Nolloff

I tried this one 3 times as the Russians and I´m about to destroy my keyboard because there´s no way I´ll ever take more than one flag. Anyone else getting a severe beating here? A simple yes would save my day. Cheers Nolloff

Hi, it´s still a bit unclear to me how mines and mineclearing works. From what I´ve seen in the game the simple discovery, e.g. markers become visible, of AT mines will not prevent tanks from running into the minefield if ordered to do so. It´ll also not reduce the risk of getting immobilized if the movement path is close to the suspected minefield. It does not lead to some kind of threat awareness and specific behaviour on behalf of the TACAI. Does anyone know if the same applies to infantry when encountering anti-personnel mines? E.g. if I order infantry to move in a corridor between discovered mine locations I still run the risk of someone getting blown up, injured, surpressed etc. - Right? The infantry themselves will not be "more careful" or whatever it takes to avoid the mines? The discovery of the mines means they are still dangerous and not only an obstacle?!? Mine clearing: There seem to be three ways to clear mines. Put pioneers on top of the minefield and leave them there until the mines are gone. Secondly it seems it´s possible to give an attack order, to attack the mines. I´ve also seen bypassing pioneers throw satchel charges or hand grenades on minefields and blow them up. Can anyone confirm that these are the only methods and if my observations are correct? Is attacking the minefield necessary or more effective? In the 21st Army operation I ordered pioneers to attack minefield markers which they did for some turns without any success while others dealt with mines without having specific orders to do so. Maybe the more obedient troops ran out of satchel charges but kept firing at the mines they can´t hur without being close enough for "manual" mineclearing. Some tips on how to deal best with mines would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance Nolloff [ October 22, 2002, 12:15 PM: Message edited by: Nolloff ]

I posted a suggestion over in the scenario forum. Have a look. About AT guns. That´s certainly tricky. I´d suggest that you have a look at the Axxis setup in a scenario done by Rune which comes with the CD. Unfortunately I only have the German title, but it´s the one where the Russians assault either Hungarians or Romanians (not 100% sure now and CMBB is on another computer) in the attack to encircle Stalingrad in winter 42. - - --- S P O I L E R --- - - The placement of bunkers and AT assets there is pure evilness. Most of them can´t be seen from many areas but their own, small killing zone in avenues of approach the enemy will use. This one sentence sums up pretty well what you need to achieve when setting them up. Some are perfectly placed for flank shots, others behind ridges etc. etc. If you study this one or play the attacking Russians you´ll get a painful lesson how to set them up. But, try something smaller first, like the Riesberg scenario I suggested. Nolloff [ October 21, 2002, 06:02 PM: Message edited by: Nolloff ]

I´d like to recommend the two CMBO conversions "Chance Encounter" and "Riesberg", which can be found at Toms Combat Mission HQ, http://www.militarygameronline.com/TCMHQ/ in the Scenarios/1945 section. Especially Riesberg is very well suited to try and finetune your tactics as the Soviet Attacker. Imho the most important things Riesberg is perfect to understand are - how to move into jump-off positions before your infantry can charge forward (too much open ground = death) - how important it is to coordinate your attacks (e.g. wait until everybody is in place) - the usage of surpression fire - how you can try to flank the enemy - you can also experiment with splitting infantry squads to scout terrain without running the risk of getting the whole squad eliminated plus offer more targets for the enemy) I think some of the scenario designers have a lot more nasty tricks in store than what was the norm in the early CMBO days. That certainly makes it tougher for someone who´s new to the game. Riesberg might be what you´re looking for. Cheers Nolloff [ October 21, 2002, 05:41 PM: Message edited by: Nolloff ]

Can you give some additional info what the scenario is about? I do only have the German version with German scenario titles. Maybe I´ve played it. Cheers Matthias

Congrats! Rock on ... Nolloff

AAR means After Action Report - a synopsis of what happened during a scenario, most likely containig spoilers which will reveal some of the "secrets". I´ve posted a question about how to deal with "Jaegermeister" here some days ago and some others and later myself posted about how they did approach it. No ignorance on your behalf just another abbreviation. Good luck with another attempt at taking the bridge. Have a look at the terrain and stay in cover as much as possible. Cover = ridges, gullies, trees, smoke, buildings etc. As I said, don´t get frustrated with this one. There might be easier, less painful or better documented methods to learn. It´d be a shame if you´d stop to enjoy the game because of this. Cheers Nolloff [ October 17, 2002, 12:46 PM: Message edited by: Nolloff ]

