Wolfe

Cruel and Unusual teasage from the Madone: CM2: Your map random force? - Chris

My thoughts exactly. - Chris

Depends on how all-out you want to go. You can disband the overseas units to collect their MPPs (or transport the one in NAfrica. As well as disband the French air fleet and buy an HQ if you like (or Armies/Corps). Don't bother with tanks; they're too expensive and don't pack much extra punch. Also, abandon Marseilles. It's helpful to try to put units to the north and south of the capital. If, after the Germans break through, you can bunch up your units East of Paris and encourage the AI to send troops around to try to surround the city. Their units on the western side of Paris will be much lower in supply and be unable to put up much of a fight. Disbanding the UK strategic bomber (and even the Brit air fleet for that matter) to create ground units to take over is often useful. And make sure the HQ goes with them. I once held out the entire demo doing everything I could think of (including emptying England as well as the Med). It worked for the short demo vs the AI; it's not advisable for the full game. - Chris [ July 01, 2002, 06:10 PM: Message edited by: Wolfe ]

I used to like going after Sweden too, but I've never had good luck in taking it easily. I almost always have to have 4 ground units and a supporting HQ along with a naval unit to root out Helsinki. And I believe Hubert may be making this harder due to our gameplay with the demo. I don't really think Sweden is necessary to get a good thrust deep into Russia, however. Going after Sweden even removes units from the initial push. And although I have transported them over from a conquered Sweden to try to get in behind Riga, I often find them getting hurt up there because of lack of supply. I prefer to ignore Sweden, even with its nice MPPs and just send everyone across the Polish border ASAP. I really don't worry about Yugo; their uprising isn't substantial and Italian as well as Hun/Rom/Bul units are usually available to deal with them. Greece isn't very difficult if you do the sea landing. Going over-land, however, is more adventurous. And I prefer to leave them for later; they'll still be there when I get back. BTW, the Italians make for a reasonably decent Army Group Center; supporting the main thrust south of the Pripet marshes. This gives their HQ invaluable experience points in cleaning up beaten-down Soviet units. Also, trying to link up with the Finns is quite a battle. It takes a lot of units (particularly air) and time to do it. Leningrad ain't no pushover. - Chris

