Pak40

I agree about the dust cloud issue. I am amazed how massive artillery barrages in CM dont make any dust/smoke that hinder LOS. This should certainly be the case on dry ground and there should be less on damp ground, none or very little dust on wet ground etc...

Silly, Goblins and Orcs are one and the same.

In my experience, the opposite is true. I think a vanilla leader is better than no leader at all. The same goes for command and control. A squad in C & C of a leader with no bonus will obey orders more quickly than no leader at all. However, I'm not sure about the stealth and fighting ability.

How about using the Fast command to get the Hellcat onto the crest, then use the Move command for about 5-10 meters, then use the reverse command. This should give the Hellcat enough time to squeez off a shot. The Hellcat will also have a better chance of hitting his target with the MOVE command rather than the FAST command.

'Advance' and 'Assualt' Operations in CM are not object oriented. In other words, you don't get points for capturing Victory Flags. Instead, awarded points in operations are based upon how far the attacker progresses during the entire operation. Therefore, if an operation is an 'assault' and the 'expected progress' is 70%, then the attacking side must capture about 70% of the entire length of the map. Most 'Advance' and 'Assault' operations have overall maps that are longer than they are wider, say 1000m x 4500m. However, in any one particular battle, you might only see a battlefield size of 1000m x 1000m. If the attacker has progressed some after the first battle, then the 1000m x 1000m battlefield will be moved for the next battle. In 'Advance' operations, the attacker has to make it all the way to the other side of the map. 'Destroy' operations are based only the ration of your men killed VS his men killed. I think the scenario desigern has the option of setting the ratio. hope this helps

I orignally had not typed "the head", but I added it in because I wanted to bug you.

It's the quick change barrel that really makes the MG42 effective. If it didn't have the quick change then the MG42 would be limited to the rate of fire of the other guns, more or less. On the other hand, the .50 has a good deal more punching power. If you're shooting at infantry inside a building, the .50 has the power to penetrate the walls so long as it's not stone. Light armor is also more threatened by the .50. You really have to see the size of a .50 cartridge to fully appreaciate its hitting power. The bullet itself is 2.29 inches long compared to 1.125 inches of a .30 bullet. The .50 bullet weighs 711.5 grams when compared to 152 grams of a .30 bullet. If a .30 bullets hits a person in the neck it will leave a hole or maybe blow out a portion flesh. If a .50 bullet hits a person in the neck it can and probably will decapitate the head.

I'll try and make some sense to what you're asking. First of all, the r.p.m. has nothing to do with how hard it is to "take out a gun". A veteran or crack status with good leadership may be the reason why the MG42 is hard to take out. If you're asking "Why is this MG42 killing lots of my men?", then that's a different question altogether. An MG42 has good killing power mainly because of it's rate of fire, more than 1200 rounds per minute as you've already stated. But this is only a cyclic rate. In other words, if you were to hold down the trigger constantly for 1 minute the MG42 would shoot 1200+ rounds per minute. But this is not practical on the battlefield for a couple of reasons: 1) the accuracy would be poor due to constant firing 2) the barrels would melt due to extreme heat from the rounds fired. A more practical rate for an MG42 (HMG on a tripod) is something like 700 r.p.m. This is considered excellent when compared to allied machine guns. The cyclic rate for the U.S. .50 cal is about 550 r.p.m. but the practical rate is about half that amount. The U.S. .30 cal mgs have a cyclic rate of about 400-600 r.p.m. and the practical rate varies depending on whether its the water or air cooled versions. The MG42's main advantage is that it can lay down a larger volume of fire in less time than the allied MGs. This is partly due to the high cyclic rate but mainly because of the quick change barrel. This allows a crew to pop out a hot barrel and put a cool barrel in within a few seconds. A crew typically has 3 barrels to swap out during intense combat. This allows them to keep up a relatively heavy volume of fire when compared to allied machine gunners who must let their barrels cool down before squeezing the trigger again.

No problem. I just thought I relive the ole dice rolling days also.

I just tested this on a quick self made map and couldn't find any of the roadblocks that I put down or barb wire etc. I tested the move, LOS and target commands and every time all I got was "open ground" I remember that the original version had a bug where you could detect the enemy's location by using the LOS tool, or something to that effect. It has been fixed with the patches. I think that either you have an unpatched CM, the scenario was made with an unpactched CM, or this is just some wierd isolated event.

You completely misunderstood what I said. I don't rush the recon platoon into certain death. I send them to look for the enemy. Once the recon patrol finds the enemy, I send other troops/tanks/artillery to pound the HELL out of what they found. I only said that the recon platoon gets "chewed up" because they often fall victim to ambushes. That's part of their job, to find or spoil the ambushes. Recon by Death, as you're implying, is a tactic where one sends out his recon units, usually in small units like half-squads. They find the enemy and then they keep looking for more "hidden" enemies until they are eventually killed off. I admit that I sometimes use half squads as recon, but I certainly don't intend on getting them killed. I try, if at all possible, to save that unit. But, as we all know, they often end up falling victim to a clever ambush.

