Broken

I agree. I also usually ask that there be no airplanes. Too random. In CM1, there were a few bugs that people exploited, like the flak trucks that could not be killed by armor. People just agreed not to buy them until the patch came out.

I assume you are playing against the AI. Have you tried M8s against a human opponent? Oops, I didn't see that you lost your Tiger to an AI controlled M8. That is impressive.

Certainly true of cats. I have known some women that are better shots than me. I have to admit that is not a very high bar.

Yes. I have petitioned BFC for stationary stockpiles of ammo that could be purchased for mortars, etc. The solution they currently have is vehicle stockpiles that can be accessed using the Acquire command.

The mortar didn't lose the ammo. It was close enough to another mortar to share ammo and so the total rounds for BOTH mortars is shown. If you move one mortar away, they can no longer share, so each mortar shows only its own ammo. This behavior had me fooled too. Only mortars that are part of the same unit can share. I don't know if it is a bug or intended behavior, but if a mortar crew takes casualties it can lose its ability to share. I had two mortars side by side, one with 30 rounds and the other empty. The empty mortar showed 30 rounds due to sharing. The 30 round mortar took four casualties. The remaining crewman could no longer operate his mortar or share his 30 rounds with the empty mortar. Quite frustrating. Perhaps I should have shot him and collected the ammo through buddy-aid.

Not true. The terrain may have had 20m resolution in CM1, but LOS and waypoint resolution was much finer than that. Shifting a unit by 2m could move you from in-LOS to out. That was possible because units were abstracted as being located at a single point, not spread over 8m x 8m as in CM2.

QBs are really intended for human-vs-human. If you want a tough battle against the AI, pick one of the more challenging pre-built scenarios or campaigns.

Bocage is some good. Like fighting in a maze. Lots of detail, lots of stratagems. The other terrain-types could be beefed-up some, cover/concealment-wise.

The fanatic level is a two edged sword. They may not break easily, but they don't always duck when they should.

Yes indeed. I hate it when QBs evolve down to the same unit mix over and over again. I want to use the full tool kit of stuff that you guys so painstakingly create, but sometimes the QB prices are just prohibitive. I also play to win, you see. Just as an example, you guys make tons of light armor that rarely sees the light of day in the QB environment.

Yes, RT with the pause key is the way to go against the AI. RT is not as practical or fun against fellow humans as WEGO is. WEGO PBEM allows you to grab a beer at the end of the day, watch the latest CMBN "movie" and then plot some righteous-but-devious blows upon your evil opponent.

Yes CMBN is definitely more meaty as a tactics simulator than CM1. CM1 was more finely tuned, but that is probably because I remember the later versions better than the earlier ones. CMBN has tremendous appeal to us grog-types, but new customers used to the instant-gratification mind-candy of the big-title games will find it tough going.

The visual information in CMBN does take some getting used to. Besides holes in the bocage, river fords are hard to find. You have to get down in the water and check, especially for deep fords. LOS is a bit counter-intuitive as well. Sometimes you can "see" something in the camera view, but there is no LOS. Sometimes you have LOS, but the camera view shows nothing but a wall of greenery.

You have the proper evil mindset for this game.

I would buy more mortars. You can get two German mortars and a rifle squad for the price of a 10-pack of AP mines. I played with the wire a bit, but you can't seal anything off with it due to the limitations on where you can put it and the restrictions of the setup zone on this map (QB-145). The map is quite "canalized" already. The only way for the attacker to get to the main objective is through five river crossings: three shallow fords, one deep ford, and a small bridge. This bottlenecked geography is why I tried mines on the river crossings. I used all 10 mines that I purchased for blocking the river-crossings. To get complete coverage, you might need closer to 20. The mines are quite effective the first time infantry wanders into them. Once they are spotted, their effectiveness seems to drop off. The map doesn't really require TRPs. You can position the mortars to direct fire on all of the crossings. Of course, this does carry the risk of your mortars getting spotted and being subjected to counter-battery fire. But the German 81s only have about 2 minutes of ammo, so you can usually wreck a couple of squads before your mortar gets blown up. I tested the map with a medium-size QB purchase, so the German defenders don't have the budget to wire, mine, and TRP all the crossings, and still have budget left for infantry, arty, and AT. If you are interested in a QB, we can try out our various theories.

He did run a company through the mines. Re-examining the battle, the most effective mines were a pair placed at both ends of a bridge. 36 men passed through both mine fields and of those 9 were hit. The mines cost 30 and the men cost 36, so this was by far the most cost effective mine application. On the other hand was a mine field of three mines blocking a river ford that the attacker never crossed.

