CanuckGamer

One of my friends and I have been playing Cold War by PBEM for a few months now. Another friend and have the Shock Force 2 Demo and were curious how that compared to Cold War since I believe it covers a later period than Cold War. We are playing a scenario called Wilcox. We're both surprised at how easy it is to knock out Bradley's with AT weapons employed by infantry. I read somewhere that Bradley's had some type of reactive armor but in this scenario it has been one hit and done. So far about 6 Bradley's have been knocked out. It seems they are not any better than WW2 APC's except they have more firepower.

I know that if a vehicle such as a tank is given the "Hunt" command it will stop when fired upon. I assume that whether it backs up with the "Hunt" command is random. If not, what are the factors that determine whether it will back up?

We are playing Rites of Spring where I as the Russians have SU-100's. I've lost a lot of them to German MK IVs and most times I can't even see where the shooting MK IV is. I'm wondering if the SU 100 has a lower spotting capability because of it's lower profile. In addition, because it doesn't have a turret it is not possible to have the commander spot like you can when you open up for a tank that has a turret. I would have thought the lower profile would make it more difficult to be spotted as well.

PEB14, I have been playing Combat Mission games for many years and embarrassed to say that I have never checked the "conditions" in Briefing. You are correct that the ground conditions are damp. I don't understand why the creator of this scenario would have damp conditions. The only thing the Germans have going for them are the 2 Tigers. We have about 25 minutes left and I see that the Russians just got another SU 122 and some kind of heavy tank. It also looks like another Russian tank is coming although I don't know what it is yet. In terms of what can knock out a Tiger II in this scenario, the Russians have at least 3 SU 122's , and some kind of heavy or 2 heavy tanks. Their other tanks which must number around 20 could I assume knock out a Tiger II with a rear shot. In addition the Russians have attack planes. Now I know why the title of this one is 'Against the Odds".

We are 2/3 of the way through the above scenario by PBEM and I am the Germans. The Germans have 2 King Tigers which in my opinion are the two key weapons if the Germans are to win this scenario. However one of them was immobilized by a track hit about 30 minutes ago and the second one is immobilized while moving about 15 minutes ago. Are King Tigers more prone to getting immobilized while moving than lighter tanks such as the Panther or T-34? Surprisingly it was while moving just off the railroad. It appears that the Russians have 2 SU 122's one of which the Germans knocked out at close range with a panzerfaust from the rear. The second survived a hit from a Tiger and if I remember correctly it was a weapon hit. I thought that it was knocked out but it just appeared again. I'm wondering if SU 122's are as likely as a King Tiger to become immobilized when moving? I think Battlefront should revise immobilization so that there is a chance that the tank can get "unstuck". In this scenario one or in this case both King Tigers becoming immobilized means the Germans don't stand a chance.

We are in the middle of a PBEM game. I assume that installing this patch will not screw up our game. Neither one of us have any mods installed.

We just finished The Last Starship PBEM and we both agree that it is not only the most boring scenario in the 20 years we have been playing CM games but we don't understand why anyone would create this scenario. The Yanks have night optics and have their entire force at the beginning while the Russians who don't have night optics come on piece meal. The supposed surrounded Yanks could easily wipe out the entire Russian tank force including the ones arriving later in the scenario. I played the Russians and lost 15 tanks to the Yank's two only because the Yanks were very conservative. The two knocked out Yank tanks were the only ones I saw the entire scenario. Most of the time Russian tanks were knocked by Yank tanks that were not even visible. I would quess that for about 80% of my moves I did nothing. Once I moved my tanks to reverse slopes I just sat there the entire scenario. A complete waste of time.

My friends and I have been playing CM for 20 years. Last year two of us bought Cold War from Matrix Games using their loyalty coupon. However we do not use the PBEM++ because it goes through their server. We are playing and have played a number of their games where the only option is through their server and there are a couple of negatives. First their server seems to go down periodically. Second if you attach your moves to an email or use something like dropbox when the file is too large you both have all the move files on your PCs. If you want you can even back up and view earlier moves which you can't do using PBEM++.

Has anyone played the The Last Starship scenario. I am playing it by PBEM as the Russians and so far have lost 7 tanks to 1 for the Yanks. The strange thing is I have only had a LOS on one Yank tank, the one I knocked out. None of my tanks that were knocked out even saw where the kill shot came from. As the scenario starts at 6:50 pm it is almost like the Yank tanks have night time optics and the Russians don't. I would be interested in comments from anyone that has played this scenario. Thanks.

