Screenshots

[Nokturnal]

Part 2

Here is the same scene from the first pic - If I had been clever I would have taken a shot from the same angle but this will have to do.
You can see just how many units were killed in the first few shots. Both sides suffered most of their losses here it seems.


A nice close-up shot of the Ratel-20, you can even see the driver.
Gotta love the attention to detail that Graviteam put in to their games.


I believe this is the unit which took out my Ratel, throughout the (albeit brief) battle, my units didn't spot these guys at all.
Most of the crew appear to have hit the deck once the fighting started, so they didn't cause me any further trouble.


One of my Ratel-90's, casually moving through the terrain towards the area of combat.
Blissfully ignorant as to how close they came to being destroyed...


...By this BRDM-2 that had it's gun trained on the Ratel at the moment of the cease-fire. Talk about good timing!
It did however managed to pepper it with 7.62 fire, 3 rounds impacted with the turret as you can see in the previous pic.


This one wasn't as clever, and was immobilised early on in the fight.
Interestingly, one of the hits on it was from an 89mm round fired from a French LRAC F1 AT weapon.
I had to do a bit of digging to find out which weapon it was, apparently they were being battle-tested in Angola. *
Another example of the great attention to detail.
After the main-gun was damaged and the front-right tyre punctured it ceased to be a threat.


Another weapon rarely featured in gaming, a 9K11 Malyutka.
A weapon which could have easily taken out any of my IFVs like it was made of paper.
The crew had positioned itself well, but been reduced to just one man before they managed to do any damage.

* I may be wrong, it's just what I found with a few minutes of searching


I fear I have used up all my luck in just this first battle...

Part 3 next, last one I promise!

[Nokturnal]

Here is another one of their AT guns, this one was operational throughout the battle - But it was ineffective.
There was another couple of these in the area but my units missed them.


The enemy infantry advancing on the suspected position of my units.
Keep in mind this is all basically pitch-black like it was in the first couple of pics - They wouldn't have been able to see anything.
That being said, considering how many are all still alive it seems my men couldn't see them either. Lucky..


A recoilless rifle, B-11 I believe, once again it wasn't effective against my units but had this been a day-time assault I fear I would have came back with far fewer units.
This team were just ahead of the trenches you can see in the first pic.


Another truck (GAZ-66) indicating the position of one of the enemy combatants HQ or commander unit.
As you can see there are a few casualties here too. I don't think the enemy had any HQ/commander unit which didn't suffer a few losses.


My infantry, along with Ratels, race to join in the fighting after capturing the other (un-protected) enemy position further North.


I thought this was a decent overhead shot, in the green patch you can see the enemy BRDM-2 and my two Ratels, and off to each side you can see where some of the fighting was taking place.


This T-55 wasn't actually involved in the fighting but it appears to be there to indicate where past fighting had occured. Adds to the atmosphere nicely.


Finally, here are the results. Now don't laugh, but I still can't really make out what it all means.
I can decipher the important bits - We both left with the same amount of territory as when we started (though I swear I took one of their positions..) and most importantly, I came out of it with far more units alive than they did!

Well there we go, my first battle in Operation Hopper and it was a blast.
Looking forward to future fighting and I'll be sure to spam this thread with some more pics when I get them.

[Lucky 6]

A big fleet of mine assembling around a small moon before a jump. A long- time ally who had soaked up much of the damage while I was conquering 3/4 of the galaxy finally turned on me on when only one opponent remained between us. I was more than willing to give them a system to themselves, but they insisted on fighting a fruitless war of ideals against me, one they don't stand a chance of winning, seeing as how economically massive I'd become while they were all the while barely hanging on. This fleet is about to make the hop to one of their outlying planets, the first in a long line of planets that I'll be destroying on the way to their homeworld.

[Wolfleader]

IRT Nokturnal:

What game is that? It looks like something I can get into. Is the level of realism like in the Combat Mission games? (realistic damage/No HP)

[Wolfleader]

Here some love for CMSF:

An Abrams tank blasting away at enemy positions in the Hammertime battle scenario:



Knocked out armour in the aftermath of my playing of the Following the Euphrates scenario:







More knocked out enemy armour, this one from one of the campaign battles where you ambush approaching enemy armour with jav teams and TOW equipped Strykers.





