Agua

Well, that didn't take long. Started next mission with same spotting rounds for area target, on and off board, wildly inaccurate. Where do you want the file sent?

No, sorry. Doesn't appear I saved the setup.

!! SHHhhhhhhhhhhh!!! hehee... Yeah, a select few crack single team units with extreme motivation can make the rest of your grunts look decent.

I've recommended the following several times before. Spend a few minutes reading through the portions of the manual dealing with the info panels and the orders, then play around with them in the game without worrying about the scenario outcome. The camera controls are really simply with the mouse. Top of screen = forward; bottom of screen = back; left of screen = left; and right of screen = right. Right side top = pivot camera right; left side top = pivot camera left. Mouse scroll wheel affects elevation as do the numerals 1 - 9. [edit] Right click mouse pans camera around in any direction from whatever elevation your view is at. [edit] doesn't appear left click mouse does anything other than shorten the necessary sweep of the mouse to move forward, back, left right as per above. [edit]. I only use WASD, Q, E, for fine tuning camera movement. I picked up CMSF and modules a couple weeks before the CMBN demo came out in order to become familiarized with the UI. I was put off at first by it, but simply spending about 15-20 minutes reading through the manual sections on the info panels and orders, then another 15-20 minutes in game fiddling around with the orders, without regard for the scenario outcome, was about all it took to feel, if not comfortable, at least not overwhelmed (pretty neat learning those ugly Striker things actually have all kinds of game turning goodies inside and their differing nomenclatura identify remarkably differing capabilities rather than just "another ride to the fight". Probably another half of a day playing the scenarios and I felt pretty good with the UI (the weapons capabilities were another matter). The offer is out there. If you want to give me a call up, we'll fire up whatever scenario you want and I'll tell you what I'm looking at, what info I'm gaining from it, the orders I'm issuing, where and why. This stuff isn't hard, its just getting used to thinking about creating "uneven" matchups using terrain.

akd, all on board plots were linear. The pack 75 off board was area. As I said, I can't say for certain spotting rounds were used in that off board mission. I can say for certain it was waaaaay off target. [Edited to include the following:] I generally always save when I get first orders and setup established to my liking. When I get home, I'll see if I saved that setup. Its in a campaign "Road to Montebourg". Don't know if that makes a difference or not as to the usefulness of the save file.

Yes, spotting rounds for mortars occur for pre-planned barrage with immediate delivery. Ran into this last night in fact with about 6 60mm on board mortars, 2 81mm on board mortars. There was also a 75mm pack off board, but I can't sit here and say for certain whether it utilized spotting rounds. Judging from the varying accuracy, it appears the spotter must be able to see these pre-planned spotting rounds as well in order to ensure accurate fire.

Crack HMGs with extreme motivation are pretty effective. (where's the thumb's up icon?)

MOSwas???? If you want, we'll arrange a phone call, both fire up any scenario, and I'll walk you through what I'm doing, what I'm looking at on the UI, et cetera. I'd wondered if maybe scenario author mode would work tcp/ip? Don't know if the friendly and opfor ai would have the spotting disabilities (or do the spotting routines affect information the player receives only?).

hehee.. good one.

I only use it for vehicles. Same with CMx1.

Well, here is what I noticed w/ regard to obstacles: they are not a cheap purchase in QBs. In terms of *balance* however, if they were cheap, defense would probably be too easy. When I'm on defense, man, I want all kinds of wire, hedgehogs, & mines, PLUS a bunch of HMG, AT and foot sloggers. But if I look at it from a balance standpoint, what I *want* would result in a pretty easy, lopsided win, so they're probably priced just about right. Just an aside here: hedgehogs on heavily forested maps are, imo, generally a pretty good buy.

Thanks Tom. I must say that it looks closer to the original (sans neon) than I thought possible. Looking forward to VoT.

