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ravells

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Posts posted by ravells

    81mm mortar smoke out of range for direct fire command

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    I'm sure there must be a reason for this, but I can't think what it might be.  I have some on-board 81mm mortars (American) with WP rounds.
    When I use the 'target smoke' command for direct fire, the cursor either says 'target is too close' or  'target out of range'.  I can't seem to get the mortar to find a target where it will actually fire the WP smoke round. 

    Firing smoke commands for 81mm mortars works fine for indirect fire (i.e. where the mortar crew are given an order to fire via a spotter). 

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    Help on 15 minute off-board artillery please.

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted · Edited by ravells

    Thank you both. Very helpful information.  I found a good video here too (although he doesn't really go into delay except just to mention it as 'useful for coordinating).  So to me it looks like this (at least for American troops):

    Status                                                                                                     Options at this point:                   Delay | Cease Fire | Adjust Mission

    Spotter Calling for mission:                                                                                                     Y       |        X             |        X

    Receiving:  The spotter is contacting the arty asset.  :                                                                     X        |       Y              |        X

    Spotting:    arty starts firing spotting rounds:                                                                        X        |          Y            |        Y

    Preparing:  Seems to apply to offboard arty only (not to on-board mortars)                      X       |         Y             |        X?

    Firing:  arty fires for effect.                                                                                                     X       |           Y            |        Y

    Edit: Thank you Monty! Looking at the video now. Looks like just what I'm after.

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    Help on 15 minute off-board artillery please.

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted · Edited by ravells

    I never seem to get this right as a defender and always seem to end up with loads of unspent artillery by the end of the game.

    A typical example would be the game I'm playing at the moment (The Eerde Sand Dunes what if...). As the Americans, I have batteries of howitzers of 4 guns each and two TRPs. I put the TRPs in a (in retrospect) ineffectual place.

    Then the Germans start to come, but I can't seem to anticpate where they are going to be in 15 minutes time to lay down new target points for the howitzers.

    I tried this:

    1. Pick a target area/line on the field very early on where the attacker might be in 15 minutes time.
    2. Set an artillery fire order so the shells start dropping there before the attacker gets there (using, say 1 gun on intermittent).
    3. Once the enemy are about 3 minutes away from the target zone, use the 'adjust fire' to change the order from 1 gun to 4 and from intermittent to, say, medium. The problem is that the 'adjust fire' command only lets you change the target points, not how many guns or how heavy the fire. (Unless I'm using it wrong).

    Another thing: I've never seen the use of the 'delay' command (I feel I'm missing something). Invariably I need the artillery ASAP rather than in the future.

    At least as an attacker, the enemy is relatively static and you have the option of waiting for the barrage before you move, but as defender, the targets are almost always moving. Is there a tutorial somewhere about this or some sage words you can help me with? I'm pulling my hair out.

    Many thanks in advance

    Ravs.

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    Looking for a complete statistical chart of Armor and Gun Stats

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Wow, thanks! I've never seen this before! It's really helpful when you're picking units for battles (pity there's no cost column).

    There's something I don't get though. Assuming the figures are correct (and I have no reason to doubt them), the Panzer Grenadier 43 (9) unit has 2 MG42s with an attack value of 42 points at 500m. Yet a single MG42 section has an attack value of a whopping 52 at 500m.

    Is this to reflect the fact that there is more than one MG42 in an MG42 section?

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    How do you retreat in good order?

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Thanks Jason. I made the fatal mistake of withdarawing back to the building, it broke LOS with some of the attacking units but the ones who still had LOS fried a few of the men. Prior to that I tried using all of my squads to target one enemy squad only in the hope of breaking them one by one, my opponent's fire was more dispersed which had the effect of pinning many of my firing units so my fire wasn't so effective.

    Thanks everyone for the kind advice which I will use in future scenarios.

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    How do you retreat in good order?

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    The terrain was really hard to have breaking LOS positions, it was a few small scattered trees tiles and mainly open ground and the odd small building. It wasn't an ambush situation but a meeting engagement where I made a rush for the flag and then found the enemy (I had no idea about what the set up boundaries were) were flanking me and there were lots of them...I think it was a mistake too far to repair!

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    Awfull maps these days

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Thanks for the reference to the other thread, DAF, it was really interesting reading. What an great job you had and to have met all those interesting people!

    I am fortunate in that my wife's grandfather (who is still alive) was the navigator in Winston Churchill's dedicated aircrew, and he has some great stories to tell - Like the time they were flying to a conference (I think it was Yalta) and had a P-38 escort. The fighter pilots would fly as close as they could to the Liberator to see if they could get a look at the old man. It drove the aircrew in the liberator batty who thought it was dangereous, but the old man just encouraged the Americans by playing to the gallery and appearing at the window giving them the V sign which they returned. Uncle John has written his memoirs (I have them somewhere - it's an entertaining read), and we would stay up late - even in his 90s he drinks me under the table - him telling me stories about the war. Fortunately he's now being interviewed by a 'proper' military historian / author who will write his biography.

    Getting back to the maps, the difference here is that Beevor's book was a blockbuster (relatively speaking) and was in the best seller charts for awhile, so a budget of say, £200, would have been OK for a map. The issue of poor maps in books is one which is close to my heart as mapmaking (for fantasy worlds mainly) is one of my hobbies and I am a one of the mods of the Cartographers' Guild and poor maps in books is one of those perennial subjects which comes up again and again.

    We have a 'maps requested' subforum where we often make maps free of charge to people who want them simply for the joy of doing it - particularly if the subject matter is of interest. It would be good to see some requests for WW2 maps for monographs etc, where it is too expensive to hire a professional illustrator (although many of our 'amateurs' are as good as the pros).

    All the best,

    Ravs

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