Peterk
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Posts posted by Peterk
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You usually want to hold them a little bit back in cover to support your squads as Wendell suggested. Getting them up in a 2nd story of a building will sometimes give you a good field of fire and you won't have to move them too often. A MMG, HMG can still do it's job effectively at longer ranges, so don't always be tempted to move them up if they have LOS to the enemy. A turn in which a MG is moving is a turn that the MG can't fire (or fire very well), so find a good posting early and keep them there until they're not doing anything useful any more.
Another thing to keep in mind, is that you want to keep them out of the way of your squads. If you have an MG sited in back of your advance with squads up in front you're probably begging for friendly fire and at best your MG is going to be silent because he doesn't want to hit his own guys. If you have 2 HMGs supporting an advance, consider keeping one at each flank so they can fire towards the middle of the attack without fear of hitting your own guys.
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I love self-repairing software!
I've been fooling around with it for a while and it's a bit of a false alarm. If you ever have guys embarked at the end of an op. and they appear to vanish at the beginning of the next battle, just place the vehicle somewhere else and they'll come back.
Still something funny going on under the hood, but at least I got my crack troops back. Now off to kick some butt with them.
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This is probably one for Charles. I noticed something strange when moving from battle 3 to battle 4 of the Carentan operation.
I had a platoon loaded on their vehicles at the end of battle 3 and it appears that they disappeared off the map at the beginning of battle 4 even though the trucks were still there (but no passengers) (they were Crack and Vets too - damn).
I routinely use the + key to cycle through all my units at the beginning of a battle to take some notes and to jot down casualty levels for the various platoons. The platoon that warped off the board was H. After I cycled through G platoon the window was pointing at a spot off the map with nothing there and the unit display in the bottom left corner was blank. When I hit '+' again it went back to A0. I was unable to cycle through the vanished platoon and examine a whole bunch of mnew reinforcements that have just come on.
Anyways, if BTS would like to check it out, I have a saved game from the last turn of battle 3 as well as a save from the setup of battle 4.
It might be a good idea to not leave units mounted on vehicles at the end of an operation battle for the time being.
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A while back someone referred to mortars as basically being "three minute roadblocks" to the enemy and that's a pretty good way to think of them in the game - they'll go through their ammo in about that amount of time so you have to choose targets wisely. Try to nail a bunch of the enemy with your 1-minute salvo instead of trying to surgically attack one unit.
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> Whats the difference?
We're much cooler and play CM better.
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> I agree that there's no way that the CO of > the 737th Tank Battalion would know "aha, > now I've killed 48.2% of the enemy force
> between here and Hill 314!"
Well, you can guestimate. You know that the basic sizes that infantry come in are battalions, companies and platoons. So if you're being attacked and you see 3-4 units pretty close to one another, you can say "AHA, that's a platoon attacking me." If you hit 2 of the squads pretty hard and they all run away screaming, you can guess that that platoon is pretty much knocked out of the battle - they might be used for garrison duty or something but they won't have a strong attack any more. A cpy has 3 platoons so you know that it's down to about 60-70% strength. Keep a score card of what you think they have and what you have so you hhave an idea of the balance of force.
If you knock out a bunch of tanks early and then you don't see any more for the rest of the battle, you can guess that the enemy is running low on AFVs.
But you never know what reinforcements thry'll get unless it's mentionned in the briefing, so you have to watch out with the guesses.
> OTOH, it would be cool to have a summary
> of +confirmed+ casualties inflicted after > each battle.
The body count might be a good idea, but counting confirmed kills in your units is going to be way off. A lot of damage is done with mortars and arty a lot of times and those kills rarely get confirmed. The numbers of actual and confirmed kills are off by a factor of 5-10 in a lot of the games I've played.
> Bottom line, if I understand you
> correctly, is that I should keep running >and gunning, seeking to finish off enemy >squads/teams and
If you can capture or kill a unit safely it's always a great idea. The vehicle crews are usually a real good idea to go after because it stops the vehicle from coming back soon in a further battle. Mortars and arty spotters are also nice to wipe up if you can.
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[This message has been edited by Peterk (edited 07-25-2000).]
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Bottom line is FOW - you shouldn't really have a way of knowing. Everything that the designer wants you to know is in your briefing.
Sometimes you can guess what you're up against by comparing what's supposed to be there versus what you think you've killed but it's almost 100% pure guesswork.
>Do they have a set number of troops at the >beginning of the op that is worn down? Or >does each of the 6 battles bring up a new >set of enemies?
