Chir river reboot scenario

[Grognerd]

So after a couple of years of not working on these scenarios, I went to my backup archives and got the files all back on the laptop. Right now remembering how it all works, my 72 year old memory isn't helping...

1) Establishments
2) Map files and Map scans
3) Scenario files

Seems like we are within 6 months??? of a potential beta on the new attack code. So I will try and finish up these scenarios. Doing it all by myself is a daunting task, especially at my expertise level. So I hope to finish these by Beta time, maybe.

The scenario's I'm doing are the Chir River battles, two scenarios. The battle of the Aksay river (relief of Stalingrad) with a favor Axis option of a nearly complete 6th Panzer division. The opening battle of of Operation Barbarossa at Radziechow and again in the encirclement at Dubno. Hopefully the battles of the 5th SS Wiking at Maciejow.
Eventually the 48th Panzer Korps at Kursk and all 4 battles of Kharkov.

I'm using Von Mellenthin's book Panzer Battles as a source, I do have another 5 or 6 books as source material. (My WW2 book collection is pretty good, since 1967 I've been collecting books, many on WW2.)

I found on the OldMap.org website the German operational maps of the Stalingrad and Kharkov regions. Also found Polish tactical maps of western Ukraine drawn up in the late 1930's. These sources are perfect for maps of these areas, they even import into Google Earth Pro!

I'd like to find some good source material on some Soviet units to be able to make some scenarios balanced towards them, as most of my material seems to have a German bias.

Anyway this post is way too wordy, but I havn't been talking much, just listening to everyone else and keeping track of Dave's progress on the patch.

Wish me luck on the East front stuff, to get it out in time. And to make it work semi-Okay...

 

[Arkadiy]

Память народа::Документы частей

Память народа – Министерство обороны РФ и Корпорация ЭЛАР представляют крупнейший в мире Интернет-портал подлинных документов о Второй мировой 1939-1945 и Великой Отечественной войне 1941-1945.

pamyat-naroda.ru

has Red Army operational documents. A whole lot of them. The problem is of course that they are in Russian. What I did in the similar case of German original documents - I was using “picture to text“ converter and then google-translate. Or, if you are just after number of tanks, that’s not even needed - usually it’s pretty obvious. Searching for the right doc requires you to know the range of dates and unit abbreviation in cyrilic. For example, 21st Tank Brigade is 21ТБр. I can do the search easy enough - just drop your request here, but I won’t commit to any translation
But, the “primary sources” approach is probably an overkill. Maybe Isaev has something in his book? I don’t own the book, but perhaps someone else does.

 

[Grognerd]

I have found several more articles on Operation Winter Storm which are better detail than Von Mellenthin's book, but still have a German bias. The book you suggest looks pretty good from what I can tell, thank you for the suggestion. I will pick it up. Edit: I got it as a Kindle edition since I had a digital credit - Thank you again!

 

[Arkadiy]

I would definitely be vary and compare sources. Rule of thumb: beware of claims and enemy strength reports.

A quick look at the events of 8-9 Dec 1942 shows: a "fearsome" 1st Tank Corps was way under prescribed strength:
- 117 TBde: 19xT34, 9xT70
- 159 TBde: 11xT34, 10xT70
- 89 TBde: 10xT34, 6xT60, 7xT70
also attached for the attack was 216 TBde with 7xKV, 2xT34, 4xT70

As of the end of the 9th, almost all of these are lost:
- 89 TBde: 4xT34, 1xT60, 1xT70
- 117 TBde: 1xT34, 1xT70
- 159 TBde: 4xT34, 1xT70
216th data are as of 12th: 6xKV, 1xT34, 1xT70


Surprisingly, 52 claimed destroyed tanks I saw in some articles is pretty accurate. They may not mention that half those are useless light tanks, but if it's taken from German reports, they would not know at the time anyway.

 

[Zovs]

I am very new to CO2 (a week old, lol), and I never had or played the original CO1 games. But hoping that the next upcoming Steam sale will see some discounts from the DLCs and then maybe get one or two. At any rate a few questions.

1. Will this scenario(s) be able to be played with the free core game?
2. Its another 6 months until the next patch?
3. Steam lists 7 DLCs with a new one in the works Bradley at Bat (8), it seems this has been in development for quite some time, when will it be released?
4. Sorry for the barrage of questions but it seems that the developers of this game take a very long time (I believe the last patch was 2 years ago), is it still being actively developed (especially the DLCs) or is it at the end of its software lifecycle?

Thanks in advance.

Don

 

[Grognerd]

I would definitely be vary and compare sources. Rule of thumb: beware of claims and enemy strength reports.

A quick look at the events of 8-9 Dec 1942 shows: a "fearsome" 1st Tank Corps was way under prescribed strength:
- 117 TBde: 19xT34, 9xT70
- 159 TBde: 11xT34, 10xT70
- 89 TBde: 10xT34, 6xT60, 7xT70
also attached for the attack was 216 TBde with 7xKV, 2xT34, 4xT70

As of the end of the 9th, almost all of these are lost:
- 89 TBde: 4xT34, 1xT60, 1xT70
- 117 TBde: 1xT34, 1xT70
- 159 TBde: 4xT34, 1xT70
216th data are as of 12th: 6xKV, 1xT34, 1xT70


Surprisingly, 52 claimed destroyed tanks I saw in some articles is pretty accurate. They may not mention that half those are useless light tanks, but if it's taken from German reports, they would not know at the time anyway.

