John_d
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Posts posted by John_d
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Any chance of some Russian markers?
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I should have all of this up and running by the weekend. Gonna get a mate to help me sort it out
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Hmmmm, I'll have a look myself. Don't remember the scenario, but its been a while since I've played CMBO
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Don't send your armour in unsupported. Ever. Schoolboy error- we've all done it at some point. Make sure you have a few units covering the flanks, if only so you can see what's coming. All tanks are vulnerable from the sides- even the uber-tanks like the Tiger and the KT. As a general rule of thumb, avoid leading with tanks generally. Use infantry to expose enemy positions and then use the tanks to blast them from afar. The infantry can take quite alot of punishment, so don't be afraid to push them a bit (especially in CMBO). The only time you should lead with tanks is when you are fairly confident that the enemy only has limited AT capabilities and/or you are certain that you outnumber the enemy massively (although this only really applies to the Russians)
If this is your first time playing the CM series, I strongly suggest you start on the tutorial levels, or download the demos and play those missions first. And read anything on this website by JasonC.
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I've played 315 as the Germans a couple of times and there is a rather serious Achilles heel in the Russian defence, but its really hard to spot. I'm now not so sure that the infantry is the key to winning this one- the armour can do it pretty much on their own if you use the right tactics. I'm not gonna elaborate for the time being as I've just sent off the setup to PC and I want to see how this new approach works on a human player. However, this new approach to the problem basically exploits a weakness of this kind of AT infantry defence. More on this later...
P.S PC: I think I said something about us nearly sharing a birthday on a different thread. This is not the case. Instead, you registered on this website a couple of days before my birthday and I mistook this for your date of birth. On reflection, if this were your birthday, you would only be 2 years old
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We should probably provide an AAR for the benefit of the others here too. I'm sure that Jason would be interested at the very least
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That's fightin' talk Panther Commander!
I realise that as soon as my infantry goes, I am screwed. I was thinking of adding in an extra platoon of men for the Germans just to even things up a little, but I want to see if its possible just with the troops that each side are given. And b/c if I beat you with the scrawny bunch of misfits that Jason has provided me with, I win serious bragging rights regarding gamey use of snipers
I should have the setup sent to you at about 20.00 GMT- I'm a bit snowed under with work right now
Oh, and you could always suprise me by using MY suggested setup from earlier in this thread
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CMAK, CMBB or even CMBO are ok. Although I think that it would be an unhill struggle with an un-modded version of CMBO! Could somebody explain the best way of hosting something like this please? and how to get a polling thing on it as well?
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Panther Commander,
following my challenge on the other thread, I'll hopefully be sending a setup of 315 with myself as the Germans sometime today, workload permitting. I'll leave the scenario defaults as they are to see how difficult it really is. May the best man (with the best troops) win!!
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Panther Commander,
I've just tried 315 as the Germans against the AI. Its really tough, but doable. We'd need to change a few parameters to make it worthwhile- like make the game longer cos otherwise the Germans don't stand a chance. Maybe an extra platoon for the Germans too or a 25% or 50% bonus. Let me know what you think
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What makes u think that I'm capable of beating you?!
I reckon we should do 315 from Jason's Russian Training Scenario Pack. I've been reading your notes on it and it would be interesting to see what happens when 2 human players go head to head. And I'd be interested to see if your claim that the Germans can never win this will hold up!
Should I send the setup to the address on your profile? We almost share a birthday, btw
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The main problem with the polling idea is that I'm crap with computers
i really wouldn't now how to go about doing it. I'll ask a mate of mine about this kind of thing and once I get that going I'll set up the competition -
Yeah, interesting idea Dorosh. I was just thinking it would save time , rather than having a long winded poll. If you can think of a way of quickly having a poll, it would be a much better approach. Also, what is the deal with posting pictures here? Does each person need to host their own on Image Shack?
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No way! For a start, there is always the problem that the human player knows they're about to get ambushed and will act accordingly. I for one would pepper the whole area with HE fire before even going near
Also, I suspect that a human player would be more thorough in using the infantry for recon. A bit of careful probing here and there and I'm sure the Russian defences wouldn't stand a chance. From my experience, as soon as the defenders are exposed, they die. No two ways about it.
I reckon that a human player might well attempt to find a way around the Russian positions, although its hard to say whether this would actually work, given the number of AT mines around the place. Might just lead to a massacre
If I were playing as the Russians against a human player, the only thing I can think that might work would be to pull my troops right back out of LOS and adopt some kind of hit and run tactic, rather than taking up a position and slugging it out. Also, lots of MG fire to kill of their recon units. Probably best placed along the 'horizontal' axis of the enemies advance. I suspect once the German infantry goes down, the armour doesn't really stand a chance
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Ok, I've had a think about how this could be run.
