voidhawk

"A Second Job - Vossenack" from the CD. Recommended, see the rave reviews (including mine) at the The Combat Mission Scenario Depot

AAR for Give & Take Canadian:voidhawk German: Bobbaro I was quite surprised to find some German troops in the town to begin with, as although my briefing hinted at this, I did not believe it as the map just screamed out "meeting engagement". I certainly did not approach the town assuming they would be there - perhaps I was lucky my opponent did not set up any ambushes, or that I didn't walk into any. I used my 2| mortars in a direct fire role to pound a small light building that contained the German HQ unit; it effectively took it out of action and allowed my other troops to assault that area and take over the buildings around it. My main stratgey was to take over the 2 big heavy buildings and the church on my side, and (as I didn't think I would be able to hold it) take out the big heavy building on the German side right away with my tank when it arrived, in order to deny its use to my opponnent. My reinforcements came in dribs and drabs, and I hurried them to the town along the road as fast as I could, even making them run part of the way. Once in the town I advanced one squad at a time, while having the other squad (or squads) cover their approach to the next building. When I had troops in place covering the center group of buildings from 3 directions, I sent some troops into them just in case the Germans would try to rush some troops into them from their side - that was always my biggest fear, as they seemed to have a never-ending supply of troops (once they arrived). In fact, I was surprised to see just how many troops my opponent had when I looked at the map at the end! I think I only had about 1 Company's worth, without the Vickers and only 1 piat and 2 2" mortars. My opponent made good use of his flamethrower; that came as quite a surprise to me even though I suspected it might be one when I saw the half-track. Fortunately, my M4 was close by, and was able to take out the half track when it tried to come in close to the center buildings a second time. I was really careful with exposing my M4 as I assumed my opponents must have had a StuG or Pnz IV hiding out somewhere - I think that would have helped the play balance more. I think it was kind of unfair that I had a tank, and my opponent did not. Even my flamethrower (a Badger - never played with one of those before!) had more armour protection than his half track. I have to say I was kind of pleased with my arty - I was quite worried about the mass of troops on my right flank near the church, as all I had was one platoon there, and the pine trees around the church would have hidden any German advance until it was probably too late for me to do anything about it. Not sure if my opponent even had an arty observer? In order to keep my troops from being fired at from multiple directions, I tried to sneak them around the inside of the buildings until they were only exposed from the direction they wanted to fire at. Also, I placed many of them on ambushes to avoid exposing themselves while firing at long-rang targets. Unfortunately for me, in the last 3 turns or so they still kept popping up to fire at further-away troops and I took some unnecessary losses that way. Thanks to Bobbaro for a fast & furious rate of email exchanges - it was almost like a TCP/IP game! We are now into our first post-tourney game. Final score: 82-18 for the Canadians.

I would second that - and not just for the first game of the second round. For those of us involved in the second game, the strategies used could well be quite different depending on the method of scoring. All I'd ask for is a balance between evening out the scores for the first game (as that would apear to be needed) and not messing with the second game, as the latter seems quite balanced (!).

OK, I'll bite. I played as Free French against ASLer. As I had a very small lead from the first game, I had the luxury of sitting back and setting up a good defense. Rather than providing a play-by-play, I'll provide the defensive plan (and frankly, I can't remember it all anyway.) I used the first 4 M8s to transport the 3 mortars and an HQ to the exposed hill on my left rear flank, with the HQ overlooking the battlefield from just behind the crest, and the 3 mortars hidden, but in control, behind the hill. They took some long-range pot-shots at advancing infantry (mostly HMG units) at various times in the game, but I don't think they did much damage. The remaining infantry was dispersed throughout the various trees across the width of the map just in front of my starting point. I had no intentions of moving them from there (I know, not nice, but practical...) Then more M8s showed up, zut alors! I grouped them into at least pairs, if not more, in order to increase my chances of a first-shot hit. Location-wise I used 3 basic tactics: 1) Behind woods, but facing side-ways. The intent was to get a side-shot at the Puma, thus not only seeing a larger target, but also forcing the Puma to rotate its slower turret. 2) Behind the crest of a hill, thus forcing local superiority as the Pumas advanced over the crest. 3) A "spoiler" group held far back behind a small rise that I would move forwards and then back again into cover every other turn or so, looking for quick shots at targets of opportunity, and trying to lure the enemy into trying to shoot at them, thus exposing themselves to numbers 1) and 2) above. Because of my far-back defensive position, I was not really concerned about the enemy infantry, and that is pretty much what happened. Final score: voidhawk 81, ASLer 19. Perhaps more importantly, I gained a good PBEM opponent - we are into our second post-tourney game now.

