RadioactiveMan

SPOILERS There are actually quite a few instances of stationary tanks (and BMPs) throughout the Marine Campaign. You don't seem to be given many on-map anti-tank weapons- except for SMAWs, but those seem kind of crappy against tanks- and so I've been using artillery and helicopters as my primary anti tank weapons. Works pretty good, as the grenade launcher-heavy platoons can handle just about everything else on their own...

The biggest difference I've seen in play style between Army and Marines is in the grenade launchers, as cabal23 mentioned. You get 3 launchers in a regular infantry squad, and another launcher on all your AAVs... This is drastically different from the Army infantry and their strykers, where grenade launchers are far less common. The grenades really make killing infantry in trenches or behind walls much easier, and allow a marine platoon to handle anything less than a tank with relative ease. The army, on the other hand, can put a Javelin in every squad. This is nice if you go up against a lot of armor. Lastly, the Army Bradley seems more lethal than the Marine LAV, but I haven't played with either all that much.

Both it is then! I am always a fan of Having My Cake and Eating it Too! GSX I know the mission you are talking about it- i quite liked it, although the AI movement orders are a bit wonky. When I played the T-62s showed up and slowly advanced to the bottom of the valley. They then proceeded to turn and drive parallel to my lines, giving me nice side and rear shots... Best part about that mission is watching your multitude of grenade launchers unload on the Syrian APCs while they try to unload their passengers...

Well, I've decided to give the Marine Campaign a serious go. I haven't played the campaigns much because Its frustrating (although realistic) to have to be so careful with force preservation. But I figured I should take another shot at them because they contain so much content and the scenarios seem really well-made. So anyway, about my question: I've just completed Mission 4, with the forking campaign objective. I chose the Eagle objective, because a head-to-head brawl with the Syrians seems like it would be to my Marines advantage (as long as I can keep my distance). I see now that I have chosen to kick off the infamous Pooh mission... oh boy! So, my question is: What am I missing by chosing the Eagle objective? I am happy with my choice but I am wondering if its worth it to go back and play the other route as well. What sort of missions/maps/forces are presented on the other campaign fork? What fork did ya'll choose, and what would you choose if you did it again?

Salwon you are of course right about the targeting in 8x8; and its true that fining the resolution would up the requirements for the game. No way to get around that I guess... Not to mention that going to, say, 4x4 would exponentially increase the time it takes to make a map! :eek: What I am really after here is more variety in building types/shapes/sizes, and finer resolution for movement of infantry. I want more control over my little guys, but maybe that is making the game too much of an infantry sim, as 8x8 is quite sufficient for big vehicle battles. Also, in regards to T-intersections for walls and trenches: You can fake it by using the diagonals: ../ /.\ ...hopefully that little diagram makes sense. Actually you can do alot of interesting things if you turn everything by 45 degrees... I've found it provides alot of interesting options you cant get if you keep everything aligned the same direction. Plus, it makes the maps feel less rigid and grid like- always a good thing!

I also have never driven my tanks up onto the berm... I always send them down to the gap by the road. I park my strykers by the less steep spots of the berm and peel off the anti tank teams. The javelins move into position on top of the berm and I try to have them launch just as the tanks round the corner... Then I bring up the artillery and pound the crap out of everything! Works pretty good.

Ah, I realize that adding new objects is strictly not an improvement to the game engine... I want them all the same! They should be easier to include, so I should get them sooner, right? Right.

-More freedom with the TOE while making scenarios. If I want a platoon with extra machine guns or a sniper, then I want that platoon. I don't want to horse around with attaching units from battalion. -More variety of map objects. Guard towers, bridges, etc. Also objects that I can use for scenario objectives: artillery pieces, downed helicopters, satellite dishes, fuel or ammo dumps, oil wells, whatever. They would greatly facilitate the telling of a story. -Lastly, finer division of the battlefield so that we are not forced to move on big 20x20 m squares (or whatever size it is). According to what I've read on this forum however, this one doesnt seem likely.

I must admit I don't know much about how guns work, but I spent the summer with two brothers who each had newly purchased .50 rifles (purchasing them was soon going to become illegal, and they thought they would get in before that). Anyway, I got to see them shoot and these guys said the kick was pretty minimal. I tried to heft the gun and it was heavy as hell... thank goodness for bipods It is, indeed, quite loud, and the rounds are huge!

