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CMAK
Kampfgruppe Richter in Budel. Dilemma, fight the allies or retreat?
A Very British Civil War
Note: this is clearly a “what-if” scenario, loosely based on the bustling miniatures war gaming off-shoot of the same name. Outstanding work has been done by Solway Crafts and Miniatures, and I credit them with the brilliance of this war gaming theme.
Background
England, May 1938 (designer note: note the in-game calendar notes “1944”; this is only to create the optics of lush green environment of the British Isles)
Weather: overcast, mild, dry
The very social fabric of Great Britain was torn during the apocalypse that was The Great War. The mightiest empire on the globe ended victorious, but at what cost? The rigid social hierarchy was shaken, and the world wide waves of social change did not stop at the English Channel. Class structure, worker’s rights, regional animosities have all brewed in the decades following the Great War. This has all been exacerbated by the crippling economic crisis of the 1930s, to which the ever cautious government responded to by constricting public spending ever more.
In May 1937, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom married Wallis Simpson. The marriage to Wallis was not supported by Stanley Baldwin, the British Prime Minister; and King Edward refused to abdicate. This marriage left the British government, and most of the people, alienated; and public hatred for King Edward and Queen Wallis rose. Parliament was torn, and in the general election of 1937, Baldwin was defeated. The Conservative party, ripped by the issue of King Edward’s marriage, as well as economic and regional tensions, broke apart, and a large segment of the Tory support went to the British Union of Fascists. Oswald Mosley’s promise to ensure public order, and shore up the Empire, resonated with a public tired of public disturbances, strikes in essential services, and the economic malaise. The Labour party too split, with the more radical sections forming their own splinter parties which ran their own candidates. The 1937 election results saw a fractured parliament, and although only winning slightly over 200 seats, and less than 30% of the vote, the BUF formed the largest caucus in the House of Commons. King Edward VIII asked Oswald Mosely to form a government. Mosley did so and almost immediately issued “Orders of Council”, outlawing strikes, restricting collective bargaining, and establishing new offences for unauthorized public gatherings, and publishing “any article intended to alarm the public”. Any opposition was swiftly responded to, if not by the police, then by Mosely’s own BUF Blackshirts, the BUF’s paramilitary wing.
In January 1938, a protest by Dockyard workers in Liverpool was brutally crushed by the BUF and elements of the Regular Army; and violent clashes began across the country; between the Kings troops and those of several other factions. The British Civil War has begun!

Factions: The outbreak of conflict led several groups to attempt to seize the country or their own personal goals. Major factions included:
On the Right (Axis in this scenario
* The Edwardian Army – elements of the professional Army, bound to King Edward VIII.
* The Royal Navy and Royal Marines – bound by tradition and culture to remain loyal to the reigning monarch, and the majority have done so.
* The British Union of Fascists (or “BUF”) – the dominant political party, led by Oswald MOSLEY and heavily backed by German and Italian interests. Mosley has garnered considerable support in his efforts to restore order internally and restore the status of Britain’s Empire
* The Mosley Youth – a “social club” of young men, who have been drilled and armed by unknown sources, and have formed para-military units to push the BUF agenda.
* Foreign Volunteer Units: after the recruiting of numerous foreign elements to fight in the Spanish Civil War, similar detachments have been formed to back those with similar agendas in the British Civil War. Contingents from other fascist and imperialist sympathizers have been formed. Here we will see the presence of the “Hanoverian Legion”, volunteers from Germany, who are backing the Edwardian and BUF efforts
On the Left (Allied in this scenario)
* The Albertine Army – elements of the regular forces, plus most of the “Territorial Army”, backing the young Prince Albert’s claim to the throne.
* The Anglican League - A large army led by a group of bishops and archbishops, they were aligned with the Albertine Army. Many are veterans of the Great War.
* The People’s Party Army - Made up of disillusioned Labour party supporters, disgruntled workers and Spanish Civil War veterans, they are seeking to turn Britain into a Socialist state based upon Lenin's Russia.
* The Farmer’s Union: radical small plot farmers and farm working hands, seeking better pay, price subsidies, and land redistribution. They are heavily influenced by Marxist doctrine.
* The Student’s Union: like students before and after them, the university students have ramparts to thwart whomever they view as authoritarian,
* Foreign Volunteer Units: after the recruiting of numerous foreign elements to fight in the Spanish Civil War, similar detachments have been formed to back those with similar agendas in the British Civil War. Groups of Americans, Canadians, and ANZAC units have been formed; here we will see the Lafayette Battalion, formed of French volunteers, many fresh from the savage fighting in Spain.
This scenario occurs in the West Coast port town of Twaddlemore. Twaddlemore is the home base for a small Royal Navy destroyer flotilla, as well as being a mid-sized port for international commerce. Given that the United Kingdom lives or dies based on this freedom to trade overseas, the port is vital to all in this conflict. The Royal Navy, which for the most part has remained loyal to King Edward VIII, dispatched the flotilla two days ago to join the rest of the fleet, tasked with stemming the flow of foreign volunteers coming to fight for their faction of choice. Many of these foreigners have come directly from fighting for the Nationalists or the Republicans in Spain, who have endured two years of their own brutal Civil War already.
Yesterday the dock workers, who are heavily influenced by communist agents and are affiliated with the People’s Party, refused to move armaments stored in the dock warehouses. Instead, they armed themselves and fighting broke out when security staff sought to control the situation. Who opened fire first is both in dispute and a moot point at this juncture. A company of the Army’s Provost Corps was rushed to Twaddlemore by train, but a bomb was used to derail the trail just outside of town. Multiple factions are either in town currently or rumoured to be headed this way. The Telephone Exchange is the key to communicating with the rest of the country, and is clearly a goal to secure. Likewise, the docks and the armaments stored there in are also of immense value. Lastly, the mysterious new Wireless Tower being built on the south shore is of unknown value, as the work crews are from “away” and appear to be quite Teutonic in manner.
This battle will surely prove that the term “Civil War” is clearly a misnomer.
A historically fictional 'what if' look at the events leading up to the Deutsche Afrika Korps capture of Tobruk in June 1942.
SCENARIO DESCRIPTION
A meeting engagement played out in the wooded terrain of the Ardennes at the beginning of the Bulge. 60+ turns.

The Germans are trying to seize important territory: bridges, cross-roads, and towns to allow breakthrough armored thrusts. Central to this map is the village of L’Shone and its surrounding road network.

The Americans are trying to occupy the same terrain to prevent its use by the Germans.

Best played as: H2H
Second Best played as: H2H
(Not designed for vs. AI play due to mounted units)

Map edge friendly to Axis: East. Map edge friendly to Allies: West.

