dakuth

As above. I could be wrong that they are set up by default always, but if you give the command in the setup phase, perhaps they instantly deploy? If that fails, its a bit of a scenario oversight. They really should be setup to begin with so you can use prepared bombardments.

Yes... that's why I did it... in the name of eddimucation!

Do you mean on the first turn? That's the special case of "prepared bombardment." You can fire any arty without line of sight and it will start falling immediately if you give the order during setup. And yes, it needs to be set up, but mortars should be by default for exactly that reason. I have often been confused about that word. I originally thought it was "bow-cage" but I imagined I heard someone say "bock-age" and figured that was correct. I apologise if it got on people's nerves

It's up and working in HD. It took a long time to upload... but it's there! Tutorial AAR Video Weighing in at 2hours and 40 minutes I have recorded a Video After Action Report aimed at utter newbs or people struggling a little with "correct" tactics in CM:BN. I cover everything from UI quirks to building assault tactics to scoot-and-shoot waypointing. I understand that since this video is nearly as long as Saving Private Ryan not everyone has the time to watch the whole lot, so I have helpfully timestamped all the "lessons" so you can jump to the areas that interest you. Because of the way it is recorded, it makes more sense watched in order, but I understand not everyone has the time and patience for that! Also lessons tend to overlap a bit. For example, while showing you a text-book assault on a barn, I also get to talk about friendly fire and tank damage Veterans will no doubt find this quite boring - the AI was no real challenge afterall, but I scatter tips and tricks throughout the whole video that I've picked up in my own playing (and these here forums) so I hope that people who are frustrated or overwhelmed with the game will benefit greatly. Below I list my "chapters" and "lessons". Please enjoy... I hope someone benefits! **** Pre-battle **** 0:00 - briefing: analyse friendly and enemy forces. Review Objectives. 9:08 - preparing your attack: Analyse forces, anaylse terrain, develop plan, execute pre-battle moves/setup 10:20 - Icons, selecting units, army structure - teams/squads/platoons 13:45 - C2 network 16:35 - stats - leadership, experience, morale, tiredness 18:30 - jumping between units in a platoon 19:30 - tank platoons - radio contact 20:20 - anaylse terrain 20:30 - Camera controls 1 - 9 21:20 - develop plan 21:40 - reserves 24:05 - Combined arms tactics - tanks and infantry 25:25 - AT guns vs Tank tactics **** Setup phase / first turns **** 28:40 - First turn orders 29:25 - The different movement commands - quick/fast/slow/etc 30:40 - Recce (reconnoiter) 31:25 - splitting teams 32:10 - Cover arc as "hold fire" 34:30 - Prepared artillery bombardments 37:40 - Calling Artillery 42:40 - 60mm vs 81mm vs 105mm 43:50 - placing waypoints/artillery missions near hedgelines/walls 47:00 - The different types of hedges 48:10 - artillery bug to be aware of 48:50 - rejoining teams 50:00 - All paths 51:00 - giving further commands at waypoints 51:50 - peeking through bocage 54:40 - relative spotting 57:30 - initial contact and minor mortar tactic discussion **** Assault **** 1:00:35 - Planning an assault on a building 1:02:30 - tank buttoned vs unbuttoned 1:03:30 - Overwatch and building assault theory 1:05:10 - Overwatch options 1:07:40 - Assault timings 1:08:20 - Target light in an assault / friendly fire 1:10:25 - Giving commands for an Assault 1:11:30 - binoculars matter 1:12:25 - regrouping on waypoints 1:12:40 - line of sight from a waypoint 1:13:40 - Forcing the use of grenades (for building assault) 1:13:55 - The Pause command on a waypoint 1:14:40 - MG area suppression 1:18:05 - Reinforcements 1:18:30 - The tacAI cancelling orders **** fighting through Bocage **** 1:20:20 (also 1:17:30) - Bailing out of a tank 1:22:30 - Tank turning speeds 1:23:50 - buddy aid 1:27:30 - the sounds of gunfire 1:28:20 - The pros and cons of a house 1:29:40 - targeting a unit 1:30:30 - blasting through bocage without engineers 1:31:30 - Ammo cookoff 1:32:40 - Direct fire mortars 1:32:40 - Cowering to break line of sight 1:34:30 - Enemy Artillery spotting rounds 1:35:25 - Scoot and shoot or firing limited smoke rounds 1:36:00 - Wind effects 1:39:00 - buddy aid 1:42:20 - buddy aid in action "medic" 1:43:50 - permanent morale and fitness penalties 1:46:15 - infantry screen for tanks theory 1:47:45 - trading and collecting ammo 1:49:30 - low hedges. Hedges tanks can cross 1:50:20 - more buddy aid 1:51:10 - the use of the hide command to break line of sight 1:53:10 - tank statistics - ammo/damage 1:53:30 - losing tracks (going slower reduces chances of throwing tracks) 1:54:10 - using enemy equipment. surrendering 1:55:15 - American doctrine for bocage assault 1:58:05 - Bocage assault in action 2:00:40 - Forcing the use of grenades **** mopping up **** 2:01:40 - German infantry squads with MG42s 2:01:00 - 2:08:00 lull 2:08:00 - More bocage assault. The assault movement command 2:08:00 - Area fire 2:11:00 - Buttoning up tank commanders 2:12:20 - Buttoned up tank vs Panzershrek 2:14:30 - bailing out of tank 2:17:45 - committing reserves 2:17:50 - tanks on roads and mine concerns 2:19:30 - another example of overwatch maneuvor. How to choose your assault squad and overwatch squad 2:21:00 - Errant spotting rounds. calling for arty, then spotter dying. 2:24:10 - judging your opponent by incoming fire and fire superiority 2:26:20 - Buttoned up tank vs Panzershrek #2. Example of why tanks should not lead attacks 2:29:30 - Tank TacAI taking evasion moves 2:30:45 - recrewing a tank (can't recrew a different tank) 2:31:40 - buddy aid tip 2:32:15 - careful placement of waypoints near obstacles (bocage) 2:33:30 - surrender and objectives 2:35:30 - recrewing a tank 2:40:00 - semi-deployed machine guns 2:37:00 - After Action report screen

