Elmar Bijlsma
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Posts posted by Elmar Bijlsma
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But the way 2v2 teams are put together is a bit daft.
Two Spit Pilots of 10 and 11 points respectively against a 109 and P40 team of 12. That's not making much sense really. Admittedly had Moon not pulled a rabbit out of his hat in the very last turn the Spits would've won but that does not invalidated the point that in 2v2 match ups it should try to balance the points somewhat. Sure, despite a tie result we dominate in the points awarded but that's because we were lucky. Odds were that we would've had our butts handed to us and our pilots possibly killed. Getting a few extra XP points awarded won't help against that!
And the game didn't throw the Spits together because they were both Spits, I have experienced Spits on opposite sides too and that was an unbalanced game too IIRC. There should be a serious look at how the game assigns teams.
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Just hooked up my PC in my new home and gosh golly my phone provider hasn't messed up on my ADSL transfer. Sadly this won't help my opponents get their turn any faster since the PC is currently on the floor in a corner of my living room surrounded by towering stacks of boxes and stuff. It feels like typing this message has doubled my chances of getting a hernia, such is the akwardness of my typing position. So I'm afraid the chance of getting a turn from me before next weekend are nil or lower.
Lordy, I have hauled along way way WAAAY to much crap. Thank goodness I'm back to work on monday so I can take it easy.
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Everyone knows CMx2 will not be east front.
It will be about the joint attack of the Vl'hurgs and G'Gugvuntts on planet Earth. I'm surprised BFC didn't tell you, Dorosh.
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Problem is, it has subtitles hence no mass market impact, so to the wider public Korea remains the forgotten war unless the module is called C*M*A*S*H
*capslock is not your friend*
[ July 19, 2005, 01:28 PM: Message edited by: Elmar Bijlsma ]
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With the work in my new house moving to painting and such, I'm finally managing a decent amount of turns while I wait till everything dries.
So instead of sending a turn every 3-4 days I'm waiting on my turns to come back. Hurry up, I need to unwind BAAAAD!!! :mad:
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My real favourite in the 'out there' category would be an X-COM module. It would only require everyone at BFC to hand in their Ferraris to buy the license.
Who holds it now, IIRC it was Firaxis but the whole demise of the X-COM license was so messy I'm not sure.Imagine that, X-COM with CMx2 type gameplay. If they added the Geosphere strategy part they'd have a game that would never be out of the Top 10 greatest games of all time lists. Admittedly, the originals never left that spot.
*sigh*
What a nice dream to have.
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I still favour a Arnhem module. It got the Americans and the Brits which is good for marketing, especially the 101st which seems mandatory for the more average gamer. But with no American armour the module is still small enough while still letting you players loose on the much cooler Brit and German AFVs. and the Arnhem name is good marketing, a rich enviroment which even the most casual gamer would reckognize. About as much cool marketing ability as can be fit in the new, smaller module concept. I'd be surprised if we won't see this one in the top 5. But then again BFC do keep on amazing me.
But 50s Korea would be good too, but with oodles of UN participants perhaps too broad for the module concept. And their is not quite the wide marketing appeal for Korea, sadly.
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I think there is an answer to this somewhere in the slough of the CMBO archive - but I don't have the time to look. I *think* that a tank with a shot trap has a 10% chance of having a weak spot hit, from the proper aspect. For a tank without a shot trap, the chance is something like 1% or 3%. I've forgotten what the precise effect of a weak spot hit is, but I think it multiplies the penetration of the hit by some percentage. Not enough that an ATR can knock out a Tiger, but presumably enough that a Sherm 75 (penetrating 93mm) could knock out a Tiger (with 100mm armor).Originally posted by Lord Peter:</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Elmar Bijlsma:
What I'm wondering what the envelope is for weak point penetrations. If my light AT and ATRs aren't doing anything useful I tend to try my luck but I never got anywhere. A rare gun damage or immobilzation for light AT guns but not even that with ATRs against heavy armour.
I know this is all sort of vague, but I'm too lazy to be more specific...
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What I'm wondering what the envelope is for weak point penetrations. If my light AT and ATRs aren't doing anything useful I tend to try my luck but I never got anywhere. A rare gun damage or immobilzation for light AT guns but not even that with ATRs against heavy armour.
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I'm afraid I'm having difficulty sending turns while I'm working on my new home. Expect this to continue for three weeks or so. I'll squeeze in a turn every now and again but it'll be an attrocious turn rate. Sorry.
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I diagree with the mandatory AARs.
