Well, first off, judging by the state of your troops you continued this off the same campaign from your last video, so you started off severly depleted, so props on finishing the mission well despite that. BUT, you lost 45 men and 3 vehicles of A-company in mission 1. You wont be getting any replacements (de-tracked vehicles get new tracks, all other damage stays), and A-company has some serious fights coming up. IIRC their next engagment is the very next mission, the assault on the airport of Ash Shammas. I hate that mission. It's a lot of MOUT against an entrenched enemy and, for the first time in the campaign you'll be up against the syrian SF as well as foreign irregular fighters, IED's and enemies that'll mortar you right back. These two first missions are against green reservists and conscripts with no heavy weapons. I'll really advise that you either restart the campaign OR play one-off scenarios instead. You CAN go hardcore and try, it's not impossible, of course, the game however will not change the scenarios just because you have less than expected. The loss of a stryker isn't just the loss of the vehicle, it's also the loss of tactical mobility, not to mention a javelin that the game will assume you have availible. My first time attempting the campaign I reached the outskirts of Hims and realised half my tanks had lost their optics and literarly couldn't see a tank 10 meters away unless the commander opened up, not good in an urban terrain, most of the strykers didn't have a gunner because they had been picked off while reloading during various points in earlier battles, a fair few vehicles simply didn't have functioning guns and some of my squads were only 2 or 3 guys... I mean, you literarly had the company commander crest the hill overlooking the enemy stronghold there in the end. I don't know american doctrine, but I don't think that is how it's done. You were supposted to hit this mission with a full platoon, you probably had half that. And in the next scenario you'll attack the above-mentioned airport with that force as well. You'll be severly limited and struggling at that point, and it's just the start of the campaign so far. So, a couple of general gameplay tips for anyone new to the game... Indirect fire: When calling indirects fire, whenever possible use the fire control team. They have a direct line to batallion. If that isn't possible, the company commander also has that, but he wont be as accurate. Anything below that and the call-in time increases. A platoon commander have to go through company, and a squad commander have to go through platoon, who then calls company, who then calls batallion. I *think* each step also decreases accuracy, but I'm not 100% that's modeled. Also, remember to keep the spotter still and if at all possible, out of combat. If they are tired, demoralized, pinned, firing or moving accuracy will decrease, because they aren't focusing on what they are doing. If they lose sight of the spot they are calling in on it will decrease accuracy to an educated guess and the shots might be somewhere in the general vicinity if you are lucky. IIRC anything within 600 meters is considered extreme danger-close in real life. CM doesn't simulate friendly fire of small-arms fire, but anything that explodes will cause damage to friendly troops as well... You had mortar rounds aimed 150-200 meters from your guys. You ARE however lucky that it's even possible to call with squads, that is only true for NATO. If you are playing as the syrians (this is also true for the AI, so taking out syrian officers is a great way of removing their indirect fire capability), or the russians in Black Sea, only officers are allowed to call indirect fire. This is based on real-world doctrine. Spotting: Each soldier/vehicle have their own spots. They will share this information within their formation if possible, verbally, through radios etc. Same rules as for indirect fire. A squad will tell their platoon leader, they will in turn call it in to company. The fewer steps, or simply close vicinity, between two units the faster this will be. For this reason it is great having your company commander in a spot with good overview but low risk. That is true in general for officers. If they are firing their guns something generally isn't right. Their job isn't the shoot the enemy, it's to relay information between the platoons and squads. Treat officers in the game like you would in real life. [insert jokes about never giving them a map here] They won't automatically get the spot from being just told