I got through it, charging up the hill and forced a surrender. I had to reload and restart 3 times I think, giving up when I lost entire companies to TRPs with no Germans yet killed. On my 3rd try though, I made it all the way up - the tanks were vital. Also, all three of my companies are completely chewed up. I completely forgot the overarching campaign idea, and no I'm progressively running into more and more trouble in later missions and I blame this hill mission for all my woes. The one main non-spoiler hint I can give is: If your position becomes untenable... call for a cease fire. It's realistic.

Damn. My upload failed, which is ok. I'll get it this weekend - but that means the link will be wrong. I did not realise that this forum does not let you edit posts, or I would never have preemptively posted. Can a mod please delete this thread and I'll start another one when I get the upload completed?

Yes, I expect it'll take another 8 hours. If it's not uploading happily when I get home from work, I'll be breaking the chapters up and uploading them one at a time. As to "how" - youtube just allows it now. Limit is 20GB afaik. You might have to be a member for a while first, or some such.

AT TIME OF WRITING, THE VIDEO IS STILL UPLOADING. I AM POSTING THIS NOW AS A TEASER OF WHAT IS COMING! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkGOLp3W3Qs Weighing in at 2hrs and 40mins I have recorded a play through of the tutorial mission with a focus on first-timers. In this mission I was able to cover off everything from camera controls and UI quirks to scoot-and-shoot waypointing techniques. As I played through the scenario I found it broke up into 4 chapters that defined the theme of the lessons. Within these chapters I covered off topics as they arose. Many of these "lessons" were simple tips and tricks I've learned through extensive forum lurking, and some I've learnt myself, and some might be wrong! :confused: Other lessons were examples on how to correctly execute some manoeuvre, such as assaulting a building. As such many of the lessons overlap, such as when I would show how to assault a building included in that are lessons on overwatch and friendly fire. So the way the video is structured is it broken up into 4 chapters, and within those chapters I have timestamped the various topics I cover. Find the topic you are interested in and start watching from there. The information may be covered off quite quickly, or I may wax lyrical for sometime covering off sub-topics as they arise. As mentioned - there is often overlap. The video is best watched from start to finish due to the way it is structured, but I understand that since this "tutorial" is approximately the same length as Saving Private Ryan it may not be practical for everyone! Therefore - jump to the timestamp or timestamps that interest you and watch for as long as you like. Bolded topics are the main topics. Unbolded tend to be sub-topics or tips. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkGOLp3W3Qs 0:00 - briefing: analyse friendly and enemy forces. Review Objectives. Pre-battle 9:08 - preparing your attack: Analyse forces, anaylse terrain, develop plan, execute pre-battle moves/setup 10:20 - Icons, selecting units, army structure - teams/squads/platoons 13:45 - C2 network 16:35 - stats - leadership, experience, morale, tiredness 18:30 - jumping between units in a platoon 19:30 - tank platoons - radio contact 20:20 - anaylse terrain 20:30 - Camera controls 1 - 9 21:20 - develop plan 21:40 - reserves 24:05 - Combined arms tactics - tanks and infantry 25:25 - AT guns vs Tank tactics Setup phase / first turns 28:40 - First turn orders 29:25 - The different