Big Boss Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Hi! I have been playing Combat Mission for years and this is something I thought about and would like to hear other member’s opinion. Using crews from vehicles to recon ahead is a great method to minimize your vehicle’s exposure to the enemy and was used quite often as I recall. This seemed to happen a lot with tank crews and with some examples from German memoirs, books etc. mentions that crew members even managed to knock out unsuspecting enemy tanks close up at night. My problem is when using crews from knocked out vehicles in recon capacity. Jumping out from a burning/smoking vehicle they dodge the small arms fire and after a few minutes of panic they can act as forward recon elements if they survived. With no real means of communication (radio in tank) they will give the player some nice intelligence about the enemy, especially if their tank were at the forward edge of the battle and the rest of your units have pulled back. My idea was that crew members from destroyed vehicles should be unable to function altogether (based on morale shock, suppression etc) and maybe be removed from the battle after the first panic phase as wounded that gets medic help are. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c3k Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 That's a gameplay/reality issue. The game WILL penalize you if your crew dies. They are worth more points than average pixeltruppen. They do have a morale hit after forced bail out; as you state, after that, they can be used as scouts. However... They are not linked into a command and control network. YOU will know what they see, but none of your troops will gain the spot intel. (I only play on Iron. It is NOT more difficult, but it does allow better player knowledge of what your troops can see.) A scout team split off from an in-command platoon will be far more beneficial to the rest of your troops...and is cheaper to replace. But, if you want to picket an open flank for your own purposes (so you, the player, know what's out there), then an unhorsed crew works fine. Ken 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Canadian Cat Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 A friend of mine and I play with a house rule that unhorsed tank crews have to make their way to the rear or other safe location. The only exception is HQ crews - they are allowed to board a radio equipped vehicle to regain command of their platoon. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOS:96B2P Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 <Snip> (I only play on Iron. It is NOT more difficult, but it does allow better player knowledge of what your troops can see.) <Snip> +1 Iron All the Way! http://community.battlefront.com/topic/119218-skill-level-iron/ A friend of mine and I play with a house rule that unhorsed tank crews have to make their way to the rear or other safe location. The only exception is HQ crews - they are allowed to board a radio equipped vehicle to regain command of their platoon. This is a great idea for a house rule. When a game allows tank riders, CMRT and I hope CM Bulge, I put the Platoon HQ on the back of another platoon tank if the platoon HQ tank is knocked out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Boss Posted August 27, 2015 Author Share Posted August 27, 2015 A friend of mine and I play with a house rule that unhorsed tank crews have to make their way to the rear or other safe location. The only exception is HQ crews - they are allowed to board a radio equipped vehicle to regain command of their platoon. That’s a good idea no major programing required, worth testing. That's a gameplay/reality issue. The game WILL penalize you if your crew dies. They are worth more points than average pixeltruppen. They do have a morale hit after forced bail out; as you state, after that, they can be used as scouts. However... They are not linked into a command and control network. YOU will know what they see, but none of your troops will gain the spot intel. (I only play on Iron. It is NOT more difficult,... I didn’t know that they represent more points, that should make me think twice before sending them into the fire. For me Iron difficulty just making it harder for you to see where contact icon are. It’s just adds more mouse clicking. Still if the jumped out crew can see something important it’s easy enough for other units, not in any ways in communication with them to adjust to that new situation. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Canadian Cat Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 When a game allows tank riders, CMRT and I hope CM Bulge, I put the Platoon HQ on the back of another platoon tank if the platoon HQ tank is knocked out. Yes, that works too. I find that being in a HT or jeep a ways back out of the LOF works better though. When tanks go head to head with other tanks the guys riding on the back don't last very long. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Jack Ripper Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Personally I use crews from destroyed vehicles as dedicated medics. This allows me to not waste the time of my combat troops providing buddy aid, unless there is a heavy weapon that needs to be recovered. Once the crew has acquired enough weapons to fight, then they become infantry, just like ChrisND's troopers. That's a good house rule Ian, to my mind dismounted crews are still soldiers though. Every one of my Pixeltruppen is a rifleman first, crewman second. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vencini Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Hello all Talking about vehicle crews...I have a question about soft vehicle drivers... I'm playing an email game with another person. I'm in a desperate scenario and I'm using the truck drivers as snipers. The problem is when I try to mount them again. They can only do that in their OWN vehicles... I'll like to mount them in no matter what soft vehicle...Or maybe take notes about which driver goes in which truck.. . It's an abstraction about taking the vehicle keys ? Oh! Any news about next game or modules ? Screen shots ? Twich TV ? Best regards and thanks ! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 I think it should really depend on many factors if vehicle crew is able to keep working after bailing out of a smashed burning tank. veteran crew under good leadership and with high motivation yes... the rest, not so much. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Williams Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 to my mind dismounted crews are still soldiers though. Every one of my Pixeltruppen is a rifleman first, crewman second.Yep. I do what I want with my dismounted crews. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c3k Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Iron and spots... If you play iron, you know what your troops know. If you've ever wondered what they can see, iron will sort you right out. It shows YOU, the player, what the troops see. That is such a boon, it is hard to describe its benefits. I cannot recommend it enough. Crews: Obviously, if they are mine, they want to sacrifice themselves to prove their worth to me. Frequently, I will ignore their sacrifice because they are insignificant and puny. Other times I will deign to recognize what they do; that only makes the rest more eager to die for me. Tank crews are especially prone to this. When I don't command a MOVE to the rear, they will run at the enemy, firing their puny handguns, until they all die. Sigh. What do I care? Their tanks are already gone... I've noticed the port being served in HQ has been lacking a bit, lately. What were we discussing? Ken 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
womble Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Hello all Talking about vehicle crews...I have a question about soft vehicle drivers... I'm playing an email game with another person. I'm in a desperate scenario and I'm using the truck drivers as snipers. The problem is when I try to mount them again. They can only do that in their OWN vehicles... I'll like to mount them in no matter what soft vehicle...Or maybe take notes about which driver goes in which truck.. . It's an abstraction about taking the vehicle keys ? Oh! Any news about next game or modules ? Screen shots ? Twich TV ? Best regards and thanks ! Trucks are like tanks: they have to be driven by their original crew (though you can somewhat sidestep this by shenanigans in Setup, once you dismount any "stand-in" crew you're back to only being able to use the original driver). They should be able to jump into any jeep/kubel/transport halftrack, though and crew it, same as any other infantry element can. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Boss Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 I think it should really depend on many factors if vehicle crew is able to keep working after bailing out of a smashed burning tank. veteran crew under good leadership and with high motivation yes... the rest, not so much. That would like hat very much although probably pretty difficult to implement in the game engine . 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 That would like hat very much although probably pretty difficult to implement in the game engine . I don't think it's that difficult... Just give them a bigger morale hit. Big enough that only high motivation troops under leadership will be able to shrug it off within the game time frame. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Big Boss, Look on the bright side. In the early days of CMBN, freshly unhorsed pistol packing AFV crews, firing at more than double normal effective range, used to go on deadly accurate killing sprees, to the point where they were winning vs infantry on the other side of bocage! Thanks to a zillion posts about the issue and a lot of work, you now get to bring to us all a far more genteel matter. Bulletpoint, I definitely don't like the Russian GPW approach (conceivably still in force) to what a bailed out crew has to do: stay with the tank. Not nearby. Under it. HSU Loza says the Russian crews liked the Emcha because it was far less likely to explode and kill them. c3k, With your sanguinary attitude toward your troops, your rep as RL military commander could result in your getting at least nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, presuming you weren't instead fragged, since once the troops realized how their leader viewed them, it would cause an epidemic of pacifism. Once that contagion was well established in your home country, you could then, like Lenin, be shipped in a sealed railway car into the foe's land. There, armed with a bulletproof legend, you could then do the same thing there. Ere long, peace would break out! Who knew you could be so influential? Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Boss Posted September 2, 2015 Author Share Posted September 2, 2015 Look on the bright side. In the early days of CMBN, freshly unhorsed pistol packing AFV crews, firing at more than double normal effective range, used to go on deadly accurate killing sprees, to the point where they were winning vs infantry on the other side of bocage! Thanks to a zillion posts about the issue and a lot of work, you now get to bring to us all a far more genteel matter. Yes, there have been some impressive improvements on every aspect of the game since the beginning . But as you say nothing beats storming panzer men, burning and molested but still willing to fight for the Endsieg. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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