HarryInk

In CMBO, unless you have absolutely safe movement lanes (good cover, reverse slopes, or secure gullies), you run. I have watched so many opponents walk their troops forward. It must have been like being a German in Normandy watching the Tommies approach - something that makes you speechless! Open ground is death. Allowing your enemy the leisure to maneuver (either troops or arty barrages) in answer to your 'moves' is also death. You have to use cover, overwatch - as you appreciate, and dash. If you're worried about what you'll meet, use half-squads to recon so that the pain will be less. CMBO won't penalise this like BB and AK do. A superior way to move troops in CMBO, if you have the patience, is to do extensive plotting. Plot their moves for the next 500m with a waypoint every 20-40m as terrain dictates. Then, as the action dictates, you can vary the waypoint orders and adjust their positions. I think infantry theory runs that when your point contacts you extend the line and maneuver your reserve to take the enemy in flank/rear. Using long plotting, when your lead squad contacts you can drag the following squads waypoints way over toward the flank of the contact and change them to run/sneak, etc as necessary. This way you can quickly overwhelm the enemy or prepare a line to receive his counterattack. It saves you the command lag he is going to have getting his troops going. You're 13 seconds ahead, on average. That often translates into inflicting a few sudden casualties, quick panics and gaining ground. Practice this in a few little infantry games in heavy woods (where fire zones are restricted). You'll quickly skill up in the art of fire and maneuver CMBO style. For BB or AK, I'll leave you to others' advice. Cheers

Well, just to update you on the result - and sorry I can't post a nifty movie: Turn N: Panther enters the scattered trees corridor between 'walls' of woods. Passes a half-squad that has been firing on it as it approaches to keep it buttoned up. I plot the two other nearby half-squads to race over - one passing in front of the tank (remember, this is CMBO!), the other behind. Turn N+1: Panther unbuttons but the stationary half-squad quickly persuade Fritz to pull his head in. They grenade attack at 10-30m as the Panther moves away along the corridor. No hits. As Redwolf [?] noted, much less luck vs. a moving tank. Other squads arrive - the 'in front' squad ends up behind and looking down the barrel of the long 75! Fortunately, the Panther happens to be moving forward on the axis of my retreat line, so I am able to use Withdrawal commands on all 3 half-squads to plot them to race to his likely exit from the trees and triangulate him. At the very least it will keep him buttoned up. This is important as a Sherman 75 & a Firefly approach at speed. Turn N+2: He booms the half-squad in his sites. Weighed down by the new contents of their shorts, the canucks kiss the dirt while the other 2 squads race past. The Panther exits the trees onto the roadway with turret facing rearwards still lambasting the earth-mother-worshipping footsloggers. The Sherman 75, which is leading, puts a nice shot through the hull on it's second attempt - all well and good too as the Panther had stopped watching the infantry and was swirling about to face. Sad for the Germans however, the driver was traversing left and the gunner traversing his slow load right - probably doubling the time the tank would have taken to get on target. Anyway, the infantry arrive in time to shoot down the fleeing crew. A happy result for me tho' not for my luckless opponent. Can you believe that earlier in the game, this poor fella took on 4 of my Shermans with a Tiger and 2 flanking 88 ATGs and came out having lost his lot and scored only a single hit on one of my tanks. Ares is not a fair master. Don't forget to make regular sacrifices!! Thanks for the discussion.

Thanks all. I'll apologise to my mate and see if I can hunt up some refs for him. Given that the aim is that he'll end up kicking my arse, I don't know why I should do this. Perhaps it exposes the generous masochist in me??!

Them is good tips WN. I have to admit that I'd be a little disappointed if my grenades have any effect. Having been to a tank museum not so long ago and seeing the industrial scale of the monsters, it'd seem a little strange if little single grenades could achieve much against them. Still waiting for the turn....

Ah, you're all such sweethearts with your talk of covered arcs. This is CMBO I'm talking here!! lol Still, I'm honored to have JasonC *cue choral blast* (et al to drop in on one of my threads. *VBG* I'll try the 25-45 metre gig anyway. And HOT DAMN Wicky, those are ace little movies. Encouraging too. How do you get them up like that on the site? [ September 10, 2004, 08:19 AM: Message edited by: HarryInk ]

You thought Himmler would be a good leader?! Spineless Heinrich?! A man who pretty well personifies the evil of weakness? No no no...

Ah well then. I'll apologise to him and tell him to read about Guderian then! *L* Thanks Harry

Well, I'll let you know the result. I suspect he'll rumble on past. It was a good innovation to add the 'follow vehicle' command in CMBB.

