Erwin

I agree. Did exactly the same, copied all 3 of the CM1 games including the heavily modded .bmp folders via flashdrives, and all worked great on Win 7.

I recall playing SB over ten, fifteen(?) years ago(!). This new version looks amazing. I recall that with the old SB there was a lot of programming of moves needed. And I didn't enjoy the solo game vs the AI. Is that still the case? Is this new version designed for multiplayer online play primarily.

Re ammo resupply in Campaigns, I noticed that when the troops do not receive resupply, the vehicles often are full, so it tends to make one want to load up b4 the end of the scenario so they have ammo for the next battle... and the vehicles will often be filled up for the next scenario.

On a related point did the bug re vehicles crabbing when crossing bridges ever get solved or is that in the next patch (hopefully). Also, the crazy way the AI assigns waypoints to units when crossing bridges surrounded by wire & minefields as in "School of Hard Knocks?"

Thanks Luke that was useful. I presume however that for the Germans at least every man would carry extra ammo for the MG34/42. So my basic load out for my guys (when there is extra ammo at the start) is 50-75 rounds for each rifleman and each carries another 100+ for the MG. Seems like a reasonable amount of weight and one can get through most battles with little/no need for resupply. I just wondered ow other players approach this sort of calculation is all.

Says a lot for German design that the Imperial troops still use an updated version... Now can we have a CM: IMPERIAL TROOPERS?

Not too useful if you only need bullets. That would mean the "ammo team" would have to be adjacent to the shooting unit at all times (if the team was not part of the squad).

Finally had time to complete this rather good German vs AI campaign. Each scenario in this campaign was different from the others so never got that cookie cutter feeling. However, this was the campaign in which my Panzers experienced about 20% immobilizations each scenario which was annoyingly high since you don't get replacements. Scenario 5 was xnt. Attacking a town with what was left of two companies and 2 platoons (PzIV and Pz V) of armor. Also had a couple 75mm inf guns. And some 150mm and rockets as well as 81mm etc. Enjoyed using the ample resources to capture the town during 3 minutes "overtime", so it was close. The only problem was my handling of the inf guns. Very hard to use on offense as the truck transports are very vulnerable if you try to transport the guns forward quickly, and the guns are too slow if you have the crew push em. I ended up losing both trucks and the guns' fire was a waste of shells and accomplished virtually nothing. The lesson was that it's probably best to use inf guns in an indirect fire role via a FO when attacking. The final Scen 6 was "interesting" but a bit of a let down as one is defending and the AI is not the best attacker shall we say... even though in the end I was surprised that it did well enuff to get a Draw (altho' Axis got a Tactical Victory for the Campaign). The problem with defense is that after set-up, there seemed to be virtually nothing to do for the first 20-25 of the 50 turns while Allied arty pounded my positions. (It KO'd one of my three AT guns plus perhaps 5 or 6 inf casualties.) Then the Allied attacked, leading with their plentiful tanks. One of my PzV's shot 5 and one AT gun got another 4 before being overwhelmed. Not to worry0 I thought... I still had a whole bunch of Shrecks... However, the Shreck performance was abysmal. ACH - NEVER MIND. JUST REALIZED THEY CAN'T BE FIRED FROM INSIDE BUILDINGS DUH! However, these are not problems with this Campaign and I recommend HOFFNUNG if you fancy playing the Nazis vs the WAllies for a change...

My hypothesis is that if you're defending and probably not moving a lot you would load up with as much as possible cos there may not be opportunity to get resupply. If you're attacking and have the luxury of time then yes, it's kinda fun to get a resupply chain going. (I usually use 2-man scout or AT teams to go get the ammo.) I prefer playing Germans and wiping out the Amis, so my examples above are what I have been loading with for German squads. In the absence of authoritative knowledge my rule of thumb is 1000 rounds for the squad's MG42 plus 50-75 rounds for each rifleman, and 210-300 9mm for the MP40. So, that's about 180-200 rounds per man in a 9 man squad - seems reasonable. I have yet to see a way to resupply the StG44. (Any transports have ammo for that?)

Actually, I prefer the German vs AI scenarios and campaigns as they have the cooler weapons systems, while the WAllies have the less interesting mass/lesser quality stuff (kinda like the Soviets on the E. front). So, I may pass over Montebourg and go to "Road Opening." However, in CMA and CMSF I prefer playing the "Coalition" or Soviets as they have the cooler weapons systems in those games. However, Red vs Red is fascinating. I still have to complete "Road to Dinas" which I was enjoying a lot. Looking forward to "Road of All Fears". There's just too much choice now...

Thanks YD, but that still leaves most of my questions unanswered re what do we players assess as "enuff ammo" and what would be carried if battle is known to be imminent. I heard of (modern) soldiers loading up as much as 400 rounds each - of course they wouldn't be carrying their other stuff.

I have each of Aris' mods in its own unique folder - which I am calling the "main mod folder" just to be clear for you. I copy the variant(s) that apply uniquely to that mod into that "main mod folder" and rename as necessary. Yes, I keep each of Aris' mods in its own "main mod folder". So far, I have at least 48(?) Aris "main mod folders" in my Z folder. There may well be other ways that will work, but the method outlined here keeps everything separate and easy to figure out what one is doing and what one has done. Note that some of Aris' earlier mods they are in .brz folders. I recommend exploding that using the RezExplode app in the Mod Tools folder and extracting the .bmp's into a regular "main mod folder". (I hate .brz folders.)

