Centurian52

Wow, that's science!

HQs can act as spotters for mortars, as long as the mortars are in command range of the HQ and the HQ has LOS to the target area. Any HQ will do.

You can use pre-planned arty missions by targetting areas during the 1st minute of a battle. You can use the pause command to delay this preplanned barrage. Once set, you cannot change a preplanned barrage later in the game.

You can place target reference points (if available in the scenario or bought in a QB) which act as pre-registered target points. Offboard artillery aimed at those TRPs gets a (much) reduced delay, onboard heavy weapons get a to hit bonus.

EDIT: Jason was, as usual, quicker AND more elaborate.

One of the oldest frequently asked questions.

Mortars can fire indirect with a spotting HQ. The spotter is the HQ unit with a red command line to the mortar - it must be in command. The HQ must have LOS to the target and not be hiding or panicked (panic turns command lines black, so that is redundant). Then select the mortar, and target the desired enemy or location. The target line will "stick" and should read "area fire".

The mortar will then fire on that physical location at its max rate of fire, until the order is cancelled. They will not adjust the aim point as a target moves, as they are firing at the location not the unit.

Mortar carrier vehicles get command lines to HQs, which are used only for this purpose. So you can spot for e.g. an 81mm SPW.

Non-mortar on map weapons (howitzers etc) cannot use indirect fire. They can of course area fire at any location they can see, and do not need a spotted enemy for that. But they do need LOS.

As for registrations for artillery, the game has a fortification type called "TRP" which stands for "target reference point". They typically cost 10 points and are available to defenders in QBs. In scenarios, either side may be given any number of them. These are placed anywhere on the map - they look like red bullseye in a crosshair.

Artillery FOs that target a location within 10m of a TRP, get various bonuses. The largest is a dramatic reduction in the delay before fire is delivered, typically to under one minute. The barrage will also always be accurate. And no LOS is necessary from the FO to the TRP.

On map mortars *that have not moved all game* may also fire at a TRP, without LOS or an HQ spotter. Same rule about 10m from the TRP marker.

Artillery FOs can choose 2 types of "sheaf" for their fire missions - standard, and "target wide". Standard represents a converged sheaf with all guns aimed at the same physical location. It gives a pattern that is long in the axis of fire - typically east-west - and quite narrow.

This is the dispersion pattern of the guns themselves, a kind of maximum tightness achievable. For typical types, most of the shells will land within 40m left or right and 100m long or short of the aim point. Half or more will land within 20m left or right and 60m long or short. The orientation cannot be changed.

Target wide gives a much wider and a more circular pattern. There is still elongation in the axis of fire. Up to 2/3rds of the rounds will still land in a pattern about as tight as previously described above. The remaining third or so will land up to 100m farther away.

2-3 target wide orders on aim points about 100m apart from side to side, will give a reasonable accurate depiction of a battalion scale fire mission. Almost everything else is much tighter than the patterns actually used, historically. Few players have the ammo for this, or want to spread it around over so wide an area even if they do. But it is possible and realistic.

Rocket FOs are an exception to all of the above. Rockets are wildly inaccurate, wide area weapons. Their normal pattern is about 400 meters wide, by about 200-250 meters long or short. Fire them at a whole enemy side of the map, in other words. There is still some definite tendency of the rockets to land near the aim point, with "near" now meaning within about 100m. The circle about 100m around the aim point of a large rocket fire mission will be well plastered. The rest of the huge pattern will get spotty coverage here or there.

FOs can be used in 2 distinct ways, independent of the choice of "sheaf" and the presence of TRPs: normal and "map" fire.

Normal fire missions are called during the game on a visible target or a TRP. They have delays from more than 5 minutes for large types to under 1 minute for TRP shots. The mission once started lasts until shut off by a change in aim point or by canceling the fire order. Rocket FOs often are single salvos (some types 2-3), most "tube" types have ammo for 3-4 minutes.

The aim point can be changed for a delay, typically 1-2 minutes added to the existing time. That can be used to "walk" a barrage. When you drag the target line around, it will be green if you are within adjust range of the previous aim point. 100m shifts cause minimal delay. Long shifts restart the clock as though a whole new fire mission is being called, and show a blue targeting line.

