Erwin

I think the guy on the left is "vamping," "Yes look at my jacket! I really did lose 50 pounds on the concentration camp diet."

"deployable" won't fire from inside buildings... Thanks for this good rule of thumb. Any exceptions to the "deployable rule?" Also, what missiles (not RPG's) other than Javelins can launch from bldg interior?

I agree with you Abneo. I don't know if it can be proven, but I suspect we suffer more friendly and civilian casualties by pussy-footing around. But then do we copy the Russians as in Chechnya etc?

Oh, and Smash: Here's something I posted to help another newbie. Hope it's useful: One of the reasons the CM2 game has a linited appeal compared to mass market is that it is the opposite of an exciting action-packed wrist-twitch game. The Major and others can tell you about RL tactics, while I just use "gamer common sense" in terms of playing the game: CMSF usually requires a lot of patience especially in the first 10-20 minutes. Firstly, (unfortunately) recon troops (and snipers) seem to have no particular spotting or hiding advantage. Yes, that sucks, but there are so many other super features, and hey, it's a game. So, you use em as recon cos of their label, but they do not have some form of invisibility shield. Also, generally, the last thing you want to do is race vehicles around to do recon as they will just get killed. The first turns are critical. As an experienced player, I have found it most successful to start thus: 1) ensure most units esp AFV's are hidden from enemy POV. 2) move "recon"/inf teams using HUNT with multiple waypoints maybe 10-50 meters apart depending on the map and a 15-30 sec pause at each waypoint to allow time for spotting. (Your biggest enemy is/are enemy ATGM's (anti-tank guided missiles) which can kill just about anything you have at long range.) 3) So, the name of this game is ID the ATGM's and kill them (preferably with mortars and airpower) BEFORE exposing any important vehicles like tanks 4) Only after you have established as much as possible a safe zone clear of ATGM's should you bring up your AFV's like tanks (which I find rather brittle and usually are only useful (in CMSF) as heavily armored HE chuckers). 5) Use vehicular direct fire weapons (AFV's) to demolish enemy positions as much as possible BEFORE sending in any inf. 6) NEVER, NEVER rush into an unknown/building or area (unless it's been under observation for several minutes by many, many eyes with binocs - you acquire a feel for what's safe to do and what isn't with experience). There's lots more that comes with experience, but the above imo should keep you alive long enuff to become a vet. Note that once you see a "?" enemy sign, you should leave as many units as practicable just observing that location. It can take several minutes of nothing but observing (and that can suck if you're used to action games), but your units will start to ID the enemy units.

Regarding Smash's original question, I find that it's rarely necessary to recon by fire so long as you take your time hunting or crawling to good observation points. It's frustrating to play this way as it requires a lot of patience and accepting that very little may happen for the first half of the scenario other than "recon and observe." But, you can at least get a "?" if not actual ID of a lot of enemy units this way, and THEN you blow em to hell. As a Brit I enjoy being very economical with ammo lol. Admittedly, I may get 3-4 KIA and some WIA this way. But, compared to killing 100+ red team, that seems "realistic." We DO have thousands of Allied killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, so getting thro scenarios with 0 KIA, while a fine objective, I don't see as necessarily reflecting RL when you are trying to reduce civilian casualties. I can't help but think that if we were doing this in an Anglo country with Anglo civilians we'd be a LOT more carreful cos they "look like us."

Thanks...!

If you are designing for us players, plz leave the setup areas in all of the above so we can make our own choices where and how to start and proceed. Cheers...

I always used nVidia. Just be aware that nVidia will show smoke ok but won't show weather FX with Win 7. (Unless there is a fix I don't know about?) Also, I am told that you should put your OS on the SSD for max speed. My builders for some reason argued against that, and I regret I didn't do that (and am scared to uninstall Win 7 from my conventional HD and reinstall onto the SSD - I seem to blow things up easily).

Wow, thanks for the anti-IED info. It's so dam hard to notice that sort of info in the manual as it's packed with so much detailed useless info. Of course in this scenario they were not Brits. I guess we have to go study all the game's nationalities' vehicles now. Of course the obvious question is do the anti-IED devices work in the game, and what are the parameters? (I'll bet that's not in the manual either.) BTW: It's been mentioned a couple times already that in RL one would bring up the bulldozer or whatever to clear the mines/IED's. But, we don't have those in the CMSF game, so the real question is what do you do if you DON'T have that specialized equipment and it is NOT a "do or die" situation. My guess is that you just wait(?) As a solution to designers wanting to design this sort of dilemma is either 1) make it a do or die situation that forces the player to risk men and material; 2) use IED's but never mines when there is no choice but to cross at that point - but ensure that smoke is available to blind the IED triggerman. ( I read that mines can be cleared by firing at the ground?? Any data on that? How much and how heavy fire needed?)

Hey Comrade, it looks like there is a pile of noisy **** moving about out there! Don't worry, it's just a Vauxhall.

