The Year Ahead Bone Post

[Frenchy56]

7 hours ago, Sequoia said:

I doubt that will happen as it would require a lot of extra coding and graphics for the dozer use. It's not like BFC to add something to a game and not have it perform its function.

It doesn't seem THAT hard, though? We already have a Sherman Crab and I'm not sure if BF sweated a lot over it.

It could use the "breach" command on an obstacle to lower the blade. What ensues would be a hole in a wall and perfectly intact tracks.

Edited January 3, 2020 by Frenchy56

[Ts4EVER]

1 hour ago, Frenchy56 said:

 

I wouldn't doubt it. Valentines will also be introduced afaik.

Good, then someone can make a historically accurate version of the Studienka scenario.

[BornGinger]

On ‎1‎/‎1‎/‎2020 at 8:08 PM, Battlefront.com said:

CM Final Blitzkrieg Module.  This will take the Western Front from the Rein to the Elbe

Any information about how many scenarios and campaigns that module might be planned to contain?

[MikeyD]

A general estimate is "About as many as past modules got". For Rome to Victory the release got practically double the number of scenarios than what they'd estimated just shortly before. If some industrious scenario maker knocks out three scenarios at the last minute that's 3 more than planned. If a reliable scenario designer catches a cold or his computer breaks then there's going to be fewer. Its impossible to say how many scenarios a title's going to get, especially this far out. 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

14 hours ago, Frenchy56 said:

It doesn't seem THAT hard, though? We already have a Sherman Crab and I'm not sure if BF sweated a lot over it.

It could use the "breach" command on an obstacle to lower the blade. What ensues would be a hole in a wall and perfectly intact tracks.

I like that idea.

+1

[BFCElvis]

3 hours ago, MikeyD said:

A general estimate is "About as many as past modules got". For Rome to Victory the release got practically double the number of scenarios than what they'd estimated just shortly before. If some industrious scenario maker knocks out three scenarios at the last minute that's 3 more than planned. If a reliable scenario designer catches a cold or his computer breaks then there's going to be fewer. Its impossible to say how many scenarios a title's going to get, especially this far out. 

Funny that you mention that. As things started to run longer than everyone (and I mean everyone) expected after the pre-orders for R2V opened some of these awesome scenarios makers started asking "can I add 1 more? I have a great idea and it's almost done." We didn't say no to any of them and they ended up being fantastically fun to play. For those playing them, they are "One Final Effort" and "Flames in the Mist" to name 2 off the top of my head from memory (I should probably look back and give props to the others as well).  The waiting wasn't fun for those that had to wait but behind the scenes it was an exhilarating explosion of creativity by these guys and I am convinced made the final project even better than it had been released earlier. 

[benpark]

Sometimes waiting a little bit brings extra good things. Those scenarios are aces.

[BornGinger]

11 hours ago, MikeyD said:

A general estimate is "About as many as past modules got"... Its impossible to say how many scenarios a title's going to get, especially this far out.

@miked So we don't know how many scenarios or campaigns the new FB-module will contain. I figured that much. But at least I got an answer to my question which was about how many scenarios and campaigns the new module might be planned to contain .

Thanks, mate.

Edited January 4, 2020 by BornGinger

[Megalon Jones]

Looks like you guys are getting more of my $$$.

 

[Falaise]

On 02/01/2020 at 12:27, Battlefront.com said:

Les Forces du Commonwealth se lancent dans le module CMFB! Il n'y a pas grand-chose qui change avec les forces américaines, donc l'introduction de la CW dans le CMFB donne au côté allié une belle impulsion qui, autrement, ne serait pas là. Du côté allemand, il y a beaucoup de choses à ajouter.

Steve

hum hum it smells good
CW in CMFB.
like the Germans and the Americans they will climb on the tanks !!!
so no more obstacle for this characteristic to also implement in CMBN !!!

[BFCElvis]

3 hours ago, BornGinger said:

@miked So we don't know how many scenarios or campaigns the new FB-module will contain. I figured that much. But at least I got an answer to my question which was about how many scenarios and campaigns the new module might be planned to contain .

Thanks, mate.

We won't have a definite answer until closer to the release date but I will tell you what I would guess...to a degree....There are 2 campaigns. I don't think there will be a third with the time left.  CAmpaigns take LOTS of time.. If I were a betting person, I would bet there will be more stand alone missions than Rome to Victory (which had 15) . And probably by a pretty fair margin. 20 wouldn't surprise me but that isn't meant as a promise.

