Erwin

I recall a thread on this long ago... I had two 2" mortars a few meters apart, both with a nice red target line to a target. But, one fired just fine, the other never fired anything. Reasons?

Wonderful. That's a LOT of good work. Thanks... Works in CMFI as well?? BTW: Wasn't sure what you mean by "Original" and "Reproduction"?

An interesting aspect is Soviet philosophy which de-emphasized individualism in favor of collective action. I was struck while in Moscow how they seemed to reserve their honors for the artillery wing as the war winner, and de-emphasized tankers (eg a Russian Wittman) as that would be elevating an individual above the collective, and that went against Soviet/Communistic philosophy. (Yes, they honored individuals like Zhukov etc., but that shows something else - Soviet hypocrisy, or maybe they just needed someone elevated to sit at the same table as Patton?)

"...no but maybe you can try hunt or more separation between units, why does there HAVE to be AI behavior changed to protect you from yourself?" How do you get "more separation" between team members?? That would be great if it's a new feature. In this case my guys were running to cover. The RL behavior is to freeze. Following blindly into a minefield when your buddy ahead just got blowed up is not realistic. Maybe it's not good to stop in a minefield cos it may be mortared soon, but freezing for at least a short time would be normal. One WEGO turn and then you can order em to move again.

"...I have learned it is worth getting someone in place to make a point target location and give my planes a real chance at doing some real damage to the enemy." Agreed that is the ideal. But, with a 13 minute wait in CM2 WW2 ("Road to Nijmegan"), it's hard to take the time to recon properly and then have a valuable FO sit spotting and waiting for that much time. (He's more valuable bringing down arty in a much shorter time.) I generally area fire the CAS as far away as possible at the start as otherwise one may not have time to use it at all. I wuz hoping there was a really good way of using CAS that I didn't know about. ;/

I like the way it accentuates the details. As a dirty mod aficionado, even I find that some recent mods are so grubby, you can't see the wonderful detail very well.

I agree that large caliber HE seems to have much less effect than would be expected - from blast FX alone. Enemies seem to not only survive but recover and fight quickly after being very close to a large explosion. Re CAS, would it be reasonable (re CM2 tactics which are often different from RL tactics) to use the "Heavy" CAS stuff first when friendlies are more than (say) 350 meters from the target radius? There must be some sort of "safe" distances that would be used?

I dunno why you waste your energy even responding, Steve. (It makes it sound like the twerp got to you in some way. Best is to just ignore.)

Are soldiers trained to run through a minefield when one explodes?? The human reaction is to freeze, surely. In CM however the line of soldiers keeps moving forward like robots so each is killed in turn. (Am I in Bizarro World here??)

Yes, I was giving the CAS area fire, but shouldn't they make some effort to stay in the circle? 280-300 meters away from the EDGE of that circle seems a looong way off esp on the average CM2 map. And as I said I have been amazed at how little damage can be caused by what must be a huge explosion only a few meters away. So, my original question was, and still is, IF this is realistic CAS behavior, what is a safe distance away from a target circle?

CM:RS As in RUSSIAN STEAMROLLER

The DEFAULT should be to stop and HIDE. That is "realistic" behavior. Right now, troops keep moving right into the minefield after the they see their buddy in front get blown up. You could have an override order to move thru, but that should be SLOW. Who here in RL would run thru a known minefield? Maybe Russian penal troops and Iranian religious nutjobs. But, that is hardly the norm.

Occurred to me, would it be practical that when a trooper enters a minefield and gets blown up, that everyone else (especially members of his team) within a certain radius, immediately halts and HIDES. In WEGO it's not very realistic that following team members follow blindly into the minefield and get blown up as well.

I know this has been discussed b4, but is there a safe/appropriate distance one needs to keep friendlies from the outer ring of a CAS area target? In the fun "Road to Nijmegan" I just had bombs dropped on friendlies that were 280 meters+ from the edge of an area fire circle. Considering the small CN2 maps, that seems a bit naff. Conversely however, despite 10+ meter holes a few meters away from the troops, only 2 were KIA/WIA and a couple other went "yellow". That seems surprisingly ineffective, and I understand now why the CAS (and even heavy arty) seems rather ineffective vs enemy troops. Took 20-30 88mm HE plus a couple dozen 81mm to KO one dam ATG. Any advice on how to use CAS or HE better?

Great pics, Saferight!

What would make this even better is if the new CMSF could include same era Afghanistan and Iraq content as well. The existing CMA seems very limited in the scenario concepts. Even though you would think it would be fascinating, very few CMA scenarios or campaigns are compelling.

"Oh man tell me folks wouldn't want to see US Marines fighting the Red Army!!!!" Actually, not really... Vietnam sounds interesting, but just never ending jungle and mist. The best games on Vietnam have been operational or strategic. That's cos it's best handled in the way GMT games and others do it, giving the political and economic aspects prominence. Militarily it was a bust. Win the battles, lose the war... There are many specific topics out there similar to the ever popular Battle of the Bulge. Stalingrad needs a module for the very specific bombed-out urban setting. That could include Battle for Moscow streetfighting, simulating what might have happened if the Nazis ever got that far. North Africa should be a biggy. I loved CMAK. Hopefully CMSF terrain can be used, so that's partially done. Also, Balkans, Greece etc. India-China is the most probable future war between near equals as they compete for the same resources and territory. I just got back from Bhutan and Nepal, and you can see how the Chinese are seeping across the border into these countries via immigration, owning all the businesses etc. (Actually, same is happening in the Balkans according to my Croatian pal oddly enough.) The topics are only limited by imagination. The real innovation would be an operational level "game" - doesn't have to be sophisticated, just something to give context to the small CM battles.

RED STORM would have been good but it's commonly used. How about CM: HELLSTORM personally, I was always partial to CM: YOB TVOYIU MAT! Or, CM: ARMAGEDDONOUDAHERE!

It worries me that we are heading towards a society where we don't own anything, just rent a license to use something we downloaded, but that we are not free to do with as we please. To me it's the same as being a home renter (you're one step from homelessness) or an owner (you own property).

Just black makes it worse imo. You'd think there would be a way to "sink" the horizon below the tabletop so you could be at level 4 or 5 at least and still have the illusion of ground around the tabletop.

I wuz waiting for a sign from god to get that new computer. Thank you, god.

Were the Valentines not obsolete by 1944?

Debrecen October 44: "The Nyíregyháza counter-attack was the last time that German forces were to defeat a full-strength Red Army force on even terms."

That's the future of interactive computer wargaming, right there! Imagine donning a pair of 3D specs and seeing the CM world around you so you could interact with your pixeltruppen with voice commands, pick up a weapon, (or have an 'orrible NCO start screaming at you to "carry some ammo over there!").

Kinda like paper was made obsolete by computers, right?