about it, but they will know the general area and have an increased chance of making the spot themselves. Spotting is at the core of CM games, and it's what makes it stand out from other RTS-type games. This is also where the americans have a great advantage over the syrians (even aside from stuff like better nightvision equipment, more binoculars and vehicle optics). Most syrian squads don't carry radios, just platoon leadership, so they will often be right on the line rather than behind it to report upwards in the formation. See above about what to do when you spot someone that looks important... It's much more obvious in the WW2 games who the officers are, but if you have one of the lower difficulties you'll be able to just click on them to see their rank. Which leads us to... Difficulty levels: Difficulty level only impacts two things in CM. The time to call in off-map indirect fire, and how much information you get about the enemy units. Nothing else changes. On the lower difficulties you can even see their names and ammo-count. On the absolute highest difficulty you can't even see your own units when you have one of your own units selected, unless that unit can also see your own units. Which leads us too... More about spotting: When you click on an enemy unit your own units that has currently spotted that unit will light up. And when you have your own unit selected only the enemies that that particular unit knows about will be visible. Both these features are incredibly helpful. Your units doesn't know where the enemy is just because YOU, the player knows. You know the sum total of everything that is currently known, they only know their own little piece of it. Real-time mode: Alright, so my fellow CM fans will brand me a heretic for this but... I prefer real-time mode. It allows greater control, and reacting to developing circumstances. A minute is a long time... It DOES make it harder to keep track of the entire battlefield though so you'll be limited to one piece of the battlefield at a time. My prefered method is basically realtime with pause. Pause when you need to think or hand out complex orders. Modes of movement: So, pretty simply, the faster you move, the lower your situational awereness is. True for both infantry as well as vehicles. Also you'll be more tired when you get there, and you are easier to spot. The "Hunt" command is also great, because it will have your guys stop when they see an enemy rather than rushing straight into them. Moving vehicles increase noise, so the more you can keep them still, preferebly under cover of some trees or hull down, the harder they are to spot. A tank moving at top speed is easy to spot across the map, even without any special optics. And even if it isn't spotted it WILL be heard. NATO: So CM:SF is basically Battlefront's attempt to model asymetrical warfare. In Black Sea and Cold War, as well as the WW2-era games you are fighting peer forces. In Shock Force you have every advantage in technology and training, but the enemy is happy if it can trade you 10 of their dead for one of yours. Put simply, most battles are a disaster if you walk out of them with 5-10 casulties. You can't sustain that. In my most recent run at this campaign I've gotten to scenario 12 with 2 lost vehicles, 3 dead and about 10-15 wounded and I don't consider this good enough honestly. And that is with restarting whenever I have a total disaster... Playing campaign in this game is damned hard. You don't just have to WIN, you have to do it with minimal damage or it'll bite you in the ass later. Get your feet properly wet in the independent scenarios before you go for the campaign basically, like I said above. And remember, distance is your friend. You have better guns, better optics, and better training. If a fight gets to your troops being within 100 meters of the enemy when it was avoidable that is *almost* always a mistake. The further out you are, the better you are able to utilize your advantages. They WANT you to storm the trenches. You want to sit 300 meters away and blast them from a distance. They'll break before you do. Of course, in some missions you can't do that... and those missions will suck. Also, remember that ammo is a thing. The fire support strykers especially has a low ammo-count for HE. But it works both ways, the enemy will have the same problem, as generally less stocks. You are playing a mechanised force with ammo stocked to the ceiling in your vehicles. Use that to your advantage. So this got long... So I guess "Thank you for coming to my TED-talk".

