laxx

Updated the first post in this thread to include MadGamers.com, thanks to Cubes for pointing this out.

RS, Short answer, you hide while the tank is hatch down. Also, turn the Fog of war to anything but None. For a longer explanation, check out http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=001374 for an explanation of the movie.

Updated PCZone's dismal revie. the review is very superficial. A little bit like complaining and penalising a fine bottle of wine when it is served in mugs. thanks to Rostik for permission to url the scanned article. cheers!

Hi RSColonel_131st , I can understand your frustrations. I too like to play Germans in Defense. I assume you are referring to Quick Battles than the Scenarios in the CD. If refering to scenarios, then speak to the individual authors, some of the scenarios are unbalanced because of historical accuracy. For Quick Battles, A couple of pointers for ya: - Despite what everyone says, Turn the Fog of War to Partial, Full or Extreme. Turning to NONE means that while you can see what the russkies are up to, the russkies can see you as well. It is particularly important in Defense, if you play Extreme Fog of War, you can shoot at the russian tanks for quite a long time before they figure out your position. - Start with small byte-sized games first, ie. 300 points rather than > 1000 point games. At 300 points and with combined arms, the Russians *may* buy a t-70 light tank and maybe a valentine tank. - For Defensive measures as Germans, it is better to buy anti-tank guns than Tanks. They are more accurate, and cheaper. - Always choose you QB setup by yourself. And you can force the Russian to choose between Combines, Infantry, Mechanised or Armor. - If you are up against T-34s or KVs in the early part of the war, the Germans did not really have anything up their sleeves against these uber-armor except Tank Hunters and clever tactics. Check out this forum under Tips and Tricks section, there is a thread on 1941 Infantry/Tank tactics against KVs. In addition, i have created a small movie on an anti-KV group comprising of sharpie, hunter and flammer ambushing a KV-1 tank. http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/Trg-Anti-Tank-Ger.mov cheers! laxx [ December 14, 2002, 09:11 PM: Message edited by: laxx ]

rostik, can i have permission to link your url to the main cmbb review thread (http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=004088) ?

rostik, can i have permission to link your url to the main cmbb review thread (http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=004088) ?

at 300 points, you *are* forced to make hard choices, and be very frugal about deployment. with 300 as germans, I managed to buy a platoon with 4 squads + 1 50mm motar, 2 hmg, and 2 armored cars with some loose change. try *playing* without the panthers and tigers will ya ?

hi, I am playing CMBB 1.01 this evening with QB. The battle parameters are (from Briefing screen): - Rarity Standard - Axis force is unrestricted - Axis Purchase Units Allow Human - Axis Ammunition 100% - Axis Sewer Movement No - Allied Division Type is Random - Allied Purchase Units Automatically - Allied Ammunition 80% - Allied Sewer Movement No - Force Size 300 points - Handicap Allied -30% - Map Size Small - Tree Coverage Moderate - Map Type Rural - Hilliness Gentle Slopes - Damage None Well, as attacker, the game gave me 512 points for purchase. After purchasing the units, during the pre-turn phase, I positioned the units on the screen and I click GO. For pre-turn-1, I clicked GO. And immediately, the screen went to AAR: "the Allied forces surrendered to you. You have won a Total Victory" The funny thing is that there is No russian troops mentioned in the AAR or on the map. has this been reported previously ? laxx ps. I thought the AI took longer than usual to purchase units (the screen purchase bar "...."). pps. I am using this on a Mac. [ December 13, 2002, 01:20 PM: Message edited by: laxx ]

thanks for the comments guys,i am still grappling with the problem of defining what is too much and what is enough. thinking thru, it should not be a replacement for the manual or a proper strategy guide (hardcover by bfc). It should be easy enuff for a newbie to start some simple fire movement like attacking, defending and as a suggestion above, include spotting, using hq units, and movement. will need to think summore on this. cheers!

Excel Viewer for Mac. You can use icExcel. It is not free but shareware and the compatibility is remarkably good. Download it from www.macupdate.com search for icexcel. cheers!

