rlh1138

Finally had a chance to play Mr. Aitken's senario and thought I'd post here rather than just email him. Here's a somewhat inexperienced player's AAR. I decided to 'follow order's and get into the town square ASAP. I also decided to split up my forces and use all three roads into town. My main force moved along the two roads on the right that led directly into town. I put a Stuart and one platoon off on the left hand road, on the other side of the river. I brought them along rather slow, till I saw what was up. My main force got to town OK, I was just bringing the other Suart (which was on the right hand road) and one Damiler to the final turn into the square when I picked up 'light armor' sounds coming down the road that runs along the right side of town. I was in a good position with both those resources and let them sit. In the next few turns two or three half tracks drove into one or the other's LOS and were each in turn blown up. I was a little worried about infantry coming out of these 'tracks, as my infantry was a bit behind the armor. So I hastened to bring them up to protect the Stuart and AC. But, nothing but crews ever came out of those tracks. In the meantime I'd moved my 'tracks up to the square on the central road and disembarked the troops into positions and houses around the area. I was trying to decide if I had time to occupy the buildings around the perimeter of the square and if I had enough troops to defend that big a perimeter. By turn 5-6 I could see that the German main force was across the river and seemed to be massing in that smaller square. A Jagtiger pulled up to the river below that square and began shelling my positions across the river that it could spot. My force over there was lurking just shy of that smaller square, so I had the Stuart roll into the square and target half tracks, while my troops occupied buildings and provided some cover. That worked great, as the Stuart promptly killed three half tracks and broke up what I think was a pending attack, then reversed out of the square as ordered. (I was afraid of the jagtiger). As the jag didn't seem to respond, on the next turn I had the Stuart roll back into the square, even further, so it could turn right toward the river and perhaps get a rear shot on the jag that was still down at the river firing across. This didn't go as well, as the jag now reverses away from the river and comes into the square along one side of the park in the middle, as my Stuart comes along the perpendicular side. In a scene worthy of being in a movie, they actually reach the mutual corner at the same time, and become award of each other at about 15m. And, just at 60 sec!! (I had to go make a cup of coffee before I could press 'go'). They looked at each other for about 5 sec. (SHOOT, SHOOT, DAMN IT!) BANG! Seems like jags have somewhat faster turrets than Stuarts, or at least that one did. So I'm down a Stuart at this point. However, back in the main town square, I now have 3 'tracks, an AC, and the other Stuart firing across the square at what seems like an endless stream of submachine gun squads coming out of the buildings over there and fighting their way into the park in the middle of the square. I've also got some infantry in the building along the sides shooting at them. You'd think it'd be easy, but I was wondering if I was going to hold. Those troops inflicted a lot of punishment, knocked out a track of mine, a scout car, etc. This battle went on for some turns, I mostly spend my time slightly moving troops, and trying to figure out how to use my mortars. Finally the jag and an armored car from the battle across the river tried to come across the bridge into town to help out. I'd been expecting that, and had my Stuart and AC in a positon to break off the battle inside the square and rotate to cover the brige. That worked fine and both the jag and the AC died on the bridge. After that I worried a bit about enemy reenforcements, but otherwise was OK. I had gotten my reenforcments just at the peak of the battle for the town square, and when they got there that pretty much closed that out. By turn 22-24 it was about over. The AI surrenderd about turn 29-30, I forgot to notice the exact turn.I did write down the score - 24 to 76, 9 guys OK to 120 for me. 171 casu. (48KIA) to 70 casu. (17 KIA) me. 8 vehicles destroyed to 5. So I had the best of CM - some excitement and nail biting and I got to win. I also wanted to add that I really enjoyed the town appearance, the smaller square, etc. I lived in Germany for 31 months in the 60's courtesy of Uncle Sam, and that could have been a small town outside of Frankfurt. I thought the forces were balanced well, I was lucky not to lose the second Stuart, that would have allowed the jag across the river with bad results for me. I never did figure out how or where to use my mortars, I finally had them kneeling in the open at the back of the square, dropping area fire in front of the buildings the Germans were coming out of. But not very effective, and not until very late. My thanks for building the scenario - I look forward to playing others you've done. Ray Hudson

