slysniper

No, not Train grogs toooooo

That is not just mortar crews. lately I have been running a bunch of bad luck with units making all sorts of decisions that make no sence. From tanks, to half tracks , to whatever I am playing with. I hardly ever saw a unit disobey my commands, untul lately. I have seen more than I want to, not only disobey, but no logic to them and cannot figure out what might have triggered them. So the mystery of playing the game, it is odd at times.

Ecxcellent tip - this is one I sure did not know, cannot wait to give it a try.

I have not noticed this, likely because I have been playing the Italians, so I just let them little HE chuckers go since they have about 50 rounds and it takes a dozen rounds to do anything anyway. But since this is the case, the old method is still in order. just pause them and then fire after the pause or fire them with the pause, then assign a move command after that to get them to stop firing. maybe not perfect, but there is ways to get that short volley. It is to bad the command does not work. So far, I am not impressed with that command. It would be better if it let you select the time, just like you do with pause. 15 seconds is not enough time for many things. For tanks that likely is only 1 round. I would like 3 rounds, not a ?? as to how much time it might take to get my tank to fire 3 rounds. So in other words, the command would let you request how many rounds to fire. So the mortar has 10 rounds, I want the crew to fire 4. now that would be nice. BF likely thinks that would be giving us too much control. Bull. If a crew in battle has 10 rounds, they will do just what I want to do, they will fire what they think it will take to kill the target, then stop, wait and see if they need to fire more.

Good point. I play this a little different in HtoH play. The trick is, send a scout unit or something like it with a short arc to where you want to place your F.o. firrst. let them see if they draw any fire, if they are safe, then move the F.O into position. I also send the scouts on to another spot to check out the next location if you need to shift the F.O. to another location. You are as good in the game as you are in learning to play smart. Every trick you can come up with as to protecting important units and sacraficing poor units if needed is worth trying. Just as in real life. A price must be paid, that price is normally in the form of the poor infantry.

Yes, hiding as the FO can cause you to have problems spotting. But after you call the arty in. go ahead and hide until the spotting rounds start to fall. Then unhide and get a good spot so that your arty is on target.

All these answers are good. But the real reason was that Fritz was working on the design table, thinking, How can I make a "Bad Ass" looking Tank. This is the true reason it was so. It just so happened that by doing it, it help solve all the issues he was trying to resolve with fixing all the load issues on his track system.

here is a gamey one for you, since you are playing the AI. I ran a few scouting units out into poor cover and that has releived the pressure on the FO before. Playing the AI , you can always cheat, just have to be willing. It did cost me 4 pixel lives to keep the fire off the F.O til it came in.

Having shot the weapon a few times, there is advantages and disadvantages. like any weapon. Most of the time it comes down to what you are wanting to use it for. It strengths, compared to the options at the time. Light weight and very short barrel. makes for a gun that is quick to come to aim and able to put rounds on target. It is confortable to shoot. easy to load. Lighter ammo, makes you able to carry more or keep your pack weight down. Its reliable. Weaknesses, not good for long range shots, lacks knock down power or penetration. Does not have the firepower of the Thompsom for up close fights. It is what it is. But many Gi's loved the weapon, so not sure where you get your opinion. Back to mentioning that I have shot it. From all the weapons i have shot from that era. It was the most confortable and easy weapon to shoot. If I had to pack a weapon on foot for months on end in the situation they had there. It might have been the best choice for many situations if you could only choose one weapon. it might be the best choice. Things are different now. generally in a US Army, you have multible weapons to choose from. It comes down to the mission and the Terrain, back then, it was your rank and your unit that placed the weapon in your hand. Times have changed some.

Ok, now I understand what you are saying. sorry. plus I am afraid I do not remember for sure about that. But if I recall correctly, it seems my reinforcements on the left flank came first. then the others came on the right. And not sure about the arty. All I recall was the Stug was like a suprise to me. and the last thing to show up.

I think it has been pointed out At guns in foxhole locations get no benefits, You might as well have them in open ground. Even normal squads seem to have issues. If they are not in the hole, they are exposed and generally die quickly. part of the problem being, you send them to the hex, but for some strange reason they do not like getting in the holes. It gets old seeing them lay down between the foxholes in the game. That is one area that does not get picked on enough. that could use some improvement.

