This was by far the most desperate fighting ive ever seen from you, good to know the AI is capable (with the right plan at least) of putting up such an intense fight
General Mark Clark may have just gotten captured by Panzergrenadiers AND gotten the entire Allied beachhead rolled up but he must have had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face walking past the field of burning German vehicles.
Your foreshadowing is deliciously cruel. As I was saying to Gunsalot on his channel, I'd really love to see you take another shot at uncon forces that require a more strike-and-fade style. Mostly because I know it's out of your comfort zone, and the things you learn from it might add to your repertoire for more conventional battles. Or, you know, do whatever you want--I'm sure I'll find it excellent and fascinating.
What a great finale, that was some tough fighting and those have to be the most resilient Sherman's I've ever seen. That sort of desperate fighting at the end was incredible, its kind of like playing with the Germans in CMRT,. It would be great to see some more Red Thunder content from you. Great video as always Cheers
A fantastic conclusion to a fantastic series hapless! Having looked over this mission from the Allied perspective beforehand, I knew this one was gonna be tough. But that was one hell of a slugging match. Great work with the editing as always!
Wow. What a fight. I'm reminded slightly of X-COM watching this, the fury I felt when my squaddie who was literally standing right next to a Muton misses a 99% shot with a shotgun seems similar to how I feel in CM about my forces when THE TANK IS RIGHT OVER THERE RIGHT THERE JUST LOOK OVER THERE FOR THE LOVE OF and they're dead.
@@usuallyhapless9481 The German propensity for building (or not managing to build) the new hotness instead of cranking out more of a ok design the US and the Sov did plus the complete clusterfuck that was German logistics in WWII also didn’t help.
This was a great campaign to watch. Very well edited and commentated as always. I found the time constraints of the first two missions particularly interesting. They really force a more authentic approach compared to the leisurely puzzle solving that the less hurried missions tend to turn into. Having just watched all the episodes of this campaign in one go, I was somewhat surprised by the massacre this final mission turned out to be. Getting stuck in that field with an M10 shooting down your flank, the armoured counterattack and the artillery raining down really took its toll on your battlegroup. Its a miracle they still took the HQ after going through that grinder. Great episode. Thank you for putting in the time and effort.
Fortress Italy seems to offer an interesting game play with the forces available during that time. Thanks for a most enjoyable AAR. Look forward to another exciting CMFI episode.
This campaign has been amazing to watch and I really hope you'll make more like it, especially in the ww2 setting! As for this battle I just want to note the amazing firepower of the heavier artillery, it's easy to think "oh its just 50 more millimeters there won't be too much of a difference" but in reality their killing power is immense, what you hit actually ceases to exist, not just be suppressed, as can be seen by the crossroads objective!
I really enjoy your videos, they're really pleasant to watch, and the fact that you're explaining what and why you're doing, really helped me to learn some things about tactics. Looking forward to new videos!
The last chunk of this battle echoes the fighting for Commissar's House in Stalingrad. There's a great documentary on that fight from Army University Press on RUclips.
This series was really nice! The campaigns are always very fun to follow as each battle is interesting to the end since not only the result, but every casualty matters. I know you did a couple of the scenarios as stand-alones, but I'd definitely watch the s*** out of a CMSF2 NATO / US Army campaign! I think especially the CMSF2 scenarios are imo much more interesting as a campaign since the asymmetry really starts to mess with you when casualties count that much. Since I'm commenting now anyway, might as well say, I watched way too much of your videos lately and even if the turn by turns can drag a bit while binge watching (duh, not meant for that :P ) I've yet to find CM content from you that I don't enjoy. Given how small the channel is, your content is insanely high quality!
It is notable how much tanks chuck shots at one another in the WW2 titles. These penetrating hits that do nothing are relatively rare in the modern games. Basically if a modern AP round gets through usually the tank experiences an emotional event.
Great campaign, UH. Would you replay the final mission with the narrow front thrust option on the right flank instead, just to see how it fared? I don't mean from a publication pov, just to satisfy your own curiosity
At 10:00 ish would it not be worth considering throwing your infantry into a close assault to reduce the American positions? losses would be high but possibly lower than waiting for 105mm shells blast your forces away.
