Joques

Hi, I'm still digesting some of the lessons learned during my battle to take Cherbourg. One of the areas where CMBO differs greatly from ASL is in assaulting buildings with infantry. In ASL, if you can only advance into a bulding, you are on equal footing with the defending unit in the ensuing close combat, all other factors being equal (firepower/concealment/exhaustion/stealth/etc). Not so in CMBO, it seems. It definitely seems as if defending units have an edge when you enter a building. What I tried to do was to issue the following order: Fast move adjacent to the building, then switch to sneak to get inside. It may be superstition on my part, but it seemed to me that if my units Snuck into the building they stood a greater chance of making it through Close Combat. What say the gurus? Are there move orders that improve your odds in CC? (I mean apart from obvious stuff like suppressing defenders, smoke, entering from behind the defenders, etc...)

I'd assume that Area Fire is HE only? So if the shell hits or lands close to an AFV, then regular HE vs AFV mechanics apply. Am I wrong? [Argh, those darn typos! ] [ October 23, 2002, 06:14 AM: Message edited by: Joques ]

Doesn't really help me with CMBO though. Say, this censorship (names of units) is probably coded into the executable, right? Would it be possible to have somebody send me an "uncensored" executable and then just use that? Or would it likely be incompatible with my cd?

Yeah, I have that one too, and it's way up on my list. There is also a similar set from the German perspective called Against All Odds. I'm getting to them all. But first I'm playing Canadian Armageddon. (Getting some actual work done and making some money this month would also be nice...)

