Joachim

China was partially German equipped and trained... Dunno if an MG34 alone decides which side you are on. Guess the "minor" Asian countries were more concerned about getting the Allies out (France, Netherlands) than being Axis. And I doubt Japan was still Axis after signing a non-aggression pact with the USSR in late '41. They had just some common enemies with the rest of the axis. Gruß Joachim

If there are flags, they are locked (dynamic flag selection is locked, too). If there are none, the QB generator sets new ones according to battle type. My 2 cents (that's 2.5 for those on the other side of the pond) on 105mm pricing: a) GE 75mm are crap, thus not a real option. I want a "Tiger light" with half the ammo at 60% cost . I could live with a cheaper 105mm spotter with less ammo. But half the ammo must cost at least 60-70% (risk of losing it is spread, two have more LOS than one, option of 8 tubes in one turn) of a "full" FO. Gruß Joachim

The Scenario Depot is usually the place to go. You might consider The Proving Grounds if you want feedback. If the simple maps still get the AI to play decently, I'd publish them as map packs. Gruß Joachim

Yup, combined arms is the name of the game. Bunkers alone will do to secure a clearing or an open stretch of woods inaccesible to tanks (AT mines, roadblocks, ...). A defense should be on a reverse slope too be safe from long distance fire. But it should have some big cover difference for close distance fire. Infantry in trenches has 9% exposure. In woods about 13-14%. If the enemy brings along twice the number of infantry with even higher fp than your squad, you are pinned and soon dead meat as the attacker will move some of his troops forward while yours are pinned: Classic outcome 2:1 at 30-40m: You toss 1 grenade. Enemy squad pins. Next enemy squads lobs grenades while you fire on first squad. Soon you are pinned. Once pinned, the fire of one squad will keep you pinned or panicked. First squad rallies, moves in. Kills. Classic outcome 2:1 if there is a clearing of at least 100m. Halfsquad moves in. Gets annihilated by your MP-armed half squad. It is just 1.5:1 now. You get return fire. If enemy has MPs only, he wastes ammo and has low fp. He will not pin you. You hide and/or crawl away just in case, while the 2nd halfsquad overwatches. Likely the enemy will loose sight. If there are no enemy heavy wpns, the fight is over. Expected losses 1-2 men. Wire does not affect the whole tile - only half to 2/3s of it. And you usually can't set covered arcs to just the wire and be out of LOS of units not in the wire. Wire is too little to create reverse slope - plus the enemy can guess where you are. Possible tactic Hit and Run: Foxholes in trees (10%) at edge of woods - just able to see out to kill scouts while in the open. Retreat (sneak or run) to MLR (trenches, 2nd foxholes)... or sneak forward again. Gruß Joachim

Maybe this depends on a parameter set in the editor? IIRC 1.25m shallow, 2.5m normal, 5m steep. A difference of 3 resulting in 3.75m on shallow. Not that high... Gruß Joachim

If it is really inside tall pines, the enemy has too much cover (see thread "foxholes vs trenches" and the links there for more info) and might come into grenade range. Bunkers are long range assets! Their value is more in disrupting advances leading to an unorganized attack than just killing alone. If you are just inside tall pines and control a large open area it could work. Use a small but wide covered arc to only fire in open areas and cancel the target after each turn. The TacAI sticks to set targets while he overrides those he selects himself during a turn. Trenches are a waste in woods (see same source as above) Gruß Joachim

It's at least better than my desktop :mad: . Even your desktop will run the game - but bigger scenarios tend to take some time to compute the action. Gruß Joachim