This just reminded my of a scenario I finished that My sniper team was a 2 man US team, the second guy had a bolt action rifle. Their tally was 16 in the battle, which was excellent for me. Seldom do I get great results from my Sniper units. But I agree with you that not pairing them up can help the sniper. But for once in this battle I saw the second guy actually helping me. They were located behind the enemy lines and I waited to open them up only after the enemy units entered open fields pushing towards my front lines after they had shelled and pinned any of my remaining front line units. So I caught about a platoon moving in the open about 300 meters away. it was a perfect ambush. I stopped that section of the assault in its tracks. I might have done even more damage but he did have some over watch units that he moved into position and they finally killed my sniper, but the second man picked up his weapon and fought on to the end of the battle. What I wanted to point out was for the first time I saw the second guy get a few kills at range with his rifle. He even dropped someone in the overwatch group that was trying to kill them. He then picked up the fight as the sniper when his comrade went down. So in this instance, I was glad to have that second man. It is never black and white as to how the game should be. But I like it when I get scenarios where they have provided only 1 man sniper teams.

Not sure about this, I do not recall the units as reinforcements coming in at unexpected locations. Even if they had, There was time enough to change which flank they could be used on. I have tranferred units including infantry from one flank to the other. So it does show that there is plenty of time in the game. Shorten the time up and it would take away some options.

I think it has already been pointed out that what is lacking is how dug in units do not get the protection or features that they likely should. if there is a flaw, that would be as much of one as any. Plus the fact that a crew cannot run away from a weapon and come back as they did in RL would be another when it comes to the results of Mortar fire. But Small mortars in RL have one main weakness, and the game shows that as correctly as it can. Limited Ammo. If anything impacted it more than anything else in combat it was the fact that it was hard to keep supplied. It was a temporary support. It was a asset that has a limited time of use. Now in game terms, that does not always show up. but I still bet you that it is by far the most common weapon on the board that is out of action because it is out of Ammo. In RL you can multiply that issue alot. Since combat was not scheduled as well as game scenarios.

Wihout getting too deep into it, the charting on it was either a 6 or 8 on firepower. Not bad considering a squad was only 4 for most units. Now looking at the results chart showed rolls on morale of 7 or less. So pretty good odds of a result unless in good cover which would have to have been a building or foxhole to drop that to a likely miss on a morale check. So run a few hits on a squad, they likely break, get another hit on them, and men are being lost (half squads). I think the reason they seemed so weak in that game is you could not combine them with anything. So likely you used them to pin or break a squad, but in game you were using combined infantry firepower to get groups on the higher levels to finish them off. So mortars seemed weak. But again with the newer rules of ASL. many players learned to fire multi smaller fire groups at units to get the results wanted. first to break them, next to create the causulties. (anyway looking at it face value, they were not weak units). Is was just the fact you could combined a platoon of firepower with leader bonuses so easy that a mortar seems weak in comparison. Where as in CMx2, you can combine two mortars and rain hell in a matter of seconds. But let see you get a platoon of infantry firing on one enemy location in this game like you did in ASL. Many times it is impossiple. Many times it is just hard to even get a full squad able to fire on the same target

It would be nice to find some hard data on it. I could have been looking at a chart for 1945 only or who knows, Like I said it was a long time ago. I just remember the piece because it was showing how the Germans managed to prolong the war with such a lack of armor. They had to count on other methods for tank warfare since they no longer had the armor to match up to the huge numbers they up against.

I also am finishing up this battle in a HtoH game, not sure what the outcome is. But playing as German and feel I have it won. But will agree with your comments, its a good scenario for HtoH. It has different aspects and different tactics as you fight for the different objectives on the map. As for shortening the time, In our battle that would have helped the Allied side since they are on defence. Something at this point they coulld use. But then on the other hand, I still have arty missions that are to drop on one objective I want to move into. So cutting time in my match would have left arty unplayed in my battle. (But I could have played faster if the time was known to be shorter) Also, I really dont feel the Germans have the advantage in this one. I feel the Allies had the tools that could have wrecked my day, if played correctly. So not sure if cutting the time is a issue or not from the battle I played. Anyway, well done to the designer.

+++! to this statement. Since I only judge the game as to how it plays in H to H. Not against the AI. Avoiding arty strikes is not all that hard. I have even managed to fire large AT guns, then hand push them to new locations and be able to avoid Arty directed at their known location. The weapon to truely fear is the small direct support mortars. They can wreck your day or be the best tool you have. Too quick to respond and hard to pin As for other comments on being too powerful in the game. I just this week-end was comparing them to other games to see how they compared. Now in CM1, of course we know they did not compare similar at all. but look at the close combat series. You find a small mortar could easily take out a enemy unit at a known location. I also looked at ASL, small mortars there also played very strong. Once rounds are on target, odds of rounds hitting are high and each explosion represents more firepower than a squad. Within two or three direct hits in that game you can likely see routing units with likely causualties to half the squad. So really, the only game that do not represent the mortar similarly is the first version of CM. As vs RL (that can always be debated

I would think some grog out there knows the answer. But at this point in the war, the Germans lacked so much other resourses. I think it was the paust that accounted for more Allied tank kills than any other weapon. But you would need to get that verified from someone else. I do not have the printed material on that. But I do recall seeing something on it at one time. Of course , there was some stupid reasons as to why that happened also. Like american forces pushing so hard, that they were pushing forces down roads without much scouting. leading with armor. A easy way to get ambushed by German infantry w/ faust.