Just a couple of minutes left in our PBEM of the above scenario. One of the reinforcing JSII tanks got immobilized after coming on so my remaining 5 faced off frontally with 2 Tiger II's. I've lost 4 JS II's and inflicted a partial penetration and an armour spalling. Ouch! Considering that the JS II's have 122 mm guns I am surprised how dominant the Tigers are. This is the first scenario we have played in RT and it will be interesting to see how other scenarios with Tiger IIs play out.

We are playing our 3rd PBEM game and noticed that American tanks always seem to fire their machine gun even after they have fired their main gun at a Russian tank. There have been a number of instances where this has caused the American tank to be knocked out since the Russian tanks don't seem to do this. I am assuming that firing the machine gun is to determine the range but did they not have electronics for that back in the 80's? Regardless, 2 of the 3 American tanks that I have lost is due to their pattern of firing their machine gun after a shot from their main gun. A generic question, has anyone seen heavy artillery such as 155 mm knock out or immobilize a tank? We are playing a scenario , Between Farhbarns where I am the Yanks. I have 155mm artillery but so far haven't seen any Russian infantry. In addition there isn't a fixed objective in front of the American line that they have to take so wondering what the artillery can do unless it can knock out a tank.

Thanks Artkin. There were trenches in this scenario and I had infantry in them. They still got their butts kicked by Shermans and infantry. The next scenario I will place any AT's in trenches to see how they fare. I'm actually playing another PBEM game with a friend in Cold War and it has the largest map I have seen in any of the CM games. The scenario is Czechmate but lots of trees. Now if there was a big map like that for one of the CM WW2 games with lines of sights then it would replicate how deadly the 88's were.

My friends and I have been playing CM for 20 years back to CM1 when there was a CM game in Africa. We think that CM is the gold standard when it comes to tactical games. However something that I think could be improved is AT guns. For example the feared 88 MM. There are few scenarios in any of the CM games where the map is large enough that an 88 can out range a tank. Historically the 88 could take out Allied tanks even before they could get in to range. Secondly my experience is that all AT guns are extremely vulnerable to enemy tanks no matter what kind of terrain or cover they are in. It seems they almost always get knocked out before even getting off a shot. My friend and I are currently playing the TWC Nijmegen Finale scenario in CMBN and I've lost 3 AT guns including an 88 without any of them getting a shot off. It is a small map with short sight lines so they are basically useless. All the AT guns were in either foxholes, or the v shaped sandbags. Enemy infantry and tanks don't seem to have an problem spotting AT guns. I can understand the 88 with it's high profile but the other AT guns have lower profiles. Maybe I am employing AT guns incorrectly although like I said I've been playing for 20 years so I've tried everything. Just a note about this scenario. There is another scenario Nijmegen Road Bridge is very similar to this one. In fact even though I am playing this scenario I can't find TWC Nigmegen in my list of scenarios.

Yes, that is the scenario. I don't think challenging adequately describes the difficulty for the Soviets. I am down to one tank and have yet to even knock out one American one. To add insult to injury I just lost a tank when the American tank came around a corner about 30 seconds before it did. I will have to ask my friend after we finish this one whether the Yanks had any aircraft, otherwise, what is the point of having the Strelas?

Brille, thanks very much for the reply. They must be shooting at American air because they are all down to 1 ammo. I have another question. I noticed that one of my recon vehicles has "3 AT rocket", at least that is the description when I move my cursor over the weapon icon. I looked in the manual and couldn't find any reference of this. I am assuming they are not the two AT you mention in your reply as there is no number after AT. Do you know what the range of these AT rockets are?

We are playing our second scenario and this time I am the Russians in a scenario titled Skirmish.....something. So far I have been unable to knock out a single American tank or AFV while losing one tank and about 8 or 9 infantry fighting vehicles. I have had 4 or 5 units with Strela 2 or 3's which according to the manual have effective ranges of 4200 and 4500 meters respectively. All of them at one time or another during the scenario have been within about 700 - 900 meters of American tanks with lines of sight. I targeted the tanks and with some set up an armour arc but have yet to score a hit. I am assuming they have fired because some started with ammo of 5 and are down to 1. I have yet to see any graphics indicating they even fired. I noticed that one of them was anti air but the rest are not. Am I doing something wrong?

My friend and I both picked up Cold War a couple of months ago. We have been playing the WW2 titles going back 20 years. The scenario we are playing is Mittelascherbach and I've noticed that my heavy tanks are continually firing their MG at enemy tanks after firing their main gun or before firing their main gun. I don't recall this happening in any of the WW2 games like CMBN or CMRT. I'm thinking this is a bug in that MG fire should only be directed at a soft target.

