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grunt_GI

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Posts posted by grunt_GI

    Tactical Use of Split Squads

    in Combat Mission Black Sea

    Posted

    Hmmm, well from a recon/scout perspective, that's what I was doing..advancing one team while using the other two for overwatch..but now I am in contact, so we shall see if the fire and maneuver part works as well.  Of course, that could just be their command element :D

    Good point about splitting a squad to defend a building or location..I just finished a QB where I had a whole squad in a building that ate a tank round...not pretty.

    And yea, I definitely feel like it's better to split squads in a smaller scenario where you don't want to blunder your entire squad into a MG nest or ambush.

    More learning to do, I suppose...thanks for the responses..I have just come into contact against my PBEM opponent...it it going to be interesting.

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    Tactical Use of Split Squads

    in Combat Mission Black Sea

    Posted

    This is sort of a general CM question I figured I would throw out in this forum.  What is the utility of splitting up a squad into teams?  

    I am playing a PBEM Scenario right now with some of my squads split and some not.  Tactically, my fear is that split squads don't have a lot of firepower and can get cut up piecemeal in a firefight.  I guess my question is do other players have good tactics for using split squads, especially in different environments?  

    I can see the use of split squads in an urban setting to provide covering fire for building assaults, but in more rural settings I wonder if keeping  squad together is better to provide more firepower.

    Thanks in advance.

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    How to play Combat Mission?

    in Combat Mission Black Sea

    Posted · Edited by grunt_GI

    There are some excellent tutorial sites out there...

    http://www.armchairgeneral.com/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy-tactics-a-video-series

    Like the name says, it's a collection of YouTube videos that goes over aspects of the game in detail

    http://battledrill.blogspot.com/

    Is a really outstanding site that covers a multitude of topics.

    I definitely recommend the CMBN Task Force Raff campaign OR Devils Descent..they are both fun and challenging campaigns that are not TOO hard and a very good way of getting your feet wet with a variety of missions and toys to play with.

    As far as CMBN vs CMBS, yes gnarly is totally correct, CMBS is so much more lethal and fast.  I think you have the right idea...learn the basics of fire & maneuver, combined arms, scouting, etc with CMBN..and then take a stab at CMBS...OR if you want to dive into CMBS, maybe start with infantry or mech infantry battles to get the hang of the modern battlefield before you throw in armor, drones, artillery etc.

    FWIW, that's why I REALLY like the QBs..I can control the forces both sides get so I can try out things like infantry only battles...or throw in a few tanks...you get the picture.

    And, most of all, there is always trial by fire...I have a lot of that.

    :D

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    Suggested reads for Bulge / Ardennes??

    in Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg

    Posted

    I read this book a year ago.  It does have it strengths- its depth of details, the maps, photos, and illustrations.  However, it does have some issues:

    1) It's a translated work- Swedish to English.  Thus, you'll come across a lot of awkwardly worded sentences and phrases.

    2) It was published by a small company that didn't have a large editing staff.  Misspellings, factual mistakes, and the aforementioned issues with the translation are too frequent.

    3) Bergstrom clearly set-out to be antidote to the Stephen Ambroses of the world.  That's not entirely a bad thing.  Ambrose's WW2 books with their "Greatest Generation" nostalgia are very poor history.  Late in his career, Ambrose appeared to be more interested in building monuments than producing solidly researched historical work.  Thus, it appeared refreshing at first that Bergstrom was definitely not in the thrall of the "Greatest Generation fighting the Great Crusade" storyline.  However, unfortunately, he goes to the opposite extreme of Ambrose.  He seems to go out of his way to cut the American army down-to-size as to its achievements in the Bulge.  He over-emphasizes every American failure and takes every German estimate of heavy casualties inflicted upon their foes at face value.  By the end of the book, I was wondering how the heck the American army even managed to land in Normandy, let alone help win the war. 

    Bergstrom's work definitely has its value, but it's not particularly balanced and the poor editing/translation lessen its merits.

