Orange

I say play on! So what if you have a disadvantage, thems the breaks. Of course, I really like the randomness factors too. And maybe I'm confident enough that I think I can do well in most situations. I'm also confident enough that if I lose due to bad luck of the draw it's no big deal. Come on, take a challenge, if you play enough the breaks will roll your way too. Maybe it's that I've never seen a really skewed map. I play CMBO exclusively by PBEM. I've played over a dozen games so maybe I just haven't seen enough to see a really out of whack setup. But I can tell you this, there's no way in hell I'd ask for a new setup. That's just the way I am. If my opponent wanted one, I might consider it though, to be polite.

When I play scrabble with my wife, without fail she will announce at some point how her letters are so terrible (and thus her low score). Maybe it's the same with your maps. My point is, I get horrible letters too in scrabble but I don't complain, I just make the best of them. Same thing with my maps. I usually agonize over how to defend/ attack given the circumstances. There are always faults in the terrain (not enough trees, too many trees, too flat, too hilly, buildings spread out, buildings closer to the enemy, you name it). You have to look at things and make the best of them. Chances are your opponent has the same problems. In warfare, you don't usually get to choose your terrain. I think it's the same in QB's. The maps are random and you have to make due. If the map really sucks, here's what I do: Adjust your objectives. Let's say your objective is to capture or defend 4 flags on the map. Maybe two of them are very hard due to the terrain. Just go after the other two. You might find that as the battle flows, the other two will be more accessible or maybe the opponent will come to you, who knows.

At the beginning of the game, pick out some places that are far away from the enemy, has good cover and a good LOS. These are the types of places you end up placing your MG's sometimes. For me it ends up being either a two-story building or a wooded area. You might even have to advance a little towards it from your startup area. They key is not to advance too far. You're probably getting your spotters into the action or too close to it. If you are advancing towards an unknown area go through or behind some woods. Before you reach the edge of the woods facing the enemy, sneak and hide. The above post about following your other units is good. Here's something that you should always remember. It's better when your spotters have LOS to the target, true. But they are no good dead. Better to not see the target and keep them alive.

In two separate PBEM games this has happened to me: I roll my tank up and begin shooting at the enemy from a decent distance. There is a building a short distance in front of and to the left or right of the tank. There's enough room to clear the building but it's close to the path of the projectile. Several of the tanks HE shells hit the building. Of course, my men are inside and they take a beating. I lost an entire squad like that.

I may have the term incorrect. It's the two-man anti-tank team.

I'm playing a PBEM game (CMBO) which is almost at an end. My opponent had a tank (Sherman +) in the center rear of the map commanding the hill and terrain in front of him. My armor has been pinned back on my left flank and after losing my best piece (Panther) I was unwilling to engage. My men took a hill in the center and were feeling the heat from the Sherman about 200m away. I had a team of panzerfausts on either side of the hill, hidden. From where I was I could take a shot with one of them at about 210m (that's right about their max range) but my hit % was guessed at 6%. I didn't like those odds so I thought I'd sneak up another 30m or so, hide and then see if I could get a better shot from just under 200m. Well, the pfaust crew was seen sneaking and the Sherman began firing at them. An M-10 joined them for good measure. Those crazy Germans must have gotten angry because they decided to fire back. With one long arcing shot at just over 200m they took that Sherman out. They then lobbed a few at the M-10 but missed. Nice shooting huh?

I'm playing a PBEM game and I had a Sherman Jumbo who spotted and targeted a 75mm AT gun. His facing was perpendicular to the AT gun (ie, flank exposed). I immediately ordered the Jumbo to turn and face the AT gun since his frontal armor made it very unlikely to get ko'd. Well, for some strange reason the Jumbo didn't turn his facing. The two of them traded shots for about 30 seconds or so and finally the AT gun scored a hit on my Jumbo in the most vulnerable place, the lower hull. Man was I pissed. I suppose it's possible that I didn't order the tank to turn it's facing but I'm almost positive that I did. The battle is going well for me regardless but I'd love to have that Jumbo right now, cranking some HE rounds into the village.

I don't have that much experience with AT guns (or CM for that matter) but in a PBEM I faced a dug in 105mm RCL (veteran Germans). This beast got off a few shots and did a little damage to some infantry but I was pretty close to it with several squads and some tanks were approaching it from the side at the same time. I was hoping to surpress them and get at them soon but to my surprise they threw up their hands and surrendered. I was unimpressed.

I was playing a meeting engagement last night against the AI (I was the Germans vs the British). Inspired by a book I'm reading, In deadly combat, I decided to use two anti-tank guns (for some reason I never use these). I had one veteran 50mm gun set up in a wooded area overlooking the main road through this village. He was hidden. About 100m to his right was a veteran Panther tank watching the same road. Eventually a Brit tank came into view along the road, sideways and about 300m away. The panther got killed before it could get a shot off. Since the AT gun was hiding it hadn't fired. But now, I unleashed it. It exchanged a few shots and was taking MG fire but it killed the tank. During the course of the battle that 50mm AT gun killed two more tanks and two Armored cars along with a handful of infantry. They fought like champs.