It is hard to believe that it was only a week ago when we first heard of “The Outbreak”. Initially it was thought to be a terrorist biological attack, with outbreaks in large cities overwhelming medical facilities. But soon it was apparent it was much more… the more we hear, the more we realize that we know very little – the cause – the prognosis – or the scale of this crisis. All remain unknown – at least to the general populace. What the “government” knows may be something else again.
You are Jack McCann, police chief in the small coastal tourist town of Shady Acres, Maine. Normally by this time of the year, your town is overrun with loud tourists from the cities of the East Coast. If only that were the case.
Four days ago a large staff of the Center for Disease Control showed up at the Town Hall, and brusquely informed the Mayor, Chuck Zeto, that the Federal Government was immediately taking control of “Shady Island”, a favourite picnic spot in the bay. This was all one-way communication, you don’t know much more other than soon thereafter a convoy of sealed trucks arrived and barbed wire was being strung across the access bridge to the island.
The National Guard has been mobilized, and your own police force has been placed under the command of the governor’s office.
And yet even now, you are not sure why. A strange illness has swept the globe, but what little news was initially released was like something from a bad movie. Now that trickle of news has stopped altogether. The official story is that a Chinese cyber attack has shut down the Internet, but this being Small Town America, there are a lot of conspiracy theories floating about.
The Mayor, Chuck Zeto, who also is the local bank manager, has asked that citizens assist in securing the town from whatever threats may arise. Given that the local National Rifle Association sponsored Chuck’s last campaign, their members were eager to show their affinity for the 2nd amendment and reaffirm their ownership of large capacity magazines and assault rifles. With some hesitation, you agreed to deputize these men, but have asked them to stay at home until they may actually be required. Their training and experience doesn’t necessarily match their enthusiasm.
You were at your office all night. You had a call from Doctor Jacobie at the hospital. Dr. Jacobie, a Vietnam war draft dodger who only returned from Canada in the 1990s, is determined to ignore what he considers a “fascist edict” that all patients in suspected cases of the “outbreak” be turned over to the C.D.C. immediately and quarantined on the Island. “It reminds me of the interment of the Japanese in 1942!” Jacobie ranted, and he said he would treat all patients as “patients, not criminals”. At that, you sent two teams of part time deputies to the hospital to deal with any issues that may arise.
The town is an important transportation hub, in that the coastal railway runs through the town. The Railway has deployed their own security at the train station, as if there is an epidemic, it is important to prevent those infected from traveling. Hopefully they have enough staff to do the job.
You remained in your office all night, and it seemed that things may be calming down, but then with a complete news black out, and the mute C.D.C. guards by the island Park, who knows? You did receive several calls from citizens overnight, reporting screams and other noises from the areas near cemeteries last night; typically the local teens will go there to drink and smoke up. Although you usually will send a Deputy to put the run on them, there are more important things to do now.
The sun is coming up, but a heavy thick fog has blankets the town. A convoy of C.D.C. relieve staff are expected in from Bangor any minute; hopefully they have some news. To allow your exhausted staff get some needed rest, two detachments of National Guard troops will be arriving, one is about 5 minutes away and a second convoy from the east in another 5 minutes after that. It will be good to get home and hit the sheets. You are so tired you feel like the walking dead.
Your phone rings. It is the security detail from the train station. Old man Codger, a elderly farmer who lives north east of town, has just shown up at the Rail station, out of breath and terrified. He is rambling about being attacked at his home, and that the only way he could escape is by setting the buildings on fire. You had better send a Deputy to go interview him. It sounds bizarre.
The phone rings again… it is Deputy Boomhauer at the hospital. He sounds quite distraught. Apparently the hospital was overwhelmed with patients overnight, and now he reports the motion detector alarms in the morgue have gone off.
At that second the switch board lights up, and several simultaneous “10-78” calls are received – “officer need assistance!”… What the?????”

This scenario is
1) Meant strictly for play against the AI. Although it one player wants to try playing the Axis/Zombies, please feel free.
2) The scenario is meant to be strictly for fun.
3) Watch you ammo loads. Shoot for the head. You only have the ammo you brought into the fight.
August 12,1944. France. SE of Argentan.
Married platoons of U.S. 5th Armored Division
night out-posts.
France, 1940 - Case Red.

Heavy Tanks of the 4th DCR must smash a hole in the advancing German line - but there are complications.
At Dornot, the U.S. Third Army's XX Corps' first attempt to establish a bridgehead on the Moselle River south of Metz met bloody failure. Two and a half miles south of Dornot the XX Corps' 10 Infantry Regiment is trying once more to establish a permanent bridgehead across the Moselle at Arnaville. Since the first U.S. troops crossed at Arnaville on the night of 8/9 September, the Germans have been launching increasingly vicious counterattacks in an effort to destroy the bridgehead and repeat what happened at Dornot.
This is an Aug 44 meeting engagement between Brit and German mech forces in Belgium. The map is based on a satellite photo of Neubruck just southeast of St. Vith.
Cassino town was destroyed by Allied Airforces on Wednesday, March 15th, along with the abby known as Monte Cassino. "The town was blown assunder and beaten into heaps of rubble, the official British history reported. Yet hundreds of bombs and thousands of shells failed to pound the town to powder, contrary to Allied expectations, nor were the surviving defenders 'rendered comatose', as planned." --The Day of Battle
CMBB
The Axis launch a major attack on the Allied defenses.
Soviet vs. German Meeting Engagement. 60+ turns.
Best played as: H2H (Not recommended for vs. AI play due to mounted infantry.)

In recent weeks, this industrial center has been the scene of increasingly sharp clashes between recon units and regular forces. Both sides have traded jabs over this important airplane fabrication city. Both have moved into the town and then been forced out again. No one seems to be able to hold it. The landing gear assembly plant on the edge of town was occupied by the Red Army a few days ago and then burned and destroyed as the Wehrmacht forced them out. Much of the town lies untouched, but the workers and residents know it is just a matter of time before a major battle rages through the streets of their city…

After another bloody engagement, both sides have backed off. Again, in the still of a Sunday morning under the cover of a pounding rainstorm, both sides push forces forward to gain possession of the city.

No one is sure where the front lines lie. Is the enemy in front of you? Or is he gone?

Push forward, as so many before you have tried, and hold this town once and for all!
This is a CMBB scenario, modelling Plan Yellow in France in May 1940.
It is a "dynamic flag" scenario, on a large map that will provide many options in attack and defence.
July 1941, a german advance detachment, composed of motorized infantry with Stug support, attempts to cut off retreating russian forces.
Russians attack three German-held villages in an attempt to secure the flank of a future offensive.
July, 1944. Operation Bagration already going on since one month. The german north front runs danger to be cut off. Setting down of german troops in western direction
runs among constant attacks of soviet armoured shock forces...
43-02-01, South. SS commandos save Kleist's troops from encirclement. Fictional.
42-07-10, South. Axis forces in Group A cross the Donits to secure northern flank in the beggining of Fall Blau Operation. Semi-fictional.
October, 1942
In the northern Caucaus, along the Terek river line, the battle has been raging brutally for nearly two months. Germany's 13.Panzer-Division tasked with taking the key junction city of Vladikavkaz (Ordzhonikidze) has been stymied in it's every attempt to breakthrough.

But now, at the end of October a break has been achieved through the first mountain range and panzers are rolling along the valley near Ardon, on a back route to Vladikavkaz.

The Russians, somewhat disorganized, are withdrawing to new positions. A desperate stand is ordered to slow the German advance and buy time to set-up the new defensive positions.

Russian breakout from a Kessel against a German blocking force.
CMBO
German infantry dawn attack during the Battle of the Bulge. American infantry caught off-guard whilst lining up for chow.

VPs for casualties and German exit points only.
Before dawn on D-Day the British airbourne must destroy the gun batteries at Vierville.
Koen - A Town to conquer
*****************************************

a Couple of weeks ago the Allies have conquered one of the major towns in France.

Now the Germans broke through the American line of defense in the Ardennes and are advancing rapidly towards this town.

Can the Allied commander hold this town?
November 1944, the French 2nd Armored Division is tasked to breach the German fortified line of the Vosges mountains. This battle takes place on the second days of the attack. The different French Task forces are competing with each other in order to be the first to reach the plain of Alsace. The company team Minjonnet (part of the Task Force Massu) blocked close to Voyer in a narrow valley by German remnants of the 708. ID has to bypass quickly this resistance. The French can be sure that their old enemy is not about to ease their action !
An American WWII GI's dream come true- a "what if" American assault on Berlin AND a chance to personally bag the ol'Führer himself!
Arnhem Bridge battle. British airborne against armoured SS.
Updated Scenarios
CMAK
A Very British Civil War
Note: this is clearly a “what-if” scenario, loosely based on the bustling miniatures war gaming off-shoot of the same name. Outstanding work has been done by Solway Crafts and Miniatures, and I credit them with the brilliance of this war gaming theme.
Background
England, May 1938 (designer note: note the in-game calendar notes “1944”; this is only to create the optics of lush green environment of the British Isles)
Weather: overcast, mild, dry
The very social fabric of Great Britain was torn during the apocalypse that was The Great War. The mightiest empire on the globe ended victorious, but at what cost? The rigid social hierarchy was shaken, and the world wide waves of social change did not stop at the English Channel. Class structure, worker’s rights, regional animosities have all brewed in the decades following the Great War. This has all been exacerbated by the crippling economic crisis of the 1930s, to which the ever cautious government responded to by constricting public spending ever more.
In May 1937, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom married Wallis Simpson. The marriage to Wallis was not supported by Stanley Baldwin, the British Prime Minister; and King Edward refused to abdicate. This marriage left the British government, and most of the people, alienated; and public hatred for King Edward and Queen Wallis rose. Parliament was torn, and in the general election of 1937, Baldwin was defeated. The Conservative party, ripped by the issue of King Edward’s marriage, as well as economic and regional tensions, broke apart, and a large segment of the Tory support went to the British Union of Fascists. Oswald Mosley’s promise to ensure public order, and shore up the Empire, resonated with a public tired of public disturbances, strikes in essential services, and the economic malaise. The Labour party too split, with the more radical sections forming their own splinter parties which ran their own candidates. The 1937 election results saw a fractured parliament, and although only winning slightly over 200 seats, and less than 30% of the vote, the BUF formed the largest caucus in the House of Commons. King Edward VIII asked Oswald Mosely to form a government. Mosley did so and almost immediately issued “Orders of Council”, outlawing strikes, restricting collective bargaining, and establishing new offences for unauthorized public gatherings, and publishing “any article intended to alarm the public”. Any opposition was swiftly responded to, if not by the police, then by Mosely’s own BUF Blackshirts, the BUF’s paramilitary wing.
In January 1938, a protest by Dockyard workers in Liverpool was brutally crushed by the BUF and elements of the Regular Army; and violent clashes began across the country; between the Kings troops and those of several other factions. The British Civil War has begun!