As the tourney entered it's last week my cat got seriously ill and finally died, leaving me in no mood to finish my AARs. Should I, or anyone, really be disqualified from further ROW goodness for something like that? Not all failures to submit are due to laziness, many are hard pressed to send their turns, let alone subit a AAR worthy of the name. Sure the AARs are a good read and a nice thing for the designer but it should chiefly be about the battles. There are a boat load of AARs for me to get through anyway, most people might never get to read them all so penalizing people who don't contribute sounds way to harsh to me.
Me, I like writing a mini-AAR after each and every battle, no doubt resulting in some rolling of eyes by Kingfish who got a sketchy one+comments every time I submitted it's results. I recommened it to everyone. They or a full AAR don't have to be hardcore, full of serious military insight. being funny is allowed to so don't let those who excel at it *cough*BigDuke*cough* scare you off. I still greatly enjoy having written this one. Writting AARs is worth the effort for your own satisafaction, it shouldn't be done becauase it's mandatory. It's fun! It's supposed to be, not a chore.
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Sadly, due to unforeseen circumstances I never got round to finishing my AARs. Flenser requested, and now gets, an AAR of our St.Edouards battle. It's entirely from my patchy memory since I deleted the notes and draft I had so forgive lacking/erroneous detail.
A quick glancde at the map and my troops soon made it clear I wasn't going to battle anywhere but at the Sanatorium. Indeed, preeceding the tourney there was a discussion about using half squads and the gamey-ness of them but too defend the sanatoriun effectively I split my squads to have every corner and building defended. HT posted near the buildings to serve as a mobile MG to lend support. The sharpshhoters each got assigned a flank to each side to watch enemy movement.
The one guarding the forest on my right soon had GIs nearly trampling to death as the better part of a company walked by. More and more troops poured into the area and stopped, some quite closeby. thinking that he was finally rumbled my sharpshooter ran from cover. Just in time because as he srarted moving a squad 5 metres away turned. Bullets ripped through the trees on all sides as the sharpshooter pounded through the low branches. Safe! Alerted to the main thrus I shifted my defenses to repel the impending attack. Luckily I had placed my anti personel mines in the trees close to the sanatorium so any attack going through there would get a bloody nose. But I soon saw it wasn't going to be so simple as the sharpshooter on my left observing from the two story house had troops coming straight at him. With troops in the building he hid and vacated it as soon as he dared, infiltrating towards the direction from which the attackers came. The panzerschreck who hads been at the Sanatorium got moved forwards of the Sanatorium in the hopes of encountering little enemies there as so many contacts were already on my flanks. It took up station in trees where it detected tank soundcontacts, one of them bogged. That was just too tempting for me to resist.
Meanwhile the attackers attacked, running straight into mines and some fire from my HT and troops though it was largely thought to be ineffective as the LOS to the attackers was poor. As more enemies piled in and got closer I withdrew the HT for fear of the rifle grenades. Some over confident attackers got mown down after geting a bit too optimistic afterv a token firefight. After that it was just a bloody exchange. My men performed well, hardly flinching but taking casualties at a steady pace. The effect on the enemy was hard totell, though more and more units were detected firing. More troops from the center were moved to my right as casualties mounted. Well timed medium artillery started falling on the sanatorium doing some damage and wreaking havoc with my redeployment plans.
My left most troops got attacked shortly after the ceasing of the artillery, after some light probing earlier. While seemingly more effective in replusing them, with many contacts fired upon only to dissappear and never fire baclk again more and more took their place. Minimal cover was available to the attacker but it was used well as I started receiving fire from unseen forces. Troops got closer and closer to me and casualties of my few troops there started telling on the outgoing fire. The light MG42 performed well from it's position in the light building but the regular infantry+hq were getting hit bad. But the one minefield I placec in the woods on the direct left of the sanatorium proved a bugger to get past for Flensers men. The HT started chipping in but ran into an enemy rifle grenade. The rifle grenade won.
In the center the left sharpshooter started scounting ahead for my Shreck. A Sherman was quickly found and dispatched with a single shot in the flank. Squads came to investigate and everywher my brave tank killers ran there was trouble. The sharpshooter was first to get killed by an advancing Sherman. My shreck team lived longer but finally ran out of places to hide, an attempt to ambush the Sherman failed and after minutes of cat and mouse it drew the short straw and surrender.
As casualties started to mount despite a creditable defense my morale started plummeting, affecting the performance of my troops. Flenser managed to reach the buildings with a Sherman in support after finally reaching the fighting. Against that I had no reply. Being surrounded and fired upon at close range most men surrendered, panicked and died or fought and died as my defences on both sides collapsed. Only a few HQ members, pioniere and the LMG roop on my left survived but could do little as as enemies streamed in. One by one they got discovered and killed.
