chrisl

Something that might help, and that I haven't really seen in people's AARs is to play alongside someone and watch what they put in for move orders (with the show paths/targets turned on). Way back when I got the beta demo and got my tanks blown up in the first couple minutes I turned FOW off for half a game and saw the AIs movement paths. It helped quite a bit. Try it with another player, and get explanations as to why they do what they do. You could probably do it with a PBEM even, if the other player saved the move and sent the file to you before hitting go. I'm not great, but I do ok, and would be willing to share orders files. We could also play it as a coop game, but allow paths to be turned on and lots of communication. You could also go and play alongside Elvis against Peng for a better education. I suppose it could even be done in a game against the AI.

Hey Foobs, sign me up. I've wanted to try multiplayer coop for a while and am running a little low on games, so I've got some time. I can generally do a file in the morning and one in the evening (sometimes two depending on the time zones of the other players).

Ditka

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dunnee: Then why aren't sharpshooters directly attached to a unit used in a particular game. ... Do single men of an infantry squad who are good shots just strike off on their own?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> They're much like other support teams (MGs, light mortars, LATW, etc.)- they're part of the unit but expected to operate much more independently, since they may be off to the back or side (or front) of the main action providing cover/disruption/etc. rather than moving in on the assault with the platoon or defending the MLR. They're basically sent off on their own-- that's why they cost more than the guys in the squads who are just good shots.

I actually prefer vets over crack and elite most of the time. Crack and elite seem only too willing to continue their charge into the face of overwhelming fire (while suffering excessive casualties), while vets are smart enough to cower when necessary. Vets with a leader that has a +2 on combat are especially effective.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 109 Gustav: Any bets on how long I'll last before I go insane? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I thought you already were. Go home and eat some fish for a while, and maybe send some applications to colleges with better cafeterias if you get some free time.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dunnee: Snipers need a little tweeking...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> This has come up a bunch of times-- BTS makes a distinction between snipers and sharpshooters. Snipers are special (and rare) troops who will spend days setting up a single shot, and are indeed the one shot, one kill kind of guy you refer to. Sharpshooters are just the best shots in the platoon and who are given a slightly better rifle with a scope and told to go pick off officers, arty spotters, tank commanders, and other high value targets whose destruction might be especially demoralizing. Snipers are not in CM, sharpshooters are. Sharpshooters ammo in CM is abstracted somewhat-- people have reported losing multiple individuals out of a unit for a single ammo point expended. Think of it more as sharpshooters having 10 or so turns worth of firing, rather than 10 "shots".

Also check out some of the tutorials and tactical decision games at Scout PL's site. He's an ex-platoon leader and does some nice writeups on how to attack, defend, etc. and in the tactical decision games he takes submissions from the peanut gallery and critiques them. Scout PL's page

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jd: I got spanked in a Rune scenario<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Just pick the right side and you'll do fine.

Sometimes scenario designers lock the positions of units, particularly to model historical battles where one or both sides may have been caught off guard. This is one of those.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MrPeng: uh, have I mentioned my dislike for smilies lately? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yeah. Have you tried the damage to the visual cortex thing yet? It should work, but there is one caveat--it's possible that you could be left with a form of "blindsight" that keeps you from consciously perceiving that box of smilies in the lower left, but still allows the smiley signal to get to your subconscious. Really. It can happen. I suspect that this would be a bad thing, and cause your head to explode violently. Probably your best bet is to rip out all of your eyes (or snip them off, if they're on stalks).

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Leeo: I didn't bother to read page six, so I'm repeating a joke that is no longer funny<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Don't you new people read any more? You need to study the thread more carefully before you post. Or did you poke out your eyes like Peng and now you just have someone take you to the reply page and type at random and your little monkey fingers gave you a rehash of a rehash from the main board? Btw-- how're things going with young harpooner? If I guess right you both have had some reinforcements by now, but you haven't seen too many horrors yet. Watch out for the vortex...

oops reply to the wrong topic.. [ 04-22-2001: Message edited by: chrisl ]

Lots of suppressive fire.

All your base are belong to us

like the capt suggested-- play defender in some attack or assault scenarios. Try this one: defend (against an attack) on a large map, flat, no trees, with infantry only defenders against an armored attack. Let the computer select forces. If you really want a challenge take low quality forces. There are a lot of parameter choices available-- play the range of them, and use a lot of computer setups. It's much more challenging to make do with the crap that the computer sometimes picks than to hand select your ideal force.

