Combat mission is great, and I can't wait for the release version.
However, I have my reservations about just how stupid my troops seem to be sometimes...
Last night, some of my troops were passed by a Sherman as it struggled through scattered trees. It lumbered past without seeing them, so I ordered them to make chase and use their panzerfausts against its exposed rear.
They ran and caught it up, but rather than shooting it from 25 metres, or 20, or even 15, they decided that their waypoint was far more important, so continued running, right through the (exact) centre of the tank, and back out the other side! Once they got 15m past the tank (to my slightly-too-far waypoint position), they turned and considered targetting it. Meanwhile, the Sherman crew had woken up and decided to turn their guns on my men. I'll leave it to your imagination to guess who won.
OK, so my men were Green. But I would have thought that even the greenest man would notice that he was standing in the middle of an enemy tank with an ideal opportunity to spray machine-gun bullets through the entire crew!!
I've also noticed a disturbing tendency for my crews to totally ignore their targetting orders, which would be fine if they act sensibly. e.g. A StuG is ordered to fire on the Sherman directly in front of it at close range (150m). But just before it fires, it decides that a pesky machine-gun 400m to its left is a far juicier target, and promptly (well, agonisingly slowly in fact) re-targets on the machine gun. Unpredictably, the Sherman then knocked out the StuG.
Or a veteran team that is hiding with panzerfausts is asked to pop up and shoot a passing tank, so they decide to stand up and engage some infantry 200m away, then wonder why the tank cuts them to ribbons.
I wouldn't mind too much if my greenest troops make the occasional cock-up, but when it happens at almost every crucial moment, and from decent troops, you start to wonder if perhaps there's been a bit too much inbreeding...
Ah, well, while I'm waiting for the final release, I can set about learning about all these ranges, speeds, and capabilites, and perhaps eliminate a few of the stupid things that *I'm* doing...
Anyway, keep up the good work, guys. Can't wait for the final version.