KrettenKrad, You want to get: 128 meg ram 17" kds .27 monitor Athlon Iwill 900 proc. ATI 2000 32 bit video (cost only $79) The ram and the 900 Athlon sound good. You'll like a 19" monitor a lot better than a 17, if you can afford it. But the card isn't the right one, as several here have posted. Plus, you don't say how much ram it has. Get a card with at least 32 meg of ram, with the NVIDIA chip, even if you have to save for a month or two more. It will really make a difference. Good luck ------------------ For Great Justice

Maximus, I don't know if my experience counts, (I'm 58, not 12), but I came to CM from FPS. (Half life, Doom before that, etc. Also, Longbow and Jane's WWII Fighters) My initial 'confusion' was about the turn based nature of CM. I'd never played a turn based game, didn't like them, etc. I was puzzled by the stop and start nature of the 'wego' system. Then, the guy who had turned me on to CM pointed out it was like Chess, you sit and think, and then you move. Somehow, that made all the difference and I started playing the demo that had been sitting on my hard drive. Then, well, you know the rest... . So I wonder if FPS shooter folks are also new to turn based thinking. BTW, I still play and enjoy HF and the flying games. (In spite of the mild slur about 'fast twitch' that BTW runs on it's home page!) Hope this adds something to your thoughts on this. But maybe it only applies to old guys like me

I just played two QB using a 75mm inf. gun. In the first, the crew hung in there, slowed an infantry attack, and knocked out a halftrak and a Sherman. Most of this was under a steady mortar barrage. So.. playing another QB, I buy another one, thinking, these things are tought. This one gets off two rounds, has a mortar burst (OK two bursts) about 30 feet away, and the crew runs off. So... I've had both experiences. Probably due to slight difference in placment, maybe one just behind a hill crest and one not. Who knows.. but I'm having a hell of a lot of fun, and starting to beat the AI regularly. (Thanks to all those posters on tactics!)

Jumping in here, this may have been covered, but.. Re: the note from 'Fan' and a contiguious swap file - I think its even better to partion your hard drive, create a 'D' drive, and put the swap file, and only the swap file, on that. Not hard to do and keeps it always contiguious, etc. Make sure its big enought, don't forget your CD ROM will now have a new drive letter, etc. etc. FWIW

OK, some good thinking going on here. I'm impressed with Bulletheads analysis, esp. since later posts seem to confirm he is on to something. Now that we have a working hypotheses, (the AI can 'follow' previously IDd resources, even if moved between battles), how do we get BTS to think about that possibility, or do a check? Or should we do some more searching to see if they've answered this already? I've searched some, but didn't find - but people can get really crabby around here bout that sort of thing ------------------ For Great Justice

So now I'm out of lurker mode here - if I'm following Mad Mike, he placed the gun in different places PRIOR (don't know how to underline here, sorry about the caps) to the first turn. So.. no vehicle noises in moving, etc. I'm curious what all of you who were so certain the Arty targeting was 'just luck' and so forth think now. I'm really a beginner here and know a lot of you have been on the board a long time, corresponded with BTW, etc. But - I'd sure like to hear a better explaination of this behaviour than what I read so far. Lots of unknowns still to consider I'm sure - but what??? ------------------ For Great Justice

Having played Wild Bill's SPR more times than I can count, (I finally learned to win at it ), I was happy to see another version, the 'Streetfight...'. But, when I try to load it to play, I get dumped to my desktop and CM shuts off. Now I can't remember where I got it to query the designer as to what he might know about this. I did a search, couldn't find the thread where I learned about it. Anybody know who wrote that, or had a similiar experience?? TIA

Ouch! - I mean I'm getting killed here. I don't think of myself as a particularly skilled player (yet) , but jeez, I usually do OK. Here I'm getting overwhelmed. I'm curious as to tactics from those who have done well in this battle. How did you place your troops in the setup, did you keep them in the foxholes or move them right away, how did you use the limited arty, etc.? If anybody would care to comment, I'd appreciate it. Particularly if you managed to get your Piats into play against the armour. ?? Thx.

