sburke

I actually like this bunker idea for using as a rally point for squads that are in bad shape. They could get to rearm while also having some time away from the frontline to recover. Instead of considering them as fighting bunkers, they would be more the protected ammo dumps of the units in question. If you figure ammo supply is generally an issue to face in longer battles, then having a rear area rally point also makes some sense. In shorter battles it probably wouldn't come into play as much. I could certainly have used something like this in Hamel Vallee. As it is my only incentive for getting folks out of the front line is to give them a break. My few vehicles were too busy transporting reserves to have time to re supply the troops. They are also way too vulnerable.

Good example and kind of what I am worried about. The audio is simply a sound file. I could rename a 105mm file and make a 75 mm sound the same with no actual change on the effect. I suspect but have no real info that the visual graphic may be similar. The game knows hard coded what to do with a weapon and effect, but the audio/visual presentation is simply a file that is not hard coded (thankfully as the modders would then be unable to do anything). One would think the base files would try to give a visual commensurate with the intended physical affect, but once it starts getting modded that becomes simply a personal preference of what looks good to you. It could also be that BFC figured, heck you can't depict every piece of shrapnel so the fudge factor could be quite a bit larger to simply say "make it look good". That could make using the graphical representation as an indicator a flawed tool to start with. Not saying it is, just that I am not sure that using it is really "scientific". Still cool pics anyway. I especially liked them arcing past one another in mid air.

One question. There is a modded graphic to depict the effect of a weapon. However is that depiction accurate, or just a depiction. Could I for example create a mod showing an even larger blast? I don't mod, so I have no idea. I just am not sure that the graphical representation of explosions actually has anything to do with the actual effect.

Nah it's "CM Depends", so you you don't have to choose between that critical moment and that er critical moment...

Back in 1942 John "lightning" Williams an up and coming player being recruited for the Yankees was inducted into the draft. The Yankee's contention that the US gov't wasn't even a baseball team and was therefore ineligible for draft picks was unceremoniously tossed out of court. The young player ended up in Normandy with the 35th ID and participated in the Battle of Hamel Vallee. We take you now to the Armed Forces Network transcripts of that day..... Chris: man one thing you gotta say for those damn war bonds commercials, they certainly give you time to go take a .." Jim: Whoa Chris, okay we're back on the air and a beautiful day here in the park at Hamel. Lightning Williams is up on the mound earnestly studying the plate apparently unruffled by the opponents taunting him over the size of his "grenades". He grips the spoon.... he's pulling the pin...... What do you think here Chris. Is this his kind of game? Chris: Well you know Jim, lightning is known for his precision fastball, but looking at the hedgerow, I don't think that is going to help him today. Jim: Yeah we've seen a few just bounce right off, this really isn't a fastball situation it would seem. oh, there goes the windup and it.. oh wait! That's no fast ball! What is that Chris? Chris: Wow Jim, that looks like..wow, you know it's a little know fact that lightning used to play that game called I think umm what is it, oh yeah basketball. Jim:Well whatever it is the guys in the field are going wild, but that doesn't look regulation to me, can we get a mike down there on the field and hear the refs ruling? Talking head down on the field: Ref, ref, it seems the taunting from the opposing players has stopped, but are they going to call foul? Ref:One moment we're trying to decide that (sticks head through hedgerow opening) eeewwwwwwwww Out! The bouncing ball what do you call this in cricket? That's gonna leave a mark

LOL you are such a tease. Glad to hear it is about CMBN, I am too busy still trying to digest it to consider much else.

In my case a non surrendering unit from the same team was within an action square or two. I don't recall what killed them, grenades or small arms fire. Perhaps there is some gray area in the process of surrender. In our Hamal battle I was able to recover one unit trying to surrender. Not sure how much good that unit will be the rest of the battle, but he isn't being sent back to HQ to answer for it.

My first battle agaisnt the AI when CM first came out I has trapped a German squad in a field with the exception of one guy on the other side of a hedgerow. The rest of his squad was on their knees hands in the air. They were all dead moments later as my squad cut loose on their buddy behind them. I was horrified for a half second till I'd realized what had happened. Oh my god, my guys just shot prisoners!!!

Yeah I'd like that about now too, only can we have it in CMSF first..like now?

It also resolves the uber tank crew issue, I didn't realize it was Telly Savalas!! Now it makes sense!

Couple things, and thanks for the shots. very intriguing. First item in relation to another thread, it is interesting to note the tank is not exhibiting any uber spotting, your guys managed to get close with PFs. Hats off to you, ballsy and overall successful. 2nd item, there is clearly no suppression. 3rd the unit is green and has no c2 so it could simply be an informational gap to you and perhaps the spotting cycle folks have mentioned. As to the uber crew. Honestly I would THINK they should be in worse state, but there could be some additional factors. What is the experience level of the crew? What is the damage level of the vehicle when they bailed? Before I say this is definitely wrong, there is simply a number of variables still unknown that could influence the sequence and make something normally improbable into something slightly possible. Once possible at all, the probability that it will happen to you at the worst moment automatically applies according to Murphy's law.

Interesting analysis. The odds are likely better than 1-7 as well. If you figure 3 of those are facing the forward arc, they might concentrate on the other 5. If you figure the angles likely have overlap then your odds of being spotted proportionally increase. Having no combat experience however or even real exposure to the vision blocks in a tank I'll have to put my hand up and say, I haven't clue. Are they very good for spotting someone in close or is the a limit due to vehicle height that you can only see something outside a certain radius? Is that even modelled? ahh heck with it, the Shreck has great range, all hail the Shreck.

