[MyIS] Buffpuff

I was surprised no one had mentioned smoke missions but you're thinking in the right place. As others have stated going from cover to cover is one way. A lot really depends on what you have to work with. Tanks are great to snuff these guys but then you still need to think cover. A nasty MG position begs for a tank to target and destroy but if you can have your tank shoot from cover DO it. I have rushed a tank to a firing position to address an MG without a proper infantry screen and paid the price with a dead tank from an unspotted AT gun or enemy tank. Artillery begs the question of how much you have. Got some 60mm or 81mm mortars with plenty of ammo waiting for a mission? Might not be a bad idea for a light rof, light duration point target mission to make that MG unhappy while you try to advance on the flanks. Since you sound like you're rusty I'm interested to hear what you're struggling with on an infantry level. I've finally plunged into scenario making and have rough drafted a mini campaign based on infantry tactics as the basis for the campaign. I'm working on a scenario with a frontal attack using infantry only (no tanks, heavy weapons, artillery) but batting ideas around my head for what other infantry only tactics could use some "love".

Hey Bram. Just checking to see what the plan was with this project you were wishing to tackle.

Yes there are some PDFs attached to the download that give you a brief rundown of what it is, etc.

Because I'm an Excel noob what would be the best way to import the data to the updated version

Without looking at the editor I'm going to assume 120mm Mortar for La Charlemenerie battle. I too took a heavy barrage of that stuff and even spread out it decimated a whole platoon I had (thank goodness there are plenty of reinforcements). I didn't look at the FO time for the 210mm stuff. I used every bit of that in a preparatory barrage (timed it out for 15 minutes) aimed for the crossroads objective. I forgot to check at the end of the battle what impact it had but it was beautiful to see that making huge craters in what I hoped were enemy positions (didn't kill the AT gun or amazingly enough an enemy FO that was literally looking straight down the road at the crossroads to my avenue). I figured the delay would be huge for the 210mm and you just confirmed that (21 minutes is a LONG TIME).

Well considering that I 99.9 percent play on Veteran level I can understand why I get kablam'd by artillery. I'm getting better at spotting rounds but I, on more than one occasion, have been suckered by hearing an on-map mortar "whoomp" followed by an explosion well away from what I believe the friendly unit is and then moments later a HUGE mortar barrage has ravaged everything within a 100m radius. I'm thinking I have another 30-60 seconds before that on-map mortar dials me in and I keep the units there with a quick move order later in the turn and then it's all over but the body parts. A Bloody Ride campaign comes to mind with that one. I found out (the hard way) to keep your units well spaced apart and on the move or suffer the consequences. The only problem is if you space out your units too far apart then they can't cover their teammates. I guess finding that balance of too close but far enough way to cover the friendlies is where I'm at on a skill level. I'm a firm believer in what many have said in these forums in the game, itself, is easy to play but very difficult to master. *** SPOILER ALERT *** (Not sure how to do the hiding text thing) I feel like I'm getting better as I just started Road to Montebourg again and I pulled a first for the "Get off the Beach" mission. In the past those wooden bunkers along with troops in the trenches and hedgerow would just rip my advancing troops. I was making dumb mistakes like keeping my squads intact (not splitting), not utilizing my medium/heavy machineguns, using artillery as a last resort. This go around I heavily utilized a preparatory artillery barage on my intended entry area (left side) by setting up 30m line missions on the hedgerow with the 60mm mortars and a smoke mission with the 81mm mortars. Every unit I had I placed below the initial ridge in the setup area with the exception of my XO team. Armed with binoculars I set him on the ridge line to be my lone spotter and target practice if there was to be such. He did a good job in spotting one wooden bunker and 1 unit in the hedgrerows and was target practice until the 60mm mortars started falling in earnest. The smoke landed on the avenue to make it difficult for the bunker to target a good chunk of my first contact line and I managed to rush a split platoon (9 units) and all 4 machine guns to a good position on the first line to start putting some pressure on the wooden bunker. Unknown to me at the time but the artillery prep on the beginning shell shocked every German unit on the hedgerow line. With a full platoon and 4 MGs in good firing positions and somewhat protected by the terrain (utilizing camera 1 was crucial and I hadn't done this consistently before-hand) I had one MG open up the hedgerow line closest to the buildings on the left side. I had thankfully moved the TRP in the setup to that left side in case I needed a quick reaction. The MG gave me an opportunity to use that and with a 1 min response time I setup a light fire light duration 60mm artillery mission. I trained 2 heavy MG's and 2 BAR carrying squad units of 1st platoon to target the MG with area fire. I don't think I've ever had an artillery mission go so well before. It was quick, it was accurate, and it did what I wanted in that it caused his already suppressed state to pin him and cause casualties and knock out the MG. I kept plugging away at the wooden bunker and when another bunker showed up after the smoke screen cleared I split MG fire and BAR carrying squads to start hitting it. Moved up 2nd platoon to firing positions and MG42 infantry showed up in the trench line. Another TRP mission with an 81mm mortar barrage (light fire, light duration) that hit in 2 minutes and that guy ran for the woods once the 81's started raining around and on top of him. Took out the MG wooden bunker and that left one bunker with 3 MP40 Germans in it. With no MG fire coming from that bunker I advanced using two platoons to overwatch and one to advance. And I just kept leap frogging until I reached the hedgerow line. I was expecting a big fight but here's where I learned how effective the preparatory barrage was. Not a single German unit was waiting in that hedgerow. I cleared out the area and occupied the objective killing what stragglers were left in the occupy area and the buildings. The urge to clear the trench lines was great and despite having 15 minutes left in the mission I had accomplished what I believed the mission objectives were. I waited 5 minutes and it got eerily quiet while my men searched for something to shoot at. One German unit in a foxhole behind the occupied zone showed his head but it was quickly severed. Feeling the urge to get antsy and go searching in the woods for sound contacts I resisted the temptation and hit cease fire. The results? Major victory. Accomplished every objective minus the suspected minefield area (I'm guessing that was a touch terrain object). I had 0 casualties and 2 wounded. I don't think I've ever had that happen before (no casualties). And when the mission ended I said to myself "Did I just do that with no quit and load a previous turn" (Yup).