Factions: The outbreak of conflict led several groups to attempt to seize the country or their own personal goals. Major factions included:
On the Right (Axis in this scenario
* The Edwardian Army – elements of the professional Army, bound to King Edward VIII.
* The Royal Navy and Royal Marines – bound by tradition and culture to remain loyal to the reigning monarch, and the majority have done so.
* The British Union of Fascists (or “BUF”) – the dominant political party, led by Oswald MOSLEY and heavily backed by German and Italian interests. Mosley has garnered considerable support in his efforts to restore order internally and restore the status of Britain’s Empire
* The Mosley Youth – a “social club” of young men, who have been drilled and armed by unknown sources, and have formed para-military units to push the BUF agenda.
* Foreign Volunteer Units: after the recruiting of numerous foreign elements to fight in the Spanish Civil War, similar detachments have been formed to back those with similar agendas in the British Civil War. Contingents from other fascist and imperialist sympathizers have been formed. Here we will see the presence of the “Hanoverian Legion”, volunteers from Germany, who are backing the Edwardian and BUF efforts
On the Left (Allied in this scenario)
* The Albertine Army – elements of the regular forces, plus most of the “Territorial Army”, backing the young Prince Albert’s claim to the throne.
* The Anglican League - A large army led by a group of bishops and archbishops, they were aligned with the Albertine Army. Many are veterans of the Great War.
* The People’s Party Army - Made up of disillusioned Labour party supporters, disgruntled workers and Spanish Civil War veterans, they are seeking to turn Britain into a Socialist state based upon Lenin's Russia.
* The Farmer’s Union: radical small plot farmers and farm working hands, seeking better pay, price subsidies, and land redistribution. They are heavily influenced by Marxist doctrine.
* The Student’s Union: like students before and after them, the university students have ramparts to thwart whomever they view as authoritarian,
* Foreign Volunteer Units: after the recruiting of numerous foreign elements to fight in the Spanish Civil War, similar detachments have been formed to back those with similar agendas in the British Civil War. Groups of Americans, Canadians, and ANZAC units have been formed; here we will see the Lafayette Battalion, formed of French volunteers, many fresh from the savage fighting in Spain.
This scenario occurs in the West Coast port town of Twaddlemore. Twaddlemore is the home base for a small Royal Navy destroyer flotilla, as well as being a mid-sized port for international commerce. Given that the United Kingdom lives or dies based on this freedom to trade overseas, the port is vital to all in this conflict. The Royal Navy, which for the most part has remained loyal to King Edward VIII, dispatched the flotilla two days ago to join the rest of the fleet, tasked with stemming the flow of foreign volunteers coming to fight for their faction of choice. Many of these foreigners have come directly from fighting for the Nationalists or the Republicans in Spain, who have endured two years of their own brutal Civil War already.
Yesterday the dock workers, who are heavily influenced by communist agents and are affiliated with the People’s Party, refused to move armaments stored in the dock warehouses. Instead, they armed themselves and fighting broke out when security staff sought to control the situation. Who opened fire first is both in dispute and a moot point at this juncture. A company of the Army’s Provost Corps was rushed to Twaddlemore by train, but a bomb was used to derail the trail just outside of town. Multiple factions are either in town currently or rumoured to be headed this way. The Telephone Exchange is the key to communicating with the rest of the country, and is clearly a goal to secure. Likewise, the docks and the armaments stored there in are also of immense value. Lastly, the mysterious new Wireless Tower being built on the south shore is of unknown value, as the work crews are from “away” and appear to be quite Teutonic in manner.
This battle will surely prove that the term “Civil War” is clearly a misnomer.
A historically fictional 'what if' look at the events leading up to the Deutsche Afrika Korps capture of Tobruk in June 1942.
France, 1940 - Case Red.

Heavy Tanks of the 4th DCR must smash a hole in the advancing German line - but there are complications.
Axis and Allied forces clash for a town and large hill.
This is an Aug 44 meeting engagement between Brit and German mech forces in Belgium. The map is based on a satellite photo of Neubruck just southeast of St. Vith.
At Dornot, the U.S. Third Army's XX Corps' first attempt to establish a bridgehead on the Moselle River south of Metz met bloody failure. Two and a half miles south of Dornot the XX Corps' 10 Infantry Regiment is trying once more to establish a permanent bridgehead across the Moselle at Arnaville. Since the first U.S. troops crossed at Arnaville on the night of 8/9 September, the Germans have been launching increasingly vicious counterattacks in an effort to destroy the bridgehead and repeat what happened at Dornot.
Normandy - known for its rolling fields, orchards, stud farms and a good glass of cider. Sheltered from the elements which can pound the coastline this is a landscape is carpeted in apple blossom. It is here, at the heart of one of the best designated cider producing areas that you will find the Chateau les Bruyîres, an Empire period residence and 18th century manor house - run by the Wehrmacht. It is your task to put an end to this inappropriate ownership.
US Army invades an island defended by Italian Troops.

Map is 1200x1200.
Non-Historical.
20 Battles 10 Turns each.

Play HtH (Preferred), or Allied vs. Axis AI.
Allow AI to setup units, there is no pre-planned setup for the defender yet.
Two Reinforced Infantry Companies with Armor Support clash in this typical Meeting Engagement.
engineering company attacks dug in german positions somewhere near monte cassino to capture wine stash for captain hosehead
CMBB
Soviet vs. German Meeting Engagement. 60+ turns.
Best played as: H2H (Not recommended for vs. AI play due to mounted infantry.)

In recent weeks, this industrial center has been the scene of increasingly sharp clashes between recon units and regular forces. Both sides have traded jabs over this important airplane fabrication city. Both have moved into the town and then been forced out again. No one seems to be able to hold it. The landing gear assembly plant on the edge of town was occupied by the Red Army a few days ago and then burned and destroyed as the Wehrmacht forced them out. Much of the town lies untouched, but the workers and residents know it is just a matter of time before a major battle rages through the streets of their city…

After another bloody engagement, both sides have backed off. Again, in the still of a Sunday morning under the cover of a pounding rainstorm, both sides push forces forward to gain possession of the city.

No one is sure where the front lines lie. Is the enemy in front of you? Or is he gone?

Push forward, as so many before you have tried, and hold this town once and for all!
The Axis launch a major attack on the Allied defenses.
Russians attack three German-held villages in an attempt to secure the flank of a future offensive.
Russian breakout from a Kessel against a German blocking force.
43-02-01, South. SS commandos save Kleist's troops from encirclement. Fictional.
42-07-10, South. Axis forces in Group A cross the Donits to secure northern flank in the beggining of Fall Blau Operation. Semi-fictional.
October, 1942
In the northern Caucaus, along the Terek river line, the battle has been raging brutally for nearly two months. Germany's 13.Panzer-Division tasked with taking the key junction city of Vladikavkaz (Ordzhonikidze) has been stymied in it's every attempt to breakthrough.

But now, at the end of October a break has been achieved through the first mountain range and panzers are rolling along the valley near Ardon, on a back route to Vladikavkaz.

The Russians, somewhat disorganized, are withdrawing to new positions. A desperate stand is ordered to slow the German advance and buy time to set-up the new defensive positions.

a product of HDCS

3rd SS Totenkopf arrives back at the front after its Hiatus from the front in France and is immediately thrown back into action.

Follow the swift Donet's campaign the IInd SS panzer Korps stands poised for the final push too retake Kharkov and restore the pride of the Waffen SS, but they have too cross the Mzha river first.