Well I just finished the Any Port after a Storm scenario set. For those of you unfamiliar with it (does that apply to anybody here...?) it is a set of six linked and themed single battles, depicting the 79th's fight to advance up the Cotentin Peninsula and take Cherbourg. Anyway, the scens have all more or less kicked my butt all over the place. I've been a real failure as a commander and had to restart several times, saved in-game etc, and it was frustrating to me because the second time I played it, I knew what he had and where it was, and it kinda felt like cheating because my historical counterpart didn't have that luxury. (I can just see Winnie Churchill now: "WHAT happened at Dieppe did you say?! Oh well, hit "load" and try again...") So, I'd had my butt handed to me several times over, but now was the time for the final battle: The actual battle to clear the Germans away from the docks in Cherbourg so that the Engineer Corps can start repairing the docks and the Allied war effort can finally be resupplied from across the Channel. I decided this time around I would play the entire game through, all 40 Turns of it. No Personal Moral failure. No restarts. No in-game saves and loads. Just suck it up when someting bad happened, adapt and overcome and get the job done. Ok, here come the spoilers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The battlefield is divided by a channel, so you need to cross bridges to get to your final objective. You get a rifle company that's augmented with 50-cals and MMG's out the yin-yang. 4 50-cals and I think 9 1919 MMG's. You also get a Engineer platoon, 2 Shermies, 2 Stuarts and a Greyhound. Anyway, I set off. Engineers on the left, a platoon and most of the MG's in the centre, overlooking a large square. I planned to suppress any Krauts with the MG's and sprint across with the platoon. Two more platoons on the right flank. And off we go. Right off the bat it went from bad to worse on the left flank. My engineers ran into more trouble than they'd bargained for. Not much cover, and the whole platoon were pinned down in scattered trees, with immediate casualties. They had a single Stuart for support, which was knocked out by...something. Probably one of the 50mm AT guns. Progress was made in the centre and on the right. The Shermans took out some Hotchkiss tanks and...I'm actually not sure. A StUG? A PzIV? Houses were slowly and methodically cleared. By approx Turn 15 I was ready to throw in the towel. All my tanks were taken out my a pair of 50mm AT guns, one Sherman in particular I stupidly charged into LOS of a "Light Gun?" I figured it was a 20mm AA, but no. Hey, a 50mm should be a "medium gun"!! Anyway. All armour was lost, the situation on the left flank was grim indeed (the Engineers had made zero progress. Zip. Nada. It was all they could do not to retreat, and ammo was getting scarce) and I still had a river to cross. I was in possession of the central houses overrlooking the canal, and I had a fairly impressive array of MG's there, pointing across. But he had a Marder, pounding away at my boys, and he also had an impressive array of MG's pointed right back at me. Crossing the canal was out of the question. And my left flank was a shambles. I was tempted to give up (amazing what a few tank losses will do to your personal morale...), but I knew that a couple more Shermans were due to arrive. The only question was when. SO I decided to hunker down, keep firing my MG's (all my units were loaded with max ammo for this mission), try to cause casualties and hope the Shermies showed up in time. The Shermans showed up around Turn 25 I think, and not a minute too soon. Amazingly, my Engineers on the left flank had gotten their sh*t together and captured the VL by the church. I dunno why, but the Germans withdrew. I must have caused more casualties on him than I realized (All I could see was "infantry?"). Or he was out of ammo. Anyway, when the Shermans arrived, it was a whole new ball game. I snuck up on the buttoned Marder and knocked him out. "That's a fine Gun you have there, mr Marder, too bad your armour isn't in the same league", hehe... Then they started shelling the cr*p out of the buildings on the other side of the canal. One caught fire, two other collapsed on top of some infantry. Ouch. I got two fairly undamaged platoons across the canal on the rightmost double-bridge. I had decided to be content with grabbing just that one VL, but resistance seemed weak so I pushed on for the one by the docks themselves. In the process I witnessed a hilarious moment. There appeared a flak truck which my bazooka gunner (who was inside a building) knocked out. And the backblast set his building on FIRE! I almost fell out of my chair, I was laughing so hard! (Oh, I almost forgot: You get two 81mm mortars too, but they came into play so late, they never made an impact) Anyway, I made it to the dockside VL with a full platoon, with two Turns to go. I had grabbed all VL's except the one on the far left side of the canal, and was content. But then, with one Turn to go, the German side surrendered! Gave me the last VL for free, for an Allied Major Victory. Whoooo baby, who's your daddy now!! So there you have it. My first real AAR, it's probably a bit unstructured and hard to read, but then it is my first. I guess the most important thing I learned was never to give up just because "he killed all my tanks! Bwaaa!" or you infantry is hurting and low on ammo. Because you know what? So is his! Once again: Excellent scenario set! Great maps, cool and varied situations. You never get the "same ol' same ol'" feeling. Great historical background and briefings, without being too cutsey. For anyone who hasn't tried them I heartily recommend them. You find them at Tom's HQ. [ed: caught a few typos] Happy gaming! [ October 23, 2002, 04:45 AM: Message edited by: Joques ]

Sorry no, that was my mistake. My unmodded CMBO has a generic "WG" plaque in scenario selection...

Hi P5, >In CMBO the troops are named correctly, as >Waffen SS. At least if you bought the game few >years ago, when you only could buy the game from >USA. Today they are selling CMBO in stores and >about that version I cannot say a thing. Yeah, I just bought CMBO a week ago (jeez, has it been only a week? The days have kinda blurred into each other...) It is published by CDV, and the SS is designated as "Waffen Grenadiers" So from your reply I'm guessing there is no such patch for CMBO? Or would the CMBB one work for CMOB? (not likely, I know) Redwolf: >The SS-Runes (the symbols) are a different >matter Amazingly, the SS runes ARE in my version of CMBO. I'm almost certain they were before I modded... Seems inconstistant. I'll check to make sure.

Howdy gents, Since I am a resident of Europe it seems I'm stuck with CDV's PC version of our game. That means all my SS units are designated "Waffen Grenadiers". Now that's just plain silly. I'm not one of those "infatuated with the SS" geeks, but I do like my units to have some relation to their historical counterparts, instead of some fairytale generic designation like "Waffen Grenadiers". I do have the mods that convert flag graphics etc, but so far haven't found anything similar for the unit designations. SO - I read that there is a patch for CMBB where the units are renamed to Waffen SS. Is there a similar patch for CMBO?

Hat Trick, Yes I know about the firepower screen. I imagined there might be differences in psychological makeup too, if nothing else then for flavour.

