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ParaBellum

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Posts posted by ParaBellum

    Aircraft....armamet's

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by prime^:

    ...I have a friend who is an artillery spotter in the British army at the moment, he has explained to me how the system works - at least in current day situations. Artillery spotters give the orders, the artillery battery (be it naval, army or airforce) follows the orders without question and imediately...

    I guess there might be a slight difference between the british army in the year 2002 and the Red Army in 1943...

    Here's something interesting from www.combatmission.com

    "To call for fire, an FO had to scurry off to one of the firing points, and take an angle and range estimate to the potential target from the known firing point. Because of the need to do spotting from known points, and the technical training required to be part of this fairly complex system, only specially trained FOs were ever likely to call for impromptu fire support (I believe). The data was called in to the firing battery over the wire. Human computers back at the battery then did the trigonometric calculations (by hand or maybe with limited slide rule assistance) to calculate where on the map the apparent target was relative to the firing point, and from that then calculate the apparent angle and range to the target from the firing battery. Part of the calculation was to factor in the meteorological data (apparently even a slight cross-wind can hopelessly throw off the accuracy of a shell fired through miles of the troposphere and stratosphere. Other variable also had to be factored in (gun wear, temperature, gun caliber, munitions type, etc. Now the battery was ready to fire one spotting round. Time from initial call-in to first spotting round: Approximately 15 minutes. Then if the spotting round's explosion was visible to the FO, the FO could correct (i.e., "left 200, down 400 yds") and another spotting round fired and so on until one fell "close enough". At this point the FO could do the call for "fire for effect" and the entire battery and/or batteries could open up..."

    And this is about german FOs who were usually better trained than their soviet adversaries.

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    Aircraft....armamet's

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by prime^:

    Yea.. but from a realistic point of view any artillery assigned to a spotter should be able to poor fire at very short notice.

    Why do you think this would be realistic?

    Do you have any data to prove this asumption? To give you another example: The russian 152mm arty FO is army level. We're talking about a unit responsible for supporting dozens of bataillons, thousands of men.

    Also as you do not know where the enemy are in the first round.. whats the point calling in a massed artillery strike on something that may not even be there?

    Yes. It's not that easy. But then you have to think where the enemy might have his positions. In a current PBEM I attack with russian forces a german-held town. I used two 152mm FO to fire a pre-planned barrage into the town. Did they hit anything? Well, I hope so, I'll see soon enough.

    They didn't cost too much so I think it was a good deal.

    Again, this is quite realistic. A lot of pre-planned barrages in WWII didn't hit enemy positions.

    Did you try out TRPs? Response time for arty decreases quite a lot when using them.

    [ October 13, 2002, 08:14 AM: Message edited by: ParaBellum ]

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    Aircraft....armamet's

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by prime^:

    Artillery spotters have the attention of an artilery unit assigned to that spotter, what the spotter says, they do (thats why when someone other than a spotter calls in a barrage, they have to wait for one to become available). By having a spotter, you have the artillery, the spotter relays the coordinates, and the artillery fires. This dosnt take 25 minutes, there is absolutely no point in calling in a strike if it takes 25 minutes before the rounds start falling - or even 15 minutes for that matter 10 is pushing it), this just seems pointless and has ruined the effectiveness of artillery in the game.

    Maybe im wrong about the time factor in ww2, but from a gameplay point of view its impossible to predict 25 turns ahead (chances are your spotters gona get fired at in 25 turns as well) so it makes some of the heavier artillery peices almost useless.

    Yes, you are wrong.

    According to your logic an artillery units "belongs" to an FO who then in turn should be able to order barrages with very little delay, since "his" battery already awaits his orders.

    You have to understand that many of the bigger arty pieces belong to divisional or even corps level and will surely have more than one FO at a given time. That means you cannot count on such arty to be immediatly at your service. Just because a company of riflemen ran into some enemies in some woods doesn't mean the corps artillery will open fire in support immediatly. They may be busy doing other fire missions already, orders may have to be obtained, fireplans worked out, priorities sorted out etc...