Bit late to this party and only playing the Combat Mission demos. But I'm surprised at the lack of Allied air in this campaign. Especially as you're rolling up on 5th Army CP, I was expecting an air controller or similar to be calling for fighter bombers or even straffing runs against the every suffering Pioneer detachment. Lucky also perhaps that some of the warships supporting the invasion didn't take offense at your offensive Warspite and Valiant weren't far away around the time this attack gets started IIRC that is.
Hapless, what resolution settings do you render your videos in? I'm trying to get into the CM AAR content creation world, and so far have not found the sweet spot. My content is very narrow. Also; Do you put black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, or do you zoom the frame in while compiling the footage?
1920x1080 (which is my desktop res) at 30fps (because my CM doesn't usually run all the way to 60 when there's a lot of stuff in frame). The black bars are me cropping the top and bottom of the picture to cut the UI out.
I seriously had enough equipment on this mission to finish and mess up the Allies big time... It was a glorious Victory! But not sure how long that would last.. LOL, I think I did get lucky with my Arty initially, but luck is part of it.
A very brutal end to this campaign. Did the Germans have the forces to capitalize on your victory? And.... Is there an Italian campaign in FI? As much as I like the usual suspects I´d love to see some "unconventional" stuff.
What's the cheapest combat mission game you can but from their website? I wanna get into it but they are just so damn expensive! I've seen the Afghan game costs 25 Euroes, is it any good? Are there other cheap ones out there?
CM:Afghanistan hasn't been updated since it released, so it's on the old original Shock Force engine. If you're interested in the Soviet-Afghan War than it's great, if jankier than the average CM game. Apart from that, the cheapest option is probably going to be waiting for one of the Steam titles to go on sale.
@@usuallyhapless9481 thanks for the advice, I picked up the demo and it looks pretty good, I think I'll buy it I've always been very interested in the DRA anyways, so being able to see their army is a bonus
The killed:wounded ratio seems off historically; wasn't it usually more wounded than killed? I wonder whether it's me not having my shit straight, or CM being weird about casualties.
CM is weird about it, plus most scenarios in CM are fought to the point of annihilation, well beyond the point where one side would have withdrawn or surrendered in real life.
Like the others have pointed out- CM doesn't quite get the ratio right, probably because there is minimal casualty treatment and humans playing a game push a lot harder than they do in real life where they might get maimed or killed.
I noticed that you are a lot more willing leave the fallen behind than I am, but I guess that's what happens when there's little in the way of mechanical penalties for ignoring casualties, esp. when squads are absolutely OK to run off while their friends writhe on the ground. And yeah, no army-wide morale is another thing, I guess. It's an even bigger issue in winSPMBT where I've had better armed factions run out of ammo because nobody is ever disheartened by a squad next to them getting blasted or by passing five mauled and routing squads on their way to the front.
@@JcDent yeah neither Steel Panthers or Close Combat model morale well enough to my liking, even though I still get hours upon hours of entertainment from them. Here's hoping the new game Burden Of Command models it well enough in the squad or platoon level.
Not so much near future- there's a little CMBS in the pipe, then Normandy should be coming to Steam and things should get pretty WW2-ish, but CMCW is definitely on the horizon
I think deciding to commit to a hasty frontal assault immediately was a mistake. We know the enemy had a strong prepared position, so any attack on it will take time. And we were told the Americans might counterattack. This all means your assault is going to suck up the majority of your resources, which will make you vulnerable to those reinforcements no matter how you slice it. Personally, if I had intel that the enemy may try to conduct a counterattack (especially an armored one), I would try to get into position to intercept it first and ensure that I can defeat my enemy in detail. Knowing the direction the Americans would have to take, I would likely identify the crossroads/bridge as key terrain and make it my concentration point. So, I would have opened with an attack towards the riverbank and crossroads, used stugs or pzIVs to watch the approach for any possible American armor, and used panzergrenadiers to creep up those tree lines with a significant base of fire element to support them from the starting fields. This way, I'm feeding intel back from the grenadiers, any enemy attack will get ambushed, and I'm still free to assault across that open field when I feel fire superiority has been established.
