Erwin

Dragon: I hope that you have many others who are playing your campaign. I enjoyed the first scenario v1 and v2 seems much better. Am just wrapping up a long trip so o time to play - looking forward to this when I get home.

FWIW my favorite campaigns had a "rising tension" and an "ebb and flow". By that I mean, yes start small (as in Act One) with one or two smaller recon scenarios. That doesn't mean a small map. Vehicular recon requires a large map or it makes more sense to dismount and recon on foot. Subsequent missions (Act Two) should start with a "surprise" (perhaps a change in mission expectations) and each mission should offer different "toys" in a systematic fashion so that one gets something new as well as different challenges in each subsequent mission. The final mission(s) (Act Three) should give one all the toys and the largest scenario(s) (as in Armageddonoutahere). (There are several existing CM2 campaigns that start with a massive mission and then smaller ones after that - and they are always an anticlimax. Similarly, starting small and immediately getting a massive scenario for (say) mission 2, can be overwhelming - and then missions after that can seem anticlimactic and boring.) Going home soon. Can't wait to get back to my high end system and 30" monitor. So, hope you get your campaign done soon - I should be ready in a couple of weeks! (And to think I was all set to go to Turkey a couple of weeks ago. Phew...)

This is very useful info. Am so worried about running out and the current ACQUIRE system is such PITA that like many, I always load up at set-up. However, if one has to do a lot of suppressive fire, one does use a lot of ammo. That's when it's easy to run out.

That is still an eye-opened for me. Never knew that till now...

I have simply never been aware of friendly casualties from small arms - even recently. However, I nearly always use FIRE LIGHT.

That would be enormously helpful IF one could rely on that LOS being "real". Often when one gets a unit to its waypoint position (from which one has checked LOS), only then one finds that the unit cannot see what its waypoint LOS check showed that it would see. Figuring out LOS has always been one of the biggest time-wasting irritants in the game. Often "what you see is NOT what you get". Hopefully, CM3 will address this.

Is this is definitely confirmed? That even small arms fire can wound or kill? Am sure that it used to be that anything under 50 cal would only suppress.

Having played a lot of CMA and CMSF I can't recall a scenario that only had a platoon - at least not an enjoyable one. The most fun scenarios are the ones where you get to play with a wide variety of toys - so at min a reinforced company. I very much enjoyed your first effort, but you seem unhappy with it. You should go with what you got and move on. Some wise chap once said that "perfection" is impossible. One needs to aim for excellence.

Understood. But that doesn't address the question re what was the military's reasoning for wanting a faster ROF weapon? Presumably the MG 42 could have been manufactured to have a lower ROF.

These all sound like good arguments. So am curious... why did the Germans, who seemed so advanced in these issues, decide to go from the MG34 to the higher ROF MG42?

I understand what the point you are trying to make, Jason. But am not convinced that the probability of getting more hits with 16 shots is no better than with 8. An MG sprays bullets like a shot gun, but is used at much greater ranges. Surely, the "spray" requires more kinetic material to cover the area - in the same way that multiple warhead munitions devastate an area. The Germans presumably researched this as much as the allies.

What was the ROF? Have only seen the Lewis in movies and it seemed fairly slow. I though that new tactics required a faster ROF so that one burst could ambush and hit a bunch of troops b4 they had time to dive for cover. That was the theory behind the MG42.

I don't know why, but I can confirm that the old (convenient) CM1 method doesn't work with CM2.

Some good footage I hadn't seen b4. Loved the German gun with the teddy bear on it.

If you want to simulate snipers as opposed to the equivalent of uncons/partisans left behind to be a nuisance, then high experience units is the way to go. It's also way more fun to have a couple elite sniper units that can be ordered to SLOW MOVE, pick off enemy in a 5-10 second PAUSE and then SLOW MOVED away to try again elsewhere during a short PAUSE. I playtested a scenario that had such a unit and one really felt it was a Special Ops unit. Re SS vs Heer snipers, assuming it isn't just that the SS had fewer guys than the Heer, could it be that the SS had an almost Jap sense of what constituted "honorable combat"? eg: The Japs didn't employ sub warfare very well as they felt it was low prestige/dishonorable to attack like that.

In a game, of course I would too... My point was is that a RL use of recon? It's a philosophical issue re whether one exploits game weaknesses (that one's pixeltroops will do anything one orders even if it's suicide) vs handling them as real human troops who would rather stay alive. My rule of thumb when playing is (usually) "what would I do if I were in this soldier's place". Committing suicide is low down on that list.

Ok, so you DO work in entertainment, then.

Good way to attract interest. You work in movie marketing?

Have only had time to play the first 20 minutes so far. Feedback: I found the briefing rather complex. Content that should have been in Designers Notes was in the Briefing. As I found the instructions confusing, I just used "common sense" in terms of sending out the troops. Not sure if there is some reason to keep a guard at the starting location.

hehe.... great sequence.

"...muzzle flashes will attract a hailstorm of return fire." That is a pretty good way to locate the enemy positions. An experienced player will have his units with short arcs so they don't return the fire of a recon element. It's a bit gamey, but so is treating recon units as expendable. I always encourage designers to make recon and other specialized units at least one experience higher than regular troops so they are very good at their job and can spot the enemy and survive.

Just checked the link - seems to work fine.

may be counter-terror measures. the watchers don't like large "encoded" files being passed around.

Can't believe we were playing Joker 3 FIVE friggin' years ago. (Note to self - mustn't get older.)

Tried sending again - same problem... You need a new e-mail address or company.