I almost always buy Vets. It's always worth the price, attacking or defending. The only time I don't buy Vets is for a recon platoon that I know will get chewed up anyway. The recon patrol's mission is to reveal the enemy's positions not fight it out, therefore, Regulars do the job quite well.

I know for a fact that the M5 Stuarts and M8 Greyhounds used cannister in their 37mm guns. According to "The American Arsenal", the 37mm cannister round has 122 lead balls. The case leaves the barrel and bursts appoximately 100 feet after that. I imagine it could be devastating at close ranges against infantry that doesn't have any cover, but the book doesn't say anything about it's effectiveness.

Is it house trained & well diciplined? I can't have gun shots & explosions all through the night.

Rifle grenades are a type of projectile grenade that is placed on the end of a rifle, usually with a special fitting adapter on the end of the barrel. I think a blank cartridge is used to fire the projectile into the air. For the U.S. there were two basic types of rifle grenedes: fragmentation and Anti-Tank, each using its own special adapter. The frag grenade was actually just a MKIIA1 hand grenade, the popular pineapple shaped grenade used by the infantry. The anti-tank grenade looks like the image that is shown in Combat Mission's unit information area (at the bottom of the screen). It uses a hollow charge explosive method to achieve its armor penetration. Combat Mission models the AT version, although it may also be used against infantry. I think CM models the armor penetration around 40-45mm. Some of the German AFVs do have defensive mortars. I forget the german name for them, something I can't even come close to pronouncing. Many of the AFVs in CM do also model smoke mortars. The compuer AI decides when and if to use them. You will often see allied tanks pop smoke when they see a German tank that they know they can't kill.

OK, grant it; the index is lacking on numerous items, but if you actually read the manual then your concerns are answered somewhere within it. If not there, then you've got an increadible forum where your questions will be answered within 1/2 hour. Consider this: BTS, when CMBO was produced, was a 2 man operation. That means, 1 man to code and the other to write the manual, to do PR, help with game design decisions and countless of other things required to run a software company. Considering that the manual was written by 1 person and is thicker than most other manuals published by much larger companies, I think Steve did one hell of a job. I'll allow for a few indicies to slip through the cracks. The bottom line is that there's alwasy room for improvement, and BTS will only get better at everything they do, whether it's game design or writing manuals. [ April 11, 2002, 08:19 AM: Message edited by: Pak40 ]

AT guns will fire upon any type of unit. This flaw will be fixed in CMBB. I think Bazookas and Panzershrecks will only fire on infantry if you give him a direct fire order on the infantry unit, however, the ambush may still be activated. The enemy unit has to be within 15-20 meters of the ambush marker to activate the ambush and the ambushing unit has to see the unit that is within 15-20 meters of the marker. Any type of unit can activate the ambush. Sound contacts will not activate an ambush, only visual contact. A MG will most likely fire upon the infantry only, unless the tank is unbuttoned. Define normal relationship

Brian, I disagree, the CMBO manual was very well done. It may have lacked a little in the scenario design section but overall the manual was well written and quite comprehensive. I have seen countless questions about the game on this forum which, if the askers were to have read the manual, would have already been answered. Technical questions, statistics, and in depth strategy belong in a Strategy Guide, not the manual. BTS has to cut the line somewhere so that the cost of producing the manual doesn't become outrageuous. If not, then we'd all be paying $65 dollars instead of $45 for the game.

He's got his own ebay page: Snyder The picture is obviously misrepresented, whether by accident or not. If he's a fraud, then he's sure got the Ebay community fooled.

I sent the bidder an email alerting him of the facts about the picture. Should I alert the seller or E-Bay?

Our recomendation, and I think I speak for everyone on the board, is to go to this site and download all the 3rd party mods that appeal to you: http://www.combatmission.com/ Especially download the buildings by Panzertruppen, then the grass textures by DD or Wolf. These graphics will make WWII online look like Zork. There are also lots of other mods on other sites. Smoke mods, winter mods, uniform mods, sound mods... you name it, they got it.

Hull down??? They have no hull! But I think I see what you're trying to ask: Are AT guns harder to hit & kill? The answer is definitely YES. A regular tank will usually hit a non-moving tank in 2-3 shots at 500-700 meters. But it will usually take a regular tank between 3-10 shots to kill an AT gun in a foxhole. However, regular AT crews can get rattled, making them ineffective for a period of time.

How do you prevent TOAW from resolving combat? It seems that this would be necessary in order for the system to work because the resolution in TOAW would be different than the resolution in CM.

Oh yea, I forgot. Hi Mom!