cmfan

Modern mortar rounds can fit all sorts of fuses. The 60mm round for example comes standard with a multi-purpose fuse (or at least it did when I was in the Army) that you could set for proximity, quick, super quick and I forget what else. As for lethality - air bursting rounds are devastating against infantry in the open, probably more so, in my opinion, than the game models. Which I think makes it all too easy for us to call for danger close fire without fear of friendly casualties. Anyway, I would say most vehicles would be KOed by a direct hit by anything in the 81mm range and above. The trick however is getting that direct hit or near direct hit. U.S. mortars and artillery in CM are modeled as being capable of incredibly accuracy. I haven't seen the changes in fire control first hand since I left the Army, however back in the mid-nineties we didn't count on "point target" fire to take out vehicles with our heavy mortars. Perhaps 155 artillery was capable of it, but mortars really weren't unless the target vehicle was already disabled and just sat there as we fired away. Even then I recall my platoon sergeant telling us that our platoon could expect to expend about 40 107mm mortar rounds to take out one vehicle. I can't remember if he meant this to reflect a calculated average (e.g. 1 million bullets fired per man killed) or an estimation of platoon capabilities (e.g. 3 gun section firing around 12 rounds a piece can achieve the desired results). We were working with an old mortar system (good old four-deuce) at the time so it might have been the former. Then again, we never adjusted fire any more accurately than the kill radius of our rounds even when we got the 120. Oh, almost forgot. There was a sergeant in our platoon who did receive a medal for taking out a BMP during the gulf war via direct lay so I guess it's possible but you need ideal conditions. More on Mortars - Modeling Illum would be great. We use to fire a lot of that stuff even when our forces had good night vision equipment. FOs liked to call it in so they could adjust artillery. I'm not sure how it would be modeled in the game though. TRPs should really, really be in the game. We used them constantly and they made a huge difference in how fast we could shoot. One advantage mortars have over artillery, apart from the high angle fire, is that they can fire from the "hip" much more easily than even the smallest artillery piece. We were trained so that we could be in the middle of a road march, get a call for fire, and be set up and sending rounds down range in a few minutes. It provided the battalion with supporting fire when it was advancing rapidly and supporting artillery was out of range or in the middle of its own move. I suppose scenario designers could model this by having mortars accessible to FOs earlier in a fight than artillery.

Sorry, I might be a little late on replying: 1) Depending on how complicated the scenario and how much I like it, at least a couple of times. After that I might change the force composition to try different "what if" situations using the map and basic idea behind the scenario. 2) Not specifically for that reason unless the scenario is really good, but it does make scenarios where I don't succeed the first time around more enjoyable to try again. 3) Yes. It adds to the re-playability of the scenario 4) I almost solely play Blue vs. RedAI. I've been shy about finding other players.

MarkEzra is right about this.

Not sure if there are any mine fields in that mission, regardless at the moment there aren't any ways to detect minefields other than by stepping on on them. It's a limitation of the game for now unless BF changes adds it in.

Great work Dietrich! I like your results so far - particularly for the snipers. If you have the time you should try out a MOUT infantry HQ with all the designated marksmen/platoon snipers in it. I've found that they are much more effective in 1.11

Sorry guys. The LB was barely coming into service when I left the Army and I just heard the party line when it was talked about: e.g. identify enemy vehicles via high resolution radar from extreme range allowing for coordinated engagements between multiple Apaches. Have there been a lot blue on blue incidents involving it since its deployment? Or does it cause some other problems in CAS roles?

... to derail a derail... I'm an old CM1 player. I have all three of the earlier titles. When CMSF came out I was really excited about it but after reading reviews and playing around with the demo I was sorely disappointed . The game was not playable in my opinion; well, at least it seemed to be a step back from what I had come to expect from a CM title (yes, I know BF said it was not a sequel, etc.) So I put off buying the game until 1.10 when I heard through word of mouth and read posts on the boards that described the latest changes and improvements. I decided to give it a whirl and was not disappointed. The latest patch (1.11) makes the game even more playable in my opinion and I would be willing to highly recommend it now to anyone that asked me. Yes the game still has some issues. For example I agree with Adam that infantry squads don't move in any formations to speak off (apart from a linear stack) and sometimes clump together at the worst time. I also don't get the absence of foxholes and trenches with overhead cover. Nevertheless, despite these limitations the game is extremely playable and enjoyable at this point.

