Baneman

Hi Stanley

Here's the reason from a Battlefront post a while back when 3.0 came out :

Going to have to disagree - there are a multitude of games which make us use the skills inside us, but which are not realistic. That's fine, but this one strives for realistic. And that's good.  It's why we're here and not on those other games' forums.
 
PS: Also see the latest UKR/US report in the AAR for alleviation of your spotting concerns - seems even the much vaunted US can run into ambush despite their modern gear. It's all good  ( and realistic )
 
And now, lest you start fingering your knife, I'm outta here. I'm not much over long-distances, but I can really shift for the first 50m, so you can work on sburke, he's backing away slowly.  

Going to have to disagree - there are a multitude of games which make us use the skills inside us, but which are not realistic. That's fine, but this one strives for realistic. And that's good.  It's why we're here and not on those other games' forums.
 
PS: Also see the latest UKR/US report in the AAR for alleviation of your spotting concerns - seems even the much vaunted US can run into ambush despite their modern gear. It's all good  ( and realistic )
 
And now, lest you start fingering your knife, I'm outta here. I'm not much over long-distances, but I can really shift for the first 50m, so you can work on sburke, he's backing away slowly.  

The new master installer ( that you downloaded ) is what you use now and forever.
 
Those disks are history. Show them to your grandchildren

On the plus side, I'm certain that learning how to use the Russian / Ukrainian forces effectively against the technologically superior US troops will almost assuredly make you a better CM player in both Modern and WW2 titles.
 
Well, that was at least true for me with CMSF, where the learning curve for playing the Syrian forces, especially against human opponents, was absolutely harrowing but well worth it in the end. 
 
My two-cents on the key elements for fighting on the modern battlefield 'with inferior forces especially' are (as mostly already stated),
 
Use all possible cover all the time for everything you have. But note also that buildings won't protect your troops very much when they are spotted! Helicopters love troops on rooftops!!!
Don't move your troops until you have to and always do it with overwatch.
As the US forces, engage the enemy at range with fire superiority whenever possible.
Fighting against US forces, try to remain hidden and lure them into keyhole crossfire corridors then retreat quickly and do it again!  
Use scouts. It's better to lose a couple of guys or a Humvee etc, than a whole platoon, APC or MBT.
Use your artillery and CAS assets wisely.
Examine your troops thoroughly at setup and try to assign them tasks they are best suited to.
Learn how the C3 comms networks in CM functions, including its delays up and down the chain of command. I can't stress enough how important and how often overlooked this element of the game seems to be. Even having a partial contact because of good C3 links seems to make a huge difference in spotting times.
And lastly, be patient! The modern battlefield is very unforgiving, don't run to meet death!
 
One thing that will be interesting to see is how ECM affects the US forces and if it is enough to level the field?

Thought experiment  : The trouble is not the $100 or whatever, it's the work that would need to be done to get CM in synch with Steam's method.
Say it took 3 months ( made-up figure of course, but unlikely to be a trivial amount of time ). That's 3 months of work for HALF of BFC's programming staff ( assuming 1 person could do it ). That's time they're not spending releasing new game, be it Black Sea or Bulge or whatever's next or patching bugs or adding new features. Maybe they can't financially factor in that kind of extra non-productive time - in that scenario, already the Steam experiment HAS to work or they're in deep do-do.
 
It's just not as simple as "just sell something on Steam".
 
 
Existing CM players probably wouldn't pirate a CM ( or any ) game. But what about new potential customers ? They might. They're not loyal fans yet.

 

I respectfully disagree with this point - a lot of us who have played most of BFC's games feel we get a lot more for our cash due to the replayability of the game - one of the commenters on the article said he had 750 games on Steam.
I already struggle to find enough hours simply to play BFC's 3 CMx2 offerings + the 2 CMx1. That guy clearly isn't looking for replayability. I can't see him investing 10-20 man-hours in any of BFC's games' learning curves. We inhabit different worlds.
 

Again, I fail to see the difference to Steam. On Steam, many patches are free and Modules aka DLC is not.
The time to install modules, patches and activation problems is a once-off issue unless you move your stuff from hard drive to hard drive regularly. Bad content ? I don't quite know what that is. Is that scenarios you don't like or what ?
 

It has been said many times in this thread, but exposure is not the same as sales. Especially if many people who didn't like the game ( cf. learning curve ) give it bad reviews.
 

This one has been mentioned before, but I just don't see the relevance - What if Steam went out of business ? Exactly the same applies.
 
 
Edit: Dang, majorly ninja'd. Oh well.

I would say, probably just expect to have your troops die a lot more, faster while you learn.
 
