OGF Keller

I just downloaded Ver. 4.0. However, when I fire up CMMOS 4.o and toggle to CMBB using the button on the bottom, it says "No Rule Sets--please install Rule Set Packages" So I go to Combat Mission HQ, download a rule set and put it into the following directory. C:\Program Files\GEM Software Productions\CM Mod Option Selector\CMBB\RuleSet052-000 I put the .bmp inside of the the BMP folder in the CMBB program folder. Well, fire up CMMOS again, and I STILL get the message that I have no rule sets installed. Am an I dunce, or am I missing something here??

I liked Danube Blues a lot...though it bugged me when I lost one of my T34/85s when I thought for SURE it was defilade -- behind TWO buildings -- to a Tiger. I just finished playing Berezina River as the Axis against the AI, and started a thread about it above. VERY challenging, very difficult, but teaches you a lot about how to plan assaults with combined forces. Oh, and it absolutely DEMANDS as Axis that you try to annihilate Ivan. To have a prayer of winning (or drawing as I did) you must be relentless in your pursuit and exterminate him. In that sense, as an early '41 scenario, it is ruthlessly realistic.

Ever since I got CMBB, I have been looking forward to doing this scenario. After a half dozen or so quick battles, and some good TCP/IP games, I took a stab at this one. This 50+ Turn Large scenario is a terrific challenge as the Axis commander. As the scenario designers (Abbot) mentioned in the briefing, Berezina is designed to be very DIFFICULT for the Axis attacker to win. I actually feel quite good that I got a draw here, and managed to rough up Ivan considerably. Some key principles I put into practice in this scenario. --Patience. It is SOOOO tempting to rush in and grab the town with the initial forces at your disposal, and then move onto the other objectives. No, no, no, a thousand times no. A well planned attack on the town, getting your infantry and HMG platoon to the edge of the woods and your AFV's in good defilade positions initally is key. -Get your Arty spotters into the woods immediately so you can bring artillery fire down into the town, but only when you can spot real units. No blind barrages!!! --Use your PSW's to smoke out his anti-tank gun emplacements. --His infantry is going to be holed up in the thick buildings. Once you spot him, get your AFV's into firing postion to attack those positions, but in defilade relative to the antitanks assets you have smoked out. Walls provide very good hull down cover. Also, be PATIENT deploying your 150 mm infantry gun -- again, firing position to hit the buildings, but defilade to anti-tank/gun emplacements. I didn't get it deployed until around turn 20, but once in the fight, Ivan ran for his life. --Yes, you can take the town just with your foot company -- save the motorized infantry for the distant flags. --Exterminate him -- really, don't just win the town and hold it. Drive him out of it, into the woods behind, and hunt him down. I thought afterwards my big mistake was not deploying my motorized infantry and armor reinforcements sooner to go after the other objectives. But when I looked over the final map, there was simply no way I was going to get the other two flags without getting a serious mauling. Look at the AAR -- he has more than TWICE as many guys as I do in this engagement!!! Meanwhile, the town was VERY doable over the course of the 50 turns, and, combined with basically annihilating his forces there, the draw was achieved in this VERY difficult scenario. [ November 19, 2002, 11:08 PM: Message edited by: OGF Keller ]

Well, just finished playing it as Axis against the AI. Here is the result...Spoiler info in follow-on posts.. [ November 19, 2002, 11:00 PM: Message edited by: OGF Keller ]

Nope...not him

Is there any way I can constuct a QB, with an OOB selection and deployment on my side, leaving my opposite human opponent with his selection and deployment to execute -- than save this QB, and then call it up later for TCP/IP play. I want to do this with Nippy's Rules for QB -- excellent ones, by the way -- to speed initial configuation. I would prefer to do this OUTSIDE of the scenario builder, which for some reason (genetic I presume) I can NEVER get to work the way I want it to.

Oh, Knaust, by the way, thanks for your idea and explanation. I have been using it and it has been quite helpful. [ November 08, 2002, 09:55 AM: Message edited by: OGF Keller ]

Ok, I suppose I can understand this with infantry, but with a tank? I can't tell you how frustrating it is to put a waypoint for an AFV directly behind a building -- which, in the real world, is not all that hard to expect, you know, "Get behind the building so anyone directly in front of it can't see you" -- and then after you get there, you have an opponent pop a ponetrating round into it from the very position this you're trying to shield yourself from!! That Waypoint was BEHIND the building, but the "abstraction" you tolerate has left me with my zipper down. I am not talking about peeking around corners here either. It seems to me a game that strives for realism should tend to eschew the abstraction you talk about here, and go for the the realistic. Just like my original post, where, as a commander with a topographical map, I know that THIS position, but not THAT position, is in defilade relative to THAT map coordinate. THAT's the real world, it seems to me. [ November 08, 2002, 12:14 AM: Message edited by: OGF Keller ]

