Blackcat

21st October? That is Trafalgar day - the anniverary on Nelson's Trumph over the combined French and Spanish fleets - a victory that ultimately set the seal on Bonaparte's fate. No god would destroy the world on such a day.

Because the game hasn't been programmed that way.

"I have 24 shells remaining and want to use about 10. I estimate that will take 20 seconds to do that." You could try giving the fire order and a pause of 20 seconds then a very short movement order with a clear target or target arc at the final way point. That I think should produce the effect you are looking for (don't forget to finish with a deploy order if you want the mortar to be able to fire next turn. Its a work around and, in my view, it would be much nicer if we could simply order the number of rounds to be fired by all on-board HE chuckers, including AFVs ("Gunner put three rounds of HE into that farmhouse"). However, there are probably good reasons why that option is not available to us and, as there is a way of achieving much the same effect, maybe its not a big deal. As regards target-light for on-board mortars firing direct the manual is quite clear. Page 84 "On-map mortar teams that receive a Target Light command wil use their mortars, but only at a very slow rate of fire".

"First of all I still find hard to assess the distances" Practice makes perfect, but working out 30 metres as looks like is surely not hard. "it's also very easy to activate/deactivate the floating icons" Is it? I have never done it by accident or design, so I'll take your word for it. If having different coloured icons for units that are out of C2 would help, then I would be happy as long as the programing time spent on producing this effect is less than, say, one hour otherwise I think there are more immediate problems to be solved. "you still have to preserve your HQ tank so to get the fighting bonus of a leader, if any. And the same goes for the Infantry." Well, yes if you let your leaders get killed you will lose C2 and, quite possibly, the fight. Not sure how command lines or multicoloured icons affect this though. Tell me, just out of interest, do you mainly play RT or WEGO?

Some weeks ago some kind soul (and I embarassed to admit I have forgeotten his name) produced a rule of thumb for keeping infantry units in C2. My memory is not what it was but think that in open terrain, when hand signals can be seen, you were OK up to about 100 yards, but in close terrain, when the plaoon commander needs to rely on voice, the distance was much shorter - 40 something metres. When I care about this stuff, which I don't always, I now tend to work on seventy and thirty respectively (thats come down a bit since I started). One click and a look shows me which units are going to be in C2 of a platoon commander and the platoon HQ to Company HQ is easily seen in the bottom left display. As for armour, well I only play the US troops (so far) and as every AFV has a radio, where is the problem? If they are not always within C2, assuming, the HQ is still alive, I can't say I have noticed. Lines would clog up the display and not tell me anything I didn't know on 99.9% of occasions. As for the Icons, I only find them useful in the setup phase - to make sure I have got the dreadful mess we are usually presented with untangled.

Well, I don't know about cannister use by the Germans but I have found a reference to the use of 37mm cannister by the USMC on Guadacanal on 21st August 1942. Leaving vagarities of supply and inter-service jealouses aside, there doesn't appear to be any obvious reason why Stuarts in Normandy in june through August 1944 shouldn 't have had access to cannister rounds. I am sure someone who knows about this will be along soon to put us straight.

I am glad you enjoyed it. Problem is I have just remembered that Mr. Stanbridge is in Scotland so, if he is a native rather than an exile, he probably didn't understand a word.

"That the HIDE-status is not displayed in the movement paths and in the unit-window is one of those things" Strange I never have a problem in leanring if one of my units is hiding. All I have to do is select it and there in the bottom left of screen is a little panel that tells me what each member is doing. If I am in doubt I can ove on extra click and look at the Hide button, if it is highlighted then they are or if it aint't they ain't going to be in the next turn, vene if they are now.. I really don't know what you guys are on about with this issue.

"but I, along with most on this forum would really like to see some development in the game engine " And where, Captain Mike, is your evidence for that statement. Who are these people, the majority you claim, who want to see CM transformed into a different game that suits your tastes better than the present incarnation? I know I don't read every single post but I see very few people here apart from yourself arguing that CM should become something else.