A few of us have been asking for this

The Long Bow version of the Apache has a mast mounted millimeter wave radar that gives it even more stand off distance. Additionally attack helicopters like the Apache are armored so while they may not be able to survive a SAM they could probably do well against heavy machine gun fire. Kiowa Scout helicopters also provide further stand off options but I get a feeling these guys are reaching the end of their service life and survivability might be an increasing issue. Add to this the fact that a Black Hawk carrying troops has no armor, very little by the way of weapons compared to the Apache and has to fly through enemy territory or very close to it to get troops beyond the front lines. Taking out vehicle mounted SAMs are probably a high priority in the modern battlefield, but a guy with a should fired version could hide just as easily as one with an RPG.

Just finished the scenario. I had downloaded it a while back and started playing but the vehicle path finding issues in 1.10 where really frustrating so I waited to play until this weekend. Great scenario! It took me two days to play it because I wanted to go at it slowly and deliberately and it completely paid off. While I came away with only three dead and four casualties it was a tough fight. I had to use every trick in my urban combat play book and then some to get through. The new 1.11 AI really stood out during the game. The urban fighters didn't sit in place and die anymore but instead pulled back to set up in new positions. I lost a couple of guys to that. The new behavior was a double edged sword though as I eventually placed squads covering likely avenues of escape and decimated retreating enemy squads a couple of times. My Bradleys gave me a couple of issue as they seem to have trouble shooting over walls. Graphically their turret and cannon appears to be clear of the wall but they fail to get line of sight over it. I still need to master using the blast command. I thought it was simple enough but my squads failed to breach walls on more than one occasion (just sat there) or blew a hole in the wrong wall. Anyway, great scenario. Definitely a must play for someone looking for gritty, chaotic urban fighting. Watch your flanks

Cool. Hamas stops its rocket attacks, Israel stops its months long blockade of fuel, food, etc. to the Gaza strip and tears down the wall. It's all so simple. Gentlemen, we have brought peace to the middle east. If the world only had more CM gamers!

Air assault, at least these days tends to emphasize the concept of "air mobility" rather than that of assault. The idea is vertical envelopment: move your troops around/over the enemy in order to secure a position from which to fight. Given the proliferation of shoulder fired SAMs, etc. I think its extremely risky to send helicopters into a hot LZ. It's probably still done, but only if it can't be avoided. It's like WWII style amphibious and airborne assaults. We could probably still do them, but its unlikely you'll ever see them done at the scale and intensity of that era for a variety of reasons.

Good to know Sgt.

Yeah, red infantry with RPG-7s where holding off my tanks at one point in George's campaign. They didn't miss and always hit where it hurt. Bradley's with ERA where actually fairing better. All in all, I would say ATGMs are particularly deadly now. On the bright side I've discovered that platoon snipers and squad designated marksmen are noticeably better than the average grunt now. I was playing "Rock around the Block" by BirdStrike and I saw at least a couple of Syrian fighters get popped at long range by single shots.

Check out the tactics forum for some useful threads. The equipment thread is slowly building an interesting repository of information. Once you figure out how to use the scenario editor, download NormalDudes firing range maps. You can test out equipment on them to get a sense of how it works without battlefield distractions. PM me if you have any specific questions. I'm not an expert scenario designer or player, but I've extensively played the other CM titles and have some military experience so I can probably explain a few things.

Heh, this reminds me why an IDF expansion module would be such a can of worms. Sample units: IDF: Bulldozer Palestinians: 12 year old kid with a rock.

Earphones + Oddballs soundmod because the girlfriend doesn't like it when it sounds like WWIII is going on in the living room.

