Ch53dVet

You could also go to youtube and look at the "Combat Mission: Black Sea Training Videos" by "ChrisND" That basically covers a lot of information regarding the "How do I do this?", or, "How does this work?" elements of the game, those video's, cover the Game 3 engine; the game 4 engine changes to the game 3 engine are shown in your demos "Game Engine 4.0" pdf file. There is nothing major in 4.0 that makes you unlearn or learn between the two. The differences between the two games (CM:Black Sea & CM:Shock Force 2) are the time period's and relevant equipment of the time period's. The Black Sea game has been upgraded to 4.0, the game play and the mechanics, for both games, remain the same.

It's, really, no big deal, for me. I just noticed it and thought it was out of the norm, hell... when a full team has a decent supply of grenades they hang on to them like they were "Faberge" eggs and never throw them (that much) during a close quarters fight.

Man, I wish there was a way to do that, it's ridiculous, atm, the sniper always shoots first, misses 99.9% of the time, then his spotter and the rest of team goes full auto, including launching grenades, if included in the team, which compromises their position and instantly they become bullet and rpg magnets, 90% of the time the lead sniper gets killed.the rest of his team flees the scene. Just check out the snipers kill record at the end of a campaign, that is, if they make it that far, 3 or more kills per campaign is a rare number for my play time.

Single Battle Scenario: NATO: All Flights are delayed SF2 During the setup phase, I split away the anti-tank teams from the 1st and 2nd squad (2 men per team), prior, to the split up, the 1st and 2nd squads, originally, had 14 hand grenades, each (28), after the split, the parent squads were now left with 1 hand grenade, each, leaving the, newly, formed, anti-tank team's with 26 hand grenades,13 for each 2 man team.

You left out the one important detail that always trumps the planning and timed execution to achieve the desired end result. The first 1-5 minutes of the Operations kickoff requires a whole new set of planning, timed execution and less than desired end results. wash, rinse, re-wash, re-rinse, buy new clothes!!!

One of the strange things I noticed in my sandbox experiments while trying to effectively create a quick and safe passageway through a mine field with the use of heavy ordinance. It kind of cheapens my expectations of not knowing if the target was hit or missed until after the smoke cleared. But, when using arty on a (marked) mine field and if the current salvo of incoming shells are computed to be 100% on target to destroy the marked mine field, the yellow flag of the marked mine field will turn green, a second or two after the salvo is fired, ruining my expectation of viewing a random hit or miss. Now..., here's the real kicker, If the salvo is 30 to 45 seconds away before target impact and the turn ends in less than 30 seconds before the first shells arrive, you've just been given a visual glimpse of the targets future. With this knowledge (exploit, if you will) you've been handed the ability to prematurely cease fire your artillery and save unnecessary rounds from being wasted on an already, soon to be, destroyed target. So..., with this knowledge in hand, after, the turn officially ends, you cease fire your artillery battery, then, you start the next turn, you rejoice as you watch your premonition come true. First, you hear the cease fire order go through the commo link, Secondly, the salvo, held in limbo, gets released and destroys the target, nothing else happens and the turn ends. Now..., if your visual premonition hadn't appeared, You would've started the next turn, watched the target get destroyed, then wait for the turn to end so you can cease fire the battery, however, with 30 seconds left in the turn, the veteran crew, speedily, reload all 6 155mm tubes, in record time, with their, dwindling, limited supply of HE ammo, the impressed battery commander boldly issues the fire command (LOOSE) and all six guns roar to life with just 10 seconds left in the game turn. Ten seconds later the turn ends, during the suspension of time, you issue the cease fire command that immediately goes active up and over the commo link as soon as you unsuspended the halting of time, you hear the order repeated and the battery stands down, then you watch your wasted salvo hit or miss the already destroyed target or, worse, you watch in horror as some of the errant shrapnel strikes your troops 100 meters away from the target area. Also, the same thing happens if your using Airpower to strike a marked mine field When using Airpower (F-16 fighter bomber) when the pilot says he is in the "pop", or, he's "30 second to release" and the turn is about to end before the expected release, the target marked mines yellow flag will turn green, indicating the future bomb will destroy the target. Do to the lack of time I didn't get a chance to see if aborting the airstrike prior to starting the next turn would revert the flag to yellow because the bomb didn't have time to release prior to the turn ending, or, if the flag would stay green, thus, giving me a cleared mine field w/o dropping a bomb, thus, giving me an extra bomb to hit another target. When I get the extra time I'll follow up on it to see if this could be an exploit or a bug allowing an exploit.