So, similar to how you got used to CM2 WWII, just speeded up.
 
As more and more people learn via the above method, more and more Tips and Tricks will be posted.

I think there's a small morale penalty when Tired - I can't be sure because when my guys are Tired they're either not fighting, or in so deep that "subtle" penalties are out the window
 
Slow is pretty good for concealment - especially if the enemy haven't already seen you eg. crawling the last AS into some cover gaining LoS on enemy positions. I've also used it successfully to get guys into a top story, but once there they may be more visible ( peering out of windows )  than a guy at the edge of a forest, say.

I kinda disagree ( wait, does that make your post a self-fulfilling prophecy ?     ). I'd say the community as whole tends not to suffer fools easily, but there are plenty of posters in your category who make either well-informed posts or posts which lead to all of us becoming better-informed ( ie. good questions ).

Tired ( ie. fatigue state ) can always recover.
 
Morale states can end up more or less fixed ( eg. may recover, but over timescales not available in your scenario ).
 
I think the yellow is just for emphasis ( but that's a best guess, never really paid much attention to it if it's not red )
- thinking about it more - it could well indicate that it is now fixed - I've had low motivation units go from OK to Panic in one turn just from suppressive fire, then recover all the way back to OK in the next turn when no fire was coming in. But Rattled guys with a yellow border stay Rattled.
 
Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be along soon.

Well, you're here now and apparently, you're a guy from Canada. Don't worry, I won't hold BLSTK against you.  
Now that you've found yourself, happy Combat Missioning

Well, you're here now and apparently, you're a guy from Canada. Don't worry, I won't hold BLSTK against you.  
Now that you've found yourself, happy Combat Missioning

Alright, sheesh
 
Bulge northwards

 
Bulge Westwards

Alright, sheesh
 
Bulge northwards

 
Bulge Westwards

Actually he didn't say he automatically knew better than you ( although that suspicion IS beginning to form ), he really said that he has years of experience and he's seen the numbers ( real actual facts ) and they don't add up for BFC.
 
I still don't see how "but if you'd just try it" trumps that.
 
Plus, you keep harping on about being insulted - ok Mord got a little carried away after about 6 pages, but otherwise people have been remarkably restrained.
 
And were they not correct ?
The reasons have been given (again) and the answer is still no.
And in fact it has never been said that the answer will eternally be no, just that the business reasons have to change for the better and that's down to Steam, not BFC.

Well, here's a fact ( on a very minor scale ).
 
I have about 12-15 friends who are gamers. Roughly 8-10 of those are wargamers. I'd regard 2 of them as hardcore wargamers ( like me ).
 
I've introduced CM2 to all of them.
Only 1 of the hardcore wargamers took to it. He loves it, the others were all "meh" or "too hard". And that was with me explaining and guiding, doing my best to flatten the learning curve.
Face it - hardcore wargames are a niche within a niche.
 
PS : the one who liked it - he lives where the internet is ****ty. He would not like it on Steam

And I sacrifice a dog regularly in the hopes that this will happen
 
... What ? I like  goats...

And 99.90% wouldn't play them anyway.
 
Do you seriously think that someone who plays a game about a goat or a farming sim is going to work through the learning curve of Combat Mission games ?
 
I don't care either way, so long as they continue to sell their games. But if they do eventually end up on Steam, I hope they still produce a Steam-less option for people like me who just don't like unnecessary crap running in the background.

What everyone else said.
 
 
Not remotely gamey - in real life units were far from shy about plastering a suspected enemy position even if no one had seen any enemy there.
Safe was always better than sorry since they cared far more about their lives than our pixeltroops.
 
"Gunner, 2 rounds of HE into the house on the right" type of thing.
 
There's even a good scene of this in a Band of Brothers episode where the officer tells his mortar man "put mortars onto that roof until it's gone, when it's gone everyone charges" or words to that effect.
They knew there was an MG42 there, but they couldn't see it.
 
Area fire is a tool you have. Use the tools you've got.

Screenshots always help in these cases, but off the top of my head - if your tanks were in trees and the enemy were not - remember that tanks are substantially higher up than your infantry and this can often put their heads in amongst the foliage.
 
If you have trees toggled to "trunks only", turn them back on, then hop your camera view down to the tanks and see if you can see what they cannot.

Hehe, he had you at "aggressiveness"

Heh, but the guy with the thermal imaging RULES !

What is this "vote"? This sounds dangerously socialist... Good posts stand on their own. They need no vote!
 
I'd suggest an outright counterattack, but it seems you're a bit depleted at the moment...

I like both styles, so for me, the whole AAR is simply full of win