Atago

After mission in the one I played it was not where you did your final assault (I don't want to give anything away). There may had been another one there though, I ran my T-62 over there and gave everything that drove in the front gate a warm welcome so if there was another AC it never made it out of the BMP other than as smoke particles.

In my experience playing that mission the same thing happened. I think the facing of the stinger team does not matter - I had 2 teams firing off in different directions during different turns. I don't think I have seen a stinger fire and have the helo hit something in the same turn. It seems like the helo usually aborts and attacks next turn (if not downed). It was interesting to see where the enemy air controller was (won't give it away) after the mission was over. They are always a prime target! I much prefer being on the side with the air power!!!

I'm doing better at CMBS than I had done with the WW2 titles. Now that I have the 'don't watch the clock' attitude going though I may go back to WW2 titles. I find I was hurrying too much and getting killed by not scouting nearly as well as I should.

Anyone? What are the laser designators for that the scouts have?

Thanks Louch - good to know, though in retrospect I did reasonably well with the FO only. It's that dilemma where you have a valuable asset that you don't want to loose, but if you don't use it, you may as well have already lost it! The leader to the scout squad calling an Artillery would be good enough to make the precision rounds more flexible. Two things come to mind with regards to the scout squads having laser designators. Either they do have a use in game, and we just don't know what it is yet OR BF put them there for completeness as the actual squads have them, but there is no in-game use at this time.

Playing Russian campaign scenario 2. I have scouts that carry laser designators, but I can't figure out what they are good for. Only the FO can actually lase a target for precision fire. I move him in and I get the precision strike option. Without him no precision rounds, even when the scout could clearly designate the target. Not griping about that - just wondering what the designator is good for in the hands of anyone other than the FO.

Playing Russia campaign 2 if found that the FO has to have line of sight to the target to get the precision mortar rounds to show up on the artillery pull-down. What had me going was that all my scouts have laser designation and I figured one of them could lase the target, but not so. What I did was use the drone to find things, then VERY carefully sneak the FO in. The tension can be pretty high as if my FO gets splattered all my artillery let alone the UAV are gone. Do a target line from the FO to the target, you can tell if it's the UAV that sees it or the FO himself. If the FO sees it you can laser it and call in the rain of fire. If not, sneak the FO some more and hope.

JTAC teams call faster. Check the call-in time for a 'regular' spotter/leader/squad then call in the same mission from a JTAC. I've seen quite a spread time - wise. The group can now return to their throwing wooden shoes around.

One thing with features like this is that you should be able to get the AI to use the same routines. 'Teaching" the AI to use target heavy would likely take a lot of coding.

I was playing the graduation exercise of the training campaign - using the UAV to spot. 120mm mortar barrage on the objective buildings went way back behind the church and out side of town. Cancelled that one, ran another one, this time linear smoke hoping to see if I could cover the street between the objective buildings and the front row. I know that was probably too fine a line regardless of spotter or UAV, but I was testing what was possible. Smoke line was within 50 yards or so of my target line. Next UAV spotted bombardment was again on the objective buildings - this one spot on. Not a scientific test but that first mission - hearing a fire for effect when the spotting rounds were WAY off - surprised me.

Both for me. I find that in larger battles I get lost in real time - forget to move units and get overwhelmed with too much happening at once. When I first started playing CM I was getting my butt kicked far more often in RT than WEGO. In RT it's more fun at times, micromanaging a tank formation as you can stop them or react quickly to threats. WEGO you can't do that. To be sure though, while you are micromanaging your tanks what else is being unwatched? The bigger the mission the harder RT is to use. If you use it, pause often - treat it like WEGO without the replay. Still hard though to manage everything.

I will impatiently wait until they think it's ready to go. I'd rather wait and have BF be sure it's ready for prime time than have them forget something or miss something and send it out fast. You know there'd be complaints galore if some bug showed up!

How do you get rid of the other AT mines? This was the first time I had a tank hit a mine in a marked field - it was an eye opener. I can blow the mine and wire on the lead AT mine - there are others that I can't destroy with explosives. Can someone get into the campaign and add a Sherman flail for me ? I watch the armchair general attack and it's not clear how his tanks avoided the mines - then again maybe it's just luck (good for him, bad for me!). I assume that a tank using slow movement through mines may have an advantage over a tank using any faster move? I'm not proficient enough to get that hill without ALL my tanks (yet).

I look forward to some day playing the German commander and having to figure out how to handle the counter-attacking KV-1, 2 and T-34's with my PZIII's and short barrel 75mm armed Pz IV's. I think the real hold up is BFC needing to figure out horses. As you go earlier in the war they become much more 'on map' both in moving guns around and old fashioned cavalry. Motorcycles too were much more common earlier. Both would be a pain in the tush to get right graphically and in game mechanics, I would think.

ATG guns are a B!+ch. I find them much harder to handle than an enemy tank (Wittman said something along those lines, I beieve). With a tank you can see when you've K.O.d it. With an ATG you can pound the area with HE and think nothing can survive it - but unless you see the K.O.d ATG you never really know. As said, one poor survivor can man that gun to amazing effect, and the ROF doesn't seem to be negatively impacted very much. I have to pull back and remind myself that this is a game/simulation. A few rough edges where things seem 'off' don't matter much. I use more HE now than perhaps a real-life battle would take. That ATG gun will be knocked out, scattered to scrap and there will be nothing resembling a human form left of the crew before I get done with it. I keep suppressing fire on the position unless or until I see that dead gun!