Ah, but can you do that in one hour? That's the tricky part. I did intend to be in a position to repel the forecast armoured counterattack, I just wasn't in position in time and it didn't come in from the direction I was anticipating (or, the part that hit me didn't come in from the direction I was anticipating).
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This was by far the most desperate fighting ive ever seen from you, good to know the AI is capable (with the right plan at least) of putting up such an intense fight
It does help if you do exactly what the scenario designer wanted ;)
@@usuallyhapless9481 can you do soviet campaigns
General Mark Clark may have just gotten captured by Panzergrenadiers AND gotten the entire Allied beachhead rolled up but he must have had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face walking past the field of burning German vehicles.
Your foreshadowing is deliciously cruel.
As I was saying to Gunsalot on his channel, I'd really love to see you take another shot at uncon forces that require a more strike-and-fade style. Mostly because I know it's out of your comfort zone, and the things you learn from it might add to your repertoire for more conventional battles.
Or, you know, do whatever you want--I'm sure I'll find it excellent and fascinating.
Always a good day when there’s a hapless upload
What a great finale, that was some tough fighting and those have to be the most resilient Sherman's I've ever seen.
That sort of desperate fighting at the end was incredible, its kind of like playing with the Germans in CMRT,.
It would be great to see some more Red Thunder content from you.
Great video as always
Cheers
A fantastic conclusion to a fantastic series hapless! Having looked over this mission from the Allied perspective beforehand, I knew this one was gonna be tough. But that was one hell of a slugging match. Great work with the editing as always!
Thanks very much!
Wow. What a fight. I'm reminded slightly of X-COM watching this, the fury I felt when my squaddie who was literally standing right next to a Muton misses a 99% shot with a shotgun seems similar to how I feel in CM about my forces when THE TANK IS RIGHT OVER THERE RIGHT THERE JUST LOOK OVER THERE FOR THE LOVE OF and they're dead.
Sounds about right :)
And that's how the Germans ended up in 1944-45 with panzer divisions that had single digit tank strengths...
Yep, amongst other things.
@@usuallyhapless9481 The German propensity for building (or not managing to build) the new hotness instead of cranking out more of a ok design the US and the Sov did plus the complete clusterfuck that was German logistics in WWII also didn’t help.
This was a great campaign to watch. Very well edited and commentated as always.
I found the time constraints of the first two missions particularly interesting. They really force a more authentic approach compared to the leisurely puzzle solving that the less hurried missions tend to turn into.
Having just watched all the episodes of this campaign in one go, I was somewhat surprised by the massacre this final mission turned out to be. Getting stuck in that field with an M10 shooting down your flank, the armoured counterattack and the artillery raining down really took its toll on your battlegroup. Its a miracle they still took the HQ after going through that grinder.
Great episode. Thank you for putting in the time and effort.
Fortress Italy seems to offer an interesting game play with the forces available during that time. Thanks for a most enjoyable AAR. Look forward to another exciting CMFI episode.
This campaign has been amazing to watch and I really hope you'll make more like it, especially in the ww2 setting! As for this battle I just want to note the amazing firepower of the heavier artillery, it's easy to think "oh its just 50 more millimeters there won't be too much of a difference" but in reality their killing power is immense, what you hit actually ceases to exist, not just be suppressed, as can be seen by the crossroads objective!
A great series of videos! Sad to see it end, still looking forward to whatever you have to share with us all next!
Thanks! Hope you like Bradleys ;)
@@usuallyhapless9481 I sure do!
Impressive tanking from those Sherman's! Always feel like mean can't tank a small breeze before giving up the ghost.
In 1943, Shermans are awesome
Your channel single handedly has kept my interest very high for the Combat Mission series. Keep cranking them out!!!
I really enjoy your videos, they're really pleasant to watch, and the fact that you're explaining what and why you're doing, really helped me to learn some things about tactics. Looking forward to new videos!
