Panzer Marsch!

I've substantially reworked my Combat Mission: Red Thunder mission "Village Z" into a smaller, reinforced company sized engagement. This scenario and map are fictional, but based on a real event that happened along the Kielce-Opatow Road on August 16, 1944. The actual encounter is described in DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY PAMPHLET NO. 20-269. The narrative can be found online at http://www.allworldwars.com/Small-Unit-Actions-During-German-Campaign-in-Russia.html#2212.

One Last Trench - Intelligence Prep

I took a break today from working on revising my CMRT scenario to finally give JC's scenario "One Last Trench" a try. This scenario is a fictionalized version of the Soviet assault against a portion of the 78th Sturm Division's final line in the vicinity of Orsha toward the beginning of Operation Bagration.

Scout units trying to firm up the picture of enemy deployments

Village Z

I've posted my first ever Combat Mission scenario, Village Z, over at battlefront.com!

The scenario is a fictionalized recreation of a German attack along the Kielce-Opatow Road in Poland on August 16, 1944. A description of the actual engagement can be read here.

A platoon of Panthers prepares to advance across the fields

The scenario concerns a dawn attack by a German armor-heavy kampfgruppe to seize a pair of road bridges to secure the route of advance for the 3rd Panzer Division. I wasn't able to find the exact spot on a map for the actual engagement. Instead I created a fictionalized map based on the description of the battle.

Reading to Go With Combat Mission: Red Thunder

As I often do with new games, I went searching for books that were pertinent to Combat Mission: Red Thunder. I was, first, interested in a good overview of the operation. The first book I found is relatively short and probably mostly of interest if you're very into an analysis of late-period WWII Soviet offensive doctrine.

To the Vistula!

There is no doubt: this is my favorite Combat Mission game to date.

Sappers supported by assault guns and tanks attack a village

Victory

Combat Mission Red Thunder: Interesting Screenshots

Just a couple of interesting screenshots from today's gaming:

Tank riders! I'm feeling the combined arms love more in this game than any other since CMSF. Better not take these guys into an exposed position like this, though...

Check out that radio set! This poor FO team observer is hauling the equivalent of a living room cabinet radio set around on his back. The red line in a new (?) feature showing active command links. 

I found the visible portrayal of command links very useful in Graviteam Tactics and am delighted to see it implemented in Combat Mission.

Combat Mission Red Thunder: First Impressions

I spent some time last night and a lot of time today on multiplayer stuff with Steel Beasts Pro PE. So I'm just getting a chance to play with the shiny new release of Combat Mission: Red Thunder, Battlefront's new CMx2 engine release concerning late WW2 East Front warfare. I decided to start with the tutorial campaign to get acquainted with the new features of this release. Also, I haven't played much with Soviet formations at this level and wanted to get some experience with their very different doctrine.

The improved mission briefing screen that we first saw in CMFI makes a welcome return