David Chapuis

Which ladders are those? I saw him at the SZO ladder, and he didnt dominate that one. I have read plenty of his posts where he talks about his great ladder exploits, but I have also read (and seen the pictures to prove) he has one style of play. On unrestricted QBs - buy all the tanks he can and then some infantry to ride on top of them and some snipers. Rush the flags with his iron fist and blast away. Now I am not trying to slander the guy - he seems like a nice enough fellow. And I am not saying he isnt a "good" player. (I have never played him - we started a game on a custom map he had made, but the side facings were backwards so we decided to scrap it). I just take issue naming him "one of the most accomplished ladder players". There are a few guys with 50 or 100 or more ladder games with 90%+ win %. I would reserve that accolade for people like that - because that is hard to do. And IMHO, POS isnt in that league.

pioneers are the best Tank hunters that the russians have, so you definitely have the right idea. Am I the only one amazed by the different amount of time it takes to throw a satchel charge between green pioneers and crack/elite pioneers. Greens can take almost an entire minute to throw the first satchel, whereas elite units will throw it in the first 10 seconds. But these are vets, so that doesnt matter. I actually wonder if it is because the tank is too close. They might be scared of hurting each other. I would test it, but I am too lazy. and you cannot set an armor cover arc (ctl-v) with pioneers - but that shouldnt have mattered one way or the other.

I have to disagree with you. The point is to maximize mortar effectiveness. This is done with mortar shells on target. On most CM maps, leaving mortars over 1000m away will limit what they can target just because of LOS issues. Add to that inaccuracy because of range, and you are not getting best use of mortars. Here is an example (against mixed soviet rifles and SMG squads). Just to give you a little background. This is a 3000 point mechanized QB (no tanks). I rushed two squads & a flamer to the woods at the bottom of the screen. All the crater holes are from his 82mm mortar barrage before he drove a couple half squads out of the woods that he now has 18 units in. You can see the SMG squad id - he also has some rifles in there. At the very top of the screen you can see part of a HT. It is going to pick up a couple of MG42s. that is what I call overwatch, a range of 600 to 1000m. They dont have LOS to this spot. If my mortars were back there with those MGs, all they could do is shoot at some pesky russian MGs that will try to pin my men in the open during counter-attack. What will have LOS where I need it is my 6 mortar teams (circled in blue). Two are in the highlighted HT, and are being moved up to the front with the closest mortar for the counter-attack - 100m range. Another is with the platoon in the middle that will be counter-attacking - 200m. And two more at 350m, that are really intended to support some other platoons, but could be used if necessary. So the end result - I owned those woods and more. Below is a picture of same woods, but from the opposite facing a few turns later. Now this was with 81mm, but the point - which is it is not useless to move mortars with platoons, but actually more effective - is even more pronounced when you are dealing with smaller mortars because they are faster and have worse accuracy at long range.

John, since you and jwatts mentioned range I figured I would pipe in again. Personally, I dont see it as much of a benefit. The main range number I look at for mortar teams is minimum range - not max range. Mortars can use a lot of ammo getting on target at long range - especially mortars smaller than 81mm. But even green mortars can quickly get on target at 100m or less. In a desperate situation, I will use a 60m mortar to take out a gun at long range. But other than that, they pretty much stay by my inf platoons and look for targets under 300m or so. (Note for anybody who doesnt know - experience has a BIG affect on mortar accuracy).

jwatts, the best thing to do when the grogs start fighting is to hide. oh, and listen to mcivan.

Soviet SMG squads are overrated. They are too 1 dimensional. Now dont get me wrong - they own their little 50m of covered terrain. But even russian SMG squads in heavy woods dont do you much good when they are pinned by the 60m mortar and then close assaulted - and american M1 rifles have the best 40m FP of any rifle. But i think the question is about weapons teams.

I dont know about being "one of the most accomplished CM ladder players out there". But he is definitely an excellent tester. He has some good posts at fragment and at the SZO (now xtreme gamer) forums.

I also love the 60mm mortars. Great anti-inf weapons in CM.

I too am curious about this

And dont forget the 1 to post the "100 post" post

well i did some tests (and i will try to post screen shots later) i guess i am wet behind the ears. apparently tanks to trump teams.

end-game AAR. Why worry? Because it was a 55-45 draw is one reason. And I know that I have seen cases where 1 piat team has pushed a flag surrounded by a whole platoon of germans and a jadgpather. So I dont think the 'team isnt worth as much' theory is correct. More screen shots and tests when I have time.

How is this possible? I have a unit in OK status sitting on the flag. The German inf is routed. The tank is close enough to push (I assume). How is this German controled. I know I have done tests and tanks dont trump infantry. Or am I just wet behind the ears in that regard?

So are we going to actually see little sprites doing this is some cases - or do they just keep shooting?

My point exactly.

George W Bush my hero. Dont pick on him anymore.

I have a map that I want to use for a qb. However when I load the game, the units are oriented the wrong way. It wouldnt be so bad, but when they break, of course they will flee towards the enemy edge. The orientation is axis: east and allies:west. But as you can see, wrong way. Is there a way to fix this, or do the axis always want to have the west edge in QBs? Tried switching the orientation, but same results.

Take you Michael Moore politcal drivel to a different forum

I seem to remember battlefront saying there will NOT be 1:1 spotting. Where is dogface with that search jpg when you need him?

Hey Dogface - why dont you post your jpg for stikkypixie? Or are you only an asshat to new people.

Please explain the difference between 4 player deathmatch and coop? Are you saying 4 humans playing at the same time, all against each other? Germans, Russians, Orc & Elves?

I cannot imagine it being beneficial to waste the points of a large caliber art module in order to create shell holes. Use it to blast troops. Craters/foxholes only drop your exposure to 44%, which really isnt very good. Rocky ground gives 50% and brush 53% (although in both of those terrains your inf will try to crawl to better cover and they will stay in a crater).

Yeah, we have hashed over this topic more than enough. I am sure I will still buy CMSF even without PBEM. But I am also pretty sure that I will only play it without PBEM for as long as I did DIF and SC2 (about a month) compared with the years of enjoyment I am still getting out of the original CM.

This statement is depressing. I still cannot believe that PBEM (or some functional equivalent) is not a "we ARE going to make it work" type of priority for CMX2.

Moon, What in the past would qualify as 'freakin big news'? IMO, CMC is the only thing in the past 3 years that qualifies. CM:SF & CM:AK were big announcements, but those two didnt even have the "WOW" effect that CMC did - because they had been expected for so long.