If not the ability to drag wounded soldiers back to cover, then maybe medics? Currently when I have causalities I just leave them where they fall until I can manage to secure the area. However, that usually means that at some point I have to send either a team, vehicle crew (if there are any surviving from a knocked out vehicle) or even HQ unit to render aid. It would be nice to have platoon/company medics that we could use to do this instead. If I remember correctly, our platoon medic always rode with us so I would consider them front line troops.

Does mortar and artillery smoke work in the older scenarios and campaigns? I played the first battle of the Army campaign that came with the game during 1.10 and I remember being upset that my mortar smoke mission consisted of 3 or so rounds before I got a "rounds complete" message. I tried to repeat but it indicated I didn't have any more smoke.

I'm not sure if this was always the case, but lately my M1s have been getting beat up fairly badly even by RPG-7s when they take the hit on the sides. It makes for a huge contrast when they routinely shrug off MBT direct hits to the front

Hmm, yeah those results sound very strange by themselves particularly considering that while playing George's "Forging Steel" campaign I've also had T-90s do really well against M1A2s. They've scored first or second round hits. Thinking back... I can remember that two of my M1A2s in the first battle got taken out while their flanks were facing the T-90s. The turrets where facing them, but the sides where exposed so I bet they took the hits on the sides. A third M1A2 took an AT-11 to the face (frontal turret armor) and only lost a minor system. I'll run some tests later but from this I get the sense that M1A2 front turret armor is modeled as being pretty invulnerable and everything else fairly easy to penetrate... at least relatively speaking.

NTC OPFOR! Okay, now the scenario makes sense. I remember going there for a training cycle and being mauled by those guys. We swore they knew every single inch of terrain intimately. My only moment of joy out there was taking out a BRDM with a viper (MILES AT4 simulator) that thought it was sneaking up on one of our positions. So all in all I think I'm having better luck in CM than I did in real life. Wait, so we don't have to actually physically enter the objective zones to win? It's in trying to do that I tended to get over extended and get ripped to shreds in red fire sacks. Actually, I managed to score most of my kills with artillery. The hill at the bottom left of the map is ideal for this. Get your FIST up there along with some scouts. Find a good spot where he can observe all the main areas of interest below. He'll eventually start to ID several BMPs. I simply sat there and called in precision artillery on them. Got kills every time. I think I fired off one Javelin at BMP on the other side of the map that I saw moving between cover. Yeah the Javelin's would have helped against the armored counter attack, but I had my scout teams spread out probing or covering areas. When the attack came the one team that could have made a difference was suppressed and killed by a BMP that spotted them as they were setting up to fire. Too bad you literally have to get your teams on top of a ridge to have them spot into lower terrain - no peeking over the top. Hehe, I coursed several times at the vehicles when this happened and made me wish we had support units modeled in the game, but I actually thought this was pretty realistic. I've seen terrain like that in Tennessee and parts of Louisiana. You can't go a hundred meters without ending up in a ditch of some type *grumble*

I don't think anyone has reported this yet here, I'm assuming this is the official bug report thread, but several people, including myself, have experienced an "out of memory" error when trying to load certain scenarios or continue a campaign. Some of these scenarios are large and part of a campaign, while others are smaller and stand alone. The "out of memory" failure seems to happen at 29% for a lot of people.

That makes sense.

-----------------------------------SPOILER------------------------------------------------------------------ The odds are really stacked against you. Your facing a reinforced enemy company with good equipment, and worst of all (and a little unrealistically I think) they are all "Crack" level experience. In essence your recon unit is being tasked to do an area reconnaissance, in early daylight, against what is essentially a company battle position. I think the battle win conditions are more suited against a reinforced platoon CSOP The armored counter assault is very cool though - but definitely not something you can handle and continue the mission without significant losses unless you know when and where the attack is coming. I had eyes on their avenue of approach and didn't see them until they literally popped out on top of my own probe so either they were hidden there all along, or my guys just missed them.