Ithikial_AU

Eagle eyed players will have noticed that the fictitious Black Sea Crisis that forms the basis for CMBS is meant to be occuring as of right now through to the end of August. Ask pretty much any scenario designer who's done a historical scenario in the past, they will probably tell you at some point they've fretted about the weather conditions both in the lead up (to accurately reflect the ground condition) and during the engagement they are trying to model. Unfortunately there wasn't something like the world wide web and global weather services in the 1940's and details aren't always readily available for most CMx2 titles, but I'm glad to say we've made an advance since then. I realised in May there's a bit of an opportunity here to help out future scenario designers for CMBS by collating weather details from around the Ukraine during this period so the engagements that designers want to work on match up somewhat to weather conditions based on location and time of day. Sadly I'm taking off on some much needed vacation time from mid-July onwards so ideally it would be good to get a team of dedicated weather watchers to plug in some results on a daily basis for specic locations scattered around the country. All you need to do is ensure a bunch of numbers are entered into a spreadsheet in the appropiate places. Everything else including which website to visit has been taken care for you. If interested drop us a line at the link below or send me a PM. (No meteological degree is necessary). http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/threads/silly-idea-ukraine-weather.26013/ Cheers in advance.

I think it's just that. Taking the time to provide an update to their little community on a regular basis would probably put some crazy thoughts to rest. Not saying BF should tell us their financial position (we have no right to know) but some idea about how the different projects are progressing and what to look forward to would be welcome. And yes include caveats/health warnings about project timelines. Would this help? All you need to do is look at a thread on these forums where Steve makes an appearence and the level of interest / question asking sky rockets. If there is a vaccum of information then the internet will fill it... usually with rumours and falsehoods so not in the best way.

In my defence I was playing a battle with a British Battalion before typing that comment.

<Hand up> Guilty. Time certainly should be a factor in determining victory but not such a hard factor that the whole battle ends because you're "five minutes late." See my wishlist/idea below to get around that issue. (Down the bottom).

Video above is for some community content. (I'm not biased... ) But if you want 1:1 battles with an array of kit to play with and a scenario editor that lets you build whatever engagement you want, it's a no brainer.

In my opinion 'big' CMx2 battles are a completly different game to 'small' CMx2 battles and you need to play the whole thing from scratch different. For reference I define big as anything beyond a reinforced company. I also suggest not watching my channel since when I play larger engagements on that are being recorded I'm well aware I have a camera over my should so rush quite a bit where I shouldn't. My rules of thumb: - You will likely have a much larger map to play with but this also poses it's own set of challenges with a lot more options to consider (for both sides) for avenues of approach / provide covering fire etc. This also means there's more ground to cover and keep an eye on which can get very hard in the second half of an engagement when you are usually committed and after the casualties start to mount. - A large battle will likely boil down to a number of seperate engagements you need to manage simultanously sometimes in complete isolation from each other. A good commander can keep each engagement ticking over and making progress, while a great commander will find a way to ensure each engagement will eventually be able to directly or indirectly support each other - putting extra pressure on your opponent to keep up. Being able to read which fight needs what support is a skill in it's own, where in the smaller CMx2 battles it's usally pretty concentrated so everything you have at your disposal goes into one effort. - Don't go in with everything at once. You may have a force that looks unbeatable at deployment, but there's a good to excellent chance your opponent will be thinking the same thing at that point. If you have a battaltion of infantry to command, perhaps have 'Two Up, Two Down' that is you have two companies up front taking the hits while your on map reserves are ready to react or exploit a breakthrough or plug a hole that develops. - Ensuring you have not only good communication but also quick and safe routes of travel behind the front line is crucial to allow the quick redeployment of forces from one engagement to another. Remember a great commander will find a way to support each engagement that develops on the map. For example lets say you need to take a town ahead with a ridge covered in a heavy forest running up the middle of your approach. Opting to fight on two sides of a thick forest may seem like a good idea to force the defender to spread out their forces, but in reality is probably not a good idea if this forest also blocks your ability to quickly traverse this natural barrier at some point with your supporting armour. - Finally, time. You will likely have a lot of it and should use as much of it as possible, particularly if you are on the offensive. A personal pet gripe of mine is launching a new scenario and seeing you have a Battaltion(+) force and only 60 minutes to take three objectives. It makes no sense except in Hollywood for a major action to take under 60 minutes. The upper brass may order you to take a town in 60 minutes but once that alloted amounto f time passes it's not a case of pulling back for tea an biscuits, if you are engaged you keep going. So this is where part one of my CMx2 wishlist items come in. The abiltiy for scenario designers to award victory points for finsihing a scenario before 'x' amount of time. It would give the ability for scenario designers to award players who are able to complete the engagement in the planned amount of time without having a hard end to the scenario. If you take longer you get less VP's. It would also be great on the defensive where you could alot additional VP's for each time marker a defender can hold the enemy up for. Great for delaying actions you want to model in game. Not to mention the campaign editor options for branching pathways. My two cents and then some. Hope it helps.

