[IFVs need these improvements!]

If an ATGM is spotted they do exactly that. Well, perhaps not zig zag unless terrain happens to make them do so. I'd reckon zigzagging might be plan B to hauling ass.

Hi Elmar,

They would do that if the ATGM is spotted or if the firing unit is spotted?

I've seen too many of my M2/M3s go up in flames with that "deer in the headlights" look.

Cheers,

[IFVs need these improvements!]

A bit more of self-preservation reacting against ATGMs (pop smoke, reverse zig zag and suppress the unit firing) would be nice too.

[What best strategy for taking on US tanks with Syrian tanks ?]

On the defense, reverse slope worked great for me so far.

On the attack, try approaches where you face very few M1s at a time.

[Abu Susah objective impossible]

Huntarr,

Your willingness and talent to teach are unsurpassed.

Cheers,

EDIT: LOL, that sounded like a fortune cookie phrase. Kudos anyway.

[Interest Gauge-Whole New Type of Campaign]

Great idea. Count me in.

[circle the wagons! *possible spoilers - for people have who already completed*]

Hi George,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your briefing mentions no indirect fires allowed due to civilian presence (is that right?). I see 60mm mortars in support. Did you use them when you played?

Cheers,

[v1.10 is great: now let's talk about v1.11]

Hi,

Finally, stealing a bit from Full Spectrum Warrior, a scout function where you can send one member of a squad forward to scout a location rather than the entire squad.

You could split a squad into fireteams and send a fireteam ahead to scout.

[circle the wagons! *possible spoilers - for people have who already completed*]

So I'm playing through this scenario and so far so good, lots of action, surprises and desperate scrambles However there's around 50 mins left and everything has gone quiet. Do I declare a ceasefire or do I need to hang on for another wave?

Darkmage,

Man, I cannot keep the Panzers alive. But I refuse to play any other scenario until I succeed in this one!

There are a few AI Plans in this all rather differant - depending on what you've got the action can play out fast and furious, die down then boil up again or fade out. How long have you been playing for?

George, the scenario is a beauty. Thanks. As much as I have read about how the Marines fight with so little, this scenario threw the concept in my face.

[Gamespot user review average of 6.9 for Marines]

"Ok ... I've beaten the game like two times already. Game is like too short!"

You know the great tragedy of all this?

The youngsters that who read these negative reviews are less likely to get initiated in any form of serious wargaming.

[Cleared hot...]

Great screenshot!

[The game vs the real thing]

Great post.

Yesterday I was moving around the camera and by accident I ended up in the middle of an amtrack and I could see an enormous amount of detail inside the vehicle. These are things that most of the time are hidden to the player. I am in awe to the amount of work the team has made. Kudos.

[Battle of Nasiriyah, Mar 23 2003]

Thanks for the link to the documentary. Is that the "Shootout" documentary? I've seen one on SWAT teams the past week. Very well done.

About this battle, this book has been brought up before:

Ambush Alley: The Most Extraordinary Battle of the Iraq War, by Tim Pritchard

It is a great read, highly recommended.

[Marine Tactics]

Thanks for the links and the names of the publications. Great reading.

No, the LAV-25 is used by the US Marine Light Armored Reconnaissance (LAR). They used to be called Light Armored Infantry but around the early 1990's they changed it to LAR.

JohnO

Thanks John,

Is there a doctrinal publication for the LAR?

Cheers,

[Marine Tactics]

JohnO,

Googling around I couldn't find anything about LAV-based infantry. Is it still named LAI?

Thanks,

[What makes a game a good training tool?]

Roger!

Stuck at the office.

[Progress Report- will it be next week?]

Great news!

Doh! Anybody has good excuses to get out of the office earlier than usual?

[What makes a game a good training tool?]

Oh, and I forgot this piece of s**t, Full Spectrum Warrior which ended up as garbage for both civilians and the US Army.

(Steve, for goodness sake throw us a sentence or something about the Marines module release please).

[What makes a game a good training tool?]

Hi,

Does any off-the shelf war game satisfy those parameters or has those attributes?

I don't know if this is correct, but TacOPs, Decisive Point, Point of Attack 2 and the early games by Pat Proctor (ATF) were made with the military customer/student in mind and then released to the civilian market (is that correct?).

The only games I know that were initially targeted to the civilian market, and then after that were modified to cater the military customer/student are Steel Beasts (now Steel Beasts Pro), Close Combat The Road to Baghdad (now Close Combat Marines) and Operation Flashpoint (as the VBS1/2 series).

And a final and most important question: how does CMSF fares against the parameters/attributes of your post?

Cheers,

[Well....damn....]

The Marines module is still available as a pre-order in the e-store. It ain't happening this week, me thinks. Sigh.

[Random unit placement ?]

Hi FMB,

Sorry for the confusion.

I painted a big, all-covering red setup area in the map, and then I went to the AI menu, select a group of troops and gave setup/deploy orders (the yellow ones) to this group. The yellow setup orders were 4 or 5 non-contiguous square areas inside buildings, and within the big red setup area.

I ran the scenario several times, and the guys would appear always in one of the 4/5 squares.

[Random unit placement ?]

Yes they would. I even tried a flat, billiard table map with three setup zones and just one group: they would always choose one setup zone.

Give some time to have a second look at it. I'm glad you say you can make it work. This randomization thing adds a lot of replayability to the scenarios.

[Combat Mission Shock Force - Video AAR (VAAR) Contest]

Congrats to CplSteiner and all the participants.

Outstanding!

[Shortfall in LOF Reciprocity]

I've seen this happen, but in my case the Bradley couldn't see the offending RPGer. My Bradley had a clear LOS to the position of the RPGer, but not to the RPGer himself. What I did is to area fire a building very close to the RPGer, that appeared to suppress the guy and allowed me to move the Bradley to a position with better LOS.

Cheers,

[Random unit placement ?]

FMB,

I tried a time ago, but no avail. I wanted to create a MOUT scenario where enemy combatants would appear in different buildings every time the scenario was started. Never got it to work as I wanted (groups would appear in the same building every time I started the mission). I will try again when the module is released. Thanks,

[Random unit placement ?]

The way to have random unit placement is to go to the AI page, select a group, and draw areas on the map for the units to set up in. Make sure that you have a Setup Zone drawn over that area, and also make sure that the units are placed in that setup zone. The AI will randomly distribute itself.

Hi FMB,

The last time I tried, the AI will always put units in the same spots every time the scenario is re-started.