Hunter

Auto resolve is not perfect, and takes an 'average' result pretty much, with some randomness of course. Like RTW, you will want to play something out if it is critical. Large forces will tend to crush small forces, yes.

It will certainly be an issue. Generally fuel is used up after about 4 hrs of moving. This could be a hundred Kilometres or 1, depending on whether you are using a road and travelling, or advancing on the enemy through a muddy bog. Vehicles without fuel cannot move, and are at high risk of being abandoned. Hunter

JasonC, I've always been a fan of your analysis, and I look forward to you applying these tactics, and we will see how they go Cheers, Hunter

Definitely

The FO will be crack (level of guns). At the moment, there is no penalty of losing your FO, except that he wont get to shoot the rounds. We could think of making a penalty though, reduce the morale of the unit, or readiness, or lose ammo, whatever makes sense.

No, you can't support yourself. Your 6 x 81mm mortarts will appear onboard. This is how I would prefer it if it were me? Yes, there will be separate MEs of Battery or Battalion Size running around, Regimental, Divisional or Army assets

So, if I understand correctly, when an indirect fire artillery unit is within support range - and designated to a particular tile or unit - this will be represented by a FO on the map in the CMBB battle for that particular tile, right? Should I deduct from this, that any unit, able to fire directly and within range, is 'physically' transferred to the CMBB battlefield for a particlar tile, even when it was initially located in the next tile on the CMC map? And that those units are set up at the back-end or edge of the CMBB map ? If that's the case, that solution is not too bad, given the reasonable big size of the tiles. Just thought, it would not be correct, if these 'neighbouring' units were not able to influence in any way the CMBB battle. </font>

At the moment, there is no pre-emptive artillery fire or air-strikes. They may be fun things to add later, but I don't see them as too critical right now. You can do the pre-bombardment thing in CMBB (happens at the start of the first turn), and airplanes turn up in battles.

I understand this would be good. No, you can't do it. A particular campaign I am developing for CMC saw 88s engaging at about 6k range (from memory) and taking out T-34s. CMC doesn't allow it, but it does allow you set up at the rear of a 2kx2k map and have a crack at that range.

Planes will be in battles, so if you have air superiority and a bunch of air assets, you should see planes at the start of your battles (especially large battles). Physical damage happens, yes.

Organisational flexibility will be represented only by the signals capability and officer efficiency ratings (which affect how quickly they get and respond to orders). Mobility will be impacted by the kind of transport you provide. Obviously SPA will be the most flexible kind of artillery support, whereas large guns drawn by horses will take some work to position. Also, large guns require telephone infrastructure to work with their FOs. So they will not only need to deploy the battery but also to dig in to Entrenchment Level 1, thus establishing comms lines. Otherwise they are considered unready to fire. There is no counterbattery fire at the moment, sorry Hunter

No, at this stage we don't do pre-battle bombardments etc. Maybe in a later version. Longer range units (all units) can only support 1 ME at a time (not for example, one ME with long range guns and another for short range guns)

Yes, definitely Battalion size anyway. Company ones will be easy to make, and it will be interesting to see how they play out. Any decent CMC map will be a LARGE area for a company to defend / attack.

...and in detailed view... German unit German Armor German Tank Panther D (Late)

A Panther from various vantage points... Unknown unit German unit German Armor German Tank Panther D (Late)

To the ridiculous:

From the sublime:

Spot the difference? 5 Grog points for first correct answer. Hunter

A new version of CMC for the west front? maybe. A new version of CMBO / AK / BB using their new engine? Dunno, probably in the future some time (I don't know, i'm guessing). Hunter

Yes you can have different types of divisions. You can have motorcycle and bicycle troops, armoured cars, trucks, etc. There will definitely be a scenario with 1SS in it. There is no 'overall campaign' as such. What will be included is a series of unconnected operations, each of which will take some time and effort to play out. The idea of taking a small force througout the whole war is a different idea (not necessarily a bad one, but not CMC). There will also be an editor, so you can make your own operations. Hunter

You may have already figured out how Artillery Support works, but I figured I would write a brief explanation, just so people understand how it will work. First, any Maneuvre Element (unit on the operational map) that has guns in it (Field Guns, 81mm or bigger mortars, etc) can provide Artillery Support. You hit A for Artillery Support and a blue box is drawn around the unit on the map, showing the furthest extent of the guns in the unit. A line is drawn to the cursor, and you can provide support for any unit within the blue box. The line is green if all of your guns are within range, orange if only some of them are, and red if outside the range of any guns. That battery / battalion is then in support of that unit, and will lend its firepower to it in battles. When a battle occurs for the supported ME, a number of Forward Observers are included in its force, representing the guns and their training, ammo levels, etc Mixed units such as Infantry Battalion with a few field guns can provide support to other units, although it would be unusual to, since there are probably better things for the force as a whole to do. The AI will rarely use a mixed force like that to provide support. Any questions?

Readiness runs from 0 to 100, and gets associated labels (Rested, Ready, Tiring, Tired, Exhausted, Rabble). Resting behind the front lines can improve readiness. Almost everything else reduces it (moving, digging, fighting especially). When you move into a CMBB battle, the readiness of a group influences the way they start and fight the battle. Exhausted troops will often start a battle fatigued and suppressed in CMBB as well.

All my fault, not Battlefront. I do try and keep in touch here, but my main focus is on getting it done Cheers, Hunter

In CMC, there is an airpower rating for the scenario (i.e. how many air assets are available in this region) and also an air superiority rating (Ranging from German Supremacy, through German Superiority, Contested to Russian Superiority and Supremacy). These factors (which can change through time), along with the time of day and weather situation, determine the chance of aircraft arriving to help out in battle situations. This makes for some interesting decisions for the player. If the airpower is against me, should I wait for overcast weather before making an assault? Or perhaps attack at night (with all the problems that brings). If you have anti-air assets,you should definitely make sure they are shadowing your major force concentrations, so there is a chance of shooting-off any interdictions. And before you ask, at this stage, there are no 'player controlled interdictions / strikes' at the campaign level. This is something we are thinking about for a later revision. When you think about it, the way air forces worked, the ground commander very often had little control of them anyway. Hunter

Exactly. Travel is in formation / vehicles if you have them, and generally taking advantage of roads and so on. If you unexpectedly get into a battle, the troops start suppressed, and lined up along the road. Move is move to contact (attack might have been the better word in a way). Hunter