Peterk
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Posts posted by Peterk
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A suggestion: Keep bumping up with the levels until you get a really fun match and then keep them there for all games against thne computer.
I've found that +25 force and +1 skill gives a pretty good fight in most games without skewing the scenarios too far from the original design.
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> Well it was my opponents tactic. And I was > wondering in everyone's pbem experience.
> Does that happen alot?
Yes, it happens. And his poor boys usually get ground to bits and the opponent ends up losing worse than he would have if he had realized just how futile such an ill-conceived attack was and just stayed put.
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> 2) for some mysterious reason I was reset > out of the villages in setup for 4th
> battle.Only explanations I can think of so > far:1) I hurt the AI so badly it won't
> ever attack or
One more explanation. You did not defend the entire map, only the easy places like the towns, and the AI just snuck right past you and surrounded your guys without you even seeing them. On such a large map, you have to spread your guys out so they can spot everywhere, not just along the roads and in the towns.
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I've found that heavy buildings can usually withstand at least a minute of shelling (unless more than one tank is ganging up on it) while light buildings may crumble in the first minute. There is uaulyy time to abandon a heavy building if you think that it is about to go.
If you try not to use light buildings as long-term defensive outposts you'll usually be OK. You can also try the tactic of placing a near worthless decoy in a bulding to draw fire so it blows, and then move your real defense into the rubble.
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> hmmm, ok ... but the moral lost is the
> same as I had lost 1/2 of my squad ...
> Isn't this a bit drastic (
> separation=kill ) ?
Yes, but you get your morale back when you rejoin which you can't do with your dead guys.
I find that it works pretty well to stop abuse of the split command.
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Also, if you find the computer isn't being aggresive enough, give them some more stuff and experience 'til it feels right. I've been playing everything against the computer with +25% forces and +1 skill and it's more of a fight that way.
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Played as the germans a while back. The struggle for St Marie Du Mont was quite nasty. It was so gruelling, I haven't been able to psyche myself up for another campaign since though.
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Hmmm...no one's chimed in to say how much fun it's been???
I'm a little surprised to hear that this next battle is going to be the last one. You'll be starting another one right afterwards I hope? (And be a little more nasty in the next one!)
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[This message has been edited by Peterk (edited 08-19-2000).]
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I kind of like the idea. There was an old screenshot of a pre-alpha build of the game that had the unit base in the shape of a triangle and it let you determine unit facing from the 2D views. It would have been kind of nice to keep it.
Having the 3 squaddies arranged in anything other than a straight line would allow you to see the facing a little more easily without having to zoom in.
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> This is what is known as a gamey tactic.
> I'm not really sure it would be of much
> worth
Au contraire, I can remember reading quite a few times that the US in particular would systematically level larger buildings to get rid of spotting locations.
And at Arnhem, at the end of the battle, the German's destroyed buildings one by one with tanks at point-blank range to force the British out into the open.
If your tanks are unopposed and don't have more pressing targets, I see it as a very effective use of your assets and not gamey at all.
Plus, it's fun to watch buildings blow up!
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Maybe try to arrange a cease fire? It might take a turn or two to come into effect but the battle should end early.
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Do a search on ths operation and you will find quite a lot of discussion about it.
I answered one question a few days ago that was very similar.
What probably happened is that the British received their reinforcements and that they are stronger than what you have in the area and it had the effect of the computer deciding to shift the front line - unfortunately over the bridge.
And...I also don't recommend playing this operation against the computer especially as the Germans. The AI is a little bit lost and doesn't really know what it is supposed to do (ie. capture the bridge and then hold it).
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> If its an all fronts entire war campaign
> it would be fantastic...
> I would have to fit on several CD's
> however...and would take several years to > program ...
Ugh! You've got to be kidding.
Guys, if you want an example of why this won't work, buy East Front and try to play through their big campaign. It's only east front though, so it's much smaller than what you're asking for. You play one or two battles every week for most weeks of the war so basically you have to play something like 100-200 games to make it all the way through. Very few people actually bothered doing it and it pretty much amounted to being a bit of a waste of time for players and programmers alike.
Instead of asking BTS to do a whole lot of programming for these requested campaigns why not just set them up yourself? Pick your favorite division - find out where they were and what they were doing every month and just set up some quick battles to try and mimic it. It's educational too cause you get to do some research and reading. You can make your own rules as to unit replacements and skill improvement/degradation.
Alternately, get your hands on the Solitaire ASL package and use the charts in there to generate some campaign missions. It would probably work pretty well also.
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> They attacked strongly w/ inf. on the
> first night tunr pushing me back 1 map.
> After that, howver they did not attack in > force again
This happened to me too. Nothing like a disasterous night attack to take the wind out of their sails. I actually tried to skip the night battle on battle 8, but the US decided to go for it which was a little surprising.
> And they never got anywhere near the
> bridges
I cheated a little bit and checked the victory conditions after the game and it's quite lenient. The US only has to advance 30% of the big map before the results go in their favor, so they don't actually have to make it to the bridges to get their victory.
