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Spotless

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Everything posted by Spotless

  1. Thanks for the responses all. Good point MajorH. I'll try using the DTRPs combined with the infantry push. I know you can keep your eyes in the right area, and by using the right force levels it should be achievable. It's just so painfully slow out there in the open...just waiting for the plentiful OPFOR arty to fall! The situation is by no means unique, and a light force commander would have to deal with the same challenge in many different situations.
  2. After some searching on the forum and re-reading the manual, I cannot find a definitive way to target an area w/o visible/spotted units in it. The posts from 1999ish cover some Q&A by MajorH on the subject, but I couldn't determine a final answer. How do I suppress units that I KNOW are in a certain area with direct fire weapons? It's terribly frustrating to have access to a whole slew of light units with direct fire ability (Read: HMMVWs and an Air Assault Btn) that can't shoot a known target area and instead end up being ground down to nothing. How do we get the bad guys to keep their heads down w/o using arty? Thanks in advance.
  3. The manual states that AFVs do have blind spots modeled on the game at close ranges and outside their frontal arc. I do wish they could be used, both live and dead, as cover. The "follow" command could be tweaked to allow close escorting infantry in MOUT conditions. Since vehicles can cause collision issues for other vehicles, it seems that "full cover" versions have to be in the future of the game. On BO vs BB/AK...the simple act of better command an control (like covered arcs, advance and move to contact commands and shoot & scoot) makes BB/AK a hands down improvement over BO. For lords sake in CMBO you can't even tell your armor what way they should be looking for threats without pointing the whole vehicle that way! Ambushes with their TRP-like model in BO are a joke. Fire coordination and control is black and white: you are hidden or you are firing, rather than sector-based fire assignments. All in all, the major leap forward ok BB and AK was WELL worth it. And because it was such a leap and improvement, its completely irrational to think that just because we all like the subject matter of BO that they could (or should) patch an obsolescent version of their game. Soon enough we'll have a full spectrum, theatre spanning opus of a game. But as is, the boys at BF have done a stellar job of constantly improving their games, despite some issues that are well covered here.
  4. Our team for a (supposedly) upcoming campaign game did up a series along these lines. We set up battles with German infantry company assault, German armored platoon maneuver, German AT ambush, Italian Armored company and an artillery training scenario. The battles are useful, but the critical area is the briefing, not the battle itself. A well-written brief is critical to the "teaching" value of the battle. The fight is the fun part, but can't really extol the virtues of this tactic or that. It just serves to provide examples of the lesson described in the briefing. The only other challenge is the timeline. There are (of course) wide variations in equipment and tactics over the course of the war. Ours was made easy by having a fixed scenario date. A possibility would be to develop "archetypal" sets based on early and late dessert, early Italian, etc. etc. Do the same basic lessons, and unit sizes, but across different time periods with different forces.
  5. re: location: I understand that clear LOS is a must, but what about proximity? Does having a Flak vehicle nearby matter, or is a nice, open field (away from the action) serve me better? My quad flak seems to have trouble tracking and getting shots on target. I have kept it within, say 300m of it's "protectees." If I had parked it in a field, but farther away, would I have been better off?
  6. Amen! If edges are so much of a bother, then make them tactically useless in the time alloted. Make it too far to try and actually run an end around within your 30 turns. (or whatever length) The best fights I've had are ones that the important postitions are not locked into who controls a map edge. Good map design makes a big difference, big or small.
  7. The key is to isolate, isolate, isolate. Pick apart the network one element at a time if you can. Terrain is best, of course. Find the spot that only one AT bunker can see. Or create that keyhole with smoke. If the terrain is unfavorable, you are in for a rough time, no matter how you cut it. Mines, wire, trenched and impenetrable flat terrain (rough) make things even more complicated. They don't call it countermobility for nothing, I suppose... If you have indirect smoke, get some in front of the AT bunkers long enough to get defilade on one or more: get outside their fire arcs and you can pick off the MG bunkers. It is risky moving armor without cover, but your best bet is to out maneuver them. Alternatively, if you have direct-fire smoke, smoke all bunkers but one, and use shoot and scoot berm drills to overwhelm one bunker with many tanks. This is dicey at best, but if you split the angles right, you can have tanks moving in a wave fashion and not expose any one tank to too much fire. AT guns are hellishly accurate, but you can overpower them with 3 or more tanks. Once you have 1 piece of the puzzle out, you should be able to lather rinse repeat if you still have smoke, or exploit the lost firing arc to gain advantage on 1 or more MG bunkers, reverting back to the infantry assault. High volume, accurate weapons are indeed good at busting bunkers too. The 20mm, and to a lesser extent 37mm, is a great tool here. HE is great, but if you miss, you are not going to win the ROF fight with a bunker. The more steel on there the better. If you have both available, first over the berm is the 20mm, as each hit, killer or not, tends to suppress the bunker. That can offer a few needed seconds for larger caliber HE to do the work. Another helpful idea is to get "ranged in" with area fire next to the bunker while still out of direct LOS. That can make the difference in the first- or second-round hit.
