LongLeftFlank
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Posts posted by LongLeftFlank
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Oh, I'm all in favour of Formation commands, and even a OURRAHHHHHH!!!!!! order that would force men to advance in a rough line abreast; or maybe two lines.
But to me that all fits under the Very Nice to Have category of "increased convenience of command" -- fewer clicks. As opposed to what some folks have implied above is a major bust in the engine .... 6 guys mowed down in the open by a single burst, etc. Not noticing that myself, or at least not because they were moving stupidly in files not in ranks.
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Good point, thanks, but I think you've now given people an adequate heads up and the link in my sigline has now been updated.
(FYI, editing a Repo file without resubmitting the entire thing is a hassle -- I mistakenly typed an ethnic slur into one of my other file descriptions ("bigger") and my attempts to correct it never went through. Mortified).
ACHTUNG! I have only playtested this H2H once. While I made some corrections subsequently, for H2H play, it remains my gut feeling this scenario may be slightly unbalanced in favour of the Germans, so if players are of uneven skill levels the more skilled may want to take the US side.
In the Designer Notes, I also omitted to thank my playtesters: Broadsword56 and Erwin. Apologies and thanks here!
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Hmm, let's step back and think about this a moment.
To my mind (happy to be proven wrong), the primary time RL infantry squads would form a skirmish line (i.e. perpendicular to the line of advance) is when advancing (MOVE) to contact across relatively coverless ground. That formation maximizes the chances of someone spotting something and minimizes casualties from the enemy first bursts, landmines, etc. I'd need to dig up my old WWII tactical manuals, but IIRC wedge ^, V and echelon / \ formations tended to be practiced at platoon level, not squad level.
Once contact is made, I'd tend to expect rapid reversion (for any further tactical movement) to some form of what you're calling "single file", with clumps of men all sticking to the same limited cover offered by available linear terrain. While Sarge keeps shouting "spread out dammit!" depending on the amount of incoming and the troops' experience level (he doesn't necessarily mean spread out laterally though). Consider also the impracticality of long maintaining a line while at a run carrying a combat load across farmland or worse, woodlands..... while under fire! Human beings just can't multitask that well -- they tend to follow the leader (the guy who's gotten farthest without being hit yet).
The exception, I suppose, would be a command to "fix bayonets and charge!" across open terrain shoulder-to-shoulder in the timeless style. Perhaps the Bagration build might add some kind of special HUMAN WAVE / BANZAI CHARGE command that would force squads into this kind of formation for the duration of the command. But don't let HBO fool you; those kinds of charges are comparatively rare in tactical warfare especially in 1944 against an enemy lavishly equipped with MGs. They are storied in infantry lore both because of that persistent "spirit of the bayonet" and because they are so hazardous and dramatic.... and bloody.
In game terms though, I worry that forcing infantry into ranks as a default would return to the early days of CMSF where you had random squaddies dangling out in the streets and getting picked off constantly.
Just a few thoughts -- like I said, I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise.
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Utility poles may contain electric wires (4.5-6.9kv single-phase) as well as telephone wires (based on the thick insulators and transformer, this is the case in the photos Wicky has shown). Sicily wasn't heavily industrialized in 1943 (not many native generation resources either..... hydro, coal, wood, oil... you'd barge in fuels for small power plants sited adjacent to the (coastal) town load centres), so I'd guess that most of what you'd see is pure phome poles (more useful to an agrarian economy than power) with a few power feeders running out from the power centers to other nearby towns. Dunno if that helps you but it's probably safest not to go overboard on poles. Oh, and about 40m of spacing ought to do.
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The key to the multimillenial lifespan of Roman roads is their extraordinarily deep and well-graded roadbeds, which preserve a reasonably level and well-drained surface long after the paving has vanished. Virtually no Roman roads retain their original cobbles, which were mainly stolen for quarry.
