Paper Tiger

Gromit After an amphibious landing, I'd imagine that a contested river crossing is one of the most hazardous military operations. Further, such a mission is likely to involve quite large numbers of units. The AI requires a lot of work and tweaking to make it effective on the attack and so a river crossing is a real toughie for it to pull off. I'd suggest to you that you make the river tiles shallow ford tiles and not water tiles. That way, the river will be fordable along its entire length. Or create a few fordable sections and keep a few impassable ones. Only allowing it to cross at two points (vehicles) will result in horrible bottlecks and it will give an AI group kittens trying to get 2 or more vehicles across them... under fire... oh my!

bodkin The 10% award is a bonus if you complete the mission taking less than 10% casualties. You are right. It isn't CMSF and so you can win the mission even with quite high casualties although if you get near 30%, the enemy will have a lot of casualty VPs. Second, with 'Turnbull's Stand', you have to get your men off the board before the Germans 'touch' one of the objectives. Just kill as many enemy troops as you can and then run for the exit zones. Yoiu're not meant to stop them. The VP locations are not Occupy objectives, they're Touch objectives and if you have failed to get off the board by the time the Germans touch them, they will be in a position to prevent your platoon from joining up with the rest of the company for the action on the 7th. warwalker sounds to me like you're playing a different campaign. There are no battles for bridges in the Montebourg campaign

At last, you guys now know how little justice those screenshots did to the game. When you see it all moving, it's fantastic. It all looks so real when you are viewing down at the lowest level.

We finally got to see the way things work when we got Scenario Author mode. When you play in that mode, you'll see that the AI controlled units start in their default locations, where the designer placed them when he designed the mission. Then, when you click 'GO', the AI controlled units jump to their AI plan's locations, assuming of course that they were different. I was a bit concerned that this pre-intel would be worthless if the AI chose a different plan but I needen't have worried. When you have pre-mission intel on the AI side, the AI selects its AI plan before it displays the units and not after you hit 'GO'. A LOT of thought went into this design feature.

Let's just say that it's not a new feature

Yup. What Stikkypixie says. The scenario designer can specify which side(s) has pre-battle intelligence in the scenario editor and then determine the % of intel available to each side that has it - 10%, 20% etc, etc. The higher that value, the more '?'s you will see when you start the mission.

Wah! half way down page 2 after only 2+ hours and the game hasn't been released yet. Sorry guys but I've tried changing my game settings, playing on large maps, toggling various things off and on in the game and yet the terrain remains as flat as a table when the action spots are highlighted. So, I fired up 'that other CMx2 game' to run a couple of tests and I saw no terrain deformation there either. So, I can't help you guys with this. We'll have to see what the other testers can come up with. For your information, I have an NVIDEA GeForce 9600 GT current driver is 8.17.12.5896 all 3D setttings are default all game settings are maxxed out Best for all models, Vertical Synch on Antialiasing on High priority Off changing those last three doesn't do anything either. Believe me, I tried.

I've been trying to replicate this on my rig but I can't see it happening. I remeber seeing this happen a long while back when the action spot highlights were introduced (v1.10 I think) but somewhere along the line, this stopped happening. I played around with the Game Option settings to see if I could make it happen but so far... zilch. I'll bring it up on the Beta boards to see if any of the other guys are able to replicate this issue and see if it can get fixed.

Wiggum good luck vaulting over a thick hedge, mate. I hope there's a hospital near where you try it because the damage to your hand and wrist would be too horrific to contemplate Fences, on the other hand, are another matter. For the most part, they're basically just very, very wide but short ladders .

guachi (and anybody else who's interested) C2 information is communicated in the game differently from CMx1's command lines. It is also gives you more information than CMx1's system does (It's been a long time since I played CMx1 though so forgive me if I've forgotten something). If you take a peek at the unit box in the bottom left corner of your screen, you can assess the C2 status of your unit quite quickly. The quality of connection a Squad or team enjoy with their Platoon leader is displayed there as an Eye, Mouth and Eye and a distant figure. Mouth and Eye together is best and provides the best results. The unit can both see and hear its Platoon Leader. Then there's Mouth (hearing range), Eye (see but can't hear) and then figure (see but he's s-o-o far away). If the box is empty, then your guys are on their own and they feel it! If your guys are equiped with a Radio, the radio icon might display instead. Platoon Leaders and other leaders display their connections with higher echelon leaders with Green lights (connection exists) or Red light (No C2 link with the higher echelon commander). Your squad maxxes out C2 connections when it has both ear and eye contact with his Platoon leader who in turn is connected to his Company Commander/ to his Battalion commander (it stops there) Of course, you need to have the unit active to get this information but once you become familiar with this system, you can keep track of C2 quite easily.

If you have a look in the editor, you'll find that there are three typs of water tiles: Shallow Ford Deep Ford Water Both the Ford tiles are passable to Infantry and they will happily splash their way through both. Tanks and vehicles can cross Shallow Fords but they can't cross Deep Fords. The water tile is impassable to all units.

I have had numerous experiences of trying to force my way through a small agricultural hedgerow and had no success except where there were natural breaks. It really is unbelievably frustrating when it happens and one time I had to backtrack for a couple of miles to get to where I wanted to go. Now the hedgerow between my Mum's house and my neighbours? Different story . Totally permable to small children and teenagers. I suspect, at 51, I could still just about manage it today. But that's LOW bocage in the game, not a hedge.