This was my favourite video series from you ngl. I love the Italian theatre
Great campaign. Btw you just hit the spot characterising this campaign as very risky from the beginning of these series.
Thanks! It's always good to cover yourself and make things look harder than they are ;)
@@usuallyhapless9481 No Battle Plan Survives Contact With the Enemy.
Wow. What a slog! Thanks for your AAR and usual excellent analysis.
The last chunk of this battle echoes the fighting for Commissar's House in Stalingrad. There's a great documentary on that fight from Army University Press on RUclips.
Awesome! Been waiting for this!
awesome as always. war is hell
A quality video as always !
congrats on 10k, you deserve it.
Thanks very much!
Fantastic
I'm very much enjoying this series. You've got to do more of FI!
Glorious !
This series was really nice! The campaigns are always very fun to follow as each battle is interesting to the end since not only the result, but every casualty matters. I know you did a couple of the scenarios as stand-alones, but I'd definitely watch the s*** out of a CMSF2 NATO / US Army campaign! I think especially the CMSF2 scenarios are imo much more interesting as a campaign since the asymmetry really starts to mess with you when casualties count that much.
Since I'm commenting now anyway, might as well say, I watched way too much of your videos lately and even if the turn by turns can drag a bit while binge watching (duh, not meant for that :P ) I've yet to find CM content from you that I don't enjoy. Given how small the channel is, your content is insanely high quality!
Brilliantly brutal finale. The whole series has been excellent.
If you do another campaign soon, one that I'd love to see is the CMFB "courage concors"
An excellent video and an excellent campaign, as always! Getting to see such an intense fight putting you on the ropes at times is a great spectacle 😅
Great fight.. Nice job :)
Great video
It is notable how much tanks chuck shots at one another in the WW2 titles. These penetrating hits that do nothing are relatively rare in the modern games. Basically if a modern AP round gets through usually the tank experiences an emotional event.
Great campaign, UH. Would you replay the final mission with the narrow front thrust option on the right flank instead, just to see how it fared? I don't mean from a publication pov, just to satisfy your own curiosity
Actually probably not. I know where the defence is now, which kinda takes the edge of it
@@usuallyhapless9481 fair point. It would only work if you played H2H, or if you were blotto :)
At 10:00 ish would it not be worth considering throwing your infantry into a close assault to reduce the American positions? losses would be high but possibly lower than waiting for 105mm shells blast your forces away.
Bit late to this party and only playing the Combat Mission demos. But I'm surprised at the lack of Allied air in this campaign.
Especially as you're rolling up on 5th Army CP, I was expecting an air controller or similar to be calling for fighter bombers or even straffing runs against the every suffering Pioneer detachment.
Lucky also perhaps that some of the warships supporting the invasion didn't take offense at your offensive Warspite and Valiant weren't far away around the time this attack gets started IIRC that is.
Hapless, what resolution settings do you render your videos in? I'm trying to get into the CM AAR content creation world, and so far have not found the sweet spot. My content is very narrow.
Also; Do you put black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, or do you zoom the frame in while compiling the footage?
1920x1080 (which is my desktop res) at 30fps (because my CM doesn't usually run all the way to 60 when there's a lot of stuff in frame). The black bars are me cropping the top and bottom of the picture to cut the UI out.
@@usuallyhapless9481 okay thank you, yours looks very even compared to my little box lmao. Cheers!
I seriously had enough equipment on this mission to finish and mess up the Allies big time... It was a glorious Victory! But not sure how long that would last.. LOL, I think I did get lucky with my Arty initially, but luck is part of it.
Well done! I think a couple of minor changes and I think I would have come out a lot better. Plus a lot more luck, obviously.
A very brutal end to this campaign. Did the Germans have the forces to capitalize on your victory?
And....
Is there an Italian campaign in FI? As much as I like the usual suspects I´d love to see some "unconventional" stuff.
There is one. Doomed to fail, but there is one.
There is an Italian campaign. I haven't looked at it yet.
@@tremendousbaguette9680 I think that "Doomed to fail" would have been a good name for it, rather than the actual name "The Fleeting Moment".
