Yskonyn

Thanks tyr, but shouldn't I be worried about the second line of enemies killing off all the members doing the initial assault? I think I would need enough units to supress that line as well, or are there other options? Assuming of course that the second line has a LOS towards the first line.

OK thanks for the feedback. It was indeed what I was asking. I presume I was right about the usage of the IFV's in combo with the tin men?

Yeah that's the one. Isn't that a mortar?

Thank you all for contributing. It's somewhat more clear now. Would a good simple rule of thumb be to keep the IFV's on overwatch, concealed -or partially at least- in hull down positions and serving as a fire base, while I then use the infantry squad to engage the enemy while they are under supression from the IFV's? Is there a chance of friendly casualties if I get close to the enemy while my IFV's are still supressing? What would the scenario be if there's a second line of enemy units behind the objective of the assault? Would you just need more bases of fire to shut them all up before assaulting with the infantry squads? Normally you won't have spotted all enemy units, so when do you know you're not being overloy cautious OR sending them into the meat grinder? Another question that popped up: I have a mortar squad sitting at the base of a small hill. On top there is another unit. The icons indicate they are both equipped with radios. The unit on top of the hill spots enemy position right in front of the small hill at around 500m. Why can't the mortar squad fire? Shouldn't they be able to fire from the directions of the spotting squad on top of the hill, cause of the radio contact?

So how do you perform 'recon by fire'? Do you just hose metal at any and all positions you *think* an enemy might be hiding and see what the results are? Do squads really have enough ammo for such tactics? Is it 'gamey' or used in RL as well?

Yes indeed the game allows you to learn, but its brutally unforgiving, especially in PBEM games! Maybe I should clarify a situation to show my troubles: I want to advance to a house. Behind the house there are at least three enemy tanks confirmed on overwatch. There's a line of defense to the left of the house mounting machine gun emplacement and AT equipment. I can spot the house from a hill towards my side of the map, but the surrounding units cannot be, for some reason. I have a dedicated spotter doing his work, but his yield is not too well. I tried two probing actions with two IFV's and two infantry squads. Both IFV's were shot by an unknown enemy unit, but the infantry was able to assault the house. In the end I am wondering what I could have done to keep the two IFV's and that results in me being overly cautious, often riding vehicles up to a ramp, look for 10 secs and then retreat. Rinse and repeat to look for enemy units. This tactic however, doesn't do anything to push my efforts forward... Infantry just lies in a bush. They are unable to spot very well on their own, so they become quite useless. IFV's and Tanks only peep over the hills for a short while to look for enemy locations, but spotting like this yields only maginal results. I quickly find myself in a stalemate position, too affraid to loose units in general, but at the same time loosing units with small time probe actions cause I feel the need to do *something*! Would a better action be to bunch up a few mixed units and push forward on one specific location? Then reinforce over there and go on? In my mind this would only work on very large maps, which CMSF has little of... Frustrating this... Thanks for the input so far!

*warning! LOADS of questions!* I've been playing CMSF for quite a while now, against the AI and in PBEM games, but I remain having difficulty with tactics assessment in relation to units. In most video's from Battlefront you see bunched up units in hot action. Often we see IFV's rushing forward right next to infantry. Is this a common tactic? Should you always keep your IFV's close to your infantry or is it just for 'action shot' purposes in the video's? I haven't served in the army, so that's probably why some things don't click for me, but as there are heaps of people here on the boards with experience and knowledge about modern warfare I thought I should finally ask properly here. I do grasp the fact that infantry controls area's by actually being there, while tanks for example often control area's from a distance with only firepower focussed on the particular area. How should I normally use IFV's? Is it wise to keep the infantry inside the vehicle for as long as possible or should you unload and march forward next to eachother? Do IFV's form the spearhead to look for contact or is this normally done by infantry (or at least non-vehicle units)? As you can see my main issue is the 'HOW' of things. That, and the scope of range on a given map. How far is the effective range of a given unit? I apologise if it all seems a ragtag of questions, but I hope you can make me wiser. Maybe there are some great documents I can read to get a proper understanding of combined arms warfare? THANKS!

After having graphical issues for a long time coupled with the decline in PBEM-play on my side my interests shifted away from CMSF. I have recently upgraded my PC and here's what I am running at the moment: Asus Maximus 2 Gene motherboard Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.7Ghz 8GB Corsair Dominator RAM Asus 285GTX (Nvidia GTX285 1GB) (went back to old-time favorite Nvidia. I had nothing but troubles with my ATi x1950 Pro before this and that was my first aquintance with an ATi card) Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro soundcard Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit This combined with the new 1.21 patch delivers a whole different game environment! No more graphic anomalies, even on 1680x1050, Best/Best and AA on it runs large maps without any stuttering. Impressive! This is the first time I can focus on my mission more than on keeping tabs on other things like performance or graphic glitches. The gaming experience as a whole with these combined factors is what I expected to get when I pre-ordered CMSF. Great job, BFC and yay for my new rig! :D

Thanks for the input! Now finish that popcorn!

