DrBrydon

I was playing "Parker's Coressroads" as the American's over the weekend (don't worry, no spoilers here). I noticed that as the German's pushed into my perimeter, one squad seemed to be holding out. By the time I went to look at it, it was down to it's sergeant only. Then I noticed that the squad had 24 infantry casualties. It was wiped out two turns later (turn 34 of 35), having managed a nice round 25 casualties caused. Now this seems like a remarkable number. Since this squad didn't engage until around turn 8, that's almost one per turn. I checked the other squads and it seems that 4 was the average. The most I can recall seeing before is 11. So Sergeant Norton, Glider Infantry, goes in my little hall of fame. If all my squads had done that well.... ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.

JANFU: joint Army-Navy Foul Up.

I also would be interested in this discussion. I have seen flamethrowers used to some effect in defense, but they usually on get off one or two 'shots'. On the attack, I find them too slow. I have found that flamethrowers and flamethrower tanks are great on night attacks. Based on that, I would say that they seem to be more likely to make it into action if used against buildings, rather than pill-boxes. I'd rather have a heavy-tank for that. Or direct-assault by infantry from the side or from behind. ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.

My experience has been that if I sit too long, I start to get incoming mail. Since I'm usually softening up some position and being too cautious, once the shells start to land I getting everything moving fast, preferably towards the enemy. The computer in my experience rarely drops arty blind, he's usually on target, and moving 60 yards will usually get you out of the worst of it. Best overall advice: don't sit still too long, and don't bunch up, especially vehicles. ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.

Common vehicles? How about the M-24 half-tracked mortar carrier (the one where the mortar actually points to the front)? Rarer? I too vote for French vehicles. The 21st Pz. Div. in 1944 was armed primarily with captured stuff. Rare? Everything. If you want common choose common. If you want to see how shells it takes Stuermtiger to knock down a building, go ahead. ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.

Must have been the 30th Infantry Division, "Roosevelt's SS". I've seen units fired on AS they surrendered, but haven't seen them take casualties. ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.

Hell, yes, I remember. First computer wargame I ever played. On the old Apple II. Amazing what they could do 128KB of RAM (tell THAT to the kids today). I still have the game, and the computer. ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.

I think it is called "Target Zero". It's set in the Korean War. There's an American or British Sherman, an American mortar team, an infantry squad and blonde UN worker. They defend a hill against the Chinese. When I was a kid I thought it was great. When I finally found it a few years ago...PU! ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.

I think it is gamey unless it's a desperate situation. I don't think you could get crews to do that, nor would their commanders be thrilled about using their highly trained crews as cannon-fodder. OTH, last night my M8 howitzer got in too close and got knocked out. The crew bailed and proceeded to knock out a Sdkfz 7/1, because it was an us or them case. ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.

I agree with Joe. In fact, I think that's the best improvement I've heard suggested. Something that would be visible during the orders phase, like the 'path' feature. It's too easy to miss the fact that units have started to take casualties. I think it would be a great way to determine overall status at a glance. ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.

Played one of the standard CM scenarios and had a bazooka team take out a Panther from the rear. It took him five shots, but after the third he was under small arms and assault gun fire. I really needed to get that Panther, too. Last night, I was playing another standard scenario (I don't want to spoil it, I'll just say it was U.S. Paras at night). I thought I was pretty much done when a Panther rolled out of the night. All my armor was gone. I had a bazooka run up behind the Panther. One shot and 'gute nacht'. I check the bazooka team and they'd already had one casualty. I checked the kills and they had done for 2 infantry casualties, 1 20mm gun, 1 Ostwind, and the Panther. Not bad for eight rounds of ammo. Unfortunately, they didn't make it off the field. ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.

I actually started a thred about this topic a week or two ago, too. I think that the map edges are an artificial constraint in the game. In many cases this may not matter because of what is being simulated. I think the problem is that in many cases beyond the edge of the map would be other units providing support, especially for a defender. "Edge creep" is valid insofar as it represents flanking, but it creates an unrealistic opportunity for flanking in many cases. If you are moving down the left edge, you sould be just as open to fire from the left as the right. (Again, in many cases, there are obviously circumstances where there is no flank support.) My suggestion was that the attacker have an attack zone set in from the map edges. The defender would have the entire map width to set up on, but to keep him from robbing the edges, there would be objectives there that he would have to occupy (or at least figure out the trade off of not occupying them). The fact that I can take a hill on the left edge of the map and only have to worry about fire from the right is unrealistic. ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.

In the last year mainly "Railroad Tycoon II", "Rollercoaster Tycoon", "Majesty" and "Age of Empires II". Some "Twelve O'Clock High: Bombing the Reich". Over 4th of July vacation a group of us did about 3/5ths of "Diablo II". ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Kind of gamey,IMO<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> That's a new one on me. What's "garney"? (Clever and handsome?) In the old days it used to be pure edge creep. I justified it because AIs cheated. The simple fact is that everyone is going to cluster defense around the objective. The indirect approach is the only way. If garney means not quite cricket, I agree, that's why I suggest the elimination of the edge. ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.

Mmmm...desert warfare. My vote is that CMII be North Africa. It's got everything: romantic villain (Rommel), cowardly henchmen (Italians), and a plethora of colorful Allied units (Indians, Aussies, Foreign Legion). It could even cover the Balkans. ------------------ Will --- "The truly great thing is not to lose your nerve." --Unknown.