[BornGinger]

1 hour ago, Falaise said:

like the Germans and the Americans they will climb on the tanks

Yes, but only when they're too drunk to go home and sleep.

Edited January 4, 2020 by BornGinger

[DougPhresh]

With Polish voices in other titles, will we see the Polish People's Army (LWP)?

And a quick quality of life request - Could Soviet Cavalry uniforms be set as an appearance option available to Soviet Cavalry formations rather than a mod tag? It's only fair since Panzergrenadiers can do it.

[kohlenklau]

Here is an artist's painting from the book "Bloody Streets"...

If Fire & Rubble includes this earlier war StuG III, we can mod it to be able to go earlier on Ost Front.

Another thing I remember is that old CM1 CMBB scenario editor allowed you to have a dropdown menu to select 0 panzerfausts, whereas, even with low ammo availability the straggler groups have panzerfausts. Nothing is perfect for trying to mod CMRT to portray earlier war situations...

For the purists, it is a no go. But I will probably try anyway.

 

Edited January 5, 2020 by kohlenklau

[wadepm]

I think a vehicle pack of early war stuff would be a good seller.  It has been mentioned that BF might not want to double sell stuff that would be in later modules/games but at the rate we are going the early war Russian Front is 5 years away and probably in CM3,  I don't think it will cause a sales problem. 

We would need a couple of early T-34s, KV-I, KV-II, a couple of BTs, A couple of PzKpfw IIIs, the early PzKpfw IV , and the early STuG  - maybe 10 in all.  Half of these models are already complete in later versions.  Of course this work would have to be squeezed in around a lot of other stuff but it would make ME so happy... 

[CarlWAW]

That's strange. No tactical improvements, nobody asking for improved realism and all are raving about some new textures...

Almost feels like simulated discussions in stockhouse forums...

 

[Erwin]

1 hour ago, wadepm said:

I think a vehicle pack of early war stuff would be a good seller. 

Many of us hope so as well.  However, so long as the US is the largest market, the players tend to buy stuff with US forces.  And as we know the US entered late (as usual).  

Note that it was only about 25 years ago that one had to practically pay people to play the Russians or Western Allies as practically everyone wanted to play the Axis (German that is).  How things have changed.  So, perhaps there is hope...

Edited January 5, 2020 by Erwin

[DougPhresh]

49 minutes ago, Erwin said:

Many of us hope so as well.  However, so long as the US is the largest market, the players tend to buy stuff with US forces.  And as we know the US entered late (as usual).  

Note that it was only about 25 years ago that one had to practically pay people to play the Russians or Western Allies as practically everyone wanted to play the Axis (German that is).  How things have changed.  So, perhaps there is hope...

I would guess in the time since the Cold War, our image of the Second World War is not as shaped by the "memoirs" of "rehabilitated" German officers.

Gone are the days of the Clean Wehrmacht, Unstoppable Slavic Hordes, hardware obsession over Superior German Panzers etc. etc.

You hardly ever see "Mein Oppa was just defending his Fatherland, and Following Orders, and Both Sides Were Bad." anymore and while there are still posts about "The Americans only won because of air superiority and artillery" and "Commonwealth Armour was useless, the Germans easy brushed them aside at Caen and Falaise (cue a dozen posts about Michael Wittmann)" and "The Russians only won because of human waves", I think any serious historian and even most people in wargamming or with an interest in the subject would say the better armies won, and credit them for their operational and tactical art.

[wadepm]

1 hour ago, Erwin said:

Note that it was only about 25 years ago that one had to practically pay people to play the Russians or Western Allies as practically everyone wanted to play the Axis (German that is).  How things have changed.  So, perhaps there is hope...

Back when I played a lot of Third Reich I always played the Russians...

[Macisle]

6 hours ago, kohlenklau said:

Here is an artist's painting from the book "Bloody Streets"...

If Fire & Rubble includes this earlier war StuG III, we can mod it to be able to go earlier on Ost Front.

Another thing I remember is that old CM1 CMBB scenario editor allowed you to have a dropdown menu to select 0 panzerfausts, whereas, even with low ammo availability the straggler groups have panzerfausts. Nothing is perfect for trying to mod CMRT to portray earlier war situations...

For the purists, it is a no go. But I will probably try anyway.

