CMBN scenarios collection

[Murauder]

This collection includes 4 scenarios,which are remade from the tactical WW2 FPS game Post Scriptum. Based on the PS map I made them in the CMBN. I have played through these scenarios for many times, so they should be fine. Also I have made some different layers, but they are not quite historiclly correct, just for my own fun. Maybe I will release them later days. Now I am making a Carentan map, it will take some days to finish.

Mega link:https://mega.nz/folder/6qZjyT5I#wkbgyWGKfTXYspTDbkZVbQ

[Murauder]

[thilio]

Thank you Murauder.

Nice maps.

[Vacillator]

Thanks, downloaded and will them a try .

[Warts 'n' all]

It will be quite a while before I can give these a whirl. But, they do look interesting. I still had enough hair to "Spike", the last time I went to Best.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Warts 'n' all

[Warts 'n' all]

Sadly, having taken a more detailed look, these are really not my cup of tea. Although you have done a reasonable job with the maps. Basing them on PS really does expose what it for what it is; a childish shoot 'em up dressed up to look like WW2.

I'm not sure which was the biggest insult to my intelligence. The SS arriving on Utah Beach in tanks on D-day, or Best being dominated by a church on a rocky escarpment. Ho hum.

[Murauder]

On 12/19/2023 at 7:52 AM, Warts 'n' all said:

Sadly, having taken a more detailed look, these are really not my cup of tea. Although you have done a reasonable job with the maps. Basing them on PS really does expose what it for what it is; a childish shoot 'em up dressed up to look like WW2.

I'm not sure which was the biggest insult to my intelligence. The SS arriving on Utah Beach in tanks on D-day, or Best being dominated by a church on a rocky escarpment. Ho hum.

I have said these scenarios are remade from Post Scriptum,not the reality. In that game,Utah has tanks on German side,and also, the same as SS in Best. If you think this is an insult to your intelligence, you'd better delete them. I spent hundreds hours to make these maps to commemorate my beloved PS, not for your likes.

[Warts 'n' all]

You did indeed mention PS. I just hadn't realised it was that bad.

[Falaise]

It is surprising to see to what extent CM is a versatile game capable of creating historical scenarios, even if they only have geography and the forces present, taking on a completely different turn as the game progresses.
  or, what I love above all, tutorial scenarios like those of Bill Hardenburger or those of George MC (fantastic)
But he also makes films, the Private Ryan campaign with the finale in the very Hollywood village with the air attack.
I have just tested one of your scenarios by playing it for what it is, a fun game inspired by another game and what a pleasure. I had a lot of fun, the cards are super, very detailed, the timing of the reinforcement is excellent, relaunching the challenge until the end.
I was able to test for the first time a function that I thought was useless: emergency artillery fire!! and it saved my game!! awesome
merci @Murauder

[Paper Tiger]

When it comes to making scenarios and campaigns for actual historical actions, having fantasy OBs and things that just never happened happen is very jarring for a wargamer. Most of us take the details very seriously and will complain about such inaccuracies. Making any historical campaign requires the player to have done some research, in some cases, a LOT (Montebourg, Scottish Corridor and Nijmegen - I still have the library to prove it), and I'd like to be free of that in WW2 like we are in CMSF2 - it never happened so we can do what we like.

I admire the balls it takes to make a completely fictitious WW2 campaign free of all such concerns such as I've read about above. I'd imagine there's a hell of a lot of fun to be had from such if you can just enjoy the missions for what they are. I would love to make a German WW2 campaign where the Germans enjoy air support and have the all the advantages they enjoyed in 39-42 and all the kit they had in 44-45, with the Allies being on the back foot.

[Erwin]

51 minutes ago, Paper Tiger said:

having fantasy OBs and things that just never happened happen is very jarring for a wargamer.

Depends on what you mean by "fantasy".  But, given CM is a tactical game, you'd have to be a bit of a historian to notice something that never happened and it being jarring. On a tactical level almost anything could have happened at some point - it just never got recorded in the history books.  One would be a bit of a pedant to worry about that aspect.

51 minutes ago, Paper Tiger said:

I would love to make a German WW2 campaign where the Germans enjoy air support and have the all the advantages they enjoyed in 39-42 and all the kit they had in 44-45,

Yes, agreed.  I for one would love that as well.  It gets a bit boring always playing scenarios/campaigns that attempt to be accurate historically - when one normally can only be really accurate at an operational or strategic level.  

Since the Ardennes is a perennial favorite, how about a similarish operation on the East Front?  Eg: Hitler has several crack units still available and they cut a swathe thru the Russians trying to cut off a major supply source and force the surrender of a large part of the Red Army.  

