A Canadian Cat
-
Posts
16,525 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
55
Posts posted by A Canadian Cat
-
-
The biggest problem the attacker faces is their armour support not being able to effectively engage the enemy in a town.
I cannot properly assault a street with armor support because of the problem of not being able to target building fronts down the street. Try this: have a platoon of infantry try to go building to building down a street. Your tank support will be unable to target building fronts sometimes even one door down. That means that as your men are entering a building the tank cannot fire on the building next door or two doors down even though the face of the building is clearly visible. When the enemy ambushes your guys and guns them down the tank will spot them and then magically it will be able to target those enemy troops - in the windows of the very building you could not target the turn before. Hair starts hitting the floor when the tanks spots enemy soldiers in the middle of the turn, shoots at them, and then looses sight of them by the end of the turn. During the next orders phase you cannot target those very same windows again. Which means your tank is useless to try to save you guys who will likely get gunned down next turn too.
I am convinced this is because of the way actions squares are handled - you cannot area fire on a building that you cannot see the centre of its action square. So, on a city street the two buildings next to you block LOS to the centre of the action square of the building two doors down and it blocks the LOS to the centre of the building next to that etc. This means that even though your tank has a clear field of view down the street and should be able to target any one of those building fronts it cannot.
-
1)They spot as well, or better than, infantry in urban terrain IME.
2) To get a shot off the soldier must run out in the middle of the street, spot, aim, fire, stand there reloading like a loon, then make a run for it (assuming you timed your movement order correctly, since there is no shoot-and-scoot type of option).
Tanks spotting to easily when alone is an issue as well as the whole problem of infantry having to expose them selves fully to get any kind of shot off. Just walk around your city's down town and see all the paces you could hide - OUTSIDE - and use an AT weapon with easy escape routes and nearby additional cover and concealment. This is partly a map design issue as well. Again look at your down town - how many alley ways are there.
- no conditional order for assaulting a tank. A WEGO problem: you order your men out to the street but the tank drives away a few meters. Leaves your men alone on the street only to be gunned down by the tank
I have been burned by this so many times (OK four or five now) where the enemy tank moves even a small amount and ends up too far away for a close assault and then spots my men and takes them all out.
What I would like to see:
- Some kind of close assault command for attacking vehicles that would automatically abort the whole thing if the vehicle speeds off and leaves no chance for my soldiers to catch it and automatically follows if it just moves a slight amount. I would even be OK with it aborting if the vehicle turns and faces their direction of approach.
- Infantry able to effectively peek around corners both for spotting and attacking.
But that brings us to the biggest issue with urban fighting...
-
Set it up, make a video, call it Ben Herr :-)
LOL, no promises but I do agree it warrants investigation.
-
I used a Stug III, and it turned really fast, however, i cannot, at this moment in time, speak for any other vehicle.
Perhaps I was being overly cautious. Half tracks seem to be particularly awkward in this regard. I tend to just do that for all vehicles as my SOP.
Perhaps a test - a race is in order:-)
-
it drove through the tree trunks like they weren't there.
No, it is not the trees that I am trying t avoid. It is the sharp turn I was evening out. Sharp in place turns tend to take a long time for vehicles to execute. At least that is what it feels like to me.
-
"Reverse Slope - No Aim Point", the target line turns dark blue, which, in my experience, means it cannot target the ground, but it can target anything higher than the ground,
Right but you cannot tell how much of the enemy you can see located there. It could be almost to the wheels or just a sliver of the turret. That is why I recommend looking with the camera. Of course that does not help much if there is no enemy vehicles to look at.
-
Thanks for the comments.
The target line (which I did not record me checking) says that the area under the target Churchill is on a reverse slope and is not target-able. From my experience that means either there will be nothing of the enemy tank visible or almost all of it might be visible. The only way to know is to look - IMHO - YMMV.
As for the reverse followed by movement orders I respectfully disagree. Asking tanks to move off in a direction to their side is asking to watch half a turn go by with them turning in place to face the new direction. I probably could have gone forward and then direct him across the field but I chose what I consider to be the faster way. Again based on my experience YMMV.