It still remains silent on the official side. . . Anyone popcorn? Steve, have you finished your bucket already??

No matter, but with all the different screen resolutions you're bound to read stuff that way. On another forum (Egosoft) they have a special 'spoiler'-tag you can use which makes the text invisible unless you select it. I don't think you can do it here. But again, don't be sorry, it's not your fault. Besides like already discussed, there no such thing as 'the key' for a scenario. I meant it lightly anyway.

I ended up trying to sneak on the two side of the map where on the right side I ended up in the nasty surprise that was discussed earlier in the thread. 2nd try was to sacrifice the HMMWV to try to get a tally on the bad guys. Worked only half assed and resulted in subsequent high loss-rate later in the scenario. I am still looking guys... Don't throw in the spoilers too soon, please.

Exactly the point.

I think you missed the point here Pandur. Its not about finding the enemy, but proceeding knowing that the enemy already spots you, but you don't see him yet. Rather different situation than just finding the enemy without contact being made.

In general I presume.

Its good to know this is a 'pesky' situation! At least I will not blame myself too much for eating dust... So just put the bait in front, let others watch and see the enemy take the bait, then open the gates of hell on 'em.

Well as far as the faded (transparent) and the solid icons go; Normally when you select one of your units the enemy icons which he cannot see/spot will fade out. So eventhough other units might spot that enemy, the currently selected unit does not, hence the distinction between faded and solid icons. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Good point! I have been wondering how this works as well in CMSF. Any insights please, gents?

With the possible risk of making things less clear, here's my step by step: You select the map, the side you want to play and when the game asks for a password enter the one you want to use. After this it is NORMAL the game will exit, because it now waits for your oponent to do the same. So you have to first send the .ema file to your oponent. He will see the same, send it back to you and only then will you be able to first enter the game to do the setup of your units. If the file is not located in CMSF\Game Files\Outgoing Email\ then look in the location given above (Vista users). It's in either location.

Thanks for the replies! I now have more than sufficient games to manage. Any more and it will turn into a day job! Thanks again!

Hey people! As my usual partner in crime is going to be on limited availability mode for a few weeks I was wondering if there's someone else willing to start a PBEM match? Be aware that if you expect several turns a day I might not be the partner you want, just to make sure there are no dissapointments. I can usually manage 1 or 2 turns a day (depending on work and amount of games being played) with some higher frequencies and some lower, all depending on RL issues. I have no preference for playing either side and I have the Marines module. So if you fancy a relaxed round of exchanging lead, feel free to reply here or drop me a PM!

Thanks for the input so far. Well the big difference between this and the recon discussion is that here the player's forces are already discovered and fire has been opened. The mission starts with a LAV in flames and according to the briefing it was destroyed only a few moments ago. So here you are in wide open terrain and the reds already opened fire. The thing I was interested in was wether you would pull back first, hopefully out of weapon range and then start recon to get a fix on enemy locations or would you immediately press forward, pumping lead into possible enemy locations and try to secure the buildings about 300m ahead? Consideration: almost 100% chance you're being targeted by reds with AT equipment.

Ok guys, please enlighten me. Picture the situation where the mission just starts and your units are in fairly open terrain. There are no hills to hide behind and you're coming up to a road with some man made buildup close by. Possibly hiding hostiles. The front LAV has been hit just prior to mission start, but we do not know from where or with what? (Sounds familiar MikeyD? ). But aparently the reds know we're here already, placing me at a disadvantage right from the start. I have two LAV's available each with one marine squad and I have a recon HMMWV with a HQ unit in it. What's the best way to proceed? Or in other words, how would real life operations dictate to proceed. Remember that fire has already been opened, but we don't know from where. Gamemap shows no hostiles yet.

I have tried the game on three different videocards, both from NVidia and ATi and none had a bigger draw distance over the other. Its a game limitation, not hardware. Even on highest quality settings in-game and in the video driver properties things like trenches blur out quite quickly.

OK fair enough. I thought it might be a fairly simple task for Charles -the skilled programmer he is- to include some sort of auto save or save option after the blue bar which generates a file you could send to your opponent and continue as PBEM. Apparently I have little knowledge of the tasks required programming wise. No harm in trying though, we've already got a 'no' for an answer so you only have a chance it will turn into a 'yes'.