Atago

Thanks Womble. Part of my problem seems to be that I've switched to We-go and so can't immediately react when a tank takes fire. In RT I can usually spot the shot and immediately react rather than have the target tank just blindly keep on track. Keeping the observers hidden or relatively hidden does help. I had not been using target arcs so my observers would take pot shots and so attract very unwanted attention. I won another game yesterday - didn't cheat & cease fire to see where the enemy was then re-start. Glad I'm learning - having fun more, frustration less. Split squads, scout teams (wish they had Binoculars). I'll go back to that %*#! campaign after I get more training.

I have learned that what you say is true (school of hard knocks). Given the requirements of the scenario I MUST get over that %^$# bridge. As such my pixel soldiers must brave machine gun and small arms fire as well as artillery. The trick I'm trying to discover is how to minimize my casualties while maximizing the enemies. I think that in this case the We-Go may be working to my disadvantage. I'm going to try RT and see if that helps. I'm already cheating as I know how many ATG's the enemy has and have a good idea on what else. Since the AI is still kicking my butt fairly well though I can still use this one to learn with!

I have not previously had an engineering team blow themselves up. Do AT mines get set off by a demo charge in the game? I would expect in real life they would. If mines can be set off by detonations in game, I wonder if one could clear wire and mines by blasting the living %! out of that bridge with mortars or howitzers. I'm still curious how the more skilled players (meaning about anyone but me) handle the situation of locating relatively distant ATG's. Infantry can't see them well unless they fire, and tend to be suppressed by ATG's supporting MG's and infantry. I 'could' wiggle a tank out in the open and hope it can get back to cover, but not knowing exactly where the ATG is - you don't know where cover is either. Assume start point of the tank.

A happy medium may be that after not moving for a set amount of time the infantry is considered to have more cover (sort of partially dug in). You would not necessarily need to indicate that by changing terrain as it's not fox holes with sandbags and such as the game now displays. More cover than before, maybe a bit more concealment too.

One of my engineering sections set to blow the wire apparently found an anti-tank mine. I don't know exactly what happened but the wire and the engineering team were all gone/dead in one very surprising kaboom. If the ATG's would fire at infantry more (sorry infantry guys) I would like it. The AI is typically smart enough not to divulge the ATG location without a good target. In this case I think the ATG's are set with an armor only arc - seems like it anyway based on their behavior.

Not too bad of an idea, I guess. Gamey or not - if it works. Problem is now I know there are 3 of them and where they are (frustrated cease fires). I really want to know a 'real world' tactic that would work to find an ATG other than based on brewing up Sherman tanks. If they're close my infantry can often spot them. Maybe we-go isn't the best bet for finding ATG's. I have a minute where I cant give them new orders. If I could move them out and wave my Lilly white @$$ at the ATG's then scoot when they open up, that may work better than waiting a minute for the We-go to finish. I had my engineer blast the wire on their way across to mark mines.

Interesting. The enemy seems to be able to see and call down artillery on my tanks for example - right at the start point (learned not to leave them there very long). I suspect that the AI plan in this mission has pre-planned fire here and there. I'll have to try to keep hidden more. My strategy which sort of works - send split squads forward across the bridge to identify enemy foxholes/positions. Send some forward to 'find' the mines. Hate this, I know they're there but engineers can't mark them until someone finds them the hard way (true?) I try to bring fire down on the foxholes - with some success, though enemy counter battery fire is lethal to my mortars. I've learned to fire them a while then scoot to somewhere else. Improved my odds. The ATG's are the issue - my 5 Shermans can flush them, but usually at the cost of 2-3 of them. Once spotted, they're history - though they are pretty survivable and surprise - still there (and there goes another tank) sometimes. So far that's as far as I've gone. I have tanks forward, ATG's all apparently dead. Trying to clear mines so I can move armor across the bridge. Lots of MG's on my side, but if I bring them up to suppress - fire from the sky again. Maybe I should not play in 'newbie mode' - I'd gladly take a hit in my artillery speed if the enemy is degraded too. On the attack I move around, enemy defenses are static so a little longer to call down hurt on them is acceptable. Spoiler question, sorta - the briefing says ground is damp. What is the risk to my tanks? I'm leery of moving them off the road too much - stuck tanks are almost as useless as KO'd ones.

