Erik Springelkamp

****** SPOILERS ************** Nice miniature (well, more casualties than in a lot of larger games). Very much a CM1 feeling about the scenario. Got a minor victory with 2 minutes left on the clock (failed friendly casualties). But I wonder what circumstances would a real Russian commander have urged to do it this old fashioned way in the 1980's, and not to bring in some high explosives?

Yes, with Alt-J I can make it go away. Also, around my own setup area, I can see similar extensions in dark grey, so the graphic card extends the color plane of an area in some way sometimes. I should buy a better card, or just use alt-J (This is like a software bug, once you explain it to someone else, it all becomes clear :-).

I made a shooting range scenario, to discover the properties of ATGM weapons against various tanks. Just over 1000 metres long flat open desert ground, with brush on on side to give the rocket operators some conceilment. I discovered a company of Syrian ATGM units (12 launchers) could stop - but not fully destroy - four Abrams tanks (there was always at least one stubborn disabled tank that survived dozens of rockets). Anyway, with the NATO module I thought I would test the Dutch Gill ATGM missile. One platoon (six launchers) against four T72M1V tanks. Half of the time one or two tanks made it within the minimum range of the Gill systems (200 metre) after wich the Dutch were dead meat. So I made the field longer: 2000 metres. Surprisingly, of the first salvo of Gill missiles, 100% hit the ground at 1000 metres. Then the Dutch platoon was destroyed by long range gunnery. But just before I started typing this post, I replayed the thing, and now the missiles were accurate at full range, and all tanks were disabled at long range without losses. Only some second wave rockets hit the ground early, when they were fired at immobilised survivors. A strange mix of accuracy and failure.

I can see it in almost every scenario, under the 'right' angle. This is a quick battle. You can see the objective area, and another area around it. Maybe it isn't the setup area, but an artifact of the objective. In that case it isn't anything serious. I only have a on board graphics card, and I was surprised it supported CMSF at all.

During the setup phase of a scenario, I sometimes see the setup area(s) of the opponent, depending on the point of view: when I move the camera a bit, it disappears again. Is this normal? Should I always see these zones, or should I never see these zones (I suppose the latter)? Is it a video card issue?

I did a little searching, and it appears the Dutch Army doesn't have an integrated communication network for all soldiers in operation. I found a policy document from 1997 where the defence ministry started a project to provide such a system, the 'Soldier Modernization Programme', but I also found a piece by the defence minister dated May 2010 where they are still trying to procure a system, project VOSS. Yet, for frontline soldiers there must be something operational, as I saw YouTube videos of Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan using a handsfree set during combat. Edit: indeed, I found this piece of standard equipment: http://www.boekje-pienter.nl/html/p.htm#prr

I can confirm that: the only way a dismounted section can be in company command is when the platoon leader is in an unbuttoned AFV within visual range. As soon as the platoon leader dismounts, communication with company is broken.

They haven't released a demo before the real product for any CM2 product.

Was the damage very recent, and is the command status just not yet updated?

You will use all mods in your Z folder, but if there are multiple versions of a particular component, the game will chose the one in the second Z folder.

Click on the unit, hit the tab key and the 2 key. You are then just behind the unit one level above the ground, which is usually a good starting point to discover his environment.

Put it in a Z folder in the Z folder

I started the 1980 campaign, and I noticed that the units didn't have a designation, only a general A Company, Battallion. Is there a way to recognise your core units over time? (for example to use that knowledge gamily by sacrificing the other guys in dangerous tasks?)

But the order of parent folders is also alphabetical.

> When the subfolders both have the same names Then they cannot exist in the same folder :-)

Maybe it is useful to know that all folders under the DATA folder are scanned for mod files, and that in that whole tree - that is scanned alphabetically - the last instance of a certain file is used. That is the rationale for using Z for foldername: it will be at the end. Inside the Z folder you can group your mod files in separate folders, so you can easily add and remove groups of mods. Again, when multiple copies of the same file are present, the last found instance will be used.

