Moon
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Posts posted by Moon
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Sgt Rock - now I know what you mean. No problem to do this in CM - you can simply place the camera a few feet above the ground to get a "first person view". You will see tracers going over your head, the camera will shake when explosions detonate nearby and all that! And yes, the sound is 3D too, so you will get to hear stuff happening around you MUCH louder than distant action.
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There ARE very accurate 1:25000 maps from all of NW Europe as well as aerial photgraphs from shortly after the war (1947 - however, SOME areas are still classified). The National Geographic institutes in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany offer these. The maps are contemporary, but still very useful because the elevation lines didn't really change and although there might be some new roads and highways, the old roads are still there. Especially in France, it is amazing how little changed in 55 years.
It is not easy for you "Amis" to get these, though, since e.g. the french maps and photos do not ship to US as far as I know. If you send a few emails to Steve and Charles and beg them to offer the maps through BF.C, however, then there might be a solution
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"The Handbook on German Military forces", originally published by the US War Department and later re-published with Ambrose as editor, contains a huge section with German infantry (and other) tactics.
If you want to know what it contains, go here:
Check out the historical section.
Martin
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Try clicking on a thread more than once. I have found that the first time I click, the page is loaded from HD. The second time, it grabs it off the net. I am using IE 5.0 though...
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1. Airplanes are basically treated like normal reinforcements. You can specify an entry chance and the earliest possible turn that it will show up.
2. The aircraft remains in position for as long as it has ammo (normally a few bombs or rockets and then strafing runs with MGs), I believe UNLESS the enemy has some AA guns. Aircraft CAN be shot down, too.
3. It's a shadow on the ground. But believe me - if you're on the "wrong" side, this scares the heck out of you
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So it was a StuG that my Jabo got in that clearing? Good to hear... didn't know that
Air attacks are not always as accurate as they have been in the game so far (and there is more to come in the following turns, hehe). Already the StuG which was in the woods (well, sort of, I think it was still on the road since it couldn't enter the woods) was "almost" missed - the impact was several meters off target, while the bombs hit the Panther right on.
In other games (especially during summer when the trees block LOS much more), I've seen several misses and/or targets NOT being engaged by planes at all (because they were not spotted most likely). But it's difficult to give a well informed answer, since these pilots have a mind of their own. Only Charles or Steve would know the exact behaviour of the Jabo AI.
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Keep in mind, buddy, that the game plays in winter and the trees do not offer much cover if any. Not only that, but the airplane made several passes across the battlefield before it engaged the Panther. IIRC, it attacked the tank one turn after it appeard, that means almost two minutes of scouting and low level flight to look for juicy targets. I bet it would have been different during summer.
I have seen planes miss often enough in my test games against Fionn, believe me
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Yep, could have done it - at least the ones that were initially relatively close to the map edge from the beginning (because of that freakin' snow). Problem is - I didn't know that I could (Steve didn't tell me - it's all his fault!
).I also don't feel that this is too "gamey". In real life, the Germans would have most likely be assigned a specific sector to attack within. Since I assume their orders to be to get to the town, they would have not followed any beaten up US units into US controlled territory in real life either. One could argue that the fact that they simply disappear from the map and cannot be shot at anymore, although the pursuers might only have been a few meters behind them. It's hard to say anything against that besides that the map has to end somewhere...
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Ah, now I get it. Ok, I didn't look at the jpgs, since I don't want to see any of the screenshots from Fionns side. But there is an easy explanation - see, what you see in my screenshots is not necessarily exactly what Fionn has. From the Allied POV, his tank could have been identified as with (or without) skirts, although it really has them (or doesn't).
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Simple - I sneaked up on him and pulled down Fionns skirt
Seriously, I believe there are at least two versions of the StuG in CM, one with, one without skirts. Simple as that.
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I originally intended to hide ALL of my tanks behind houses and see what happens, then pop them out when "I" felt it was time to engage the enemy tanks (e.g. when they were vulnerable and/or engaging my Sherman near the northern woods). However, with one of the Shermans bogged down, I had no choice but to move the 76er out into the fight. It got one PzIV, but the other one nailed it.
What would have happened if I had the 76er out in the open? Dunno, but it was facing THREE enemy tanks!
Am I strong to repulse the attack? Hmm.. it will depend largely if I can destroy all of Fionns armor. If yes, then I see good chances. Fionn doesn't seem to have too much intact infantry left anymore.
I never expeted the artillery on the town to be too much of a danger. Other than Fionn who was just moving out in the open when I shelled the town (simply bad luck), I intend to stay put behind several feet of stone masonry
However, let me tell you, I NEVER expected to face such heavy stuff... 8-/ I won't say more, don't want to spoil the fun. -
Dale - I guess it was a pretty lucky shot. If you look at all the other attempts to hit Fionns halftracks with my bazookas from 100 meters and more (or sometimes less), most of them missed. Don't remember what the actual percentage chance was in that particular turn, but in another turn the chance to hit a STANDING HT at 165 meters was 2%.
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I have read several remarks about the "defender made mistakes" in other threads, and thought I'd try to give a little explanation to what I did and why.
But first of all, yes, I made mistakes. Some which are bugging me all night and day (the playcement of the first platoon of Shermans in particular), some others which appeared to be mistakes in hindsight although I still think that my decisions, given what I knew at that time, had been sound.
