Apocal

I'll have to take another look when I get home, but I haven't noticed a "pushed in" look to the buttons. Just greyed out or colored. Yeah, that's been my primary means of determining if my MGs are deployed or not.

I haven't noticed. Is it supposed to be lit or darkened when deployed?

A way, without zooming in ridiculously close, to see if a support weapon is deployed or packed up. Enable the acquire command in non-baked scenario editing. Bunkers that store ammunition.

Yeah, the only response I have to the Javelin is aggression. It takes a few seconds to lock onto the target, so I try to act quickly against Javelin-equipped infantry, either putting enough fire on them to that the Jav-man gets hit or pinned or getting out of LOS. However, I'm bad at multitasking with my armor, so I was losing BMPs left right and center. Yeah, I would have had real problems maintaining my force in that scenario if I'd played it according to the objectives Nah, I honestly got lucky in a few critical moments and in the last scenario, Allah's Fist, biased scenario design shifted the odds back to even. I didn't put those T-72s on your flank, they were reinforcements that appeared there.

This would be nice.

But the obvious places have such fantastic lines of sight. Oh man... that reminds. I used to load my AAVs all ****ed up, so I'd have a bunch that were basically packed with grunts and one that was my "golden child" with the CO, XO, FOs, Javelin Team and other assorted goodies inside. That load policy changed when the spotting round for an OPFOR 120mm mortar landed on it, removing everything above platoon-level.

Probably the same firee-fire zone, "Kill them all, the Lord will recognise His own" ROE we all operate under while playing CMSF. This is my understanding as well. Yeah I figured as much. It's just that he took out my only means of using my mortars.

I just want to know the one incident that made you blood pressure rise, profanities to escape your lips and your forehead vein throb vigorously. Mine was in my second MP game played today. It was against 'miracles' who was as new as I was to the MP world. Playing the scenario Jisrash Sughur as the Syrians I position my force appropriately, with the "crowning piece" being my FO team, which I have setup in the top floor of the mosque. With a 120mm mortar available, I'm well prepared to smash the inevitable concentration of infantry. My entire force is more or less hidden (as far as I knew), but I wasn't totally clear that the Americans would be attacking from all sides. Some of my overwatch units functioning as early warning spotted a machine gun team and one or two other infantry units in some woods to the NE of the town. I was distracted from dealing with them because an MGS had come from the south and proceeded to destroy one of my BMPs. My other BMPs deal with the MGS and I return to my FO unit deal with the infantry. I click first on area target (I've never used point for indirect fire), then realize that the MG team and "?" are in something resembling a line.... hehe. I go to setup for a linear shot, when suddenly, I hear a loud explosion and access to the mortars becomes "DENIED". I look for my FO team, still in the top level of the mosque. But with one casualty. THE DAMNED FO! First shot from an MGS, apparently sent into the mosque because it seemed like a good observation point. ARGH! I wound up losing the scenario due to confusion regarding my objectives (I didn't realize I was suppose to take the approaches to the city, not just hold the city), although I inflicted ungodly casualties on the Americans.

Near as I can figure, grazing fire is not simulated.

Speaking from an individual weapon perspective, the AR series of weapons, all geared-up with stuff like ACOGs, foregrips, reflex sights, lasers and other goodies, is ridiculously easier to use. Mainly because of the ACOGs, EOtechs, and other "point-and-click" sights. I put the dot on the target. Squeeze trigger. Target goes down. The only reason I shoot my AK more than my ARs is because the ammo is cheaper.

First off, it's possible that there are no Marine aircraft in Afghanistan. USAF controls all air through the ATO. Unless the Marines have the most aviation forces in a particular theater (and I don't believe this has ever happened), they don't have operational control of their aircraft. And waiting several hours for air support is not unheard of. If sorties aren't in the allocated in the ATO, you don't get to fly. Having permission denied until the area legal officer decides it's worth the damage you're going to inflict on the civilian infrastracture is another common thing. All of which is why we still have mortars at the company and battalion level and there are very strong arguments for bringing them down into the platoon level. The platoon or company commander's own fire support, on tap, no need to ask permission, just beg forgiveness. Worst case scenario is something like 5 or 10 minutes, as opposed to the close to half-hour wait (at best) we managed during my last foray into the Gulf. As for the numbers, I get the impression they had no idea exactly how many they were up against (this is common) and instead of being a sustained fight, there were lulls during which the Taliban stopped to get more ammo, get their buddies hanging out at the mosque, etc.

Most of our small arms are fairly old, the M240 from the 50s, the M2HB from the 1920s, the M249 is essentially a M240 scaled down into 5.56 NATO, the Mk.19 from the 60s. Firearms are a mature technology and most of the improvements are either window dressing or rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The SR-25/Mk. 11/M110 are 7.62 NATO ARs. The Mk.11 is replacing or has replaced the M40A3 as the USMC's sniper rifle, beginning around the time of the Battle of Fallujah. The M110 is slated to do the same with the Army's M24. There was actually a specific recommendation from a Stryker Brigade commander in Infantry magazine, circa 2005, that while M14s were good, his teams would've preferred the SR-25. Not many have come from actual trigger-pullers. You look through stacks and stacks of after action reports and it becomes clear that shots to the center mass generally put down the target. Exceptions are just that, except in cases when a muj was hopped up on drugs. My personal favorite of that bunch was Bosnian who had his chest ventilated by two .50BMG slugs, but countinued firing on a TCP, so another burst caused him to wear one leg backwards, to which he still continued his attack. It took at string of 40mms to take him out of the fight.