Mr. Stanbridge, So you are just under half-way and have taken just over half the KIA that I did. Sounds to me as if you are doing pretty well yourself. The key to this campaign seems to be take your time and, whenever you can, go for the left hook. TEGPT does seem to have a weakness for the off-side, he generally defends it much more strongly that the leg-side. I'd go so far as to suggest that where ever possible send your forces off to deep square leg (or as close to it as you can) before turning right and moving up through deep mid-wicket and then in through long-on. Mr. Tiger's plans seem not to cope with that approach. Oh, and make it a rule never to finsh an scenario with artillery ammo unused. Good luck with the last nine missions.

Mr. Tiger, Well, I finally got there. Just finished the last mission with an enemy surrender with 32 minutes still on the clock. The last three missions: *** Spoilers *** Ecausseville Looking at the map I decided that the tried and tested left hook was the way to go. So I sent one platoon accross the fields to my far right with orders to get into a position to watch and wait - short target arcs to ensure that they didn't fire on anything they saw. Meanwhile I used all my mortars to pound the snot out of the copse surrounded by hedges on my left and set up my MGs to provide a base of fire towards said copse. Once the mortars had done I went forward down the left with my infantry and over the stream into the copse. Mopping up the survivors there didn't take long, but I lost a few men to snipers from the village whilst crossing the open ground. A MG also opened up from a big house on my right but that was soon silenced by the massed fire from my own machine guns. Then it was a case of turning right and advancing on both sides of road into the village. There was a nasty little firefight for the church in which I was helped by the availability of new 81mm mortars and the fire from my overwatch platoon on my right, which had now unmasked and started to advance. Once the church went an enemy surrender followed soon after, but with just two minutes left on the clock. A very good battle (just eight casualties of which their snipers claimed 6) . The Farm House: The obvious approach was going to be a death trap, so once again I decided on the left hook. Unfortunately whilst I could supress and eventually kill the first line of defenders, their reserves came in before I could get to the farm and the mission degenerated into a firefight between the two lots of hedgerows. Thirteen man squads put out a lot of firepower and so I was able to win. The big mystery to me in his one was what use the Priest could be. Eventually I found a spot (on my right bang up against the board edge) where it could take under fire two enemy squads I found in the road behind a hedge. I can't see how it could be used for taking down the farm complex though. Eroudeviile: Knowing I was on the final mission I got a bit more reckless with my troops and took 50 casualties (22 KIA), but I did get a surrender with 32 minutes still to go. This early victory was greatly helped by the AI reinforcements monting a counter attack at its trenchline in the centre (they got stomped flat by three Shermans and a platoon in garrison there). If these troops had all moved towards the village, which I had yet to take, when they came on, I would have had a lot more of a problem. I don't think any of the Stugs actually got a shot off - just one pointing down the road leading from the village towards the exit zone would caused me severe difficulty. On the subject of the Stugs, my 76mm equipped Shermans took out the first three whilst they were moving forward. The fourth got itself into a position where because of the bocage I couldn't sensibly get a Sherman into a position where it would have a LOF. So I reverted to the CMSF tactic of using artillery/mortars to take out armour. A medium/medium 81mm barrage did the job very nicely - it took seven minutes and it wouldn't work against a human, but it was very satisfying. Just out of interest, what was the point of the MG pill-boxes covering the front of the German right flank? I don't think they even fired in my game; I certainly didn't even know the second one was here until I reviewed the map after the surrender. I could see that they could be useful to stop a left hook but, as you hadn't given the player any demo charges, such a manoeuver isn't possible. Were they left over from an earlier version? I see on another thread you are claiming that only three of the missions were designed to be hard. I suggest that your definition of "Hard" is not the same as most players, I had to work hard for nearly all of my victories. Oh, in case you are interested my final score was a total victory with 114 KIA, 147 WIA no tanks or vehicles lost. I inflicted 765 KIA, 408 WIA, 43 MIA; killed 8 tanks and 2 armoured vehicles. Once again, Mr. Tiger, my sincere thanks for an extremely enjoyable campaign. It had great maps, good immersion (I worried about my troops), some very cunning AI plans and some hard but winnable fights.