I honestly don't understand why people didn't play Red v Red more often with CMSF. Red v Red allowed me to play WW2 style battles, conventional forces clashing in the open, challenging MechInf/Armour v same battles on large open maps without one side having to skulk to get a win. (The NATO maps were particularly good for these types of battles) You could stand toe-to toe with your opponent and slug it out. Having said that, cherry picking is a must for WW2 and I'm glad we've got it back for the Normandy title. I'm more or less back to playing QBs and nothing else already.

What an interesting playlist you have there, Juju. Very cool indeed. I don't listen to anything while I'm playing CM(whatever) but I frequently do when I'm working on maps or other editor related stuff. Usually something Baroque (Bach and Handel being particular favourites) but very occassionally, I will listen to some of those golden oldies you've listed there as well. Also, Pink Floyd, Queen (their early stuff), Genesis and Heart. I should try some AC/DC when I'm playing though. For some reason, their music always makes me smile. It was so good humoured.

#1 No foul language so no worries on that front. However, if you DO want it, I'm sure there will be a mod along soon after release. #2 If you have played CMSF then you will find buildings go through several states of damage in the same way in CMBN. Hoever, assuming you haven't, building facades get damaged when fired upon. Continual fire on that face will result in one or more levels having their walls knocked down exposing the interior of the building. Continued fire can bring the roof down one level at a time. As for one or two walls still standing after the building is rubbled, that doesn't happen yet.

If you are really into movies that are actually good, look up Home Room. Never heard of it, right? Right. I'm unlikely to find a copy of it here in Indonesia although you just never know what you'll find in a video store here. But when I'm back in the UK later this year I'll look out for it. Or I'll check it out on Amazon.UK the next time I'm making an order. Cheers.

Doug Trust me! After you see the quality of the maps that'll come with the game you'll never be able to go back to playing on truly sh!tty randomly generated maps. I am screaming with frustration reading this because the Beta Testers are not allowed to post screenshots without permission. I have some fantastic screenshots of some of the maps I've been working on for QBs. They're based on real life locations that I am truly familiar with and it sends shivers up and down my spine when I view them down at level 1 or 2 in the editor. They are almost photorealistic. (I used a screenshot of one of my campaign maps as a desktop and my wife was fooled into thinking it was real for a few seconds) If you view them with the wind animating the terrain with your eyes slightly closed, they DO look real. And as for those folks who think that the building skins are no better than CMx1 skins, just wait until you guys see how wrong you have been.

You have pavements and cobbled roads but no kerbs. If you look at the naval gunfire one more closely, you'll see the cobbled road at least. Pavements were in CMSF.

I saw Return of the Jedi while under the influence of certain organic substances. During the scene with all the rodent midgets attacking the stormtroopers my buddy leans over and whispers "Sir! Sir! we're being attacked by Muppets". I had to get up and leave... and a good place it was to leave as well. I was loving it up until they went to Endor, and then... a legion of the Empire's finest, taken out by a bunch of teddy bears armed with sticks and stones. Give me strength...

Does anyone know if blue on blue is modelled btw? Allied v Allied is allowed, as is Axis v Axis if the player desires.

My wife is 37 but she's Indonesian. Here, they only really see the Hollywood blockbusters in the cinemas and on TV and movies like 'Point Blank' (the Lee Marvin version) and even the original 'Dirty Harry' never air on TV because they're too old. Try getting them to watch a Black and White movie... although my wife loved 'Casablanca' and 'Arsenic and Old Lace' when I finally persuaded her to watch B&W too

Star Wars? Don't get me started. A couple of weeks ago I introduced my wife to 'Midnight Cowboy' and 'The Graduate' and she loved them. A while back, she also loved the first two Godfather movies. Hollywood was making great movies until Star Wars came along. Hell, even the next James Bond movie was 'Moonraker' and it had 'Star War' effects for goodness sake! It took a long time for Hollywood to start producing first-class, story-driven movies without special effects for adults. If a movie was to make money, it had to be like Star Wars. BTW, I actually enjoyed most of the Star Wars series (definitely NOT 'Return of the Jedi' and the atrocious Jaja Binks one - I can't remember it's name because it was so bl00dy awful!). I just didn't want every movie I went to see to be influenced by them...

I'd plump for #6. TBH, I think the vast majority of folks will be more than happy with what they get. I'm sure there will be a good humoured 'complaint' very soon after the release as well, just to be first But there are a small number of folks who have been sharpening their knives in anticipation as well.

Thanks for the replies guys. I followed Spinoza's link and read some of the diary - it's quite a read - and it looks like it's exactly what I've been looking for. I have obviously played some earlier incarnation of this game a long time ago as I recognise some of the systems, Political rating for leaders for example, and have very good memories of playing it. If a game of this scale is worth playing then the more detail, the better as far as I'm concerned. It looks like I'll be buying this very soon after CMBN is released.

I notice that some of you guys have been playing 'War in the East'. I'm curious to know what people think of it. Does it have a half-decent AI or is it meant to be played against human opponents only? I've always loved WW2 East Front campaign games, from AH's Stalingrad/Russian Campaign/ Russian Front to the massive Drang Nach Osten (?) and I'm impressed by the sheer size of the thing. I would be quite happy to spend hours and hours playing my way through the 1941 blitzkreig.