Yes I have seen reports from both sides (now) and I see your point or Rule of Thumb. Since it's impossible to really get the exact science on OB's and TO&E's I will be cautious and figure truth lies somewhere in the middle.

 

[Grognerd]

I am very new to CO2 (a week old, lol), and I never had or played the original CO1 games. But hoping that the next upcoming Steam sale will see some discounts from the DLCs and then maybe get one or two. At any rate a few questions.

1. Will this scenario(s) be able to be played with the free core game?
2. Its another 6 months until the next patch?
3. Steam lists 7 DLCs with a new one in the works Bradley at Bat (8), it seems this has been in development for quite some time, when will it be released?
4. Sorry for the barrage of questions but it seems that the developers of this game take a very long time (I believe the last patch was 2 years ago), is it still being actively developed (especially the DLCs) or is it at the end of its software lifecycle?

Thanks in advance.

Don

This is a user made scenario. Eventually I will upload it to this site for use by any user. Also getting feedback or error reporting would be nice too.

Took me awhile to learn how to create a scenario.
First the map - then the establishment (I created the Soviets from scratch) - Then learn the scenario designer to put it all together. It is a very tedious process for one person.

 

[Zovs]

Thanks for the info I am assuming this one your creating will work for CO2?

 

[jimcarravallah]

Thanks for the info I am assuming this one your creating will work for CO2?

There are also some user-created East Fronft scenarios in the Steam workshop.

 

[ultradave]

I am very new to CO2 (a week old, lol), and I never had or played the original CO1 games. But hoping that the next upcoming Steam sale will see some discounts from the DLCs and then maybe get one or two. At any rate a few questions.

1. Will this scenario(s) be able to be played with the free core game?
2. Its another 6 months until the next patch?
3. Steam lists 7 DLCs with a new one in the works Bradley at Bat (8), it seems this has been in development for quite some time, when will it be released?
4. Sorry for the barrage of questions but it seems that the developers of this game take a very long time (I believe the last patch was 2 years ago), is it still being actively developed (especially the DLCs) or is it at the end of its software lifecycle?

Thanks in advance.

Don

You can have a ton of fun without the patch. Dave is working on some changes to the way attack orders and formations are handled (to simplify). He's been working on it for a while. It's a complicated thing, and then there is real life. However, don't let that stop you. The existing DLC will keep you busy for a looong time, plus there are user created scenarios in the Steam Workshop. There are some here under resources as well. There's an excellent set of North Africa/Tunisia set, just to pick one. Scroll down in Scenarios just a bit and you'll find it.

I *believe* Bradley at Bay is waiting on the patch before issue. Someone else might correct me on this. "The developers" is mostly Dave, so keep that in mind with expectations of releases. Even if he stopped today, it's still a game with a lot of playability and will be for years.

 

[Zovs]

You can have a ton of fun without the patch. Dave is working on some changes to the way attack orders and formations are handled (to simplify). He's been working on it for a while. It's a complicated thing, and then there is real life. However, don't let that stop you. The existing DLC will keep you busy for a looong time, plus there are user created scenarios in the Steam Workshop. There are some here under resources as well. There's an excellent set of North Africa/Tunisia set, just to pick one. Scroll down in Scenarios just a bit and you'll find it.

I *believe* Bradley at Bay is waiting on the patch before issue. Someone else might correct me on this. "The developers" is mostly Dave, so keep that in mind with expectations of releases. Even if he stopped today, it's still a game with a lot of playability and will be for years.

Dave,

Your totally right! I did try (subscribed) to every Steam Workshop scenario and also downloaded the lot from here, the ones by a fellow named Bie are just spectacular and so is the Tunisia campaign ones. So much to learn with this system.

Hope a few DLCs are on discount and what not.

Looking forward to this game and series.

 

[Grognerd]

Thanks for the info I am assuming this one your creating will work for CO2?

Yes Zovs, making them on the CO2 editors. Hopefully I get them done in a few weeks!

 

[Zovs]

Awesome! Looking forward to giving them a go, This system is new to me and I have no past history.

 

[ultradave]

Check out the After Action Reports forum section. There are some really well done ones there, with screen shots and good descriptions. They should give you some ideas of how to go about approaching things. Also on YouTube, Dave has a video of the Return to St. Vith scenario, which you have, that is quite good, and he explains step by step.

That tutorial is also in the manual but as I remember, in the video he explains more and you can watch things happen.

Good luck!

Dave

 

[Zovs]

Thanks Dave, yeah I watched both video's both are awesome and really helped.

 

[Grognerd]

Disaster occurred this morning!
I somehow corrupted the Establishment file and can't recover...
Too bad, I don't know what to do to recover...A bit disappointed to say the least as I have dozens of hours at this. I try and compile and it just does an import complete and stops.

Well I found the issue, was a weapon I added (must of missed something in the entries). So I've lost a few hours of work. Better than the whole thing though. And yeah I made a backup...Ha!

 

[Zovs]

Disaster occurred this morning!
I somehow corrupted the Establishment file and can't recover...
Too bad, I don't know what to do to recover...A bit disappointed to say the least as I have dozens of hours at this. I try and compile and it just does an import complete and stops.

Well I found the issue, was a weapon I added (must of missed something in the entries). So I've lost a few hours of work. Better than the whole thing though. And yeah I made a backup...Ha!

Wheeew!

Yes better a few hours lost then the whole thing (make a back up now! lol)

 

[Grognerd]

Yeah I was worried, as a non-programmer I had not backed it up in a very long time! Bad habit for sure.