Jump to content

Ligur

Members
  • Posts

    496
  • Joined

  • Last visited

    Never

Everything posted by Ligur

  1. How amusing, this happened to me yesterday, and on the second game on row no less! I've been trying to haul mortars and company HQ's on jeeps and scratching my head. Maybe the next game I'll remember?
  2. Or you could pay attention to what I told you and use the default set-up for the defender. That way, after one playing you'd know where all the trenches and barbed wire were going to be. Hell, you could even take a screenshot and print it out to help you remember. Michael </font>
  3. What scenario is this "Raid on Rommel" you speak of? Where did you get it? In my CDV version CM:AK there was a "Find the Fox" which plays exactly the same though. This is one of the more amusing scenarios. How I managed in that is as follows... **********WHOA DOOD SPOILERZ HERE********** * * * * * * * * * * Trench or barbed wire are not visible during the setup because they are "enemy units" and not terrain features. I tried the scenario using "scenario default" setup for the troops, this is the way it should be played. The resistance would be much worse with free AI setup, i.e. you would be unable to even get inside the first big building without taking heavy incoming. Also, the German side does not have enough trench & barbed wire to block your advance completely even with free setup, not by a long shot? At least in my version of the game. I ****ed around with a "free to place units" and not once did barbed wire and trenches block all my approaches. However there was too much infantry around. Notice! There are walls and other stuff on the way, however. This cannot be avoided. However its far from walk in the sun even so. After reading the briefing I didn't wait for any resistance during the first 60 seconds and advanced too far with two squads, more or less like you did in your single "succesfull" approach. What happened was exactly like you described (a green squad of Krauts appeared and peppered a lot of Brits from the 2nd floor of the building). This was not a good thing. I think the scenario is made so you have to try a few times to get the result you want. The second time I approached with more stealth, set up a good base of fire from the palm trees inside the HQ compound and stormed the buildings in two waves. After the reinforcements from the town started arriving I had both buildings in control and shot the OPFOR to bits in the open. Use your single mortar to smoke areas in critical moments, use your Bren guns for support and be very liberal with spending ammo (i.e. area fire at will if you don't have good targets) as this is a short scenario, it helps keeping the Kraut heads down, and after you have a clear route bring in your AT-rifles STAT. Did you play long enough to enjoy all the vehicles coming your way? I managed a major victory the third time I tried, casualties 64 infantry, 2 vehicles destroyed and 1 gun lost for the Germans, 30 for the Brits. The green German squad in the second floor is really hard to take down succesfully & without a lot of casualties IMHO. Of course, we might be talking about a different scenario and my post was useless.
  4. Eh? Where have you been looking? I see them all over the place. :confused: Michael </font>
  5. The AI reacted to your powerful armor. The AI rightly thought that your Tiger would have nuked the Shermans unless they get the hell out of the way. The TacAI, which can and will take over your own troops as well, will try to "save" units faced with very bad odds by taking cover. Infantry starts crawling towards safety and vehicles reverse out of LOS. I remember reading a really, really old review about CMBO where the author was horrified and scared about the TacAI that "replotted his clever orders" time and time again. Poor sob didn't quite catch on with the fact that the TacAI was just trying to save his troops.
  6. If vehicles get too close to each other while trying to take a similar route (for example the same road) to reach destination X it can lead to a huge cluster**** of reversing, stopping and turning around vehicles. It is possible to plot even very complex and orderly advances in cramped roads but the planning can and will take some time. I just plotted movement of 12 jeeps, one tank and two halftracks via a winding mountainside road, and it would have turned to a huge mess without careful thinking and timing of movement (mostly using the "pause" order and different speeds). Keeping distances safe usually negates the kind of problems you faced. Or then there is some sort of a bug, but everytime my vehicles start acting up I have been able to trace it to a mistake I made myself.
  7. Issue target to mortar team directly. You will get a yellow/orange indirect fire line from the mortar to the target instead of the normal red one. This tells you they are opening fire while the HQ does the actual spotting. Remember, if your HQ is in "hide" mode they are unable to spot for mortars.
  8. I've yet to see any troops in CMAK equipped with any kind of SMG.