-
There have been a few recent discussions about determining visibility plus I met a couple of friends for lunch the other day and we talked about their frustrations with determining visibility in game. I told them what I did but figured a video might help clarify it better than describing it. Here it is - comments welcome:
This is my recording of me setting the movement orders for a Stug in the game documented here: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105660
PS. Yes, I know the trees are set to trunks only and I say "turn on trees". Bit of an oops I know. When I did the dry run to test out the movement plotting I did turn on trees and then I turned them back off again and forgot to turn them on while actually recording. I did not notice my mistake until a couple of days later. In this particular case they matter very little. The target Churchill is not obscured by trees at tall and the Churchill I am trying to avoid is behind trees with foliage that is very high up. Really only the trunks are protecting the Stug.
-
Interesting. I have not noticed snipers shooting at buttoned tanks. Could it be the cover armour arc that is causing them to do that. I usually try to get my snipers a good spot in over watch if possible and just let them do their thing. I never use a cover arc of any kind and I have not noticed them shooting at buttoned tanks. Try it with just a normal cover arc or no arc at all.
-
But score a hit any way. No hit text telling me what was hit. I checked, the round did not hit a tree. It hit something invisible but solid between and behind the trees. Amazing. Hopefully it is destroyed or there will be HE heading their way next turn.
Awesome news - maybe. I spoke with Dungeon Tiger yesterday - in real life - and he said that I destroyed an Achilles and he had no idea where the fatal shot came from. I spent sometime weaving a story about how it was a Panther that caught site of the Achilles between some buildings and then lost sight of it again when it moved past the opening. Usually I am pretty good at getting small bits of information and planting useful miss information in his head but lately he has become better at resisting.
So, either I did destroy his Achilles and he thinks there is an operational Panther in the town. Or he is messing with me and the Achilles is OK and he knows the Panther in the town is messed up. The thing is, he has no real way of knowing that the Panther's main gun is broken so he has to at least accept that it is a possibility it was a Panther. I will not spend time assuming the Achilles is destroyed but I can hope:D
-
The AT guns get orders to setup in the woods with over watch of the bridge and one side of the woods where 5 Company is positioned.
Tweaks to the Stug crew and HQ unit. Hopefully I will get to withdraw another Stug next turn.
-
This is officially frustrating. I give that AT team similar orders from last time but with a face command and a 5s pause. This has to work – right?
That squad that slipped past the tank also has a Shrek team. I split them and send the fire teams to positions with good LOS to protect the Shrek team from any pesky scouts there might be. The AT team has a long pause to let the fire teams get into position and then they will have a go at attacking that tank from the other side.
I also have a platoon HQ reposition themselves so they can see the approaching enemy and call in some mortar fire if needed.
The Brigade HQ unit has recovered enough to get back into their AFV as well.
-
Meanwhile over at the orchard a Stug crew is getting close to remounting their AFV.
And the mortar teams are deep in the woods now.
-
That AT team failed to fire again! I have never had such trouble with a set of orders before! Here they are turning around and heading back to cover. You can see the orders in the last screen shot above. The spotted the tank just before the turned around and headed back. The time in LOS of the tank was just not long enough.
But with a little luck they spot an Achilles turn and fire.
And then something I have never seen before happens. While the round is in flight they lose site of the TD.
But score a hit any way. No hit text telling me what was hit. I checked, the round did not hit a tree. It hit something invisible but solid between and behind the trees. Amazing. Hopefully it is destroyed or there will be HE heading their way next turn.
Here is the squad the squeaked by that pesky Churchill tank.
-
May not matter. I have had a few AT teams on the move fire when I thought they wouldn't even have a shot at an enemy. Twice in my battle with Broadsword in La Luzerne.
Good luck
As you can see I have had trouble getting them to shoot. The action squares here are all on an angle and there are trees and elevation changes. I have another turn to write up but I &ave tried many variations. I hope this time it works.
