A Canadian Cat

Tanks driving by and kicking up mud?

LOL - that made me laugh. And yet when I bought it yesterday I could not get $10US for my $10CDN. It cost me $10.41CDN. Damn those currency converters

That is excellent. I have not looked yet but are they in any formations or only availabble as a single vehicle purchase.

Excellent. I did not see the repository announcement in the forum. Did I miss it? Never mind - nothing to see here - move along. I was looking in this forum and not the CMBN forum.

BTW @noob thanks for starting a new thread about MGs in game. Ian's nice way of saying let us try to stay focused on the issue @noob brings up instead of getting into the mud.

My anecdotal experience is more close to the OP (although I have experienced similar situations as you have.). I find HMGs and MMGs to be pretty ineffective by them selves. The test example the OP uses to me feels just wrong. From accounts I have read about whole platoons being pinned down by an MG nest being able jog across a field right up to an MG nest just does not feel right. It makes me wonder if there are other variables that we should be considering. I still worry that something is not quite right though.

How are you measuring casualties dealt out in a single firefight? Unless you are playing in scenario test mode you do *not* have complete information about the enemy's disposition. I cannot count the times that I thought I was hammered by the enemy and hardly scratched him only to find out after the battle that I hammered them pretty hard too. If you are playing anything other than scenario test mode or hot seat you do not really know what kind of damage you are inflicting on the enemy. This is one of the best parts of this game. If your men do not have eyes on the enemy falling over dead they do not get to see the little red crosses. So, I have seen BFC confirm many times that the different levels of difficulty do not change the way the soldiers behave in the game. The only differences are those that are specified in the manual (artillery call times for example). I have also seen BFC state unequivocally that the tac AI that controls individual soldiers is the same for both sides. I have extensive experience playing at the Warrior level and Iron. I see no evidence from my experience that supports anything you have said. BTW I am not an Iron level fan because all I get from Iron is more clicky, clicky, clicking to manage my troops. But an opponent of mine is a fan, so I play lots on Iron.

Indeed. My overall impression is they cost too much - in quick battles. On defense I would like to use mines, wires and hedge hogs to create funnels and kill zones but after buying some of those there is hardly enough left over to actually defend. I like playing scenarios that have fortifications. Having said that I am right now setting up for a defense in CW Seven Winds -> Not happy with the fact that there is a small / skinny setup zone full of useful fortifications that cannot be used to setup the defense the way I want. But that is for another day.

I have to +1 this comment. I like Aris's vehicles a lot and JuJu's UI mod is really nice. Bit if I was on a desert island and only allowed one mod, the animated text (with the graphics) is *the* mod I would choose.

I order a Strummel forward to throw some HE at the approaching scouts and their supporting armoured car. Just briefly though then back to cover. The river crossing force continues its advance. At the town entrance the first soldiers have orders to start clearing buildings. Meanwhile their supporting Panthers go Churchill hunting. Overlooking the town, since the artillery has scared a few Churchill tanks out of the town I order some Stugs to reposition to protect the flank.

Over in the orchard the Stug that was armoured car hunting comes under fire and gets hit. Thankfully it is still operational. The question will be can it get out of the line of fire before it gets hit again. Enemy scouts approach from the river and the shooting starts.

Meanwhile over near the river, confusion reigns. My lead element find scouts in the trees and a fire fight ensues. During the fire fight the enemy ends up surrounded. Note German soldiers on the far left and right. The guy on the left throws two grenades back toward the enemy. Both skip past the target and end up dangerously close to his own buddies. There were no Blue on Blue casualties but the team is pinned and cowering. I am going to guess someone will be taking out behind the wood shed after this is over. The rest of the platoon advance.

On the approach to the barns at the edge of the town my lead squad and Panther meet an enemy tank crew. They are dispatched quickly but not quietly. The Stug that moved forward to cover the open ground near the barn was not protected from the Churchill like I thought it would be. Down another Stug. The trailing Panther spots some scouts in the barn my men are heading towards. A couple of HE rounds later the barn is quiet. Meanwhile on the far right flank the Stu42 crews are trying to seek cover in the nearby barns. They do not make it.

