tuhhodge

A wasted opportunity. I loved Combat Mission Beyond Normandy and the follow up games. The graphics were good at the time, random battle maps were truly 'random' or you could make your own, and picking forces was fun. It also seemed fairly realistic. I avoided TOW because of the intensely negative publicity but TOW2 and the Kursk add-ons seemed to get better reviews. The other day I saw Kursk on sale and bought it. Sadly, it seems the faults ridiculed by the initial reviewers of TOW are still there. Here's a case in point:- I set up a random battle, defending a village against the Russian hordes. The village is surrounded by a large open area. I set up all my forces to lie prone and ambush the attacking troops. Within seconds I lost one 1 hidden tank to an air attack. Then I lost about 6 infantry to artillery despite the shells landing about 10-20 metres away from men lying prone at the bottom of trenches and in bunkers! The Russian infantry attacked across open fields. My troops didn't fire at them. Then 4 Russian self-propelled guns rolled up to my trenches. My 4 Panther tanks came out of hiding and attacked from the side at close range. 2 Panthers were knocked out by the completely surprised Russians, who themselves suffered no loss. I stopped the game, disillusioned by the unreality of it. I checked the stats. I had lost 40 troops, the Russians 1 man. I lost 3 tanks, the Russians none. And this is an attack across open fields on men in trenches and tanks hidden between buildings and anti tank guns hidden in vegetation. As I say, this is indicative of my experiences with this game. Artillery killing men in trenches dozens of metres away is ahistorical and ridiculous. What's the point of entrenching? In the war, men in foxholes survived unless their hole suffered a direct hit. How else do you think the Germans managed to repulse Allied attacks in Normandy or Russian attacks on the Eastern Front? Read any account of Tiger tanks in action in Normandy and you will see them suffering dozens of hits by 75mm guns and surviving, destroying 10 times their number of enemy tanks. Within seconds of being under direct fire of Russian tanks my Tigers always lose their guns.

I ordered direct from the States, partly because I thought it was being released earlier there, and partly because even with p&p it's only £20. Also, I remember the previous UK editions were politically correct and didn't have the Nazi emblems or SS. I don't have email at home so can't download the patches.

One of the things that would probably promote more realistic behaviour by gamers would be a greater number of turns. My understanding is that we have a limit of 60 at the moment. I know 60 turns is a lot of gaming time, but I don't imagine many battles would only last for an hour, more would probably last 3 or more hours. Just think of all the maneouvering you could do on a huge battlefield. And also, then you could have more realistic reinforcements coming in an hour into play. There would be no blind rushing forward! Any views?

One of the things that would probably promote more realistic behaviour by gamers would be a greater number of turns. My understanding is that we have a limit of 60 at the moment. I know 60 turns is a lot of gaming time, but I don't imagine many battles would only last for an hour, more would probably last 3 or more hours. Just think of all the maneouvering you could do on a huge battlefield. And also, then you could have more realistic reinforcements coming in an hour into play. There would be no blind rushing forward! Any views?

I think I pretty much agree with all of you. I bought CMBO a couple of years ago and thought it was an excellent game, then CMBB came out and I was even more impressed. The graphics are better and the command system and AI too. However, it still has its problems, as people have mentioned. To be honest, I much prefer playing as the British (patriotism I suppose) and I have no desire to be the Russians in CMBB. Despite feelings of being a traitor, in CMBB I am forced to play the Germans. I'm fed up with that, so have gone back to CMBO and am much happier. I hope CMAK comes out soon, it could be excellent, but ideally I'd like to see a further version of CMBO with better graphics, AI and command control. That would be ideal.

Sorry to invade the CMBB forum, though I am a regular poster and player, but I can't understand what's happened to Airborne Assault's website and forum. I was after info on the game and knew about a link which had FAQs. Does anyone know where it is and why the game seems to have disappeared? Many thanks guys and girls.

I watched with great satisfaction when the Russians got strafed by their own IL-2!

Perhaps your PanzerIIJ thought better of firing at a T-34 500 metres away? I mean, maybe it knew that it would have to be a lucky shot to knock it out? :confused:

It's a question of degree really. My 'spread-out' may be someone else's 'concentrated'. But, I hadn't really thought about the value of the flags! Mind you, where there are 8 of the damn things it may not make much difference!