I believe in real life when a possible mine field has been located the engineers are summoned in to scout out the size of it by marking off the entire perimeter, then they'd lightly fence it off as best they can, depending, on how hot the zone is, the colder the action the more time they have to fence it off and put up all those warning signs we had to memorize in advanced infantry training, Mines, NBC, Gas, un-exploded ordinance, etc... the clearing of mines would happen when the action was no where near it.

The engineers, in the game, can only locate (red flag) and mark mines (yellow flag). Mines can only be removed by destruction (green flag), I've been told that, in game, the arty shells of 150mm and up are the only way to remove (destroy) them. I did some sandbox testing with different variant's in locating, marking and destroying mines. The Engineer ,elite, fanatic and +2 leaders worked the best, they crawled all day long through my saturated minefields and not one of them set off any mines as they wormed their way through them. When a mine was located it took less then a single wego turn to mark the red flags to yellow. (Crack, Veteran, Regular and Green troops took longer times to find them and even longer times to mark them. Crack troops longer than elite troops, veteran troops longer than crack troops, etc....etc...) Also, not one of my Elite troops set off any mines going into and out of a mine field, as long as they were crawling, even a normal walk command leaving the marked field didn't set off any known mines, however, giving them the quick command some of them would step on a marked mine. (Just as above, the lesser troops set off mines no matter how careful they were trying to navigate around them, they also found less mines than their next higher rank) In all my testing not even the best of the best found every mine I placed, there was always one or two unknown mines left behind at the games end. Trust me, when, I say, the mines were not located because no troops were anywhere near them, hell, those mines had been squirmed across so many times I still find it hard to believe they weren't found, or ,worse yet, set off. Also, Artillery barrages of 82mm mortars, 120mm mortars, 105mm field guns never turned those yellow flags to green, even the direct strike precision ammo failed to destroy them. (I used the Red Sea Sand box along with the SF2 sand box looking for conformity amongst the two era related games that use the same 4.0 game engine) However, when using the 155mm field guns, I started seeing the yellow flags of marked mines turn into the green flags of cleared mines. Now..., don't get your hopes up thinking your heavy based arty will clear out a mined choke point, in my simulation, I used a field of 11 anti-personnel mines, 2 rows of 4 mines and 1 row of 3 mines, side by side, in the shape of a small square. I then used a battery of 6 155mm field guns, with a fully stocked ammo supply, to pummel the dense area. With all that firepower, I put into that small patch of land, only, 2 of the 11 plots, of yellow flag marked mines, turned into 2 plots of, green flag, cleared mines. I, also, think the quality of your troops and the vehicle's drivers determine the final outcome to, find, mark and navigate, safely, through, or, skirt around, the mine field, once it has been properly identified by your engineers.

With the M1127 did you select the passenger unit and hit the "open up vehicle button ( ] ) ? Sometimes when a vehicle is missing a crew member the only way to open up the vehicle and employ the use of it's weapon is by selecting the passenger unit then hit the open up vehicle button.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but, I think a properly marked minefield, when completed by your team, is tagged with a green placard, yellow might indicate the job is halfway done and there are still mines in that field that need to be marked. When the minefield is properly tagged your engineers "Mark Mines" selection will be greyed out. If they are just laying about and doing nothing (the engineers) check the "Mark Mines" selection box ,if it's greyed out, then there are no more "KNOWN" mines in that area. However, if they are laying about and the "Mark Mines" selection box is still available then your team may have become interrupted and stopped marking them or possibly they have stumbled upon an adjacent minefield and they are awaiting your orders to "Mark Mines" again.

In past games, that I've played, all the spies I've encountered (A.I) are single, dressed in civilian garb with a walkie-talkie. They, usually, disappear (vanish) as soon as your troops become adjacent or next to their map hex. I've never heard or saw any combat action from or against them. You'll know they're around when you suddenly start taking harassment fire from enemy arty, when sneaking through an orchard or passing by a destroyed house, in the middle of nowhere, before you get to your preplanned observation point. The only other purpose, that I've observed, for single spies to be in the game is to be positioned in a residence overlooking a chokepoint where a massive IED has been placed and the only way to trigger it is manually by the spy when you get close enough to the IED. When I start seeing taxicabs left hurriedly about, I think of two things (1) there are unconventional forces lying in wait, or, (2) there is somebody manning a wired IED in my area.

