Falconander

donnieitaly, Called Helo in 'Streets of Hamas" took forever to show up and when it did it fired only guns at the 2 T-90s I was having a hard time with. Not the first time Helos only showed guns on Armor. So not sure if I would peak my head around that corner without further verification.

BlackMoria, We all know that scouts are notoriously bad at directions. "Ohhh, that ridge....", said the scout standing on top of the ridgeline pointing to the distant ridge some 10 clicks away. Damn scouts, almost worse than some LTs I know.... Your LAV is parked in some corner of the map as they read an upside down map with their Nods on.

What do you mean? I donwloaded this one from the Battlefront site. I think it was version 1.11. Which one should I be looking for?

Webwing, Nicely done. This was my third time starting but the first time i was able to play all of the way through due to time constraints. Nice Job on the multiple AI pathing. I approached that first house awfully slow but found no one inside. After that I set up for the first assault. Things went pretty well but could not get a bead on the observers early on. The arty in the beginning was falling into pastures so I was breathing a sigh of relief. I was pushing to the crossholds when there must have been another spotter who was far more accurate. Rounds started coming and i tried to scatter but some troops were just caught. I managed to move around and really put a hurt on the guys coming through the pass. About this time the guys started coming from the left and were mowed down. But alas, a freakling 3rd spotter who just clobbered some men in the middle. These guys were cut down pretty quick. I wanted to have some fun with them so my JAV and AT lit the houses up for fun as well as doing some area fires on suspected locations. So I am thinking these guys are getting smoked and i am having fun. About this time I start moving up some other flanks when one of my infantry platoons just gets plastered out of nowhere. I had to go back and see if it was arrty again or what the hell. I was horrifed that it came from the hills. I turned and thought, lucky AT shot... but as I looked I saw armor coming strong. What the F... I just wasted all of my AT assets having fun with this flanking force now I have Armor coming fast and my forces are scattered and decimated. Luckily I had one other AT on that front as well as some lucky 40mm rounds and the armor was silenced. I took my finger off of the 'quit' button and buckeled down. Right about this time the final platoon comes in on trucks. "Well hell... we stand a chance..." I muttered to myself. Swept up the rest of the bits with the trucks dropping platoons and ammo off at all of the fronts. Right as I was getting ready for the 4th counter attack it went to the Total Victory screen.... 39 dead ...44 wounded... 250 enemy killed and 100+ something wounded. 3-4 waves... nice.... ammo low...not nice....

What gave it away, the 10,000 posts.... the coding....modeling ...scenario designing... playing...beta testing..... Steve, how many hours do you log in regards to Combat Mission is a given week for both work and play?

How about when it does not work:( I have a lot of explaining to do to 1st platoon, 2nd platoon, 3rd platoon, those first two cocky M1s and the other pair of less than stealthy M1s.... That is a lot of Dear Mrs John Doe letters.... Dear Mrs. Doe, Your son fought bravely, right up until that moment he paused by that stone wall under the bead of an enemy tank. I feel grateful that he passed quickly....

Yea, As Mark said, different AI tactics mix it up a bit. Have to admit that I had played several other maps where I had had really good success so I was washing and repeating more than likely. Thought I'd have him on the flank but that was a no go. I could never get the infantry superior fire that is so common to Blue force. My first platoon was beaten down by the T-90s. My AT gunners ineffective. It was not until 3rd platoons arrival that I heard the sweet "pop pop" of 40mm and mgs blazing. Should have read the mission notes a little closer. I did not know I had more M1s coming nor 2nd and 3rd platoon. I think I would have done it different. Anyway, great use of those T90s Mark, first time they were a true terror.

stikkypixie, Do you have the Marines 1.11. If so, it should be under battles. Let me know if you find it, Falconander

Black Moria, I did breach the walls with the M1s but had trouble getting eyes on the objective as my infantry kept getting blasted by tanks. Tried to use the buildings for cover, popping smoke, arty smoke etc... Actually at one point I got pissed and had two M1s rolling through the smoke to gain the jump on the T-90s. It looked pretty cool as I avoided the other pair of T-90s trying to draw a bead on me. The T-90 had the quicker draw of the gun and I lost that battle with the 2nd M1 going down quick after the first. I was able to flank with infantry when 3rd platoon came but by that time I was just trying different things as all Armor was vanquished on my side and the birds were too slow in coming. 3rd Platoon crashed like washes onto a rocky beach. Those T-90s were a son of a gun. First time I had a hard time with them.

