Baneman

They went back in timein CMBB compared to CMBO. </font>

I have to agree with Battlefront too ( oh the duality ! ) - there's a good scene in BlackHawk Down that shows how a couple of soldiers get forgotten by their commander. I'd still like a roster though.

Yeah, I'm a big IL2 Propellorhead. Those I153 biplanes are darned tricky to knock down if you're in a fast plane. It's amusing to read the threads in their forums about ground attack - I think it was much more comprehensively covered here. Their over/under-modelled arguments are also funny - makes me reluctant to post comments here about how tough Shermans seem etc. But in IL2, saving your ammo for the crucial blow is important. I wish I could learn to do the same in CM

Yes, I was putting my vote towards a "roster" - We don't need extra info there, just to see who commands who and (best case) the ability to select a unit on the roster and have it selected on the map. Cheers

Right. Tedium always was and still remains part and parcel of any wargame design. </font>

Well, with some winter texturing thrown in, you could stretch France 1940 into Norway too... Plenty of Brits in both those and it would be nice to have some modelling of the more under-represented theatres (trend is usually forward, so if they start in 1941, say, there's probably little chance that they'll revisit earlier theatres.) ( looks around ) - don't see many 'Mericuns around here ( Edinburgh ). I thought most of this board was Canadian ? Or is that just the loud portion ?

You could say that -tom w </font>

Winter War would be good, but my money is on BFC starting at the beginning and working their way forward. Hence I reckon Poland 1939 plus France 1940 ( still eliminates most of those pesky German AFV variants )

Do I take that to mean that the idea I was espousing in the "Newbie Friendly" thread of an in-game popup orbat that would allow you to select a unit ( and see its relationship ) has been comprehensively rejected before ?

Grimthane's suggestion about the "extra" briefing elements has much merit. One thing that is a sort of extrapolation of what Darth James was suggesting would be to have some form of in-game ability to bring-up/see your Orbat and select a unit from there. I'm currently on my 3rd PBEM, so am still seeing things from a newbie pov and find that even with relatively few units, I have to "+" through my entire force often to make sure I haven't missed someone - and it's easy to forget ( at deployment ) who commands who. Cheers

Ok, I'm probably hampered here by my lack of experience in CM - I would have used a turn of fire ( 1/3 to 1/2 of the mortar's ammo ) to paste behind the trees where I knew a whole infantry company was located. If 1 turn of mortar fire is going to be totally ineffective in the game, then I can understand where you're coming from. I had envisioned it being fairly effective - at least enough to make them hit the dirt and hence arrive in front of me a turn later than otherwise ( especially if they were MOVEing rather than ADVANCEing ) - which would have given me time to set up a warm welcome.

Those of us who fly IL2/AEP/PF are stuck on a constantly moving treadmill of upgrading, trying to squeeze a few extra fps or eye-candy out of it. And the new Battle of Britain will be out in a year or so and we'll all need new PC's for THAT ! Therefore I am quietly confident that a machine that can run the top flight sim ( realtime ) will handle the top wargame ( turn based ). Now I just have to save some money...

Eehhh, the example starts getting complex - in this example, I'm advancing on a hill and I know there are enemy on the reverse slope. I want them a bit shaky and/or wounded when I get there. If I had off board arty ( with advance planning ) or a TRP, I'd hammer the reverse slope. Lacking these I want to do it with my onboard mortar. Anyway, I shall "phone a friend" who IS a trained artillery spotter ( although I don't know if he ever worked with something as small as mortars ).

Um, well, the location to be dropped on couldn't be seen, but it was known that the enemy were there ( in the example ) as they'd been observed in transit. Now I don't know about you, but if I knew there were snarks and boojums just over the hill, I'd throw a bit of suppression that way. Considering the number of threads here proving how much small arms fire was unaimed or fired "blind" just to keep the enemies head's down, I would have thought that a few mortar rounds would be no problem IRL. The spotter for offboard is going to have to give a grid location, hence it makes sense for the targetting to be worse, but a mortar guy should be able to "throw some beyond that wood" - after all, he CAN see the wood and one presumes he can estimate distance fairly accurately. I'm sure the GI's in the Hurtgen got plenty of "no-LOS" mortars fired at them. 'Twas just a thought - why can offboard do it and onboard not ? Was there a game/code limitation ?

This might be slightly off the topic, but do you think CMx2 will allow us to drop indirect fire on a location that can't be seen ? In my first ( or was it second ) PBEM recently, I observed some enemy infantry run behind a wood. Immediately my CO turned to the mortarman crouched next to him and said "Drop a few rounds behind that wood Heinz". To which the redoubtable Heinz replied "Nein, I can't see there and nor can you." It seems a bit odd that off-board artillery can target anywhere ( albeit poorly ), but the guy on the battlefield can't chuck some "500m ahead" behind a hill or wood etc. The whole point of indirect fire is that it is ..er.. indirect. Now I'm guessing there was a game/code limitation or somesuch for CM1 games, but would it be possible to implement something like this in CMx2 ?

While everyone's thinking about "bush wars", there's also the South African raids and offensives into Angola in the 70's & 80's. Could make some interesting scenarios especially when the Cubans show up.

Forgot to mention that the BEST boardgame of all time ( for the micromanager ) is Starfleet Battles. But you HAVE to love micromanagement.

Is that meant to be PC only ? I'm an old tabletop miniatures man, so still enjoy DBM. The Total War series is good - appeals to the above. But I'm a total Propellorhead, so IL2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles + Aces Expansion + Pacific Fighters takes most of my time. Hands down it is the best flight sim available.

The most popular thread in a long time Just thinking based on something mentioned above about aircraft in CM causing Pinned and Shocked results. Maybe ( due to the small scale of the battles modelled in CM ) when one side buys aircraft, the other side has its ammo reduced somewhat ( 10-20% ? ). If both sides buy, no effect. If opposing side buys flak, effects are offset somewhat. Thus simulating rear-area interdiction without necessarily having on-board interventions ( and their attendant arguments regarding effectiveness etc. ) OTOH, I've had tanks strafed by a/c twice in one battle and both times the commander was killed and the tank was Shocked - neither was destroyed. That seemed pretty realistic. Just thinking out loud ...

Thanks. I look forward to engaging some of you in PBEM in the future. And since the AI can give me a good kicking, I expect I will be the equivalent of a wet paper bag for you grogs. Cheers

Eeep ! {runs, hides crotch, sprinkles Cologne, scatters pepper} "Safe!" Hitler - "WTF happened to Koln ?!" [ August 18, 2005, 06:48 AM: Message edited by: Baneman ]

So is there anyone here who would take a chance on playing a newbie ? I expect I will learn a lot as I'm crushed ( deep-end learning approach ), so ..er .. crush me gently, ok ? Thanks

If you can post this pic somehow, I would be very interested to see it. Cheers

Ok, no problem. As a newbie I didn't want to end up in a flame war straight off. I'm probably suspect anyway though, because I also spell things correctly Cheers

Ok, this is way beyond me. I'll just stick to other threads.