Same as you - they get the guys they start with plus possible reinforcements every battle.
Sort of more exciting that way no? Keep pushing soldier, we want Mortain by nightfall (I'm jealous, that's a great op. the first time).
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> Like I said, it is not just one incidence.
> But since I play German most of the time,
Well, there you go....the Germans in their Tigers really don't have to be as afraid as the yanks do in their shermans. Maybe that's why you don't see your guys panic as much.
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I'm playing at +25% and +1 level and I'm losing more than I'm winning. The AI's really pretty decent.
Try an operation with that handicapping if you want to get smoked really badly.
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I just played the first battle today and had the scare of my life.
I had my guys set up to pretty much only watch the two main roads expecting the tanks to come roaring through supported by the infantry in typical AI fashion. I really didn't expect the AI to work through the hedgerows so I moved some of my platoons that didn't seem to be doing much off on the sides towards the middle to guard the 2 main roads with their fausts.
We knocked out 3 Shermans and a scout car early and waited in ambush for more....that never came. I had about 10 turns with nothing new spotted and no shots fired.
Then right near the end of the 20 turns I decided to move one of my mortar crews who had shot all of his ammo to safety in the back lines all the way at the edge of the map and he was shocked to find a huge concentration of US guys in my rear area! They turned out to be all 60mm mortars (I think) and I got the all before the game ended (I think).
I just can't believe that the AI had the balls to sneak 6 mortar crews the entire length of the map without me spotting anything! I was unnerved to say the least after that happened and I started to wonder where else the bastard had infiltrated.
Anyone else have similar scares???
Looks like you have to watch your entire front in this one or get burned!
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I see a lot of people playing this op. first and then coming to the conclusion that operations against the computer are easy, boring...
Guys, I wouldn't really use this scenario to come to any conclusions.
As the Germans, the computer has to attack accross the bridge for the last 5 battles and usually doesn't get anywhere because it's easy to defend. The German reinforcements should really be coming from both sides of the river but the CM operation engine doesn't handle attacks coming from > 1 direction yet.
As the Brits, the AI doesn't know that it's even supposed to go for the bridge because there's no victory locations in operations. All it knows is that it has to stay alive (because the goal of the op is German Destroy) and it figures it can do that pretty well where it is so why bother going for the bridge?
The map is beautiful, the situation is a natural for an operation but it's not quite there yet. Give Drive To Mortain a shot and then say the AI is easy to beat.
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I saw it in both demo versions but not in the actual game yet (although the bug is probably still there).
The programmers know about it though. Patience. Or you can explain it away by all of the well stocked wine cellars in Normandy that the tank crews knew about.
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Welcome aboard and kiss your summer free time goodbye.
The only thing that's missing in CM actually now that you bring it up _is_ roller coasters. Imagine having an 88 mounted on a roller coaster car? Maybe somehow your girlfriend can convince Charles and Steve to add them in and that way happy couples can enjoy the game together instead of all these relationships getting ruinned.
(Sorry Peng....he escaped)[This message has been edited by Peterk (edited 07-23-2000).]
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You're right, most people would probably tend to agree that VoT is unbalanced towards the US side - take away the arty though and it's a totally different ballgame (and since you know which hill the arty spotter will probably be on <hint, hint> at the beginning of the game, there's something you can try to do about him).
VoT however is a special scenario that I'm sure a lot of us will remember for a long time because it was the first thing we played on the long awaited gold-demo and I have a feeling that it was included mainly because of its classic status (it showcased some really cool terrain, bunkers, minefields and most of all the arty barrages). Last Defense is another one of the classics that absolutely had to be included, balanced or not.
I've read a suggestion that +25% for the Germans evens things out a bit.
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> Probably he had good intentions, then
> power got to his head, and he became
> expendable
That's hilarious.
Good 'ol 6+1. I kind of miss them in CM.
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I've had the game for maybe 2 weeks.
I've played 4 operations - I'd give one of them 2 stars, one 3, and the other two 5 stars.
I've played 2 of the scenarios. One of them is excellent and the other one is interesting to say the least.
Quick battles are well implemented and a lot of fun.
Nowhere near exhausting everything that came with the game. There's a lot of gameplay on that little CD - probably more than in the truckloads of ASL stuff I have in my closet.
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> in battle 1 comes around, the operation
> was over. Could it be something about that > specific operation? Like a victory rating
Hi Foobar,
I "think" I remember Charles mentionning a bug that ended operations early but I'm not 100% sure. A lot of people had the same problem as us with this one so you're not alone. Hard to be mad though when battle 1 was so much fun. Isn't it just plain evil the way Bill made the yanks deploy on the run?
