USNRM3

Do I need to restart a campaign if I’m in the middle of one and I install this?

Agreed. It's a great mix of technology and balanced forces. While I really enjoy CMBS, I found the Americans with APS to be very hard to beat. The most fun CMBS QB battle I played was both sides as Ukrainians with older equipment. CMSF2 Syrians vs Syrians quick battles were also very fun if you limited the forces to 1970s tech. 
I cannot wait for the first module for CMCW!

CW feels like the golden mean of CM2. You get two very diverse, very different, and yet balanced, factions. The lack of modern electronics makes combat much more personal. Great to see BS and SF toys placed in their original setting.

Hey Guys,
  Thank you very much for the very positive feedback.  Gotta say that beyond Bil and I dreaming away about the "bads ol days" we were really hoping to deliver something that might bring some entertainment and happiness in what have been some pretty crappy times.  
   CMCW is the game that fit the niche we didn't know we were missing (well some definitely did), it is in that sweet spot between WW2 and the modern titles that not only blends but has a unique identity all its own.  I know not everyone will take to it but there are more than enough time-titles in the BFC library for everyone, we are just really glad we could maybe get one more out there.

I think my favorite is still CMFI, but CW is a serious contender.

I agree 100%. I have all of the CM games except for the new Eastern front mod. I waited and waited for it to come out and I gave up on it, but CMCW just has a very nice blend to it. That might be because I served in the Marine Corps during that time and all of the weapons are very familiar to me.

I guess I am a serial philanderer.  I play all the games and my favorite always seems to the be one I neglected for a while and started again -- "wow, this one is the best, why did I stay away  for months?". 
But I gotta say CMCW is f-ing fantastic.  I've got F&R campaign and a CW campaign going and keep sneaking over to the CW one when F&R isn't looking.  The torture and then joy/disaster of watching those slooooooooow ATGMs reaching out....  those saggers scare me to death
If I had to choose one game?  I can't do it. 

I've had the same exact experience as you. Started on CMBS, bought the rest... the other games are okay. I prefer ripping the maps/scenarios off them and using them in the modern titles. 
Cmbs is good but admittedly feels stale. It lacks content compared to the other games imo. Its also heavily US favored if you don't play Ukrainians. 
As you said, CW feels balanced. I'd say its a little Russian leaning depending on your dragon count. 
CW is definitely my go-to title for now.  So I'm gonna rank it on the top. I haven't even had one laggy battle yet. Even one where I had multiple battalions deployed. 

Hey all,
I had strayed away from our beloved CM for awhile and then noticed a few weeks ago that Cold War had come out!  What a surprise and something I never thought would happen from the previous talk of it.  Anyway, finally sprung for it and man!  I do think this is my favorite CM game yet!  I don't know what it is or why but it just seems paced and balanced so nicely.  I really really enjoyed Afghanistan back in the day and I really like playing around with the Soviets as well as the NATO forces.  I'm just blown away by how much this has hooked me.  I love CMBS but it's SO DEADLY and more difficult because of all the modern pin-point accuracy.  CMCW just hits the sweet spot.  
How do you all rank this one with the rest of the CM family?

Before CM:CW was released, I was all about the idea of other timeframes, pushing this forwards and backwards. Seeing the introduction of ERA, or the first ATGMs, and the period when it was debatable whether HEAT or kinetic projectiles were the future of tank warfare, all that good stuff.

Having played around with it, I think I've gone off the idea - the start of this period is when the US is perhaps as behind technologically as it has ever been, and the end of the period is where they leap into dominance. Earlier and later won't change this dynamic all that much, and I suspect there's more to be gained from exploring alternative regions (Norway, Afghanistan, perhaps Iran or Korea) than by seeing that development.

I'd much rather see other countries in the time period that CMCW is about rather than backtracking all the way to WW2 again. It seems like a huge waste of potential doing that.

I agree. Something about "Operation Unthinkable" might be interesting to a few players, but I suspect it'll be rather niche for most people. Battlefront will have to think about the potential market for each title and potential DLC packages.
I expect CM:CW will sell very well once it hits Steam, because Cold War scenarios set in the 80s are exactly what a lot of the potential playerbase grew up with (also through books, older videogames and movies). Building on top of the base game with DLC set in the same time period might be a good strategy for Battlefront going forward.

I know many people are looking for expansion to the nations in the current years of CMCW or expanding into the later 80s. I think these are great ideas but I think we have a perfect storm brewing for a different kind of cold war era.
Operation Unthinkable.
Battlefront has just finished Fire and Rubble, which gives us all the Soviet units we need, and my understanding is that the next module on the horizon is an expansion to Final Blitzkrieg that will bring it to the end of the war (unless Im mistaken). This gives us all the units we need for a end of the war clash between the Allies (starting with the Americans) and the Soviets. I think this would be super cool since I dont know of it ever being done before, and it would provide an interesting what if where we can clash Pershings and Shermans vs T-34-85s and Is-2s.
I see several advantages to this option as the first CMCW module.
-It would piggyback on existing content, most likely making it easier and faster to develop, and therefore out to us faster.
-It would be ****ing cool to pit late war Soviets vs late war Americans.
-It wouldnt slow down the possibility of other CMCW modules much if at all, since any development work needed on assets could still go forward while whatever campaigns and scenarios are needed for Operation Unthinkable are created.
-It would not only have all the units and their costs and rarities in place, but could also use the maps from FBK, FnR, and RT, BfN etc.
 