Alternative History : Moskow Decision
This the first of a series of fictional scenarios based on the hipotetic decision by Hitler to attack Moskow instead of Kiev during the august 1941.
The german offensive to Moskow is starting, the first task is to take the bridge over the Dnjepr between Smolensk and Viazma.
Alternative History : Moskow Decision
This the first of a series of fictional scenarios based on the hipotetic decision by Hitler to attack Moskow instead of Kiev during the august 1941.
The german offensive to Moskow is starting, the first task is to take the bridge over the Dnjepr between Smolensk and Viazma.
CMBO
German infantry dawn attack during the Battle of the Bulge. American infantry caught off-guard whilst lining up for chow.

VPs for casualties and German exit points only.
An American WWII GI's dream come true- a "what if" American assault on Berlin AND a chance to personally bag the ol'Führer himself!
Newest Maps
CMAK
a fictional Town in North Africa.
Fictional City in North Africa. Best played as a meeting
engagement.
Fictional City in North Africa. Best played as a meeting
engagement.
Version 2, church size and orientation adjusted to be in village center. Minor adjustments such as villages, small hills and ridges around the wheat fields.
Mixed terrain, woods, open fields, villages, church, river, bridges.
This is a huge (actually 5 x 4 km) map representing a piece of French countryside west of the town of Arras. It is flat (gentle slopes) and moderately populated with villages, forests, orchards and the like. It is suitable for a massive battle of regiment-sized forces (15,000 points or more).
Fictional Map, Crete, An almost compleatly dried up river bed with a ruined bridge across, 2 small hamlets on either side
The axis forces have captured the ridge east of Lieso. It´s been quiet over a month, so they have had enough time to dig deep in the ridge.

Allied forces are attacking with brutal force from east. Tuomari-Laurila has already been taken.
The axis forces are about to assault a little town called Lieso in aim to capture a road that leads through a ridge to deeper east. The allied forces are dug in somewhere around the old elementary school.
A small river splits a large map, with lots of roads and 6 bridges to control and a town also to control. This map is for meeting engagements and no side has a terrain advantage. Hopefully this will boil down to your choice of units and your game play.
CMBB
Beautiful and challenging map perfect for direct or flank approach. Fight in the woods, the streets, the buildings or inside a small factory! Great for infantery with some armor and artillerie support and IDEAL for a quick motorized assault in the middle of a foggy night.
This was a work in progress for the cancelled CM Campaigns. Maps are both operations and battles. Four maps included. One is large version (75% accurate scale) of the entire fortress of Brest Litovsk and immediate area. Others are 2 km x 2 km maps of the north and south portions of the fortress. You are welcome to use these maps as long as your credit "Bannon DC" for map creation.
1600x1600m, middle eastern front,
3 big victory locations in the middle of the map,
4 additional small flags,
medium settlement with surrounding rural areas,
some hills, woods and farmland,
a small river crossing from N to S,
prepared setup-zones for both sides,
therefor I call it battlefield-map.
Germans advance easily untill they find... A speed bump on the road to Leningrad
This Map is designed for Meeting engagements, it is set in a fictional City.
A medium town lying crosswisely to the advance direction. In and around the town gardens and fields, some bush and tree rows.
2 small rivers with some fords.
Only 1 large victory location.
Best used for meeting engagements.
Damaged large town/small city divided by a river. Contains several bridges, an old fortress, stadium, factories, railway station, and an old manor. Flags spread pretty evenly out on the map, made for a QB axis attack. IMPORTANT: ONLY FOR USE WITH UMLAUTS STALINGRAD MODS. You most use the scenario with these three mods found at www.cmmods.com:

FULL_telephonepole_umlaut
rubble_spray_umlaut
stalingrad_buildings_umlaut
Stalingrad-ish map made for Umlaut´s Stalingrad-mods.
29 2x2km maps. Various terrain; city, village, farmland, deep forests ...

They all quite beatuful ;)
I know it was UK and not USSR! but i didnt own CMAK when i made the level and i dont want to do everything over again so USSR must equal UK! its a fun level with the FJ troops in the greatest air invasion prior to D-Day.
CMBO
This CMBO map is built from a topographical map of the little town of Seville, NE of Melbourne, Australia. My idea was to lauch a Brit brigade (3 btns) across it at a German static defence screening mobile reserves.
Desiliens is an ancient Roman town. The map features the ruins of the town, an aquaduct, and the ruins of a villa on a low central hill.

The eastern side of the map is mostly woods, the west is hills and farms. It is most suitable for an assault on the town, but if the focus is shifted to the ruined villa it would be good for a meeting engagement.
Updated Maps
CMAK
Ideal for a QB ME
CMBB
This Map is designed for Meeting engagements, it is set in a fictional City.
axis winterattack on a Russian City
Please feel free to download, use or edit the map.

Screenshots can be found here:

http://worldatwar.eu/index.php?entity_sess=512x00db4fede3b24a34db2c5e9d283f162c&lang=3&location=boardshownode&boardid=51
A town with a river and lake surrounded by grainfields
Map is based on a sketch in the book > Die guten Glaubens waren< the history of the SS Polizei Division and shows a hard-fought area south of Leningrad. The Observatory was not reached by the Germans although they really tried it
This is part of a series of maps on the so-called Ladoga
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MURPH
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Post #106   7153 days, 12 hours, 8 minutes, 29 seconds ago           
MY COMBAT MISSION GRIPES
Ive been playing CM since it first came out gosh thats more than four years ago! and I love it dearly. But there are a few things that need straightening out, some serious, others less so; some of the issues are about the nuts and bolts and others are just silly, absurd things that do no good to the games image. There have been improvements in the second and third versions, but unless the more serious flaws are addressed in the next version, Im having serious thoughts about giving it up.

I say nothing about the AIs deficiencies. Im sure the AI is as good as it can be, and is certainly better than most other games. You can live with these problems if you understand its weaknesses and work around them.

I also say nothing about the Waffengrenadier nonsense in the European version, and the censorship of Nazi symbology. The German law is what it is, and with some downloading of patches, it can be circumvented.

No, my complaints are about things that I think could be fixed relatively easily, and should be fixed to give the game a more realistic and less gamey feel. They are listed more or less in order of importance.

GAME MECHANICS

You cant fire into smoke, darkness or plants. As the CM manual rightly notes, there is a big difference between cover (which blocks fire, e.g. a wall) and concealment (which completely or partially conceals a unit but doesnt block fire). So why cant you fire into smoke, or out into darkness, or into the trees, if you suspect a unit might be there?
Just imagine: here is a rifle squad right in front of your MG bunker, and youre blasting away at them, theyre on the ground immobilised and crawling. Then a smoke round comes down.
Why have you stopped firing, soldier?
Sarge, theres smoke blocking my view.
But you know theres a group of enemy right there, we were just shooting at them a moment ago. Keep firing!
Sergeant, army regulations state that we can only shoot where we can see or we might get smoke in our eyes, (etc etc)
Or, during the night, in the mortar section
Sarge, I can hear a group of enemy infantry running towards us, they seem to be about two hundred yards away at two oclock and closing
Fire in that direction, plaster the area with bombs. Thatll learn em!
But sergeant, army regulations state (etc etc).

The mechanics of firing at a target should be more sticky. There you are, you have a group of infantry in your sights, you order your concealed guns/MGs/mortars to blast them. The targeted units crawl into a bush (5 seconds into the turn) and they are now no more than a suspected location marker. Your unit stops firing. But you know they havent gone anywhere, theyre still cowering in that bush. The rest of the turn is wasted. The next turn, when youve ordered your unit to area fire the place where you know they are, the enemy unit has recovered enough to run out. So another turn is wasted, while your guys blast a now-empty bush. And so it goes on, turn after frustrating turn.
I once wasted ten minutes with a tank firing at one man one man! in a heap of rubble:
Area fire that pile of rubble where you know the pfauster is!
Yes sir. Oh, there he is, shooting at us. Now Ill target him individually! Oh hes gone again. Ill just sit and wait for the next fifty seconds. [Fifty seconds pass]
Now area fire that pile of rubble again!
Yes sir. Oh, there he is!... etc etc
What Id like to see is that the unit, unless there is another clear target, keeps firing at the last known location of his designated target, at least for a while. He has a decent chance of scoring a hit, and hes not paid just to shoot at enemies he can see and identify clearly, but also to fire at locations where the enemy is. And if an area fire order is suspended for an identified target, when the target goes away, the area fire order should come back into effect.