Spoiler I just sat down and finished the battle tonight, Lemon hill It turned out to be a great battle to play against the AI as the italians. The american units on the hill will do damage to any unit you have at long range if you expose them to their view. So scouting in front of your approaches is important. But no matter what, I would expect you taking some losses because of the terrain and how open it is as you move closer. The armor you have is no match for the Pack howitzers on the hill. I lost two to them, another to a 50 cal MG and one to a bazooka. So I had to assault a hill with infantry mostly with Bolt action rifles, 3 small 45mm mortars and one off board arty unit, which has only one man with radio access to it to call the missions, plus it was 16-17 minutes for the missions to arrive. So needless to say, this turns into a battle of shear force in that I had to find ways to overwelm the American infantry with numbers since they always had much greater firepower. I fell in love with the M35 mortars, they became my work horse for pinning the enemy and then moving up my troops to very close distances since it was pretty safe since the explosions are so small. with 45 kills and 18 wounded to the enemy. 23 came from these mortars. All 5 armor units did not count for a handful of enemy kills. So a majority of the rest of the kills came from infantry assaulting and normally having to be very close to the dug in troops to get kills, hand grenades were in use plenty in this battle. By far not one of my best played missions. But I walked away with a minor victory . having cleared the front of the hill but running out of time, And that was with me pushing very hard for at least the last 30-40 minutes. So this scenario ask alot out of you. But it was fun taking such a undergunned force and managing to push them onto the hill. I actually lost more men than the defender, with 52 killed and 34 wounded. I have not played a battle since the old squad leader games where I have had that feel for pushing mass amounts of poor troops and trying to just overcome the enemy with shear numbers in force. It is a interesting change.

I am not sure But when my Arty has come early, I just thought it was because the first spotting round was on Target. so the main volley comes next. Have not tested it though. But the Time given you seems to have built in the approx. time for 3 or 4 volleys to spot and correct, then it preforms the main attack. I have seen it take longer than the clock if the spotter cannot see the spotting rounds also. I had one happen recently where 20 rounds were fired, all as spotting rounds. but that was all I had was 20-105 rounds. So it was harassing fire and I did not mind since many of the rounds were landing deep in his cover that I could not get a arty strike to anyway.

Now that is part of the art of pulling back, if you wait too long or do not have covered exit routes, then you deserve to see your men die. Plus run them too close to your hidden next line and watch stray rounds do some damage. It never is easy to have perfect plans. The only reason I mentioned it is if you do have a safe way to pull back, sometimes you have to expose some guys and put them at risk. (They are the rabbit to get the Fox to chase)

Perfect answer I enjoy it the best when I can set them up in a 2nd defensive line of some type and then try and draw the enemy towards them. The best way to do that is to show fleeing troops that are past their point to the rear. It gives the impression you are falling back to a deeper location. Thus it can get your opponant to rush forward thinking the ground in front of them is being evacuated.

Ok, you want a pistol study that has some facts, why not go search for pistol duels. The early ones with single shooters. There, it has all the facets you want. many a non shooter involved, weapon accuracy lacking, propably about 20 yards apart if they followed the 10 pace rule. Stressful life threatening conditions. speed is important, but only if you hit, if the first guy misses, then you have plenty of time for the second guy. I think there has actually been some studies on it already that can be obtained. Needless to say, it would be as useful as any of the other imput here. And it goes on from there, til the wild west and the cowboy showdown. which has been studied also. But without finding any studies, think about it, why was the distance 20 paces apart. Simple. A Markman could likely hit the target if he was able to remain calm. A scared fool hardly had a chance, thus giving a great advantage to the aristicrate that had practiced and trained in markmanship, plus made his threat pretty save if he challedged a commoner which had no skills.

I BASE IT ON THE FACT, THAT UNLESS YOU ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE, OR ACTIVELY ON THE MOVE AT THE FRONT. YOU HAVE A TON OF DOWN TIME. There is no place for being more bored than being a solder. now during WWII, I will say that they were actually more active and at the front and were there longer than what we find in general now, but even then. If you look at units, most saw little combat and had plenty of down time, while only a few units were faced with long periods of combat. Anyway, there is plenty of time to do whatever you can get into. Now again. Tankers are the bussiest combatants I ever saw, for the reason just mentioned.they are responsible for doing maintance on the machines. So yes, I will agree that their focus would not be on their pistols, I am sure they were focused on their tank. That was the number one thing that would be keeping them alive. But I still see them learning to shoot their Pistol just from the shear fact that it was something to do during all the down time.