Ahhh. So that's where they went. Thanks Martin! - Chris

Le new and improved set of links (these actually work, mostly ). Many of the pics linked below can be found on this handy page: CMBB Gallery April 24, 2001 - SimHQ Small Wooden Houses Wooden House Tucked in Woods IS-2 3D Model IS-2 3D Model June 15, 2001 - Gamespot UK ISU-152 Concept Drawing of a Soldier Concept Drawing of a Soldier June 20, 2001 - Computer Games Online Soviet Rifle41 Squad in Snow T-34s and Infantry Advance HT, StuG, PzIV, Elefant 3D Models AA Truck, BA-9, BT-7, KV-1 3D Models June 20, 2001 - I got your peng penny and now I am going away!!! Elefant, PzIVD, StuG IIIB, PzIIIJ 3D Models SU-76, T-34, Truck w/ 76mm M1927, KV-1 3D Models StuG Looking out over Wheat Field Wooded Road at Sunset September 19, 2001 - Bone Thrown..Now Come and Get It Ya Thankless Gits! SU-85s among Explosions during Winter T34s and Infantry Advance in the Snow Looking over the Shoulder of an IS-2B in Fog T-34s Moveout at Dusk December 19, 2001 - What exactly will a 9km square map look like at dawn in CMBB? 9km Map at Sunset (View 5) December 19, 2002 - So hey, what's all this I hear about Doodads? Graveyard Rubble Squad in Tall Wheat December 19, 2001 - What Will Wind do in CMBB? Smoke Being Blown by Wind January 8, 2002 - Official CMBB Modelling Thread KV-1S in Front of a Building sIG33 Bison I Implementation February 1, 2002 - Will CMBB properly model thrown bones? Extreme Snow at Night February 11, 2002 - Gamespy Daily KV-1 Destroys Kubel on Winter Tree-lined Street February 28, 2002 - Mac Gamer KV-1 Looks Down Street in Winter Squads Move through Wheatfield Explosions in a Wooded Area Squads Assault a Village in the Snow at Sunset T-34 Platoon Advances through a Wheatfield March 1, 2002 - So what was that I recall about someone wanting a CMBB BONE Thrown??? Winter Damaged Buildings with a T34 ISU in front of Damaged Buildings Squad Walking among Damaged Buildings Infantry Running towards Rubble in Town March 10, 2002 - Ok this bone is a few days early! I feel so damaged .. Really I do! Destroyed Buildings Destroyed, Burning Buildings in Fog Destroyed Buildings at Sunset Destroyed, Burning Buildings with Rubble Madmatt Writes his Name Using Shell Holes April 26, 2002 - Operation Bone Throw - Main Attack sIG33B in Town Weathered T-26 at Sunset T-26 and Infantry Advance between Bombed-out Houses T-26 Immolation T-26s Burning April 26, 2002 - Operation Bone Throw - Flank Attack CMBBmap.jpg - Map of Pillar's Soviet Defense AAR May 13, 2002 - Winterized Doodads Snowy Cemetery May 30, 2002 - Model Contest - New In-game Models StuG III side StuG III top T-26 side T-26 rear June 6, 2002 - This should hold you over for a little while...Two new CMBB Screenshots! KV1's in grass Sdkfz-222E June 6, 2002 - Wargamer Screenshots PzIVC on open plains at dusk German Infantry running down street PzIV rear at night KV-1 closeup Trio of KV1's German infantry running down street (different angle) July 2, 2002 - Is that a CMBB Bone I Smell??? 3D Face of German officer Partial penetration damage on a PzIV Ferdinand texture, rust and all Helmet texture Helmet texture with different insignia PzIIIM commander with different style cap View from inside a transparent building July 16, 2002 - Yeah ok, the CMBB graphics rock but umm, what's it got under the hood? Bones Thrown! Panther-A right side close-up Panther-A left side close-up Panther-A full shot Panther-A in wheat July, 2002 - Games Domain KV-1 in front of damaged building in winter Ferdinand rear July 28, 2002 - Ingaming Turan IIs in wheatfield Panzer IV Russian infantry in wheatfield at night Turan I (with mesh skirts) and II PzIIIs in grassland July 28, 2002 - Game Spy Daily Russian soldiers in street near burning brick building August 2, 2002 - Computer and Video Games Infantry running along wooded road near burning T-34 Infantry running out of woods towards a fence August 3, 2002 - CDV Software T-34/76D (hex turret) PaK38 AT gun Brummbaer early Romanian 35R 731(f) and PzJaeger I (4.7cm PaK(t) auf Pzkfw IB) sIG33 August 7, 2002 - And the clouds parted, the Earth trembled, the animals cowered and a BONE Emerged!!!! Panther A and JadgPanther Panther G and Panther A riding off into the sunset 3 Different StuG IIIGs Panzer IV and 251/1 HTs KV-1 and KV-2 in the fog Lend-lease Stuarts, Matildas and M17 MGMC Turan I August 15, 2002 - CDV Software Soviet troops advance through grassy field Russian Wave attack 1 Turan I and 2 Turan IIs in wheatfield August 20, 2002 - New CMBB Pics? Turan II Previews and Interviews SimHQ - April 24, 2001 Gamespot UK - June 15, 2001 Computer Games Online - July 9, 2001 Homelan - December 19, 2001 Gamespy Daily - February 11, 2002 Mac Gamer - February 28, 2002 Military Gamer Online - May 8, 2002 Wargamer - June 6, 2002 Games Domain - July, 2002 Ingaming - July 28, 2002 Game Spy Daily Computer and Video Games CDV Software IGN - August 20, 2002 - Chris [ August 21, 2002, 03:21 PM: Message edited by: Wolfe ]

Hold down Ctrl and Shift and hit the Load Briefings button. Dunno what happened to their member number. [Edit:] Nevermind. That still works. Maybe your search was too specific? Probably not related, but I also noticed that the CMBB preview pics are now gone, as is the directory they were in: http://www.battlefront.com/CMBB_Pics/gallery/ - Chris [ June 28, 2002, 11:41 PM: Message edited by: Wolfe ]

