mjkerner

Also, while the 29th and 4th were green from a combat perspective, they had been training--HARD--for two years. The 29th's training regimen was about as rigorous as the 101st, judging by the memoirs of Sgt. Bob Slaughter.

Right now, it's only going to cover Cassino Town, and Castle hill, for the 2nd NZ Division attacks in the Third Battle. We'll see how it goes, and then maybe I'll try the FEC/Indian Div/Polish Division attacks on the summit/Monastery. I think the latter one will actually be easier and look better, because I won't be going from "ground" level to 500+ meters, which so far looks not so good. I won't be going higher than Castle Hill because of that (so no Monastery; it's not needed for those battles anyway)--but rather I can start at a higher level and so the various heights will be relative to each other and will look better. If you happen to have CM Afghanistan, you'll know what I mean.

All I know is that as a "spatial humanities practitioner," it is taking a lot of work to re-create Cassino!

Stoneage, I wish that would be possible, but don't know of any waqy to do that. I hope BFC looks into to making that happen, along with some basic triggering system...when unit A reaches zone X, enemy unit B assualts zone X from flank.

I vote for the idea of allowing the active player to designate his own units as AI-only. I like being in large, battalion+ battles, but I reallly don't want to manage it all. One company is all I really want to manage, except it would be nice to override the same-side AI when a unit starts to act funky. Basically, the Matrix/Norbsoft Take Command game system, except that had very lousy AI.

So, if you use a very small support fire zone, and the AI has a lot of arty, then presumably there will be more for it to use throughout the battle.

Scenario authors don't have to set support fire zones if they don't want to. (They're painted just like AI move zones.) Defender arty uses any arty that is left over after the prep bombardment on targets of opportunity (TOO), but I can't remember 1) if you have to have set a support fire zone(s) in order for the AI to use leftover arty on TOO, and 2) whether the arty will only fire on TOO in support fire zones. Oh hell....from the manual: Scenario designers can specify Support Targets for the Computer Player’s artillery and air support to use at the beginning of the scenario. Such artillery strikes represent preplanned bombardments for a side controlled by a Computer Player. If a Human player is in control of a side the designer’s assigned Support Targets are simply ignored. When Support Targets are specified, all Artillery and Air Support Assets allocated to that side’s force are considered available for the AI to use. The only requirement is that a valid spotter have line of sight (LOS) to the designated target(s) in order to initiate the strike. All normal support rules apply such as C2 links, delay times, etc. Artillery and Air Support Assets not used against the Support Targets are available for the AI to use during the regular course of the battle. Up to 20 independent Support Targets can be designated. Simply select a target number and paint the zone to be fired at in the 2D map. Zones can be any size, contiguous or disjointed, though practically speaking it is best to keep in mind the actual amount of assets available. If one target zone covers half of the map, but the side only has a battery of two measly 82mm mortars available that are low on ammo, don’t expect an earth shattering map-covering artillery strike. Instead, it is more likely that the AI spotter will randomly pick one place out of the entire zone and pound it until the mortars are empty. Each target can be assigned one of three possible missions. These determine the intensity and duration of the strike: Destroy – heavy intensity, long duration. Issue this type to cause maximum damage. Available assets, ammo, and size of the target area are especially critical here. A couple of 60mm mortars aren’t going to level a city block, for example, but 4 batteries of 155mm Howitzers certainly can! Damage – medium intensity, medium duration. Good for a quick, devastating shock to a particular area Good balance between ammo conservation and damage. Suppress – low intensity, short duration. This is best used for harassing fire or to pin an enemy force down to allow friendly on map units take advantage of the situation. Preplanned strikes arrive at the beginning of a scenario, but not always immediately in the first few seconds. Normal C2 delays apply. Each target is attacked in order, and if multiple assets are available, several targets can be attacked simultaneously. Any support assets that are not used up for the pre-planned bombardments are available for the AI Player to use dynamically during the battle as long as it has what it needs to call in a strike (e.g. proper spotter, adequate communications links, etc.). In other words, the AI Player is bound by the same rules as the Human Player, as explained in various sections of this manual.