Well, I think the Katukov scenario is probably a bad example because from my own experience it´s indeed possible to do nothing but leave the Germans to the TACAI, press "Go" and still do fairly good if not win it. Of course it´s possible to win when you´re attacking. You probably just need some more experience and understanding of what to and what not to do. I´d suggest you try "Jaegermeister". There is a) a tutorial based on it in the manual (in the *.pdf on the CD if you have the CDV version of the game) and some AARs in this forum. Just try it on your own, get blown to pieces, get some advise on how it´s possible to win, analyse your mistakes and learn, learn, learn. Never forget about smoke, cover etc. and don´t get frustrated. Advancing across open terrain against 88s is probably one of the more masochistic things you can do in CMBB. Cheers Nolloff [ October 17, 2002, 09:33 AM: Message edited by: Nolloff ]

Rune, I see your point that it´s not possible to put the full complexity of playing skills/behaviour etc. into a matrix. Nevertheless that´s a fact for most attempts to put real live into code or a scheme and most games deal with this by introducing a difficulty level. In the absence of a difficulty setting in a real world simulation type of "game" I nevertheless feel the need to help players with at least rudimentary information about how not play a scenario or operation if the scenario is unplayable that way. Some of the websites that host CMxx scenarios/battles have way better information than what can be found in some on-CD games/battles and when for example Talonsoft introduced this in West Front (if I recall correctly) it helped me a lot when deciding what to do and what not. Mentioning "Blitzkrieg" here might not have been really to the point as I think the scenarios and operations you´ve done and which I know either have a clear indication how it´s meant to be or turned out to be good with any possible AI/Human setup. There are some other examples which might have been been better suited as examples. So, I hope you didn´t feel criticized personally for not giving proper descriptions. Cheers Nolloff

about an othwerwise incredibly brilliant game is the lack of a clear recommendation for many scenarios/operations how they should get played (Soviet vs. AI, Axis vs. AI, strictly two-player). Some battles just don´t make sense if someone selects the "wrong" side. Alternatively mentioning they way the battle is NOT meant to be played would do the trick as well. On the other hand I´ve almost not played Rune´s fantastic "Blitzkrieg" operation because (if I remember correctly) the recommendation was TCP/IP and this has been my best ever CMxx experience when playing it as the Germans vs. the AI. A more detailed comment on scenario setup (default, free), experience bonus and force adjustment in relation to player skills would also be highly appreciated and from my point of view should always (!) be part of the description, even if it just serves as an acknowledgement that the default settings are fine. I could well imagine that new players, for example from the non-Grognard CDV market could be highly frustrated once their first experience with CMBB is playing a scenario in a way it was just not designed to work. Otherwise: Excellent! Cheers Nolloff [ October 02, 2002, 04:45 AM: Message edited by: Nolloff ]

Had a similar problem. How far did you get in the first battle? Andreas, the designer, said, there might be an update sooner or later. Nolloff

After starting to read the tutorial I became confused too and this is what worked for me. I assume it´s more or less close to the manual´s instructions, maybe a slight variation here and there. I moved the initial force to the second ridge with the first flag, just below the hill where you start. I split my forces, moving all assault guns and two JS 2 to the area on the left flank, where the street goes over the ridge into town. I placed my infantry in the trees on the ridge to the left and right of the road. I occupied the lone building with a Maxim. Two JS2 where put into position behind the ridge in the area of the building. The 5 JS2 on the right which transport a complete platoon I moved to the right flank and lined tem up in positions behind the ridge, the right tank being close to the woods on the right. The infantry disembarked and moved into the woods getting into jump-off positions to move towards the town/graveyard once the time was right. I moved my arty spotters there too. My left flank, two JS2, four Assault guns fast moved over the ridge, downhill into town once everybody had arrived behind the ridge, the tank riding infantry disembarking once I was close enough to the woods and first buildings and cleared the woods to the right and left of the street. This force slowly progressed along the road further into town. Blowing up houses or occupying them. Additional infantry, the pioneer force and infantry reinforcements also moved to the second ridge and then ran into town downhill left and right of the road. I slowly expanded my perimeter to the left and right into the woods until the right flank was in the buildings on the left side of the street with the church and graveyard. In the meantime my tanks I had left behind had started to fight it out with the Tigers. I moved the SU152s there too and in the end I had killed the Tigers loosing 4 or 5 of my own vehicles. The infantry on the far right flank also moved forward towards the church, and finally made it there. In the meantime the Panthers had arrived. They got engaged by my two JS2s and the Assault guns in town, still in the area before the street coming down from the ridge meets the other road through town. At this point in time I considered it safe for the rest of my armor which was still on the right crest of the second ridge to move forward. I moved everything into town and put it to the left and right of the church and in the graveyard, hoping to get flank shots at the Panthers. I managed to kill all Panthers but two which then hid in the woods on the right of the street with leads out of town towards the two remaining victory flags. Losing patience I mounted a human wave attack with a considerable infantry force which found the tanks and killed them both. Excellent scenario. Cheers Nolloff

Sorry for the stupid question. I wasn´t aware that there´s something about it in the manual.

