Halftrack

Its time to return to the snow: A new version of our Mod has been released: V. 2.7
Basically, it adds a whole bunch of new models and some new units. But thats not all.
New effects,lots of new and even random skins, more map details and last but not least Loran Korns ( r.i.p ) Soundmod raise the bar for realistic athmosphere.
But its not just new eyecandy:It also features updated weapon stats (again, as always big thanks to Xalibur ),
big efforts have been put into bugfixing and stabilizing the mod, we made a german text version , added useful abilities,
corrected prizes, made some new upgrades, added some new units.
Of course we still left some nice bugs for you guys to find out.

We are proud to announce, that every unit in BotB now has the correct model.
It took years, but finally it is ( almost ) as it was supposed to be.
Big thanks to Tankdestroyer, Loran Korn , DMz , Sweeten and Slayerknecht for all their great work. And to Darkblade, for making all that possible.








Searching for online mates: ? Join the BotB X-Fire Group: http://<br /> http://www.xfire.com...fficialbotbmod/

Or join us on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Battl...120828441297483



News Bulletin:

Early this morning, following heavy artillery bombardement,large German forces
have penetraded US positions in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and Luxemburg!!

Allied High command is hastily rushing reenforcements to the
area, to counter the surprise attack and prevent them from crossing Meuse river.

Can you stop the elite of the german panzerdivisions, or vice versa,lead them to victory?
Find out.

BotB for CoH 1.71! <-- click!

BotB v 2.7 for CoH/OF/ToV 2.61 <-- click!

The new version is delivered as installer version but wont change anything to your original CoH-Files.
Note: This Mod does not work with Opposing Fronts or ToV only.
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Recruiting: We need translators for the various languages of BotB players.

So, if you are French, Polish, Spanish, Czech, Russian,Chinese, Korean... whatever ...
or you speak one of those languages fluently ( next to English ) and
want to help us releasing a BotB version in your mother language, you will be very
welcome. Apply here or via pm.


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Battle of the Bulge is a Mod focussing exclusive on the battles in Belgium and Luxemburg, December 44 - January 45.
It converts the Summer/Normandy Scenario of CoH into a winter scenario along with winterish Maps, Skins and units.

Lots of emphasize has been laid on the look of the Mod. All skins are as accurate as possible, from uniform detail to unit marking.
EACH soldier in a squad has individual uniforms and equipment.
Occlusion effects, team colours, even territory borders and selection markers have been removed for visual authenticity.

Further on, the Mods aim is to combine CoH gameplay with more realism and it tries to reflect the battle properly.
Therefore Panzerelite and Brits have been taken off the game ( Brits will show up as doctrine reinforcements, though ).
You can call in battlegroups which have originally taken part, like the 14th Cavalry Group or the infamous Kampfgruppe Peiper.

Tons of changes have also been done to unit stats, gameplay and doctrines. The units you can produce depend on the doctrine you choose.

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You want more information ? Visit our Forums! <-- click!

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Airborne Division:

becomes the defensive tree. You have a lot of powerful infantry
like airborne infantry, AT-teams and heavy mortars, but only
little choice of heavy artillery or vehicles force you to really use airborn tactics - dig in and wait for the Cavalry.
Doctrines will even strenghten your infantries combat value, until
you get full ( and I mean that!!) air support in the late game.

( note: during the real battle, both US Airborn Divisions were transferred to the battlefield by trucks -
so you wont be able to paradrop in this mod, either. )

units: engineers,scouts, riflemen, mg ,sniper, airborne infantry, heavy mortars, Antitank squads, vehicle repair squads,

vehicles: jeep, deuce and a half, m3 halftrack, 76mm AT. 57mm AT, m1 75mm Howitzer
Sherman, Sherman Croc, m10

Infantry Division:

still well rounded, with good defensive and artillery units,
combat engineers and fair armor.
Doctrines give you more production bonuses and send armored
combat groups to the battlefield.

units: engineers, scouts ,riflemen, mg ,sniper, combat engineers, rangers, mortars, Company HQ

vehicles: jeep, deuce and a half, m8 Greyhound, m3 halftrack, 57mm AT, m2 105mm Howitzer
Sherman, Sherman Croc, m10, Sherman 105, Sherman 76mm

