion with 76mm cannon (released, part of Falklands Vehicle Collection)

Also see the UAZ MG, or the Jeep conversions for the H&E Mod.
1) Moving parts/turrets/weapons between existing models is pretty straight forward. Simply import the 2nd vehicle model you want to take a part from and remove it/ "unparent" and install/"parent" it on your target vehicle.
 2) With Blender/CM2T I´ve noticed that there is a tendency that when you move/install multi part gun/turret and then export your new model, there is a tendency for the gun/turret parts to get distorted in their position. You need to reimport, correct, reexport. This is perhaps required several times until all parts stay in place. 
3) When planning a vehicle modificaton involving new turrets and weapons naturally think about what vehicle you want to replace with it. The vehicle to be replaced should resemble the new weapon/turret characteristics. You don´t need to stay with the original military branch or even nationality as Combat Mission enables scenario designers to setup missions with mixed forces involving ALL branches, factions, Bluefor/Redfor assets at the same time for one side.
4) Also its good to put your new vehicle in context of its environment and technology, especially when recreating specific time frames. For example with the 1967 Six-Day war vehicle collection a good choice would be to do a Red vs Red and replace all the oldest Syrian Tank slots with the Arab/Israeli tanks and then pitch them against each other. The oldest Syrian vehicles don´t come with this superior optics and the ability to kill everything on the battlespace in matter of seconds which then results in a more authentic depiction.  It isn´t hard to guess that replacing a new gen M1A2 or T72T-T/T90 with a Arab T-34  would result in a tank that over-performs in its 67´ environment. Alot factors can also be influenced by crew experience.
5) Don´t forget to turn "Export Metadata" on when your vehicle has tire wheels or track wheels. Check Blender tutorial in this thread to understand importance and current limitation of this setting. 
And yes technically it would be possible to depict the Korean War with replacing all CMWW2 German assets with existing Soviet Red Thunder assets (preferably waiting for the Late War RT module) to create an US/Commonwealth vs Soviet-equipped force situation. it would require some consideration on what to replace with what, alot of file renaming, and considering how to set the experience levels to depict the conflict in a best possible way but it could be done. Furthermore the H&E mod advances and assets will open up more options for Asian scenarios.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Agho21MGTssHaTHHgpIcaQWqWpU?e=5rKEzK

About Model Part Exchange and Mounting Different Weapon Stations and Guns
Stryker with 30mm Mount (Proof of Concept Prototype, no Release)

 
British Scorpion with 76mm cannon (released, part of Falklands Vehicle Collection)

Also see the UAZ MG, or the Jeep conversions for the H&E Mod.
1) Moving parts/turrets/weapons between existing models is pretty straight forward. Simply import the 2nd vehicle model you want to take a part from and remove it/ "unparent" and install/"parent" it on your target vehicle.
 2) With Blender/CM2T I´ve noticed that there is a tendency that when you move/install multi part gun/turret and then export your new model, there is a tendency for the gun/turret parts to get distorted in their position. You need to reimport, correct, reexport. This is perhaps required several times until all parts stay in place. 
3) When planning a vehicle modificaton involving new turrets and weapons naturally think about what vehicle you want to replace with it. The vehicle to be replaced should resemble the new weapon/turret characteristics. You don´t need to stay with the original military branch or even nationality as Combat Mission enables scenario designers to setup missions with mixed forces involving ALL branches, factions, Bluefor/Redfor assets at the same time for one side.
4) Also its good to put your new vehicle in context of its environment and technology, especially when recreating specific time frames. For example with the 1967 Six-Day war vehicle collection a good choice would be to do a Red vs Red and replace all the oldest Syrian Tank slots with the Arab/Israeli tanks and then pitch them against each other. The oldest Syrian vehicles don´t come with this superior optics and the ability to kill everything on the battlespace in matter of seconds which then results in a more authentic depiction.  It isn´t hard to guess that replacing a new gen M1A2 or T72T-T/T90 with a Arab T-34  would result in a tank that over-performs in its 67´ environment. Alot factors can also be influenced by crew experience.
5) Don´t forget to turn "Export Metadata" on when your vehicle has tire wheels or track wheels. Check Blender tutorial in this thread to understand importance and current limitation of this setting. 
And yes technically it would be possible to depict the Korean War with replacing all CMWW2 German assets with existing Soviet Red Thunder assets (preferably waiting for the Late War RT module) to create an US/Commonwealth vs Soviet-equipped force situation. it would require some consideration on what to replace with what, alot of file renaming, and considering how to set the experience levels to depict the conflict in a best possible way but it could be done. Furthermore the H&E mod advances and assets will open up more options for Asian scenarios.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Agho21MGTssHaTHHgpIcaQWqWpU?e=5rKEzK

Thanks for all the information on how to use Blender @Aquila-CM.  This is really cool stuff.  When I get caught up on plugging stuff into a WIP campaign I'm going to try Blender.  I'm in need of lots of cars for all the streets, parking lots and garages in Chiraq.  

Either make them taller or much easier simply raise the billboard model into air to match 2nd 3rd 4rd etc. floors of buildings. Every custom 3D model can made to "float" in the air like the underground cover was, just the base "primer" flavor object needs to stay on the ground but it requires no "physical contact" with the custom model. You should be also able to create WW2 barrage balloons.
From what I´ve learned you should also be able to create vehicles that float in the air, their base is still on the ground which then is be made invisible. But the usability of floating flying vehicles is questionable as FOV and fire source stays on ground level.
Also an billboard bridge or whatever you can drive trough under should be possible. The invisible primer flavor object would be on the ground but it doesn´t impede movement so everything fine. One could stretch/reposition the billboard feet in blender so cars can fit under or attach the bb to two sturdier looking lamp/telephone poles that are already in the game or again simply let it float in the air and attach it to neighbouring walls and buildings as the billboard is wider than a road.