Here's a little trick that I've used a few times. Fire at an enemy occupied building with HE causing major damage. You'll almost always see the enemy running away as they don't want the building falling on their heads. You stop firing at the building before it falls down. Move on to other things but keep that building in mind. I've had the enemy reoccupy damaged buildings at which point I bring it down with a couple of shots. In one PBEM I had an enemy move an entire platoon into the damaged large 2-story building at which point I leveled it with two shots. Two of the squads and the platoon HQ were wiped out, the third squad routed with heavy casualties. The key is you don't want to do this to a building you need to occupy as the enemy can reverse the favor. I've sometimes damaged unoccupied buildings that I wanted to deny access to using the same logic as above. These are buildings that I expect the enemy to take for their strategic advantage but may be outside of my control.

Intertesting: I just started reading Panzer Commander. During a battle in Belgium, the Germans were being held up at a river by artillery and sniper fire on the other side. Rommel ordered the infantry to cross in boats and secure the other side. Well, they got torn up by enemy fire from the other side. The author said Rommel was asking for smoke to cover the crossing but they had no smoke shells. In a move similar to the one mentioned above, Rommel ordered several buildings set on fire, the smoke providing the cover needed for the crossing. The Germans were able to cross, set up a beachhead and break out across the river.

Don't know the specifics of that scenario but I've brought buildings down with HE fire to open up a clearer shot. It also has the added benefit of disrupting any infantry in those buildings.

I tried using them against the AI in an assault last night. I had two flamethrower teams and a halftrack flamethrower. The halftrack saw the first action. I advanced him behind my main assault and he torched several buildings on the flanks. Some of them held enemy units which ran and perished. My advance was being held up by an armored car. One flamethrower team advanced close enough to torch it, it blew up nicely! The two teams were towards the front as we hit the buildings. Our front line was strung out a little and some enemy units came through, killing the two flame teams in the process. The flame halftrack them went head to head with a MG halftrack. They didn't get an explosion but the enemy team bailed out after two shots of fire. I'd say overall they were pretty useful. Against the AI I get real sloppy hence the loss of the two teams. I've yet to see them against a human opponent, but should see soon.

Other than the points, what's the difference between a probe and an attack in a QB?

Followup to my original post: I had a nice barrage of 105's falling in a current (near ending) game. It seemed like they were doing some damage (we'll have to ask my opponent, I know he checks the boards). Other than some men banged up here and there the barrage caught a large building on fire. A squad of GI's and what looked like a platoon HQ unit were inside. They exited the building towards my troops who blasted away at them. Seemingly confused those poor GI's tried to take cover, ran towards the burning building then back towards my troops a few times. As more of the 105's fell near they finally got the right idea and bolted in the right direction, away from my troops to some cover. Something I've learned is that such ordinance takes several minutes to arrive. That's fine. It's the adjusting fire that got me a little confused. If your FO can see the area he wants to adjust to, it tells you if it's adjusting fire otherwise you have to start the clock again. Ok, that's fine. Made the mistake of adjusting too far and had to start the clock again. Note: It doesn't allow you to return to your original fire mission once you click somewhere else so be careful. The big problem is adjusting to an area that the FO doesn't see. There is no blue line that says "adjusting fire." You kinda have to guess if it'd be in the adjusting fire range. IF you're right it won't mess up your time. If you choose to adjust too far, you start the clock again. Any way around this?

Good information so far but... Maybe I should have named the topic something different. Atrillery versus infantry in buildings. That's what I'm really after. Can I laugh at the 60 and 81mm mortars while I'm in a light bldg? How about 105 or 150mm arty while I'm in a heavy building? That is the specific information I'm looking for. Oh, and I'm talking about non-direct fire. I've seen what direct HE fire can do.

Is it safe to hole up in buidlings when under an artillery barrage? Does it depend on the size of the barrage (ie, different for 81mm, 105's, etc.)? I'm sure it is, I'm just wondering if someone could explain what I could expect from the different calibers. Is it a waste of time to attack enemy units in buildings with artillery? Thanks for the advice. Also, I'm asking about indirect fire, off-board or otherwise. [ January 12, 2004, 04:02 PM: Message edited by: Orange ]

I've been playing around as the Germans and I recently tried some 155mm rockets. They seemed cheap and I figured they'd pack some punch. When it came time to use them it was against an out of LOS target. Man, those rockets were going off everywhere. Is that the kind of (in)accuracy I should expect. I know you get what you pay for, but I'm asking anyway. Are they much better with a LOS to the target? I was thinking as a strategy that using them against troops behind the main lines (ie, well away from my troops) would be worth spending the points on. A few lucky hits could knock some stuff around and the cost is low. Any other thoughts?

Makes sense now that I've been playing for a few weeks. Thanks.

Are the firepower ratings for a unit in between listed ranges incremental. What I mean is if your firepower is listed as 120 at 50m and 40 at 100m, is it safe to assume that your firepower is approximately 80 at 75m? Or instead is the firepower 120 at 0-50m, 40 at 51-100m, etc.?

I'm very new to CMBO but I'd like to jump right in and play a human opponent. I'm not new to wargaming so I have a basic understanding of the tactics necessary (so maybe I won't be too much of a pushover). A turn per day would be ideal (maybe 5-6 per week). Someone who could easily explain the process of how to do the PBEM. Any type of engagement that would be fair is fine by me. Send me an email.