Normal or "reactive" fire is sensitive to LOS (lose it even briefly and the barrage will come down off target by up to 400m), and to the state of the FO (he can't pin or panic during the countdown). While you can call it out of LOS, it will miss by a long way and it should not be tried. TRPs are of course an exception.

Map fire, on the other hand presents a "fire plan" at higher HQ. It is planned once on the first turn of the game and cannot be changed thereafter. It is always accurate. It is always fired as a full module, with no change in aim point. It does not matter what happens to the FO - he can even exit and the shells will still land. Map fire must be ordered on turn 1. If no change is then made, it lands immediately as a "prep fire" bombardment. You can instead delay the mission by pressing Q, one minute of delay for each press. So you can call the fire anywhere and for any time. You just have to know exactly where and when, on turn 1.

A typical use of map fire is to buy 1-3 large caliber FOs with low unit quality (to make them cheap) and time their impact for when you expect contact, or just before it. Or to clear particular objectives you hope to reach. Since the plan cannot be changed, you have to conform your movements to the barrage instead of the other way around. It would be normal to also keep a "reactive" module, typically smaller caliber, to handle threats as they arise, etc.

Note that map fire is not allowed in meeting engagements. The sides are presumed not to know enough yet for higher staffs to have planned them already.

There is a fair amount of variety and a lot to learn how to do right, to get the most from CM artillery. There isn't a wide variety of allowed sheafs and such. You have to make up for it by using other features - e.g. aim here, fire for 1 1/2 minutes, shift the aim point 100m and fire the next minute, etc.

One other thing about TRPs - they also act as "boresights" for any on map gun with LOS to the location. Fire at a target close to a TRP gets much higher first round accuracy. This is used e.g. for ATG ambushes and the like. All TRPs work for all purposes, you don't have to designate which way they are being used or for which gun or FO.

I hope this helps.

