A Canadian Cat
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Posts posted by A Canadian Cat
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I’m calling my first artillery strike of the game on this turn into the field where the Sherman currently sits. I don’t expect to nail the Sherman, but I’m guessing there will be some infantry moving through there shortly, and I’ve learned to call arty where I expect infantry to be, not where they currently are. Because of a nearby TRP I’ll have one 81 mm mortar with rounds falling in about 3 turns, and another to catch retreating infantry in about 6 turns.
Stripping away the tank's infantry is the right thing to do. Trying to fight tanks with infantry is hard but if those tanks have an infantry screen it gets much harder.
The other technique that I find helpful is smoke. Some of your infantry can probably pop a smoke screen. Often getting some smoke to bind the tank will allow a squad to get close enough t use a PF or even close assault.
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So this will be my first DAR, and I'm really hoping to get some feedback on my strategy / tactics. <snip>
Excellent - I love reading AARs too. Your force selection with no armor will be challenging but German Infantry in bocage country is about as good as it gets when fighting tanks with Infantry - should it come to that.
My basic plan:I have a question here - your infantry plan looks good to me. I wonder about the TRP on the left (from the screen shot). Why put one there?
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The squad leader that wondered off to the hill is now back in town.
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Moving forward to engage those Churchill tanks. In this view you can see contact icons where the Churchill tanks are.
5 Company and its support are going to back off a bit so the Churchills across the valley cannot pick them off one by one. With the exception of the Stug on the far left that I think can safely get a shot on a couple of Stuarts.
The rest of 3 Company is ordered to head across the bridge.
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3 Battery finds that there are more Churchill tanks near by. They are currently quite far away and stationary but that might not last long. 3 Battery will begin to work on flanking those Churchill tanks.
Moving into position above the town.
My immobilized Stug gets taken out by an Achilles on the ridge line opposite the town. After the crew bails there is a large secondary explosion. Thankfully members of 1 Company are far enough away that no one is hurt.
The Panther's finally connect with the Uber Churchill but still do not destroy it.
Here is an overview of the current situation. My current goal is to get an assault on the town objective rolling. 3 Battery (bottom of the screen and my right flank) will protect the FO who will bring some pain to the town's current occupiers while keeping those newly discovered Churchill tanks busy. 1 and 2 Company will be ready to pounce on the town once the barrage ends. My assault is predicated on getting the artillery falling which will take some time. 5 Company and their supporting Stugs will hold the left flank. Later I will use them to push towards the rail crossing but being able to do that is predicated on the rest of the plan going well. Mean while 3 Company with the Panthers will push a bit on the other side of the bridge. Hopefully that will be enough of a distraction to allow me to get the artillery falling on the town.
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On the other side of the river my men spot and destroy a Stuart and take out a few crew members from previously destroyed vehicles.
More soldiers race across the bridge.
Meanwhile 5 Company in the orchard takes fire from the Churchill tanks across the valley. Nothing serious but the Stug that was hit does not spot its attacker. Given that 5 Company is there to protect the flank at the moment it is time to hide a bit more in the Orchard.
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Great minds think alike
Nice work Ian.
As long as it is not "Fools seldom differ". Which is the quote my mother would always say back to me when ever I used the "great minds think alike" quote.
The only thing that gets to be a pain quickly is the setting of all the soft factors down to the squad level. I tend to use typical when adding units and then record it all but I admit it gets tedious at times. My friend sets his by platoon or higher to make his life easier.
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096Meet Med Agricultural 096.btt
Allied setup zone much smaller than axis. Single objective is closer to the Axis setup.
Suggest evening up the setup zones and adding an additional objective on the other side of the map closer to the allied zone than the axis zone.
111Meet Small Forest 111.btt
Missing objectives entirely and Axis zone has a bulge in towards the middle.
Suggest get ride of the bulge and create objectives.
117Meet Small Rough (steep hills) 117.btt
Allied setup zone is smaller. Objective is close to the allied setup zone
Suggest make the allied setup zone larger and either centralize the objective or add one closer to the axis side.
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I started to go through the meeting engagement maps one by one. Here is the first installment of my results:
009Meet Large Town 009.btt
Already discussed on the forum
018Meet Large Rough 018.btt
Axis setup much larger and covers one side of map. Also closer to one objective.
