General Jack Ripper

You have to see it with the proper green and grey plastic colored nostalgia goggles. And I already have one brave adventurer, any others?

I have recently completed a custom scenario I was thinking about putting up at the repository. However, I think it would be proper to get some testing done before then. So, I am asking for several volunteers to test a Head-to-Head scenario. The scenario's name is "My Backyard" and is intended to simulate a huge plastic army men war I had when I was a kid on summer vacation. The map is 1200m by 1600m, half open field, and half forest and swamp. The terrain is rather simple, but it is intended to be. Each player recieves a new bucket of soldiers approximately every 15 minutes, with slight variation. Reinforcements will continue to arrive for over an hour, until finally you get a large chunk of troops, and are then left to fight to the finish. Air support is included in the reinforcements. There are six terrain objectives, each worth 1000 points, the final goal of the game is to hold more than half of the objectives. There is no AI plan so this must be played Head-to-Head. My schedule doesn't allow for any spare time right now, so that is why I am asking for volunteers. If you wish to try the scenario, please PM me your email address so I can send a copy of the scenario. If you do test out the scenario, please do not hesitate to provide feedback, all comments and criticisms are welcome.

What is that first tank shown in the video, it looks an awful lot like a French LeClerc, but not quite the same. In the video, the headlights are in a different place, and the turret is a slightly different shape, but I could swear they are the same?

I think I might get this mod just so I can go back and play TF Thunder once again.

I haven't been playing Combat Mission very much these days, but I think the very worst -2 moment I have ever had was when I was playing a small scenario I made up in CMAK. I lost two Platoons trying to storm a small house that had two U.S. rifle squads in it. I figured that with a 3-1 numerical superiority the fight would be over in a few seconds, and I was right. Assault on an O.P. I know it's an old video from a long time ago, but that one moment has stuck with me throughout the years, and I try not to make any mistakes like that ever again.

Your readers haven't decamped, (well, I'm still here anyway) it just seemed to me that you enjoyed that battle, and you have already learned the lessons you needed to from it. It appears to me, based upon that AAR, that the learning curve has begun to level off for you. Well, maybe a little I look foward to more reports.

I think you are looking at the compass incorrectly. I've used moving smoke clouds as cover successfully several times, the wind has always blown in the correct direction.

Glad to be of help, and that analogy is often proven correct, as I have learned rather painfully on many occasions. Good luck on your next battle.

+1 andsomelettersalongwithit I also seem to have trouble staying logged in while browsing mods. A minor headache, welcome back.

The bit about having the trees turned off reminds me of some mistakes I made early on. You might try out the setting "nearby trunks only" which will display all trees except those within about 100m of the camera location, which will be displayed as tree trunks. If that setting is still too hard to use for situational awareness, then my advice is to get in the habit of turning on the trees at the start of the orders phase, do a quick terrain survey, then turn them off again to issue orders. Also, don't be afraid to hit the ceasefire button as soon as it becomes apparent that you cannot advance. Sometimes the preservation of your own forces can be more valuable than any terrain objectives. Also, don't be afraid to run down the clock. Personally, I estimate the amount of time it would take to reach my objectives at a walking pace (cmd:MOVE), and I try to reach the objective in that amount of time. If I have 60 minutes to complete a scenario, and I estimate a walking time of 20 minutes to reach the objective, I allow myself to "waste" 40 minutes with things like artillery calls, air support, area fire, shoot and scoot with tanks, and area reconnaissance. There are many times I have been playing a scenario where I would need to soften up enemy positions with area fire for as much as 15 minutes, before being able to advance to the objective with only a few minutes left on the clock. I even had one game where I didn't hit my 'occupy' objective until there was only one minutes left.

I hope you find time to release any you make, either here on the repository, or the CM Warehouse. New maps are always welcome, especially to people like me who can't make a map in anything less than 6 months time.

You have my sympathies, I know exactly how that feels.

I've seen some bad driving in my own games, but nothing quite as bad as that. I agree with Heinrich505, that driver should be sent on a one man recon mission to teach him a lesson.

jacknine, Welcome to the forums! May I suggest you check out the Strategy and Tactics forum: http://www.battlefront.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=69 There is many good informations to be had there, and feel free to ask any questions you have, there are always more questions to be asked here.