I found that when I went from real time to we-go I suddenly got somewhat better. The first time I had a battle suddenly end with a major victory I was momentarily surprised - then quickly switch to 'I meant to do that' mode. I'm happily still pretty bad at this game, but learning. Usually fun, occasionally very frustrated! 2nd mission in the first US campaign - attacking across a mined bridge has me stumped. Enemy has ATG's, MG's and a good supply of artillery. I can't figure out how to find ATG's other than the hard way (trade a tank or two). Enemy counter battery fire KO's my on board mortars if I don't move them often. Smoke is helping with the mine clearing on the bridge - but my pour soldiers are getting slaughtered by lucky artillery rounds - even when I try to spread them out. Anyone have an AAR for this round of the campaign (sorry I can't remember the name)? I'd love to see how someone actually good at this game handles the situation.

I have the same problem with my HTC One. Game works great, but try to buy the mission pack and it crashes.

Battle for France - or even Poland would be interesting. I still play Steel Panthers and love the flexibility of going from 1939-1946 Pz-II to Maus... BT7 to JS-III, etc

I get into the fix where the enemy has AT guns supported by machine guns. The AT guns trump my tanks, the m-guns trump my infantry so I'm often very stuck. Going around is often not an option. Even trying to find the AT gun is hard as my scouts get mowed down. Enemy has good eyes, slow sneaking still frequently does not work My biggest foible is enemy artillery. I end up running everywhere with my troops because if I try to be patient a rain of fire lights them up. This forces me to either run ahead or retreat or just otherwise not be where I expect the aunty Arty is going to fall. HATE how quick and accurate the AI is, I still need practice to return the favor. Is the Arty slower in other levels? I am still playing in 'baby steps' mode.

Note - I do not mean this as a jab at the game, just an observation... The AI seems much more capable of using artillery than I am when playing the Syrian side. I've learned to keep the troops moving and even running to new places when spotting rounds start to fall.

I've tried clearing out ATGM areas with helo's but they don't seem too good at spotting them. BMP's however are certainly another story - they seem able to hunt them fairly well without any direct targetting from my boys.

The "pooh" mission still gives me fits. I'm obviously doing something wrong, but am really unsure what. I've played it many, many times now - and though I've figured out how to get by it - am still using it as my "test case" as it's the hardest campaign mission I've found in any of the 3. The BMP-3's ATGM's and the infantry manned ones are quite capable of taking out the 4 tanks you get, and are pretty well supported, keeping recon forces from getting forward enough to find them (of course, now I know where they all are, but I pretend I don't). The obvious route, and the one the briefing suggests is right up the road. I've been trying to see if I can actually do that without much success so far. Milk run is another one, though now that I've played it and know how to spot ATGM's locations via terrain differences, not as difficult. Main problem is new scenarios, where ATGMs could be anywhere. One observation - it sure seems like ATGM's are easier for the AI to find and kill then it is for me. No idea why.

yes, it works. You may not have grenades to use later though, as it takes a LOT of grenades.

So my tactic of wiggling my poor Hummer's arse out in the wind asking for the ATGM's to shoot it off isn't too screwy. I think another issue may be that I play on rookie - and when an ATGM is spotted it doesn't remain as a "?" when it ducks (or the unit spotting it dies). I often can't get over to it and find an exact position before it vanishes. My poor Hummers...

