Buckeye

Hey Dar, I agree with you that they aren't terribly useful in a city fight. However, in a quick battle, when I chose a company of paratroops, I didn't have any choice. I don't think there's a way to selectively delete squads or teams after you select a company. And even if there was, I don't think I'd have known to do it. It was my first city fight (and against Fionn, to make it worse!).

For myself, I'd rather have something in print than online, so I can read it at my leisure (on vacation, on the plane, and other places I simply don't want to lug along a laptop). I also would prefer it focus on CM, although additional "stuff" about WW II history or gaming would be okay too. And I'd rather it be largely subscriber based, although I understand how advertising can defray the costs substantially. Maybe "selective" advertising is okay. ------------------ "Don't lie to me, Gustav! You're a stinkin' Mac user!"

Yeah, that can work (and that's what I tried). But in a city, the HQ unit needs to be in the front of a building, for LOS, and the mortar team needs to be outside (can't fire from inside the building), so it's tricky finding spots where that's possible and the mortar team isn't in the LOS of the opposing forces. Makes it difficult to take advantage of the mortars in cities, but that might just be realistic. I doubt it was easy to get 60 mm mortars to deliver supporting fire within cities (as opposed to the approaches to cities). ------------------ "Don't lie to me, Gustav! You're a stinkin' Mac user!"

Yeah, and they're not bad at killing AT gunners either, eh Fionn? ------------------ "Don't lie to me, Gustav! You're a stinkin' Mac user!"

I'd subscribe... ------------------ "Don't lie to me, Gustav! You're a stinkin' Mac user!"

I also like mortars, but they are tricky to use in a city fight. I'm getting my a** handed to me in a PBEM by Fionn right now, and one (of the many) problems I had was that I couldn't figure out how to effectively use my 60 mm mortars. I'm defending a "city" against an assault. It was difficult to put the mortars into a position where they were in CC, the HQ unit has LOS, and the mortar was not in the line of fire. Ideas? ------------------ "Don't lie to me, Gustav! You're a stinkin' Mac user!"

Hey Shooter. I do check the info page, but that only shows definite kills. At long range, at least in my experience, the snipers are often picking off the enemy but not necessarily getting credit for definite kills. I check both ways.

Yup, Ohio...go Bucks! Ohio's got the best group of roller coasters in the US, once you combine Cedar Point, King's Island, and Six Flags.

I think the feature was added after the manual went to the printer. In essence, it allows you to jump the experience level of the AI's troops (e.g., +1 would raise green troops to regular, or regular to veteran). It's a different way of making the AI more challenging (as opposed to adding a certain percentage of additional units). ------------------ "Don't lie to me, Gustav! You're a stinkin' Mac user!"

I'm playing a PBEM scenario that will go unnamed, but it has a "crack" German sharpshooter. He sits up on the second floor and picks his own targets. He has killed some (based on a reduction in the number of men seen in the unit) and suppressed others. They can be very effective for the cost. And the scenario had two of them placed well forward of the MLR, so it seems perfectly reasonable to use them as scouts. ------------------ "Don't lie to me, Gustav! You're a stinkin' Mac user!"

Oops, should have read your profile before. Now I see that it's Aikido Rat...ah so. ------------------ "Don't lie to me, Gustav! You're a stinkin' Mac user!"

Crawling is also extremely slow. Sneak allows you to move with considerably more speed and better spotting (but also more chance of being detected). ------------------ "Don't lie to me, Gustav! You're a stinkin' Mac user!"

In general, the AI does better on defense than attack. And it really gives the best account of itself the first time around. Still, it is generally much easier to beat the AI than a human opponent.

Thanks, aikidorat (what's an aikidorat?). I'm looking forward to the mods, and appreciate your work (and others) on them for us stinkin' Mac users.

Hey Matt, will there be two versions of the new grass for us stinkin' Mac users?

I think I recall MadMatt saying that there were many (50?) other scenarios that didn't make it onto the game, but that he may be able to make available eventually. Hope so.

LOL

Mods for macs, mods for macs, I'm cuckoo for mods for macs... Thanks MadMatt. Hmmm, lots of "m"'s here. Very alliterative.

Okay, Freyland, then get your troops off their butts and start attacking, or are they just afraid???

Way to go Matt. I'd suggest you post something to this effect on the main Forum, because I'm not sure it'll get seen by all us Mac users. "Don't lie to me, Gustav! You're a stinkin' Mac user."

Yup, I see your point. I haven't tried it yet, but there should be a way to set up defensive positions in the bocage, a la the German's tactics. And they certainly were "in" rather than "behind" the bocage, and had good LOS to the next hedgerow. It also would be appealing visually if having a tank go through the bocage changed the appearance of the tile and allowed troops to follow through unimpeded. Not sure how easy that would be to program though. And most German tanks, IIRC, were not equipped to penetrate most larger hedgerows. Doubler's book is great. I wonder if he knows how admired he is by the CM community.

Are you using area fire? Mortars won't fire directly at units if they are controlled by a HQ unit (i.e., if you are using indirect fire). They can only fire at a general area. As for the 150 mm IG, it tends not to "stick" with a given target very well. This has been addressed to a certain extent in the patch for the full game.

Actually, IIRC, Charles said that bocage doesn't totally block LOS if you are reasonably close to it. I don't recall how far the LOS goes, but you should be able to see through it if you are just behind it. I haven't played a scenario with bocage yet, so haven't tried this personally.

Hey Jeff, it does sound like you had some luck with the arty. The second problem isn't so much a bug as the inability of the Tac AI to "remember" an existing threat. However, I'd also say that it's rather lucky of a 57 mm AT gun to take out all the AFVs that it did. So you were to some extent the beneficiary of lots of luck (and a Tac AI problem). In my playing, as the Axis, my Panther and Hetzer took out all the American armor in one key exchange. I then got a StuH42 on top of the hill overlooking the city, and the others were on the right flank together with all the halftracks. I just hosed Ami infantry. Lost both Pumas to the 57, but that was it. Still fun. Probably a very interesting scenario in double blind.

Interesting, because I achieved a total Axis victory when I played. I think it has to do with the importance of terrain, and the human's ability to immediately sense that importance. However, I suspect you'd need to play the scenario a number of times to get a true read. Once is not enough in CM, as I've learned. In any case, a scenario can still be fun even if you are victorious.