1) I don't know 2) Maybe that there was a scared hiding enemy unit there, and your guys didn't see him. Another hint when you have orders not to damage buildings etc. You CAN shoot at them safely with Airpower set to LIGHT and Arty set to PERSONNEL (means airburst). You can also use AFV direct fire of up to 30mm for a certain amount of time - experience will teach you, but a total AFV fire time of around 60 seconds (even if spread over several turns) should be safe and should not damage (knock down a wall of worse) the building. Good luck and have fun!

Interesting, thanx for the link. (I thought they were going to make it look like a Vauxhall or somesuch lol.)

Thank you...

Yes it is tiny (you should try it at 2900x1800!). But, as Stickky said there is a text mod available (I use it and it helps). It was discussed and reposted recently on these forums, so maybe you could try a search.

I think this the other 3 new ones are CMSF NATO, not CMAK.

Hooah... One of the reasons the CM2 game has a linited appeal compared to mass market is that it is the opposite of an exciting action-packed wrist-twitch game. The Major and others can tell you about RL tactics, while I just use "gamer common sense" in terms of playing the game: CMSF usually requires a lot of patience especially in the first 10-20 minutes. Firstly, (unfortunately) recon troops (and snipers) seem to have no particular spotting or hiding advantage. Yes, that sucks, but there are so many other super features, and hey, it's a game. So, you use em as recon cos of their label, but they do not have some form of invisibility shield. Also, generally, the last thing you want to do is race vehicles around to do recon as they will just get killed. The first turns are critical. As an experienced player, I have found it most successful to start thus: 1) ensure most units esp AFV's are hidden from enemy POV. 2) move "recon"/inf teams using HUNT with multiple waypoints maybe 10-50 meters apart depending on the map and a 15-30 sec pause at each waypoint to allow time for spotting. (Your biggest enemy is/are enemy ATGM's (anti-tank guided missiles) which can kill just about anything you have at long range.) 3) So, the name of this game is ID the ATGM's and kill them (preferably with mortars and airpower) BEFORE exposing any important vehicles like tanks 4) Only after you have established as much as possible a safe zone clear of ATGM's should you bring up your AFV's like tanks (which I find rather brittle and usually are only useful (in CMSF) as heavily armored HE chuckers). 5) Use vehicular direct fire weapons (AFV's) to demolish enemy positions as much as possible BEFORE sending in any inf. 6) NEVER, NEVER rush into an unknown/building or area (unless it's been under observation for several minutes by many, many eyes with binocs - you acquire a feel for what's safe to do and what isn't with experience). There's lots more that comes with experience, but the above imo should keep you alive long enuff to become a vet. Note that once you see a "?" enemy sign, you should leave as many units as practicable just observing that location. It can take several minutes of nothing but observing (and that can suck if you're used to action games), but your units will start to ID the enemy units.

Independent developer military game effort: Video: BC_DemoVideo.wmv Website: www.historicalsoftware.com

There must be as I have a large widescreen monitor and the image fills the screen - maybe making the units a bit wider than RL, but they look good. But, it's always worked automatically for me, so not sure what your issue may be. Ask tech support?

FWIW: Saw a documentary that claimed that the "Ronson" phenomenon was not due to the gasoline power as much as poor ammo storage location or poor armor at that point. You'll see Shermans with extra armor wielded on the sides for this reason.

BTW: My processor is 2.9GHz but combined with other good components and using an SSD for swapfiles, it still seems very competitive with folks with 3.3+GHz

And given that IED's can be neutralized (in the game at least) by depriving the triggerman of LOS (either by smoke or suppressing/killing him, that is absolutely fine, PT. I was being a whiny bitch about (perhaps hypothetically) a mine being used on a bridge when that is the only way across and the briefing does not give any urgent reason why one should not simply wait for mine-clearing apparatus to arrive (so no need to risk lives). (In the event I think one can get a loong way by leaving the AFV's o the far bank in support and doing (most) of the attack with inf.) It was a super scenario PT, so you don't need to explain.

Didn't we have discussions a while back that snipers and recon units have no special abilities re hiding or spotting - very unfortunately.

Good point. I used Co HQ's ALL the time if they had better ratings than the platoon HQ's. But, I thought it rather gamey, so that's one feature I hope has been tinkered with. It is one of the least realistic aspects of CM1 to go around with a "super platoon" of 6-8+ squads under a high value Co HQ. But, it's very effective.

"blame the Iraqi elites and army..." Well, yes, at the heart of it everything is the fault of the rich - see Wall Street greed.

LongLeft: It's not about bashing anybody, just that the CIA enabled Saddam to power, in the same way we engineered that corrupt idiot in Afghanistan. At the time I am sure it seemed like a good idea, and/or an easy fix to an intractable problem. It's probably got more to do with corporate interests. As an (expat) Brit we are used to cynically exploiting everybody and installing satraps as is normal for any empire since empires existed. It's just the "circle of life." PS: "Once Uncle Sam sends the heavy armour..." About as likely as Islamic hordes crossing via Istanbul and overwhelming Europe (as a Brit military guy I knew worried about). Logistics and lines of supply are the issue. Look how stretched everyone is in Iraq and Afghanistan etc. when you consider all the pre-positioned crap we had in Saudi Arabia (a friendly base next door and no ocean to cross).