Erwin

The Brits and NATO were more fun imo as the US/Marines tend to rely on overwhelming firepower and virtually unlimited ammo to shoot up everything before advancing. With the Brits and NATO you are challenged to be much more "tactically clever" and ammo restrictions are frequent.

I do not put a "-" before the number. Don't know about the next two questions. IIRC, the system will NOT match (say) turret 2 with hull 2. It's all random I think. However, I haven't noticed any problem with obvious mismatching with Aris mods at least.

I also recommend the "Force Specific BG image" mods available for US and Germans. They add a lot more pics.

Since this whole thread is a *SPOILER* I hope you don't mind me adding that in every scenario I played of this campaign the US get 500 points, the US surrender, and the victorious Germans get a Tactical Victory - regardless of losses/performance etc.

Other than the unrealistic levels of vehicle bogging/immobilization this is a terrific campaign and am enjoying it a lot. What was fun re the 4th scenario was that I was convinced it was going to be an infantry attack and I figured I may just leave my tanks in the rear so no more immobilization. It was a total surprise when my recon forces encountered the Stuarts, and then another shock when I found myself facing a company of M4's. Good job! I presume this 5th scenario is the final one? I may go back and try the cross country option scenario as I saved the preceding end of scenario file. I would recommend to any designer that either weather be set to drier, or there be some tank reinforcements as it's simply frustrating and adds nothing to gameplay pleasure to lose half your armor force to nothing more than mud.

Don't forget we just found out that since CM is old technology your computer can have all the GB RAM in the world, but CM2 can still only utilize about 3GB.

This was again completely different from the first three scenarios as it turned out (surprisingly) to be primarily armor vs armor (finally!) despite the smallish map and village objective. I have always been more comfortable/luckier with armor than infantry. I started out by sending my Pumas and 234/1's along the two straight roads that led eventually into the village. There was a rise halfway, and I set the first recon waypoints to (hopefully) get my vehicles into a hull-down position with LOS to the village. No sooner had they arrived there than a platoon of Stuarts were seen moving towards them. A 234/1 took out a Stuart but was immediately KIA. However, over the next minute or so the 3 Pumas KO'd another 3 Stuarts. So, 4 Stuarts for the price of one 234/1. (One Puma immobilized(!) earlier but was able to take part.) The 5th Stuart was KIA later. My 3 (remaining non-immobilized from prior scenarios) Panthers went up the roads to support the recon guys when the first of what ended up being a company of M4's started to appear. Over the next 20 minutes or so, the Panthers did a great job KO-ing the M4's (including a couple of 76mm gunned). Around 50 minutes to go, there were 12 M4's KIA for no further friendly losses. The Panthers slowly advanced up the roads and shot up US infantry in the village. The 2 remaining (non-immobilized from prior scenarios) MkIV's went around the bocage to the high ground to flank the village along with a full platoon of inf. From there they were able to KO another 2 or 3 M4's and also shoot up US infantry. With around 40 minutes still to go and seemingly little further resistance I became impatient for the "knock out blow" and sent in the German infantry - a bit prematurely as I took about 25 casualties including another Puma and a Panther. One wonderful moment as an M4/76 attacked down the road and a two man recon team that was simply sitting by the side of the road with a PzFaust blew it up good. Around 35 minutes to go, the US surrendered with the loss of 17 tanks vs 1 Panther, 1 Puma (and 1 immobilized), and 1 234/1. Lovely close quarters armor battle and a VERY nice change from the somewhat repetitive infantry dominated scenarios that we get all the time.

In that case, it's recommended that every such player over 40 be provided with blood pressure monitors, nitro-glycerine tablets and portable heart defibrillators.

Agreed, your animated text is one of the best/cleverest mods out there.