Big Dog, Those "Preview" screen shots are all great, and make it much easier to get a true double-blind PBEM game going. Lately, I have come across many previews that would not load any images - for instance (just to pick one) "Ambush of Shadows". This happens with 2 completely different systems on different networks etc., so I don't think it is me. Any ideas?

I'm playing them in historical order, from the Allied side first - I'm up to "One Long Cold Day" now (January 6, 1945.) Then I'll play any scenarios that were best played from the Axis side first, also in historical order. Perhaps not the best way to learn the game, but it gives you a good feel for what happened after D-Day, and new units show up as time goes by. In the meantime, I've branched off into PBEM play, and found that to be a most enjoyable (if not slow) pursuit...

Gordon, OK, now I'm confused...I'm still using CMMOS 2.0, and it supported the German tanks and halftracks mods (which I already had) just fine. It seems they are the same mods as for v3.01; are the mod files different somehow (e.g. different names), or am I missing something? - Do I need to re-download all those German mods? - Do I need to uninstall v2.0 before installing v3.01? - Can I skip v3.00 alltogether? Thanks!

Hm, I must say I'm getting a little concerned that even though the end of round 1 is getting closer, the Newbie Reject results page still doesn't even show a score for the first game for my propospective opponent (Bobbaro or Vitalis.) Perhaps the above-mentioned web page is simply out of date? :confused:

Assuming you have a Windows-PC with standard NVIDIA drivers: right click Windows on background Properties Settings tab Advanced GeForce 2 GTS tab Additional Properties Direct3D Settings tab More Direct3D Anti Aliasing tab Slider to 2x2 Select "Force antialiasing in all applications" box <OK>, etc.

The pixellated look is simply because the graphics card only has one resolution of texture map to work with. This results in the "shimmering" or "sparkly textures" when moving the view. The usual technique to alleviate this problem is called "MIP mapping", where less detailed textures are used for objects that are further away. CM:BO does not use that technique. But - your NVIDIA card will no doubt be able to run in some anti-aliasing mode (I use 2x2 myself), which will make everything look just great, by effectively taking an average value for each pixel rendered on the screen. You should be able to enable that feature from your graphics card's Properties menu (use the Direct X sub-menu). The disadvantage is that the graphics card has a lot more work to do - so some experimentation between quality of graphics and acceptable frame rate is a good idea. Shameless plug: this discussion shows what the result can look like. Edited for typos [ 01-13-2002: Message edited by: voidhawk ]</p>

:eek: I had no idea my screenshots would cause so much discussion as to what mods they were - I guess I kind of assumed everybody used Magua's Normandy mod set (for that is what it is.) I seem to remember that the smoke is the "realsmoke" mod - but can't remember where that came from. For autumn battles I replaced Maguas 502, 504 and 506 trees with DD's ones (pine trees); they look better for the battles around Hurtgen Forest and the Ardennes I think. My patchy snow is just a stop-gap measure until the new Battle of the Bulge set comes out... Except for some shots that had in-game labels showing, I deliberately did not say what battle they were from to avoid giving away any surprises. Thanks for the nice comments!

Just a small collection of screen shots I put together while waiting for my next PBEM files (you know who you are!) The usual mods, except for the snow tiles which are my own custom set based on Tanks a lot and Juju's latest from CMHQ. What a game! Voidhawk's CM:BO screen shots

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> So, I should download both the hi and lo! <hr></blockquote> No, just download the hi-res textures; CMMOS will convert them to low-res if you wish to do so.

