Falcon988

I took Axis during "Panic at Gela" against a human player as well. Oh the horror... I took ten times more casualties than he did. Plucky little Yanks. Any scenario's out there besides the Finnish one already mentioned (will have to check it out) that utilize some really large scale artillery barrages? It's so rare that I see anything higher than 150mm these days.

Maybe, but to my knowledge that doesn't imply that Soviet conscripts are by default worse than German conscripts. I like it that way. Man by man it's a myth to think that one army has "superior men, stronger, faster, smarter, braver" etc. All a bunch of hooey as we know. The Soviet Army in 1941 suffered from a miserable chain of command, hence the command delays. The soldiers weren't so bad. Man I love this game.

Personally the Eastern Front is my primary interest, but the Western Front is just as good gaming-wise. Fighting in Stalingrad or charging up an Italian mountain are both good with me. I'm just more inclined to read a book on Stalingrad.

I've seen tanks knocked out by heavy artillery. Mind you though, not for a long time. The most recent example I can think of is a Sherman hit by 150mm at Carentan in CMBO. The most usual effect of heavy artillery is immobolization (which alone makes it worth the ammo). That and it very often kills unbuttoned tank commanders and rattled the crew. During a CMBB battle last August I had a perfectly good Tiger take a direct hit from 105mm around Kursk. CO dead, and it just was not very effective for the rest of the battle. Furthermore, a few weeks ago I was playing an Italy battle where I led a group of Shermans into action against some ATG's. They delayed my assault for quite a while, and it wasn't until later that I discovered the ATG's had -long- run out of AP ammo, but had been firing HE. It was a bluff, but a very effective one. Plus one or two tanks had their guns damaged by the ATG's so it wasn't completely worthless. Conclusion? Tanks are monsters and you should use everything at your disposal to destroy, incapacitate, or even distract them.

I was attacking through the desert with Australians once, against some hill the Germans had fortified. Things went quite well until we were blown to pieces by two 150mm INF guns. Extremely high casualties. Company CO was the first one killed. Very messy. Had to withdraw. Hate 150mm guns like the plague.

Demo charges are beautiful weapons against infantry. I think at least in 90% of cases where an Engineer uses a demo charge against an enemy squad the enemy suffers several casualties and panics. Great for city fighting too where they can knock down a building and kill everybody inside.

Running is best. You typically want to spend as little time in the open as possible, but it's often a necessary evil. And when it is you want to be out of there quickly.

I disagree. I'm in the process of playing a scenario PBEM where I'm using my flamethrower teams to torch dug in German infantry in the woods. Ordinarily I agree with you Jason, but in this situation my flamethrowers are doing what would cost me probably dozens of casualties to do with my own infantry. So I think it just depends on how you use them, like any other weapon in the game. Though I would rather have a Soviet SMG squad.

I like to use my Howitzer's in an attack support role. You set those suckers up on a hill and they lay waste to just about any visible infantry threat.

You'll get used to it. It's best to try and think of them as real human beings, and consequentially think what you would do in their shoes. CMAK infantry are perfectly capable of being as heroic as CMBO's though... it's just that in order to be a good commander you need to use a little psychology to try to understand their mind.

You really should have gotten Barbarossa to Berlin. I don't know if you can send CMAK back or whatever, but if the Eastern Front is you're thing then CMBB is the way to go. CMBB is also my personal favorite of the series since I'm into the Eastern Front myself. But it's really just a matter of taste. You seem like a CMBB man to me.

Depends on the terrain and enemy forces. You need to do reconaissance. For the most part I like to probe their defenses and see what's what. If it's an infantry stronghold you bring in your heavy guns to kill them. If they have armor it's necessary to defeat your opponent's armor while keeping enough of yours alive to continue the attack. If they have anti-tank guns I use smoke with mortars. You could wait a few turns to kill them with HE from those mortars but only 81mm's can do that quickly and I find it better to keep them under smoke until infantry can close with and destroy. Essentially the idea is a methodical but quick advance. Infantry running forward and resting at intervals. Machine guns and mortars on the high ground with good LOS on our objectives. Tanks in the rear ready to engage enemy tanks, provide smoke, or blast infantry with HE. That sort of thing. Some air support would be nice, but you can't count on it.

In the process of playing that in PBEM right now actually.

I'm reading through the CMAK Companion and I've gotten to the Operation Torch landings and America's introduction to N. Africa. This has peaked my interest in the subject, but to my dismay there's very few battles available for them. The /huge/ majority of the CD battles are with the Commonwealth, and the few U.S. battles there are (like Raff to the Rescue) I already played long ago. Looking around the Scenario Depot and had similar luck. Proving Grounds doesn't seem to have any Africa battles at all. Anyone know where I can find some serious Americans In Africa brawls?