  9. Here is a review for you guys, feel free to distribute it all over the inter-web-cyber-highway: Combat Mission: Afrika Korps is the best tactical level wargame ever published. Thnx bye.
  10. Yep I know the feeling, after CM:BO I really can't remember having many artillery strikes on spot (CM:BO had, like, super fast arty compared to CM:BB so you could adjust all you wanted), and fixing the aim may or may not take half the game, whereupon the target is already somewhere else. I find it almost TOO hard to fire for effect these days. Smoking a huge area is just about the only thing that works like I wish. On-board mortars, of course, totally rock.
  11. So I'm the only one the Tiger scared to death and gave a goddamn solid asskicking I won't forget? 30 secs and both M10s knocked out? Sheesh, my luck with armor has been as bad since CMBO (I was the one who always got killed with the first shot. Infact in my first armored TCP/IP ever a Puma KO'd my Churchill with the first shot from 400 meters and so on and on and on and on ****ing forever on).
  12. What they had for breakfast is also an issue. Bad rations in the morning makes for grumpy übermensch who want to get back at Himmler. I'm glad battlefront finally models that correctly.
  13. I'm not sure if that sounds all that wrong. You know people used to surrender in the middle of firefights and just start walking from their own trench towards the enemy waving a kerchief? Depending on who you fought for and where, that could be a really bad idea though. Maybe the gun crew had been on the front for two long and unsuccesfull years on row. Maybe they just had had enough. Maybe they felt, despite the bunker being there, that they were going to die during the next 60 secodns if they didn't do something radical. Maybe they knew the guys in the bunker were sick of it too, and wouldn't shoot them in the back.
  14. I was waiting for the first grog to blow us out of cyberspace! But JasonC only voiced a suspicion without facts? Boys, we might be trekking where no grog has gone before. I have read at least second hand accounts of flamers being used against armor, in Africa (of all places), but can't provide a link or reference. Not much was mentioned about the effectiveness against armor. So don't listen to me. But 20 years of wargames has lead us to believe flamer = dangerous to armor, at least in my case. What the flamer has going for it, is messing up the engine, and fuel possibly catching fire. A tank with a few extra barrels of fuel on top of it would be in a precarious situation indeed, because I don't think the barrels are thick enough to keep the fuel from brewing up. The diesel used by Russians though, I don't know. I am of the opinion that a flamers lethality vs an AFV is more or less dependent on what particular vehicle you are shooting at and where. Light armor with thin plates could heat up so badly the ammunition behind the plates ignites. If you torch the engine from the right place I think the FT would be a dangerous weapon against any armor. But without hard facts this its more or less idle speculation. How well protected the engines & exhausts are in a Tiger? I mean versus burning fluid? How did they keep the engines cool? I'd still take a 88mm AP shot from 30 meters instead of a big torch if I wanted to stop a tank though. And even if FT were good at killing tanks, a situation where it could have been field tested was prolly a very, very rare occurence, what with the flamers role in WW2.
  15. 1) My prisoners only take their orders about 50% or 70% the time as well. Some seem very stubborn refusing to move round after round, some co-operate at once. Standing next to them and giving menacing looks does seem to help once in a while but it might all be just random. They'll start hauling ass after a while. 2) No idea. I think, basically, none. But I keep a few guys near just to be sure and to thwart any enemy units wandering nearby. My prisoners have never "rebelled" unless their own troops "rescued" them by coming very near. Last night I captured a gun crew by shooting them from a house 15 meters away. After they surrendered I told the little boogers to come inside the house, but the next turn they were out of control already: a lone sniper had been hiding in the buildings second floor and being very near somehow negated the capture effect. After I shot the sniper I ran after the gun crew and gunned them down on the open, where they were wandering forwards their own lines. Hurrrr shoulda not have tried to escape! 3) Nothing AFAIK, unless some of their own non-captured units wander near. They just stand there waiting for someone to tell them to go to the damn POW camp already. edit: I once used area fire on top of some prisoners who refused to budge. They started moving. I'm sure it was a coincidence, and killing prisoners is bad point wise, but it was fun, hurr hurr hurr. [ December 28, 2003, 01:35 PM: Message edited by: Ligur ]