I have seen several people mention that I should have used a "hit and run" defense, retreating earlier to save my men. Well, good thinking, but there are two points which I'd like to mention.
First, moving across that snow is REALLY slow. My guys on foot would have been followed by German halftracks with easy and once they started running, they would have to keep running until they fall off the map. They HAD to stand and fight at one point. Unfortunately, what adds to the misery, is that the area accessible to my defenders (the setup zones) offers very little cover. I would have had to start retreating into alternative positions WAY before the Germans would have come close enough to my defensive positions. The result, IMO, would have been that the Germans by now would be standing in the town with hardly a scratch.
But there is something else. My orders were to take the town and hold it. At the beginning of the game, I had NO idea, if, when and how many tanks and other reinforcements were available. Yes, my mission orders were pretty precise about that, but I didn't know until turn 15 or so. For my part, the tanks might have appeared in turn 30 or later or not at all.
Therefore, my initial strategy was to make the Germans pay for every meter of ground they come closer to the town. I wanted to keep them engaged all the way, distract them (the Panther going for my MG team and a few panicked units in the northern woods was exactly what I was hoping for) and gain time for my reinforcements to arrive. I never had any hope, actually, to be able to repulse the German attack with my initial forces, and I am sure that Steve didn't design the scenario with this intention.
AFTER my tanks arrived, however, the initial tactic (although absolutely right IMO at that time) has shown a few disadvantages, as my defenders didn't have time anymore in the snow to retreat before being overrun. In the next few turns (19 and on), you will see how I am trying to withdraw some guys several times, but they get pinned down in the open and return to the original positions.
My point - I value the life of my men a lot and every one of them is a pain to see getting wiped out. But in order to follow my orders, I feel that I had to sacrifice men for time. Yes, knowing now that it was only 15 turns into the game before my armor appeared I would play a little different, but I still think that my decisions were generally right. Aided by a little luck - fighter-bomber, the 81mm barrage (and hampered by agood deal of bad luck - the Jumbo) I think that the Germans have paid dearly so far. They are far from being defeated, but seem a lot weaker now than before.
Anyway, that's just what I think. I am open for discussions
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Hey, guys - I am reading this thread too, so be careful what you give away about Fionns or my forces, k? If absolutely necessary, ONLY give details away about Fionns forces
Anyway, I had NO control over that airplane. It just appeared and started doing its job. I have no idea when it will fly away again, but I hope it will hang around for at least another 40 turns or so
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CM has a feature which lets you lock the camera behind a unit (tank or infantry) and "rida along" with it. That way you can get very impressive shots over the shoulder of the selected unit. Looks especially cool when riding a tank that is firing on the move...
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They're up for some really really tough "unlearning". I did a short SL scenario once (IIRC it was the Buchholz Station one). I redid the board 1-to-1 in the map editor and used exactly the same forces. But the game was a completely different, more "real" experience. And it showed "some" deficiencies in the SL system, too.
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A little off-topic:
Steve, how about including the scenario Fionn and I are playing on the CD?
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"T" is probably be standing for Team. The "G" is only one possible designation. There can be A, B, C etc. So e.g. first platoon HQ would be A-0, the first squad of the first platoon would be A-1 etc. Second platoon would be B (B-0, B-1...) and so on.
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Hmmm... so after CC3 got whacked because of "inaccuracies", they now say that with CC4 they will "encrypt" their database better? Am I missing something or should the "normal" reaction be to make the database more open in CC4 so that people can see that the programmers fixed their stuff? As it looks to me right now, the message they're getting across is:
"CC4 is going to be the same [sELF-CENSORED], but this time we're going to hide it better."
Oh boy...
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I've read several times already in interviews with WWII veterans that they didn't want to be captured because they were afraid to be killed in the next air attack on a German column somewhere to the rear. I've also read accusations somewhere that Germans used to keep POWs mixed between their columns deliberately, hoping to discourage Allied pilots to bomb them...
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Isn't it amazing? Placeholders that look better than the real thing in other games... I am not going to mention sPEcific names
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I think I should stop reading this thread, otherwise I might get "ideas"...
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I am not 100% clear about the "guarding" thing. I "think" that you don't have to guard the POWs specifically (and again, I guess that it's my fault to have given this impression in the AARs). The only thing you have to watch out for is to move them too close to enemy units without any of your units in the area. But this is not an issue when you move POWs to the back.
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The POW problem is much smaller, really, than might appear. It's simply that I (and I assume also Fionn) didn't know that we could move POWs off map. Now that I know, I am moving my guys off straight away. Unfortunately, straight away means around turn 20
And no - CM does not become a POW simulation. If you want to keep it simple, you just issue one order per captured team and move them straight off map.
Anyways - the edge you move them off does count. In the current game, Fionn only has the eastern map edge and has to move his guys all the way. I am luckier and I can exit my POWs across all other three map edges. (The scenario design pre-determins which map edge belongs to which side).
Bottom line: it's the players that were stupid, not the game.
Sherman Armor Modification Pics
in Combat Mission Archive #1 (1999)
Posted
You have to have the pics hosted somewhere on a server and then use the proper UBB code (img and /img with brackets []) to link to them.