CraftyLJ

It's taken me awhile to try this one out but I finally got around to playing the first mission...
 

If you've played BF2:RP then you're probably familiar with this map, as it was my inspiration for the creation.
An American combined force trying to capture a harbor. Only the Russian AI has been completed so far (only one plan), so play BLUE only!
 

Pavlovsk Bay_Std.btt

I am back. I got suggestion that I should post short summaries only like every 30-60 minutes. If it is more convenient for everybody I can do it like this.

Good lord that is a tough one. So are we talking leadership training?  Sounds like it.  Battlefield leadership and resilience is a big freakin topic.  If I had 15 mins before jumping off the truck and running into it:
- Don’t get pulled too far in.  Combat is pretty wild and it is easy to get pulled too far into a single crisis.  The reality is that is all crisis.  A tactical line leader needs to keep one step back and try and see the system of crisis as it unfolds.  If the leader is pulled in too far they lose the picture they need to sustain in order to give their people the best chances and to keep the pointed at the enemy.
- Don’t get pulled too far back.  Fear and shock is normal but once the initial contact is made leaders cannot suck too far back.  You do that and the troops feel abandoned and you start to lose the ability to get a feel of how the whole machine is holding together.
- Combat is a longer game than people think.  Once the initial actions and shooting start, the drama starts to normalize.  Leaders need to stay on top of that.  Normalize can mean troops get sloppy…they got into combat and did not die…so now what?  Also the need to watch out for sustainment.  Modern western troops were set up for about 20 mins of sustained combat before air or indirect firepower came to the rescue.  The UA guys do not have this, so they might have to settle in and make their ammo last - so back to basics like fire discipline and marksmanship (yep they still matter).
- On Basics - build them in as priority and stick to them. Once the lead starts flying and people start screaming everything else strips away.  You are left with relationships and trust you built up to that point (ie each other) and the basic skills you have beaten into their brains.  Something as simple as IAs and stoppages and simply keeping you weapon in operation can be really hard under fire unless it is beaten into muscle memory.  Have the troops practice the most mundane things, hundreds of times.
- Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.  Be deliberate and as calm as you can be at all times.  Calm like panic is contagious.  If the leader is not freaking out, the troops likely won’t either.  Be deliberate, take the few extra seconds to pull order together.  Get past scared, get past mad and get cold.  You should literally feel cold inside - once you get there it gets a lot easier.  People become systems.  The enemy is a metric.  Really hard to describe this space but you have a mission and everything else, including you are simply means to that end, or a obstacle to remove.
- Build trust and use it.  As a ground force leader your weapon is the unit.  It is only as good as you kept it before the shooting started.  In combat let it do its job and try hard to stay out of people’s way.  There is an art to knowing when to step in and when not too.
- Leadership is nothing like the movies or even the BS fed in basic. It starts with whipping the troops in training while driving them in front of you, then it shifts to walking with them under fire - lean on each other.  In the back end you will be out in front pulling, sometimes begging and pleading to get them across the finish line.  Again quiet calm is the norm.  Then when you do yell or swear everyone really pays attention because it is so much out of character.
- Establish depth and redundancy…everywhere.  Everyone has a 2 IC, 3 IC and then last man standing.  I cannot describe how fast the famous “chain of command” can fall apart.  So build it deep.  Also leave room for informal leaders, they will emerge.
- Don’t be a hero, your people do not need one.  Some guys go in looking for that hero moment but that often only gets people killed.  A hero gets in and gets the job done while keeping as many of his people alive as he can.  Take opportunities if the come but don’t lean too far forward at the expense of peoples lives.
- Little things matter so much.  A joke, a quiet word a little luxury and a small sacrifice.  For some troops when they get ragged these little things make all the difference and can sustain them.
- Finally, and this is the hardest one, do not forget that you and your people are ammunition. Your job is to spend them on problems. Worse, your job is to convince them that it is worth it.  Once the war is over you are going to be living with this fact for the rest of you life.  You only get to put that one down at the end.  You will spend those years writing reference letters for jobs they are applying for, checking in on the survivors and people left behind, and re-living every decision you made.  Just accept that and move on but never forget the weight of this thing, that is your end.
Beyond that, resilience is a lot about understanding what is happening to you.  If you can name it, you take its power away.  You need to be really self aware and do self checks,  Cannot stress the importance of the lead NCO and officer team in this.  You and your troop or company NCO need to really be able to gauge where each other are at as a check and balance system.  And none of it makes sense.  You might get into three firefights and are fine, then once fourth you freeze up.  Why you froze up could be anything in the human soup.  You need to understand it is happening and hand off as quickly as possible.  Then get over it because it may never happen again.  If it happens a lot or all the time - you are not a coward, you are simply too evolved for this business.  Time to get pulled off the line and go do an important job somewhere else.  Perhaps you are a brilliant staff officer or analyst that can save hundreds of lives.  Everyone will break eventually (well anyone who is not a complete psychopath) it is a matter of when, not if…even you.

