Joachim

From my opinion, it is the team that wins. If you have an AE guy with an AR staff, that would be a good thing. Or an AE guy who is forced into an AR role by his CO. Usually everythinbg is in place - so when AE is needed, it can be fully unleashed without searching. On Patton: What makes you sure he is AR? Maybe he is AE but forces himself to be more AR. At least that's what I am trying to do with me... Gruß Joachim

Considering heigt, eye-colour and (at least my hairstylists opinion of my) hair-colour, I'd dress in black, herd some slave-laborers and live somewhere in the general direction of Siberia. Man, the first time in ages I am completely happy with my life - it really could be so much worse... Gruß Joachim

Well, if it is 6:1, you should have decided to run instead of fight, or put up a token resistance from the rear edge and withdraw to the big reverse slope just behind the board edge. Your MGs and mortars hould have spent their ammo, and then all withdraw (simultaneously with the bulk of the forces to avoid stragglers getting captured in the forced autosurrender). Gruß Joachim

Can't wait to get home and test it!!!

Thanks OZ. So Iosif means Joseph, or Josef in German -> JS in English and German or otherwise the correct russian kyrillian letters. But IS in English or German is definately wrong. </font>

Stuck in Kiev :-(. Those bridges are hell. No cover from smoke... Plan is still to cross October bridge, but in turn 8 nobody set foot on any bridge yet. After spotting many and eliminating some bunkers along the riverside and in keyhole positions, I'll have to blast any defenders on October Island to smithereens. Need opinions for this plan: a) blast any bunkers and guns until turn 12 (7 out of 11 spotted bunkers are destroyed), try to locate guns with a/cs patrolling my riverside(2 so far, 1 destroyed and the other has hidden again, but area fire from sIGs should wipe it out). Prime weapons are 2cm FlaK (*2), PzII (*2) and SdKfz231/8 (*1). Wooden bunkers can be destroyed by sIGs and 7,5cm, but ammo is limited probe halfway across bridges with a/cs (can push them off the bridges if destroyed?) to get some more guns out of hiding - or expend their limited ammo (turn 14) c) probe with StuGs and PzII to kill the keyhole bunkers and any guns spotted that are out of reach from my side (end in turn 20) d) decide whether to go across October or rightmost bridge (turn 14-20) e) shell according isle/shell intended bridgehead with a 150mm, a 105mm module and a 81mm module for 1.2 turns before f) troops ride in on StuGs and tanks (first wave 1 plt, second wave another plt close behind). Secure bridgehead, widen bridgehead, take up OPs. One Co HQ to go in with the first wave, if any plt HQ fails to make it. Plan "October": g) smoke last 30seconds, try to have the bridgehead smoked while unlaoding the first wave. (before turn 30) h) shuttle service for the rest of the forces. 3 HTs for 7 plts means 10 trips means at least 20 turns. So some have to ride on tanks. Shuttle phase should be over by turn 45! I have 9 tanks for full squads and 3 light ones for teams. Once the bridgehead is established, I will need 4 + 2 tanks for shuttle service. If any units drop off the transport, I'll risk a traffic jam - meaning more tempting targets. Maybe the HT version is faster than the open deck version? Plan "right" g) ride in with 1 wave on isle, secure woods. Widen bridghehead, 2nd wave follows on tanks. 2nd wave tanks to shuttle units across. What I don't like is that the bridge is too small, and the tanks on the isle have not much space. Not a good jumping point for the factory district. ------------------------------- So I again favor plan October. Should have bought some assualt boats to attack that d... isle as I can't jump off the bridges (or take ropes to climb down...) Any comments? Gruß Joachim

FMI, the bumper cars happen cause the AI checks the road for one vehicle at a given time. Road ahead ain't clear? Stop, maybe detour. Checking all other units whether they are moving out of the way means a lot of CPU time - as you have to make sure that there are no circles involved (A moves out of the way of B, B moves out of the way of C, C moves out of the way of D, but D moves into the way of A...) If the AI is tweaked that he checks only for those limited number of vehicles/units in the convoy (in a given order) it might be a solution - if there is a rule enforcing that the first vehicle can't follow (Further info on this see thread mentioned above). Gruß Joachim

