ZPB II

Long before the game was released, I said to my friend that it's cool that we'll be able to do Axis vs. Axis matchups. My prediction was that the Panther will stomp the Tiger in pure tank vs. tank dueling due to what Sergei mentioned, slope and MV. The Tiger would fare better in an environment that presents plentiful light AT threats such as infantry AT and ATGs from multiple directions due to it's armor distribution and better HE. I still haven't gotten around to battling Axis vs. Axis, but it was fun reading that my prediction might have been to the right direction...

My game with Anton is pretty much a done deal, a surrender was called and there's 1 or 2 mails to be exchanged, but I have been pretty busy today and will be tomorrow too. Now, I haven't seen the results yet but it felt pretty lopsided in terms of casualties inflicted. Will be interesting to see how much the objectives affect scoring in the end. I hope Lady Luck enjoyed the dinner & theatre and returns the favour! I salute my opponent, gg!

My guess is that it's deemed as a topic that's sensitive enough to affect the calculated monetary risk ever so slightly. Limited amount of time, more lucrative theatres to visit. The Eastern Front. Now, hearing that evokes awe and humbleness... Twitter, Facebook & all that jazz... I don't know how the PR would spin.

I'm at your service.

So, I play CMBN mostly as singleplayer since TCP/IP RT isn't rewarding enough and I think PBEM is too slow for me. (I might be wrong here. But PBEM games seem so long, they're a commitment. Like I imagine marriage to be. Gives me heebie-jeebies.) I like playing Quick Battles since picking ones own forces is merry fun. The problem in solitaire QBs is of course the AI. It lacks, ah, certain delicacy. How to satisfy my urges, I asked myself. I found a nice solution in playing Assaults against the computer with it attacking! Gasp, but the AI is no good on the offense! Nonsense, it turned out. I give the computer +150% points and handpick troops for it. Be sure to buy nothing but Elite and Fanatical units, that's the important part. Okay, they pour out of breaks in the bocage like lemmings but they shoot a lot. Accurately. And, it's like...really, really hard to stop them. Absolute mayhem and intense firefights ensue. It's like the last mission in Warcraft 3. Defensive positions one after another fall to the tides of chaos, your reserves get eaten like appetizers and all you can do is weep quietly. It's fun.

The gloves are off. It's war, gentlemen!

I'd like to participate, never played PBEM before. I'll PM you my email because I'm paranoid like that.

It's not perfect, but what is? I bought all three CMx1 games, CMSF + every module for it, CMA and now CMBN. There are issues, but I can't say I've personally regretted it at all. BFC has a pretty good track record when it comes to patches, compare the release version of CMSF with the last one, that game had a metric fckuton of bug fixes and improvements done to it over the course of years. I'm not 100% on this as I haven't played CMSF since my laptop imploded and I've lost the memory stick with the backup (sucks, I really liked that game, maybe even more than CMBN) but one exception to this is that the last CMSF module, NATO, is still somewhat buggy.

Even asphalt roads tend to get damaged easily. We were parading with 12 IFVs (weighting a mere ~30 tons) making a single round in the city. The end result was that the road surface was covered in track imprints and torn open at places. (Even though we had spent quite some time installing rubber paddings to cover the tracks) All the pedestrian crossing markings had been destroyed. The single dirt road was utterly demolished, I remember resting while watching the vehicle crews swing shovels as they were ordered to patch it up by some angry lieutenant. This anecdote doesn't change the fact that roads in CMBN are broken and result in incredibly frustrating gameplay, but the BF boys said they're aware of the issue and I trust it will be resolved.

That title belongs to the Suomi SMG.

Lay down linear smoke missions in front of the Tiger crest and rush them. If a Sherman spots a Tiger at long range, order it to shoot a smoke round at it.

