SNAFU

So--I decided to queue up Hot Mustard just to see what it like. (It's Big. Big enough to make my i7 actually work). I immediately liked the map as it allows plenty of room to maneveur the way I wanted and with many choices to approach objectives. I decided to run my companies as per doctrine--2 platoons up and 1 back. Approaching an area where I was sure I'd make contact, I left the supporting platoon back about 200 meters so it could react unseen. As my 2 leading platoons neared the tree-line, I seperated out a single fire team from each and sent them scouting. They met a warm reception and immediately went to ground. It seemed to me that their left flank may be vulnerable though and my supporting platoon was in the best position to exploit it. I commanded the front left platoon to pull back as there was definitely too much allied fire-power on that flank and I expected mortar fire there for sure. Simultaneously, I ordered my support platoon to side-step quick about 100 meters to the right while staying back well out of sight. I sent a couple more teams from the other platoon forward to begin engaging and hopefully pin the squad on their left flank. All was going just fine until that 60mm Sotting Round from hell dropped in. Not even close to the mark, it fell about 250 meters back from the tree-line, right into my platoon leader position (the one with the "quick move" command). BANG! It dropped all 4 men in the platoon HQ--the ones with +2 leadership. Hot Mustard indeed. I added a few more spicey expletives of my own. Anyway, the scenario took a long time to play--3 days and I was hitting it pretty hard. It wasn't too difficult to win but it was tough to do it without incurring a lot of casualties. Defintely a fun scenario except for that 1st spotting round of the game. Cheers!

Is it just me or do 30 cal MGs have trouble knocking anything/anyone down? My thought is that they are much better for supression than they are for doing actual damage (which is still quite helpful). I've had many battles where an MG fired well over 1000 rounds but still came up with big, fat zero...

I always wondered about that and thought those assets weren't directly linked to the platoon leader. It's nice to be able to have that mortar team loiter a little farther from the front line and still be able to communicate with it. It doesn't make as much of a difference with the MGs but from what I understand, they were usually an element of weapons platoon and occaisionaly attached to a platoon as needed. All in all, I like the change as well.

One of the big problems regarding air support for Sicily and Salerno was that Eisenhower didn't have control over the air forces. He had to basically beg for any support. He vowed not to let that happen for Normandy. For the invasion of Salerno, Spitfires (the primary air cover) had to fly out of Sicilian airfields which was quite a hump for them. They could only loiter in the combat zone for about 10 minutes before needing to return to base. There were a couple escort carriers with Seafires at Salerno but the pilots were so over-worked that they had something like 40 deck crashes. That led to the flight-crews cutting 6 inches off the the propeller blades for more clearance. The Germans still had a decent airpower at the time of these invasions and they were a lot closer to the front so they did quite a bit of damage. This was also when they introduced their radio controlled bombs and sank a few ships with those.

Thanks! I live about 30 miles out of Hayward.

Over egging the pudding? Me? (Perfect use of the metaphor)!

LOL--Good answer!

Good point I failed to mention. It's always the SMG that get me in these situations. I just "wish" that the assault team had better awareness that the bunker crew would probably exit and so they'd be ready for it. I bet that'd be a tough one to code though. In any case--not a game breaker at all. I like your idea of hitting it with small teams. I break squads all the time so I should have tried that. At the least, I could try sending in just an assault team so I wouldn't lose so many guys from the squad...

Brutal was too kind of adjective for the fight my lads had been dealt. I had forced them forward relentlessly with no regard for weeping and gnashing of teeth. There simply was no choice. That bunker had to be neutralized and these men were the only ones available to get the job done. They had already taken out that those pesky ammo carriers from that IG crew on the left flank and now the bunker lay just 30 meters to their right. With no LOS to my squad and bazooka team the bunker had no way to stop the imminent assault on their happy hiding hole. I lowered my binoculars long enough to light a Lucky Strike, took a deep drag and released it in a slow deliberate stream and confidently hit the red turn button. Just as planned, the eight men of the squad moved into position behind the bunker while a bazooka team found a favorable flanking position. It looked like the next minute would pay handsom dividends. They were about to accomplish what 30 rounds of 155 howitzer GP had failed to do. 2nd platoon was counting on them to clear the path so they could move forward to Hill 1024. I was counting on them. Hell--the whole damned war hinged on this moment. The squad leader gave last second instructions to his stalwarts. "Alright men! We're going to hit them with pine-apples right after the bazooka hits 'em! See that door on the back of the bunker?" (The men all nodded). "Well, Don't pay any attention to it! I'm pretty sure it's fake. That's the last place I'd expect the MG team in the bunker to exit from." I stabbed out my Lucky Strike and with a derisive snort ordered the next minute to start, thinking it'd be the last for those poor suckers in the bunker. And things started just as I had foreseen. The first bazooka round was a beut, a solid hit rewarded with 2 red crosses. The grenades followed, and the bunker was wracked by mutiple explosions. The bazooka team cut loose another round of death and a scream accompanied by another red cross exited the bunker. That's when things went wrong. Gut-wretchingly wrong. The squad performed exactly as ordered. They completely ignored the door on the bunker. The remaining scout stepped out with his SMG, bleeding from the ears and seeing triple from concussion affects. None of my men saw him step out of that one available exit. And he began to fire. And he continued to fire. And my men looked at each other in disbelief. Where was he? Where did he come from? We know that door is fake so it's no use checking there. Sarge said so. Finally, the one remaining trooper of the squad fell back in a panic. The scout stepped out, stood a on a large rock and took aim at the bazooka team and touched off another burst. He hit the bazooka, turning it into a twisted piece of useless metal. The man who had been holding it fared worse. The scout then turned on his heal and beat feet over the ridge toward the rear and his presumed Knights Cross. (end of story--beginning of short rant) I love the whole BF series. There are some negative details I wish could be dealt with (deadly pistols come to mind) but I know enough about programming to realize that some fixes players think would be simple can be a nightmare to code. This story does not reflect a one-time event. I've learned to write off any team that assaults a bunker before the action starts. I just wish the AI could learn that there's only 1 exit from the bunker and that they'd have somebody watch it during an assault. But what the hell and oh well, it might lead to some good horror stories. Cheers! :-)

