Megalon Jones

Battlefield's version set to release in April w/o the new multiplayer system. You will still be able to PBEM. The whole package is being released on Steam in June.

I won't lie....every morning my alarm gets me up a 530AM. First thing I do is look here for any sign of release. 2 weeks left!

'Untold Story' is a supplemental that gives more info on the Soviet side as well as details about theaters outside Europe. They should be read together.

Correct you are. North Norway would've been an international melting pot.

The USMC in the Med would probably go to the defense of Turkey and Greece......or Yugoslavia.....or Libya....or Syria.....or Egypt. Those in the Pacific would go to South Korea and Japan.

Norway. They would be joined by UK and French commandos and para. Now, THAT would make for an excellent expansion for CMCW. (hint, hint)

So essentially they can all be NTC if used with the QMB?

How many maps depict the NTC? Just curious

The entire Soviet tank force seemed as an enigma. Why simultaneously produce so many different tank models? Thanks to the fighting in the Middle East, both the T62 and T55 were known. The T72 was supposed to be a super tank. The T64 often got puzzled looks and blank stares. The T80 (alongside the Backfire bomber and the Alfa class SSN) were portents of impending doom.

I imagine keeping a tight check on every officer above Major who imagines that their limited counter attack is just like Patton at The Bulge would've been interesting. I'm going to have to really immerse myself in the background of the M60 series tanks. It seems like the latest variant M60 is actually better in some regards to the Abrams. I also expect the BMP/Sagger could be the unappreciated stars of the show. Funny how we got a bunch of things wrong. Being a youth in the early 1980's, I remember the T72 as THE scariest thing on the potential battlefield. The T80 was an ominous cypher. As it turned out, the T64 was your worst nightmare.

So, limited counter attacks threatening flanks and delaying the deployment of the Soviet OMG's so the REFORGER units can arrive. Air Land Battle is all that plus smash up the 2nd and 3rd echelons before they deploy, disrupt C3 and the logistics of the rear area.

Your force was the forward screen for a MRR, right? That means there is a colonel behind you with another whole Red Army regiment ready to go after you established the nature of Vth Corps presence. I know Air Land Battle was designed to counter Soviet force echelons, but what was the plan for Active Defense in that regards? Pray for the USAAF to arrive? Hold out until the nukes fly?

Yeah. These guys have helped me out on a couple of occasions. Indy rules, corporate drools.

As soon as this thing drops, I'll be doing an AAR. Of course, it takes me a solid 2-3 weeks to get it played, recorded, edited et al. My money is on Hapless being first out of the gate with a YouTube vid.

Exactly. My mouth runs enough as is. Don't want to ruin the FOW.

I recall reading that NATO expected all of their A10 and Tornado pilots to be KIA by D+10 or so. I might be fudging the numbers, but the attrition rate was going to be bad with all the Pact mobile SAMs attached at company and battalion level. Regardless, Active Defense assumed intensive use of NATO CAS as an equalizer. Either that or the nukes.

It should be noted that every incoming French administration has adamantly insisted that it took it's NATO commitment seriously. Don't confuse not being under the unified command with being outside the Alliance. During the Cold War, the French knew that they were next on the menu after the FRG. They would've fought.

How do you rate HESH vs HEAT or Sabot in terms of penetrating Red Army tanks? Ball park estimates are sufficient.

I was overdue for an eye exam before the pandemic. Now things are just blurry noise.

It seems I misread the command M557 as a M551. That's exactly what I was looking for!

If any Beta testers wants to share some tank porn of this....uh....dynamic duo in action, please do. It was a poster boy for the Goldwater-Nichols Act and I've been morbidly curious about it since the opening chapter to Gen. Hackett's future history novel 'The Third World War.'

Where (roughly) are you in Germany? Fulda has relatively short LOS due to all the hills and forests. Vth Corps took that into account. The BAOR had a much different terrain with the North German Plains.

Yeah, that definitely created a 'WTF?!?' moment for me reading that. The Politburo ended up being far more risk adverse than was generally accepted at the time.

How about Brezhnev's health deteriorates much faster and the Central Committee can't come up with an acceptable majority bloc that doesn't include placating the hawks. Poland isn't able to stem Solidarnosc with martial law. Throw in a bad harvest, a tanked oil market and signs of ethnic troubles in the Asian SSR's. That's a decades worth of bad news. Now, compress it into about a six month time frame.

Soooo...Brezhnev doesn't just wake up one morning, look out his window and say '#$%@ it! Onward to the Rhine!' sending the Red Army marching 24 hours later? Our alternate history back story is taking shape! The 1979 timeline could be tied to the Carter grain embargo while the 1982 variant might have something to do with the deployment of theatre nuclear forces. Totally. Thanks for the input.