  8. Or you take the hit in accuracy and fling them toward a known map location. Your FO can shoot at anything on the map...the question is just how accurately.
  9. Sanok: check the unit details screen. The size is listed along with transport class: none, team, squad. Vossiewulf: the unit is probably a non-radio FO...meaning he has phone cables to keep in contact. They are slow afoot and cannot embark on anything, due to the cables back to the battery. [ June 15, 2004, 05:26 PM: Message edited by: Spotless ]
  10. Dust grog!!!! ROFLMAO! Again, it seems we are on the "it ain't perfect, but darnit if we don't love it anyway" argument again. Does the wind setting affect how long dust clouds linger? Do they "drift?" I haven't noticed it, but that's only from being fresh to the desert campaigns, and being in Russia so long.
  11. The 'clock' is how long it takes YOUR troops to figure out that a vehicle is KO'd, not necessarily how long it take the crew to bail. It represents the difficulty in knowing a vehicle is out of the fight w/o a giveaway like catastrophic ammunition fires, etc. Picking live tanks apart from dead ones is tough if they haven't had something like a fire or other obvious effect. This is the reason your gunners put 2-5 extra shots into vehicles that are actually already "Knocked Out." As mentioned, playing in hot seat mode will show you the difference between what your gunners and troops tell you, and what the other player sees!
  12. Simple solution: Don't play QBs. Play historical or semi-historical fights with accurate OOBs and you avoid completely the "cherry picking" argument all together. Face realistic tactical challenges and enjoy your game. And leave off the crowd that wants to play with the imperfect point models and worthless random maps and perfect weather conditions. JasonC, you are right to not want to play what you consider an unbalanced game, but if you consider anything BUT PzIVs cheating, you certainly live up to your sig. Yes, players who seek gamey solutions shouldn't be bothered with, so why play 'em? Yes, it's harder to find good battles than just picking some point-based force mix, but it's worth the effort. It saves me a load of frustration because I won't play a gamey, tactically stupid meeting engagements with balanced forces any more. I got over it. Seems you should too. That's not meant to be inflammatory, just that it seems an awful lot of digital ink went into a subject where you basically said: "I want to play opponents who play realistically, not gamey." I hear ya! On a side note: despite the point value issues, does the computer (in BB/AK) do any credible job of force selection? I haven't bothered after BO, since I got tired of facing walls of 20mm FlaK guns. Has that improved any to solve some of the "cherry picking" issues? Is a readily available, realistic OOB for a given time period available for CMBB/AK use? Players could select from a TO&E that would offer some variety, but weed out the unrealistic selection of units? If not, why isn't this a community project? Orders of Battle are something I have little access to so far, and would certainly appreciate the resources and flexibility of: 1) playing only on player-designed, realistic maps. 2) playing with realistic (not necessarily perfect) OOBs 3) playing with random, seasonal weather and ground conditions. I should hope that the next generations of CM offer more complex victory conditions for the fights. As is, flags and kills are a sorry way to represent a large portion of militarily significant actions. For instance, movement to contact and recon are not easily done. How does one score a commander who's job is to get in, ID the enemy and preserve his force? In CM, you can't. You slug it out for flags and see who's left on the field at the end. I hope a more sophisticated system of scoring logic is available to designers to offer a broader variety of situations.
  13. Perhaps the site can institute a "reward system" for reviews. Provide X number of quality AARs (reviewed by said site) on our user friendly online form that captures all relevant information, and get access to our top-reviewed scenarios. You could give basic access for registering, get automated secure access after 10 or so reviews, and premium access after 5 reviews read by the site operators or their designate editors. (to encourage useful feedback, not just filler) In other words, players will push quality work into a secure area where players who are conscientious of feedback are allowed to get the cream of the crop. If you want to play the best, help the community figure out what "best" is to you. As GreenAsJade mentioned: it's an incentive to get the underdogs and new stuff reviewed. It's not "pay" per se, but it helps further the community, and it would encourage me to get on the keyboard and help a designer out. As it is, I really look to "the list" when choosing new scenarios, especially balanced PBEM ones.
  14. A.E.B. that is an interesting look at the stats: not the overall number, but a percentage of population committed to the battle. It shows what a sacrifice some smaller nations made for the war.