You get a bombardment phase, essentially, and the troops "land" (as reinforcements) around 10-15 mins later...I can't remember offhand. If you maxout all of your artillery, you get about 8 minutes of bombardment, and you get more arty later.

Also check CMMODS here: http://cmmods.greenasjade.net/ If you are at all interested in the war in Italy, sdp's Italian Campaign Mod is a must.

Peter, what scenario is this? Your own, QB, or campaign? It doesn't look familiar.

visor, check this out. Right up your alley. http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=98519&page=2

Very good review, BB. I never played CMx1 beyond a couple of stabs at the demo; I never watched the original True Grit from beginning to end. CMBN WOWed me (well, actually, CMSF did), and it's Jeff Bridges all the way! Sniper!, Patrol, SL, Up Front, plastic soldiers...you sure you weren't describing me?

umlaut, I owe you a report. Give a a couple of days, since I'm in a heavy work-load period. Or better yet, sendme the new version and I promise to report no later than this weekend.

Like Camelot, it is a silly place.

Fuser, Huberderie was a brilliant scenario. I was amazed at the inability to get eyes on any target before they had them on me. Devious, simply devious. I couldn't get a victory no matter what I tried. I actually went in the editor and modified the US TO&E to add a pioneer squad and a battery of 4.2" mortars. Still was shot up as hell when it was all over! Gotta love it!

sdp, I started on a map of the Castle Hill/Cassino Town area for putting together scenarios for the 3rd Battle of Cassino, using Google Earth, a map pack I got from you somehow [i don't recall if you sent it to me or I downloaded it from somewhere] and other maps from an exhaustive web search. It's about 1800m x 1800m. I hope it will be done by the time the Commonwealth module is out. (I will be using thousands of rubble flavor objects, I imagine! A real pain to push around action spots!) P.S. Anyone know if there is a way to change the grass green area that surrounds the CMBN maps? I thought it was "Distant Ground" texture but no joy when I "Italicize" it for sdp's mod. I can't seem to find the texture for it, or is it a imbedded code thing?

Assault at Hubederie is particularly nasty...but great! Spam and Jam Das Dorf des Todes At Another Crossraods Objective Eisenbahn It's Just a Bridge The Crossroads at Monthardrou Are the ones I keep going back to.

Thanks Perm666

akd: My problem was in a saved game, from v100, but it was saved during the "Give Command" phase. Regardless, I nuked it, figuring it was porked because it was a v100 game, and the readme for the patch warned about problems with pre-patch saves. I haven't seen it yet in the one new game I started after the patch.

rocketman, no, I was just referring to the Italian Mod that sdp released. I'm going to putz around and figure out what scenarios I want to make for myself, and if they turn out okay, maybe for release.

perm666, I had all the ships' initial bombardment set to medium/long command, but the firing from all of them ended in under two turns. Did I do something wrong by not maxing out the bombardment?

I'm not alone, then. Man, I thought I was losing my mind faster than normal! I went to call in a 60mm for the first time in a game and it was "Firing > 1 minute" or whatever the notation is...I wondered wtf? I was still able to set a target, which cancelled the AI mission. But still...

sdp, I just had a look see into the files for this mod. Absolutely astounding all of the work you had to have put into this! This is really a boost for CMBN since you've singlehendedly created a whole new operational theater for us. I for one can't thank you enough! Cheers mate!

Ha! Thanks, that's good to know.

permanent666, What a lot of work you must have put intothis! I can't wait to hit the beach tonight...plus, I'll be hitting Anzio as well (sdp just released his Italian Mod). A great weekend ahead! P.S., no one has commented on it, but I reversed the 29th patch by accident. You have to flip and mirror it before you place it onto the uniform bmp...I forgot to mirror it. Anyhoo, I'll fix that (and re-do all the patches soon) using EZ's uniform/face mods that he released to the community last week.