    Yea, I did pick that up a little bit...:rolleyes:...just noting his pictures, he clearly thinks the Germans were the better soldiers tactically...but then again, so did Martin van Creveld in his book Fighting Power: German and U.S. Army Performance, 1939-1945...which I also think was MORE than a tad one-sided in his analysis.  I just flipped through it today...so haven't dug in...will see just how biased he is, although he does at least seem to acknowledge the many German atrocities committed during the battle...

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    Suggested reads for Bulge / Ardennes??

    in Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg

    Posted

    Got this for my birthday this year...absolutely magnificent book recommended by others in this thread. Just the front and end paper maps alone are the best I have ever seen.

    Superbly illustrated with many pictures I have never seen before..with many if them in excellent photo essays and the appendices contain highly detailed OBs (ORBATS) (TO&E)  and fantastic endplate sideviews of  most of the armored vehicles that participated in the battle.

    It is a tad pricey, but I was able to get one from a used book dealer for about $30 that was in Like New condition.  Even if you're read MacDonald or Beevor this is still an awesome book.

     

    screenshot_68.png

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    CMRT WInter Mod thinktank

    in CM Red Thunder Maps and Mods

    Posted

    Grunt_GI, hi,

     

    Short answer is yes.. you can swap about terrain from title to title. Normally, sometimes.

     

    So if you look at say the terrain in the Winter Mod, in your data folder, you may find some type of vegetation say..  branches [snow].bmp  as the title/name to one of the graphics.

     

    The Mod is the [snow] part. If you now go to the Editor in CMRT. Down the left hand side you want “Mission” from the drop down menu. Click on “description” from the list below Mission.

     

    At the very bottom of the list below you will now see Mod Tag.  Click that and you will see that you can Clear away a Mod Tag or Import a new one.

     

    A Mod Tag is just a pure, standard text file with say “snow” in the top right hand corner, i.e. in the this case just one word…  snow   .. that has been saved to the Scenarios folder in CMRT. When you click Import under Mod Tags the CMRT goes to the scenarios folder and just shows the text files therein for you to choose from. You can then select any one you wish, view it on screen there and then, keep it by Saving the scenario or Clear it away and try another.

     

    Feel free to ask any more questions.. in truth the manual is a little weak on Mod Tags. I think you will find more in the new Bulge manual when released. Simply too much to cover for the first versions of the manual.

     

    Good luck,

    All the best,

    Kip.

    I guess what I was trying to ask...and not doing very well at it, is that these mods can only be used in USER made CMBS scenarios using the proper mod tags...they WON'T work in CMBS QBs?

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    WeGo question

    in Combat Mission Red Thunder

    Posted

     

    I see you already have some suggestions.  Here is the forum link to my turn helper app:

    http://community.battlefront.com/topic/110328-announcing-whose-turn-is-it-a-pbem-turn-management-program/

     

    Once you have either CMHelper or WTII? up and running it really is pretty seamless.  The only thing Green as Jade and I cannot do is have the game start and load your PBEM turn directly.  Perhaps one day.

    Just downloaded your helper app...very, very nice...easier to setup than CMH...up and running in under a minute...thanks much for coding that...

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    CMRT WInter Mod thinktank

    in CM Red Thunder Maps and Mods

    Posted · Edited by grunt_GI

    @BarbaricCo and @kohlenklau  and @kevinkin

    This has truly been an excellent labor of love...or at least mild obsession..

    I posted a reply in the CMBS forum after seeing some guys load the terrain mods in CMBS...does this mean that the terrain mods are not mod tagged? or whatever the technical term is?

    I would love to load them up and use them for some CMRT or CMBS QB.

    Thanks for doing this...really awesome.

