Wengart

In CM:SF knocked out vehicles only provide protection for infantry not other vehicles. Unless this has been changed in CM:BN?

I'm just talking out of my ass here, but I wanted to take a shot and see if I was right. It may be dependent on who is attached to who. So if the 101st was attacking a town with attached armored support from someone the armor was part of the 101st command and vice versa.

Of course neither were the SS. The module name just describes the general focus and doesn't prevent the inclusion of formation not necessarily part of the Commonwealth.

I went into the editor and dropped out the Syrians with Brits and made another one with Marines vs. Brits.

In CM:SF when playing as Red against blue I've often used technicals to block off routes of approach and force my opponents into areas favorable to me. Really its a usefulness thing, I wouldn't block a road with a T-55 but a technical with a PKM or just a truck used as ad-hoc transport probably won't do much or last long. So using it as a blocking unit (quite literally) is a much better use for it Also vehicles don't actually seem to be the size that is shown visually, for engagements they are of course, but there seems to be some allowance of clipping so even a single path bridge could be passable for two vehicles. Although it wouldn't be fast and force the vehicle to expose all kinds of odd angles to the enemy.

There are no sound contacts in CM:SF and presumably none in CM:BN.

When you select a squad the UI (in the bottom left) will show what type of contact they have with their HQ. Being in contact with the HQ iirc improves the spotting capability and the moral of the squad. You just usually don't notice it with NATO because their troops are more often than not in contact with their HQ through some means, and they are good enough to be left on their own for the most part. If you play as Uncon or Syria it becomes much more noticeable.

Usually the abstracted cover and slightly nerfed power of HE are enough to keep the squad from being slaughtered, but its not perfect. One of the bigger problems I've seen with it is troops who are hit directly, as in they are in the crater of the round, will be killed outright and that often means a direct hit will result in 1-2 dead if not slightly more. Another issue, which is more pertinent in CM:SF is the exiting vehicle pile up, the squad waits at the exit of their vehicle until everyone is out, which makes them a very nice target for HE and grenades. In fact, I've seen entire squads destroyed by a grenade landing in the middle of the exit vehicle pile up. This of course will be less of a problem in CM:BN with the reduction in transports.

With infantry squads having an arc set will focus almost all of the squads eyes in that direction, presumably increasing the spotting ability of that squad in that particular direction.

It can't. 10char

since they still maintain their movement profile (or possibly speeding up) they still remain easier targets than if they were to go to ground and their fire is more sporadic. Usually they only stop moving once someone gets hit. It's not necessary that the unit spot the enemy, only that they realize they are under fire. Furthermore, move to contact isn't exclusively for scouting, but also has a place as an advance if no resistance met order.

There is also the issue of player expectation, most would naturally assume a tree covered Stug would get some sort of concealment bonus.

No. Case 1 - I want to move to an unsecured tree line several hundred meters away. A move command would get my men there, however if they came under fire they would blissfully continue moving until someone was shot. So I give them a move to contact command this way they will attempt to reach the tree line, but if they are taken under fire they will stop and return fire. Case 2- I want to redeploy a squad across a street to gain a better firing position. In this case I would want to use a fast command because they will be under enemy fire. A Fast to Contact command will just have them halting in the street to return fire which is most definitely not a safe place to be.

If you wanted to you could pop into the editor and just knock Syrian experience up to Veteran or Elite.

Interesting if minorly off topic factoid. If a Plt. HQ is destroyed the next highest ranking Plt. members squad becomes the new HQ.

Probably a combination of gunner competency and luck, but really we shouldn't be drawing conclusions from a single shot in a single hour and a half game.

Unless something has changed experience level in CMx2 is not weapon dependent. A crack Abrams crew will also be deadly shots with their M4s and whatever other weapon they happen to pick up.

More logical, yes. However, it would take quite a bit of processing power to correctly model LOS blocking from doodads and it would also require some work to get the tacai to properly use it as concealment. Whereas, with cover the tacai doesn't really have to do anything (you could think of it as abstracted cover) to the point that even if a soldier isn't optimally using the doodad as cover being nearby it may give him some cover from fire.

Speaking of bolt action rifles, is the animation finally correct? In CM:SF the shell casing would eject before the bolt was cycled.

Will we by chance see AA assets without the ability to engage air targets?

The problem with free move into cover is well what is cover for one and then people just jumping from cover to cover.

The problem with the retreat command is that it doesn't cover the number of items that should not be subject to command delay/ subject to a very short command delay. This mostly pertains to situations where the player is putting on the hat of squad leader/fire team leader. Anyway, I think I recall Steve mentioning that it may make a return as an option.

However, CM:B4N is not only a simulation but a commercial product as well.

I would imagine that, that would be handled by the scenario designer rather than the game.

In CM:SF tanks can currently be dug in hull down, although the berm must be set up by the map designer.