Attribute it to human error. He may very well have been looking at a dirty magazine. Or day dreaming. Or watching the other action. He's only one man after all so who knows what happened. You can always court martial him. And don't complain too much about that trench. I'm PBEMing an attack where I have to deal with an anti tank gun in a trench which is also located IN a heavy stone building. I don't even think that's realistically possible, but I can tell you it's very annoying.

Well you all were right I definately was doomed. Despite some truly heroic and skillful action by the British resulting in a dozen Italian M14's destroyed by close assault, my unit was overrun by an entire battalion of infantry and several platoons of M14's. Wasn't a pretty thing to watch. Heavy losses inflicted on the enemy though and a few rearguard actions ensured that a few dozen Brits escaped unharmed. So it wasn't all that bad. I'm still a little angry over my men's inability to hold fire, but I understand the reasoning. I was asking a lot of them I suppose and every one of the forward units were either destroyed or taken prisoner. But the AI in Combat Mission never ceases to amaze me. It's best to think of your soldiers as human beings rather than mindless robots who will defend their position to the last man.

This evening I was defending a small little desert town with a few British engineers against a battalion of Italian infantry & M14 platoon. Set a few men with demo charges in ambush positions at various areas, and put minimal sized cover arcs on them specifically to keep them from unloading on distant targets. Repeatedly though, they disregarded the cover arcs, unhid, and opened fire on enemies they shouldn't have opened fire upon. Consequentially there were a lot of unnecessary losses when the Italians found my positions, forced the British to leave cover, and shot them in the open sand. It was very frustrating and my entire defense is in peril thanks to their incompetance. Is this a deliberate design thing that models "human error"? Soldiers who literally can't hold fire to save their won lives?

One day I'm going to be rich enough to buy my own T-34. That would be very, very cool... might be illegal though.

That map looks pretty damn good. If I were home and had my CMAK CD handy I'd volunteer to playtest for you... but as it stands I'll merely compliment your design work. Good job.

50% in a cemetary seems about right. Tombstone's aren't -that- big and will at best only fully protect you from troops to your 12:00. You're better off saying "bugger this" and ducking behind a stone wall.

I whole heartedly agree with you, but I'm going to throw King Tigers into the mix as well. Allow me to provide two anecdotes as an example of why I love the Tiger tanks. In CMAK PBEM during an Anzio battle I was forced to lead a Panzergrenadier company across an open field (vineyard) through machine guns, artillery, small arms, Sherman tanks firing HE, and capture a small village occupied by British & Irish troops. I was supported by Panzers from the Herman Goering division who were quickly -slaughtered- and all seemed lost. But then a miracle! Two Tiger tanks arrived, engaged the enemy, and -destroyed- the Allied armor. After which they reinvigorated morale, took charge of, and spearheaded my attack into the village. So I captured it and defeated the Allies. That victory belongs entirely to those two Tiger tanks. Also in CMBB PBEM, late war, I used two King Tigers to spearhead a column of tired & wounded soldiers, plus refugees to smash through the Russian lines. And boy did they. No matter what my opponent through at me my King's just brushed it off and demolished everything. So most of my force got through intact. I don't care what anyone says. After battles like those two I firmly believe Tigers are gods of the battlefield.

I don't shoot prisoners. Mainly because I feel a certain degree of accomplishment whenever an enemy unit surrenders to me. It brings a smile to my face watching them walking down a street towards my rear as my main force advances past them. In CMBB though I did shoot at my own routed units when I played the Russian side. At least when I could spare the ammo. Comrade Stalin would've been proud.

I think certain sections of the desert are the most beautiful in the entire Combat Mission series. Specifically when the sky is blue, and your down at ground level with the troops as they steadily march under some palm trees in an orchard. You could almost forget there was a war going on when you're in locations like that. At least until the German artillery hits.

Pshaw, you just need some imagination. Why, just recently I recreated World War 1 in PBEM. Fortified German position. Trenches, machine guns, 105+ millimeter artillery, mortars, the works. I, being the tactical genius that I am, decided that the best course of action would be a frontal assault by my British infantry lying prone just out of LOS. So I unleashed a big artillery barrage, popped smoke in the open ground between my troops and the trenches, blew a trumpet, and watched as my troops jumped up ran ran towards the German position with bayonets fixed and shouting all sorts of curse words. It was really quite a show to camera lock onto a British squad and rotate it around so I could see all the artillery smashing around my men, machine guns cutting people down, etc etc. My men charged valiantly, and ended up being butchered valiantly. Computer made me auto surrender less than 5 turns later.

I had a hell of a time blowing a bridge the other day with some American engineers. Ever try to use your satchels out in the open, under machine gun fire from your end of the bridge, and German tanks racing across from the other end trying desperately to stop you and firing bullets & HE rounds? I can tell you it wasn't fun. We managed to hit it one satchel and all it would've required was one more, but the tanks got across before we could do it and surrounded my engineers. Then they went on to route the rest of my forces on the map.