I'm here to ask you guys some for some informed help.
There have been Ukrainians training in my country for a while now, and this last cycle that just graduated, they have selected 3 dozen or so candidates to go through another X amount of extended training and turn them into NCO's/Officers.
My unit is going to be in charge of that training.
I was talking with the base psychologist, who is going to be in charge of their "psychological" training. She will be giving them half a dozen of weekly addresses, but she has been given no advice or direction on what to teach them. She has some idea of where to start (stress handling, leadership skills...etc) but apart from that, taking into account these guys are headed for an actual shooting war obviously she wants to make an actual contribution and not give them hollow TedTalks.
As people with more expertise than me, I refer to you all the question:
What sort of psychological training would you recommend she prepare given the circumstances? What topics should she cover or what sort of techniques could she teach?
Thank you in advance.
 
PS I apologize if this isn't the correct place for the post but it's the place with the most traffic at the moment and the training isn't far off, so we would appreciate the help. Again, thank you in advance.

The leaked lone dutch commando collecting 298 patches somewhere in occupied territory🙂

I thought with CMBN out on Steam, it would be a good idea to make a video geared towards new players in order to help out with the basic gameplay.

This is basically me just musing although there is some news in this post.
I'm in the final stages of putting together the first of three short campaigns, USMC Gung Ho. I thought there would be a very quick turn-around on this project because it was already largely finished and fully tested. I thought it would just require a new core unit file and a few tweaks here and there to take advantage of all the changes that have come over the last 10+ years. Well, was I wrong. One of the missions (CAAT Fight) was just absolute rubbish. I have no idea how I thought it was fun on any level. That required a whole new mission which I'm very happy with and much more in line with what I wanted. I ended up massively expanding two of the maps as well, (Watching the Detectives and Bridges if you're interested). The opener also got overhauled and expanded as well but not to the same degree that those two did. The AI forces in each mission have been reworked as well and the AI plans totally redone. So, it's been a lot more work to fix than I'd first thought.
Anyway, it's close to the end and if you're familiar with the campaign design process, this is when I, at least, start to look forward to my next project. I've been focused solely on Gung Ho for the last few weeks and the AI is done for all six missions and final testing is under way. But, at this stage, I feel like I've seen it all with this campaign so I've started looking at Hasrabit and boy, did I get a shock.
Hasrabit is basically my first real project and the AI design sucks! I opened up a few missions and had a look at placement for both and was very disappointed. Then the AI plans and was even more disappointed. I'd rate the current standard as unplayable but it's definitely fixable. The maps are actually quite good although a few of them would benefit from improving and expanding, particularly the armour clashes. I used to think anything over 1km in one direction was H-U-G-E.  And back then, it was. Computers are just so much more powerful nowadays that I can manage the massive firefight that results in the first five minutes of the Gung Ho finale without so much asd a hiccup. That would have dropped to about 2-3FPS on my old rig.
So, once Gung Ho is finished, I plan to get to work on Retribution and Hasrabit together. Red v Red is where the real fun is at for me so I'm excited to revisit the latter and to start work on the former. I expect the Brit version of Gung Ho won't take too long to finish though but no promises. I don't want to fight 'Meet the Flintstones' again for a L-O-N-G time.