THE BASIC PROBLEM:
I'm sure that you've all noticed over the years that this scenario plays itself out over and over:
Person A: "Hey, does anyone still have X for $Insert_Game_Name$ ?"
Person B: "Yeah sure, here, let me put it up on my webspace or on a random download server like Mega.NZ"
<five years pass>
Person C enters the thread and gets excited.
Person C "The link doesn't work anymore!"
*pause*
Person C "Hey, does anyone still have X for $Insert_Game_Name$ ?"
A Potential Solution: Might be with the Internet Archive. It's funded by a foundation and they seem to be relatively durable; so they're the closest thing to archival on-line storage we might see for some time.
With that in mind, I've been slowly working on a project for the last month to quasi bring back the old Wargamer.com scenario archive back from the dead -- and that's morphed into a general archiving program for old game mods and such.
Naturally, I did the Combat Mission x1 series.
============================================================
GENERAL INTERNET ARCHIVE NOTE: If you wish to download a specific file within the main ZIP container, just click on the ([b]View Contents[/b]) link on the contents page.
============================================================
The Proving Grounds / The Scenario Depot II Site Rip (with Meta Data)
(NOTE, I've duplicated the scenarios themselves in each CMx1 individual
scenario archive, but this is here for completeness since TPG/TSDII were quite
important CMx1 websites back in the day)
============================================================
============================================================
https://archive.org/details/wargamer-depot_TPG-TSD2_siterip
Main Page
https://archive.org/download/wargamer-depot_TPG-TSD2_siterip
Information Page
From 5 to 8 May 2021; I ripped the following websites:
THE PROVING GROUND (TPG)
http://garykrockover.com/cmbb/index.html
Site Rip as of 5 May 2021 has:
6 x CMBO Scenarios
281 x CMBB Scenarios
223 x CMAK Scenarios
2 x CMBO Maps (some are not downloadable)
73 x CMBB Maps (some are not downloadable)
43 x CMAK Maps (some are not downloadable)
THE SCENARIO DEPOT II (TSD2) 
http://63.249.17.36/www.the-scenario-depot.com
The original Scenario Depot (I) was at http://www.dragonlair.net/combatmission/ until it's hosting company crashed with no backups.
It's successor, The Scenario Depot II was at http://www.the-scenario-depot.com/ until the domain wasn't renewed.
It was then "lost" for several years until I contacted the site owner; and got this URL:
http://63.249.17.36/www.the-scenario-depot.com
Site Rip as of 8 May 2021 has:
52 x CMBO Scenarios
587 x CMBB Scenarios
527 x CMAK Scenarios
15 x CMBO Maps (some are not downloadable)
26 x CMBB Maps (some are not downloadable)
36 x CMAK Maps (some are not downloadable)
============================================================
============================================================
CMMOS/CMMODS DVD Backup
============================================================
============================================================
This was created from an old DVD that I burned with about 3.7 GB of Combat Mission CMMOS data on or around 2004.
A lot of the information on this was "lost" over the years, and this is my way of giving back to the CM community.
Here is a file list:
Total number of folders = 62
Total number of files  = 1809
Sum of file sizes = 3.5~ GB
It's all within several spanned ZIP files.
https://archive.org/details/wargamer-depot_CMMOS_mods
(information page)
https://archive.org/download/wargamer-depot_CMMOS_mods
(contents page)
============================================================
============================================================
CMBO Mods:
============================================================
============================================================
https://archive.org/details/wargamer-depot_CMBO_mods
(information page)
https://archive.org/download/wargamer-depot_CMBO_mods
(contents page)
On 5-10 May 2021, I cleaned out the following CMx1 repositories:
cmx1mods.greenasjade.net
in an attempt to archive as many of the old Combat Mission 1 (Beyond Overlord/Barbarossa to Berlin/Afrika Korps) mods as possible to safeguard against the probability of greenasjade.net disappearing in the near future.
I downloaded 458 out of 458 files; and their total size is 1.46 GB.
============================================================
============================================================
CMBB Mods:
============================================================
============================================================
https://archive.org/details/wargamer-depot_CMBB_mods
(information page)
https://archive.org/download/wargamer-depot_CMBB_mods
(contents page)
On 5-10 May 2021, I cleaned out the following CMx1 repositories:
cmx1mods.greenasjade.net
in an attempt to archive as many of the old Combat Mission 1 (Beyond Overlord/Barbarossa to Berlin/Afrika Korps) mods as possible to safeguard against the probability of greenasjade.net disappearing in the near future.
I downloaded 1,806 out of 1,811 files; and their total size is 4.35 GB.
============================================================
============================================================
CMAK Mods:
============================================================
============================================================