    You're right that it's pretty difficult to plot a fire mission 25 turns ahead, so simply don't. Use pre-planned barrages or use smaller stuff.

    Quite historical BTW since especially the Red Army in WWII massively relied on pre-planned barrages since their arty wasn't very flexible.

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    Sad

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by Soddball:

    *yawn*

    The price that BFC are paying for the popularity of their game is the increasing number of semi-literate mongs offering no constructive criticism, simply baying that everyone but them is right...

    Strange. Exactly what I thought quite sometimes during the last few weeks. I especially like all the posts with the 'mad' emoticon and at least three 'WTF!' in them...
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    Family on the East Front?

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    My grandfather served in the 5.Gebirgsjäger Division. He participated in the greece campaign and survived the bloody invasion of Crete.

    In 1942 the division was transferred to the russian front where it operated in the Leningrad/Wolchow region until 1943.

    The division was then transferred to Italy where it participated in the battle for Monte Cassino.

    Only recently I discovered a few photos from this time, one showing him and two comrades in front of their bunker "Rosi" (short for my grandmother's name) in Russia.

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    Where do I finf opponents??

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    You don't need any patches to play with other people. The PBEM helper is used to automatically send turn-based game files between opponents. I don't use it, so I can't comment much on it.

    If you look for opponents, the opponent finder forum is a good place to start both for TCP/IP or PBEM play. Also in the chat at CMHQ you'll probably find opponents.

    Or you might consider joining a ladder like Tournamenthouse or Band of Brothers.

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    quick battle picking your troops

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    I just setup a QB ME, May '44, 1000pts. I chose germans, force: unrestricted, division: mechanized and I could spend 1000 pts on armour.

    So what settings did you choose for the germans?

    edit: no, as the soviets you can not spend your points any way you want. In a 1000pts ME with a combined arms force you can only spend 439 pts on armour.

    [ October 11, 2002, 11:06 PM: Message edited by: ParaBellum ]

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    history accuracy

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    looks like an interesting night.

    One thread b*tching about Waffengrenadiere already closed, another (still) open, and now a new thread about the same issue.

    *yawn*

    Dor, I won't explain to you why BFC/CDV had to do things the way they did since obviously all you want to do is rant.

    Do a search.

    And think before you post next time.

    [edited because I forgot my mom]

    Hi mom!

    [ October 11, 2002, 06:30 PM: Message edited by: ParaBellum ]

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    Question about Prisoners and Covered Arc;

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    I think it's a small bug.

    In a current PBEM I took some POWs and I can order them to 'cover arc'. Although I only see the green line until I place the first 'cover arc point', then the line disappears. I can still set the 2nd 'cover arc point' but it is not graphically represented.

    Seems like the order is still available for POWS but they can't use it.

    [edit: Madmatt was too fast for me smile.gif ]

    [ October 11, 2002, 06:12 PM: Message edited by: ParaBellum ]

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    Workout?

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    The advance command means your soldiers are hopping from cover to cover, running a few steps, then again hug the ground.

    I did it in the army, too, and believe me, it's quite tiring.

    Use advance when enemy forces are likely to open fire on your men or already fire on them.

    For the usual 'move through that wood' order use 'move' or 'move to cantact'.

    Best way to exhaust your men before they even see the enemy is to use the advance order when it's not really necessary.

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    HMG's and "Gamieness"

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Nippy, what do you want to prove with this setup? That MGs are deadly against infantry? Well, they are.

    An all infantry force against massed MGs? Guess why tanks were invented.

    I think nobody will doubt that HMGs on the defense are of great value, especially when you have clear fields of fire. But there are quite some disadvantages of HMGs compared to infantry squads.

    1.) It's difficult to move your HMG teams during battle since they tire very quickly when moving fast and thus are rather limited in their mobility, especially when you have to react quickly.

