Mud

Use an HQ to provide spotting; the HQ will be closer than 100m to the enemy, but hopefully the mortar team is far-enough back. This might work better w/ a Command-bonus HQ to get some distance between the two. (Well... there's at least one mortar without a minimum range, correct? Might be the British 2". So you may be able to use that one w/ direct spotting, even at night.)

...however, in a PBEM, with a trusted neutral third party you can do something like this. Third party creates or finds map, sends it to both parties, who use the scenario editor to create their forces subject to point constraints and any other rules agreed-upon. These are sent to third party, who verifies that they're legal and puts 'em together as a scenario, then sent to both players.

And you may now have more video memory. Go and indulge in some high quality grass... textures. The 27.10's do seem to be good, quality-wise (at least for CMBO. I've very few 3D games to test in other regards, and the 3-yr-old CPU means I don't bother doing video benchmarks.). Use 'em to avoid getting transparent white text, whirling textures, or blurred landmark labels...

Aye. No calling-in of airstrikes. What you can do in a QB, or a scenario designer could do for you otherwise, is purchase a fighter-bomber (if they're available; depends on side and month, plus it might be unaffordable if the arty budget is low). 'course, it may or may not participate in the battle. If it does, it'll choose when and where. And it'll choose its targets, which may or may not include your *own* guys, or alternately it could spend a turn or two strafing an already-destroyed tank. I believe the scenario that was described was Grosbeek, and yes, the allies do get air support there IIRC. As for All or Nothing -- let's just say that by the time I got to town, I was more than ready to unleash the Crocodile. Large parts of the town ended up either burnt or shelled into rubble. I won't spoil what the "obstacle unit" is, 'tho, in case you haven't yet stumbled into it. You may even luck out and destroy it easily... or it could hold you up for several turns while you curse your arty spotters. *shrug*

Heh. It's been a while since I've played that scenario, and then only against the AI, but... hrm, if memory serves, both sides have fairly ugly deployments. The French need to coordinate an attack from multiple points, including a one- or two-abreast stroll by the canal through the LOS of a waiting enemy AFV, while the Germans have far fewer resources. Most of the other scenarios I remember, with the notable exception of the airborne assaults, give you more contiguous forces, which might be easier to manage. If you want a scenario where you'll desperately WANT more units to control, as soon as possible, hm, try playing the Sherbrooke Fusiliers scenario as the Canadians. *chuckle* But at least your forces have a fairly contiguous defensive line... Or if you want to experience the irritation that one well-placed unit can provide, try "All or Nothing", or perhaps "A Long Cold Day".

If you want to see tanks cheerfully plowing into buildings, try "Close Combat 2: ABTF". I've seen them take strange detours into buildings multiple times in that one.

Aye. To do it properly, you'd need to have a much higher-level control system (delegating authority over a company and associated arty assets, and telling 'em to capture a ridge via a few suggested approaches, rather than micromanagement) combined with smarter tactical AI. And it would quite possibly be a) much less fun, since we'd be spending much more time watching and less time deciding, and much harder to do (the demands on the AI would be far harder. Maybe it wouldn't be the delayed vaporware debacle that RtMoscow seems to be, but...) I'll be happy with a merely *decent* relative-spotting system, taken into account by TacAI say. For instance, a buttoned-up tank shouldn't immediately know that a single friendly sharpshooter 200m away spotted an AT team creeping up behind it... since we don't have control during the 60 second turns, a TacAI that would be non-Borg might have substantially more reasonable results. You'll still be able to Borg-like call in arty after the 60 seconds unless that's reworked (e.g. HQs/FOs automatically call it in as they see fit, rather than player control... erk, wonder what the heuristics/rules would look like...); and you'd still be able to adjust concentrations much better than you should, but it'd be an improvement. I wonder how one would model information sharing, so that scout units could report back to base (or, say, radio a warning to a nearby squad or vehicle that's about to get ambushed). Guess you'd have to have information on radio usage, maps, accuracy (how precise would radio'd-in locations be), and so forth.

Ligur -- Crews have artificially reduced spotting capabilities. This, as well as high point costs, should encourage players moving crews to the rear ASAP, rather than using them to spot for other troops which can still fight effectively. Redwolf -- On confusion... does separation from other troops (not just HQs) via such elements as smoke and distraction (e.g. the other friendly squads being busy avoiding arty, or intervening fire even?) affect morale and command delay? For instance, if one squad isn't under fire itself; and rather than isolated, it's near one other squad -- but the second squad is currently fleeing because it's being hammered -- would the first squad suffer any penalties versus being a squad that is nearer the rest of the platoon? Should it?

