Joachim

Yes, ops have a certain problem with no mans land. If possible, hide some infantry in forward locations (rear slope) while killing at range. If you really control the area in front of your guns, your troops will stay safe their. Just keep them hidden or use covered arcs to be able to observe but to avoid firing - which will usually keep them hidden up to 50m (depending on force quality). Battles consist of slaughter and maneuver - the less slaughter, the better the general. If I have the time and space for maneuver, I gladly play long battles. Consider a 120 turn assault with a standard force ratio. If both sides have 150% ammo they should be able to kill 50% more troops than in a 30 turn battle with 100% ammo - given you are able to conserve ammo. In a 30-turn city battle a third of my grunts were out of ammo in turn 9, one third half thru their ammo, one third still in reserve. No matter if this is a 30 or 100 turn battle - it is already decided in turn 9 as I guess at least 50% of the AI infantry (at 175% strength) is gone. A 120-turn assault across the open sees all of my foces at about 150% ammo in turn 9. No enemy contact yet, just probing the lines. It will be a fierce attack once I commit my main thrust into his MLR. I guess the first few turns of that main thrust will decide the battle. Only then will I use the bulk of my ammo (covered arcs!). There is no sense in using rifle squads beyond 200m on dug in troops. The extra turns allow me to maneuver, probe and stage deceptions. Of course you need a patient opponent for this kind of attack. Hopefully he still saw nothing more than 2 plts... Me wants big ops! Or big scens. Gruß Joachim

There is a thread somewhere on a similar topic. Try Need expert help on CMBB Operations setups or Everything about operations If you play an operation with fixed setup, the AI will place units that were positioned ahead of its 2nd battle setup zone (outflanked, overrun) only backwards, not sidewards. Reinfocements will also be fixed in the place they appear (usually one big unorganized heap, often in the open). Maybe using several reinfocements for the same battle might spread that heap, but still keep some in the open. (Guess the AI first sets the units back just to have them in the setup zone, then finds they are fixed...) I usually attack on a small front (or two) in an operation (esp with short battles on huge maps). My goal is to attrit the enemy early. Thus I try to reach positions where I have good cover at the beginning of the next battle while the enemy has bad cover (and will be slaughtered in the open) or must fall back, yielding even more ground. Take this into account when using the advice above: "If you can, find the approximate area where the first battle ends. Leave mostly good tactical cover terrain in that area (trees, buildings, treelines, etc.)and keep poorly located tactical cover terrain types in that area of the map to a minimum, the AI will make some better setup choices." Gruß Joachim

A nice little trick I found is using IIIj (late) or IIIL at 700m+ as shield while hammers with eggshells do the killing. Engage with PzIII at range late in Turn X. If the other player accepts the challenge, move up the hammers early in turn X+1 - but behind the PzIII screen. The TacAI will continue targetting the PzIII. The hammers get off several shots. Make sure you get little return fire in turn X+2: a) Overkill drop smoke late in turn X+1 c) use hammers with short command delay and immediately retreat if necessary. Cancelling the target orders by the other player might ruin the party, as the TacAI is less eager to override human targetting orders than its own. Using 80mm StuGs as shield might not work due to enemy tanks taking cover. Present the enemy with a fair chance in turn X - or he won't take the challenge. Gruß Joachim

If you want a tank hunting plt, this plt needs a very good plan to kill 6 tanks accompanied by infantry. a) It needs to strip the infantry from the tanks: Use a HMG a bit back to avoid early detection of your position Spread your forward troops. The LMGs do the firing (and draw fire), while the rest remains hidden: Use separate LMGs (2-3). c) You need any morale you can get. Split squads have less morale. Use 3-4 reduced squads (60-70%) instead of half squads. Buy several plts and check which one has the desired properties (number of SMGs and LMGs for each squad, HQ strength). d) Make sure you use magnetic mines - much better than the ordinary Panzerwurfminen. They are available at least for the TH teams. Do not use rifle grenades for the squads. If magnetic mines are not available for them, use Panzerwurfminen (dunno the English translation for them) Use the max amount of mines and grenade bundles for your troops. e) Consider using pioneers - demo charge better than grenade bundle, smaller squads. f) As already said - Tungsten for the 50mm or use a 75mm - and set it up a bit back... Of course a movie will prefer explosions all over the same place. Your plt will prefer explosions as far apart as possible. A 37mm PaK (!) with several muzzle-loaded HEAT rounds will do fine, too. On short distances it rocks. Spotting it is harder. This might negate some borg spotting effects. g) Consider using an additional plt/section HQ for the hvy weapons in the rear h) Give big boni to the HQs! Stealth, morale, combat. Maybe even command to allow spreading your troops. They'll need it. i) IIRC it was a penal btn and not stormtroopers. j) Use brush or small dips for concealment. k) Consider using trenches. A Pak in a trench behind a small crest or a wall is a tough nut too crack. Trenches give good cover. Using several of them will not allow a human Soviet player to shell suspected positions effectively. l) Reduce the canister load of the T34s If you like scenarios like that, try GD Romanian Defence from Michael Dorosh. Gruß Joachim