The guys responsible for the carnage:

[Nokturnal]

Wolfleader - It's getting a bit confusing these days, the base-game is called either Achtung Panzer: Operation Star or Graviteam Tactics: Operation Star.
There was an issue regarding the AP title and it was renamed.
It becomes even more confusing because AP/GT is known for their WW2 games, starting with Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943 and followed by Op. Star and 3 (or 4?) DLCs all focused on the Eastern Front.

Then suddenly, Operation Hopper is released, but instead of being a standalone expansion it requires Op. Star to run...So you've got a WW2 game with DLC for an 80s conflict. To make things more confusing, Operation Hopper isn't the real title of the battle! It's Hooper..Not sure if this is a typo which managed to stick around until production or if it was intentional to give them the ability to change this/that as opposed to going for full re-creation.

Almost done rambling....
Operation Hopper features units/map from Steel Armor: Blaze of War, Graviteam's tank sim which flopped as a result of poor management from their Publisher (UIG).
Due to another legal issue, they were unable to continue to support the game themselves (no DLC, official patches etc..) and it is my belief that this Op. Hopper is their work-around to this issue, re-using content they had already produced and placed it into their RTS franchise.

Just before I sign off, Steel Armor still gets support, it's just in the form of unoffical patches from their determined dev-team who refuse to let their customers down.

/rant

The short answer is:
Achtung Panzer/Graviteam Tactics: Operation Star.


Nice CMSF pics by the way! It's been ages since I saw that, makes me want to play it again...Still have a huge chunk of CM: Afghanistan to play....

[Wolfleader]

Thanks Nokturnal. I checked out the website for it, it does look like something I can get into.

Still playing CMA myself as well though not as much as CMBN and CMSF. For some silly reason I just realized I haven't been taking screenies for CMA like I have been for most of my other games. Maybe in the next few scenario battles or when I start the campaign.

[Nokturnal]

Okay ignore all that nonsense I said about them getting the name wrong... That's what happens when you try to get clever with barely any sleep. They did get it right, so...Yeah.

I still find CMA to be the most fun, no idea why...Might be because I am more interested in that setting, but it also feels like the most challenging. The Soviets may seem superior on paper but when you get pinned down by a couple of Muj guys with Lee Enfields that feeling of superiority disappears in a flash.

I posted a mini-AAR from a CMA mission a while back if you are interested.
I think it was from the first one from the later campaign (so possible spoilers).

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forum...0&postcount=26

Looking forward to more CM pics, might lure me away from Graviteam titles...

[Super Six 4]

Those were some interesting Border War pics-never seen a game involving it!

[Wolfleader]

Originally Posted by Nokturnal

Okay ignore all that nonsense I said about them getting the name wrong... That's what happens when you try to get clever with barely any sleep. They did get it right, so...Yeah.

I still find CMA to be the most fun, no idea why...Might be because I am more interested in that setting, but it also feels like the most challenging. The Soviets may seem superior on paper but when you get pinned down by a couple of Muj guys with Lee Enfields that feeling of superiority disappears in a flash.

I posted a mini-AAR from a CMA mission a while back if you are interested.
I think it was from the first one from the later campaign (so possible spoilers).

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forum...0&postcount=26

Looking forward to more CM pics, might lure me away from Graviteam titles...

Cotton route is actually my favourite scenario in CMA. A road running through hilly terrain where you can send your inf to barter shots with Muj occupying other hills all while trying to keep your convoy of soft skinned trucks from being too badly shot up.

[General Brock]

Definitely my most favorite screen shots of the Napoleonic era;

http://s209.photobucket.com/user/pdg...view=slideshow

[Wolfleader]

Here are a few screenies from my games of CMBN. I ended up rage quitting a quick battle against the PC after my panzerfaust guys kept trying to snipe the tank commander with their rifles instead of their panzerfausts. Realized later that the optimum range for the PF's was 30 metres. Guess I need to start using the schrecks instead. Also need to go back to using veteran to crack tank crews because I keep ending up with green or regular crews who keep missing and crapping their pants despite facing shermans with panthers and tigers.

My Panzers











My infantry