ekobloc

Thanks, I suspected so but I'm no veteran of the WWII titles, only been playing around a year or so—still learning
As I expected, as soon as I pressed play for the next move what I assume was a T72 round hit a tree and wiped one of the 2 squads entirely. Lesson learned! Managed to get the other one back safely. Will watch your AAR once I'm done to avoid spoilers

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...

“Here, across death’s other river, the Tartar horsemen shake their spears.”
T.S. Eliot
 
This BETA game is being played against Warren (The_Capt), and we are very familiar with each other’s style, strengths and weaknesses as we’ve been playing CM against each other for close to 20 years now.
CM Cold War was our brainchild and has been on our wargame design table, off and on, for eight years now, but now it is a real thing.  You’re welcome.    With that said it is only fitting that Warren and I play in this BETA AAR.  We haven’t played in public since our original CMBN BETA AAR, Not your Father’s Combat Mission. 
I hope you enjoy the ride, and welcome to the COLD WAR!!

Sidebar!  I strictly use the Movie Mode when I play so all of my screenshots use that feature.  I don't mean it to insult anybody, but I just think the game looks better.
Meeting Engagement at Dolbach Heights, 1980
When Warren and I laid out the design for this game we wanted it to be primarily and ultimately a sandbox for experimentation and reflection.  A tool to test the tactical theories that were prevalent at that time.  Time… yes, we also wanted to be able to examine the different sides from different time perspectives, and this release, the base game in the CM Cold War series, contains the years 1979 to 1982.  We also only cover the months March to October, mainly so we didn’t have to generate winter textures and models which would have been one feature too many.
This particular scenario is one that Warren and I threw together that we thought would be fun to play and show off.  The map is from the US Campaign and when you play that you will see this map eventually.  I will start my METT-T analysis in my next post, but for now, sit back, enjoy the existence of this game, and don’t go away!
Bil

CONTENTS:
METT-T Analysis MISSION ENEMY TERRAIN TROOPS / TIME Tentative Plan The Action: First Three Minutes! Fourth Minute - First Contact! Fifth Minute - Return of the Blood Board! Sixth & Seventh Minutes Eighth Minute - One Meter Too Many Eighth Minute - BDA & Some Movements Ninth Minute Tenth Minute Eleventh & Twelfth Minutes - "...damn your eyes." Thirteenth Minute - The Board is Set Fourteenth Minute - Spoiling Attack Plan Fifteenth through Seventeenth Minutes Eighteenth Minute - Relearning Old Lessons Nineteenth & Twentieth Minutes Twenty-First & Twenty-Second Minutes - Beyond Here, There be Dragons Twenty-Third & Twenty-Fourth Minutes - Saga of Tank Section 1

These look fantastic!
My advice would be to release all of the camo schemes in a pack and just let players choose which they want to use. 

Bil was abused as a young sprog there and now he must pay it forward.

So my advice is to always try and offer your opponent dilemma.  Particularly if you are the attacker.  So here maneuver become extremely important, try and come at the opponent from different angles simultaneously (90 degrees is very good).  The pull up multiple shooters at the same time, here you are leaning on the weight of your firepower, which as the attacker is normally heavier that the guy dug in.  Then if you have support (arty or air), you should try and time its arrival with all of the rest of this.  
In the end, you wind up with a system overload situation on your opponent.  If you try to do onesy-twosy sneeky peeky they will sit back and pick you off one by one and you are right the attacker is at a sever disadvantage here.  If you have no choice but sneaky-peek, use the M901s, the periscope system works so you can fire without exposing the vehicle, that and the little guys are wicked accurate.

If we are going to proceed with a follow up module, that sounds like a good way to go about it (deliberately vague with shifty eyes).  However, I am already a “foreign national veteran” so there is that.

It is not a block or DRM, at least nothing more then it used to be, just a minor change to a format. You are misstating the intent. If they wanted to block/DRM you really, and put effort in that, it would be different.

