Louie the Toad

Argh !! Cap'n Wacky ! Right you are. Gettin' ahead o me self, with the indirect spottin' and all. Now hear this Bullet me lad. An officer cannot spot for a spotter, but he can for a mortar unit. Correctified Toad

Hi, What happens when you click on the spotter unit? You should get the Orders Menu. From there you can use the Line of Sight tool to check if you can see a target. Then you can select TARGET from the Orders Menu and extend the target line to the area or unit you want to bombard. A click on that unit and the line should 'stick'. In the Information Box for your spotter it should show you how much time in minutes you can expect the shells to begin falling. But the AI has its own clock so this is an estimate. There is also an indirect fire method where an officer can spot for your spotter, who can remain hidden. That is lesson 2. Tutorial Toad

After reading about some of the wild tank to tank melees on the Eastern and Western fronts I don't think anyone complaining about the occasional odd outcome or occurance in CM has a leg to stand on. I wonder if there will be flying turrets in CMBB? Frisbee Toad

Dear Cpl Carrot, I decided to send them into some nearby barbed wire. That oughta hold em for awhile. I will have to see what happens next. Mr. Toad

Ok, I am going to have to test these different methods on a shooting range. Although when I plot the indirect fire of the mortars I am always working with black lines not blue or any of the other colors mentioned above. To the test range! Toad

Take my prisoners, please. This is actually happing now in one of my pbem games. My crack Brit HQ is sitting in a foxhole with a captured german mg crew of 5. It was great when it happened ! Perfect execution of making them put their heads down and then charging. EXCEPT. I am on a commando mission. I was afraid to leave the mg crew and move ahead to catch my HQ up with the rest of the blokes since they might recover and start machine gunning us from the rear. Now most of my boys are out of cc and apparently have paid the ultimate price. Maybe my HQ could have helped them out. I'll never know. If I had left the mg crew and moved ahead my HQ certainly would have helped out in the firefight. In addition I have a second wave coming up. If I left the mg crew, it could have recovered to shoot at the next wave as well. Now what do I do? Move out and help the remnants of the platoon and disregard the mg crew? Shoot the crew to protect my back? and then move out. I suppose I could let the second wave deal with them? But what if they can't? My lads are dying up there. And the HQ is back here babysitting. What would you do? ( If I wait in this foxhole to think for a few more turns, then the problem will be over.) Who killed Lt. Miller ? Toad

Hey Silvio, I guess I am writing you on this thread too. You said: I don't think that helps as long as the original platoon HQ is still active somewhere on the map. A squad cannot get a bonus from more than one officer at a time, and IIRC, only from its own platoon HQ unless that HQ is eliminated. "T" assets are another story. Avoiding the long black lines .... Toad

Walker, What you are describing is for direct area fire. My question was about shooting indirectly. When you do that you get a black line that may or may not "stick" and turn to gold depending upon the los of the commanding spotter. Looking for the gold..... Toad

Silvio, When you say "click like mad around the area" I must be having a problem because as soon as I click on a spot that isn't actually a target I lose the line and have to replot. Toad

I have a high capability A-O, in a fantastic location at the edge of a rather steep drop in scattered trees. He can see alot and apparently cannot be seen by the enemy as he spots for 3 mortars that are out of enemy sight and therefore firing indirectly. When I aim the mortars I often find that the spot I want them to hit is just a little off of where the A-0 can actually see, especially now that there is a lot of smoke. Anyway, when this happens I have to replot the mortar again. Since I can't really tell if the mortar can hit the spot I want, I often find I must do this several times before the indirect fire line "sticks". The only way I can think of to avoid this is to have the A-0 draw an area fire line to the spot and work from there. Then remember to erase the area fire line from the A-0 since I don't want him to give away his position by firing. Am I missing the obvious? Toad

Dear BlackVoid, Regarding one tank being able to draw a line of sight to something and the tank next to it not being able to do that..... Isn't that just like real life ? How often have you said to the person next to you " Look over there, do you see that?" and lo and behold they can't see it!. There are many real life reasons for this happening. 20/20 ..... Toad

Our governor. "Ain't got time to bleed" Toad

Dear Hydralisk911, From your description of how you set up your positions, it would appear that you had, besides the units you describe, one more huge asset. The edge of the map. Just wondering ..... Toad

Evo, Regarding the protection houses afford: See my earlier post called Unexpected Vulnerability which I bumped to the top of this Forum. duck !! Toad

A bump to help someone with a question.

