Cybeq

quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Originally posted by Cybeq: ...Seems like a good temp fix would be to fire off all smoke rounds into the dirt at turn one... <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mr. Hankey: Why not just raise a neon sign that says, "Please drop all artillery here", or somefink? Pretty much the same friggen thing. I gotta play you, pal. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> If you want to play that's fine with me. But I have a very weird schedule and could only guarantee one turn per week. I have only played the AI so far because of this. Now, as for your insulting "neon sign" comment: let me just say it sounds like you would be very easy to manipulate via misdirection. Also, I have never experienced the "bug" being discussed in this thread so I have never had any cause to use my temp fix idea. But I can assure you that the technique I described used against the AI would have no adverse effects or "reveal" your positions. If someone were to use it against a human opponent that person would either be very stupid or would be hoping to draw arty. Hmmm. Now why would someone want to draw artillery? P.S. My name is not "pal"

I miss the blue background. This hurts my eyes. :eek:

I know you would. I guess I should clarify. The AI could use some more tanks on the German side. A human would have a field day as the Germans playing another human. It might be fun but it would be real ugly for the Allies. Or were you talking to Rollstoy? [This message has been edited by Cybeq (edited 04-05-2001).]

I have never personally experienced this anomally (possibly due to my playing style)but if it does indeed exist it would seem to be a HUGE problem. The fix is easy enough. Disable the AI's ability to fire smoke from AFV's. That way all smoke rounds fired would be human controlled. I personally like having smoke in tanks so I wouldn't want it eliminated. Seems like a good temp fix would be to fire off all smoke rounds into the dirt at turn one. As an aside, why is BTS strangely silent on this issue?

Yea, that thing is freakin' huge! Longest scenerio I've played. I won it but it got ugly near the end. There are simply so many units to keep track of I grew impaitent and made some sloppy moves. It took me a month to complete that scenerio (no joke!). I couldn't handle doing much more than a couple turns per week. I just couldn't remain coherent long enough to play that massive scenerio in one sitting. I love all the Allied arty you get. But I do agree with the post above. The Germans could use some more armor. If it wasn't for one well-timed massive German artillery strike on a huge group of my armor I was forming up I wouldn't have lost hardly any AFV's to enemy fire. That one strike took out 4 halftracks and two tank destroyers. One word of wisdom. Go off road at your own risk. Most of my vehicle loss was due to bogging. Man that sucks! One other tip, the British 2 inch mortar is nearly useless in this scenerio because the distances are so great. I positioned some in a nice overwatch position on the first main hill in front of the town thinking I could lay some HE in on the town to support my infantry. Wrong! Even though they can see it fine the distance is beyond their maximum range. D'oh!

It comes with the game. It might be part of the 1.12 download but I think it's an original operation. You won't see it under scenerios, you have to look at the operations. [This message has been edited by Cybeq (edited 04-04-2001).]

Q: How to kill a pillbox? A1: If it's an MG pillbox you have no problem. Simply position a buttoned tank (you don't want the MG killing your tank commander do you?) in front of it and fire away. Sooner or later it will die. If you don't have tanks defeat it like you would an AT pillbox. See below. A2: If it's an AT pillbox you smoke it with whatever you have. Approach it quickly with any unit that packs HE. Once you are behind the pillbox it is very vulnerable. I have killed AT pillboxes with infantry squads, a Greyhound, a Stuart, and a flamethrower. All were effective. All were used at the rear door. You get bonus points for style if you use the flamethrower (at least in my book). As has been noted in a previous post the real problem does not lie in defeating one pillbox but in defeating a wicked matrix of pillboxes with interlocking fields of fire. You can get a feel for this quagmire by playing "Stolburg - Punching a hole" once you get the full version of the game.