I agree pretty much with c3K but will add the following: If you are using armored/motorised panzergrenadiers you will likely have a lot of ammo sitting in the halftracks/trucks you can return to during the mission. Don't scared to expend your ammunition a bit more liberally. If you are very certain there are no anti-vehicle weaponary, don't be scared to use your halftracks to help lay down extra covering/area fire. Remember the Soviets don't have Bazookas and PIATS, so if you don't spot a tank or AT gun you should alright unless you get far to close. AT Rifles can still hurt but you should get some warning when coming under fire... unlike an on target 76.2mm shell. When I need to move into a village / town, I try to keep my panzergrenadiers in a line with one squad heading towards a building each. This increases the number of angles and coverage against enemy positions I make contact with. I may lose a few pixeltruppen but having another 20-30 odd all opening up on the contact from multiple angles will usually take care of the problem pretty quickly. (Scouts are great but sometimes you need firepower). Yes Panzergrenadiers up front but ensure the tanks are still in a position to support the infantry. Stay out of the woods. The forests belong to the Reds - just accept it. Praised it many times but if you want some practice using these tactics I suggest trying GeorgeMC's: http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-red-thunder/cm-red-thunder-add-ons-scenarios/der-ring-der-5-panzer-division/ A long one on a nice big map with lots of avenues of approach. You'll have to reorginise your forces a few times to hit multiple objectives. A clip of one my assaults in this scenario, (one of the good ones ):

Thanks mate. Where are you up to at this point? Let us know your thoughts when you get to the end and what outcome you received. I assume you are playing with the version 4.0 upgrade. It was built under version 3.0 so no idea if any bugs or problems have been introduced but I'd be surprised if there was anything serious.

Sorry I've just discovered this topic. In my experience, getting people to take the plunge into map making is a challenge, getting them to commit to building scenarios on those maps including AI plans is nigh on impossible. Campaigns.... we are a select few crazy people that want to do that. Even for me personally a part of me says once was enough. You will notice in the offical BF releases that in many cases the campaigns that are included are actually made by teams of people under the guidance of one manager. Most regular community members probably can't draw upon a team of map makers to pitch in and help out. As an example for how long it can take working on your own, my 'Lions of Carpiquet' campaign took two years (granted with a few breaks) between starting the first map to uploading to to the Depot. A few times now I've tried to grab a few community members together for a community effort into a group of 'connected' scenarios. The first two times (CMFI - Moro River Campaign and CMBS - ARMA 2's Chenaraus map to Combat Mission), it's fizzled out as people realise the work involved. Third time's the charm though with a group of us pushing on with The Battle of Arracourt for CMBN. Having a team that helps each other and has an interest in a particular battle (or in this last case tanks) is a big help. I agree with JonS above that the Map Overlay feature was the single biggest improvement to the editor to date. Even just with map making it makes dipping your toes into the editor so much easier for the new designers. A range of editor improvements could happen to entice more of the community to experience 'the other half' of the game. Top of my head: - A copy paste feature between map files and within the same map file. - Scroll bars for the unit selection / OOB screens. - An undo command! - A seperate tool for community members to transfer maps between game families 'officially.' (Or at least the common elements like terrain elevations and terain tiles etc). As CMx2 matures and more titles are released we're bumping into historical operations that occured over the same terrain in more tha one game family. This will only increase if future titles stretch to earlier years in the war. - A brush like feature that randomly ruins/rubbles/craters your map. The worst map you can commit to making is a ruined urban environment. You need to essentially take two seperate passes at it. - Ability to program AI plans in the 3D environment with movement waypoints etc. (Granted this one is probably a few bridges too far). Just some thoughts.

I've had some limited success using them inside towns/urban environments but even there you have to get the jump on the enemy. Terrain on fire is still way up there on my wish list. CMx1 days, it was a 'great gaming nightmare' when your prime firing position suddenly became an inferno forcing your troops to redeploy. Keeping tabs on wind direction and strength was even more important.

Short version of changes between CMBN and CMFB for the Commonwealth... Wasps!

I'm guessing there's a thin line between historical accuracy in terms of what happened across the theatre vs what happened once the shoorting started. CMx2 is more interested in the latter. Historical accuracy - yes tank riding once the shooting started wasn't as common on the western front compared to the east but there's certainly occurences of it being used to transport troops when other vehicles weren't available. Not to mention cases where unaware troops would be ambushed that scenario designers really can't model inside CMBN and CMFI at this time. The game engine has also progressed and where seeing a lot more larger maps being used now (well above two square kilomaters) that have plenty of 'peaceful' areas players usually need to traverse troops and vehicles through. This wasn't as much the case when CMBN was first released. We hit this problem in the Battle of Arracourt battles a few of us are working on. The Germans lacking transports hitched a ride on their Panthers right up to the point of contact as a result - we can't model that at the moment inside CMBN. Giving them extra trucks of halftracks would probably give them too many extra guns to point at the US defenders so isn't really an option. Giving the player freedom to be silly and mount troops on the back of tanks shouldn't be ruled out just because it wasn't common on a certain front. Very stupid thing to do in most Normandy and even Italian maps/circumstances, you bet, but don't let that be a reason to reduce the tacticable flexibility on offer to the player - no matter how stupid. To paraphrase Napoleon... "Never interupt a Combat Mission Commander when he is making a mistake."

