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phil stanbridge

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Posts posted by phil stanbridge

    First impressions

    in Combat Mission Afghanistan

    Posted

    Well I've just spent half hour playing my first battle - it's FABULOUS!! It plays so totally different to Shock Force it's uncanny!! I'm loving it. It reminds me how I felt when I first started playing CMBO/CMBB and CMAK! You really feel for these little guys ducking for cover, with random small arms fire all over the place. The close combat feels more intense to me. Thanks a lot guys!

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    CMSF unfinished?

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Interesting post. All I would say in the games' defense is that it is a work in progress in my eyes. It's a bit of a rough diamond in places granted, but it's definitely an improvement over previous games. I'm sure there are lots of features and things missing in the game, but in reality, these would probably take some of the appeal away from it - god can you imagine facing an enemy who would be able to fire hundreds of rockets at you ot once :D It wouldn't be much fun would it, and at the end of the day this is just a game, albeit one that tries to represent a sense of authenticity. It can't please everyone. Interesting comment about the machine gun rate of fire - I hadn't even noticed this myself. In reality these days, would a machine gun team constantly fire to suppress knowing they would expose their positions and run out of ammunition pretty quick? I've no idea. But it does make you think.

    Reference the QB generator it's a steaming pile of pooh (pun intended). I have used it perhaps a couple of times. I'm sure the QB gen will be improved no end, especially in Normandy, and then in the next gen of Shock Force.

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    Solo - Campaign missions

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Hello mate I've got a few saved games from the British campaign - and some from the Marines. Problem is of course, these will be reflecting my progress with particular units etc. Happy to let you have them if you wish although it will have to wait a week or so as I'm away from the pc with the saves just at the moment.

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    My first complete British campaign..

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    i just finshed "counterattack" lost about 8 men KIA and 16 wounded, cant remeber the enemies lossed but severe. big mention to my challenger 2 tank which destroyed more that 30 vehicles and perished, along with its crew near the end of the battle, victorias cross for sure ;) surely an epic mission.

    I found that mission quite difficult. First time I had played it. I managed to knock out a lot of AFV and tanks with a single tank, but I took some heavy infantry casualties along the way. Managed to win with a total victory but i cant remember how many i lost. I definitely took the most KIA in that mission, bar the urban riot one (but the KIA in that were Syrian).

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    NATO: NO german marder?

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    I can tell you, there's several weapons in the module that I was like 'ho hum" about playing with... until I got to actually play with them. Then my reaction changes to "Oh wow! This is cool!" Marder's 20mm has roughly four times the ROF of the 25mm Bushmaster cannon carried by the Americans, twice that of the BMP-2's 30mm.

    That's exactly what I was getting at MikeyD! That ROF must be insane. Imagine being on the receiving end of some of that :D

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    My first complete British campaign..

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Ah, I thought you meant you were leading with light armored vehicles in those situations. Since they are considerably more vulnerable than tanks, it seemed odd.

    Nooooo. I'd never lead with an AFV unless it's an absolutely desperate situation. Like you say, it doesn't take much to knock one out. I try and keep them about 400m back, dismount, and then recon the area. Doesn't always work out like that. HMG have a nasty habit of damaging vehicles too, even tanks.

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    Bah - just keeps on crashing now :(

    in Combat Mission: Shock Force Tech Support

    Posted

    Well I don't understand it :( Nothing but trouble now. I have to save my game every turn just in case it bombs out. It's crashed three times today, resulting in one hard lock and one ctrl-alt-del. It's become more of a problem recently, though I have no idea why?

    I've seen mentioned this memory leak - is that a code problem or something else? Seems strange that I never experienced a hard crash like this until recently. My hardware hasn't changed significantly - I've got from a 5850 to a 460, but I was experiencing the same problem with both cards.

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    My first complete British campaign..

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Say you have an enemy consisting mostly of uncons, lots of light infantry, rpgs, machine guns.

    Do you think it would be better to keep the light afv's in the place where you normally keep the tanks, and use the tanks themselves as your "bait" or forward afvs?

    The problem with that is one of your AFV's is a fairly easy target for an RPG or even grenades when close enough. They don't take a huge amount of punishment, and unless unbuttoned they can't spot easily. They can be immobilized or destroyed a lot easier than a tank. But I rarely charge a tank into the front line so you have to weigh up the pros and cons. It's a combination of support elements that works best. An infantry unit with an AFV backing them up is a good move. Tanks on over watch. Use suppression (pray and spray) :)

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    My first complete British campaign..

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    This is pretty decent even given the inequity of the campaign scenarios/matchups.

    What exactly were your methods?

    When did you dismount troops?

    Did you bother to clear large building objectives?

    Did you ever send infantry into a building you knew had enemy either within or nearby?

    How much suppressive fire did you use?

    How quickly did you advance your units and in what order? (Terrain adds minor variation, but overall... not much in the modern era.)

    What use did you make of artillery?

    Did you use your tanks up front or in back?

    Cheers, I presume this is aimed at me so I'll try to answer.

