Sloth

A comment on battlefield effectiveness - from memory WW2 studies tended to show units gained effectiveness during their first 30 days or so in the line and then lost effectiveness from about 40-50 days (burnout etc). Modelling this with a operational layer to the game would be pretty tricky I imagine - It's not quite the same as experience in any event. My only wish (and I'm sure many others have same) is for flares and other battlefield illumination at night. When I did my officer training getting the timing right for sending up / calling in your scarce illumination assets was a key issue in any night defence. Anyone have a view on illumination availability in WW2?

I play Civ 3 as well. Combat mission has a much easier learning curve since you basically move and shoot but don't have to worry about economics, tech trees etc. Before others slag off at me this does not mean it is dumber game, anymore than chess is - it just means that it's pretty user friendly for the basics. I have had the same issue in getting other friends to play. I found that playing hotseat (or over the net if you have a seperate phone line to talk on) with small QB's with lots cover and hills is a good way to get people started (they like surprises and those games don't rely on knowing exactly which tank will beat which enemy tank at 824.6 metres on a cloudy day).

Yeah - I've just finished this one and got a total victory on my first go as the Soviets. I didn't really need the armour either as I just went straight up the left flank. The main problem with the defensive layout is that the left flank (from the attackers perspective) offers the best avenue of approach (it has the most cover) but also has the weakest defence. It is therefore quite simple to penetrate the left with very few casualties and then roll up the rest of the defensive position from the rear. If a frontal attack on the postion was forced by the scenario designer (for example by making the map narrower so the left wasn't an option) then it would be much tougher.

Defensive AI I'd love to see a defensive AI option for scenario designers that forces units to stay put in defense (unless they are forced to withdraw by enemy fire). Defensive doctrine for most armies worldwide (including presumably those in CM:BB) is for most troops to stay put in their fortifications and blunt the attacker before counterattacking with a reserve. Unfortunately the AI often moves troops forward out of their defences before the defensive position is breached and they become easy kills for an attacker. If the AI could be tweaked so that most troops stayed put and only some at the rear (or reinforcements) had the freedom to move as counterattack forces then I think this would help. What do y'all think?