Now that's some good info. I always wondered what the green sign with the white X meant. Now I know!!! Now do you have videos of all this stuff

Bummer but mucho thanks for the reply! Guess I'll need to transfer this stuff to my wife's laptop which I know has Excel on it (because I installed it!!! )

Ithikial are you aware of any compatibility issues using Open Office with that spreadsheet? I stumbled on your piece of work a few weeks ago and started using it but the graphs don't seem to be working on Open Office (currently using 4.1.2 version)

Interesting video. The other links in the video led me to the Panzer tank documentary. Very interesting!!!

Never played Iron level (Insert Hefty commercial "Wimpy wimpy wimpy!!!). My groan is investigating said contact areas and "clearing" them but yet they remain quite often. Now that would be a great idea. Pure wishful thinking on my part but if they added something like this for CMx3 and real weather effects (like real foggy weather, thunderstorms, etc.) I'd be a very happy camper.

A couple of weeks ago that would have caused me to reload a game as that would have infuriated me and I would have started to kick and cry like a baby saying "That's not fair!!! Why Battlefront??? Why!!!"...Maybe that was too extreme. LOL!

I feel your pain Weapon. I had done all the things that Michael had posted (keeping them way back behind the guns and bullets fighting, short covered arc to 5m) and was moving one up last night and got blown to bits by a stray artillery round. If I could have wept tears I would have at that moment but all I could think of was "How in the world of ALL the units on this map THAT guy gets a stray artillery round". Luckily for me all I had was 81mm mortars on call and a non-stressed (didn't have many of those left) was able to call in for the remainder of the mission.

Playing a Bloody Ride campaign and that little dirt spot along with Camera 6 has IMMENSELY helped in spotting the gaps on some of the maps I've played on so far. Now if only I could figure out how to beat that mission "The Spotter Must Die". Artillery is just pounding me despite my attempts at attacking from different avenues and splitting squads.

"Tanks" for the hints Bud. LOL!

I try to save in 10 minute increments just in case the unthinkable happens (a rare crash, power goes out in the neighborhood, etc.). I'm REALLY working on accepting my losses but like you I want to shout to the Heavens when tanks drive like they're drunk from pathfinding and expose their flank (and in some cases the rear end) to an enemy who normally could not take that tank out but receive a gift when that happens. The hedgerow thing bugs me when I can't see the gap (like in the low hedgerows for example). Low hedges and low bocage look so alike that I've killed more than my share of men thinking I could traverse through it and instead they run for the "gap" and die.

I've found out the hard way about vulnerability to small arms fire. As a result I probably don't utilize them the way they should be deployed. Your explanation makes sense. It gave me a convenient excuse to "reload" and get a mulligan though!!!