While were at it, you area-fire a building not because youre in the demolition business, but because you think or know that there is an enemy in it.
Fire at that building! Im pretty sure theres a pfaust in there.
Yes sir BLAM BLAM BLAM
Why have you stopped?
Because, sir, you told me to fire at a BUILDING. Now it isnt a building any more, its a heap of RUBBLE. I mean, duh!
But I dont care about the building! I want to get the concealed anti-tank
[Conversation cut short by impact of faust round, killing all inside]
More stickiness here, too, please.

Ideally, tankers should hate anti-tank teams just like the Pope hates sin. If theres a location where an anti-tank team was last seen, they should fire a few rounds into it, just in case, before they move near it, and if it was an AT gun, they shouldnt stop. Thats what I understand by hunt.

ARTILLERY AND MORTARS

Why do mortars need to have direct sight (or direct sight of their commanding unit) to target area fire? The whole point of mortars was that you could fire them into ditches where the enemy was lurking, over buildings, trees and walls when you suspected an enemy was hiding behind them, and so on. The rules for mortars should be the same as for off-map arty, i.e. they can fire anywhere within range, but if the fire isnt directly observed, it can be off-target.

Whats the story with artillery ammunition?
C Battery reporting. We have 50 rounds to fire today. They can be either smoke or HE. But if we fire 50 smoke rounds, we have no HE left, or vice-versa. Got it?
That means that if you fire your smoke rounds, you use up your HE?
Look, theyre special shells.
I remember in the CMBO beta demo, the FO had a designated number of smoke and HE rounds, just like other on-map guns. What was wrong with that? Why was it corrected in the subsequent versions?

There is one complete lie in the CMBO manual, thats about the white phosphorous rounds and grenades. They say that our research indicates that its use was usually limited to marking targets [I thought that was what coloured smoke rounds were for] introducing WP would allow for an ahistorical overuse of this type of ammunition and could realistically unbalance the game. Bollocks! The historical literature is clear that it was used a lot, and effectively. WP grenades were one way to knock out a tank at short range. WP artillery could set fire to a dry forest and scare out any baddies there. If the problem is overuse, then limit the number of rounds or grenades that can be used. We have flamethrowers, ampulomets and molotov cocktails, why not another incendiary weapon? And while were on the topic of ahistorical overuse and realistic balance, look me in the eye and tell me that molotovs were really used as much as in CMBB, and that they (and their big brother, the ampulomet) could knock out a tank, as they do in the game. Ive never seen any instance in the literature of a molotov taking out a buttoned-up panzer, though of course they could do a good job on an open-topped SP gun or half-track.

MACHINE GUNS

In the CM universe, MGs have to shoot at a unit target or an area target, one spot at a time. But everyone knows that MGs dont work that way. They were designed to spray areas with bullets, particularly the heavy supporting ones. They should have an arc of fire, and the fire should move from side to side within that arc. The overall firepower could be divided by the area covered by the arc, and applied to each unit within it.

I cant get a Maxim gun on a tank I suppose because of the wheels. Yet, despite the wheels, its five-man crew get all tired if they pull it at anything faster than a slow walk. Can we please have a mule or something? Or maybe we could just take off the wheels, then it could go on a tank like everyone elses HMGs

And another thing. In CM, MGs seem to scare the poop out of the soldiers facing them, but they rarely hit them. They are broken right away, but they never seem to have any casualties from them, except at the closest ranges.
Come on men, advance!
But sarge, theres a machine-gun shooting at us a kilometre away. Were scared.
You know we havent lost a man to an MG since 1941, theres nothing to worry about.
But were scared. I think we might even be panicking. Are you panicking, Sergei?
Yes, Im definitely panicking.When I hear that rat-a-tat-tat I get very panicky. Its so much scarier than those grenades, mortar bombs or tanks that I can stand up to and face.
This reaches its absurd height when one HMG is in a firefight with another. Then they both get scared, neither suffers casualties, and they lie there cowering for a while, until one of them gets less scared than the other. Then the other one will get really scared. All six of the losing team will then crawl away with their HMG until they get exhausted. Then they stop crawling and realise theyre not so scared any more, just pooped out.

MISCELLANEOUS

A sharpshooter has 10 rounds. Count em, 10. Congratulations, soldier. You are now a fully-qualified sniper, capable of shooting the wings off a fly at 300 metres. You have a state-of-the-art weapon and a sophisticated telescopic sight. Go now, and show me what you can do in combat. Make every shot a kill. But remember, dont take more than 10 rounds with you, we wouldnt want you to get all hot and sweaty lugging ammo around, and if you killed more than ten of the enemy, it wouldnt be sporting, now, would it?

Mortar and MG teams have only pistols for personal weapons. TOEs for all armies covered in CM show clearly that mortar and HMG crews quite logically carried both rifles and pistols. For example, the TOE for both five-man Red Army mortar sections and MG sections have four rifles and a pistol in addition to the main weapon. These arms were clearly allocated to allow the team to defend itself if the main weapon was out of action or at too short a range to engage (in the case of mortars). Yet in CM these men are nearly helpless in these circumstances. The same applies to gun crews.

There seems to be a pro-German bias in the design of the game, or maybe this is just sour grapes (Im always the Allies, usually the Russians). This could be broken down into various sub-topics:
a) Russian tank crews are invariably cowards, retreating when they should advance (I thought Hunt meant hunt not run away when you see the enemy), and chronically short-sighted (I know the Germans had better gunsights, but surely the effect is exaggerated in CMBB Ive only seen a Russian tanker score a first-time hit once, and the Germans seem to do it almost every time).
b) Where are the Russian bazookas (delivered to them by the US from 1943 onward) and the captured panzerfausts (they have captured German tanks, but never anti-tank weapons)? Note that when the Romanians go over to the Soviets in September 1944, they bring their fausts with them. Yet the nice Russians never seem to want to take those tempting toys away from them.
c) Was the T-34 really as pathetic as it seems in CMBB? In the battle histories Ive read, the German 75 rounds simply bounce off the armour. In CM they always seem to cause a penetration at a weak point. Comrade Stalin wouldnt have been happy about all those weak points, Im sure.

Even by CM3, there is no such thing as a close air support observer, even though such spotters were plentiful, at least in the US Army, by 1944. The mechanics seem easy enough like an arty spotter, the FO designates a target zone or unit target, then the plane bombs it. Nothing to it, I would have thought.

If a weapon or vehicle is ABANDONED but not KNOCKED OUT, why cant it be re-used if the player can get a crew together? Example: a T34 is abandoned, another is knocked out. 3 men survive from the first tank, 2 from the second. After a while their morale is recovered. Isnt there any way for them to be merged, get back in the abandoned tank, and carry on? If not in one battle, then between battles in an operation?

Ski troops lose their skis when they sneak on their bellies? Couldnt they just strap them to their backs and put them on later? If they drop them for an assault, couldnt they go back to pick them up later? And how can they ski through rough terrain anyway?

The saddest cavalry in the world is the Red Army cavalry. There they are, hoping to cut down the Germans with their sabres, or at least go riding once in a while. But they have to walk everywhere, just like the infantry, in their knee-high riding boots. Give us horses, or let us transfer to the infantry. But let us keep the boots.

And finally, a word from the motorcycle platoon. Where are our motorbikes? We remember the cool ones with a mounted HMG from the newsreels. Whats so difficult about making one for CM?

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MAD RUSSIAN
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Post #107   7153 days, 6 hours, 5 minutes, 43 seconds ago        
Lets go down your list and see what I feel about the same issues.

Firing blindly.

This one for me is not an issue. Most experienced troops won't shoot at what they can't see. Chances of hitting anything are zero and you give your position away. Rarely does a unit have the ammunition supply to simply "plaster an area with bombs"!

What you are complaining about is not being able to fire into an area that is suspected but one that they can't see. The target area is outside of their field of vision.

On this one I disagree with you.

My tactics for this are: hold my fire until I see the whites of their eyes. In limited visibility it is very hard for the enemy to see my guys in cover with a covered arc that they will trigger when they get close enough and I can see them.

Target Tracking.

Sometimes this is an issue. It goes back to firing blindly. IF the target goes to ground and is no longer in their field of vision experienced troops will stop firing. Why would you shoot at the outside of a building? You have no idea if they are in the attic or the basement? So you are going to simply shoot at the front door because that is where you saw them go in?

With limited cover this arguement holds less truth. A patch of brush is different from a house.

