coe

Can you disable minefields with intense artillery, and is there a chance that AP minefields might immobilize a tank or disable a small vehicle like a jeep?

true true, but an immobile tank is something you'd rather be up close to rather than far way, especially if you can get below the fireing arc of the tank, i.e. right next to it (its a sherman so it has a really high turret profile). If you are right next to it, you can almost take your time (ok ok, I'd be nervous) and Shermans don't have those grenade thingys that the german tanks have.

so you check if you are hull down by extending the site line from your target to you?

In one scenario my brave infantry (no Panzerfaust left) was trying to subdue a sherman (the platoon had taken out like four tanks already so who knows if anybody had grenades or anti tank mines (no demo charges either). Well they immobilized the tank, and then I decided that to move one squad to safety (it was in the open) that it was best to move it right next to the tank so I carefully (with units set on reality size) plotted a course for the infantry to be in the rear quarter of the tank to one side (not in front)....they made it! which means if you cowered really close (and since the tank's turret was firing at another infantry squad in front anyways) you would live. Instead after a little bit (not being broken) they made for the trees in front of the tank and thereupon got broken and died....hmmmmmmmm

If I want to modify one of the scenarios that comes with CM, is there a way I can access it and then make a copy and change the specs, or is there a way I can just copy the map without threatening to change the actual scenario. I am also confused as to how to determine which vehicle is hull down, as I extend my LOS from my tank to another tank, it says "hull down" but who is?

Hmm, keep the tigers moving - because they are harder to hit. The problem is more so with the Germans than the allies, you are limited to going down the narrow roads because you can't cut through the bocage, what happend with me is in round 2, the allies floored it through the bocage into the middle of my column..... This is hard to prevent. In operation one, I essentially cleared out everything in the Tigers' lines of sight and some how some cromwell gets a shot off first as it crawls into the tiger's LOS...

Any movie where it shows the "bad guys" (especially the axis troops) lining up to get conveniently machine gunned - i.e. the German attack at Ramelle in Saving Private Ryan - hmm attacking in broad daylight? Boy were those mustangs late! Or where the good guy's expert team gets wiped out by the bad guys who in turn seem incapable of wiping out the main hero...etc. howabout that U- whatever number movie? Geez if the germans were that horrible with aim etc. The Allies should have won the war 3 days after the invasion of Poland!

in one scenario I had three SS squads sneak into buildings against an unsuspecting half track and I saw three handgrenades go in these arcs through the air.... one of them got the 'track, I think it was from the squad that chucked it from the roof - and the grenades were shaped like the potatomashers....

what was the idea about the tigers keep moving? with their slower turrets? might this expose them to getting ambushed alot please explain more....

Howbout a mortar compromise? reducing the gaminess? When you are out of mortar ammo, crews can abandon their weapon and the following applies? If they wish to abandon their weapon when it still has ammo they can do so, but (pick which is preferrable) a. it is assumed that they spike their weapon and it is no longer usable during the scenario (or maybe if they come back to it they'll have it for the next scenario in an operation. If the mortar is abandoned it can be captured if an enemy squad moves within X meters of it - when captured it is assumed the enemy tosses a grenade on it, kicks it around, uses a sledge hammer, etc. and essentially that mortar is destroyed for the remainder of that scenario and operation and counts as points! Abandoned mortars can also be fired on and destroyed (and are easier to destroy in that case)....a nice extension would be if you hit it and it is abandoned there is a chance all the abandoned ammo will go up with it too. In the voluntary abandonment, mortar crews have a bit more rifle ammo, and firepower but when they panic (direct hit on them etc, they are like all other crews?) One wishlist would be, that you can reduce your rate of fire and send one guy to give ammo to another mortar unit (however much the guy can carry - maybe he can't run and also panicks easier? (might be able to do this with machine guns too - in the case of the german HMG you can do (in a voluntary abandonment a one time reduction of an HMG to an MMG or LMG) but it takes a turn and you can't re-increase it back up)).

hmmm, I didn't have that so easy. I'd be interested in what tactics you were using. like in phase one and then phase two. In phase one, my tigers were knocked out by i don't know what (from the front too) Then again most of the phase one is short range fighting. In phase two it was difficult because the one unique thing that the allies can do (and if they have alot of vehicles) is move through the bocage and it is weird when you have tanks appearing in the middle of your column, I also lost a tiger to a fighterbomber. In phase 2 to try to eliminate being outflanked as I advanced down into Villers bocage, I had three groups on the three roads and put some "infantry observers" moving through the bocage fields in between. Actually on the extreme left road I raced two tigers down the road in the hope they could set up from the side looking all the way through a bocage field thus wipe out any flanking movement on one side. Didn't work I think the allied tanks had moved through already. The major tank battle I had was in phase two.

