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Peach Operations

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  1. I've noticed this, too. The mission briefing for one of the CMBN Demo missions mentioned RL tanks poking their guns through the bocage and shooting, but it's not clear to me whether the tank gunners could actually see what they were shooting at in such situations. Wouldn't the gunner's sight still be on one side of the bocage? The game presently seems to prohibit firing when you don't have LOS -- making it impossible to fire blindly -- so perhaps that might explain why tanks in the game are allowed to spot enemies on the other side of the bocage. If this is the case, though, then I'd suggest modifying area fire to allow firing at areas that you don't have LOS to (perhaps with a significant reduction in accuracy).
  2. I've seen grenades thrown, but only when the enemy is spotted by the throwing unit. Did anyone get squads to throw grenades using an area fire order?
  3. In CMSF, if you targeted a building at close range with area fire with one of your squads, they'd heave grenades into it. So, if you knew that a building was enemy-controlled, you could a) move up to the building, have a 5sec wait while they throw hand grenades into the building, and c) quick-move into the building afterwards. That doesn't appear to work in CMBN. The target command will cause the squad to shoot small arms, bazookas, and rifle-grenades into the building (even at point blank range, which leads to friendly casualties!), but they won't throw grenades unless they actually see an enemy squad in the building. The target-light command will cause the squad to fire small arms into the building, but again, no grenades unless the enemy is spotted. Am I doing something wrong? Is there some way to make your squads throw hand grenades without that squad having spotted the enemy?
  4. I thought that Battlefront had stated that small-arms friendly fire wasn't going to be part of CMx2 -- at least, with CMSF. Has that changed?
  5. Hi all, I've run into this intermittent bug with .30cal US HMG teams, where the gunner can't get LOS through a hedgerow when the team is lined up on one side of the hedge. What appears to happen is that the team has five members, and the four non-gunner members line up along the hedge in a tile, leaving the gunner to be positioned a half-meter or so away from the hedge. Once the gun is deployed, the team has no LOS to the opposite side (according to the Target command), although I *think* I've seen individual team members shooting rifles through the hedge. When this happens, it will happen repeatedly -- move the gun to one part of the hedge, deploy, can't get LOS to the other side, move again, deploy, can't get LOS to the other side, etc. However, when I load a saved game that was saved around the time that this was happening, I can't reproduce the problem. I'm guessing that reloading the game fixes whatever got messed up. Has anyone else encountered this?
  6. Hi all, I've noticed that when you're ordering preplanned artillery strikes, the delay is listed as <1min, regardless of whether you have any TRPs near the target. This leads me to believe that the preplanned strikes will be preregistered on their target, and will begin immediately at the start of the scenario. Right? Well...not quite. I've found that preplanned strikes in the game result in spotting beginning immediately, with the actual strike taking place a few minutes later. In order to have the strike start immediately, you have to have a TRP near the strike area. I can understand this, since the absence of TRPs implies that the strikes are not, in fact, preregistered. However, the game interface implies that the delay will be <1min from the start of the scenario, which is false. I'd suggest changing that to reflect the actual delay involved for preplanned strikes. Also, I noticed that, if ordering a preplanned linear strike, you only need a TRP near the first endpoint of the line, in order for the strike to begin immediately. Not that I'm complaining.