I would act as the judge (so obviously not enter any pics myself) unless someone else feels that they particularly want to do it
I (or whoever was judging) would send out a small prize to the winner. Haven't decided what yet, but would have to be something that could be mailed overseas without too much difficulty
All entries would be posted on an appropriate thread
One entry per person per category
Two categories: edited and unedited. The rules for each would be as follows:
Unedited:
- any picture of anything taken within CM
- Mods allowed
- Editing on photoshop etc disallowed
- May break this down into smaller categories (e.g vehicles, infantry, landscapes etc) depending on the level of response
Edited:
- any picture of anything taken with CM
- Mods allowed
- Editing on photoshop etc allowed (to allow ppl to add stuff like speech bubbles and other stuff humourous stuff that just doesn't appear in CM)
Only rough ideas at the moment- more suggestions would be welcome.
Keep the messages coming too, so I know roughly how popular this would be!
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I mean when you have objective flags. I don't object to leaving recon units behind to harass the enemy, but its when a player uses the way the objective flags scores are totalled up to win a cheap victory by hiding units around the flags. I do what you are talking about all of the time in operations and so forth, or when there are no objective flags about- but their presence, IMO, should be to cause difficulties at the enemies rear, rather than to exploit approximations that the game has to make.
Maybe the only way to resolve our differences is on the field of battle!
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I don't have a problem with leaving small groups behind during a retreat- I often do it myself. It only becomes a problem b/c of the the scoring system in CM. What I object to is buying units and positioning them with the sole purpose of remaining hidden, not engaging the enemy at all and denying the enemy the flag. Half squads and FO aren't perhaps as much as an issue b/c they are fairly easy to find and root out, but a hidden sniper with a cover arc so small that he won't ever open fire? Chances are you'll never find him and it won't occur to you to look b/c the fog of war function will lead you to believe that you control the flag. You'll only notice when a flag that you thought was under your control appears as uncontrolled, b/c there is a sniper in a ridiculous place where you can't see him. Now, I amm sure that this kind of thing happens in war, and I do it when there are no flags involved. But surely it is gamey when the position of a single sniper who doesn't fire a shot determines the outcome of the game in a battalion sized battle?
P.S, what was that comment about the captured tanks about? I'm assuming you are refering to tactics where enemy tanks are used at the front of an armoured column to fool the enemy into thinking that the column is friendly. A similar tactic was used in situations such as the capture of the Kalach bridge near Stalingrad where Russian tanks were driven across a German held bridge without a shot being fired b/c the Russians had somehow convinced the Germans that their tanks were captured and being driven to a training school. Pretty impressive. Although as far as I'm aware, it is impossible to do anything like this on CM- so what were you refering to?
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I'm afriad that my AAR for 315 will be a little sketchy compared to Panther Commander's (I did it a couple of days ago, so its all from memory), but here we go...
Setup: Kept most of the infantry where it was with a few exceptions
- on the left flank (looking west here, i.e. towards the German advance) I moved the platoon closer to the road and put a squad in the building by the minefield
- along the right flank, I moved my troops very slightly deeper into the woods so that they weren't as visible
- placed a MG in the house on the far right, with a cover arc just in front of the woods on his left. Basically just to stop any recon units that might wander into that area and force the engineers in there to open up
- the platoon at the back of the right flank (the one commanded by the company HQ) moved forward a few metres and swung around to the right, again to cover the approach to the woods
The idea here was to split my force into dedicated AT units and covering units. The covering unit's job was to kill any enemy infantry that got too close to the AT units so that they could remain hidden from view until the tanks arrived
Moved the mines around a bit too:
- the AT mines on the far left were moved over to the right flank. Some were placed by the treeline on the far right to prevent outflanking, others were placed just in front of my AT units, just to add a little 'oommph'
Hid all the force and gave limited covering arcs
First phase (turns 1 to 6 roughly):
- sat and waited saw the occainsional movement, mostly on the right flank
- noticed enemy infantry moving up on my right flank towards my positions
- numerous armoured units moving up the road
Second phase (initial contact):
- MG and covering units opened fire on enemy recon units before they have a chance to uncover the engineers in the trees. Enemy troops break and run for cover
- on the road, an armoured car runs parks too close to my positions and gets a satchel charge thrown inton it for its troubles. Unfortunately, this gives away the position of the troops that threw it, who promptly get shot up by the Panzers behind it and a small group of infantry in the trees nearby. My unit panics, but manages to break contact without sustaining too many casualities
Third phase (things start to hot up...):
- infantry on my right flank regroups, turns around and gets shot up by my covering units again. Unfortunately, this time, my engineers also get stuck in and expose their position to a couple of Panzers. Have to withdraw a number of units under fire to get them out of LOS of the tanks
- move troops from the back up to the right flank in case the enemy dicides to rush the position (they don't as it happens)
- a Panzer drives down the road, stright into a minefield, immobilising it. Engineers in the biulding next to the road quickly destroy it and capture the crew
- another Panzer, with infantry riding on the back of it, make its way around the minefield and cleverly managed to avoid the covering arcs of all of my troops in the area. Was heading towards the flag when the infantry passengers dismounted and got gunned down. Shortly after the tank got destroyed by troops in the buildings by the flag and the crew captured
Fourth phase (winding down):
- Enemy troops on my right flank pushed back
- 2 Panzers take up residence on my left flank on the right hand side of the road, by the trees there. Start taking potshots at my troops in the village. I send a squad of engineers in to take them out. They hide in the trees and line the shot up, only to throw molotovs at the nearest tank, giving their position away. They all die
- no further movement on either side. Enemy tanks hang around on the edge of my minefields, but advance no further. Enemy infantry is routed and runs away. My troops settle back down into defensive positions.
