Fizou

Yes, I thought long and hard about deployment and the terrain I had in front of me. Its very special to attack down hill and then up hill, and then have to retreat through the same terrain again. Thanks for the feedback. I´ll make sure to remember it when I put up more pics

The response the the Axis movement, is the Allied defensive fire. This is my chance to hinder the enemy's plans for assaults. Can I cause disruption to his units? Can I disable his artillery? Etc.. My defensive fire actions are shown below.. Only the actions that caused any damage to the enemy though.. I have used white letters to indicate where the different units are located in the images. The Italian Costal Defense unit that was able to hold of my assault takes 6 casualties. 3 casualties from 105 mm guns firing over long distance, open sights. And 3 casualties inflicted by the US Inf Bn on the other side of the stream More good news as my paratroopers are able to destroy one enemy gun from a battery that was firing on my Rangers in the battle that was just finished in this AAR. I hope to be able to assault them next turn and finish them off for good. One less gun to worry about during the next set of CM assaults.. Closer to Ribera, more paratroopers target another battery of Italian guns. They don't take out any of the guns but they are able to disrupt the battery. I think this means they wont be able to put out fire during their offensive fire turn, I will at least not be as effective. My airborne are ready to assault this battery and silence it, as well as taking the bridge and the important VL that covers the entrance to Ribera. My Airborne held up in northern Ribera cause 4 casualties to the PzGren as they move up, ready to assault. Finally my Rangers cause 6 casualties to the PzGren that they where in combat with just recently. We are sure to see a German counterattack here.. Next up.. the Axis offensive fire, before their assault phase..

The initiative is now in the hands of the Axis. Their movement phase is followed by my defensive fire phase. After that the axis have their combined offensive fire and assault phase. Then this operational turn is concluded. Below is an image of the Axis movement this turn. I have tried to indicate their advance/movement with red arrows. I have also assigned letters to the units moving (the once I have observed.) Down by the coast, unit A. A small costal defense unit, that was engaged earlier this morning is moving away from the front (It tried to hit a glider pack howitzer unit on the move, but was fended of as some airborne infantry was able to join in as reinforcements). Probably to link up with the German units moving down the coast. Possibly hit my Rangers in the flank. Further up the coast, unit B. A Italian Divisional HQ - 202nd Costal defense (shown by the two XX on its box) is moving down, dangerously close to the front. Inland, the Germans are moving down more reinforcements towards the VL in the town Ribera. Unit C. What seems to be more motorized PzGrenadiers from the 15th Panzergrenadier division are now in a flanking position just north of my airborne units held up in the northern parts of Ribera. To the Airbornes soutwest there are two Coys of Italian Blackshirts and Engineers. I smell a pending assault here... . The Airborne here have been previously engaged against the Italian units to its Soutwest earlier this morning. They conducted a fighting withdrawal against the superior numbers of the Italians. Unit D, more Pack 40, 75 mm ATG are moving down from the north.

Thanks Rankorian! Im sorry to say that I don't believe I'm the superior CM player/tactician. I think the enemy commander was totally thrown off and thought my intention was an all out attack to take the hex. When he found out my force wasn't bigger than it actually was and that it was more of a hit and run attack it was to late to counterattack effectively. I'm sure the Axis team will make us pay during the next operational turn. Anyways.. this one of the elements that make this type of play so exciting. Happy we are on the same page ----------------------------------------- So after the CM battles have been concluded both sides have updated their OOBs in PzC. After this its time for me to finish my assault phase on the hexes that the axis didn't want to play out in CM, and also the hex where I destroyed the entire enemy force. Assaulted hex is marked by a small red and white bulls eye. Assaulting unit is underlined with a white line. Assaulted unit is underlined with a red line. Assault 1. Hex 17:14 - A small unit XX strong of Italian Costal defense Infantry are attacked by a big combined US force. The axis team didn't want to fight this battle in CM (which I understand) therefore the Italian unit has its PzC defense value lowered to 4 (from 16). The allies take the hex, without any casualties, destroying the enemy unit. Enemy unit consisting of 35 men is now removed from play all together. Assault 2. Hex 19:13 - A Coy sized (XXX men) Italian Costal defense Infantry unit is attacked by a US Battalion over a stream. Im not sure why the Axis team didn't want to fight this battle in CM. Because of that, the Italian unit has its PzC defense value lowered to 4 (from 16.) The Italians take 5 casualties but holds the hex. My US Bn was in travel formation and attacking over a stream, condition was far from optimal. Their attack was halted and they take 4 casualties in the process. Even worse is the fact that the Bn´s morale is lowered and that its now disrupted. I will have to make smarter decisions when it comes to future assaults. This Italian Coy will continue to be a thorn in my side.. Assault 3. Hex 20:8 - A Italian armored car unit was destroyed during the CM battle fought here. The Italians where attacked by a small unit of Stuart tanks and two units of paratroopers. As the Axis force was totally destroyed during the CM battle, their headcount is reduced to zero as well as their defense value. The US assault to take the hex. The US units take the hex and the Italian unit is removed from play all together. Next up is the Axis movement phase...