I was playing a scenario last night and a bunch of allied squads were assaulting a bunker....well you could see that the bunker had target lines to like 5 of the 10 or so squads, and you could see the volleys extend out to them - what I did notice that some of the squads in the way "died", or some sligthly off to the side (the squads were a bit depleted)...so I definitely saw the grazing fire - I wonder if that was done for the lmg's in the german infantry squads?

In some scenario with Allies at 200% I fought off an American human wave attack. curious though, the Russians did waves, so did the Japanese, and the accounts are true against the Polish at Falaise, the Germans just kept coming and coming and getting cut down. I've never heard of any of the Western Allies doing such kind of assaults, or did they? Other question: were different nations better at camouflage than others (or different types of troops)? Would that be hard to model?

depends what type of fighting are you doing if you are in the city crawling with enemy infantry then sending tanks in far in advance probably bites... The main idea is that it doesn't really matter (in most cases) if Tanks lead or infantry leads it is that the tank's job is to protect the infantry and the infantry's job is to protect the tank. When they get separated, that's trouble...

I disagree, there were fortifications which were designed to help you better weather bombardments than a foxhole. Pill boxes are one thing where those are for weapons but some of the larger bunkers, and perhaps some of the sheltered fortifcations that were built on the eastern front? Of course the question is if you are caught in the open and the shells start falling can you reach it in time.....RUN!

Speaking of bunkers, wouldn't it be cool if you could store units in them (like they rush inside while there is artillery raining down) and then burst out back into the field when the actual attack begins (hmmm CM2?)

anyone ever seen a dud round?

How is camouflage modelled, i.e. The SS had the camouflaged smocks, and tended to have the winter uniforms first, Given that, are they harder to spot (controlling for experience and unit type) How does that compare with vehicles? (If I remember correctly the Germans used large amounts of camouflage on their tanks - moving forests so to speak.

Actually does squad's tendency to break or a crew's tendency to bail take into account the amount of other friendly units that are close by (regardless of a HQ unit) i.e. if you are all by yourself you might panic sooner? but if you have like a whole bunch of other guys near by is probably reassuring

I did the Villers-Bocage Operation (Wittmann) and I noticed that from operation to operation my deployment area changed - they are green areas - but then I also noticed that (more towards the british held town) there would be these black lined deployment areas but I couldn't place any units in them, nor were there any units with a black or grey unit base to place in them? Why are they there?

this might seem way off the topic, but having just done a street fighting scenario, and witnessed the carnage. Has any thought been considered in fighting in multi storied buildings-in highly dense areas - e.g. lets say you had to take New York City. (no I'm not talking about CM modelling this -just what problems one might encounter how to deal with it, more bloodier than Stalingrad, etc. etc.)

Any idea what the kill ratio was in Tank vs. Tank - Germans vs. Allies? (ignoring tank vs. Aircraft.....)

no doubt charging an Ambush or at least move to get out of the killing zone, to a place where you can employ your weapons effectively or to bring them to bear. But what if you can't destroy the ambushing unit - i.e tank vs. halftrack, you got to escape..... I suspect charging an ambush is to create chaos out of order - and even the odds that way (and to prevent the enemies' indirect and high fragmentation weapons to bear) when I mean create chaos out of order, I'm looking at it from the ambushing side which in some ways has everything "orderly" at least its plan etc.

true true, Fionn, but it wasn't apparent that the HT was trying to do that because it a.) the Crommy was firing at it several times b.) the HT (perhaps due to terrain limitations) wasn't exactly maximizing the amount the crommy had to traverse By the way do you know if it was more common for tanks to move - stop - fire - move rather than move, slow down fire speed up? and is there a way to do the first one in reverse, I assume that "Hunt" does the first one in forward motion?

a few strange things I had happen with 1.03 I had a halftrack (german) advancing along and it came up to a cromwell...the half track fired its machine gun at it but instead of flooring it into reverse and fleeing for cover it kept going and almost got popped. (it finally did when the cromwell hit it the turn later). When I mean it kept going, it really did, out in the open towards the cromwell instead of reversing it into the nearby trees!