"Every bunger get a javelin" good policy CPG for president

It's actually interesting too see how things operate on a larger scale since nearly all videogames are focused on cqb or the likes of it

Beautifully played. The only thing I would have done differently that hasn’t been mentioned already is while you had to split the scout plt initially, when you got reinforcements I would have replaced the left side units and had them rejoin the rest of their plt. The game does model morale, and units out of contact with their leader will be less effective and cower more easily (literally in the fetal position).

About the hull-down command: it's finicky and weird to use, and it doesn't work if you just draw it point to point. What you actually have to do is identify a piece of terrain that's suited to it, then draw the red line up to OR over it. But you're not done yet, because hull-down is relative, and you have to specify hull-down to WHAT. To do this, you click on your pretty red line so it's highlighted, press "T" (or whatever you use for "target"), and then click on the position you want the vehicle to be hull down IN RELATION TO. Once you've done this, your vehicle will advance along the red line UNTIL it has eyes on the point you specified-if you've drawn the line properly, it will be hull down. What it does not do is make the vehicle move "cover to cover," that sort of thing is built in to "move" or "quick move," though only to a limited extent. TBH it's a big hassle to use the hull down command properly and get it to work, so some people don't bother. The "manual" way to do it is to just give a normal movement order, then click on the movement line, and use the "T" button again. As you mouse over terrain, there will be textual indicator over your cursor that says "hull down" or "partial hull down" to indicate that the vehicle, once it reaches the terminus of that line, will or won't be hull down in relation to particular pieces of terrain. In this game it is not the most important mechanic in the world, since M1A2s and such are so incredibly beast mode. But it's still incredibly useful (and wonderful to have modeled). If, on the other hand, you pick up Combat Mission Cold War when it comes out on Steam, fretting over hull-down is like, 50% of the entire game. (T-64s in 1982 are TERRIFYING.) Keep putting these out, they're a joy to watch!

As a former Calvary Scout, it was pretty cool to see this. I was with a Stryker unit and using the cover and concealment to gain the upper hand is great. Shoot Move Communicate. I would have almost set points for the IDF in case they push.

Your mk19 gunner is an absolute psychopath btw. Enemy dismounts in the open! On the way! Target Destroyed! On the way! On the way! On the way! Jenkins! They're already dead!

Your infantry and vehicles have smoke launchers/grenades. Don't forget your vehicles have optics that can see through said smoke so they can lay hate on enemy targets while having limited concealment. Always an option when having to get close to trench lines. All in all great video though.

1 year later I would love to see a few more updated videos on this game. I love the content using the Army’s MDMP concept.

Please keep the Combat Mission content coming!

Just a quick technical point: the M68 gun on the MGS isn't smoothbore it's rifled. It's a derivative of the British L7 105mm.

This may be my new favorite game to watch you play.

Absolutely fantastic stuff, this was a blast.

Super interesting, great editing, makes it super fun to watch and very educational! Hope to see more!

Took me two sessions to watch this, but worth every minute. Really nice watching someone play CM more aiming towards making tactical sense than "gaming" it. Hope you get a chance to make more vids for CM, I enjoy most of your stuff but these are definitely my favorite content so far.

I'm really enjoying these Combat Mission videos. If you haven't looked yet, there's a thriving mod community for the Combat Mission games, which you can pretty easily find on the Battlefront forums. I typically go for improved background images (the 2D picture that surrounds the map), improved foliage and sound mods to really get immersed. Worth a look at the very least!

These combat mission videos are so fascinating to me. I definitely don't think I'd like playing this as much as I like watching it just because of how in depth this looks

Another great CM video, keep up the great work!! Love your approach to explaining the game and focusing on the tactical layer, and not getting bogged down in game mechanics.

CPG you’re the man! Absolutely loved your channel before this series and this new stuff is blowing me away. Appreciate your hard work brother!

This sim is so brutal and I’ve learned so much about troop movements and tactics.

This was a great watch and would love to see more!

Great video. Ive been playing this game for years but i still learned something

I’d love to see long form content to show the actual decision making process of why and where you move your units. Watching you play this game has sold it for me and possibly ignited an interest in the armed forces as a career. Love the work dude!

I cant wait to see more of this

Sub earned! I love your work. Thank you for the awesome content!

Honestly a great video. I always love when people explain what they’re doing, what’s happening, and why they’re doing it when playing a strategy game. It’s just great and makes for great entertainment and even a learning experience. Thanks for making these vids, man!

That trench line across the bottom of the valley is how 11-year old me would’ve deployed his army of plastic army men in the same situation as the defenders. Not just the deployment but the trench needs to squiggle to prevent that enfilading fire.

12:45 is why i love this game

nice cant weight to see you play the other factions ( including with the DLC ) like Canada , the uk , germany , the Dutch , and the us marine core :)

I've been really enjoying watching you tackle the US campaign in Shock Force 2. One one off mission I really recommend you take a crack at is Al Amarah, its a really well sized combined arms MOUT mission, that I think would serve as a really good cross over with your Door Kickers content. And it will force you to learn the Combat Mission style of room clearance (volume of fire). Also a really good opportunity for breaching walls, and timing movements to bring your vehicles weapons into the fray after you have begun suppressing the enemy.