Go to this page: blind spot and figure out where you have to stare. You'll have to have one eye closed when yo type. You can always, of course, just poke out all your eyes and use a text to speech synthesizer, but I bet they all read smilies out loud. [ 04-20-2001: Message edited by: chrisl ]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MrPeng: Have I mentioned recently that the Instant Goddam Smilies flashing in the lower left of the "Post A Reply" screen really piss me off? ...I didpoke my left eye out as suggested by Elvis (pods have about 11 left eyes (eyies? eye's? aye-ayes?) so one or two gone with a sharp stick don't matter much to us)and yet there they are annoying the liver (s, 's, ies', eses, eses') out of me<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> What kind of an idiot are you (don't answer that- I know you're some sort of disgusting pod-thing). Poking out an eye won't work, since the visual fields of both (or all eleven or 22 or whatever) mostly overlap, and all the other ones will still see the smilies. What you need is a little damage to the visual cortex. That's right, brain surgery but not like the cut-rate lobotomy that you got last time. That just made you more of a raving lunatic. A little bit of damage to just a few spots in the visual cortex could completely eliminate the lower left corner, and the best part is that you wouldn't even know it's gone. There's plenty of options for how to do it--borrowing the brick and bashing it violently against the right side of the back of your head is a cheap and easy way (you'll know your getting the right spot when you start seeing stars on the left side but not the right). You could also just have Elvis bring over the electric drill and get some books out of the library to figure out where to drill. I know elvis doesn't read very well, but the kind of books you want have lots of pictures, so it shouldn't be a problem. Or you can mark up your head yourself and just have him drill. A less invasive way to do it is to figure out where you have to stare so that your blind spot is pointed at the smilies, and then put a little dot on your screen that you can look at while you type. The remnants of your brain, or whatever else is in your head these days, will then fill in over the smilies with the background. [ 04-20-2001: Message edited by: chrisl ]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Leeo: yap yap yap yap I'm a little yappy dog<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I'm glad to see that you're enjoying yourself, and that you're playing exactly as expected. Just keep playing--that was just the prelude.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lorak: No one knows. some strange Bastard thought it would be funny to grow up Irish and go to a German based church. What it means to me is this. Getting up in the middle of the night and wandering around the graveyard until sun-rise. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I think that they've been lying to you- you're not Irish-Moravian, you're a zombie, or maybe a vampire. At any rate, you're a creature of the night and ought to be careful about traveling anyplace where you might meet Sarah Michelle Gellar. It does explain a lot about you-- all the semi-goth quotes and stuff you post.

Wow-- I go out of town for a couple days and come back to a completely new thread that's nearly on page two. How pathetic. Have Oleeo and that squire of mine been posting reports on their battle? I haven't seen any, though they ought to be on nearly every page. In game updates, despite being a lying cheat it looks like Jake might actually lose in our current battle. In our first battle be gives me a probe with me attacking. In this one he's attacking but he gave himself an attack, and set the parameters to : Jake-armor, me- no AT weapons with a range greater than 30 m, except for a lone KT, a 88 pb, and a 105 mm howitzer. I also got a bunch of HTs armed with 20 mm popguns-- worthless even against a lousy sherman. Now my KT has been immobilized, so I have no mobile AT any more, but Jake still manages to squander Sherman after Sherman. Against elvis-- he's just starting to really attack, so it's uncertain, though I did finally pop his evil priest.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by harpooner: [QB] Potato mashers vs. Avocados.... creativity is life <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Sounds like the beginning of a good recipe for Guacamole...

Wow. The colors have suddenly improved-- it no longer hurts my eyes to read this thread. Well, that's not entirely true- it still hurts my eyes, but it no longer has anything to do with the colors.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Leeo: Sire, I trust the previously described scenario presented by chrisl will serve for this poor spawn of a termite's demise? ... "Uber-weapon of doom." Sheesh. And I suppose I'll have a whip-wielding shapshooter named "Indiana".<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I trust that the scenario arrived safely. I wouldn't want it to catch cold or anything-- I spent a good fifteen or twenty minutes putting it together. I think it's pretty well balanced, but I'm afraid to play it. I'm afraid to even look at it in fact, and had to have one of the cats zip it and send it to you. It goes to eleven. If the two of you don't post regular updates on the carnage I'll have Seanachai and that other guy...what was his name...Slaw...no...Paws....whatever, something like that. I'll have them come to your house, with jd in his greenest jacket, and bore you to death with extreme prejudice.

A file is on the way to Leeo, who will be playing Allies. I was too lazy to put in a scenario briefing, but I'll put one here. It's some time during the war (I can't remember what month I selected) and the Germans are on the run. The allies have pushed them back to some river and are driving madly to get across, because the Germans have developed a secret new weapon known so far only as the "vortex machine" and it's not even known what it does, but it's believed to be so advanced that if it can be put into action it will enable the Germans to handily turn the tide. The laboratories where it's being developed are only a few kilometers beyond the lightly defended river crossing, and both sides are desperately rushing forces into action to attack/defend the river crossing as appropriate. Intelligence reports suggest that the Germans may try to use the new überweapon out of desperation, even though it's not yet been fully tested. The the Allied player can expect the crossing to be defended by an understrength company, possibly with some static defenses. Air observations report that there are Germans rushing to the crossing from all directions. The German player should expect a couple lightly reinforced companies to be attacking his positions, but with all available allied forces in the area following to complete and exploit the breach.