Kip Watson

I have to say I think the order-delay is a much more effective way to handle the modelling of information movement within the battle. Sure, no doubt the boffins will tweak it, but a tweak is all it needs. If I had to play while only being able to see generic opposition tanks at all times that would take a lot of the fun out of the game I'm afraid. (not to mention the historical and educative factor which is a big part of this game for me)

1) CM is a really good game - I hope the new one keeps the as many of the current neat featuresas poss. 2) I'd like to vote for a 'low gore' game just like CM is now. 3) I like the way the battlefield is not too cluttered, which makes command a lot easier in large battles. And with 'figure bases' etc, it feels like a wargame, these features are really cool and enhance CM as a 'strategy game'. In fact I'd even like a 'super-simplified-terrain' view to help during command moves. 4) But I also like the idea of a greater degree of 'low level' detail, eg. showing all the guys in the squad, but I think this could be handled much better by a separate window. In CMAK/BB, you have the little window that shows 'wall' and 'crater' etc. - this is nice and could be used to animate where and what the squad is up to. eg, you have a little anim. of all 12 guys leapfrogging through cover, sheltering behind wall, blasting way into house etc. Since it would only show one squad/team/vehicle you could make it a higher resolution and animated - add battlefield colour without CPU overhead. (but low gore please). Within the context of the whole game, it wouldn't need to particularly high res or a particularly stunning anim. to add a lot, both in excitement and strategy terms, and it would convey more than the current 'pinned', 'taking cover' 5) I also like the panel that shows pictures of the weapons a squad/team/vehicle has. You could really build on that, it's cool and very interesting. 6) I love the terrain/map idea in the earlier post. Great idea!

Heh heh, some of the terrain suggestions start to sound more like a model-railway-sim that a warfare sim (It's a joke! don't get upset, they're good suggestions really). But it makes me think that interesting terrain features are very worthwhile and of course you will be adding some more and really cool ones, but please can we have the ability to blow them up! Destroying buildings and bridges is fun (ahem, I mean historically informative), but I would like to be able to destroy other terrain elements too - walls, fences, hedges, treebursts with exploding trees, sandbags with gaping holes... ...all in the interests of military historical verisimilitude of course! ...and in 'heavy damage' mode, could we have trees and woods with a bit of that denuded, devastated, WW1-type look?

How about these: - A 'turret down' setting for AFVs! - The ability for AFVs, while on the defending side, to start a battle fully camoflaged (netting and all? and could we see it??), with a corresponding 'invisibility' factor. - Designer can assign map labels that are visible to one side only (eg. for recon info)

OK - quite a few minutes of thought later (I'm a slow thinker), what about if you could add pauses between movement segments (instead of just at the start of a move), and even what about if you could add a 'synch pause' so that squads under the same HQ all wait (or shoot or whatever) until the slowest squad reaches the the pause-point - to allow for synchronised tactics. ...sounds complicated, though. I get a bit lazy sometimes and some effective CM tactics require a lot of micromanaging - it would be cool if there were just a simple menu item that handled that . Basically just continuing from what CMBB added, which were some additional intuitive infantry commands (assault etc). As mentioned above, I'd like 'advance by bounds' (leapfrogging), and also 'move using cover' (doesn't add anything just saves clicking). And to elaborate from an earlier post, a submenu on the move-to-contact command, to allow different things to do when contact is made (at the moment all you can do is hide).

...sure, I guess. But (a) being able to add a delay to the beginning of a move only really allows a rough approximation of synchronised squad tactics. ( inserting an explicit and more intuitive menu-item for something the game already handles internally is easy, right? and © don't get me wrong, CM is super-duper-way-cool and it was intended as a 'wish-list' item, not as a criticism...

The extra orders that came with CMBB (covering arcs, advance, assault etc) were so cool compared to CMBO, and it would be neat to have a few more of them, for example - creeping artillery barrage - area fire possible across an wide-ish area instead of focussed at a point (like with sweeping MG suppressing fire) And it would also be cool to be able to synchronise units in some way. The convoy command is one that gets mentioned a lot, but what about: - A 'formation' command, possible for infantry but particularly for tanks (of course this would need to depend on state of morale and quality of the HQ but it would save a lot of micromanaging) (and even a 'stay on road' command) - some different options for infantry under the same HQ unit using quick fire and manoeuvre tactics, eg: covering fire and assault and 'leapfrogging'. As it is, one minute (plus any additional unit delay) is too long for synchronsing squads really.

