Doug Williams

I think the OP's question has been adequately answered, but I did just want to make one comment regarding the Hide command. I haven't found much use for it. When your men are Hiding, their ability to spot enemy units is greatly reduced. Far better, IMO, is to give your troops a small target arc so they don't give themselves away by firing before you want them to. They are probably easier to spot in this condition than when they have been given the Hide command, but at least they can see. Oh, and regarding H2H Helper, great program! Makes PBEMing much easier. You'll need to setup a Dropbox account to get the full use of it. Dropbox+H2H Helper = PBEM nirvana. And PBEM is, after all, the real way to play CM. Everything else is just practice for your PBEM games. :-)

Units stacked with a leader get to subtract the leader's modifier from all attack and morale check die rolls. No....wait...

Wow, thanks Ted!

I'm 46. Like others said, the learning curve is a bit steep, but if you stick with it you will be rewarded with an exceptional WW2 tactical gaming experience. I would suggest trying the Platoon Patrol scenario until you get the hang of infantry movement and learn to use that single on board mortar. Then move on to other tiny or small scenarios.

Coming from CM1 to CMBN, I didn't like it at first, but now I'm used to it. If I want, say, two platoons of infantry and a couple of tanks, I can finish my QB force selection in probably one minute. You'll get used to it, OP.

Buy a batallion of something (example: infantry), then delete units (companies, platoons, squads, whatever) from that batallion until you get the force you want. Yes, buying individual units and teams is generally (always?) more expensive.

WeGo only. For the same reasons several others mentioned. If I want to play real time, I'll reload Starcraft.

No politics, No commercial links, No spam. Any of you like music?

You make many good points, Steiner14.

I agree. Warrior for me, unless my opponent starts the game at a different setting, then I just play on whatever he set it for.

I plan to purchase any and all CM WW2 related games, modules, and upgrades, even if the theatre of a particular game or module doesn't interest me as much as others might. The reason being is I want to support BFC and encourage them to keep producing WW2 CM games. And even if the theatre of a particular title isn't my favorite, I will still play and have fun with it, as I am with CMFI. I don't support the Modern CMs, because I just don't care much at all about Modern era conflicts. But that's just me, and I hope BFC continues to produce these also.

Sounds like PBEM would be right up you alley, Blazing 88's. That's the only way I play 2 player games. I never do real time. I play the AI quite a bit also, and have fun with it, but no way does it come close to the satisfaction of playing against another human.

You are missing out on a treat, my friend. Human opponents are so much less predictable than the AI.

Were you using your "special" dice? In CM1, onboard mortars weren't that much of a threat. In CM2, onboard mortars are quite deadly, especially when the mortar team has LoS to the target. I think you meant Tigers in that last sentence. Sherman VS Tiger duels, at least from the front, usually go poorly for the Sherman. Best thing to do is try to flank the Tiger. Frontal shots from a 75mm Sherman are very unlikely to penetrate. BUT, if you get three or four 75mm Shermans pounding a Tiger, sometimes you can cause enough damage to cripple it or cause the crew to bail. No tank is invincible in WW2 CM2, but some are more vincible than others. ;-) Sounds like you are having fun and are a quick learner. Took me a long time to get the hang of offboard arty. Still causes me problems occasionally.

Streety sent me a priviate message stating, to paraphrase, that he was angry at how we treat people who come on here and complain, so he was quitting the forums. I typed out this reply, and then was given notice that he does not accept private messages. :-/ I don't like wasting my time, although I probably am, so gonna post my reply here. :-) Well, I hate to see you go, and hope that I did not contribute much to your decision. I might have been a bit harsh on the complainers, but I was getting quite tired of all this "tempest in a teapot" about $10. I disagree with what you say about all companies will charge all they think the market can bear. I seriously believe BFC is not trying to price gouge it's customers. If forum critics want to be treated with civility, then they need to voice their criticisms in a more constructive manner. Act like a child and get treated like one. And no, I don't really believe there are many people under, oh, 20 years old who play Combat Mission. In all honesty, if a forum member had made a civil post stating that they would like to purchase the $10 upgrade but simply could not afford it (instead of launching an attack on BFC), I would have probably purchased it for them, if I believed they were being sincere. Obviously, I wouldn't do this often (my discretionary funds are not unlimited), but once or twice in the spirit of Christmas would not have been out of the question. Instead, all I saw was attacks and whining. I hope you reconsider your decision to leave, but if you honestly dislike CMBN, then I really don't see why you even read the CMBN forums. I very much enjoy CMBN and CMFI, and feel that my investment in the WW2 CM series has been money well spent. As a comparison, I recently purchased the new X-Com game from Steam, which cost (I forget, but something like $50). It's a very good game, and I enjoyed it, but I finished it in about two weeks. I really don't have much desire to replay it, so I deleted it off the hard drive. I have a feeling that CMBN, CMFI, and all the other games and modules in the series will still be on my hard drive many years from now.

You will learn to love and hate on board mortars. :-)

Yes, I was going to point this out. I've always loved the Greyhound and now I love them even more!

Hi, Wodin. Perhaps someday I will try the modern games. Thanks for the input.

I think this should be made into the official "I want to complain about the $10 upgrade price thread" and stickied at the top. Any and all complaints about the $10 upgrade should go in this thread. That will make it easy for the rest of us to just ignore it, like I do the various Peng threads.

Quod scripsi, scripsi.

Every play an MMO? Many of them want their customers to pay a monthly fee (often $15 or more) and then they have the temerity to charge even more money when they release new content (i.e. "expansions). You don't have to buy the expansion, but then you don't get the new content. I know this is a difficult concept for many folks with a socialist mentality, but things (goods and services) cost money to produce and maintain. As for the "attack pack" comment, I think many of us on these forums are just tired of all the whining posts about the $10 upgrade. Don't like it? Don't buy it. If enough of you don't buy it, you can all play multiplayer with each other using version 1.11.

I doubt even BFC knows exactly what will be released in 2013. My guess, and that's all it is: (1) Market Garden (safe bet) (2) 1st CMFI module (3) Something "Modern" (I won't buy) If the 1st East Front game and/or 3.0 make it out in 2013, that would be a welcome bonus. Prepare to hear more whining, however, as we are charged $10 each to upgrade CMBN & CMFI. ;-)

So move to U.S.A., land of opportunity! We're all rich here. But even here we can't buy 10 bears for $10. Hell, I can't even buy 10 beers (the kind I like anyway) for $10.

While this would be a convenient feature, personally I put it far down on the list of what I would like BFC to be spending their working hours and resources on.

The biggest hurdles for me as a new player were learning not to try to do things too quickly and getting the hang of offboard artillery (i.e. timing it correctly). I still have to remind myself to slow down, and I still flub up the artillery strikes fairly often.