glilley

Since I started this I'm going to pull my wish list request. After thinking more about it I realize that I've become fixated on this issue without stepping back and looking at the rest of the picture. In any engagement, unless the mobile asset is extremely mission critical, taking another like asset out of the fight for recovery evolution is rarely done. With mission success so dependent on time, terrain and force assets, taking another mobile fighting asset out of action is going to have a noticeably negative impact on one's ability to win the fight. If you get stuck, you're going to have to wait till night or the next day for recovery.

That is very true - seen it happen IRL and that would be one of those "gee, that's too bad" situations. Think that if towing vehicle starts getting bogged and you catch it before immobilization, it could perhaps be set up to stop movement, decouple the tow cables (crew out/in) then try to unbog the towing vehicle. With all of the variables this may be too big a stretch for coding though.

Once a towing vehicle is in position and given the crew is not under hostile fire (and factoring in crew experience) it only takes 5-10 minutes to attach towing cables to the towing clevis (2 on towing vehicle and 2 on towed). Attaching cables would probably require some form of the "Dismount" function to make realistic. After this, now its a matter of whether the towing vehicle can perform the function of getting the other vehicle unstuck. This process can take another 5-10 minutes and may not be successful (in which case player makes decision to continue trying or cut losses and get towing vehicle back into the fight). Now I'm talking about a straight forward tow evolution, not something more complicated using multiple vehicles or extra tow cables.

Combat towing recovery of undamaged immobilized vehicles. Would like to see capability for appropriate vehicles with tow cables to recover using said cables vehicles it can tow out. For example, M1 Abrams towing another M1 that has become immobilized due to terrain issues and not damage so it can get back in the fight. I am aware that there would be programming challenges regarding towing vehicle size/power vs vehicle to be towed, crew experience affecting time to perform recovery, terrain/weather impacts, crew exposure to enemy fire, etc. When playing 45 min + game duration, would be nice to have ability to pull a critical vehicle asset out of the mud even if it takes 20 minutes and takes the towing vehicle out of the temporarily out of the fight. Might be too big a challenge but thought I'd ask!

Ahh - looking at the file info at Scenario Depot it is played German vs AI. I swear that when I first played it years ago you could play either side vs AI (I mean, it did it as US vs AI). Was this originally a stock scenario that I missed somehow when I reinstalled the game? Edit - Looking at Leslie Software site it appears that it was a stock scenario - I must have overwritten it when I brought in the one from Scenario Depot. Bummer.

Currently playing CMFB ver 2.03 which I purchased through Battlefront. Years ago remember playing this scenario several times as a nail-biter. Last summer had to wipe/reinstall Win10 (sigh) and reloaded all my CM2 games and applied latest updates. Saw this game on The Scenario Depot III and downloaded it into Scenarios (as usual). All other scenarios work fine but this one has issues. Playing US, for the entire 20 min length of scenario, except for initial mortar barrage from Germans, the Germans just sit there in setup zone and do not move the whole scenario. Played both turn-based and real-time and get same results. Deleted that scenario and put it back in in case there was a corruption issue when I copied it, but no joy. Any thoughts?

Off-Map Smoke Being Available After HE/Cluster Expended There are times when planning fire support I would want the off-map tubes (artillery/mortars) to expend all their HE/cluster munitions to soften up a target then place smoke in an area to provide cover for my attacking units. As it stands now if your off-map assets expend all HE/cluster munitions smoke is not available as a final fire mission. Could use on-map tubes to provide smoke but some scenarios have little to no on-map tubes. Would be great to have smoke available after HE/cluster is expended.

Rats - this was meant for the Engine 5 Wishlist topic! Wish I knew how to delete this. There are times when planning fire support I would want the off-map tubes (artillery/mortars) to expend all their HE/cluster munitions to soften up a target then place smoke in an area to provide cover for my attacking units. As it stands now if your off-map assets expend all HE/cluster munitions smoke is not available as a final fire mission. Could use on-map tubes to provide smoke but some scenarios have little to no on-map tubes. Would be great to have smoke available after HE/cluster is expended.

Thanks Brille - Unfortunately the scenario I'm playing has no on-map tubes. Bummer.

Think I have read about this in some post but can't find it. Playing a CMCW scenario where I need to use smoke at the end of an arty mission that will use all the battery's HE. However, I then realized that if you shoot off all your HE rounds and fire mission completes the Support Roster for the tubes show "Empty" and you cannot choose it for a smoke mission, even though smoke was an option at the beginning and the rounds are surely still available to the battery. Is this a known bug with a fix being worked on or is it an unfortunate feature of CM2 code. Reason I ask is IRL it is not uncommon for units, via their FIST, to plan fires that involve smoke to be used at the end of an HE fire mission.

Got it up and running now.

I have ver. 2.04 and all the Marine scenarios are greyed-out and require me to download the Marines V2 module.

I already have the latest version of the basic game. Does anyone remember how big the download is for the Marine module? Thanks!

Oops - just saw that patch CMRT Win v212 Update.rar update to 2.12 is latest, so figure that is the problem. At 3gb size it seems more like a game engine update than a patch... Playing RT game engine 4, ver. 2.02 (purchased from Battlefront, not Steam). Downloaded/extracted CMRT_KGr_vonSchroif_v6 campaign and moved the .cam file to the Battlefront/Combat Mission/Red Thunder/Game Files/Campaigns folder. Opened RT and Campaigns and all I see are the original 3 stock campaigns. Am I getting the campaigns into RT the wrong way? Thanks!