Suggest making setup zones more even size and taking away the objective closer to the Axis setup
050Meet Med Open 050.btt
Totally broken for a meeting engagement - setup for an allied attack.
Suggest reworking setup zones and objectives or just take this off the Meet list.
059Meet Small Agricultural (water) 059.btt
Setup zones are not bad but all objectives are near the allied zone.
Suggest reworking the objectives.
064Meet Tiny Town (steep hills) 064.btt
Looks good
067Meet Tiny Agricultural 067.btt
One object is partly inside the axis setup zone and the other is closer to the axis side.
Suggest add an objective partly inside the allied zone and center the middle objective.
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FWIW, I've recently started playing what I loosely refer to as "Custom QBs". There're various ways these can be created, but all rely on a trusted third party. Oh, and probably opponents who're friends ... or at least friendly.
Basically, "someone" sets up the basic parameters of the battle, which might be as slim as force size and battle stance (attack, defend, meeting, etc) or as detailed as including things like force type, map, time of day, and ground conditions.
The two players 'buy' each independently buy forces in the QB thingy (obeying any size and type restrictions) and note down what they bought. They then each independently go into the scenario editor and re-purchase exactly the same forces and save it as a scenario. (this two-step process is needed because the editor doesn't display points values, and the QB thingy can't be saved as a scenario)<snip>
A friend of mine and I are doing the same. For those not fast enough to get Jon S to be your trusted third party I wrote a set of instructions on how to do this. I introduced it here:
http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1382032&postcount=1
Here is a direct link to the instructions:
http://www.lesliesoftware.com/forforumposts/2012/Force%20Selection%20Instructions.pdf
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Very cool, two AARs at once. Is Penry going to start a thread form his side of this one?
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It would also be good to have the Ford marked, as I can't see it. I guess I will have to try putting waypoints along the river's length until it's found. (Edit: Found it next to the bridge, doh!) <snip>
Glad you found it. I thought I would share my technique for finding fords when they are not marked. What I do is put the camera at level 1 and position it in the middle of the river. It will go under water. Now move the camera and follow the river. The fords will be obvious in short order. You can even tell the difference between shallow and deep fords once you have seen both.
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<snip>have to check out pete´s map if it is a compartmentalized bocage prison or not. <snip>
A friend and I have a huge 20 000 point quick battle going on Pete's 2k x 2k map. It is defiantly *not* a bocage prison. This map is really awesome actually. There is lots of interesting features an room to maneuver.
Link to my side of the DAR thread: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105660
Link to the other side of the DAR thread: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105686
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Since 1 and 2 Company are waiting for their armour support and eventual artillery support before assaulting the town the only orders I issued this turn were for 3 Battery on my right flank and 3 Company along with elements of 1 Battery that are crossing the bridge.
3 Battery is doing two things right now. One clearing the right flank and making sure there are no more Churchills coming and setting up to cover my Osterhaus the FO as he gets into position to call fire on the town.
The bridge head expansion complete with 3 Platoon's orders to cross leaving one Stug a squad of infantry and the battalion HQ to occupy the town.
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My infantry continue to creep forward towards the town.
And 3 Battery continues to sweep forward on the right flank.
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Another fairly quiet turn. 5 Company in the orchard had the most excitement, lost a Stug, killed a Stuart.
Nailed a Churchill...
But it was unaffected and returned fire killing a Stug.
At least the lucky Stuart the was pestering me finally was eliminated.
The bridge crossing continued unopposed. With the second wave making it most of the way across this turn.
The first wave taking up positions for the bridge head.
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<snip>
I see that it has been some time since you played a ladder game in Blitz as you ve last reported a game in early August.
That would have been a minus in FGM ladder as players which are not active for a month
(not reporting a game for 30 days) are losing one position in the ranking table(a good feature IMO)
Interesting. Inactive players slowly dropping out of site is not a bad feature but I am far from in-active on the Blitz ladder. I have five PBEM ladder games on the go right now. I can only manage a turn per day so I have never played a game in less than a month.
Anyway you are more than welcome to come by whenever you want.Till we meet again......
Thanks.
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Are u using the callsign ''A Canadian cat'' in Blitz ?
That's me. And I assume you have the same call sign on the Blitz as here. We played a game earlier in the summer which I managed a Minor Victory. Damn hard but I was pretty happy since you have been in the top 5 (by ELO rank) since I started. Which is a ranking you clearly deserve.