  15. Upon further searching, I have yet to find photos of the 88s in action whilst on wheels. However, I did answer one question: the wheels on this mount detach, and the gun is lowered onto it's legs for firing. You can see the dismounted wheels on this page. The interesting quote from this was: Unlimbering the gun... I have seen a few artistic renditions or models that show the two side arms swung out and lowered to the ground while the wheel carriages are still on, like this. However, I would like to see the video mentioned to confirm it. I gather that the "Bait and Switch" was the best way to get these nasties into place. Besides, if you can pop any British armor at 2000m+ you can afford to set up just out of sight and wait for the unfortunates to blunder in... In CM, it's going to be interesting to try to implement these tactics, and it will take a proper map to do so. I guess I'll just have to get lucky on that score.
  16. Is there a mobile mount for the 88mm FlaK 36? I have often seen it on a wheeled chassis, like this: FlaK 36 DP Does this version dismount from the wheels for firing? Or is it just a variant not modeled in CMAK? I'm trying to grasp how the DAK actually employed these guns in an attack role, as many accounts (Panzer Battles, War without Hate, etc.) relate. In CM terms: How does one keep the big guns in support of the panzers when the damn things are immobile for the duration of the fight? How do you keep them survivable in the face of enemy FOs? The reality of the mobile version would make sense, but this isn't an option. :confused: [ June 11, 2004, 02:18 PM: Message edited by: Spotless ]
  17. On another somewhat misused command, Shoot and Scoot can be used to move forward as well as reverse. So on the occasion that you want to shoot and pass by (like a between two buildings or sets of trees) you can still get a shot or 2 off, then dash ahead for cover. Works well for high-deflection shots, and to continue the advance while firing at targets. I tried this with a test mission, using a PZIVF2 vs. a target down a city street. I swung my cover arc 90 degrees left, and did a shoot and scoot to the road junction, then to the other buildings. He rolled up, shot twice and continued forward at a good speed.
  18. Speaking of Borg spotting, I wonder if CMXX will feature "In command" or units with radios providing spotting only? I suppose if the player's knowledge of the battlefield were tied to the highest ranking officer on the field, this might be possible. That way, the player only sees what troops can report. It would certainly make you keep those COs alive if your victory/defeat rested on them being alive. Basically you could have a "god mode" game like CMBO/BB/AK, and a "limited mode" where the AI would take over if your designated CO unit were destroyed, and only units in command/contact with the CO provide spotting.
  19. Speaking of Borg spotting, I wonder if CMXX will feature "In command" or units with radios providing spotting only? I suppose if the player's knowledge of the battlefield were tied to the highest ranking officer on the field, this might be possible. That way, the player only sees what troops can report. It would certainly make you keep those COs alive if your victory/defeat rested on them being alive. Basically you could have a "god mode" game like CMBO/BB/AK, and a "limited mode" where the AI would take over if your designated CO unit were destroyed, and only units in command/contact with the CO provide spotting.
  20. Thanks for the feedback KwazyDog. I was basically looking for a "wish list" style of document. I completely understand the need to keep focused and to not get "feature happy." I will keep my eyes peeled on the News section and the Forums. Thanks.
  21. Odd...I just signed up yesterday and got a response last night. Right now it's a one-man show, so I think we need to get some staff together to help. If Glenn Wade would like the help that is.
  22. GreenAs Jade: This is taken from another popular "Online Campaign" the Combat Mission Meta Campaign (CMMC) "The idea behind CMMC 2 is to create a friendly game that simulates operational level warfare on the eastern front during WW II. CMMC2 will be a single operation based on a historical situation, but will vary details to create the uncertainty that exists in any military operation. CMMC 2 will use Battle Front’s “Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin “to simulate tactical combat. The operational aspects will be governed by the CMMC rules that have been used for the previous CMMC games, adjusted for the eastern front." Basically, it's an "offline" boardgame style operational level game, with the actual battles fought by CM players, instead of resolution through points or dice or whatever other system. It puts many small CM battles in a larger context, offers a certain roleplaying aspect, and generally makes for an engaging, long term game series.
  23. So I should look for a Forum devoted to it (a la Stategic Command 2) and no sooner, eh? Fair enough.
  24. Well taken point. Battles/Operations/Campaigns that have SOME hope of "what-if" outcome are easier for me to get into. Shaping the Eastern Front at Kursk, for instance. The inevitability of Cassino holds less appeal for a 2-sided fight, IMO. I'd still like to see some smaller actions that echo larger moves, though. Wasn't there a CMBO version of Monte Cassino? IIRC, it mentioned that it was a small piece of a BIG pie.
  25. Is there a BFC-sponsored resource for progress on the next generation Combat Mission game? Is it too early to have some idea of desired/planned features? As CMAK is well on it's way, I had high hopes for some update of the über-CM-to-be!
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