Sudbury, Suffolk, England

Ok, this is a difficult one to answer because of the number of variables, but I'm just setting up a 2000 point assault QB as the Germans as the defenders of a large village in hilly and moderately forested central region. It's the usual ridiculously wide battlefield with victory flags spaced out across from one end to the other. I know I'll be outnumbered by the Russkies, even more so because they've got a +25% advantage. I bought a company of veteran infantry, and a platoon of pioneers, plus support weapons and artillery spotters, loads of anti-personnel mines and barbed-wire. :confused: So, how do I defend such a large area with so few men? Do I concentrate in one part of the map and try to hold three of the 7 flags while sacrificing the others? Or do I space my platoons out laterally across the map and watch a company of grizzly Russkies attack my individual squads? I chose a middle option. I spaced out a bit, using barbed-wire to funnel Russkies into anti-personnel minefields in the non-defended areas. I still feel a concerted attack will destroy my (still) thinly spread resources. Could someone kindly explain how to defend in these circumstances? And, also, can someone explain why a 2000 point battle on a medium map leads to 7/8 flags spread along a 2km front line? Why can't they just have 3/4 flags around a village (I mean who wants to capture that sodding gorse-bush out there on the map-edge: It has no strategic value!!!). [ April 14, 2003, 04:40 AM: Message edited by: tuhhodge ]

I think that's what I was getting at! I don't think you can change a laptop's graphics card. Mind you mine's got a 64Mb ATI Radeon 9000. You would have thought that it would do fog! :mad:

Ah, now it makes sense! I have an ATI card in my laptop and there's no fog. I was sure I could remember fog when I played on my pc, but assumed I was going bonkers (most of my life is spent wondering if I'm going bonkers). Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be changing my laptop's graphics card! So, all I can say is "Fog off"....

Ah, you're both right, there are two extremes and both have their plusses and minusses I suppose. What would be nice, would be reinforcements in a small or medium QB. Then you could have the benefits of both 'scales'. At the moment it seems you have to design your own battle to get reinforcements.

Yes, you've guessed it, in my humble opinion playing on a small map with a few platoons gives you so much more of the 'hands-on' flavour of the game than playing a 5000 point battle! I've only just realised it - always thought bigger was better.... [ April 10, 2003, 11:17 AM: Message edited by: tuhhodge ]

Right, sounds simple enough. Presumably you start a game and choose PBEM, then you go through setting parametres, choose forces, set-up and then press 'go' as per normal. The computer then asks you where to save to and what name. You then email turn as an attachment. Opponent receives email with attachment. If attachement is a zipped file, he unzips immediately. He then starts CMBB and chooses join multiplayer game and selects unzipped file, computer sorts things out and the above process starts? Correct? I hope so!

Hi guys, I've played a lot against the AI and feel it's time to try a PBEM game. I notice the manual gives details, but I wondered whether someone could give me some more details. I was wondering if it really is as simple as just ensuring you have an internet connection, the game properly installed and compatible versions? Also, how long does it take to download a PBEM turn? And is one turn a day too slow? At the moment I don't have an internet connection, so don't even have any patches, but I plan to get up and running asap. I'd appreciate any advice!

Very good point Dave! I think you've just confirmed that I'm c*ap at this game!

Don't worry mate, I'm the same! My defending is ok because the AI is not as good as a human player in attack. When the AI defends it does well because finding defensive positions is easier than engineering a concerted and co-ordinated attack. Or maybe I'm just *r*p at this game! [ April 09, 2003, 06:03 AM: Message edited by: tuhhodge ]

Kucher, I've not experienced 'wet' in extremely cold conditions, but I regularly get 'wet' on hot and warm days. So far I have yet to experience the sort of hot dry cornfields I expected of Russian summers...it's always wet and boggy!!!

Thanks Spike, I'll be in touch. I know what you mean about games being won and lost on the set-up screen. I started one recently with a veteren SS Battalion with supporting Panzer IIs (I only had 400 to spend on armour in this 1942 game) and promptly lost all 3 tanks and about 4 AFVs in about a minute. Those pesky T-34s! I had to surrender, I had no chance!

Ah, it all makes sense now. I picked up on the fact that you can set the level of casualties and I had set it on 'random'. Clearly my random setting is quite high, as I appear to have lost so many units. I can only prey the Russians have similar casualties! Thanks for the help!

I've just started a large 5,000 point battle and found that half my tank units and probably a few companies of infantry units are not available at the set-up stage. Do they come as reinforcements? Much obliged for any help.

I just started a CMBB campaign, can't remember the name, and captured all my objectives around the end of the game and waited for the Soviet onslaught because I had met little resistance thus far, only losing about 3 men in exchange for murdering about 3 squads, an anti-tank gun and miscellaneous other units (ps: those flamethrowers and bloody brilliant!) Seeing a little star in a field I sent an APC thingy with its platoon to obliterate the nasty Russians only to find the field crawling with tanks and other nasties. Needless to say I lost my vehicle and its platoon within seconds. Very annoying! I kicked myself for having been so stupid, especially as I had been careful to keep my units together and attack in force throughout the previous 15 turns. Has anyone else made stupid blunders, losing men and equipment needlessly after spending 15 turns or so carefully advancing with very minimal casualties?