Joachim

If you think the AI "cheats", let it work for you. If the AI targets crack and HQ even if the hit probability is lower, then it will be those doing the overwatch in hull-down positions. OTOH I remember two '41 QBs (v1.02 or below)where I had green/regular Romanian tanks (those slow ones with 2 man crew, 37L21 gun but thick armour) in the first line with a veteran/crack PzIIc, IIIg and IVe in the second line about 50-100 metres back. The poor Romanians took the incoming - but usually survived 45mm and 76mm fire with their thicker armor - while the German tanks run out of ammo doing the kills on ranges above 500m. This experience suggests that the AI is not cheating - it acted pretty dumb on this occassions . Even a SdKfz231/8 scored some BTs from that "cover". Had I done the targetting for the Soviet guns, I know what I would have shot at Gruß Joachim

Some (lightly) wounded come back during the operation and are not counted as wounded afterwards (except if they get wounded again till the end). You can see this when comparing the losses of single squads at the end of a battle with the begin of the next. Gruß Joachim [ May 19, 2003, 04:13 AM: Message edited by: Scarhead ]

Exceptional support Joachim - best I've seen in a long time. Well done </font>

Pinned, panicked or routed squads have less morale than squads that are ok. If several of your squads have beaten off the assault in their sector and now don't see a threat anymore, morale goes up. Just what you would expect in RL. Gruß Joachim

The weird reason dates back a few centuries. In Latin it is possible to number CM or DXXXX. Maybe that some Romans or some monks during the dark ages were unable to subtract? Or just because "judex non calculat" and the lawyers invented their own numbering system which attracted the military because it is more simple? Gruß Joachim

I'd go for either a) the commander's name, the core unit (if you have most of 2nd Co with some attached units and 2nd Co HQ is in charge, it will likely be "2nd Co takes the village. support comes from.... And the support is usually not mentioned) c) any colour or any name made up on the spot. Only restriction is that the names have some relation. In late war, any "heroic" names (e.g. prominent generals of the past etc.: Blücher, Gneisenau) will do fine.

emerge? you mean, just pass it through? yes/no I rush (fast forward) with all Vehicle/armor just behind the smokescreen. Then unload and positioning my stuff. Only thing is, sometimes you still get shot at, and then my respons is to try to konck it down, send some more tanks to support (not too far forward but still). So my "overwatch" isn't ready yet, it's in the make. Am i making it to far forward? </font>

You gotta make sure some of your armor survives - they are called "reserves" :cool: . And have some infantry reserves intact, too. Gruß Joachim

You are learning fast! As a small hint, expect some reinforcements for the defense and later counter attacks once you come close to a flag and the AI has enough strength left. This will cost you some time, but boost your kill ratio. Gruß Joachim

Oww, sorry. That's not exactly what i mean. I mean the sheet where you fill in the results for your single units. Anyway, it isn't there, but i see in the Excel-sheets why; So for a small Mortat a add 5 bonus-points to the casualties (inf) ? and the bigger 81mm 15? how about the 120mm then ? That must be worth more... Some clearafications; SPW > Vehicles or light Armor ? Pz IIc > Light Armor or tank ? and a SPW sp/2 or a SPW FLAK ? </font>

Some more thoughts: Did you emerge from the smoke screen, or did you establish covering positions for your next advance just before the smoke settled? A smoke screen is a perfect rear slope: - anything emerging from it is moving, and thus can't spot well - there are no overwatch positions - if you move thru it in driblets, you will get defeated in driblets. - if you move thru it on a broad front with all units at the same time, the ATGs nevertheless have to range in only once, using the same range for all consecutive targets. - Aim your barrage for identified targets. Sounds are usually enough, but make sure you spend 250 points for 35 150mm rounds on targets that are worth those 250 points. Shelling a 25 point ATG with 250 points of arty is not efficient. - If you have to duel ATGs with tanks, it is usually better to engage the guns from range, where the guns can't penetrate the armor. If you have at least some tanks in overwatch, you can retreat your forward tanks once the ATGs open up. If Inf instead of armor found the guns - even better. If the guns disappear - check your stats if somebody killed them, else use area fire on the probably hiding guns. If an inf marker (crew) appears near the gun, you usually have killed them. Gruß Joachim

No, i don't understand. Every roll of the dice is a action on itself, why should it be different when you start rolling the Axis Parameters :confused: </font>

Hiding behind something does not qualify as cover in the CM world. Exposure (as the TacAI defines it) is as if they were in the open. I guess the computational overload for the CPU checking likely hiding places based on terrain height would be just too much to wait for. I remember one movie scene where they ( I guess US cav vs Indians) take cover on one side of a little rinse in the ground, receive incoming from behind, switch to the other side, take cover, again receive incoming from behind, etc. Otherwise breaking LOS to those firing at you - if they are identified and you are sure they are the only ones firing at you - seems a sound tactic to me. Are you sure there are no politcal troops armed with SMGs behind that cover? Gruß Joachim

You mean, two regiments of infantry pouring through the lines to be massacred by enemy tanks, MG's and field guns while your tanks are held off behind a ridge? </font>

Still crawling away. Though at least pinned or hiding there exposure should be null. Gruß Joachim