The tough part about invading England is that the Soviets will almost always join the fight once London has fallen (if it's set to Random). I've even had them join just by surrounding London. It then will take some turns to finish off Manchester while trying to hold off a rather large push from the East. I'd rather try to do it the other way around; push into the USSR as early as possible to try to drive deep, seizing mines and cutting off various cities from Moscow to prevent the MPPs from flowing. The Brit player will often try crossing the channel to set up a two-front war, hopefully allowing you to pause the assault into Russia, operate a number of tank and plane units back to destroy his invading force (and essentially remove him from the game for a long time). If that doesn't take too long or waste too many units, you may be able to turn back and finish off the Soviets. The alternative (waiting until Britain is defeated) either allows the Soviets to launch their own offensive or will likely take so much time that an initial push into the now well-defended USSR will get quickly bogged down, even against the AI. Any Sealion strategy would have to be finished *very* quick for any reasonable push into Russia to get anywhere. I think the idea of going up through Turkey is - at best - a diversion. With all those mountains I don't think you can get enough supplies to your troops to make a credible push north. You actually don't have to seize cities and mines to remove their points; cutting them off from a hex path back to Moscow reduces them to half their output. BTW, taking Spain is a real nightmare! I prefer to just let the Spaniards join the Axis when they're good and ready. Still, I'll definitely be trying all of these different options (and from both sides), when the game arrives. - Chris

How about being able to set only one waypoint (right-click ala CM) instead of choosing the exact hex path? Should give a bit more control, but not really tilt the game too much. - Chris

They can be reinforced, but the units are so far from their city (which is only at level 5) that they are extremely low on supplies, which is why you can't reinforce them. You'll have to move them back towards better supply. Or break through Leningrad so you have an uninterrupted series of hexes from Helsinki to Berlin, and then their city can improve and disperse more supplies to troops further away. - Chris

Oooo! Fun! Very well done on both sides! ME did very well with his inf. And Barley's handling of the Sherm-76 was particularly excellent. Some observations (mostly tactical). Axis: The flame vehicles were mostly a waste. They simply have to travel too far before they can fire any shots for them to be useful. Though watching 3 tungsten rounds bounce at 160m was really priceless! Your scout platoons did a good job of discovering and engaging his forward positions. But you did ask a bit much of some of them by giving them orders to run across too much terrain, particularly for the initial platoons in the middle. And you Moved (instead of ran) some across open ground. No need to expose them longer than absolutely necessary. You launched your main force out of their FUPs very well, but I think you took an excessive risk by joining so many squads to one Company HQ on the right. He may have nice command bonuses, but their Plt HQs were far away and the nearest alternate Co HQ was atleast a turn away, which can at times be critical, especially for so many squads. You had extra Co HQs; I think I would have taken an extra one along. Also, they were rather bunched together and stopped to fight on open ground at times. Open ground is *real* bad in CM. BTW, why did you combine the Bat HQ with a platoon? I don't remember how this guy was used. Just a little bit of arty would have flattened a number of his platoons; he really placed them close together. Oh well. Hindsite is 20/20. Real bad luck with that Tiger. He could have been so useful. And I really, really hate gun hits. I really do. In spite of the score (and the horrible time with your vehicles), you effectively defeated Barley; he had almost nothing left except for the two tanks. Nice job. Allied: The initial overwatch was excellent, IMO. You were able to see just about every enemy infantry unit that moved! I liked the forward defense, and you pulled most back just in time to avoid the enemy onslaught. Nice! But creating some extra foxholes with half-squads and then rejoining on Turn 1 might have been useful in some cases. The Sherman-76 was used almost to perfection. It attacked when the enemy wasn't looking, and faded away when ME moved in to attack it. Sweet! The only quibbles I have are allowing it to stay buttoned through a number of turns early on when an enemy tank could have rounded the corner or popped up over a ridge and taken the Sherman down (the enemy inf didn't seem to be all *that* close to require constant buttoning). And you let Barley's infantry get too close at the very end of the game. But the Sherm didn't end up like the Priest, so in the end, it didn't matter this time. Really well done, overall. You definitely were too impatient with your AT guns. Letting them open up before it's too late is important, but that was much too early, IMO. And the placement on open ground: a big no-no. CM doesn't reward infantry for being 'hull-down' on open ground, whether it's behind a ridge or behind a wall; even with a foxhole they're still very exposed. Excellent use of arty, but I think you tried too hard to flatten all his recon units on your left flank early on. They were already taking fire from infantry and your AFVs. A turn of arty was certainly helpful, but I think you used too much on them. BTW, don't bunch up your platoons so much. They were just begging to be arty'd into the ground. Very enjoyable to watch, guys. Many thanks! Even the painful stuff was good to see (that recon-by-death performed by one of ME's platoons brought back some bad memories for me). BTW, I hope all this doesn't sound too critical. All in all it was a job well done on both sides. - Chris [ June 24, 2002, 08:52 PM: Message edited by: Wolfe ]