Yes, Europe, Austrailia and North America are represented. Hey, anyone here playing from Antarctica. Really.

Me too. I wonder if there is another way of approaching it. Toad

When faced with a large number of units stretching from one end of the map to the other and more, what organizational thoughts and techniques do you use to make sense of it all and make the most of your force? Curious Toad

Dear TSword and Bloody, At the Set Up I like to move all of my T assets together in 'the T pool' . Then I line up my platoons one in front of another so I can easily move from one HQ to another to survey the HQ effectiveness. Then I place any loose HQ and the AO and A1 A2 etc HQs nearby. Sometimes I will even group my AFVs together by type, say all Sherman 75s, all Tank Destroyers. This helps me decide what assets I have to do the jobs that I need to do, to win. From there I begin to develop a plan, selecting the HQs and their platoons that will do the best job. For instance for the recon job my HQ would have a large control radius and be my best unit at sneaking. My assault troops would have a HQ with high fire control and morale values. Then I would look at the 'T pool' and select what assets would be best to attach to the platoon HQ, depending upon the job that platoon was going to do. I also look at the AFVs in that same manner, selecting certain units based on their characteristics and depending on the job they are going to do, then assigning them to work with the platoon HQ. I am sure this all "goes without saying" for many gamers. But it does help me with planning and organization and makes the initial set up not so daunting when faced with a plethora of units. I would like to hear from others as to their set up techniques. BUT I WILL START A NEW THREAD FOR THIS TOPIC. PLEASE SEE THE NEW THREAD: HOW DO YOU HANDLE SET UP? Curious Toad

There are some legitmate questions and discussions in this thread but there a are also comments from the likes of M. Bates and BlackVoid that reveal that they do not have a basic grasp of the game. Yes, asking questions is a fine way to learn, but PLEASE, do your homework first! Have you read the manual at least twice? Have you read books (mostly) and seen (some) movies depicting squad level combat in WWII ? Please do so. Especially the reading. Have you played SplatBall or gone for a walk in the country and looked at terrain with a military eye? Have you figured out that CM is not 'a first person shooter'? Have you figured out that CM is not RISK ? I am certain that every one of the people on the forum who are trying to help you have done most if not all of these things. There is nothing we can say or do for you over the forum that can take the place of basic knowledge about the genre of CM. As Sarge would say, " Boy, you need some more Basic Training". Educator....... Toad

Dear Gillfish, Have an infantry unit of some kind, half squad, loose HQ, mortar or AT team, or (although some call it gamey} surviving crew, peek around the corner first. Or if a 2 story building, have someone look out the upstairs window. Then worry about how to drive around the corner. Or, depending upon what you see, you may not want to. Surprise Reduction ..... Toad

PanzerLeader is correct. Chronology proves it. Name a Fantasy or Sci Fi wargame that came out prior to WWI, WWII, or Korea. NONE. Although I am not familiar with much Sci Fi or Fantasy, it would seem to me that if the game involved maneuver, attrition, direct and indirect fire it would simply be a copy of any warfare in the world's history. A UNIQUE sci fi or fantasy wargame, one that did not copy the structure of conventional warfare, would be totally different and be a product of 'thinking out of the box' (a pun of sorts, here). History repeating itself..... Toad

Excuse me! M.Bates Your quote ! ? What game are you really playing? Smelling a joke ..... Toad.

BlackVoid, If you don't want to micro manage then don't do it!!! CM gives you choices. Here are some: 1. For movement, select the Platoon Leader with a right click. All of his forces that are in command will move with him. So, let them. Don't make any fine adjustments. 2. For targeting, just move forces. Don't aim for them. Let the AI decide which targets to shoot at. 3. For less 'eye of god' and more fog of war, play at level 1. Be sure Full Fog of War is on. 4. Switch off all types of info that you should not be able to receive such as 'Detailed Armor Hits'. Designing Toad

Dear M.Bates, The Problem: You stated: Diagnosis: In your ideal game, what would you have tanks do? Once you answer that question, look at the scope of CMBO (which is tactical}; the terrain (which is generally hilly and wooded, and includes villages); the range at which battles take place (which is relatively close). I could be wrong, but I surmise that your image of tank warfare and the reality of the Western European battlefield of CMBO do not coincide. Now ask yourself, is this a faulty game or is my thinking about tank warfare in this particular theatre faulty? Prescription: Read: 'Anatomy of A Battle' by Macksey, for insight into the European Theatre at the tactical level. Wait: for CMBB and CM Western Desert. Dr. Toad