Well, I hope this demo is the rough cut version of what is to come. One of the things that I'm having a problem with in the "Breaking the bank" scenario is when enemy troops surrender inside their buildings. First, the building no longer remains transparent, thus, hiding the surrendered troops from sight, however, the icon for the enemy troops is visible above the building showing that they're insight of your troops, the only way you know that they have surrendered is by moving the camera inside the building. Secondly, sending your troops inside the building to take custody of them results with the surrendered never giving up, (yes, my troops are standing next to them and facing them) the only way to remove them from the board is to send in more troops to clean out the hidden enemy troops, which, are always present in the adjacent buildings. Once, they are defeated, then and only then, will the surrendered be removed from the map. One other thing I'm having a problem with in the demo, itself, is with the sniper units inside the "Training" and the "Breaking the Bank" missions. First, Training scenario, Sniper team of 3 men are carrying 40 rounds of 50 cal.Mk211, yet, they are carrying (1) M4, (1) M4/203 and (1) M110 Second, All US Sniper teams in this demo, especially, in the "Breaking the bank" scenario are nothing like the sniper team's of today or yesterday. For instance, when a sniper team spots an enemy target the marksman takes the first shot, then, his spotter opens up with his M4, or, grenade launcher, on full auto, thusly, exposing their position for an onslaught of enemy fire and, usually, wipes them out or sends them fleeing.

I had a similar situation when I set a squad to "Assault" the bottom floor of a three tiered building (Demo's training mission). The first team, of 4 men, entered, quietly, through the rear door, conflict free, and took up a covering position for the rest of the team. I, then, watch in horror as the second team, of 4 men, enter the backyard and scoot around the residence and out onto the street. Then, in single file, they enter the residence, through the front door, which, btw, was in full view of an, enemy held, adjacent, building, luckily, the enemy didn't react and the team safely rejoined the squad.

That is correct, I got my Pz VG Panther (late) mixed up with the Pz IV J Panzer class. I was talking about the Pz VG Panther (late). Sorry about the confusion.

Sorry, my mistake it was a Pz VG Panther (late) but, on the other hand if you were spoofing me on the IVJ instead of the IV J nomenclature take a look at the tank screen for the Panzer IV J (late) It's actually listed as Pz IVJ (late)

No... I just received the last of my reinforcements for the game. I put all my Panthers (Pz VG Panther (late)), tank destroyers (Sturmpanzer IV (late)) and JPz IV / 70 v's (tank destroyers) together for a blitzkrieg style attack on the "Ferme Diedenhove" compound, one big push to overwhelm the compound. The tank in question followed the assault orders to the compound wall, it was after the compound was decimated that I issued the tank in question (sorry about the mix up it was a Panther Pz VG (late) not a Pz IV J (late)) to move to cover my right flank as I was taking some enemy tank fire hidden in the woods to the right of the compound). After the turn was over I noticed the tank had not moved, it still had a blue colored move order path line, no bogged or immobilized notification in the tank screen only the missing driver. (maybe I should have waited a few more turns incase he had an emergency sitting head call that he could no longer avoid to take? (some things from Parris Island seem to never, ever, fade away, 42 years and counting. lol)

Late model Panther IVJ w/crack HQ crew ("Chaos at Ferme Diedenhove" battle) During the attack on the walled in compound (playing as German attacker) I issued a move order for my tank to re-position and seal up an opening on my right flank. One minute later, I noticed, the tank was still sitting there with its move order path line still visible. After checking to make sure the tank wasn't in a semi-bogged mode, or, immobilized mode, I rescinded the order and issued a reverse and reposition order. Again, one minute later, the tank didn't move, perplexed, by this, apparent, glitch I, closely, examined the tank to see if it had suffered mechanical damage, preventing it to move, after the initial assault. Again, I found nothing mechanically wrong with the tank, then, I saw the problem while checking out the crew, I was missing 1 of my tank crew "The Driver", apparently, the tank suffered some internal flaking, or, the "Magic Bullet" found its way into the sealed tank and killed the driver. I guess the remainder of the crew were unqualified to drive despite their "Crack" rating. I'm guessing, here, that the Tank Commander was "Party" assigned to the position, otherwise, he would have known how to drive the tank.

I like it when your two man anti-tank team is set up in a building next to a road with a close range "armored target arc" and the assistant fires his rifle first as the tank enters the target area, or better yet if the team discharged it's anti-tank round successfully in an earlier engagement and go back to "wait for the next tank mode", then when the next one rolls into the engagement area the team then decides that now is the time to re-load the weapon, not while they were waiting for the next target to come along.

Well...that's a first, unless, that's scripted for enemy troops only, all my heavy vehicles (in other era CM games) either have to go around or are blocked completely from going forward over a bridge littered with heavy vehicles, go figure.

