John1966

So sneaking through the bocage is just not going to work...

If you change the terrain (blow up a building, breach a wall/hedgerow, create a crater, anything else you can think of), and you do it out of your opponent's LOS, can they see the terrain has altered? Bit of a position giveaway if they can. The AI won't tell me what it knows. (I realise they might hear it but that's different)

Yep. Always worth dropping arty on tanks. A direct hit will even KO a Tiger.

Actually, research reveals that it is a word according to some dictionaries. But it's an adjective, not a verb. So if you are unsurrendering, it means you are the indominable sort who doesn't surrender. It doesn't mean you surrendered but have now changed your mind. I'm not sure there actually is a word for that. There. I've learned another thing.

I'm not going to say "partisans", but... partisans.

They didn't have their weapons in CMx1 because the situation was different. They'd probably be marching off the field. In CMx2, if they surrender but haven't become white flags (at which point they can't be "rescued" anyway), they'll still have their weapons next to them. So if they're trying to surrender (after which they don't move) and the enemy doesn't actually take them prisoner, but your guys get close enough first and tell them to "pull themselves together", they can pick up their weapons and do whatever.

Taking selfies with the enemy is a gamey to get spotting info.

You'll have to trust me on this. It was quite a few turns ago and there was definitely no-one near them. Depending on what you mean by "near". How near is near? They'd been sat there with their hands up for a while already because I didn't think it was safe to enter their building due to the nearby church. But it turned out it was empty by then (except for dead Germans) so I went in to this neighbouring building to pick up the prisoners. I can confirm the village was not cleared at the time but no-one in at least 100m (approx). In fact their nearest friendly had also surrendered (and he was well away from them anyway). And he white flagged without anyone entering his AS. But I had a squad babysitting this lot for several minutes while everyone else went on past. I gave up when it got silly and assumed it was a bug. When they eventually white flagged (because they did in the end), I hadn't discovered any nearby unknowns. I'm going for glitch because I've not seen it before. They normally white flag at the end of the minute you enter their AS. Yeah, that's a bit naughty. Soon as they stick their hands up they should stop relaying info. If they end up unsurrendering (which is not a word), that'd actually be a good feature. In fact if you could rescue them after being properly taken prisoner it'd be even better. They'd know all sorts.

These were German (WWII). As far as I'm aware there were no non-surrendering friendlies anywhere near them. But they did share an AS with good ordered hostiles (my guys) for several minutes. To be honest, if they're going to be sat there with their hands up with enemy troops stood right next to them and they don't white flag and disappear, they're not really surrendering. In fact, they'd still be legitimate targets. But then why do the white flag disappearance some time later when there's no one there to accept the surrender? Basically, this is what didn't happen. Yes, I've done that to my own pixeltruppen quite a few times. If they were in a separated team but you get them back into their original squad they also return to "good order" as well (assuming that's the state of the squad). I think I preferred it in CMx1 when control passed over to you and you just ordered them off the field (although I can understand why they changed it).

No, they disappeared after I'd given up trying to take them prisoner. As far as I understand, the only time a pixeltruppen stops surrendering is when friendly non-broken units (or perhaps just non-surrendering) arrive in the same AS. (Which definitely didn't happen here)

They'd surrendered. They just hadn't become white flags and disappeared. Just knelt there with their hands up while my guys stared at them.

Why do some guys take a full 30 minutes to become white flags while others do it the minute the enemy turns up in the same AS? I had some last night who I had to give up waiting for them to white flag and advanced my guys anyway. They disappeared some time later. In one case I'd never even gotten around to entering their AS.

My halftracks are now firing with gay abandon. Thank you. But the tank crews who were sitting around making tea are very upset with @Warts 'n' all.

I'm pretty sure I've never had to do it with German halftracks, even ones that don't have gunners.

Funny you should mention that. I was wondering that last night. Never actually tried it. That's actually pretty useful. I've got quite a few crews sitting around. I've also got a couple of tanks with the MA and MG out so I've just returned them to the rear. So they could dismount and man the halftracks. (I've considered having the neutralised tanks advancing with everyone else to provide extra targets but that seems ruthless, unsporting and more than a bit gamey)

I don't. Nobody mentioned the flail tanks.

I was playing a CW scenario a while back and the briefing said that historically there were two flail tanks but CM doesn't model flail tanks. Are they in some module I don't have?

There's a Clear Minefield command for flail tanks?! Wait a minute... there are flail tanks?!

Right, I have learned a thing. Not sure how I've been playing for 20 years without knowing that (yet I knew they needed passengers to fire) but here we are. The Germans are doomed. Everyone back in the halftracks.

Do I have to? Never bothered with German halftracks and they fire OK. My Bren carriers have been firing with gay abandon without an open up order (including the sitting over the side firing with a Sten). Is this something in a patch since I last played? Apologies to @Vacilllator for giving away the presence of the Queen of the Battlefield.

If it was a one-off oddity, I'd assume that was the case. But it's every single incident. I've got red target lines from them. Not a single shot has been fired. I wouldn't worry about the spoiler too much. All you know is the Brits have some halftracks and their MGs don't work.

Playing Colossal Crack. British infantry in M5 halftracks (yes, they are manned). Haven't fired a shot. Not one of them. Been given target orders (area fire and specific targets) and they've spotted bad guys. 45 minutes in and not one has fired a shot. Tried orders to both the halftrack and the crew. Nothing. Every single one will not fire. What am I doing wrong?

Now this is something that has always bothered me. We often see scenarios that say they're suitable to be played as either side against the AI. Every time I see that I raise an eyebrow. Unless the AI can play as well as a human, how can that even be possible? If I'm playing the AI then I tend to assume the odds (in terms of forces on the field) are going to be stacked a bit in it's favour, especially if the AI is attacking. So I'm never quite sure how a scenario can be suitable for playing the AI no matter which side you pick. And I've played a few of these where it proved to be a walkover and I think I picked the wrong side. *SPOILER* NEDforce was a classic example (although I can think of others). I played the Germans and I'm not entirely sure how I was expected to lose as the British had left one flank completely open. Might have been a challenge trying to plug the gap if I'd been the British. But the AI isn't very good at that sort of thing.

Well then probably not a good idea to lose all your tanks in the first ten minutes.

When I'm playing a historical scenario and I get my butt kicked, I don't mind it that's what happened in real life. On the other hand, if I do better than they did in real life, I probably expect to be awarded with some form of victory. So it occurs to me that in that sort of scenario, achieving an objective that wasn't taken in real life should be awarded a lot of points. But obviously parameters should be taken into account. In fact, they should always be taken into account with the possible exception of maybe Eastern Front scenarios where the Russians are in an "at all costs" mood. So I suppose it depends on the situation. A lot of those modern scenarios (which I confess I don't play) shouldn't result in victories just because you took the objective if you lost an unacceptable number of men doing it. Acceptable American losses in a modern scenario are going to be very different from acceptable Russian losses in 1942. What I'm trying to say is that objective vs parameter points should be vary wildly from one scenario to another. It's all accordin'.