SFJaykey

I've never been in the army but I've fished a lot of rivers, and while it can happen fords don't really move around much, except after major floods. Also, the rippling shallower water is pretty easily recognizable from a fair distance, to anyone with even a little training or real-world experience. Since we keep hearing that roads in Russia were poor, I expect there were few bridges as well and fords made up the majority of water crossings, so they would be on maps and familiar to locals. From a realism standpoint I wouldn't want designers to go overboard with hiding them. Perhaps at setup under EFOW, we could see "Ford?" markers that might be off a little in location, like with sound contacts. Then, a generic "Ford" marker would become visible at the actual location when any unit obtained direct LOS to it. The type of Ford would become evident when a leader, pioneer, or any vehicle moved within a certain distance, maybe 30m. I include all vehicles because I assume drivers received some training in how to judge whether it was safe for their vehicles to cross a given ford. - Matt

I'll be watching to see if anyone has an answer, as my experience matches yours. I've pretty much given up on computer selection of units, unless it's infantry only. My favorite way to play QBs right now is with player selected units on human designed maps. - Matt

Thanks so much....still wondering how I failed to figure it out myself....I am not _quite_ that obtuse. - Matt

Please, tell me it ain't so. I'm _finally_ happy with my first homebrewed map, after investing several hours off and on over the past couple of weeks. Now, as best I can tell, I was supposed to specify the number of victory flags before I started! I've only got one large flag on a large, complicated map, which I guess is the default. Please tell me there's another way to add VLs to a saved map....or import the map into a new battle so I can change the parameters. Matt [ May 02, 2003, 05:21 PM: Message edited by: SFJaykey ]

Please send me the scenario! Anyone out there running 1.03 and care to try it as PBEM? Matt

Thanks for the input....I expected differing opinions on this! In PBEM I take my time with turns, viewing several replays from different angles, both to extract as much data as possible to plot my next moves and for the sheer enjoyment of watching the simulation. I would agree that the most _effective_ players probably do the same, though I'd stop before calling them the "best." I think the ability to absorb and analyze the action and plot your moves _quickly_, as close to real time as possible, is a mark of the top players. I enjoyed the challenge of the 3-minute limit in my first TCP, even though I ran out of time a few times. I can see playing future games both with and without time limits...the experience will be different but both enjoyable. And I'll always grant a "pause" if an opponent wants to replay an especially juicy action segment from several angles, and hope for the same courtesy... Another thing I'd like to try sometime is playing with 1-minute limits, to correspond with the 1-minute action segments and simulate "real time" as closely as possible within the CM engine. I'm wondering if anyone else does this regularly and the size of the forces you've attempted it with. I can foresee it being quite a challenge with anything more than a platoon of infantry plus a tank or 2... - Matt

Ooch! I just looked up and I have been working on that dang map 3 hours straight and still not done! Now I remember why I set it aside! Well, I will finish it eventually! - Matt

What do you think this little begining of a map: Screenshot #1 Screenshot #2 Looks cool, Fishu. Can't wait to roll the Brummbarrs into that picturesque town! I am working on one of my own, too, in fact I have already played a PBEM on it but haven't posted yet as I am a perfectionist...what the heck I'll polish it up a bit and have it up at the Depot and cmmods in a few hours. - Matt

Just completed my first TCP game in CMBB...awesome! Thanks to Z1812 for a great game, even though you kicked my butt. PBEM will never be the same...and vs AI is right out. A couple of questions for you all, though: I played a 600 pt game, I had a company of Soviet inf plus a platoon of BT7s, and a couple of support weapons. Time limit was 3 minutes/turn, and I ran out of time on several turns. Is that about right, do I just need to be quicker? What are typical time limits for various sized games? Also, I am a bit paranoid about posting my IP as host...is it "safe" to post in the CMHQ chatroom, or on the Opponent Finder BBS, or better done via email? Any other comments or hints for a newbie TCPer? - Matt