It's just that when you are assigned a specialized unit I.E. Forward observation unit you'd expect them to hold off calling "Fire for Effect" until, at least, 2 of your spotter rounds, from your allotment of 28 120mm rounds, could bracket an area on two opposite sides of the bmp. In the demo, (twice played) every round for a point target mission fell in a perfectly close nit grouping, 1 click east of the compound, in the barren desert.

I haven't done this yet but, after, my first go at it, I wondered, if placing my, soon to be destroyed, troop transports/supply vehicles, perpendicular, across the interior and exterior entrances, (that is, of course, after taking as much ammo out of them as I could, including, equipping the drivers and dismounting them to positions inside the fortress) would help keep my troops from fleeing the fortress which of course would delay the enemy troops from getting themselves embedded inside the fortress until my reinforcement's arrive, looks like I'm going to have to fire it up and give it a go. I know it doesn't solve the fleeing troops problem but this seems to be problematic in the other platforms too, it kills me when I see panicked and broken enemy troops running and firing straight at me. It feels like we are being dumbed down purposely to make winning these scenario's harder and harder to win at, just try putting a point target arty request on the bmp in the training mission and you'll be guaranteed multiple hits on the mosque and every else except for the bmp, SF1 & Black Sea, never had a problem with precise arty mission requests.

In response to your, IMHO, dismissive, sarcastic, mockumentary of a rebuttal. Let me begin by using your very own words. "There is a chance, a small one, that I will regret doing this but I'll bite since some of what you have written is just so far off base that I would hate to have someone read it and think that there was any kind of agreement." Even though you are 100% entitled to you own opinion. It's of my opinion you are incorrect in your assumption. Summary: Nope, not even close. First off, I've never played the game frustrated, it's after playing the game that I get frustrated, then I stop playing it. We all know that it's impossible to play this game frustrated. Summary: Sorry, way off the mark Secondly, I never claimed I was totally unsuccessful playing these games. In fact I've have had many victories many scenario's and campaigns. Summary: Wrong again Thirdly, In all fairness to the game I expect it to be hard from a strategic and tactical standpoint, not by the un-realistic idiosyncrasies of impassible terrain, bullet resistant buildings, HE proof bocage, trees, wooden fences, mine fields, etc... If I wanted to play a hard un-realistic challenge game then I'd choose a higher player setting. What I had originally stated, paraphrasing myself here, was "Why is it, that it "SEEMS TO ME" the A.I is playing in real time instead of turn based like me? I was looking for an answer, not making an accusatory allegation, all you had to do was refer me to look it up in the game engine manual and that would have sufficed for me. Your scolding rebuttal made it look like I was on trial for slander. Summary: your bed side manner needs improvement. When I move a units waypoint and affix a target command, to an enemy and when that the target command shows a clear line of fire then the unit, after it arrives, needs to fire. After all, I'm placing a white cue ball representing a squad of variable size, with a guaranteed clear line of fire for the entire unit. If not, you would have given me 10 cue balls to place, one for each member of the team combined with 10 lines of a clear L.O.S. for each member to target and fire upon the enemy unit. Better yet, why isn't it the job of the Tac A.I to take over and make good on the guaranteed L.O.S. for the whole unit? IMHO, this should be part of the Tac A.I.'s job description. In your summary evaluation, listed above, explain or show me the evidence, that I can fact check, to support this ridiculous claim that it's a rarely encountered problem? Rarely encountered by you? Hardly rare by me, it happens quite a bit in the games I play, also, it's not just infantry units but armored units as well. Summary: The Tactical A.I. needs to be the one to address this. What you have written here in trying to rebuke me is the most asinine thing you've written so far. When the enemy is on the defensive and pops smoke to run into the crevasse between a rock and a hard place you fire everything you have, into the smoke filled crevasse, to prevent it from biting you in the ass, when the smoke finally clears. Example: Band of Brothers, Holland, Operation Market Garden, Sgt. from easy company advises an approaching British tank commander that a German armored unit is waiting in ambush, behind the corner of a house, that their tank is about to pass by. The Sgt. advises the commander the only way to kill it w/o damage to his tank and crew is by shooting through the corner of the building. The tank commander informs the Sgt. that the current rules of engagement are to avoid damage to all civilian property, at all costs, Even though, the tank had a target arc pointing towards the corner of the house and the gunner was ready to fire as soon as the barrel cleared the corner. However, the left forward section of the tank was already in the sights of the German gunner and the British tank is immediately ripped apart the gun barrel never cleared the houses corner. You drive me nuts, when you say, "This is small potatoes and again really doesn't happen in the game that often". It insults my intelligence when you wave your hand in dismissal and say it doesn't happen that much or often. How in the hell can you come to that conclusion and why am I supposed to believe that it's from gods lips to your ears to accept as the truth, the whole true and nothing but the truth, so help me god? You know It happens and you know it happens all the time and in every game, regardless of the scenario or campaign.When I can't get a line of sight for area fire, on a house, because the 3ft stone wall in front of it is blocking the ground, you know it's the same reason I can't target the tank in the smoke filled alley. If I'm on a high elevation above a farm and can't get a line of sight to the farmhouse window because the barbed wire fence is blocking the line of sight to the ground in front of the farmhouse, again, you know it's the same damn reason as the tank in the alleyway, don't try to act or tell me it's a totally different thing. You say adjusting the line of sight issue to a proper and realistic level sends the UI into a frenzy, to me that's a major game breaker right there if you want to continue labeling this game as realistic, strategic, and tactical. With all the many years the CM genre has been produced and sent to the market I find it hard to believe that this one area of contention with the line of sight is beyond any measurable means of being addressed and squashed or adjusted to a more realistic level Summary: you know it's a problem, that's why you try to dismiss it as a problem, but in order to get us to see it as a problem you first have to get us to believe that what you tell us is w/o reproach. So, a self-appointed pundit is born. Before he can fend off the flaw finders he works his magic, thus, knowingly or unknowingly creating a following of devotees to attack and smear any non-believers and skeptics to submit and accept. The ones that hold out and resist are then subjected to an environment so toxic they have to flee the forum forever or escape into the ether to observe from a safe distance. You've seen and had a good chuckle commenting on the pictorial content they've posted here. So you are good and well aware of the nonsense and utterly complete badgering I took prior to getting a chance to sit down and respond to your dismissive and rebuking response. I was going to address some other things your but on the scale of what I have already addressed they are merely small potatoes, as you would say. Before I left here I needed to speak my mind before exiting the stage and leaving this pitiful cesspool forever, good riddance and goodbye. P.S. No need for the many devoted mindless robots to come after me as some of the mindless devotees have already done. I tried to come here and be civil but, the crazies here felt a need to display their cowardice, through anonymity by, mocking, threating with disturbing media and character assassination. I'm leaving these forums for good and in so doing it comforts me to know I'll be denying the zealot and mindless fanbot's the slings and arrows of their discontent, to hurl at me. My apologies to all those who come here that are not part of the roiling and boiling puss buckets of human indecencies, that have read, what I felt was necessary to fend off the vengeful intolerants that tried to bully, shame and stifle me into their way of thinking.

