Panic

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Frenchy: Engineers should be allowed to clear barbed wire. Only takes a turn to lob a satchel charge to blow a hole in the obstacle in the heat of combat. Road blocks are a different story. My grandfather was a combat engineer during WW2 (270th Eng.). I have written their unit history and believe me they could and did remove wire quickly. Roadblocks tended to be bypassed and taken down later after action was done.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Blowing a hole in a wire obstacle is not the same as clearing it. Having done a bit of this, I can tell you that fully removing a wire obstacle is beyond the scope of this game. It is a difficult, sticky job and cannot be done under fire. There are several fairly quick and easy ways to get through a wire obstacle -- tree branches, boards, coats and other clothing, artillery fire, bangalore torpedoes, satchel charges (to a lesser extent, they tend not to cut well), etc. The point is that all of these things take time -- not much, but some. Add to that the general caution exhibited by troops crossing obstacles like this (all obstacles should be covered by fire) and what you get is a nice delay. Which, of course, is the whole point of the obstacle, and so the obstacle is (IMHO) pretty well modeled in the game.

Just got done checking the crew-targeting problem by playing the tutorial -- appears to be fixed. My M4A3 kept firing its machine gun at the crew (only infantry in sight) but the main gun switched targets smoothly to a new threat revealed in dissipating smoke, and took that tank out as well. The artillery ammo change makes perfect sense, and works fine. Way to go BTS!

Also, before I forget, the infantry thing isn't that unrealistic. From what I know the preferred method of building entry during house-to-house is the wall breach -- straight through the wall, preferably from an upper floor or the roof. Now, troops aren't going to stop every time to do a breach, especially if they are pretty sure the building is unoccupied, but given the time and unit scale, just having the troops move into the building is, I think, an acceptable abstraction.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by John: Sorry if this seems like nitpicking, but I have a few minor gripes with the interface (I'm playing the demo, by the way). 1 - It can be a bit hard to find a particular unit. A Close Combat style roster would work well, especially with the 'lock cam to unit' command (CTRL-click) 2 - It can be hard to keep track of where the units are going. Perhaps a dot could appear on the landscape - again like Close Combat. 3 - When you move multiple units, do they have to stick to formation so rigidly. I keep moving platoons through woods or behind buildings, and units end up in the middle of open ground. 4 - Perhaps a tactical map? 5 - Infantry units riding on tanks is great, but why can't they shoot while doing this?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> There is a hot key to turn all paths on - I play this way, much nicer to see where you have everyone going, and grab waypoints to move around. Plus it gives you a sort of cool-looking maneuver map before you hit go. Also, BTW, tanks can go over walls -- I drove the Panther up through Plomville and across the wall to mop up some infantry -- it just slows you way down. Damage is not modeled, either, which is okay by me, as there are other reasons walls/fences slow units down that have nothing to do with the physical barrier. People like walls, as they are good to hide behind, and tend to use them for cover. Anyway, my .02.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mark IV: The Bradley is only intended to protect occupants from shrapnel and light small arms fire. It was not designed to deflect main gun rounds and direct artillery hits. Being "multi-purpose" it may encounter heavier guns, but that was never its intended role. It's just a lightly armored transport for infantry to a (modern) fluid front. Check out the "I" in IFV. If you put it in front of ATGMs and tanks, you're the idiot, not the designers. Whaddya want, a 60-ton high-speed troop transport? Fries with that?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well, yeah - a Merkava. Seems to work alright for the Israelis...