If you play with the "stick for scenario default" fixed setup option for the AI, the AI will move these units backwards to its , but usually not sidewards (except for stacking problems.) So at least you should know where those guns are... Gruß Joachim

I believe it will dismebark troops from HT's but not trucks. Panther Commander </font>

No and no. a) You would not know whether you're spotted in reality (even if you get incoming it could be recce by fire). You probably count the enemies you see like the Australian aborigines: 1, 2, many. In the first two cases, you can try to target them ("N" key)and count them by yourself, in the latter case - does the number really count? What's worse for a KV: spotting 20 LMGs or spotting 1 Tiger? Gruß Joachim

4 Tigers and a plt of inf are 1000pts - but only with rarity off, unrestricted or armor force and regulars or worse. If rarity is off, then you can buy 57mm guns. These will work better than 76mm. Gruß Joachim

The existence of an exported AAR report would allow keeping track of units's deeds and losses during a battle. Allowing an import of maps into the scenario editor (while keeping the units) would allow to use the same core. Allowing finished battles to be imported into the scenario editor (I can use them for QBs again, not for Scenarios) would allow to use the core after a battle (e.g to get the troops without any reinforcements). Then I'd like buttons or shortcuts to set global fitness and ammo of all units already bought - but these are a bonus. These things would allow third party campaign designers to create campaigns that do not need a large amount of bookkeeping by the user. It would still mean the campaign designers have to spend considerable time on their rulesets and automated spreadsheets. But I guess Robert and me have fun with that (alas RL limits time for fun). These campaigns can not and will not be "historical". In the event a commander survives long enough he would get promotions, commanding larger forces leading to huge battles. But if you restrict the campaign to following a specific units career during the war, the campaign can do that. Rules can state you don't get the (ahistoric) fancy stuff. If you take it nevertheless - hey, it's the players decision. How many PBEM QBs do exist where the player uses Tigers or 80mm front StuGs as soon as he can get them? Often you have "gamey" losses above 50%. A rare result when not encircled. So are PBEMs not historical? What is more realistic in campaigns is that you have to care for your men. Excessive losses will have effects in the future - thus you avoid them and prefer to withdraw to fight another day. But in the end I don't want to recreate WW2 but to have fun. Campaings result in much more immersion than scenarios. PBEM (or TCP/IP for those with faster connections) is better than fighting the AI - but you can't play it whenever you want for a whole battle in several hours. Gruß Joachim [ December 19, 2003, 07:36 AM: Message edited by: Joachim ]

Wouldn't worry about that. I have at least 10 scenarios and ops for CMBB in the pipeline. </font>

If you take out a HT you often kill the towed gun with it (disrupted crew abandons it). Maybe this is possible for trucks, too. Gruß Joachim

You know, this attack is set in the early morning, but I'm a Morgenmuffel. So I just ordered a few squads to look towards your positions while the others continue to sleep. These squads should be enough to overrun your poor sods. Gruß Joachim

Only if you are concerned about it being correct German. </font>

Yes, if the surrounding countryside is of the brush type. </font>

I'm sure! A single jaeger squad lacks the ammo to kill even a hundred enemy troopers. Or were the Russians armed with pine cones? </font>

Evaluate how many turns you would need to take all flags. Then look at the turns given and reduce your objectives to fit that number of turns. It is often enough to capture a few flags and get a good casualty ratio to win. If you go for a total victory, you will often loose as you have to take huge risks. If you go for a draw or better, you will win more often. Gruß Joachim