    Methods - Keep armour back and only expose if I know there aren't any ATGM's. Never tank rush, usually ends in disaster. You cannot afford to lose a tank. Use warriors/light AFV in hull down, or as bait :D I tend to keep a selection of my force in any mission well back and out of harms way. I use these as reinforcements should the need arise. I only focus on a single platoon or a few vehicles at a time where possible and I only play in WEGO. I only try to probe certain areas of the map and never in force, unless I'm dead certain what I'm up against. I try to create a safe area and then I can slowly exploit it from there. If time is short, I only head for the target areas, and try to bypass everything else. I've never had masses of luck using long range overwatch so I try to get in close before I attack.

    I tend to dismount early, but I make sure every squad if fully loaded, UNLESS I want to recon an area, then I use one squad, and keep them as light as possible. They wont tire as quickly.

    I only clear an objective if it looks like I can win without significant loss. Every mission I won a tac or total victory due to the enemy surrendering. That was without gaining the objectives in some cases, as the enemy morale was too low. Some objectives are virtually impossible to win without major loss it would seem.

    I nearly always attack a building if I know enemy are within providing it is an objective, or it is in my path. I use smoke, hunt or assault. I have to accept a percentage of loss using this tactic. I try to to suppress with 7.62, before lining the infantry up. I use lots of suppression but it is more difficult in WEGO. You need to time it spot on. If in doubt, send a few heavier rounds in.

    Patience is a virtue, and I never rush unless I'm out of time. Some missions give you extra time, but there are a couple in particular where you really could do with an extra ten minutes or so.

    You'll also find that heavy artillery (general) does a wonderful job of sending the enemy into a blind panic running out of the back of the building. But only general rounds - airburst doesn't have much effect on larger buildings. USe artillery slowly - and try to use it on target (not radial fire). I use LINEAR, 1 and MAX so that I can plot a small line, and have it last forever. Then you can specify personnel or general depending on the target. 155mm rounds easily take out earlier tanks - using AP, but I tend not to bother. I prefer to use specific AT assets for armour.

    Hope some of this helps!

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    My first complete British campaign..

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    The whole campaign is 18 missions long. At mission 9 there is a fork and you can go one way or the other. 4 unique missions one way and 4 unique missions the other way.

    Maybe previously you were kicked out at this point? If so and you played one variant then there is still the other variant for you to play! :)-

    Wow, I didn't realise that. That's great! As I have only got this far once I guess I need to explore the other direction now - was it the mission where you could choose Damascus and somewhere else by a direction on the map? Actually that mission was a bit of an odd one as far as I recall. I think it had changed somewhat from the very first time I played it (played that mission twice now) - do you know if they were edited at all in 1.21? I basically crept a small force up the right hand side of the map - but I'm sure I recall of manner of enemy units beforehand and I was relatively undisturbed this time round.

    If it is the HELA Counterattack, mission 08, then this is the one I did! :) Pretty tough yes. Defensive scenarios are very hard to design and make them interesting and challenging without the player feeling just like a powerless spectator. -

    Yep that's the mission - was damn hard work without losing a whole load of infantry, especially using the default start-up positions on the map. I ended up attacking from the rear and they didn't expect that.. :) Actually that was chaotic - always the same when the AI attacks.. It was just as bad in the million man rush in the riot mission.. :D

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    My first complete British campaign..

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    We do try to keep the campaigns about the same length though. Specially provide roughly the same amount of content with every product.

    This is a bit different for NATO though since we have 3 different campaigns. In total they are almost twice what you get in the UK campaign. However the individual campaigns, for each country, are smaller.-

    Interesting - not sure why my first British campaign ended so abruptly - do you know if it calculates overall losses and kicks you out at a certain point if they deemed unacceptable?

    It was 3 or even 4 scenarios longer than I anticipated. Some real tough cookies in the latter stages too! That huge map counter attack one was a nightmare, although a few challengers in some nice little hull down spots soon put pay to the majority of the attackers.

    That´s not my experience at all. I even ran a few tests before release where I had a Warrior targeting a BMP. It did it many times to be sure what the average result would be. I didn´t take more than a few rounds to get the target blowing.-

    Interesting too - funny how it pans out like that. All the way through the campaign I've had some trouble getting confirmed kills on BMPs with my warriors - sure, they are generally easy enough to hit, but on one occasion I had to put at least 10 rounds into one just to knock it out. I was amazed when the thing started to fire back too! But then I've had success with just a few rounds. Of course it maybe FOW at play too.

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    Using helicopters in missions

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    I've noticed this as well - do air assets have to spot a target in order to fire? I've just had two aircraft lined up ready to pummel these two buildings. I was waiting, and waiting. Then I receive the message that they are returning to base. I can see there are enemy forces operating in and around these buildings but they do not expose themselves. I don't get it really.

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    My first complete British campaign..

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    This puzzles me. It's one man different (unless you're using Armd Inf, then it's two) and the Brits have more toys and longer ranged weapons for their section inf. What they don't have vs the US is Javelin. That's it.

    Sorry I was comparing the USMC to the British - I tend not to play the US Army module. But I think the single fact they do not have as much access to the javelin is very telling!

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