John1966

Look at 0.40! I do believe that's some vehicles following a road. It is possible.

SPOILER (OBVIOUSLY) Le Desert (I think). Is it me or is this extremely hard to do in 40 minutes? Not that daunting in itself but when you play it the first time you're still doing recce when you realise youv'e gopt 20 minutes left to secure the objectives. And yes, they are defended. Tried it last night and could clearly have walked it if it wasn't for the fact that I was running out of time. Mad dash on last couple of turns resulting in what you usually get from any mad dash in CM. I'll do it again (so that I can proceed) as now I know where the defenders are but that's not the same is it? Did anyone win this the first time? Only way I can see to do that is to go in with all guns blazing and hope you get lucky.

Yes, I remember enemy contact being made when one of my guys was crawling through the undergrowth behind a couple of trees and suddenly he starts taking fire from someone a couple of hundred meters away. I "eyeballed" it myself and couldn't see how he could have possibly been spotted. But then we've all seen tanks that couldn't be spotted a couple of yards away on the other side of the hedgerow and tanks sneak up on AT positions. And, of course, the example by the OP.

I thought spotting cycles weren't in until they do a French module. And balloons.

Perfectly straightforward, as you can see here:

Agreed. I didn't find SoHK that hard. Yes, it was difficult but not much more difficult than it looks the second you see its big n' flat with a bridge in the middle of it (although the CONSTANT artillery bombardment was perhaps a little surprising). RR, on the other hand, was surprisingly hard. You can go left, right or centre. But they're all wrong...

IIRC you can't get armour support into town on right flank. They can only cross the dry-stream thingy through the town (but then they can swing off to the right once they're across). Think that's correct (I played it some time ago). Not actually a spoiler as you can check the map. The other bridge is down and the river bed is impassable to AFVs. Of course, it's not going to be as easy as that and I will say no more. Good luck...

Wot happened to my thread? Anyway, about these tooled-up truck drivers...

Fourth scenario of Panzer Marsch. (The one where you've won scenario 3 - yes, I'm ashamed to admit I replayed scenario 3 from a previous save) All the truck drivers have MP40s. First I'd noticed but then possibly the first time I've had a German truck on my side. No idea if its default weaponry or something the sceanario designer has put in (I've never played with the editor in CMBN) but definitely MP40s. All the truck drivers. Must admit, I was rather surprised. Think I might dismount them and get them to assault the US positions.

True. Not something allied forces had to worry too much about.

Absolutely. In some ways I quite like the idea of the heroic driver armed with nothing but a pistol stoically holding out against overwhelming odds to deny the enemy victory. But not if they're broken. All that would happen is they'd surrender the minute anyone found them so they can't be counted as occupying anything (or denying anyone else from doing so). Incidentally, why did the German truck drivers have MP40s? Makes them better armed than many other combatants on the battlefield. Those movies are apparently more accurate than I thought. Everyone has an MP40 in the movies...

I've just noticed German truck drivers have MP40s (which seems a bit OTT to me). Perhaps the Wehrmacht had considered their potential as VL deniers.

I've seen so many threads about broken tank crews denying the rightful victors objectives but so far it hasn't been a problem for me. I just read the posts and mutter to myself about proper sweep & clear etc. And then I've just had a 300pt objective that I'd occupied with two Panthers, two half-tracks and a couple of infantry denied because of a JEEP DRIVER hiding behind a wall. A jeep driver WITH NO JEEP. Because I'd blown it up. And he ran away. But not far enough it would seem. And to add insult to injury... SPOLIER... ...it was in the second Panzer Marsch scenario so the next mission tells me that because I FAILED(!), I am now surrounded and having to effect a breakout. Because a jeep driver was behind a wall??? Harumph! Anyway, just having an ineffectual moan about it.

Quite. We can debate all we want about the effectiveness of HE against armoured targets but I find it hard to believe that the AI is progammed to make assesments like that. It's a tank. If you've got AP then that's what you fire at it. That's what they gave you all that AP for. Especially if you're just a simple-minded pixeltruppen who just happens to be in charge of a virtual tank or AT asset capable of firing a virtual AP round. I wouldn't even have thought that it would behave any differently if ammo were low. There's an enemy tank 50m away. Sounds like it might be a good time to use the last of the AP. If it looks like a bug, sounds like a bug and smells like a bug then I would suggest that it probably is a bug.

