Ch53dVet

I have every Combat Mission game starting with "Barbarossa to Berlin" and ending with "Final Blitzkrieg". I am thankful to the computer gaming magazine media, many of which have forever faded away from the magazine rack, for providing me with the means to acquaint myself with the "Battlefront" gaming experience where grognards go to chase their own Drag(o)ons. Inside one of the magazines was an included cd-rom complete with upcoming game demo's inside was the demo for Combat Mission the install started my Drag(o)on chasing and I purchased "Barbarossa to Berlin". I had to anxiously await for the mailman to deliver it and when it arrived my eyes feasted on that, heavy, soft- covered, 264 page manual, nightly. The fix was in, I was\still hooked today. Basically, over the times, I started playing less and less till I eventually stopped, if a major game patch came along, new game or an add-on came out I would re-immerse myself. But, then again, as usual, I'd get so damned frustrated and put them away after hearing the game engine limitation excuse over and over again and now after game engine 4.0 comes out the same game engine limitation problems are still here. Just after buying the 4.0 game engine upgrades for all the versions I own and immersing myself once again, I'm just about ready to once again retire them, I'll probably hold off till my CMFI upgrade comes out to see if I can keep myself from walking away from it once and for all. The funny thing about all this is after not playing for a long, long time you can't remember what it was that made you give up the ghost. After a while you reach a point long after your absence to give it a try again, because, once again, you can't place your finger on one game annoyance that would totally dissuade you from giving it one more try, right? After all, they just released Game Engine 4.0, right? Heck, maybe those game engine limitations have been corrected, right? Well...., while I await the CMFI 4.0 download and start having pessimistic thoughts of a software's journey to shelf heaven, I think I'll make a list to include as a readme file and place it in the game folders. I can read the answer to the re-occurring question, it's a lot easier than diving into the pit of frustration to find out again. Why is it? 1) in player vs. A.I. turn based games (W.E.G.O.) the player appears to be the only one bound to the turn based rules? Many times I've watched the A.I. counter my moves during the turn instead of the following one, when I'm the attacker and they are the defender. Enemy troops that panic and flee are quickly turned around and rejoin the fight, while I have to wait a minute and reverse mine after they have traveled halfway across the map, or, roll up their armor as I try to outflank them in the same timed turn, yet, as they outflank me I have to sit there for 1 whole minute as they target and decimate mine. 2) after placing a movement order that ends with a clear L.O.S. and targeted enemy command my unit, after arriving and jostling itself around, just sits there and doesn't fire? After the round is over the target command is still in place, after canceling the target command and drawing a new one I'm now told they can see the target but they have no clear line of sight to engage them, nor do they have the skills to move about to get a clear line of fire, yet, strangely, the enemy has a clear line of fire on them and usually decimates them while my unit lets them do it. 3) after an enemy unit has been attacked and retreats popping smoke into the walled in alley between 2 houses my two tanks can't fire into the alley with area fire because the L.O.S. between my tanks and the ground in front of the smoke is obscured by the rubble of a demolished house, I don't want to shoot the ground in front of the smoke I want to shoot into the smoke between the two houses but for some stupid reason my tank commanders can't target the smoke only the ground in front of the smoke, when the smoke clears my two tanks are burning hulks. 4) Suppression doesn't exist in this game world for the A.I.? Example, a 3 storied stone house contains a 3 man grenade launcher team on the first floor, they are outflanked by 2 P4j tanks on the houses ESE flank and 2 complete Zug's on the WSW flank. I need to maneuver one of my 2 Zug's to the south in order to assault and enter the building. I order my 2 tanks and 1 Zug to suppress the occupied house in order for the remaining Zug to get into position, hopefully un-noticed. After the 1 minute free fire zone is over the tally is 2 dead and 5 severely wounded core units, the enemy suffered no casualties or wounds requiring band-aids. Not once did the enemy, within, ever curl up in a ball, they stood in the windows launching their rifle-grenades into my troops, all the while under a hail of rifle, machinegun, rifle launched grenades, 75mm HE rounds and tank mounted machinegun rounds. The stone house had numerous pock marks all over it, yet, no holes from the many 75mm tank rounds that rocked it, the only units suppressed that day was my entire Zug trying to position itself to the south flank. I cease fired after the ridiculous fanfare of fireworks and heavy smoke to see what type of fanatical US troops I was engaging, lo and behold I had taken on a 3 member grenade launching team that was out of their HQ loop, the senior member had a leadership modifier of -2 and they were green recruits. 5) sending a squad on any type of movement command like "Hunt" Northward, parallel to the fence you're next to, causes half the squad to jump over it and zig into the open roadway then zag back and jump back over the fence, numerous times, all the way to your objective? Also, why jump over a barbed wire fence when all militaries educate their recruits, exhaustively, in the correct, how-to, procedure for sliding underneath it? I could make the list longer with weird tales of visibilities and invisibilities, A.T guns firing 3-4-5 times a minute at multiple targets crewed by a sole survivor, decimated units of ordinary values that lack self preservation and attack with the last man standing (until or unless, we ever get a CM game for Island hopping in the Pacific against the Japanese), or, multiple "TRP's" that every artillery piece can fire at continuously throughout the game, regardless if the "on-map-arty" has been moved or if both on and off map arty had been re-designated targets of opportunity from "FO's" and "HQ" units, the only exception would be for any of the larger permanently mounted artillery pieces that are hard mounted to a concrete slab or bolted into the bedrock, there the gun commander can rotate the barrel to numerous marked points on the arty carriages pivot\compass ring, then all he had to do was check his notes for the Elevation\Azimuth and the appropriate powder charge needed to reach the necessary "TRP". Side note, I don't know why the game can't place a temporary "TRP" marker after every "FO" or "HQ" unit called "fire for effect", that way, if he wants to hit the same target area again he wouldn't waste precious rounds re-registering the same target. Provided, that is, that it's the same "FO" or "HQ" unit that called in the original mission with the original artillery battery and number of guns and the battery and number of guns have not been fired after the original mission. However, if any one of the requirement is not true then temp "TRP" marker would be forever removed, only to be replaced anew after repeating the procedure. Also, it would add realism to the map if the "Invisible to enemy "TRP" markers" came with visible impact craters that were, of course, made by registering the batteries. However, the "TRP" impact craters will only become visible when reconnoitered primarily by enemy scouts or other units capable of passing the info through the c2 command line link, thus, giving the savvy player some insight to a possible and completely avoidable artillery "TRP" "Murder Hole" ambush.