    :D

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    Jeep Tactics

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted · Edited by grunt_GI

    My experience with jeeps is they are pretty darn fragile from any angle.  With the .50cal you can use them sort of as a standoff weapon...but I wouldn't leave them stationary for very long, and for sure wouldn't engage anything but dismounted leg infantry with them.  I think you can reverse them toward the enemy and shoot...but remember Combat Mission ain't Rat Patrol....

    :D

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    Snow?

    in Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg

    Posted

     

    The speed of move is still down to the player, however troops tire much more quickly in snow, which results in any active fast or quick command being replaced by move.

    Move appears to be the move command of choice over long distances in snow.

    P

     

    This is also my experience playing deep snow scenarios in CMFI...troops tire out VERY VERY quickly...I assume it will be the same for CMFB....and I assume vehicles will bog pretty darn quick just like they did in CMFI...

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    Suggested reads for Bulge / Ardennes??

    in Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg

    Posted

    You could also try:

    'The Ardennes 1944-1945 Hitler's Winter Offensive' by Christer Bergstrom.

    Originally published in Sweden, the English edition was published by Casemate in 2014.

    A big and beautifully produced book of nearly 500 pages.

    Lots of maps and excellent photos, it goes into huge detail with many first person accounts as well as the strategic overview and is pretty balanced between the two sides.

    Thanks for the recommendation...hadn't looked into that book...it's in the Amazon cart now.

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    Suggested reads for Bulge / Ardennes??

    in Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg

    Posted

    I figured Roland Gaul´s books about the battles at the bulges southern shoulder have some fine details, particularly for mission makers I think:

    http://www.amazon.com/The-Battle-Bulge-Luxembourg-Vol/dp/0887407463

    Not to forget some the free sources, which have lots about the Bulge and units involved.

    http://www.benning.army.mil/library/content/Virtual/Armorpapers/index.htm

    http://www.benning.army.mil/library/content/Virtual/Donovanpapers/wwii/index.htm

    http://www.sturmpanzer.com/Default.aspx?tabindex=5&tabid=613&item=1&sec=3

     

    That was a great find...lots of material on the Benning site.... 

    :)

     

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    CMRT Winter Scenario Writing Head Start

    in CM Red Thunder Maps and Mods

    Posted

    Hi @kevinkin so I tried out the scenario Happy New Year.

    Some screen shots attached to see the Winter Mod.

    Ok, didn't last long....one PZ IV is immobilized at the start and I managed to bog down and immobilize my other one very quickly...no mas good as the HORDES of T-34s come sweeping over the river.

    Overall, I could see the butt whipping coming a mile off, so am going to restart...

    This is going to be a challenge...not a lot of AT weapons to slow down those tanks..and the darkness does not help a lot...will try a different set of ambush tactics...see if my Germans can use their Panzerfausts to slow them down...but DANG, that's a lot of tanks to stop with a couple of platoons and 2 banged up tanks....Screen_Shot_2015-12-20_at_1.02.55_PM.thuScreen_Shot_2015-12-20_at_1.03.14_PM.thuScreen_Shot_2015-12-20_at_1.03.25_PM.thuScreen_Shot_2015-12-20_at_1.03.54_PM.thu

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    CMRT WInter Mod thinktank

    in CM Red Thunder Maps and Mods

    Posted

    Dozens and dozens were fresh art from photoshop. Yes, we modded snow foliage on trees. And fences and flavor objects. And we did many snow roofs. I never even downloaded the VM winter mod. I didn't even see it being busy with other stuff. I do remember seeing the white version of the normal CMRT Soviet uniform. I didn't personally like it but that is not due to the modder Vincenzo, it is just I saw that before on US greatcoats where a modder just made them white with photoshop and it just didn't look good IMHO and we made them optional in the CMFI GL Bulge 44 mod.

    I've got the Telogreikas and the Soviet Greatcoats. I am thinking of doing a Soviet snowsuit when CMFB arrives and I can borrow some of the new skeletons and bmp art.

    Tracks and wheels snow dusted is easy. 

    That's quite the desktop picture you've got there....

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