By then reinforcements had arrived raising the morale of the defnders allowing those survivors to sell theit hides as dear as they could. About the reinforcements: The troops I could use, the Flakpanzer however.... I moved them in positions to approach the Sanatorium but I had to be careful, the enemy had the run of the map for way to long not to be cautious. As the rest of the reinforcements arrived a breathed a sigh of relief. More infantry and a Panther. That's more like it, though at these ranges a Panther would do well to fear the Sherman at any angle. Indeed with the slower turret it would be at a distict disadvantage and I was sure bazookas would be, about defending the Sanatorium. It would be my infantry killing Shermans if I had my way. With troops making good headway towards the Sanatorium I had the Flakpanzer race ahead to see if it could prevent the attackers that just opverran the Sanatorium from advancing past it. It detected troops and I had an awful feeling in my gut. But it thundred down the road and reached safety. Nearly. It got hit by what I thought was a rifle grenade and swerved of the road. With infantry detected up ahead my troops were hastened forward so they would still be where In saw them last. Troops on my right overran a number of defenders easily by boldly crossing the road that seperated them. Luckily there weren't many. On my left there were many, mainly suspected support troops. Most of those had crossed the road hop[ing to cause havoc but infantry fire pinned a few. The Panther then trundeled over the side hedge they were sheltering behind and annihilated them one by one. No contest. it took me a while to be sure though. By now my right approach to the Sanitorium had ben cleared so my Panthewr could safely be postioned there as a HE chucker whil my men dealt with any problems that might arrise.
American troops just recovered from their rough handling on the right of the sanitorium put up a good fight but got largely rolled up. Shermans trundled towards me but couldn't interdict before I shot one building aflame with the Panther. The right most, damaged by the 105mm shelling was rubbled and my troops ran in under cover from the dust. They encountered stiff resistance that whilst proving ineffective was extremely hard to put down. But troops dealing with stragglers on the extreme right cicrlced past, ran towards a Sherman at the back of the building which finally fgell at the hands of a volley of fausts and a grenade bundle. It's crew bailed, got capture but killed as it took fire from the last melee in the riubbled building.
I also advanced left of the Sanatorium though it was a distinctly lesser attack. Early probes proved easily repulsed and destroyed but an advance hugging the road and the trees lining it faired better slowly killing those it encountered beforee getting pinned by MG fire from a clum of trees close by and light fire from the Sanatorium. A Sherman was observed passing on the road behind the Sanatorium. this would prove fatal for the two teams fighting there and I rushed up two other teams with good AT to flank it from the woods I had mined. One squad got mauled in the approach but both reach it. Only one was in a condition to deal with the Sherman as it rounded on my troops. Only one squad was needed. Woosh. AS the clock went ticking I though the dimishing fire from the sanatorium opened a window for an attack on the left. I threw everything I had in the area at it. This proved a mistake as not everyone was in a good shape to attack, thus the attackers arriving piecemeal. And with no troops providing fire support they were mown down in fire more effective then expected. It latere turned out Flensewr was a bit lucky for the defnders to do te damage they did, they tore through my troops faster then the amount of defnders would lead you to believe possible. Ohwell, a bad attack ended in a minor disaster, which is as it should be, it was just over quicker and more decisive then expected. No flag there then.
The flag grab on my right went equaslly badly. The fire I shot afire I mistakenly believed to be uninhabitable, but it turned out to be a minor fire only. Never saw many blazing buildings in CMAK, but I guess the differences between it at the Moltke Buildings should've tipped me off. A badly reduced American helped it to a tie, along with a company HQ that came out of a fold behind the sanatorium to assault it. Straight in the arms of 30 to 40 of Hitlers best men. It quickly was wittled down but it's last man erfused to die or panick. A tied flag. I hoped to tie the left flag with a quick rush of my own but one team got panicked early on, the last panicked in the dying seconds, leaving it in American hands. I was quite disgusted with the tied flag though, it was quite clearly in my hands nd not in the hands of a solitary HQ man standing in open terrain staring at a platoons worth of he best troops the Reich has to offer.
Scoring and analysis:
I don't hate night battles. I loathe them, I truely do. But this one was good. Good pacing and a neat and well timed counter attack, very well done, a right hoot. Big, big thumbs up.