That's assuming Apple doesn't do something stupid.

Was not expecting the second soviet airstrike, which my AA did not deal with, took out my last tank, in the end the Soviets got one tank onto the fahrbahn, only thing i had left was my aa units.

Fun fact, for most of the title's development Shilellagh range was limited to 2000m, the range of the original MGM-51A missile (Its currently firing MGM-51C out to 3000m). So retreating up the hill would've meant the Russians being out of range until until they were 1/4 the way down the map. Event the Russian tanks sitting on the road would've been outside the range of the roadway M60A2s. Giving M60A2 the MGM-51C missile threw off gameplay assumptions a bit.
 😭

I deployed 2 tanks on the highest ground on each flank and the platoon leader slightly left of center on high ground.  I was looking for the longest possible ranges to maximize the Shillelagh missiles.   The missiles are much more accurate and more deadly than the M60 main gun regular ammo and the Russians have difficulty hitting at those longer ranges.  So I was hitting and the Russians weren't.  Some Russian tanks managed to close the range but by the end of the battle, I still had one fully functional tank left while the Russians had nothing left.  And nothing Red came close to threatening the autobahn.
After several Cold War battles,  I have the general impression that ATGM missiles are more accurate in CW than Black Sea.  Both games have some of the same ATGM missiles but the Black Sea missiles just don't seem as reliable when it comes to accuracy when compared to CW.  

You know I just received the M150s and I was looking at the right flank forest thinking I should have moved or maybe I will still move one of my M60s up there. Already have a M113 squad heading to the forest to try get some sneaky dragon shots off but it may be too late now as the Soviets are at the barns.
I'll redo this one again some time with that in mind. I didn't really plan my defence much more than holding hull-down on the ridges as I didn't intend to complete this scenario this time around and I'm taking a bit of a bruising. Still have all but one M60 firing though so could be worse...

I enjoyed this scenario a lot.
I rushed one of the M60s and a squad of infantry in a M113 up to grab the woods on the right map edge at the beginning and their flanking fire on Soviet forces trying to grab. the central complex was key. The M60s I kept in the center didn't really pull their weight before getting brewed. But the one I had on the far left also did considerable damage. 
That said, without the TOW vehicles arriving the when they did, I would have been over run.

Took the same approach as you, tried the training campaign first and got my arse handed to me rather quickly, so thought I'd try some quick missions. Managed to get a total victory on Direction Found, quite liked how simple it was and had some echoes of Team Yankee to it... a nice toe dipper.
Coming back to 2 Fahrbahns though – I'm about 10/15 minutes in. M60s in hull down positions on the slopes, so far we've picked off quite a few T72 that are making their way across the plains and I've only lost one of the M60 to a penetrating round right through the gun so basically combat ineffective now. Thought I would try pushing up 2 squads in the M113 to the north woods with the hopes of being able to stick a few LAW in the sides of anything down there. Other 2 squads with the dragon are holding up in the forward buildings, but as you say nothing to shoot at so wondering if that was best placement for them. 
Coming from the WWII titles and this being my first 'modern' title I'm not too clued up on how to make best use of mech. inf. especially in a defence situation so will be interesting to see if this was a bad move on my part  

This is one of @MikeyD's scenarios - it was a very early one and typical of the stuff that he seems just to be able to conjure up.  It was the first scenario I tested and it was a whole bunch of fun and delivers that nail biting sense of 'am I going to win this?', despite the map and premise of it all being fairly simple.  I think for those aspiring to dip into scenario designing, his stuff is well worth a look.

After a few starts on a campaign and feeling overwhelmed (but in a good way), I decided to try learning these units' capabilities by getting overwhelmed faster, 'failing faster' they call it. Instead of agonizing for 10 or 15 minutes over a turn's orders, I'm playing some single battles in RT mode, but saving and even reloading if i reeeeeelly mess up. I'm having fun discovering how they move and shoot, and enjoying the spectacle. Usually I prefer to play turns because I like to watch the action, see the little things hitting each other, and replay it from other angles. All the pretty lights. I miss a lot of that in RT mode, but I think I'm learning more quickly how to maneuver and shoot with these units than I was learning when playing turn-based battles.
I think I'm about to be overrun, at 2 Fahrbahns, but it only took a couple hours instead of days. I'm enjoying this a lot. All the pretty lights. My 5 tanks have smashed about 10 of their AFVs, mostly T72s, using a fat slow 152mm round. Feel like I'm tossing flaming marshmallows at the bears. Sometimes, they hurt the tank. Sometimes, they tickle them. But 3 T72s are passing through their dead pals' smoking wreckage, Lord knows how many more are behind them. They're hitting my tanks and mostly degrading them (like a mobility kill or optics kill) first, missing often but eventually hammering my tank one more time for the kill. Been rolling up to hulldown, shooting, and reversing, held them out to 1500 m so far, at 26:36, but I'm down to one fully crewed tank and one that lost its commander. They all fought bravely. An immobilized tank took out several more and held back a few with great shooting till it finally got the zap.

At this time I finally realize that 2 M150s have arrived. Just about to rush them into position and trying to back my 2 remaining tanks downhill till these TOW carts can rush up to help. No one's come within range of my Dragons. My Redeye guys have taken some shots, and taken some hits. Because it's RT, I didn't see whether they ever downed a plane. All the pretty lights, though.

You can download it as a PDF here.
http://dobrochan.ru/src/pdf/1205/Red-Army-by-Ralph-Peters.pdf

Been lurking for a while and decided to sign up for the forums and hopefully add to the discussion since I'm all hyped up for CM:CW!
I was browsing the Googles and found this bibliography file of 10 Cold War related books and figured I should share. I believe almost all of these have already been mentioned, but I like the brief description for each book. 
I'd like to make it clear that I did not make this list - I'm just sharing (and formatted and edited it a tiny bit to make it easier to read!).
https://img.lib.msu.edu/general/events/contest/2006/2006GrevstadBib.pdf  written by Ted Grevstad-Nordbrock
For those who don't want to click away: copy/paste below the break - book names are in bold, author names in italics.
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“Ten Literary Accounts of a War that Was Never Fought”
Ted Grevstad-Nordbrock
Bibliography List:
- World War 3. Bidwell, Sheldon, ed. (1978).
Though non-fictional, Sheldon's work takes on an air of fiction when it hypothesizes about how a third world war in Europe might realistically start, and how it would play out. Like other books in this collection, slogging but indecisive conventional warfare inevitably leads to the use of nuclear weapons.
- Red Storm Rising. Clancy, Tom. (1986).
Clancy is, of course, the best-known author of the group included here. This work, one of his earliest, describes a NATO-Warsaw Pact conflict on land and on the seas.
- Armor at Fulda Gap: A Visual Novel of the War of Tomorrow. Cook, J. L. (1990).
Cook's illustrated work is an unusual mix of fact and fiction-of real-world armaments that would have been used to fight a third world war as well as fantastic imaginings of what the near future might hold. The title of the book makes reference to two common themes in the theory and literature describing a NATO-Warsaw Pact confrontation in Europe: the Fulda Gap, a historical passage-a "gap" in the otherwise rough terrain-from eastern Europe to the west, named after the German city; and armor, the tanks and mechanized vehicles that would contend for this strategic region.
- Team Yankee. Coyle, Harold. (1987).
This best-selling work intimately chronicles the efforts of an American tank platoon in defending a small swath of West Germany during a Warsaw Pact invasion. The story is based on the Hackett's The Third World War: August 1985, which Coyle acknowledges in his introduction.
- The Third World War: August 1985. Hackett, John, General Sir. (1978). 
This influential account of World War III is told by a British general. The illustrated edition features images of the battles, including the two terminal moments of the short war: nuclear strikes on Birmingham, England and Minsk.
- The Third World War: The Untold Story. Hackett, John, General Sir. (1982).
 Hackett's follow-up fleshes out and expands the narrative begun in "August 1985."
- First Clash: Combat Close-Up in World War Three. Macksey, Kenneth (1984)
First Clash offers a Canadian take on NATO's efforts to repulse the Red Army during its invasion of West Germany. That this fiction is based in fact is emphasized through the use of annotated maps, images, and text boxes that contain discursive notes on tactics, armament, military organization, etc.
- The War That Never Was. Palmer, Michael A. (1994).
Written after the Cold War ended, this book describes World War III on a global scale (a war that "never was"), as told by a fictional Russian character to his old enemy and new ally: an American.
- Red Army. Peters, Ralph. (1989).
Peters's book is unique in that it tells the story of a conflict in Europe from the perspective of soldiers in the Red Army. This is perhaps one of the best written of the books of this genre.
- Red Thrust. Zaloga, S. J. (1989). 
Though no less fictional than any of the other works included here, Zaloga's text reads almost like a casebook. He offers a series of hypothetical NATO-Warsaw Pact battle scenarios in Western Europe, each with an accompanying postmortem: tactical strengths, weaknesses, and what might have been done by military leaders to affect a different outcome.
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Hope this helps some, and also thanks for all of the recommendations so far. I currently have a few of these on the way!
-RT