Childress

How critical, really, is a robust FPS rate when playing WEGO on a typical map? Realtime's another matter.

Wikipedia: The German squad had two main formations while moving on the battlefield. When advancing in the Reihe, or single file, formation, the commander took the lead, followed by the machine gunner and his assistants, then riflemen, with the assistant squad commander moving on the rear. The Reihe moved mostly on tracks and it presented a small target on the front. In some cases, the machinegun could be deployed while the rest of the squad held back. In most cases, the soldiers took advantage of the terrain, keeping behind contours and cover, and running out into the open when there were none to be found. A Reihe could easily be formed into Schützenkette, or skirmish line. The machinegun deployed on the spot, while riflemen came up on the right, left or both sides. The result was a ragged line with men about five paces apart, taking cover whenever available. In areas where resistance was serious, the squad executed "fire and movement". This was used either with the entire squad, or the machinegun team down while riflemen advanced. Commanders were often cautioned not to fire the machinegun until forced to do so by enemy fire. The object of the firefight was to not necessarily to destroy the enemy, but Niederkämpfen - to beat down, silence, or neutralize them.

True, in the archival photos they always seem to be moving up Indian style. The most useful reason for resorting to a spread formation is scouting. Which the pixeltroops already do, after a fashion, in CM when using Hunt.

Right. Have you noticed that foreign posters, with the the widest and most idiomatic vocabulary, tend preface their rants with an apology for their English? Well done, beelzeboss. Or did you mean Beelzebub?

No Napoleonic-style infantry squares for the MG module and no sale. What has it been? Twelve years? I've had it with you guys.

You can do that now, sort of, with multiple waypoints. the troops form up and spread out at each one. Slow, yes, but probably like the real thing- if it commonly happened. My problem is with :"never mind the infernal din and flying lead, conscripts, re-assume the Arrowhead formation when I tap my baton three times on the leftenant's helmet!" Edit: I really resent paying for the 'upgrade'.

Did WW2 infantry *really* use formations? Other than, perhaps, 'line abreast'?

Steve hints as 'sooner'. Likely bundled for CMBN only with the hotfix(?) for the 2.0 deployment bug. CMFI, no idea.

LOL, lighten up, RH. It's Christmas.

No worries, mate. We used a Blur filter.

Only early in the morning.

There's a beta out there- somewhere- on the internet with a military theme + Walkers that might fit your bill: 'Night of the Unsuppressed'. JasonC reportedly didn't dig it but I found the game pretty cool. My only beef was that the Bitten/Infected ratio was out of kilter.

Sure! The older the better, Michael. Once you've given pumpkin pie the time to solidify and develop that firm, cadaverous texture, well, you never go back.

Please send any donations to my Paypal account. Link to follow.

A picture(s) is(are) worth a thousand words! It occurs in every type of terrain. To mortar teams, as well. Just give a Deploy order at the end of your weapon's team move and your good to go. In my experience.

Ahh, that's touching, Jon.

Mass surrenders are especially common when a 1st world citizen army colliides with a 3rd world military. You get white flags by the hecatomb. Herding captives impact operations significantly. That dimension was lacking in CMSF where it was especially needed. But we can agree that capitulations en masse, being complex and situational, are really, really hard to program. BF might consider re-introducing Routing routines. Routing is present in the manual as a feature, but not implemented. A good way to remove shaken, low experience, low motivated troops from the player's control and get them off the chess board.

I admire your spunk! I believe a case can be built for both approaches.

Good points, YD. A proper mass surrender routine would require a super computer or the hiring of a programmer proficient in fuzzy logic. I seem to recall CM1 stopping a scenario if the losses exceeded a given threshold on one side. Not so in CM2. (I think)

The argument seems to be: when does the game take the unit away from the player? Those who request Suppression are really asking for more inaccessible units. Steve's saying: go ahead and send that wavering, depleted platoon into the fray. If the KIAs mount up you have no one to blame but yourself.

Somebody kill me, please.

You're a marriage counselor?

Are you sure about that? Even with diligent buddy aid the figures still don't add up, imo. And doesn't help the retreating defending force. I believe there's case to be made for the super long reach rifle theory. This phenomenon is obscured in CMBN with the claustrophobic ranges but is readily apparent in CMFI.

I brought this topic up a few weeks ago. JonS countered that, in a addition to the 'point of the spear' effect, the final K/W tally excludes the all the scrapes, sprains, battle fatigue, trench foot, rope burns, stubbed toes, headaches and hang nails that were commonly rolled into the Wounded column back then. I dunno. What we may be seeing are troops firing away with abandon when they should be cowering on the ground suppressed or routing off the board. Another theory is that carbines (not MGs) are too deadly at range, registering an excessive number of Hits, in particular, Kills.

Don't think that's BF's M.O. All the difficulty levels except Basic Training correlate with spotting and the treating of wounded . 'Suppression sliders' sound like something hellishly difficult to get right. Also, nobody on this forum wants to play with training wheels. CMFI and CMBN, including modules and 'packs', come out to, what, eight+ releases? They're at #3. If they're going to make significant adjustments now's the time to start. Is it a question of plugging variables onto a master spreadsheet? Or is it more organic? Who knows? You may have noted that Steve hasn't debated game mechanics in years. He's wised up.