Lost Admiral

How about Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of China? Did he do anything right? Ended up throwing away over 3 million Chinese lives and lost pretty much every operation the Chinese launched. He spent more energy worrying about the Chinese Communists than fighting the Japanese. He even managed to cripple joint U.S. operations in Burma and India. Admittedly, the Chinese theatre was a side-show to European and Pacific theatres, but I can't think of anywhere else that wasted so many lives for so little gain.

Just finished Wild Bill's TF Butler operation. I played as Allies with the usual bonus to the cpu (+25% forces, +1 experience). It was real close the first four battles and then they overran me the last one. Very enjoyable. I'll have to try it again and see if I can flank those Panthers this time. I noticed one minor discreptancy. In the briefing, you are told you will receive the last two Allied reinforcements in battles 4 & 5. But in actuality you receive them in battles 3 & 4. Not a big deal but since battle 4 is at night, the fighter bomber you receive is useless. Though the operation plays out pretty fairly nonetheless. Anyways, thanks for another quality operation. Your stuff is always top of the line.

Just finished playing as Germans vs computer AI (+25% American forces). I liked this operation. Most of the battles were hard fought, and I love how it's tough to anticipate when reinforcements will arrive. I achieved a tactical Axis victory with a lot more bloodshed than I would have liked I encountered a couple things that bothered me but they have mainly to do with the way CM handles operations: 1) I agree with some of the previous posts, the "no-mans land" should be set to at least 50 meters. With a 0m buffer zone, you deploy along the line and find enemy units nose-to-nose with your forces. 2) The end conditions for the Germans are a bit messed up. By the 6th battle, I had captured the entire map but the game still ran 3 more battles. The 7th battle the Americans got a few reinforcements that were crammed into a 1 inch strip on the map. I killed all those and in the 8th and 9th battles, I literally sat there with no one to fight. I moved all my troops to the very edge and sat there twidling my thumbs. I think this is probably a problem with how CM calculates victory but maybe the increased no-mans land area will help. 3) I don't know how CM computes the "advance" line but it is relatively easy to send a spearhead through the thin American lines and drive a force halfway across the map. Then when the starting positions are calculated for the next battle, you get a huge advance for the Germans. Maybe you could make the map narrower or add depth to the American defense to prevent this. 4) Just out of curiosity, what was the historical outcome of this operation? That's about it. Overall, this was probably the best 3rd party operation I've played. Thanks for the hard work!

Personally, I'm a big fan of pillboxes. I feel that surviving for an average of four shots against a single tank is pretty darn good. Especially considering that going head-to-head with an armed pillbox, your tank will rarely get off 4 shots before getting killed. From my experience, when a tank drives into a pillbox's field of view (as opposed to starting the game with 3 tanks already having LOS on the pillbox), the pillbox almost always gets off the first shot and will likely kill the tank immediately at a range of 700 meters. The key is to utilize the pillbox's strengths when placing it; never allow it to be approached by multiple tanks and position it for an enfilade shot whenever possible. Using these tactics, my pillboxes routinely kill 2-4 tanks each. That is a good return on investment if you ask me. [This message has been edited by Lost Admiral (edited 02-05-2001).]

I have to agree that bunker placement is the key to survivability. As soon as there are multiple tanks firing at it, you can kiss it goodbye. But when you place it so tanks can only approach it one-by-one (preferably so they come into view with their sides showing), your bunker can take out a half dozen tanks. Personally I love 75mm and 88mm bunkers and buy them whenever I can. Slap a machine gun crew beside them and watch the carnage

I have a request for an improvement for tank AI. Usually when a tank sees a concrete bunker with a 75mm or 88mm anit-tank gun in it, it realizes it can not take it out and backs-up lobbing smoke at the bunker. That's pretty smart of the tank. What annoys me is when you maneuver your tank around the bunker until it is safely outside the bunker's field of fire and the tank still wigs out. It will continue to identify the bunker as the primary threat and launch smoke shells at it even if there are enemy tanks that are much more attractive targets. I think tanker crews should know when they are beside/behind a bunker and act accordingly. Just a small detail in an otherwise great game. Thanks!