I also am enjoying this mission. Just starting Mission 4, it looks like a doozy. I am doing very well so far, just 3 WIA and 4 or so walking wounded, and I am tempted just to bypass the compound without trying to go house to house... we shall see. Have to confess, I had a blowout in mission 2 and had to restart, but other than that I haven't done much saving and loading. The trick, as someone else already pointed out, is to keep your distance. Get a LOF and just park yourself in cover until the enemy stops responding. Use your MGs and SMAW squad to crack buildings. Its usually fairly straightforward. ***SPOILERS*** Mission 3 is great fun. It is pretty much a textbook opportunity to use the Assault command. Set long distance assault commands of several hundred meters for your 3 squads and have the MGs cover. Give everyone target arc areas of responsibility and send them off. Watching the rifle squads break up into teams and leapfrog while covering each other without providing any additional commands is a joy to watch and a triumph for whoever made the AI... using this technique I got all the way to the bridge w/o any trouble. I didn't anticipate additional syrians in the second row of buildings on the right and I took a couple of hits moving into the central 3 story building. Had to leave a guy out on the ground while everyone else scrambled to cover, then sent one fire team back out to perform aid. Tons of fun! Anyone having trouble with Mission 2- you pretty much have to dismount and proceed forward. This sort of breaks the role-playing, but maybe the marines caught a glimpse of something and decided to proceed with caution? Anyway once you have dismounted you should slowly work up the right side of the map, through the orchard. Once on the far side of the orchard you have a nice wall to hide behind to engage the sniper, the building, and the trucks. There is also a spot where you can look down the trench and slaughter the squads positioned there. Just watch out for RPGs...

I want to add my praise here. This is a great scenario. I love the idea of breaking one scenario into several seperate phases- first the frantic drive, then the defense, then the rescue. Its something I have been tinkering with for a scenario of my own. ***SPOILERS*** For me, the mission started out with a bit of frustration. I "knew" the drive into town was going to be rough, and I thought I had identified several likely ambush spots. The plan was to put down suppressive fire with all vehicles while driving past in a nice column, shifting targets as they went. Unfortunately the very first RPG, hidden in the trees by that corner, was unexpected. They took out one of my sniper-carrying humvees from about 20 meters. The whole load of guys, about a quarter of my force, dead without firing a shot! :eek: I abandoned my orderly column idea and sent everybody racing into town on fast commands, every vehicle for itself. They all made it- suprisingly, with no additional casualties. After that I abandonded the humvees, they were too dangerous. I was surprised to see other posters here using the 40 mm GL to good effect... I never even considered it. After that, the defense part was alot of fun. I got my remaining sniper team (with the 50 cal) and my FO team in a building on the edge of town (the one with two taller sections connected by a single story section). From here they could see just about everything. I ended up getting sweet, sweet revenge with that 50 cal sniper team- When the syrian reinforcements appeared in my starting area I was able to pick off a half dozen vehicles with the sniper from 800 m+ This was impressive, to say the least, and I have never used a sniper more effectively than this. The vehicles were wrecked, the crews piled out and became pinned, and I dropped a bomb on them with one of my planes Besides that, things went off about as I expected. I put my delta guys on the second floor of several buildings, with the police squads on the ground floor. The plan was to have the better shooters upstairs to get more sightlines, while the police-meat on the ground would prevent entry to the building.... unfortunately my plan backfired. The second floor DID have better sightlines, but it worked both ways, and my delta boys were massacred by RPGs while the police below escaped unscathed. Go figure... The vehicle IED was great fun. It came around a corner and actually drove into the compound's front gate. Somehow I managed to kill the crew before it went off, and there it sat for the rest of the game. I kept thinking it would go off, but it never did. Lastly, the rescue was awesome. I felt I was 3-5 minutes away from total collapse when they showed up. Just right. A whole column of technicals was stacked up on the road used by the rescue convoy, pouring fire into the compound. It was great to watch the lead Tank come tearing down the road, shooting up the vehicles from their 6 o'clock! So ya, I was enthused, had to give you the full report... My only complaint has already been mentioned. The vehicle path finding frequently made me want to tear my hair out. There is a big issue around corners as vehicles slow down and bunch up and then consider each other obstacles. They end up taking all kinds of weird routes and end up facing the wrong direction. Maybe this is less of a problem in Real Time, but I generally play turn-based... anyway its frustrating. But not your fault. Cheers!

Wonderful! Thanks for the replies. I sort of suspected this was the issue, but had not thought of delaying the commander until the fight is over... that will work for me, and actually sounds like something a commander might do

Greetings! This is my first foray into a Battlefront game since CMBO... and things are quite different this time around! Mostly what I see is good, so far. I am enjoying some of the scenarios, and have not yet attempted the campaigns. Of course after a few scenarios I found I had the urge to make one of my own, and I have ran into a few issues, mostly w/ purchasing units. I don't know how I feel about purchasing actual TOEs... Although I can see the advantage of being able to load a readymade company or two, I have generally found it to be more of a hindrance than a help. A couple questions: 1) why can't I delete the battalion commander? I really dont want the head of the battallion overseeing my two platoon recon mission... am I missing something obvious here? 2) On a related question- Say I want to purchase a rifle company of marines and then also a machine gun section from another company. Will there be any chain of command/communication issues between the two in game? (is this why I am unable to delete battalion commanders?) Similarly, if I purchase units from two different battalions, will they have issues talking to one other? Thats all for now, thanks very much. For me the best part of Combat Mission games is the small unit stuff, so I am hoping to create some scenarios in this vein.