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Myles Keogh

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Everything posted by Myles Keogh

  1. A follow-the-leader/convoy-like command was announced as a possible feature inclusion for the 4.0 upgrade. However, somewhere between that upgrade's announcement and its release that featured got shelved. Apparently, BF couldn't get it to work within their code. A shame because plotting vehicle road movements has got to be one of the worst parts of the game. All the waypoint setting and using the pause key to both keep vehicles on the road and to avoid traffic jams. And It's really annoying when playing scenarios/campaigns that feature waves of reinforcements on a large map. (When playing such scenarios, I often save and quit upon receiving a company plus of armored/motorized reinforcements because I usually have to feel pretty energized to spend all the time plotting their road movements to "the front." So, I take a break from the game then until I feel more in the mood to do so.) Since, unfortunately, they've already tried but failed to fix this issue, it appears we're stuck with it until maybe CMx3, if that ever happens.
  2. I played the opening scenarios for both Allied campaigns. Here are some thoughts that I wrote mainly to amuse myself: (POSSIBLE SPOILERS). Both were small/medium sized engagements fought in pre-dawn/early dawn darkness in rainy weather. The Kleves campaign: although your core forces will eventually consist of our old pals from the "The Scottish Corridor" campaign- the 15th Scottish Division- the opening scenario features a non-core battalion of French-Canadians of the Maissoneuve Regiment. Being non-core with no bonus for force preservation should have a big hint as to how to play this scenario. I didn't take it. Unfortunately, I acted like General McClellan again by being way too cautious. So, I ended-up with a draw and still lost 100 men! Those dug-in Germans showed little inclination to run. (One thing I did note that upon reviewing that Canadian battalion was that it contained three Lightfoots as unit commanders. Surprisingly, there were no Twains, Adamses, Lees, Murrays, Dions, Morissettes or even a Bieber.) The Cologne campaign: a small scenario with a single platoon of 3rd Armored Division tanks supporting an infantry company of the 8th Infantry Division. Really fast moving and pretty easy. The Americans are all veterans which certainly helped. One also gets a battery of 105s, and I was very glad that the extremely poor visibility kept me from using it because its ammo level carries over into the next scenario which I don't recall being mentioned in the briefing. I shouldn't have expended the few shells that I did. I won a major victory for taking the objectives but not a total one due to not ruthlessly tracking down the remaining hapless Volksturm.
  3. Experience and fatigue can improve or degrade spotting. Conscript/green troops don't spot as well as elite/crack ones. Exhausted/tired troops don't spot as well as rested/ready ones. (One of the bigger reasons of why NOT to run your pixeltruppen ragged without reason.) And, as already stated, units equipped with binoculars have improved spotting. I don't believe there is any spotting "bonus" for units labeled as being scouts or recon. They spot only as well as their fatigue/experience levels allow them and whether or not they're equipped with binoculars which they usually are.
  4. Yeah, this is a nearly 8-year necro-bump, but any chance this UI mod gets an update with the release of Downfall? I know JuJu moved-on, but others took on the task of updating his mod for both CMFI: Rome to Victory and CMRT: Fire & Rubble. So, is anyone planning on doing the same for Downfall? I was able to take a lot of stuff from the CMBN and CMRT UI mods to fill-in a great deal of Downfall's branches/ranks/weapon slots/silhouettes, but, of course, a lot of the new late war stuff is missing. (Not surprisingly, very little, if any, got sent to Italy so the CMFI UI mod is a rather scant source to fill in the missing stuff.)
  5. According to its description on The Scenario Depot that scenario was created to be played single player as the Germans. As such, there probably is no AI plan for the Germans since they're supposed to be player controlled. "Your Windhund Aufklarungs Zug goes in on foot to try and rip this key bridge from the enemy’s grasp" is its description. Plus, it does state that it's Best Played as Side One [Germans] vs the AI [USA].
  6. As stated in my last post, the company HQ is in CLOSE visual contact with the section HQ. In fact, they're sharing the same foxhole, and both are in CLOSE visual and voice contact with the two mortars. They've been sharing the same foxhole for quite a while. So, it's not a temporary break as a result of the company HQ being in transit. The company HQ radio is up and it's in contact with battalion. And yet those two mortars are still out-of-contact to every HQ/FO on the map except for their section and company HQs. The contact indicators for the mortars and the section HQ show green for every level except company. It has been me befuddled why it worked for a while after platoon HQ bought it in the first minutes of the scenario, but then it didn't after I moved the company HQ and then policed-up the dead platoon HQ. It's all academic now. I finished that scenario. Used up those mortars' HE rounds by calling in targets through the section HQ. (They still have smoke rounds). I'm just going chalk this up to a "glitch" as another poster put it. Thanks to everyone who tried to help.