Steve's notes from another thread on 1-15 We're definitely not going to make the end of January. The v1.11 patch + the Holiday Chaos wasn't taken into consideration when we made our release predictions. Silly us, I know Things are moving along nicely now that we've gotten back into the swing of things. --- We'll have a better sense of the Brit release timeframe very soon. No, it isn't going to impact the Normandy release because, unlike the Marines Module, the Brit Module is largely being done by externally. In fact, just yesterday Charles completed entering in all the data necessary for all the weapons systems necessary for the initial release. Unfortunately for me, I can't actually see any of that work in-game yet, but it's a step towards that

Hey, I know this is not one of the new scenarios but it was the first time I lost to Red. Not only did I lose, I lost miserably.... Spoilers..... Spoilers.... OK, first those T-90s were brutal on this map and steel behemoths. I have never had so much trouble taking these things out. Twice I hunted with twin M1s only to lose that duel and the flanking fires and twisted streets make this one brutal. Even when my Apache showed up it fired guns only. After I lost three M1s and one being immobolized I tried to take the T-90s with infantry. My two ATs unleashed all rounds onto them with no success. Flanked with 3rd platoon, 1st and 2nd were too badly beat by this time. Tried Laws, AT4s, a crapload of grenades and a pummeling of 40mm shells but I could not even scare them out of their tank. The awesome think about this map was that you pop two BMPs right away coming through the gate and think you are done. You send the infanty to screen for AT positions when they get WACKED! by the flanking T-90. No possibilities of bringing them home as they get pounded into submission. Later on sent members of 2nd platoon to try and flank what I believed to be a wounded T-90 only to line up at the wall in the middle of town in perfect sight of another pair of T-90s. Christ that thing shot them up quick. Even my AT gunner unleashing a brave barrage of four rounds in 1 minute failed to bring down the beast. As he popped his last round he was capped by the neighbor on the other rooftop. Looking over my blazing wrecks and dead bodies I see the objective all the way across town. I think to myself, "You have got to be kidding me, I am totally no longer combat effective.". Mark, might be one of your earlier missions but that was a sucker punch to mighty blue force ego.

Mark, Awesome, 199 more things for us to complain about and come up with ideas about how to fix them. You must be a glutton for punishment.... Been playing some of your scenarios, playing one now where I am going to get my first loss. I made the obvious US mistake and assumed superiority and invincability from the start. Painful lessons. Unless I have a very skilled HELO there is no way I am coming out on top of this one. Forgot the name but a very challenging city fight over I believe 2 food points. Thought it would be a walk in the park...

Awww sweet..... I love Lobster... pass the butter....

Ok, I know it is a double post.... Went back and read my original thoughts on what to do and I followed this almost to a tee. I think having the 3 seperate fronts helped significantly. Your original force falling back to a defensive, then seperating elements off to bound left. When your reinforcements arrive they bound right. Once left and right are in place, your main element, reinforced, moves forward to gain superior firepower. Once that is achieved it is a matter of sweeping across the variety of objectives with using your other two fronts as overwatch positions. I am into the scenarios now so I'll have to delve into some more and after that start downloading.... So Stoex, what did you do in your prior life before becoming a full-time gamer ....

Stoex, You are right. My blue pixel soldier had a chip on his shoulder just thinking he was a Jav. Perhaps he has a complex of some sort. I guess that was an AT-4. Lost one of the men on the retreat back to the woods so they were rattled as is and hard to bring back on-line. I thought that I got that tank with my 40 mike mike and was impressed until I sawe the little streak of light coming from the far left. Have to admit that our strategy worked suprisingly well.

General, Are you playing real time or turn based. If you are playing real time, I'd say for your personality that you should play turn based. You will have greater efficiency of your assets which should give you better results over real time. I would find myself fighting one side of the map and then going back and fighting the other side. When in turn based you get to do both at the same time. Some things I don't like in turn based but you have to take it with a grain of salt. Let me know which one you play so I can give some feedback directed at that approach. By the way... I hate timed missions in any game ...even xbox types...:mad:

In Hills and Highways, I ran 3-4 vehicles up the far left side of the leftern ridge. One got to the top pretty quick but when I checked the others they were getting bogged down for a bit. I was praying, Cmon baby get on up there. Risky gamble but it paid off and I learned that some of those steep slopes are not off limits. Vehicles will get bogged down in several situations....

