CMRT Campaign - Kampfgruppe "von Schroif"

[Chudacabra]

22 hours ago, George MC said:

@ChudacabraHow hard the missions are does depend on how ell you do on the previous. There are several branches. I'm not sure which one you ended up on but if you had tanks then you are on the alternate branch. And yes that one is hard as the Soviets have warning your coming so have bolstered their defence.

Re infantry - you have what you have I'm afraid. That's the point behind the campaign is you command a single company of SPW equipped panzergrenadiers. You need to look after your men.

My top tip FWIW: you don't want to lost panzergrenadiers needlessly in this. The campaign models 72 hours of near continuous combat - there are no infantry or armour replacements and depending on who well, or how badly or what decisions you make you might also start to run low on ammo. In such a short time frame that sort of thing just did not happen. I think this campaign is very unforgiving of losses, so might not be everyone's cup of tea. You can blow this in one poor mission where you lose lot's of grenadiers... 

In RL German SPW units suffered very heavy casualties very quickly - on account of the type of missions they were usually given. This is one such unit. Further down the line you get some support from your sister kampfgruppe so you can get them to do some of the heavy lifting, for a change!

I think the third battle could be a decisive one for you. Good luck!

Great! I really appreciate this level of detail. One minor suggestion is to perhaps make this very explicit in the first briefing. I just finished the second mission and fared quite well outside of early infantry loses. Let's see how the third mission treats me.

[BletchleyGeek]

Looking forward to this campaign, but no rush I thoroughly enjoying your Carius at Malinava and then I plan to go through Der Ring... That's going to take a couple months easily!

Edited March 27, 2016 by BletchleyGeek

[George MC]

15 hours ago, Chudacabra said:

Great! I really appreciate this level of detail. One minor suggestion is to perhaps make this very explicit in the first briefing. I just finished the second mission and fared quite well outside of early infantry loses. Let's see how the third mission treats me.

Thanks - this aspect has taken a heap of time to get 'right'  It is mentioned but not as explicitly. I've made it clearer both in the briefing and in the designer notes. There will also be a READ ME included with the packaged campaign file which will have info about playing the campaign and make it very clear and explicit. You do get some help from your sister Kampfgruppe later on so you'll have a few more dismounts to play with (although Hauptmann Krüger seems to have "throatache" which can lead him into a wee spot of bother...).

Look forward to hearing how the third mission goes. Thanks again for the comments and on-going feedback

[George MC]

10 hours ago, BletchleyGeek said:

Looking forward to this campaign, but no rush I thoroughly enjoying your Carius at Malinava and then I plan to go through Der Ring... That's going to take a couple months easily!

I'm getting closer! It's the details that are now taking the time... Still about to start on the home straight for releasing the campaign.

Glad you enjoyed Carius. I enjoyed making that one. Der Ring will be good practice for this campaign.

As an aside when you read about a lot of the late war German armoured operations one thing you do notice is the high attrition rate not just in panzers but also the accompanying panzergrenadiers. In the Der Ring scenario this was the case - the armoured group was pretty close to burn out. 

[BletchleyGeek]

3 hours ago, George MC said:

I'm getting closer! It's the details that are now taking the time... Still about to start on the home straight for releasing the campaign.

Glad you enjoyed Carius. I enjoyed making that one. Der Ring will be good practice for this campaign.

As an aside when you read about a lot of the late war German armoured operations one thing you do notice is the high attrition rate not just in panzers but also the accompanying panzergrenadiers. In the Der Ring scenario this was the case - the armoured group was pretty close to burn out. 

As I said, no rush, age and parenthood have brought along patience  Carius' scenario is the perfect sandbox to put to the test the maxims @Bil Hardenberger discusses on the latest post on his Battle Drill blog.

Regarding late war German operations: yeah, it is quite amazing to see that outfits like the 5 Panzer Division or GrossDeutschland managed to keep some combat power after weeks of gruelling non-stop engagement with what - from an operational perspective - look like quite massive unfavourable odds. What were the sources inspiring this campaign?