Of the three American tank destroyers the Hellcat is my favorite. Why? Speed. Although the gun is weaker than the Jackson's it still has the oomph to kill just about anything the Axis can field. But it's armor sucks. With armor this poor speed (and big hills) are your only defense. I don't believe it's necessary to flank with the Hellcat. I prefer to keep it in cover and then fast move perpendicular to the enemy's exposed AFV(s) If you can keep it on a road you will be rewarded with even higher speed. ALWAYS plot your move so it will stop in full defilade. Using these cover to cover perpendicular high speed dashes you should be able to net a few kills per Hellcat before a Puma or flak gun takes you out. If you want a 76mm gun in your force then buying a Hellcat is a good cost effective way to get it. Think of it as a highly mobile AT gun. And don't stay in the same place for more than a turn lest the arty fall on your open topped head!

I'm sick 'N' tired of people telling other people to mod their game when they post a screenshot. He paid for it, not you. Go mod your own. If he likes it stock more power to him.

Everybody in here has played this game sans mods at one time. The game remains excellent in stock form. Although I have a few mods myself it's all just so much eye candy and adds nothing to the actual game mechanics.

***SPOILER FOR STOLBERG-PUNCHING A HOLE*** If you're like most CM'rs on this board you rarely purchase infantry flamethrowers and bemoan their existance when you get them in a scenerio. I was the same way. All flamethrowers were good at in my opinion was dying. They make good ambushers but getting them to the ambush site takes some doing. Anyway, along comes a little operation called Stolberg-punching a hole. There are many bunkers and pillboxes in this operation. I hate bunkers and pillboxes. They tend to eat tanks and slap infantry silly. Well, I'm proud to say I did not lose a single tank in this operation to a pillbox or bunker. And I eliminated most of them with flamethrowers! The combination of thick woods and thin ranks of enemy infantry made a delicious environment for which my FT's could wander. I flamed bunker after bunker with a devilish grin on my face. I LOVE CM!!!!

Another command I would desperately like to see is the LOS tool referenced from a point on the terrain instead of a vehicle or unit. I want to know what my FO will see when he gets to point "B".

Even though numbers don't give a real-life impression of what kind of power a .50 BMG has I nonetheless offer you these ballistics figures: The 7.62 NATO round which is chambered in many sniper rifles, the FN-FAL, the M-60 machine gun and is also considered a first-class civillian deer killer has these ballistics- Muzzle velocity = 2750 fps, bullet weight = 147 grains, muzzle energy = 2400 ft.lbs. The .50BMG's ballistics: Muzzle velocity = 2900 fps, bullet weight = 665 grains, muzzle energy = 12,000 ft. lbs. Wow! Now consider that it is perfectly legal to own a rifle that fires .50 BMG in these United States. Of couse the cheapest one I've found is around $5,000. Guess I'll have to settle for my .300 Win Mag. If you're intersted in .50's in general check out www.fcsa.org ------------------ "To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence." -Sun Tzu, The Art Of War

You're right about the bigger arty. It is a gamble. I find that during the painfully long 2 min. wait for it to fall the enemy's positions have shifted and my 155's will land in an empty field. I tend to reserve the bigger stuff for assaults on fixed positions. But I get more milage from mortars. Here's a trick though. If you get an 81mm FO and a 155mm FO you can call in the mortars to pin down infantry then kill them with 155's. I'm a big believer in mass artillery strikes. But back to your original question: I'd strike the dug-in infantry first. Since their dug in they won't be going anywhere soon so call in the big stuff. Then I'd smoke the AT/INF guns and close-assault with infantry. I wish an HE arty srike would kick up dust like it did in Steel Panthers. You wouldn't have to use smoke so much.