https://archive.org/details/wargamer-depot_CMAK_mods
(information page)
https://archive.org/download/wargamer-depot_CMAK_mods
(contents page)
On 5-10 May 2021, I cleaned out the following CMx1 repositories:
cmx1mods.greenasjade.net
in an attempt to archive as many of the old Combat Mission 1 (Beyond Overlord/Barbarossa to Berlin/Afrika Korps) mods as possible to safeguard against the probability of greenasjade.net disappearing in the near future.
I downloaded 1,605 out of 1,605 files; and their total size is 4.69 GB.
============================================================
============================================================
COMBAT MISSION: BEYOND OVERLORD SCENARIOS
============================================================
============================================================
https://archive.org/details/wargame-depot-combat-mission-beyond-overlord
(information page)
https://archive.org/download/wargame-depot-combat-mission-beyond-overlord
(contents page)
This file contains recovered Wargamer Scenario Depot data from two sources:
1.) The 2015 Dump at https://archive.org/details/WargamerGamesDepotArchive20160514.tar
2.) A Internet Archive Downloader Dump in April 2021 to recover what was stored on the Internet Archive's backups.
Out of 5 scenario files on the WGD for "Combat Mission Beyond Overlord",  5 were recovered (100%) directly.
HAVE
3508 - Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord: East of Bryansk
3551 - Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord: 101st in Normandy
3701 - Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord: Big Red Omaha V2.0
4176 - Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord: When Trumpets Fade
4558 - Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord: Fischbach
MISSING:
NONE
Out of 69 scenario files on the WGD for "Combat Mission",  0 were recovered (0%).
HAVE:
NONE
MISSING:
1003 - Combat Mission: Strategic Highway
1198 - Combat Mission: Kelly's Heroes full campaign
1211 - Combat Mission: Cintheaux - Totalize
1273 - Combat Mission: August Bank Holiday
1279 - Combat Mission: We Don't Need No Education
1280 - Combat Mission: Lacko's Centiepied
1281 - Combat Mission: Lacko's Tea Party
1433 - Combat Mission: Parker's Crossroads
156 - Combat Mission: Wonder of Ihantala
162 - Combat Mission: UPDATE: Wonder of Ihantala
172 - Combat Mission: Crucifix Hill
1749 - Combat Mission: Beta Mission
178 - Combat Mission: AG1 Sgt Feibecke at Ozero
179 - Combat Mission: K3 A Brief Visit to a Church
181 - Combat Mission: K2 Pyrrhic Victory
183 - Combat Mission: K1 The High Ground
1864 - Combat Mission: Beta Mission
217 - Combat Mission: der Nebel
218 - Combat Mission: Minor Victory
219 - Combat Mission: Pockets of Resistance
226 - Combat Mission: Attack on Selz crossroads
237 - Combat Mission: Battle of Kiestinki
281 - Combat Mission: Gains Measured in Yards
282 - Combat Mission: Dangerous Information
304 - Combat Mission: Buda Castle
337 - Combat Mission: The Notch
34 - Combat Mission: Zurück on Chainbridge
363 - Combat Mission: Battle Of Honkaniemi
381 - Combat Mission: Gute Jagd
382 - Combat Mission: Falschirmjaeger On The East
383 - Combat Mission: My Grandfather
384 - Combat Mission: Der Erste Marsch
385 - Combat Mission: The Last Hussars
39 - Combat Mission: Dieppe
398 - Combat Mission: Bitche Bulge
426 - Combat Mission: Pacific Mod:  Shallow Water Files Tarawa
427 - Combat Mission: Joe's Bridge
428 - Combat Mission: Brit Burma Uniform
442 - Combat Mission: CM Pacific Theater Mod Iwo Jima
443 - Combat Mission: Combat Mission Pacific Theater Mod
444 - Combat Mission: CM Pacific Theater Mod Scenarios
47 - Combat Mission: Dog Green, 6 June-2
476 - Combat Mission: Maple Leaf Down
496 - Combat Mission: Lacko's Elba
506 - Combat Mission: Screaming In The dark
507 - Combat Mission: Holding Villebaudon
515 - Combat Mission: Hell On Wheels
538 - Combat Mission: Break On Thru
539 - Combat Mission: Back To Hell
564 - Combat Mission: Assault On Gambsheim
586 - Combat Mission: Gheel
621 - Combat Mission: Operation Nordwind
644 - Combat Mission: Bouncing The Rhine
656 - Combat Mission: Ed's Grass Mod
740 - Combat Mission: Bridges Near Stavelot
750 - Combat Mission: Fortress In The Bocage v1.02
868 - Combat Mission: Frontovik Russian T-34 Tank Mods
893 - Combat Mission: DFDR Complete Scenario Set
894 - Combat Mission: DFDR Clubfoot's Scenario Set
895 - Combat Mission: DFDR (Complete) MOD
896 - Combat Mission: Finland MOD
897 - Combat Mission: Frontovik I (Infantry) MOD
898 - Combat Mission: Frontovik  Complete Scenario Set
899 - Combat Mission: Frontovik II (vehicles) MOD
900 - Combat Mission: Fading Hopes III (Germany 1939-40)
901 - Combat Mission: Fading Hopes II (France 1940) MOD
902 - Combat Mission: Fading Hopes I (Poland 1939)  MOD
903 - Combat Mission: Fading Hopes Complete Scenarios Set
904 - Combat Mission: Roadblock At St. Severs
BONUSES
I have included more CMBO scenarios from around the internet. There's likely to be massive duplication between all of the different packs and sources, but put together, I think this corpus constitutes most CMBO scenarios made.
1.) Pacific Mod: 28 scenarios + the graphics to mod them
2.) Rune Pack (in a specific folder): About 59~ scenarios/campaigns
3.) Ardennes DeSobry Pack: 3 versions of this scenario
4.) A Scenario Pack (AltWars) I made from an old CMMODS v4.03 database that I downloaded years ago; combined with a trawl through (http://cmx1mods.greenasjade.net); giving about 295 scenarios.