movement commands - quick/fast/slow/etc 30:40 - Recce (reconnoiter) 31:25 - splitting teams 32:10 - Cover arc as "hold fire" 34:30 - Prepared artillery bombardments 37:40 - Calling artillery 42:40 - 60mm vs 81mm vs 105mm 43:50 - placing waypoints/artillery missions near hedgelines/walls 47:00 - The different types of hedges 48:10 - artillery bug to be aware of 48:50 - rejoining teams 50:00 - All paths 51:00 - giving further commands at waypoints 51:50 - peeking through bocage 54:40 - relative spotting 57:30 - initial contact and minor mortar tactic discussion Assault 1:00:35 - Planning an assault on a building 1:02:30 - tank buttoned vs unbuttoned 1:03:30 - Overwatch and building assault theory 1:05:10 - Overwatch options 1:07:40 - Assault timings 1:08:20 - Target light in an assault / friendly fire 1:10:25 - Giving commands for an Assault 1:11:30 - binoculars matter 1:12:25 - regrouping on waypoints 1:12:40 - line of sight from a waypoint 1:13:40 - Forcing the use of grenades (for building assault) 1:13:55 - The Pause command on a waypoint 1:14:40 - MG area suppression 1:18:05 - Reinforcements 1:18:30 - The tacAI cancelling orders Fighting through bocage 1:20:20 (also 1:17:30) - Bailing out of a tank 1:22:30 - Tank turning speeds 1:23:50 - buddy aid 1:27:30 - the sounds of gunfire 1:28:20 - The pros and cons of a house 1:29:40 - targeting a unit 1:30:30 - blasting through bocage without engineers 1:31:30 - Ammo cookoff 1:32:40 - Direct fire mortars 1:32:40 - Cowering to break line of sight 1:34:30 - Enemy Artillery spotting rounds 1:35:25 - Scoot and shoot or firing limited smoke rounds 1:36:00 - Wind effects 1:39:00 - buddy aid 1:42:20 - buddy aid in action "medic" 1:43:50 - permanent morale and fitness penalties 1:46:15 - infantry screen for tanks theory 1:47:45 - trading and collecting ammo 1:49:30 - low hedges. Hedges tanks can cross 1:50:20 - more buddy aid 1:51:10 - the use of the hide command to break line of sight 1:53:10 - tank statistics - ammo/damage 1:53:30 - losing tracks (going slower reduces chances of throwing tracks) 1:54:10 - using enemy equipment. surrendering 1:55:15 - American doctrine for bocage assault 1:58:05 - Bocage assault in action 2:00:40 - Forcing the use of grenades Mopping up 2:01:40 - German infantry squads with MG42s 2:08:00 - More bocage assault. The assault movement command 2:08:00 - Area fire 2:11:00 - Buttoning up tank commanders 2:12:20 - Buttoned up tank vs Panzershrek 2:14:30 - bailing out of tank 2:17:45 - committing reserves 2:17:50 - tanks on roads and mine concerns 2:19:30 - another example of overwatch maneuvor. How to choose your assault squad and overwatch squad 2:21:00 - Errant spotting rounds. calling for arty, then spotter dying. 2:24:10 - judging your opponent by incoming fire and fire superiority 2:26:20 - Buttoned up tank vs Panzershrek #2. Example of why tanks should not lead attacks 2:29:30 - Tank TacAI taking evasive moves 2:30:45 - recrewing a tank (can't recrew a different tank) 2:31:40 - buddy aid tip 2:32:15 - careful placement of waypoints near obstacles (bocage) 2:33:30 - surrender and objectives 2:35:30 - recrewing a tank 2:40:00 - semi-deployed machine guns 2:37:00 - After Action report screen If you are comfortable with the game, I have no doubt you will find this quite boring. If you are new to the game, and in particular are finding it quite hard I think you will find it very enlightening, if you invest the time to watch it. I admit my credentials are not the highest, but I have been able to defeat most scenarios I have tried against the AI, with Elite difficulty, gaining Total Victory. So my lessons here, if applied as I demonstrate, should grant you success.