  7. Played a little more, and lost the campaign again. One general note re: foxholes and hedgerows -- I've seen foxholes that have LOS through an adjacent hedgerow (in some of the Road to Montebourg scenarios, in fact). Are you sure they can't see through hedgerows? Holding Action - This mission was very frustrating. Everything seemed to be going (mostly) as planned, and I swept through most of the buildings on the left side before the enemy reinforcements showed up. I hadn't taken the last three buildings on the far left side, so I moved my troops in.. ..what I discovered is that, if a building is next to a hedgerow, then troops in that building can see the other side of the hedgerow, and vice versa. So if: [] is a building | is a hedgerow G is a german squad A is an American squad and you have [A]| . . . . . . . . |G ...then the two squads have -- according to the game -- LOS to eachother. Naturally, this was very bad for me, because the enemy reinforcements all seem to appear right behind the opposite hedgerow, all ready to open fire on my poor squads. And since entering a building means that your squad is moving, they're instantly seen -- even though they're entering through the opposite side of the building from the hedge that the Germans are firing through. Argh. Anyway, I tried calling in 75mm howitzer fire, but the spotter apparently didn't see the spotting rounds and called FFE anyway, and the shots were way off target. I kept trying to counterattack, only to have my troops mauled as soon as they entered the three buildings in the far left corner. I did manage to defeat most of the German squads, but a couple managed to make their way into the area I was supposed to control (one of them being the German company HQ). I also focused mostly on the left side of the map (not sure whether the bunker counts as being in the area you're supposed to control), so that may have also affected the outcome. Anyway, lost that one. le Ham -- I was under the (apparently mistaken) impression that preplanned artillery didn't need spotting rounds in CMBN, with or without target reference points, since the game displays <1 min for delay for preplanned strikes. Thus, I put the TRPs at the base of the opposite side of the hill, where I guessed that the real resistance would be. Much to my dismay, the 240mm rounds landed a decent distance short of their target, and the 107mm smoke mortar rounds fell short too (although this was less of an issue, since they still obscured my forces). BTW -- the scenario briefing says that I get 75mm howitzers, but I never had any 75mm available to my FOs in this mission. I had to rush a FO up to where he could get LOS to the defensive line, and started the long, drawn out process of waiting for a 240mm strike to be called in on the left side. Similarly, I took my other FO into LOS with the bunkers on the right side, and called in 107mm HE on them. The 240mm fire was then adjusted to the TRPs at the base of the hill. Surprisingly, there actually were some survivors after multiple 240mm rounds landed on the fortified line, and I sent some troops from the right hand side (where they were more successful) to clean out a surviving bunker + MG. Strangely enough, several 240mm hits at the base of the other side of the hill didn't seem to break some of the defenders. I sent the light tanks forward on the right hand side, using engineers to clear a path to the hedgerows, and lost two to the antitank gun. I had previously spotted it, but I thought that the hedgerow would obscure view of my tanks (wrong). Apparently if G is the gun, T is the tank, and | is a hedgerow, then in the following situation: T| . . . . . . . . . . G ..the tank and gun can exchange fire -- although some of the antitank gun's rounds may hit the hedgerow instead of the tank. Eventually, some rounds made it through, and killed a couple tanks. It should have been just one, but I didn't realize one of my tanks had LOS to the gun. Many mortar rounds (and tank rounds) later, the gun was finally killed. Anyway, my remaining tanks + some infantry struggled to claw through the defenders on the right hand side, making some progress, only to rush tanks forward -- in an attempt to get behind the hedge the enemy was using as cover -- and have those tanks cut down by AT rockets and a Marder. Meanwhile, I was trying to get the rest of my infantry to go over the hill, believing that I could use mortars and overwhelming firepower to overpower the defenders -- which I eventually did, but at much greater cost, and with much greater use of mortar ammunition than I realized I needed. Time ran out with my troops having secured most of the first area (I got points for it even though it appeared that some of the enemy were there), but not having moved beyond that. In a way, it seems like a decent chunk of the difficulty I've experienced is coming to grips with the quirks of the game regarding LOS and fire support. Oh well.
  8. I can understand the software limitations. I'd point out, though, that this DOES happen very often -- again, because of wheatfields most of the time. See the following screenshot, from the Road to Montebourg campaign: If you lower the camera to to ground level, you see that the squad does have a view of the opposite hedgerow: The squad in question has enough view of the hedgerow that it could be fired upon by someone behind the hedge; so suppressive fires in that direction wouldn't necessarily be flying over the defenders' heads. I've seen this sort of thing frequently in this campaign. Please let me know if you need more examples -- I will provide them. If we can't shoot at the hedge itself, could we be able to target beyond line of sight in situations where the shots themselves aren't blocked? That is, the squad in the above picture would be able to shoot at the tile in front of the hedge despite not having LOS, since their bullets aren't actually blocked. This behavior might be very inaccurate, but we're talking suppressive fire here, after all. In any event -- not to be a pain -- there really needs to be a solution to these kinds of situations, in my view. It happens often enough that I'd want to avoid using wheatfields, if I were to design a scenario, as well as making sure that any elevation changes don't prevent opposite sides of a hedgerow from area firing on eachother.
  9. That is what I am saying. That said, it sounds like there is a lot of evidence for these weapons being as precise as depicted.