Armoured Division:

Like in vCoH, this is the most powerful, but slowest to build
Division... but mobile artillery like priest, and many tanks like
the Sherman Easy Eight and the M36 let you gain the initiative.
You will even receive tank reinforcements by the British.

units: engineers, scouts ,riflemen, mg ,sniper, armored infantry, mortars,

vehicles: jeep, deuce and a half, M8 Greyhound, M3 halftrack,
M5 Stuart, 57mm AT, M7 Priest, Sherman Calliope,
Sherman M4, Sherman Croc, M10, Sherman 105, ,
Sherman M4A3E8, Jumbo Sherman, M36


7th Army

Consist of Volksgrenadier and heavy Fallschirmjager Infantry, light artillery and heavy antitank equipment, Mobile units are mostly antitank...
the doctrine gives you enhanced defensive options like trenches as well as some armored support.

units: Pioneers, Scouts, Volks, Fallschirmjager Infantry, Sniper, MG, Mortar, Company HQ

vehicles: Opel Blitz, Sdkfz 251 Halftrack, 75mm Pak 40,
SdKfz 222 251/16 Flamehalftrack,
Nebelwerfer, leFH 18 105 mm Howitzer ,Ostwind, Hetzer, Jagpanzer IV
Tiger I, Kingtiger and 88mm Flak 36 (offmap)

5th Panzerarmy

The most rounded tree... good Infantry units like Panzergrenadiere, some early ATs, mobile Artillery and
fair battle tanks as well as doctrinal refitting options and
powerful offmap units like Jagdpanther and Sturmtiger

units: Pioneers, Scouts, Volks, Panzergrenadiere, Sniper, MG,
Mortar, Company HQ, Fallschirmjager ( offmap )

vehicles: Opel Blitz, Sdkfz 251 Halftrack, 50 mm Pak 38,
SdKfz 234 ,Puma, 251/16 Flamehalftrack, Stuka zu Fuß, Wespe Ostwind,Panzer IV H, Panther
Jagdpanther, Sturmtiger (offmap)


6th SS Panzerarmy

Focussing on heavy mobile Firepower... mobile artillery units like Hummel and Maultier and the heaviest tank in the game, the
Kingtiger, give you full force in your advance.

Fanatism boosts your troops fighting spirit and the hidden
"Operation Griffon" Teams spread sabotage and confusion behind enemy lines.

units: Pioneers, Scouts, Volks, Waffen SS Panzergrenadiere, Sniper, MG, Mortar, Company HQ

vehicles: Opel Blitz, Schwimmwagen, Sdkfz 251 Halftrack, 251/16 Flamehalftrack
SdKfz 234/1 ,Puma, Panzerwerfer 42, Hummel, Wirbelwind ,Panzer IV H, Panther, Kingtiger
Ostwind (offmap)




the overall game changes are too many to mention, here are some extracts:

- 20 completely new winter maps, mostly historical battlegrounds, designed from photos and maps.
- some maps even have dynamical weather, which influences
units sight range, battle performance and movement speed.
- 5 new unit models ( Sturmtiger, Jagpanzer IV, Panzerwerfer 42, M21 Mortar Halftrack, FW 190 )
- realistical penetration values of Guns and armour, historical movement and turret rotation speed and loading times
- smoke screens for almost all tanks.
- New veterancy system: All units gain veterancy by fighting,
each vet step increases accuracy, sight range, shortens reload times, decreases inflicted suppression of a unit.
- special vet abilities
- dynamical sight range - moving units wont see as far as standing units, cause they have to pay attention to their movement
- new upgrade system, units can only upgrade when near to HQ or other special buildings.
- removed unrealistic features, like building bunkers in 30 seconds
- vehicles give cover for soldiers, tankwrecks cant be crushed and have to be demolished
- barb wire may damage tires and tracks of vehicles
- limits on almost every support/armored unit
- heavy Infantry squads already have a bar / lMG when built.
- smoke Grenades for Infantry Squads to conceal movement.
- line Engineer Squads cannot repair tanks or vehicles anymore.Special vehicle repair crews or repair stations have to be used to repair them.
- and so on and so on - but maybe test it out yourself.



