Cameroon

Ok, my conscript pillboxes just up and abandoned when they ran out of ammo. They had taken no casualities, had not had their status changed and were not in danger from ANY source on the board. I wouldn't care much, except that when they abandon they bring down both your victory level and global morale. And of course then the crew is available for being shot at and killed. Do non-conscript troops not leave the safety of their shelter?

Well, if you rush into a situation or get bogged down it can be really difficult to get a positive outcome. I've only lost two battles and I lost them for one of the two above reasons. Despite winning pretty much the same amount as in CMBO, I've found CMBB to be more fun to play. I've actually been able to cut off troops by pinning them or flanking, something I never could get to work before.

I was reviewing my victorious Romanian troops when I noticed a gently bobbing dotted-pink line at the base of the MP40. Ack, can't have that! So I fixed it, hopefully no one will have problems getting it from here. 1904.BMP

Originally I thought I might feel like that Franko, but after playing today I've changed my mind. Guess I'm attached at the soldier's level more than I thought (as opposed to the country or front). As for being too pretty? I don't believe that's possible I love the mods for CMBO. There's probably not much left in my install that is original. But I really love the cohesion that the units display. I find it really impressive to see all my forces looking like they belong together. And the terrains are just gorgeous. Guess you could say I'm a happy customer

For all the pros and cons of the demo scenarios, they have taught me well. In all but one battle since I got it (admittedly, today ) I've kicked the AI good and hard. I've got to give the scenario designers credit. It seems they've really taken advantage of the new features. Andreas, hats off to you -- and all the other scenario designers -- for the two scenarios of yours I've played (I'd be specific towards the others too, but I can't remember who did 'em). The maps have been just beautiful to look at. Some great "opening camera shots" in there too. Real purty. I don't generally like to field above a company of infantry in CMBO, but I've been handed a battalion in all but two games so far and it's been a joy. And don't even get me started on the QB generator. Sheesh! That's a lot of stuff. I'll work throught it all eventually. I really appreciate the new organization for unit purchases, too. Ok ok, before someone gets sick of reading pages of praises, I'll go back to mauling the various Eastern powers.

I'd hazard a guess that those of us with Macs are seeing such long install times not because of slow CD/DVD drives or even slow hard drives (or drivers) (though those may contribute) but rather the filesystem. For instance, deleting files. Within OS 9, deleting thousands of files can be very slow. Heck, after the install, if you were watching, there are a couple of moments (maybe up to a minute) of overall slowness in the system. That is the file system going "HOLY SH*T!!". Then it gets over it and things are back to normal.

Only for the unintiated

Actually, there is another option. Turn off sound during the turn calculation. That often dramatically speeds up the calculation. [Edit] By dramatically, I mean the difference in calculation times is noticeable [ September 21, 2002, 10:59 PM: Message edited by: Cameroon ]

murpes, just don't forget that the CMBB demo shows a lot of outlier gameplay. I'm sure the more 'normal' situations will feel and play much differently. And the slowed down pace of the game shouldn't be a problem, if you can handle CMBO then I imagine you can adjust [ September 21, 2002, 12:55 AM: Message edited by: Cameroon ]

That is a very pretty map, I like the looks of it a lot. If for nothing else, congrats Now I have to determine if I want to return to the CMBO battlefield while waiting.

Heh, well there ya go. Learn something new every day.

Well, two bits... the first is that I don't believe that Sneak is a combination of crawl & sneak from CMBO. Instead it would appear that it is a rename of Crawl to Sneak. The other bit is, Sneak automatically hides your troops in CMBO? Did I miss this feature altogether?

Sgian Dubh, thank's for asking the question I was going to ask. I don't have much in the way of funds to spread around and am looking to probably pick up one, reasonably priced and reasonably intelligent/useful book on the East Front. I actually figured this would be a big ol' furball of conflicting opinions, but it sounds like "Barbarossa" by Clarke is getting the majority of votes. I'll likely be forced to purchase it via Amazon since my geographic area is lacking in fine cultural establishments, like good bookstores

Well, I didn't catch that there was any difference between TRPs. It seemed to me that the only difference was that the user gets feedback about where their guns are getting the boresighting bonus. This is a change/improvement from CMBO where the same thing happens in game, but the user gets no feedback. So in short, it sounds like a user feedback improvement and not a gameplay change.

