George MC

Hi Baneman Cheers for the feedback. Sounds like you did a good job of delaying the Russkies if the soviets don't concentrate their force and push hard they risk meeting the Germans in the open or trading long range fire with them - neither good options. I agree think the less experienced player might be better playing as the Germans. Thanks again for the feedback. Cheery!

...and how would that impact on AI Plans?

Hi Patgarret This is one of mine - so my apologies for being the root cause of your frustration. I'll not give away any spoilers but I'll support the comments of the guys above. Another approach is scout with infantry (You can either use the scouts in the scenario or split off some two man teams). Use them to go forward under cover. The key here is move forward to cover, stop and wait. Give them time in location to scan the terrain. After a turn no ID - rinse and repeat. Now passing info back is slow with the Russkies as they have no radios at the platoon level. So if you can have a higher command unit spotting as weel that helps pass the info down. Once you ID some armour you really need to send in a whole platoon of T34s to get him. One tank going for one hidden tank will mean the hunting tanks gets burned. There is another thread about how to do this. It might help. Hope these tips help you overcome the frustration bump

Thanks to sburke and z-warfare for your gracious feedback. It's always grand to have scenarios appreciated - especially given time spent on creating these things. I appreciate such scenarios are not to everyone's tastes but I like that sort of stuff (hence why I make them) and it's great to hear from others who also like em. @z-warfare - be keen to hear how it plays out for you mate. good luck

Hi Bob Thanks for the AAR. It sounds like you guys had a hell of a battle! Possible Spoiler Alert # # # I've found the Soviets have to go all out to get across the river. If they tarry trying to clear the Germans out of Studienka then they will struggle to seize OBJ KUTUZOV, even with reinforcements. On the other hand the German recce boys have to do their hardest to stall the initial Soviet juggernaut. After that it comes to do an armour vs armour clash for dominance. The easiest place to force a crossing is over the bridges on the German left flank (Soviet right) as that has more in the way of covered approaches. Trying to force a crossing over the marshy area is a high risk option as there is little or no cover. Either way it’s an interesting old fight. I’m glad you both appreciated the map. It took a while to do and I worked to faithfully recreate that area (within the limitations of the CM editor e.g. you can only create roads etc on 45 or 90 degree angles) using a WWII era Soviet map – plus updates about terrain types from the current google earth view. This actual action was key to holding the Soviets from outflanking the defended crossings near Minsk and it was such a tough fight that the German commander Anton von Plato received the Knights Cross for leading this action.

Aye. I do the same. Works we'll.. Until the crew meet some sneaky Russians in the wood...

No idea I'm afraid. I use the mouse to control camera movement, find it way easier.

Oops sorry guys. I've just picked this up. @BobWillett Thanks for the feedback - I'm glad you are enjoying it. How goes your PBEM? @Fizou - aw shucks

TBH I think you are creating a rod for your own back here. The AI Planning tools, whilst good, don't create a 'human like' opponent nor do they recreate human like behaviors exactly. It also looks like you are trying to micromanage your AI Plan which is at best, tough to do, and at worse impossible. If you are creating a very small scenario then you might pull it off but just beware that trying to do what you are doing in a larger scenario will drive you daft!

Yeah saw that Mines is all done - for the moment... :cool: Yup upgrade purely driven by need to play CM on larger maps, at higher resolution with more units!

Can't help. I'm another build my own.

Looks good - and I've been on Tiger 131 which makes an appearance http://youtu.be/HgGlKgpQSdw

Left wargaming when I was about 15 (Microarmour WWII Ost Front and Napoleonics stuff - again 1:300). Not until I got a/ new PC b/ found Panzer Elite (by chance just browsing on-line to see what was what in wargaming). Got Panzer Elite but soon after (dissatisfied with the lack of combined arms) I found CMBB - liked the screenshots. Bought the game. Never looked back.

TBh Michael the last two points - wearing same undercrackers and not washing for two weeks mean that is a given - despite physical proximity!

You forgot to add that in this mode every time a pixel truppen meets his digital end you are shot by a airgun mounted just behind your chair for ultimate realism. Oh and you wear the same undercrackers for two weeks. Non stop. And don't wash.

I've used the reinforcement slot for radio messages (you allocate a light vehicle e.g. kublewagen)then type in the message in the descriptor for that unit. When it arrives you get the 'squawk' and the message is displayed on the screen. Main drawback is there are limited number of characters available for the message, so they have to be short and sweet.

If you open Studienka and check out the German briefing you'll find I used a similar approach. I based the radio procedures on the info in Panzer Taktic which has a full and comprehensive section on German radio call signs and procedures.

For those of you on Stalk...errr...Facebook there is an interesting page which has been posting loads of pics about the German panzer forces of WWII. https://www.facebook.com/DeutschePanzerDivision?fref=nf

I don't want to give anything away but from a H2H POV having limited options to set-up your units as you, the player, wish (unless good reasons) can be irritating. The stuff that is out of set-up zones is now being left in the breeze so to speak TBH I'm not bothered too much about winning or losing. My PBEM buddy and I just play. :cool:

I've just started this as a PBEM (I'm playing as Soviets). Interesting looking map - it's a real challenge working out sight lines From a H2H perspective lot's of Soviet stuff sits outside set-up zones. It would be useful to have them in a set-up zones so the human player can adjust their set-up as they see fit. I'll keep you updated

To be fair he is really playing down the rolling high life that is the lot and right of a beta tester

Totally agree - but my first method is used to check the general feel of the AI Plan. After playing as the AI player (so I can get a feel of the terrain etc I design the first AI Plan). After that I use three phases - first human player sits tight and let the AI Plan roll- check out general feel and intent and effectiveness of AI Plan. This usually highlights any major tweaks. Next phase is play the against the AI Plan and see how human player intervention may derail, then adjust AI Plan. Last phase is probably the most time consuming, and often there are a few backtracking phases (seeing as I mostly like designing large scenarios one AT gun doing it stuff is often not enough to derail the situation. Oh last thing - I always think big picture and try not to micro manage my AI plan. Down that road lies madness...

I've used the scenario author mode in RT. I fire up the scenario and set it rolling. The idea is to see if the AI (with the human player side not reacting) can wipe out the opposition. If it can I know I've a good AI plan! It's also useful to periodically check that everything is running OK. For AI Plan debugging I use 1 player WEGO (Turn based) which allows me to fast forward turns if required or even save a game file to check something out.

I PM'd 76mm some top tips for fighting this as the Soviets. If anyone is interested PM me and I'll email you some tips. The easy non-spoiler answer for both sides is do your terrain recce carefully before the action. If playing the Germans vs Soviet AI there are three very distinct Soviet AI Plans. Also please note to win this the Germans do have to follow their orders - just blatting crap out of Soviet armour might not win you this... Oh also after 90 minutes stuff happens from the Soviet side...

That's a bit of a cavalier remark! Ho! Ho!