womble
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Posts
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Posts posted by womble
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JasonC and dieseltaylor, thanks for sharing your experiences of the two games with a newb.
I had noticed the relative expense of Arty in CMAK, and so far I've not bought any when I've had a choice, which is probably a bit wonky for both sides as I've been playing QBs against the AI to get my head round how to get my troops to do what I want, and they've been Attack battle types; I'd've thought that if a deliberate attack were being undertaken, there'd usually be some artillery available whether Axis or Allied.
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CMBB is way better than CMAK, and both are way better than CMSF.
Hi JasonC.
I'm just coming back to CMx1, and I plumped, rather arbitrarily (as the later game I thought it might be 'improved) for AK rather than BB, having played BB a little, some years ago (not bothered with CMSF). Can I ask what you consider the reasons for BB's superiority over AK? If it's not rehashing old ground too much...
I have to say that I find myself wasting half the product, because deserts don't appeal as much as eurasian landscapes, but beyond that, what makes one better than the other?
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Womble, that was a good answer! I realize I was a little bit unclear: I was just asking for a tip on a specific scenario, with good play balance and so forth.
But that was useful anyway! Thanks
Heh. [looks sheepish] I can see how woefully I misunderstood the question there...
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It depends a bit on other info: the map; the points range; what battle type it is; which side you're playing. So, apologies if this is an egg-sucking lesson...
- Generally a good infantry backbone is mandatory. At least 1/3 of your points should be in infantry.
- Something with 75mm or more of HE chucking to hammer strongpoints. Heavy buildings can hold you up. Direct Fire HE is the best way of winkling the enemy out of foxholes and trenches.
- Something to deal with any armour your opponent may succeed in employing at standoff ranges. Infantry can usually deal with armour at close-quarters, but a human player will try and keep any armoured assets out of range of man-portable AT. Personally I favour a tank, just a cheap one. See the bit about transport below; the advantage of tanks is they have their own prime mover and aren't so easy to machine-gun down. They can handily fulfill the need for DF HE, also, depending on what year and what nation you're using.
- A bit of transport for your support squads/towed arty if the battle is liable to move at all, or take place far from your start line. No point having that AT gun to deal with his tank if it avoids your keyhole siting. No point having those extra HMG squads if they can't make the battle line because they're exhausted.
- If the battle is liable to be static, some off-board artillery might be worth it; for my points, though, another assault gun is more versatile and predictable in its outcomes.
- Similarly, mortars, for me, are overpriced for their effectiveness, especially on a moving battlefield. That could just be cos I'm rubbish at using them, though they don't seem to come with enough ammo to make a difference even if I could guarantee having them ready for every opportunity, compared to the 2 or more MGs you can get for the cost. Good against open-topped vehicles though, so if you're defending against the Germans...
Hope that's at least some help...
- Generally a good infantry backbone is mandatory. At least 1/3 of your points should be in infantry.
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Why are you installing the VISTA patch when you are running Windows 7 may I ask?
There are some uglies with the current Radeon drivers, as you note. It was worth the $5 for me, at least, to get rid of them.
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It appears as if the Catalyst driver is caching some sort of text that appears in the control panel and writing it above into the 3D space (overlaid in appearance, rather than actual 3D). I don't believe that the 1.04 patch will fix this issue, though I haven't checked. If you want to check yourself (if you're not already running 1.04), download the CMAK Demo (1.04).
Well, that works lovely... Thanks Schrullenhaft for your advice.
Edit p.s. It was worth $5 to get rid of the uglies...
It doesn't fix all graphical issues though; there were some heavy buildings poking through the expanded unit info pane, but it's much better. -
I've got Windows 7 and a Radeon 5850. I'm installing the anthology version of CMAK.
The "choose a resolution" screens are black, but when I pick one, I get the game starting as I'd expect, and the scenario chooser is all fine. The problems start when I'm in the game (the tutorial scenario): there are two regions of screen, about 2/3 of the way up, and a 1/4 the way in from each edge which are scrambled. Looks like label texts and that sort of thing, all jumbled up, with black squares with white dots in.
I can whiffle round the quick battle screens okay, without having to Alt-tab out, and these scrambled bits aren't too much of an issue, so long as they're not supposed to be showing me anything important; I can't see any screenshots in the manual that mention there being any data other than the game field.
Any thoughts?
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"...You also have to consider that,in all honesty,scenario editor tests are gamey..."
Your opinion... I reckon scenedit tests are like actually having gone through training (in whatever aspect of warfare you're testing). The game is so ginormously variable that experience won't necessarily be the best tutor.
