Simcoe

Totally agree. Just thinking from the Soviet perspective. MRB vs company combat team. I find the MRB can roll over anything less armored than a tank. Infantry, APC's and anti tank can be rushed and destroyed by auto cannon, 14.5mm machine guns, AK's, RPG's Against a US tank in the attack you have: your tanks, dead on artillery hit. I find Soviet ATGM's work much better in the defense since a US tank can usually shoot the missile team before it hits. The M60 might spot the team while they are getting in position too. For BMP's I find they work much better against infantry and light skinned vehicles. Against a tank I find the M60 just shoots them before the missile hits. Once you take out the tank platoon in a company combat team the rest is a peace of cake.

That is something I've noticed about the US in Cold War (without Bradley's). I find the majority of the firepower is in the tanks. They are absolute monsters but if the Soviets can disable them it's game over. The Soviets feel a bit more rounded in that regard.

Even for the average player. How cool would it be to see your campaign or PBEM that you have worked on for weeks played out in a hour long war movie?

I see where you're coming from. I'm just not sure if it was necessarily a fault of Obama. We all know the military industrial complex loves a war to sell weapons for. Whether legitimate (Ukraine) or not (Iraq/Afghanistan). They can shape public opinion to get the war they want. If the military industrial complex said "let's let this one go" the analysis must have looked really bad.

Obama should've known that historically, getting embroiled in a middle eastern/central asian country is a quick an easy affair. He could've had the boys back in time for christmas. Worked for Britain in Afghanistan, Russia in Afghanistan, the US in Afghanistan, the US in Iraq.

Great video! In the scenario you had some very powerful tanks attached. How much would you strategy change if you received T-62's or T-55's instead?

Just finished the article. Very interesting read. I think he he nails a concept that I've brought up here a couple times. In Combat Mission the Soviets are playing NATO's game. The company combat team is always in the right place and ready for the advancing MRB. Video games have a hard time with tempo. In the article he mentions how his team were tossing a football while the NATO side was still planning. How do you account for that MRB showing up before the company combat team is set up or what if they get there and the MRB already passed them and captured the division commander in his underwear? In Combat Mission or Flashpoint Campaigns you always get enough time to plan every minute detail so tempo is lost. Not sure how you would fix it.

To add a bit more to this an attack from the march is just an attack where you are not in contact with the enemy beforehand. An attack from contact means you are already in contact with the enemy. For example: 1st battalion is in a defensive position about 400 meters from the enemy. It will conduct an attack from contact. 2nd battalion is located 2km away and will conduct an attack from the March either flank the enemy or reinforce the breakthrough of 1st battalion.

There would be a great mix of Arab and Israeli assaults across open desert and small infantry actions with special forces. The Arab campaigns could follow both Syria and Egypt in the opening assaults. Israeli campaigns could follow the Sinai counter attacks.

I'll have to give it another try then. Thank you.

I still think the Yom Kippur war would be such an easy module to create. All the assets are already created in other games.

Do you have a link?

I have a feeling that the focus has moved to the next engine. All the popular time periods are already covered. A vocal minority wants early war WW2 but Battlefront would have done it if they thought it would make money. This engine is pretty long in the tooth so I welcome a pause in content if it gives us a modern engine.

Has he ever given an interview or posted in the forums? Does Steve keep him locked in the basement? So many questions.

I tried it a while back but I hate the Tom Clancy style backstories. "Chad Hardcock was captain of the football team, cured cancer and banged the prom queen all while being the best tank commander in US history". Not to mention the Soviets invading in 1989 is an utter farce. With all that said, is it worth picking up again?

Iron would be pretty cool if it was incorporated into a co-op style mode. Each person could run a company and have an agreement that you can't communicate unless you can actually communicate in game. As it is now it just makes things more difficult.

Great video. Each one is an improvement over the last.

I didn't know that. I know friendly fire is a real issue but in a game where you can see what any unit sees it feels out of place and just a nuisance. I had some machine gunners on a hill and rather than attack the enemy they could see they just attacked my men. I ended up putting a target arc so they didn't end up doing anything. Just another reason the Veteran difficulty is best difficulty.

Would be cool to see the brits too.

Totally agree on the effect of a great campaign. The Cold War campaign took me close to three months. I had days where I swore I would never play it again and delete my saves (Hello third mission and final mission). I would take a week off and then a eureka moment would happen and there I was again, playing into the wee hours of the night. Definitely looking forward to working on the Red Thunder Battle Pack campaign though.

What is everyone most looking forward to in 2023? I know it's a pipe dream but I'm really hoping the new Black Sea module comes out this year. If only to have the massive maps and battalion level operations of Cold War. The VDV would be really interesting to play in a more fluid meeting engagement. Not as excited for the Marines since they don't seem to be as different compared to the US Army. games coming to Steam doesn't interest me that much. A new Final Blitzkrieg module would be pretty fun. I would like a scenario where the US has to race across Germany from town to town while the Germans gather a scratch force to defend. And what if the Soviets got involved... Finally, I don't expect it to happen but if a new Cold War module comes out this year I'll scream like a school girl. British and Bundeswehr forces would be sufficient for me. I don't see the East Germans being very different from the Soviets. What is everyone else looking forward to?

I think the Cold War time period hits a sweat spot between WW2 and modern. You have the fast pace of modern games but the weaponry hasn't become so lethal/long range that you can't maneuver. In the 1979/1980 game period you can still use smoke without worrying that thermals will put you at a disadvantage. The formations are large enough that you can suffer some losses and not fail the scenario. Cold War is easily my favorite module.

Great write up! I made sure to add the "personally" in there to show its my (non-professional) opinion. In my opinion, the call in times are realistic compared to real life conbat. For example, a US company commander can call in an organic mortar battery in around 5 minutes. In real life that is very realistic but in Combat Mission that is an absolute eternity. 5 full turns! Even more if the observer has a difficult time seeing the spotting rounds. I think we can all agree that Combat Mission moves much more quickly than a real battle would. A 1 hour scenario with the objective of taking a town would probably take three times that in real life. That is why I think new players can get a bit confused with the call in times and I think some it's worth giving them some context. Again, all my opinion.

1. Experience gives a small bonus to call in time 2. The Soviet player should focus on pre planned bombardments. Personally, Combat Mission call in times are horribly slow. The Soviets wouldn't take that much longer than Americans to call in support. They just had fewer people to call it in. 3. The Abrams are there for a challenge. You're also in the most dangerous part of the front.

This is either the ramblings of a mad man or a coded message worthy of James Bond.