Which is why they are best played as mirror matches: you pick one map and play two games. One as defender and one as attacker. It doesn't matter if the balance isn't exact. No, the idea is to have a richer practical unit selection in QBs. Which is hard to do if some units are way underpriced relative to others. Those units get picked to the exclusion of others and you end up facing the same unit mix in QB after QB. There were units in CM1 which were way under-priced initially. SMG squads for one. Pupchens for another. Pupchens were initially priced at 25 points, yet they could defeat any Allied armor out to roughly 200m. Way more bang for the buck than Panzerschrects. Pretty soon, players were defending with masses of Pupchens. BFC raised the price of Pupchens and the problem was solved. BFC did downgrade SMGs for CMBB by reducing their ammo load. Even so, they were still so cost effective that good players would choose nothing but SMG infantry as the Russians.

For some of the QB maps that came with the game, the small setup zones are part of the play-balance.

The speed advantage of QUICK over MOVE in clear terrain is 3:1. In dense terrain, the advantage drops to less than 2:1 and you get tired really fast. And you always make contact with the enemy just as your troops become TIRED.

Agreed. With the small setup zones (especially some of the attack maps), the defender can crush the attacker with turn 1 arty. A simple solution is to agree on no first turn arty on setup zones for MEs or on the attacker for Attacks.

I assume most people reading this know fortifications come in packs of 10 (except for TRPs). I tested the very scenario you describe (see my last post). The mines did indeed suppress the infantry which ran through, but for less than a minute. My conclusion was I would have been much better off buying a couple mortars and an extra squad for the same price. Considering how favorable the map was for mines, I see them being rarely used in QBs.

The problem with AP mines is not their effectiveness, but their price tag. As a defender I can spend 150 points on a platoon or on 10 AP mines. Say I choose the mines. I get lucky and an enemy platoon passes through them suffering 30% casualties, better than average. The enemy now still has 2/3 of a platoon I need to stop and my mines are now next to useless. As defender in an Attack QB, I start at a 1.6 to 1 points disadvantage and my situation just got worse. If I want to spend those 150 points on "force multipliers", I would get a lot more bang-for-the-buck buying 2-3 medium mortars. I can kill a lot more than a squad with that. The AP mines are not cost competitive with the other purchase options available. Certainly this is true. But in QB prices, many of the force multipliers are priced out of the market. Even most machine guns. The way prices are set up now, QB purchases will devolve to just armor, infantry squads, and mortars. I would like to see a richer mix. I hear you on this point. I tested mines in a QB (myself vs myself) on a very constricted map (QB-145). The attacker had to pass through mines on all the major river crossings. The minefields were covered by fire from six squads plus two mortars. The attacker first destroyed the covering squads with mortar and tank fire and then ran four platoons through the minefields. The mines claimed 13 casualties. The defending mortars claimed 30. This was a on very favorable map for mines.

Movable waypoints would definitely help in straightening out snarled convoys, which happen a lot in the narrow roads between hedgerows.

Besides the many posts on how fox holes, trenches, and sandbags are not cost effective in QBs, I also experience the same thing with mines and barbed wire. Barbed wire is not cost effective, mainly because it is so difficult to use the way you would want to use it. For example, you cannot use barbed wire to seal off the gap between buildings or the access to a bridge. The game will not allow it. There is always a gap between the wire and the two buildings you want to straddle. Likewise, you cannot run wire to effectively block off access to a bridge. Since denying access to choke points is a primary intent of wire obstacles, why would you spend 100 points on it if it doesn't do the job? Mines are effective. AP mines will kill 20-25% of the infantry which attempt to pass through (at least initially). But the cost is 150 points, about the same as an infantry platoon. I will take an an infantry platoon over 25% of an infantry platoon any day in a QB. So, why buy AP mines? AT mines are close to 100% effective in immobilizing vehicles which pass through. Since they cost 250 points, about as much as a Sherman, they will have to destroy at least one tank to be cost-effective. But since AT mines immobilize tanks, not destroy them, one has to hope they immobilize enough tanks to justify their cost. Sandbag walls INSIDE of buildings? Not allowed currently. I realize many of my posts are critical of the CMBN. CMBN is a tremendous accomplishment by BattleFront. No one else is in their league. But because they have accomplished what they have, it is hard to resist encouraging them to improve the weaker parts of the game.

This was my approach. Advance up one side of the road only. I chose the left side, but the right side probably works just as well.