I have this evening posted my 82nd Airborne in Normandy campaign, "Mission Boston - Objective La Fiere" at the scenario depot.
This is my final contribution to CMBN. With that I am retiring from all things CM and moving on to other interests. I will check in here once in a while for the next few months to see what's new.

1 year of the war is passed. From the start of the invasion and to the huge count of air and missile strikes. One of my friends has been killed by wagner artillery in Bohorodichne village near Bakhumt. My father-in-law has been killed by storming the defensive enemy positions in the Kherson region 1st of October. I gave 3 of my salaries (all what I have)on the first day of the war on the military budget. Thanks to all of you, thanks for your help. Taking carry of our refugees, helping our soldiers to destroy enemy forces with AT weapons, artillery, APS, AFV, and Tanks, peoples who served in foreign legions. Thank you for giving billions of money to support our economy. Special thanks to battlefront for small support for me, when I asked about a discount, they gave me 2 games with all DLCs for free - I didn't expect this. Some of my relatives were in Kherson in occupation, and all high-value electronic and expensive things were looted from them by Russian forces. And now we don't fear rocket strikes (10 times they exploded 700-1000m from my house) we don't fear nuclear threat, we don't fear the second army in the world and you shouldnt. Sorry for we English would that what I want to say for all of you, I can tell you many things about the war but first i will try to improve my language knowlages.

I've had this idea since CMCW came out. A campaign that takes place in the Agger Valley, i.e. North Rhine-Westphalia, east of Cologne instead of the Fulda Gap. The main roads and railway go through the valley, the hills around it are a mixture of woods and farmland with only smaller roads and settlements. This is the area I grew up in and CMCW reminded me of the young boy I was back in the 80s with his regiment's worth of plastic soldiers and tanks, imagining things while looking out of the window. Recent events in Ukraine made me reconsider whether it is really that much of a good idea to see your home town being devastated by war. Then again, part of why I play wargames nowadays is to get at least an idea of how people must have felt or must feel in a war. So how better to explore this than having a battlefield where I actually recognize the features from my childhood?

