donnieitaly

It all worked fine :-) Thanks to the battlefront people. Thanks chaps.

Looks like you're on to this for me chaps. Thanks.

I had a major hard disk crash about a year ago and have only discovered today that my copy of Combat Mission Shock Force* vanished with the crash. (I've been playing Normandy and thus didn't miss it.) I have my disk but no Licence key (I bought the on line AND hard copy) Can you help? * I had the game, the Marines and the UK but not the NATO supplements.

Not sure where to put this question but I understand there will be three games in this series. Can I assume they will be Russia and, uh, somewhere else?

"Saved games" re-appeared! Go figure :-) They weren't there last night, I know that for a fact. I hate computers :-)

Duplicate of reply to other thread:- "I find the sites one is directed to to download very confusing. They're selling stuff and listing dozens of other downloads and services. I downloaded V1.1 (I think) from one site which locked me out of my game completely. I then found a site I could understand and got V1.31 but all my saved games have gone. This is not the problem it would seem since I've finished the Marine campaign and wouldn't mind re-playing all the US army ones again, which is what I'm going to do. I'm sure most players of computer games find it easy to download stuff, but I'm 62 and I use my computer like my car. It goes from A to B. My computer sends e-mails, helps me run my e bay business and I have one game on it. Thew page on which you list the download is, in my opinion, to busy. If a download is so important it should be on a page (screen) all by itself with a clear step by step set of instructions. (Note that the "tick only the boxes that apply to your games" only kicks in when the download has been all but finished.) So I have no complaints but I think all you computer game designers should factor in people like me. I have no interest in my computer - only what it can do for me."

I find the sites one is directed to to download very confusing. They're selling stuff and listing dozens of other downloads and services. I downloaded V1.1 (I think) from one site which locked me out of my game completely. I then found a site I could understand and got V1.31 but all my saved games have gone. This is not the problem it would seem since I've finished the Marine campaign and wouldn't mind re-playing all the US army ones again, which is what I'm going to do. I'm sure most players of computer games find it easy to download stuff, but I'm 62 and I use my computer like my car. It goes from A to B. My computer sends e-mails, helps me run my e bay business and I have one game on it. Thew page on which you list the download is, in my opinion, to busy. If a download is so important it should be on a page (screen) all by itself with a clear step by step set of instructions. (Note that the "tick only the boxes that apply to your games" only kicks in when the download has been all but finished.) So I have no complaints but I think all you computer game designers should factor in people like me. I have no interest in my computer - only what it can do for me.

I've got the new patch - all my saved games have gone for the third time.

I followed the links I saw - so how do I get my game back?

Isn't it a bit late for that?

No boxes appeared and I've lost the game.

I've done the download and now I can't open the game without a licence! WTF?

I have version 1.21 (thanks for the advice) and am ready to do the download, but you say we must make sure the relevant boxes are ticked. I can't see anywhere to do this and am loath to start the process until I can. Am I doing something wrong?

How do I know which version I have?

That's good advice thanks, I may try it again in a few days. One question though. With the outdoor firepower am I trying to flatten the building, smash in floors, or just keep their heads down? As far as I can see Javelins, for example, don't actually kill SFs unless I can actually see them and target them. Is the fire I place on the building intended to destroy it totally or to drive the incumbents outside to be shot by my surrounding forces (I had Strykers with fields of fire all around btw.) If that is the case I can well see the point in entering in only on building so as to flush them through and out. I had no idea CMSF was so "realistic" (sic) with regard to in house fighting. Many thanks :-)

Well..... Disappointing -but almost certainly due to the execution and not the advice. I got a Minor US victory and in the past I've done better my way. In brief I took the barracks first (I was playing late at night in silence as my wife was asleep and I figured if it didn't go well I just wouldn't "Save". But I took them no problem.) Then I moved over to the SF base. I fired almost everything at it. (I wanted to keep some troops and some javelins back for the third target.) I put javelins on to it. (Which I found very damaging to the building taking about two to knock in a floor - can't believe the US army would allow a missile costing $z0000000000 to be fired at a house!) 120 mm mortars which I found fairly ineffective, Apaches - like wise not so effective and the vehicle mounted arty. (Very useful.) Oh and the Mk 19s. My favourite weapon. Now I am not sure what one has to do to the building to count as "destroyed" and I only managed to collapse one section. I did in the end however occupy and search the entire structure although at game end I received NO CREDIT for that! (I thought it was an either/or option. Destroy or search.) Those Special Forces people are tough *******s! They moved into the centre "square" of the building and had to be dug out by my assaulting infantry. And here is probably <g> where I made my biggest error. I attacked from two short ends with four squads. By the time I'd pushed them into the middle where the SF were we had a little friendly fire. 16 dead and wounded caused by one squad grenading the other. Ooops. Now I did kill them all and left a unit behind to criss cross the building for the rest of the game so that every floor was searched. So why no credit? At this point I got lazy and moved over to the airbase HQ (oh I play turn based btw.) completely forgetting that I hadn't cleared any of the random buildings. Two of my vehicles were RPG'd and another ten or so of my troops were killed/wounded. Lazy and stupid. The assault on the HQ went fine with no casualties but then the game ran on about another seven minutes waiting for me to do something more. Well I'd hit all three target and wasn't about to got chasing IEDs so I just waited. So all in all it was a failure. Perhaps it's my lack of knowledge of what constitutes "destroyed" but perhaps I'm just not a very good player! But I enjoyed it :-)

Gotcha - will try it tomorrow. Thanks :-)

Really nice signature.

I'm not quite sure what you're suggesting here. There are three targets. The Barracks, the Airbase and the Special Forces. I have set up to attack the Barracks first, by blowing holes in the walls, then I thought I'd take the Airbase and since I still don't see how I can DESTROY the SF base I figured I'd just ignore it and get a minor victory. Can I really DESTROY that building (not just clear it) with two helos and some mortars? Oh, and I'm not quite sue what you mean by "that last house" or <sorry!> for that matter how I assault "top floor first". Thanks :-)

Well there's only 81mm mortars and two helicopters.

I'm replaying this for about the x zillioneth time (The campaign that is.) Can someone tell me how I can destroy the Special Forces base with only mortars and track driven artillery? I mean I could huff and puff...

Oh, and I'm using Vista. (Yeah I know.)

Sorry I haven't been back to both of you two chaps - I neglected to tick the "keep up with thread" box and have only just looked. I found the games thanks, but haven't looked for the Brit manual yet. (I hate the modern trend of putting a perfectly cromulent booklet ON my computer when I would happily pay you money so I don't have to use up my ink and my paper and my time and my patience printing the b**** thing. I even had to send for a printed manual for my Canon camera and I have to DOWNLOAD my latest GPD maps instead of buying a chip...I could go on. <g>) You'll be asking me to design my own scenarios next. (Oops, you already do!) PS The game is superb. Thanks again.

How about that :-) I just used Microsoft search facility to find the saved games. It didn't do that but it did find the instructions from "Ken" (thank you Ken) that I thought I'd lost. Ken - there's a job going for you with battlefront. They make great games, but their customer services leave a little lacking.