Thanks for the update Ted; I was particularly interested in the progress of Vitalis and Bobbaro as I'll be playing one of them in the next round.

The Newbie Tournament Web Page shows that there are still some scores missing for the first game in round 1. What is the status of those games - are the alternates taking over, or are scores being decided based on progress so far, or are they really finished?

I just checked; it is still there - under "Workshop". Or, (shameles plug), if you want to see for yourself what bmps make up what vehicles, check out Voidhawk's Annotated Textures for CM-BO.

I'm playing the CD's scenarios in historical order, I'm just getting to the winter ones - and to tell you the truth, I wasn't really looking forward to them because of the bland terrain. But with this mod...roll on winter!

Make sure to enable FSAA; I think I use the medium setting; it gets rid of those sparkling pixles very well. It does introduce a slight bluring too, bit the overall effect is very good - almost cinematic I think. With FSAA may come other problems, such as corrupt unit info and map labels text (especially when there is lots of smoke). The only "solution" I have found is to exit that scenario, load one that has an entirely different texture set (e.g winter if you were playing summer), and then load the orginal scenario again. That has always worked for me; nothing else has...

Bah, none of this is new - the Brits and Americans already had such multi-turreted vehicles at the time of the Normandy invasions; see this rare colour picture of the "Double Churchill" and "Triple M4" in action: [ 12-09-2001: Message edited by: voidhawk ]</p>

Well, just to prove that CM's Allied unit costs are just way off, check out this interesting web page I happened to come across: Allied AFV Costs [edited to include smiley...] [ 12-07-2001: Message edited by: voidhawk ]</p>

If you want realcheap (i.e. free!), you might like The Gimp - a PhotoShop-like program that is native to Linux, but also has a Windows version. I use both and they work equally well. Just as for PhotoShop, there is a steep learning curve though..."layers" is what it is all about. The Gimp [ 12-01-2001: Message edited by: voidhawk ]</p>

Combat Missions, under "Workshop". Alternatively, for vehicles and guns, download my "annotated textures" and see for yourself what bmps get mapped where, and how. Voidhawk's Annotated Textures for CM:BO [ 11-27-2001: Message edited by: voidhawk ]</p>

Another thing you might like to consider when reviewing a scenario is to try and form your own ratings and comments before looking at the other reviews for that same scenario. With human nature being what it is, it is otherwise easy to become influenced by the existing reviews and start agreeing with them. At least, I found that happening to me. Better to form your own opinions first, and then look at the other reviews. After all, it is your review!. [ 11-27-2001: Message edited by: voidhawk ]</p>

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> One more thing, in ALL of mine, allow free AI setup, Fred...WB <hr></blockquote> Does that apply to the scenarios on the game CD too? Have I been playing them against a handicapped AI? Are all my victories hollow at this point??? :eek:

Although I am in no way associated with the excellent Combat Mission Scenario Depot (other than as a happy user), I feel it is perhaps worth going over some of the tips for reviewing scenarios. These tips are not new, and are in fact already listed on the web site itself, but I have seen many reviews where they are not followed... 1) Don't give away any spoilers in the "Comments" section! A reader wants to see how good a scenario is, not what will happen in it. 2) If you gave not played a scenario PBEM, leave that rating at "0". This will not impact the final rating. There is no need to add a rating so as not to "mark the scenario down". Adding a high score here when not even played PBEM may well result in that scenario showing up on the "Top 10 PBEM" list, which is not necessarily correct. 3) Same for "Against AI"; if you have only played PBEM, leave it as "0" - see number 2 above. I hope I am not stepping on anybody's toes here; I'm just trying to make the reviews more helpful, as I think they are of great value myself. Please spend some time adding reviews of scenarios played, and spend some time on the "Comments" section. Not only does it make you think about what you liked or disliked about a scenario, it is also a chance to give something back to the community and provide some interesting reading for others.