5). CMHQ Depot: About 306 scenarios with metadata
6.) Koen Pack: 4 Scenarios
7.) Rhine Pack: 10 scenarios
8.) St Malo Pack: 5 Scenarios
9.) The Blitz' CMBO Pack: About 187 scenarios and 27 maps.
10.) TheGamersNetwork: About 200 scenarios with metadata.
11.) TLD Scenario Pack : 22 scenarios
12.) The Proving Ground / The Scenario Depot II Scenario Pack for CMBO: About 59 scenarios and 13 maps.
13.) Zuf's CMBO Scenario Pack: 1,645 scenarios
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============================================================
COMBAT MISSION: BARBAROSSA TO BERLIN SCENARIOS
============================================================
============================================================
https://archive.org/details/wargame-depot-combat-mission-barbarossa-to-berlin
(information page)
https://archive.org/download/wargame-depot-combat-mission-barbarossa-to-berlin
(contents page)
This file contains recovered Wargamer Scenario Depot data from two sources:
1.) The 2015 Dump at https://archive.org/details/WargamerGamesDepotArchive20160514.tar
2.) A Internet Archive Downloader Dump in April 2021 to recover what was stored on the Internet Archive's backups.
Out of 10 scenario files on the WGD, 10 were recovered (100%) directly.
HAVE
3294 - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin: KH2 The Count
3295 - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin: AG3 Flak Dance at Vilna
3352 - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin: HSG AG4 The Cross Roads
3513 - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin: East of Bryansk
3878 - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin: Sons of Zrinyi
4017 - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin: Danzig Panther
4054 - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin: PreeKuln
4269 - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin: Hungarian Mission Pack
4366 - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin: Road to Rzhavets
4823 - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin: Darsunikis
MISSING:
NONE
BONUS:
I have included a large amount of CMBB scenario packs in the BONUS directory. I think with all this, we have most CMBB scenarios ever made.
I've tried to include everything I can; there's too many to describe here; from the Stalingrad Pack, Kursk Pack, Russian Training Set, Denhost CMBB Pack, Philippe CMBB Pack, a Boots & Tracks site rip (scenarios and AARs).
Some of the packs are:
The Blitz CMBB Pack: 371 Scenarios and 15 maps.
The Proving Ground / The Scenario Depot II Pack: About 840 scenarios and 87 maps.
Zuf's Scenario Pack: 2,164 (!!!) scenarios.
============================================================
============================================================
COMBAT MISSION: AFRIKA KORPS SCENARIOS
============================================================
============================================================
https://archive.org/details/wargame-depot-combat-mission-afrika-korps
(information page)
https://archive.org/download/wargame-depot-combat-mission-afrika-korps
(contents page)
This file contains recovered Wargamer Scenario Depot data from two sources:
1.) The 2015 Dump at https://archive.org/details/WargamerGamesDepotArchive20160514.tar
2.) A Internet Archive Downloader Dump in April 2021 to recover what was stored on the Internet Archive's backups.
Out of 6 scenario files on the WGD, 6 were recovered (100%).
Also included as a bonus is an archive of other scenarios and campaigns recovered from various sites for completeness.
HAVE
3492 - Combat Mission: Afrika Korps: Small Village in Valley
3520 - Combat Mission: Afrika Korps: Village on Hill - Allied Attack
3709 - Combat Mission: Afrika Korps: Kommerscheidt
3746 - Combat Mission: Afrika Korps: Rearguard Action at Fuka
3953 - Combat Mission: Afrika Korps: Band of Brothers, Part 4: Replacements
3960 - Combat Mission: Afrika Korps: Bridgehead Eberbach
MISSING:
NONE
BONUS:
I have included a Combat Mission Beyond Overlord Scenario Pack with this for completeness. It was put together from an old CMMODS v4.03 database that I downloaded years ago; combined with a trawl through (http://cmx1mods.greenasjade.net). 
I've tried to include everything I can, including Philippe's 11-part pack that breaks down as:
1940 - 67 Scenarios
Ardennes - 88 Scenarios
East Africa - 19 Scenarios
France & Germany - 95 Scenarios
Greece - 37 Scenarios
Italy/Southern France - 258 Scenarios
Market Garden - 23 Scenarios
Normandy 198 Scenarios
North Africa - 195 Scenarios
Norway - 4 Scenarios
Arab Israeli Wars - 8 Scenarios
Korea -4  Scenarios
PTO - 14 Scenarios
SCW - 7 Scenarios
SeaLion - 5 Scenarios
Vietnam - 13 Scenarios
Everything Else - 10  Scenarios
Along with graphics mods for a SEALION set plus a few scenarios to go with it.
BFC Companion Scenarios: 12 scenarios
CMAK Operations Pack: 59 items?
BootsNTracks Pack: 16 Scenarios
CDST Pack: 16 scenarios
Koen Pack: 5 Scenarios
Random Pack: 62 scenarios (random potporri from my own files)
Small Battles Pack: 68 scenarios
The Blitz CMAK Pack: 117 scenarios
Tiny Battles Pack: 5 scenarios
The Proving Grounds / The Scenario Depot II Pack: 743 scenarios and 73 maps
WBRP Pack: 11 scenarios
Zuf Pack: 1,001 scenarios
I'm confident to say that even though there may be massive amounts of duplicates, this corpus constitutes most CMAK scenarios published.

