Sublime

Well it can go both ways Pavo. one of the surest ways to lose men is to not suppress or kill a target and rush your men into a live defensive position. Best to blast it heavily for a minute or two, then remove HE from the equation to stop friendly fire, (while still pouring on mg fire) and run up an assault team or two. I usually try to use two assault teams where possible, and also I usually try to run one a little to the left of where the Germans are and one a little to the right. As far as tanks in the hedgerows - if you think theres an AT gun you need the engineers if at all possible. Tanks will almost certainly lose every time to an AT gun. The spotting game and everything is working against you. Much better IMO to use tanks on known targets. I have them lurk back a little until Im pretty sure I know whats in the immediate area. then i pull them up and engage. Also if I think theres enemy armor around at all, I restrict tank movement (especially as allies) and if I must move my armor its in short hops. in 99% of the tank duels Ive had so far, the tank sitting still usually spots first and gets off the first accurate shot.

Why BS? Every Allied Army used Shermans..

The ammo sharing within a platoon is true. If you have a battle with 81mm mortars you can notice it... I forgot about it and a few battles with large numbers of troops Ive just paired off mortar ammo bearers with mortars. Occasionally Ive gotten units switched around and then would be shocked when I had mortar bearers with full loads and mortars on the same tile refusing to fire, due to lack of ammo. I thought it was a bug, but it turned out it was because they were from different units. Dumb if you ask me as well - a few times it really could have affected a battle's outcome and in real life I doubt some men would refuse to kick in the mortar shells to save their own skins - especially when you have a Wehrmacht infantry assault barrelling down towards you..

ive enountered this frequently as well. It seems that if once you hit the button and the save file name box comes up, you need to click it a few times. i noticed if you click a few times in a hurry it crashes or mis saves a lot more often. where if you're very patient, slow about it, it seems to not crash as easily. odd. also using Shultzes method DOES seem to help. Its important that theres almost nothing in your view when you exit though, I think it has something to do with memory.

Steiner - while Im not debating that the Germans had FOOs somewhere in their military, I doubt very much they were common at all. And even further - they have no place in Normandy of '44, at least not a battle trying to be historically accurate that is. By the by, notice the FOO's arms in a sling? And it looks like he's wearing a pilots helmet. Is the Ost Front Luftwaffe punishment for breaking a limb while drunk? Go out with the landsers and spot for the pilots?

a lot off topic, but i really hope someone makes a US vs Brit scenario onces the CW mod is out =D

Also the suddenness of any shelling can be useful. no spotting rounds are used.

Well you should go with whatever works best for you. Theres many different approaches. Often having many TRPs is effective because the battle may move over in that direction. They're also useful to have all over because they can form anchor points of a 'web' that you can plot linear barrages on. With trps you can target large areas you cant see, by linking a target order for a linear target on one TRP to another. This also is useful when you just get sounds contacts, or loose intel that enemy units are in an area. Once you get a feel for how long it usually takes units to advance etc, a good tactic is to have a 'speedbump' force. This slows down the enemy, and gives you valuable intel about what your facing, and where they're attacking. I usually put a TRP right behind on or the speedbump force. by the time they get wiped out or whatever artillerys coming in, to clobber the enemy attack. Often it's good to wait for the pointy end of your opponents spear to pass, then the shells come in on the HQs, MGs, and most important of all, mortar teams.

Well I like seeing it around. however when the strafing runs happen, I think the bullet's stream is too accurate. I feel it should disperse a little more. Also I think the planes spot small groups of men too easily. I wish the AA could shoot back like In CMx1. That would make a huge difference. They dont need to model whether it hits or if the plane goes down. Just make a variable that if AA opens up, the plane should leave. If its one gun, make it a small percent each turn the plane leaves. this ideally would increase exponentially with each added AA gun. I think thats the biggest reason its not used a lot in CM now, it feels one sided. Whether or not its truly gamey, it feels that way when I use it against an opponent.

Plus some people just arent good at computer games. thats all. Seriously though, the biggest things I can suggest to improve playing are splitting the infantry squads. This is realistic like real life - almost every combat account I read stresses the need for men to spread out. Second, like everyone else said- SLOW DOWN. if you rush, you'll take heavy losses. the time to rush is when incoming arty is coming, or a critical moment in the attack. Otherwise, take your time. Dont use your tanks to scout. They'll report enemy contact by exploding. Break off scout teams from squads or use the dedicated ones. Let your troops sit between move orders and just look around. Often it takes a couple minutes to spot things.

shultzie and i have started the first battle. thats a hell of an ambush on the broken bridge. i got clobbered. I made a newbie mistake, bunched my armor up near the water crossing. i was using their pop smoke to try to cover my engineers. I shoulda known it was obviously going to be TRP.d took heavy casualties, including both shermans in one turn. nasty nasty nasty. nice touch to have no on board mortars. I use them heavily usually, but it does make things a bit more fair to have to call on off board support. at least for this one. as an aside I wish bfc would make it so offboard mortars dont make the incoming shriek. at least for the 60mms.... Anyways looks like its gonna be my infantry that hafta carry the day. I know I've caused casualties to shultzies nazis, not sure how many however. Ive destroyed the first obstacles, the second is still up. however I DO think I'll be able to force a crossing. After that - its up in the air.

at the same time things like the 88mm, either in cruciform or AT role are so gigantic they'll get spotted almost every time. and levelled by artillery. however i did play shultz in his valley of the shadow and he had a 150mm gun somewhere on my left up ahead. he prolly got about 60+ casualties shooting at my right flank, and i still dont know where he put the goddamn gun.