  7. This is my suspicion as to this issue. That removing the dead weapons platoon HQ somehow permanently broke the link. (At game's start, that platoon HQ was in radio contact of its company HQ and in close visual contact of its section HQ.) After the loss of its platoon HQ, the section HQ was taken under direct command of the company HQ as shown by close visual/voice contact symbols and for a while I was able to call upon that section's mortars from anywhere on the map. However, ever since I policed-up the dead platoon HQ being in contact with company HQ doesn't seem to have any effect in making those mortars available to any other HQ/FO. Both are listed as "out of contact" to all except their own sec. HQ.
  8. Playing a huge CMRT scenario with a number of company-level heavy weapon mortar sections. Early in the battle, one section lost its weapons platoon HQ to an arty barrage which I thought would sever the C2 link between its two mortars and any other HQ/FO, but it didn't. Other HQ/FO's were still able to call upon those mortars. Yet, when I later moved that section's company HQ, the link was broken. After that, the only way I could use those mortars for indirect fire was through their own section HQ. The company HQ was always in visual and/or voice contact with the section HQ (which is why I thought the link wasn't broken when the platoon HQ was lost) but moving it broke the link. I also "policed-up" the dead weapons platoon HQ pixeltruppen through buddy-aid. Did also play a part in the break? After that, I noticed that each mortar's green contact indicators showed that it was in contact with the section HQ, the platoon HQ (??) and the battalion HQ, but out-of-contact with the company HQ despite it being in visual/voice contact. So, how was that indirect fire C2 link still able to work after losing the platoon HQ, but was later permanently broken?
  9. Unfortunately, the out-of-memory issue has been an existing conflict between some AMD drivers and CMx2 for several years now. (In fact, it was the first problem I ever had with them.) What makes it frustrating is that some driver updates have caused the issue and other have not. It seems utterly random. Trying to avoid it, I haven't updated my AMD drivers in almost a year. The 22.5.1 work fine with CMx2 and, fortunately, I don't play games that require recent drivers. So, it's not that that big of an inconvenience for me, but I know it may be frustrating for other gamers.
  10. It's great news that a truly classic campaign is getting an update. It was my first real experience with CMx2. (Sadly, I retain a vivid memory of playing it in May 2011 mainly due that being just weeks after my father's sudden passing.) I have questions: is the update going to include stuff from the Vehicle Pack to make some scenarios more historically accurate? (Example: replacing the PZ IVs in Turnbull's Stand with captured French tanks which weren't available upon CMBN's original release.) Or will it remain playable with just CMBN with no other modules needed?
  11. Do you have an AMD graphics card? If so, then it's a driver issue. Unfortunately, CMx2 and some of AMD's newer drivers are not compatible. I'm using the 22.5.1 driver which was released in late April, and it works with CMx2. It's been like this a couple of years now. Sometimes an AMD newly released driver works with CMx2 and sometimes it doesn't.
  12. The campaign briefing for Five Days One Summer mentions a PDF file with information about the campaign (presumably similar to the ones included with KG von Schroif and other George MC work). However, I can't find it. Neither in the main CMRT files nor in Documents CMRT game files. Does anyone know where to find it? Or was it not included with the download?
  13. Also confirming that the 22.8 AMD driver breaks the game. It's worse than last year's AMD driver issues. With last year's issues, one could still load and play scenarios with small to mid-sized maps. This one screws-up the entire game making it completely unplayable. It is getting worrisome that updating AMD drivers now feels like playing Russian roulette when it comes to the CMx2 games. Fortunately, I was able to roll-back to 22.5.1 to get the game working again.
  14. I had this problem happen when I installed a full release AMD driver that came-out late last summer or in the fall. I had to roll back to driver 21.8.2 to get the game mostly working again. Unfortunately, 21.8.2 also had issues with some scenarios with very large maps that caused "out of memory" crashes. However, when I installed the 21.12.1 driver that was released in early December the scenarios that crashed under 21.8.2 loaded-up again. Everything seems to be working fine again with that driver.