Yes, good for you.  Even tho's have been a big fan of CM1 I keep forgetting how compelling the early war stuff was since CM1 had mods for Poland '39, France 1940, Sea Lion etc. that enabled one to play even earlier eras than Barbarossa.  
I loved the fact that in CMBB you could have a campaign that took you all the way through the entire war - in one game(!).
And while at levels 1 and 2, it's clear that CM2 look better, at levels 3 upwards, a well-modded CM1 was very competitive with the way CM1 looks.   I think most experienced players spend most of their time playing at the higher levels for ease of control.  

I still play both CMAK and CMBB...more than CM2.  For games spanning the North Africa theater and early east front, they are are the only game in town.

Good graphics are nice to have, but they have never been a priority for me. I am finding that the classic Combat Mission games to be a lot of fun.

Good graphics are nice to have, but they have never been a priority for me. I am finding that the classic Combat Mission games to be a lot of fun.

I used to own these games but playing now the newer ones. People still complain about the graphics but CM is for me good enough. 

I am currently playing through all of my realistic tactical and operational games in chronological order(so mostly Combat Mission and Command Ops). I'm not entirely sure how many scenarios and Campaigns I have since I did bulk downloads of custom scenarios/campaigns/operations so I have a lot of duplicates and H2H only scenarios. But it is somewhere north of 2,000 total scenarios between CMAK, CMBB, CMFI, CMBN, CMRT, CMCW, CMA, CMSF, & CMBS. I have spent the last couple years just sorting all of them (renaming each with the date at the front of the filename in YYYY-MM-DD format so that they order themselves in chronological order when sorted alphabetically) and haven't actually been playing them during that time (to minimize spoilers) so I am very rusty now. But at long last sorting is finished, and playing has now commenced.
I have just finished uploading the first CMAK scenario of the playthrough, this one set in France in 1940, to youtube and I thought I might share it here in case anyone is interested.
 
 
 
 
 

Well, I still haven't figured out the unreadable text issue with the Battlefront version (which is the latest version, 1.04). But I managed to get the GOG version working fine by setting my display resolution to match the best resolution offered by the game (2048 x 1536). Which with the benefit of hindsight probably should have been the first thing I tried.

How did you purchase? If the game is on your account, it may be possible to download the latest version. Unfortunately, I bought mine at the time in a computershop on Windows XP. If your installation number is on your account uninstall, download and reinstall may solve the problem. 

I just sent all those "North Afrika" music and BG desert sound files plus a few more to Koh.  Am sure if you ask nicely he can forward the folder to your dropbox.  

Yep, that is the updated version. Unfortunately, the original mod description got lost, when Bootie migrated the stuff from GaJ‘s site to the FGM site.
If it is of interested: There should be another „splash mod“ with the overture from „A bridge too far“ on the FGM site. Fit‘s nicely to MG scenarios. If you don‘t find, drop me a line.

And finally I found the time to convert and upload some songs, including Lili Marleen, D-Day Dodgers, Erika, It's a long way to Tipperary and some others.

Due to the file size they are at Green As Jade's place:

http://cmmods.greenasjade.net/mods/4950/details

Guys, of course there weren't T-72s in GSFG, but units equipped with these tanks deployed in the border military districts of USSR. Of course, these units could be moved to Germany after beginning of warfare as reinforcements. Also T-72 had Central Group of Forces in Chekhoslovakia, closest to the theater.  