What you describe here to me is a recon by fire. Smoke 'em out!! Not an actual tactic to produce the destruction of the target. Very limited value.

So 99% of the time I disagree with you on this one too. This seems to be a speed issue to me. You want to be able to move and attack quicker than you do now. I think CM is already for the most part playing too fast.

My tactics for this are: Slow down. This isn't a race. Take the time to clear suspected enemy positions before you move on. Normally there is enough time to use the correct tactics. If that means area fire for a full turn or two do it.

Mortars and Artillery.

All weapons fall into two classes. Either they are direct fire in which case they must see the target themselves. Or they are indirect fire, in which case they must have someone else see the target and tell them about it. Mortars and artillery don't fire blindly around the battlefield. Most of the time they don't have rounds to simply throw away. Take your example of simply firing blindly all over the map. Now you are almost out of ammo and here comes my counterattack. Are you going to use your ammo firing around the map on map missions or wait until you can actually see a target?

I agree that both OMA and mortars should be treated the same. I believet that CM does that. I disagree with you on this one.

Artillery rounds.

That there are no allocation of smoke rounds is a glaring problem in this game. Where you have to pick between them is very hard to understand.

And WP should set things on fire. I read where a tank used smoke rounds to set 2 King Tigers on fire. The fire didn't cause any damage but the crews thought they were on fire and bailed with all the smoke coming in.

I agree with you on this one.

My tactics for this are: as a designer I put in mortars for the express purpose of supplying smoke and not HE. I put that in my briefings to the players and let them know.

Machineguns

How many things can one gun do at once? One. So, you can EITHER, fire area fire OR shoot directly at targets. That is way ALL single weapons systmes work not just machineguns. Simply because a machinegun fires lots of bulltes doesn't mean it defies the laws of math. It can still only do one job at a time.

I disagree with you on this one.

MG Fear Factor

MG's killed more soldiers than any other weapons sytem in WWII other than mortars. Maybe there was a reason to be scared of them. In CMBO they were undermodeled. I'm not sure if they are overmodeled now but it is much better than in CMBO days. Without the fear factor you have guys just walking up to an MG and with no effect on them. One of the three weapons that American soldiers feared the most in WWII was the MG42. There has to be a reason for that.

I disagree with you on this one.


Sneaking Away

You mention the crews sneaking away until they are exhausted. I see this will all infantry units.

While I agree that sneaking is tiring. I think they should be able to go to ground somewhere. You need to monitor your troops very closeley to keep this from happening.

I agree with you partially on this one.


Miscellaneous

Snipers have 10 combats. Infantry ammo loads are per combat and not individual rounds. Even so they are given very little ammo.

I partially agree with you on this one.

Gun crews don't have the correct personal weapons assignment. Those crews were too important to leave with simply pistols when their gun was broken.

I agree with you on this one.


Pro German Bias:

a) Tank crews of all nationalities will not engage armor that the crew determines is better than theirs. The Russians may be a bit more head shy but they were in real life as well.

I'm not sure how the CMBB hit formula works but the Germans had MUCH better optics than the Russian AFV's.

b) I am in wholehearted agreement with you in the captured weapons department. In fact the entire range of weapons, not just the anti-tank weapons.
Why are there no captured MG42's, or DP Light Machineguns, to name just a few. I think the answer lies in CD space. I have seen it said that there were alot of things left out of the game because it wouldn't fit on a single CD. My answer is make a 2 CD set and we'll buy that COMPLETE game. The Americans and British actually issued PF's to some units as standard TO&E's.

c) The T-34 wasn't as good as it has been made out to be. If it was the Germans would have lost the war in three months. It was better than the rest of the tanks out there but it could be killed. The difference is it stood a chance. It could also kill German tanks pretty easily. Something no other tank the Germans had run up on until then had done.

Close Air Support

CAS is notorious for not doing well. Patton on several occasions pulled the CAS away from his troops. I can show you countless...COUNTLESS...times when the US CAS hit US troops and they were very good at CAS. Luftwaffe same way. Russians same way. NO CAS is for the most part iffy. At best it is okay and at worst it is disasterous.

Abandoned Equipment

While I have read accounts of this going both ways and I know all the SL/ASL'ers out there are used to re-crewing weapons, I'm not sure about it happening VERY OFTEN with a vehicle.

I think it happened all the time with infantry weapons such as Machinguns.

I agree with you for the most part on this one.

Ski Troops

Do you want to stop in the middle of a fire fight and strap skis on your back? Not happening.

Same thing with cavalry. Once the fight starts the horses are a non-entity. Unless of course you are doing a cavalry charge which can't be done in CM since there are no horses.

Same thing with motorcycles. Once the fight starts the motorcycles are a
non-entity.

I think both horses, motorcycles and horse teams for pulling infantry weapons should have been included.

My thoughts.

Your article seems to me to be mostly about how you precieve that CM models some issues. I think for the most part your preceptions are a little off. I have tried to show where my opinion differs from yours and why.

Keep in mind that my opinion was free and it is worth exactly what you paid for it.

On some issues you are absolutely correct and maybe they will correct these at a later time.

Good Hunting.

MR

MURPH
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Post #108   7152 days, 21 hours, 26 minutes, 36 seconds ago        
Thanks Mr Mad Russkie for your feedback...

I can see you've thought hard and in detail about these issues, and I appreciate it.

I'll get back to you about your responses soon.

Murph
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JUNK2DRIVE
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Post #109   7151 days, 18 hours, 47 minutes, 36 seconds ago        
I couldn't help thinking as a I read your post how I feel about an Axis bias in CM. Then I got to your view. I am not, nor are you, trying to say anything personal about the BFC crew, but they do seem to be fans of Axis equipment. I have not been around since the beginning but I do have all 3 games. I have complained since CMAK came out about the lack of Allied units. Look at how many different kinds of German uniforms and start menu bar icons there are and then look at the Allies. The Italians have more start menu icons than the US and Brits combined and there are alot of blank spots on the Allied half. Portraits are similar. We shouldn't have to switch the dates back and forth in the editor to get US airborne late war in CMAK. ETC ETC

I agree about area firing into smoke. If I as commander order my troops to area fire over there and waste ammo, they should. If area fire in general with LOS is a waste of ammo then take it out of the game. Regarding area and target fire and LOS, if we can pause click before firing, we should be able to click continue firing in increments of 10 seconds, after LOS is broken.

One of the hardest concepts for me is the 30 minute battle of CM. Things like horse transport don't belong in a game that depicts the front line of battle. But how many times do we play a scenario that takes 10-15 turns to get to the front line? Alot for me and transport with horses over rocky terrain would be nice. SPWAW depicts them like a wagon train thingy. If tank tracks can move in CM, so can horsey legs. It doesnt have to be fancy, just an option. Some of this debate depends on the style of battle each person likes to play. Some people want armor only. Some mostly infantry.
Some want a video game where you blast the enemy in five turns with massive artillery, game over. Your comments about artillery rounds is correct, but as the game is now, it is up to the scenario designer to know this and balance the numbers in his script. Then it is up to you as commander to decide what, where, and how to use what is available. I am talking from playing against the AI experience. PBEM and QB may be different.

I agree that crews should have more than pistols, but I have seen 5 man mortar crews hold there own under attack with those pistols, and even eliminate small squads.

More smoke or no smoke at all. Or give designers the option in parameters. Remember smoke works both ways though. I would like my squads to have some for when I goof up and they get trapped, but not the enemy when I trap him.

I would like to see BFC give us a little more, even if we had to pay for an expansion pack. The "won't fit on the cd" is a poor excuse when you find unused CMBO and CMBB leftover bmps in the folder.

I liken CM to playing chess 3D. I want a challenge. Some days a draw is good enough. Some days I like a major victory in an unbalanced battle. Some days I like a thinking game that gives you an objective that has nothing to do with points.

Operations could use some help. I have played alot of good ones.

Enough for now.
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MAD RUSSIAN
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Post #110   7151 days, 17 hours, 38 minutes, 36 seconds ago        
All of my comments have been about battles. Like J2D said operations need help.

I think the axis bias is from a game designers viewpoint actually. The German equipment piece for piece was normally better. We can go down the list if you like but most gamers agree with that.

CMAK makes you move the airborne around because CMAK is about the MED. There were no US Airborne troops in the MED in June of 1944 they were all in Normandy. That's why you have to move the dates around in the editor.

Enough for now.

Good Hunting.