End: - major victory for me. Can't remember how many casualities for each side, but took out half of the enemies vehicles and almost all of their infantry. Casualities were fairly light on my side, apart from on the left flank, where I lost about 15 men. Could probably have used the mines more effectively to channel the enemy into kill zones rather than just denying them routes of advance. I took this into account on 320 though and consequently hammered the AI. 320 has been my favourite so far actually. Also, I was lucky not to have the FO used at all. Dunno what happened to him. Must have died somehow
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Good points, Panther Commander. I don't think I explained myself terribly well- I was refering more to ppl leaving them next to disputed flags or even flags they were pretty certain they were going to lose. Then at the end of the battle , you find that one or more of flags that are deep inside your own territory and rightfully yours are either uncontrolled or belong to the enemy, just b/c there is one unit hiding there who hasn't taken part in the fighting. Now that is gamey and very, very annoying
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Rather lukewarm reception so far
I'm gonna take a couple of days to see how many more ppl are interested and to work out the best way of running it, then I'll set it up myself (if there's enough interest). In the meantime, all those of you who would potentially be interested in this kind of thing, could you leave a short message here so I can get a feel for how many ppl we are talking about please?Oh, and what's the best way of getting pics on the website?
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Presumeably alot here depends on whether you are attacking or defending?
If attacking, I want something fairly robust so that I can get out front and draw some fire from the enemy positions, hopefully giving away what they've got and then make it back home in one piece (or at least hold the line til re-enforcements turn up). A sniper simply cannot do this- he would get shot to pieces. I will often use a whole platoon to do this, even if it means losing half of the men. I usualy only use half squads to check routes of advance before I send the rest of the platoon up behind them.
On the other hand, if defending, snipers are extremely useful. A small detachment with good LOS overlooking the main route by which you expect the enemy to advance is a mainstay of my defensive positions. Generally, I'll use a sniper and/or MGs and mortars. Anything that will a) allow me to see what the enemy has and where they are and b)harass and pin them if they attempt to regroup after an unsuccessful attack. Of course, for most of the battle they don't fire a shot, just sit and watch.
Also, I've noticed another gamey use of snipers that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere. Basically, it involves hiding snipers around objective flags in reasonably obscure places (upstairs rooms, river banks, other places that you won't normally go into) and giving them cover arcs that will ensure that they never open fire and give their position away. Then you forget about them until the end of the game when they score you a load of points for denying the enemy control of the flag. Obviously, this is only really a problem in games that are so close that the objective flags determine the outcome, but it is still bloody annoying and its happened to me more than once :mad:
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The trouble with simply spraying the whole trench with fire is that its rarely enough to suppress anything that might be in it. It seems to take about a whole platoon concentrating its fire on one place to suppress the MG in there. Therefore, I've found it is better to concentrate fire at one end of the trench for a minute or so and see what happens. If it doesn't suppress the unit in there, switch to the other end and see what happens then.
I've still only managed to do 110 successfully once. My main difficulty is getting the initial spot, which I guess is the key to the scenario. The last time I did the scenario, I moved as slowly as possible- only advancing one unit at a time for 30m or less towards cover and with the rest of the platoon providing covering fire. Even then I lost about 8 men to the enemies 1 (before auto-surrender kicked in).
Some of the later scenarios in the training are awesome, by the way. I've gone through them all pretty quickly with the intention of going back through them again at a later date. I'd advise doing the same, especially if you've been playing a while and already have some idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are.
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Oh, and of course would have to allow all versions of CM. Except possibly CMBO, just cos it looks so bad nowadays
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Was messing about with screen shots the other day and was wondering if ppl would be interested in having some kind of CM photography competition (taken from screenshots). After all, CM is a nice looking game (in its own unique kinda way) and I've seen some awesome screenshots posted around the net. We would need some kind of neutral judge and perhaps even a little prize for the winner. Maybe different categories- infantry, armour, guns, landscape and other? Just thought I'd post this to see if there would be any interest in this kind of thing.
Thoughts, suggestions and so forth would be very welcome...
i really wouldn't now how to go about doing it. I'll ask a mate of mine about this kind of thing and once I get that going I'll set up the competition
Tournament
in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin
Posted
Yeah, I'd be interested. I'm pretty crap though