Combat Mission Fortress Italy - The Fortified Backyard of Gela - Scenario Available

In case you are interested, the scenario that was the subject of my previous Combat Mission AAR is available at the Battlefront's file repository. Sorry for spoiling it with an AAR. :(

Grab it here.

Cheers,

ArmA 2 Army of the Czech Republic - More on Satellite Patrols

Light armored vehicles and satellite patrols again, fellows. This time in ArmA 2, I took on a Pandur II supporting a squad of Czech infantry ... Or maybe the other way around?

Czech infantry moving under the careful watch of a Pandur II light armored vehicle.

I have been messing around with the usage of light armored vehicles in Combat Mission, and one of the things that surfaced from that scenario was the inability of the LAVIII to provide early warning to the infantry and a lackluster target acquisition performance. Two fellow readers pointed out the possibility that the abstracted (i.e. not visible but computed) civilian villagers could be obscuring targets and that there is a possible game design gimmick (toned down target acquisition) into it.

Combat Mission Fortress Italy AAR - Il Cortile Fortificato di Gela

Title of the entry is in Italian, meaning "the fortified backyard of Gela".
In the (very) few accounts I read about the landing and the initial beachhead in Gela (10Jul43), the whole  affair has the overtones of a cakewalk.  I’m not saying it may have not been one, because compared to the scale and intensity of the events that followed just hours and days later, it may have been easy. But I bet there is no shortage of journalistic and historic research selective memory behind the high availability of material and accounts about all things Patton, 82nd Airborne and Goring Divisions with bare passing mentions about the outright badassery shown by the US Army Rangers and Engineers that cleared Gela.

I am still searching for a good map or aerial reconnaissance picture of the town of Gela, circa 1943. But I will not refrain from throwing together some US and Italian units in an historical fiction type of scenario.

Combat Mission Shock Force NATO - Canadian LAV III Platoon Attack Scenario Available

The scenario from which last week I wrote an AAR is available at Battlefront's file repository.

Suggestions, impressions, tactical insight will be very welcome!

Stay tuned for an AAR on a similar tactical situation but using Steel Beasts ProPE.

Cheers,

Flying Aircrafts Of War During Peacetime - My First Flight on the Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone

A multi-role shipboard helicopter that will eventually make it to the Canadian Forces.

Got this payware for X-Plane 10 and it was worth every penny. It's by DMO Flight Design and it packs 5 S-92 models and 22 liveries.

Combat Mission Shock Force NATO - A Canadian LAVIII Infantry Platoon in a Hasty Attack - AAR (Part 2 of 2)

The final part of the AAR: the assault into the village.

The 2nd and 3rd Sections start the assault on the village.

SPOILER ALERT: This scenario is going live at the Battlefront's repository within the next 48 hours. If you are going to download and play this scenario, this AAR may spoil your playing experience.

Combat Mission Shock Force NATO - A Canadian LAVIII Infantry Platoon in a Hasty Attack - AAR (Part 1 of 2)

The transition from a presence patrol into a hasty attack demanded too much idle time, burnt metal and blood from this Canadian platoon.

SPOILER ALERT: This scenario is going live at the Battlefront's repository within the next 48 hours. If you are going to download and play this scenario, this AAR may spoil your playing experience.

Combat Mission Fortress Italy - North of Gela Map and Scenario

Does anybody have a good 1940s map or aerial reconnaissance photos of the town of Gela (Sicily) that can be used for map-making in Combat Mission?

I started with this narrow street ...

Combat Mission Shock Force NATO - Canadian LAVIIIs in a Presence Patrol

Light armored vehicles ... How much controversy around their use in battle! I don't see the Canadian Army shying away from it in the foreseeable future, though.

This custom-made scenario starts with a platoon of Canadian Army soldiers on their way to a presence patrol in an insurgency theater of operations. It is very well known that the civilian population sometimes doesn't appreciate or are less cooperative when armored vehicles are marauding in their streets. So in this case the platoon has dismounted and left their LAVIIIs in a so-called satellite patrol, hundreds of meters behind them.

Iron Front Liberation 44 - AAR - A Pak 40 Platoon (-) Protects the Flank of an Armored Counterattack - Mission Debrief

The almost Lanchesterian precision of armored warfare in open terrain is sometimes uncanny. Marching into battle with two antitank guns against an unknown number of enemy tanks was not a choice but a necessity.