Theorem 1: The casualties are the "permanent" casualties. A unrecoverable vehicle or aircraft destroyed in battle 1 is still destroyed in battle 1. Somebody killed stays killed. Wounded may recover. "Proof": a) the stats for those increase over time. Try a battle without a fight and look at the stats. c) The kill - casualties ratio is 1:3 Theorem 2: Wounded return or you get replacments for them. ...But I dunno if the injured returning in battle 2 are counted in the overall count. Gruß Joachim

If he's a Btn or Coy HQ, you can attach a few squads to him to form a reserve plt. You can allow him to take over for a plt HQ without some bonusses by moving the plt HQ out of the way (or directly into harms way ). Gruß Joachim

Me thinks the reinforcements are for defenders that get pushed back - not for attackers! Thus the reinforcements pop up when the marker is in the window or whenever your frontlines are pushed back behind the marker. Which in this case would mean: If you do not reach the marker in battle 1, your frontline is behind it at the setup of battle 2 and thus reinforcements are triggered. Gruß Joachim

Fighting the AI is a challenge... if you give him some bonus. At 3:1 odds, the AI makes a tough attacker. At 1.5:2 odds, it is damn hard to attack vs the AI across open country. Sound tactics can win. But you have to be careful and plan every move. Patience is the key. If you try to achieve total victory and capture every flag, you are often doomed. Go for 50% of the flags at a favourable kill ratio. This is usually enough. Keep in mind that a) the AI usually goes for the nearest flag when on the attack - so don't defend frontally but from angles of the expected approach route. Ambushing the AI's troops at the forward flag after his spearhead moved further is fun. But if he spots your troops, he goes after them. the AI counterattacks if flags are threatened. Thus capture or move close to an outlying flag, wait for the counter from everywhere on the board. Slaughter the movers or fix them outside their foxholes. Continue attack. Roughly one third of the battle for each phase. A bit gamey, but maneuver works better than attrition vs the AI.

Don't brag, you're not the only one. </font>

Cowards and deserters do not deserve any experience points... They are transferred to a penal battalion and you need some replacements for them Gruß Joachim

I'd suggest that you use some rules of the "long campaign vs AI" type and mod them. Suggestions for mods: 1.) If you keep up your "the victor sets the next battle", I suggest anybody winning 6 times in a row is promoted to another player level and the force bonus changes (e.g. after you win 6 battles, your opponent gets 10% bonus. Another 6 wins, and your at 25%. 6 wins for your opponent and your back to 10%). 2.) Terrain&Weather is set by one of those long campaign generators. 3.) Force type, division type etc. are set by those generators, too. 4.) The most intriguing part is keeping track of 2 forces. If you like to play with the same core in every battle plus some support forces varying over battles, you can keep track of your core like in BCR or ROQC (kind of Panzer General or Steel Panthers campaigns for CM) But I guess you don't want to use the same core force in each battle - your enemy knows to much about the composition. Some ideas to reduce that: a) Don't use a core force (saves some bookkeeping) upgrade them often. c) Using only inf or support as core could reduce the value of the information. 5.) And then there is that suggestion about balance: Do not use the standard point allotments from CM, but let the generator decide how many points you can spend on which category. Example: Player A has a core of 700pts, B has 650 First you roll the battle type and the base force size It is a ME, no casualties and the force size is 2000. Player A gets 700 inf, 200 vehicle, 300 armor and 200 arty. So he has a force total of 2100 pts. As this is too much for a 2000pts battle, Player A has to adjust his force. He has 100 support pts too much out of a total of 1400 and should have only 1300 pts. So he has to reduce every support category: 700 inf gets 700*1300/1400 = 650pts, vehicle is 200*1300/1400 etc. Player B rolls 300 inf, 100 vehicle, 500 armor and 150 arty. So he has only 1700 pts. No adjustment, as this is below 2000 pts. Tough luck. (If he had a 10% bonus cause player A won so often, he can use 330 inf, 110 vehicle and gets additional 65 pts infantry for his 650 pts core Gruß Joachim

Neither works Gruß Joachim

Stop rambling and get your email problems solved! I despise the idea that I actually owe you a turn because of your incapacity. My troops shot in your general direction, and I want to see your men running! Though I have to admit my old teacher would have been pleased by such a brilliant hendiadyoin like "Finns suck". But who needs those things anyway. Wasting two words when one is already too much. Gruß Joachim [ November 28, 2003, 10:43 AM: Message edited by: Joachim ]