I get an occasional CTD now after the 3.11 update + vehicle pack. I never had one previously. I have not been able to identify any particular trigger, though it does seem to be more likely to happen when I have new vehicles. I play battles, quick battles or campaigns with no new ones and have no CTD to date. Just an observation...

I did better last night, though learned the hard way that marked mines don't always make the path safe. I lost one tank and had the tracks blown off a second one in a marked field. I don't blow that wire on the bridge, several replays now I find that the AT mine there blows too - my engineer team is usually really badly hurt. I now know it's there so mark the mine and let the tank run over the wire when I bring one through. This time I tried running my iniital forces over the bridge then spread out along the enemy side river bank. Got stymied though - seems I can't suppress the enemy trenches quite enough (yet). I did kill both ATG's though, and not because I know where they are. I am resisting using fore-knowledge and bombarding them before someone spots them. So at least I got across the bridge this time. Got the %*$! shot out of my guys once the daylight improved and the enemy spotter(s) could see them. If I knew how to do you tube videos I'd post my attempts - you guys could both get a good laugh and maybe slap me up side the head for doing things wrong. Hanging out on that bridge once the light improves is a very bad thing. I'm learning when that happens now, so get as much movement as I can done under cover of darkness. Now I just need to figure out how to put that time to good use! Sherman tanks have smoke shells - didn't think about the smoke dispensers. That could prove useful! Thanks for the help all.

Thanks for the replies. I've gotten reasonably proficient at quick battles and many of the battles. I've gone through the armchair general series and watched a lot of youtube. This particular battle still has me stymied. I thought I was getting fairly good - boy did my confidence drop! At least I now know that I can clear mines in the early part fairly safely and have gotten some forces over that #&@! bridge. Getting enough fire superiority is difficult as it takes time to set up my MG's - enough time for the enemy to set up mortar barrages. Grrr. Some day I will beat this thing!

I've been playing CM for a while now and finally got back to trying (again) the 2nd campaign mission for the US. My forces initially are infantry, several 60 and 80mm mortars for back-up and a couple machine guns. I also have 3 engineer squads. I get 5 tanks, a lot of machine guns and two more infantry groups later in the mission. My problem - get across a mined bridge, and clear a hill on the back of the map. The field is open, with virtually no cover in the middle. I don't want to spoil anything so I will be vague in my questions - but my problems so far as this Can't suppress enemy entrenchments sufficiently to move forward without tanks (can get some with mortars, but not enough). Can't locate enemy ATG's without exposing tanks and loosing at least 2. I run out of HE on my remaining tanks before gaining the enemy side of the bridge, and so have none left for supporting the attack on the objective hill. When I attempt to gain fire superiority with small arms and MG's the enemy spotter calls down a rain of death (I have not gotten more than a few relatively intact squads over the bridge). I can cheat - knowing where the enemy ATG's are I can bombard the %&@! out of them. With them neutralized I can safely bring tanks forward and better reduce the enemy entrenchments. At least I (finally) realized that the game starts with it dark enough for my engineers to mark the mines. One problem I had has been figured out. Any advice, aar, walk through link, something?

The horizontal armor on the back of the T-34 C by several sources is 16mm. A 37mm round should be able to get through that to the engine compartment. Hit most tanks from above and behind, their 'deck' armor isn't good compared to facing or even side or back armor.

I expect I'll see it when it comes out on Netflix or something. I'll stick with U-571, the most realistic and well acted WW2 movie I've seen (cough, cough, choke!). Saving private Ryan was reasonably good, enemy at the gates wasn't bad. I saw a movie called Stalingrad many years ago - that was a good WW2 movie.

Combat missions - Starship Troopers!!!

I've seen vehicles go to drive around a bocage instead of through the gap when I didn't plot their movement specifically to, and through the gap. In other words if I just click to the opposite side of the gap from where the vehicle currently is - and don't take some care giving it a route to follow - the 'crew' chooses to go around sometimes.

The AI has had really good luck (or I have had bad, or both) with dropping rounds on my tanks. I've started and re-started this mission quite a few times and now I know that unless I move them, at least one typically gets KO'd or has the tracks blown off - making it KO'd for mission purposes. I really wonder who can see back under that line of trees.. grr, I want to drop some mortars on HIM!

I really like battles where I can get through without a re-do. I do cheat when I loose one - look at what the AI has and where, then re-play it. The satisfaction I get for winning a game though - first time through using 'real' tactics is what keeps me coming back. In this particular mission - the AI has eyes apparently way back on my starting map. He clobbers my tanks on their starting location for example. I tend not to move tanks without some forethought - boy did I learn my lesson in this case (KO two of them with Uncle Arty!). AI also pounds a tree line and behind where I was staging. Does the AI have pre-planned bombardment set up by the mission designer? I assume I'm doing the right thing now - send out small teams to various locations to scope out enemy positions. Once I feel I have a good idea what the AI has where then I move out teams (and tanks) with objectives in mind. I would love to have a list of easier battles - it's much more fun to learn if I can get a draw or better than learn by having my clock cleaned.