Bahger

With default settings, the TOW2 demo CTDs after the tutorial mission looks ready to load. It just switches itself off and goes away. Frustrating. I have 2.8GHz on my vid card, not the required 3.0 but that has not been a deal-breaker in other games with the same min spec; I meet all the other min specs, if by the skin of my teeth. Can anyone advise?

...I should add that it kicked my butt the first time. I squandered the scout/recon team and did not recon for possible Red counterattack.

Well, thanks, Moon. I was part of the Steel Beasts scenario design team and discovered that there is something almost mysterious about a great, replayable scenario with a genuine tactical challenge to it. I reckon I nailed it one time out of ten. Well done!

Superb little tactical vignette, this, with unexpected random aspects encountered over three separate plays, including an occasional civilian spy, variable Red arty splash zones and variable Red dispositions on the hilltop. The terrain is terrific and both the timing of Blue reinforcements and the short overall duration of the mission force the player to balance speed of maneuver with force preservation very carefully. I enjoyed the challenge of using the .50-cals on the armored trucks to support infantry and I learned how to use a scout/sniper team. If all you have is a scout/sniper team, a 2-man HQ and a truck, engage from cover, preferably from a distance, sit tight, prepare to withdraw if necessary and do not attempt a hail-Mary assault. Wait for reinforcements before attempting to take ground. This mission also taught me to read the terrain and to cover approaches that might be used to counter-attack or reinforce Red positions. I was wondering who designed this short scenario and whether he has any more standalone missions I might try, either from the stock list or in the repository.

Thanks, gents!

As the title implies this is not a one-time thing: After setting the parameters for a Red vs Blue H2H QB online (RT), after setting up we start the battle to find the two forces all mixed up in the same setup zone, rendering the entire effort futile. Has anyone else experienced this? Any comments, ideas or remedies? Thanks, guys.

The navel jewelry looks functional, somehow, like you pull it and something interesting happens.

I think including reinforcements was the right call (even if I ignored them out of sheer FOW). Against any competent human opponent the original rifle platoons are required to secure the flanks. Tim, as Blue in the Marines module, there is no resupply from trucks; infantry gets to use only what it can carry.

No, sorry, the Dead have always passed me by. I'd be impressed if you managed to name a CMSF scenario after a Joy Division song.

This is one of the battles that comes with the Marines (sorry if I do not recall the exact title) in which Blue has to subdue uncon activity in a heavily defended town with two truck-mounted platoons, supporting MG and Jav teams and generous indirect support. My regular Sunday morning opponent is knowledgeable and a fierce opponent but it's great to be able to shoot the **** with a pal over voice comms (thanks SimHQ) while doing your best to kill him. It's a really well-balanced scenario and is sensibly timed at 55 minutes. I decided to make force preservation a priority and I did well in that respect but moved more slowly as a result. We went at each other on the flanks in the ouskirts of the objective village but, after using supporting fire very effectively and combining it with good tactical movement of my two infantry units, I never noticed the notification of reinforcements, so I just left them there and fought my way to a Uncon tactical victory! Great battle, though, treerific map, brief and balance. Thanks again, Mark.

When a company-sized force is widely dispersed -- such as being divided into three teams for a multi-axis assault on a large map -- I have some difficulty travelling back and forth across the map while maintaining tactical SA, especially if at least two teams are engaged. This applies to RT play, of course. I'm wondering which keys you all use to maximise speed of player travel across the map and instant re-orientation between units. For me, as I mouse around the map, it feels like cooking dinner with two saucepans going at one end of the house and two more at the other, with me travelling back and forth on roller skates! I'm not sure what the most efficient way is to switch between units, preserving previous orientation where possible, or whether there is a "last unit selected" key or other such shortcuts. I do not have access to the manual from my laptop and would appreciate advice from experienced players of larger-scale battles. Many thanks.

Ah, that's very helpful, many thanks. Now I won't leave them too far back.

Gents, I just downloaded the Marines module and started the Campaign. I have a few rather basic things to learn, I'm embarrassed to admit. Could anyone help me out with the following: - In a QB I found myself with 80% + foot-mobile only, including mortars. Should I expect to maneuver most of a "small" force of Marines by foot? - Mortars: Always foot-mobile? Do they need LOS to target? Yes, presumably. And what are their effective min and max ranges, please? - Sniper teams: They fire at will, which I found a little disconcerting in the first Campaign mission which is essentially stealthy. My guys appears to be lobbing M203s, too. Again, no big problem but is that what I should expect? Thanks in anticipation for all responses...