But a few critisisms as to how it played out. Fight as you might, it's very hard indeed to compensate for losing elite troops. Yes, mine hardly ever got surpressed but at the ranges combat took place you get killed as much as surpressed so you are hard pressed to make up for losses. Furthermore, as global morale started plummeting in response to the designed eliminating of the defenders they grew ever more ready to surrender and perform badly. It might have been better to enter the reinforcments earlier to boost morale but give them more terrain to travel across thus keeping the arrival time into action approximatly the same.
I scored 42 against Flensers 52. A tie aagainst me isn't too bad but since I had the best of him in much of the battle and had for all intents and purposes defeated him at the moment of the end. So the scoring didn't quite folow how the battle seemed to go. Oh, and wtf is with that Wirbelwind?
**will edit later for typos and brainfarts, much too late now**
[ July 01, 2005, 05:50 PM: Message edited by: Elmar Bijlsma ]
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Big Dukes AARs are excellent. I had the honour of reading some previews when our games were done. Great reads each. Especially like the Maleme one he played against me. Not much happened in the battle but it's such a convincing historical account. Definite contender or there is no justice. His enthousiam really shines through in the Moltke one too.
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It really depends on so many factor. The country you have, your opponent, the date and the map for staters. Against the human it's very important to win the armour war or atleast prevent the enemy of winning it.
If defending green troops are definitely the way to go but when advancing regular or better perform better unless you are able to get masses and masses of infantry. Try and have atleast a platoon of vets as a reserve to brave enemy fire to plug holes in your line. Bring some heavy HE chuckers to blast enemy strongpoints. Do not neglect transportation however tempting it is to splurge on extra firepower. In a game going now I forgot to include trucks for my 105 guns. I managed to drag one forward and into action in turn 48 of a 50+ turn game. Oops!
But really, there are so many variables it's hard to give any real solid advice but whatever you do, do your purchasing with your playing style in mind. Not much use bringing along StuGs if you favour a mad dash at the enemy. Trust me, I performed a StuG rush on Other Means. It wasn't pretty.
Have fun. Do not always purchase to win, purchase to have fun too. I had so much fun mixing in a Stummel (75mm HT) in amongst my 251s advancing on a flag, causing me to embarras a Sherman charging out of cover looking for easy meat. And hurtling Daimler armoured cars down the road never gets old. Oh, the scores of StuGs, Tiger, Panthers and various lesser vehicles I caught unawares are legion. Just don't count on ending the game with those Daimlers (or whatever) in tact.
Pulling off (or even not pulling off) completely oddball things is a hoot! -
Jwxspoon does not have this scenario anymore. Please don't tell me this one is lost to the community (and more importantly: me
) completely. Has ANYONE got Proof of Honor on their HD? -
Jwxspoon does not have this scenario anymore. Please don't tell me this one is lost to the community (and more importantly: me
) completely. Has ANYONE got Proof of Honor on their HD? -
M5a1? Surely not.
Nice one though.
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And what's with the screenshots anyway. no disrespect but it isn't the GFX that will make this baby.
I'd be happy with a simple post here giving a brief outlay on where SC2 is in the development stages. What's still to be done, neat stuff he's coding, whatever. Nothing too fancy.
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Not really, if I understand you right. I doubt the TC is extra. I assume which ever way you kill the tank is good. The amount of crew you kill, if any, before the death clock runs out should be irrelevant. Only the crew after bailing out is additional to the tanks worth. But killing TCs if killing tanks seems impossible is well worth it.Originally posted by Merkin Muffley:OK, so a dead tank, however it dies, is worth a specific amount.
If crew escape, they can be killed for extra points: I'm guessing that these extra points are nice to have but not as much as the the typical 20% of tank worth gained for topping the commander when the tank is alive.
So, to maximise points, kill the commander, blow up the tank and hunt down the crew?
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Ewwwwww.
She has a NYY cap on. How disgusting.
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A TC is worth the points the tank cost devided by the amount of crewmembers.
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Against M-10s you still stand a chance, but you have to be very careful. I recommend continueing on, such oddball situations are often the most fun/exciting.
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PS I believe to mean Horse Power. Pferde Starke or something?
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Paying OZB? Me? I'd never! :eek:
And blowing dikes wouldn't blobbify The Netherlands, we would just stick our finger in and stem the flow. Again.
Some Musings on Basic Strategy
in Down In Flames
Posted
I'm currently being succesful in 2v2 by using VH or H. While everyone goes scrapping at medium I'm sitting pretty waiting for their cards to run out. Then I swoop in and knock them out of the sky. Great fun if a bit heartless towards my fellow pilot. He usually gets beat up some before I join the fray. But it is a winning statagy, no need to blow cards on defense by mixing it up in a furbal so the tables turn quickly when all my cards are used for lethal attacks while their defense cards are lowered.