If you were using FO's as scouts I would bow at your feet and say "Teach me Obi-Wan". Funny that you mention XO/HQ support teams. I'm using the 2IC as my lead scout in this particular mission.

I seem to be finding the most weird behavior in this campaign. Here's the situation for this one (a different scenario but same campaign). I've deployed 2 Half-tracks close to edge of a hedgerow. I took some rifle fire from an infantry contact approx 150m away. The half-tracks were buttoned up and no casualties. I lost visual of the infantry contact but had a good mark for him once he disappeared in concealment. So I had a support half-track (armed with 37mm autocannon if I'm not mistaken) and made sure I had good LOS on the infantry contact. It wasn't the best spot in the world but it offered some protection to my right flank. And I gave him a 30 second target briefly order. I followed that up with a regular halftrack to move up into a firing position and to do the same thing. The results??? My support halftrack remained stationary as ordered. The gunner crew (an HQ unit of a platoon who had area fired that contact the turn before) unbuttoned on the halftrack and then did...nothing for the next 30 seconds. Target line just as pretty as day but he never pulled the trigger. The other halftrack? Well he did the same thing in that he moved up. The gunner crew unbuttoned and once again a pretty target line but no trigger pull. Before that 30 second timer is up my gunner gets his head blown off. The target order expires and 35 seconds in the 2nd halftrack (who had just suffered a casualty) opens up on the area I had just told him to blast for the past 30 seconds. The 37mm support halftrack fires off a round now as well. The unsuppressed enemy I guess decides he doesn't take to kindly to this action now and rounds start ricocheting off both halftracks. The regular halftrack with the unbuttoned gunner suffers another casualty and the driver decides he's had enough and starts to reverse. My well laid plans of suppressing this contact have gone up in smoke. My tanks have followed target briefly orders so far without delay. The halftracks have yet to obey a target briefly order so far. Just went back and tried it with a targeting order. The results were fairly the same. Neither halftrack opened fire. The regular halftrack took a casualty and reversed again. Only when fired upon did they start shooting. Took it one step further and tested just having the support halftrack using a target brief order on a building in LOS. Orders were complied with no issues. Once again I'm scratching my head on this one.

Great. I knew those half-tracks were good for something!

Same way you do an indirect firing mission except when you get to the mission tab you choose smoke versus heavy, medium, light, etc.

On a slightly different question of this topic can troops acquire "different" ammunition and use it? Specifically I'm thinking of 7.92mm AP rounds stored in half tracks and if infantry troops can acquire those rounds and say use it for the MG42, Kar98 rifles, etc. (whatever normally uses 7.92mm rounds).

I'm going to assume that when you split your German forces you're using the assault team admin button and that splits your squad into a base of fire element (with the MG42) and the assault element (MP40's and the majority of the grenades). What element do you use to scout with? This particular campaign (A Bloody Ride) I used an entire platoon as a recon screen on the opening mission (what a nightmare...tons of tall grass/thick brush everywhere and it's in the wee hours of the morning so you can't see well to begin with).

I guess my beef with the whole thing was I had given the order for target briefly (and then tried just a plain target here order). And initially he did as he was told and fired away with the MG42. And then he switched to the P38 at a crucial moment and then stayed that way for what seemed an eternity to me but kept switching numerous times. I was tempted to bring up the tank to area fire at that AT gun but with such a close range I hedged my bets that since the loader had survived miraculously over several turns that he would somehow find a way to fire that AT gun with P38 gunner boy (just for you Warts) throwing darts at him with a 9mm pistol and the result would be a KO'd tank.

My "frustration" with Combat Mission ended once I accepted the fact that casualties are going to happen. Before that epiphany hit me I had looked at casualties as a failure on my part to give the right orders to my pixel troops. Inevitably I was setting myself up for failure with that train of thought in that it caused me to be over cautious. Over cautious led to not utilizing reconnaissance correctly which then led to casualties from blundering into a trap and the vicious cycle continued. Once I came to grips with the reality that casualties are going to occur and that a competent commander does what he can to minimize the risks my game play dramatically improved. I still hate losing tanks but I think that's because losing a tank is losing a good chunk of firepower available to you. As for restarting/reload as a cheat I'll raise my hand and say guilty as charged. Because of my over cautious nature it was a crutch that I have found very hard to break. I'm a lot better at it now but I get really hot under the collar when a casualty occurs after one of troops does something I never told him to do (but I guess that's war!). If you haven't viewed these videos then I would definitely recommend it. Slim is still working on the tactics videos but the Armchair General videos are gold in my book.