Duh! Many thanks.

Just installed Marines over 1.11 and now the splash screen says 1.10. So I reinstalled the 1.11 patch and when I started the game it was 1.11 with no sign of the Marines insignia. I know I must be missing something obvious; can anyone tell me why my Marines-enhanced CMSF does not appear to be v1.11? Many thanks.

Just as they would IRL. In the game, you need to be careful around all enemy battletanks, as unless you can either outrange them or have javs, it's a bad idea to expose any of your non-M1A1 vehicles to T-72s.

Hmm, I'm now very tempted. One important question: Is it the case that most decent user-made scenarios are now being done for the Marines module? This is a biggie for me.

Er, Mark...?

If I had time to play only the Marines Campaign or the "stock" campaign -- having so far given both of them a wide berth because of bugs and bad pathfinding -- which would you guys recommend? I do not yet own the Marines module and intend to get the Brits so the Marine Campaign would have to come highly recommended over the regular Campaign to justify the diversion.

I didn't get the Marines module after I heard that the Campaign was borked. I'm eager to get the Brit add-on, as I am an expat and have a buddy in London with deep professional knowledge of the OOB so there is a chance I might learn something playing -- and losing -- against him in TCP/IP games, now that they work. Having read the book and seen "Generation Kill" on TV, I'm curious about Marine ops and dubious that a recon team would be sent to take and hold a bridge in Iraq in nothing but Humvees, as happens in Generation Kill (a better book than it was a TV series, IMO). Maybe I'll buy CMSF Marines now that the Campaign appears to have been fixed in 1.11. Ou of curiosity, can anyone summarise the tactical/operational differences between US Army and Marines? I'm assuming Marines have a lot more CAS (Marine helos and AV8s, A-10s and F-18s) but how is this, and other key distinctions, modelled in the game and how do they affect tactics previously honed in the "regular" game?

OK, Mark, so I assume the best way to do that is simply to empty out my QB maps file before installing 1.11...

Before installing 1.11 I'm eager to get my QB files sorted. Unless 1.10 reinstated the original files -- and I do not believe it did -- my current QB file consists of a mixture of stock maps and Mark Ezra's excellent add-on maps that tended to play a lot better. Can anyone tell me, now that Mark appears to have had direct, official input into the QBs, how I might ensure that, when I install 1.11, my QB files are not hopelessly compromised? I want to avoid a situation where, in starting a QB, I might get either a "good" map or a leftover from previous versions. Obviously if 1.11 overwrites this file, there is no issue; if it doesn't, there is. Thanks, as ever, in anticipation.

Could someone give me a link or a name to search for this at CMMods, please? I'm doing QBs in both single- and multiplayer and would appreciate playing a well-tested battle.

Mark Ezra is your man. He's overhauling the QBs for 1.11. Certainly the scenarios are often asymmetrical, which some might say reflects reality, but for gameplay purposes I tend not to regard a QB as truly "won", playing as the US, unless I've played it well enough to achieve all objectives with minimal casualties. More than one toasted vehicle with KIAs is enough to ruin my day, as it would any r/l commander in this situation. Your point is well made, though, a well-balanced user-made scenario from a knowledgeable designer is a better challenge than most QBs. The TF Narwick campaign is very good, as are the two "Tactical Vignettes" (but I cannot remember if they come as stock or if I d/l-ed them).

In my experience, the only way to win this "ambush" scenario is to treat it as more of a prepared defense. A small-unit ambush in a built-up area against militia with RPGs would require more stealth and fire discipline than the game is designed to accomodate. As a prepared defense, the key is to hit the Red forces at long range as soon as they enter the map, holding them at arm's length and preventing them from getting the RPGs into cover so that the Strykers can be positioned (cautiously) to flank and form a pincer. It's not an ambush, really. If there is any risk of losing the initiative through bad cover or fire discipline (both of which are the AI's responsibility, not the player's in this situation) then it is simply not prudent to attempt an ambush. A bungled ambush becomes very bloody for those attempting it and, as I say, the AI is to blame here. A better approach to an ambush tutorial would be to allow the player to choose the exact site, placement of forces and intersecting fields of fire. Even then, there can be no stealth in CMSF; as soon as Blue spots Red, it's on, and it will be a prepared defense rather than a classic ambush with a well-defined kill-zone and strict fire discipline. Perhaps Battlefront might think about this?