I've been wanting to get my 30th post for some time, so I could be a real person too. But I haven't had anything worth adding to post here for weeks. So.. I'll go for something not worth adding. I've noticed for some time that the convention here is to spell it - 'DOH'. Everywhere else in the world it's 'DUH'. So let take a poll, shouldn't it really be 'DUH'? I mean, DUH. So now I can go see if I'm a member, and if my first topic gets padlocked before I get back. As Matt has said elsewhere, 'All you padlock are belong to us'

Who is this person? Can I send him money? I'm using his buildings now, (and sometimes PanzerTs, also very good), and I LOVE THAT SKY!! Finish them, post them. Of course we want them.

I just want to point out that if CM graphics were really cutting edge, we wouldn't have to do these tests! (Ducking and running)

From these notes I think I'd like to play this scenario - but - after looking around in the usual places, I haven't found it. How about a clue - and what's the 'real' name? Thanks

Mr. C. Caught your update note from work and tried again, it downloaded just fine. I'll email it to myself at home. Thx

Mr. Clark, When I click on that link, I do not get a 'downloading a file' type window, I get a web looking page with machine language stuff on it. Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong? Thx,

Oops, sorry, wrong post

OK, OK, I searched - found a lot of interesting stuff on arty, but not to my point, so.. Here's something I'd like to see implemented, wondering if anybody but me cares. I'm firing arty on sombody, or maybe I've targeted and am waiting for some turns to go by to get it coming. A new target comes along, or maybe I just notice a new one. Hmm I say - I'd like to target that instead, if it didn't take to long. But the only way to really know how long it would take is to target the new target, and see what the window says. Then if you don't like what you see there, guess what? You can't 'cancel' that new target and go back to firing or back to firing in 25 sec. or whatever you had going. You're back to first base instead. So.. I'd like to 'try out' other targets, check the time, and then chose to keep that new target or go back to what I had. Seems kind of brutal to lose what I've got, sometimes waiting 2 or 3 turns, to lose that just to check out another target. Am I alone here, too wimpy, don't understand the rigours of war, has this - god forbid - been discussed before and I missed it in my search? (Please God - don't let me offend 'them') Seems if we're trying to have some realism, this would correspond to me calling up the arty guys and saying, 'OK, you say you can give me fire in 30 more seconds on that last spot I called in, what about if I wanted it on this new spot?' Not so unreal? Anyway, any thoughts out there on this??

Hope this is helpful, I just was also rejoining some split squads in a foxhole, and also thought they wouldn't join. I was checking around the battlefield and then came back to them and they were joined. This was after watching them be in the same foxhole for 20-30 seconds, maybe longer, and still be two teams. So I guess I'm trying to say, you can put both splits in the same foxhole, and they will join, but it can take some time to register. Or maybe you knew that and were just talking about the moving away thing. Anyway - FWIW.

Spoiler stuff - watch out - Spoiler stuff Jason, Played this earlier today - thx for the email. I don't know exactly what happened. One explantion is that I played so well I blew the AI away - but somehow I don't think that was it. Anyway, (I did win a 'major victory, 1 KIA), I tried to apply what I'd learned in your OP post. I really slowed down and studied the terrain first. I used split squads to created foxholes in my MLR, then moved them 50-75 yrds up on turn one. Had covered routes back to the holes, etc. etc. Placed mines a what I hoped were choke points, and ther TRP also. The center-right really freaked me, (too many trees leading into my area) and I really mined it heavily. So 2-3 turns I sit there biting my nails. Finally the Amis show up moving in the woods to my right, toward my center. My fears are coming true! My pill box takes them under fire and pins them. Now for about 5 turns more Amis show up in that same area, and usally go to ground becoming just a 'star'. About the 2nd of those turns I decide this is a major push and withdraw my splits to their foxholes and dump 2 full turns of Arty on the woods where all the stars are. Also, that woods was full of mines, and I can hear them going off on ever turn - very cool. Status quo until about turn 15!? I see some major squads moving way to my left, and again drop some arty as I pull my splits back. No major attack ever comes out of the woods on my right, or from the later action on my left. Many of my troops never fire a shot. Oh yeah, I forgot. After I hit the first concentration of troops with the arty, the ones being engaged by my pill box, about turn 4 a whole bunch of Ami arty starts to fall around the pill box. Knocks it out almost right away - fortunately, it's on a hill clear to my right, with only one squad around it. The Amis then keep up that barrage for many, many turns.????? Hitting nothing and really not bothering me once I stopped grieving over the pill box. So things run out with me sitting there waiting for a big attack out of the woods. Never comes. Amis have like 40+ casualtys, 11 KIA - I should have written down - sorry. So.. I think the AI just wasn't agresssive, OR , I got very lucky with my mines and arty and just messed him up. Anyway - thanks - I'm going to replay - I really barely understand those tactics yet - when to pull back, etc. If I get very different results I'll post or email you. If you alter the scenaro, would you please send me? I love that map, very scary, you can't see anything and you know they are out there!! Thanks again.