I enjoy the maximum "beat-up and worn" look, but since others like pristine units, providing "levels of dirt" options would satisfy all.

akd: This was the post from Statisoris that confused me: "TRP's do not allow mortars and other on map artillery pieces to direct fire into the TRP area without LOS to the target spot. HQ units will still need to plot artillery missions into no LOS/LOF TRP areas." As you can see from several of the following posts, the feeling is that someone who can communicate to the arty MUST have LOS to the TRP to know there is a target there to shoot at. I continue to be confused as to which it is...

The greater complexity of doing (graphical) mods for CM2 has meant that only the best modders have produced mods. The number of poor mods is rather small. So, I would say that nearly all the mods available are good, esp the Aris vehicles series. (I wouldn't bother with any vehicle mods that are not by Aris.) Other modders I use: Vein (assorted) Scipio (assorted) EZ (uniforms) Bil's Improved Rank and Branch Insignia Mord's war ravaged German faces (I copy em also to the US folder so both sides look worn and wounded) Lt Smash floating WW2 icons ...and lots more.

I agree re triggers. There have been many threads about that. IIRC, I think there are programming challenges that may be beyond current BFC capabilities.

ok thanks. (loved your other mods as you know.)

That still begs the question of why does one have to have LOS to a preregistered strike site for indirect fire. So, in CMBN even if you have not moved your onmap mortars since the start of the scenario (other than the setup phase), they or an HQ/FO still has to have LOS to a TRP? Hope we have an Arty expert here who can explain why that would be.

Sorry for being the 21st thread on where to find 7.92K, Statisoris. It's just strange that the only place to find the ammo is in bunkers (and I couldn't find any mention of that in the manual). So, that was helpful. Thanks.

"HQ units will still need to plot artillery missions into no LOS/LOF TRP areas." Do you mean FO's do NOT have to have LOS to use a TRP? I was surprised that you say that even HQ's do have to have LOS since I thought the whole point of a TRP is that it has been pre-registered for arty fire, so nobody has to have LOS to indirect fire at a TRP. (It was that way in CM1 for offboard arty/FO's and for onboard mortars that had not moved since the start of the scenario, and I thought that was supposedly realistic, no?)

We tried to do team play on each side in CM1. It was cumbersome and very time-consuming as players play at different speeds and could not be relied upon over a period of time. CM2 is even more detailed and complex, so I extrapolate that what you envisage would (unfortunately) also collapse under its own weight.

"Probably because there is a difference." It would have been actually "helpful" if you could inform the rest of us puzzled folks WHAT is the difference between 7.92mm and 7.92AP in GAME terms? Otherwise, you simply emphasize that there seems no rational point in having these distinctions at all in the CMBN game.

Thanks guys. So, I can have units that use 7.92mm (rifles and MG's) also acquire and use 7.92AP? (Why on earth does the game feature this distinction if there is no effective difference?) Are there any vehicles that carry acquirable 7.92K?

Not sure I understand. I thought bunkers would be immune from small caliber arty like 60mm and even 81mm.

There seem to be three types, 7.92, 7.92K and 7.92AP. What rifles/MG's are these for? Also, is there any resupply for the Sturmgewehr(sp?) assault rifle?

This link doesn't work. Was the mod superseded by the Fall or Spring versions that were more recently posted?

I have used double digits in mod variations and they seem to work ok, altho' it's hard to be 100% sure as I think that each mod version has a % chance of appearing, so not all your variants will necessarily appear, and some will appear more than once.

Well, my 4th Hoffnung campaign scenario is notable for the fact that I decided to try moving my trucks and Puma recon vehicles a bit faster using HUNT and QUICK, and one Puma and two trucks have already been immobilized. These are the first wheeled vehicles I have immobilized so far in this campaign (which I highly recommend btw). Then I find that one cannot board an immobilized truck to acquire ammo. IIRC vehicles often have limiters installed to prevent high speeds as that increases the risk of mechanical failure and bogging. However, CMBN exhibits the opposite effect since so many of my tanks having immobilized when moving SLOW on roads or X-country. Grrr...