Just my $.02: I like battles of all sizes in terms of points, just finished a PBEM assault where I had about 2 battalions of infantry + armor and it was great fun! Less so for my opponent. R U out there Hector Low points battles are fun, too, but there has to be "elbow room" on the map...even with just a couple of platoons I like a medium map at least. And any map involving long-barreled armor or ATG on either side should be on a large map, or you are taking away an important advantage of the higher velocity weaponry, and advantage that player is still paying for in terms of points. One thing: if you are playing with a few units on a big map, it has to be a good map, with rationally placed VLs, or the opponents may have a hard time finding each other. I never use CG maps anymore, unless a PBEM opponent insists...there are lots of good human-made maps available for download at the Scenario Depot and elsewhere. One of my favorites for MEs is the "Church and Orchard" map. QBs with player-picked forces, on quality human-made maps, are one of the most enjoyable ways to play CMBB! On the question of small-bore artillery: I have found the 4-tube german 75 module useful for suppression and laying smoke, though agree the 2-tube module doesn't have enough weight of fire to be useful. ROF is slower than the 81mm mortars, but blast is more powerful and smoke duration longer. - Matt

Playing my first game with your sounds, NCrawler. Very nice job! Except now my PSW sounds like it needs a valve job... BTW I hear what sounds like breaking glass at the end of my 50mmL60 shots...is that supposed to be there or is that the "static" people are referring to? - Matt

I second the motion! And I am still hoping for an alternate "brush" tile depicting the little vegetable gardens that were supposedly ubiquitous in the Russian countryside. - Matt

I'm just wondering if anyone has developed a utility that will knit the 1-minute action segments of a completed CMBB game together, so they can be watched as a continuous movie. If not, let me suggest that this would be a great feature for CMAK and CMX2! - Matt

I've read that most of the Elefants were sent to Italy, after being upgraded from Ferdinands. Also recall an anecdote about the first appearance of the long-barrelled PzIVs in Italy: a US recon unit, unfamiliar with long-barrelled German tanks, mistook them for cranes or recovery vehicles, and thought they had come across a maintenance unit....the US combat unit following up was quite disappointed in the error! Actually, to me the story sounds like a better description of the Panther with the 70mm/L70, but am sure it referred to the PzIV...maybe the PzIV/70 or the JgdPzIV? - Matt [ April 19, 2003, 04:12 PM: Message edited by: SFJaykey ]

I seem to recall a photo of an American airborne tank in one of the old Time-Life WWII books....I thought it was used by the glider forces at Normandy but this is going on old memories. I wonder what they expected the 37mm to accomplish at that late date...a 75mm low-velocity gun, or even twin .50s, might have been more useful. - Matt

I had good luck with a towed artillery piece in a long PBEM game I am just finishing up, in which I am playing the Germans, assaulting a town. I set up a 150mm IG hiding in a patch of woods, almost 1000m back from my opponents setup area and with clear LOS to an area where I expected my opponent to set up a strong point. After my advancing infantry fixed his positions, I opened up on them with the 150....I was not on the receiving end but it looked pretty devastating! He returned fire on the gun with 76mm IGs but at that range it was a lot easier for me to hit buildings than for him to hit my gun, and his revealed guns were quickly destroyed by my forward units. After that strong point was reduced I embarked the 150 on a halftrack and advanced it more than 1km to another patch of woods on the flank, about 400m from the edge of town, from where it was able to fire down one of the streets at the buildings in the middle of town held by my opponent. Again it played a big role in reducing his defenses. I have had worse luck with towed artillery in the past....I think the key to my success with the big gun this time was setting up at long range, and hidden, and waiting for the right moment to open up. If I had started firing before my forward units were in close, he would probably have been able to get the range with his IGs and destroy my gun. Also, when I moved the gun forward it was on a flank that had been swept previously by infantry and armor, and I set up on the "friendly" side of a patch of woods to try and keep any of his reserves from having a shot at the gun. The big towed artillery is vulnerable, but when handled cautiously it can be devastating on the attack!

