Tifosi

I just reinstalled BO, BB and AK after a gap of a couple of years, and am enjoying them now as much as I ever did - more so, in fact, because I took the time this time around to start on the various help threads round these parts and am slowly beggining to learn how to use various unit types to take advantage of their strengths. As opposed to my old technique of throwing everything at the enemy and watching my forces get decimated every time.

Most of what I could come up with has already been mentioned, apart from letting the player have more control over when CAS (if any is available) shows up. Let us call down death from above when WE need it, not when the AI decides to grace us with it!!

To my eternal shame, I went down the "quit" path some time ago. I had a couple of games on the go when I had to move house in the middle of it all. I was offline for a couple of months and when I finally got up and running again I simply neglected to resume a couple of battles which I pretty much knew were hopeless. With hindsight it was the wrong decision - so a big SORRY to the two guys I left hanging - and for any new PBEM players out there I would only say DON'T JUST QUIT!! Instead of getting some valuable experience from those games I just buried 'em and have actually felt rather bad about it ever since. Still, I have now re-entered the PBEM fray and hope to learn from getting my arse kicked up and down the battlefield a few times how this game SHOULD be played. Cheers, Scott

Oh - I got the answer. This is a trick question huh? The poles could not defeat the Blitz, because the Blitz was directed against London and other British cities. The Blitzkrieg on the other hand.....

I have to admit most of what I know on this topic is from reading memoirs, articles etc written by, or from the perspective of, pilots. I suppose it's a fair assumption that many would believe they had scored a hit when they hadn't - ANY claims made by any airforce during combat were invariably inflated. Not neccesarrily because pilots were falsely claiming (although it did happen) but largely because, as Jason points out it's simply so damn difficult to tell who hit what from the cockpit of fast moving aircraft. On the issue of aircraft as tank-killers, I humbly stand corrected.

I have read accounts of this happening. Rare perhaps, but I'm certain it happened. Not a huge issue really though, as by 1944 ground attack flights would have carried rockets too. Regardless of what effect the .50cal and 20mm had, it's fair to say you were pretty stuffed as soon as the Jugs and Typhoons turned up with their fireworks aboard.

They grow palmtrees up in northern areas of Scotland too - I've seen them, although I will be damned if I can remember exactly where. It's all to do with the Gulf Stream or something?

20mm and .50cal were more than adequate for knocking out tanks (even Tigers) from the air. The RAF developed the tactic in the middle east, but basically you spot the tank, manouver yourself into a position whereby you will be attacking the tank from directly behind or ahead (behind was usually favoured) and straffe it. The trick was, as you dived at the tank to aim for the ground a short way behind the tank an "walk" the stream of fire forward over the tank. It was "indirect" hits that did the killing - rounds which ricoched off the ground and went through the floor of the tank. Even if you didn't hit something combustible you stood a good chance of hitting something important and at least knocking it out.

Goering. Battle of Britain. Adequate forces - easily. All the way from the Bay of Biscay, right the way along the French, Dutch, German and Norweigan coast were Bomber and Fighter forces, who had the RAF outnumbered at least 5:1 IIRC A defined task - Render the RAF unable to fight. Good logistics - In 1940 there was no serious bombing campaign underway against German industry, the Germans occupied the whole of Western Europe more or less and therefore had nothing to seriously interrupt supply lines. Functioning Staff - Not only functioning, but many of them were seasoned and experienced officers having fought in a number of actions from WWI to the Spanish Civil War and the Blitzkrieg in the east in 1939. Good communications - OK, possibly not. The luftwaffe was split into Luftflotten (Air Fleets) with each Luftflotten responsible for a different area of the occupied territories. I will need to go do a bit research to remind myself of which fleet covered which area, but there were 2 in France & the Low Countries, one for Germany, one in Scandanavia and another for the East by late 1940. The Luftflotte generally operated indepently of one another, however they were in theory being co-ordinated by the Luftwaffe high command back in Berlin. On paper, it should have been a two-week job.

Nah. You would only qualify as a nerd if you followed that up with "but the stormtrooper who banged his head on the doorframe in Episode IV, when the droids are hiding on the Death Star is funnier...really, go look" Oh...hang on. I'll get my coat......

My tuppence worth, I got all three CM games in a single pack ("CM:Anthologies") and CMBO was the last one I actually looked at. I wish I had looked at it earlier as it is a great starting place, especially if (like me) you are new to the genre. Sure, BB and AK are superior "simulations" but BO is a great place to cut your teeth so to speak. The far more simplistic command options, and the fact that units tend to do exactly what you tell them to, make it a better game in many ways to learn the basics of this type of fighting. Then when you do progress to BB/AK with the far more in depth command lists and less "suicidal" infantry etc, you have a better grasp of the actual tactics and so forth. A better understanding of what I actually needed my forces to do/not do made learning the intricacies of the enhanced commands etc less of a nightmare than it was when I jumped straight in. Having said that, a lot of stuff that works in CMBO in terms of some of the more "gamey" approaches you can take, seem not to transfer well to BB/AK. But you see what I'm getting at, right?

Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, Sword. And I have a feeling I'm forgetting one. Plus the airborne drops on the night of June 5th/6th

D'oh - the good ol' simultaneous post fairy is out and about again I see!

Hi Hornpiper I'm a CM rookie myself, and to be honest most of what you need to get started is right on this site. You can use the search tool up on the right there to find threads related to specific topics, and to be honest if it hasn't been covered on here, it probably isn't in the game. On the whole though, most of the site regulars are a pretty helpful and friendly bunch - just don't wander into the Peng challenge thread by yourself Try browsing through the Tips and Tricks section too - a lot of good stuff there. And one last thing - cancel any engagements you may have made for the next few months because these games are more addictive than any other man made or natural substance out there!

Typo. I just spotted the comma where there should be a period. Oh, the shame [edit]: all fixed!