Let's take the "pooh" scenario in the Marines campaign as an example... You know there are enemy ATGM's somewhere. The only way to find them short of getting troops close is to have them fire. The only way to have them fire is to give them a target. If you miss one - and the target is one of your scarce tanks... you've traded badly for the chance to spot and kill the ATGM. I've still not discovered the answer to this problem. For the Sagger's they often miss, giving away their position. For the newer ones, they very often hit and destroy what they hit. Once spotted of course, indirect fire works wonders. Until spotted...?

The time limits do bug me a bit sometimes. It's the Syrian artillery that keeps me moving. Stick in one place too long and the %&$!! rounds fall like rain! That mission with the convoy - I got trucks to the exit location, but then they just mill around there and weren't able to actually exit the map. I felt obliged to keep forces over on that side to protect them which caused me to loose more forces than I would have if they'd been able to exit.

One thing I've learned to watch out for - your vehicles will fire at enemy troops even when in close combat with friendlies. Ouch. I had a friendly Warrior (and I use the term very loosely!) wipe out all but two of a British squad that was entering a building. Enemy infantry got spotted by the Warrior as they went in and it blasted away. Some consolation I suppose could be had as it did get the enemy too. I now put supporting vehicles in hide or give them firing arcs before close assaulting a suspected enemy position when the troops are getting close to the target.

The spotting ability of some tanks is amazing. Having played the T-72 simlulator I can tell you , I wish I had that kind of spotting in that game! I'm not exactly what you'd call a trained crew, so no critisizm of CMSF is intended - just an observation!

I won the "swarm" mission, but in general found the Marine campaign almost as frustrating at times as it was fun. With the British I am encountering similar frustration. I'd like a few more... something to help me out. I find it hard to learn what I'm doing wrong, and have been on the forums for some time. I'm better than I was, but still not particularly good at this game!

I managed to win the British campaign scenario where you are tasked with saving the Police station 2nd time through. First time however I got most of my Brit's whacked trying to get there. Brings to question... How do you fight your way down a street? The angle of fire from a vehicle be it tank, warrior or whatever doesn't allow for supporting fire very well, without getting too close and risking RPG hits. Infantry heading down the road ahead of the vehicle are similarly often surprised and badly mauled before they can regroup. A dilemma to be sure. Assaulting buildings more in the open I've got a handle on, the mean streets are another thing entirely.

Those Hummer armed with TOW's are mostly cannon fodder as far as I can tell. Even parked and waiting for the enemy to show they frequently get whacked without ever seeing what hit-em. The Marines trade anti-infantry firepower for anti-tank firepower though they do seem quite capable once the enemy tanks get closer.

Some of the Marines missions are quite a pain (see my recent post name campaign for the future). My take is that there are some very good players out there that were finding the Army campaign missions too easy so they amped things up to keep/make them happy. This made some of the missions very, very hard even on the easy setting for me. That being said I did complete the Marine campaign and mostly enjoyed it - but it was hard and very frustrating at times! I had to run the Pooh one many times and cheat badly (restarting with map with screen shots showing enemy locations and such ) Maybe we need a way to run online training classes for a novice like me that doesn't have the time to spend (or patience!) to really work at figuring out how to win.

Geez! That Brit campaign mission with the swarm of T-72's coming in Vs 1 Challenger and no long range anti-tank weapons is a BIATCH! Should be called Kobiashi Maru! A suggestion for those creating campaigns. Ok - I admit I'm not too good at this game, but still generally enjoy it. That being said though, some missions in campaigns become more of an exercise in frustration (Pooh comes to mind!), which is not much fun. For us admittedly mediocre players - could there be a way to stack the forces a bit based on victory (or not victory ) levels as the campaign progresses? I don't want to take any fun away from those playing "iron", but for us wimps (and I'm sure I'm not the only one, just the only one willing to admit it! ) some easier way through the campaigns would be very appreciated. I'd love to see a full movie of how some get through the hard missions. I know I'm doing something wrong, but I have no idea what. I almost wish there were cheat codes (but I'm not THAT bad off).