Howdy, Having played this game for a week now (yeah, rank newb, I know) I'm getting to be curious about the psychological mechanisms for our little digital fighting men. For instance, is there any difference between different nationalities? The manual doesn't say. Now in ASL, for instance, an American squad will rout quicker than other nationalities, but bounce back again really fast. And they have lots of inherent firepower. British 1st-liners have less firepower, but will tough it out more than their American brothers. And they won't cower when firing at the enemy. And so on for all the different nationalities. Is there a similar difference between nationalities in CMBO? Or CMBB for that matter, though I haven't seen that in stores yet.

Oops, sorry, wrong name. This was the "Any Port after a Storm" campaign set. Guess the above won't make much sense otherwise.

Hi guys, I just acquired the "No Rest for the Weary" mini-campaign scenario set, and played the first scen of the set. First off, I must say I am very impressed with the map. It "looks and feels real", and immersion is high. (As opposed to some of the maps that shipped with the game) Now. Here's the layout: Small map, with some cover half of the way to the victory objectives (crossroads on the Ami left; ridge on Ami right), but the last 200 metres or so are open. Ami forces: a Rifle Coy, a Scout Car, a M8 HMC, three 60mm MTRs. And after approx 10 turns you get 2 Stuarts. Now as Ami you have no arty. Smoke, you get a little with the MTRs (enough for about a turn) and the M8 also carries a little. The way this played out, I got as far as the tree line halfway across the map, parked my scout car and M8 on the small hill in the middle. MGs also on the hill. One platoon through the woods/marshes to the left of the hill, the other two platoons advanced (ran, actually) in dispersed order towards the tree line. Results, by turn 5, I had the flanking platoon in firing position on the left side, one platoon in position on the right side, and one platoon in reserve on the right side. Battle was joined. Further advance, however, was not possible. Now I wonder if anybody has any tips on advancing across open ground when you have very limited smoke, no artillery and only one medium Gun (75mm). I would gang up on one enemy unit, suppressing him and eventually chase him away, and another two would takes his place. At the end (last 5 Turns) I had done this enough that I believed his units' morale and strength had weakened so much that I could attempt a dash across the open ground, into his woodline. First one platoon went, then the next Turn, the reserve platoon followed. The first one got nearly eliminated. A couple German squads popped out of HIP, and those MG teams weren't nearly as shaken as I'd thought they were. The second platoon though made it more or less into the woodline, but got wasted in close combat. Has anybody had experiences with this scenario? In general, how would you attack when you have no arty, little armour and no (I think) infantry superiority in numbers? His flanks were also fairly secure. (Don't misunderstand me - I'm not implying the scen is unbalanced. For all my years of playing ASL, I'm a rank newbie at CM. )

Whoa, this is some good stuff. I've been reading for two hours straight now, didn't notice the time passing. Thanks!

Hiya guys, I have a coupla questions when it comes to Victory Determination (the manual is pretty vague on the subject). First: Operations. I have DL'ed a bunch of operations on various websites (can't wait till CMBB is available here in Norway...) and it seems they are always very vague on operation objective. I have resorted to loading the operation in the scenario editor and checking the parameters (advance/assault/destroy). Or are you as a player meant to be kept in the dark on just what the heck you are supposed to be doing? Second: Battles. Does anybody know the formula the game uses to determine victory points? Casualties, VL's, exit (?) all generate points, but according to which formula? Thirdly, and this is a tangent: I heard a rumour that due to copyright issues, ASL-CM conversions are "not allowed". It seems silly in the extreme, is it true?

First off, Hi everybody! I'm an ASL player only recently (today actually) turned on to CM. Boy it looks cool. I've never heard of the 8cm PAW before, but the Pueppchen was a predecessor to the Panzerschreck. It was not recoilless, it was like an AT gun only smaller and lighter (since muzzle velocity was deliberately kept down to enhance HEAT performance). Only after the Germans captured American Bazookas (in Africa...?) did they realize the potential of a recoilless shoulder-fired AT weapon. Bye for now!