Quick project update. RL has got in the way for quite a few of us leading up to Easter but work continues. The construction of the final two maps have commenced and the map for the big Sept 19th fight is... well.... big. OOB has largely been locked in with tweaks occurring here and there where required. (Read: Ithikial forgot to finish something before). A linear US campaign option for the players wanting a bit more of a challenge is still certainly an option in play but scenario design as individual playable scenarios is coming first. Finally a little bit of bad news and that is one of the scenarios, "Patton's Ghosts" will only be playable from the US perspective vs that AI. For any meaningful defense in this scenario will require the US Cavalry forces involved to acquire ammunition and bazookas and then dismount their vehicles to form adhoc infantry screening lines. The AI just can't do that. Shouldn't be any troubles playing this H2H, just remember to read the briefing. All for now unless one of the other project members wants to show off some pretty pics. Any questions leave them below.

Worked first time. (Well sort of... had to use 3.0 upgrade key). Good luck for the hard launch.

As I've mentioned a few times in the community, beer consumption per capita has actually been falling here for decades plus the usual array of imports and craft beers have hit the local mainstream producers quite hard. Never been a beer drinker myself... not strong enough.

Nope no need. Just create a copy the BRZ's from your data folder into the appropiate folder in your mod tools folder. No need to 'remove/edit' the base data files used to run the game.

Not that I'm aware of. I think two people have reported a possible corruption that can occur between battles 1 and 2 which is a bit annoying but nothing I can fix. However given the number of downloads it's received it's a small minority of players. Some of the battles are Battlation(+) affairs so make sure your computer can cope.

Hope you like "The Lions of Carpiquet." I maybe a bit biased on that point.

More AI groups are better but what would be a nice editor tweak is the ability to rename groups and plans inside the editor itself. For instance I can rename the group to "A Company, 1st Platoon" so I know just from looking at the screen what is what. Would cut down on paper clutter on my desk. I'm guessing UI limitations are a factor preventing that from occuring.

Great news. Fingers crossed there's some juicy module/content news right behind it. Keen to jump back to Italy with gusto.

Sorry was thinking more generally back to the likes of 1941 where the Panzergroups had significant breakthrough power against the Soviets and the German warmachine could actually kit out a full Battalion of Panzergrenadiers with halftracks (but yes not full divisions). Terrain will also play a key factor considering we don't have many opportunities for fighting on the open steppe or deserts of Africa under current titles. For small arms fire, the ability for passengers to duck their heads down when under fire would be nice. Sort of related to another long held wish of mine to one day see infantry be able to crouch move / duck and dash when under light surpression to get to the end of that waypoint. There isn't that nice in between mode for infantry between moving normally and going prone to seek cover and concealment.

I think it's one of those things we'll get to appreciate more if CMx2 ever goes mid and especially early war, when the caliber of heavy weaponry and array of machine guns diminish compared to '44 and '45 we mostly play now where everything is a threat. Halftracks as armored transport with mobile HMG's could be incredibly versatile when you know you probably don't have bazookas, fausts and tanks with 75mm guns in front of you every battle. I think technology and weaponary simply overtook the concept of open topped halftracks pretty quickly and we've one seen the end game in the CMx2 engine. Two cents from someone who's keen on mid and early war titles.

Thanks the for the praise above guys. When I started there was really no one doing a dedicated channel for Combat Mission videos. (And certainly not in 1080p!) I looked at the many Total War channels out there and decided to copy that type of format "Let's Play" format. Just with the added bonus of me saying "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no..." and then cursing my pixeltruppen. Probably now is the the best time to say it but anyone who follows my channel knows it's been dying a slow death over the past 12 months. Building a house and getting promoted at work means I've got less time then ever to dedicate to the channel. Having some more time designing scenarios would be great. Then there's the Australian 'Kangaroo Internet' issue. It takes anywhere between 8 - 12 hours to upload each of my AAR episodes at my new place. I may be able to get a connection upgrade later this year which might help, but in short Australian internet is garbage. I have committed to finish the current Aachen campaign (from the excellent work of @benpark), but after that I may just upload little 'Action Moments' when something awesome occurs. If this is the end, well at least I know there's a new generation of excellent CM YouTubers to take the torch and I know for a fact (from comments and PM's I've received over the years) this little community grew a little bigger because of the channel, which can't be a bad thing.

It's one of those things you only realise once you go into the editor to make your own scenario that a roadblock fortification like the CMx1 days isn't there. On my wishlist for future inclusions. Using hedgehogs and bit of terrain trickery (such as a mound of Heavy Rocks - so vehicles can't pass over) can get the job done, but you give the player a heads up to where the roadblocks are before they encounter them.

Damn that was a long time ago. Aris' terrain pack for CMBN. http://cmmodsiii.greenasjade.net/?p=2785