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Or you want more eyecandy? You even want to see some ingame movies ?
Visit our ModDB site here! <-- click!
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The BotB Credits:

Coding: Halftrack,Panzer Jager,TornadoX

ATC scar scipt by: AGameAnx

Coding Aid: (with many thanks) Copernicus,Xalibur, cf_nz; celestial

Maps: Lord van Dalen, Henry666,Nobody,Empa,$-texas_$,Regis91, Halftrack, tskross,Uncle Sam, El Chupanibre

Skins: Halftack,tomarces,tskross, Mr Scruff, Lord van Dalen

Skins used : Sig21Surgeon, Georider, GniGruH

UI GFX: Doombringer, Halftrack

3D Models and Model Mixing: Halftrack, PanzerJager, Skyward, Gall, Fiffa, Loran Korn, Tankdestroyer, DMz, Mr Scruff,AGameAnx

Animation: tankdestroyer, Sweeten2213 , DarkbladeCR
random skin rgos: Slayerknecht

website and forums Admin: Fiffa

PR & Web GFX: tskross

Installer: Luc

and all hail goes to the manymany betatesters, players, feedbackers,all the helpful people here and in the german forums,
which are unfortunately too many to mention

TheVOID

Any plans to include such elements?

Halftrack

yes, like stated above the Operation Greif will be part of it.

TheVOID

Sorry, I must have overlooked that. >_<

DAZA

Will the soldiers survive a tank shoot to the face? lol hope not Also very nice skins good job

Fuct

I really am looking forward to playing this. The screenies rock hard.

Keep it up!

Genghis_Kan

awesome. im lookin forward for this. maybe u can make a custom campaign for this. Since u say historical accuracy is key, can i request to adjust the weaponry which different squad carry. eg for volks(only the squad leader has MP40 and the rest ar K98 without that stupid MP40 upgrade) & LMG actually fire fr the hip or on the move instead of lettin the gunner to have a quick nap be4 firin the gun & maybe upgrade only for MP44 & Panzersherk. Anyway for sabotage team will the american be able to shoot at them or is it just like normal units. It will be great if they have some sort of abilities. keep up the good work

Unkn0wn

Looking pretty sweet!

Good luck!

Feuer Frei!

Curios: how did you import that menuscreen?

jorge2125

How did you edit main screen background?

Halftrack

using Photoshop

no, serious, you just have to dump the Data\art\ui\textures\textures_fe\bkg_mainmenu_wide_2134x1200.rgt to tga,
edit this, rescale so that size is dividable by 16, save as dds dxt5, because
you cannot convert tgas to rgts, and convert the dds to rgt. Finished.

jorge2125

Thanks,just when you posted this I found out it for myself

AGENT X

This is looking like a great mod, Halftrack and it looks like you've put together an excellent team. Really looking forward to this one.

weapon range

Looking great, as usual. I am curious how the mod will play.
Do you have a release date in mind?

Cpt Otto

Halftrack

No, actually we are figuring things out, do the skinnings of vehicles and such,
rework the Map Textures, working at the Code.

As we are in need of Maps to be done and some models, and playtesting and so on...
and waiting for the Object Editor, some time will pass before launch.

Halftrack

But to shorten that time a little, we have produced a first,
quick-made TEASER. Just some cutscenes rom Vanilla game
with some first skin and maptexture impressions. Have Fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDp4hNQ9iTk

Unkn0wn

Wow thats looking pretty good!

Love the texture work!

Gremlin Shoota

O_O MUST HAVE SKINS!!!~~


Awesome skins halftrack!

Leanardo

nice i cant wait to see the finished version.

whoopy15

nice skins, too bad there isnt something for snow

think we will have too wait for OF then

nice job

Halftrack

you mean for snow falling down? Yeah, thats a pity....
But lets see what OF will bring maybe we have to wait until its release anyway,
if the object editor wont come out earlier than that...