During my last battles I noticed that the victory percentages went up with lost units. The bigger the carnage, the bigger the percentages (for the AI and me) that were shown. Without any flag (out of 1700pts) captured, and all flags "unknown", I saw the percentages evolve. Let's call this the casaulty score (CS), for pl 1 and 2 (CS1, CS2) Then I captured a small flag, and the percentage changed a bit. Let's call the flag score (FS) the score you get for holding flags. Of course, if you "think" you hold a flag, you will have a perceived flag score, which might not be true after the fog lifts. Guestimated formula during game: CS1 + FS1 + CS2 + FS2 + Value of "unknown" flags = 100 If you score (CS1 + FS1 = ) 16, the oppenent (CS2 + FS2=) score 4 and all flags are "unknown" (thus FS1 and FS2 = 0), then the point value of all flags equals 80% in the outcome. E.g. if you control half the flags in the end, it would be 80/2+16 = 56 vs 80/2+4 = 44. If you then hold all the flags, it is 96:4 (CS1 = 16, FS 1 = 80) Another example: If you hold one small flag out of 1000 pts, and the enemy has a big flag and the score is 40:24, you have CS1 + FS1 + CS2 + FS2 + unknown flags = 100 Thus unknown flags make up for 100 - 40 - 24 = 36 points in the score, so 600 (=1000-100-300) pts for flags are worth 36. This means 100 pts in flags are 6% for the score. So you get: CS 1 = 40 - 6 = 34 CS 2 = 24 - 18 = 6 Now when the smoke has settled and the battle ends, these scores (that evolve during the game) will be the base for the overall scores. If the enemy holds all the remaining flags, he will get 6 + 18 + 36 = 60, while you will stay at 40. If you manage to get some more flags (without any further casualties, so the casualty rate stays at CS1:CS2 = 34:6) your score will go up accordingly. If all flags are held by somebody in the end, this formula seems to hold. I don't know what happens with disputed flags in the end, whether they are just ignored (ie they don't exist) when the point value of all flags is calculated to get the end result, or if they are counted. Say you have 34:6 again and both hold 300 points of flags. This could get 100-34-6 = 60 5 divided for 600 points in controlled flags, so both players get their share of 30, resulting in 34+30= 64 : 36, or if each small flag is still worth 60/1000*100 = 6% as above. Then we would get 34+18 = 52 : 24 = 6+18. IIRC CMBB boosts the score to a total of 100, so 52:24 is boosted to 52*(100/(52+24)) : 24 * (100/(52+24)) resulting in 68,4:31,6 or 68:32 Note that the model is not based on a big amount of data, so it may only apply in certain cases. It evolved during a 50+ game where I fought thru a city and wanted to see whether I had to press harder to achieve victory while strong counterattacks by the AI slowed me down. If you don't want to do the math: The flag values in points are fixed, but the casualty scores are not, and thus the value in percent of the total score of a given flag is not fixed, but decreases with casualties. Read: The more slaughter, the less important the flags. Always remember kids: Do this at home! Gruß Joachim [ May 30, 2003, 07:15 AM: Message edited by: Scarhead ]

Well, that was how I stumbled across the problem. Exactly the same behaviour over here. I can live with the "bug", but I was a bit frustrated that I was too dumb to find out how it works . Gruß Joachim

Scenario or QB? Gruß Joachim

That's rather easy: 1st vehicle gets command. 2nd vehicle gets command to follow 1st vehicle (on its footsteps, not always driving the direct way towards that vehicle, esp. on road bends) 3rd vehicle gets command to follow 2nd vehicle. etc. It is important that the AI sets the waypoints so the following vehicle gets the same waypoints than the leader. Modification of waypoints during action phase (ie during computation phase) for the leader means modifcation for the follower. The problem of getting to the start point of the leader would be to give waypoints for the follower to the leaders position - either as "follow road till there" or as individual waypoints. To get rid of potential problems with "A follows B follows C follows A", you could not set a follow command to a vehicle that does lead already, meaning you have to start with one leader and give successive orders - or the AI has to check if there are cross-references and refuse orders then during order phase. The "follow road command" would have to find a road, plot the way with a "keep left" for the Brits and a "keep right" for the rest uf us, resulting in total confusion once Brits and Amis move towards each other. For any scenarios titled Villers-Bocage, the Germans are allowed to mess up their SOP and drive on the left side, or the Brits are polite enough to give way to Wittmann's Tiger. IMHO, the above solves this problem. Pathfinder already modifies path by quite a lot. If the path is rather long or one waypoint is on an obstacle or an obstacle moves the path to far from the user set path, the AI does a remarkable job of finding a path along good cover. Gruß Joachim

In fact, same applies to an attack. Before an operation battle ends, take back some of your most forward units to make sure they get supplies. Martin </font>

