xerxes

I've thought it odd that in dawn/dusk games the LOS limit remains identical throughout the game. It's an odd world. And yes, in game weather variability would be great, burning off fog, a sudden storm, etc. -marc

I'd swear I posted about "undermodelled foxholes" but now I can't find it. Foxholes in CM basically act like the infantry had 15 mins to dig a shallow hole. They are nothing like a real foxhole and yes, the weak foxholes greatly hurt the defender. A foxhole combined with hiding should give great cover except against grenades and airbursts. Building defensive modeling is just as weak. People complain about afv issues but infantry issues seem far more important to me. -marc

Treeburst: I'm interested in being an alternate if someone has to drop out. thanks. -marc vmclz@swbell.net

Just to correct my own post. You can't put regular AT mines on roads. You can place daisy chains on roads. Normally daisy chains are pretty useless. Snow (or mud) make them much more useful. -marc

That's a great suggestion Jason. SMGs having the same ammo consumption as regular rifles had disturbed me for a while. -marc

With a +2 bonus HQ they are devastating. My favorite unit in a firefight. -marc

Agreed on the airburst issue, it still seems like my concentrated 3" brit mortars are just too effective against entrenched infantry. If someone is hiding at the bottom of a foxhole they should be pretty safe until they get close assaulted I would think. -marc

Being a good player, I doubt redwolf has revealed the true line of his attack. -marc

as a matter of fact, I think foxholes should provide better protection when units are hiding in them. Foxholes are undermodelled! -marc

Arty used in concentration will break any infantry that aren't in large/heavy buildings. Foxholes just don't save them. -marc

You can also target with your FO and then move. A critical arty resource (written by Peter Svensson) is: http://members.home.com/loketar/arty.htm Even includes average duration of smoke. -marc

On the attack with zooks/shrecks I've found you need to move them up into an "ambush" position and then wait for the armor to come to you. Your ambush position should be keyholed so if you miss your first shot your zook/shreck doesn't get surpressed by everything and anything in the area. zook/shrecks keyholed and buttoned-up enemy AFV targets are a great combination. If you are pushing a flank the zooks/shrecks should be in the mix to deal with a counter attack. Jason says not to run, I'm more extreme and generally sneak&hide for the last 15 or 20 meters to get into ambush position. Also, you really need to keep the zook/shrecks hidden, they'll reveal themselves when they have a good shot. I only manually target if I'm desperate (which means I'm already pretty well toasted anyhows) of if I want the afv to pay attention to the AT team. -marc

Interesting matchup but you really should add a little randomness to each of the forces. Perfect force knowledge reduces realism. 3x105s + 2 trps is some serious arty. The heavy woods should still have enough LOS to hit the german infantry with airbursts. The SPAs aren't too great with the short ranges, the zooks and the 105 around. Nice deep defensive terrain. Once the tanks arrive they'll play hell with any open spaces, all they have to do is stay out of shreck range. I'd bet the amis will stop this attack. -marc

Sneak is the key. Sharpies can get very close in cover without being seen. They are particularly useful in defence to provide early warning of a wide flank. As a bonus they can wait till armor or other useful targets pass them by and then backshoot them with much less chance of being detected. The upgraded (veteran/crack) are particulalry good at detecting enemies and remaining hidden (in addition to shocking). In practice, I've had mixed luck with them. -marc

Changing to a 2 email/turn system would be an immense improvement. Even if it did result in a slight increase in "cheatability" that would be entirely acceptable. I'll give you another good cheat. Try setting up a comp picks QB. Cheating on this is as easy as falling off the turnip truck. (i.e. the originator can see their force selection before they send the 1st file to their opponent). Personally I'd like to see this problem addressed, but since I only play people I trust it's no big deal. Getting rid of the extra email would be far more valuable to me. -marc

Folders would be GREAT. Particularly when your 6 year old son discovers CM and thinks it's the best game EVER. He starts making maps and saving a gagzillion games. He wants to know how to get the King tiger and if a wasp can take one out from the front. He asks what a shrek is used for and is fascinated by the answer. The other day he told be CM is a GREAT kids game because it doesn't have any blood and they should sell it to kids because it's the BEST game ever. (BTW he's given up playing his n64) Now the problem is I have to tell him to clean up his room AND clean up the Combat Mission saved games folder. BTS do somtink quik! Actually just including folders in CMII would be wonderful. -marc

You need to adjust the barrage until you have around 20 seconds to impact on the delay. That should get you roughly 1/2 if you have 105s. The smaller the caliber the faster they fall so you'll need to adjust to 30+ secs if you have 81s. Personally I'd dump the full set on 1 target and take it out rather than splitting it and then not taking out either target. If it's guns you're taking out splitting makes sense but if it's infantry a 1/2 turn barrage probably won't do the trick. -marc

Infantry are just slower and easier to hit and when they start running from a bombardment they tire out. Double whammy, that's all. [Green infantry moving] + [snow] + [arty] = [gone packing for home] -marc

tip #1: Check the ground pressure on your vehicles. I keep it below 11. tip #2: roads are your friend in snow tip#3: when defending, anti-tank mines on the roads are really good friends. tip #4: arty is better in the snow tip #5: higher quality troops have a distinct advantage in the snow, even moreso on the attack Personally, I really like snow games. Mistakes are amplified. -marc

I've had plenty of infantry KOs at close range against open top AFVs. In fact that's my standard approach and I've had consistently good luck with it. -marc

On TH Ladder games I prefer to limit the number of any particular vehicle (generally to 3) to avoid the uber-gamey horde of M8s or other vehicle massing tricks. Then again I always play with the smg limit in Fionns rules unless playing a specific Volks scenario. Everyone always picking the same units is BORING. -marc

I've found that conscripts, greens, regulars, veterans and crack all have their good and bad points. The more interesting question (for me) is how you use each of these. For defending a town/city, conscripts do a great job. For scouting and detection of the enemy crack are amazing. If you are trying to KO a bunker the better tank crews are worthwhile. For a defensive rocket barrage in an assault scenario concript 150mm rockets are stunning (cheap and a lot [6] in a redundent pattern are nasty). Snipers certainly need to be upgraded but all the others seem to depend on the situation. I'm playing a PBEM assault where I have a attack force of three ami crack HTs and they are shockingly effective. Then again, I like computer pick games and quasi-historical QBs where your picks are heavily restricted so I'm more interested in how to use then what to pick.quasi-historical Qbs -marc

Quick recon with HTs and armored cars can put a crimp in the wasp flaming. You can only flame one tile at a time so it takes a while to flame a wall of trees. Then again, buying a truckload of wasps would work but you'd definitely earn a "gamey" label. heh. The key to offensive FT employment is to target the terrain holding the enemy without being in LOS of the same enemy. -marc

Flaming buildings to deny access is SOP from a historical perspective (certainly not gamey). Flaming VLs is to deny any access to a flag is abusing the game. Infantry FTs on the attack have value but you need to use smoke to protect them and be very careful of letting them get exposed to enemy fire. -marc

send me your email and I'll set up one up. mine: vmclz@swbell.net