xerxes

Which is why from an op design perspective you shouldn't have air as a battalion, regimental or divisional reserve because you don't know when they'll arrive. And I agree air is a rather random factor, but I really like to have air in an op when it's historical. Might make the op less fun though. I'm a little uncertain.

. [ February 01, 2003, 10:51 PM: Message edited by: xerxes ]

Some designers may already know but there seems to be a variety of problems with air power in ops. 1. Even if the weather is set to good, it may be overcast and your air won't show up. 2. If your air is a divisional/regimental reinforcment, it may arrive at night (and therefore never appear). Does BTS have a definitive answer on these being problems (or not)? It's disappointing that you can "set" the weather for each battle in an op rather than have it be semi-random. Makes balance almost impossible to achieve.

I've taken to using ctrl-v to hide the vehicles, select a passenger and then ctrl-v again. It's easier then trying to "grab" a squad in a HT.

I'll second the request to be able to find all reviews from a single reviewer. I think that would be great. It's like a food critic, you find one that has your tastes and listen to them rather then just anyone.

Comments can always be emailed to the author directly. I've gotten emailed comments a number of times and the feedback is always quite helpful. Plus, you get to meet new people, which is often (but not always) a good thing.

The counter attack is the key piece in this equation. IF your counterattacking force doesn't get ambushed by units you aren't currently aware of they should be able to mop up the remainder of the company. Counterattacking after a barrage lands hard is a devastating tactic. If you're really psycho you can counterattack, wipe out the remainder of the company, and keep on moving forward to flank other elements. Depending on your situation, terrain, force strength, etc.

Log Bunkers are excellent tank magnets. With a log bunker on the board you just know a tank is going to show up. That's why your AT gun covers the firing positions on the bunker. That's also why your AT mines are setup on top of the firing positions on the bunker. Everything has it's value.

If you have a mac version of the 1.02 patch I could test it on my macs.

I'll disagree with the armor philosophy here. On the attack your HE throwers should be used EARLY to support your infantry. The reason is that your infantry needs the help of the tanks to oversome resistance and minimize infantry ammo expenditure and casualties. The afv should move to gain LOS on suspected positions from a keyhole position. Sure you risk the loss of the tank IF an AT gun is in the keyhole. I find it worth the risk in almost all cases from my experience. I want all the firepower I can muster to take down resistance. When I'm defending I like to target the attacking infantry first. When the infantry attack is broken, the enemy armor has a much harder time. [ January 27, 2003, 02:11 PM: Message edited by: xerxes ]

I'm convinced, it crashes on both of my computers. I've changed the elevation map, changed the unit mix, etc. I'm at a loss now. I'm suspicious that it has something to do with the Long LOSes on the map. I'd hate to recreate the map from scratch and run into the same situation. I've sent the cmf file and a saved game file to Matt.

I have read numerous accounts of the Soviet armor become separated from their infantry during the attack. This occured during all phases of the Eastern front repeatedly. In none of the accounts did it really appear that this was planned, more that when the infantry was stripped off the armor continued. Of course this also happened very frequently to the Germans in 1941.

go here. http://ns9.super-hosts.com/~dragonlair.net/combatmission/ Select CMBB, select search. For search parameters make axis=finnish and you'll get 23 finnish battles returned.

I have an op I'm working on, smallish, all armor, that consistently crashes to the desktop on turn 4-6, basically when most of the armor becomes engaged. I've tried modifying the map in various ways but it still crashes. The map does have a high elevation (Level 15 with ravines in it at lower levels.) Any suggestions on what I might try? It's a really good operation and I don't want to just can it. -marc s

I've designed ops were certain armor is locked in place, and obviously in AT gun range. The player can't do anything about it. Why? Because to allow free deployment would make it TOTALLY unrealistic. The reality is the column was ambushed because by necessity they were moving fast to exploit. Letting the player setup the column off the road in hulldown positions would be gamey. That said, I think part of the disagreement is how much you view a scenario as a "game" vs a "simulation". Personally, I don't like it to play like a "game", but that's just my personal preference and there are plenty of people who would disagree with me.

A proportional split is the way to go. I was very pleased to see this in CMBB, it solved a nagging issue at the BoB ladder.

LOL, now that is funny. I would have thought it had an mg too.

"Snail Offensive". It's a player pick scenario which still plays rather historically.

Naturally, to become very good, you have to know the "rules" of how to play. The very best players know when and how to break the rules. For example, keep armor back, go hulldown, keyhole, strength in numbers. Good tactical armor advice. It will serve you well. But, in some situations you can bring your armor very close and have it work out very well. I regularly bring my armor within 40m of enemy infantry and it works shockingly well. With canister modelling in CMBB, close armor is absolutely devastating.

There's always 2 sides to a story. Both are understandable. It's too bad you both had different expectations. But, there were more than a couple actions on the Eastern front were armor continued to advance when their infantry was halted. It sounds like you were playing an advance operation. Unfortunetly, the last turn dash can be used to artifically advance your line. This technique doesn't work in Assault operations (or static ones).

In CMBB jeep rushes are really ruined by mgs. If someone wants to risk their thin skinned vehicles in what will often be a fruitless cause, more power to them.

umm, I think you left out the part in which you did something gamey.

Also, check the MG vs. Parabellum AAR thread in this forum on the invincibility of the KV when no german heavies are available.

LOL alarmer. Turn rarity on and just look at your unit selection screen. That's the easiest, fastest, and most well researched reference on vehicle rarity on the eastern front!

I was going to post on this earlier, but I thought it would be a waste. Just because you (player) "see" the tank doesn't mean it is as clear as day. You can "see" tanks as something other than what they are. Sighting is not a binary thing EVEN though the user interface shows it that way. There are degrees of how clearly you see the target. The only way to determine this is to use the LOS tool. The darker the line, the "fuzzier" your tankers view of the target is. Imagine if you will looking through 25m of trees at a tank beyond the trees. You will NEVER see the tank clearly. This is why your to-hit chance will be lower than if there was a straight clear LOS. The same effect occurs at night, snow, or fog to varying degrees. Your tank was probably aiming at a "blobby" tank that was just at the limit of your tanks ability to see. This is my understanding of the CM to-hit model. I believe it's quite accurate based on playing 5 gagzillion games. On a side note, it would be really nice in the new engine for the "clarity" of the target to be graphically depicted. Of course, in CMBB if you turn on the full weather, fog, trees, etc. and get down to the point of view of your tank it would probably be pretty clear how "clear" your tankers view is.