It's been mentioned before as far too complicated for anything but a complete engine rewrite. You not only have to figure out what region is illuminated (and how much, for how long), but you also have to figure out things like the effects on vision on the people in the illuminated area (Will it hurt their night vision? How much? Should the effects persist for X seconds when the light finally dims?), the effects of terrain (ridges blocking the light...), and so forth. Nasty problem, if you want to be thorough and precise about it. Considering that for now, vehicles are basically point objects and you can shoot "through" them (Take a completely level road, 500m in length. Fill half of it with PzIVs, the other half with M4A1s, all facing the enemy. On a clear day they will ALL be able to shoot at each other, "through" friendlies, which probably shouldn't happen... This also leads to oddities like infantry hiding behind vehicles and pillboxes don't get any additional cover, and so forth.), there are probably bigger but very closely related (again, 3D models and line-of-sight calculations and all that) fish to fry, as well. And by the rewrite is done, maybe the baseline computer will actually be able to handle all that math...

Hrm. Maybe not as extreme, but I had a split Ami rifle squad and its platoon HQ get a combined 34 confirmed kills fending off the brunt of a German assault at close range (34 was also the total size of the destroyed German units which had their final casualty in that building). The HQ eventually was wiped out, but the split squad, which took two casualties and inflicted some 23 of the 34, never even broke under all the incoming fire (no exclamation point). Must have been fanatical...

*frown* If you don't know where the enemy is, you might not want to be wasting artillery yet. Probe first with some kind of recon element (split squad, say). And you definitely would not want to open up with the big guns first without a very good idea of where the enemy is, unless the arty has such an incredibly wide dispersion for the map size that it might not matter, or you intend to reduce a town to rubbble. You generally get far too few shells for a lot of points to justify expending them gratuitiously. A good defender might try to make you waste your arty support with fake strongpoints, and such tactics as rapidly evacuating towed guns for a hit-and-run. For an example of the former case, don't expect pinpoint accuracy from 300mm rockets, which are basically a wild gamble. If they hit, they hurt, but it's a toss-up whether or not they hit anywhere near where you're targetting... In the latter case, if you think your opponent set up in a town, especially if they're light buildings, and you intend to hit it early, you could. Of course, if your opponent anticipated this and set up just outside, he could then march into the rubble and use it for cover... If you can, save the heavy stuff for known or extremely probable concentrations of enemy troops.

If you have stranger tastes... if memory serves, there was once a thread here featuring Old Masters (in particular, Munch's "Scream" and van Gogh's "Starry Night") converted to sky .BMPs.

"Chance Encounter" might also be a pretty nice one to start out with -- manageable size, fair mix of units, and not nearly as capable of inducing massive frustration as, oh, "All or Nothing". For a little more stress, there's the, er, "Grosbeek Ridge" or something like that -- a short American attack on a small German force. Probably mangled the name of that one; it's been a while. "Aachen" is good for a short mostly-infantry urban fight. And "Sherbrooke Fusiliers" as the Allies is interesting for disturbing the neighbors when you first see what's headed your way. Oh, and, er, you might want to start browsing mods now. There's a LOT to choose from and download, and presumably your bandwidth and time are finite...

Those might be standard frags... but remember that CMBO also shows grenade-like "special" weapons: the Gammon bomb. Still, that box they're in is awfully *big* just for special weapons; it looks like it could track 18 of those grenade-like objects w/o scrolling, and for an 11-man squad 18 "specials" might be a bit much.

Yup. There's been "extreme" Fog of War mentioned, but, er, the details about such are still covered by Fog of Software Development. It did strike me as strange that experience levels could be revealed -- well, I could see something of courser granularity "Green / Experienced / Crack" perhaps. What struck me as stranger was that these details, along with troop types, are always accurate if listed as a certain guess (no question mark, and specific type). For instance, IIRC if it says "Rifle, '44 Pattern" it *is* a "Rifle, '44 Pattern" squad 100% of the time. Your troops seem to know if there's any chance of being wrong (usually in the sense of omission of detail, but also mis-ID for vehicles), and tell you. Is this degree of certainty about uncertainty reasonable? (*shrug* Maybe it is, for all I know. *shrug*)

Hm. As the Americans in Chance Encounter, - Keep those Shermans grouped. Having five Shermans in a group means that if a StuG comes into LOS, it probably is in a one-on-many situation, increasing the chance that you'll KO it before it KOs one of yours. Notice that the woods mean that it's a bit harder for the StuGs to advance en masse at you -- it restricts their possible approaches so that they'll mostly just come straight down the center. - ...and keep them WELL BEHIND the infantry screen. Infantry spot decently when in numbers, and they're much more robust. - ...and quite possibly out of sight entirely until needed. He who commits his armor first, is at a disadvantage if the enemy can manuever to ambush it... - Use caution and overwatch. Hrm, I tend to advance most aggressively on the left flank, to reach the fields and the walls, and then somewhat on the right flank towards the woods to provide fire support. Only when I'm reasonably happy that I can put a lot of fire onto the enemy center do I advance much towards the crossroads itself, since it's easy to get pinned down under fire from the woods in the upper left and the buildings ahead and to the right. You've got plenty of time in Chance Encounter. Use it. Two more battles that might be very good for absolutely enforcing caution are _A Long Cold Day_ and _All or Nothing_.