When going into combat, how much ammo would a WW2 squad carry? When there are ammo laden vehicles, one can load em up at the start with a LOT and the weight doesn't seem to affect movement (or if it does it's too subtle for me to perceive). But what would a realistic load be? I find the default usually too low to get through a battle without getting frighteningly low or reloading. FWIW: My rule of thumb has been to count up the number of rifle and MG equipped men and calculate an average of approx 200 rounds per man. So, for a 9-man German squad with seven rifles, one MG42 and one MP40, I like to have about 1600 rounds of 7.62mm and about 220-300 rounds of 9mm. I figure that the riflemen generally don't need more than 50-75 rounds for a battle leaving the rest (1000-1200 rounds) for the MG. And the MP40 gets about 7-10 magazines of 30(?) rounds each. However, in a campaign, one often ends up with squads, even teams, with 2 or 3 MG42's and/or 2 or 3 MP40's/Stg44's (easy if one does a lot of buddy aid). So, how many rounds would each of a squad's MG42's usually have (vs the HMG squads which usually have over 2K rounds)? And assuming you don't simply load up to the max, how many rounds do you calculate for your guys at the start of a battle or campaign? And do you take all the shrecks and fausts at the start or leave em in the vehicles till you find a need for them?

"...they'll even penetrate bocage in reverse." If you don't mind being gamey, or just fancy having a bit of fun with your oppo, you can reverse a transport up to bocage and the passengers will disembark on the FAR side of the bocage, heh.

Re hull-down, you just have to try it many times - comes with experience since it's harder to know in CM2 vs CM1.

Not sure if your approach works or not. For what it's worth here's what I do: 1) Open one of Aris' mods' "main mod folder" 2) Open its variant/decal folder (if any - some do not have any) 3) Copy the variants I want (in my case all of them) into the "main mod folder" 4) Rename/renumber the variants appropriately (if Aris has not already numbered them for us): for example "tank hull 2.bmp"; "tank hull 3.bmp" etc. Note that there are a couple of exceptions to this rule since the StuH's and Stug's have a numbering glitch in them and need special renaming - read Aris' instructions.

My current CM project is to complete all the CMBN Campaigns and then go back to CMSF/Helluva Road Opening and a CMA game - both of which I am starting to really miss after the claustrophobic CMBN. I have the last scenario in Huffnung and Montebourg to go, altho' now there is another fun German Campaign (wish they'd stop making em!) AFAIAC BFC can take as long as they want to release Commonwealth...

The other issue is that you have to issue very precise waypoints anywhere near the bridge or the Ai will path your units over (known) minefields. I also thought the point of the tutorial was to send very little at first - just one platoon (split into teams) to spot the AT guns and deal with the mines etc. and HIDE everyone else so the Axis arty has no big targets. And again once one one makes the big push over the bridge, split inf into teams.

http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/4260/article/chinese-military-simulation-going-on-sale-to-public---us-soldiers-enemy/ http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-06/29/content_12799166.htm http://www.plagame.cn/index.html http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/tag/glorious-mission/

Take a look at this tutorial:

The demos of AP are always very impressive. ( I played the demo but couldn't understand how to play well - maybe the full game with a manual would be easier to learn.) Initially I was again very excited by this link when the guy was showing the operational map and how it related to the tactical map. It was what many of us dreamed we would have for CM. Plus all the detailed orders etc. Great stuff. But, what made him choose a night scenario? When he started playing, it turned into a mass of icons on a black BG with snowflakes. All he was doing in this RT game was rushing around a mass of icons like it was a medieval mob game. There didn't seem to be time for tactics or any thought. Just grab a bunch of units and throw em in a direction and keep em moving till they rolled over the enemy rabble - or whatever there was out there since one couldn't see anything. The amazing graphics were a waste of time since he rarely had time to zoom in to actually see any of the graphics. I had little idea of what was going on or why this guy was even enjoying himself. He sounded like wrist-twitcher. Here's another demo in daylight: Yes, it's all very pretty. But, it's utter chaos. Maybe that make it more realistic than CM?!! But, I don;t see how one can have fun controlling anything. AP, like Company of Heroes and all similar RT games is designed for a completely different mindset than CM. This examples probably do a disservice as to the content of AP games. They show AP as a non-stop wrist-twitch action with no time to breathe - just like the other RPS games, Red Orchestra, Arma and COD4 games I have sitting around here. If you liked watching these demos and it inspires you to get AP, then CM is almost certainly not the game for you. So, please go play AP and let's NOT keep trying to make CM more like AP.

And the New Year's off to a good start... (And no Mike, I never posted on any other forums other than CM b4 and never noticed a Gen Forum since it's buried so deep. We have it at the top in WeBoB - seems like a more logical place. And 10.5 years... my god, I need to get a life...)

I think a broad conflict highly unlikely for all of the above reasons. Iran doesn't want to end up like Iraq, and the west can't afford to be even more bankrupt. We really could be at the tipping point of the collapse of the west with all the economic tidal waves swooshing around from coast to cost etc. <That was a sp error but I'll leave it.> Many years ago I read that one of Osama's or Al Q's strategies was to draw the west into an non-winnable war that would bankrupt us and bring about the demise of the western hegemony. We've made a huge error in depicting these people as stone age tribesmen with stone age thinking.

Oh... Didn't even realize there was a "General Discussion" area - but I see it tucked all the waaaaaay down there so that it's easily missed. Abject apologies for having wished you all a Merry Xmas and New Year in the wrong forum... Won't happen again... assuming I still have any memory left in 12 months.

Like I said, I don't want to stop anyone playing in any way they like. But, I do worry about BFC's limited resources when there are serious problems with the game to solve before one gets to "how" one wants to play it.