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landser got a reaction from Limo in The incredible richness of the CM games
I think it's great that you still find it so rewarding, and I like your post.
I wish I could say the same. I also got in at the start, with the CMBO demo. Combat Mission remains my favorite tactical simulation on PC. I cannot praise enough the spotting, ballistics and Command and Control. WEGO remains brilliant all these years later.
But I feel apathetic about it all. The game has failed to evolve, and in my view everything outside the actual tactical battlefield is out of date. Haven't fired it up in a year, and haven't made a purchase, aside from engine upgrades, since SF2.
I wish I felt like you do about it all, but the enthusiasm is mostly gone. I'm sure I'll play again, but if there's no major evolution in the series, especially in regards to things like the campaign system, content generation, UI, and yes, even graphics, then I can't see it ever reclaiming it's rightful place in my gaming rotation. No big drama, these things happen, and my opinion is not that of the next man. I'm happy folks still get so much enjoyment out of the series. I check the forum regularly, enjoy the discussion. But Combat Mission, for me, has fallen behind the times and the development roadmap isn't going in my direction. I guess our paths are diverging, to put it one way.
Maybe I should follow your lead and lift a few and see if that changes anything
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landser got a reaction from Warts 'n' all in Just Finished My First Campaign Totally Hooked on Red Thunder
Yeah, that potato isn't going to be very fresh a year after failing to take the objectives in time
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landser got a reaction from Sgt Joch in Just Finished My First Campaign Totally Hooked on Red Thunder
Blunting the Spear is one of the best campaigns in Combat Mission, any title, as far as I am concerned. but it's massive and definitely not noob friendly.
For me one of the best campaigns for new players is Task Force Raff in CMBN. It's an excellent primer scenario that gives the player a taste of bocage without feeling restricted, plus attack and defend missions on very nice maps. Time limits are generous, allowing plenty of time to scout, recon and maneuver without feeling rushed. Reinforcements are also generous, and you get a real feel for combined arms and using off board artillery. The lavish tank strength eventually on hand allows for some setbacks without losing momentum, making it an ideal scenario for new players (and vets too!).
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landser reacted to MOS:96B2P in BUG: panther killing sherman through building
As others have said above it was most likely an AP round which is able to go through buildings. An AI opponent generally can't do this (no area fire unless scripted in the AI orders) but a human opponent can. I've done this intentionally in PBEM games using an M10. When the HE was gone from the M10 I area fired into a building with an OpFor vehicle hiding behind it. Worked very well.
An interesting question might be, did your human opponent intentionally fire AP to hit your tank through the building. Or was he just trying to drop the building to get at your tank and as luck would have it, ran out of HE and and the tac AI used an AP round. You might just ask him when OpSec allows it.
See if your opponent claims it was an intentionally skillful move or luck.
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landser got a reaction from Blazing 88's in Steve Grammont interview.
Well, only one way to find out!
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landser got a reaction from SlowMotion in Which Combat Mission do you think has the most fun gameplay and why?
For me it's CMBN. Partly it's due to the number and quality of the campaigns available, and partly due to the airborne side of things. Allied para operations in advance of the landings (and after it too) are endlessly fascinating for me.
As a campaign player who does little else, CMBN stands out. SF2 has a lot too, but the gameplay is not nearly so compelling. So CMBN gets the nod from me. The paras, the terrain, the historical significance of the operations and battles depicted, and the force/weapon balance of that brief time period all add up to make Normandy the title I have the most fun with.
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landser got a reaction from AstroCat in Returning to CMBN
I don't agree. While I agree the AI has issues, I don't think it's the complexity that causes it. It's more down to how the game was designed, and how the AI is scripted. There are perfect storms where the designer seemed to have been in your head and the AI puts up a great fight. But in general the AI is limited, unable to 'think' on the fly and react, exploit or withdraw as the battlefield evolves, unless the scenario designer created it that way.
In a sense it's not really an AI at all, but pieces that react rigidly to the instructions the designer gave them. TacAI muddles the question to a degree, but in a broader view the AI lacks the intelligence part. AA is more accurate in my view, Artificial Automoton
Automoton: a machine that performs a function according to a predetermined set of coded instructions,
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landser got a reaction from Bagpipe in How often do sales come up on the BF website?
That sounds fine in theory. But in practical terms I have to disagree. And the reason is that scenario and campaign designers tend to use parts of any and all modules. For example they may use just a few pieces of one. And then in order to play that scenario or campaign you must have the module. Even if it's not designed around British army forces, it may still use units, or map elements or anything really. And with how precious campaigns are in the Combat Mission world, not having these modules restricts our choices more than they already are. Just imagine a CMBN player who opted not to get the vehicle pack
So while technically your point is true, I think for most players that not having the whole works is too limiting when searching for new content to play.
And I concur with the point above about a base game with plug-in modules. I hope this is Combat Mission's future, a point I've made here myself before too.
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landser got a reaction from IMHO in How often do sales come up on the BF website?
If I take the years 2001 through 2021 in to account, and average all the sales data over that period, including but not limited to flash sales, community events, door prizes, bundles and giveaways, the best prediction based on the data is the next sale will be in never.
