John1966

While we're on the subject, have ATGs got harder to take out with HE or is it just harder to tell if you've KO'd it or not? Some seem to be bomb proof (along with their crews) but I always get them in the end. However, I often find when reviewing the map at game end that it wasn't the unit that I thought that had actually got them. Two in the last scenario got pasted but weren't knocked out until I got infantry close and used grenades. But on reviewing the map, it turned out it was a tank who'd got one of them.

Because, thinking about it, I have been a bit disappointed in my tanks' ability to clear out defensive infantry positions. I thought I was just misremembering how effective they used to be.

That would be, shall we say, a "howler"? I've been away from CM for a while, is this new? (Because I don't remember it before)

Interesting. First time I'd seen it and it was a 75mm from a Panther. The four guys who were got were really quite a distance from where the shell struck. (10-30m?) What is particularly galling is that the same Panther had been engaging enemy infantry with HE minutes before and getting one or two casualties at most (often none) with each shot. The AP turned out to be deadlier. Makes me think I don't need to ration the HE quite so much. I'd only ever Target Light if I was out of HE in the past.

Ironically I'd been moaning to myself that the scenario was too easy. Then I wuz robbed.

Sorry. As the game was over it never occurred to me to save it. (I'm rubbish at doing that) I'd have assumed the same. But here we are.

So if there's an exit objective, you have to be careful not to force a surrender? That's nuts. My guys had 45 minutes to exit at their leisure without any opposition. But they couldn't because the surrender caused the game to end. Every unit was an exit unit. None of them exited because of the surrender. That's a lot of points. That can't be the intention. That's penalising you for winning too heavily.

Sorry, re-read what you said now. Yes, I expect to get the objective and enemy casualty points if they surrendered. But I don't expect to be penalised on the exit points for forcing an early surrender.

I'd assume so but I only got a tactical victory. Can't remember the exact numbers but I was over 1,000 and they were 800+. As I didn't actually take many casualties (certainly less than the 15% it mentioned in the briefing), they must have got them for me not exiting anyone.

No, because they never attempted to exit. The British surrendered 45 minutes before the end. That's why I'm bemused. It awarded me the objective points and the points for destroying the enemy. But one assumes you don't have to exit before the enemy ruin your plans by surrendering.

NEDforce. I was the Germans. I was wearing grey.

Well the enemy got quite a lot of points so maybe that's correct (although I'm sure it said I would get them in the briefing).

A well-spread squad were closing on an enemy tank. (The old multiple target strategy) One of my tanks fired at the enemy tank; the shot fell short; the squad took 4 casualties. I'm lucky to get that with a direct HE hit. And the indignity of it being friendly fire. Have AP rounds got more powerful while I've been away?

Hang on a cotton picking minute. Just played a scenario with objective points, casualty points, and exit points available. My boys won without getting their hair mussed. Except they didn't. The enemy surrendered (with about 45 minutes to go) and all I got was a tactical victory. It appears I didn't get any exit points (presumably because no-one exited). Or at least I don't think I did. Is that supposed to happen?

I, too, loved the delay system. It was a legitimate consideration. Well most of the time I loved it. The problem was when you got ridiculous delays with Russian conscripts. Although maybe that was realistic. There is something fundamentally wrong with pixeltruppen responding instantly. Especially if they're out of C2. With the ability to pause (which I like), attacks are a little too easy to coordinate. We should be at home to Mr Cock-up more often. That's realism.

Many, many years ago there was an article in PC Gamer entitled something like "The Top 10 Rules Game Designers Must Not Break." Coming quite high was to not put in "instant kill" moments in the game that you can't possibly avoid until you know they're there after you restarted/respawned/whatever. The argument was that any player should, in theory, be able to get through the entire game without getting killed once. I totally agree with that. Every time you have to restart it breaks the immersion. But they were mainly talking about shooters. However, if I play a CM scenario and I get to the end (having had my ass kicked) realising that actually it was probably impossible to get through the first time, I feel it's broken that rule. If I just got it wrong and it was my fault, fair enough. It was what it was. I lost. But I feel cheated if the only way through it is multiple replays. Because, effectively, that's forcing me to cheat. I rarely replay a scenario. Hardly ever do*. Because things like recon are part of the mission. Hell, I really enjoy recon. If I know what to expect, that part of the experience is lost. As for campaigns that are impossible without restarts, don't get me started. Campaign games, by their nature, ought to be a bit easier. Some of the missions should be a bit more "routine" than the do or die clashes of a regular scenario. Because in a campaign you're looking at the big picture, not just this mission here that you must complete. *I was looking for a quick game the other night so I replayed that really short one at the start of the CW module. Think I got a total victory the first time but upon replaying it, I not only got another total victory, I'd killed every German in about 5 turns, and my casualties were one man wounded. It wasn't exactly fun.

When pixeltruppen run out of ammo, their morale doesn't drop (as far as I'm aware). Really, it should. Quite significantly. It'd be realistic and stop a few of those unlikely occurrences as they're more likely to run away or surrender.

To be fair, you can do that to your own guys too.

I've just stopped a game for the evening but I've got a full crew who will be getting back in that perfectly good Panther as soon as they've stopped panicking. Lightweights.

True enough but doesn't it come up as "abandoned" in those circumstances?

That's classic CM frustration. How many times have I had a squad spot a distant enemy unit but no-one with binoculars can see it to call in the arty? In a recent scenario (Out on a Limb), a squad spotted one of the 20mm AA buggers in the distance. So I move an HQ to the exact same action square. Five minutes later, the HQ still can't see it. I move the original squad somewhere else and they can still see it. As the HQ isn't spotting it where they are, I move them to the squad's new position. Five minutes later and the guys with the binoculars still can't see the damn thing. This seems to be a regular frustrating occurrence in CM. And let's not even start on units spotting units they can't get a LOS to.

Normally I'd agree but in this case the crew had bailed. I thought that would indicate a kill to my guys. It's possible the Sherman didn't see them bail as it didn't shoot up the crew until they ran towards it (so they may not realise they came from the Panther) but it was live to the infantry too. (Which begs the question as to whether a tank is "live" to some units but not others - I thought it would be KO'd for everyone because when you click on it, it's live even though I saw the crew bail)

I had an odd moment like that in this one. One of my Shermans got behind a Panther in the town (after we'd got the first four) and had a perfect rear shot. Fired once and then popped smoke and reversed. As it still had a perfect line of sight (the Panther couldn't have rotated its turret in RL but it was otherwise engaged with infantry anyway), I moved the Sherman back for another shot but every time it saw the back of the Panther, it reversed away. I think this was because the crew were "rattled" but still frustrating. In the end the infantry got the Panther with grenades. But then the weirdness continued. The Panther crew bailed and got into a firefight with the infantry before running in the direction of the Sherman which cut them down. So the infantry and the Sherman had seen the crew bail. Yet it wouldn't come up as a confirmed kill until several turns later. They treated it as a live tank. Very odd.

I've seen Americans pick up a Thompson in a recent CMBN game.

There is nothing more thrilling than watching a couple of guys sat astride the mighty Bren Carrier firing their .303s. If one's got a Bren as well, I just played the perfect scenario.