It was my understanding that the ring road linking Messina to Palermo via both coasts was the primary paved highway on Sicily; that's the road Patton followed in his high speed drive. I don't think that followed a Roman era route though, except probably for the Messina-Syracuse stretch (east shore). In Roman times, ship was the logical way to get to Palermo.
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True at one level, Jon, but my personal view is that anything that saves the player having to micromanage more than, say, 50 (ymmv) subunits per turn to obtain reasonable results for routine tasks like road following or cover seeking is worth considering, and worth asking for, even though we know Charles and Phil can't do it all.
As you know, designed scale of this game is company to battalion level tactical command (with an option to go down echelon at will) but at present, it's real Work -- and distraction from the evolving Big Picture -- to obtain the kind of results (behaviours) displayed in that great new promo movie. Fun sometimes, but still Work. That's why so many of us have an odi et amo relationship with this evolving game engine.
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Tube Guy® Lives!
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Try playing with the equipment quality settings for various subunits: Excellent to Poor. In some cases, it will give them more or fewer automatics relative to riflemen. It definitely made a big difference in CMSF; I haven't explored the feature so much here.
With my CM PC now restored
I took a look. Equipment quality (Excellent, Poor) or experience level (Elite-Green) doesn't make a blind bit of difference to the loadouts and weapons of US Airborne squads. -
They're planning to cover a lot of similar subject matter in CMSF2, so the chances of this ever happening are vanishingly small. But dream, by all means.
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Keeping my fingers crossed for flat-roofed "industrial" buildings! And maybe high-bay warehouses (like barns, but bigger and sturdier walls).
Try playing with the equipment quality settings for various subunits: Excellent to Poor. In some cases, it will give them more or fewer automatics relative to riflemen. It definitely made a big difference in CMSF; I haven't explored the feature so much here.
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In Baba Amr I am the Syrians and am on the offensive having to sieze a couple objectives held by the rebels. It is a fairly heavy task force, but LLF already scared the crap outta my troops by landing an RPG round into a BMP which somehow survived. Where it stands now is my force clearing one of the main avenues block by block while I presume LLFs rebels are prowling my flank looking for an opening and possibly setting up an ambush ahead. It has been a very tense methodical push by my forces so far.
I agree with LLF trying to do this as a human vs AI would be hard. Trying to get the AI to adopt the tactics either of us is using is pretty much an impossibility.
LLF I may have some thoughts on this once your PC is back. If you could send me the map sans forces or the whole scenario and I will try to delete them without looking, I may have some map ideas to run past you. If that isn't possible I may create one and take screen shots to throw some ideas your way.
Erwin, the only way I could make static ambushes work is to give the FSA rebels a whole pile more troops and RPGs than they really had (e.g. plant a static ambush on every streetcorner, almost), which could make a challenging game, sure, but it would be more Berlin 1945 than a representation of what's going on in Syria now.
Again, I build scenarios for my own reasons which aren't always exactly what gamers like most; in this case, it's to better understand why it is the Syrian army needs entire armoured battalions to enter urban areas defended by small and very poorly armed rebel groups.
SBurke and I are on that nasty little voyage of discovery right now -- his force is overwhelmingly stronger than mine, and he is being very smart and systematic with his infantry combing buildings for RPG ambushes and tanks blasting my snipers (no rules of engagement here). But he's still chewing his nails off wondering when he's going to miss something and leave flaming wrecks and charred corpses in the streets for UgaritNews to post triumphantly on YouTube. While for me, every RPG rocket counts, and any fighters forced into a stand-up fight are going to die, fast. Tactics which, as SB says, are impossible for the AI to replicate.
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Guess what? I'm back up and running! The HP so-called "help site" says that if the power module shows overload (blinking light) and you unplug your motherboard and peripherals and the light goes solid, that means your power unit is fine but the motherboard is fried -- so sorry! you need a new one or even better, a new computer. $$$$
But once I googled around a bit, it appears there's a hack where you unplug everything, use a blow dryer on the power unit to warm it up, put the power back in and then (carefully) replug in your motherboard, it clears the overload and reboots. Sure enough, it worked!!!!!
