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Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy Video AAR


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Can someone please clear up two questions raised in the AAR:

Can grenades be thrown from building windows?

What's going on with grenades taking out tanks? Is a "run up and drop one down the hatch from 5 meters away" extrapolation?

I'd like to know this too... aren't they just firing regular rifle grenades and not "anti tank rifle grenades"?

The window thing too is a definite must know!

EDIT: I laughed pretty hard at the "just like the Nazis to blow up a church..." hahaha.

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What's with the suicidal tank crews assaulting full infantry squads though?
The crews still remain in the same AI group even after their vehicles are knocked out so they will continue to advance + that one crew just had their tanked knocked out.

Normally I don't think it would be too much for the squad to handle, but they had managed to suppress themselves and take out one of their own men while firing AT at the Sherman. Rendering them largely helpless in the face of the crewmen at that range. (I would also venture to guess that the crew were of a higher experience or motivation since they seemed pretty on their feet when their tank was hit)

Disclaimer:

I'm assuming you're talking about the german rifle squad that was knocked out by the two 5 man crews.

Also I think AT grenades are not explicitly simulated so the generic grenade has gotten a boost in AT power.

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The way Steve explained it in the beta test forums is that the backblast is really not the deadly thing from WW2 weapons, but the overpressure area. In any case, it requires a change of tactics in CM:BfN as opposed to CMSF. Your infantry need to be more ballsy.

I'll be answering other questions and possibly uploading a 2nd video depending on feedback and what you guys want to see.

Chris these videos are just great! Thanks for uploading them. Can I ask one favor please if you are putting up any more. Can you please curtail your mouse action just a bit, and allow us to see some of the action unfolding.

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Thanks for posting the video. Would love to see a QB video with description on purchasing your units, choosing map, ect. so we can see how this all works. I know for a lot of the old CMx1 players the new and improved QB system is looked forward too the most.

Thanks again for the video. Obviously at this point any ingame video would be appreciated.

Thanks

Chad

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I got "stuck" watching the whole thing. I meant to just look at it a little, you know... to make sure it was good, but wound up watching the whole dang'd thing EVEN THOUGH I've played both of those scenarios. I guess that's a good sign? :) Chris did a great job!

It's really difficult to find solid data on the overpressure problems, but we decided that it even the Panzerfaust was probably too much for the average building. In theory the defenders could spend considerable time destroying the house in a way that would allow the overpressure to be minimized, but that isn't something we can simulate. So we do not allow firing from within buildings.

Modern Squad level AT weapons are usually capable of firing from within confined spaces. Consider this 50 years of advances in technology. The Javelin, for example, has a special feature which is called a "soft launch", which ejects the missile with minimum force, then the main motor kicks in outside of the enclosed space. Otherwise the crew would be killed.

Grenades used to knock out tanks could be either AT rifle grenades or well placed potato mashers. Throw one or two on the back deck of a tank and you will most likely knock it out. There's almost no armor and also lots of vents for shrapnel to get in. At the ranges seen in the first video, knockouts from regular hand grenades is quite possible.

Steve

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Grenades used to knock out tanks could be either AT rifle grenades or well placed potato mashers. Throw one or two on the back deck of a tank and you will most likely knock it out. There's almost no armor and also lots of vents for shrapnel to get in. At the ranges seen in the first video, knockouts from regular hand grenades is quite possible.

Steve

Wish that was in CMx1, would have save me plenty of times. Still seems overpowered though. What about the crazy crews?

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To be honest, I'm glad that infantry isn't completely vulnerable to tank rushes. Armor should be cautious around dismounted infantry especially if they have no infantry support of their own. I know the AI does the best it can but a savvy player would not have rushed those buildings with tanks alone.

Stand back and level the building with HE then advance with one tank while another provides over watch.

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Thanks tyrspawn for all your efforts and curse you! I'm meant to be packing for a holiday and have nearly used up all my excuses to be on the computer, just checking the weather for tomorrow was one of my last 'rounds', I'm nearly black and still have to watch the second scenario (the one here everyone is raving on about, grrr)

Thought Germans, firing DIAT/RIAT were trained to either knock holes in walls or site firing positions opposite open doors, windows?

