mutait

I haven't seen anyone else note this, so maybe it's just me, but most times (every time?) I am playing a QB as Axis and do a map preview, I get switched to Allies when the battle begins. This happens pretty reliably for me regardless of QB settings.

It's both in the main menu and in the game. It happens on a small map with one AI player. No biggee. I found the music off setting in game.

I'm experiencing a lot of stuttering in the audio (the music), a problem I didn't have at all with the demo. I just wanted to check if anyone knew any solution before I go through the hassle of un / reinstalling, un / relicensing.

Sorry, I probably overstated my problem with the original quick battles and CMSF in general in my earlier post. I didn't mean to make it sound like I was maligning BF or the Beta-testers (I actually wrote a pretty favorable review of CMSF in Armchair Empire a few months ago.) I should have just thanked the crafters of the new quick battles for making the game that much better and left it at that. To be honest, many of my initial problems with the quick battles (pathfinding, enemy AI weirdness, crawl of death) have been mostly or completely remedied by patches. I'm just a little sentimental about the random battles of yore in the WWII CM's. (And yeah, I know that kind of thing isn't possible with the new engine -- no problem.)

I just wanted to add my quick thanks to MarkEzra and Mishga and the rest. Your quick battle maps have saved the game for me. (I was about to shelve it at least until 1.04 came out.) I've always been a CM quick battle / random battle fan, but the lack of variety and poor design (sorry, BF) of the original CMSF maps really disappointed me. Even the lack of choice in force composition doesn't bother me as much now -- in fact it's kind of fun to put all settings on random and just go with it. I appreciate your hard work, people, and look forward to what comes next. JT

I third it. I enjoyed my first stab at the game but shared a lot of the frustrations people have talked about endlessly here (I'll spare you my own list). So I decided to put TOW on hold until the patch comes out, and unfortunately, since then have found that my interest in the game and its future has been steadily waning. I'm already moving on to new games and less concerned if the eventual patch gets it right. Judging from the decreased traffic in this forum, I think I'm not alone. So there might be a practical reason for BF to get out a Beta soon and keep the game's interest / momentum going. It's a really fun and innovative game with great potential, and I'd hate if it died on the vine. I know BF are in an unenviable situation here, faced with lots of impatience and high (ie. unreasonable) expectations, but do I think it's in there interest to make TOW a viable long term title and not just something to tide people over until Shock Force hits. Just my 2 cents.

Thanks a lot, Orion. I'll give it a try. Really smart. I didn't think about forcing the AI to advance its tanks into the waiting infantry AT. And your sequence makes more sense that what I've tried. I'm enjoying TOW overall, but one gripe I have is that so many of the missions seem to depend on a very specific sequence of actions. It's a lot more like a puzzle game than Combat Mission, for instance. That can be fun at times, but I do miss the more free play of CM, where you could succeed in a number of different ways or make a few mistakes early on and still make enough smart decisions thereafter to pull it out of the fire. And yeah, Wolfseven, I agree that no sane WWII commander would try an advance this without lots of smoke. Even then, it's a questionable call. I'd think an actual probing force would take one gander into that valley and sit back to wait for reinforcements. But I've started to view TOW as something of an alternate reality WWII game where daring / stupid actions are the norm.

Anyone have suggestions for St. Lo (Allied Campaign)? I've tried five or six different strategies (flanking right, flanking left, rush, long distance shootout) and nothing works. No matter how I shell the AT emplacements, I'm lucky if I can knock out one or two, and the rest easily cut my armor to pieces when I try to move them down into the valley. Air support is useless. And even if I get a toehold, the big pack of panthers and other nasties shows up to counterattack between the two hills before my reinforcements arrive. Good lord. Is there some obvious strategy or trick that I'm missing?