Outstanding work as always Aris. That M10 is breathtaking! Have you considered giving the Grille some love? Id love to see that anyways

Yes you do. Without the artifical return there is no benefit for the player (other than collecting weapons and ammo). A casualty whether its a KIA or WIA wont benefit you as they are all casualties. The artifical return creates an incentive other than collecting weapons and ammo to care for fallen soldiers.

Yes it does because the artificial return is 25% bigger for the player that uses buddy aid by fact of the mechanical return forced by CM itself. Thats the incentive to use buddy aid. What I have been saying all along. I dont understand what you are missing in the equation. You need the artifical return to create the incentive in the first place. Both players get it but it will be higher for the players that in fact conduct buddy aid.

What was their starting defense value?

Thats another idea. I will talk it over with Kuderian. It might be so that lower defense values will have units destroyed to easily? What have you been using for your scout cars in that Bulge campaign?

Understanding basic math is all they need. Using buddy aid as opposed to not doing so will give you results, on average 25% better based on the game mechanics. The artificial 25% return is needed as CM doesn't reward you in any way other than to get equipment and ammo when playing the way we do in CMPzC (lots of single battles that don't track objectives other than "exit"). I'm not sure if you misunderstand that there are two "25%" at work here. Artificial 25% "return" to both players of their WIA - red based soldiers. Applied by the players. Mechanical 25% better yield for using buddy aid. Applied by CM itself. Tracking if a player conduct buddy aid is not a good idea IMO. It brings in a whole new level of administration that is not needed. The AAR screen tells you all you need to know and its not possible to cheat (regarding cheating, however, I believe that playing campaigns in this manner needs trust and players that are not only in it to win).

IMO BFC should keep doing what they are doing. I like the new model that gives us gamers the option to keep older titles "new" with upgrades and to add new content with modules. The pricing is not to step its closer to cheap IMO (the dollar being weak right now might have a bit to do with that).

Yes it does. I have been over this a few times now. The player that does conduct buddy aid will get a 25% higher yield on average compared to his opponent who doesn't conduct buddy aid - as the latter´s red based soldiers stand a chance to become KIA at end screen. How does that not encourage a player to conduct buddy aid if he wants to keep his casualties as low as possible?

Good ideas noob. I have been doing some testing also. They way we have been handling situation like this before. 1. The attacker declares all his assault. 2. The defender decides which battles he wants to fight in CM 3. All battles that the defender doesn't want to fight in CM are seen as victories for the attacker, destroying the defending force. PzC assault used against defender with 0 headcount and 0 defense. I was not to happy about this as the results was a bit boring and some smaller units didn't really have a role to play. I have proposed to Kuderian that we instead use a set defense value of 4 for a unit that the defender doesn't want to fight in CM with its headcount unchanged. This will give the attacker a victory, it will give heavy casualties to the defender. The attacker might take some light casualties and will most likely take the attacked hex. But if attacking a prepared position and being in travel formation will also affect the result. This will result in a more tactical rich environment as blocking forces/delay forces have a better role to play. But the CM action will still be favored. I like it. Another thing, regarding assaults. As units in travel formation can assault in PzC we do allow this in CM as well. Units has to be in travel formation to assault over a bridge as an example. We do however severely restrict the deployment zone for an attacker/defender that is in travel formation. With the exception for attacking over a bridge.