There are several rules for campaigns out there that might help you a bit - but they are for CMBB Biltongs campaign rules aka BCR and RobOs quick campaign (ROQC). In BCR the element of surprise is achieved by using the qb generator to pick the enemy force. Force composition (armor, CA, mech, inf, random) is rolled, points are given. Your own force is bought via the editor and/or the qb buy menu. Maps are either random, self-made or you find some on the net (e.g. in other scens) and use them. If you want to transfer/enhance BCR to CMAK, all you need to do is supply me with (approximate) data about temperature/weather, map type and who attacked how often. Curently BCR is lots of paper work (especially bookkeeping of units), but RL stops me from finishing an excel tool that eases that. And it is still CMBB only - but transferring the rules is not much work once the data is collected... BTW: If you have self-made maps for CMAK - make them public... they are always better than random maps. Gruß Joachim

IIRC the 20mm on the 250/11 is not the autocannon but the "28mm ATR". No test, but as I played that turns repeatedly, it might qualify. The beginning of a scen I design has a column of M3 Scout cars, a Jeep MG and an M3 HT ambushed by 4 SdKfz 231 , 4 250/11 and 3 251/10 at ranges from 800-1200, 600-800 and 200-400 respectively. Multiple hits and penetrations. It usually took 2 turns to finish the US patrol, at least half of the crews and passengers were alive. End of 2nd turn sees most of the US HTs ok, ending the game immediately afterwards sees all of them abandoned. In each occasion (had to test several times due to find out what takes so much computing time) the HTs got at least 5 hits from different angles till they decided to quit. Effect of 3,7cm on 251/10 seemed much better, but harder to hit something. The 231s scored more hits at longer ranges than the 250/11 due to having an autocannon. It took them one turn till they arrived in their firing positions, and 2 of them had to abandon positions after one turn due to long range Stuart and M3 GMC fire (at 2000m), but in turn 3 I shoot at dead horses anyway... The 250/11 had almost no effect but forcing the US HTs to run around wildly. The HTs even returned fire and were able to suppress some 250/11s (before the 231s and 251s arrived) Conclusions: Effect after penetration of light guns is low. 20mm auto has some overall effect due to higher hit prob. But I'd like them to fire HE... 20/28mm smooth bore on 250/11 is a big ATR and works like an ATR. The target gets nervous, and a lucky hit might score. Intend to send them on the flank and shoot&scoot at sides of US armor. Wanna know what they can do vs tanks. 37mm gun on 251/11 doesn't hit that good, but it has some effect vs HTs. Gruß Joachim

Next best thing is using 3 reinforcements slots appearing in the same battle. You might get lucky and they are spread out. But you can't influence where they appear. Gruß Joachim

Oooh.. then I have to hold back my review for 2-3 weeks. Gruß Joachim

No. FlaKFront is really annoying ITR. Can't make sure that the 88s are behind a crest and still can fire across it. 88s should be able to move at least a few metres. Gruß Joachim

Hey, now I know why the Soviets could penetrate the lines so easy - Army Group Centre was in North Africa. At least the description says that. Or just a devilish ploy to get some remote referene for this forum. (Hint: Region "North Africa" at TSD) Is this constructive criticism? Do I qualify already? Or do I have to resort to my last battles err.. bottles of Barolo and the almost neverending supplies of fine wine from the Palatinate? Gruß Joachim

a) Use the map as a scenario. Infantry as targets and lots of planes. Play scen, look at map after AAR, save map. IIRC there is some hotkey that allows placing damage... best bet (game not available ATM) is the number keys... ->RTM Gruß Joachim

Not in every case. Use a covered arc to rotate the gun - while rotating happens before the deploy countdown (and thus lengthens it), covered arcs do not affect the deployment time but the gun rotates anyway If the gun has to move less, then rotating may safe time. If the HT rotates on open ground or worse, rotating the HT may take longer than rotating and moving the gun. An experienced HT/truck should take less time if he drives a half-circle and reverses a bit. Gruß Joachim

If force ratios are the only reason for reinfocements and they are calculated simultaneously, it is not possible that both sides get reinforcements in the same turn as stated in the first post. Gruß Joachim

They had two choices: Stop shelling once he breaks and leave him ammo or waste all his ammo once broken. Each would p*** off some people. Just imagine he radios back "Salvo right on target, gimme more" after each salvo. Once he stops the firing stops. Gruß Joachim BTW: Preplanned arty ignores the spotter. He routes, dies, leaves - who cares. The rounds will fall.