The view I was thinking of wasn't actually a pulled-back satellite view (though zooming in and out might be neat). I just used the satellite idea to illustrate always looking straight down toward the center of the sphere so that you don't see much curvature in the sphere or any type of isometric view. I like it because, like a map, it can give you a relatively flat view of things (atleast in the limited view screen), but not exaggerate any part of the global surface, as is the case in flat maps. Besides, the fact that it is made up of hexagons (along with a few pentagons) seems to fit nicely with a hex game. Yeah, it may certainly be difficult to do and possibly not worth the effort, but I do think it would be very cool. Just a wild thought. I'm sure Hubert has nothing better to do than sit here and listen to our crazy ideas. - Chris

Just to bug Hubert, I thought I'd post a strange idea I had about a possible future world-wide version of SC. Drawing a spherical object onto a flat piece of paper is difficult and generates lots of exagerations (like an overly large Greenland on Mercator maps). But instead of trying to fit a round object onto a flat plane , how about just making that entire round object in 3D space and flying a camera over sections of it looking straight down like a zoomed-in satellite view? But instead of making it perfectly round, use connected hexagons and pentagons that resemble a sphere. So the Earth would look kinda like this: Buckyball Earth (260KB) That fullerene was generated using a geodesic dome making program: Geodesic Domes BTW, the Windome version screws up on my machine, opening multiple windows in a never-ending loop; Windows users who want to play with the proggie should probably use the DOS version instead. The 'stitching' that is apparent in the pic is there because the proggie actually generates only 1/8 of a sphere at a time and then mashes things together. Any game that was made with this 3D world in mind would likely have to be done in Direct-3D or Open-GL, and I don't know how hideous the poly count would be; it might overwhelm even modern CPUs. But I think it could be very cool to see. Anyway, a crazy thought. - Chris [ June 23, 2002, 08:42 PM: Message edited by: Wolfe ]

Oh! Just did a brief search on Google. Didn't know that they actively hunted subs. I just thought of them in the B-29/B-52 style bombing runs. Learn something new every day. Thanks! - Chris

Madmatt said in one of his famous Bones that fire can start small and grow: Will CMBB Properly Model Thrown Bones? Unfortunately the picture he is referring to in the text is gone or has moved; along with more than a couple dozen other CMBB preview pics that used to be on Battlefront's site. The pic you can't see is a pic of a burning building at night in a snow storm. And one other cool thing I came across but had missed the first time is that buildings will produce a more persistent dust cloud when they collapse. :cool: - Chris

New terrain tiles for designing scenarios in CMBB - Chris

Hmmm. Thinking about this a bit more I have to wonder if rockets aren't too powerful? Level 11 and 12 rockets don't seem to do too much, but level 14 and 15 can do a good deal of damage. Even to units that it probably shouldn't be able to hurt at all (naval units not in a port, for example). I also have to wonder how rockets would do that much damage to ground units. I think it would be better if they could mostly do damage only to cities/ports or naval units in port, and not to ground units. And what's with strategic bombers taking out subs? That kind of attack shouldn't be possible, IMO. - Chris

Yeah, I do think the US' reluctance is due in large part to its low war readiness setting in this particular campaign. Germany has already taken Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Norway as well as declared war on Belgium/Holland and France, yet the US starts out at only 15%. Russia seems to react nicely in the game though, as the original poster pointed out. And going down through Yugo, Greece, and into Turkey will also inspire their wrath, I've found. It'll be interesting to see the changes Hubert has made. But one thing that does seem to be missing is any kind of trade route out of western France. If the Allies park a number of subs off the western French coast after it's fallen into German hands, no MPPs are lost by the Axis. Wasn't there a decent amount of trade out of France for the Axis? Is Germany the only one who can play the sub attrition game? I wonder if you can set up trade routes with the editor? And, yeah, the thing with Sweden (as well as easy Allied invasion of Italy) has been mentioned before. I believe it's being tweaked. Speaking of trade I wonder if there is a way to simulate Switzerland trading with both sides? I'd guess not, but that would be cool. It would not only add to the game, but also discourage invasion. Something along these lines has also been mentioned for Vichy France. - Chris

Actually if you don't invade England it seems to take an awful lot for the US to enter the war. IIRC, I once took the lowlands, France, and Sweden early. Then conquered Yugo; had Hun, Rom, and Bul join me. Invaded Greece, conquered it and then declared war on Iraq (USSR then declared on me). And the US was still neutral. Only after Spain finally joined the Axis cause did the US declare war. I essentially had all of mainland Europe (and the UK fleet on the ropes in the Med) in my grasp except for Russia. Ok, so that's a pretty big exception. The US will usually not enter the war readily, atleast not in this particular campaign. - Chris