Hi, Sometimes you will get a glimpse on how the AI works. eg. sometimes, there will be one unit, eg. a tank which outperforms the rest of the platoon or company. It could be a regular tank that won't die, or its accuracy is 100%. Sort of like Michael Wittman before he got his first iron cross. And you know, early in the game, that you are gonna win, with this expert-tank-disguised-as-regular. Friendly fire is quite interesting too, I once had a Russian Commander surrender to my German Troops, but because my troops were shooting behind the POW to get at the fleeing russian troops, the commander got shot. And that surprised me. Othertimes, I find the AI quite dumb at attacking. As it sez in the manual, we will learn thru experience and get better, the AI, on the other hand, is not capable of learning. So I gather that it defends better than attacking. laxx [ December 13, 2002, 02:16 AM: Message edited by: laxx ]

Whoooa, tough. actually, ignus, contact me at laxx@myrealbox.com, if things doan improve, i can "lend" you my site, it is a free site (but you pay for administration), http://www.ms11.net/?referral=free-webhosts. I paid for it already. But the tough part is that it is only 25mb. Eventually, everyone will know Microsoft as what they are. That is why I stopped using M$ since 1994, no office no windoze, and I work for an anti-M$ company but that's another story. laxx [ December 12, 2002, 10:19 PM: Message edited by: laxx ]

Sorry. I don't see any references on the first post. Help who out ? any links or urls ?

Hi, I think with the success of CMBB into the mainstream market (See 21 rave reviews on CMBB), there will be/are lots of users who are just getting used to the idea that combined arms tactics rules rather than brute force or uber-weapons. This is a poll whether there is a demand for an Introduction Guide to CMBB Newbie Military Tactics. Rather than come up with a strategy guide for cmbb (which BFC has just released into 300page book), the objective of Intro Guide is to teach: Infantry -------- Attack: Infantry with Support Defence against attack Infantry against Armour How to do a Human Wave Tank Tactics ------------ General Pointers Against numerically superior tanks Against better armoured tanks Gamey Tactics ------------- General Pointers Tactics gainst Pre-planned Artillery Bombardment Typically, for each section, there will be an explanation, screenshots, do and don't and a download section to try out. This is NOT an advanced guide, but it is sort of Newbie first stop guide. </font> Do newbies really want to learn these stuff ? (like how to charge across the field with support) or how to ambush KV tanks with infantry. </font> Does BFC's hardbound book cover basic military tactics (mentioned above) ? Will this be a repetition ?</font> What format would you suggest ? I was thinking of PDf format, perhaps Web.</font> Does something like this already exists outside of the forum ? </font>And of coss this is Free of Charge, just my contribution to this great game. cheers! [ December 12, 2002, 09:48 PM: Message edited by: laxx ]

hi It used snapzpro to capture screen and sound and export it to a movie file. There is an option for mic as well, good for voice overs. As for sharpshooters, the usage is two fold: produce a hatch down as this limits the view. The second, and more important useage is to disable/kill the Tank Commander. This cause the tank to go in to shock and immobilise for a time period. Flame Throwers usually take 2 or more squirts to kill the KV tank. I played around with infantry vs russian tanks and for me, I find the optimised combination to be: sharpshooter to suppress tank hunter to disable/kill flame thrower as a backup cheers!

Hi, These are my observations and comments on some of the CD games. I have not played the scenarios by Rune which I am sure they are most excellent. While I am not in favor of all balanced or fair games as these things doan happen in Real Life, I do appreciate making some of the fictional games easier to play for Newbies. Historical games should be as-is. I sometimes think the creators create difficult scenarios to cater for the hardcore grognards. But forget about the many newbies that just started on CMBB. A suggestion to Andreas' on his great scenarios: give more turns in the game. In Cemetery Hill and Totenkopf, 20-25 turns are not enuff as Germans, and Russians respectively. As suggested earlier, I agree on changing the ratings system. I remember one of the review site has a metric on "whether the game is balanced", this should not be in the final score of the reviews. umm... possible to have "Warning Sticker" on some of the more unbalanced but historically correct games ? laxx [ December 11, 2002, 12:27 AM: Message edited by: laxx ]

