Doug Williams

Did an experiment to answer this question: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?p=1500052#post1500052

In a recent discussion in another thread, someone asked what benefit there is to providing buddy aid to wounded troops. I answered that, to my knowledge, the only benefit in game terms, is you might pick up some ammo or weapons from the wounded troops. A few other people answered that there might be an awarded points difference between KIA and WIA troops. In other words, they thought that opponents would receive fewer points if they performed buddy aid so that more of their casualties would become WIA rather than KIA at the end of the game. I stated that I believe that, as far as scoring goes in quick battles, KIA and WIA are treated exactly the same. I had some time between PBEM turns today, so decided to conduct an experiment. I setup a large size meeting engagement quick battle on a tiny map and selected the forces for both sides. I gave the Axis two companies of infantry (no vehicles), and the Allies one platoon of infantry, a forward observer, and ten batteries of offboard 60mm mortars. Basically, I intended to cause as many casualties in the first turn as I could by dumping a massive amount of mortar fire on and around the Axis setup zone, and then call a Cease Fire and compare the scores. I ran this experiment about ten times, and half the time the Axis surrendered after the first turn, skewing the score, so I disregarded those. After the first turn or two I decided I would keep doing the turn over and over until I came up with two results in which the Axis side had exactly the same number of "OK" men. Final Result: Game 1 score: 556 to 0 Axis troops: 16 OK, 189 Killed, 49 Wounded Game 2 score: 556 to 0 Axis troops: 16 OK, 183 Killed, 55 Wounded Conclusion: There is no points difference in quick battles between KIA and WIA. Scenarios might be different, but I doubt it. Whether or not providing buddy aid helps troop morale is also unknown (to me anyway).

Hallelujah, another convert! ;-) Join a gaming club, is my advice. Less chance of opponents dropping games, and after a while you will find the people you prefer to play re: skill level and turn rate. I usually have 4-6 small to medium size PBEMs going at a time, and I try to do at least a turn a day on all of them, assuming of course that my opponent can keep up with that speed. Some opponents can do several turns a day, some average a turn every two or three days. Of course, everyone has Real Life events that crop up occasionally and slow down or completely stop all gaming for a time.

Yes, providing buddy aid will reduce the number of KIA and instead give you more WIA, but as far as I know, KIA and WIA give exactly the same amount of points. As far as the final score, you would get the same amount of points for causing 50 KIA and 100 WIA as you would for causing 150 KIA and no WIA. They are all considered "casualties". I'm talking about quick battles. For scenarios, the scenario designer can fiddle with the points, but I don't know if he can award different amount of points for KIA VS WIA. Can someone confirm/deny?

As I only play PBEM, the steam lobby would be no advantage to me. Perhaps this may change some with the new TCP/IP WEGO system.

I don't think so, Erwin. The only reward the game gives you, other than peace of mind, is when you provide buddy aid to the wounded, the aiding unit often acquires ammo and weapons from the wounded soldiers.

Now, *that's* my kinda Pict!

I know that surrendered troops do improve your score, at least once they go "white flag". They are counted as "Missing" on the score screen and I believe improve you score in the same way as killing or wounding enemy troops do. I do not know if killing surrendered troops, before they "white flag", affects your score in any way. My guess would be that the game would simply count them as KIA or Wounded.....

You probably have a point there. I imagine most of the kiddies are playing console games these days. Regardless, I still don't think we will see CM on Steam any time soon, because I believe Steam controls the pricing, and I don't see BFC giving up control in the near future. I'm grateful that BFC has been managed in such a way that they haven't been swallowed up by some soulless giant game corporation......yet.

I'm not so sure I want to see the CM series for sale on Steam. I would cringe every time I read a negative review on Steam because of the graphics, or "why did my zerg rush tactics not work", etc. No. Let's keep the riff raff out, IMO. Anyone with a genuine desire for a game like CM will find it without Steam.

Joining a gaming club (there are several..but I'm in WeBoB) cuts *way* down on opponents abandoning games.

Yep. Now I remember. We played in the first round of the CMFI/GL mirror match elimination tourney. Kiwis vs Germans. Good game.

So, I'm being sandbagged by you sluggards who are still running a 32 bit OS and have 4 gig of ram? Geez guys, join the 21st century! Joking (kinda). I7 3.5 GHz CPU, 16 gig ram, GeForce GTX 680 video card. I know this isn't a flight sim forum, but time to pony up some $$ for a real computer so we can all go forward. We're all old, right? Did you guys work for a living, back in the day?

Thanks. No, I don't think I'll be doing much squad splitting as the soviets. Hey, we've played before, right?

That, IMO, astute observation sums it up nicely. CM2 is a tactical, company oriented game. Sure, you can play with battalion sized forces, but I believe that is the exception, not the norm.

How do you enforce your house rules? Simply refuse to play anyone who doesn't agree to abide by them? I'm genuinely curious. I would also like to see them, if you have a link.

Yea, that one didn't take much imagination to predict.

The year: 2114 The USA no longer even pretends to be a democracy. There are three castes, the superwealthy ruling elite, the military caste, who are selected at birth from the healthiest infants and spend the rest of their lives training and fighting, and the Proletariat, who are not allowed to own land but, in exchange for working, are given government food, shelter, and minimal medical care. The ruling elite decide to embark on an expansion program, because our natural resources are running low and we need more workers. They start their expansion program in the easiest direction, south. By this time Mexico is simply a puppet government ruled by powerful drug cartels. COMBAT MISSION: Operation Burrito Of course, weapons technology has continued to advance. Gunpowder based weapons have been largely replaced by gaussian technology, and the air force is mostly unmanned drones with artificial intelligence or piloted remotely. Within two weeks Mexico is part of the USA and the elite turn their gaze northward. COMBAT MISSION: Operation Eh Take it from here, guys.

Stalingrad: Would buy in a heartbeat Module or Stand Alone devoted entirely to the battle of Stalingrad. Try to get the level of detail down even further, with smaller action squares, and smaller units. North Africa: Would buy in a heartbeat Anything post WW2.......I'll need a lot of convincing, unless it's "Combat Mission: Future Wars" with totally made up stuff.

Someone who believes the earth is warming up, not as a part of the natural cycle of warming/cooling that the planet has been going through for millions of years, but because of humanity. For example, the scientists on this ship are (were?) probably all warmists: The scientists all had to be rescued by helicopter after the ship got stuck in the ice. The Russian crew stayed on board, because Russians have ice in their blood. :-)

Interesting thread, but to be honest I start to rapidly lose interest whenever the simulated conflict gets outside the WW2 era. I would probably be more likely to buy Combat Mission: Orcs & Elves than a Vietnam CM. Actually, that sounds pretty cool.

In the past, 100% of my H2H games were PBEM. With this new feature, 99% of my H2H games will still be PBEM. I might, occasionally, play a TCP/IP game on a small map. So my overall reaction to this is, yes, it is an improvement, but not one that is likely to impact me very much.

Yes, pre-ordered on the first day.

Great news! :-)

Is there not some way to, during the troop selection process, know which troops come from the base game, CW, and MG?