Spolier Alert Spoiler Spoiler I was looking for maps last night to play and came across this one. Not realizing it was the one we were talking about until today. First thing I did was pop smoke, break contact and head for tree lines to give cover to my armor. I realized from the Op order that help was on the way so my job was to stay low and recon. My LAVs went to hull down and spotted the AT on the left ridge and opened up on them. I figured that would be a good place to start, since they (enemy AT) had a good view and were likely dead by now. I probed my scouts down the left side of the map hoping to go up the left side of the ridge. One team was plowed into my a tank shot. I figured good enough and hunkered down. I moved my AT unit into position but before he could get view of the tank my reinforcment arrived. First wave went into the tree line in the middle of the map with a sniper and machine gunner covering the village to the right. Second wave of reinforcements came and they occupied the small cluster of buildings at bottom middle of the map. From here I has eyes onto the first cluster of buildings in the middle of the map at the base of the hills. By this time had moved armor to the overwatch on the left ridge looking over the buildings. One of them got popped by mobile mortar but I artied the hills and swept infantry up the hills in the middle. I figured there were tanks between the forest and the far hills so I reconed out the far side of the forest to see the two tanks there. My JAV took one and arty KO'd the other one. Satisified that I had superior firepower and good overwatch positions I started sweeping across the map with infantry bring up vehicles as I felt things were secure. That bit about scooting your LAVs back is crucial. Use the trees to your advantage, had many a round blow up in the trees around my vehicles. Later in the map a small force comes from off-map on the left ridge but your overwatch on that ridge should have about 3-4 vehicles and 2 scout teams plus a Jav. I turned and took to the trenches to hold them off. Fun map and I think smoke and taking things slow helped a lot. Plus using area fire with arty using 3 barrels on the hills kept those guys at bay. Usually don't use 3 barrels but there were ? and icons all over the place. Area targeting with the Mech units also halped significantly.

Stoex, Playing QB as both sided in hot seat mode. I had a stream of hummers going through a hole in the wall and noticed somne RPGS but lost sight of them. I area fired the trench and when I played red it was awesome to watch. After that I routinely target with the JAV. But that was back in Basic Training mode so I will try again tonight. As a side note, this was the map where I could see the enemy movement and target markers so maybe it was something in the map that alllowed this. Anyone else out there area targeting with JAVs?

Stoex, I could swear that they can use the acquire button as well. In the set-up phase I have them grab stuff just in case things get bad. I'll have to look at this tonight as well.

Roger, I like to bulk up on the way out of my vehicles in case they turn into the next bonfire. I was looking at the grenades and was like hmmn....5.56 check...7.2 check...40 mike mike...check.... laws... check.... hey throw some grenades in there for good measure. Wow...already carrying enough firepower so no love-loss.... Last night was assaulting a burning tank to take out the crew. My men must have lobbed literally 20+ grenades onto the wreckage. I was like that his surely overkill but to my amazement the crew survived trapped under the buring hull. he was finally killed by a gunner. But I was thinking, now that was an expensive way to take out a pistol carrying troop. I than scanned the map on "Hills and Highways" and saw all of the buildings. I was thinking that I would have liked to spend those grenades somewhere else. Thanks for the feedback...

General, I have not tried this since I left Basic Training mode but do an area target with the Jav. If you have a ? say at a trench but no eyes on the target, area fire the trench. With Javs, close is close enough and I found area fire to be devastating. Same on buildings, area fire the building. If all enemy armor is killed, javs are great for taking out Anti-tank teams, headquarters, mortar positions. If it does not kill them, they are rattled and shaken for awhile.

I've looked around and read a lot but how do I get more grenades. I've tried trial on error acquiring things but I have not found what the right description is. Is it possible and if so how do you do it? Thanks, Falconander

Rayak47, What are you doing down in Zimbabwe? Javs are a hard mission agains the Hull down tank. I'd save them for a better shot. Playing hills and highways last night and I used Artillery and finally my Jav got a good shot in as well. Mines are still detected on the run. You run your troops through the field and see if anyone blows up. So there is still no mine detecting out there.

RockinHarry, One thing that helped me was to double-click the headquarters element and give the move order to them. This will move the entore unit in the original spacing that they had. I usually double click the leaders to find the platoons and move them as a platoon. After which, you can go back and tailor the orders as needed so guys do not overshoot that shrubbery. "Bring me a ...Shrubbery...." <darn> I digress... Anyway this way you guys keep spacing as a platoon with you controlling the fine tuning. This is used on movement to contact across the plains but in this way you can set your guys in a wedge by platoon in the set up phase and they will keep this formation as they move out. Upon contact you have to adjust but I think it is control click to choose more than one squad. (click each squad you want while holding control) Ok put your squads in a line, once in the line (say 2 squads) you can give them a movement order and they will maintain spacing and move at the same speed so as to preserve the line formation. Mainly for sweeping an objective or moving towards a subdued house or when I am trying to draw fire so my overwatch can pick off the enemy but my boys are still combat ready. I know you are talking about an individual squad but I thought I'd throw this out there as it helps me find peace with movements. FYI... I think the spacing is pretty good with individual squads. When placing use the colored squares to align them where you want. Usually you will see two colored square at the end of your movement. Use these to determine if they are aligning at the wall (tight) or loosely as the squares will not be a line. Hope that helped...random thoughts late in the day....