OK, screenshots are up at my briefcase....I don't think there'll be _too_ much interest http://briefcase.yahoo.com/sfjaykey48 - Matt

I just tried the scale hotkey and the men scale along with the pillbox, and appear to be inside at each size level. Would love to post a pic but not sure how. I think I have to put it up on a webpage somewhere and then post the link here in the forum? I have a Yahoo briefcase...would that work? To Nevermind: I have made a screenshot and if I can't post it I can email if you send your address....mine is long_nosed_stug@yahoo.com I guess I will assume the bunker is still alive and I will have to pull back and wait for the FTs. Sorry to tell you, Venjra, but they are not far behind. - Matt

First, Congrats to BFC on the Wargame of the Year award! Great to see the press recognizes what we all know already! Now a Q for you guys: I am in a PBEM playing Axis, assaulting Allies, in my first game against an opponent with lots of fortifications. I have outflanked a couple of his concrete 76mm pillboxes but the FTs are slow in coming up, so I am trying to kill the first one with my panzergrenadiers. 2 turns ago a PzGrndr squad scored a "hit" on the side/rear of the pillbox with a grenade bundle. The next turn they "Assaulted", from the rear, and now appear to be _inside_ the bunker. But they have not encountered the pillbox crew, or fired any weapons, and are now just kneeling inside (apparently) the pillbox in "ready/ok" status. The pillbox still shows a red base indicating it is Soviet controlled. I have no units in front to take fire from the pillbox so don't know if it is really "dead" or not. So, what gives? Is this a "death clock" situation, and the pillbox is probably knocked out? Or can they not really enter the pillbox, and are just leaning against the rear wall having a smoke? If the latter, I suppose I will have to move them away some before targeting more grenades to avoid them blasting themselves? Can grenades or grenade bundles even kill concrete pillboxes? Thanks for the help, Matt

LOL.....I thought I was the only one who had a B&W newsreel fetish, SgtGoody! Just turn down the color on your monitor....btw it works w/ your TV for those terrible "colorized" old movies, too. Re: the camo Pz35/38 mod, better make 'em rusty and damaged since by late war these will all have some miles on 'em...

Thanks, I figured it was easy. I hadn't gone into parameters at all, since I was making a Qb map not a scenario. - Matt

Ok, dumb question I'm sure, but can't find the answer in the manual or by searching the forum: How do you place VLs? I am working on my first map in the Editor, and have it just about done except I can't find how to place the VLs (and erase the default one). Thanks, Matt

Regarding the classification system: cmbb uses slightly different rules for AFVs compared to vehicles: only AFVs can "Hunt," for example. So I think it is important to classify units based on the "family" they have been assigned to in CMBB for the resource to be useful. According to CMBB: halftracks, tankettes and armored cars, as well as trucks, are all vehicles, not AFVs. Light tanks, assault guns, and tank destroyers are AFVs...the PzI, Pz38 and T-70 for example are light tanks, while the T-38 is a tankette. According to CMBB. Basically anything that shows up under "Armor" in the unit purchase screen is an AFV. - Matt

Ahem....that may have been me. I installed Ed's Small Building mod in CMBB, which converts the 300 and 301 bmps to a very nice plastered house. Take a screenshot and look at those tracers really carefully....does each one have a little peaked roof? If you did the same hopefully you backed up the orange default tracers. If not you can download the hi-vis tracers at cmmods ("Other"), which give you some choices of colors. Just copy them into bmps 300 and 301, not the ones stated in the readme. - Matt

Thanks Hub....it's a lot like what I was looking for...wetter, greener and not as "dead" looking. Lots of other good stuff on that site, intended for CMBO I guess but adaptable to CMBB as long as I watch the bmp #s? I guess man need not live by CMMOS alone!