Job hunt remains priority, but I'm going to get down to some long overdue CMing this weekend. I want to get that La Meauffe recon scenario published, and then maybe we can resume Baba Amr if you have time.
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Are there any scenarios covering the siege of Brest? heheh, he thaid "brest"! heheh!
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Hush now, Herr Feldmarschall. Take your cyanide, there's a nice boy.
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Well Streety, if you're gonna write that book, be sure to look closely at the role of the pressmen who fed, and when it suited them, demolished, the reputations of said EBs, often to feed their own particular narratives of the war. Just as they still do today.
PS Respect and peace to your great uncle. Keep talking about this stuff and maybe you will talk me into doing Kohima when I can run CM again. Hmm, I wonder if my mum still has the book on it I read when I was a teen.
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Hmm, before Kettler wanders in here to Wikipedia me to death again, it appears that Slim was never in fact a sergeant. Nor was Stilwell a Hoosier. OK, on that basis you may disregard everything I've written above as a pack of lies and calumny.
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I'm about 1/3 of the way through Slim's autobiography. Don't lionize him too much -- he would not want you to, either. Although you are also right in flagging him as a major exception to the EGOTISTICAL BASTARDS rule. Joe Stilwell is a borderline case.... he shamelessly used the press when it suited him, but never to polish his own "brand" except maybe as a cranky plain-speaking Hoosier.
Slim certainly can't be blamed for the 1942 rout in Burma and did extremely well at Imphal and Kohima against the odds -- but of course it's easier to show pluck and initiative when you're against the wall and the enemy has left you no choice.
Arakan on the other hand was a complete waste of time. And while he certainly proved an able logistician and diplomat (with the Americans he depended on, as well as with nutcases with powerful friends, like Wingate), the 1945 offensive was, face it, six months too late to make any difference to the war, falling on a hollowed out Japanese army whose own logistical incompetence had reduced its soldiers to cannibalism.
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Well that's the thing -- the English class system has never been purely about Toffs vs Toughs, even though those of us who were raised on English comics in the angst-ridden Seventies (yup, I'm not *that* Transatlantic) have come to believe that. That's a relatively new paradigm, partly an American influence.
The English inherited from their Anglo-Saxon and Celtic tribal forbears the notion that the Leader must also be dux bellorum, willing to lead by example. And no matter how Europeanized (i.e. French) their aristocracy became, it was never entirely allowed to shed that idea and isolate itself entirely from the commoners. You might be born into the nobility, but you also had to earn the right to be there.... at least, that was the ideal. And ideals do matter and persist.
Also, don't overestimate the "aristocratic" opposition faced by Montgomery; he was of quite acceptable enough class and had worked diligently to check the right boxes, as had many of his peers. Bill Slim in contrast -- a sergeant who had risen to flag rank -- was still a rarity.
Monty was genuinely popular with his men as well, because he got results, even before Alamein. Even hardcore skeptic and lampoon-artist Spike Milligan fondly remembers the positive changes that swept through the Army when he took over in 1941. The Army had had its arse handed to it by the Germans, with only the Channel standing between it and total defeat. At the same time, it needed to absorb the hard lessons and put them promptly to work using the US materiel that was starting to flow across the ocean. And the willingness to change isn't just about intellectual capacity -- it's all about attitude. And Attitude was what Monty brought to the table in spades. Don't waste my bloody time telling me what you can't do..... find a way! (oh, guess what? sometimes you'll be badly wrong)
The men didn't expect or need Monty to be a working class hero though, in spite of the sweaters, unless they were hard core Socialists (but in that case, they'd have hated Slim too as a class traitor and tool of the system, until the Comintern told them to believe otherwise). It was enough that nobody doubted that Monty would cheerfully share a dirty mug of tea with his lads and if Germans came across the rise would be the first to pick up a rifle. That was what they expected of their leaders, aristocrats or not.