First off, thank you and welcome to the game.  This post is really a place for you guys to Q&A with the game designers.  Questions on features, campaigns or scenarios can go here and we will try to get to them to help you out.
So if you are new to the CM you probably want to start easy and small to get the feel for the game.  Check the scenario notes as designers often will highlight which side may be easy or harder.  For example, "Valley of Ashes" is by-design, pretty easy for the Blue side as an opportunity for beginners to get a feel for a larger scenario.  While the Red side of this scenario is pretty tough.  I will let the other scenario designers chime on on their babies.
I will say that the Soviet Training scenarios by Cpt Miller are a very good place to start for a lot of people as full Cold War Soviet formations, in all their glory, are a bit of a new thing for the series.
For the Campaigns, I highly recommend people start with NTC.  Bil and GeorgeMC did a really good job in putting together some very good scenarios that can get people into the groove of maneuvering in the context of a Cold War battlefield. 
Then I would suggest moving onto the US Campaigns.  1982 was designed to be the primary but 1979 turned out to be really interesting, so players choice really.   1982 is probably a little easier as 1979 can be challenging with the older equipment set.
Finally, I would then suggest that players can gird their loins for the Soviet Campaigns.  These are designed to be tough and a challenge to manage.  Every battle is battalion sized and frankly pretty tough.  The March or Die version is designed to be downright unfair to the loins, but also probably the most realistic....you have been warned.
Anyway, enjoy and have fun!   

Have fun with the game guys.. please post your reactions!  Curious if you think its as cool as we do.   

Here's a fun glimpse of how the sausage gets made. An early shot of the M48 Chaparral AA vehicle model with the official US MERDC camou pattern overlaying it. Adventures in vehicle texturing. 

I grew up just 8 km from the inner-german border and never felt any fear or such - today I think that is strange.
Just the opposite, there are many nice memories concerning the military of that time. We often had the 16/5th Queens Royal Lancers on exercise at the farm of my father. They were stationed at the town of Wolfenbüttel nearby and everybody loved to see them, my mother because we talked english all day, the soldiers because they had warm places to sleep and a shower, and my father because he had an agreement to get a bottle of Famous Grouse for each day of their stay. We did things you never get elswhere, driving a Ferret Mk1 (I called it armored Dune Buggy), a Scorpion tank and even firing a Sten SMG on the meadow behind the barn. Once my father and me visited their barracks for some claybird shooting and the officers invited us to the officers mess. Wow, never saw so many silver cups and a living tradition like that.
When I served at PzAufklBtl 1 (Armored Recon) from '79 to '83 (just the proper time for this game) we were not even allowed to keep our battalion coat of arms, it was from the Black Hussars from Brunswick who fought with the British against Napoleon, but was too similar to the SS sign. That happens to military traditions when you loose your wars.
At that time I met kind guys from the 2nd Armored Division on Reforger exercise near Brunswick and found some nice friends there (Cpt. Hutto somewhere around here?).
And I served as contactperson for the team of 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards during the Boeselager Cup, an international competition among reconaissance forces. Still remember the 'Biwak' on the last evening.
One day I heard the sound of a Huey helicopter nearby and it did not disappear. So I looked for the source and found some thee or four Huey Cobra hovering directly at the outskirts of the village. I immediatly fetched my brothers and we tried to follow them with my Renault R4. Tough job, soon they were gone. But suddenly they reappeared one after the other over a ridgeline and took my car as a training target. Oh, man, that was exciting. I tried to make their job as difficult as I could but these helis were really fast and agile. I would love to ride one of those, must be like a flying Kawasaki.
I think Germany really lost something important with all these kind soldiers who are gone now and with them the BFBS radio and the British Wargamers Association with which I had so nice times at Rheindahlen and elsewhere.
And, by the way, a german Recon Btl was a complete all arms force in '79, ideal for a Bundeswehr expansion one day. There was a ground surveillance radar plt, two companies with Luchs and Leopard1, and a heavy company with grenadier plt (on Schützenpanzer kurz, later Fuchs), engineer plt, and 120 mm mortar plt.
And now I am here, working as an engineer on military simulation and looking forward to my retirement next year being excited to have all the time necessary to play my favorite game then, CM:CW.
 