Unless the USMC Beach beach scenario starts just before sunrise, yes. And the other scenario didn't jump back to the night, when I started.

I already mentioned it in the Quick Battle thread, but it got no reaction there. For a scenario I sometimes take a long time planning my setup and strategy, and sometimes I leave the PC to go do something else. I noticed that when I finally push the GO button, night has turned to day, so the night scenarion is played in full sunlight. This also works for the plotting phase: a 1:00 hour WeGo game that takes several hours to play, because of replays and new order plotting, seems to have progressed all those hours in the game sun-time: starting the first turn in full darkness, and ending the last turn in full daylight. I think this is some kind of bug.

So I played a real scenario with the US Marines: Day at the Beach Very nice scenario. I didn't win it, draw (that is alright, I don't know the weapons etc. Actually, I should have lost). I lost too many marines in the end phase when I stormed and there were still too many enemies intact. I also lost a lot of AAV's because I wanted to know if they could fight: well, not as long as there are any heavy weapons around with the enemy :-( I played WeGo, and at the end of the scenario it was already light, while it starts at 01:00 at night and game time is 1:00 hour. Is it possible that the game clock (sun) keeps running during the review and planning phases? I noticed in the past that when I left the game during the setup phase to do something else, that when I returned night had turned into day. A tactical thing I wondered about: when you have to walk a long way, like in this scenario, using 'Hunt' is rather tiring, but with 'Walk' you may run into trouble without stopping in time. Also, 'Hunt' doesn't work when some remote enemy is detected. What is the best movement command when you want to stop if coming under fire?

In preparation for the NATO module I try to up my skills a bit by playing with the Marines. (I acquired it together with the British, but I didn't play them untill now). Just to get to know their equipment I started up a lot of quick battles. The maps and situations looked interesting enough, but every battle is just a walkover for the marines. In most cases just select everything and move to the objective will secure a win. I started to subtract the maximum from my forces, but I still win so easy: like a few LAV's taking on main battle tanks and win. I play against elite republican guards. The only battle that gave me problems was when I was given only infantry without any anti-tank weapons against an armoured force over very open ground. Is there a setting for Quick Battles that gives one an interesting match, or is it all just shooting range material?

I tried the tactics with a fast move of one platoon over the left flank. The smoke was disappointing (very few smoke grenades), but I made it all intact, with one missing shot of an RPG from the town. Then I was indeed able to kill the escaping Mujaheddeen, but it didn't feel good, because I realised that these pixeltruppen were following a scripted battleplan that was highly inappropriate in this situation. While advancing infantry to provoke a reaction, I lost more men than I liked (one from each section). And in the end I couldn't resist to try out my engineers blasting themselves into the Mosque. They took the Mosque, but were almost wiped out by fire from the opposite side. Still gained a major victory, but in the worst possible way, namely with losses in my core units. I'm afraid I will have to do this again for the sake of the campaign.

[contains some slight spoilers} I just played the two demo scenarios and am now beginning the early campaign. I see I have to attack the same village, but with a slightly different force. In the demo, as well as in the campaign, I lose a few BMP's to RPG's during the initial attack phase, where I drove them to about 100 metres from the town walls, and I wondered whether to just accept it, or should I keep more distance with my vehicles? (That will give me higher infantry losses during their advance). Do you generally use some 'safe distances' with your infantry vehicles? I guess BPR's should be hidden away, but I noticed in CMSF Strikers could usually survive when keeping some distance.

How come some of the seemingly Russian forces have blue icons?

All schedules delayed indefinately, hiring a new programmer... Could it be, but that would be bad news beyond Combat Mission scope, that Charles is having health problems?

I have seen a lot of references to portable anti tank systems on this forum over the years. So here I am curious if those are new systems or just some upgrades of existing systems. I am also interested in the air-defence systems that are potentially in the market for Iran, as I read sometimes references to those in the news. I can hardly imagine that these kind of systems could not be much improved with technology that has become cheap and mainstream in the last 20 years. Drone systems like predator, there must be a market for those things for clients that the US are not prepared to supply.