Hm. I believe that somebody did some tests regarding experience level of FO, and also the bonuses of an HQ if the FO's in command. Some that are definitely relevant: - Type of artillery. In particular, rockets versus standard tube artillery. Lighter arty tends to result in tighter groups, as well. - Whether or not a Target Reference Point is involved. - Having direct LOS or not -- firing blind, away from any TRPs, is not going to result in a tight group very often... It wouldn't surprise me if it's non-binary, namely that quality of LOS matters, since seeing where the shells land should help the FO adjust fire. Battlefront has indicated that there aren't national bonuses. However, they aren't mirror images of each other, e.g. the German arty isn't exactly the same as the British arty, and so forth, because they weren't in reality, either. So be careful trying to compare two types, even if they're nominally of similar / identical caliber, since the launchers may have different characteristics.

The camera isn't normally aimed in the right direction to see a plane. Incidentally, since you don't see the plane, it's impossible to select one; as they don't stick around, either, this means that you cannot see what they're targetting except by selecting the victim and noticing a yellow somebody's-targeting-me line pointing up at the sky. Incidentally, not all the planes use bombs (some use rockets), and they can all strafe, as well. Watch those replays carefully and see if anybody's getting killed mysteriously... (Weird bit: If you're playing Allies, especially a computer-chosen force, there's a pretty decent chance that there'll be one of those common 20mm FlaK guns firing. The sound will be distinctive, plus you'll likely notice an "Infantry?" contact way out of LOS of anybody but the plane, and looking like a light gun instead of a team/infantry. Perhaps it's more information than you should get? (Depends on air-ground communications and the visibility of the tracer fire, perhaps?))

The camera isn't normally aimed in the right direction to see a plane. Incidentally, since you don't see the plane, it's impossible to select one; as they don't stick around, either, this means that you cannot see what they're targetting except by selecting the victim and noticing a yellow somebody's-targeting-me line pointing up at the sky. Incidentally, not all the planes use bombs (some use rockets), and they can all strafe, as well. Watch those replays carefully and see if anybody's getting killed mysteriously... (Weird bit: If you're playing Allies, especially a computer-chosen force, there's a pretty decent chance that there'll be one of those common 20mm FlaK guns firing. The sound will be distinctive, plus you'll likely notice an "Infantry?" contact way out of LOS of anybody but the plane, and looking like a light gun instead of a team/infantry. Perhaps it's more information than you should get? (Depends on air-ground communications and the visibility of the tracer fire, perhaps?))

And if spotted only from a significant distance, they may show up only as unidentified "Infantry?" contacts -- just as a far-off full squad might. It might distract an attacker long enough to matter in a short, time-pressured (as in number of turns, not TCP/IP time per turn) game.

60 MHz for a monitor? That's a *fast* refresh rate, and one that I'd expect to cause problems.

Heh. Speaking of close encounters and, er, slow reactions, once when I defended the Hedge Maze map, one of my (by then, Rhino-equipped) elite Stuarts apparently drove right by the AI's elite King Tiger. At the end of the turn, they were literally only 8m away from each other, roughly back-to-back, with guns pointed forwards (i.e. also away from each other). Both were buttoned, so they *might* have traded MG fire in the initial jousting pass, but neither main gun had been used.

Just another non-obvious detail -- while you can use an HQ unit to spot for an on-board mortar team, you cannot do the same for an FO. So if you have a "firebase" of sorts with an HQ peeking ahead and several in-command FOs behind cover, well, they're firing blind.

This?

A TRP is a defender-only (at least in QBs) toy from the "fortifications" column. It basically looks like a target sign, and can be placed even in enemy territory during setup. They allow very rapid, tight (well, depends on munitions -- 300mm rockets won't be tight regardless) FO targetting, and can be fired at, w/o LOS, by on-board mortar teams that haven't yet moved (normally an on-board mortar needs direct or indirect [HQ] LOS). Incidentally, one other technique that could have been done was that your opponent could have been targetting frequently even when you weren't in sight, and simply cancelling / retargetting (IOW, if he guessed successfully, he lets the strike actually start; if not, he cancels the strike and guesses somewhere else. The hope is that he's already waited-away a fair bit of the delay when you arrive). This "tactic" strikes me as distastefully gamey, 'tho, as I doubt that an arty battery would appreciate being constantly given usually-cancelled barrage orders.