Halftrack

and again, some new sreens...




http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/...ntherfinet3.jpg
http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/3016/schlachtcf0.jpg

MonkeysHumpFish

Looking good, so far

I just wish i knew how to winterize a skin

Wilson

Looks cool. Amazing how the different textures make everything look so different. Can't wait to play it

Harlequene

yeah looks very very nice can´t wait to play it too

Leanardo

Is a beta in the works yet cause it looks like it would be possible but if not then keep up the good work.

Halftrack

yes sure, the latest are screenshots from the eraly WIP Version, but no beta in sight yet. It sure will be a lbit amount of work until we are finioshed. ;-)

Henry666

Just finished work on 2 maps for the mod, here are some ingame screenshots:

Harlequene

wow this screens are looking very fantastic

BurroDiablo

This looks very promising... battles the way they should be... with LOTS of armour!

Makes me think... if this MOD looks great, imagine what an Eastern Front Expansion pack might look like

Halftrack

update: We could use the help of somenone experienced with BF42 modding (3D export/import)
to get some dummies in game. If you are intersted or know someone, please drop me a pn.

revolucion09

Not to be pesimist

well, Relic does not provide with simple tools either, your requisition is complex..

Its like relic dont want to help modding, and thats a fault, modding makes games stay for longer on online communities and coh spread through world because of good mods

but were limited

Good luck

Tiger_AceAJB

there will be some single player right

nobody

You can always play skirmish

Halftrack

we are thinking of some singleplayer scenarios, too... but first of all, we have to finish the skirmish part.

Tiger_AceAJB

ill be willing to waiton a campaign/scripted skirmish. when will it be release (multiplayer mod)

Halftrack

Back from summer vacation, our Mod is making some progress. We have implemented most of new units and are finishing the doctrines, while our mappers now really get on with the winter maps, so updates will come more regularly from now on.

Here we have a new unit, the Fallschirmjager Company HQ - has officer abilities, but
also quite nice combat value.



more updates will follow soon.

Mickey C

Looks like a kick arse mod ! Would be great with OF's weather effects. Skins look great, trailer was a blast too. Funny how the cam would zoom right up to a unit then the screen would explode Made even better with the music.

Nice work BotB team !

Halftrack

presuming that we wont be able to really insert the new models until OF
eg the Objecteditor comes out, it will
be quite likely, that we add weather effects, too.

Monkey Soldier

How is the mod going now? still need extra people? (I am a very curious person)
And can we please have some new screenie's?
I really love these screenshots

Panzern00b21

Sexy mod. I WANT A WEHRMACHT CAMPAING PLEASE.

Hunchbacked

i always love halftracks mods! will you be including the king tiger, or keeping vanilla units?

Lethal Dosage

I want to see king tigers, and a few of them, since that was the first major battle that they appeared in, and i'm fairly sure the first one against the US forces.

Halftrack

there will be...
first post updated with more information... a new trailer movie is in the pipeline, and the public beta version for 1.71 on the roll...

Here are some links to new map picturess: Longvilly, Bastogne and La Gleize

http://img129.imageshack.us/my.php?...70830201dx3.jpg

http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?i...lic00338xi1.jpg

http://img410.imageshack.us/my.php?...70921161gy1.jpg

http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?...lic00337to3.jpg

http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/43b7-9-jpg.html

http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?i...lic00338xi1.jpg

http://img100.imageshack.us/my.php?...lic00335jt1.jpg

http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/43b7-6-jpg.html

Monkey Soldier

very nice screenies

Tovarasu

What do u need exactly from bf42?

Halftrack

some more visual input... two worldbuilder "scenarios", taken on Lord van Dalens Map "Losheimergraben"



and some Info according to Patch 2.01 and OF:

This patch forces us to begin coding from scratch, so it will last longer than expected, before the final mod will be released , of course we are still waiting to implement new models...

BUT... the 1.71 version is almost finished, so a public beta will be at the front door soon... for those who want to try!
It will feature most of the units, and about 8 historical maps.

Gremlin Shoota

Wow new screenies are awesome!!!

I was hoping for it to finish before the year ended... but thanks to that blasted patch you have to start all over again.

(Skin suggestion - Maybe for the snipers on the axis's team you can make them wear a white rain coat w/ hoodie above they're heads )