A Canadian Cat

The Shrek team withdraw to cover without firing a around. Again.

All in all it is a fairly quiet turn. I now have armour in the town. One platoon of infantry is taking up positions to protect the right flank of the town. More HE and MG fire from the immobilized Churchill and that scout car cause problems for my scouts at the other entrance to the town. And their luck finally runs out. The infantry escort for the Panthers are ready go to. The plan will be to disembark one truck and move ahead of the tanks and then swap so the infantry can move fairly quickly and not get tired.

Oh yeah - agreed. I only play QBs on maps with a number larger than 200.

Very interesting perspective. So true, hell I spent as little time painting details as possible. I just wanted to spend my time playing:-) Yeah, I think in general things look pretty damn good. However there is one area that is bit off - straight line roads. Many roads curve or run at different angles. In CM maps we can only get certain angles and curves - not really. When you view things low down they always look good. But when you view things from high up you can sometimes see the odd jaggy roads.

As the guy facing them - oh no...

Well that graphic, IIRC, *is* from a German training manual. And I do have an AT gun that has shredded 4 Shermans in CMFI. I have positioned the AT gun a ways back in the woods along a rail line. It has a sight line down the rail line and a couple of keyhole sight lines between the trees. My opponent has thrown several HE shells back at me and none have made it through the trees. I expect more HE pain to arrive but 4 tanks for one AT gun - colour me happy. All thanks to Bill :-)

A valuable lesson I learned from you in that first AAR even before the game was in my hands. I have been benefiting from that lesson ever since. I usually remember it:-) Thanks!

In C3K's test the HTs are *not* firing. He has given them short (100m) cover arcs and the infantry are 300m away.

So, do we get to see the quad .50 cal in action :-) As someone once said - Attack!!!

Check out Green as Jade's mod hosting site - it is a bit easier to find things. There are a few US uniform and helmet mods. http://cmmods.greenasjade.net/mods?game_type=6&show_all=true

Yeah +1 from me as well. I will still try it in game but so far the screen shots have using it have been - meh. Hee hee, we can suck it up - just for this thread though:D

.50 cals can deal nicely with German HTs. Four .50 cals will be four times better at it

I am a little behind and have not read the latest on either thread - just my thoughts on your thoughts for now:) Agreed. For a quick battle I want map preview on and I will look around and perform an informal analysis (from reading Bill's AARs I think I should really step up my analysis - looks like it helps). Using the camera I will look from the enemy locations and from my own to get a sense of how visible the various avenues of approach are. Once we are in setup phase I have no reservation about using the LOS tool to poke around a bit. Including placing way points on the enemy side of the map and looking at how a hill effects visibility - for example. I wonder if GaJ missing out on this will effect the game. Would he have concluded that due to the stream there will be no armoured attack there and change his defensive positioning? This could be an important factor in the out come of the game. It is good to see a more considered side of you here:) I like your suggestion about the regular infantry augmented by Rangers. I have not played with rangers yet but faced them in a CMFI battle as the Itallians - got slaughtered. Yeah, I see the appeal - the 76mm gun - but they are fragile. A possibility would be to have M10s instead of AT guns and add some tanks to top up the points. I am not sold on purchasing mines. They get pretty expensive if you buy a LOT:-) Place them in the wrong place and they are all for naught. I can see some utility to have some for key locations or to block an avenue of attack. In this case GaJ felt that he cannot block the ridge road and I am not sure if he really can channel anything into a kill zone up there both his and Bills analysis shows that visibility is actually pretty poor up there. Always the kicker. Balancing all the things you want against each other. Then you look the amount you spent on artillery and think should I get another tank or two instead. Very refreshing to see more than your usual mantra. Although telling everyone to attack can be entertaining:-)

You have lots of qualified answers and additional information beyond your question all of which has merit. But let me keep it simple: Yes, those initial positions are meant to be playable. With the single caveat that I am speaking of the scenarios that shipped with the game. I have not played them all but every scenario that shipped with the game that I have played has useable starting points at setup. Therefore I conclude that all the others do as well. That may not hold for scenarios you download though since it really is up to the scenario designer. Those initial setups may not be optimal (which is a matter of opinion) nor will they necessarily match your play style.

Yeah throwing charges is interesting. I recently had a tank hunter team that was hiding in the bocage and some enemy infantry got past the MG screen. One of the tank hunters threw a grenade and dropped the guys approaching them. The other guy threw a demo charge way over their heads and blew a huge hole in the field where there was no body. Somebody was amped up on adrenaline

IMHO it matters because after I have KO'ed an enemy tank and the crew bails and runs off I have to make a decision in game about how much risk I am willing to take on to chase that crew down. If the crew is half the points I might rush forward quicker and take more risk to get the other half of the points. Where as if the crew are only worth 1/10 or the points I would probably expend no effort to hunt them down and instead go after the next juicy target. The above decision does not really reflect how I usually play but the answer the the question about how many points the crew is worth will probably influence in game decisions.

Oh I agree 100%, not knowing is a big part of the fun. The thing is after you have played a scenario once that is gone. After that first play through playing mirrored can be a fun way to go again. For example I played a mirror match of Barkmann's Corner. It was a blast. The goal becomes try to loose less than your opponent. It is a way of getting another game or two out of a scenario.

Hee Hee - mine too. The thing is while my tanks get nailed any time they wander away from their infantry friends, my enemy's tanks seem to be able to wonder with relative impunity.

+1 for that too. Just a change to the behaviour of the sniper team number two would work. Have them not open fire until there are close by threats (80m as you suggest) or if they start taking fire on their location. By then your sniper is already made and it should be weapons free.

Sounds interesting - any screen shots? Or pointers to the mods this is based on that have screen shots?

Awesome, nice exchange. Screen shot tips: <alt>H toggles off the hit text <shift>ESC pauses with out the pause notice chewing up space

I sometimes wish it could be associated with a way point but alas it cannot.

The other issue the current LOS tool has that it indicates if your unit can target the ground a the target end. In my video the Stug *cannot* target the ground under that Churchill tank - notice that the wheels are not quite visible. So the LOS tool says that I cannot target that area. Clearly from looking at the game you can see the Churchill just fine from the proposed Stug's position. Being able to determine the visibility of things of various heights would also be welcome. BTW in the game the Churchill tank moved away before the Stug got into position but the infantry it was attacking took care of it with a close assault. http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1429847&postcount=289 http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1429847&postcount=290

I posted a YouTube video of me doing that recently: My technique to get to the gunner's level is to go to camera position 2 and down two or three stops of the wheel depending on the vehicle. To get the right height I recommend selecting the vehicle and adjusting the height until you are pretty much looking down the barrel.

Yes, please. Add my vote for this one but do not forget toggling of transparent buildings and crosses.