PEB14

And obviously the US Official history, available for free at the Center of Military History: https://history.army.mil/html/books/007/7-4-1/index.html https://history.army.mil/html/books/007/7-5-1/index.html

Fo the Battle for Normandy Vehicle Pack, BFC developped : - Flammpanzer Char B-2(f) - Geschützwagen 39H(f) 75mm and Geschützwagen 39H(f) 105mm which do use the same chassis as Hotchkiss H39 tank (so animation for the H39 wheels DOES already exist, and as the turret is the same as R35's, it shouldn't require much work to provide a Hotchkiss tank!). For the SOMUA I'm wrong. I've mistaken the SOMUA for the Unic P107, whose chassis does exist thanks to the Halftrack U304(f) of the same battle pack. And I forgot about: - Hetzer and Grille do use the PzKpfw 38(t) chassis -> this tank chassis also does exist - The same CMBN VP offers SdKfz 135/1 150mm as well, so the Lorraine tracked chassis is also already available…

BFC always stated that it was too much investment for not so high potential sells. And that creating new armor models was a lot of work. Well, the Dream Team has demonstrated that the graphical stuff can be done (indeed, it has been done!) And for the armor models, Char B1 already exists in a flamethrowing version, R35 does exist, there are Hotchkiss and SOMUA halftrack chassis developped for CMBN, Panzer IV and Panzer III exist for the most part… So? Not many new tanks to develop from scratch for a good France 40 base game: S-35, Panhard 178, Panzer I and II, and here you go! With a British/Belgian module if the base game sells well! And lot of stuff on hold for a great vehicle pack! Go, BFC, go!

The green color just indicates that is is a Victory Location area. Whether you occupy it or not, the color won't change. For the "Touch" objectives, you usually get a short message at the top of the screen once the condition is satisfied (and the VP won). AFAIK, there is nothing alike for the "occupy" objectives.

Actually I'm presently playing Devil's Descent. There is not much to add to your description, except that the missions are really easy (at least up to now, I just finished the fourth one), and thus they are perfect for a newbie… or a returning player.

Looks like the "Avanti!!" scenario to me! Great pics anyway!

It seems that mortars and MG get automatically deployed, at least in some of the games, is there a way to forbid their deployment?

I'm a scientist, so I like experiments… I did another try at the same question 15 minutes after. From Wiki: That's Machine Learning at its best.

ChatGPT can.

If you select the mortar team, you can only fire within your LOS (direct fire). If you want to use indirect fire, as stated by @Codreanu, you need to direct the fire using the HQ unit.

More in line with Combat Mission: As we say in French: "c'est pas gagné…" I hope the Python codes generated by ChatGPT won't we used to ensure the safety of nuclear power plants… On the other hand, it would be nice as a politician: it's impressively strong in asserting bull**** with utmost conviction… And it's also very good in contradicting itself in the very same sentence…

But that's only a ChatBot. A bot who chats. Nothing less, but nothing more. It's supposed to be "Artificial Intelligence", but there is not a drop of intelligence behind. Just mass data analysis. (I've nothing against the AI in general, it's very useful in my own field, but I cannot understand the purpose of a ChatBot based on data stats…)

I'm not that impressed. Out of the Top 5 list of scenarios you've asked for, only "Omaha Beach" does exist. AFAIK there is nothing like: Red Thunder" (Battle for Normandy) "Crossing the Dykes" (Battle for Normandy) "The Cauldron" (Battle for Normandy) "Operation Martlet" Battle for Normandy) "Goodwood" (Vehicle Pack) "Missions for the Lazy" (Battlepack 1) I've strong concerns with those ChatGPT stuff. It spits words one after another based on statistical analysis on tons of webpages, and people drink these words like supra-biblical truth.

Nice review Landser, thank you! Not a word about The Scottish Corridor? I haven't played it yet, but the AAR on Usually Hapless's YouTube channel makes is very appealing to me...

It is absolutely cvertain that the scenario/campaign generator might be A LOT more user friendly, at all levels: map making, AI programming, units choice...

That's very interesting! If I understand correctly, you mean that scripted Ai is less predictable than reactive (dynamic) AI, because the latter is based on algorithms that you learn to know? So making the AI better would mean adding more triggers to the present-day scripted AI? Like casualties-based triggers, by example?

It's hard for me to concur with the last argument. That's quite obvious that a scenario or a campaign that you designed yourself will not be very challenging for you to play, as you know the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents. If everybody doesn't bother to create campaigns because it's not interesting to play them afterwards, well, there wouldn't be any community made scenarios and campaigns, would it? When you design scenarios and campaigns, it's not for YOURSELF, it's for the community… (And for the pleasure to CREATE, as well…)

That's a good question; once they've used their ammo, my mortars team seem also very passive.

Obviously it's not. What you said is that you only play campaigns (which means that you disregard 80% of CM2 content), and that most campaigns don't suit your tastes. That's your right.

Well, at least you have very specific tastes… Only campaigns featuring half-company sized US paratroopers units against SS Panzer IV companies only…

I agree with you that this should not affect the balance of the campaign, as long as you don't expect the AI to win by a large margin. That would be an issue with two of the scenarios: "Levy at Cauquigny", and "Millet's breakout": getting Millet capture shall result at least in a Major Victory for the AI, and losing Cauquigny shall lead the player to the same issue…

For now there is only French chatting in the CMFI forum!

Chuck doesn't talk about custom campaigns; he talks about he BFC campaigns sold with Fire & Rubble and the associated module and battlepack. And YES, there are a few community designed campaigns; I have built a campaign/sceenario database that I plan to release later this year, and I listed 14 community designed campaigns for CMBN, 3 for CMFB, 4 for CMFI and 11 for CMRT. eer... Did you really look around? I have counted 282 user-made scenarios for the WW2 titles alone. These are only the scenarios available here or at the FGM repository, and only those with AI plans (there are even more designed for H2H play). Do you consider 282 scenarios "too few"? If so, consider designind and testing some on your own… Just have a try and you'll quickly understand why there are not thousands of CM2 campaigns. It's really a LOT of work and playtesting. But with what's available I think that you have YEARS of gaming ahead. Unless you have the chance to have all your time free, obviously…

Yes, that I had fully understood; this was not what I meant (see below). Well, if the VP associated with the Kubelwagen's objective are really that big, the AI can't achieve a Total Victory once it leaves the map; this is because a Total Victory requires that the winning side gets at least 80% of his available VP to do so. Same issue with Major Victory (55% of his total VP required) and even for Tactical Victory (30%). So if you give, say, 100 VP for the Kübelwagen trick and that all the other VP combined amount to another 100 VP, the AI will never achieve more than a Tactical Victory. Which is not necessarily an issue…