From the AAR screen: 11 KIA 9 WIA As we have a rule that states that after a battle, 25% of WIA are returned (only perceived as very light wounds, and to encourage buddy aid) I will get, 9*0.25= 2.25 = 2 men back. This figure is always rounded down to a whole number. The Germans in this example would get 9 men back from their WIA. I will the have 18 casualties to remove from my PzC OOB. Units that took part in the battle: 47 men G/3rd Rangers 58 men H/3rd Rangers 60 men I/3rd Rangers (Low ammo) I/3rd Rangers have low ammo and a bit lower morale than the other two units. Hence I will track its casualties in the CM battle separate from the casualties sustained by the other two units. I decide to allocate the two wounded that are returned from the WIA directly to I/3rd Rangers. They suffered 5 casualties, and with the two returned that means I need to remove three from the OOB. I consequently also remove 5 men from G/rd Rangers and 10 men from H/rd Rangers. Here I have to be careful as these units has already taken damage in PzC. I need to keep this in mind when I edit the OOB. I have mentioned this in earlier posts as well. If a unit of 60 men takes 2 casualties to artillery fire in a PzC scenario, I open the editor to check them out, they will still be listed as 60 men. The casualties taken in PzC therefore have to be taken into account when the OOB is edited. Otherwise, if said unit would enter a CM battle and take another 2 casualties there. The editor would say 60 men. If I edit it to 58 it would only let the casualties taken in PzC be calculated, the casualties taken in the CM action wouldn't show. I would therefore have to put in 56 to get the correct number. I track down the units in PzC OOB and edit them accordingly The units now look like this, transformed from left to right after the battle: Not that the headcount says 100% after I have edited them, this is caused by PzC when headcount is edited in the middle of a battle. As my units didn't exit the battle prematurely or took 20% or more casualties, I wont edit their morale. I send the OOB file over to my opponent so he can take part of my edited numbers, as well as put his own numbers in. When this is done I will conduct PzC assaults on the units that I declared assaults on but he didn't which to fight in CM. Thats coming up next.. @noob: thanks for posting that. I will reply in you rules thread.

Thanks for the details akd. I have another question regarding number sequence. Is it always in the order 0, 1, 2 etc. Or does it sometimes start at 1 or 2? Im not only talking about sounds, but also uniforms, other skins and force specific backgrounds etc. Reason I ask is I think Ive heard that if you dont do the sequence right, the mods wont load.

The battle is over.. the campaign far from it. I have suffered 20 casualties during this battle. The Germans on the other hand, have suffered 62 as well as losing a Grille and a 75 mm IG. This must be seen as a success for the Rangers. I'm happy with the result. Next on hand is the transferal of information from the CM AAR to the PzC OOB as well as concluding the Allied PzC assault turn. After this its the Axis movement phase in PzC.

Great . Happy to see noobs CMPzC spread to diffrent "theatres". Will follow with great intrest.

Not sure I said that. Never meant it anyways. But english is not my first language so there is some room for confusion . Sorry about that.

And as always.. if you dont find the perticular module interesting enough. Dont buy it! Im very mutch lookingforward to MG myself.

They don't have to do it any time. They still get 25% of WIA back. We perceive 25% of WIA to be so lightly wounded that they are able to get back in the fight in the next battle. If one player gives buddy aid and the other doesn't the first player will get a 25% better yield than the other player. There you have the incentive. Its all run by the game so no need to keep track of how many time you conducted buddy aid. Minimum administration is achieved. As you only do the one of calculation after the battle. The goal is to get the player do conduct buddy aid in all cases when he can and there is an incentive for that. Your idea needs more administration as you need to keep actual track of the times you conduct buddy aid. A player needs to conduct buddy aid when ever he can to keep his return as high as possible.

You've been missed Mord. Great to have you back Yeah, flamethrowers, the weapon system that was used in such a great extent that the game cant be played without them to depict anything with any realism. Neither will it be any fun. Jesus... Flamethrowers are present in CMx1 so why dont you buy that series until they make their entry in CMx2? Or better yet, COD or some such FPS if flamethrowers is such a fundamental part for you..

Yes thats right.

Man I cant wait! Looking forward to put a Tiger II (H) and a Tiger II (P) beside each other just to marvel at the gorgeous models

Buddy aid effectivenes is not in the equation. The deduction of the WIA pool has to be done manually or there is no incentive for the player to conduct it other than to collect weapons and ammo. Weather a man is a KIA or WIA without this rule has no impact on the game at all.

Yes, but your return would be 25% lower if you dont as on averarge, 25% of your red based WIA would turn into KIA as the battle ends.