Well, I can't answer all your questions but I have some input on a few things: Q1: The command radius is larger for an elite unit as opposed to regular or green. Also an HQ unit can have a command bonus which will increase command radius. Click on HQ unit, hit enter. It might say command +1 or command +2. Q2: CMBO battles are fairly short. since each turn equals one minute a 30 turn battle is only 30 minutes. I don't think it's reasonable to expect a crew which has been forced to abandon a vehicle or weapon due to enemy fire to be able to recover, turn around, adavance, and re-crew said vehicle/weapon in such a short amount of time. It seems BTS agrees with me on this matter. This ability to re-crew is modelled in operations. If your abandoned vehicle is undamaged and your crew survives you may get it back at the start of the next battle. Q3: Dunno. I use the top-down view and LOS tool. Works fine for me. Q4: This pretty much goes with the scale of CMBO. In a typical battle they really wouldn't have time to dig in. Thus ends the bulk of me knowledge

Man, this is just sad. It's sad for two reasons. 1, because your wife would feel the need to pull such a low tactic and 2, that someone would be so addicted to a game. Now I LIKE CM more than any other computer game. But I LOVE my wife more than any 'ol computer game. Games can be saved and games can be paused. They can be put on a shelf and ignored for days and not mind. But if you do the same thing to your wife then you deserve what you get. Be glad she only hid the game. When you show her the attention she deserves you'll get it back. Games are cool, but c'mon man, it is just a game. And remember this: if you don't pay attention to her somebody else will. ------------------ "To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence." -Sun Tzu, The Art Of War

The maps are European. Isn't that enough?

For the American's I like a 75mm Sherman due to it's fast turret. It's faster than a 105mm but still packs a decent blast. Mortar halftracks are a fave due to high ammo load.

Use mortars to fix the enemy in place and the heavy stuff to kill them off. Mortars respond quicker so you can react to enemy movements. When they're pinned bring on the 105-155mm. In QB's I'll buy the heavy stuff first and if I have enough left over then maybe some mortars. If you know where the enemy is at you don't have to pin them first. Also, I'd rather have on-board mortars than FO's. ------------------ "To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence." -Sun Tzu, The Art Of War

I hope they have the OT-34. I remember playing Steel Panthers with the OT-34. A 76mm gun and a flame thrower! What more could you ask for? I think it also had a machine gun. That was a city-fightin' nightmare for the other side. Thump 'em a couple times with the 76, then drive up and flame 'em! Enemy at the gate? Not any more!

\ I hunt birds and I can tell with all authority that shotguns do not fire "bullets" at birds. They fire "shot", hence the name: shotgun.

Mortar halftracks and M7 Priest. Both for basically the same reason. You can't use them for indirect fire and when you bring 'em out into the open to get off a shot they go up in flames. Why you can't use these units like a mortar team is beyond me. I never pick them. If I'm playing a scenerio with them I can make do but they are still my least favorite unit.

Another thing to remember is that the battlefield is rarely a level surface. If your armor slopes back 55 degrees but your tank is on a forward slanting hill which slopes at 55 degrees then you are actually presenting a 0 degree surface to your enemy. I realize a 55 degree slope is pretty steep but the point is still valid. Your armor slope is relative to a level surface.

Well I don't think it's the best infantry support weapon in the game but it is a highly prized asset. If I have one in a scenerio I tend to keep it hidden until I know the enemy armor has been neutralized then I bring out the Priest and start "blessing" the enemy infantry. They excel at destroying buildings but you can't use them in the game the way in which they were intended to be used: indirect fire. Oh well, minor complaint. Used wisely, you'll be glad you have one. One wrong move however, and you'll suffer a brewed up Priest. It's not enough to keep them safe from enemy tanks. You have to shield them from 20mm on up. I never buy them in QB's prefering instead the M8 HMC or Sherman 105.

Just finished this scenerio. Total allied victory! I had both Fireflies left and one Sherman V. My plan was pretty simple: Fast move all tanks to cover behind hills then fast move over the top at the same time. Leading with Sherman V's, Fireflies parked on high ground to the rear. When they crested the hills the fireworks began! I sent a Bren Carrier up the far right flank and lo and behold what did he discover? Lots of trucks, a Kublewagen, and an MG-42 position. All taken out by this little Bren. The real hero though was a Firefly with 1 PzIV, 1 Panther, 5 halftracks, and 16 infantry casualties. Ah-ROO!