 

Edited February 1 by Erwin

[Paper Tiger]

Fantasy would mean having SS formations with Tigers attacking Utah Beach on D-Day or a Carentan battle with King Tigers. While most of us are wargamers, I don't think we're all experts on the minutia of these historical missions at all but you do find some people around here who are and they will let you know.  They've read the same sources as me and some I haven't. But almost all of us know that that example above never happened. 

When designing for the 'disk', you need to be fairly rigorous when doing your research but even then, there are some missions where history gets 'bent' in order to create a fun mission (example- mission 3 of the Scottish Corridor campaign - the Tigers were on the other side of the salient.

 

Fighting in a forest is my least favourite CMx2 experience.  I appreciate that the Bulge wasn't all knife fights and that there are plenty of open terrain missions but my own feeling is that the Germans had already lost the war at that point and that they're just there to delay the inevitable. That takes something away from the experience for me, knowing that nothing can really be won at that point and that the sacrifices just mean more people on all sides having to make the sacrifices for several more days at best.

East Front? I'd have to buy that as I don't have that game and am not a tester for it. Again, 44-45 is already 'game over' for the Germans and so the experience is tarnished - thus the notion that a 39-40 style blitzkrieg campaign with air support would be fun but total fantasy - a Harry Turtledove WW2 campaign if you will.

[Erwin]

12 hours ago, Paper Tiger said:

I appreciate that the Bulge wasn't all knife fights and that there are plenty of open terrain missions but my own feeling is that the Germans had already lost the war at that point and that they're just there to delay the inevitable

The point is that it doesn't have to be all woods knife fights if you are designing an ahistorical scenario.  I was only saying be inspired by the Bulge situation cos that is one of the most popular situations - a crack formation driving thru one obstruction after another.

Edited February 1 by Erwin

[Bulletpoint]

17 hours ago, Paper Tiger said:

Fantasy would mean having SS formations with Tigers attacking Utah Beach on D-Day or a Carentan battle with King Tigers.

Well, even if it had to be a fantasy scenario, I would still prefer it to be a historical fantasy scenario, such as Unternehmen Seelöwe.

Always wondered how the Brits would have defended their island against a German invasion.

Another interesting scenario is if the Soviets had not stopped and continued westwards.

Or if the Germans had managed to press on to Moscow.

17 hours ago, Paper Tiger said:

I appreciate that the Bulge wasn't all knife fights and that there are plenty of open terrain missions but my own feeling is that the Germans had already lost the war at that point and that they're just there to delay the inevitable. That takes something away from the experience for me, knowing that nothing can really be won at that point and that the sacrifices just mean more people on all sides having to make the sacrifices for several more days at best.

Yep, I feel the same. CMFB is as late in the war as I want to go.

[Centurian52]

18 hours ago, Paper Tiger said:

I appreciate that the Bulge wasn't all knife fights and that there are plenty of open terrain missions but my own feeling is that the Germans had already lost the war at that point and that they're just there to delay the inevitable.

Well, yes. But that applies to all CM2 WW2 content so far. The earliest point in the CM2 timeline so far is Operation Husky, by which point the Germans already had absolutely no chance of winning the war.

[Erwin]

Re "fantasy" scenarios, it would at least be interesting to have the German succeed in Ardennes not get stopped and reached Antwerp, and hypothesize what would happen next.

"What would the western Allies have done if the Germans had succeeded in capturing Antwerp during the Germans 1944 Ardennes offensive? They would have flanked von Zangen's forces ( the 15th Amy), trapped them at Antwerp and either forced them to surrender or destroyed them.Oct 11, 2017"

Would they??

[Paper Tiger]

I've often wondered why I've never done anything with the Germans in CMBN because they're my favourite WW2 wargaming side (Japan being a close second in a strategic wargame). I really enjoy playing as the German in Panzer Corps and Unit of Command 2 up until 1943 and then I lose interest and would prefer to play as the Allies from 44 onwards. So perhaps it's just that I want to play as the side with the strategic initiative as there are so many interesting options to explore there.

I guess it's really old to say this by now but I really wish BFC had gone back to 1941 to do the Russian Front and work forward instead of 1944 (of course I understand why this was done - the ability to recycle unit models and formations for one side so that they only had to make everything for the Russians who fortunately sported some lend-lease kit which was also already done.) Had that been done, I'd probably have done nothing but German WW2 campaigns as 1941-43 is where the excitement is at for me, especially 41.