Tried Hell in the Hedgerows twice with two different axes of advance. Draw first time, Total Victory second. SPOILERS * * * * * * * * * * * First time advanced both companies up the middle. Ran into maybe a 3 or 4 sections with HQ and a MG on the north and east outskirts of Le Goulet. Caught a good bit of fire from the northwest at la vallee and an inf gun on the top ridge. Once we made the covered road in the middle of the map, hung a right to the east because of the fire on the west. Advancing east along the covered road, we encountered maybe a squad in two sections on the far right portion of the road. MG bunker situated about 1/3 of the way from the west edge of the map along the ridge, with a mixed bag of NASTY stuff along the west half of the ridge. Failed to bring 4 platoon 60mm along, believing the 2 company weapons platoon leaders with radios would take command of the mortars. WRONG. From the covered road, noticed a lovely stretch of barbed wire covering the anticipated assault on the south side of the creek. Called in all available arty along the west 1/3 of the ridge, saving the 75mm packs for smoke. Determined to send the platoons down to the creek through a section of lightly wooded slope as it appeared to provide at least a little relief from enemy LOS & LOF. Found a couple of bottle necks at 1) the gap between the hedges from which the troops exited the covered road; and 2) a gate immediately to the east of our exit from the covered road. OUCH. Despite having about 7 or 8 MG sections firing on the bunker, it still managed to pin the troops at the two bottle necks. Learned something about CMBN with infantry bottlenecks. With remainder of squads, I sent them forward in split teams with enough temporal space between the orders as allowed by selecting and issuing the orders in RT. Quite a few wounded scattered along the trail from the covered road to the creek. Once we made that leg of the trip, we discovered a foxhole with another MG in it on the slope in front of where we intended to recover before the smoke arrived. Needless to say this was bloody. Ultimately, as teams came unpinned, I sent them around the barbed wire, then back into the wooded section and straight up slope to defilade at the top of the ridge. I sent them into the road at the top of the rige, but each time they'd become panicked by a surviving portion of a HQ unit next to the bunker, so no units (other than mine) were destroyed once we made it to the road. Finished with a Draw. Going from memory seems like it was 50 KIA and wounded, so the only objective I met was the touch objective at the top of the ridge. Second time I figured the west side couldn't be any worse than the east, so tried that route. Sent E Company up the middle again and D Company along the western side through la vallee. Probably a couple sections and an HMG in the le valee area. E Coy advanced along the covered road towards le valee while D Coy took the frontal approach. Limited field access due to hedges required some split team work again at la vallee to bring a squad around the back of a platoon HQ and HMG in a field north east of la vallee. That squad spent the remainder of the scenario in defilade corner of bocage due to the MG bunker on the ridge. This time, I brought all my platoon mortars (YAY!), and was relieved to find a nice row of bocage providing cover all the way down to the creek. No bottlenecks, no barbed wire, timing of mortars, smoke and the run up the ridge were perfect. Two platoons took out the two western MG bunkers with close target orders, then sent one platoon around the back behind the road to put fire on the units along the ridge from two directions. AI surrendered. Had 18 killed, 15 wounded - score 850. REALLY tense scenario. I didn't see a FO on the map review so I assume the platoon HQs were calling in the arty. I've learned with CMBN that you get up and RUN when a spotting round comes in. Great map and a great scenario. I've got the end of the prior scenario written down so I can play this one again.

Well, it doesn't help that arranged alphabetically, the first mission is "A Delaying Action"; toughest standalone mission on the CD, imo.

PLEASE don't nerf the game.

Yup. I"ve finished all the scenarios and that was the toughest. It truly was like a puzzle; one element is off the slightest, and the entire thing falls apart.

Don't rush that squad unless you've got everything suppressed, meaning: 1) there's been fire exchanged for a while, so you are pretty sure all the units opposite yours have shown themselves; 2) all the little icons are hunkered down to generic nationality rather than a "soldier" silhouette. DON'T GIVE UP on the game. Be patient with moving your troops around. "Play scared" is good advice for moving your troops forward in the presence of known enemies, which in this game, is just about everywhere.

Yup, good move installing that. Thanks Mord. A bunch.

I don't know if this makes a difference or not, but have you tried making sure the facing of your mortars is in the direction of your target? Like I said, I don't know if that's the problem or not, but I seem to have had better luck with on board mortars since checking on this prior to fire missions. Conversely, I had some just F'd up missions with fire going any damned where and noted that I'd left the mortars facing 90+ degrees from the plane of the target. Don't know that would help, but it will give you something else to play with.

I swear I think I had some like that in CMBO. Thanks.

Womble, It's context specific. If its a small close area, I'm not sending tanks into that and its generally unnecessary - the fighting is done from the hedgerow by the inf. In a larger field, a shreck will make its presence known pretty quickly. At that distance, they're not real accurate and can be surpressed with area fire. That's job one.

I hedgerow hop. Send whatever HQ with the highest skill level or most experienced, give it a tiny covering arc, then hunt up to the back of a hedgerow bounding a field. Set its facing proper, then let it observe for a minute or two. If he's got LOS across the field, he'll see some movement eventually. Now, if I've got tanks, I'll move them up to the back of the hedgerow and let them start blasting the enemy units. Area fire as needed. If no tanks, or insufficient numbers, "hunt" the MGs up to the back of the hedgerow and let them serve the same function. The enemy units heads will go down rather quickly, so area fire their last contact. Also, move squds up to the back of the hedgerow to help with suppression if needed. When there's no fire or very little being returned, I'll send a squad into the field on hunt to test the waters. Depending on the incoming fire, I may give them a "quick" order at any distance between the borders of the field with bounding squads.

Just finished the third mission - le grand ham er somefink. LOVE these coy sized infantry battles. Just my opinion, but these sized engagements are the sweet spot in this game, for RT anyway.

HEHEHEHehehee..... that was pretty funny.

Just finished Crossroads when I popped on the forum. Very nice map, very challenging scenario.