Erwin

Have a 251/17 in a CMRT game. It lost its crew. However, no leg unit that mounts it is able to change the vehicle's status from "dismounted". Anyone figured a workaround, or is this another bug?

I remember that as well. He bought out The Gamers and IIRC Avalon Hill for cardboard games as well as he was a big fan of ASL. "Multi-Man Publishing" was also his company. Really sad... https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/28343/curt-schilling https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/09/years-after-bankruptcy-curt-schilling-settles-rhode-island-gaming-loans/

The trick is to spend all your money on games... ... and computers ... and 3D 40"+ monitors...

"AD Bradley Speed Bump" is a good smallish scenario that is deceptively hard. Good for training.

I virtually never order a FAST move. And I don't like units to become TIRED. In the game, it's all possible and no issues, (altho it takes a long time for a unit to recover from fatigued or exhausted). It's just my own "house rule". The PAUSE plus HIDE tends to make enemy AI lose sight and memory of them. So, when they start up running again IIRC it takes the AI about 7 seconds to notice them again. On small maps that's fine. On huge maps one may not have the time to be careful (and not enuff ammo). In open country, and if one is pressed for time, have found best option is as I described above. In most scenarios it's a race to discover the enemy ASAP or... one nearly always runs out of time at the end. Running out of time then leads to rushing at the end and most casualties are often suffered in those last hasty minutes of a scenario. My "house standard operating procedure" is to recon as quickly as possible at the start, risk losing 2-man scouts, but then have more time to carefully do assaults without the "end rush". However, what I was describing earlier was what I have found to be the best tactic for scouting down long roads on huge maps using vehicles giving them the best chance of survival and xnt chance of no losing crew members.

So spotting distances are probably fixed rather than graduated ie: fixed % spotting at x meters, x to y meters, y to z meters. Re HUNT orders, have learned to use them sparingly and always in conjunction with a HIDE command. So, mostly QUICK for 10-25 meters with 5 second pauses so unit doesn't tire too quickly. When getting close to possible enemy, start mixing QUICK with short HUNT waypoints with HIDE command. The closer to possible danger, the fewer QUICK moves, and more short HUNT commands with longer HIDE pauses (10-20 seconds). As pointed out earlier, it's not the lead scout team(s) who is expected to spot, it's the "observer" scout team(s) that are in safer overwatch positions that watch what happens to the lead scouts.

Unfortunately in the game, yes. A few of our best designers do allow a lot more time for careful scouting. But, usually the lack of time necessitates brutal Zhukov-style measures.

As mentioned, Phil... I think I will have to delete everything of yours and start with fresh downloads. It's a horrific job trying to untangle dozens/hundreds of mods plus variations plus updates and improvements from the past few years. As you know, almost every CM2 family has had at least many hundreds of mods since 2007 totaling thousands of mods, and many no longer work due to engine updates etc. Trying to test which ones are still ok and which should be deleted started to take man-weeks of work, so not feasible unless it's a full-time job. It's easier to start fresh. I actually envy the newer members as they can do so.

Am heading abroad soon and won't have access to decent computer (or even phones) till April earliest, so hope one of the others can help. Edit: Actually I couldn't resist powering up your scenario to take a look. Not sure if you want public comments, but my initial take was good (small) map. Altho units consist of all regulars and I was expecting the SF forces to have better experience etc. Hope to try it out when I have a few more minutes.

That will be terrific, Phil. Thank you (again).

Ditto. Thank you.

Well, I already sent a PM request for anything you do. Everything you have done is superb. My only hope is that all your various mods can be better organized into specific folders so it's easier to d/l and insert updates and enhancements. As I mentioned to you, Phil, right now I have several different versions of all your mods in many different folders. Hope that Bootie's CMMODS site can be helpful in this.

For open country that is the best tactic, agreed. My suggested tactic above was for scouting down a long road on a huge map and one wants to locate enemy ambush positions quickly and relatively safely. The tactic works best vs WW2 Russian who have few if any personal AT weapons. They have little to hurt a buttoned up AFV. The danger is that the AFV will come into the LOS of an enemy ATG or ATGM. But, my experience is that ATG's and even ATGM's take sufficient time to spot and aim, that a scout AFV moving in reverse can usually get out of their LOS and the enemy asset will miss, but still expose itself to other units (usually inf with binocs) that are doing the actual spotting. I emphasize that this is all for optimizing one's play in the CM2 game rather than RL.

