Gen Von Television

Configurable Keys shortcuts would indeed be very useful: even without an interface, but just a config file the user can edit in Notepad or Simple Text... What you say? No WEGO on LAN/Internet? This is the worst news! I have just a very few good friends who sometime play with me CM, and either we play PBEM or if they drop by we start an H2H session on my local net; true we never had a battle going onlne since it may take too long and we cannot be sure to have the required time available, but a real time game would never be the choice for us (for me for sure!)...

... if they don't open up using their darn carbines!

What's the point? If BF publishes Modules as Addon to one and the same program (including patches and upgrades to the exec) wouldn't take the same time as if they'll release (and develop) a standalone game? Maybe even less... I would certainly prefer to have an integrated simulator where I can add Armies and Maps...

Agree, but please don't make another game install, if possible! My vote is for a single CM install covering all fronts, years and armies (all upgrades/patches and modules integrated)! Only in this way you can... conquer the World!

Wait a minute! Do you mean to say I will have to re plot from the start all those complex movements since I do not have draggable waypoints?...

Practice, practice, practice... I was/am spoiled by the use of the stringed tools for reading distances... Besides you can change aspect ratios (Normal Wide, or even screen resolution) and camera position, so the practice thing should go exponential to conform to any view combination... Alt-I Toggle Floating Icons I agree there may be more important simulation aspects to consider, but CM IMO has always been the direct and most effective heir (computer wise) of SL/ASL where the chain of command is a most important element of game-play and simulation. This aspect I deem has to be made evident to the player, and I have the impression I'm not really as careful as I was in CMX1 for the above cited reasons. I'm sure even in CMX2 this factor is most relevant... Absolutely WEGO only: if I want an RT game, I play Call of Duty (sheesh)... I hate clicking/keying away double time! Code colored icons would be a nice implementation and substitute to the CMX1 strings and would help the game player keep track of the units. Cheerio

That is good info, thanks! I apologize for my ineptitude at reading the whole manual: I hope this has been included somewhere...

I vote for the Hunt and Move To Contact reintroduction and I profit of Steve's presence here to advocate for another minor movement re-establishment: Scoot & Shoot I found very handy and useful many a times. It's not so essential to my knowledge since you can easily accomplish it by using a combination of movements (Quick/Fast + Pause + Reverse), but there may be some defined and unique behavior to this CMX1 Command I'm not aware of that would make it more essentail than just comfortable... Cheers

First of all I still find hard to assess the distances; it's also very easy to activate/deactivate the floating icons, so IMO that would be a very good implement adding the C2 colors there: indeed the floating icons would be much better then the connecting lines to check this aspect. As for the tanks, it isn't just a matter of keeping radio contact, but you still have to preserve your HQ tank so to get the fighting bonus of a leader, if any. And the same goes for the Infantry.

About the C2: I'm not saying it's less efficient; maybe it's just because I'm not used to it, but I move my units without paying much attention to the icons in the low bar; I wasn't really looking at them in CMX1 too, but there you had those connecting lines that were more evident for the player, and helped to retrace what units belonged to which HQ; I've seen now you can see the belonging group using the floating icons as they light up and that may be a good substitution, but it would be better to have them colored (black?) to indicate absence of contact with their parent units. Besides to really know where is the HQ tank of a platoon is more difficult, since there are no special floating icons for that, so I have to examine each one of them to find out...

A few battles later I can say I'm not used to this C2 thing: in CMX1 we had these lines connected to the units in command to one HQ, so visually you were able to move them in command, or easily detect when one unit was out of reach; now we have the icons in the lower bar or the floating ones to check: if the floating ones would change color to indicate when one squad/vehicle is out of contact with its parent HQ I believe it would help, well, at least I would get some help.

By chance I discovered the Wide Aspect ratio pressing the [C] key on the Mac version (possibly is the same with Windows) where CMBN runs at 1920*1080: is there any way I can keep this aspect ratio as default, as it seems it's not kept from one session to another? TIA

Very nice work Rambler, and this comment is coming from a once serving Photographer in the Army Signal Corps! S!

hehehehe What map edge? It's not arcade if the passage exists... I won an honest total Victory and Barkmann is dead! So have we now found a bug in the terrain design? Seriously I thought that with the hedgerow so close to the edge of the map there was no possibility to use that path: was it left intentionally? I still have to load that map in the Editor, and see if this has something to do with the hedgerow square marker positioned on that column while it doesn't prevent a tank to pass, or if there is another column on its left... This may be a problem for scenario designers who cannot prevent movements on the map edges... but not for the players (Humans or AI)!

Ahehm! I'm not testing much of anything at the mo', since I have just fun, but I just finished this battle with a total victory (not boasting at all, err): ################################################ SPOILER AHED (so don't read it if you've not yet played it!) ################################################ so here is another anecdote that may prove nothing but here is what happened to my foxy Shermans; observing the map at set up phase, I noticed there were some possible corridors of advance on the extreme sides of the map, and decided to try them out and check if there was a passage to exploit them; sure enough I wasn't going to advance down the road in a file astern, so I deployed the tanks on a broad line abreast instead, leap frogging them to advance; three of them advanced through the plugged field on the left I deemed covered by the hedgerows and trees, as I expected the Panther lurking somewhere on my right. I was actually able to move Fast and Quick one tank of these three on the extreme left border of the map, unobserved: it looks as a very narrow passage with the tall hedgerow on its right, and behind that hedgerow is the farm close to the Barkmanns Corner; I believe it was around turn four or five (I have them recorded anyway) when suddenly this Sherman turned the hedgerow corner to discover you know what and explode it into flames I believe with a single shot and still moving! This may prove nothing, since they were no more than ten meters apart, and it got it right on the side (no survivors): a lucky decision on my side to take that path, and another luck for the extremely precise and fast shot, but makes me think...:confused: The rest of the battle was a stroll: I haven't lost one single tank, HT or man! I never saw something like it in CMX1, but war is cahos, and from cahos creativity is born (Aristotle). Cheers