Or you could just email/IM them and we use that coding time for something else.

I think we have all seen one too many movie of a tank driving over a jeep, or just shoving it's way past a roadblock. Losing a track is serious business in the middle of a battle and not something to risk lightly. Hell I avoid fences and walls just to optimize the odds that my tank won't suddenly be immobilized by a glancing hit just because it has already acquired damage to take a short cut.

Honestly I have 4 PBEM opponents right now and haven't had a battle vs the AI in a bit. However the TAC AI routines as I understand it are the same for the AI as they are for a human. Again I think there are things you can do to increase your odds. Tanks can be suppressed, the TC should not be allowed to sit up there observing. Smoke is your friend, intervening obstacles to LOS be it terrain buildings etc can be critical. I may be singing to the choir and all, but again I have lost my fear of armor (except of course when some designer only gives me short range PF... at least they made up for it with the Tigers ) Suppress the supporting infantry, harass the tank to keep it pre occupied and be patient. If the weapons you are using are close assault (demo or PF) well that's a different story. Close assaulting a tank is deadly business and something I do my utmost to avoid.

The short answer with no qualifying statements or concerns about what all else might be going on, no. On the other hand, my AT teams are killing a lot of tanks. How close are you trying to get? The Shreck is your friend. The Shreck is the private nightmare of all tankers. All hail the Shreck. Also when CMBN came out folks cried long and hard about units firing on tanks and giving away their position. In Hamel Vallee I let my units take any shots they wanted at the exposed TCs, all power to em. Amazing how disruptive it can be for armored support when those TCs start getting popped. I think Broadsword will back me up here, tanks fighting in constricted terrain where there is a lot of firing, dust, smoke etc are very very vulnerable. The first allied casualty I was able to see in Hamel Vallee was a TC, very fitting considering the nature of our battle.

In future screen shots it might be good to focus on the unit in question. A shot just before they take out the tank and right after may give an indication as to their state. If severely rattled it would have a huge impact on how they behave. The fact that they might not have been providing you info on the enemy creates some suspicion that their morale state might have been really really bad. As it is the unit info panel is simply blank. At this point it is all conjecture. btw my answer to the concern about "rambo tank crews", keep hitting the tank as they exit and make sure there are no survivors . More on that in the Hamel Vallee AAR.

IIRC Larry Bond put out one called Cauldron where France and Germany and up at war with the US, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. A significant part of the book was taken up by the modern "Polish Campaign". And oh yeah, great album! It's on my iPod.

That's a thought. We wanted to be more interactive, but are beginning to think this may go on a bit. I'll broach the idea, but y'all gotta promise not to comment in either of our threads about what goes on in the other.

Give us time PT. Despite some complaints about the money value in CW, there is a ton of material most of us are still digesting, hell I haven't vene gone through all of the base game.

I can't speak to knowing one way or the other, but I have some suspicions that the state of the unit does impact what info you get from it. I just had a team in my battle with JonS come under fire from a tank on the other side of the wall, suddenly the tank disappears (though my guy had not gone prone and there was no smoke). My suspicion is he was in such a rattled state that I was not going to get any more intel from him. Whether that is germaine to the OP's incident I do not know.

I am expecting Broadsword's review will actually provide more intel than I have so I'll be avoiding this thread until we are ready to really go into the battle. As it is we are at the 1 hour mark and the Americans have kicked off another attack. Actually two, one straight into the center crossroads again and another towards my right flank. For the moment the right flank is primarily a heavy artillery barrage while the units are forming up, but one of my snipers has already taken out a TC at a pretty good clip. This is the same sniper discussed in another thread that help stamp out an American recon unit.

Forgive me if this is just a dumb question, but I don't do any programming of this type (if you want to talk least cost routing globally on a VoIP system with tail end hop off, now then I might be your guy). Is this a basic drawing of how it would work and if so is the coding of it to create that effect that simple? We know how difficult pathing issues can already be and my initial reaction is you have now multiplied those difficulties significantly. Right now I can click on a squad, hover the mouse over where I want them to move to and the action spots will highlight so I have some idea that they will line up behind a hedgerow. I can generally assume they will all follow the same path to get there. (with some of the inherent problems that will create (bunching up etc). If the paths are now auto generated I have to worry, okay is one team going to swing wide, going to the left side of that obstacle and right into line of fire? I realize for a lot of gamers this type of group pathing would simplify things for them and make for a lot faster game in effect. My way of dealing with this is I simply split my squads into teams. I can independently path them, with each having it's own pause, covered arc etc. CM allows you to give really fine tuned orders, this to me seems to want to take that and make the AI do that work and for the AI to do it as well as I already can is not going to be as simple as this. That being said, for those who want simpler AI so they can command larger units and not micro manage them, this might be of interest. For me it feels more like dumbing down CM to faciliate scale. Then again everybody plays it different. I just still don't think this is as simple as presented nor that the side effects in behavior won't create their own issues.* *from someone who really has no idea so don't put much weight to this.

We would, but then our tank would rock disturbing our sleep.

Yeah I think the way it applies for my guys is, they hear the panicked tone of the pltn leader and know they better send help.