SPOLIER! (If youv'e never played "A Delaying Action") Was just talking about "A Delaying Action" in another thread. There are two or three 88s in the woods. I did not spot them throughout the scenario despite them being responsible for an awful lot of Sherman related carnage. So if they're well placed...

I reckon there are random bugs afoot on this one Normally all this radio contact stuff works fine but surely we've all had experience of completely inexplicable "out of contact" status. And inexplicable breakdowns in C2. In both cases they remain unresolved for whole scenarios on occasion. As far as I can tell both these phenomena occur when radios are involved. I'm completely happy with the malfunctioning radio explanation if anybody from BFC would confirm that this is something they have featured. However, I don't think anyone has. It only seems to be something that gets mentioned whenever there are C2/out of contact issues raised on these boards.

To be honest my one outstanding moment with this was a bit of disappointment really. I was playing against the AI and my ambush worked. Great. Except the AI didn't seem to see the bodies (I assume it doesn't) and kept sending the rest of the platoon to the same spot in the lane. There were about 30 bodies in front of the MG in the end. IRL I'm sure they would have tried something different. Felt like an empty victory. Not sure if that could ever be addressed. Get the AI to avoid an AS if it has dead friendlies in it? Anyone know how the AI is supposed to behave in such circumstances?

SPOILER! Only given this thread a bit of a glance so apologies if anyone has already mentioned this but I'd suggest trying some different scenarios. Those two are a funny pair as one the you've cracked is very easy (not to take anything away from the fact that you've beaten it) and the one you're getting frustrated with is, IIRC, an absolute beast. Totally unfair. It was ages ago I played it but when I got to the end and saw the German defences I remember thinking "how was I supposed to beat that?" Over the entire scenario I failed to spot most of the big AT guns. Those Shermans were just brewing up and there was nothing I could do about it. You have to commit them (or so you think) as crossing an open field with barbed wire when the scenario designer as cleverly placed a railroad track to prevent you from setting up a base of fire leaves you little other options. When I nailed the 88s at the front with a sneaky HQ unit calling in arty I thought I'd nailed it. Then it gets worse and worse. You don't even outnumber the defenders to any significant degree. And they have more AT guns than you have tanks. And I think an equal number of those are 88s (possibly more). I suspect it would be a frustrating bloodbath IRL. Seriously, leave it alone unless you're feeling masochistic. Certainly not one to learn the game with. (I hope he's thinking of the right scenario - Ed)

Excellent. That means it'll only go on for 116 years. Then the side that are winning will lose. And it'll be the beginning of the end of chivalry.

Before someone else does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_Tank

Jolly good question. Somebody please do say...

My lot never go through the bloody door. I assumed it was a bug.

Yep, can't work this one out either. Tried it twice to no practical avail. To add insult to injury, the second time one of my teams that was sitting perfectly still started to take fire from invisible Americans after a few minutes. When I tried to pull them out they got wiped out and I still didn't even have a sound contact icon. Don't do recon in the dark. SPOLILER Oddly enough I found the second mission very easy as the Americans completely failed to protect one flank. Go figure...

Ahh, the different theatres of ASL... Now, I can't claim to have played them all but I was so excited by the fact they were all there. I'd love to have got the chance to play the Chinese but by the time they were in I didn't have the time for ASL. Unfortunately, as far as I understand, CM will never deal with the PTO which I think is a real shame. Just lets hurry up with the Eastern Front at least.

When I was younger and had more time on my hands, I found it difficult find the time to play ASL. Now its just an impossibility. CM is not only more convenient (by about a thousand fold), I can play against the AI. I'm a busy person with many demands on my time yet I play more games of CM in a year than I probably played of ASL ever. And the Fog of War in ANY computer game is always going to be infinitely more satisfactory than in a board game. Think how much difference that makes.