I did miss your point, I have now taken it. Why any sane person plays roulette or slot machines is beyond me.

They have to. Firstly to make sure the person putting the ball into play isn't too "skillfull" and secondly to help prove to the Gaming Commission hat they are running a straight table. Anyone who gambles on a cruise ship needs psychiatric help. However, corruption in the real world of roulette doesn't have anything to do with CMBN even when roulette is being used as a metaphor for what is going on in the game.

Womble, stay away from gambling on games of chance! If you believe that a roulette wheel has a memory you will end up broke very quickly.

You are talking about CMBN, yes? I ask because my tank gunners seem unable to hit anything on the first, second or third round. For example , I am currently playing the final mission in the Road to Montebourg campaign and I have a stationary 76mm Sherman firing on a Stug III - he has missed it at least ten times, so far. Maybe I should play the game you are playing.

"I wonder why my 3 tests before this one all favored the sherman ?" The mathematics of probability. If a roulette wheel comes up red nine times in succession, what are the chances of the ball landing on red on the tenth spin? Casino operators mke a lot of money out of people who think it isn't 1 in 2.

Ten breaches is a big ask. Back in May I did some testing and the following is a post I made at the time: "OK, there is a probability model at work regarding track damage and Rhino tanks. I set up a test rack with 8 Rhino's and 16 lines of High Bocage to be crossed. Every tank took one level of track damage at the first crossing. At the third 2 tanks took anonther level of damage. At the fourth those 6 tanks which crossed the third level unscathed all took a second level of damage. At the Fith one took a third level of damage and the other 7 got through OK. At the 7th 3 tanks were immobilised whilst tring to force the breach. At the 8th three more were immobilised and the last two went down with total track failure at the 9th. Neither crew quality or speed of advance made any difference. On subsequent runs very similar results were achieved (none ever made beyond the nineth line). By contrast running through fences (wire or wood) never resulted in more than one level of damage in crossing all 16 lines. So use your scarce Rhino tanks carefully becuase if you don't you stand a good chance of having them immobilised."

As Stoex has said, the designer has the ability to carry over AI troops from one mission to the next. That Evil Git Paper Tiger (TEGPT) does this explictly in a couple of his missions so that how you do in one directly affects how easy the next one will be for you. However, he didn't get his monicker for nothing so don't expect the effect to persist - you will meet fresh, full strength, enemies with your depleted troops.

Hang on! You are the chap who, on another thread, is complaining about the lack of a "Force Pool" concept. Now, here you tell us you don't know how the existing system works. Sheeesh.

The Road to Montebourg is a brilliant campaign, but it ain't easy. In fact a couple of the missions are jolly difficult (8.9 on the Shoutng at the Screen Index). If you want something with a challenge but doable for a relative newcomer I'd suggest downloading teh Devil's Descent Campaign (see seperate thread fro reviews).

I suspect "Ketonur" is what I believe is called a troll (look at the things he complains about and the points he does not mention). Feeding trolls is never a good idea.

"A reduction in the pro US bias." There ought to be a monthly prize for this sort of comment.

Mr. B., Just for your info Norton says that link you posted is on a naughty website and blocks access.

I bet if you look at the crew activity in the bottom left of the screen the gunner chappie is alternating very quickly between planning and spotting. The cure seems to be to move the unit a few paces laterally (this problem maybe due to the gunner's own LOF/LOS being obstructed). If I am correct then this is a problem affecting mortars and ATGs that has been reported on here numerous times since week 1. I am not sure if it has been offically acknowledged.

"... however attacking Holland ..." Shame on you Mr. OZ. Didn't you read Mr. Springelkamp's post earler this evening. The Market Garden Operation took place in "Brabant (South of the Meuse) and Gelderland (Nijmegen and Arnhem)" not in Holland (which is another part of the Kingdom of the Neatherlands - sort off to the left a bit as you look at the map).