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landser got a reaction from Lucky_Strike in How often do sales come up on the BF website?
If I take the years 2001 through 2021 in to account, and average all the sales data over that period, including but not limited to flash sales, community events, door prizes, bundles and giveaways, the best prediction based on the data is the next sale will be in never.
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landser got a reaction from Artkin in How often do sales come up on the BF website?
If I take the years 2001 through 2021 in to account, and average all the sales data over that period, including but not limited to flash sales, community events, door prizes, bundles and giveaways, the best prediction based on the data is the next sale will be in never.
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landser got a reaction from zaybz in What should I play next?
If you liked Devil's Descent, I'd recommend The Outlaws
https://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4490522/re-combat-mission-campaign-compendium#Post4490522
Similar in scope to Devil's Descent. American paras, with some help from the straightlegs near the end.
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landser got a reaction from Ultradave in WITE-2: thoughts and opinions?
The complexity is in the underlying mechanics, isnt it? It's easy to play, hard to play well. Of course I am still operating with WitE as my reference point, but take something like supply and logistics for example. The rules here are complex. Matter of fact I thought this was handled superbly by WitE. It's easy to push the counters around, but if the player fails to understand logistics and supply, it will take just a couple of turns before those counters cannot be pushed, as they are out of gas.
Good hunting commander
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landser got a reaction from MOS:96B2P in WITE-2: thoughts and opinions?
A few years ago I played a German campaign in WitE and attempted to detail it in an AAR over at SimHQ. That AAR can be viewed here, if interested
https://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4454240/1
It's difficult to convey things like scale of micromanagement. How do you describe it, or put it in to words? I talked about it a bit in the AAR, but you'll have to experience it to know.
One of my issues with the decisions the designers of WitE made is how recruitment is handled. The two sides play by different rules. The German commander must adhere to strict historical unit arrival and departures timetables. The Russia commander can build whatever the hell he wants. It's such an odd design, and perhaps my biggest gripe with the game. But I'm not intending to discuss this. The German commander must also deal with Command Capacity. Each headquarters has a limit to how many subordinate units it can control. If the number exceeds the threshold then penalties are incurred. Juggling this overload is one of the finer points of command. Army Group South especially begins the game heavily overloaded.
But there is a way out of it. You can't just build a couple new Army Group or Army HQs, no, only a Russian can do such a thing! But if you can reach Rostov it triggers the AGS split in to Army Groups A and B, which of course the Germans did in preparation for Fall Blau. This a massive event for a German player, and the new HQs offer a chance to reorganize and fix the command capacity overload. But it is a MASSIVE! undertaking. You are taking regiments, divisions, corps and reassigning them. This one here, that one there. Detach this, attach that. Return this to OKH, sack this general, promote that general, and transfer the other one. All of this is in accordance with administrative points, which you need for each of these moves. And I ate it up. This sort of thing is right in my wheelhouse, but it is a lot of work. Even many stout wargamers I know would blink at what is involved, and this is just one event in an entire war. The micro is strong in this one haha.
Here's what I wrote in the post describing this part of my campaign. It does not convey scale
With the split of Army Group South in to Army Groups A and B, a welcome opportunity to reorganize the overloaded command structure of the Wehrmacht was available to me, Having a fourth Army Group could allow redistribution of the forces throughout my command and alleviate the penalties that come when an organization is over the command capacity. At the start, only Army Group North does not suffer from this, but the other two do, and especially so in AGS.
This is a major undertaking, and the player must embrace the micro to attempt it. I failed to mention it yet, but the very first move I made in this campaign was to replace Halder at OKH with Kluge. Model then took Kluge's vacancy in 4th Army. And as mentioned, many corps commanders have also been replaced.
The creation of Army Groups A and B saw Rundstedt shift to AGA and Halder made a return as commander of AGB. But only very briefly as it turned out. The man cannot catch a break. He was immediately cashiered and replaced with Kesselring, who left Luftlotte 2 for this assignment.
The scope of the changes I made are too broad to recount in detail here, but in general terms I looked to make each army group structure the same. That is, each one would get a Panzer Group and two infantry armies. With the recent arrival of XXXX Panzer Corps, we now had 11 Panzer Corps, so one Army Group would be shortchanged.
In the north on the Leningrad front, no changes were made to Leeb's AGN in terms of commands attached to them. Hoepner's 4th Panzer would remain, as would 16th and 18th Armies. Because of the terrain, and the fact we have been tied down near Leningrad, 4th Panzer would be the one shortchanged, with just two Panzer Corps.
Bock's Army Group Center on the Moscow front saw some shuffling. XXIV Panzer Corps, the one from 2nd Panzer sent to the rescue at Leningrad was reassigned to Hoth's 3rd Panzer, raising it to three Panzer Corps. AGC had three infantry armies, the 2nd, the 4th and the 9th. So the 2nd was reassigned to Army Group B. This left AGC with three Panzer Corps and two infantry armies
Kesselring's newly formed Army Group B was assigned the sector around Voronezh. The recently arrived XXXX Panzer Corps was attached to 2nd Panzer, bringing it to three Panzer Corps. 6th Army was reassigned from Army Group South to AGB. So now AGB had Guderian's 2nd Panzer along with 2nd and 6th Armies.
