Death of a Village -- a Small CM:FB Photo Essay

I play an awful lot of games -- I regret nothing -- and in that whirl of experience I can sometimes forget or take for granted those that are truly great.  The Combat Mission series, from its beginning over a decade ago, has been and is truly great.

One of the neat things about games that have a lineage like this is fans of the series get involved and improve OOBs, make vehicle skins, and can make crazy-accurate maps and scenarios.

My friend Doug and I have been pounding around Belgium for the past several months working on one of the scenarios for Combat Mission: Final Blitzkrieg.  Eponymously named "Baraque de Fraiture" it tells a part of the story of a worn out group of G.I.s who hold out against not only the 506th Volksgrenadier Division but the "Das Reich" 2nd SS Panzer for the better part of 24 hours granting critical relief to the men of the 82nd Airborne Division trapped at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.

As good as this history is, though, what struck me after finishing my turn this morning was how this battlefield has evolved over the last hour and 15 minutes of game time.  Doug's Germans, true to the story, have a hellacious group of artillery stonks at their disposal and no small amount of armor.  He's too good a commander, however, to trust in artillery.  He knows that the only way to be certain that there's no one with a bazooka inside one of these well-built buildings is to knock it down.  And so he has.  Turn after patient turn.  This is just a small photo essay of some of the results, centering on the village itself.

The road in.  I, obviously, can't see Doug's vehicles, but I can see the smoke from those I've destroyed.

Further down the road, Doug had to cross this bridge under fire.

The crossroads at the heart of the village looking west.  Burning Shermans make me sad.

This one made me angry.  Driver couldn't back up quickly enough.  Entry hole for the round that killed her is evident.

Same tank, but further back.

Overview of the village from the rear.  Doug's troops approached from the top of the screen.  The Sherman from the photos immediately above is at the bottom.

An interesting website about the memorial to this battle is here:  http://www.battleofthebulgememories.be/stories26/us-army25/61-a-memorial-at-baraque-de-fraiture.html