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Oh the fun we could have had!


Bannon DC

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Oh the fun we could have had!

I was working on an official campaign for CMC following Guderian's first week in Operation Barbarosa. Guderian's force initiated their attack at the fortress of Brest Litovsk and conducted an armored thrust through terrain that basically featured a single roadway surrounded by large areas of impassible swamp, rivers and narrow rural tracts. The shock of the attack, crippling of communications, and the speed of the German advance left the Russians stunned and unable to effectively counter the German attack resulting in huge pockets of Russian units. The German-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 dividing Poland also resulted in the Soviets dismantling the fortifications on their 1939 borders and attempting to construct a new fortified zone on the recently conquered Polish territory.

Ironically, Guderian himself had captured the fortress of Brest Litovk from the Polish in 1939 and had intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the stronghold. The Soviet defenders of the fortress were caught by surprised when the war started. Despite a massive artillery bombardment and a quick thrust by German forces that isolated the fortress and managed to quickly penetrate to part of the citadel itself (the central island), the Soviets held our and inflicted massive casualties. Some accounts have bunkers within the fortress holding out well into July.

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I was working on my map for the Fortress of Brest Litovsk before CMC was announced and later was accepted into the scenario design team for CMC. The images below are from the original design which I later remade into proper 2km x 2km CMC maps.

The campaign followed Guderian's units through the narrow roadway passage up to Sluztk where forward elements encounted the original Soviet border defenses (mostly stripped of heavy weapons). Rainy conditions and a hastly organized defense of retreating units coupled with reinforcements from the interior temporily halted the German advance. Along the way, the Germans fended off a Russian armor attack (no T-34s, mostly a mass of T-26s) and other obstacles and disorganized attacks.

A look at Google Earth will show the terrain (altered somewhat over the years), but you can still get an idea about the nature of the terrain and the risk the Germans took in choosing to wedge an armored thrust through this area. This is NOT tank country and the Soviets could have thrown off the advance with a stubborn defense at any minor river crossing along the way.

The work I did on a number of maps doesn't scratch the effort Hunter and his team put in on programming, re-programming and bug stomping. Other proposed scenarios were even further along than the work I did. For me it was fun to do the research (much of which is a foggy memory at this point :o since it has been a while since I have worked on it).

Some great sources out there. Here's the official Brest Litovsk fortress site for one: http://www.brest.by/ct/indexe.html

And the CM community has always been helpful providing additional material. Thanks to the folks who helped out along the way... a lot of this work was done years ago, so frankly I would have to dig hard to list who helped. But none the less, thanks is due. :)

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Some images. My map was as accurate as possible in terms of layout, created at 75% scale.

<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=52.081721,23.657942&spn=0.028799,0.055017&t=h&z=14&output=embed&s=AARTsJpnOA3ioEtcI9rx_v7gyZqlolGTYw"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=52.081721,23.657942&spn=0.028799,0.055017&t=h&z=14&source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>

View from maximum elevation:

<a href="http://s149.photobucket.com/albums/s50/Bannon_DC/?action=view&current=BrestCitadelhighestlevel.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s50/Bannon_DC/BrestCitadelhighestlevel.jpg" border="0" alt="Brest Litovsk Fortress, highest elevation"></a>

View from the West Island looking toward the Citadel.

<a href="http://s149.photobucket.com/albums/s50/Bannon_DC/?action=view&current=BrestFortresslookingnorth.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s50/Bannon_DC/BrestFortresslookingnorth.jpg" border="0" alt="Brest Litovsk Fortress looking northeast"></a>

View from the South Island looking toward the Citadel toward the northwest.

<a href="http://s149.photobucket.com/albums/s50/Bannon_DC/?action=view&current=BrestFortresslookingnorthwest.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s50/Bannon_DC/BrestFortresslookingnorthwest.jpg" border="0" alt="Brest Litovsk Fortress looking northwest"></a>

Not sure if I was actually complete this to a playable scenario. The map is large and the number of units would be pretty heavy. Would really require two players to do it justice... the AI just can't give you a good game at this size.

Some of the other maps I made are more likely to surface as scenarios including the armored confrontation near Pruzhany.

I've picked up an interest in the 1944 campaign at Brest, France. Maybe something for CMX2. ;)

Cheers,

Bannon

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Edit -- this links are not showing anything. Late... I'll have to look at this tomorrow.

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Err?

This is a CMBB map, not a CMC map.

What are people talking about?

Yes, correct. That is the original scenario I was working on as CMC was announced. I sliced and diced and remade the map a few times.

If I was going to complete that scenario, I woudl use one of the 2x2 maps I converted it into (north and south portions). As is, you would need about 2 battalions to attack it, and that would be thinning out the units. :eek: I did have a lot of fun blowing the crap out of the fortress in some tests. I used over a dozen spotters and that seemed like a light bombardment.

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Bannon DC,

Superb job. It really looks great. Yeah, just like MeatEtr, the more I see of the really great potential this had, the sadder I get. All that effort and essentially for naught. This particular battle was fascinating and, as we can see from Bannon DC's work, would have been challenging and lots of fun. Ach du lieber....

Thanks for posting. At least we get to see a little more of what could have been. Thanks for your hard work on all this.

Heinrich505

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  • 2 years later...

I think they just moved beyond the original game engine. They are to small to put in the time to do it. By the time the modules are all done, it's time to move on to the next generation. Maybe if they did it like CM Afghanistan using the SF engine...

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