A Canadian Cat

Well look at that - clearly I did not study my briefing very well.

Oh yeah I am amazed that I still have an operational tank. Given the pounding one has taken and the fact that another was taken out by AT guns pretty much right away. Didn't we start with four tanks? My memory kinda sucks but I though there were four.

LOL fair enough. I have to say though since the game does not give me feedback that the bluff is un-scalable by a Sherman I like @Broadsword56's idea of putting enough heavy forest on the slope that a player can tell their is no way up. This is going to suck for the Rangers. The engineers already know they are on their own but the Rangers thought they had tank support:) IMHO the game should be telling me I cannot have a vehicle drive up that slope. A tank commander should be able to look at a slope and say "There is no way" or "Yep no problem" - for the most part. I realize there would be some ground close to the max traversable slope where the TC could make the wrong choice but hey the game already tells me if I can and cannot go over marsh or heavy forest. Having said that I rather doubt that this would rank high on the "fix list" since it does not come up very often.

That is the conclusion I am coming to as well. So the question then becomes how can I tell what slope the tank can go up? How can I tell it cannot make grade. The game is not giving me feedback to indicate it cannot climb. Tonight I'll re-plot my way points perhaps just one or two close to the tank and see what happens but does anyone have any suggestions for how to determine if a tank can traverse a slope or not in game?

What a great seg-way into a question I have. What about tanks driving up the bluff? I have one operational tank left and I did manage to get if off the beach. There are spots on the wall they cannot traverse and others where they can. The tank is on the right side of the map above the sea wall on the flat dirt and rocky area below the green bluff. The Rangers have made it to the top and have setup a screen for the tank to safely make the climb. But I cannot get the tank to go up the bluff. I have plotted a course that looks good to me and the game let me plot the way points (I put several up the slope to be sure it was possible to get up there). I was also careful to make sure there are no "no go" spots between the way points - all good. The tank has not moved. I do not get it. Am I doing something wrong? Should the game be giving me feedback that the tank cannot make the grade? The tank is not immobilized either.

Remnants of 2 Platoon of the 145th engineers breach the wire and head up the hill.

Got it - that's fine. Forgive me if I do not try your suggestion of playing CM stuffed inside a 50 gal drum:-)

Good - I was suggesting though that instead you try and calibrate your monitor / video card using the basic method mentioned in the link I posted earlier and then see if the night scenarios look better to you. I think you should try to fight in the dark - after all your pixel troops are:D Just make sure it is a dark you can see shadows in.

While true the getting slaughtered from the start part is no fun the tactical challenge lies in figuring out how to get over the sea wall and up the hill towards the objectives with the men that make it across the beach. Normally we know what our resources are and can create a plan. Here we have to roll the dice to see who will make it to the sea wall and then we have to see what we have and figure out how to make something happen with the men that survived. In my game A company and the engineers are the ones that were chewed to bits and the Rangers are my units in the best shape. Heck first platoon of the Rangers even has their Lt with them and the Company 2IC is there too.

2nd Platoon of A Company from the 116. And I was wrong a handful of the men from that platoon made it to the sea wall. It just felt like non of the made it.

The screen shot above is from Blue and Gray (look ma I spelled it "right"). Which is not night but dawn. I do not have a problem seeing in that scenario. Yes, it is a bit darker than some. However In the Shadow of the Hill 5am is much darker. Still not night though. I find my self sitting forward closer to the screen to see when I am playing that one. Perhaps you have a calibration issue with your monitor. You, can of course, go all out and calibrate your monitor with hardware etc - and I have because I am a photographer too. There are simple things you can do that will make a big difference to at least get your brightness / contrast / colour in the right ball park. Check out this web page http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/calibration.shtml Do not get intimidated by all the advanced stuff he is trying to explain - if you want you can read the whole thing and go have a tone of fun calibrating everything but for now just focus on the section titled "Where to Start". Using just your monitor and video card controls you can get your computer screen looking much better. The key for night / dawn fighting is that black and white strip. If you find that the right hand side of that strip looks solid black then tweaking your settings as described on that page will make a difference when playing night battles. I hope that helps.

Yep that's the one. I don't think I said thanks to you for doing that test - so thanks. I actually did find that thread using google but failed to recognize it as the one I wanted - flipping through the search results to fast - my bad. Ian

Yes, beginning of the scenario and correct not the weapons platoon.

