Sgt Joch

Even in the seven year's war in the 1750s, it was already relatively infrequent. I had read quotes of Prussian and Austrian generals complaining after the war that all battles were decided by artillery/musket fire and that no one conducted proper bayonet charges anymore. At the beginning of the war in 1756-57, King Frederick had insisted that his infantry advance without firing to break the enemy lines with "cold steel". In the first real tests at Prague and Kolin in 57, Austrian artillery massacred the Prussian infantry and everyone went back to deciding battles with musket/artillery fire. By the later battles in 59-60, artillery caused most casualties and opposing lines often came no closer then 100-200 meters before one fled. You see the same thing as you go forward in time and obviously firearms were much deadlier in WW2. I am sure you had situations of close combat in WW2, but it was the exception.

Others have answered, but another point is the fact that Tac Air was effective enough to disrupt/stop all movements during the day. In Normandy, german units only moved at night and spent the day hiding in camouflaged positions where they were difficult to spot from the air. When German units were caught in the open, for example, in the Falaise Gap, Tac Air could be deadly. They did not knock out many AFVs, but many were simply abandoned by their crews because they ran out of fuel or were caught up in massive traffic jams. For the Wacht Am Rein offensive to have any kind of chance, the Panzers had to be able to move forward 24 hours a day which is why the planners wanted overcast conditions.

Agreed. BFC has already said they want to fix and improve this area of the game. The problem, as always, is finding the time. CMSF had much more problems 3 -4 months after release, but BFC kept at it and now, after 3 modules and countless patches, it is a great game. BFC is not perfect (who among us is?), but at least they keep plugging away at their games, which is something you can't say about every developpers.

now now, he may be having a bad day. you are welcome back anytime spfiota. ps - I am sure this will keep GS buzzing for weeks.

my best memories are from CMx1 games. There was a CMBB game where my german squad was in a foxhole on a reverse slope next to a road. During one turn, it was battling with 2 soviet squads coming from either side. All of a sudden a T-34 comes over the slope, maybe 20 meters away. A quick PF takes it out and the squad goes back to the battle. 20 seconds later, a 2nd T-34 comes along, again taken out with a PF, all the while battling the Soviets squads. Then there was a CMAK game in Italy fought in heavy fog. I knew my oppo had 1 Tiger which I had not seen the whole game. Finally, after 40 turns, the Tiger comes out of the fog, barely 40 meters from my lines...only to be taken out 2 seconds later by a frontal Bazooka shot. My oppo was not amused. My best Duh! moment is from a ongoing PBEM CMBN game with GaJ. I had spotted one of his Panzerschrek team behind a hedge and was doing my best to kill it with HMGs and mortars. Meanwhile in an adjacent field, one of my squad comes under fire from a HMG behind a bocage hedge. I promptly move one of my Shermans up to deal with it, carefully buttoning it up. As soon as it moves into position, it is taken out...I look over and realize there is a large gap in the hedge giving the Panzerschrek team a perfect view of the side of my buttoned up tank...:mad:

If you order the vehicle to spot X and give a separate order to team to move to spot Y, the team will not dismount the vehicle until it gets to spot X, so no need for pause. What I do is give the vehicle an order to move to X and an order to the team to enter the vehicle in its current position. The team will then move to X and enter the vehicle. On getting the vehicle to continue on to another spot on the same turn, I think there was a thread where some one had a workaround for that. yes, not possible with an air/artillery strike, just normal "target" order.

German forces in game have very few radios. per p. 99 of manual:

I have been plowing through Glantz's latest book "Armageddon in Stalingrad" which focuses on the urban fighting in september-november. Most German units were already not up to 100% TO&E because of previous operations from may to august, although the best would have been at 70-80%. However, just a few days of fighting took most units to below 50%. It was even worse for the Russians. Many full strength units were ground down to 20-30% strength in a few days. In both cases, the surviving units would be left on the line to carry on. Few units received replacements.

Although not scientific, even if the LOS tool tells me the view is clear, I still drop down to the "1" level and eyeball it myself from the unit's point of view. You can usually tell pretty quickly if you have a clear shot or not.

area fire or direct fire? There may be an exception for small arms fire, but I seem to recall hurting friendly troops with grenades, HMG fire, AFV main gun when set to area fire.