Guess the answer is no! Thanks!

If playing US side, is there a way to determine what aircraft (fixed or rotary) Soviet forces were using at the end of a QB? I can tell by the sound of the air assets whether its a helo or a jet but what type? If I have a platoon of APCs wiped out while moving along a concealed road would be nice to have a survivor or two to report what got them! Thanks!

SOLVED!! Alas (sigh), Sgt. Squarehead when I went back and looked at my Huge supposedly clean map that I cut down I found group15 still had movement orders still painted. Weird thing is that group 13, 14 and 16 had no orders, so when I got to 13 & 14 when I was cleaning up first time, I quit looking. Probably have this same issue with the few other maps that have this problem, so it means I'll have to click through all 16 groups just in case! Deleted my small map and made a new one from my "now" clean huge map and after doing the required work (setup zones, objectives, plan/orders) ALL the Axis folks move off smartly like they are supposed to do. Sorry for false alarm!

MOS:96B2P -I will test that out, making the painted areas larger and see if that makes a diff. Sgt.Squarehead - No, all the painted zones were removed before I cut the map down.

Oh yeah - the yellow setup area is usually same size as the setup zone I make in the Map menu. But now it occurs to me that you are asking about the size of the areas associated with Order 2, Order 3, etc., (i.e. not where I first set the units up but where they are moving to). Is that correct?

Playing CMFB 4.0. A little background first. Like to make my own tiny and small maps from large and huge maps so I have more map options in QBs. I do this by putting the map file in another folder I call Working Maps. I then remove all terrain/unit objectives, parameters, setup zones, units selected (if any). For the AI, of the 5 plans I will make 2-5 Not Used and plan-1 Used Frequently. Within plan-1 I will go through groups 1-16 and remove all orders and setup from map then remove all supporting fires. I then save the map with "*-Clean" so I know I've cleaned it up. This basically gives me a clean map that I can modify. When I mod a map I will cut it down to a portion of the battle field I want to use. Since I like to keep it simple I will then assign 1-2 allied/axis terrain objectives, setup zone for each side, select which direction is friendly for allied/axis. For the AI, I don't bother with the allied since I almost always play allied but for axis I will use only plan-1 and only group-1 and set an intermediate point for them to move to using order1 and the final objective oriented movement using order2. I'll then run a quick battle using the scenario author test skill level so I can see what's happening. This works fine most times but occasionally I will have 1/3 to 1/2 of the axis forces just sit there in the setup zone for the whole battle. I only use Plan1 with the other plans set to Not Used and it is my understanding that unless you indicate otherwise, quick battle will put all your AI forces into group1. There has been a time or two when some forces didn't move because AI set vehicles up in a wooded area that they could not move out of but I usually try and config my setups so that this won't happen. Any ideas what I may be overlooking here? When this has happened I have gone back to scenario editor and looked for any legacy, not-deleted setups, terrain objs, parameters, groups with movement orders not-deleted but I usually can't find anything that explains this strange behavior.

Bulletpoint - I have observed this for some time, not only in CMFB but also in CMRT. In my CMFB I have roughly 3 dozen or more Tiny maps for Ardennes area in Dec 44 that are either setup as Axis assault, attack or probe but the same 6-8 keep on being pulled when I let the game grab a map. Don't know what the long pole in the tent is on this issue.

Playing CM Final Blitzkrieg, ver 4.0. Between what the game provides for Tiny battles and what I have created for Tiny battles, I have approx 2 dozen or more Tiny maps in QB folder that are not Meeting Engagement and are Ardennes region/December for the Month. The maps I have created come from existing Small, Medium or Large/Huge maps. When I create a Tiny QB and select one of the maps I have created, they work just fine BUT when I let the game choose the map, it seems as if game is only using 6-8 of the Tiny maps for the Region and Month I have selected. I have fired up, one after another, 12 Tiny QBs for Ardennes/December where I let the game choose the map and I seem to always get the same 6-8 maps split between game maps and ones I have created. If I want to play the other ones I have to manually select the map. Anyone else run into this issue and anyone have an idea how game "randomly" selects a QB map? Thanks! Gene

This was a day battle, light haze, smoke is on but no smoke was being generated on the battlefield, the axis and allied armor were both in open terrain with trees turned on, axis tank cmdr was opened up. This has only happened a hand full of times but I should see the russians coming a mile away in the relatively open terrain but should absolutely see them when they pass right in front of me, crushing a fence.

Playing CMRT 1.03- no mods. A few QB games I have played as Axis (one recently last night), mid day game time, appear to have Allied armor using a cloaking system!! I have Allied armor passing within 10-15 meters of an Axis tank with a clear LOS out to horizon and the Axis tank never spots it or his buds coming up behind. I can tell they are passing that close as I watch the fence line disappear next to the Axis unit. Only when I have an infantry unit Hunt or Assault to the suspected location of the Allied armor does it appear; or, if its that close sometimes I can fire and light it up and then it shows. Anybody else seen this behavior and have a solution?? Thanks!

Thanks a ton folks! This will help tremendously.