Based on my experience some decades ago of developing wargames the answer could vary from many tens of thousands (if there were enthusiastic volunteers to work on the project) to several hundreds of thousands - for a small niche within a niche game like CM. A game designed for a large market could easily be in the millions. Eg: https://www.ign.com/articles/star-citizen-crowdfunds-half-billion-dollars

We all hope that Ukraine would recover all its territory. However, there has been a level of naive optimism akin to probably how the German High Command felt in the Summer of 1941. Reality of how hard things are and how high are the stakes are now just starting to be appreciated. Best said by WSJ: "It has become clear in the past several weeks that the tectonic plates of global power are shifting. The autocratic alliance of China, Russia and Iran is signaling it’s no longer content to accept an indefinite standoff of competing ideologies and commercial interests as the status quo. They have decided to make Ukraine a singular test, which they believe the U.S., Europe and Asia’s democracies will fail."

That's good advice if you have a smallish map and lots of ammo. But, on the huge maps it's not practical. On huge maps you have to send guys in harm's way to see what it out there.

Agreed. But, first one has to locate the enemy positions (esp major assets) while losing the minimum of men.

The other method is to reduce one's income to the point where one can get massive subsidies that reduce the energy costs.

Looking forward to it. Appreciate you sticking with the renovations. But, hope you have time for new stuff too.

That would be the best solution. As I mentioned b4, I have been faithfully downloading all your outstanding work, but with all the updates etc, my Kohlenklau folders are a complete mess, and I would appreciate being able to delete em all and start fresh.

The important concept is that the scout vehicle is not supposed to be the spotter. It's purpose is to draw fire... and survive. Also: When on a road, we may be talking 75-150 meter FAST scouting moves followed by an immediate REVERSE to a safe location. The purpose is to be able to scout quickly long expanses of road. Normally I would send multiple 2-man inf scouts. But, on some of the large/huge maps, that is just way too slow and take way too much time. (Only a few designers allow sufficient time for "careful" scouting.) 1) If one sends an unbuttoned vehicle to scout into possibly hostile territory the chances are xnt that a crew member will be shot. The spotter(s) are the inf and crews in the vehicle(s) who are sitting back watching what happens to the scout vehicle. 2) Am assuming that one starts in a safe location. So when the scout reverses back to that location, the unit should be safe. Once one has scouted ahead to a new location without any enemy contact, that next location becomes the new "safe" location and everyone can move to that location. Then the scout vehicle moves FAST ahead to the next possible danger location and reverses back to the new safe location. 3) It's harder to hit a moving vehicle even in reverse. If the scout was unbuttoned inf small arms fire could probably kill a crew-member. That's why the scout should be buttoned. However, it takes time for the enemy Tactical AI to aim and fire a large weapon capable of hurting the vehicle. I have spend over a decade trying to figure out how to scout distance quickly with vehicles (in CM2) while giving the scouting unit the best chance to survive. The above tactic has worked best for scouting down a long road. If off-road, one usually can move a scout vehicle FAST from one covered location to another. However, as mentioned, if time allows I always prefer to send many 2-man scouts ahead to quickly locate enemy assets and positions. However, I still find it very hard to keep them alive. Once an inf unit has gotten close enuff to be fired on by an enemy, the inf scout cannot move away to safety quickly enough. Hope the above helps... BTW: It's great to have threads on CM2 tactics again. We used to have many of these "hint" threads in the early CM1 and CM2 days. But in recent years discussions seem to have become dominated by discussions on the various weapons systems simulated.

From WSJ: "A series of events on the international stage has laid bare the perilous state of great-power relations as Russia and China challenge the U.S.-led global order." It may be finally realized that this is not a proxy war between Russia and the US but a proxy war between China and the US. The Ukraine war is misunderstood. While we try and weaken Russia, China is supporting Russia in order to weaken the US-led dominance. So long as China supports Russia, Russia has the ability to keep up the war "as long as it takes". China's goal is to weaken the US and the western alliance just as the west is trying to weaken Russia. But, our goal should be to weaken China. The sad fact is that at some point the war of attrition of its male population will be far worse for Ukraine than for Russia... akin to what happened to Britain after WW1.

Am sure many of us want your content. But, you have created so many different (superb) mod sets that it has become confusing keeping up with what is the latest versions. Not sure how we are going to be able to get all the content for a particular "family" without a dropbox.

RECON TACTIC: I find that recon at the start of scenario is one of the most important phases of a mission. Usually, the terrain is such that a recon vehicle can move from cover to cover. However, a good recon vehicle tactic when moving along a road that usually works: FAST move a vehicle (make sure it is NOT "opened") along a road close to where a possible ambush site is located, and then immediately have it reverse back to close to its starting position. This tactic usually gives the enemy insufficient time to get a shot off, but can expose an enemy ambush position. If there is an enemy, one can go into "assault mode" or... avoid the area. If no enemy, the rest of the units move to where the recon vehicle ended its FAST move and the recon vehicle now moves FAST and then REVERSE down the next stretch of road. The length of the FAST move varies defending on the situation.

The probability of exploding a mine is reduced the slower a unit moves thru it. But, IIRC, it is still possible to trigger a mine even when moving SLOW. And just to clarify: As in the example above, only engineers can mark minefields making them less effective.