I'm not much into Cold War force compositions and I'm no expert on how such a campaign would have been organized in reality (i.e. what forces would have been employed where and how and such). So this is where I would like to ask for your input. What forces would have realistically taken part in such a campaign, how they would have been equiped, their structure, OOB, you name it.
The Backstory
It is september 1980. Similar to what almost happened with Able Archer a few years later, the KGB had identified Reforger 80 - Certain Rampart as a disguise to actually start a war. According to Soviet strategic planning this had to be prempted with an attack of their own. Soviet tanks had suddenly crossed the border just a week before Certain Rampart was to start. The first few days had gone badly for NATO forces that had been busy preparing for the exercise. But now, about a week into the war, much of the frontline has become static as both sides are nearing exhaustion.
North Rhine-Westphalia had seen the fiercest fighting in and around the Ruhrgebiet, the industrial heart of West Germany and also the largest urbanized area. The southern part had been relatively quiet as the region east of it, Sauerland/Siegerland/Rothaargebirge was difficult terrain with little infrastructure. It was here where the Soviets had gambled: They had thrown in their last fresh reserves, Category C formations, beefed up with some remnants of some Category A and B formations that had been pulled from the frontline for reconstruction. Still they must have had help from either local supporters, sleeper agents from the GDR or SOF that enabled such a quick advance after the break through. Every German Autobahn had been prepared for demolition and in case of a Soviet advance, bridges should have been blown, roads made impassable, etc. They weren't and in a mad dash Soviet forces had rushed down Autobahn 4 up to Engelskirchen where they were finally forced to go by normal roads. The western part of the Agger valley lay ahead. It was narrow and there was not much infrastructure outside of it. But a successful advance down the valley would bring the Red Army to the river Rhine, just oposite of the West German capital, Bonn and close to Cologne/Bonn Airport.
NATO was hard pressed at this point as most of the reserves had been commited already. It was decided to take parts of US 5th Infantry Division to plug the gap. The Reforger reinforcements had been delayed and parts of the equipment had fallen prey to Soviet missile strikes and interdiction. Somewhat understrength and under equipped a battalion TF was sent ahead to setup in the town of Overath.
The Current Situation
While the battalion is still setting up in Overath, the scout platoon and 2 platoons of B Company are racing towards Loope to delay the Soviet advance and give the rest of the battalion time to setup.
Several things I'd like to explore here.
Terrain that is different from Fulda Gap, dominated by hills around a long valley. Not AAA elite tank formations duking it out but understrength, second rate forces. Autumn weather, rain, mud and all that. So, what do you think, is the back story plausible? I hope that noone feels offended by me calling any US troops second rate, but in the sense I described above, what would a second rate force look like (also in CM terms). I don't know much about National Guard formations, I was thinking about 256th Infantry Brigade, for instance. Is it realistic to view them as possibly worse equipped than formations permanently in Europe and less trained/fit? I'd love to have West German reserve units (Heimatschutz or something) for this but I have to take what I can get. What should Soviet forces look like?
Locations
I'm not very skilled at map making or am too impatient (or both), so that so far kept me from actually starting with this. This is part of why I've been busy developing CMAutoEditor (well work is still in progress). Which automates much of the map making for me (but also puts some constraints on the map making, like only maps with axes parallel to the coordinate axes).
Sorry for advertising my own tool here, it's just to give you the context for how maps are done. I use laser scans for elevation data and OpenStreetMap as starting point form map making (meaning I delete buildings that weren't there 1980 and stuff like that).
My Loope map so far looks like this:

I have some of the eastern part of Overath. Do you have ideas for other locations or missions that would make sense?
 
 

Well dammit you are right - now we have to redo all the artwork.  Obviously "The Niven", not "The Lancaster"...damn how could we miss that?!

Oh and I know that generation very well, they were our DS on training - and first NCOs when we got our platoon.  Hard as f#ck, a charge record as long as your arms and all died in their 50s because as it turns out liquor, smoking and warfare are not good lifestyle choices. 

@The_Capt - a British one would be more appropriate:

Ok so this was the Falklands but the right era at least ... the bootneck with the moustache front left of the photo was a mate of my father's and was in the original NP 8901 and was one of the three who evaded capture for a few days after the original Argentine landings.  He, like the rest of NP 8901 returned with the Task Force.  Liked to drop his trousers in the pub to urinate off WW2 veterans who claimed that post WW2 conflicts "weren't real wars."  He got shot in Borneo in 1966 during Confrontation and had the hole in his leg to prove it.

If you will have time, will you provide some feedback to me?

The Ukrainian 79th Air Assault Brigade in unity with National Guard are liquidating the enemy helicopter landing party in North Mykolaiv 464×416 (PBEM or Blue vs AI only)
Situation
27th February 2022
Time 17.15 hrs
Mission time 55 minutes.
Weather Light Fog
Wind Medium, From South
Ground Condition Dry
The Russian army approached Mykolaiv with the main forces. To disrupt Ukrainian defense, the Russian command decided to make limited helicopter landings with special forces around the city.
Mission
Ukrainian mixed company needs to liquidate Russian special forces and liberate the Ukrainian Shipbuilding University 
Friendly Forces
Battalion HQ Team
1x 82mm mortar team
1x Sniper team
1x Special Forces Platoon
1x Company Command Squad on BTR-70s
1x Air Assault platoon on BTR-70s
1x National guard platoon on Ural's
1x National guard breach platoon on Ural's.
Enemy Forces
Unknown, the only we know that 5 Russian Mi-8 are landed near an old Fire Station.