  10. Problem is when your squad can't see the ground tile right in front of the hedgerow -- and therefore can't area fire on said ground tile -- but can still see the hedgerow itself (happens all the time with wheatfields in CMBN). That's where targeting the hedgerow directly would be useful, since it's at least a meter or two above the surrounding terrain.
  11. Some thoughts/feedback. I've been playing through without restarts, aside from restarting the entire campaign after losing it a few missions in the first time through. Some general notes: -- The time limits seem a bit tight for some of the missions, especially as they're infantry based. -- I noticed in the campaign briefing that the difficulty of some missions was altered up or down (from what historically happened in these battles) to make each mission challenging but not impossible. I can see where'd you want to do that (seeing as some missions are nasty enough as is). Could you release a 'historical difficulty' campaign at some point, though? It'd be interesting to play through, even if some of the missions aren't always balanced for 'fun' gameplay. -- Many of the enemy aren't in foxholes or trenches in these missions; 60 and 82mm mortar fire is VERY effective at cleaning these positions out. Don't know whether this is intentional or not. -- Might help to mention in the campaign briefing that you may run into artillery attacks on your assembly areas. Admittedly, the enemy should be expected to do this, but not all scenario designers do that kind of thing -- I'm used to having my starting areas perfectly safe and secure in most scenarios in this game. Beau Guillot -- mortars seem to do most of the work in defeating the positions that watch the field. When I first played this mission, I had my troops crawl a large part of the way across the field, but this tended to wear them out, and wasn't as helpful as I'd liked. The second time around (after restarting the campaign), I found that I could just order short runs (using the quick command), and have my troops hit the ground for 5-15 seconds in between. This avoided most of the enemy's fire, and allowed for faster movement. This mission actually seems more difficult once you get past the first hedgerow, as you face some nasty close-in fighting. Ecoqueneuville -- tried sending tanks down the road the first time, with infantry infiltrating through the fields; I lost (though I think I could've won if I had more time). The second time, the tanks went through the fields). I've found it's very useful to have multiple tanks in one field -- a couple offering suppressive fire, and a couple racing forwards to poke their guns through the opposite hedgerow to finish the enemy. Either way, this one seems kind of difficult, but that's what you get when a reinforced company has to take down an understrength company on a hill. La Grand Hameau -- Pretty textbook, and simple, though I can't seem to target the opposite hedgerow in the leftmost field for area fire (i.e. the one that the antitank gun sits behind). Beat this one twice. Le Hamelet -- lost this one (and the campaign) first time through. I made it to the mortars, but then the enemy mortar crews all turned their guns on my troops, and routed them. Second time around, I played the version you get from beating the previous two missions, and it was much easier (although the enemy infantry gun caused a huge chunk of my casualties). Turnbull's stand -- lost this one -- do you have to hit Cease Fire once your troops are off the map? I thought I got most of my troops off the map before the enemy took one of the objectives, but I still lost. One note -- the enemy tanks one of my AT guns early, towards the start of the scenario, though I think that was because there wasn't much of a hedge in front of it (it was pointing towards the road from the house on the left, peeking across the hedge/treeline). Les Licornets -- Had trouble getting LOS to target the opposite hedgerow near the objective. The good news was that the AI doesn't respond effectively if you attack from his right flank -- the tanks get knocked out (especially the one near the road), and enfilading fires tear up the infantry that are hiding behind the hedges. The Labyrinth / Neuville au Plain -- I liked using the recon platoon to find the enemy -- and a flank route around them, in both cases -- before moving my infantry out. The Labyrinth seemed like it'd be more difficult, with the enemy tanks and all, but the AI seemed to assume that I'd use a frontal attack, making it very easy for my forces to dispose of one and chase off another (hitting one in the rear side with a 37mm armored car gun sent one scurrying off into an out of the way field -- it didn't come back, even when I advanced on the objective). Hell in the Hedgerows -- When I exhausted the HE ammo for my howitzers, the smoke ammo vanished. One of my 82mm mortars also wouldn't deploy (the "Deploy Weapon" button would be highlighted, but the FO screen kept saying "Not Deployed). Without enough smoke ammo to screen my advance, my troops just got cut to pieces when trying to get past the creek. Oddly enough, much of the enemy artillery hit empty ground, since I kept my troops moving. They did manage to take out at least one mortar team at one point, however. Many