xerxes

I love the Stugs for some heavy duty infantry support. The 105 Stugs cost 99 vs 58 for the wespe, a pretty big cost differential. I'm just more nervous about the Hummel because it dies just as easily as the Wespe. Try as I might, I have a bad habit of losing my tanks and SPs. If you run the universal CM force allocation loss ratio equation: X + Y - X = Y Z - Z = 0 substituting 58(wespe) + 30 (inf squad) - Wespe = 30 (inf squad) 80(Hummel) - 80(Hummel) = 0 30(inf squad) > 0 j/k - xerxes

I prefer the wespe. 58 pts for regular crew. 77pt blast, ~29 rounds. Just have to be careful with it. - xerxes

The team aspect is fantastic. I'll suggest a huge twist to this, hear me out before you think I'm crazy. For each team (allies/germans) have a non-playing "general". The general selects the initial "army" and then doles out forces for each divisional commander. As a divisional commander loses forces, they request reinforcements for the next battle. The reinforcements are assigned by the general. If a general runs out of reserves he can call up more green troops. The general can also issue orders to the divisional commanders (ie. perserve your armor) though the divisional commanders would make their own choices. It would separate force selection from actual operations. The general would have to be a very knowledgeable player. Just some random thoughts. - xerxes

I'd split a squad and use the "b" group to scout with everything else in a fire support position. Anything revealed and you put your full firepower weight on it and then move 1 or 2 assault squads in once the enemy is suppressed. The risk is that a good defense will have the final 20 meters covered by other enemy squads that will open up as your assault squads try and move in close. If the enemy has smgs/brens your job will of course be much more difficult. I'd rather wait for some friendly HE to assist. - xerxes

Wirblewind's were deployed as AT and anti-infantry assets in the real war. They were deployed in force in this role against the russians. Gamey? No. It was an effective weapon in this role. - xerxes

So, the informal anti-gamey force pick rule should be? No force mixing for axis. Force mixing of paras & regular for allies is ok. Is some cross nationality mixing for allies reasonable? (i.e. american force with a couple brit vehicles attached) - xerxes

If you want to avoid gamey unit selection and gamey rules negotiation just use 1 rule. 1. Comp picks. If you do this with low quality troops it's really a great game. Infantry rushes are MUCH less effective, you have to plan things out more, and artillery is scary. Greenies break and run easily. -xerxes

Wow, I never even considered using a HQ for "scouting". I don't think I could bring myself to do that. 1) Setting fire to "squares" or buildings unoccupied by enemy troops, ESPECIALLY to deny a VL or covered access to one. I was planning on trying this to deny buildings in a city fight. I guess if you lit up everything around a VL that would be cheap. 2) Advancing large formations along the map edge. *Seems risky since if they break they're gone. I like it when my opponent tries this. 3) Scouting with AT teams, crews of knocked out vehicles or guns, MG teams, and anybody who is "low" on ammo. *Uh-oh, guilty. 4) Recon with light (cheap) vehicles well into enemy territory. Seems risky. 5) Exposing AT teams SOLEY for the purpose of drawing enemy fire. *Hope targeting will be fixed in CM2, I've used an empty zook to try and distract while my other zook tries for position. Gamey? 6) Ordering vehicle and gun crews to participate in an attack or hunt down enemy teams or spotters. *Uh-oh. Dead crews should be worth more VPs to fix this. Heck, tanks were worth less than the crews. 7) Rushing infantry straight at a known enemy position (especially through cover) with no supporting/suppressive fire. *I like to suppress but I've done this. 8) Last minute flag rushes to acquire or contest a VL that you know you can't hold for another minute if the game were to continue. *Personally, if a player can pull this off my feeling is it wasn't really "controlled" but it was in a contested position. I'm gameyer than I thought. I hope that Battlefront will address the abuses in CM2. Heck, they've got the perfect beta test. - xerxes

2 cents. 1. The CAL rules are really nice and a simple way to eliminate absurb force choices. 2. Computer picks I think is great. It produces very different unit selections and it creates great uncertainty for what the other guy will have. Surprise is good. I like to save a couple comp picks (before you hit "go"!) and send them to my opponent and ask him/her to choose one of them. Then I setup and send the completed file. That way at least the really weird picks are eliminated. 3. I've been very pleased with my TH ladder games. I'll always check peoples history and what their opponents have said, it's pretty easy to weed out the undesirables that way. If you use comp pick or the CAL rules on the ladder things are pretty reasonable. If someone wants to play with no restrictions I just say no thanks. - xerxes