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Whew, finally finished. If I can make it through this one, I think I can play anything.
It ended up being a draw, but I'm happy with the result because I handicapped +25% forces and +1 experience. Battle 9 was a quiet one with just a bit of artillery fire exchanged. The US had had enough at that point.
The casualties were a horrendous 1298 men and 55 vehicles lost for the US and 513 men and 52 vehicles for the Germans.
> This comes through loud and clear any most > German accounts of the campaign. It's
> heartbreaking to give up ground you fought > so hard to keep just becasue the next guys > over on the left couldn't hold...
It's true, but I think this operation is one that could really have benefitted from having pockets and salients in the starting line. St Come Du Mont could theoretically have been nearly surrounded several times in my play and it would have been gut-wrenching having to make the decision at the beginning of a battle whether to leave my guys there to try to hold the town regardless or to pull them back to a safer line. It's a bit of a pain that the computer makes the operational decision for you and always pulls you back to a straight starting line.
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Well, CM is basically it right now. The only other thing I play regularly is Chessmaster 6000.
Games I am eagerly awaiting are Baldur's Gate II and Crammond's 3rd Grand Prix racing game, but they're a long way off luckily.
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I'm playing battle 9 tonight. I had a ball, but man am I glad it's ending. _I'm_ suffering from battle-fatigue from playing this monster. It's gone back and forth for the 3 simulated days. St-Come Du Mont has changed hands 3 times and I think I can hold on to it.
Day 1 belonged to the Americans, then at night I counter-attacked and kept attacking for most of day 2 but got stopped cold while making a final push for the edge of the board. By now, most of my squads are down to 40% or so and I can't even think about attacking any more. Day 3 had the Americans cancelling most of my gains but I've stopped them at the town, which by the way has only a few buildings left standing and old hulks of about 15 destroyed tanks lying all over the place. The immersion factor of this game is great! I feel like I live in St Come Du Mont by now.
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Hi Gingko,
If this is your first game of this sort, I really don't think it's a great idea to play the scenarios in chronological order. You're going to find yourself in hot water pretty fast with some of the humungous ones. Going by size is a much better idea.
If you really want to use CM as an educational tool to learn the history I would maybe read through a few books covering D-Day, Market Garden, The Bulge etc. and then search for scenarios that are mentionned in the books (there's at least 3-4 with the game on each of the major battles that I mentionned above). Go slowly and soon those places you've never heard of will start ringing a bell.
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Well, it seems that no-one has any suggestions! Ummm...if you're new to tactical wargaming, start off with the tutorials and then do small and medium sized maps before getting overwhelmed with the large and huge.
One other suggeation - if you plan on playing e-mail games, maybe save the scenarios for double-blind PBEM and play only quick-battles and operations against the AI.
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Hey Mikester,
A little comment on your Case2 draw result that seems a little funny. If the attack got stalled completely there would probably be high casualties as well on the attacker side and that would probably push the score way over towards the defender.
Likewise, a lot of the attacker victories will probably shift towards the defender since the attacker usually takes more casualties.
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The problem with these monster "fight the whole war" campaigns is that there is going to be almost no-one left in the last battle that started the first battle. This really isn't Panzer General.
Play one of the longer operations (Carentan or Drive To Mortain) and you'll see that you're scraping and praying for reinforcements from day-to-day and you won't be left with all that much at the end.
I think a Market Garden campaign or anything tightly focussed might work, but beginning to end of the war isn't going to be much different than just playing a bunch of scenarios with new guys each time.
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Sounds like you need a way bigger warehouse guys and some shipping help. My CV's on the way.
Congrats again! You're not gonna start showing up at game conventions in Ferraris now are you?
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Hi Tanaka,
I've played Arnhem from the British side and have a pretty good idea what happened. The British probably got a nice block of reinforcements at around that time. They appear on the British side of the river and they are quite sizable and their influence is probably great enough for the computer to decide that you don't control that part of the city any more, so back go your lines.
If you were playing this against a human or as the Brits, you would have absolutely no problem working your way to the bridge and taking control of that side of the river, so the reinforcemnts would come in all the way in your rear area and would have to work forward to the front. But the computer, doesn't know that the bridge is important so it doesn't really play the operation historically or as intended.
Some advice? Don't play this op as the Germans. It's not really worth it. The computer is totally lost as the British. Play it from the other side.
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Arnhem
Defender
Computer Opponent
1.01
6 of 6
defender total win
Team De Sobry
Defender
Computer Opponent
1.01
after battle 1 of 6 (ended early due to?)
attacker total win (buggy asessment!)
A Day In the Cavalry
Attacker
Computer Opponent
1.01
4 of 4
defender tactical win
Drive To Mortain
Defender
Computer Opponent
1.01
6 of 6
defender total win
Carentan
Defender
Computer Opponent
1.01 & 1.03
7 of 9 so far - still going
???
Scenario Length- Your Preference?
in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)
Posted
I have a soft spot for the quickies - 15-20 turns or so. Bruyeres, Aachen and Walk In Paris come to mind as good fights (hey they're all city scenarios too!)
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