That's why I seperated them in 3 different commands . Can't see any reason vs. the vehicle commands except "what happens if the convoy gets shoot at"... well, a bit of chaos, I hope . As I said - part of this is (hidden) in the game. I moved 2 plts across a city map. Those with many waypoints stuck to my commands and waypoints. Those in the rear, whom I wanted not to use cover but move up (in the path of the forward units) got only a few waypoints. Result: 20+ waypoints by the AI, on the best covered approach. Now if I can get an option to select a single move (to contact) command and get these 20+waypoints, and I can do this for a whole plt or Coy, I'd be happy. Little differences between the starting and end points of the individual squads meant big differences in their path - the units got really separated doing this. IMHO, this is the perfect way - you select 1 waypoint, and the AI chooses where your squads move. If you say "battalion-sized KG", I'd say "Yes". Gruß Joachim

Well, how do you know an area is "open" (and here open means free of enemies)? Usually by going there. You know it ain't open if you see someone there, and this often means you get fired at. In CMBB (or any squad-level wargame I know) you already know somebody is on the map, but you don't know where. So given the small timescale, you have to find it fast (or play longer battles) Hence you do the scouting that would have happened pre-game during the first turns - if you have the assets. But lets face it - if I know there are 76mm guns around, a tiny 221 has better survival chances than a PzIIIg. It can get back out of trouble much faster. On the given "CM-situation", which may not be too representative of RL, it is often a good alternative. At least if somebody forgot to spend some points on some light ranged AT weapons . Gruß Joachim

Maybe it does not work on QBs loading premade maps? I made sure that the premade maps had "user select", but it still did not work. 1.02 CDV. Gruß Joachim

Worse than getting shot at without cover is getting shot at - from nowhere - without any cover in sight - not knowing where you will run to when you really start to panick... I had problems advancing veteran squads in 60m viz. After battle map of a Sov advance showed that in 30m viz the few veteran and regulars squads had reached and scouted the (undefended flags) while the bulk of the green force was on two heaps - err.. four heaps, that is - one of the two spearheads was split in those who panicked (100+), those who were in the last wave of that spearhead (150+) and those 300+ who had advanced into the sights of a single crack plt on 40% ammo. Now I know why the tiny CM soldiers panick in low viz. Gruß Joachim

If the big AT guns are everywhere, would you rather lose a Pz IV or a PSW 222 in order to find them? </font>

On turn 46, two plts were to cross the bridge toward the mayors house, where a plt of Stugs covered by 3 MGs at the riverside neutralized the flag, trying to lure some squads into LOS of those MGs. Two ohter plts were just across the road from the rightmost big flag. Stug and tanks support was in the vicinity, neutralizing the flag. 4+ Minutes to clean the area, where I expected mainly MGs (easy prey - AI can't handle them in urban areas). I even sent a core plt thru the sewers to cross a double row of houses just to make it in time. Then I encountered an auto cease-fire (ammo low...). 78:22. But I lost a crack squad in the sewers!!!! Glad I got at least veteran replacments. Now I have to face those bridges.... Glad I rolled up Large arty (700), 200 pts for vehicles, (have to buy 221, 223 and 251/2) 175 for inf and armor each - but strong wind!!! Aaaarghhhhhhh. Workers bridge is suicide. Just for a quick dash by an A/C to draw fire and reveal some ATGs and bunkers. Rightmost bridge has the pro of capturing a big flag, but the island is hard to cross and then I face factories at the water front (->no heavy wpns there??). Setting up firebases on my side with the sIGs is a problem, too. October bridge looks fine. But I guess once I jump from the bridge, I'm stranded on that island.... Probably shell the crap out of it, then cross there with all armor and drop two plts of pioneers to clean up. Then I'll reverse the armor to ferry two more plts to the far side of the river - after shelling the crap out of the bridgehead there. 700 arty... 25 150mm shells, 180 105mm shells (or some real heavy stuff :cool: AI bought me 33,7cm flame rockets . Are they worth their money?)and lots of 81mm shells on any wooded area as smoke won't last to long. Won't get too easy.... If this wasn't a board for gentlemen, I'd start to call someone rude names. Gruß Joachim