I really didn't have too much of a problem with pistols being too effective in the game (they are) until last night when a lone officer destroyed one of my half tracks with his P38. I had to roll my eyes at that one. (no grenades were thrown--range was 25-30 meters).

..and where ever you place an AT Gun, the enemy armor will choose a different path so you never get a glimpse of them.

Turn 3: While moving my front line squads to contact my HMG team waits in the rear along some bocage. It's a nice, out-of-the-way spot to have a smoke before being called up to the line. The 1st squad moving out of cover draws a burst of fire from a sharp-eyed MG42 Gunner somewhere around Hamburg. The burst misses its intended target but one round passes through 2 very narrow breaks in the bocage, over a fence and takes out my HG gunner who has just lit his Lucky Strike. It drops him like a sack of spuds. The MG team looks for the water cooled mg only to discover that it was also hit and now useless.

Congratulations to Battle Front. I believe the 10/10 is richly deserved!!!

This is truly a great scenario! I played it it in WeGo as there is a "bit" too much to handle in RT for my tastes. I'm finding that I like the larger battles in CMx2 better than I did in the CMx1 series. It's just a better game all-around IMO. Probably due to superb map making/AI plan by the developers and the fact that BF gave them excellent tools to work with Great Job! I look forward to playing it again!

I ran into a couple of those bad boys last night. I didn't have any direct HE on them though but found that small arms works ok to suppress the occupants. At one point, the the only target I had on the map for troops to shoot at was the last bunker (other enemy troops had broke and pulled back). I had literally 7-8 squads, 2 HQ's and 3 MG's open up on it for 2 minutes solid. I put myself in the bunker for a whole WeGo minute to see what it was like and had a laugh fest. Boy--were those Germans ever chattering away at each other!!! I don't think the things they were saying began to cover their state of mind! Maybe Battle Front should have put in an audio file that says "I should've joined the U-Boot service" for situations like that! The amount of fire was horrific.

All of the above features are very good but this one is my favorite as well. And it's fairly easy to keep an armored column from bunching up if you plot them carefully. I haven't had a traffic jam yet!!!

I think that the next release (the Brits) should include a complimentary swagger stick emblazoned with the the Battle Front logo and bag-pipes to the 1st 100 pre-orders. Great Pic!

I received mine today in pristine condition. And don't she look sweet! Unfortunately I had to check it's toughness out and discovered that it isn't bullet proof. C'mon Battle Front! I'd think you would have made these sturdy enough to be conbat resistant!

I wonder if troop quality has anything to do with this. Most of the buddy aid I've seen takes place in a relatively quiet area...

For me, it depends on the situation. If I need the extra fire power, I put them on the line. If not and my MG's are using ammo quickly, I hold them back. They are also great for following up and giving "budy-support" behind the advance.

This was the 1st mission I played when I got the game. I agree that it's a beauty. I actually got the Germans to surrender but that never would have happened if it hadn't been for that one Stuart that could (and did!). It reminded me of the old comic book series, "Jeb Stuart and Haunted Tank".

Details: Battle Type: Attack Battle Size: Medium Length: 1 hour Map Selection: Automatic Map Size: Large Rarity: Standard Attacker: US Army --Armor Only --Human Purchase Map Preview Allowed Force Adjustment: No Change Defender: German Army Automatic Unit Purchase Unit Purchase: Armor Only Map: Probe Large Rough (bocage) QB-080.btt 1. Germans started off with an Artillary Barrage (not a huge deal-only armor besides). 2. This is the 3rd time I've been given this map in 5 battles... 3. And the real surprise was that the German Stugs (IIIG's) were shooting through the high bocage. They were set up as if they were AT guns. Imagine my disappointment when I couldn't shoot back I know you guys are working on QBs but I thought I'd try to give you some data--maybe there is a trend somewhere. And this is the 1st time in the game where I had armor lighting me up through high bocage in any scenario/situation (and I really do know the differences in terrain). My bad for spacing out taking a screen shot. Cheers! SNAFU

This is my biggest head scratcher for the game too. I selected a medium scenario and chose my own forces--with me doing a probing attack. I let the AI pick the map and set the opfor selection as Mix. It selected 7 tanks and two 60mm mortar teams. I've run a couple tests since and found this behavior to be the norm. (Well 4 out of 5 was good enough for me!) Anyhoo--not much of a "mix". Consider this a constructive criticism as I love the game. I just don't want to have to pick the oposing force for quick battles as it takes the mystery out of what I'm facing. I love a good mystery.

Well--there are probably at least 50 scenarios in developement now by recent purchasers. You make a good point but--on the other hand--I think that time in developing the core of the game was more important than more scenarios. It's a pretty good mix of "game-day release" options from what I've seen and by the time I'm done with what is available there will plenty of new scenarios coming on-line... Or I'll be too busy making one myself.

I would certainly support that option. It's the reason I'm still "checking out" how it all works!