I loved watching this. Gave me some real desert storm vibes. Only thing missing is the air force taking all the action lol

i definetly enjoyed this

It‘s actually so cool to see you take on this kind of modern warfare game to me. The methodology of how you approach the mission is cool to see and very informative on how one could/should approach modern warfare. See I‘m more used to Total War type strategy games which involves masses of men in tight formations fighting each other. And when I say masses I mean it‘s like 90-150 soldiers, not the small squads you have in games like this or Door Kickers. I‘ve always wanted to try and take a stab at games like these but I‘ve never quite known what to do. Certain aspects of warfare I‘ve learned like in situations you should take the high ground, flank your enemy, and a bit more, but this style is completely new to me regardless. Again, it‘s awesome to see the strategy of modern warfare and it‘s refreshing to me because it‘s informed and new. Keep up the good work my dude, you‘re doing great.

So glad this game is getting the attention it deserves. I recommend adding some mods aswell for added cinematic experience. Very very underrated game IMO

Like many others, I really enjoy how you narrate your plans and commentate on the ongoing action. You play a lot more aggressive than I do, and I think in Syria that is risky as NATO forces really want to avoid casualties - and while the 'Tac AI' is pretty good at making soldiers prioritise targets, and sometimes makes a good call to go to ground or run to cover, it's never going to match an actual human (especially a trained and experienced NCO who will probably be leading things in the sticky spots) and so the aggressive real-world tactics fall apart a bit at times because there isn't that low-level initiative and aggression that infantry are trained for. Non-NATO armies 'feel' a bit more realistic exactly because their training is worse and standing there gawking or just cowering for a bit is probably more common among the poorly-trained and the conscripted. I appreciate this somewhat behind the times, but if you were inclined to delve into another Combat Mission campaign, then I think the Marines expansion campaign ("Semper Fi, Syria!") is a pretty good one as they have very high rates of replacing losses. The first mission is a bit odd (the SOCOM lads sneak around and call in artillery and airstrikes on various targets while moving to OPs ahead of the amphibious landings), but after that it's a good campaign where you mostly run around with high-quality light infantry (with all the opportunities and challenges that poses - always save the Javelins, as the moment you fire off the last one is the moment a T-55 crests the ridge!) The British expansion's campaign ("Highland Games") is also fairly high on replacement (I think) but it is a campaign that is very punishing on aggression and favours a very slow and meticulous approach, while often having not quite the right units (kind of like the US Marines, the British Army is a lot smaller than the US Army, so they don't quite have the exact piece of kit for the exact occasion all of the time).

One thing I will say, real time will be the best for you due to your background in things like Doorkickers. Real time allows you to pause the game to get your surroundings and plan further. I also suggest definitely working with an independent scenario.

Perfect map for an A10 strafing run

When u hear ""fire for effect"" and the mission is on target, the spotter is able to move about to a degree, without affecting the fire mission accuracy.

i call this game “My Friend Is Starting His Own Micronation And I Said I’d Be His General So I’m Learning How To Military”

Scouting in which contents do you use them. Area observation without binoculars? If you split off your scouts they are more useful in pathfinding. Then you need to make a note of how to share intel with units outside your C2 network. A lot takes place under the hood.

Ah I see you have also adopted the 'hit everything with a javelin' strategy

i dont have a card and the money soo i watch these cool videos (this was my childhood game)

So happy you started playing this game, can't wait for you to play more. One useful tip, if one's units are on one side of a wall, a peak of a hill or even outside a building and one orders them to attack the other side or interior of the building, they will throw grenades, fire through windows ect and this is a useful way of clearing those obstacles. Also, learn how to use the "Hull Down" order, it's an amazing way to keep your vehicles alive, I believe Usually Hapless has a video about it I would take a few minutes and just watch all of Usually Happless's tutorials. they're really shot and easy to understand, here's a link to his stuff kzfaq.info/love/9egpHJiRis89uHkeyJiEug here's a link to the video explaining the tweaked version the UK armed forces use for their tactical training scenarios kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ZtJyhLuDq5jemo0.html

Another protip for JAV teams - Avoid assigning "target" function to them, rather use the "armor arc" and just include the bunker(s) or vehicle(s) in the said arc. This will prevent them from firing rifles or AT4s in some cases, that just give away the position. For soft targets, the "target" command is needed tho.