I know the map for my next battle - loaded the wrong one during a setup. Not very nice. Maybe lots of smoke, APCs and light vehicles plus some assault boats to gain a foothold on one side. Some aux thru the sewers? Don't know yet, but fear is spreading... Still playing urban chaos, not much time at the moment - 1 turn per day, but the breakthru is imminent... massive counterattack with 30 SO squads beaten back in turn 20 after taking a small flag. 5 of them eliminated, 6 more will be encircled in the next 2 or 3 turns - in rubble, a wall of fire behind and to the left of them, a road with tanks and open fire lanes for MGs to their right, a road and 3 buildings with 2 plts and flamers in front of them... they are pinned, panicked or broken and have to retreat thru a burning house. As long as I don't shoot at them too much, they won't run before their encirclement . Some 20 icons more in the right edge of the central park (my sIG has LOS to near a few of them.... Don't know if I will mop up or just leave them and break thru. My ammo is low, and they have to cross a road to "my" flag - they won't attack simultaneously, so 1 MG and a plt or two will hold the flag with ease while my forces advance on a small front towards the river (across the park with the pond - it should be stripped of most of its defenders right now) Guestimated OPFOR size was 1000... on 40% ammo from start, I will have problems topping Cmdr. Seahawk - but Victory level with only one flag (1/17th) is around 16%:2%, and I have 30 turns to go. If loss ratio stays with both sides 3 times the losses that's 30:6, 2 big and one other small flag captured will amount to 30:34... that's 60:40. If all goes well my men will have breakfast in the mayor's house, drink his champagne, smoke his cigars, and maybe there is even one of his bunnies around :cool: Gruß Joachim

Squads and HQ cost is only affected by formation size. Check this by buying a Btn and afterwards a plt of that squad - you will see that the plt has much higher cost per squad (available after purchase in your unit list). A 50mm mortar is cheaper in a plt than from the support menu, cheapest in the btn. Rarity only affects support wpns. If they are part of your formation, rarity affects their cost, and thus the formation cost. Gruß Joachim

I remember a night battle at viz 30m where a single crack plt of mech inf ('41) starting at 40% ammo caused 250+ casualties. It was behind wire and mines, and after 3 turns of shooting it abandoned it's positions. The rest of my forces never saw action, as I defended strongpoints and with 30m viz, you just don't get enough information about the axis of advance. I doubt it is possible to hold a map in low viz - but you can trade space for blood in rear slope defence, making it easier the next day. As the attacker, it is much easier to conserve ammo at night if you do not go for the kill but for terrain. Ohh... something else may affect the ammo level: If your units start the setup (ie in their positions from the battle before) outside the deploy zone, they do not get resupplied. Simulates getting encircled or something. I repeatedly did this on the offense in a campaign I playtested. Bypassed Soviet forces, destroyed only what was in or close to the path of my advance... and even the ammo of their forward FOs (!) wasn't replenished . MGs low on ammo and ATRs sitting idle For the defense: take your men back at the end of a battle if they need supplies and are too far forward! Gruß Joachim

Not exactly. The battle report tells you how many people are missing from the strength you started with (not considering you run any units off map, not considering immobile tanks, not considering the men ok from squads that lost most of their strength and were sent rear between battles. I do not know what exactly happens with these - neither the wounded, KIAs nor "ok" men.) The battle screen tells you how many people are still wounded and how many are killed at the end of that peculiar battle. Those wounded in earlier battles and not yet back to the battle are counted as casualties. You start the op with a plt: HQ = 4, 3 squads at 10 strength. In battle 1, you lose only 4 men of squad 1, 1 of them is dead. Result: 4 cas = 3 wounded, 1 KIA For battle 2, 2 of those returns. Nobody gets injured. 4 -2 = 3 cas, 2 wounded 1 KIA. Battle 3 sees heavy fighting. Squad 2 is wiped out, with 2 of them KIA. Sqaud 3 counts 1 wounded, 1 KIA. 2 + 12 cas, 1 + 3 of them KIA, 10 wounded Battle 4 is lull again. 2 wounded return, no new casualties. 12 cas, 4 KIA, 8 wounded. Operation ends. If you look at the example, each battle has a "Kill ratio" of 1 killed for 3 wounded (For the less mathematically gifted among us: 0*1 killed on 0*3 wounded for battle 2 and 4 ). The operation has a ratio of 4:8 or 1 killed for 2 wounded. Gruß Joachim

That's why I wrote "cheats" instead of cheats. Hehe, maybe the AI acts gamey then . But using micromanagmenet ain't gamey, so even this ain't true. Hey, then I am cheating, as I can use that feature and abuse the AI's use of that feature. :cool: But I seriously doubt the AI will shoot on targets who have a significantly lower hit prob. Nevertheless I don't put HQs or the best tanks in the first row. Gruß Joachim