-
Would popping some smoke into the alley help? It might allow you to get a different angle on the tank once you're past the alley. Or persuade DT that he's about to get flanked and force a withdrawal.
That is an excellent idea. I often forget that infantry can pop smoke. I actually have one squad on the other side of the alley. By luck one squad made it when the tank was shooting their platoon HQ.
I could mess with DTs head tool. I have been known to pull off before.
Frankly I would rather kill the tank. -
To blow a hole in bocage without having the breach team move through simply involves placing the blast command parallel to the bocage (at the same side as the breach team) and not perpendicular to it.
I think what the OP was missing is that the blast command *is* a type of move order. Get them to move along what you want to destroy, just like you want would be issue any other move order.
-
Although I like the CM editor very much (I'm planning to make a few PBEM scenarios for CMFI), I find it could be very useful to view the unit costs for balancing purpose (like for QBs). It could be an interesting addition to the game in future patches / CM 3.0.
I would like to see this as well. There are some people who want the flexibility of the editor with the support of points like the QB games. We would like to see the editor get a points total just like the QB force selection.
Yes, I know there are those that do not see value but we do. Rather than raining on our request they should start a thread to ask for something they want. BFC is really good at prioritizing features.
-
Ah version numbers. Everyone has a brilliant idea about them. Not that yours is not good - because it is. But if you ask 3 developers how version numbers should be handled you will get 3 ideas. Then if you ask 3 customers for their input you get 3 more. Now you have 6 different ideas and no matter what one you pick no one will be happy
Just be happy BFC does not tell us all their internal code names then you will have version numbers you do not get and a bunch of unrelated names that are even less help.
-
Note to @Erwin. I forgot to give them a face command at their way point. As soon as I read your post I thought - oh man I forgot. Since I had played the turn before your post - I got a bit behind in posting - but now I am caught up.
Note about the visibility. Those trees are not really blocking things too much. When I play the next turn I will take a shot of their view when they are on the move.
-
The final orchard withdrawal. The crew of the abandoned Stug is making their way back. With luck they will make it and get out of there before the Churchill tank in the orchard gets over there.
The Panthers from the farm are forming up to move to town. There is an Achilles that is currently preventing them from travelling that road so they either have to go after it themselves or the artillery calls need to do the job. I will wait and see if the artillery chases the TD away before committing the Panthers to attacking it. These guys are not in the best shape. One is fully operational, one is without a main gun and the third has severely damaged tracks so is moving really slowly.
Ok third time trying to deal with that Churchill tank. This time the AT team is coming further out and then heading back into cover. I hope this time it works.
-
This was a pretty quiet turn. My AT team failed to get a shot at the Churchill tank – again.
The infantry advance in the town is pretty much stopped cold because of that tank. It has a commanding light of sight down one back alley that cuts my guys off from getting deeper into the town. This AT team is covering that alley – if they move past that building they run right into the sights of that tank. If it tries to come into town they are waiting.
Meanwhile more infantry enter the town.
The mortar teams of 5 Company pulling back.
This AT team was almost in the right place near the farm. Trouble is they are looking right when the action is on their left. That tank drove out of sight by the end of the turn.
-
As you can see the Shrek team did not get LOF on the tank again. So new orders this time they come straight out of cover past the corner of the building and then back to behind the building. The orders screen shot was not the best.
Spoiler alert - the failed again. Damn! The next orders have a different variation - third time will hopefully be the charm.
-
I am going to try again with the Shrek team and that Churchill tank. At the back of this picture you can see a different version of their move between cover, hoping to spot the tank orders.
With the last of 5 Company making it to the woods the mortar teams pack up and head for the woods too.
Frankly I would rather kill the tank.
Gustav Line QB AAR Axis
in Combat Mission Fortress Italy
Posted
Yeah, those images are pretty big. I do not think there is anything you can do with the
tag. I usually resize them to be 1000px wide for posing on the forum. If you resize in your images in your favorite image editor that will keep our horizontal scrolling down.