I too will be reading this DAR with interest. I've never had much success trying to command anything approaching a battalion in size, so it will be interesting to see what techniques are used.

Use the hotkeys to turn on the option "show all movement paths". When I played CMx1 games I rarely needed this option, but in CMx2, especially when you have squads split into teams, this is essential so you know where everyone is going. Give bazooka teams a 100 meter or less target arc, and order them to hide. when the target you want them to fire at comes near or into the cover arc, order them to stop hiding and/or remove the target arc. Leave the aiming and firing to the bazooka man. To be honest, I haven't had much luck with this either. Most of the time, I use the XO team to run around and stand next to panicked guys to try and rally them. Once they have rallied, do not place them in the front of your force, I usually have them form an ad hoc reserve. With mortars, I never have the section leader more than 1-2 action spots away from them. Speaking in terms of the weapons platoon, I send my machineguns up front with the rifle platoons, and I keep the weapons platoon HQ behind to babysit the mortars. The only time I let my mortars wander off is to do direct fire on enemy location, then they come right back. If you insist on keeping a seperate machinegun section, park your mortars next to the company hq. With target line, you do not need to actually see the whole line, only the two end points you place. It is the same with area target, you only need to see the center point, and the one outside point you place to make the circle. Much more important than seeing spots to place artillery, is the fact that if your spotter does not see any spotting rounds when they come in, your artillery may come in off target. Of course, when using one or two TRP's to target line or area, artillery always comes in on target, with no spotting rounds fired. I hope this helps a little bit. I know most of these have been addressed, but one can never have too much information, no? - SLIM

QUOTE: The next module in the CM:BN family (more about this in the coming days) will already be featuring CMx2 v2.0, and will *require* that upgrade. ENDQUOTE I would like to be absolutely clear: I MUST purchase CMx2 v2.0 and upgrade the base game before I can play the new module?

I'm about 10 minutes into the first battle, and the only thing I have combat effective are one sherman, and the rangers who just arrived. I'm heading out for dinner, and I'll pick back up when I get home.

I got a late start due to things, but here I go!

Tomorrow is June 6th. I'll be starting this campaign as soon as the sun comes up.

This campaign sounds awesome. I will add it to my list of 'games to be played'.

John Kettler - As I understand it, you have only recently begun to play on the CMx2 engine? You now understand why the first chapter of the Shock Force manual was "How to unlearn what you have learned." The best advice I can give you, is to read the manual, and don't try to micromanage your pixel troops too much until you have gotten used to the new system. I find my troops are quite capable of doing the majority of the fighting by themselves, with minor guidance from the brain in the sky. However you slice it, learning CMx2 is a time consuming process, but the engine rewards careful study. Best of luck in your future battles.

I have had some issues with the placement of crew served weapons in an action spot. Based on my observations, it seems that the gun tends to setup in the place that offers the most cover in the direction which the team is facing. This is good to give the team some protection, but it is bad when the team spotter with binoculars can see enemy targets, but the gun cannot fire on those targets because he has no LOS. I think it might make things a little better to have the gun always setup on the highest elevation within the team's action spot. It may be more exposed, but it will have better LOS out of it's position. When it comes to quickly moving MG teams, you must always remember that the gun takes time to pack up. This will often lead to situations where the team leader starts moving about 20 seconds before the gunner and his assistant begin to move. If possible, tell the gun to pack up, and give the team a 10 - 15 second pause before the move order. This should help to keep MG teams together.

This conversation takes me back to my days playing Close Combat 2. In CC2, when enemy troops surrender, they walk towards the nearest friendly unit and stand there with their hands in the air. Needless to say, the enemy player is able to spot the prisoners, and is then able to call in mortars on my troops. It wasn't long before I learned that some area fire with small arms is able to kill prisoners, and I soon got into the habit of executing prisoners before they could expose my positions. This feature was fixed in CC3 and beyond by having surrendered enemies exit the map off of the friendly map edge. While games might allow the killing of prisoners, I never killed POWs out of spite.

I was wondering what happened to all of the funny screenshots.