This is a really interesting site by M Hofbauer, he is to be commended.

[spoilerS - though I imagine we've all played it now ] I take it from the question that you haven't played much with EFOW? Have you tried attacking as the Germans on Citadel or as the Soviets on Yelnia (and letting the AI do its own setup)? Finding out where units are is TOUGH. Heck, you can drive tanks over foxholes with guys in them and not know it. Those machine guns can rattle on for the entire game and not be spotted. Go on, try that ith CMBO and tell me if you can't find the improvements in EFOW ATGs actually have a fair chance of getting off a number of shots without being spotted for sure. I just took out three T-34s with my two ATGs on Yelnia without losing either. Not only that, after firing, and being fired upon, they were able to hide again. EFOW is superb, specific information about units is greatly reduced. Both in what they are and where they are. It takes quite a bit of time for your troops to figure out the experience level of a unit. You can be sitting next to them and not know. While I agree that "Low?" and "High?" would be an better, I do not find it at all unlikely that you could determine the relative experience of the troops you face. Especially on the defensive, where you have the opportunity to watch what they do without being seen yourself. Basically, play as the attacker with EFOW on in CMBB and then try that in CMBO. EFOW is a big difference. Even the defender has to cope with EFOW since it is much easier for attacking troops to disappear. Like on Yelnia, where troops can actually hide in brush

*slapping forehead* Oh my, I missed that there is a show all arcs apparently. *sigh* Well, for future reference at least

I don't think the covered arcs should be tweaked much, if at all. My reason is similar to wwb_99's and Runyan99's. I use covered arcs frequently, but I cover my flanks and use 180 degree arcs at offset angles and frequently change the arc as the situation warrants. I look at like this, if you don't cover your flank, it's your own fault I did that once before I changed my approach. Now, if I've got a platoon using covered arcs that could receive fire from a flank, I create an overlapping wedge of cover arcs that cover flanks & front. [ September 12, 2002, 03:17 PM: Message edited by: Cameroon ]

Here here! Yeah, the amount of feedback -- if nothing else -- given to us about the relative use of a particular gun vs a target is a huge leap forward from CMBO. IMHO of course I think it is absolutely stellar that I get feedback (% to hit, kill chance) that takes into account the horizontal and vertical angles between the gun & target. I know that CMBO probably took into account a lot of this information (though I'm sure it's been improved), but actually being able to SEE that is wonderful. You can definitely see that a lot of detail went into this particular aspect and it is appreciated

This is the whole reason that BFC said they weren't sure if they would do pre-orders. And half the board went crazy stating that as long as they were informed, they'd pre-order anyway. They probably started the pre-order 2 or 3 weeks before ship only to give production enough lead time.

I have to say, that muzzle flash is dang cool. At first I didn't notice. It was one of those really sweet double-take moments. Like when you think you spot a really hot girl looking at you, and when you double-take she really IS looking at you Ok, maybe not that good.

No, they aren't in the demo as such. What he was probably talking about was using split squads.

LOL. Andreas, you just made my sig.

re: Hunt + Cover Arc Really? This piques my curiosity (as if I needed another reason to play ). I haven't had a problem (other than command delays, yeesh!) getting my T-34s to move, cover-arc or no. What drives me nuts, though not in a "fix or do somefink" way, is that the T-34 has such horrible vision when buttoned. I lost two of 'em last night when one cheeky German half-squad under my brother's command stayed hidden so long my tanks drove OVER him. It was pretty easy to lob Molotov's onto the deck from that range .

Heh, I don't find that possibility very likely Still gonna have to wait 'ti you get it in the mail. I'm in the same boat, too, don't get me wrong. But I can't imagine they're gonna let the cat out of the bag NOW. Not with only... 2 weeks or so 'til we of the pre-order bunch get it.