  15. I'm up to Mission #9 (Poteau the Priority). It's been a lot of fun and am just amazed at the amount of work that went into making this. It's spectacular! Thanks to the very generous time allotments, I've been able to win one Total Victory after the next, but the losses are starting to pile-up. By the time I got to #7 (Butchers of Baugnez) the Spitze had been reduced to a single 4-man PzIV and an empty halftrack. A few notes: SPOILERS!!!! #2 Leaving Lanzerath: An American marksmen team was able to inflict 10 casualties with a lot of them KIA. Who was shooting that sniper rifle? Sergeant York? It took me a while to find that team and then had to use up almost an entire platoon's worth of ammo trying to suppress/kill them. Those stone Belgian buildings are tough! On the other hand, Lt. Bouck's platoon didn't put-up much of a fight. Of course, I knew where he was because the story of his I&R platoon has been featured in almost every Bulge narrative since David Eisenhower made it famous in "The Bitter Woods." #3 Minen the Gap: this was a neat scenario and an example of how of this was a clear labor of love. Creating that fantastic map just for the player to experience some of Peiper's frustration in navigating the poor Ardennes roads. (I chose the "correct" path and, as a result, only lost one Panther to mines.) #6 Bullingen China Shop: Didn't expect much of a fight especially early on. So, I blundered right into the ambush. This was the scenario that whittled the Spitze down to almost nothing. #7 Butchers of Baugnez: Massive map! My tanks destroyed Battery B from a distance. Unfortunately, I found myself cursing CMx2's inability to provide a "follow-the-road" or "convoy" feature. Laboriously plotting every single vehicle's road movement and having to use the pause key to avoid traffic jams. Ugh! I've hated that since CMx1. I know BF tried to get a "convoy" feature into one of the CMx2 upgrades, but they had to throw in the towel on it because they couldn't get it to work. A shame. Speaking of CMx1, there was a scenario designer for that game, "McAuliffe," whose passion was the Bulge. He designed a host of well-researched CMBO scenarios with beautiful maps based mostly on the fighting around Bastogne. This campaign reminds of those scenarios: a labor of love by someone truly passionate about the subject. That's one thing I miss about CMx1: its scenario editor's ease of use encouraged similar passion projects. I miss the plethora of user-designed scenarios that one saw with CMx1. CMx2's editor provides vastly more tools, but it's clear that's proven intimidating to would-be scenario designers. Thankfully, The Forger wasn't intimidated.
  16. Thanks for the heads-up. I have an AMD graphics card with the most recent full-release driver. As you stated, trying to load one of CMRT's huge scenarios caused the game to CTD. (I had loaded that same scenario without issue with an older driver.) I rolled back to the 21.8.2 and that scenario again loaded without problem. So, it's definitely the new driver that caused the CTD. I hope this isn't a permanent issue with AMD cards.
  17. That first scenario was beyond my skill level. Played on elite. After a couple of false starts, I finally completed it to a tactical defeat. (I save-scumed a couple of times out of frustration, but I always feel bit dirty doing that so eventually I just gritted my teeth and bulled ahead.) SPOILERS: It's been a while since I commanded such a low quality and brittle force: green troops and crews. They couldn't spot for anything. Every time I moved AFVs forward then unseen AT guns would start punching holes in them. If I moved my infantry forward then unseen SMG/MG teams would send them scampering. It wasn't until I was able to get my infantry forward enough to get sound contacts on those AT guns that I able to deal with them. Since artillery ammo has to last the entire campaign, I was begrudging of its use. So, other than a couple of short barrages that knocked-out two AT guns, I had to resort to very long-distance firing with tanks/SPs: 900-1300 meter area target firing by five or six vehicles firing at one suspected AT gun position. I eventually nailed them all, but I wasted way too much time doing it. At scenario's end, I saw some of those guns had 3-4 AFV kills. (They were really well sited and very hard to detect. I remember when CMBN was first released there was a lot of complaining about how easy it was detect enemy AT guns. I know BF has made changes to that over the years and it certainly showed in this scenario.) Also, lady luck wasn't on my side: 1) One of my OBA barrages badly missed its target area and I had to call down another strike using-up precious ammo and time. 2) The 2nd Company didn't arrive until 30 minutes after its ETA. It then promptly lost two platoon commanders within minutes: one to a tree burst by friendly fire and another by a mortar strike. (Russian mortars inflicted quite a few casualties.) 3) My air support made a grand total of one appearance over the battlefield and as far as I could tell didn't do anything. 4) Didn't realize that the road was bordered by boggy terrain and lost two Stugs to immobilization. Within the first hour, my armored cars were mostly wrecks and the 1st Company a broken or rattled mess. That mostly green SS infantry was interesting: one MG 34 per squad and no platoon radio or assistant commander. C&C was tough or non-existent if the platoon commander caught it. Just a really brittle force. Also, trying to get them to spot anything was difficult despite every squad leader being equipped with binoculars. (I played the Broken Shields campaign prior to this one and the contrast between the quality of the forces in that campaign and this one is striking. It was a tough transition for me.) By the time I cleared the way of AT guns and MG nests, it was too late. I was only able to get a couple vehicles across the bridge before time ran-out. There was no extra time. As frustrating as it could be at times and despite how badly I did, I still had fun. It was a challenge. Undoubtedly, I was way too cautious about those AT guns, but I had a very difficult time trying to move anything forward without it being hit. Still, I enjoyed it. Anyway on to the next scenario.