No way to get a spotter team into that silo under cover of smoke?
What's the cheapest combat mission game you can but from their website?
I wanna get into it but they are just so damn expensive!
I've seen the Afghan game costs 25 Euroes, is it any good?
Are there other cheap ones out there?
CM:Afghanistan hasn't been updated since it released, so it's on the old original Shock Force engine. If you're interested in the Soviet-Afghan War than it's great, if jankier than the average CM game.
Apart from that, the cheapest option is probably going to be waiting for one of the Steam titles to go on sale.
@@usuallyhapless9481 thanks for the advice, I picked up the demo and it looks pretty good, I think I'll buy it
I've always been very interested in the DRA anyways, so being able to see their army is a bonus
@@usuallyhapless9481 just for future reference in your opinion which one of their modern day titles on steam is the best? (Between BS, SF2 and CW)
@@greekcommie621 They all do different things, but SF2 is the most complete and works at pretty much any scale.
The killed:wounded ratio seems off historically; wasn't it usually more wounded than killed? I wonder whether it's me not having my shit straight, or CM being weird about casualties.
Could be because CM only really models buddy-aid rather than full medical and rear echelon aid. WW2 Trauma Surgery isn't in the scope here lol.
CM is weird about it, plus most scenarios in CM are fought to the point of annihilation, well beyond the point where one side would have withdrawn or surrendered in real life.
Like the others have pointed out- CM doesn't quite get the ratio right, probably because there is minimal casualty treatment and humans playing a game push a lot harder than they do in real life where they might get maimed or killed.
I noticed that you are a lot more willing leave the fallen behind than I am, but I guess that's what happens when there's little in the way of mechanical penalties for ignoring casualties, esp. when squads are absolutely OK to run off while their friends writhe on the ground.
And yeah, no army-wide morale is another thing, I guess. It's an even bigger issue in winSPMBT where I've had better armed factions run out of ammo because nobody is ever disheartened by a squad next to them getting blasted or by passing five mauled and routing squads on their way to the front.
@@JcDent yeah neither Steel Panthers or Close Combat model morale well enough to my liking, even though I still get hours upon hours of entertainment from them.
Here's hoping the new game Burden Of Command models it well enough in the squad or platoon level.
I would have saved the 210mm howitzer fire mission to knock the American CP down.
Any chance of more Cold War content in the near future?
Not so much near future- there's a little CMBS in the pipe, then Normandy should be coming to Steam and things should get pretty WW2-ish, but CMCW is definitely on the horizon
@@usuallyhapless9481 Looking forward to Black Sea stuff.
I think deciding to commit to a hasty frontal assault immediately was a mistake. We know the enemy had a strong prepared position, so any attack on it will take time. And we were told the Americans might counterattack. This all means your assault is going to suck up the majority of your resources, which will make you vulnerable to those reinforcements no matter how you slice it.
Personally, if I had intel that the enemy may try to conduct a counterattack (especially an armored one), I would try to get into position to intercept it first and ensure that I can defeat my enemy in detail. Knowing the direction the Americans would have to take, I would likely identify the crossroads/bridge as key terrain and make it my concentration point. So, I would have opened with an attack towards the riverbank and crossroads, used stugs or pzIVs to watch the approach for any possible American armor, and used panzergrenadiers to creep up those tree lines with a significant base of fire element to support them from the starting fields.
This way, I'm feeding intel back from the grenadiers, any enemy attack will get ambushed, and I'm still free to assault across that open field when I feel fire superiority has been established.
Ah, but can you do that in one hour? That's the tricky part. I did intend to be in a position to repel the forecast armoured counterattack, I just wasn't in position in time and it didn't come in from the direction I was anticipating (or, the part that hit me didn't come in from the direction I was anticipating).
@@usuallyhapless9481 That is a very fair point. I may be used to the near unlimited time afforded by Graviteam: Mius Front
Are we gonna see any recreation of current events in Ukraine with the black sea version of the game
So no recreations, but next video but one is going to be... relevant ;)
I would have taken the silo first.
too expensive :( 10 year old game for 30 quid lol