An example: I wanted to find out how to make a gun fire one round of smoke rather than its whole load. Fiddling in Scenedit showed me how so I didn't have to account for all the extraneous factors. Integrating those factors into the method is what the scenario was for.
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[Chortle]
Realistic tactics? In Warhamster?
[snigger]
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Unfortunately they won't be modelling a 3" reflector telescop; you'll have to make do with your FO's binos.
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Hah ha har!
No *wonder* I'm finding it hard! [chortle] ISTR that the notes say it's meant for 2-player TCPIP playing... [marvels]
So, if I can get into the trench I'm doing okay...
Good. -
Next variation is to abandon the sneaky outflanking maneuver and add a whole additional platoon to the assault.
Thanks for the encouragement.
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Hi
I've read JasonC's doctrine to advancing infantry under fire, and I believe everyone's testimony when they say it works. I'm just having a little difficulty, specifically with that last 50-100m or so.
The scenario is "Cemetery hill", for those who would like to stop now and avoid spoilers...
<<<Spoiler gap...
...spoiler gap ends>>>
I've decided to take the right hand end of the trench line, by the roadblock, since that seems to be the closest to cover (ca 40-110m), and potentially easiest to isolate (though my IG seems to be too busy chucking HE at harrassing fires to bother lobbing smoke to cut one angle of sight - this isn't the core of the issue). I'm not particularly concerned whether it's the best approach to the scenario as a whole, since it's turned into a training exercise in attacking across open ground now, for me.
I have 3 x 222 scout cars and a 37mm 1/2track, as well as an IG75, 2 HMGs and the Recon company's 50mm mortars.
I have a pioneer platoon (6 squads, 3 w LMG, 3 SMG-heavy) and a Recon platoon (3 std squads apiece) snugged into the edge of the woods apart from one of the 2 recon platoons (1/4 of my infantry strength) which is trying to sneak round the flank.
Opposing the rush are an "Machine Gun?" and two "Infantry Squad?"s which I've been pasting with heavy weapons and small arms fire until the Recon squads are down to less than 10 'shots' left. Supporting from an enfilading position at the extreme end of the trench line are another "squad?" and "MG?". I've KOed the light gun dug in behind the line, using mortars. When I start the rush another fire source opens up from the large building behid the trench line, and two more squads in the trench and one behind it open up.
So far not one squad has made it to the trench line. I've tried rushing with just the three pioneer squads and everyone else supporting. I've tried rushing with all the infantry squads and rushing with the three close pioneer squads and the three recon squads. Any half squads just seem to evaporate. I don't see any significant suppression of the assets in the trench and no sign of suppression at all on the more distant hostile fires. Even using flamethrowers to draw fire off the important assaulting squads hasn't helped. Using 9 squads to assault worked best so far. Of those, 3 were pinned within 15-20m of the trenchline, 3 were pinned within 10m of the start line, 1 was eliminated, 1 broken and 1 remained active after the 1st minute. Most were down to 6 or fewer men and only one had 8 left. This was not sufficient to suppress the trench line and allow the wavering troops to rally (all troops are in command; some of the commanders have morale and command bonuses).
Unless there're enemy weapons bearing of which I am unaware, I think I have about 2:1 firepower superiority: 9 squads against 4; 2 HMG vs 2; IG and 37mm vs 1 remaining "Gun?" (which I think is an ATR, since the 1/2track survived a hit); 2 50mm mortars and 3 20mm/coax combos unanswered.
What am I doing wrong, or should I expect to fail in this assault?
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I was somewhat perturbed to read that asking questions that are answered in the manual will be considered bad form. I bought the anthology recently, and that has no hardcopy manuals and the CM:BB pdf appears somewhat incomplete...
It doesn't fix all graphical issues though; there were some heavy buildings poking through the expanded unit info pane, but it's much better.
Tips on medium combined forces scenario 2P/TCP?
in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin
Posted
That's excellent advice: don't pin 'em using mortars until you can take advantage of the pin. Getting one of your units out of a pin is usually not sufficient advantage, I estimate, but getting the target killed because of the mortar pin is.
Yeah, that's where I'm struggling. It may have been a different morale model in CMAK, but I had a pair of 81mm mortars in a complete flap for some reason, so they wouldn't get into their rides when I sent them back to get 'em. They kept sneaking away. They'd gotten exhausted, but I never saw any enemy effects in their area, and it was a long way short of the enemy deployment zone. That's just one extrme example, but I find it difficult to maneuver mortars and their spotters to the right place at the right time. I'm sure I'll improve with practice