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Thank you, "Bushido Ken". If my CM PC was functioning, I'd throw together an Alligator Creek scenario just for you!
P.S. You need to put that in your sigline. We will razz you mercilessly for quoting yourself, but it'll still be less egomaniacal than Emrys.
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SBurke and I were playtesting exactly such a map (Baba Amr), although it's been on hold for nearly 6 months, and my CM PC is presently dead.
I'd send it over to you, but the catch is that I was unable to come up with a coherent AI plan for either side to enable reasonable 1 player mode -- the AI is no damn good at sneak-and-peek guerrilla tactics or systematic block-clearing in a dense urban environment, so it's H2H only.
In JOKER THREE, the real battle Iraqi uncons behaved a lot more like CMSF AI troops, dashing recklessly through the streets in search of glory and martyrdom, so it worked. Also, the Marines had a lot fewer troops and firepower to use for the rescue mission than the Syrian Army 4th Armoured does in this planned assault. Those tactics would be futile and fatal for the FSA forces.
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Move a team forward to engage it, preferably not from your defenses... He'll likely stop scouting to engage it, or open fire with other forces, possibly betraying his attack concentration.... do YOU have artillery too?
More lead time on a fire mission (e.g. not Emergency) makes a huge difference. -
My 6 year old daughter is beating me at checkers although she cheats like a fiend. And invariably asks if those are the Good Soldiers or the Bad Soldiers in my Game. We'll see how it evolves in spite of Mom's disapproval.
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And by the immortal Major Wigram ("gutful men") of course.
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"Uncle Bill" Slim wasn't quite a gentleman though, having risen from the ranks. Class still meant a lot even in Depression era England (my own Dad, a degreed engineer but the son of a lorry driver emigrated in the Fifties for this reason). Slim was quite good enough to take over the battered "Indian Army" out in the colonies, where white skin plus ability to last 6 months without perishing of fever or dysentery had long been the primary class distinction. He only became a proletarian hero well after the war, and he himself did not embrace that identity.
No, in the existential struggle for England, the supreme commander had to represent how Englishmen saw themselves: confident, rational and calm in the face of, well, everything. The demographic catastrophe of WWI and Marxist class struggle had badly damaged the fondly held notions of England's elite being a bunch of Sir Robert Scotts-- cultured and educated men of judgment, yet willing to stoically endure hardships with their stout yeomanry..... "Waterloo being won on the playing fields of Eton" and all that (just finished Robert Graves book Goodbye to All That, btw, which puts me in this frame of mind). Yet national myths die hard.... there's a reason Prince Harry feels a need to be in harms way in Afghanistan, and not because he intends to run for office.
Interesting point about the RAF liaison though; Tedder was quite close to the Americans, wasn't he? Also, General/FM Alexander got along decently well with Clark and the other Mediterranean front commanders (Although admittedly he was the one nominally in charge there and didn't hog credit... what little there was to claim down there). Could well be wrong about that though.
I took a look. Equipment quality (Excellent, Poor) or experience level (Elite-Green) doesn't make a blind bit of difference to the loadouts and weapons of US Airborne squads.
New file at the Repository: It's Quiet - Too Quiet (Tiny Recon) (2012-10-14)
in CM Normandy Maps and Mods
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Emrys is, once again....(wait for it).... Correct! (tack another 3 lines on the ol' sig)
Apologies to Harry. If I reissue the scenario due to some major bust or other, I'll be sure to correct the above and any other nits -- please list any others you find below. This stuff matters.
Please do take care with the SPOILERS though -- knowing where/what the Germans are takes away a lot of the play value and suspense for the US. That's the terrible beauty of recon -- you can lose both by being too bold and too cautious! (per Harry's book).
Lame excuse: I'd been sitting on this scenario and map for about 8 months and wanted to get the dang thing published already while CMBNers were still waiting for Arnhem. So some of the Briefing stuff got fuzzy.