76mm

I don't think that Battlefront ever claimed that CMBB was "ASL for the computer," and they don't give two hoots how something was done in ASL.

Question: My understanding is that Mapping Mission is really useful if you are trying to replicate an actual map in CMBB. What advantages does it offer over CMBB's random map creator if you just want a realistic-looking, if fictional, piece of Russian terrain? From the manual, it sounds like it would make it easier to create rivers, etc.?

This would definitely be more interesting to me, especially if the '67 war were included.

Good ideas; we might also want to provide a description/sketch of the CMC tile (with four quadrants) which will represent the CMBB map. Otherwise anyone that wanted to use the CMBB map will have to "interpret" what it should look like in CMC. Once CMC comes out, maybe each CMBB should be accompanied by a CMC tile (via screenshot?). Or maybe this is overkill?

Yeah, as both BigDuke and I mentioned, there is not really a "correct" way to transliterate from Russian into English--my version of Oryol is closer to the Russian pronunciation, but BigDuke's is the more common spelling.

Dear Russophile: I am very familar with Russian place names in general, but not with the particular places mentioned. That said, I've tried below to "anglicize" the place names. Note also that there are several different conventions for transliterating Russian into English (ie, see Orel, below). My suggestions are below in CAPS: Saroschtscha SAROSCHA Guschtschenskij GUSCHENSKY Krasny Lipowez KRASNY LIPOVETZ Werchn VERKHN (LOOKS LIKE "Y" MIGHT BE MISSING AT END) Butyrki BUTYRKY Nischn [LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING DROPPED OFF--SHOULD IT BE PART OF A NAME LIKE "NIZHNI NOVGOROD"? Strepurino Golubotschki STREPURINO GOLUBOSCHKY Krasnyj Berez KRASNY BERYEZ Kawergino Belkow KAVERGINO BELKOV Tula TULA Orel ORYOL As you can see, no real magic here, change "w" to "v", drop some of the "t"s, etc. Not sure if this is what you wanted, but trying to be helpful.

Both are really good ideas, thanks. How do I assign negative victory points? Via the "Axis bonus", or what? Thanks!

Thanks for the tips. I had thought of the second one, but the AI defenders never seemed to make a move for the exit board edge, so I thought that that only advancing troops would actually try to exit a board edge. Hadn't thought of your first option; I suspect that it would cause a withdrawal alright, but I'm not sure about the "fighting" part. I'll probably have to experiment a bit more, but I suspect that I'm just asking too much of the AI.

Yeah, but at least for areas behind your front line, you'd think that commanders would have at least a passing familiarity with the terrain (gee, this would be a great place to position a rear-guard...). Most auto-generated CMBB maps that I've worked with have really (realistic) broken up lines of sight, and if I knew that a particular tile had some nice long shots, that might we where I put the 88s...

The answer to your second question is definitely, yes, each 2x2 CMBB tactical map must be handmade. I suspect that the answer to your first question is also yes, but I wonder if it will be possible to defer the creation of some of the maps until you need them. For instance, if you create a 40x40km operational map, you'll need to create 400 (!) CMBB maps. Many of them in remote corners of the operational map may never be used, so it would be nice if there is some kind of break/save when a CMBB battle has been initiated to allow you to create the maps before beginning the battle. That way, you could start by creating the 200 most likely maps and then create the others on an as-needed basis. [EDIT: This would obviously only be done for roll-your-own campaigns, not commercial] Also, I wonder if you can do a CMBB "map recon" of the CMBB map before deciding whether to attack, etc. on the operational map?

I've been making scenarios lately for a home-brew campaign system. Battles in the campaign are often rather unbalanced, so fighting withdrawals are a necessity. I shouldn't be surprised, I guess, but the CMBB AI kind of sucks in situations calling for a fighting withdrawal--they'll just camp out by the victory flag and get slaughtered, often to the last man. Can anyone recommend any settings or design tweaks (victory flag placement, etc.) that would help the AI perform better in this kind of battle? I was thinking about using multiple victory flags heading in the direction of the withdrawal, but suspect that this either wouldn't work at all or would cause strange, unanticipated AI behavior. The only thing I've come up with so far is to hit the "cease-fire" button as soon as I start the game to allow the AI to escape once they've had enough of a pounding, but that is not really satisfying.

Dear Bluefish: Thanks for the kind words, but I think that's its a fair bet that CMC was also a labor of love for Hunting Tank. And as to whether Hunting Tank will be "paid handsomely" for their work--while we can all hope so, I've got to think that this is very much a niche product, and I would guess that they'd have been better off financially if they'd used their time and programming skills for some kind of boring corporate consulting gig rather than developing CMC. Hopefully massive sales will prove me wrong, but in the meantime we should all be very appreciative of Hunting Tank's dedication.

Just kidding ya... How would the island hopping work? With assault rafts and bridges, or what?

As you know from the CMBB terrain tiles, there are no beaches in Russia.

In this thread: Map Making Pointers I think that Moon says you make 2x2 maps.

Better recalibrate...

And what about the river between 6 & 7 (see my other thread)--does the panzer just appear on the Russian side of the bridge, or would Sovs have a chance to defend the bridge?

Right, but if a river is on the edge of the tile, will both banks of a river be included in a CMBB battle? If not, it would be tough to have a "take the bridge" type battle. Maybe you just have to have rivers flow through the middle of the CMC tiles, rather than the edges?

From the screenshots, it looks like rivers run along tile edges. As I understand it, CMBB combat will occur within each tile. So how do we attack across rivers?

2kmx2km CMBB maps will be perfect most of the time, but for those really big engagements you need something bigger (3x3, or even an operation map). Any chance that we can user bigger maps somehow when resolving the CMBB battles?

Martin, But is it correct that the 2x2 CMBB map should be divided into four 1x1 quadrants of a specific terrain type, so that it can be represented on the CMC level?

I'm very excited by CMC but at the very least will be using CT until CMC comes out. Because I created CT, it is pretty much tailored to what I want to do, but I lacked the programming skills and time necessary to do something with the scope of CMC. So bravo to the guys at Hunting Tank!

I think you're right...

I don't know--look at the wooded tiles in the center of the left side of the map--looks like one has two 1x1 woods tiles and the other has 3 1x1 woods tiles--see what I mean?

Sergei, that sounds good. I just thought that I remembered some big stink because somebody put somebody else's scenarios on a CD without their permission or sumfink.