 

For early war German infantry, I use Sicher units and give each platoon 3 MG34s. Like you said, still can't get rid of the PFs, though. The Soviets are harder, since the only way to get rid of the high mid/late war SMG count is to go with 43 divisional recon, add LMGs as needed and use more of them to make up for the 6-man squads.

I'd sure LOVE to see a 2-man vanilla rifle team unit added to the specialist team menu for each faction. Then, you could fill in the riflemen where you need them.

[Erwin]

5 hours ago, DougPhresh said:

I would guess in the time since the Cold War, our image of the Second World War is not as shaped by the "memoirs" of "rehabilitated" German officers.

Gone are the days of the Clean Wehrmacht, Unstoppable Slavic Hordes, hardware obsession over Superior German Panzers etc. etc.

I think it's something else.  In my old wargaming days we never thought about those items.  None of my old wargaming pals were reading or discussing anyone's memoirs or the other items you mentioned.  In those schooldays (60's) we were brought up on a diet of pro Allied propaganda and maybe we thought of the Germans as the underdogs - maybe it was a revolt vs the post war incessant pro western ally "Ra Ra" propaganda.  Also, post WW2 many of the superior German weapons were either classified or info was suppressed for PR purposes presumably.  During the 60's is when we started to learn about King Tigers and Me 262's and other advanced German weapons.  So, those were the sexy weapons we wanted to play with.  (Another example is that these days most players seem to want to play the Confederates rather than Union in ACW games.  Or even Napoleon rather than Wellington.)

But, players didn't want to play the Italians or Japs (until very recently (eg: War in The Pacific AE).  The Germans had more varied interesting equipment, cooler uniforms, and the cardboard counters used to represent the Germans were more unique (and few) and seemed more versatile and mobile.  The black and white counters used for the SS were just plain sexier and yes, the Soviet counters were like masses of expendable cookie counter copies and looked boring.  The GB units were simply "blah".  Except in the NA desert of course.  That is where the Brit vs German games flourished - although again, everyone wanted to play Rommel and DAK.  That's one major reason there is probably still a market for a DAK NA game - perhaps a CMFI module.  (BF said that CMAK was the poorest selling of the CM1 games.  Maybe the CM1 game system was already old and faltering when CMAK was released.  But, many of us over at WeBoB loved playing huge CMAK scenarios on the 8Km x 4Km maps.)

Something changed in the late 90's.  Perhaps younger players simply wanted to be on the winning side and play the US.  (?)

Edited January 6, 2020 by Erwin

[BletchleyGeek]

Remembering and celebrating the contributions and sacrifice of the grandparents' generation probably helped. 

[Battlefront.com]

I think the primary reason why people didn't like to play as the Soviets, way back when, was a lack of familiarity with the Eastern Front in general.  No, I'm not talking about Grogs, but about the general gaming population.  I could get a half arsed wargamer friend to play every now and then, but he wanted to work with something familiar.  And for an American, familiar was US or German stuff because that's what was part of our culture.  It was difficult to get good books about the Eastern Front and of course the Internet didn't exist.  Since that time there's been a lot of opportunities for people interested in warfare to learn about the Eastern Front beyond the myths and headline events.

But for more Grog types there's something else, I think.  Starting with Combat Mission Barbarossa to Berlin the Soviet stuff was finally given some dimension to it.  No longer was playing the Soviets a matter of having bigger stacks of inferior units to push across the board, then watching them melt away in combat.  Nope, there was the ability to really see that the Soviet forces had interesting tactical possibilities and that it was possible to beat a German foe (or totally squash an Axis Minor force) unit for unit.  Even better, the Soviet player had a chance of experiencing "hero" units that showed some personality.  Other games followed CMBB's example since then.

Just my 2 bits

Steve

[Erwin]

23 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

No longer was playing the Soviets a matter of having bigger stacks of inferior units to push across the board, then watching them melt away in combat.  Nope, there was the ability to really see that the Soviet forces had interesting tactical possibilities and that it was possible to beat a German foe (or totally squash an Axis Minor force) unit for unit.  Even better, the Soviet player had a chance of experiencing "hero" units that showed some personality.

Yes, this is also why playing the Allies became more appealing.  

[Battlefront.com]

2 minutes ago, Erwin said:

Yes, this is also why playing the Allies became more appealing.  

Good point!  Shermans were just a T-34 with a different cardboard counter silhouette

Steve