MR
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Post #111   7151 days, 16 hours, 11 minutes, 36 seconds ago        
J2D: As much as I agree with some of your points I strongly dissagree on others. As for the Axis, well that may be something to do with what BFC knows most about. Remember that they want to be as realistic as they, in their own knowledge of World War Two ground combat, can be.

One of my biggest disagreements is over what units are and aren't in CMAK for example. Again CMAK is not CMBO and its not CMBO II. Due to this, units like King Tigers, are not in CMAK. Other than not being able to fully depict a few Battle of the Bulge and other late war battles this is really not important. American Airborne where not in Italy after the dates given, thus they are not in CMAK. BFC has always stood for having the right units in the right time period and theater. Some they fixed in patches, others they haven't.

I'm not saying BFC is always right, because they aren't. More smoke or none at all? Sounds a little strange. Maybe I've been playing these games too long, but I rather like it, even with all of its short comings.
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"The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war."
General Douglas MacArthur
JUNK2DRIVE
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Post #112   7151 days, 15 hours, 40 minutes, 27 seconds ago        
For whatever it is worth (not much) here is what I proposed to BFC

junk2drive
Member
Member # 13747

posted February 10, 2004 08:56 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Rangers, Darby's Rangers, 1stSSF, 82ndAB.
According to this

Grunts.net 82nd AB
Grunts.net Rangers
Darby's Rangers
82nd pulled to Normandy training 11/43 and not available in cmak in 12/43
Rangers, Darby's Rangers and 1stSSF were in NA, Italy, up the boot and into France through the rest of cmak timeframe. There are no mountain troops available until 1/45.
How about giving us something besides regular infantry 12/43 to 12/44? Without having to play the back and forth in parameters game.

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These units were trained in para tactics as were Luftwaffe units that didn't get to drop from planes after Crete. FJ and LW infantry are in CMAK late war aren't they?
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MAD RUSSIAN
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Post #113   7150 days, 2 hours, 52 minutes, 31 seconds ago        
My gripes with the system are:

Artillery basic loads. You can either have smoke or HE but not both. That is ludicrous.


Horses. The Russians used cavalry as cavalry and the Germans and their Allies did too. So where are the horses.

Airborne paradrops. Let me order the drop and have the computer scatter them for me just like in RL.

Convoy orders. Everybody knows about this one and wants it for Christmas.

Multi-turreted vehicles in Russia. Don't tell me there isn't enough disk space. I'll buy a second CD or an add on.

Night combat. Night combat needs the varying degrees of darkness, gunflashes and shadows to work properly. That could all be done with the extra disk space of the 2nd CD.

Artillery spotter aircraft. Why can't I have the Fiesler Storch and the L5?

Extra terrain tiles. With the extra CD we could have factories in the CMAK battle areas. Just to name one of hundreds of different tiles that could be used and added.

I would like a command structure. I want to be able to see where a battalion commander affects his company commanders and where they affect the platoon leaders with a command radius.

Unit structures. I would like to be able to assign equipment or personnel to an organization. For instance if a platoon has ONE Sherman with a 76mm gun I'd like to be able to do that.

Enough for now.

Good Hunting.

MR



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Post #115   7149 days, 20 hours, 55 minutes, 56 seconds ago        
-Spending time on the current game engine would be a waste of Charles time (He must already be spending 9+ hours a day on CMX2 and whatever still needs to be done for the CMAK 1.02 patch). I wouldn't count on anything which you are calling for being added.
-IIRC the current game engine does not allow for mixed tank platoons, which would make it hard to add them.
-Spotting planes sounds a little out of the current scope of CM if you ask me.
-Airdrop? This can be simulated by having small reinforcements appear on different parts of the map at the same time.
-As far as I know in CM, other than the fact that Company CO's and Battalion HQ's can control other units, and normal command bonus, I don't think they have any effect at all.
-Horses like MC's are not in CM because it is high likey that they would be used in unhistorical ways. I remember gamey rushes with jeeps in CMBO, and having horses would just let the enemy do that, only with less sound.
-I agree that we need sperate smoke and HE rounds.
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"The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war."
General Douglas MacArthur
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Post #116   7149 days, 19 hours, 29 minutes, 31 seconds ago        
Panzerman, we know BFC is not going to fix or change anything, we are just rambling.
I have heard the Charles is busy with CMX2 enough times.
Warning EXAGERATION ahead...
What if Microsoft said they were too busy with Longhorn to patch Windows XP?
Silly comparison, I know. No need to respond. I know that BFC is a small company and we are lucky to have these games. Sometimes BFC's excuses are pretty thin. IIRC you can play Romania vs Romania in CMBB. But they must sell more games in Romania then France because they refuse to have Vichy vs Free French. My bottom line is that what is important to BFC gets fixed, what is important to SOME of the game buyers is not important and will not be fixed.
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Post #117   7149 days, 18 hours, 47 minutes, 24 seconds ago        
Quote:
Originally posted by: Panzerman:
-Spending time on the current game engine would be a waste of Charles time (He must already be spending 9+ hours a day on CMX2 and whatever still needs to be done for the CMAK 1.02 patch). I wouldn't count on anything which you are calling for being added.
-IIRC the current game engine does not allow for mixed tank platoons, which would make it hard to add them.
-Spotting planes sounds a little out of the current scope of CM if you ask me.
-Airdrop? This can be simulated by having small reinforcements appear on different parts of the map at the same time.
-As far as I know in CM, other than the fact that Company CO's and Battalion HQ's can control other units, and normal command bonus, I don't think they have any effect at all.
-Horses like MC's are not in CM because it is high likey that they would be used in unhistorical ways. I remember gamey rushes with jeeps in CMBO, and having horses would just let the enemy do that, only with less sound.
-I agree that we need sperate smoke and HE rounds.



Panzerman I know that BFC won't fix any of this. We are simply venting. What is wrong with the system. What is in my list is what I see wrong with it. You don't have to agree with my list I'm sure you things you don't think are right on your own. Like the fact that there are Mac compatability issues at times.

I know the current system doesn't allow for mixed tank platoons that is my point.

An airdrop can indeed be simulated with reinforcements but that is by far and away not the same thing as having them come floating to earth. They could do it if they wanted to.

You are correct there is no chain of command beyond the platoon leader level.

Gamey? What is gamey? Everything you can think of to try on in a game was done in real life and then some. A lot of it didn't work and wasn't used more than once or twice before moving on to better tactics. Bring your gamey tactics to my games and I'll show you why they are a bad idea. The jeeps for instance I kill a defenseless unit with a half squad in it. I get the price of the jeep and maybe it's crew for the same cost as the half squad. So get gamey with jeeps and I'll show you why it's a bad idea. There were MILLIONS of horses used in WWII. Don't tell me that their use would be gamey you would have to learn to use them. I mean King Tigers are in the game and I can get gamey with them too....

Maybe there will be a bit more realism in the next version of CM but whether or not it follows EXACTLY the same system or not I'll buy it because even with it's warts it's the best combat game in the world!!

Good Hunting.

MR
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Post #118   7149 days, 18 hours, 13 minutes, 16 seconds ago        
Quote:
Originally posted by: junk2drive:
Panzerman, we know BFC is not going to fix or change anything, we are just rambling.
I have heard the Charles is busy with CMX2 enough times.
Warning EXAGERATION ahead...
What if Microsoft said they were too busy with Longhorn to patch Windows XP?
Silly comparison, I know.

Actually, not a silly comparison. Microsoft has dropped further support by way of service pack patches for Win95, Win98 and 98se and will soon for WinMe. BFC's stance is that at some point you have to say we've done all we can for the old program without causing unneccessary delays to the new program. Whether that's right or wrong, I don't know. It's not popular with those that spent the money on the old games and feel that there are still some serious flaws, but I can also see their point.
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Post #119   7149 days, 17 hours, 4 minutes, 32 seconds ago        
GJK I can almost understand MS dropping support for 95 and 98 because of age. ME was 1999-2000 and seems so long ago, lol Y2K? But CMAK hasn't been a year yet. On one hand, 1.01 did fix some complaints. On another hand, they can say they are waiting for 1.02 until we see all the new complaints. Growing another hand for now, I don't want to hear that BFC doesn't have the time or resources to finish the patch. It may be true, but I don't want to hear it. They could cut down some of the heat by promising to do something special after CMX2 comes out and they have more time.
MS isn't a garage game company either. We are probably lucky that BFC hasn't folded. Atomic games comes to mind.
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Post #121   7149 days, 13 hours, 31 minutes, 48 seconds ago        
Quote:
Originally posted by: Mad Russian:

Gamey? What is gamey? Everything you can think of to try on in a game was done in real life and then some. A lot of it didn't work and wasn't used more than once or twice before moving on to better tactics. Bring your gamey tactics to my games and I'll show you why they are a bad idea. The jeeps for instance I kill a defenseless unit with a half squad in it. I get the price of the jeep and maybe it's crew for the same cost as the half squad. So get gamey with jeeps and I'll show you why it's a bad idea. There were MILLIONS of horses used in WWII. Don't tell me that their use would be gamey you would have to learn to use them. I mean King Tigers are in the game and I can get gamey with them too....