In general, not being able to specify a number of salvos for indirect fire and not being able to register TRPs for arty, mortars and MGs. Specifically for realtime, being able to hook a number of actions to a keystroke would be nice. For example you setup a bounding overwatch. The squad A rushes, squad B covers. Once squad A is positioned they have another movement with the caveat of "Wait for Ctrl+1". You wait for squad B to bound ahead and get behind cover, you hit ctrl+1 and squad A executes. Ideally, the player would be able to set up multiple commands among multiple units to one keystroke. Bonus points if you include "Time on Target" and "At My Command" methods of control for artillery. It would be quite useful, especially AMC combined with the keystroke method above. But I'd just like to say, not including any of the above would hardly leave the game "broken". It's just difficult to run more than 5 or 6 units effectively in a close-in fight. In practical terms, I wind up focusing a great deal of attention on micromanaging my schwerpunkt while ignoring virtually everything else.

I've gotten T-55 crews to bail just from having two squads of infantry rain grenades on them. On one hand, I don't see why the crew would get out when doing so exposes them to the blast, frag and incoming rounds. On the other, I realize there is a hazy area the game doesn't simulate with regards to the kinds of shennigans that very close-in infantry can inflict on AFVs.

Actually I was wrong, German infantry squads started the war based around a GPMG, with a smattering of SMGs. They'd just caught on early to the fact that you'd rather have a Gerber clipped to your pocket rather than a toolbelt hanging off your waist. The Marines caught onto this as well, due to the distributed nature of jungle fighting. There are still enough differences to make it interesting for me, although really I'm not that interested in clicking through a half-dozen squad types to get 'the One'. I'm more interested in how well I can use the tools at my disposal to accomplish the objective with minimal losses.

I may be stepping over the line here a bit, but I do recall Steve writing exactly that. I believe it was in the thread regarding the LAV-AT/Brad keeping their TOW launchers up.

Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying. Especially since the default Marine rifle squad has no Javelins. Once again, what game are YOU playing? Apparently I misunderstood what you were saying, I thought you were found the lethality and flexibility of Shock Force's units a turnoff and I simply turned that on it's head by saying they are no more an overmatch than the MG42 was in CMBO. In a scenario without tanks or a limited number of them, there are very few problems that can't be solved with MG42. If it doesn't work, use more MG42. Errr... I'm fairly certain late-war German squads had rifles, MGs, SMGs and AT weapons present. OK then, I guess we've got to agree to disagree.

Honestly, now that I've gotten a bit more in tune with CFF procedures, I think it would be best if we could request a specific number of rounds per mission instead of just "light/heavy" with a numerical count of how many rounds per tube remain. Interface wise, you could simply replace the "light/heavy" with something like +1, +5, -1, and continuous.

Motor misfires, fuze malfs and duds (this I'm only 75% sure) are simulated. Watched an RPG fly right in the middle of a bunched up squad and do precisely dick. No explosion, no casualties, nothing. I also believe I saw a jammed weapon, but I can't be entirely sure. It may have been something else (saw the word in my peripheral vision).

I was playing Close Combat in terms of wargames. Around that same time I was playing a lot more FPS. CMBO pretty much snagged me permanently into wargames because it A) was close to being real time and didn't look like a boardgame. Addressing a seperate post: I almost choked on my Coke reading this. What game are you playing?! If I play dumb as a box of rocks, there's an even money chance some VBIED or RPG-equipped mech squad is going to ruin my whole day. The flipside of this is that an MG42 could basically poop over everything else on two legs in the game. Fire support? LOL, this is WW2, what fire support? Why yes, bring that Sherman into LOS and we'll install an 88mm glass-less window, free of charge. People figured out, "hey, most of my stuff is technically inferior to the Germans... I'd better play in a way that minimizes my weaknesses and maximizes my strengths." For some reason, perhaps due to the opposing force portrayed, a large number are unable to make this same leap for CMSF.

Mentions Lt. Chew-Een Lee, right? Hell, I have that sitting at home, but only got a few pages into it until "The Highway War" and "Heavy Metal" distracted me. I guess I'll have to read it now, I've been looking for a decent account by a mortarman and couldn't find one anywhere. Right under my nose the whole time.

To get a dug-in position, just play with elevations in the editor. Build the bottom two or three meters below the surrounding elevation and the sides one or two meters higher. Reasonable approximation, works for me.

I've always written that off the additional delay as working your request up the chain (to the primary decision maker) and back down again (to the guns), including all the checks and balances along the way. I've been informed that in Soviet-styled armies this could take quite a bit of time, even with dedicated arillery observers. Were my sources (two soldiers who served as liasion with Russians in Kosovo) wrong? EDIT: And they were quite specific in this regard, saying it could take upwards of fifteen minutes for a fire mission by battalion mortars to actually put rounds downrange. And helos were a complete no-go unless it was planned well in advance.

If it's a meeting engagement then both sides are on the move... so why would one have foxholes? Also, you can't quite "make" a foxhole, but I've found that a V-shaped trench er... tile makes for a reasonable approximation of a two-man or MG fighting position when orientated properly.

This is realistic. Watch any footage from OIF I, the initial invasion, and you'll see the kind of slashing attacks presented in CMSF. We (re)learned some very hard lessons about helicopter employment in Shah-e-kot Valley, among them hovering in one place is not conducive to survival. Any attack guys are free to chime in here, but I don't believe that's ever been done in combat. For interdiction perhaps. For CAS, I've never seen or read a post-flight that described hanging back from 5km and blasting stuff. CMSF gets it mostly right and in my experience, they do nail multiple tanks in one call, although not one pass (that I've noticed). OTOH, I've never used point for CAS.