Again, No. I choose not to because as the 4.0 game engine states:If the (optional) designated target was an Area Target, the vehicle will cancel the Target command upon reaching hull down. If the target is an enemy unit, the vehicle will begin attacking the target once it reaches hull down. The key point I've been trying to make here is that just because you can draw a HD command line, it doesn't guarantee you that a HD location exists between you and the endpoint, from what I've seen so far is that after placing a HD command marker between you and the enemy your tank commander will disregard partial HD locations in hopes of finding a full HD location and if a full HD location doesn't exist your area target command won't cancel out and you'll be hopeless and dead as your tank commander drives you to the enemy.

No, I want to be HD to the target, not HD to the end point, (unless the end point is the target) which, might not be HD to any location on the map. I'll draw the target command from manual movement commands to find the 100% HD locations. The addition of the HD command (from what I've read) is supposed to help and remove the manually micro'ed procedure as I've stated above. If I have a possible sound contact or I suspect a possible ambush location and there is elevated land between us, I will place the hull down marker on the target or suspect location. However, the elevation between us might not be enough for a 100% hull down location, only a partial one at best, "it appears to me" (and I could be wrong) that when a hull down command is issued it will always by-pass the partial HD locations in search for a full HD location and if one doesn't exist it will take me to the murder hole (end point) I was hoping to avoid. I could add a target command at the end of the HD endpoint, yes, but, if there isn't a true HD position between me and the possible target or suspected location endpoint I won't fire my main gun if the enemy comes into view, because, I have an area target command to get out of the way first before I can engage any real dangers in front of me. I, have as yet, to see any real self-preservation override any pre-programmed orders, even though all the manuals say that self preservation does exist. I have yet to see one occur. I was just saying, the documentation I've read on the new hull down command doesn't specifically state if your armor will stop for both partial and full HD locations. It would be nice to have the ability of not being able to place a HD endpoint between you and the target location if one does not literally exist.

I don't know if this is true or not but after I've placed an automatic hull down command the tank will always by-pass any partial hull down locations and keep going to the placement point in-hopes of finding a 100% hull down location, even if there wasn't any to begin with, leading me straight to the murder hole I was try to avoid. It would be nice if when drawing a hull down command line you'd get pop ups along the line (where the line intersects the rising ground, similar to using the target command as a los indicator) referring you to the % type of hull down it is at that point along the length of the line to its placement marker, also, if there aren't any hull down locations along the path you wouldn't be allowed to place a suicide marker.

It's not working correctly for sure. Currently playing "Chaos @ Ferme Diedenhove" as the Germans. Sending my crack platoons from the 4th battalions starting point westward into the woods to investigate the 3 buildings deep in the wood. 2 platoons on combined hunt exercise soon spot American troops rushing southward (perpendicular to my troops) towards the Ferme complex on an unimproved dirt pathway that leads to and from the 3 buildings my troops were sent to reconnoiter by fire. My crack platoons never open fire or hit the deck. In fact they keep on hunting westward. The spotted American troops moving quickly to reinforce the Ferme complex, that my Stug's are attacking, open fire on the run and amazingly inflict a good deal of casualties to one of my platoons. Did my affected platoon or the nearby non-affected platoon hit the deck and return fire or event try to help the wounded? Nope they kept on hunting westward. 4.0 has made them legally blind and hard of hearing. My crack platoons are equipped with "Helen Keller" clones. This is not the only time I've entered this in this game but also in the other 4.0 upgraded games too.