Maybe there will be a bit more realism in the next version of CM but whether or not it follows EXACTLY the same system or not I'll buy it because even with it's warts it's the best combat game in the world!!

Good Hunting.

MR


I think you miss understand the term gamey, but that's ok. Gamey, IMO, is doing anything that takes advantage of loop wholes in the game engine to gain victory. For example, back in CMBO days people used jeeps to force enemy AT-Guns to open fire, even if the player did not want them to. This is somewhat harder to do now, in CMBB and CMAK, since armor cover arcs prevent this.
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Post #122   7149 days, 13 hours, 28 minutes, 50 seconds ago        
Quote:
Originally posted by: junk2drive
MS isn't a garage game company either. We are probably lucky that BFC hasn't folded. Atomic games comes to mind.


Consider that BFC was origianly only going to make CMBO, I'd have to say they have done far better than I think they ever dreamed. BFC points out that the members that take part in the community most likely only account for 5-10% of those who own the games.
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Post #124   7146 days, 22 hours, 47 minutes, 16 seconds ago        
Quote:
Originally posted by: Mad Russian:
My gripes with the system are:

Artillery basic loads. You can either have smoke or HE but not both. That is ludicrous.


Horses. The Russians used cavalry as cavalry and the Germans and their Allies did too. So where are the horses.

Airborne paradrops. Let me order the drop and have the computer scatter them for me just like in RL.

Convoy orders. Everybody knows about this one and wants it for Christmas.

Multi-turreted vehicles in Russia. Don't tell me there isn't enough disk space. I'll buy a second CD or an add on.

Night combat. Night combat needs the varying degrees of darkness, gunflashes and shadows to work properly. That could all be done with the extra disk space of the 2nd CD.

Artillery spotter aircraft. Why can't I have the Fiesler Storch and the L5?

Extra terrain tiles. With the extra CD we could have factories in the CMAK battle areas. Just to name one of hundreds of different tiles that could be used and added.

I would like a command structure. I want to be able to see where a battalion commander affects his company commanders and where they affect the platoon leaders with a command radius.

Unit structures. I would like to be able to assign equipment or personnel to an organization. For instance if a platoon has ONE Sherman with a 76mm gun I'd like to be able to do that.

Enough for now.

Good Hunting.

MR




I agree totally with MR. My question is: what is the strongpoint of CM? IMHO, the main feature of CM is FOW. CM is detailed but ASL, for example, is more: indeed no boardgame can simulate the FOW as CM does.

The player in CM is the commander of his army. As CM-commander he has certainly much more information than every real commander of WWII: he sees instantly what his soldiers see! He can place a sniper 1500m far away (without radio or even LOS to him) and instantly see enemy approaching (gamey?). Telepathy?

This is my only gripe: the FOW is imperfect. The command structure is limited.

If the CM-commander gives an order to a squad and there is an understandable delay in the execution of that order, why there is no delay in the informations gathered by that squad? No, all that squad sees or hears is instantly available. Why the commander can give orders to isolated platoons or companies or squads? It would be nice to have a command chain (with radio, messenger or ... smoke signals Big Grin ) between the CM-commander and his battalions, companies, platoons, squads...


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Post #125   7146 days, 20 hours, 50 minutes, 49 seconds ago        
TRPs for airstrikes. Preplot an area for a plane to drop bombs on. I read an historical battle story, and I can't duplicate it because the enemy troops are in the woods.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
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Post #126   7146 days, 16 hours, 5 minutes, 52 seconds ago        
Quote:
Originally posted by: junk2drive:
TRPs for airstrikes. Preplot an area for a plane to drop bombs on. I read an historical battle story, and I can't duplicate it because the enemy troops are in the woods.
Correct me if I'm wrong.



Big Grin Big Grin You're wrong!! Big Grin Big Grin

The TRP for airstrikes would take the decision away from the pilot where to attack. That was not the case in WWII. The Germans draped flags over their tanks so that they wouldn't get hit by the Luftwaffe. Patton called off Ninth Airforce support for the 3rd Army because his own troops were hit so often. No I think that the few times CAS works is about the right percentage. If you want CAS to work use experienced pilots. Veteran or better work just fine.

Good Hunting.

MR
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Post #127   7146 days, 13 hours, 30 minutes, 15 seconds ago        
Salutations to all,

I'm really thrilled with the feedback on this piece, especially MR's thoughtful thinkpieces. I think all of us love the game and respect its creators for a job well done. Our criticism is positive, with the aim of improving the next versions.

Getting down to business:

Firing into darkness/smoke - This is really a must. MR's point about it being a potential waste of ammo is well made, but that should be the field commander's decision, not the game software's.
"Fighting in Crete and the Low Countries had made the German paratroopers expert in gauging distance at night. Mortar crewmen eyed the drifting shadows and adjusted their elevation knobs..." Atkinson, An Army at Dawn, p186.
And of course there are different degrees of darkness at night, as everyone knows. Flares could also be used to give areas of illumination.

HMGs
They really are area weapons, you know. "A machine gun was not intended to put a number of rounds into the same target, who could quite as efficiently, and a lot more cheaply, be killed by one bullet as five. The idea was to lay down a belt of fire across which no enemy could pass unscathed. ...It was not fired in the hosepipe fashion so often seen in films, but laid on a fixed line that may have had some traverse to the left and right." Corrigan, Mud, Blood and Poppycock, p130.
Admittedly, this book deals with WWI, but I think the basic doctrine of HMGs was unchanged by WWII, and is more or less the same with the mounted chain guns of today.
In CM terms, I think the principle should be to allow a limited arc or area of MG fire, and apply the firepower to all units within it.

More later on other topics,

Cheers to everyone
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Post #128   7146 days, 5 hours, 42 minutes, 56 seconds ago        
Firing into darkness/smoke - This is really a must. MR's point about it being a potential waste of ammo is well made, but that should be the field commander's decision, not the game software's.

If the game penalized you for being out of ammo, and not being able to defend yourself when you were, you wouldn't even be thinking of wasting ammo firing at targets you couldn't see. This is another of my pet peeves. I am NEVER "Out of Ammo" with infantry weapons! I can always fire with infantry weapons.

Night fighting is probably the most glaring mis-modeling in CM. There are no degrees of darkness, no light radius for fires, no siloutting of a target with a light source, a complete absence of flares, all there is to model night combat is a darkening of the screen and a reduced LOS. Tracers should be interesting at night too.

HMGs
They really are area weapons, you know. "A machine gun was not intended to put a number of rounds into the same target, who could quite as efficiently, and a lot more cheaply, be killed by one bullet as five. The idea was to lay down a belt of fire across which no enemy could pass unscathed. ...It was not fired in the hosepipe fashion so often seen in films, but laid on a fixed line that may have had some traverse to the left and right." Corrigan, Mud, Blood and Poppycock, p130.
Admittedly, this book deals with WWI, but I think the basic doctrine of HMGs was unchanged by WWII, and is more or less the same with the mounted chain guns of today.
In CM terms, I think the principle should be to allow a limited arc or area of MG fire, and apply the firepower to all units within it.


There is a world of difference between WWI and WWII MG use. You couldn't move a WWI MG by simply picking it up and walking on with it.

I agree that MG's are for the most part area weapons. For a time I was an M-60 gunner in the Army. You have an area fire command for them now. You can assign them lanes of fire to offer suppression with now. So, I am at a loss about what you think, you don't get, with the CM MG's.

Good Hunting.

MR

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Post #129   7146 days, 3 hours, 50 minutes, 47 seconds ago        
On MGs I suppose you're right, I would just like to know when you area fire with an MG, how much area does that cover? Does it suppress a 2m radius, 5m or 10m?
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