Bannon DC

Yup. You pretty much have to stay right on target to get the benefit. Maybe about a 15 to 20m diameter. Most artillery will come down that turn. You can adjust your fire the next turn, but you will need a line of sight. So, if your battery has enough ammo, even if the enemy is not right in the bull's eye of the TRP, you can still walk the arty in if you have a decent view of the battlefield.

A LOS tool would be too easy. If I am concerned about a certain spot, I sneak a unit into that area and try to find the best view. I do this for the placement of a FO. They are usually too slow to futz around with on their own. Or too valuable to get their heads shot off if poorly placed. I will also do this for tanks in order not to expose them unnecessarily. Another tactic is to plot your move to that area then use the "orientation" (or is it "rotation"?) command to see a general LOS you will have. This can point out any trees or building that will be in the way and you can adjust you final move command accordingly.

The gentleman has obviously read the manual but still has a valid question. Help the guy out for goodness sake... don't beat him over the head with the manual. Provide the answer and cite the page in the manual if you want. You don't have to reply to these questions. If these types of questions are a nuisence to you - just ignor them. You do the research and let the guy know what page the answer is on, but you won't answer the question. Would you throw a swimming manual to a drowning man... a hunting manual to a starving person? :eek: Why go to the trouble of researching the answer and stopping short of providing the answer? You know... sometimes I sit at work and ponder CM questions. I don't have my manual with me. Sometimes I ask a question and I am interested in conversing with people about the answer. Sometimes the manual is unclear. Maybe I haven't played CM for a year and have packed away my manual. Maybe my dog ate it. In those cases, having some wonk tell me what page the answer is on is not really helpful. You will fish, damn it! I demonstrated how to bate the hook and pointed to a good fishing hole! Now you know how to fish! Any questions, refer to page 359 in the fishing manual. Go fish!

Der Kunstler -- if you want an actual answer to your question... the spotting is improved and is always "on." That unit can always spot better. For you manual wonks -- see page 102 of MY manual. Also, Der Kunstler -- keep in mind spotting varies depending on what the unit is doing. A "hiding" unit will not spot as well as a unit that is not hiding. Moving, being buttoned up, experience level, etc. will also effect the spotting and identifying ability. I'm sure someone can quote you a page(s) in the manual for all this. Eight responses to this poor community member's question and the thread turns into a debate about manual indices. Why not just answer the question? How about this... answer the question and identify your manual cite. That might actually be helpful. Enjoy

A true sage as always, Junk. Also, TS, don't expect feedback to flood in. At The Proving Grounds, I suggest to new members... you have to write 'em to get 'em. That is -- start reviewing maps and scenarios and give constructive feedback. People will do the same for you. But, it sometimes comes slowly. At other sites, witnessed by recent posts in this forum, you may never get feedback. I'm glad you have an interest in making new maps and scenarios. Good scenarios are sometimes difficult to create... stick to it. Hopefully, we'll have much better tools with CMX2.

Also -- check the actual lay of the land. Even though the terrain is "open" you may find that you have a hill or some sort of fold in the land that lets you move through it with minimal observation from the enemy. Also -- I'm not familiar with this scenario. Could be that it is not well designed. If it was on the original disk, I would rule that out. But, otherwise -- it could be that the designer didn't give you the tools for the job.

Hi TS -- The site is The Proving Grounds. www.the-proving-grounds.com Good group of people over there. Some good tips on map making, scenario design, etc. I highly recommend anyone interested in scenario design to join TPG and have their work playtested before posting to the Scenario Depot. You'll get a better finished product out of it.

I posted "Dukla Pass - Slovak Uprising" at the Scenario Depot earlier this week. There is some sort of problem with DL'ing it. I sent an email the the Admiral a few days ago. There has been about 150 attempts to DL it. Sorry... not under my control. In the meantime, you can pick it up from The Proving Grounds at: http://www.the-proving-grounds.com/scenario_details.html?command=search&db=scenarios.db&eqskudatarq=671 Oh -- date is actually Sept. 1944, not 1945. Description: Based on historical events of an uprising that occured between August '44 and October. Partisans supported by Airborne troops attempt to seize a critical mountain pass which connects Slovakia to the plains of Poland. Starts as scattered series of fire fights in several cities and villages. Ultimately, Germans must re-secure the roads and villages in order to rush troops through the pass on their way to the close-by Eastern Front. Exit victory. This scenario has been thoroughly playtested. I will update once SD problem is fixed. [ April 28, 2005, 03:35 PM: Message edited by: Bannon DC ]

Too bad those acronyms weren't in the manual, then we could tell David to RTFM as is done so often. j/k PO!

Thanks for checking guys. Still not DL-able yet. 100 attempts. BTW -- date of the battle is Sept. 1944, not '45. My password does not work in order to fix. I think my account over there is screwed up. Anyway... sent Keth an email the other night. Thanks again.

I did the direct upload. I thought that got it in there automatically.