Yes, 2nd this. Had a city battle (custom map) recently and the street along which I wanted to advance my armor was blocked. Glad I had a fallback plan. A plt of Pioneers had removed 2 daisy chain mines ahaed, but the block was too much (they did have explosives left). Road blocks are pretty unfair in certain cases. Use AP minefields and maybe daisy chain on roads instead. Very nasty in wet ground conditions, if you just have some minefields near the road Guaranteed to delay the attacking armor - as inf won't spot anything except daisies. IIRC, it is even cheaper. Daisies are best immediately behind sharp bends that cannot be seen or on reverse slope. If they were out of sight the turn before, they often get overlooked and do some damage. Reverse slope has the advantage of forcing the pioneers to clear them without the rest of OPFOR being able to cover them. Cover obstacles with MGs and ATGs, TRP (for ATG and arty alike) if you want and if they have to be cleared by the enemy for his advance. Gruß Joachim

IIRC Group orders cancel all other orders and set the first waypoint. You can change that waypoint for each individual unit (after selecting only one) and give more orders to the unit. AFAIK, the group order is just for your convenience. Gruß Joachim

Sounds interesting. Designed for 1.02 or on 1.03? Gruß Joachim [ May 09, 2003, 04:47 AM: Message edited by: Scarhead ]

Remember that save games (and a qb is just that) do not load into the editor. You have to either load a map from a scenario (ie the scen itself) or from a map pack, or let the editor create a random map. (It may help to check the size of the map in the qb generated to decide your support units). SOP: 1) Load map into editor 2) Buy units and modify them 3) save&exit 4) start qb 5) When asked for random map parameters, select load map. 6) select "import troops: Yes" The bad thing is that you won't keep any custom ammo level until you have v1.03. I usually set up only my core that way, TF in the standard qb buy screen. gruß Joachim

Arty in CMBB is always restricted - at least from my exp. Tough luck, you loose the points Gruß Joachim

Use the magnification level 1 near where you want to place them. If there is some slight slope in the area, you will find it. If somehting offers concealment or cover in real life, it will do so in CM. Place them in woods, pines, trees - even wheat fields will offer you concealment. Dont't duel it out at 1500metres if you can't penetrate the armor at that distance! Issue "hide" command to your guns. Place covered arcs to define that they only fire at targets in that arc. Once a target appears in that arc, the guns will un-hide. And I 2nd anything the previuous post said. Gruß Joachim

grumble... not happy with that. Crack troops should know much better if there are guards coming or not, or if it is a T34 or just a BT. OTOH I can now send the greenest squad of the plt as point - usually sent better squads hoping they would find the enemy better. But if it is the HQ that does the spotting anyway... 'nuff said on borg spotting on this board. From my personal experience, I tend to think that the tacAI overrules its own targets, but is pretty sticky to your target orders. Thus especially MGs usually get their target orders cancelled before each turn. grumble... not happy with that. Somewhere else I read on the offense you have to wait 2-3 turns for Binos to have full effect scanning the horizon- that seems much more likely compared to RL. Reducing any optics effect under less than optimal conditions added to wishlist. grumble... yes, expected something like that. I hoped to hear something else... I guess "perform better" is then just the decreased command delay while in range (plus the morale). grumble.... Gruß Joachim

There do exist cicrumstances when the effectiveness of binoculars is null: In dense woods, from behind hills, during night combat, ... Even dusk or dawn should decrease ability of binoculars (IIRC they reduce optics abilities) So in some cases the HQ will spot the enemy earlier - this iw where your answer may be valid (I have no evidence it is not). But in other cases, the HQ will not spot earlier - as only the squad has LOS, while LOS from HQ to enemy is blocked. So the original question is still unanswered - at least for these cases. Do squads tend to fire on targets the HQ has LOS to, or do they fire entirely on their own? Is their an instant fire plan coordinated by HQ, or are the squads after TacAI took over in the action phase? Gruß Joachim </font>

Notice: All men of the 1st and 2nd squad of 3rd plt to receive EK I. In a valiant action in a Kiev industrial area, they managed to kill 125 and 83 men resp in a single night battle. When a Soviet airborne battalion hit their positions in a factory from the flank, the 3rd plt raked up 250 causalties with no losses to the plt itself. None of the squads did falter despite several bursts from flamethrowers into their positions. 3rd plt was set up in an ambush position initially, and protected by mines and wire between to burning woods. A Pz IIIg was set up to provide covering fire, a PzIV rushed to help. When the plt run out of ammo after 5 minutes, Lt. Dahm disengaged and safely led his man and the tanks back to the company position (well, the way there was free of enemies, but battle ended, so I kept that one flag. BTW - ammo level was 40% Battle result: Flags: 100 axis vs 900 allies Losses 303 allies vs 0 axis (the tanks score less than 30, arty had a few, rest was mine fields) Result: 800 something vs 900, draw. It was hardly possible to read the "eliminated" labels where AIvan tried to move in between the burning woods and the wire. Despite clearing a minefield in the center of the (shifted) positions, he tried to advance in a dead corner, but was caught by grenades. Had I knewn how deadly one ambush can be, wiping out one quarter of the Soviet force, I would have placed all three plts like that. Gruß Joachim

I like the principle behind it, but can't see how it can be implimented in a simple way. I.e. without recording all the TF units and counting casualties (esp when their's a casualty % in action). Any suggestions? </font>