Unfortunately, I've never managed to find the enthusiasm to make a German CMBN campaign as there are severe limitations to what can be done with them and to find a situation and craft a core force which could feasibly survive several missions. Some what-ifs could be interesting - what if Rommel had had his way and the Panzer divisions were positioned closer to the beaches? But I just can't see any real chance of driving the Allies out of Normandy as their completely mastery of the air would make that nearly impossible to achieve. I'd imagine that the Allies would have responded devastatingly had an existential threat emerged to the invasion so I don't see how it could have changed much except to make the victory more costly for all parties.

[OldSarge]

You may have already considered this, but Operation Lüttich has some interesting possibilities for both sides - including hypothetical missions. Since it occurred in August it wouldn't have stopped the invasion, but it had the chance of stopping Operation Cobra and preventing the Falaise pocket.

Edited February 3 by OldSarge

[Vacillator]

On 2/2/2024 at 1:47 AM, Paper Tiger said:

I've often wondered why I've never done anything with the Germans in CMBN

Apart from 'can you do better than history?' scenarios I hear what you're saying.  A re-enactment of the fall of Berlin has likewise failed to excite me as there will only be one winner, but I mean no disrespect to those trying to recreate it.

[Erwin]

There is nothing wrong with speculating that Hitler and his advisors made different decisions regarding what weapons systems were developed and built and what the strategy was.  Eg: Maybe throwing all the war effort into Panthers so they were as common as PzIV's - but no Tigers (or vice versa).  Or, negotiating a peace or stalemate on one of the fronts so Germany could focus on the other front.  

Churchill really hated the Soviets, but feared Hitler's intentions.  Halifax, Chamberlain and other wanted appeasement.  What would happen if Hitler sought peace with the West in exchange for an all-out offensive vs the Soviets?  

[Paper Tiger]

Yes, I'm sure there are but I'm going to let some other designers explore these possibilities. Sadly, I used to have a collection of highly detailed QB maps that I'd created from where I lived in Suffolk which covered the A1120 from Framlingham to Yoxford with all the villages between which could have made for a good fantasy German campaign - a drive down the road to capture the village (sans castle) and grab a curry from the excellent Indian restaurant in the village square. But like the Canadian Carpiquet campaign, I lost all this work when my old hard drive burned out. (I still have dreams where I find the Carpiquet files on some CD and then wake up to feel the same sense of disappointment all over again.)

With regards to other titles, I only have CM:BN, CM:SF2, CM:BS and CM:CW so these are the titles I have to work with. Black Sea could be interesting BUT for the ongoing war and Cold War looks like it is made for absolute monster OBs. A single company with support is what I enjoy - but who knows? It looks like you can make some pretty good maps with CW so I might stick my toe in there at some point. It's all hypothetical so why not?

[PEB14]

On 2/2/2024 at 2:47 AM, Paper Tiger said:

Unfortunately, I've never managed to find the enthusiasm to make a German CMBN campaign as there are severe limitations to what can be done with them and to find a situation and craft a core force which could feasibly survive several missions.

There are "niche" battles out of the Eastern Front with the Germans enjoying complete air superiority that can be translated into campaigns, even in CM actual timeframe (mid 1943-1945). Think of the battles of Samos and Leros at the end of 1943 (see "Churchill's Folly: Leros and the Aegean, the Last Great British Defest of the Second World War"). The perfect theater for a couple of reasonably small CMFI campaigns, even though technically (I should write "geographically" !) the battle did not occur in Italy.

I'd really like to play such a Paper Tiger's campaign in which you'd fight against British AND Italians with plenty of Stuka support…

[Paper Tiger]

49 minutes ago, PEB14 said:

There are "niche" battles out of the Eastern Front with the Germans enjoying complete air superiority that can be translated into campaigns, even in CM actual timeframe (mid 1943-1945). Think of the battles of Samos and Leros at the end of 1943 (see "Churchill's Folly: Leros and the Aegean, the Last Great British Defest of the Second World War"). The perfect theater for a couple of reasonably small CMFI campaigns, even though technically (I should write "geographically" !) the battle did not occur in Italy.

I'd really like to play such a Paper Tiger's campaign in which you'd fight against British AND Italians with plenty of Stuka support…

I'm sure there are, especially on the East front but I only have CM:BN, CM:SF2 and CM:CW and I haven't done a thing for Cold War yet. I'd have to convince the wife to allow me to splurge $100+ on a new game just now as well. She'd say 'yes' because she's an angel but I'd feel like a ****.  I'd probably spend the money on CM:FI anyway as that looks more like my thing.

I've discovered that the key for me to enjoy something is to be able to use all the fun stuff and not just the vanilla formations with no air support and no proper artillery support - I like the combined arms and to have some unusual kit make an appearance from time to time, weird stuff like guns on trucks that are fragile and require some finessing to work without them being instantly wrecked.