AlexUK Posted November 26, 2016 Share Posted November 26, 2016 Wow, what a great job you've done, really impressive and a bit of a harrowing read! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heinrich505 Posted November 26, 2016 Author Share Posted November 26, 2016 AlexUK, Thank-you. Glad to see you enjoyed it. Heinrich505 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonwynn Posted November 26, 2016 Share Posted November 26, 2016 I would have to look at it in the editor. I rotated units to keep the key forces from getting chewed up to early so there may be different units in your current mission. They are all core units so they will end up together at the end or what's left of them Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heinrich505 Posted November 26, 2016 Author Share Posted November 26, 2016 Okay, just wondering. That makes sense. Trying to keep the casualties down is so hard in all this. Heinrich505 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Heinrich505, When do you offer your next How to Write a Proper AAR? To say I'm blown away by what you've done comes nowhere close to how I really feel. You are a tremendous writer and a wonderful storyteller. Your ability to immerse the reader in every detail of the experience, not to mention your mastery of German military minutiae, is stunning. Can feel the adrenaline rush, the minds working at breakneck speed, the intimacy soldiers at war have, particularly in such an experienced unit, and smell the fear. I can also smell the battlefield to some degree, too. Simply outstanding! Am up to the push on the warehouse and find myself simply swept up in the action. That Stuka's bomb hit so dreadfully close looks like the end of the world. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heinrich505 Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 John, Thank-you for the nice comments. Always appreciated. I've always had a knack for this sort of storytelling. Studying lots of history, having a vivid imagination, and having a dramatic game to play are plus factors when putting something like this together. Way back in ancient times, I got an insert from The General magazine, from Avalon Hill. There were four quick play scenarios on this insert for the Squad Leader gamete Cross of Iron. Scenario A, titled "Burzevo," was such a gripping play (played solitaire of course, as I couldn't interest my brother or the neighbors to play SL, sadly), that I typed up an AAR of the scenario as it played out. There were, of course, no screen shots. Lt. Stahler (9-2), Sgt. Hieken (8-1), and Corporal Uhl (8-0) were all fighting in the thick of things and trying to keep the men from panicking while Russian tanks, one of them the dreaded flame T-34, wreaked havoc among the village during the -30 below zero night near Moscow. I sent this in to Avalon Hill, thinking it might be interesting to the readers of The General. Alas, rejected. The editors said it didn't fit the tactical venue of the magazine and they were more interested in the nuts and bolts of moves and tactics than a dramatic reading of the terror of the cardboard truppen. As a side note, Scenario D of that same insert, titled "Delaying Action," was actually based on a Gross Deutschland combat account written by Guy Sayer in The Forgotten Soldier. It was chilling to play out that scenario having read the book. That encounter was from page 407. The dramatic situations that occur in this game really lend themselves to stories such as these. Glad you are enjoying it. Heinrich505 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddball-47 Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 A magnificent recounting, Heinrich! Thank you for working that up. And kudos to the Stalingrad mod team as well! A question; are those screenshots taken from in-game using one of the graphics shaders I saw mentioned in some threads months ago? Or, are you playing without shaders and modifying them after the fact with a graphics editor? The reason I ask is that they're just beautiful and I'd love to revisit CMRT using a shader if that's how you're playing. Best regards, Odd 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kohlenklau Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 @Heinrich505 Another wonderful story Gary! You again get an Oscar for this effort. Thanks for the great work and entertainment. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heinrich505 Posted December 2, 2016 Author Share Posted December 2, 2016 Oddball-47, Thanks for the nice comments. Very much appreciated. I am using the mod by BarbaricCO called War Movie Shader. I think it comes with the Stalingrad mod. There are other mods as well, many by Aris or Mord or a number of others. I left them in the z folder from CMRT when I added the Stalingrad mod, and many of them worked with this mod. Once I took the screen shots, I used Corel Paintshop Pro to touch up the vibrancy, sharpen them slightly, and use a little backlighting. Other than that, there was little I did to adjust the in-game screen shots. I wanted to keep the same look from shot to shot on this story, unlike some of my other short stories. Those I like to adjust a bit with white balance or go with black and white at times. I concur - all credit goes to the Stalingrad mod team as they really put together an extremely immersive environment and then added battles and a campaign for us to enjoy. Thank-you again for the compliments. Heinrich505 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heinrich505 Posted December 2, 2016 Author Share Posted December 2, 2016 Kohl, Ah, Phil, I