oracledb

@John: thank you for the welcome and additional details. I admit I was curious what pozit stood for but have not had the time to research. I’ve actually lurked for years, I started with CMBB. However, I am nowhere near the same league as most of you in military history. I do learn a lot from the games and the forums though, thanks again for the reply. I do not know if heavy snow will affect the blast in the game. If it is air burst the snow may not help! @AKD: thank you also. If I understand you correctly, it sounds like air burst are already available. The VT/pozit fuses only advantage is to increase the flexibility in calling in air burst and increase the consistency. This is probably covered in a manual somewhere which I am terrible about not reading. So feel free to tell me to rtfm. @Joe: Atkinson book’s section on the fuses gave me the impression artillery was key in stopping the German advance. So it may be correct that artillery is very effective in the game.

Great news they are included, thank you for checking. I am curious if the pozit artillery will have increased lethality for a given burst radius. (In other word an increased probability to disable or kill in the blast.) Sounds like I will be able to test it out pretty soon.

Hey Guys, I am excited about CMFB and looking forward to the release date. I have enjoyed reading the forum and especially the AAR. I recently re-read Rick Atkinson’s “The Guns at Last Light” sections covering the Battle if the Bulge. Atkinson spends several paragraphs discussing the US’s new proximity fuses code named pozit fuses. Atkinson asserts they were cleared for usage in the Battle of the Bulge and artillery using the fuses helped slow the German advance. I wondered if this is modeled in the game making certain US artillery more effective? The book does say the pozit fuses were a small fraction of the artillery fired, so I don't think it is a crucial element to model. I was just curious if they are modeled. I will certainly buy the game either way!! Thanks for any help.

MikeyD, I'm not sure who your fog of war reply is towards, but I am certainly not asking for any information that is not already available or would give an advantage. The Fog of War would remain the same, I'm not asking for instant accurate information. You can get the same info by moving all over the map or replaying each turn and watching each squad. I am just asking for making that a faster process, so you don't have to spend so much time on replaying turns and jumping around the map into each squad leader's eyes. Now if you are playing real time without pause and only play from the HQ's perspective, you would get a strong sense of fog of war... I'm not sure how you would know anything going on.

I would like to add my perspective as a very casual CM gamer. I really like the original poster’s idea for help with situational awareness. I think it would be useful for WEGO or Real-Time players. I play and really enjoy both CMx1 and CMx2 games. But due to work, family, and other commitments I do not have time to play nearly as often as I would like. This keeps me from purchasing much of the content as I just don’t have the time it takes to play. I love the modern CMBS setting, but again, I’m not sure I would have time to set it up and play it. At this point in the game’s life, I think spending developer time on the player aids in the interface should be high on the priority list. (I know many will disagree). In my opinion, the graphics look great already. Obviously the realism and accuracy of the games are the best as well. So, I think developing several things would really help make the game faster to setup and play. These could all be optional things a player could toggle off if they do not want or need them. 1. A log window as the original poster suggested. The window sequentially shows reports from each unit (as pnzrldr and DreDay discussed in this thread). You can close the window if you do not want to see it or use it. Color coded by platoon or clickable to jump to a location would be even better, but I’m sure I’m pushing it. 2. A tool to highlight LOS for a unit for the whole map area. As you drag the unit around the map, it would highlight what the unit can see from that point. This would prevent having to move the unit, then drag the LOS tool around an arc to see what the unit can see. This would help me greatly speed up in the setup phase. 3. Some kind of contour map overlay, to make it easier to see hills and contours. I know the purist like to zoom into the squad level and look around, but again that takes a lot of time versus a simple overlay. Thanks DreDay for your post. I am a long time lurker here, and your post really captured for me where I struggle to have time to play CM sometimes.

Thanks sburke, I was hoping helicopters would be visible, and not considered purely aircraft. (I bet the models would look awesome coming in over the hills on the map!!) MikeyD, I agree, the Tunguska would be deadly for helos. I believe that is the role they are built for. I think they can only illuminate/guide a single SA-19 to a target at a time, and was hoping Bill could get close to it while it was busy with a helo. Or vice versa, while it is distracted with ground attack, a helo or jet could get a shot on it. Thanks for the help, I am really enjoying this review by Bill; and looking forward to rest of the battle.

Apologies if this has been covered earlier, but do you have HIND’s available and/or recon helicopters? I would think Russia on the attack would use HINDs. The helicopters might help keep the Tunguska’s occupied in the normal AA role of Tunguskas. Also, will the helicopters be seen on the map hugging the tree line? I am guessing US Attack helicopters might be on the way as well…