After seeing the pictures of Russian tanks in Ukraine with their turrets blown off and reading about the so called jack in the box effect maybe this should be added to Cold War, ha ha. I assume Russian tanks in the 80's were just as flawed.

Does Black Sea use Game Engine 4?

I'm sorry if my post came across as sour grapes and appreciate the people who spend hours creating scenarios. Against the Odds is a big scenario with a large variety of tanks and weapons so quite interesting. As I indicated to my friend who is playing the Germans it is a fun scenario regardless of the frustration of trying to take out a King Tiger. His comment was "I love King Tigers", no kidding. I am playing it out to the end and after hitting one the Tigers 16 times I think I have immobilized it. If the IL2s appear I'm now wondering if they will attack the Tiger if it is indeed immobilized. In the other scenario I mentioned, Nulli the CW has now lost it's 4 tanks but managed to knock out 2 German tanks including 1 Panther. To add insult to injury, the last CW tank was knocked out by a panzerfaust. Unless the CW get reinforcements and there is no mention of that in the briefing it will be merely mop up time for the remaining German tanks. On to the next scenario.

Sorry, I basically repeated what you are already indicated. The assumption I make when I see a scenario that says that it should be played as a specific side against the AI is that the AI side is stronger. As mentioned we stay away from the scenarios that say they should be played against the AI. As these two scenarios did not make any reference to H2H or anything else as you have correctly pointed out we played them. We also always try to play a scenario which we haven't tried before so that there is an element of FOW. I don't know if you have played either of these scenarios but Against the Odds has a lot of tanks and is a lot of fun as the Germans, ha ha.

Some scenarios will indicate that it should be played against the AI. Others will say playable in all modes. In my two examples it doesn't indicate one way or the other so the only way you can find out is by playing them. We stay away from the scenarios that indicate they should be played against the AI.

My friends and I only play H2H so my comments only refer to that mode. We try to only play scenarios that indicate they are suitable for H2H. We have been playing the CM series for 20 years, so from the beginning. Lately we have been noticing that a lot of the scenarios are so lopsided that they are not even worth playing. For example Against the Odds in CMRT which we are just finishing. The Germans have two King Tigers which have proved impossible to knock out. One of them has taken about 15 hits, 7 from the rear including 3 from a ISU122 firing AP. The Russians have lost about 20 tanks, the Germans, 2 Mark IVs. There have been 3 IL2s that have been flying around forever, "en route". I am the Russian and have not surrendered only because I am curious about the IL2s and whether they will even show up. The last scenario I played with air was a scenario from CMFI a couple of years ago. I am playing a scenario in CMBN called Nulli something with another friend and just hoisted the white flag. I was the CW and had 4 tanks, of which one was a Firefly. After finishing the scenario, I checked what the Germans had. Total of 9 tanks, and one assault gun. Four of their tanks are Panthers. I managed to knock out one Panther from the rear at point blank range and one Mark IV. My 4 tanks are destroyed. The only CW tank that could knock out a Panther with a frontal hit would be the Firefly. It is pretty obvious looking at the forces that Allies are totally outgunned so really have to wonder what the scenario designer was thinking. The same is true for Against the Odds in CMRT. I noticed in a couple of the forums today that scenarios for CMRT and CMFI are being play tested so that is good news. I really wonder if some of the stock scenarios that come with their respective games were even tested.

I'm playing a scenario called Against the Odds or something like that by PBEM with a friend. I am the Russians and getting my butt kicked because I can't knock out his King Tiger tanks of which I think he has two. One of them as taken about 14 hits, 8 from the rear. Three of those were from a ISU 122 firing AP which really surprised me. There are about 40 minutes left in the scenario. I have lost approximately 20 tanks to his 2 Mk. IVs. I haven't surrendered yet because I have three IL2's and am wondering if they will be able to knock out a King Tiger. However they have been displayed as "en route" with a red circle and diagonal line in the middle plus "preparing" for about 20 minutes. I can access their display by clicking any unit so it doesn't have to be an observer or HQ. If anyone has played this scenario can you tell me if these planes ever show up? Can you direct them to attack a specific unit? If they do were you able to knock out a Tiger?

Ok, it is actually a ISU-122 assault gun and it carries 18HE and 12AP rounds. I am also thinking that Russian anti-tank rifles don't have a hope in hell of knocking a Tiger II out even at point blank range with a rear shot.