IMP-22

2000 points is about my absolute limit. I prefer to zoom in on each squad and watch the battle take place, rewinding a few times so I catch all the action. I usually play with around 1000-1500, a large sum of those points being a couple tank platoons or something. I like to manage company-sized infantry groups for the most part.

I had a real disappointing battle lately. It was 2000 points or so, and everything was set on random. I had a battalion of infantry and a Panther tank. I carefully planned an assault on a town and knocked out all of the T-34s I could find with the Panther, which turned out to be quite a lot. I positioned all of my infantry just so, then launched an all our assault. The positioning of my forces took about a half hour or so, by the way. I encountered one SU-76, which was promptly destroyed by my Panther. After that they surrendered, and it was then that I realized they had "Pure Armor". ARGH! Never again will I put random force mix.

Well, when I played CMBO A Panzer IV could be easily taken out by a Sherman at just about any range. It might have been because of the less sophisticated way they modeled armor penetrations in CMBO. In CMBB at long range a Panzer IV can easily knock out a T-34, with the T-34s weaker gun not being able to penetrate the Panzer IV's armor, so it starts cowering. I generally prefer to play singleplayer games mainly due to my terrible connection out here in the middle of nowhere, and I like to play as my own pace. So it's a bit frustrating when I set up a huge force of armor, ready for another Kursk, then the Russians start spinning around on the other side of the battlefield and my tanks destroy them with ease. Another minor gripe I have with CMBB is how often turret hits are made. On certain tanks it is understandable. Like the T-34/85, for example. The armor on the front of its large turret makes a pretty big target, but a tank like the Panzer IV should not get front turret penetrations as often. It's turret provides a much smaller profile. You would think that if this had happened as often in the war as it did in CMBB, they would have increased the front turret armor on the Panzer IV instead of leaving it at 50 mm. Another example would be those little German half-tracks with the 20 mm cannons. The turrets on those things are very small, and don't provide a big target. Yet they get front turret penetrations all the time. The same thing happens to those little Russian armored cars. It seems like the AI in CMBB always aims high or something. I suppose this is a bit too much to ask, but it would have still been nice if the size of the turret on vehicles was taken into account when modeling where the shells from tanks hit.

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but I've noticed that the enemy tank AI is pretty idiotic. I recently set up a game of 3000 points, giving myself only a crack platoon of Tiger tanks. I set them up behind a couple hills and waited about 10 minutes, then I brought them out and started blasting at the T-34s at long range. The T-34 crews basically just spun around in circles, exposing their vulnerable side and rear armor, while firing harmlessly at my Tigers. They made no effort to actually use the T-34s superior speed and attempt to rush my Tigers. They just clustered up in a big group and spun around in circles, making themselves cannon fodder for my Tigers. It seems that whenever an enemy tank encounters one of your tanks, and it has superior armor or the gun on the enemy tank is too weak, the enemy tank will slam it in reverse and spin around, exposing its flanks. Once it gets out of view of your tank, it will 'hunt' forward again, then reverse again once it sees your tank. Or get blown to bits, whichever comes first. Enemy tanks never 'fast' their way forward, trying to get in a killing shot or surround your tank. Your own tanks will often reverse as well, if they encounter a tank with superior armor that they know they can't penetrate, but you can tell it to race forward and try to close the distance with the enemy tank. The problem is, the enemy tank AI doesn't seem to ever want to do this, and just keeps reversing. This problem wasn't as apparent in CMBO, apparently, because the two sides were fairly balanced in most encounters. Having either superior guns or weaker armor, so they didn't spin around in circles like a lot of tanks in CMBB do. For example: A Sherman and a Panzer IV in CMBO were pretty equal in long range encounters, so they would just sit there and blast eachother to bits. But if a T-34 is pitted against a long barreled Panzer IV in CMBB at long range, the T-34 will go into reverse and get itself blown to pieces, instead of charging forward as it should. So instead of a lone Tiger tank couragesouly beating off a wave of T-34s as they charge up the hill, the Tiger just sits there while the T-34s run into eachother and slowly die. Can't this problem be fixed in a patch or something?