Erwin

Yes, and "If the Pope shiites in the forest, and no one walks alone, does anyone know?" Re getting a useful and easy to use info, buy the three CM1 games (well CMBB at least) which all feature invaluable onscreen info re HE power, penetration data for every weapon system. Huge loss that this wasn't done in CM2.

I wanted to try this game but it doesn't appear to be sold by graviteam any more. While it seems to be a free d/l these days, I can't get the d/l to d/l. Comments I found also warned that it doesn't run properly on new machines - unclear if they mean Win 7 or Win 10. Other comments were about very complex instructions - altho' if one is used to CM2 that probably doesn't mean too much. So, anyone have this game, play it and can give recommendations? Also, where to get it?

He's actually kissing the wonderful Soviet steel protection. Or perhaps fallen asleep with his head leaning on the periscope.

Then you'll have to build another Trumpton Tower...

Yes, love it like the various light Brit vehicles in WW2 as well as CMSF. Need to check if any weapon is dismountable as one can do with some of the Brit's. (eg the Brit's AGL and 7.62mm.)

A bit OT... Saw "Atomic Blonde" last weekend and Charlize Theron was a knock out as a hard fighting female agent - she made it look real and the film shows the punishment her character's body takes. Great movie and great music from that 1989 Berlin era as well. I just bought the movie's music CD.

Were any systems damaged by the nuisance ATG? (If not, then it's probably a "bug" that the ATG would waste itself.)

Anyone tried the d/l from IGG games? Wanted to make sure it is safe.

********** SPOILERS ********** 2 HOURS TO GO: Just after I posted my last report, I drove the Brit dismountable AGL launcher through the first gate and hit a mine. Total loss. The Brits only have one. As an experienced gamer I know I have to suck it up and forge ahead without this unique and valuable asset. In RL, I am sure the shock would make us pull back and await reinforcements. I guess I had instinctively walked all the troops over the low walls and never thru a gate. Instead I sent engineers and pioneers (what is the difference??) to every crossing point and SLOW moved them across with max waypoints and 30-45 sec pauses at each waypoint in the hope that they would identify mines. Took 5+ minutes to check each crossing in this way. But, it seemed like there were no mines (or IED's at any crossing point. Nonetheless, all the Brit and US troops are now across the major water barrier using HUNT or MOVE in case moving QUICK detonated something. The Brits seem to keep coming across enemies in the fields. LOS is poor and it's hard to winkle the Taliban out and FO LOS for arty is also a problem, - the FO's have to be dangerously close to the Taliban. Lost about 4 more Brit inf. in their (right flank) sector. The US haven't had a firefight yet, but are getting periodically bombarded by arty - lost 2 more US airborne/mech guys in their left flank sector. Have to keep em moving... Still at this point we are about to breach the walls of the furthest LHS objective village. Looking forward to getting into some MOUT. The plan at this point is to move troops down the left flank and try and assault the rest of the objectives from the flanks rather than straight ahead like one is forced to do in most CM2 games cos the maps are not very wide. Fortunately, the 1500 meters width of this map gives one many opportunities for maneuver.

And a Clinton News Network TV studio. Where's the golf course btw?

Playing WEGO ELITE. While CM1 maps could be up to 8Km x 4Km this CMSF map is very large for a CM2 game: about 1500m x 1200m. One also has the equivalent of a couple battalions of US and Brit troops (but only the Brits have a few vehicles including one AGL and one 7.62mm MG). So a pretty large scenario for a CM2 game. The US have the left flank sector, the Brits are on the right. I think it took me almost as much time to do the initial set-up for Mission 4 as it did to play the entirety of Mission 3. The primary challenge is how to cross numerous impassible wadis using the fords which could easily be mined or have IED's or be covered by enemy fire. The one has to clear several villages and one or two sizeable towns. So, good MOUT SOP's are once again required. ************* SPOILERS ************* 25 minutes in, 2 hours and 5 minutes to go: 95% of the scenarios one plays allows one to run one's troops 100 meters+ towards desired interim objectives before they have any danger of getting shot at. A very few scenario have your units come under fire if they move a few meters off their start positions. This is one of those rare scenarios. Fortunately, there is little opposition. But, one of the Brit scout teams lost a man on turn one. (It was then easy to bring up mortars and assault killing 5 Taliban in a ditch.) Around 10 minutes later some Taliban arty started falling and the US lost a man in their sector. 10 minutes later the US spot some Taliban on the roof of a village objective. Used arty and fire to neutralize. Am using the numerous engineers up front backed by the infantry units. The engineers are now SLOW crossing several of the fords. Am hoping that if there are mines, the engineers/pioneers will spot em. (BTW: What in RL is the difference between "Engineers" and "Pioneers"?) Nothing one can do about IED's if one has not spotted and neutralized the triggerman. It seems that the Taliban arty takes a long time to get going. So, as long as one keeps moving we should be ok. However, SLOW crossing the fords will slow down the significant allied forces at these choke points. Hope we can MOVE or HUNT across.

