Holman

I'm sorry if I've missed it, but has there been any announcement of the actual release date? Are we talking days or weeks? Thanks!

Preordered!

I have all of my Kieme mods straight from this forum, and they do wonders for Black Sea.

I think it's necessary to accept that we still don't have 100% modeling of every single aspect of real-life warfare. In this case those aspects include every blink, distraction, and turn of the head of every crewman, what you might call FOW at the facial level. Sometimes the enemy spots your unit when you (with your omniscient, zoomable, WASD'able view of the battlefield) think you should have seen him first; sometimes it's the other way around. That's probably more realistic (in terms of what-happens-in-the-world) than strictly perfect simultaneous sight modeling would be. I've played CM for years and years, and I have a very strong sense that it handles these things more fully, more realistically, and more fairly than any other wargame. The results in the long term are very consistent with reality. One thing to remember, too, is that we never even notice the times we're on the winning side of these edge-case equations; that's when we congratulate our pixelguys on their sharp eyes and quick shooting.

Updated from 8.1 to 10 yesterday. No problems with CMx2 at all, except that I had to re-activate all of CMBN. One note, though: for a couple of hours after updating, Win 10 would only boot me into a Temporary Profile. Later (maybe the fourth or fifth reboot, and after running Windows update a few times) it finished the process and booted me to my real ID. Now all is well, and I'm liking the speed and layout of Win 10. (All that unfamiliar business with the start menu is fully tweakable.)

That section appears in the Black Sea manual but not in any of the WW2 game manuals, presumably because WW2 formation logic is generally more straightforward than the variations-on-variations seen in the modern game.

Needs more umlauts!

The game is available in a new version here, and it's very much worth it. As CM is the best tactical-level WW2 system ever made, Command Ops is the best operational system. Anyone who doesn't know the game should seek out reviews. As for books, allow me to give another vote for Charles MacDonald's A Time for Trumpets. It's an excellent overall narrative, but it's also filled with descriptions of platoon- to battalion-level actions that will surely appear as CM scenarios.

The Ardennes offensive has been called Hitler's "last blitzkrieg" many times. It's colorful and evocative. Sure, the plan wasn't exactly the same as the blitzkrieg days of the early war, but it was the last time Germany would launch a surprise mechanized offensive aimed at catching the enemy off-balance and winning through shock and maneuver. The failure of the Bulge nicely bookends the successes of the early invasions.

I think Slim probably got it: the TC spotted the tank (or maybe even the radio operator spotted it), but 9 seconds wasn't enough time for the gunner to spot it, lay the gun on target, and fire. This happens. If it happens all the time, it's a problem. If it happens every now and then, it's realistic.

It seems to me that tanks are especially ripe for automation since they now depend so little on the physical body of the crew. Awareness, yes; motivation, yes; training, yes. But the crew's situational awareness and weapon use are already so mediated by electronic interfaces that there seems to be little to lose by moving them off-site the way drone pilots are off-site. Plus, this would allow tank designers to do away with everything focused on keeping the crew alive, leading to faster, more robust, better-armed AFV's.

In effect, the setup phase (only) is running in real-time even for turn-based games. This makes it possible to instantly set up guns, hide, button up, etc rather than waiting for in-turn execution to occur.

Area fire will definitely continue into smoke, which is important when the smoke/dust on the target was created by the first few rounds of area fire. if you cancel the fire and then try to target again, however, the smoke now blocks targeting.

I believe changing the icon for the TRP would change the icon for all field fortifications. It's a shared asset. TRP's are rare enough that keeping track of them has never been a problem for me. Fortification icons exist only during setup anyway, so you'll have to remember where your TRP's are located during play.

Another question: is it confirmed that the 3-hour missions kick in only when the player loses two missions in a row? I've played the first half of this campaign many times, and I feel certain that I've been given the 3-hour missions after only a single loss (or even just a draw) following a win.

Does this include woods, brush, and other terrain? I'm currently playing a long scenario with a full company of tanks, and many of them have significant track damage from (I believe) crossing various kinds of wooded/brush terrain as well as train tracks. None have broken through a fence or other structure (there aren't any).

Is vehicle performance also affected by the driver? Will a conscript driver in rough terrain degrade a vehicle faster than a veteran? It's possible that they shouldn't--troop level might be meant to reflect overall soldierly experience, not necessarily their skill behind the wheel. (Maybe that conscript was a truck driver in civilian life six months ago.)

Jeeps were known for being able to go anywhere. Do they not deserve their reputation? And of course as players we don't have to worry about long-term damage or wear-and-tear on our vehicles--they only have to last as long as the scenario.

I love this campaign, but I have never finished it--I keep quitting in remorse over my casualties and deciding to start fresh later. I've never seen the final battles. Does anyone know if it is being revised as part of the upcoming battle pack?

They look accurate to me, both stationary and moving. Remember that people wore their belts much higher in the 1940's...

The repository is on the battlefront.com front page: Battlefront Repository Also check out these sites: GreenAsJade's CM Mods Warehouse The Few Good Men's Scenario Depot III

I try to remind myself that not every possible stance is animated. If an opened-up TC is missed by incoming fire (especially after already being fired on), you can just assume that he was ducking down at the time. In game terms, it makes no difference.

Rifle fire tends to come in volleys. I can usually count on my TC's to ignore the first volley but button up at the second or third. Closer-ranged fire seems to alarm them more than long-ranged fire does. MG fire obviously doesn't come in volleys, but it usually spooks a TC quickly. This seems realistic enough for me. If I could tweak it, I'm not sure what choice I would make that would improve every likely circumstance.

And anyone wishing to fix it at home can simply copy and paste the appropriate detail from another file. I did it in Paint in 30 seconds.

This looks great! Thank you very much. One thing I noticed: there does not appear to be a hi-res red cross replacement for the file "breda38 yellow.bmp".