Umm as an Australian, how are we overlooking Gallipoli, here? A nice piece of retreating that... but a retreat it was.

MORE SPOILERS . . . . . . . Yes, I guessed they had at least one, probably two after the first time it happened. A heavy, quick barrage with no warning. After the level I checked and indeed one there was on on either end. Very nasty. That's why I recommend tons of smoke on the bridge whenever you cross. If I was against a human, I might have "faked" that 50% of the time to draw out barrages in the hope of wasting ammo. Against the AI my plan was simple: If he doesn't see *anything* he won't call arty. Tank's smoke canisters seemed to work the best for this. Lastly, yes, clear the area. I ran across, and immediately to the right to mass on the river bank and the small hedge. That put me out of range of the TRP but I took some casualties to MG fire. If I hung around too long, they'd walk some Arty in regardless, so I could not wait long. I charged as far into the open as I could before everyone broke. Took me three company-wide infantry charges to make it up the hill.

Ok to clarify though - my articles will also have to be image-less. I will sneakily be putting some text up at work, but without images unless I steal them from these forums. I figure I'll put MY knowledge down, just as a starter so some other newbies can get some basics. Later they'll probably be consolidated or cleaned up.

I might start putting a few pages up on the wikia location then. Mostly poached from these here forums, since I am not the most experienced player.

I beat this one the other night with a total victory. I lost about a company and-a-half of men. Tip 1: Use up all your arty. Tip 2: Use TONS of smoke I found the AT guns were not much of a threat. <SPOILER> There was only two and I took them both out with 60mm mortars </SPOILER> So that game my tanks almost free rain. I burned through the HE like nobodies business and kept the coax machine guns firing. I lathered the fox holes with 81mm mortars, and covered the hill with 105mm howies. All while doing this I pushed my infantry forward. I pushed them into tired and only let them rest if they reached my objective (#1 hedge and river bank across the brigde. #2 hedge half-way to the hill. #3 stone wall 3/4 to the hill. #4 The trenches on the hill.) Whenever I tried to cross the bridge, I use an 81mm to drop smoke in front of, and to the right of, the bridge. The wind would them blow it across. Later, when my tanks pushed up, I used their smoke launchers. That was much more effective. One tank on my side of the bridge and one on the other side and 30secs before infantry runs across have them pop smoke. That creates a huge smoke cloud for 1.5-2m which is perfect for getting infantry across. Once I had a company across I charged up the right-hand-side of the road. I avoided the swamp itself. As mentioned above I did this under the cover of mortars, HE, machine gun fire, etc. It took me one company of men to get across the bridge. A second to push up to the hedge, and the third finally made it to the stone wall. A bit more suppression from there and my strongest squad was able to clear out the trenches. I had 40HE in an 81mm mortar I was hanging on to, and that is all. All other ammo was spent - including all WP smoke, and all tank smoke launchers, and smoke canisters. It all came down to timing. I didn't find it that hard to get FOs to land the arty, so I made use of it. Timing charges with the 3-4minute arty arrival was the real trick. Use the 60mm for sniping targets (like AT and HMGs) and 81mm and howies for wide suppression. Timing smoke clouds (The howies drop very nice smoke screens as well. I'd drop them ON the enemy positions. Smoke the bridge, yes, but at other times smoke the enemy's to allow your infantry as much open ground as possible. I had one barrage of 105mm smoke shut down the left-hand foxholes for about 10 minutes.) Also I found tanks to be largely invulnerable. Don't go crazy, there are a few AT guns, and panzershreks. But you can take them out as soon as they make an appearance, and the panzershreks can't really get close enough because of the open terrain. So the tanks just absorb the HMG fire and lay down suppression and death. My very own hamburger hill Oh yes. And despite my tactic of WWI style charging into machine fire, I lost the VAST majority of my men to enemy arty. I had to re-load several times because I lost an entire company to arty dropping on the bridge exactly as I was trying to cross. Bad luck? Or bad tactics? I could have split it up, but I felt time was against me (I also lost an entire company to a "reform and reorganise" manoeuvre I tried before rushing across the bridge.) I also took full barrages whenever I stopped to return fire (at my various objectives), but I felt only losing a platoon and a half, or a few machine guns perfectly acceptable. Such was the bloodbath of this mission. I think the idea for this mission, actually, is to call for a cease fire fairly early on and take a draw or failure.