Conceptually, I have no problem with the concept that you take risks by taking up ANY position. Yet at the same time, there should be SOME probability, and occasionally a very good one, that CERTAIN positions are going to be defilade. For example, I just finished playing Danube Blues (a nice scenario) in CMBB; I eeked out a minor victory. At one point, I moved one of my T34/85s behind a single story heavy building -- and then, WHAM!! a shot from a Tiger, 200 yards away. So where is this Tiger? Well, you can trace the target line THOUGH the building I am presumably behind AND through ANOTHER building in FRONT of the Tiger!!! I am sorry, but this makes no sense. And the other day, I played the British in CMBO scenario, Coldstream Guards. I move my infantry into a wooded area, it's at least 20 to 30 yards from the edge of the woods as defined by the map. Guess what THEN? My infantry starts taking DIRECT, and pretty devastating, machine guy fire from a position across the river, and EQUALLY deep in a DIFFERENT section of woods!! Of course, I can return fire, and we slug it out, but, again, this makes no sense. Again, there are always risks, but sometimes it seems that even the reasonably calculated risks come back to bite you when they shouldn't.

OK, I tried this, first selecting a position with an infantry unit that I thought was in defilade, tracing a move, and then a rotate. Well, the rotate only turned red at a VERY far depression -- it was purple out for hundreds of yards. I then hit go, had my unit move to that position, and then did an LOS. Low and behold, it WAS in defilade as I had thought. So while it seems to me that it provides SOME information, it doesn't provide the whole picture -- and in this case, a misleading picture.

OK, I have been playing CMBO for about a year now, and the thing that REALLY bugs me is my inability to determine true line of site from MY observation -- in other words, withOUT having a unit "test" the LOS. For example, I drop down to the lowest ground level view, look ahead, and think, "Gee this stand of trees and rolling meadow above keeps me in defilade." But then I move a tank there, and WHAM!! toasted by an opponent 400 yards away, in the direction I was looking!! A company commander may not have topographical maps, and the same may be true for a battalion commander, but as a player I WANT THEM!! Or, in other words, I want to know that that position "over there" is in defilade, so if I get there, I can feel relatively secure about it. Oh well, any tips out there for determining LOS from a vantage position WITHIN the game, but without a unit THERE to do it for you? (Often, when it's too late). [ November 05, 2002, 10:09 PM: Message edited by: OGF Keller ]

Hmmmm... Well, score was 69 to 31 as Axis...didn't lose a flag...by the way, how do I get a bmp or jpg image into a post? Or do I have to have URL to link it to??

Here's my AAR on this one...playing Axis...Spoiler (of sorts) after the image.... The Key for me?? Keeping that right flank III alive for all 18+ turns...hide hide hide!! and then come out ONLY when you have a good side or rear shot on JUST one...do NOT come out when there are two who can get a shot at you... My III got THREE T-34s one of which turned its A-S to me as it tried to get on the bridge... Use the IVs to stay in place and slug it out and hope you can get one or two of them before they get you.. Your first RL is doomed...write it off, but hang on as long as you can.. Then DO NOT give up the east west road to the bridge..then the only way Ivan can come through is angle toward the bridge...if you own the road and can move your III up and down it, hiding the behind the buildings, you have a shot... This is a greate scenario and a great map.. [ October 29, 2002, 11:47 PM: Message edited by: OGF Keller ]

I am running Windows 98, Dell 4100 Dimension, 1 GIG, Pentium III, with the above video card, with 32MB. In the CMBB manual, it says the latest driver version for NVIDIA is 29.42, asserted be "stable." Well, I was running this version, but when I toggled to desktop in CMBB, and tried to come back, view selction either with mouse or directional arrows was extremely jerky. TCP/IP was impossible. Well, I went to Nvidia.com, and downloaded the NEXT driver version, 30.82 -- manual is already out of date in this regard. (There are some later beta versions available, but I shy away from such until it's out of BETA). This solved the problem, so FYI.

Thanks Old Dog...that seemed to work. Next question for the CMOS experts out there. I downloaded some of the background/terrain mods, and when I fired up the manager, there was no category tab to select them? Should there be one? Or is this done manually? KK

I am sorry, maybe I am dense. I am running CMMOS_v3.02. I am only using mods from http://www.combatmission.com/cmmos/cmmos.asp I have loaded all the bmp files from the CMOS mods into my bmp folder. All other files -- Rule sets, etc. are outside of it. The installed files for executables, etc. are where they were originally installed. I run CMOS. I select the option for blue triangle on the turrent of a Sherman V. I start CMBO, select "Blood on the Merderet" where there are a some Sherman V's. I look for the triangle...no triangle.

Next set of stupid questions. Where do the other files go, such as the RulesSet files/folders and .exe files. Do they go into the bmp folder? And can the bmp files INSIDE the RuleSet folders REMAIN in the RuleSet folders, INSIDE of BMP, or do they have to be copied/moved to the BMP folder proper?? Thanks.

OK, MORE stupid questions. I have downloaded CMMOS. All of the files have been unpacked and deposited in the following directory C:\Program Files\GEM Software Productions\CM Mod Option Selector Is this correct? or Should THIS be in the in CMBO directory. Next question. Where should one deposit the .bmp files for new mods? in the GEM software files? or in the bmp directory? In sum, any knowledge about where all of this stuff should reside would be helpful.