CM:RT: It's What You Can't See That Kills You.

Jobu88 and I have been playing CM games for a long time, dating well back into the days of x1.  Having just wrapped up an excellent "Scenario of the Month" from theblitz.org, it was my turn to chose and I took one "off the rack", as it were, one of the stock scenarios for CM:RT, "Bunkers Burning".  It's an historical scenario set in the early days of Operation: Bagration in which elements of the Soviet 16th Guard Rifle Division are tasked with punching a hole in the German lines near Orsha for the following troops to pour through.

A couple general points are in order.  First, sitting in my comfortable office chair mulling over my deployments for this battle, I was struck with how distant I am from the terror that must have been in the mind of the Soviet commander knowing that he had the stavka ever at his back.  Surveying the terrain, this was nothing short of a kobayashi maru.  Seriously, look at this:

My troops are being told to cover acres of open ground into the teeth of multiple lines of German defenses, prepared during the previous winter.  It would seem the lines had been there long enough for the Soviet high command to get an unusually (at least in my experience) sense of their dispositions.  War of maneuver my Aunt Fannie.  The Battle of Ypres is more like it.

Still, as Jobu pointed out to me, the designer put an awful lot of love into this map.  As is often the case, it's not so much the broad strokes seen in the below, although the model railroad lover in me will always appreciate how nice CMx2 renders them.  Pay particular attention to the ground just to the right of the trees lining those railroad tracks.

What is not readily apparent is that there's a rise, gentle though it may be, that my support AFVs and troops will have to climb before coming into full view of the defenses beyond.  Knowing the CMx2 engine as I do, I'll have to strike a delicate balance between moving as quickly as I can while still giving my forward troops enough time to spot the Jerries wherever they might be hiding.  The recon platoon in the lower photograph is slowly making its way to the top of that ridge in the hope of both finding the enemy and not having their collective heads shot off.  The AFVs, for their part, are going nowhere until they have something more certain to shoot at.

As will be seen in the top two screenshots, I've placed a fair amount of smoke into the area around "The Hill" objective hoping to give the men advancing steadily from behind some cover.  I also do have a battery of medium mortars at the company level at my disposal.

Oh, and the "burning" mentioned in the title?  Well, more on that in a bit, eh?

Into the breach, lads.  Into the breach.  Comrade Stalin demands it.