What!? I played this same tutorial a few days ago, and I had to reach a flanking shot at less than 100 m to knock out the Panther and for the Tiger I had to shoot it right in the back at about 50 m to finish it. Then you say: the luck of the beginners! Really: many missed shoots while they were moving; very impervious Panther to knock it out with the 75 mm, and almost an impossible objective to knock out the Tiger. Are you sure you were playing this at least in Veteran Mode? It seems you got the Arcade version of the game! Hey I want that version too...

Well done! Please let us know when the battle will be available... S!

Of tanks and bazookas: as far as I've played it, I never saw my own bazookas taking out a single armored vehicle or tank; as for the AI the bazooka or panzerfaust teams are deadly as they should: we need to dig further into this. Just for a comparison test is there anyone who can create a scenario of the kind we had in CMX1 St.Anne Chapelle? There I remember the heroic AB bazooka team hidden and with armor covering arc took off three HTs! If I find the time I would do it myself...

That to me added one more variable of chaos that was making the game seemingly more realistic; admittedly having to organize and tweak all the waypoints to keep 'em rolling right, was a bit of a PIA, but very handy and necessary sometime and not necessarily all the times. In CMX1 there are some scenario at Regimental level you have to move on huge maps (think of Africa or Russia, but there were in ETO too), and the movement to get to the line may take several turns and you have to move many platoons and vehicles and tanks. In the bocage you have to frog jump from one field to the next, so your movements are very limited and can be solved turn by turn; the AI seems to mess up many times the movements in CMX2 as it was in CMX1, so even in one-turn-move you'll get the chance of someting weird happening, and you cannot check it before the action, but only after its execution. I have to admit I'm starting to get used to the carelessness and velocity of this new way to assign movement paths, so you do not concentrate too much on micro-management but more on the whole of the situation; Still I miss that option and I'm convinced that not to have it may bring serious problem in situations similar to the ones I have described.

Wait a minute! I went through the manual and the 88s are all there! So at least we have them! I agree, they cannot fire like howitzers and that Winters wasn't the target of those 105s, but still we need them, and possibly firing to some distant target (in this case Utah) while the 506 prepares its moves...

That would also be a very interesting weapon to see in action. But writing about the RCLs I was thinking at the US Pack Howitzer I've seen it's used as an off board Artillery: that is perfectly OK, but it was also used as a close support weapons many times in many different campaigns and theaters. Even a Jeep would have been able to tow it in position, if not man-handled. I agree that Long Toms, the 105s and the likes would be out of scale in this game, but not so for the 88: there were many scenario in CMBO (BB and AK too of course) where they were present already deployed, and a true hard to chew bone, as they were in RL; supposedly the most dreaded weapon in WWII against, infantry, armor or aircraft! And we also would need a battery of 105 to create the Cpt. Winters scenario at Brecourt Manor: and that is pertinent to CMBN. Later in the war there came a few other RCL used mainly by the US AB too.

Keep 'em coming Guys: there are plenty of good observation and points in your messages! I hope BF will take notice and do something about them when possible. As for the American Bias in the game, I'm not so sure; I haven't played that many battles, and I have the impression that mostly I fought against AI conscript or green, and a few Regular or Veterans; Sometime I was surprised on the precision and mortality of a single round shot by a 75 mm Sherman destroying in flame a PzIVJ: I didn't remember it was so effective in AK; even so I've seen also the M4s burning and exploding in a short notice, by panzerfaust or enemy tanks, while the surviving crew was running for life: never witnessed the headless rider event... It would be nice to have the 75 mm Pack Howitzer (often used by the AB) handy, or the recoilless guns that came later; I still have to check about this: are you sure there are no other artillery pieces available? I need the 88!

I wholly agree: this is the reason I'd been stuck to this battle for so many years; it's a perfect scenario to play the many 'what if'.or just to appreciate the varieties of tactical problems. Above all to remember the heroic sacrifices made by so many! In the ancient Japan popular culture the real hero is not always the winner, but more often the loser... well, that is another story.

Yes these would be nice... But please do not make me hunting for the Plans to get an extra life! I'm not really sure now if MG would be the best choice for another CM Module; I don't know, I played and studied this battle since some thirty years: played with tabletop wargames, both at tactical and strategic levels, then I replayed them all on computers... Sure it's an intriguing one: when I won as an Allied I always had to take enormous risks: I was able to reach the South approach to Arnhem bridge with the XXX Corps sometime even in four days, but just with a few recon elements and armour, leaving behind a mess of a supply and defensive corridor; even so it was like a moral boost to the beleaguered Red Devils, and I ended up with a bridgehead on the further shore of the Rhine. If that was going to be really helpful and decisive, I doubt very much. The German Army was still very strong and for the Allied was a narrow salient under direct observation and artillery difficult to keep, so even less was it to use to amass a strong force to invade the Ruhr. What instead of MG about Varsity/Plunder? We will have all the latest WWII Weaponry, Red Devils, Commandos, Waffen SS and Fallschirmjager, Pershing and King Tiger... we can always go back designing some MG scenarios using all the new units and the old. I would also miss the Normany British/Canadians battles there...