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I absolutely love the operations and basically they have been all I have been playing against the AI, saving the scenarios for PBEM play.
Most of my suggestions and comments have been mentionned by others but I'll bring them up anyways just to lend some weight.
1. Not enough of them! I'm running out and am dying to get my hands on some more. Time to start playing with the editor I guess.
2. I'm a little disappointed with how many of them appear to be broken. The Arnhem Op wasn't terribly interesting after the first day due to the reinforcements being forced to attack from an easily defended bridge.
This brings up the following suggestions:
i. For Destroy type operations it becomes almost imperative to be able to have the attacker be able to attack from all sides. More direction possibilities must be provided for the 'Attacker come from (North/South/East/West)' choice in the editor.
ii. There should be some overall objective on the map for the defender to dissuade him from simply splitting all his squads and hiding them in top floors of buildings in the far edge of the map. The AI imagine will be totally lost in defending a destroy operation in a realistic manner without objectives. For Arnhem, objectives on either side of the bridge will keep the brits fighting for the historically important piece of terrain and may even allow the incentive for them to actually do a bit of attacking to improve their position instead of just trying not to be destryed.
The DeSobry Operation was cancelled after only one battle for no apparent reason but I believe the patch will fix this (???) and I'm anxious to give it another go.
3. For advance and assault ops we definitely have to know at the very least how big the master map is, so we know how aggresively we will have to play. It's a little difficult to judge now. Being able to get a peek at the big map once at the beginning of the
op would be great.
4. I would love to see a no-FOW summary of each battle played in the op after it's over just out of curiosity. Sometimes I feel that I did really well in a particular battle in the middle of the op but I'm never able to know for sure because I never get to see the casualty figures for individual battles for the other side. Not a big deal, but it would be cool to get a battle by battle recap after it's all over.
In lieu of this, maybe a little briefing between missions giving me a hint (which could be wildly innaccurate
) of how I did in the last battle would fit the bill as well. 5. No real comment on the campaign mode a-la-Steel Panthers. I don't think it's a great idea for CM for reasons given by the developpers and beta guys eons ago, but a lot of people seem to want it soooo...
6. How about a variable front-line adjustment? It might add something to the op, to simply not know how much the front line is going to be moved back or forth between battles. If you're not sure if the enemy is 25m in front of you or 400m it will definitely affect how you handle those first few turns.
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If you want to practice your aggresive defense and ambushing ability....
Drive To Mortain as the Germans
suggest +25% forces and +1 skill for the US AI.
The AI Americans do quite a nice job with what is a complicated, nerve-wracking attack. But it's probably more fun to try and spoil it.
[This message has been edited by Peterk (edited 07-21-2000).]
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You have to be really careful when retargeting stuff - once you cancel that order from the previous turns it's history and you have to start from scratch.
Probably the same with fire from guns and units too although it's less obvious - the targets your units are firing on at the beginning of a turn are "acquired targets" and probably get an accracy bonus, but I imagine that if you cancel the order and decide to go back to the original one you might lose the bonus.
Anyone more in the know with a better answer?
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How come sickness isn't modelled in CM????
It should be a factor in the operations at least!
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Personally I've been really impressed with the AI pretty much all around. I always give the AI +25% forces and +1 skill level (it's so nice to have flexible handicapping like this BTW) and have a good challenge almost every time and I get beaten too.
I'm playing a really difficult operation in the bocage and am just blown away by how the computer is working the terrain to ferret out my defenders and trying to attack me from many sides at once. And yes...it looks like I will be losing this one decisively after a long hard fight.
I guess my advice would be to start playing with the handicapping until you start to struggle a bit and then use those settings each and every time.
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Hey Iggi,
A fellow Montrealer wouldn't mind a PBEM.
You can choose scens, but I'm currently playing Aachen and Drop To Destiny.
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I hate to chime in since I know the decision has already been made, but it's a bit disappointing.
Regardless of whether an invasion scenario would be fun, it's sort of difficult to deny that it would be instructive. For most of us, being on bloody-Omaha in CM will be the closest we can ever come to visualizing what happened that morning (short of the movies representations) and personally I'm a bit curious.
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*Spoiler* Aachen question
in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)
Posted
Just to say compliments to the chef, Bill!
I just wound up a PBEM on this one and it was great fun and tense right 'til the end. In fact this one is near-perfection for a quick e-mail game if someone's looking for something good to play.
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