I forgot the - xerxes

So if my lmg runs over to the foxhole where my hmg team was wasted a couple of minutes ago then it should be able to use the tripod and the left over ammo & belts and become a hmg. I'm going to try that next game. - xerxes

If you read the word "squad" too many times it sounds like a weird vegetable so don't do that. - xerxes

Each squad that is split will have a designation: i.e. C-1a & C-1b The C-1a will only combine with C-1b to make the original C-1 squad. They won't combine with "foreign" squads. The "a" squad controls the morale of the reformed squad so you might want to scout with the "b" squad so if it gets routed you can recombine with the "a" squad. They will recombine at the end of a turn if they are close to each other. Two half squads don't have the combined firepower of a full squad so you don't want to engage with you split squads generally. Keep your split squads together in the same part of the map. - xerxes

For random picks, I was thinking what might work is generating 3 versions of a random force QB and sending them all to your opponent and letting them pick 1 that looks good. That way you wouldn't be saddled with a really awful force selection. Does that make sense? A well designed random force picker would be great btw. - xerxes

you can save the entire email as a plain text file and read it directly into cm. CM ignores the text outside of the PBEM header tags. Webmail causes a lot of problems with CM files. - xerxes

Is spotting effected by unit facing? I mean does a unit spot more effectively in front of it? Does it make sense to try and sneak a piat up behind a tank? - xerxes

Yo Enoch, you've got it made! Let me explain. 1. You'll have your bundle of joy. 2. Said bundle will wake you up at 1am and need to be fed or just held. 3. CM can be easily played with just the mouse. So. . . you get HUGE pts for saying,"don't worry hon, I'll take care of our darling, you sleep" and get a LOT of CM time. Then when you're exhausted during the day everyone at work and home will understand. This'll work until the baby sleeps through the night, at that point you can file away CM for a while. heh. - xerxes

Sorry but the wife fires 120mm T-rounds with a wicked rof and has sloped armor that would make a king tiger jealous. The main turret can rotate 180 degrees in 4 seconds. She also has a quad 20mm secondary turret (<-not modelled in CM2!) that will dust anything soft. And don't even think of engaging the close defense flamethrower capabilities. The only tactic to use is to stay our of her LOS.

I've found that offboard artillery is of limited usefulness against an inf rush. The reason is the delay in arrival and your target is on the move much of the time. It becomes something of a guessing game. I think onboard mortars in direct fire to interdict the enemy advance and then pulling back for indirect fire when the enemy closes within 250 meters is useful because of the very quick response time. Mines cause some casualties but don't seem to disrupt the attack enough for their cost unless you can be sure that multiple platoons will hit the mines at the same time. I'm thinking that good inf support armor (stug's/sherms) is the ticket. - xerxes

This seems like a very gamey tactic, basically exploiting an ai weakness (i.e. no short-term memory). btw, Is there a list of generally accepted (or unacceptable) gamey tactics? It'd be nice to have a reference that could be agreed to beforehand for a game. - xerxes

I think high rate of fire is the key and the best crews you can buy. 5 stuarts all popping up at the same time will take down a pillbox right quick. Too bad there aren't any pillboxes for the Whirblewind(sp?) to shoot at. It would probably do a fine job. I wonder what the highest ROF allied vehicle is. Anyone know? - xerxes

I've been given a lesson by jeb in why you want a flexible line of defence and how you need to pull back from a major infantry attack. He's managed to mangle a couple of platoons and they are going to be sorely missed when he launches his major assault. My 3" mortars have caused some significant damage but probably not enough. I also didn't get his troops pinned well before mortaring them so I've wasted some rounds. Lessons learned the hard way are always remembered the best. - xerxes

Heh, I chose Jeb because I figured I'd learn a lot from him. He's aggressive, fast and decisive. It's been a lesson for me in how to effectively mount a massive infantry attack. - xerx

you can also adjust the "size" of the units. The default size is much larger than realistic. You'll see less of this if you run at realistic unit size. I forget the ****f-key to reset but it's in the hotkeys. - xerxes

It's SS mechanized attacking brit paras. brit paras, 3" mortars, minefields. (that's what he's seen so far.) He's pushed a company of panzergrenadiers onto a wooded VL on the right taking some casualties to mortar fire, he has an overwatch supporting company on a treeline overlooking the village in the middle and he has another company coming up to assault the wooded large hill VLs on the left. He has at least one 105mm spotter hidden way back. I don't believe he has any armor/ac/ht. Don't want to tell jeb any more. - xerx