PS I found out over coffee this week that the mystery prise was a Churchill. Excellent! One less of those buggers to deal with is a good thing.

I send a Stug armoured car hunting. They will shoot and scoot forward to try and take out the spotted armoured car. At the river crossing the advance continues along the tree line. Same thing at the town entrance 1 Company and supporting armour move forward. Now that the main 150mm barrage is well under way I have moved the FO team to a location they can get eyes on the ridge with the Achilles. Since my attacking force is getting close to the town it is almost time to call a cease fire for the first battery. Once they are freed up the FO will sick them on the Achilles position.

The advance into town gets under way this turn. The barrage nets me a mystery prise… Something is smoking in there. A lucky break. Meanwhile at the other road into town I can see tanks fleeing the barrage. Over by the river crossing things are quiet this turn. 5 Company in the orchard manages to score a hit with its 81mm mortar on one of the Churchill tanks. Sadly it has not visible effect.

Nope things have changed. Foxholes, trenches, wire, mine fields etc are purchasable units from the Fortifications group. So you can only put troops into foxholes if you buy the fox holes first. So, for a quick battle you can buy your own along with the rest of your troops (be careful experiment first there may be restrictions on where you can place them). For a scenario if the author gave you foxholes inside your setup zone you can move them around and place units inside them during setup.

Loud but correct. However you should only do this after you have agreement from your PBEM partner that they are going to update as well. If only one of you updates the other will *not* be able to play the turn. You can continue to play existing turns with the old game install and play new turns with the patched game install by installing a second copy of the original game and patching only one of them. You can run one game or the other depending on which PBEM turn you want to play. For example my machine still has a "Combat Mission Battle for Normandy P1" and a "Combat Mission Battle for Normandy CW". I can now add a "Combat Mission Battle for Normandy CW P2" install (I will get rid if the P1 install since I have no games going on that one any more).

Interesting. Is that an official BFC page? I do not do face book so I cannot check my self.

Very cool icons. I did some icon work when CW came out but it was a real pain. I had to use several different tools to be able to both edit the image and the alpha layer. What tool did you use for your icon editing? Did you make use of any transparency? Just curious to see if there is an easier way.

Yes, they are still the HQ unit for the rest of the Panzers but since they do not have a radio any more it will be easy for the tanks to get out of command from their HQ. One thing you can do is get the dismounted HQ team into a half track that has a radio. If they get back on the radio net then the tanks can be back in command.

LOL that is what it feels like. Hopefully I will end up with a nicely shaped table leg and not end up with missing fingers.

3 Company advancing along the river. Now that the Churchill facing them has backed off the infantry can advance along the tree line supported by the Panther on the road. On the other treeline next to the field the operational Panther needs a bit of a break and its supporting infantry are fine where they are. 1 Platoon HQ from 2 Company arrives at a spot where it can call in 81mm mortar fire on the Achilles tank destroyers on the opposite ridge. The off board 81mm mortars are out of range. Wow I have never seen that before. That is what we get for such a large map. Advancing on the town starts in earnest. The lead platoon will follow the tree line towards the barns on the outskirts of the town. The Panthers and Stugs will follow close behind. The other platoons from 1 and 2 Company move forward as well. There are five platoons, three Panthers and three Stugs moving forward at once.

At the bridge head one more Churchill tank goes down. This time it is one of the 95mm howitzer tanks. But its friend manages to put a round on target too. Luckily it cases no direct damage but it does cause the crew to pop smoke and pull back. Over on the road next to the river the Panther and the Churchill exchange fire before the Churchill withdraws. The Churchill hit a tree and the Panther hit the Churchill with no effect.

The advancing infantry face fire from the Churchill that was spotted a while ago. It has shifted position so that it can see my troops but the lead Panther cannot see it – yet. Getting into the town could be messy. The lead Panther does spot – and destroy – the Stuart that was with the Churchill. More 150mm rounds fall… Meanwhile over in the orchard 5 Company’s mortars drop shells on the Churchill tanks they are facing. I am not expecting much from 81mm mortar rounds but I am hoping to disable the tank. Or at least force them to withdraw a little. The target tanks…