Tank Hunter

The other day when playing CMFI against the US I noticed I was fighting the 82nd AA since they have their shoulder patches included in the game being the only American airborne unit present in Sicilly. I personally feel that these small details lift the experience and was thinking how nice would it be to include Divisional insignia into the game for all units? I know you can do this today by modding but you have to change mods every time you wish to switch forces. The OOB data for WWII is researched and known so it would not be difficult to find out which divisions were present in a specific region during a specific period. Technically BF would have to assign a texture spot for infantry and tanks where the insignia would be applied depending on what choices scenario maker or QB player did. When selecting units for scenario you first have to select a division and then the units you wish to deploy. All the selected units under that division would get their insignia applied to uniforms / vehicles. Selecting another division would fetch another insignia and so on.. One other thing that is missing is combining different forces in QBs, Airborne and Regular, or US and British or German Panzer and Luftwaffe and so on..

LOL, play nicely now JonS.. There is no way to mount infantry on tanks right now, it is not supported. I believe the explanation was that US/German troops simply did not ride on tanks into battle. They would normally dissmount just before engaging. When we go to EF however then mounting on tanks will be a must and I'm sure BF will include it then. Who knows, with the new version strategy we may see tank-riding infantry in CMBN aswell eventually.

Placing that tank there is just pure incompetence.

I sure hope they do eventually. Actually I think CM engine would be quite suitable for 'Nam .

Yeah, the campaign is pretty unforgivable and difficult. I gave up eventually since my forces were totally beaten up, by the end I just had couple of tanks and a few men. One thing that made me wonder is that at one point you have to make a choice on how to deal with the rest of the campaign by moving your forces to a certain place on a map. My problem was however that I had no forces to move! The map was completely empty, not a single soldier even though I still had few men and couple of tanks. Don't know if this is a bug or not.

I'd like to see this as a permanent addition also but in a slightly changed manner. It should be another option to what we have today but it should only make trees translucent if there are soldiers ocupying that spot. It should also make nearby vegetation translucent when placing waypoints, that would allow us to plan movement without having vegetation interfering with the view.

Thanks! Was quite fun, I think I'll do another one soon now that I have the basics.

Here is my first attempt to make a video. This one is for Fortress Italy only http://youtu.be/sr2x0HvLE3E

I agree that scenarios are best when it comes to challenge but QBs are still by many players considered an important part and some actually only play QBs. Having the possibility to select your own forces is quite entertaining. I don't consider lack of generated maps a problem but having a bad AI is kind of a game breaker if you prefer quick battles. Improving the way AI works with battle plans in QBs is the way I see it a required improvement if you wan't the game to survive out there, something that BF is aiming at due to their announced upgrade policy.

Yeah the new MAC is a nice laptop but it is waaay to overpriced for a computer these days. The price of it reminds me of high end PC prices during the 90s. Even with the new retina display it is still a laptop PC under the hood, same components are used to build MACs and PCs. You can buy two high end gaming PC laptops for the price of one MAC..

I usually like playing small QBs. It's well known that AI routines for picking forces are not that suitable for smaller battles due to how TOE works which often results in strange force selections. One of the other issues is that AI does not know what forces he has and how to use them with the AI plans. I just played a battle yesterday where the AI (German) had a support wpns company together with an Inf Company. He used different plans for each of these forces. The battle was a meeting engagement with two different VPs. As the battle started I decided to split my forces and advance with half of the force to the nearest objective while the rest of the forces were to protect the flank of my advancing unit. Once the first objective was taken the flank protection force was to sweep around and take the second objective. After few minutes I realized that the AI was actually trying to outflank me and my flank protection force engaged. The problem was that the AI was trying to flank me with it's heavy wpns support company all mounted in their kubelwagens and trucks! It kind of looked more like an ambush of a force that was on their way to the front line rather than someone who was trying to flank me. The AI can't really handle support formations in a good way. The AI plans should have more options to allow the designer to define which type of units should be able to use them. It should also be more selective with the employement of heavy weapons and use them across the battlefield in a support role rather than direct assault mode.