Thanks. That's the impression I had to Panzer Leader. Now I'll have to hunt about for AP...

Thanks for the reply and the tip re: HQ squads Nah. Just detachments. I appreciate they'll prolly use grenades, but is there any chance of the grenades doing anything in this close terrain?

Thanks. : )

He's driving a Panther through a thin corridor of scattered trees. I've got Canadian infantry in the woods either side (!). I'll admit there's no PIATs there. Tell me the truth: the canucks are going to do diddley squat without AT assets, aren't they? My guess is yes, they'll do zilch. They'll just ping with their Enfields and feel embarrassed.... I'm in search of dissenting opinions... *LOL*

I concur with the above. In 'Prelude to a Breakthrough' (of Scenario Depot) I drove PIVs into scattered trees hoping for protection from the Jabos. They attacked some infantry in the open instead - even a HQ squad in a foxhold in the corner of a large 'T' shaped building - in preference to the tanks. Go figure....

I was a prat today and advised a mate to read Guderian cos he's let me bunch up on all his tanks and pick 'em off one by one. I've got my copy of Panzer Leader (1974 paperback ed by Futura Books) and read the prewar part before I got distracted to other things. Other than that, I've read about Guderian rather than G himself. So my question is: What are the best bits of Panzer Leader to read if you want hints on how to handle armor in CM? Any of it? Or are we best reading about G. rather than reading it in detail?

Providing an opportunity for people to guffaw and ask 'what on earth are you still doing with OS8'! *L* I dunno anyone with OS9. *shrug* .. and to add to my ignorance.. What would it do for me anyway that 8.6 doesn't? [ September 09, 2004, 05:27 AM: Message edited by: HarryInk ]

I haven't got Nortons.... Hmmm... I'll have to sniff around friends to see if anyone has. Meanwhile, can you recommend any freeware I can DL that can sort out my frag'd files?

Problem: CMBO was deleted from my iMac and I'm having major problems reinstalling it. System: Old bottle-green iMac sporting OS 8.6 on PowerPC G3 processor at 233Mhz. Available disk memory 736Mb. Built in memory 160Mb. Virtual memory 161Mb. Vid card 2Mb. Notes & Symptoms: 1. CMBO was orginally installed under OS 8.1, I think. The 8.6 upgrade came later. 2. That installment of CMBO was trashed last week. It was lowres but had run just fine for years. 3. I reinstalled. The new installation procedure finished suddenly with a box proclaiming that there were problems in the installation, I should quit, restart, try again. Nevertheless on a cursory inspection, the game seemed to run, so I dropped the 1.12 patch over it. Performance was much cruder than before. Movies froze then jumped several seconds - especially when I had the sound going. So that I could keep doing PBEM turns, I put up with this until today when it was particularly irritating. So, I trashed the game to start again. 4. Initial attempts to install the game afresh simply failed to get going. There was some immediate problem getting the installation onto the HD and the process aborted itself. This evening I'm back at step 3, it seems: installation has finished short of the end with the 'problem' message. Any suggestions from the dedicated Mac officiandos out there. Please. Pretty please!

Well, here's another question... In an operation (without an exit zone), if you overrun your enemy and move off the 'front' of the map, will you just lose those troops or will they affect how/where the next battle is placed? I expect I'd just lose the troops, yes?

But do I still keep the points for them if I remove them from the map (not via the exit zone)?

I love you.

I'm PBEM fighting Wayne Rutledge's hoot of a CMBO scenario "Village Fracas". I got myself virtually a whole platoon of yankee GIs prisoner. I got an exit zone. Will it benefit me to try and get the captured troops off via the exit zone, or should I just leave 'em in a safe house in my rear?

Thanks v. much for the topographic map site. Ace.

Alas, seems the answer is 'no way'.

I've posted this question in Tips and Tricks here . I'd love it if you could answer "Yes, Harry, it is" and explain how. Please say yes.... please..!

Hi all, I've just put a 2000m x 2400m map together in CMBO. Don't ask me why. I hate the CM map editor. Anyway, is there any way to use parts of the map rather than the whole thing? It is my impression that there isn't. To make a smaller map from a larger by reducing the height and width seems only to cut it back to the NW corner. No other part of the map is available to be used. Is that so or is there a way to select parts of CM maps to use? Surprise me. Please tell me it is and that I am a naive ingenue. There are lots of scenarios where bits of them would make great little fights. Thanks in anticipation...