best. video. evar. I want to do something like this with my PBEMs too... but it takes so much time! Loading up each save file, capturing the bits and pieces, then editing them together.... sigh.............. so much easier to set fraps running and use the in-game controls, but that doesn't work (because of the no replays, you see.)

I'd kill for this. I've also heard everytime I've looked into it that it is not coming. I don't know why exactly. For example, a workaround for Bridger would be: Then zip all the "Incoming" files up when you finish the game, and send them to the prospective viewer. That person then opens each file one at a time and pleases the "play" button, allowing them to watch the whole battle. What we'd need is to automate this process. Zip the files together into one file. Remove the ability to issue orders, and load each file in order. Several problems arise though (from a programing POV.) You have to make sure you keep the file's order straight (afterall, they could really be called ANYTHING), you have to make sure you keep them in around (no deleting old files until the game is complete), that sort of thing. As well as differentiating between replay and save file and PBEM files so that people can't issue orders, etc. None of them are huge issues, but they would take development time. Perhaps BFC could come up with a compromise? Something like the ability to save PBEM games in a non-encrypted format? Give modders a chance to construct a tool that could combine a string of save files together into a big save file, that then - in theory, would play a 60minute replay instead of the usual 1 minute? I don't know. I'd LOVE to see this feature. In my mind, I'd even love to see it before new units and theatres. I think it would really bolster the community - game replays and videos and community projects is what really makes these things take on a life of their own. ... but I can only assume it will never happen

Yeah, I keep forgetting about the old-school "grabbing with left-mouse button" because 100% of the games I play nowadays use WSAD for controls (whether they be camera or character.) So I use WSAD - but as mentioned, they're not very well done. They tend to stick and have poor increments. So I use a combination of methods. If a unit is in the vincinity of where I want to go, click the icon and hit TAB. WSAD (Q and E for rotate) and mouse-wheel zoom to narrow in. To give them a long movement or target order, for example, I probably don't have a unit in the vincinity, so I ctrl+Mouse click, then WSAD QE to close in. Hit "V" for a quick 180 if you need to reselect the unit again. Sometimes I'll even ctrl+mouse click and OVERSHOOT where I want to click on, then use "V". This gives me a reverse-angle view of the point of interest. This can be handy for area targeting, or getting the unit to go through a wall/hedge etc. I also occasionally use "1" to get a unit's-eye-view of the ground. Handy for spotting potential lines of sight. Another occasional trick is "+" and "-" keys to cycle through units. Handy for when I want to order and entire platoon. Start with the platoon HQ, give orders, hit "+" and give squad 1 an order, repeat for all squads in platoon. (I wish I could select all, give movement orders and then adjust... but anyway.) Another time to use "+" and "-" is to cycle through all units to make sure you haven't forgotten anyone. I personally think CM:BN camera controls is one of the worst features of the game, and really could have been done better. But we work with what we are given. I think a large part of the problem was being saddled with the historical baggage of CMx1's camera controls, back when they weren't as standardised as they are today (and so made them up themselves. err. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 for camera position? really?)

yes I would be interested in that prototype

Yes, sort of. If you park another unit with a radio near-by, they'll use that. It *may* be only vehicle radios (so parking a AC nearby works well)... but I'm pretty sure I've seen it work with radio-capable infantry too.

