Xavier_1986

It's actually quite far from being an ass whopping of the Syrians. If you go into the game as the US player in say the campaign with that attitude... well, my recommendation is to wait for 1.03 and then see for yourself. The results of the battles are sometimes a bit surprising to say the least.

Yea I tend to agree here. Makes for an ugly screen shot when you have the word PAUSED plastered on the middle of the screen.

Red blob? Unless you're playing on an extremely low graphic setting you shouldn't be having so much trouble distinguishing casualties... I don't at least. Anyway, in my own games I've confirmed that squad mates -do- pick up RPGs from their fallen buddies. Virtually the only time they haven't is when they're fast or quick moving across an open field under enemy fire and have no time to double back and pick up a heavy weapon.

I believe it's been clarified that this is -not- a bug. The Syrian tank crews know they have virtually no chance of penetrating an M1 from the frontal arc with AP, so they fire HE in the hopes of causing damage to some system. I'm still not clear about it though, since I haven't seen if the Syrian tanks switch to AP if they have a flank shot at an M1. If they don't then I suppose this is something that should be fixed. As far as the BMPs vs Strykers I think they should be hitting them with AP. For the record though the other day a BMP surprised my Stryker force from around a building (damn fog of war!) while the M1s were elsewhere, and promptly demolished two Strykers with their infantry still inside. But obviously since the BMP was on the opposing side I have no idea what kind of ammo it was using. Definately didn't use its missile though.

This was the best Shock Force battle I've ever played. I for some reason didn't experience any of these LOS problems at all. The Taliban on the reverse slope defended their position extremely well and I was very handicapped when it came to blowing them away with my Bradleys. Had to send in the infantry to do it and met many nasty surprises... but I don't want to spoil. I will say that this is the first SF battle I've played as the Americans where the outcome was in doubt. It was extremely bloody for the U.S. side (6 dead, 26 wounded, 1 APC destroyed, 3 damaged). There was a moment towards the end where I seriously considered withdrawing my forward elements and pulling back because the heat was too intense. Won a total victory because the Taliban surrendered finally. Anyway, great great work. I'm sad that other people can't enjoy it to its fullest potential due to technical difficulties. I had a freaking blast with your battle and look forward to trying it out again to minimize casualties. Taking those trenches was so bloody and fierce, I think it's given me post traumatic stress. I would like to comment though that I didn't use the dismounted infantry very much and I don't think you need them. I had one group of infantry that did all the fighting and another that stayed in back and basically watched. Can't really do much with dismounted infantry in a battle like this where you want to minimize losses, they take too many losses from MG fire in the open.

Um... am I slow or something? Where's the download link? :-P

So I applied the the new patch hoping this would be fixed but it's not. Ah well. I'm trying to take Ash Sammas in the second campaign mission you see, and the briefing says I can make a direct assault through the main gate (ha ha ha... no) or make my own breach (bingo). Naturally I'm trying to make my own breach. After blowing up a large section of the wall though with my Strykers the moment I try to send them in they stop, turn around, and in full view of every RPG in the city decide it would be better to drive to the main gate. Damn. Is there some work around? This is keeping me from fighting this battle. As it stands the only way to do this one is to -make- the direct assault and probably soak up horrendous casualties in the process.