    2.) HMGs are quite vulnerable to close combat. If enemy infantry closes on your HMGs they will usually wipe the HMG team out.

    3.) HMGs (except the heavy ones, .50cal...) have no AT capability and won't be able to lob an AT mine or a Molotov cocktail on a nearby tank, making them dependand on AT guns/teams.

    We all know the AI isn't very good when attacking, so the results are not very surprising. You could have achieved the same results buying only 81/120mm spotters and some TRPs.

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    For whom the Peng Challenges

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by Panzer Leader:

    *blablabla*... Here is a short list of SSN Slaughters (a few of the ones I can remember):

    Col. Sander

    Mortyr (or somefink)

    Stalin Organ

    Parabellum (I think he might have survived, though crippled)

    There were others, oh yes, but their names fade...

    Before turn ten, I can feel it.

    *cough* IIRC I attacked your SMG/Puppchen defense that used more light Flak guns than an entire Luftwaffe Division through heavy snow in large hills with no cover other than my bogged down tanks and the bodies of my brave vanilla US troops. I still see these fine men stumbling through 10ft of snow, towing their tanks behind them, each carrying a frozen comrade, towards your lines.

    And it ended in a draw.

    Given the fact that even an untrained, blind monkey with personal hygiene problems wouldn't have fared worse than you by simply hitting on the 'go' button I'd propose to stop babbling about your achievements but rather hide in shame.

    In fact, I've seen snails showing greater tactical skills than you, but then, the comparison is a bit unfair since the snails definately surpass your mental ability and personality by far.

    I'm actually a bit surprised how you could survive in a hostile environment so far, not being exterminated by superior lifeforms like the Indian rubber tree or a dishwasher.

    Have a nice day.

    Ah, and I blow my nose at you, of course.

    smile.gif

    [ October 06, 2002, 08:15 PM: Message edited by: ParaBellum ]

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    Help with turning volume of 'Background' noise down please

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Hu?? The board ate my post. Strange...

    Ok, 2nd try: Usually your soundcard comes with some wav-editors/sound programs that should allow you to edit the wav-files. The corresponding files are 00005000-00005007. Open them with the wav-editor, reduce the volume and save them again to your cmbb/wav directory.

    If you don't have any wav-editor, a quick google search will show you some stuuf for download.

    [edit: ok, first the post is gone, then i got wild error messages, now my post reappeared. Tsk tsk...]

    [ October 04, 2002, 05:57 PM: Message edited by: ParaBellum ]

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    Barrages allowed in ME's?

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by Scipio:

    Funny, I started a ME a week ago and was allowed to order a barrage in round one. Bug?

    I've set up dozens of QB ME's and never could order a pre-planned barrage. Of course you can plot a normal arty strike in turn 1, but that's not the same as the pre-planned strike.

    Do you still have the file?

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    Sighting the Enemy

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Newport, welcome to the board. First: if you post scenario-specific information please use a

    *SPOILER-ALERT*

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    message for those who haven't palyed the scenario yet. Common courtesy.

    To your question: yes, it's very hard to spot enemy units in CMBB, especially if they are hiding in terrain like woods or light trees. In fact, you often will only spot such units once they open fire on your troops, and with the new extreme FOW even this will take some time. Actually this is much like in real life. In my army days when we prepared camo'ed positions it was usually next to impossible to spot them even from close range. If the bad guys are hugging the ground while hidden behind bushes or trees you can step onto them before you notice them.

    To counter this use half-squads to scout for the enemy while the bulk of your forces provide cover from an overwatch position.

    If you think you know already where the enemy is hiding, target the suspicious are with FOs so you can start shelling these positions immediatly once contact is made. Or use your support weapons (HMGs, mortars) to area-target the likely enemy positions.

    Never advance without scouts if you're not sure what's ahead. Doing so will only get you ambushed at close range, resulting in heavy casualties.

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