Erwin

Hey, no reason to apologize, Waclaw. We all appreciate all the work you have done on this!

Has anyone considered that maybe BF is part of the New World Order and is in fact CAUSING these conflicts to enhance sales - like HYDRA in Capt America Winter Soldier? (Or, have I been watching too many Marvel Comic book movies?)

Thank you for that succinct summary, ScoutPL. I think that most of us understand the RL role of scouts. What regularly gets confused in CM is game fun vs reality. I appreciate that some are primarily into the history. However, others like me just want to learn how to play the game well (and per RL training as much as practicable). eg: I don't play on Iron as that's just too hard and not fun except for the smallest scenarios. In the same vein, it is more "fun" to have specialized units that actually have special abilities that are evident in the game. If scouts do have additional training then would they not function better in the front lines? Certainly the Russian recon are not "poorly armed". They have SMG's that are more useful in the assault than in the recon mode imo. Again, the briefing for the Russian campaign specifically orders us to not let scouts take too many casualties. If scouts have no special abilities, whether innate or from having a higher experience/leadership whatever... then one may as well use "scout teams" split from the expendable infantry units and keep the precious scout units in the rear until one needs their massive firepower. For me this spoils the immersion as one is "encouraged" to be gamey. I fully understand that RL "Recon" that could take days or weeks is beyond the scope of CM. What I am suggesting is that if the game is going to feature specialized units then give them specialized abilities. Otherwise all CM2 units are merely "cookie cutter" units with different names. That is a terrible waste of the opportunities that CM affords us to have varied units - each with their own personality of sorts. Even if recon are not designed to be in the front lines, they would still be better trained, better morale and hence should have a higher experience level/leadership whatever.

"...raise their experience and leadership level." Thank you, Ken. That's exactly what I have been trying to suggest.

"only to have the one surviving gunner (it's always the last guy that seems hard to kill) get up a minute later and start shooting again" Had this problem a lot in the other titles as well. Someone (Womble?) thought that one should stop shooting at suppressed crews so that they could abandon their weapons and flee. It makes sense that if one keeps barraging crews, they can't flee and stay put. Possibly the big problem is that such crews recover from shock/suppression way too fast and are able to fire back way too soon and too accurately.

For me it's just nice to see the "big picture" for a change. After a while I find all the tactical games start to feel/look the same and I lose immersion. The ideal wargame would have an Operational/Strategic level that enabled one to drill down and play a tactical scenario that affects the overall strategic game. Lucas's Battle of Britain(?) was like that. Close Combat had that element. Was hoping that Combat Missions would do the same for CM1, but regrettably...

So the question is still "why in CM2 do scout platoon units not have special skills - like detecting enemy units BEFORE one of their specially trained guys gets shot?" As I mentioned, in the Russian campaign we are admonished to not waste Scout units as they don't get replaced nearly as much as the line troops. However, it became clear that if one leads with the scouts, they usually detect the enemy by getting shot. So, that led me to the tactic of splitting off two or three man scouts from the expendable regular infantry (who are replaced almost 100% between missions) and leading with them while the scouts are kept safely in the rear. The Scouts are valuable cos they have 3 SMG's and are great for mopping up, but too valuable to use as Scouts cos in CM2 they do not appear to have any special scouting abilities. The good news is that no programming is needed, simply increase the Scouts' experience levels to Crack or at least one level higher than every other unit. Am hoping that might enable them to better detect enemy units - and be useful as scouts.

"1 you're right - now fix - now infantry normally screaming Re infantry screaming... " Is there is a new version of your sound mod after the above fix? Also, I think I prefer CMSF in many ways. Love the longer ranges, larger maps etc. Looking forward to CMSF2.

Thanks for the briefing. Love these huge battles and looking forward to it. (Still trying to complete the campaigns.)

I try to play "realistic" - or as realistic as I know how since I am not a WW2 vet. So, even vs AI I don't use support units in combat unless forced to (like in defense).

Re this sort of issue, it would be really nice to have a revamped ACQUIRE feature. ie: Any unit could ACQUIRE things from any adjacent unit (within reasonable quantity and possibly with a time penalty/delay). This would especially help with the labor intensive WEGO situation where you often have to break down a squad unit into teams, then a team enters a vehicle, then (next turn) ACQUIRE, then disembark, then join with the squad in order to distribute the ammo. Maybe it takes that much time to do that, but of course RT players can do all the above in a few seconds. The real issue is the time it takes players to perform this meaningless non fun game mechanic when we want to concentrate on the fun parts of the game.

Much appreciated. Thanks...

"As "Marksman" designated specialists, they're more accurate with their scoped rifles than a non-specialist." I hope that is correct Womble. But, I am certain that there was much discussion months/years ago about how marksmen do NOT have any special advantages over regular infantry. This is one of those binary situations where there has to be one correct answer - but it's hard to find verifiable info - is it in the manual???

"Is there a CC/mortars 101 for dummys available anywhere?" Yeah, this issue crops again and again even for us veterans. If someone who really understood this stuff could draw a diagram, or list the requirements that would be most helpful. (It should be in the manual.) Been going thru a periodic burn-out on tactical games and am learning Grigsby's War in the Pacific monster - which is FAR more complex than CM2. The great thing is there is so much tabulated material that explains every aspect of WitP and how to play the game effectively (as opposed to most discussion being about arcane historical issues).

"Engineers can mark mines and do some basic breaching. FOs can call for a broader range of fires, faster and more accurately than other units. Yes. Exactly my point. At the risk of beating a dead horse, my thesis is that Recon units should be able to detect enemy units better than regular troops. That's why one uses em in a recon role. Ideally the CM2 game engine would reflect this, but it does not. So, the quick fix is to give recon units a better experience level. (And do the same for sniper/marksman units which IIRC also have no specialist skills in CM2.)

IIRC if you get your KT damaged it stays that way. But I only got up to mission 8 when CMFI came out and I got distracted. I hope a patch has made the gun hit a much rarer event.

"...you have to drop $50. Which is a quite a bit of cash." Compared to what? Most high fidelity computer sims and cardboard wargames sell for that and a LOT more. When you consider the relatively short life of a typical computer game on one's HD and the years we have got out of the CM series, CM is incredibly inexpensive based on hours or play.

***SPOILER*** I loved the campaign. I recall it was easy to rescue the KT by creating holes in the hedges with charges and getting the crew and escort to the KT and driving it out in relative safety. The real pisser has been that enemy tanks seem to regularly hit the KT gun every time I have had a KT and disable it, so it becomes merely a mobile MG bunker. Have had that happen more times than one would think reasonable. I don't see that happen with other tanks. (Hope a patch may have fixed that, but have no idea.)

Really good looking. Makes me want to buy it and renovate to sell...

Great. Thanks...

Looking forward to trying this one. Nice to see something a bit different

"sometimes leads to infantry becoming half mounted and unavailable for the remainder of the game." That's extremely rare in my experience. A feel for timing re movement, boarding etc comes with experience - esp when you're dealing with a crewed weapon that may take some time to undeploy.

Hmm looks like a spam message from "Virgo". But to what end?

This push to put CM on Steam keeps coming up regularly and it gets shot down regularly. I'm also not a fan of Steam.

FWIW jumping out in CM1 when the vehicle slowed was never a problem so long as you were careful re waypoints at turns, so that the vehicle didn't slow down when not desired. Having said that, it wasn't 100% reliable, and I don't recall using the feature hardly at all. It may be a good feature the way you describe it above for CM2. But, I haven't missed it at all.