Improved shadow on my GTX 580. Game looks and feels good. Nice job. Looking forward to the same improvements on CMBN.

Here are some photos from real life showing how US Inf looked like during Vietnam in training and under fire when it comes to spacing. US Inf training at Tigerland prior to deploying US Inf Advancing during Tet US Inf defending a base during NV Tet Offensive Same as above Defense at Khe Sanh As has been pointed out before men under fire seem to like hugging eachother. Even extremly trained soldiers do that. Giving Italians the possibility to split would be unbalancing considering their WW1 tactics and lack of leadership especially when you conisder that soliders with better training even years after WWII liked and still like to "bunch up" when under fire.

+1 for this. I'd also like to be able to request reinforcements with point penalty applied. Let's say I'm on the verge of winning/loosing and I decide that only way to achive victory or prevent loss is to call in reinforcement. By doing this I would loose some points.

1846 in figurative sense of "aiming to produce conformity by arbitrary means," from Procrustes (1583), mythical robber of Attica who seized travelers, tied them to his bed, and either stretched their limbs or lopped of their legs to make them fit it. The name is Gk. Prokroustes "one who stretches," from EXPANDprokrouein "to beat out, stretch out," from pro- "before" + krouein "to strike." So BF stop stretching us so we can fit in you bed!

Nice. It actually looks like Italy

I believe it's related to the status of the AI's troops. If you're holding majority of the objectives and all AI troops are broken the game will end.

I hope they are included since it's such a contained battlefield (island) and since the German 1st Airborne Div was part of the Sicily fighting. They actually landed almost at the same time as British airborne at Primosole Bridge. From Wiki Most of the division was moved to Catania airfield starting 12 July 1943 to participate in the defense of the island. Leading elements of the division saw action at Primosole Bridge, where the 3rd Parachute Regiment deployed by parachute just hours before an attempted British coup de main. The remainder of the division deployed to the island shortly afterwards and was used in fire-brigade fashion from then on, stiffening defenses on the island wherever they started to waver. As the decision was made to withdraw, the 1st Parachute Division was employed as the rearguard defenses as the evacuation proceeded. They were the last German unit to leave the island on 17 August.

Bahamas is not that big so will find them there.

I love campaings with small unit sizes. I have difficulties to play with Battalion sized forces, mostly because I don't feel like I have time to sort each and every unit. That's why I welcome campaigns that are company/platoon sized where you feel like you are being part of the battle. As mentioned you really care about each soldiers and a tank becomes really an important asset worth protecting. When the map is clogged with massive amount of units I just stop caring in the same way. You push and don't really care. It becomes more like an operational game with bad frame rates

Yes Vietnam would be cool. I'm not sure however that the current engine would handle it really well due to the extensive jungle . The trees are a real frame killer in the current engine. They would also need to simulate Air assaults so helicopters would have to be visible on map.. I'm also willing to buy any tactical game BF produces, atleast anything from 1939 and on..

Agree with Mord. Modern setting is different but I like to take a break from WWII from time to time and try some other tactics. CMSF is fun in its´own way, I'm still playing it actually. The problem with CMSF is that the Red side is restricted due to their weapons so it almost never puts up a good fight. This is something that I missed and that I hope will be present in the new game.

This is what the review says... "For more, we can announce that the next game in the series will not be about World War II and it will not be a module, but a new evolution of the Combat Mission engine ... " I don't think this means a completely new engine but improvement on the exsisting CMx2 engine as we saw from CMSF to CMBN. New enviroment support and new features. Fire? Basements? Destructable trees? Who knows. I guess we will find out sooner or later It has however been awfully quiet from Battlefront and that always means that they are up to something.

Interesting... A new modern game...

I agree. Once the hatches started to open the two guys standing there should have known what was coming. Maybe in this case they having rifles and the crew pistols could have played a role but the crew should have been confused and dazzled which should have improved the ATs chance of capturing/killing them. I do have a savegame but it is the turn after the events.