 

Yes, average graphics, as in:
Awful fog rendering The worst-looking shadows I've seen in any game Plowed fields that give a moire effect when viewed from certain angles High-detail texture and terrain object rendering that stops way shorter than it should for those with high-end systems Nonexistent proper 4K resolution support None of those things have anything to do with Fog of War. Yes, the gameplay is still great, but the graphics are definitely lagging behind in certain areas.

Wow, this is radically false. Combat Mission is absolutely not the best that can be done with OpenGL. Hell, Doom 2016 runs on OpenGL, and I think any rational person would say that Doom 2016 is superior to Combat Mission graphics-wise.
OpenGL's death has been expected for a decade now, so I hope BFC wasn't too blindsided by that. Still, as long as you aren't foolish enough to chain yourself into Apple's ecosystem you will be able to use your OpenGL software for years and years to come.

None of the CM2 games have that feature. There was plenty of discussion about it after CMBN was released. The CM2 games have a mixed setting for QB which lets you pick whatever mix of force you like. In the modern games infantry have several AT options that can make it painful for an opponent to try to go all tank in a QB. The best cure for people who like to try to win with an unbalanced force is to kick their hinie with your balanced force :-)
The problem with the combined arms (aka force spending limits) was the problem of wasted points - I am short just a few points to get another tank, what do I do with those wasted points. The mixed force solves that problem - I can just get that additional tank an spend a tad less on something else - no wasted points.
IMHO the mixed setting is superior since it lets people actually select the forces they want and learn the value of a good combined force choice and not be forced into a box that someone else thinks makes a good combined arms force mix.

West/East Germany and the Brits for me. Winter terrain and weather would also be a neat addition.
A lot of folk make a good point about the Warsaw Pact, they all shared Soviet materiel and doctrine so visibly there wouldn't be too much of a difference.
A stretch for one I'd like to see would be the Arctic regions. The Soviets planned to push deep into Scandinavia and Iceland to cut off the Iceland/Greenland/Norway blockade for their navy and as in Red Storm Rising use as forward airbases for Badger and Bear attacks on NATO convoys and installations. Could be an interesting what-if area to play around in, heavily forested and hilly with the wintery conditions making it a slog. A more modern Fortress Italy module in essence 

I've noticed that, at least in multiplayer games, the M4 Sherman flail tank produces a perfect invisibility screen from any angle, any distance.
 
eg.  
 
 
I've used this in both CMBN and CMFI now, and as a result the flail is now banned from any game me and my friends play. You'll note that this effect only works on terrain that generates dust. My opponent in the game and in tests said that not only does the tank disappear completely, but that the dust is also invisible if the tank cannot be seen.
 
I imagine this is not intended behaviour.

Ninth Minute
 “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”
The Art of War, Sun Tzu
 
M-150(1/5) and the BMP-1PK on NAI2 spotted each other about the same time, though the M-150 fired its TOW a second or so earlier than the BMP fired its AT-4…

Scratch one more BMP.
 
Early this turn in Tank Section 1, M-60A1(RISE+) (1/8) spots another Recon BMP-1P…

…it does take a quick shot…

…which falls well short.. and then he loses the spot.

Right towards the end of the turn the same tank spots a T-64B moving toward the clump of trees ahead of NAI3.  Again it fires, but this time, the turn expires before the round can travel the entire distance.  Damn!  
We'll find out how that goes next turn, don't go too far from your computer.

T-64B, beauty shot:

Two of my M-106 mortar carriers began sending their spotting rounds this turn… this fire is intended to block the approach into Dolbach.


 

For those of you playing, the “What is Bil planning?” Sweepstakes... another clue: I have moved my FO up to the ridge and dismounted.  What can that mean?   