I appreciate all the responses. Again I wasnt tryin to open an ubertank thread, or say the fausts were unrealistic. I just was making a point about their use. A little off topic but I have a couple of other questions. The two US bazookas. M1A1, M9A1. I had asked Shultz about this, he said the difference was a more reliable firing mechanism. Any other differences? is this modelled? Also - I remember reading somewhere about the early days in the Korean War, US troops had zook's and they bounced off the T-34/85s (cant wait to control some of those on the Ost Front.. ) They ended up getting upgraded Super Bazookas that had a larger muzzle size. However I believe these 'super zooks' were made for heavy German armor, my question is did they see action against the Wehrmacht? When were they introduced?

CMBN has really changed my views and opinions of Panzerfausts. Obviously having the 60/100 meter variants later on will improve things somewhat. However I always regarded them as a more effective weapon than they actually seem to be. The sad truth seems to be that while useful for emergencies, or if armor shows up and is about to roll over that squad, they're really not a viable AT weapon to plan your defense around. It may seem obvious to some, but Im not saying I plan defenses around Pzfaust equipped squads like they're 88s but the short range makes them near suicidal in combat, especially if your opponent has any idea of how to effectively use their tanks. I'd like to hear peoples opinions, and tactics, see if theres something I havent heard about or didnt know. Also, Im not debating whether this is accurate, Im talking about how it is in the game. As far as Im concerned it seems very accurately portrayed, if anything they were way too accurate and effective in previous games.

Ost Front. That's gonna be the holy grail. After Commonwealth Im most excited for Arnhem. I could skip the odds n sods. Bulge is ok, though I'm more excited about the Ost front. Arnhem.. Bocage.. its all cool. but it doesnt have the same intensity and bitterness as the Seelow Heights, Berlin, Stalingrad, etc etc etc.

well PIATs are launched with a spring (as im sure you know) so of course they can be used in a building..

Well I know what you mean, and it is ahistorical. However, not as bad as some think, I remember seeing a German drawn diagram of a defense line running through a village, as opposed to in front if it. It keeps LOS on German positions low, especially for support weapons set back for the attackers, among other advantages..

well often people dont realize also that the casualty threshold in real life operations is also lower because the units hopefully should be able to continue on from the one battle. real life is never just a one off battle - everyone wants to go home. I think if people played trying to keep in mind that their force should be able to A. hold on to what ever they take, and B. (if attacking) be able to continue if need be. The acceptable casualty threshold is obviously lower. People would also play much more realistically. And make sure they used buddy aid... Erwin: Im surprised. It must just be bad luck. I avoided anything that looked muddy like a plague in that campaign.. I had relatively few bogging problems however. Speaking of immobilization, the AI in that campaign targeted a panther of mine with a 60mm mortar. stupid right? not so much - caused enough track damage to immobilize the tank...

definitely been photoshopped heavily. looks awesome though. especially the view of the tank and men from of above.

very impressive. ill be downloading it. i love how you got the tanks to look

I kept my armor casualties to bogging in Hoffnung pretty low by ordering slow moves almost everywhere. IIRC the ground conditions were usually damp. Its the only way to go about it when you're using panthers or tigers. I even use it for PZ IV's and Shermans on anything except roads and plain looking grass (if the conditions are dry). Not worth losing the tank to me, and usually the slowness with the tank just adds a little factor of patience to my armor use, which usually isnt a bad thing.

Yeah. That'd be awesome. PBEM campaigns. it'd take forever to finish but I'd be down. It'd be great. I play against the AI, but its not the same as a human at all. that being said, the continuity and idea of campaigns has always been one of the things I go after in any war game, whether its flying planes, lurking in a submarine, commanding troops, etc.

Yeah I agree. I heard that used so much that Ive used it before too, unfortunately I havent had much luck at all with it. maybe im just inept. its a shame, some of the conversations I remember from CMBO days and CMBB, with JasonC, Fionn Kelly, and others were spectacular. JasonC in particular used to write these... essays basically that really illuminated fighting in the Ost Front in ways I hadnt understood or thought of before. I also wanted to look back at a couple threads where the close combat developers (well one of them) trolled etc. couldnt find them Of course there was an infamous crash years ago and I know a lot of the posts were lost.

yeah. Ive seen that workaround LLF. works great, and looks good too. I just wish it didnt have to be built in. like i could use it for an option in a qb if I needed to. oh well cant have it all. Im really taken with your map and work on this. you picked an excellent area, and period. this thread has been nice and long running, with good solid info and reports taken from that time

so ari, where can I get your terrain 2.0?