Ranger33

Didn't the Germans flood a lot of the fields to limit armor movement? Or was that later on? That would make for some interesting scenarios regardless. You could definitely get bogged in river beds in CMSF, so I'm sure it will be a factor in CMBN scenarios.

I seem to remember that in Donald Burgett's book Currahee!: A Screaming Eagle in Normandy he talks about climbing 10-12 ft hedgerows as a normal, albeit slow and unwieldy, occurrence. I will have to dig that up tonight and skim through it in preparation for the release of the game. It's been a couple years since I read it, but I know that he goes into extensive detail about the hedgerow fighting. I vividly remember his description of his unit charging through an orchard at a group of 88s firing directly at them. It had to be one of the most terrifying things I've ever read about.

I would definitely agree that that is generally the best size for a scenario. Gives you enough manpower to tackle a handful of objectives as you see fit, with a few extra toys attached to spice things up.

I prefer smaller scenarios as well, but I can only speak from CMSF experience. In those campaigns I never felt overwhelmed by the number of units, except for a couple of missions. Most of them were "medium" (in my perception) sized, with a few small and a few large. There were numerous user made campaigns for CMSF that had you commanding small numbers of units and I imagine for CMBN there will be 10x as many scenarios and campaigns available, of all sizes. Edit: I can't imagine having a Normandy game without at least one "Lost squad of paratroopers" type mission or even campaign. Having to link up several squads and then attack a village or something would be great stuff.

Alright I just had a go as the Americans and I rolled right across the map with only a dozen casualties, half of those being from one mortar shell, and no tanks lost. Of course, I had a decent idea of where the enemy would be concentrated. I think maybe just take away one of the 105's and give the Germans one more Pak 40 and this could be a much more balanced battle. Also, giving the American player a major objective besides just touching the end of the map, perhaps the building there at the crossroads, would make things more interesting. The map itself is amazingly well done.

Yesterday my dad dug up an old .22 rifle to kill a lamb with (we raise sheep, it was slowly dieing from it's own stupid injury so he planned to put it down). Anyway, this thing had been sitting in the closet for about 25 years. Now, my dad is a country guy if there ever was one, but he is clueless around firearms. He wasn't sure if the safety was on or if it was loaded so he just pointed it at the concrete floor in our garage and pulled the trigger. Sure enough, a 25 year old bullet came zipping out. No injury, but it could have been a lethal, retarded mistake.

I think that is a bit of a flaw in the map design, the Germans have to dedicate units to hold those buildings on the left for objective points, but the US can ignore that side of the map entirely and still achieve all of their objectives. I agree with the second part, having some heavy arty is one thing, having it fall for ten minutes across half the map is something else. I think you underestimate how effective the tank hunter teams can be if positioned correctly. They are really hard to spot, even at close range. The TRPs can also be really effective if you can slow the US infantry for just a minute or two. A fighting withdrawal really works in the Germans favor here, just like in real life. I just love that we are having these tactical discussions, and all we have to work with are a couple of demo scenarios! Good times ahead, me thinks. I will have to have another go at this as the US, since I thought it was only a medium difficulty scenario from the German perspective.

I've only seen this once but it did seem further off than what you would expect. What really drew my attention was that the spotting rounds seemed to be where you would expect them, but then the "fire for effect" rounds landed in a different spot all together. Specifically, I called a point target on the AT gun in the Road to Berlin scenario and my rounds landed almost off the map. I've only seen this one time out of a couple dozen fire missions, so I wouldn't say its broken or anything.

I think taking away the 105s would make those woods a very tough nut to crack, what with multiple lines of defense between them and those houses in the back. The US tanks are pretty much useless for anything except initial overwatch, since the Germans have tons of tank hunter teams hiding in the bushes, and AT guns covering the road and the large open area on the other side of the map. The big problem with the AI setup is that it puts 2/3 of their forces in one small area. I played it as the Germans, and knowing the initial barrage was coming, spread them out a lot more, minimizing casualties from the 105s. Then I pulled my frontline guys back as soon as they started taking fire, and sucked the US forces into my TRPs and tank hunter teams. I was able to take out 7 tanks and blunted their attack right at the edge of the woods. Of course this is all against the AI, with a real person those tanks could be put to much greater effect. I had my very own tube guy, his partner and another nearby tank hunter team got wiped out, so he picked up 6 or 7 rockets and went to town, knocking out 3 Shermans on his own.

I find it pretty effective to split off one scout team per platoon (or a half-squad for bigger groups) and use them as dedicated medics. With a bit of micromanagement they can take care of a normal number of casualties. Of course, this isn't always needed, but if you are rapidly advancing it can be very helpful.