Finally, I wanted to give you a good overview of the map and an update on my enemy Order of battle reconstruction:
After some research the Soviet Recon Company is composed of the following:
Company CO on a BRM-1
x2 Recon Platoons – each composed of: Recon Platoon Leader on a BMP-1K x2 Scout Teams, each on a BMP-1 So far I have identified the following Recon Company units:
Two BMP-1PKs, the Platoon Leaders’ rides (as of this turn, both have been knocked out) Three of the four BMP-1Ps the Scout Teams ride on (one has been knocked out) This turn I also identify the Company CO’s BRM-1 So the intelligence picture of what I am up against is becoming clearer every turn.  Following is the current SITMAP.  Note the enemy Support by Fire (SBF) positions and the central position taken up this turn by one Mech Infantry platoon, three BMP-1s moved forward of the overpass and disgorged their infantry.  I suspect the infantry will be moving on foot to Dolbach while the BMPs remain in an overwatch position.
Warren's weight is on his right (my left) as his SBF near NAI2 has lost two of it's three BMPs.  The SBF position near NAI3 has lost one BMP-1PK, but has been reinforced by the Company CO's BRM.  
I expect Warren to push hard toward Dolbach shortly.. and that is a fight I cannot participate in as I don't have the infantry he does.  So I have something else in mind...    CLUES GALORE!!! Have fun.

For reference:

There seem to be a few tutorials doing the rounds of late … so you’re going to get another one – on planning. So if you’re somebody who wondered how it is done, or are somebody who casts a rudimentary eye over the ground, skims through the orders and then just launches across the line of departure with the view to developing a plan on the hoof and wants to change this – then this is the thread for you.
 
The vehicle for the tutorial is SeinfeldRules Assault Position Mission.  The associated thread is here:
 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/119212-seinfeldrules-scenario-thread/page-1
 
The mission can be downloaded from here:
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d85cs6w3xeeg0oi/AD%20Assault%20Position.zip?dl=0
 
What do you get from this thread – simply put it will delve into the planning process and then roll into an AAR. I am playing this as designed so Axis attacker versus the AI. So without further ado, let’s crack on with it. Also I’d be grateful if people could refrain from posting spoilers on this mission if you’ve played it – I haven’t yet – which is kind of the point of stepping through the planning process first!!!!
 
I will warn you that I am no means an expert on military planning but have been around it enough to know how it works. I will cut corners with it here and there but this isn’t necessarily about military doctrine, it is about giving you guys an understanding of some techniques to help you plan your battles should you have a mind to do so.
 
Clearly questions (that do not contain spoilers) are welcome but many of my answers might be ‘I’ll come to that later’.

Just popping in with a simple thanks Bil for your work on bringing CMCW to us, blog and for these AARs that are always so extensively written and obviously take a lot of your free time. Looking forward to the future round write-ups.
Using those M-150s as bait I wonder?

HEAT warhead damage on an M-113... the game has it pretty much spot on:

 

West/East Germany and the Brits for me. Winter terrain and weather would also be a neat addition.
A lot of folk make a good point about the Warsaw Pact, they all shared Soviet materiel and doctrine so visibly there wouldn't be too much of a difference.
A stretch for one I'd like to see would be the Arctic regions. The Soviets planned to push deep into Scandinavia and Iceland to cut off the Iceland/Greenland/Norway blockade for their navy and as in Red Storm Rising use as forward airbases for Badger and Bear attacks on NATO convoys and installations. Could be an interesting what-if area to play around in, heavily forested and hilly with the wintery conditions making it a slog. A more modern Fortress Italy module in essence 

CM Cold War takes place on the cusp of big changes happening to both the American and Soviet armies. The arrival of Abrams and Bradley changes the nature of the fight in Europe. Also in this time frame we get a fashion change! See attached, the Americans switching to battle dress uniform. This is new-new art that's still not in the current Beta so you won't see it in any of the posted screenshots. Please forgive my crappy graphics card.

A few fun screenshots for everyone: