Mud

The biggest count probably goes to the guy who put a single Sturmtiger against a Russian bn in an open field...

Hm. Either (1) Calling down rocket fire before realizing just how wide the spread can be... or, more seriously, (2) Failing to make due haste in "B- Station", and getting blasted by enemy air power.

Oh, in a couple of years...

Terrapin -- You might want to examine the manual's section on 'special' equipment, e.g. demolition charges, magnetic mines, fin/streamer-stabilized anti-tank grenades, grenade bundles, Molotovs, Panzerfausts. Infantry units have a finite number of them, possibly none. For individual units, they'll show up in the 'grenade' box with special icons, and they'll also be listed in the 'unit info' screen you see by hitting Enter. When and where you have them, they can make a big difference, such as making it easier to knock out an irritating tank... and you can't transfer them to another unit, so you may want to note their presence during setup. They'll be used automatically when the unit feels like it, but you can order units to toss their demo charges at buildings (and bridges?) if memory serves.

To clarify -- the unit has to be /in/ the flames, not just near, to take cas if memory serves. Hence, units in a building that just caught fire will flee, but they can safely (er, it would be safe if everybody stopped firing...) stop running as soon as they're outside, unless it's CMBB and the entire tile decides to catch fire. Oh, and if you like fire, there's incendiary rockets and a Molotov launcher in CMBB.

The variance is automatic and regardless of casualty settings; some units will be above the level you asked for (This is one of only two ways that I'm aware of to have an elite unit in a QB. The other is to import one...), and some will be below. It's probably more realistic that way than having homogeneous forces. As for cas... if you are the defender in a 1000-pt QB with 50% cas, you'll be allowed to purchase 1500 pts, but only 1000 pts of units will show up.

I think the RPG is considered a 'special' item and gets a different picture, so unless your SMG squad had such an icon disappear from that box it didn't use one. It would also have been listed in the unit info 'hit enter' screen. Apparently, you just got REALLY lucky... time to start whistling the "Ikari Warriors" theme music, perhaps.

- Some form of relative spotting, yup. This is a big one. - The ability to add/remove labels (not visible to the other player, pref....) as a way of taking notes. - Better control over artillery, such as different dispersal patterns, as historically were used. - SOP menus. When confronted by ___ do ___, that sort of thing. - True 3-D vehicle-specific models for hit modeling and interesection testing, so (a) vehicle hits don't use a generic table, and ( tanks no longer can shoot through each other. - Option to area-fire just once, perhaps -- e.g. for a vehicle-mounted flamethrower, it's a bit wasteful to recon-by-area-fire a trench for a full minute. - Better handling of crewed equipment, such as ability to abandon/recrew. Separate targeting of crew, equipment so a tank might try to KO a gun anyway even 'tho the crew is hiding. - Text messages indicating when an airplane appears to be attacking. - More complete AAR generation, e.g. cas info caused by minefields / airplanes. - "Novice support", such as a way for an FO to give me an estimate of the endangered area from a barrage to come, or how long a squad thinks it'll take to reach a destination.

Hm, for contacts... consider watching once in a high overhead view. With many maps, 'tho, unless you have a truly big monitor either the map will be very very compressed or you'll need to pan. Overhead view of different sectors will, er, give you an overview. But yes, I end up watching the same replay from multiple locations often -- even on not terribly large battles. And no, there aren't contact summaries. I'd also recommend playing with sizes +2 or +3, sparse trees, and unit bases on if you're worried about tracking units.

Um, what's wrong with generating a hotseat QB, and surrendering to yourself on the first turn?

Erm... aren't those naval guns, in which case that rather limits how far the battle can be from the coast (in March '45, no less...)?

If it's with the "place the unit/fortification and then drop the building on it" approach in the scenario editor, it's always been that way AFAIK.

Three additional notes: 1. There are 'normal' CDRWs and "High Speed" CDRWs. The latter (e.g. the 4x-10x TDKs) will NOT be writable in a non-"High Speed" CDRW drive. "High Speed" should be part of the logo on the drive if it's supported. 2. There are 74-minute CDRWs and 80-minute CDRWs. If you can get 'em for not that much more, the 80-minute ones should work in just about any CDRW drive, AFAIK (well, aside from the "High Speed" issue). 3. CD-Rs are usually a lot cheaper than CDRWs, and usually can be written faster -- e.g. my PlexWriter will write them at 40x, while CDRWs will be written at a max of 12x (more realistically, 10x as that's the fastest media I have...) Oh, and they're a bit more compatible with other drives than CD-RW media. [ November 28, 2002, 10:05 PM: Message edited by: Mud ]

Don't worry too much about the number of pounds you're paying. The cost in time, attention paid to everybody else, and pounds spent feeding an increasing addiction to military history books might be far, far more. Box, extra scenarios... sounds like the CDV version. Since CDV set about to distributing CMBO fairly late, by that time there were a number of mods (graphics/sound tweaks in the form of replacement .bmp and .wav files) and additional scenarios already made. That'll save you some download time. Oh, and hopefully they included Magua's Normandy terrain mod. It's a beaut -- I'd recommend that, as well as Panzertruppen's buildings.

meditek -- Try "Last Stand as Ebensburg" as the Allies. If you don't win with all that power (although it'll probably be messy...), you truly suck. The Russian forces take somewhat different tactics, such as the grunts being much worse at AT combat (no 'fausts or 'shreck-equivalents) and overall there being some encouragement to get close (PPSh for SMG infantry, worse optics and generally lower muzzle velocity == less accuracy for the tanks), but they're quite playable. Oh, and read some Glantz (e.g. "When Titans Clashed") or Erickson (e.g. "The Road to Stalingrad", "The Road to Berlin") for a more accurate view of the war. The "Russian horde" is a myth, probably partly due to German belief that the Russians were incompetent ubermensch who couldn't possibly be winning otherwise; and partly because the Russians developed an excellent skill for concentrating their forces without being detected and thus achieving local superiority that shocked their victims. [ November 27, 2002, 12:13 PM: Message edited by: Mud ]

The big differences between the Close Combat series and the CM series are (1) real-time versus turn-based/WEGO, (2) 3D view incl. camera control, (3) a squad-based level of abstraction, (4) no campaign system, (5) greater attention to detail and realism, (6) ability to add scenarios and MAPS. (1) The "Close Combat" games are compressed real-time. Things happen faster than they should, so that battles finish in less than several hours, and you are giving orders while the action takes place. The "Combat Mission" engine operates differently. Essentially, both sides (the CM engine does not yet support more than two players representing Allies and Axis) plot orders, then they are evaluated for a sixty-second interval. Both sides can study the results at their leisure (*), including watching replays from different angles and locations, et al, and plot new orders (or let old ones continue, if desired). This, obviously, scales to larger battles and more cerebral tactics than the _Close Combat_ system (e.g. a battalion (or two!) of infantry operating over several square km versus the 9 squads/6 vehicles limit of CC2) because you have TIME to study, plan and execute -- and the order system lets you plot waypoints, cover arcs (in CMBB), et al. (*) In a TCP game, time limits can be set. (2) Full 3D view combined with the non-realtime freneticism means that you can /look/ at the terrain, including elevations, and get screwed less by bad guessing wrt LOS. (3) The CC series has, traditionally, modeled individual soldiers. CM models at the squad/team level. Individual soldiers aren't drawn (imagine having, say, over 1000 similar-looking textured 3D models running around... it'd be a control and graphics-card nightmare. This is another reason why CC games involve FAR fewer units), and the "soldiers" that represent a squad's location are abstract. As the overall commander, you're not so much concerned with individual men as you are with the big picture. (4) There is no campaign. There is no "core force" that you build up and move all over an entire theatre. There are operations, which are prolonged episodic battles over a usually larger map, but nothing like a CC campaign. Again, the emphasis is on winning battles, not on any RPG-like building of experience et al. Likewise, there is no "strategic layer". A scenario designer could reflect low supplies by giving you less ammo than normal, and in CMBB he could even make your men physically unfit (e.g. if they've been trapped in a Kessel for some time)... but you don't have to worry about maintaining landing zones or whatever. (5) The "Close Combat" games focused more on pure gameplay and freneticism, rather than realism. For instance, that led to extremely armor-heavy/dominated battles in CC2 (9 squads/6 AFVs ?!) at rather short ranges, and sometimes rather strange tactics (e.g. purchasing Aufklarer as stealthy inexpensive tank-killers because of the guaranteed pair of Panzerfausts). CMBO and CMBB in particular place more emphasis on accuracy. You need to spend time on recon -- heck, with Extreme Fog of War (EFOW) on you may fight and wipe out an entire enemy platoon without ever getting a solid ID (heh -- I had a squad once get 0 confirmed casualties during battle, but once the FOW was lifted at the end, it was revealed that they'd inflicted over 40 casualties on the faceless enemies that had tried to charge them from thick woods). You can't just take charge forth with armor, because AT guns actually matter more, et al. CMBB also takes into account rarity (unless you disable that option). (6) CC traditionally had nifty maps from aerial photography, but it didn't let you add more. CM does -- you can design your own maps, historical or not. You can place as bizarre combinations of units as you like on them, just don't label such as historical...

Strontium Dog -- Individual walls aren't modeled, so you can't blast new doorways and passages no matter what you have -- all you can do to a building is set it on fire or level it.

Battlefront's CMBB ordering page is http://www.battlefront.com/products/cmbb/cm_version.html. Due to contractural obligations, if you're in Japan or Western Europe BFC can't do business directly with you -- but you may be able to get somebody here who IS in the US to order you a copy and ship it out to you. (Clarification: "can't do business" => sell CMBB. CDV, for instance, apparently has an exclusive distributing contract within Western Europe, so for BFC to sell CMBB to you would be breach of contract.) [ November 25, 2002, 08:30 PM: Message edited by: Mud ]

From page 96 of the CMBO manual, the version after the 1.12 patch that is: "Other on-map ordnance, like antitank guns, can use TRPs as well. When firing at enemy units on or very near a TRP, they gain a considerable accuracy bonus because they are considered to have "boresighted" or "ranged" their weapons to the TRP before the battle." Presumably that applies only if the AT gun hasn't moved. Unlike CMBB, CMBO won't actually give the 'boresight' label, though.