Super, super helpful. I am a total beginner, having a lot of fun, but would like to increase my learning curve. Reading this makes me realize I've just been fooling around learning how the game works and enjoying watching my men run around. Not that I won't continue, but at least now I see how to start thinking/analyzing. A request, I'd really like to practice what I just read, could you suggest one of the scenarios (and which side to play), that would lend itself to OP tactics. I really don't know them that well, tho I have lots I've downloaded. Thanks again - I look forward to further posts of this nature. I don't always check back to this board - if you have a suggestion, and wouldn't mind - my email is rhudson@reflexnet.net Thanks again

Well, I'm a beginner, but I think it's tough. I got murdered the first time - I usually play things over and over to learn and to get it right. Even knowing what to expect the 2nd and 3rd times didn't help much. Also - I think the latest version overwrites that scene a bit - so if you haven't played it under ver. 1.1 play it again. Good luck

Gee - I've been being nice in my posts up to now, all 8 of them I think - so, just to not be this time - as a 'newbie', outside observer, let me just note what this guy said. (And yes, some of you have been clear that you are posting stuff not so much about what he said this time, but about what he's said in the past - even looking up his record - yikes - ) Anyway, he quotes an article that says '..all honesty the graphics are quite a bit behind the bleeding edge.' and then says it looks like other people feel like him. One can assume he means in that CMs graphics are a bit, or quite a bit behind the bleeding edge. Well - guys - are you thinking CM graphics are not behind the bleeding edge? I kind of think they are - and there has been many posts here that help me understand why. (Pushing pixels and all that) But I guess the point is - so what? BTS doesn't advertise CM as being on the 'bleeding edge' (whatever or wherever the hell that it), I didn't buy it cause I thought it was, and I bet none of you did either. 'Cept maybe the guy that started this thread. Maybe I'm missing the point, and you all think it is 'on the bleeding edge' - I just think its the best, by far, wargame I ever bought or played. I like the graphics, (many thanks to all you mod makers out there), and I wouldn't be offended if BTS made them even better. I'm also not offended that somebody is all upset about the graphics. Geez - people are all upset about all kinds of things. Some of you are upset that GB is upset. So... my smart ass remark to contribute to this whole thing is. .. Get a life - move on - practice deep breathing - get real crazy and be a little forgiving. Hey, this is fun My best to all (including that misguided, ungrateful, not with the program GB)

That AT thread made me think of something I'd to see in your writeups Gremlin - and that is a 'what to expect' aspect. For example, let's say I set up my AT guns according to some tactics I've learned, and after two or three shots, and maybe killing a tank, a gun gets killed. The veteran player may have expected that, knowing that an AT gun will survive for about that long at best (I'm just making up this example, probably not factual), but I get all upset, thinking I'll never get the hang of this, etc. etc. So if you could, when appropriate, also add stuff like, '.. and if you do this right you can expect to lose 50% of your armour during the attack.' Or whatever. Hope this is clear what I'm driving at - thanks again.

Just confirming what you are hearing - if your system is putting material from other programs, etc. into your PBEM files, you do have some serious FAT (or similiar) issues. Before you reformat -run scandisk, or whatever it's called now. It can fix some of these things. (Turn off your machine by killing the power, when you turn it back on, scandisk will run). Also - hate to say it, but if this just starting happening with your new system - and keeps up - check your warranty. Good luck

Mr. Pender, I also enjoyed your AAR - my question - I've not yet actually sent up a game like that. Once its set up and saved, could it be sent to someone else (like me ) who could then play it? Thx,