A Canadian Cat

20 minutes - yikes what are you calling? OK some of the big stuff has a long delay (I have one game going where my 150mm German guns take 15min to call in). But I try to have my FOs less than 2min away from the front guys (use jeeps to increase their mobility - just don't get those jeeps into LOF of the enemy). The other thing I do is have a variety of artillery. Obviously this does not always work depending on the size of your force but for a big battle have a battery of 150, a battery of 105, a couple of 81mm mortars and a few on map mortars. That way if you know you can keep the enemy in one place you can bring down the 150 if not you can get some 81 on target much quicker. Heck call them both: the 81 might be enough to slow the enemy down long enough for the 150 to cause some real pain. One useful thing to note about FOs (or any other HQ calling in the artillery) they do not have to stay in LOS for the whole time. My guys are living much longer now that I bring them up - make the call and then back off. Each turn watch the artillery board and wait until you see the spotting message show up and then move the caller back to LOS. Clearly you do not want to move them far but back from the bocage, behind the building or over the crest of the hill can make the difference between safe and artillery falling to dead and artillery in limbo. +1 for waiting. As the attacker my mantra is wait for it. Use your troops to find the enemy and when you do find an enemy force you cannot handle wait for the arty easily. Bring up whom ever you need to call it. If you keep them close by but safe. Mine are typically able to get in place in about a minute. +1 Here too. As the defender you want to delay your attacker with suppression fire and have TRPs ready to go so the fire comes down faster. Even without TRPs suppression to pin the attacker helps a lot. All you need to do is slow them down enough to get the arty to start. As the defender my mantra is call it before you think you will need it and cancel it or adjust after. If your picket teams start seeing contacts call the arty - on top of your own guys. Wait a bit and either get confirmed contacts withdraw your guys and let the pain rain or cancel it if the thread is no biggie (note: it usually is a real threat).

Interesting I never noticed the confusion but you are right. The number differs from scenario to scenario. If you click on the details a popup will tell you which side is first and which side is second. That tells you which win % is which. The centre number is draws. I never noticed because the way I use the table is to look for a scenario with a fair number of games played and something close to balanced (20 35 45 is close enough for me). I don't need to play a game that is perfectly balanced but I want a shot at winning. I am one of those losses for BdB but it was an enjoyable loss.

One thing that you might be running into is that it takes practice to differentiate between low bocage (which is impassible) and a hedge (which is passable). Wire is *not* passable for infantry. This is why your guys went the long way. Hedges in the game are really really small and look pretty well trimmed. Low bocage does not look like it should stop infantry but it does. Dealing with: Bocage - You need to look for gaps. Infantry can get through even the small man sized holes. To do this get down to camera level 1 and move the camera along the bocage line looking for gaps. Usually you can see where the berm dips down to ground level. You can make your own gaps with Rino equipped tanks or by blasting with engineers or breach teams. Wire - Your infantry will not be able to go through it - they will go around it. So you need to use armour to drive over it - then your infantry can cross. Engineers or breach teams can blast it wholes in wire. An artillery barrage can also sometimes create gaps in the wire. Ford - Before you try to cross a river you need to find the fords. Once you know where a ford is place your movement way point on the shore at the location of the ford and then another way point on the opposite shore so the line between them is over the ford. To find fords you can look at the terrain along the river. Most authors put a bit of mud or dirt at the ends of a ford. Alternatively, and to verify that there is really a ford at the location you think, drop the camera down to level 1 and put it in the middle of the river. You should sink a bit below the surface. Now move the camera along the river following its direction changes so that you always stay a bit below the surface. When you find a ford you will see the round rise up from the bottom and when the camera is in the ford you will no longer be a bit below the surface.

That is a pretty good list. I often screw up number 5. I cannot count the number of times I have missed that my troops pressing forward are out of amo for a couple of turns. Very embarrassing.

The important points are that the target line from a way point really is calculated from the way point even though the line drawn comes from the units current position. Personally I would like to see this adjusted in the future but for now we have to just trust it. And that the target line is checking LOF to the ground at the location. This is important to remember because you will get burned by tanks and other AFVs that are higher and can see you when you thought that you cannot see that location. For checking LOS level 1 for soldiers and level 2 one wheel rotation down for most tanks or two for those that are low such as a Stug. Using the target tool as a starting point but once I think I have a good place I move the camera to that location and go to camera view as described above. Then I look around and use the magnification tool to get an idea of what the unit will be able to see. Sort of. Infantry will find locations of cover inside their action square. Tanks go where you tell them. If you want them hull down then you need to place the way point where you like. See my comments about camera position and using the camera magnification to see what they see. I have to add that I am intrigued by @womble's technique. This sounds like a have to try it idea. Thanks

What @JonS said is just the experience I had with the 2.01 patch. Stripping off the added directory name worked for me as well. I do not recall having to do that with previous installs.

Easy Doug There is a simple solution - don't play that person again! That should keep your blood pressure in check. So far I have had the miss fortune of running into five people who either failed to finish or slowed down to the point of I had to remind them to play the last few turns by poking them by email. One rage quit after I KO'ed his tiger (heee heee) and one had computer trouble and one just gave up at the first sign things were not going his way. Those five people I played only once each and I will never play them again. I have five or six really good regular opponents that I play regularly with. When I play a new person for the first time I try to keep my expectations low otherwise I my blood pressure would go through the roof. Those regular opponents and I have chalked up countless enjoyable games. It totally dwarfs the annoyance that came from those few. I do agree with Doug that if you start a PBEM you should finish it - it is the honourable thing to do.