On that "closing the pocket" mission. My infantry were assaulting the very suppressed town in the middle of the map. My plan was to have my infantry assault and take the key buildings and lay down fire on anything they could see at the back of the town to protect one of my panther's which I was trying to rush through the town and into a line of trees. Securing this line of trees would allow my panther to engage a pack of incoming shermans from cover and hull-down. So I order my infantry to assault various buildings, and give my panther a pause+slow command so it putts through town carefully hot on the heels of the assault. I order it to drive between two occupied buildings as it edges its way into the back of town where it might catch sight on the incoming shermans. I said the town was 'very suppressed' - that was from repeated arty shellings, you see. Suddenly the panther spots a sherman and stops nosed out of an alley between two of my occupied buildings. The sherman gets off the first shot though... and it deflects off the panther's powerful front armour. .... deflects off the powerful front armour into an adjacent building, heavily damage from my shelling, causing it collapse and kill all of my otherwise unharmed pixeltruppen.

I'm not sure anyone has really answered your question properly. Disclaimer: I have not read any threads on this for this game.... but hardware fingerprinting is a common practice. I doubt there is any monitoring software installed. All that will happen is when CMBN starts for the first time, it will query windows for some details of your hardware - perfectly open stuff that it needs to query to run the game anyway. It then will make a unique "hash" key out of this, and save it. Whenever CMBN starts thereafter, it will do the hardware check once again and compare it to the saved hash. If the hash is too different (or missing!,) the game will think it has been has been copied or installed to another computer. It will then require you to punch in your activation code again - which will no doubt require communication with the internet and there they will track your total activations. Sometimes programs like this don't communicate immediately, to allow you to still play your single-player game without requiring an internet connection - but next time you jump on the net, they upload your latest activations. There's a few workarounds with this sort of logic - sometimes you can play without the internet, and then there is no way for the game to compare activations (but next you get on the net it will probably sync) or since you have several activations you could possibly install on two different computers, activating both. I have no idea if BFC has taken these scenarios into account or not. Your choice if you want to find out. I assume they don't actually upload your hash because that would require an internet connection every time you start the game - but perhaps that is exactly what they require. *shrug* Anyway. No monitoring software, fairly benign stuff, and only the one internet connection for activation..... *most likely*

In the words of one of my favourite characters in my current favourite TV series: Cool. Cool cool cool.

I'm also kind of curious. IL2: COD did the same thing on a larger scale. I think I remember Oleg saying something like "we're expecting a release some time in 2006" originally. Ok, fine, it didn't come out until 2011 and other than teething problems it feels very much like a 2011 game.... but I do have to wonder what happened to change the timeframe by 5 years. Or in CM:N case, over 12 months.

Well the argument is that seeding is more powerful than one-shot economics. While true, you're focusing on very short term benefits. The claim isn't that you will sell 10x as many come release day - it's that you seed a franchise. That you get the product into so many hands, that your next product spikes - and in turn seeds more. And so forth. Arguably, this is something Battlefront has already done, with tweaked specifics, with modules and the CMx1 --> "publishing other titles" --> CMx2 evolution. Complete with long-term patch support and developer interaction. I suspect you are right - and I that's what largely sparked my interest. Kelly was talking in broad terms and I wondered - how would this idea translate to a niche game like Combat Mission? What you say makes sense on the face of it - but who is not to say that there are strategy gamers out there in the making, that are lacking the exposure? The guys that play Call of Duty and think "I love this game, but I just wish it was more realistic - if I could control all my teammates, and spotting and morale were significant factors." And if they exist, who is to say how many there are? Perhaps strategy gamers are older because they come from the older generation of games, when they were more cerebral than action. Nowadays there are more action than strategy games - but it does not necessarily follow that because you are X-Gen you like strategy games, and if you are gen-Z you like action. I'm sure plenty of X-Gen converted to action games as computing power picked up. Why then are there not Gen-Zers who are strategy gamers that are just lacking the exposure? PS: I should point out I consider this a thinking exercise. If *I* were Battlfront, no-way I'd risk a model like this.

Well I'd be very interested to hear the specifics. As I read the article, I thought of Battlefront - because I think that Battlefront already employ many of the strategies mentioned. Other than a few minor quibbles, it sounded pretty solid to me. But this is what I was most interested in (as I was well aware that the "rock-bottom" pricing structure wouldn't be feasible/too risky to contemplate) - if you have disagreements with Tadhg Kelly's assumptions.

You're still thinking content business. I'm not even sure that Battlefront is doing that - with the module and digital distribution model.