SmittyJ

Artillery in CMBN is a powerful factor but not insurmountable. If you keep your AT guns keyholed, well concealed and quiet (at least until the tanks roll) they can survive long enough to do some damage. Other units have to remain mobile. Have two or three backup positions for your HMG teams, tanks etc. Once the first spotting rounds of an arty strike start falling pack up and move out. The real backbreaking artillery assets (105 MM and up) all take a pretty long time to call in. That allows you to stay ahead of the barrage. Of course on a small map with only so many viable defensive strong-points this may be easier said than done. Here's hoping for more sprawling battlefields in future modules.

I'd like to see field telephones in future modules. They're pretty basic to any defensive setup. I think units digging in, even for a day or two would run wire between company and platoon command posts and maybe out to heavy weapons positions or observation posts. You could model this by having certain action squares "wired." any unit in a wired square would automatically have C2 with with a headquarters unit in a similarly wired square. HE hits on the square would have a random chance to cut the wire and units would suffer a morale hit when an enemy unit moves into a wired square, picks up the phone and starts mercilessly taunting the guy on the other end.

I'd like to see more attention paid to individual soldiers morale, skill set etc. Something like the system in Close Combat that rated each guy on a few different attributes like courage and perception.I enjoyed those moments in CC when I could curse Private Jones for turning tail at the first shot yet again and mourn the death of the guy who you could count on to be the first through the door. Also I think troops should be able to dig in in-game. Maybe a cover bonus for each minute that the "dig in" order is in effect representing the evolution from a shallow skrimsher's trench after 4 or 5 minutes to something like a proper fighting hole in 30 or 40.

Playing one player as Americans I found my guys taking fire from a two story house. I sent a six man team to rush the place with supporting fire from their squad-mates and a Sherman. I neglected to specify "target light" and my Sherman lit up the side of the building with HE just as my guys were heading for the door. The blast wounded 1 guy and rattled the others. Then it got worse. Once inside the house, my team was instantly decimated by a flurry of gunfire from upstairs. When the turn ended I had three inside the house wounded and two more cowering on the floor. I really wanted that strongpoint reduced, so instead of trying to extricate the survivors I continued to blast the house with HE until the German squad broke. By then my ill fated assault team was thoroughly dead. This sad spectacle also marked the first and last time I was actually happy that CMBN doesn't model burning buildings.

I was also struck by the skewed KIA/WIA ratio- until I realized that I wasn't doing anything special to render aid to my wounded. Has anybody made it SOP to use small groups as medics? Has anybody seen it make the difference between victory and defeat in a tight game? I think I'll try using my HQ support guys as full time buddy aiders and see if the results are worth the effort.