Tank hunters aren't necessarily better off -- in the CD scenarios where I've noticed them they get PPSh and molotovs, but nothing as nice as, say, a Panzerfaust. Ergo they still need to get extremely close before they have a decent chance to knock out... a PzII, heh. And that vehicle better be buttoned up, AND it better be isolated, because as the team unhides to begin its Assault, it's going to become a bullet magnet. Ampoulets seem pretty inaccurate (molotovs aren't precision projectiles), but if the conditions are right (dry, hot) and the target's immobilized then maybe even a near-miss will start a fire that will cause abandonment. Hopefully. I think, 'tho, that as the Russians, unless you're facing only light armor you need to rely mostly on your own tanks/TDs, AT guns (e.g. 57mm long), and -- if you've got it -- air support. I've pulled off close-assault kills, but it's very unreliable and not something to try unless you're desperate e.g. "A Deadly Affair". Light, esp. open-topped armor risks being killed by PTRD/PTRS (death by a thousand pin-pricks), mortar fire or even a Maxim (open-topped at least -- soft kill).

Yeah, 'specially the upper-echeleon radio-less spotters can have substantial delay times. Oh, and in addition to the speed bonus, pre-planned barrages are always on target, so you don't need to worry about a TRP or even LOS, and if all you want is a preplan you should be able to get away with the lowest-rank no-radio highest-level spotter you can buy (in a QB). But if you get a spotter with decent response time, you may want to reserve it for when you know better where to use it. I wish that CMBB would give me, on the first turn, an estimate of how much time it would take if it WEREN'T a pre-plan rather than only giving the 'standard' time once pre-plan is no longer an option.

They use the vehicle code, as far as I know. /NO/ vehicle (or fortification, for that matter; don't try to duck below a roadblock) blocks LOS. Consider it an engine limitation that hopefully will be removed during the rewrite, which might take long enough that by that time we might all have computers which can handle the increased math. (OK, there's one exception: smoking vehicles, because of the smoke.)

CC2:ABTF provides entertaining moments such as one of your tanks taking a wild, unprovoked detour into the side of a building, and getting stuck; plus an AI that cheated rather badly re: supply rules without the manual bothering to mention this; and mind-numbingly repetitive play, e.g. having to slaughter Poles on the first Driel map again and again and again. CM maps, e.g. CMBO w/ Magua's Normandy terrain mods and Panzertruppen's buildings, can be quite lovely from a view-3 or view-4 level. The view and WEGO system also mean that you have far better control over your forces; you don't have to worry about clicking speed, nor do you have to guess much about elevations or intervening terrain. CM's equipment tables and unit modeling probably are also much more realistic; in CC2, for instance, Panzerfausts were probably TOO ubiquitious, while grenades were on the low side. CM's developers also appear to care more about bugs. Atomic/Microsoft, for instance, didn't seem to give a damn about known errors in their terrain spreadsheet that caused certain terrain (bushes/shrubs, IIRC) to block shots far higher than they should... and they released CC2 with much more obvious bugs, like how the AI mortars used the direct-fire code (it's obvious when it drops mortar rounds directly on the heads of your individual soldiers), or how one could put anti-tank guns in the top floors of buildings.

CMBO: In one scenario, the center of my defensive front was a small, light building occupied by an American half-squad and his platoon HQ. Areas around the house were basically firelanes for support units. By the time the German infantry swarm ceased to matter, the half-squad and HQ had accounted for an entire platoon (that's /confirmed/ kills), without breaking or even budging. Youch. Oh, and in the Bocage Maze scenario, I managed to charge the KT with a Stuart, which managed to immobilize the former before getting knocked out. CMBB: Defending "A Morning at the Zoo", ISTR that my troops in and near the Primate House held up rather well -- numerous kills, and they held the position despite pretty heavy opposition.

Yes, it helps to be able to understand what your soldiers are saying... CMBO may also be a bit easier to get into. It's a bit more forgiving of aggressive tactics (some have claimed that it's more fun due to that *shrug*), and it deals with a shorter segment of the war. In particular, this means that you don't run into certain problems like you do on the East Front (e.g. early-war Germans facing a KV-1 with PzIIIs, Russians facing Panthers w/ older T-34s, etc). Also, the Allied infantry on the West Front tends to have actual PIATs and bazookas, rather than just PTRS/PTRDs anti-tank rifles or Molotovs, so they're more robust against vehicles. If you have a favorite post-Normandy west-front battle, there's probably a better chance of being able to download a scenario for it since CMBO has been out for that much longer. Sooner or later, 'tho, you'll want to go east...