Pfft, you guys are babies. "Never dismount infantry". Hogwash! Here's what I did. Carefully planned and timed this attack out before I did the battle and it worked like a charm. Set up the Abrams on the berms, on overwatch. I had them all move into the enemy's view simultaneously and they had no problem destroying the immobilized T55s. Strykers move down the highway with cover arcs, engaging targets at their whim. The Strykers loaded with infantry (1st Platoon) are sent to the middle of the map, directly in front of the target building but out of RPG range. Until the time hit 35 minutes I was suppressing and destroying targets with my M1s, Strykers, and targetting the trenches with 81s and 105s set to target personnel. The idea is to decimate primarily the infantry trenches on the left so they don't interfere with the rest of my plans. At 35:00 my Abrams target the two towers on other side of the white barracks inside the fortress. These buildings are destroyed. They target and damage every tall building inside the fortress with the exception of the two barracks facilities. At which point I have them blow three or four large holes in the walls just infront of the large white barracks structure. 33:00 all of my Strykers started pounding the white barracks facility. Abrams were on overwatch at this point, watching for Syrian armor reinforcements. The objective is to suppress the very real RPG threat as much as possible before the infantry goes in. 30:00 I start the main assault. The four Strykers carrying 1st PLT move in at fast speed, area firing their particular section of the wall that the infantry will go into. You need to work fast here, this is -the- most dangerous moment of the entire battle. I remove all area fire on the building once they get close enough, to limit friendly casualties, and let the AI target enemies on its own. So any Syrians on the upper floors who shoot at my men as they debus, the Stryker AIs will spot and shoot on their own. This they did to great effect. Infantry debus at close range and assault forward through the breaches while Strykers engage Syrians shooting at them. 1st Platoon made it in with minimal losses and cleared the building after some CQC. Here's where the improvising starts. The white facility is secure at about 23:00 or so, 1st Platoon inside takes up firing positions at the opposite window and begins engaging Syrians inside the compound. Infantry on the second floor, MG teams on the third. This produced intense fighting and more than one of my soldiers was killed or wounded by fire. All this time the 105s have been blasting the trenches on -both- sides of the compound. Now once 1st Platoon was engaged and suppressing the enemy inside the fortress I started the -main- assault. Leading with the Abrams, Strykers with the cannons right behind them, and 2nd Platoon with their Strykers right behind them, I attacked down the highway moving at relatively quick speed. No cover arcs, AI does a good job of spotting and shooting targets on its own. The armor and apcs burst the main gates, putting fire on everything that moves inside the fortress. Fast, fast, fast. That's the name of the game here. The Abrams and Strykers put fire on everything inside, and all fire on 1st Platoon practically ceases at this point. 2nd Platoon's Strykers take them up to the primary barracks facility at fast move right away, and they debus and attack under cover of smoke. The Syrians are pretty much overwhelmed by the attack at this point and are not capable of offering serious resistance. At about 15:00 they laid down arms and surrendered just as 2nd Platoon entered the main objective. All told, my casualties were 5 dead and 11 wounded. One Abrams was destroyed by a Syrian tank by a shot to its exposed side armor while it was on the berm. It burned up and the entire crew was killed or wounded. Also one of my forward observers was hit and probably killed by a shell off a T55 that had been aimed at my Abrams but missed. 2nd plt lost one guy in the attack on the main objective and an Abrams was immobilized by an RPG inside the fortress. The rest of the casualties were sustained by 1st Plt during its attack. Anyway, that's how I did it yesterday. I just can't stand the thought of -not- using my infantry.

Totensonntag is my favorite. It's a big one but it's extremely rewarding.

I've been rereading Gottlob Bidermann's In Deadly Combat memoir. I'm sure many, if not most, of you have read it. After Sevastopol, the Crimean divisions are driven to the opposite end of Russia and deployed on the Leningrad front. Bidermann makes it very plain he thinks this was beyond folly, and he goes so far as to suggest that -maybe- if the Crimean divisions had remained where they were, "anchoring the southern flank" the Sixth Army might not have been encircled and wiped out at Stalingrad. Now, I'm fairly skeptical of that assumption just because I know how mind blowingly powerful the Soviet counteroffensives at Stalingrad were and the psychological shock that Uranus and Little Saturn inflicted on Army Group south. But I'm no expert and since I know many of you are, I've decided to approach you all with this little tidbit because it does interest me. Now nothing is certain right? Bidermann doesn't say the Crimean divisions -would have- saved Stalingrad, I think he merely suggests that they could have been used to blunt the Soviet offensive and allowed the 6th Army to escape, or hold, or whatever. I'm just wondering how likely or how valid of an assumption you all think that is?

Meh, that's the point though I'd say. I can speak for myself that it's taken me -years- of play in order to count myself among the "veteran player" clique. When I was a newbie CMBO player it would've been wonderful to have a book detailing proper tactics for attacking fortified positions. Who knows how many thousands of pixel troops died needlessly in those insane human waves I used to launch? The strategy guide may have saved them.

Question: Was that a quick battle or a scenario? I've never had much friendly fire (but there is the occassional mishap) trouble with my air support, but I usually stick with scenarios. I hear air support is more erratic in QB's.

Just a bit of a suggestion: I think it would be a good idea for CMx2, especially the to-be released WW2 version, to include mouseholing. This is a historical tactic for urban warfare which was not possible in CMx1. For those who don't know what it is, this when troops use a bazooka/piat/panzershrek to blow a hole through an interior wall so they can enter the adjacent building without exposing themselves to fire by going out into the street. It was used quite extensively in Ortona.

The last post reminded me of a good one, but it happened to the opponent I was playing against and not me. You all will get a kick out of this one. We were in the middle of a very pitched engagement and the gun on one of my Tiger tanks was damaged. The Russians didn't know that though so I positioned it on a strategically important hill, which commanded the entire battlefield, just to discourage any Russian attempts to dislodge the forward observers I'd stationed there. So after long time my opponent finally notices that the Tiger hasn't fired and he correctly guesses that its gun is damaged, so he quick formulates a plan to attack. The Russians lay down a smoke screen so my machine guns can't fire at his massing infantry. All the while I'd been reinforced by a fresh Tiger platoon, and sent one of them up on the hill. The damaged Tiger reversed, and the fully equipped Tiger took its place. When the smoke cleared the Russian infantry, T-70's, and T-34's confidently began their advance... and were massacred. That's one of my more memorable moments in Combat Mission.

I've never seen artillery clear a minefield either actually. But then neither side in any of my games have ever really had an opportunity to try that. There's always so many more interesting targets for artillery.