Nope, the lines are still there when LOS is broken - e.g. after you reversed. You never know if you are spotted. You only know whether there is some incoming. Gruß Joachim BTW: How do you know in RL if another person can see you or not? In CM it is exactly the same... ... except that if one enemy can see a units, its position is revealed to all enemies during the next orders phase (aka "borg spotting").

Flamers work best in a deadlocked close combat situation. While grenades are flying and most squads are suppressed, the flamer sneaks forward or rises in good cover (bldg, woods) and delivers a blow, panicking the enemy and thus breaking the stalemate. Make sure there are not many of your enemies near the FT. If the enemy decides on targetting the FT with many units, suppression of your other units eases giving them an advantage. Consider advancing forward with several other units. It is a hard choice to target the flamer or the advancing others. A lone flamer in CM is lost. Gruß Joachim [ January 16, 2004, 08:45 AM: Message edited by: Joachim ]

If you want to play "Quick operations", I suggest you balance them a bit. You have to do that yourself. The editor is to create scenarios or ops that are balanced by the author. It is not neccesarily for the novice but for the experienced player who knows the units and their value - and the effect of reinforcements. Balancing is usually done by playtesting the scenario/op. For an operation, this is a very long process - especially because there are reinforcements and the (ab)use of available forces depends on the individual player: Players have a choice to attack with what is at hand or wait for their reserves, creating completely different scenarios... What you are doing sounds interesting, yet it was probably never intended. Some tips: a) Restrict the amount of arty for each player (cf above) Either -use the rarity to calculate the points (inf has no rarity anyway). Takes some time and calculations however or - do not allow any units with rarity above 40% (or only a fixed amount of those, say 1 spotter or 1 plt of tanks etc, maybe also calculate their cost based on rarity) c) use redwolf's armor rules (search the forum for them) to balance the armor. Doing that will balance the battle (at least to some extent ) Gruß Joachim

Plus if you have no foxhole, you usually lie flat to minimize the target towards the enemy and have cover in front of you. Shrapnel from above is bad news... Airbursts are about the only effective 81mm FO use - except for suppression.

Dunno for the guns, but if the house is crowded some have to leave... Just for the record: There is only one flag and it is firmly in GE hands at the farm house. The units were ordered to hide in the scenario editor, but the AI played the Axis forces (ie it was probably the "strategic AI" and not the TacAI that ordered them to move?) The guns always move or the guns moved in one incident? Gruß Joachim

You can not load saved games from QBs into the editor. You can not load standard saved games into the editor. Rumors have it that you can load saved games from scenarios after they are finished. 1) Start the autosave (that is now bak*) 2) Surrender 3) Click "View map" in the AAR 4) Save game as XYZ 5) Load XYZ into the editor There will be some losses, however... Gruß Joachim

A small theory: End of battle 1 sees GE player about even with SO. As the attacker is supposed to have 1.5 (or sumfink) ratio, he gets his btn reinf. Now the game checks for the defender ratio. Ooops. With the freshly arrived reinforcements, the Germans are too strong. Reinforcement for the Soviets. Both btn reinf due at start of battle 2. End of Battle 2 sees the force ratio just below the regt reinf treshold. During the night (end of battle 3), several men return from hospital, maybe even a SO vehicle gets repaired. The bigger the beating was, the more men return - the Soviets get a few more. The ratio shifts just enough to unleash the regt reinf of the Germans... I'd suggest you use regular reinforcements 2000 - 1000 - 1000 - 1000 and btn/reg/div reinforcements of about 1000 each. And I strongly suggest you conserve your forces! Gruß Joachim

You can't do that in scenarios. You will usually neither see a repair vehicle nor an ammo truck in a combat zone... You get some resupply and repair in operations- depending on the parameters. Gruß Joachim