Really? you don't see anything remotely implied to a certain character flaw from getting older? Just like you don't think I don't see the same kind of character attack by you questioning the 3rd party remark? Look, if you don't have any constructive criticism or helpful advise to counter the zany idiosyncrasies that my units do at all the wrong times then please leave me be. I didn't come here for fight night, just friendly conversation and relevant answers to the occasion questions I might have. Good day to you too.

Show me where MikeyD tried to explain to me how this game works. He doesn't comment on anything relevant to my post. He insults me by indirectly implying that all my complaints are from being feeble-minded through growing older. That doesn't bother you, yet, when I label him as a "dyed in the wool", "there is nothing wrong with this game", "ideologue" you have the audacity to threaten me with a severed head? Next time if you don't have anything relevant to say do yourself a favor and say nothing at all.

You've got your "Fanboy" logic way off course in trying to label the original poster as a, feeble-minded and cynical old man. You left out the prayer "Forgive him lord for he knows not of the things he has posted". Your way of trying to stifle the written perception of the poster for pointing out anomalies he has witnessed on more than one occasion is akin to criticizing a rape victim for the clothes she was wearing. So.... to set the logic straight it goes like this. When you're younger, you know everything, can do anything, can't be told anything, rush head first into anything and throw out anything you have leftover after eating. As you get older you strive to, read, study and analyze every factual thing you thought you knew, you try harder to not give up the things that are harder to do, you actually listen to and take the advise of others when you realize your way is not always the correct one. fools rush in where, aged, wise men know better than to attempt\enter, the aged know left over Italian food always tastes better when the herbs and seasonings have the correct amount of time\days to fully permeate the meal. When you read my post you had several options available. 1) disagreed and said nothing 2) disagreed and try to help me or show me what was actually happening 3) sympathized and related your experiences 4) added more to the list Instead you decided to attack and try to discredit the author because any views or criticisms unlike your own must not be tolerated.