You can damage some buildings and not be penalized. I flattened another building with heavy air strikes and I don't recall being marked down for that either.

Playing in RT, one should not have any problems. But in WEGO to save ammo, one can have a unit fire but have a SLOW (or other) move order to start after x seconds to avoid an unnecessary 60 seconds of wasting ammo. The other method is to give a unit x seconds PAUSE before it moves to a desired firing position so that it only uses y seconds of fire B4 turn ends. However, in my playing of Mission 2, only 3 or 4 units were getting low (and not even dangerously low) on ammo when the AI surrendered. So ammo expenditure is not an issue here. (And I had an entire airborne/mech platoon and two of the three engineer squads not deployed at any time! I like having the comfort of reserves. But, they could be eliminated from the mission and it would have made no difference the way I played.) BTW: The trickiest part for me was getting a foothold in the village so one gains the relative safety of the first building(s). The first 5-10+ turns were spent carefully using the 2(?) ANA teams that are veteran, plus one AB squad plus an engineer team to scout and then BLAST into the first building (on the right side of the road). I makes sense to avoid going into the road at all costs! The two man ANA veteran team lost a man peering over the slope looking down the road. But that team located the first enemy position and then it was straightforward getting into the first building and getting enuff firepower onto the first enemy position to degrade it man by man. Only after the first building was secure did I bring up the rest of the US platoon, plus some ANA. The ANA regulars and greens are only useful for fire support/suppression, but they can put out a lot of fire and seem to have quite a lot of ammo. The engineers were always kept safe unless a BLAST was needed to destroy a bldg. wall. But I only needed to use the charges from one engineer squad for the whole mission. My experience playing the economical Brits trained me to be very conservative re use of ammo and charges. But mentioned in previous post, USMC RAMADI - RELIEF OF JOKER 3 was the best training for how to conduct MOUT ops.

Churchill agreed that "Wars are not won by evacuations": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCJPMbBn8Ps

So, maybe it hopes to damage the tank's optics. However, does the ATG die quickly after the first shot?

I note that Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942 is available via free download here. Graviteam does not seem to be selling this item any more so this is maybe for real(?) http://igg-games.com/steel-fury-kharkov-1942-free-download.html

Can't believe how good these flight sims nowadays with pretty good vehicles and inf as ground targets:

Firstly, one has to have patience with all CM2 games. Yes, it's a PITA... but it's when I get bored or impatient is when I take casualties. 2nd: one needs to use the minimum necessary force to achieve the desired result. Putting a lot of guys in danger like a medieval attack is also a great way to take heavy casualties. Yes, use an indirect approach. ********* SPOILERS ********** I spent a lot of time working towards the villages making sure the initial force, maybe only a split squad, was using cover so they didn't suffer from snipers/MG's etc from either flank. I also was careful to use max air attacks on the RHS hills since once the flank is "safe" on can move around the RHS of the village. I did use air on the LHS hills bit found that was ineffective and a waste of HE. However, one has a lot of air HE and I wasn't close to running out at the end. But, recommend you make the RHS hills the prime objective for air support. It seemed quite easy and safe to move the recon platoon followed by one airborne/mech platoon and the snipers across the valley to the RHS hills. Use cover as always. Then work this force along the hills killing the Taliban defenders. This force should be able to move much more quickly than the main force in the village. One has plenty of time, so go slowly and very carefully. I did use smoke a few times to cross roads etc, but I wouldn't say that is critical. CM2 training in MOUT is very useful/essential. I learned by playing USMC RAMADI - RELIEF OF JOKER 3 (back in 2011!!) on the amazing Ramadi map. Once you master MOUT on that map, I now find that building assaults are fun.

Having learnt 7 and have it work so well, I resent having to spend hours and hours learning a new OS just to do what I was doing in 7. I honestly don't know how to work my 10 machine properly.

Actually I thought Ken the least interesting and most conventional cameo in the movie. Was more impressed with Mark Rylance and Tom Hardy (playing totally different from his usual macho/Mad Mad-type characters). Most impressed with the directing and editing (and sound).

"...the universal game engine approach with on exe framework would have been the better approach... instead of having to support a half dozen "nearly" similar exe games..." +1 I suspect this is now coming back to bite BF.

Generally it's best to let the AI decide whether to fire or not. IT "knows" much better than we players the best range and angle or whether it can do damage etc. That actually is what put me off CM2 (vs CM1) when CMSF first came out. It seemed that a lot of things were going on that the player had no control over. Units firing at targets that the player couldn't see etc.

Will definitely get to play any campaign I can find. As you probably know, I much prefer campaigns to standalones esp when ammo and force conservation in required as that is when the CM system shines. Heart of Darkness will keep me busy playing in the hot sun and sand for a bit. Mission 4 is a monster - one of the biggest CM2 maps I have seen and lots of US and Brit units - and 2.5 hours! And someone got shot in turn one!

Yeah... playtesting to destruction. Getting a bit irritable in my old age...

Well you are not, otherwise we'd be hearing all about it.