johnnymo

Bullethead, FYI the "Abandoned" label is what I've seen show up when halftracks have been hit by a .50 cal. This behavior seems reasonable to me. If I were in a halftrack and bullets started ripping thru the armor, I'd be out of that track in a second and not look back. If you stay in the vehicle, you're just establishing yourself as a target; abandon the vehicle (even though it can still drive, it'll still be a target for whatever is dicing it up) and you've got a better chance of surviving.

I had a Stug take TWO penetrating hits from my Hellcat (one turret, one hull) and it STILL turned and killed the Hellcat, then went merrily back to bombarding my infantry. I think I'm cursed.

SimonFox, I zipped the Hellcat over to a depression to the right on the top of the hill which put it out of sight of everything, then rotated and hunted over the crest. MarkL, targeting may be the solution. I thought I had targeted each enemy AFV each time, but with all the path making (I only have a 2meg video card, which doesn't do so well with the paths as it tends to 'jump' thru higher elevations. I generally have to go to a top-down view to set paths to avoid this) I may have somehow cancelled the order. clcaldwell, the enemy tanks were in full view, as they returned fire without moving (other than rotating to face me). I'm also pretty sure the tank won't, on it's own, reverse into a hulldown position if it finds itself non-hulldown. Fionn, I think next I'll try Hunt forward (say halfway), then Pause, then Hunt forward (say halfway of what's left), then Pause, etc. It seems that would work(?). So it sounds like, if I'm doing this Hunt/hulldown maneuver correctly (which may not be the case, knowing me), the problem is that my Hellcat is not spotting the Tiger, and thus needs to be placed precisely at a hulldown position by me. I will work on it some more and report back with any new info I find. BTW, thanks to you all for replying to what appears, on rereading, to be a rather whiny initial post. [This message has been edited by johnnymo (edited 11-17-99).] [This message has been edited by johnnymo (edited 11-17-99).] [This message has been edited by johnnymo (edited 11-17-99).]

I've tried and tried, but just can't get the hang of this. It's been stated on this board that you can use the hunt command to crest a hill, and your AFV will stop and engage when it spots the enemy, thus providing hulldown status against that target. What I'm finding is that my tank (poor little Hellcat *sniff sniff*) drives right on over the crest, following my Hunt order to its end, THEN engages the enemy. Meanwhile, since it has followed the Hunt order to its end, it's sitting on top of the crest in full view of the target. Is this a problem with the Hellcat (maybe a barrel depression problem that prevents it from targeting a lower-level enemy), or is it just me? One other possibility: does the Hellcat 'forget' the target is there, like the AI does, and only spots the target AFTER it has crested the hill (it was NOT buttoned up)? In my test, I Hunted up to the crest to get hulldown status (it didn't work), fired a few times then reversed out of there before getting killed (but after killing the target, a Stug! ). Hunted forward again, targeting the Tiger, again did not go hulldown, and was killed by said Tiger. Any ideas/suggestions on what I'm doing wrong would be greatly appreciated.

Our friends over at http://www.m-w.com (that's Merriam-Webster) say: "Etymology: bazooka (a crude musical instrument made of pipes and a funnel)" I love searching the Internet!

My 300mhz Pentium2 (64meg RAM) with 2meg ATI graphics card does OK. I've got problems with seeing the LOS and command lines (they only show up when viewed at certain angles), but video speed is fine, all looks OK, and it only takes 5-6 seconds for turn resolution. Just curious, after quitting CM, then starting up CM again (without rebooting), I often get bizarre red lines all over the screen (looks almost like a background grid where the terrain tiles would be laid, except the terrain is not there). The only fix I have is rebooting. Any idea if updating my drivers will fix this, or is it because I only have a 2meg graphics card?

Thanks Fionn. I'm beginning to think you're an AI daemon that Charles hacked up to answer all the tech questions on this board. To test, what's your response to this statement: "I always lie." Thanks Leland. Looks like you've either got ASL right there, or you're the 'Fionn' of the QRC. BTW, I also wanted to say to Steve and Charles that this is an EXCELLENT game. Unbelievably good and fun and exciting and fun. And good. I finally won as the Americans in Last Defense last night. Coolest part: got a side penetration of the Tiger AND IT KEPT ON GOING!!! It appeared to have done something to the turret tracking mechanism, as the turret was stuck to one side and stayed there as it moved to the south of the battlefield, apparently to help stop my counterattack. I maneuvered my Hellcat around to its rear and got another penetration, which apparently STILL didn't kill the beast, but did force the crew to abandon. [This message has been edited by johnnymo (edited 11-05-99).]

//Disclaimer: I don't really know what I'm talking about. //End Disclaimer. Is anyone else out there seeing about 33% or higher hit percentage on first shots? Note that I'm not talking kills, but hits. It seems to me that I (and the enemy) are getting lots of first-shot hits. With the Hellcats, I'm even getting first-shot hits at 800m while on the move. Just wondered if my tactics (which most would probably agree are poor-awful) have anything to do with this, or if something in the game needs a little tweaking. Of course, this could also be a result of small maps. Just as a guesstimate, what would the knowledgeable people out there (Fionn?) estimate would be a first-hit percentage at 800m for a Hellcat? A Tiger? A Stug? As background, I come to CM from SL/ASL, in which tank vs. tank warfare seemed MUCH slower playing out. I can't remember how big the hexes were, so I'm having a hard time translating (sorry, I know I should unlearn, but it's HARD, sooo hard.... ).

Anybody else here wondering if Fionn is just making this stuff up as he goes along?