And again, cheers for the scenarios, and maps, they're a joy just to glide through them with the camera.

[Buzz]

On March 26, 2016 at 0:12 PM, George MC said:

@ChudacabraHow hard the missions are does depend on how ell you do on the previous. There are several branches. I'm not sure which one you ended up on but if you had tanks then you are on the alternate branch. And yes that one is hard as the Soviets have warning your coming so have bolstered their defence.

Re infantry - you have what you have I'm afraid. That's the point behind the campaign is you command a single company of SPW equipped panzergrenadiers. You need to look after your men.

My top tip FWIW: you don't want to lost panzergrenadiers needlessly in this. The campaign models 72 hours of near continuous combat - there are no infantry or armour replacements and depending on who well, or how badly or what decisions you make you might also start to run low on ammo. In such a short time frame that sort of thing just did not happen. I think this campaign is very unforgiving of losses, so might not be everyone's cup of tea. You can blow this in one poor mission where you lose lot's of grenadiers... 

In RL German SPW units suffered very heavy casualties very quickly - on account of the type of missions they were usually given. This is one such unit. Further down the line you get some support from your sister kampfgruppe so you can get them to do some of the heavy lifting, for a change!

I think the third battle could be a decisive one for you. Good luck!

CMRT Campaign - Kampfgruppe "von Schroif" is sounding very interesting George. Thanks you for the research and retail of what sounds like another stunner. 

Buzz

[Swant]

[Holien]

Watching and waiting, while trying to avoid spoilers...

[George MC]

10 hours ago, BletchleyGeek said:

As I said, no rush, age and parenthood have brought along patience  Carius' scenario is the perfect sandbox to put to the test the maxims @Bil Hardenberger discusses on the latest post on his Battle Drill blog.

Regarding late war German operations: yeah, it is quite amazing to see that outfits like the 5 Panzer Division or GrossDeutschland managed to keep some combat power after weeks of gruelling non-stop engagement with what - from an operational perspective - look like quite massive unfavourable odds. What were the sources inspiring this campaign?

And again, cheers for the scenarios, and maps, they're a joy just to glide through them with the camera.

Hi

He! Aye patience is born of necessity! 

Re the sources - the main one was @SeinfeldRules scenario then I was reading a book about 3rd Panzer Division in Poland, I located a detailed AAR of one of the operations involving a SPW unit and all happened from there. I think units like GD were bled white. When you look at the attrition rate in the division it's frightening. The again you have regiments the strength of battalions and companies little more than a platoon. In Der Ring - the phase of the fighting the scenario covers most of the panzergrenadier companies were little more than reinforced platoons. Whilst the panzer regiment was little more than an understrength battalion at best or a reinforced company at worse! By the end of the attack Der Ring covers they were down to a handful of panzers and were pretty much pulled out of the fight after that.

Glad you like the maps - I think you'll like the ones in this campaign.

[George MC]

10 hours ago, Buzz said:

CMRT Campaign - Kampfgruppe "von Schroif" is sounding very interesting George. Thanks you for the research and retail of what sounds like another stunner. 

Buzz

Thanks very much @Buzz

[George MC]

47 minutes ago, Holien said:

Watching and waiting, while trying to avoid spoilers...

Hi @Holien

Nearly there! There's not much been given away - in fact some of the early missions were tweaked a bit, plus depending on how well things go there are several different branches. You could easily find yourself on the road less travelled!  

[George MC]

Inside one of von Schroif's SPW. A version of the final mission in the campaign. Still tweaking AI Plans in this one.

Same mission - different view.

Tense faces as von Schroif's SPW roll into action. Not so many guys left in each SPW now...

[Buzz]

"Tense faces as von Schroif's SPW roll into action. "

Could it be the smoke signals up ahead causing the collywobbles 

Buzz

[Blueonblack83]

George, when you have time, could you post the mods you use here? Vehicle and infantry skins, special effects, etc.

Eagerly awaiting your campaign, btw! Thanks for putting out some excellent content for the CM community.

