Erwin

"just remember that anything you can see can also see you..." I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong here, but IIRC, a mortar of the type that we've been talking about is capable of direct fire at a target that is out of its LOS. So, assuming you have placed your mortar cleverly, in this case unless the target is another mortar or FO, they CAN'T see or fire at your mortar.

Yes. Still high arc. You can see that in the game. Also, note that some smaller mortars like the US 50mm and the Brit 2" (and Italian 45mm IIRC) can ONLY be fired as a direct fire weapon. Note also that mortars can fire at targets that are actually beyond their LOS. So, for example these mortars are useful at firing beyond hedges that your regular small armed infantry cannot see (or often target).

From an economical POV you'd be best waiting for CM:RT as that will be the latest version of everything in one game for one price. If you enjoy that you can go back and buy CMBN and/or CMFI and all their modules and upgrades which in total will cost significantly more. If money is no object then you could start with any game series. Just be aware that CMBN and CMFI will only be optimal if you buy all the modules and upgrades.

Lovely work. Thanks...

Very nice AAR and pics. Thanks...

Surely they will be in uniforms of the side they are on(???). In CM1 am sure captured vehicles had appropriate crew uniforms.

Well he wasn't bear-chested showing off his nipples, or playing with his pussy. (Um, not planning any trips to Russia in near future btw.)

+1 Would be useful.

Was watching how PO'd Putin looked at the games. After all that talk of world peace of nations etc. he must feel severely hamstrung re taking any sort of military action for the foreseeable future. I think he's been outmaneuvered by western political strategy as it's hard to see the timing of the events in Ukraine as a "coincidence".

As I said, when I do that I am usually looking to change the waypoints of many, maybe all of them. Having to back and locate a unit every single time when you may have a couple dozen or more units to change takes a lot of time compared to simply clicking on their waypoints/lines.

I wonder if the ongoing Olympics restricted the Russians from their historical strategy of "getting invited" into a country like Ukraine to maintain order (eg: Hungary etc.). If so, what that could mean is that Putin will start playing more hardball once all the athletes and world media have gone home.

Well, yes, if BF create a bunch of good new features and/or useful upgrades then of course that makes any new module worth buying. I think what tdogg originally meant, is that just having a snow and ice version of CMBN or CMFI may not be worth it to some folks.

"When you finish the camp, all single missions in it become available." That would be a great automatic feature.

I love Bulge games and have been eagerly waiting for CM: BULGE or whatever from BF. However, when I really think about the Bulge games I have loved, they were more operational in nature. Companies and battalions. When you get right down to the sort of small unit tactical nature of CM2, one winter, snowy woods terrain map will be like any other. It really won't matter whether it's in Italy or the Ardennes or the Swiss Alps. If the Bulge game has to be sold on its name and location alone (as opposed to a bunch of new unit types and features) I find myself agreeing with you that there may be little point in buying it for many people. (I would buy it anyway to support BF.)

Ian: If One is trying to keep a large number of units moving in any formation towards an objective, it may not matter which waypoint one clicks on in which order. One can see the waypoints that are not in the positions where you want them very easily. My point is that in CM1 all you need to do is click on any waypoint (or line) which selects the unit immediately, and you can move it immediately. It's a very quick, efficient process. In CM2, you have to go search the map for the correct unit, and if the unit is a ways off from the waypoint you want changed, you may select the wrong unit a few times until you select the correct one.

But, it's not "one post", Ian. Many, many longtime players have made many similar posts over the years. It's one thing when you have mere gamers making the observation. It's another when military professionals who presumably know what they are talking about re RL, make exactly the same observation.

As scenarios increase in size, maintaining speed of play is becoming more of an issue since CM2 is more complicated to "operate" than CM1. Personally, I no longer have any big complaints with the way the game looks, or actually plays out - regardless of any issues we may have about the way LOS works or whether there should be an "Ambush" command, the current state of the CM2 game system is way better than any competitor. The big issue now is the length of time it takes to play a large scenario (let alone campaigns). What can be done to make gameplay more efficient? My suggestion is that there are several UI items that take unnecessary extra seconds to do. When you have to take these actions for a couple dozen units almost every turn in a 2 hour WEGO game, one ends up wasting hours for no reason. My picks in order of time wasting inefficiencies: 1) Selectable waypoints. It saved a massive amount of time in CM1 when one could simply click on a waypoint or line, and thus instantly select that unit. In CM2 one has to go locate the appropriate unit wherever it is on the map and click on the unit itself. 2) The 180 degree arc. When you are moving vehicles especially, I often want them to change arcs at several waypoints. In CM1 it takes a second or less with a single keystroke to do a long range arc. In CM2 it takes several seconds as you shift your POV to place the arc. 3) Revamp the ACQUIRE system so that (within reasonable limits) any unit can swap ammo with an adjacent unit (possibly with a time penalty). No more wasting WEGO turns as units have to disembark so that other units may enter a vehicle and then disembark for yet another unit to enter and so on... 3a) Make it possible to take smaller amount of ammo. What do you do when you need your sniper to take a couple hundred rounds when the minimum is 1,000? You waste turns as other units have to embark and disembark to take that amount and more, until it is possible to take 200 rounds. 4) Some way of instantly identifying the teams of a split squad. Color coded borders etc.

It's a very impressive story of fortitude and persistence in the face of ghastly set-backs. You guys are BF should be very proud of enduring, keeping faith, and your amazing accomplishments. And I think you have many more miracles to come.

ChappyCanuck: Regular players make posts like yours quite often. And we get shouted down regularly with the same excuses for the game engine as above. And that's understandable if we are not military professionals and don't know how things are in RL However, one would have hoped that when military officers make a post like this, they DO know what RL is like and their opinions would get more respect.

What made the CM1 database useful was the ability to quickly compare two units and their relative firepower and in the case of vehicles, armor penetration and armor factors. However, in CM2 things are not so cut and dried. So, I do question whether such detailed information would be that useful. For us oldies, we don't 100% need that data any more. But, for newbies a way of quickly and simply comparing units would be invaluable. I am thinking along the lines of: "M4 vs Tiger - Probability of M4 killing Tiger with: Frontal shot at over 500m - virtually impossible; Side shot - Average; Rear shot - Good" ie: Something quite simple and basic. If you give too much info and it's complex, the database will not be useful to the people who actually need the database.

If you have time, it would be great if you can write an AAR for UK HELLUVA TAKEOVER. I enjoyed it but had problems accomplishing the objectives, and am interested to see if I was just unlucky.

PhilM: Yes, whether it's just for difficult terrain or far off locations, having the game show how the AI would plot the movement lines and waypoints would be very useful. My most common reason to justify replaying a turn is that my men move along an unexpected route (that makes no sense to me) and get shot up. It often turn out that the building has a door that "doesn't work" or that gap in the hedge is not a gap, or it's not large enuff for a particular vehicle, even though other vehicles have passed thru.

Someone posted a request re waypoints that would automatically show the AI path your units would take when it's a far off waypoint so as to eliminate those times when your pixeltruppen would take unexpected and fatal routes. That seemed an xnt idea. But, haven't heard more about it...

Still lovin' that faded washed out look.

I really hope that the triggers may have a time clock attached to each. For example, if a player is slow and hasn't reached a certain objective (possibly secret to the player) by a certain time, AI plan X goes into effect. If the player gets units there earlier, AI plan Y goes into effect. That sort of thing.