I don't have anything in the current period of the game (1979-1982). But I found a wonderful document giving the OOBs of the Warsaw Pact forces in Europe in June 1989: http://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1377961541351.pdf
As of 1989 it seems all formations are equipped either with T80s or T64Bs. I wasn't quite satisfied with this and wanted to know what type of T80 each unit had (who had T80Us and who had T80BVs), and got this answer on Quora: https://www.quora.com/Where-were-the-Soviet-T80Us-stationed-in-1989-What-kind-of-T80s-were-stationed-in-East-Germany-in-1989?q=t80u
The relevant excerpt:
"Divisions of 8th guards army: 27th: T80U, 57th: T80?, 79th: T80?, 39th: mixed, one regiment of T80BV (1987), and two regiments of T80U (1989).
Divisions of 1st guards tank army: 9th: T80BV, 11th: T80BV *, 20th: T80BV.
Divisions of 3rd shock tank army: 7th: T80U, 10th: T80?, 12th: T80?, 47th: T80?.
Divisions of 2nd guards tank army:
16th: T80?,
21st: T80U (1991, differs with your OOB),
207th: T80? (1991, differs with your OOB),
94th: T64B (1991, differs with your OOB).
There are also 20th guards army (presented in your OOB but omitted in your list):
6th separate motorized rifle brigade: T64B (omitted in your OOB),
25th tank division (disbanded in 1989): T64B,
32nd guards tank division: T64B,
35th motorized rifle division: T64B,
90th guards tank division : T80? (1990, differs with your OOB)."
Again, unfortunately this information applies to 1989, which is currently outside of the scope of the game (although could be useful in designing scenarios in Armored Brigade, which is what I initially wanted the information for since CMCW hadn't even been announced at the time). Anyway, still no T72s in Germany (plenty waiting back in the USSR though, and I'm sure it wouldn't take long for them to join the fighting).

From what I understand, they did some thinking-outside-the-box and labeled the extended tube a 'bipod' so so when the weapon is deployed the 'bipod' (e.g. extended tube) appears. One of those things that's obvious only after someone first thinks of it.

Long time player of CO2 (and 1, which was just CO). Better than OK, it's an outstanding game. I suppose you could use it for scenario creation, keeping in mind that in pretty much any CO2 scenario, you'd have to play to some point and then pick an interesting section of the overall battlefield and slice it to be a CM scenario, due to the map and unit sizes of CO2. There is plenty of detail under the hood listing all the equipment and personnel of every unit  and their casualty state, which you could take and apply to force selection in CM.
What you'd be doing is taking an existing historical battle/mini-campaign, playing it out partway using your own methods, and then at some point stopping to select part for a semi-historical/what-if scenario for CM. Getting all that info from CO2 to CM would be kind of tedious, but you could do it. Plus you'd have to create your own map based on what you sliced from CO2. The fidelity of the maps in CO2 is nice, but not the level of granularity of CM.
Anyway, CO2 is a lot of fun. Different level, but a pretty capable AI, and there are many scenario sets available. Also if you check the LnL forums there are some user made battles that are excellent. There's a 3 or 4 scenario Caen campaign that's really great (and huge!).
 
Dave

Thanks! I've been a big fan of your tactical icons mods since I first discovered them (I think the first one I came across was the one for CMSF, but it's been a couple years). I now have a Cat Tactical Icons mod sitting in all of my z folders.

Thanks! I've been a big fan of your tactical icons mods since I first discovered them (I think the first one I came across was the one for CMSF, but it's been a couple years). I now have a Cat Tactical Icons mod sitting in all of my z folders.

Nice @Centurian52!

Hi folks, this morning Ithikial has created an update to his CM Career Tracker.  Fid it at the link below.  An absolute must have for stat nerds. 
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/cm-mod-warehouse/uncategorized/ithikials-combat-mission-career-record-system-ww2-and-modern-era/
 

Hi folks... latest mod upload is IanL's CMCW icons mod modified by @Centurian52 to work in CM Afghanistan.
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/cm-mod-warehouse/combat-mission-afghanistan/combat-mission-afghanistan-other/cma-cat-tactical-icons/

A quick and dirty summary of the tanks present in the various divisions of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, I compiled this from the data available on the excellent Cold War Soviet Army OoB site by Michael Holm. These are only ballpark figures (and some smaller units are missing, namely a few independent tank regiments) but this should be useful to get the overall picture.