  18. Understood. Fortunately, I've been able to cannibalize a lot of stuff from your other CMx2 UI mods. Ranks, branches, and some German vehicle silhouettes can be found in those other UI mods especially CMFB due to it having many of the late war German vehicles. There is still going to be stuff missing especially for the Soviets. However, it's good enough for now. (Plus, Mord's updated portraits for the SS and Luftwaffe made for R2V work fine in CMFR.) Hopefully, a third party will be allowed to update of your mod to include the missing equipment and vehicles like Ithikial did for R2V.
  19. It's always amusing to watch grown men acting like Veruca Salt:
  20. Hunt used to cause units using it to stop immediately upon taking any sort of fire. However, it was changed by one of the patches or upgrades to be more "robust" in that squads/teams using it would no longer immediately stop upon taking shots from unspotted enemies unless that fire really raised their suppression level. I can't say I'm a big fan of the change. It's been annoying watching scout teams on hunt keep moving forward despite bullets kicking-up around them.
  21. When CMBN was first released there was a lot of complaining about bailed-out AFV crews acting like John Rambos upon exiting their vehicles. Usually armed with several automatic weapons, it was not uncommon for a bailed-out AFV crew to immediately turn the tables on nearby opposing infantry. BF listened to the complaints and agreed that a likely disoriented and shocked AFV crew would not go into hero mode upon fleeing its vehicle. So, they upped both the chances of a crew being panicked upon bailing-out and the length of time to recover from that panic. Personally, I felt both changes were a big improvement over the earlier AFV crew behavior.
  22. That does sound great. More than I anticipated. I was very pleased when Steve told us that partisans made the cut which wasn't the case when this module's possible contents were first hinted. I am bit surprised that minor nationalities were even considered. Weren't we told years ago that BF had no inclination to go down the research rabbit-hole that those nations' TO&E would require? Further, after the apparent coding nightmare that was including various "minor" nation formations into Rome to Victory, I would think BF wouldn't dare want to touch the Finns, Romanians, or Hungarians. However, that they even considered it does make one hope of a possible pack including one or more of them someday, but I certainly would not hold my breath waiting on such a thing.
  23. I don't know when BF did that change to the US armored infantry platoons, but it did cause some problems with older scenarios. I remember playing "Carbide Carbide" as the Americans after that change was done. The result was that American armored infantry platoons now had platoon commanders embedded in their 1st squads, but also still retained the individual platoon HQ teams. In other words, each platoon had two commanders! I hope we don't see stuff like that in older CMRT scenarios and campaigns when they release F&R.
  24. I've had that happen a few times. The workaround is to bring the rest of the squad/team back to the location of the "stuck" individual and then plot another movement order away from the hedgerow. That usually "unshakes" the stuck pixeltruppen. And the "retreat through the hedgerow towards the enemy" issue is still present in CMBN and will make itself noticed in any scenario featuring bocage. BF did have success in limiting that behavior with the 02 patch, but it still occurs enough to be frustrating. As for whether to buy or not? As others have stated: check-out the demos. That's the best way to determine whether this game is for you.
  25. https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cm-battle-for-normandy-campaigns/the-lions-of-carpiquet/ This is a terrifically made player made campaign featuring historic missions about the Canadians attacking dug-in SS positions at Carpriquet airfield. It does feature some of Hobart's funnies most notably flail tanks in its 2nd scenario.
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