Another excellent video! Even though you say you're somewhat new to CM, I can tell that you have already learned a ton. Your tactics and battle plan were spot on and payed off. Nice job on the envelopment. And thanks for explaining that in the way you do! I enjoy learning from your explanations. At kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eKtjl6ef3NO1k58.html where you sent the sappers into the trenches near Highpoints B, D, and C, on your left, you gave a fast move. Fast is a full out sprint, and foot units on Fast won't engage anyone shooting at them. Best to use Quick or Hunt in that situation IMO. (Vehicles using Fast do still engage enemy but their spotting and attack abilities will be affected.) At kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eKtjl6ef3NO1k58.html, the decision to stay and engage at range and not get sucked down into the low ground is something I need to learn from. Patience and simply destroying the enemy paid off. I want more!

This might seem "slow" But believe me. When you are on the ground IRL. I doesn't seem slow.

MORE PLZ

Hmm, yes, nice.

Wouldn't be surprised if they start showing these videos at SLC, WOAC or CCC

I don’t really have any tips for the game, I’m by no means amazing at it, but I would advise installing the “HQS 4.0 CMBS CMSF CMSF2 CMA CMCW” mod. The first link on the page should be fine. All it does is change the game audio to sound a whole lot better. The battlefield just sounds a whole lot deadlier with this, if that makes any sense. Installation is easy, and doesn’t overwrite any files so is really easy to uninstall. Iirc, inside the game’s folder, you go into the “Data” folder and create a folder called “z”. Inside that you just extract the folder inside the rar file so that inside Z you just have that one folder with lots of subfolders inside of it. It won’t change gameplay at all, but it will sound a lot nicer.

I'm told the hull down command is very specific and difficult to execute. Haven't been able to use it properly yet.

Love the game, but I feel like the AT weapons the insurgents have are extremely accurate at long range.

Bravo Zulu.

Im a big fan of this game have you considered doing any player v player games?

I know it's complicated but jeez Graphics would be nice

I wonder what you could do with Steel Division 2.

Have you ever played Squad? You’d be a great SL!

12:45 Saw that sum b#$*^ tilt a little low. Even my pucker factor rose a little bit lol Quotes to remember guys: "Every bunker gets a javelin" "I dont know what this guys engaging but im about it" "Hahahahaaaa Engineers baby"

After that first mission your going to have to be careful with force protection, you really need the manpower later on

Hi can you share your PC specs and in game graphic setting?

Dude this footage pisses me off so much bc I tried to play this game and final blitzkrieg but the mouse cursor is invisible and nobody will help me fix it

It seems like theres a button you have to press to fire javelins and i don't know it can someone help me out here

A platoon of M1A1s would have this map cleaned in 30 minutes.

Assaulting with striker is very bold, they are very vulnerable to RPG

How powerful of a computer do you need for this?

Vid on chimeraxr?

strykers can stop 14.5mm rounds, like most nato AFVs

Enjoy your videos very much... I'm not interested in this title as the match ups are not balanced enough. Not saying tactics don't count in any scenario regardless. I think you should try playing as the Russians against the US in CMBS and a human opponent.... Now that would be interesting! Keep up the good fight...

I love the videos but it would be great if you got a pop filter and moved the mic a bit further away from your mouth. It would help get rid of the very harsh "s"es.

Not taking praise off your execution but It's honestly kinda disappointing to see how bad was the enemy game plan for this defence... Key terrain practicaly abbandonned, that "tail" of trenches u fought up on the hill looked like simply didn't fit down in that valley just asking to be turned into a propper kill zone... Also why expending so many javs on bunkers instead of using those 105mm HEP of the MGS? It's like it's primary "life purpouse" lol

First

firstn't

Do all the maps look like absolute garbage?

Enjoy your videos very much... I'm not interested in this title as the match ups are not balanced enough. Not saying tactics don't count in any scenario regardless. I think you should try playing as the Russians against the US in CMBS and a human opponent.... Now that would be interesting! Keep up the good fight...