I wish I had signed up with a better call sign than my own name...
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no,it was done on purpose, it puts the topic at the top so everyone sees what I think are important points
again nice points about infantry tweaks,I couldnt agree more, keep up the good work weapon2010
Well it is more creative than posting "bump". Thanks for the smile. My father in law does the same thing. If he cooked dinner and no one has complimented him on his creation, he will do it himself out loud, at the table. Always makes me laugh - and remember to tell him I appreciate his work. -
I dont understand what you are writing here,are you from the French part of Canada?
Nope, the Queen's English is my first language
What I meant was that, for the ladder I am on, I lost game after game to stronger players until I finally eked out a draw and that was my first progress on the ladder. It mattered to me.Eked out: see definition #2 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/eke+out
Indeed our ladder dont count draws but that is sthing we can live with.After all FGM is not only about the ladders it has tourneys,discussions on various subjects (wargaming,military history, etc), great photo section (covering WWI,WWII,minor conflicts,Vietnam war,Gulf wars),a multimedia section and many more interesting subjects.
I m sure that if you had taken the time to explore it a bit you would have found the ''lacking of draw'' issue a minor thing not worth mentioning.<snip>
Great, I am pleased you are happy with the site. All I am saying is for me the ladder would be my focus so I know I would not be happy with draws not counting. Just my opinion that's all. I am sure others will feel differently or not.
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As for getting feedback, I resolved this problem very easily.
I assigned all the passwords in my Tournament, then all I had to do if I had the interest was ask the players to send me a copy of their game file, then I would play the turns to see what was happening. I did not need AAR, I could see everything I needed to know.
Interesting idea. That would take some time loading turns over and over. A lot of work but it means you are guaranteed to be able to see what you want to see.
The funny thing with that was, I had one guy drop a match because he thought it was unfair and he was losing, so I played it out for him and won the battle. Skill level is more inmportart than design in these games, but many players just cannot accept that.Great story. IMHO to move forward and learn to play this game you have to be able to still be having fun even when you are loosing. When I am facing a defeat I try to find little victories (take out one more tank, defend that one building even though the rest of the object is lost).
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Wow, this is a really interesting discussion. I am new at this whole scenario design thing. My second attempt is in the works. I cannot imagine creating it and then not releasing it. I could fail at it though. That is what happened with my first attempt.
I agree with the comments about the repository being difficult to navigate. I have had trouble finding scenarios that I knew existed let alone discover a new one. I currently download pretty much every scenario that gets added to the repository (and I save the url as a short cut with the same name as the scenario). However I only get to play a downloaded scenario once I have exhausted those that shipped with the game. And given that I play them via PBEM double blind (neither player has played the scenario before or looked at the other side's briefing) that takes a long time.
My plan was to solicit some testers, once I am ready, and specifically ask for feedback as part of the test. After tweaking things based on feedback I will send it out into the world and not really expect any additional comments from the repository. Have others had any experience with asking for testers and getting feedback from them?
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Interesting. I have seen that kind of thing before and thought it was a bug too. Next time I see that happening I will check the LOF vs LOS and see if it can be explained.
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@Jons gave us a great tip the other day press <shift><ESC> to pause without the "PAUSED..." notice appearing. Very handy for taking screen shots.
Scenario: KG Himmelfahrt
in CM Normandy Maps and Mods
Posted
Interesting discussion of using fords. I am very cautious about using fords. They pose a risk. If there is a bridge and a ford that can serve the same purpose I will use the bridge and ignore the ford - every time.
I am a ford user when opportunity arises. They can be great to allow forces to attack from unexpected directions. But they are not without risk. The chances of loosing vehicles to bogging are much higher in a ford. So if the risk is worth it I'll use the ford.
In this case where a ford and a bridge offer the same or similar crossing I would not put a single vehicle in the ford. Why risk it?
As for traffic jams there are techniques to manage traffic but lets face it, the player has to manage a lot of stuff to keep the traffic flowing. I would appreciate some helpful commands (some kind of convoy follow command) to make this work better. But I am not holding my breath for that.
From the earlier comments it struck me that the issue is for the particular scenario having an unopposed river crossing is just creating traffic management issues for no particular reason. Which begs the question why have the river and the bridge at all them? Note: I have not tried this scenario so my comments are simply referring to my impressions of the earlier discussion.