John1966

I took down a Tiger once and the crew bailed and shot a platoon leader.

That sounds like bad luck more than anything. I always find that when I'm up against the Big Cats the "tank battle" bit of the scenario only lasts a minute or two. Everything else is stalking. You've got to bring as many guns to bear at once (preferably from multiple directions) and keep them out of sight until you can do that because any 1:1 encounters will always go the Cats' way.

Is this a thing I noticed for the first time last night? Some nearby buildings had some Germans in it who I noticed weren't returning any fire. They'd been pumping it out like nobody's business beforehand so I guessed they'd run out of ammo. So I ran some guys in. Despite the fact that they'd spotted the occupants, they ignored them and started firing elsewhere! To get them to shoot at the Germans in the same building and no more than six feet away, I had to give them a target command. If they'd ascertained they were no threat then that sort of makes sense but I doubt the AI makes assessments like "have they run out of ammo?" and to ignore enemy soldiers (who had not surrendered) occupying the same space as you doesn't seem realistic. Especially considering that in RL they might come at you with a knife or similar.

I'm always playing WWII and I always seem to be in a hurry.

I didn't stop on the ridge. I went straight over and round to back of the woods. Came up behind the Panthers.

They can get a kill if they get a direct hit. Even if they don't it's always worth shelling tanks as you can get immobilisations and take out the MA or optics.

The problem of the Big Cats for the Germans was that they either broke down on the way to the battlefield or they got a 500lb bomb dropped on them at the earliest opportunity. If they ever got into contact with the enemy I'm sure they were terrifying. So it was probably just as well they were usually outnumbered.

I'm going to be really, really unhelpful and say that I got a total victory as the Brits in that one. But it raises interesting points. I was expecting German armour because it was in the briefing and they don't give you 16(?) Shermans if you're just up against infantry. I kept all of the tanks behind the wooded ridges for well over half the game. I wasn't going to commit until I knew exactly where those Panthers were. When I thought I'd located them all (*SPOILER* I hadn't) I did a wide outflanking manoeuvre with nearly all of the armour out of sight of the known Panthers (there's a route to do exactly that on your left). Effectively a mass stalk. Got them to all break cover at the same time facing the Panther's sides at largely close range. And in the mad minute that followed (possibly two minutes), all four Panthers were burning but... so were quite a few of my Shermans. But I had enough left to support the infantry taking the town and losing a few more to German personal AT weapons (because that always seems to be compulsory ). Point being, you can't take out Panthers in a stand up fight. They'll get you every time. You have to sneak up on them. I was saying in another thread that once I've spotted a Big Cat, all my battle plans are put on hold until I get it. Sneak up on them. Distract them with infantry (cruel but it works). Vainly drop artillery on them (surprisingly effective sometimes). But don't fight them like they'll fight you. *ANOTHER SPOILER* I can't say but there is one.

Absolutely. I'm not really interested in animations for CC. It'd just be nice if it "happened", even if it's only abstracted. Because we all know that in the scenarios we play, the circumstances where it arises are quite common.

If it was 2011 I probably exploited a bug.

It was 2011 so not really. I vaguely remember playing it though. Did I really win it that heavily? Well done me.

I believe it was on display in Berlin but I think there's some controversy as to whether it actually fought in 1945. I suspect not.

Something I've noticed in the last two scenarios I've played: On map arty called in. Has ammo, nothing apparently stopping it. In some cases it's already carried out successful fire missions. Get the two two green lines from spotter and mortar after after pressing "confirm". It never fires. Not even a spotting round. Not certain but I think I never got the "fire mission confirmed" radio message. What's going on? Is there something I'm missing or is there a bug? Only recently noticed it.

"They're not ready for their close-up Mr DeMille."

Does this mean we can see the partisans now?

Of course, but not a QB. Oosterbeek scenario. There was one jeep with some ammo but not very much. Went quickly. Mind you, the driver got a medal (I assume we all give pixeltruppen medals after a game). Shot two Germans at close quarters who'd got into the garden of an objective (both had missed him with their MP40s) before going into the objective and joining in the defence. One round out of his thirty left at the end.

Well I can't really comment on the ancient period but when a Tiger turns up it does rather occupy my attention. It might not be the first thing I go for but the battle will sort of revolve around getting it. In many cases that'll involve avoiding it until you've got it on your terms (multiple tanks with rear/side opportunities). In fact, isn't getting the AT assets first a basic doctrine? So I'm not sure there's too much comparison with the ancient period other than basics like flanking and keeping a reserve.

Yeah, but what about partisans?

Well in theory you can give them a covered arc to stop them wasting ammo at targets they're unlikely to affect (distant buildings, for example). I did that to loads of squads in that para scenario. But you might not remember/realise/notice or it might otherwise be too late so it'd be nice if you didn't have to.

Yes, I think that was a CMx1 phenomenon. Pretty sure that in CMx2, once you're out, you're out. In fact, thinking about it, you'd like to think they'd keep their sidearms for cases of being overrun with nothing else left to fight with. And that would be a reasonably realistic scenario. But if a "gunner" runs out of ammo (the guy with the high rate of fire thing that uses different ammo to everyone else), he blasts away with his pistol along with the rifle guys. And in the para situation I mentioned above there was whole squads firing out windows with pistols. So in the end, they had nothing.* Guys firing at range with pistols aren't contributing very much so if they're down to side arms, it'd be better if they only fired at targets in the same action square so they've always got something left for CC. I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that's why they were issued with them. *I'd like to add that I won this game with a total victory. But it was pretty tense.

As far as I recall the problem seemed to be that stopping on the bridge caused your computer to blow up or something. That's why I'm worried about Arnhem. (That and the fact the plan relies on the Germans not turning up )

I didn't know it'd gone. So I've been obsessing about waypoint discipline. Does this mean I didn't have to? And I've just started the MG module. Please tell me it's not an issue on those huge bridges. (Did get a tank stuck in some rough ground the other day. Not bogged, not immobilised, tracks green; wouldn't go anywhere)

Lots of comments here have referred to the fact that if you got into close combat and had run out of ammo, you'd just run away. The trouble is that, as far as I can tell, if they're in "good order", they don't. And that is an issue within the scope of CM. Having British paras defending in an urban environment against fairly overwhelming odds is what got me posting about this. Many had run out of ammo. So should they stay put or not? If the Germans entered their building then it's just a massacre. The engine doesn't allow them to "put up a fight" but they don't run away. In fact they don't even surrender. In RL they'd do one or the other or they'd engage in HtH (which they can't). And, as I say, this isn't an entirely unusual set of circumstances in CM. In many ways it's what the attacker is working towards. If it was just altered (in the absence of HtH modelling) to "unarmed pixeltruppen in the same action square as the enemy will surrender", I'd settle for that as it's more realistic than what we're currently seeing.

I'd settle for that. Yes, and especially in WWI where there were all sorts of improvised HtH weapons.

Absolutely the best game I've ever played. Spent more time on it than every other game I've played put together.