Plan
Try to spot the enemy, you can try to capture the building yard and use it for a better view. You need to be careful, Russian special forces are well-trained and well-equipped. But
don't lose de time, because Russian forces will approach Mykolaiv this night, and you need to liquidate the enemy fast as you can.
Notes
The scenario is a recreation of how the Ukrainian units from the 79th Air Assault Brigade and National Guard destroyed enemy special forces north of Mykolaiv. The scenario 
is not 100% historically accurate, but I tried my best to speak with some people who fought in this battle, more I study it from internet resources.
Created by Dmytro Gadomskiy
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-black-sea/cm-black-sea-add-ons/ua-in-unity-is-power/

The map is out, and now you can play it.
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-black-sea/cm-black-sea-add-ons/ua-unthinkable-thought/

Name: The Battle for Lozove
Map readiness: 50%
Play: Blue vs AI or PBEM only.
Location: Kherson region.
Mission: cross the river and assault Lozove Village. (More information will be added soon)
Friendly forces: 35th Marine Brigade, 5th Tank Brigade. 406th Artillery Brigade.

Enemy forces: 70th Motorized Rifle Regiment
Help: Need some people who are good at English for writing a Briefing.

The Combat Mission doesn't have small maps for quick play and I decided to make one of those.
Situation
6th September 2022
Time 06.15 hrs
Mission time 25 minutes.
Weather Light Fog
Wind Gentle, From West
Ground Condition Dry
The Ukrainian army has started the full-scale сonteroffensive in the Kharkiv region.
Mission
1st platoon of 80th Air Assault brigade attacking enemy positions near Volokhiv Yar
Friendly Forces
Plt HQ
3x assault squads on BTR-70
attached
2x 82mm mortars.
Enemy Forces
A Brigade UAV overflight identified at least 4 enemy vehicles, more likely its MT-LBs, and probably one infantry platoon.
Plan
Destroy the enemy forces and move further through the enemy lines. Don't lose the BTR's-70. The Russian minefield is wholly destroyed, but you have to be careful some mines can still be placed.
Notes
The scenario is theoretical recreation of the Ukrainian 80th Air Assault Brigade assaulting enemy positions in the Kharkiv Conteroffensive and it is not 100% historically accurate.
Created by Dmytro Gadomskiy

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-black-sea/cm-black-sea-add-ons/cmbs-ua-no-one-but-us/

This is a re-do of my original TV98-3 “Attack in Brandenburg” but as REDFOR (Syrian regulars) versus OPFOR (Syrian fighters and combatants). It uses CMSF2 game version 2.05 9BFC) gane engine 4. Unfortunately, if you are on Steam the linked version of the scenario will not work as at the moment your version has not been patched.
 
This scenario concept is based on the one of the excellent Tactical Vignette series titled 
http://ciar.org/ttk/mbt/armor/armor-magazine/armor-mag.1998.mj/3TV98-3.pdf
TACTICAL VIGNETTE 98-3 “Attack in Brandenburg”
You can download the actual brief at the link above.
This revised revised scenario has had the built-up area and surroundings heavily reworked to make the terrain more complex and confined.
I've posted it here for some testing as not sure with the change of force from US heavy mech to Syrian tin cans re difficulty etc. Its probably one more suited to play H2H than aginst the AI.
Play as Blue (Syrian regular army) versus Red (Syrian fighters and combatants).

 
 
 
 
TV 98-3 Attack in Brandenburg REDFOR_v5.btt

Entire campaign is almost done. I was hoping to wrap up the final briefings tonight but got called into my side job so might have to wait till the weekend. - FF

Cold Warriors.
  Well it looks like Steve has already dropped the mic over on the annual update thread, so let myself, Bil H and Cpt Miller (along with a small team of unwashed heathens - two of whom are actually from the UK), be the second to announce the first CMCW Module - CMCW - British Army On the Rhine (BAOR).