Funny, I've had the exact opposite experience. Numerous times I've been biting my nails as rounds bounce off or penetrate my Panzers as I area fire possible ATG sites since I can't spot them. In one game in particular (RT TCP/IP) I was surprised when my opponent asked what the hell has been shooting at his Panthers for the last 30 minutes. It was a 57mm ATG in a dip in the ground, behind some trees. Thought he had spotted it but apparently it was just random area fire hitting near it occasionally.

No rules? Alright, I'll play the US, look up your setup zone beforehand and spend a couple of hundred points on rocket artillery at 50 points per battery. War is hell.

I'm 25 and I play RT exclusively. In part this is due to my attention deficit, it's faster to finish battles this way (although theoretically WEGO is faster since you can skip the replay) and I can start the action without having to plot for every unit on turn 1. Then there are some issues in WEGO, such as the lack of armor arc. Then again, RT suffers a lot from the generic "?" icon. I do miss the replays and find myself hovering far above the battlefield most of the time to keep track of casualties. It's much easier to do well in RT. All of my CMBN multiplayer has been RT too, which is a bit lacking. It's been fun, yes, but not nearly satisfying enough. Without pause, you rarely ever have time to watch the action unfold and you have to paint with a really broad brush. I simply select entire platoons and rush them into battle. There's been some occasional micromanagement moments that almost rival Starcraft 2. I remember dancing around a Tiger and a Stug with crews, an XO team, an ammo bearer team and a jeep...Flinging grenades and laughing as those slow turrets turn in vain. Did I mention I hate the nahverteidigungswaffe? Oh WEGO TCP/IP, how I and the Finnish CM community miss thee...

I find that hard to believe, seeing that with every CMSF module release BFC also released a patch for the base game.

I'd like to add that jeep drivers can be dismounted and put into a useful role, like manning the .50 cal of a halftrack.

Voted, even though I'm not Australian. Ranger33, Torchlight had one massive, gaping flaw that plagues neither Diablo 2 or 3. It was a ridiculously easy game, which made playing it unbearably boring. Compare this with the Nightmare/Hell/Hardcore gameplay of Diablo, which kept you on the edge of your seat while the game rips your flesh and salts the wounds.

Damn it. All this i-stuff is trivial but NeXT really changed the world. RIP Steve. "Speaking about his youthful experiments with psychedelics, Jobs said, "Doing LSD was one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life." He was hardly alone among computer scientists in his appreciation of hallucinogenics and their capacity to liberate human thought from the prison of the mind. Jobs even let drop that Microsoft's Bill Gates would "be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once." Apple's mantra was "Think different." Jobs did. And he credited his use of LSD as a major reason for his success."

I play CMBN high often. Works great in the bocage where you have to take your time, slowly inching forward and stopping to spot... Then again, I'm high most of the time. I tried playing CMSF on acid, but then I started seeing my friend's cat as, sort of a space leopard guardian of time thing so I stopped and started listening to music. Tried it on speed too, helps you focus. Alcohol simply results in a waste of pixeltruppen lives.

I'm 24 and suffering from a major age crisis. You know, the one where you start wondering when is the time to stop doing drugs and partying and instead find a wife and get a mortgage. When it gets bad, I come over here, read some posts and feel young again.

Haven't watched the entire video, but I assume people won't be asking whether the computer opponent can use artillery in a meaningful way this time...That was brutal to watch...

Excellent. Youtube is a bit slow, so I left it to load while I do some errands, but thanks for taking your time in doing this.

Also a question to ask, is there someone who has played each and every scenario, quick battle map and campaign mission in CMSF + modules, and can as such say they've been forced to download user-made content?

Talk about a hissy fit. I thought we don't get women in this part of the Internet. Seriously. Hahaha. I could make an educated guess on the poster's age or rage levels, but I think I'll refrain since it's rather obvious. The "have fun on your stupid forum with this upcoming stupid game." had me chuckling out loud. EDIT: Hi mom.

I'm under the impression that the game ships with something along the lines of 200-300 quick battle maps, each with several different AI plans.