Eridani

heh, that's nothing... try 6 elite 14" spotters overlooking two german battallions.... something like 1000 dead... it was insane. -EridanMan

Hey Joe, welcome to Combat Mission. a Ma Deuce (.50 cal) can penetrate approx. 20 mm of armor, making it an outstanding light armor killer (and even some german medium armor from the sides and backs). It really is a fantastic gun if used right. Just think of it as a fully automatic anti-tank rifle (Which is what it was designed as apparently) For more information do a search, there have been several EXTREMELY informative threads on the subject. Yes there is a 1.01 patch currently out and a 1.03 patch on the way. The patch can be found on both cmhq and battlefront.com. Again, a search will yeild more valuable information. -EridanMan

LOL Germanboy. Lawyer, if you want an extremely immersive (and educational) experience, play a game (small battle only <500 pts) where you are ONLY allowed to use view 1. Although it makes the game MUCH harder (overwatch positions become very important to get the slightest clue what is going on), The whole game becomes much more alive and challenging, and in the end it will make you a much better player (forces you to think and act intellegently with very little information, so that when you do let yourself get more information, you know what to do with it better). I dunno, ever since someone on here suggested it, all of my battles against the computer have been 1st person... it really can't be beat. -EridanMan

Most scenarios can be played from either side. if you want more axis scenarios, make em also, check out the scenarios bbs, you'll find links to a load of user made scenarios... I'm sure many of these are quite entertaining when playing from axis -EridanMan

1.01 is the current patch version 1.02 is shipping on Cd's a believe (or maybe 1.01). 1.03 is going to be released in the next patch. do a search for details -EridanMan

Wow, its the topic that keeps on giving even AFTER its solved... jpinard, this is one where you REALLY should do a search for dead bodies... this topic has been covered in depth, over and over, again and again from one end of the earth to the other. There was some controversy over weather or not dead bodies would even be in the game (HUGE understatement). BTS made it clear that there would be no blood. They made it impossible to hack the textures to make blood... this is something set in stone. Respectfully, this is also something that could have been found out very easily on your own. I believe the problem some of us "veterans" as you call us have isn't the new faces and people, its the people who have been around for a few days and are buys telling us how this is wrong or that isnt' modeled right... in almost all cases this stuff has been discussed before and there IS a reason for most of it. Believe it or not, if you can think of something in a few days, its probably been thought of and debated already by the people who have been watching and talking about this game for over a year. all we ask is that you check out whats been said before adding your own two cents and as for blood. do a search on dead bodies, and get ready for some interesting reading material... and all of your questions on this matter will be answered. -EridanMan

9 out of 10, respectable hehe EridanMan

The fire tile IIRC just means that a small fire has been started and everyone is getting the hell out... I think this falls under a what you see is not what you get catagory... the buildings do not burst into flames immediately, but, they are on fire and ur men do want to get out asap. notice, casualties from men in burning buildings are usually pretty light. -EridanMan

preacher beat me too it, and obviously our opinions differ a bit, but hey everyone has different priorities. take out a defencive line's hq with arty and it will break much faster and and much less loss you you -EridanMan

Hey Welcome aboard to answer your questions- Hq units help to keep your mainline troops in fighting shape. with and HQ nearby, units are less likely to become demoralized, and will respond to orders MUCH quicker. Generally it is considered critical to keep your HQ units with their platoons. (you know an hq is within command of a squad if the line to the squad is red and not black). This said, killing enemy hq units is a far more effective tactice than eating away at their squads. When a squad looses its hq it becomes much harder to command (longer command delays) and will break and run much sooner. Hq's are also "softer" targets (i.e, they die faster than a full squad)... Often infantry fights turn into bouts of protecting your own hq units while going after your opponents (kinda like the king in chess). Hq units also can pass certain abilities on to their men (better stealth, more hit power, ect), these abilities are listed in the hq's information screen. they are only passed on when the hq is within command range of another unit. company hqs, have all of the traits of platoon hq's only a larger command radius (and more rallying power I believe). They also are not assigned to specific squads, and CAN (in emergancy's) be used to fill in the command role of a knocked out platoon hq (just make sure they don't die or the whole company suffers). Batallion hqs... protect them well because global moral falls like a rock if they die. and mortars can not be reloaded in scenarios... sorry, realistic but annoying nonetheless I hope that helps -EridanMan

My biggest advice when designing maps (Which I love doing) is... Design for realism, not gameplay. When putting together a town, I find myself asking/thinking "how do the people in this town live, where do they live, where are they're shops... where is the church?"... I find that the battlegrounds become far more "authentic" feeling when they are built to be places rather than battlefields... I dunno, of course IMHO -EridanMan

Scott- Yes, IIRC MG's do have grazing fire that can effect all units near the MG stream. (one of the things that's suppossed to make them effective. -EridanMan

I must say that pillboxes now are how I expected and think they should be. I was VERY supprised how easily they scumbed to arty in the demo. From what I understand (note, my WWII is fairly limited) most of the pillboxs in world war two were taken out by firing slit penetrations or the rear-door taken out. Definately not by ARty, I think it was proved time and time again that arty was not effective at knockign them out. I WOULD expect crews in pillboxes to get shocked by nearby explosions though... simple concussion would leave them dazed on unable to fight for a few seconds/minute. -EridanMan

Hey All... I was just wondering... whats ur Favorite (Strictly looks) AFV in the game? Personally, I love the Churchill (all forms, although the AVRE might send the wrong message, if you know what I mean)... -EridanMan