*** spoiler on Iron RoadBlock *** In Iron RoadBlock, I played both sides. As the Russians, it is quite easy. Just make sure you have enuff ammos to last the entire engagement. As the Germans, I had major victory only after I played it several times. What I did to win was to group 3 forces: suppression (guns), distractions (the tanks), knockout (the motorized troops). It was bloody to say the least, stationary guns pinging at the KV, Panzers II storming towards the KV and getting blasted, the motorized troops (thank gawd for the infantry!) flanking on the right towards the KV. Troops disembarked and finally killed the kv with a puny magnetic mine or grenade (simulated closed quarter fighting). ----- On a different note, i created a small movie on an anti-KV group comprising of sharpie, hunter and flammer ambushing a KV-1 tank. http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/Trg-Anti-Tank-Ger.mov (quicktime, 3mb) [ December 11, 2002, 12:01 AM: Message edited by: laxx ]

Whadmean August 1941 ?! What happened on august 1941 ?

I doan think there is any option for russian smoke except for the 82mm (I think only available later in the war). Use HMG and Motars for suppression.

*bump*

i also did a bad training video on Human Wave at http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/Sample-HumanWave.mov

I have updated the First Post with Training movie #2: infantry tank ambush * [ December 10, 2002, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: laxx ]

Training Movie: Infantry vs Tank Ambush This is a old 1941 German training movie on how to conduct an ambush against a KV-1 Tank. The Ambush team comprise of: - Sharpshooter (right bottom screen) - Tank Hunter team (left of tank) - Flame Thrower (right of tank) Sequence: a. The ambush team is hidden with well placed covered arcs of fire. b. The sharpshooter snipes at the tank commander. The Tank goes into shock mode with hatch closed. c. After a while the tank stumbles along the road. d. The tank comes within the Cover Arcs of the Tank Hunter team and Flame Thrower. e. The Tank is Flamed but is finally killed by a magnetic mine thrown. You can watch the old footage at: http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/Trg-Anti-Tank-Ger.mov [ December 10, 2002, 11:15 AM: Message edited by: laxx ]

-E-, words are too *ahem* hard for you, describing a russian human wave is going to take too long. It's not your fault, it's just that you are a "visual" person. I am going to suggest the following link for learning how to do a human wave: http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/Sample-HumanWave.mov

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWblitzkreig.htm Major General Sukhov was a tank commander in the Red Army who fought against the German Army during the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. "...Usually he enemy pushes forward large tank units in the directions of major operations. This move is preceded by theo perations of general infantry troop formations or by tank troops jointly with motorized infantry, supported by artillery and aircraft to make a breakthrough in the defence lines. Tank divisions are followed by motorized formations. Mobile groups of troops pusha head as far inland as possible, and in their sweeping movement they neither look back nor pay attention to their flanks, irrespective of whether the rest of their troops are following along. Lately the German tank forces have adopted the following method : When the tank units which have pushed on far ahead run short of fuel they dig themselves into the ground, leaving only the gun turrets above the surface. Thus while waiting for the arrival of fuel the tanks are transformed into a kind of fortified post, and the district occupied by the tank unit becomes something of a fortified district." -------- Wilhelm von Thoma, commander of 2nd Panzer Division, claimed that there were five main reasons why German tactics were so successful at the beginning of the Second World War. 1. The concentration of all forces on the point of penetration in co-operation with bombers. 2. Exploiting the success of this movement on the roads during the night - as a result, we often gained success by surprise deep in, and behind, the enemy's front. 3. Insufficient anti-tank defence on the enemy's part, and our own superiority in the air. 4. The fact that the armoured division itself carried enough petrol for 150-200 kilometres - supplemented, if necessary, with supply of petrol to the armoured spearheads by air, dropped in containers by parachute. 5. Carrying rations sufficient for three days in the tanks, for three more days in the regimental supply column, and three more days in the divisional supply column. --------- Tom Wintringham,New Ways of War (1940) ".. The third main factor in the success of the German tactics and strategy is that they have employed and developed the tactics known as "deep infiltration." This means that their army does not attack strung but in a line, and maintaining contact all the time between its advanced units and its main forces. It does not hit like a fist, but like long probing fingers with armoured finger-nails. Each separate claw seeks a weak spot; if it can drive through this weak spot, it does not worry about its flanks, or about continuous communications with the forces following it. It relies for safety upon surprise, upon the disorganisation of its opponents due to the fact that it has broken through to the rear of their position. ------- [ December 10, 2002, 05:54 AM: Message edited by: laxx ]