Unrealistic? Considering the time scale it seemed about right. In the heat of battle I can imagine engineers using HE for all manner of things, blowing a path in a mine field - sure (although they wouldn't fling it they'd ignite a string of charges?). Blowing holes in Bocage, high walls, buildings' outer/interior walls (blowing building to rubble even), roadblocks and various fortifications... Why not? That'd be really cool! And hey, what about bangalore torpedoes, even!

Sorry to be a post-hog, but here's another couple that have been mentioned at Blitzkrieg WC - Pacific theatre (I don't know how many time I've seen this, but it gets mentioned even more than the wish for Cold War era) - An ability to play the whole movie back from start to finish of game (this is a really good idea)

Hi Gruß Joachim. Yep, I understand Dynaic Flags - and they are really cool. That's why I was thinking of something like a further developed alomg the same lines. As in more complex victory conditions (Dynamic flags are essentially only one active flag and some dummy flags). Imagine victory conditions completely visible only to one side (with a Dynamic Flag you can see them you just don't know which one is active). Because VLs basically correspond to something in your orders, but your opponent may have quite different orders. For maximum victory you would have to hold your VLs as well as deduce your opponent's objectives. Really, you could have some real FOW-fun with it.

Here's another thought. It would be cool in scenario design to have a bit more variety in Victory Conditions. Eg. the following: - one-sided Victory Flags, that could be applicable and/or visible to a particular side. In other words, you may not know for sure what your opponents objectives are. This would be quite cool and add nicely to Fog of War. - Victory conditions that give extra victory points for the destruction of specific enemy units (artillery springs to mind), like in a search-and-destroy mission. - 'Dynamic' exit zones, which could even be applicable to different parts of a force. Eg. Are you breaking an encircled force out, or a relieving force in? Similarly, Exit Zones that are invisible to an opponent.

Great game, best I've ever played, but of course that leads to lots of things to wish for! A) Scenario Design - ability to rotate map - ability to cut and paste terrain elements - more detailed and varied buildings and ruins (eg. clusters of buildings or ability to subdivide terrain tiles) (eg. ability to place buildings on tiles that change elevation) - more flexible fortifications, including bunkers/pillboxes along the lines of trenches that can be occupied by squads and weapons (as mentioned elsewhere) - scenario designer can vary squad composition (even just a little) - designer can vary MG ammo on AFVs - designer can send 'messages' to player (eg. on move 10 message comes up "Warning, enemy aircraft coming your way") - ability to include simple graphics (eg. maps) in briefings - ability to import maps from CMBB/AK/BO...?? - designer can apply damage to buildings Forces/Units - Actual cavalry - mine clearing tanks - display of aircraft - optional (to designer) player control of aircraft - TRP for aircraft? - include beaches, amphibians and landing craft (including German for hypothetical invasion of Britain?) - some additional fortications (see also above) (eg. tank ditch, tank obstacles - basically same function as roadblock but looking different) C) Game-play - more varied QB purchasing rules (eg. light armour, medium armour, heavy armour, combined arms light, combined arms heavy, infantry-and-extra-artillery etc etc etc.) - a few simple if-then/multiple orders (eg. a bit like scoot-and-shoot and move-to-contact-then-hide, but expanded like; move-to-contact-then-area-fire-with-explosives, if-see-enemy-tank-then-reverse, if-see-enemy-tank-then-turn-to-face, area-fire-with-grenades-then-assault) - area fire 'ahead' (as opposed to area fire at a point) while moving command (for advancing in forests etc) - Infantry movment commands like, move-and-stick-to-cover (to save micromanaging) and 'seek-cover' (like hide, as in move-to-contact-and-seek-cover) - a CONVOY COMMAND!! D) I-know-it-won't-happen-but Dep't... - extend into post-war/cold-war/arab-israeli? E) You guys rule, and thanks for inviting suggestions.

I wonder if the designers of the CMAK scenarios on the CD would be so kind as to list their scenarios on the ' Scenario Depot'. A lot of scenarios, particularly those designed to be exciting against the AI, are not always very balanced in 2 player mode. CMAK is no exception. The reviews on the Scenario Depot are an excellent way to see what works for 2-player, and what is best played in single-player. (and very occasionally there's a scenario that's just a dud - and we all want to be the one to register our scathing review - heh heh) Some of the games that come with the CD are listed, but most are not. You designers would be doing us a service if you would take 5 mins to list your scenarios. (...thanks...)