Thanks for the input Steve, good to hear that at least you guys have this stuff on the table. I know I don't speak for everyone, but some sort of pause in RT multiplayer is at the top of my list of things to see implemented. My list is pretty short though since everything I've seen in the demo is spectacular. I don't even use pause that much in SP, but for those occasional emergency situations where you need to shift several units around at once, it can be the difference between success and failure.

Just wanted to bump this. I don't have a problem playing RT (I've got a few Starcraft 2 wins under my belt ), but I don't want there to be a big division in players between RT and PBEM, these modes being quite the polar opposites. A simple automatic pause every 60 seconds, that lasts until both players unpause or some time limit is reached (15 secs, 30 secs, maybe variable depending on battle size or player choice?) this would allow each player a moment to regroup if needed, and if not they can both hit go and get right back to it. Best of both worlds, in my opinion. You can really only focus on one group at a time, and anything bigger than the demo scenarios would definitely leave some of your units neglected, when they should be part of the fight.

I have taken to playing with the "half-trees" option since it massively improves performance and lets you see a lot better, but then sometimes I forget the trees are even there and can have a major effect on LOS. It also takes away from the immersion quite a bit when you switch back to full trees and realize what you aren't seeing. A toggle for "Swaying Trees" would be really nice, since they look great but usually I'm moving the camera around too fast to actually notice them moving all that much.

This is why I just use the space bar menu, no fuss over which hotkey does what or checking what menu you are on.

What can I say, it's everything I expected and more. Honestly I was just expecting CMSF with a WW2 skin and few new features (which would have been fine). This game is definitely a step up from CMSF in every way. Everything simply has a better flow to it, from the trees to the improved animations, to the slight changes in the UI. All of this along with improved overall performance, I'm totally in love already. I beat the training scenario without much trouble and managed a rather ugly victory in the Falaise (?) Pocket mission as the Germans. Saving the last scenario for tomorrow, as something to play while the full game downloads (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) If there is one tiny area I could criticize it would be the sound, some of it is great, but some of it feels very generic and meh. But there will be mods for that so no worries. Edit: Okay couldn't help myself and tried out the Busting the Bocage scenario, where things promptly went sour and I decided it was time for bed lol. But I noticed one definite bug, one of my Rhino tanks tore out a hole in the bocage as expected, but the others either went through or simply created (I'm not sure) the smaller holes (door sized) that the soldiers use. In both cases where I saw this I had edged the tank right up to the bocage and then gave it another order to move through to the otherside. I also had a question about the surrendering, I seem to remember from the AARs that their comrades can come back and free them, but I was also under the impression that if enemy forces move close then they are "disappeared" from the map and can't be recovered. I might just be mistaken about this though.

Agreed, I mean, three uses of "very" would have to indicate that something is imminent. Anything else would just be cruel.

I'm sitting here with no work today and it's pouring down rain outside. A demo/full release would really hit the spot right about now...

I've posted on a few forums about it and got some interest from a few people, but yeah this game is pretty niche. Hopefully a good demo will bring in new people.

Well, at least it used to be WW2 centric. Now it's rednecks yelling at each other centric.

Not everyone has the Military Channel, and the History Channel is an empty shell of what it used to be, I doubt it's viewership is the target demographic for this game anymore. Now if you could somehow get your engine used for one of those shows like Rome: Total War did, that would be a pretty sweet deal. I have no idea how something like that would work financially, but the CMx2 engine would certainly be better than those low budget CGI clips they always use over and over.

I've seen other reports saying it was a Spec Ops team, which will be much better for the soon to written movie. In all seriousness though, call me when I can get on a plane with a bottle of shampoo, that's the day we will have won.

I predict it will come out right as I start packing to head home from college for the summer. Then I will have a lovely three hour drive to make, while thinking about how I could be downloading it right now. Then when I get home my dad tell me he's working on some project and needs my help for a few hours. Then a storm will come in and knock out the electricity. Yes, I imagine that is how it will play out.

CMSF has really grown on me lately, the pace and tactics just finally "clicked" with me a few months ago. I do still plan to finish the big pile of user made campaigns I have accumulated. Need the final patch so I can do the NATO ones as well. That said, I see myself playing CMBN more than I ever played CMSF, but a change of pace every now and then is nice.

The first time I played this game I thought it would be a great way to teach some advanced math concepts to high school boys who otherwise wouldn't be interested. I haven't really figured it out myself since I don't like doing math while gaming lol, but in a classroom setting I think it would be really effective. I guess you would probably want to do it from the point of view of an American sub though

Well at least I know I can find something else to focus on for awhile. Still have to keep my eye out for that demo. Happy to hear everything is coming together nicely for you guys, hope it's a big success!