After trying a number of ways to get London to submit (subs attacking its MPPs, naval supremacy, air power, all-out invasion regardless of the losses), I decided to give rockets another try. I was less than successful when playing with them initially. It's expensive and you really need to build the rocket tech to its max, but it can be sooo much fun to dominate the southern part of England. Rockets don't take damage when they attack and at level 15 can do a lot of damage to both ports and enemy units. They even contribute to your HQ's experience level if you destroy enemy units with them. I was even able to use 6 rockets and 3 planes to take London with only one Italian corps landing on English soil; albeit against the AI. After the bombardment the corps was able to simply waltz into London without firing a shot. And the rocket and air cover were able to protect it for a couple of turns. I was just trying to see if it would work. If I had gone for a real invasion instead, I could have held onto my gains. Also, in the process, I was able to devastate the UK naval and air units that were sent around to attack my rockets and landing craft. Fun! I imagine a few rockets would make for not just a good harassing force to bleed London and its port down, but maybe also a good defensive force to keep any adventurous Allied player from crossing the channel. But one of the best uses is attacking Malta. 3 Rockets, a plane unit (mostly for protection), an HQ, one landing unit, and a couple of Italian ships, and Malta is yours in no time. Unfortunately, rockets are real expensive, so I'm not sure the gains were really worth the points expended to buy them and for the upkeep when the AI attacked (both for the rockets themselves and for the air cover required to protect them). They might even be good for starting the invasion in the USSR, though they obviously wouldn't be much good once the tanks get rolling; they simply can't keep up. But for set-piece battles they can be a huge nuisance to your enemy. - Chris

The only one I know of is on the Dogs of War site. Well, if you really want to, feel free. I don't own the data in the charts, BTS does. But it may be more work than you counted on. - Chris

Though mostly used in Korea, the M24 Chaffee would also fit this description, no? This isn't Warcraft, and not everything is equal, but this type of mobile HE gives one side a capability the other does not have. What other unit has the capability to drop buildings? These vehicles are consistently used as HE fountains in games and are ripe for abuse under the new Recon rules, IMO. Is there something about the previous Recon Rule that you consider to be so unbalanced that the 75mm HTs needed to be included in the new rules? Are the tourneys and ladders that use the old rules lopsided? Or is it just the historical use of the weapons that swayed you to include them? Because you could also make a case for the M10 and Hellcat under Short-75 rules, historically. People certainly can play by any rules that they want, but I think you may get a decent amount of grumbling about the inclusion of these HTs. - Chris [ June 20, 2002, 02:09 PM: Message edited by: Wolfe ]

The tables, especially the Tanks chart, absolutely *needs* to have some sort of formatting or it's completely unprintable. And I don't think that people who D/L them really want to have to change the font and adjust every single column in order to get them into a somewhat printable state (and a butt-ugly one at that) if I used text and commas. Excel is widely enough standardized that if you don't have a way to view them yourself, you can easily find someone who does. I already have two different versions of the same charts posted, and really don't feel like making yet another one. Especially considering other folks have asked for plain text, HTML, and even one for a PDF version! :eek: So I'm afraid they are in the format they're going to remain in. You must be thinking of the Brits, Michael. The US 4.2" mortars don't have smoke. - Chris

I'd have to partly agree with Sarge on the 75mm German HTs. The Allies don't have an equivalent mobile HE belcher. To me Recon is meant to be using your fast vehicles to spot and harrass the enemy, use small arty to soften them up, MGs to cover the advance, and wipe them out with infantry supported by recon vehicles (which are essentially mobile MG carriers). The 75mm guns change that significantly. Instead of being used as scouts, these vehicles are used like Churchill tanks: digging out enemy infantry single-handedly and even dropping buildings where enemy units are suspected (like Fionn is currently doing with his M8 HMCs in his AAR against Warren). That, to me, isn't the intent of Recon. While the 250/8 and 251/9 may have been used historically in the recon role, they're not called 'Assault' HTs for nothing. And CM's QB point structure was even fundamentally changed because of these vehicles (the Allies now have more armor points because of this). I really don't think they belong in the recon section, regardless of their vulnerability to the .50cal. They just don't fit the intent of the Recon Rule, IMO. - Chris

Le CMBB FAQ Extreme I'm pretty sure BTS has eliminated small land features like streams/creeks as not significant enough to model. Maybe for the engine re-write when the tile size shrinks? - Chris