knew you'd like it. The award is graciously accepted. This game is really amazing. Heinrich505 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinkin Posted December 3, 2016 Share Posted December 3, 2016 On 11/30/2016 at 6:23 PM, Heinrich505 said: I got an insert from The General magazine, from Avalon Hill. There were four quick play scenarios on this insert for the Squad Leader gamete Cross of Iron. Scenario A, titled "Burzevo," Remember those inserts and still have them. I think they have been scanned and digitized for d/l after a quick search of the net. You really deserved that Oscar. Kevin 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heinrich505 Posted December 3, 2016 Author Share Posted December 3, 2016 Kevin, Thanks. Always appreciated. I thought I might, someday, try to recreate some of the more gripping ASL/SL scenarios for CM. Dorosh created a Hill 621 battle for CM. I could have sworn I played someone's CM version of the "Delaying Action" scenario but now I can't find it. I've heard it is tough to recreate the ASL scenarios for CM. Glad you enjoyed the story. Heinrich505 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted December 5, 2016 Share Posted December 5, 2016 Heinrich505, Got one article ("Transient! Transient!") published with my friend Kevin McCormack in The General and another one rejected. The one published (Vol. 29 #6) was an expansion of what could be done in Attack Sub by incorporating the realities of Russian submarine damage resistance (twin hulls on boats like the OSCAR II), weak US torpedoes, especially the practically useless MK 46, nasty Russian 65 cm wake homer and SS-N-19s, decoys and other chrome, plus a batch of new scenarios. The rejected one was a look at the stupendously wrong MBT as seen in a meticulous GRU critique. Altogether too much truth there for AH's comfort, I'm afraid. More on topic, I was working on rules for breaking into fortified buildings and such for a scenario called "Pavlov's House" in Up Front. We all know where that house was! Still have the notes here on a legal pad. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NPye Posted December 5, 2016 Share Posted December 5, 2016 Interesting whilst researching for the Stalingrad Mod i found a Russian forum which i converted to quite bad english (google translate), and basically some historians now believe that the actual house designated as Pavlovs house (demolished after the war) isn't correct giving the reason that if this was such a thorn in the German side why didnt they just destroy it as with other houses defended, it was made from wood beams and would not have stood up to a few 500lb Stuka bombs or a reasonable artillery strike, the same applies to the mill ) still standing, which is 100 yards due east to Pavs house, they argue the position is never mentioned on any German or Russian military maps, they say that what happened is when the Russians withdrew to the Volga the Germans easily occupied these positions so hence no need to destroy and when the Russians advanced in Nov-Dec they weren't occupied so didn't see much action. They claim it is all a propaganda story invented after the actual event, I have to say another Russian website proved that the Russians set scenes in Stalingrad, after the battle, where the streets are packed with artillery tanks and AA guns, even setting fire to already destroyed buildings, then claiming they were taken during the battle, but this clever Russian could prove they weren't as in the shots some of the destroyed buildings couldn't have been from that date as the building hadn't been destroyed at that time they weren't destroyed till later in the battle, the reason giving was it falsely showed that the streets of Stalingrad where adequately protected during the battle, and during the great air raid in august 42. So its really hard to take Soviet official photos as legitimate? BTW the British gov also doctored photos for propaganda purposes, the milkman still delivering milk during the blitz, walking over rubble, its fake a montage of 3 photos. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heinrich505 Posted December 7, 2016 Author Share Posted December 7, 2016 NPye, I had read something similar, but I can't recall for sure where. Pavlov's house was initially defended so well that attacks failed, so the Germans bypassed it and kept it surrounded. Eventually the defenders slipped out a few at a time during the night and filtered through the German lines, and the position was found unoccupied a day or so later. This seems to dovetail with what you were finding, but I can't substantiate it with any sources. Heinrich505 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heinrich505 Posted December 7, 2016 Author Share Posted December 7, 2016 John, Good for you. At least you cracked the wall and got published in The General. That has to count for a major personal achievement. I entered all the contests trying to get an ASL squad leader counter named after me. Now THAT would have been the pinnacle of achievement, heh heh. Knowing my luck I might have ended up as a 6+1 Major in the Hungarian Gamette. Heinrich505 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NPye Posted December 7, 2016 Share Posted December 7, 2016 Heinrich505 Ive tried to find the site but i was looking at 100s of sites at the time, so probably wont find it? If you think about it it is a great story, even a baby was suposed to have been born there, maybe 2 good 2 b true? Cheers 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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