of the casualties were from the final push to the creek, in any event. The fighting up to the "Route des Moiselettes" banged up a few of my squads, but most of my force was ready to rock until I tried to cross the creek. I almost wanted to just hit "Cease Fire" at that point rather than try to make the crossing. It's the sort of situation that just says, "Don't try this." I sent my troops forward, though, because I figured a real-life commander wouldn't have the option of just refusing to attack. Stalemate -- Tried to attack first with one company, then sending the second in to finish the enemy off. It worked, though the first company sent through was badly messed up. Partly because of the minefield near the "Quadrangle" -- I wasn't paying close enough attention and had a squad take multiple casualties from mines, then took more casualties when I thought I could get around the mines by moving just a little bit further from the "quadrangle". This also prevented my first company from attacking in one coherent force against the enemy (ack). The second company attacked through the first company's position, and took some casualties, but wiped out the enemy save for an infantry gun, with time to spare. Orchard Hill -- Crossing the river/creek wasn't so difficult, but the fighting after reaching the bunker line was. Still, I managed to get a squad -- then after that, a platoon -- around the left side and into the enemy rear around the 20 minute mark. Ran badly low on ammunition, and had trouble getting my spotters to see their spotting rounds once I had advanced to the bunker line (which dramatically reduced usefulness of indirect fire at that point).
  12. I understand the logic Battlefront is using here, however, there's one problem -- there's nothing in the game interface that informs you that you'll be using up your smoke rounds when you make plans to fire off all your HE in a medium (or longer) duration barrage. Sure, you'll see that happening once the barrage is fired off, but it'd be nice to know beforehand. Right now, you just see "HE" and "Smoke" -- to my newbie eyes, that looks like "I have this much HE and this much smoke, just like if I was looking at a tank's ammunition screen." Maybe you could list "### rounds available" and then separate numbers for the max HE, smoke, etc rounds available. For example: 80 rounds available total max 80 rounds HE max 30 rounds smoke Thoughts?
  13. Hi all, Has anyone else had trouble targeting the opposite side of a hedgerow with area fire? In a number of scenarios in the Road to Montebourg campaign -- mostly those with wheatfields or significant elevation changes -- I can't seem to target the opposite hedgerow with area fire, and in a few cases can't even call in indirect fire (from some parts of my side). I know that my troops can see the opposite hedgerow, because they can see enemy squads firing from behind it, but I can't target the hedgerow myself. Look -- I realize that the designers don't want to encourage gamey uses of area fire -- but suppressive fire on the opposite hedgerow is a pretty important part of the game, isn't it? Moreover, if you want to limit use of area fire on the opposite hedge, you'd want to do that for all hedgerows, not just those in fields that have wheat growing in them. I think I know what's happening here -- LOS for area fire is traced to the ground itself, whereas LOS to the enemy is traced to the enemy's head. Since my troops can only see the ground a short distance in front of them in a wheatfield, that's as far as they can area fire (unless the opposite hedge is raised up enough for them to see it). This also makes it hard to plan for the battle, since the target command only tells me where I'll be able to area fire, not where I'll be able to hit standing enemies (nor where I'll be able to hit tanks). I have to basically lower the view to the ground, and hope that I'm getting it right. I'd suggest allowing the player to target the hedge itself, rather than the ground under it. However, that wouldn't solve the planning issues, nor would it allow for suppressive fire across an open field. Thoughts?
  14. Hi all, I've seen some threads about spotters calling FFE when they don't see the spotting rounds -- but what about when they DO see the spotting rounds? My experience in game has been that -- when the spotter DOES see the spotting rounds -- that my mortars are scary-accurate. Rarely does a point target land outside the targeted tile after FFE is called. When firing at the opposite side of a hedgerow with a linear barrage, most rounds land on the other side. Even more effective are mortars firing in direct lay, using area fire -- after firing a few rounds, they zero in on the target and are landing right on the hostile squad's head. There's no delay, either, because it's area fire. It's like I'm using guided missiles. I don't know whether this behavior is intended or not -- but it almost seems too easy. I'm tempted to start designing my battle plans around moving mortars into direct lay positions as the main damage-dealers, but that seems kind of gamey. Were real life 60/82mm mortars this precise in WW2? I'm asking honestly here -- I have no real life military experience with these things.
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