First game ever, Last Defense: Popped a 60mm mortar shell right into a German halftrack while trying to suppress infantry. I think this was my first kill, and it HOOKED me! I was watching CLOSELY when it happened since I was waiting for the halftrack to clear the woods so my Bazooka could open up. I even saw the shell coming down, then the explosion, then thought "NO WAY!!!", replayed again 2-3 times to be sure it wasn't something else, but sure enough "Top Penetration", and the angle of the shell, convinced me it was the mortar. Second game, Last Defense: Ambushed a halftrack on the right flank with my Bazooka (about 90m). Watched from the victim's view as it took the hit, then ground slowly to a halt, skewing to the side. Very satisfying, and my first successful Ambush. Second game, later: Had Bazooka ambush set up for Tiger. In the house, an HQ and a Baz, both hiding and unspotted. Tiger is heading south, so I'm just about to get a flank shot at about 120m (I'm rubbing my hands, cackling "Come on, just a bit more..."), when into the house runs CRAZY LOONY Panicked HQ. I was watching from just behind the Bazooka team's perspective when he popped up right in front of me! He had been hiding behind a wall, but got so scared he looked for closer cover, and decided to pick my Ambush house. I'm actually yelling and waving at the computer "NO! NO! GET OUT OF HERE! NO!" as the Tiger (and his infantry and HT buddies) turn and blow the *%#& out of me. The Ambush failed, but the Panicked HQ survived by fleeing the scene of the crime. What a cool game!

Tongue only half-way in cheek How about a simple OOB screen based on HQs? HQ Strength Ammo Lt. Joe 80% Low Lt. Guy 35% Low I think this is actually a good middle-ground solution to the OOB question, while also not going too far into the "spreadsheet" mentality of wargaming. You can see at a glance roughly how each of your platoons are doing, which is the same type of info you may have if actually commanding them. Any thoughts, or this totally hare-brained?

Here's why I would LIKE to see a Friendly-Unit "Status" screen (sorry, Steve, I see you already have stated that one WON'T go in, but I'm going to rant anyway ): I'm busy, with lots of demands on my time. But I love to play wargames. Unfortunately I don't usually have even 4 hours/week to play. If it takes 5-6 hours watching the movies to play a scenario COMPETITIVELY, I will play less often. (For most games, I'd say flat-out "I won't play", since it's not fun to lose all the time. So far, with Combat Mission, losing isn't so bad since it's so cool to watch ). If unit information (that is already available to someone who watches the movies exhaustively/clicks every friendly unit every turn) were available in an easy-to-access format that saved me 2-3 minutes per turn of viewing the movies/clicking my units, I'd use it; not because I don't want to do these things, but because I CAN'T (unless I get a divorce, but let's not go there ). This would allow me to play more often, since I've got less clicking to do to get the information THAT IS ALREADY AVAILABLE TO ME IF I CLICK EACH OF MY UNITS. Note that the "Status" screen I would like to see is just a recap of information that is currently available on the Friendly individual unit screens. I can view the movies a couple times to see what is happening to the enemy units, so my opponent who has more time may still have an edge on me in that regard, but I don't feel an Enemy "Status" screen fits into Combat Mission at all. Example: Unit Status Healthy/Hurt Ammo A0 Lt. Morris Alerted 4/2 25 A1 Sgt. Joe Panic 6/6 30 This allows me a quick look at all my units without having to click on each and every one, thus saving me time and allowing me to play more often. I agree that a list like this can take away from the immersion factor, since you as a real-life commander don't have lists like this. However, by clicking on each unit, you are essentially compiling this EXACT SAME list in your head (whether you want to or not). Why not just put it in print so time-pressed people like me can use it? Here is what I'm NOT asking for: Updates on what each Friendly Unit did during this turn Changes in status for Friendly Units during the turn Extra knowledge on enemy units/less FOW Lists of enemy units and strengths/activities Not trying to beat a dead horse here, but this really would help me fit Combat Mission into my schedule more often, and isn't that a good thing?

One thing you could try is going to the CM screen and doing 'ALT + PrintScreen' (assuming you're using a PC and not a Mac). This should capture your active window only. Just hitting 'PrintScreen' is supposed to capture your entire active desktop. Hope this helps....

Harold, thanks for the tip. I should have prefaced my story above with something like "I left my Hellcats sitting in the open..." but I didn't want to seem like an idiot. Too late now, you had to go and expose me. Looks like I need to break out of ASL mode. My assumption was that I'd be a lot more likely to hit his armor since I had the jump on him and wasn't moving. Of course, I did hit his Tiger a couple times, but there sure were a lot of shattered shell fragments bouncing off. Die and learn, I guess.

Don't worry, Kai. I've played Last Defense twice as the Americans, and both times lost ALL THREE Hellcats on the turn they entered. Reading these posts about how amazing these TDs are is really getting to me... BTW, is BTS going to reimburse us for all the "sick-time" we use to stay home and play this game?

johnnymo@home.com Wow, what a thread! How many posts before it gets shut down, I wonder.... [This message has been edited by johnnymo (edited 10-28-99).]

FYI Lt Canada, to have your "work cut out for you" means that you have a tough job to do, not the opposite. I'm sure dano6 was not putting down the efforts of our neighbors up north, eh.

I believe cable modems typically use cacheing on the server, so what you are probably experiencing from home is that your cable provider has cached the page, and does not refresh it when you hit your refresh key (what you actually get is a refresh of the cached page, which hasn't changed, not the "real" page at Battlefront.com). All of your browsed pages are stored at the cable company servers, so even though your new message is posted and live at Battlefront.com, you can't see it because the cable company has not updated its cached page.

Will friendly-fire casualties will be limited to off-board artillery fire, or can bad spotting result in "jumpy" squads/AFVs mistakenly firing on their comrades? To rephrase, will spotting logic allow units to mistake friendly units for enemy units, and fire on them as a result?