I both players agree before hand about a buffer... that is great. Otherwise, the whole the field should always be considered in play. As in any battle, terrain will favor certain approaches. Sometimes the map will not favor this sort of tactic. It certainly is not cheating.

I posted Dukla Pass - Slovak Uprising last night. I doublechecked it and was not able to download it. Can someone else give it a try and let me know if you can DL it. Hopefully it is just me. thanks

Check out the thread in the CMAK forum started by "Battlefront.com" (I think). That is Steve -- one of the main guys. He threw out some tid bits on the next generation of Combat Mission (CMx2). They are envisioning more of a command and control network for the next version. But, you'll have to wait for a year or two still. As you may have discovered from reading the forum, the best way to play CM is head to head. Play by email sounds like a drag, but it really works out pretty well. Get a couple of games going and you'll get yourself busy. Enjoy

Well... I don't mean to be flip... where would you suggest I go? This is not in the manual. I think Tech Support is a reasonable place to get an answer to a technical issue which is not covered in the manual.

Yup... been there. I just need to know which way to adjust... up or down. I can set up a test to find out... but don't want to expend the time for what should be a simple answer. Just finding someone who knows the answer is not so easy.

On artillery, is there a concept of the "beaten zone?" That is an area that needs to be targeted, say a 200m wide edge of woods. I saw this concept in a game under development yeeeaaarsss ago back when Arsenal publishing was around. It differed from CMx1 where the arty is hitting a "spot" instead of an area to be raked over. I forget the name of that game... but it was ultimately vaporware. On reinforcements in a battalion level engagement with some sort of point system -- Sid Mieirs' Gettysburg had a system where the reinforcements would be available to you, but if you called for them earlier than a certain turn, you would be penalized. This sort of system might work for any sort of assets being requested -- tanks, troops, arty -- the more you call for the more points you loose. Opportunity cost -- you better make up the point deficit you incurred by calling for the platoon of Shermans ahead of schedule. If you are getting into coop play (sounds great!), will there be a player on a team who is the designated team captain (or general) who may have control over the deployment of reinforcments? The team captain could also control the requests for arty missions as well. This might be pretty cool to decide which part of the battlefield needs more attention and which subordinate player really needs the help most. Think of the bruised feelings and the "I'm never playing with that guy again" or "He's a good company commander but really sucks commanding a battalion" comments. A new forum could be opened for promotions and demotions and sniping from the ranks! ehehe

Bump... anyone? anyone?

The concept of leadership in CMx2 is looking much more sophisticated. If men in a unit have assigned "jobs" and the leader of the unit is knocked out, you can see a "stunning" effect on the unit... "what now?" Time will be needed to sort things out as the men look at each other to see who is in charge. In a well trained... or a highly experienced unit, the stunning effect will be short. In a lesser experienced/trained unit, the effect will have a real effect on game play. Imagine several Russian units with their highly ingrained leadership dependence losing several leaders in a short amount of time. An advance will suddenly turn into a rout. In such a case, could one or two highly regarded leaders save the day and rally the mob? That would be a tense moment. One also recalls the American Army's trouble in Northern Africa as the learned the trade of war. I imaging there might have to be more morale states. What will men do when their squad has dissolved? Will they run, hide, or actively seek another squad to join? Will they take part in firing at enemy units or will they hide to save themselves? Will they be "broken" as you might expect in CMx1 or have another state of "non leadership?" Resupplying is also interesting. I like longer battles and obviously this is a problem. Will there be a set supply depot you can place anywhere. Can you load supplies on a HT and move it forward and have men go to the HT? Can you drop supplies by air to an airborne unit (like an Arnem or Bastonge scenario). Retrieving these airdropped parcels might be like opening an unmarked Christmas present... it might be rifle ammo, HMG ammo, AT ammo, etc. Can you scrounge for ammo near a like unit as you can in Tac Ops? I'm looking forward to resupply.

Someone must have suggested this in the past -- Camouflage netting. We need a better way to defend against air attacks than the sacraficial truck.

Someone must have suggested this in the past -- Camouflage netting. We need a better way to defend against air attacks than the sacraficial truck.

I don't worry too much about where Steppe belongs and where it doesn't. The palate of terrain types is very limited. "High grass" can occur anywhere is a nice terrain type to deal with in battle. I don't know about bogging either... but I have had bad luck bogging in steppe. Seems to be fairly common... at least for me.

Are you sure about this? I just checked the manual, and it doesn't say anything about guns, only vehicles. </font>

It's not really "gamey" at all. Gamey would be something like the "half squad" thread over in the CMBB forum (talking about the tactic of splitting all of your infantry into half squads and flooding your opponent with numerous targets). That is something the AI system allows you to do that would be unrealistic in the CM world of a WW2 combat simulation. But, what the hell... if it works. Planting doubt or outright misinformation in your opponent's mind is what war is all about. Of course, if you are playing with an opponent who lies outright that is a bit slimey. But, next time you play him, you'll know he is a bad liar.

Ahahahah