Rayak47

If it helps, when I was in Albania in the 90's,the Marines I was working with took a few rounds from about 100 m away in farily open terrain but they couldn't pinpoint the shooter with their IR optics. They saw plenty of people walking around as white bloches but they couldn't spot the weapon. That's pretty close to the game simulation you describe. They had no clue where the bad guys were until the shots came, then they only knew the general direction.

If you think poppong smoke to throw off visually ATGMs is low tech, we used to paint coffee cans black and put them on a stick with a block of C4 nearby to dstract the sovs from our real TOW's, so they put fire on them and not us! (Luckilly never got to try this in real life!)

I wonder how the AI will handle American prisoners in future Bulge scenarios?!

I noticed the Leapards popping smoke with Saggers on the way, so in this case not a laser detector, but a case of more a proactive and realistic vehicle AI with the TC pooping smoke when he sees the launch signature.

You guys are right. I was just starting the German campaign when reading your posts. I moved the Marders up on the hill and when the fighters broke cover it was 20mm rain downtown!

Maybe not the best but biggest surprise weapon load was when I did a quick battle with the Canadians using poor quality against average Syrians trying to simulate something close to a 80's-90's NATO/Warsaw Pact battle. Not sure if it was the poor quality, but was surprised to find all the basic squads armed with LAW's and Carl Gustavs with only HE rockets. It's a quick overrun by T-72's!

Wow, I though the lasers came in much later. I remember playing some SPI games in the late '70's where the Ruskies still didn't have them and we were just getting them in with the M60A3 (in '78.) I've very surprised the Sovs fielded them before the U.S.. The Brits were still using a ranging machine gun!

I'm with you. The discussion of unit data charts not being included got me thinking about it. It detailed what optics the vehicle had or didn't have, so you could plan around it. Without those charts its a pretty obscure detail to know for every vehicle type (Nashorn being obvious). Since some cool things we were used to seeing in CMx1 are being left out, I thought I'd ask to see if its the same sytem, simplified or omited.

I thought so, but it would be nice if it could be corrected. Those BMP-2 did make for a quick change up of strategy and it was kinda fun, until I realized my BTR's couldn't even get flank shots! I am enjoying these battles with relatively equally matched forces in Afghanistan. I got tired of the M-1 and Javelin vs.T-62, sagger, rpg-7 slaughters Looks like Normandy may be better in this regard.

If you see my CM Afghan post I've got rangefinders on the brain right now. Is CM:N going to simulate the various german optics that were available as it did in CMx1?

I thought I saw someone else noted this but can't find it - the dates of equipment appearing are also off on quick battle. I had my BMP-1 chewed up by a group of BMP-2D's in 1978! I also don't like the lack of customization of the forces. I'm having a heck of time tryingt to get a combined arms (inf, armor, artil) quick battle going. (I know wrong theatre!)

I never worried about this in Shock Force Syria since pretty much every country's vehicles are using laser rangefinders, (and I didn't play red much) but back in the 60's and 70's this was a supposedly a pretty big deal as Soviet Tanks were behind U.S. tanks in this regard. I'm going from long ago memory here, but I think t-54/T-55's had none, T62's had stadia reticle and no lasers until the 70 or 80 series? Does the game account for this, I'm wondering? I just had three 1978 era T-55's pick off BMP's and BRDMS 1 1/2 klicks away with one shot kills and it should not have been so easy hitting small fast moving targets with primitive rangefinders? As long as I'm at it, does the game also simulate the inability of the russian tanks to negative depress their guns (a big deal in defilade) and accuratly reproduce the time of flight of ATGMS?

If they were all hidden they're spotting ability goes down quite a bit. Have you tried unhiding them? stikkipixie you are a genius! That did it. I feel rather dumb right now considering I've been using hide like this since day 1!

Good point on the hide command. I imagined guys hunkered down, trying not to make a sound but able to spot, like when we used to set up ambushes in a previous life. There was nobody going to sneak up on me without my knowing it first! (They left the trip flares out in CM.) I'll give it a shot without the hide command tonight to see how it goes. No NVG not even the BMP-1's as far as I can tell (not listed in items or as a system that can be damaged.) Maybe I'll be surprised when I start playing it by the BMPs' spotting ability! They should have some IR capability...

I didn't go in knowing they had no decent AT. It was only after I put a couple a BMPs in the hills with nothing shooting back that I moved them all up there. I was all deployed to go in as soon as the artillery lifted through a breach from the engineers, but never got the chance.

Yeah if they had ATGM's or even RPG 7's it would be a different sorry. My crew served and vehicles were pouring it on from the hills with my infantry was pulled back 100m waiting out the artillery when the Muj's surrendered. Never even got close to entering the village.

Someone else mentioned this in their truck ambush thread and didn't receive much comment, but in that scenario my Sovs were nicely set up with hide commands and fields of fire. Out of nowhere they are getting picked off by the Afghans and they apparently can't see the muzzle flashes (can't spot the unit.) . I've tried replaying and redeploying several ways and the same thing always happens. Is this intentional, were the Afghan's that good at nightfighting or is this a spotting error in the code. It just seem like troops in hid should have the spotting advantage over advancing troops at night. I've just hit the second mission of the campaign and am not to excited about seeing this happen again.

Anyone know what's the advantage of giving buddy aid? Other than a possability of more KIA in the final tally, does KIA give a score penalty or lesser chance of replacements in campaigns? The good side of me likes to play "recover the wounded" with covering units, etc. The dark side side says screw 'em and don't wast time!

I'll miss them too, it's tough to find those stats all in one place. It was a great feature of the games. It also helped people new to the genre, like my son, compare how the different platforms stacked up. (i.e. don't take on a tiger with a sherman head to head.) He didn't memorize the Panzer Blitz and Tractics data sheets when he was a kid.

I need to go back and look at those bones, maybe the vehicles are all inflatables!

So three months out? Time for a title and a link?!!

They probably should if they want to properly simulate the system considering this out of wikpedia: One of Drozd's shortcomings was that it was only able to protect a 60 degree arc around the forward part of the turret. Each unit cost around $30,000, was 80-percent successful against incoming RPGs in Afghanistan, but proved to provide too high of a collateral damage issue to surrounding troops that were dismounted from their armored vehicles.

Sorry for the duplication, I'm new at this!

I know, we probably can't have a link until we have an official title for the game, but all I'm doing these days is sifting through Combat Mission:Shock Force looking for the "Normandy" threads. I know I'm not the only one. Call it the "Combat Mission:Western Front '44 link or Combate Mission:WWII TBA?!

I know, we probably can't have a link until we have an official title for the game, but all I'm doing these days is sifting through Combat Mission:Shock Force looking for the "Normandy" threads. I know I'm not the only one. Call it the "Combat Mission:Western Front '44 link or Combate Mission:WWII TBA?!