Adam's favorite.

[Sgt. John Walters]

That sounds a lot better than 6 gigs.

[Joshua Kennedy]

My buddy Jason and I have a lot of fun playing around with this on his PC. We even started making our own mods to assist in realism:

General changes:
*All infantry start with a full squad
*All tanks have been tweaked in damage and armor value so that tank battles are quicker (I.E. Tanks do much more damage to eachother, so one good hit from the side can knock out an opposing tank)
*Some off-map support changed to units made in buildings
*Sticky Bombs do less damage against tanks, but have a greater chance of disabling something important
*Units do more damage to eachother overall, and thus die faster
*Grenade range slightly increased to compensate for bigger squads

Americans:
*Rifle Squad starts with 12 men, weapons are; 10 M1 Garands, 1 BAR, 1 Thompson
*BAR upgrade changes one M1 rifleman to BAR gunner
*M27 Pershing now made at Tank Depot
*Added M5 Stuart; weaker than most things out there, but fast and still have a chance of penetrating a Panzer IV's side armor
*Rangers squad starts with 12 men; 10 M1 Garands, 1 BAR, 1 Thompson; SMGs upgrade taken out; Squad buffed as counterbalance
*Sniper range, LOS, health, rate of fire and damage increased to compensate for bigger squads
*Paratrooper Squad starts with 12 men; 11 M1A1 Carbines, 1 Thompson
*Engineer teams slighty buffed

More soon to come.

[Matthew Graham]

Are thes emods for the online version or the buyable version?

[Sgt. John Walters]

Sounds cool, just interested on how you did such mods?

[Joshua Kennedy]

Nov 5, 2010 19:39:26 GMT Matthew Graham said:

Are thes emods for the online version or the buyable version?

Unfortunately not for online (yet).

There is a realism mod however that you can download that is for online, but it makes arty overpowered. We're just taking this mod and changing it a bit.

[Joshua Kennedy]

We decided to stop doing the mod. Turns out there's a game out there that fits our thirst for a realistic and fun WWII Game. It's called Combat Mission: Beyond Normandy.

I also have with me Panzer Command: Kharkov (because CM didn't have Russians). The latter is a little more demanding in graphics, and my computer can barely handle it, so I play CM more often (though not as nice looking, it has many more functions for infantry that I like over Panzer Command).

This here's a battle with a screenshot of Combat Mission: Beyond Normandy in a map I custom built that I currently dubbed "The Village." I made the map solely because the only real awesome American vs German armored engagement is stacked in favor of the Germans (A bunch of AT guns and infantry w/ AT capabilities, around five StuG IIIGs and two Panther Gs against 13 Shermans and infantry).

The forces were as follows:

For the Americans:
9x M4A3W Shermans
3x M4A3(76mm)W Shermans
Elements of a Rifle Company w/o Bazookas or a weapons platoon

For the Germans:
6x Panzer IV H's
2x Panzer IV J's
2x Jagdpanthers w/ Skirts (real tanks wear skirts!)
Elements of a Volksgrenadier Kompanie w/o mortars but w/ MG teams

Americans are attacking the Germans, who are closer to the village and have a better overall position (to compensate for using Volksgrenadiers).

The battle lasted 15 turns (each turn lasts an in game minute). The end result was a German surrender, counted as an American Minor Victory.

Casualties for the Americans:
~30 infantry and tank crew casualties (17 KIA)
7 knocked out M4A3W Shermans (three catastrophic kills)
1 knocked out M4A3(76mm)W Sherman

Casualties for the Germans:
~84-88 infantry and tank crew casualties (~40 KIA)
6 knocked out Panzer IV H's (three catastrophic kills)
2 knocked out Panzer IV J's (one catastrophic kill)
2 knocked out Jadgpanthers
Any remaining units captured

In this screenshot, Sgt Karn's M4A3(76mm)W Sherman surveys the area after assisting fellow tankers mop up any armored resistance. Karn and his crew scored 8 infantry casualties, knocked out three Panzer IV H's (two catastrophic kills) and one Panzer IV J (catastrophic kill), scoring the most overall damage (points wise) in the battle.

(Sorry if it's a bit big, I just wanted as much as I can get to still look pretty cool).

Linkehfied.
Linkeh

[Joshua Kennedy]

Anyway, I ran the battle again, this time playing as the Germans.

Basically, most of the American Shermans were shot to pieces as the armored column neared town. The battle ended in an American Surrender, German Major Victory.

Forces were the exact same as last battle.

Casualty Report is as follows:

Germans:
18 infantry and tank crew casualties (5 KIA, all KIA were part of a Panzer IV H crew)
3 KO'd Panzer IV H's (1 CK)
2 KO'd Panzer IV J's (1 CK, all crew members somehow survived their burns)

Americans:
97 infantry and tank crew casualties (26 KIA)
34 captured
All tanks KO'd (4 CKs)

Screenshots:

Destruction at the gate.

The only crew to not survive the battle. R.I.P. Unt Griess and crew.

[Joshua Kennedy]

Necro-bump away!

Y'all remember the game I talked about ^up there^

Here's a battle from the sequel (Combat Mission: Afrika Korps).

It's the battle of Faid Pass, me playing as the Americans and my friend Jason as the Germans (over the interwebs!).

Historical Spoiler: The ill-prepared Americans got their asses handed to them.

Jason bet me that I couldn't beat him in this scenario, even though he admits I'm better than him at this game. To make it fair, I gave him the side that won during the actual engagement.

The picture linked right about... here! No, wait- HERE... should tell you how it ended.

My commentary: Jason did exactly what I wouldn't have done (at least after turn 17). At first he moved his Recce company and four 222's up to get a glimpse at my defenses and, instead of pulling back immediately, kept his armored cars on the eastern ridge to engage in a sniping battle. It seemed like he desperately was trying to cause as much damage with the few units he had at his disposal, pressuring the middle of my forces and only causing a few minor penetrations that did no significant damage to my M15's (and, wisely, avoiding my Five M3 Lees to the southwest). Then he got reinforced with half-tracks that had 20mm guns on them, which he used at his own discretion (getting them blown up quickly in a failed flanking attempt). When he had his ten Panzer III's and four Marauder III's show up, he should have used them to rush my forces, but instead did his nice little sniping maneuver that failed him in the beginning. Then I received my reinforcements; Five M4A1 Shermans. Three of the Shermans were KO'd inconveniently, one spazzed out and showed its rear end and sides to the enemy (dieing quickly), one got sniped by a Marauder, and the other got stuck on a wall, forcing me to improvise and getting it sniped by another Marauder. The fourth one panicked and almost routed after being hit once, and my command tank was unscathed. Meanwhile one of the Lees had its sponson 75mm damaged and was basically out of the fight. However, thanks to my excellent planning and positioning, I out-sniped Jason and destroyed most of his armored forces, later charging all of my remaining tanks to clean up the area and cut off his retreating infantry. It was, basically, a slaughter after the Shermans finally decided to do something.

Here's what Jason's forces on the ridge looked like after the battle: Clickable!