You cannot specify the number of points you want to play with directly. But you can use the QB system to enforce your budget of 15 000 points and then use the scenario editor to set it up. Check out the introductory posts of my current 20 000 point battle for the instructions I wrote: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105660

Ineresting. I am running Juju's "Juju's TweakedUI v1.1a" mod and there is no "Screen Backgrounds" folder. Did you mis type or is one of us running the wrong mod?

I have run into that before. It does not always happen but when it does the only fix that works is to open the map in the scenario editor and redo the setup zones to match your desired attack / defence forces. Save with a new name and then choose the new map in the qb screen .

I am currently playing a game where I had little choice. My PzIVs could not enter the town square - too wide. So I had to level a few buildings to get at the Shermans that were there and provide support for my very broken and messed up infantry.

Ah, what is this defect? I do not recall reading anything about any other PBEM defects. What is ctd?

Yay. That along with the weapons team splitting up and wondering off bug will remove my obstacles for playing with 2.0.

It was a great series, both of them were. No one is trying to hid anything the actual series seems to be gone from YouTube and only the previews are left. I have no idea what happened. BFC even featured them on one of their own pages: http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1926&Itemid=458 Now all the segments are marked private - very odd.

Yeah the Nahverteidigungswaffe is really cool to see. Totally surprised me once in a game. As for close assaulting like that the two things that have helped my guys succeed in the past are - getting close in cover first, distracting the tank. Your men were making quite a long trip slow moving in the grass. Let them move up behind bocage and then run through an opening behind the tank and see how that effects things. Then add another team in front of the tank - with some cover - and have them shoot at the tank. The combination of the tank looking one way and the covered approach of the assault team will likely make a difference. It is still going to be dangerous.

Yeah, they were British regulars stationed in Canada - they had the ships to make the trip We, Canadians, still take credit for it though (at least those of us that know the story).

I a playing this scenario again (mirrored this time). I really enjoyed it the first time I played it. Thank you Jari Mikkonen! Now I am playing it again in 2.0. My question is are the fords intended to be passable by the US vehicles? In my first time through I forded only with an infantry platoon this time I want to send a couple of jeeps and an M8 along with. The vehicles cannot make the crossing. They look like shallow fords to me but they will not cross. Those that played it in 1.x could you cross the fords?

Humm not sure what to say. We have all seen surprising spotting things happen but honestly most of the time you get what you expect. Vehicles and squads not moving spot the enemy better. Opened vehicles spot better than buttoned etc. Yes, sometimes odd things like this happen but they are rare. Sounds like a bug - do you have a screen shot and a saved turn. Someone on the testing team will usually be willing to have a look. 2.0 has a built in UI for hot key customization. I do not know if it uses the file method any more. Probably - post in the support forum and they might be able to figure out what's up or what your machine is and is not capable of doing. Seriously. I was a bit surprised at first too, but having used it for a while now I can say that it really does not bother me. Not enough transparency steps - now it is my turn: Seriously? How many do you want? Yeah it can do some interesting things. I still like it better than not having it, personally. Aaaaaahhhhh, no. They always did. They drive through the edges of each other as they pass. Tanks drive through infantry too. Nothing new here. Somethings are still a bit abstracted. It is interesting that you have not run into the real bugs that make 2.0 a bit frustrating. Seems like the stuff you are talking about is not really unique to 2.0 either.

1) & 2) are not hugely important but nice to have. For an historical scenario they go up in importance. 3) 2D map all the way. I will get to see plenty of 3D views once things start. I need some way of orienting myself. In the real world I would use a map for that. Same here please. 4) Too long is an issue but focus on what we need to know and don't worry too much about length. If this is an historical scenario then some background to the real battle is needed. Even a fictitious scenario should have some kind of back story. We need to know *what* to do but not *how* to do it. The objectives should be clear. I like the built in scenario standard of including the objective list in the operational graphic and the reinforcement list in the tactical map. But those things should also be talked about in the briefing as well. 5) Having something unique is nice here. That makes it easier to differentiate it from other scenarios. The other really important thing to get in there is how the scenario is designed to be played, H2H or only one side or the other against the AI. That information is even better seen up front on the scenario picking screen. The designer's notes section is a nice place to add references to any research you have from building the scenario. That way if any one wants to learn more has a place to start.

I have a pretty full slate of games going at the moment. If you do not find any takers here there are several clubs dedicated to finding online war gaming opponents. The one I use is The Blitz: http://www.theblitz.org/ladders/Combat-Mission-x2/action=ladder&lid=16&active=0&played=5&order=d&order_by=elo&all=1 Good luck

My partner in this DAR is swamped at work right now. I cannot convince him to drop everything and play this right now Not sure how long before we resume but we will.

And The Blitz: that's how I have found my opponents. Yep, a couple of posts on the club / ladder opponent finder and you start just playing another game with the guy you just finished your last game. I have hit a few dud opponents and you just don't play against them again. Now I have lots of games going and I don't need to find anyone new.

Perfect time to practice. I went back in my fault of saved threads and found this one: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=82927 Which is from the shock force forum but it is the seminal work on the subject and this one: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=98630 Have fun practicing.

Correct the Target Briefly is a 2.0 command.

Yes, I happened to me in a Barkmann game. One of my shrek teams took a shot at the Rhino and scared it away. I backed right through the bocage creating a new whole.