Erwin

Very useful when one's plan in a scenario goes to pot and you wanna say "Ah screw it... send in the MOAB..." Entire map is flattened... walk away...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-43/B_Massive_Ordnance_Air_Blast The MOAB is not a penetrator weapon and is primarily intended for soft to medium surface targets covering extended areas and targets in a contained environment such as a deep canyon or within a cave system.[17] High altitude carpet-bombing with much smaller 230-to-910-kilogram (500 to 2,000 lb) bombs delivered via heavy bombers such as the B-52, B-2, or the B-1 is also highly effective at covering large areas.[18] Specifications Weight 9,800 kg (21,600 lb) Length 9.1885 m (30 ft 1.75 in) Diameter 103 cm (40.5 in) Filling H-6 Filling weight 8,500 kg (18,700 lb) Blast yield 11 tons TNT (46 GJ) In 2007, the Russian military announced that they had tested a thermobaric weapon nicknamed the "Father of All Bombs"; the weapon is claimed to be four times as powerful as the MOAB.[4][2] But its existence and specifications are widely disputed.[5][6][7][8] The Russian name "Father of All Bombs", FOAB, is a pun on the Mother Of All Bombs nickname of MOAB. The MOAB is the largest conventional bomb ever used in combat.[9][10]

Yes, amongst the lower forms of life like the "gamey" classes, this artifact of the CM2 HE arty FX is well known. I would never use this knowhow myself of course. Seriously however, designers need to design so that novices don't get creamed by phenomena like this. Best to design the barrage strength assuming the troops are left on the ground floor.

This should win "Hilarious Troll Thread of the Week" award.

Slightly OT, but (in CMSF's "into The Green") I had an engineer use a charge to blast thru a wall into a building - and it seemed happy to run thru the hole into the bldg. However, afterwards other units still insisted on going around and using the door(!) The ground looks level and I can't see why the breach team entered, but no one else wants to use the opening. I tried giving a waypoint directly in front of the hole and a final waypoint inside. But, the units would still run around to the door. Ideas?

Bastid!

If I didn't have to pay for it (thru my taxes) I would agree. The question is how many Uncon or Taliban could be bribed with $17 million to switch sides or turn in comrades? Seems like a defense company boondoggle.

maybe a pair of glasses... Hey, I just had my eyes tested and apparently I don't need em.

As C says, ECM isn't going to help with passive devices like mines. But, you could substitute Search for and "Mark MInes" as part of a demining campaign... same thing really. Once you know where the mines are you can avoid em.

Well, I rationalize it by saying the CO knows they have inadequate charges (6) in the one squad in the Assault Group for the entire operation, and the 12(!) charges with engineers in the base don't do the defenders any good. Just a logistical SNAFU.

42 minutes in and having a great time. No further Brit WIA or KIA. Really enjoy using my crack troops in small teams to spot enemy then retreat so the FO's can bring down arty fire to do the killing, rinse and repeat. Another team had a nasty surprise as they scouted up one of the tree-lined gullies only to find enemy a few feet away in an irrigation ditch. Again the team escaped with only one slight wound. Not quite sure what to do with the Green local troops. Maybe they are ok for ranged support fire at up to around 200 meters? Longer than that and I suspect they are just too inaccurate and would waste their ammo. Crewed the surviving jeep with its 7.62mm MG's with Crack and Elite crew and using it for longer range support fire. Using the tactic of bringing out the engineer teams who are supposed to be guarding the base, only one at a time, to use their charges to save the charges of the engineers allocated to Assault Group for the furthest objective buildings.

"...moving everybody away from the first floors..." This is what playing vs the game system is about. We experienced players know to do this cos of the vagaries of the CMSF arty HE system. I try to play as if it was for real, and moving away from UK ground/US first floor is gamey. That's why I was a bit upset at the heavy casualties when I did the first test. ie: One shouldn't have to know these tricks to play efficiently and have a decent outcome. Something I hope all designers would aim for.

Hard to understand why ECM would enable easier spotting of a minefield. Probably an outlier probability.

Yeah, it's an annoying issue. Even though I have a 30" monitor capable of 2560x1600, I have to reduce resolution to 1920x1200 just to be able to read the text. I wonder why that hasn't been addressed in all these years. My next monitor will be UHD and unless it's huge like a 50+" TV, the res will have to be reduced.

Probably what we're seeing is the start of burn-out re the complex way that BF conceived of the CM2 "family" series. And it will only get worse as more titles are released. I know BF is a small company with few resources etc. But, the ideal should be to have all the games "fit together" so that one ends up with a CM1-like experience with all titles from 1940 thru 45 on each front in one package without the massive duplication over all the game families - and one would only need to update/upgrade/patch once for the whole shebang.

I had my Sunway TaihuLight desktop built special. Imo you can't beat molecular computers. CM2 still loads slow, but I can run the largest scenarios with only a slight wobble.

Aside from being named after a gateway town to the lovely Arches National Park in NE Utah, MOAB looks like a weapon that was desperately looking for mission to justify itself. Can't use it if enemy has AA. Doesn't burrow into the grounds to get at deep shelters. I think CNN said it cost $17 million to kill a few dozen uncon. Is that a sustainable ratio...? So, basically for use vs 3rd world oppos who are already living in the stone age, or... if you have a really serious gopher problem in your back yard...

I can't believe this twit actually went public. He deserves a "firkin of pittance as a reward"...

Probably a spoiler, but in this mission imo it makes much more sense to smoke the hell out of the bottleneck crossing point as that is MUCH easier and quicker than trying to spot a trigger man who could be in any of the areas in CInfMan's diagram. It is hard to predict LOS accurately in CM2, so one has little idea of what can and cannot be seen from any location. So, the best thing is to ensure that nothing can be seen. If the point is to accomplish the objectives as quickly and economically as you can, then smoke worked for me both in making the initial crossing safely and in getting convoy safely back over. If there was a mine rather than an IED... well there is nothing anyone can do about that. If part of the mission is "search and destroy", then there needs top be additional VL's to encourage the player to go after some of the other locations where the enemy is lurking. Really enjoyed this scenario. Not sure if it has replay value - other than trying to reduce friendly casualties. But, it's the surprises in an unplayed mission that is most of the fun. And ECM in CMSF - never encountered that ever b4... How does that work (in the game)?

"...many players send themselves down the wrong path again and again. I guess for some people lazy imprecision is a way of life they are not prepared to abandon." I agree that is a ridiculous way to run a business. When "many" people still struggle with something, there is a problem. Why do grogs and techies all like to have contempt for people not as capable or as knowledgeable as they are?

Interesting. I assumed it was Koh's amazing Stalingrad map. It's a shame no one else has used that for scenarios.

Thanks... I had seen the original video. I just wondered what the "...more to the story than I'm sure most of us imagined." part was about. Or, was that a "gotcha" piece of marketing by John just to get yet more attention?

Got a "This page can't be displayed."

What would have been done in RL? I hear that war weary vets would put green troops on point as they were "less valuable". But maybe that was Vietnam. Is an experienced point guy useful, or is it basically a suicide position to draw fire?

If you can program AI to use charges that would open up some opportunities. I can't recall experiencing AI charges in any scenarios or campaigns I have played in any CM2 title.