  16. While the flamethrower wasn't designed for an antitank role, hauling a flamethrower to tank killing range not being practical at all, AFAIK it was quite effective for roasting armor and scaring the crew witless when given a chance. Think that in the Eastern front they used molotov coctails to (try and) destroy armor with. Bottles full of something that would catch fire and burn, if luck was with you, on top of a tanks engine compartment. D'oh. But it could work. Now imagine yourself inside a tank during an urban fight you don't want to be a part of, bullets pinging on your turret, the clouds of concrete dust and dirt kicked up by artillery clouding your already poor visibility. Its only evening but the smoke of war makes it nearly as dark as the night. Now think of sticky flaming fluid suddenly spraying on your already uncomfortable and cramped tank with a resounding SWOOOOOOOOSSSHHHH from a goddamn HOSE somewhere very near you, the air being sucked out, the only thing you see outside are dust and flames licking armored plate, heat rising, starting to scorch your skin and lungs, droplets of the stuff spraying in from any openings on your metal coffin, you see the rack of HEAT ammunition catching some of the stuff, your radist is stomping on his smoking coat and bangs his head on the scope, your engine is overheating and screaming bloody murder... Definetly works. I'd run, if I had the time before something goes *BOOM*
  17. I maybe be wrong... But I think I read a post by Moon where he said the variables that affect surrendering were tweaked for CMAK to reflect the less brutal war in West just like you thought. We all have noticed by now it is, indeed, a lot easier to capture troops by overwhelming positions or surrounding them with big tanks. I have no doubt this very intentional feature suits the CMAK locale well. It is also mysteriously satisfying to capture troops and walk them towards your start line with a PIAT team on guard... Instead of the CMBB style "surround with battallion, drop 155mm treeburst on them, drive over with 12 Tigers" tactic of making troops stop shooting back for good. In CMBB you mostly captured 1 guy from some exhausted unit too tired to escape or shoot back, the rest had to be killed. The CMAK way, you save a lot of ammo for shooting units that actually matter! edit: Damn, beaten by Moon himself. Yeah, it is "possible" something was changed.
  18. I've checked out a few desert mountain assaults, but really can't get into them. The terrain is incredibly hard to read (at least on my Radeon and flat screen), even with gridded tiles. The maps are often huge and very hard to take in. The maps I've seen appear like someone took a huge bucket of desert tiles and poured them in a pile to create a random jumble of small elevations and pits and then a "mountain" by smashing more tiles into one place. This could be realistic though Throw in some rocky terrain, some rough, some random scattered trees and a few battallions of pixeltruppen, playtest untill winnable vs AI. Mountain battle! I don't think the purpose of CMAK is to spend 60 minutes just trying to understand the contours of the field :confused: Then add the intense boredom of walking lots of infantry towards a distant elevation, not my cake at the moment. No disrespect to anyone who has designed such a battle of course, I just personally don't get a lot of fun out of it, I'm not saying the scenarios are poor. I'm sure there are a lot of players who enjoy this type of battle.
  19. I remember reading both of the stories on the forums AND in linked articles, back when everyone was still playing CMBO. I tend to think at least the M8 thing might be true, WW2 was a huge show and I'm sure we haven't even heard half of the amazing, improbable and well nigh impossible occurences that took place because the witnesses were either killed before they had a chance to tell or just didn't want to talk about it. Sometimes when I'm reading WW2 related material I get this unreal feeling, you know what I'm talking about, the one when you start thinking "Oh man, how did this ever come about? What were they thinking? This is just unreal, how is that possible" but you know there is a very good chance it all happened.
  20. Hmm, I wouldn't be surprised if there would be a 3rd party interested in buying the engine for a Vietnam game or such. I wonder what BTF thinks of this.
  21. When I played the scenario I was tha allies, with two brave TD's cover arcing armor from the hill while everything else was methodically mopping up the village. Then a Tiger appeared, destroyed both of my TD's in 30 seconds and then went on to hammer all my tanks out and shoot everything to bits no matter how hard I tried to hide. In the end, it was a draw. The Tiger was über
  22. Hey rune, as usual your scenario was good, forgot to say that. I think it was a good show. I remember us talking about building terrain somewhere in the past and you've improved on that department j/k your scenarios have always been great, especially when CM:BB finally started supporting your style of making maps that are a bit on the vast side more often then not.
  23. Thanks for the tip. Include "frigging" and "bummer" with some "goddamn hell" supported by "bloody incompetent ****nugget" at least once in every sentence of my incoherent AAR rant. I think my already suffering brain misfired a synapse or two after the touted veteran übergermans were taken out by outnumbered US tanks so easily.
×
×
  • Create New...