Rundstedt's newly constituted AGA would be assigned the southern front, the right wing, and given responsibility over the region around Denpro and Rostov. Kleist's 1st Panzer (three Panzer Corps) remained, as well as 11th and 17th Armies.
All satellite armies were reassigned to their national headquarters.
With these moves the rough cuts were complete. No Army Group was overloaded any longer. However some overloading remained at the Army level, especially in 9th Army, but also minor overloading in 16th and 18th as they continued to hammer at Leningrad. This should be worked out in time, but I can only wish I had one additional Army headquarters, which would solve all remaining issues.
In all it was a massive undertaking, down to individual divisions, brigades and regiments being shifted to various corps, corps to various higher headquarters, and additional changes were made to corps commanders as I continue to try and get my most capable men in the best positions. All of these moves costs a lot of admin points, over 200 having been spent on this reorganization. With mud coming I felt I could spare the points with few HQBUs being needed as panzer units would be pulled back to refit.
The strategy gamer/micromanager in me absolutely loved the whole process, and the penalties had been eating at me since June. To have it (mostly) sorted at this point is very satisfying. It should prove of some worth come winter, and in to the '42 campaigning season
So this is the sort of thing you can expect, I reckon. Again, this is not WitE2, and perhaps it is a mistake to compare the two. I should play it and see. But I expect the games will share this sort of thing, and others having played it can set me straight.
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landser got a reaction from Bulletpoint in Please up the budget for quick battles
Customizable points and the return of Combined Arms preset would go far to get me to play QBs again.
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landser got a reaction from QuiGon in Please up the budget for quick battles
Customizable points and the return of Combined Arms preset would go far to get me to play QBs again.
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landser got a reaction from dbsapp in Visibility? How do I view visible terrain?
Combat Mission could really use a feature or mode where clicking any unit under your command would shade or color all parts of the map visible to that unit.
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landser got a reaction from mbarbaric in Best CMBN Campaigns and Scenarios for Engine Version 4
I wrote a campaign review thread at SimHQ. It died off since there was no interest or comments. But I covered several CMBN campaigns. Maybe you can take something from it, though I did not consider engine 4 in the commentary.
https://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4490340/combat-mission-campaign-reviews#Post4490340
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landser got a reaction from Anonymous_Jonze in Campaign Suggestions?
For CMBN? My two favorites are Devil's Descent and Kampfgruppe Engel. Devil's Descent is a company sized American paratrooper campaign just perfect in scope. Kampfgruppe Engel is an innovative campaign where you play as Germans in the Falaise Pocket. It's a tough one, but fun and diverse.
Check this thread for some of my thoughts on these and a few more.
https://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4490340/combat-mission-campaign-reviews#Post4490340
Edit: It's Engel, not Engle
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landser got a reaction from FlemFire in Best CMBN Campaigns and Scenarios for Engine Version 4
I wrote a campaign review thread at SimHQ. It died off since there was no interest or comments. But I covered several CMBN campaigns. Maybe you can take something from it, though I did not consider engine 4 in the commentary.
https://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4490340/combat-mission-campaign-reviews#Post4490340
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landser reacted to SgtHatred in Hindsight 20/20?
Total nonsense. You have no idea what you are talking about.
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landser got a reaction from George MC in Your Most Frustrating Game in SF2?
I might just do, thanks for the offer. I don't like doing this usually, as it reveals too much that I would rather remain hidden until I am playing it. But I may decide to try this down the line. Regardless, I appreciate your skilled efforts to provide campaign content for the player base. Keep up the good work!
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landser reacted to George MC in Your Most Frustrating Game in SF2?
Yeah - I had thought when playtesting it was too easy for Blue as the RED AFVs stuff is a tad outclassed by Blue AFVs. Aye getting the balance is a tough one. I think a few years down the line I've recognised that not every players wants a sufferfest!
If you like PM me your email address and I'll fire you the missions and the campaign script via DB and you can amend the experience levels for each mission (or play em as standalones) as to what you like
You'd have to go through each mission in the editor and modify the OPFOR experience settings (just select 'typical' and click on each unit it'll automatically change em. Save the mission then compile them and voila - a bespoke campaign
ps I would have done that normally but tad tied up with other projects right now.
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landser got a reaction from George MC in Your Most Frustrating Game in SF2?
For me I think it is the Forging Steel campaign, which is another George's creations, if I am not wrong.
I only call it frustrating because of the quality of the OPFOR troops. The map is fantastic, the core force is probably exactly the sort of formation I would choose if playing a QB. Everything about it seems right up my alley. But all enemy are crack. I gave up because of how difficult it was to dislodge even a small, isolated team.
I'm not criticising the design, and I know this is precisely what George was going for, as you had replied to me back when I played it. I am only frustrated because I didn't keep playing it and it seemed like one I would really enjoy if it weren't so difficult for me. Maybe there's a version with reduced enemy skill?