Spoiler I´m trying to tackle Jaegermeister from the Russian side. My first mistake was that I considered my JS2s worthy opponents for the AIs Panthers. Basically what happens is that I get blown to pieces by Panthers in the trees on the right side of the village and additional tanks lurking on the ridge behind the right part of the town when attempting an all out assault. Getting my tanks in hull-down position on the 2nd ridge does also not work. Once an enemy is in sight my tank crews reverse. I managed to fast-move my assault guns, two JS and some infantry into town using the road and had hoped to be able to take the town and tempt the Panthers to attack me and in the process expose their flanks on open ground. Unfortunately once an opportunity for firing at them arises I´m getting the impression my gunners would even miss the village´s church from a 50m distance. Well, the plan sounded good to me at first and seemed to my only option but I can´t gain much ground there without seeing my assault guns receiving flank shots from the Panthers while trying to support my infantry against the defenders. I´ve tried this one from the German side, to get a better idea what to do but I´ve just seen the same results and the Panther front gave the AI the same special treatment I had received before. I´d be grateful if someone could give some advice how to deal with this and similar situations. Thanks Matthias

Andreas, thanks for your reply. If you need a playtester for this one I´d gladly offer my services. Battle 1 was really cool with lots of room to maneuver and many different avenues of approach. My email address: Nolloff@t-online.de Cheers Matthias

I´ve been playing this operation today and have completely overrun the German defenders around turn 40. I spent the last 10 turns advancing here and there coming very close to the opposite side of the map. Unfortunatley the Operation does not really progress from there on. Neither is there a continuation of the map nor are there any attackers showing up. After 20 turns without action I´ve skipped the 2nd battle at night but same situation on the 3rd battle. Have I been progressing too far in the first battle? Thanks Nolloff

Andreas and Berlichtingen, many thanks! I finally dealt with my fellow Germans by the power of armor alone. I think none of my infantry ever got closer than 75m to the enemy posistions and hardly anyone but tanks mortars and machine guns ever fired a shot but I lost only 1 T34 to the various Panzeranklopfgeräte and my armor managed to kill and rout enough enemy infantry for the AI to surrender. Somewhat on the masochistic side of things but very nice scenario Berlichtingen! Will try the non-smoke, leap-frog approach another day, another time. While I got two experts listening, allow me to ask another question: Can you give me some advice on when to disembark tank-riding infantry? I think I´ve come to a point where, while attacking, I manage to handle infantry on APCs more or less sucessfully but I haven´t mastered the tank riders yet. There are quite some scenarios where one has to cross a lot of open terrain. Disembarking would divide armor and infantry, waiting for the guys on foot would leave my tanks on open ground like sitting ducks and while AT guns alone are bad the deadliness of enemy air support in CMBB seems to make anything but "fast move" a suicidal decision. Cheers Nolloff

Spoiler ?!? Hi there, I´m struggling with the Scenario "Ameisen und Elefanten" (translation: Ants and Elephants) by Dan "Berlichtungen" Brown from the CMBB CD. From the Russian side: I´m using my 2x82mm spotters for laying smoke on the far left and right from round 1 onwards. There´s no smoke left for the center as I had hoped my fire would deal enough supression there. All light mortars, MGs and the foward moving tanks are spraying supression fire on suspected enemy positions. The idea is to get either my left or right flank attack into town and then try to move along the main road and flank the defenders. Not surprisingly my infantry is hardly leaving the woods before they hug the ground and the attack is breaking down. I´ve used different approaches. Normal movement seems to be too slow considering the time until the smoke lifts. Fast movement to cover 2/3 of the open terrain to be followed by an assault got me the furthest but nowhere close enought to even think of assaulting. The last thing I tried was an all out human wave assault despite the long distance to the enemy positions. Basically there hasn´t been any success with any approach. Any ideas, recommendations, suggestions? Another question: Do the Russian tactics of this early war period involve the heavy usage of smoke or would they rather have blasted the area with HE instead. It might be a stupid question and down to the local commanders but I´d nevertheless be interested to know. Thanks already, Cheers Nolloff