We are still in development so I will only outline the broad strokes of what we are working on, and insert the caveat that we reserve the right to add/subtract - 
 - Time frame of the game is going deeper backwards into the Cold War.  We are setting the clock back to 1976, so CMCW will now encompass 1976-1982 (including some minor tweaks to the existing US orbats).  As has been noted we are less interested in the later Cold War years largely because they really do start to resemble the later CM titles and we are shooting to keep CMCW distinct in its own right.
- UK BOAR - right now we have a pretty comprehensive build planned for the UK units as they transitioned from their 1974 structures - to where they landed in 1980.  As per the picture above players should be able to become deeply engaged within the historical BAOR sector of the ETO.
- And because I just have to represent the home team, we are also doing the Canadians.  That little black box is the planned 4 CMBG AO - you will note this was right at the tail end when the brigade was still part of the BAOR, although for those that really want to play First Clash and park them down in Lahr you are fee to do so because the basic unit structures remained the same.
- We do have plans for the Soviet side, but are going to hold off on details until we zero them fully in...more to follow. 
- I will let you all speculate and discuss what new vehicles and weapon systems we are talking about but there is a not insignificant list of new ones we are planning - more as we start to get some cool screen shots.  
As noted by Steve, we are well on our way and are planning for a release this year - content and full scope remains TBA.
Thank you all very much for your support, the response to CMCW has been well beyond what we were expecting and that is entirely thanks to you guys.

Hey folks!
This is my second video AAR and I decided to use a bit of a different style with this one.  Let me know what you all think!  It's by no means perfect but I poured a lot of effort into this one.  Special thanks to @domfluff and the CM discord community for helping me through the editing and creation process!
 

Love seeing Cold War get more videos, especially ones of such high quality. Loved the combination of graphics (really well done by the way) gameplay and commentary! I'll echo others in saying that Free Whiskey continues to raise his own bar with each video he releases. Just really well done stuff. Plus, I appreciated the short clip from my tactical doctrine training scenarios of the T-64s all firing on line. Great shot! The commentary from Dom is great as well! Very informative, clear, and well spoken. A fantastic overview of the fundamentals of Soviet tactical doctrine. I can see this video along with the one Hapless did a year ago being go to shares for any newcomers asking about the basics of how the Soviets should fight. 
Honestly one of the most satisfying things I have seen from Cold War is how much intelligent discussion it has generated. Talking about concepts such as Soviet doctrine, US Active Defense and AirLand Battle, higher level stuff, tactical intricacies, etc. Its all been great to see. Dare I say that CMCW might be the high brow CM title.

I asked Domfluff to help me out in creating a video about Soviet military doctrine in the Cold War era, and how those principles can be applied in a Combat Mission scenario/QB. He played a game against me as the Soviet Army, gave me an arse kicking, and then sat down with me and explained why he did what he did. The result is the video down below!
 

Hey guys, I am putting the finishing touches on a campaign that focuses on the Russian VDV landings at Hostomel Airport on February 24th and 25th of this year, during the opening days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
I could use some play testers to play through the missions and offer feedback to help me polish this up for release.

The campaign features a 1:1 detailed scale map of the full airport and portions of the surrounding towns (Ozera, Blystyvytsia, Hostomel), a map of a town called Sosnivka that I thought would make a nice ambush location northwest of the airport, a map of the crossroads at Berestyanka, which you'll likely recognize from satellite imagery of the infamous 64km long Russian column from early in the war, and several custom flavor objects created for me by the incredible @Lucky_Strikeand @JM Stuff

If you are interested in helping, please leave a comment below or DM me. Thanks in advance! 
-TheFriendlyFelon