In and of itself, I don't see CMBN or CMSF battles as more imbalanced than CMx1, at least not when you play them. Tactically, they do play out differently in CMx2 and appear to favour the defense more. The issue as others have pointed out probably has to do more with the way VPs are counted in CMx2.

pretty much any weapon you set to Area Fire can cause casualties to friendly troops if they are too close.

The numbers Parabellum gave are pretty much the bare minimum I use also. Normally, I will use double those numbers, even sometimes pull back the most forward units a few minutes before. Spotting rounds hitting your troops are a real danger if you are too close.

Well I never got a chance to play George, but I did play most of the "Blowtorch" CMBB scenarios at one time or another.

Troops did fight mounted in halftracks, but as you say, it was more in a recon role or against light opposition. On the Eastern Front, there were also German commanders who liked to charge into villages with their troops mounted in HTs to achieve surprise: http://www.blowtorchscenarios.com/Blowtorch/Blowtorch%20Series%20Main%20page.htm However, in CMBN, you are usually going up against well defended positions and going in hot in a HT may not be the wisest move...

In RL, Halftracks were primarily used as transportation, but some commanders used them more aggressivily. In CMBN, I never go into a combat situation mounted since it is too easy to lose a squad. I use the HT as infantry support, with a section mounted to man the .50, close to the squad and ready to dash in as required. It gives extra firepower in a firefight. Yes, they are vulnerable, but I would rather lose a HT than a tank.

I am not aware of a table. It varies based on the type of artillery, the type of unit calling in the fire and their experience level, so a dedicated FO will always be faster than a generic HQ unit. For example, in "Carbide, Carbide", the U.S. FO can call in 105 mm Artillery strikes in 7 minutes flat and mortars in 3. Don't forget also that the numbers the game initially gives you are guesstimates, strikes may come in faster or slower. Artillery is the key to winning many CM battles, especially as the U.S. player. Where you place your FOs is usually one of the most important decision you make. The first thing I check out in the order phase is always if and where to call in artillery strikes.

yes, you have to watch the "pack up times". I have moved guns, both hooking them up to trucks and redeploying them or just getting the crews to push them for short distances. Nothing happens until the time to pack up has elapsed and then they move. to hook up to a truck, I always back up the truck as close as possible to the gun, otherwise, the crew will have to push the gun to the truck which can take a few more turns.

In 3 weeks, I will be the same age Hitler was when he blew his brains out in the fuhrerbunker... I don't know what it says about me that I not only had the time to figure that out, but even told my wife...

I use a Dell 27 inch widescreen LCD monitor, 1920x1200 res. CM looks/runs great on it.

I am not sure what the problem is in your particular game, but normally a FIST Bradley, even without an FO team, can call in artillery fairly quickly, although a FO team inside the Bradley can usually call it in even quicker. I am currently playing "Cry Havoc" PBEM in 1.32 and the FIST/FO combination in there works fine.

Looks great GaJ! I presume this will work with CMSF as well?

Just wanted to bump this. GaJ basically forced me to use this to play our game, but once you are used to it, Dropbox is a great tool! It automatically emails your game file and advises your opponent and a pop up box appears on your desktop when the return file comes back ready to play. Big thumbs up from me.

M1A2 SEP, arguably the most potent tank ever designed on this planet as of 2011. Interestingly, the T-55, which is seriously outclassed by everything in CMSF, was originally designed at the end of WW2 as a Tiger killer and matched or outclassed the Tiger I/II in every area from armament (100mm vs 88mm gun) to armor protection (99mm hull/203mm turret vs 100/180mm max). In 2003, U.S. tankers encountered an unusual problem. Their AP shells were going straight through T-55s without exploding, because of their paper-thin (by 2003 standards) armor. The tankers came up with an innovative solution, firing an AP shell first to ventilate the T-55, immediately followed by a HE shell to light up the ammo/fuel. Apparently, the resulting explosion was impressive to watch.

Only way to know is to try, only save games with TO&E changes, i.e. those with German troops may have an issue. I upgraded my PBEM games to 1.32 with no issues so far.