[George MC]

20 hours ago, Buzz said:

"Tense faces as von Schroif's SPW roll into action. "

Could it be the smoke signals up ahead causing the collywobbles 

Buzz

Luckily for these guys the columns of smoke are from Soviet wrecks!

[George MC]

6 hours ago, Blueonblack83 said:

George, when you have time, could you post the mods you use here? Vehicle and infantry skins, special effects, etc.

Eagerly awaiting your campaign, btw! Thanks for putting out some excellent content for the CM community.

Hi @Blueonblack83 No worries

I use a real mix of mods but the main ones are:

Aris' vehicles (both German and Soviet)

Kieme's buildings and terrain mods

Tanks a Lot buildings (these just add more 'skin' options for buildings but they are great!)

Veins' German and Soviet soldiers

Veins' tracers and special effect s(smoke, flame and dust)

Rambler's CMBS Trees and Hedges (yup CMBS mod but it works in CMRT).

Cheery!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2016 by George MC

[Buzz]

4 hours ago, George MC said:

Luckily for these guys the columns of smoke are from Soviet wrecks!

Explains why the guys are not getting off their battle bus just yet 

Buzz

Edited April 11, 2016 by Buzz

[benpark]

This looks fantastic. Really looking forward to it.

[George MC]

On 11/04/2016 at 3:35 AM, benpark said:

This looks fantastic. Really looking forward to it.

Cheers mate  Approaching the final straight!

[sandman2575]

On 4/11/2016 at 10:35 PM, benpark said:

This looks fantastic. Really looking forward to it.

 

Agree 100% and look forward to giving it a whirl as well.

And sincere thanks in general to GeorgeMC, Dragonwynn and others who keep producing such amazing content and keeping CM fresh. Appreciate your efforts tremendously.

[Redmarkus]

On 17/01/2016 at 9:34 PM, George MC said:

Acknowledgments

 

Huge shout out to SeinfeldRules for the kind permission to use is “Assault Position” scenario in this campaign.

 

Hi George. Can you point me to this scenario by SeinfieldRules please? I've done a couple of searches here, on Google, and at A Few Good Men with no luck. Ta!

[[MyIS] Buffpuff]

On April 10, 2016 at 5:19 PM, George MC said:

Hi @Blueonblack83 No worries

I use a real mix of mods but the main ones are:

Aris' vehicles (both German and Soviet)

Kieme's buildings and terrain mods

Tanks a Lot buildings (these just add more 'skin' options for buildings but they are great!)

Veins' German and Soviet soldiers

Veins' tracers and special effect s(smoke, flame and dust)

Rambler's CMBS Trees and Hedges (yup CMBS mod but it works in CMRT).

Cheery!

 

 

 

 

 

What I love about this place is "discovering" new scenarios, campaigns. I've had to skim over this thread to avoid the spoilers so that I can enjoy the fruits of your labor George. Thanks for the mod list. Your screenshots look so darn good!

[George MC]

1 hour ago, Redmarkus said:

Hi George. Can you point me to this scenario by SeinfieldRules please? I've done a couple of searches here, on Google, and at A Few Good Men with no luck. Ta!

Hi @Redmarkus here is his thread which has links to all his scenarios - they're all wee gems  and worth playing

 

[George MC]

On 14/04/2016 at 8:30 PM, sandman2575 said:

 

Agree 100% and look forward to giving it a whirl as well.

And sincere thanks in general to GeorgeMC, Dragonwynn and others who keep producing such amazing content and keeping CM fresh. Appreciate your efforts tremendously.

Cheers ta

[George MC]

38 minutes ago, [MyIS] Buffpuff said:

What I love about this place is "discovering" new scenarios, campaigns. I've had to skim over this thread to avoid the spoilers so that I can enjoy the fruits of your labor George. Thanks for the mod list. Your screenshots look so darn good!

Nae worries  Investing in a good graphics card and high res wide screen monitor have paid off! Thanks for the feedback - I'm shooting for getting this out very, very soon so you can enjoy these fruits!