Why does the Panther rock back when firing, all the footage I've ever seen shows it barely moving when firing, ditto the tanks rocking around all over the place when moving, they react like 70's Cadillacs, not 30-40 tonne tanks. Again wartime footage shows similar degrees of movement but at a far slower rate, is their a way of slowing it down?

Think BF will have to tone down the aggressive crews. "So Hauptman Schuller, three Shermans destroyed and an entire company of infantry put to flight or captured who in your platoon will be recommended for an iron cross, or even crosses.

Um...

"Come now Schuller, who are your Teutonic Knights?"

"They are Sir", Schuller points to a nearby crew.

"Excellent, they must be masters of their machine."

Um, they did it without their Assault gun...Sir, on foot, erm using only side arms, honest!

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We purposefully made the suspension of vehicles a little "looser" than in real life so you can get a better sense of motion (especially at higher camera angles). Same with recoil effect from firing.

The bailing out tank crews are simply going to the nearest possible cover. How well they do in combat depends entirely on how good they were going into the battle and how well they came out of the tank. In more recent builds the tank crews don't always have a SMG as they did in earlier ones. If a crew gets a SMG, that makes a lot of difference if the engagement range is really short as it was in many of the situations in the video.

Note that almost none of the US crews survived. They might have done some damage here and there, but overall they were wiped out fairly easily.

Steve

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Why does the Panther rock back when firing, all the footage I've ever seen shows it barely moving when firing, ditto the tanks rocking around all over the place when moving, they react like 70's Cadillacs, not 30-40 tonne tanks. Again wartime footage shows similar degrees of movement but at a far slower rate, is their a way of slowing it down?

I agree, the rocking definitely needs to be toned down. Newsreel footage shows vehicles barely moving, and if they do they appear to possess more "mass" and the suspension definitely has less "spring" to it.

This is a very silly history channel video, but at 1:17 you can see the Tiger firing, no rocking there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3ocpCPZBnM&feature=fvw

EDIT: I just noticed Steve's reply above

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Shouldn't crews be automatically pinnned/supressed on bail out or even broken, they should stay out of and try to get away from the fighting. Tanks getting knocked out with hand grenades is pure john wayne stuff, apart from these gripes it looks very promising.

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I'm rewatching the video for the second time, having already watched the whole thing straight through once. I've already sent the link to half a dozen people, hoping to suck them in to CM as much as I have been.

My only real complaints about what I see are:

1) Vehicles driving through each other. I was really hoping that would be addressed by now.

2) The birds from CMx1 who persistently stick around, singing their calls, even when mortars are leveling the entire countryside. I renamed the background sound in my CMx1 games, and it looks like I'll be doing the same to this one.

Other than these two small gripes, the game looks amazing. I'm still playing CMBB right now and the graphical and technological leap that this new game represents has my mouth watering.

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Chris these videos are just great! Thanks for uploading them. Can I ask one favor please if you are putting up any more. Can you please curtail your mouse action just a bit, and allow us to see some of the action unfolding.

Yeah sorry about that, I get carried away with trying to win the scenario rather than just trying to show off the game. Then again, I like to show people unedited gameplay so they know what the game is really like. I will definitely spend a lot more time zoomed in on the ground in the next video.

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Awesome! Thanks for posting this video. Damn you battlefront for making such an immersive game I kept pausing my youtube video as I clicked the units to see my pixeltruppen status or adjust them;) Looks great. Is it ready? Is it done? Can I lay my grubby mouse hand on it LOL.

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Yeah sorry about that, I get carried away with trying to win the scenario rather than just trying to show off the game. Then again, I like to show people unedited gameplay so they know what the game is really like. I will definitely spend a lot more time zoomed in on the ground in the next video.

Thanks, you obviously are very comfortable with the game controls. Also playing in real time demands rapid mouse action. I usually don't play SF in real time so the rapid movement is very disconcerting for me.

Your efforts are truly appreciated.

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I'd just to chime in with the praise. The video is loading fairly slowly for me (due to a bad internet connection), and I'm practically frothing at the mouth waiting to see the rest. Just got to the end of the first scenario, you do a great job of showcasing various new features in the game. Many thanks! :D

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