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German squads (depending on the type) have a random chance of being equipped with up to 4 (I think) panzerfausts. There is no fixed number in the TO&E, and very occasionally you might "roll" a squad with no panzerfausts. The PFs in halftracks are not tied to the dismounts' TO&E and are available for anyone to acquire.

Believe it or not, but there is a demo for CMBN. You really do have the pulse of this community, don't you?

The UI graphics for protection are just a rough guide. The under the hood modelling of armor and penetration is far, far more realistic and detailed than CMx1. In fact, so detailed that trying to translate it into UI graphics that would be easy to understand is a huge problem. It would be lovely to have easy access to all that data from within the game, but 1. Not every player would be interested. 2. There are many other features that could be added that would interest every player. The CMx1 random maps were horrible, and you would have to roll a new one over and over again just to get something playable (and likely still totally implausible). An unlimited number of user-crafted QB maps can be added to CMBN, and each can have multiple AI plans crafted by a human for that particular map. The replayability is near endless without enduring the nonsense of computer-generated terrain.

Merville Battery.

The Opels in the Motorized PG medium mortar section are regular trucks loaded with additional mortar ammo, so it is possible to vary the ammo load out of a single type of vehicle. Has been so since CMSF.

They are quite complex to implement.

The official TO&E change to 3 squads was in December '44.

C2 status will not affect the ability of any spotter to access artillery.

Adding radios to bunkers (or adding a special "radio bunker") has been discussed as an interim measure.

Like infantry, they type of movement order should affect their willingness to stop.

If you click on any tank other than the HQ, you can jump selection directly to the HQ by clicking on it in the command chain list in the lower left, or by clicking on the selected unit's C2 icon above the suppression meter (assuming the unit is currently in C2). You do not have to examine every tank in the platoon.

Based on the above photo, I further refined my test to compare tree density effects independent of terrain type. Spotter is an FO team 400-450m away, elevated 2m above the tabletop terrain. Targets are three Fusilier companies, one in a 3-tree (Tree D) every tile forest on "grass" tiles, one on "grass" tiles only and one in orchard (Tree D) with open space between rows on "grass" tiles. Typical outcome: Both tree density and terrain type matter.

Nice pic of an orchard in Calvados off the PhotosNormandie Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/photosnormandie/2524508971/

Yes it does. Ran more tests using "Tree D": 1. no trees/hvy forest vs. no trees/dirt - dirt offers far worse concealment 2. 3-tree density/hvy forest vs. orchard density/dirt - units at edge of orchard consistently spotted, units in forest never spotted 3. orchard density/hvy forest vs. orchard density/dirt - units at edge of both orchard and forest consistently spotted, with perhaps a slight concealment edge in the forest (many more tests would have to be run to say if there is a significant difference)

Well, isolate the factors: is the issue "heavy forest" v. "dirt" tiles or 3 trees per tile versus 1 tree per tile? A quick test on my end shows that "heavy forest" on its own offers much better concealment than "dirt" on its own, so I think what we are actually comparing here is the effects of per-tile tree density. Also, I'm pretty sure The "gridded" tree button is just a placement tool and doesn't confer any benefits or penalties to the underlying terrain.

I think it would be used like this rifle (and I'm not so sure that justifies including it as a vehicle weapon):

"Heavy forest" is a terrain tile type, upon which can be placed any density of foliage you wish. Orchard is not a terrain tile type, and there are several ways you could arrive at on-map terrain that would be considered an orchard. I have no idea what is actually being compared here.

It's possible that at least 3-men have to be in the HT, as the driver and gunner may be considered "occupied".

"Operations Team" has the Battalion exec. in it and works the same.

Pathing around individual trees is a nightmare for the AI. It will try to go around areas with dense tree placement, but the best way to make a forest impassable to vehicles and avoid excessive tree clipping is to place it on top "heavy forest" tile.

Terrible waste of a team that could form a new HQ if the CO team gets taken out. If they don't have a radio, keep them in a vehicle equipped with one.

C2 links on the spotter's end do not affect access to on- or off-map artillery, but bad C2 will influence their effectiveness. C2 links up from on-map artillery assets can cause cause them to show as "out of contact". There are three primary ways to guarantee that on-map assets stay "in- contact" with spotters: 1. The on-map firing unit has good links up its own chain of command to an HQ equipped with a radio. In most cases this is their own immediate superior, but in some cases you must have good C2 up through more than one level. For example, some mortars must have good links to their section HQ (no radio), and their section HQ must have good links to its platoon HQ (which has a radio). All units that can spot will be "in contact". 2. The on- map firing is positioned next to a stationary vehicle equipped with a radio. All units that can spot will be "in contact." 3. Your desired spotter is within voice range of the desired on-map firing unit. Unless either of the above also apply, only the nearby spotter will be "in contact". If an asset shows as " denied", this means the selected spotter is not qualified to access the asset. C2 has no effect on this status.

Ran from the save and 6 TCs were shot in the first minute. I guess something in the code has changed for the patch. Will have to keep looking at longer ranges (beyond 300m), however, as I'm not seeing any hits at all there in my own tests. Not sure if this is really a problem since the TC presents a very, very small target. Definitely worth testing some more.

Based on a comparison of our tests, yes, but I have not tested the same with the beta.

Just set up a test with 10 US snipers (elite skill, snipers only, spotters removed by reducing headcount) against 10 side-on Panther A (mid)s at approximately 100m. Within 1 minute 4 tanks had lost their TC, 3 tanks had lost their TC and the TC's replacement, and 1 tank had a lightly-wounded TC. I don't think these results would be possible if the snipers weren't aiming for the TCs. So unless something has changed during patch development that directly affects this, a blanket statement that snipers cannot aim at and hit TCs would appear to be wrong.