Flampanzer? HAH! Try a Churchill Crocodile... 100m range of flame and armored destruction... its a happy thing (If you don't have the pts to spare, take a wasp, "only" 75 meter range... they are fun )

5 days? *Hysteric Psychotic laughter*... 5 DAYS? lets see... I became a CM addict... november of last year... umm... hmmm. I preordered a few days later... lets see, that would be what now, 9 months? and I'm a newcomer, there have been preorders standing for more than a year (btw, I mean no snydness or disrespect, its just funny to see new people complaining that they don't have the game, and remember the months of waiting for it to come out myself -EridanMan

The long movie has been a cry that has gone heard but unanswered for almost a year now... BTS says that the issue is that the current game engine doesn't handle long movies... my questions is, would it be possible to write a seperate application that would melt the movie files from pbem games into one big long movie... I fine the long movie even more important that tcp/ip play personally... There's no better way to archive my games and my strategies, and to see what worked and what didn't... *shrugs* I dunno though... its BTS's call... I'll trust they'll do what they can. -EridanMan

I thought I would add my $.02 Recon- I don't know about recon patrols, but for scouting purposes recon vehicles are outstanding platforms - small, fast, lightly armored, they can make contact with the enemy without dying, even hurt the enemy a little bit before retreating, and cover far more area than a simple recon team can... I really do love recon vehicles, the intellegence advantage it gives you can really be the difference between life and death. point two, my only comment is a good commander can set it up so two tanks hit the same target from two differnent angles at the same time... Far safer for each tank, and far harder for and opponent to counter (that works for guns just as well as it does tanks. Point three - and why wouldn't you do this? in a pbem game my forward recon vehicles spotted a set of foxholes and I ordered them to pepper the holes with mg fire until I could move a wasp in range... the result? 2 routed platoons seen running out the back of the woods to not a single shot returned fire... I would call that a successful tactic. oh well, back to battle -EridanMan

Just another clarification there are three vehicle being confused here. mmg carrier - 360 vickers mg, light armor - is 9 points, should be 20 (same price as 50cal jeep) Humbler SC - forward firing brenning MG and no armor - is 9 points, should be like 15 (weak as balls and little/no firepower, just a scout) Daimler AC - turreted 40mm gun & vickers MG - is 62 points, that's plenty thank you. Medium armor, good tank killer, but easily killed. -Scott

Hey There seems to be some exaggeration with my love of the MMG carriers. First of all Richard, I didn't tell you this because of FOW issues, but I have 6 carriers, not 20. (well, fewer now, damn Gun). Carriers are easily chewed up by any gun 20mm or bigger. They are only survivable in a large groups (3+) and even then things can go wrong (as you've seen on your left flank). I will admit, I enjoy using small vehical tactics. And yes, small vehicles are cheap, and therefore you can afford a good deal of them. I would not go as far as to say this is gamey though. in your game I have 2 recon platoons (as I call them) of 3 mmg carriers, 1 diamler and 1 wasp each. This is a legit assault force that I use for forward attack and recon purposes. Also, because I will admit that the MMG carrier is way to cheap, the point total for my attack I intentionally kept 50-100 points below my max (to make up for the fact that the mmg carrier price is going to rise). I believe that my tactic, while unconventional, is far from Gamey. Its just very rough if you don't expect it -EridanMan

I have a Dell Inspiron 5000 with the Ati Mobil-p accellerator... even with the 8 meg ATI card CM gets pretty choppy at 1024x768 and the cool smoke effects don't work . My machine is a pIII 500 with 96 megs of ram... Unfortunately Mobile market is not where its at if you want games capability, my Dell barely cuts it (but it does manage)... I am praying Dell is going to allow upgrades to the new Mobile 128 when they themselves upgrade (the video is on a a seperate riser card inside the machine and is easy to remove, Dell has to offer a replacement part though;( ) we'll see however. -EridanMan

I must say, the funniest thing that I ever saw was a 50 cal jeep running at full speed down a road.... well, MR. Jeep got unlucky and charged into a minefield at 50 mph... and exploded in one hell of a fireball. He then proceeded to continue careening down the road on Fire, hitting another minefield every 40 feet or so until coming to rest after rolling over 5 seperate minefields... poor driver died but it was one hell of a funny sight -EridanMan

I personally have fallen in love with the Diamler AC (and the Brits in General)... yeah they die easily if hit, but they are FAST, they can penetrate almost any tank from the side and rear (even got a KT in a scen that I am going to be releasing soon)... I find that a Diamler AC with a few MMG carrier escorts froms a great mobile recon and light assault force, and its nice and cheap and I've had them single handedly hold off a company of German's or even the occasional armor colomn. -Scott

I also do not see fog. I assumed that it was the same problem I was having seeing transparent buildings and smoke (a piece of **** video card) btw, I have a laptop with the ATI mobile-P WHY WON'T DELL SHIP THE MOBILE-128??? : -EridanMan

The old Fav's are LD, Riesburg and CE... VoT was just a poor little old bone until the full version came out at least IMHO... I feel nostalgic about the first three... I played them... easily dozens if not hundreds of times... Different angles, different sides... Wow... Seems like so long ago now Anyone fired up the Beta Demo recently? I still have it on my computer... been to busy mastering my village and town-taking skills to bother to be all that nolstalgic and fire it up though. -EridanMan