Sorry I just do not see it. BFC staff have explained why the game works the way it does many times and why the limitations are what they are. For example the gun elevation issue that has been discovered many times. I have never seen BFC staff in simple denial mode. And they have made changes in response to issues raised. Consider bogging and immobilization: http://sorry.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=101135 That was a long discussion which included testing and demonstrating. There was an additional thread (that I could not find - sorry) where the person took the discussion here and found a real bug having to do with bogging on road edges. BFC made changes to fix that bug and tweak the bogging behaviour and we got it in the next patch. The difference between this thread and my bogging thread is two fold. First I started out with an example and a question. That meant that I was asking for opinions and gathering people's expertise. While this thread just dropped the gloves, pulled the sweater over our heads and started swinging! Yes a little hockey fight analogy for at least a little humour;) Second I did not scum to lowering myself into a slug fest (I did not re read the whole thing so I sure hope I behaved myself the whole time). Sure there were some annoying posts and I tried to ignore then and instead focus on gathering data to test out things that people discussed on the thread. So, if you pile on with the original poster expect to get more of the same. But if you have questions about how the game behaves and wonder if it is correct then by all means start a new thread and be prepared to discuss the issues and refrain from lowering your self into the muck.

You caught me. As I was posting the screen shot I realized I had failed to note which platoon it was and I knew I should have. I am going to have to check next time I fire up the game.

I think he is about half way up the beach. I'll check to night and report back if I am wildly off. Oh interesting. The FOW is so good in this game:-) Yes I could have messed up when checking the caliber of the guns. Or perhaps that first AT gun is was not dead at all. Great scenario BTW.

Very funny guys - truly LOL. People near by are wondering about my sanity now.

I just posted a screen shot and a link to a video of the beach landing on the screen shot thread: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1368527&postcount=498

I recently started the Blue and Gray campaign. Here is a screen shot from the beach: With a video of that platoon landing: http://youtu.be/eIYX2t-SteY

Wow, that is good. Normally you only see numbers like that for tanks.

Yes, this is nothing new to CMBN. This has been discussed a lot. But really just read this: http://www.battlefront.com/community/archive/index.php/t-90522.html About a quarter the way down Steve from Battlefront spells it out. We can debate how hard it really is ad nauseum if you want... But the rest of us have done that already:D

I started the Blue and Grey Campaign a few nights ago and I have my first "Super Sherman". That defiantly needs to be in quotes:) This guy has survived a lot of punishment but the tank and the crew are not storming around the battle field. In the first or second turn (racing up the beach) this tank hit a mine and was immobilized. Then a mortar strike came down on his position hard (all but one guy from the platoon nearby are casualties). The tank was hit several time with mortars. The crew were shaken but stayed in the tank. Next minute an AT gun (50mm) hit the front. The crew were back to shaken and popped smoke. The tank and the 50mm AT gun dueled for a few more minutes with the tank getting a few HE rounds near the gun and the gun getting a few non penetrating hits shaking the crew. The tank came out ahead and the AT gun is now silent (they had help from other units as well so not sure if the Tank gets the credit or not). For the last couple of minutes the crew have recovered but they had no radio, no optics and are immobilized. They have engaged various MG nests and other units from their location on the beach. Then the fun began again. Another AT gun (50mm again) finished shooting at targets on its side of the beach and turned on my immobilized tank. Hitting the turret side and the hull side three times two penetrating and one partial penetration. The crew is back to shaken but still not casualties. They have not fired back yet this time. Wow I am impressed but I don't know how much longer they can old out. It will come down to their fortitude and if the Rangers can get to that gun soon enough.

An excellent example.

It has been a slow PBEM week for me so I started this campaign too. I am still in the first scenario. The rangers have been luckey in mine too but they still have lost the Company CO and 1st platoon's Lt as well. The bulk of the men made it to the sea wall along with a single fully operational tank. I just watched the turn as the start their assent up the sea wall and then the hill. Kudos to BFC the tank looks like it is working hard to make the grade and the men look like they are working hard up the slope too. The animations were very satisfying. Hopefully I will have time to record some video. Lots of fun so far - despite the incredible losses.

That is very useful. I am sure I will find a way to get use out of that. Thanks. Oh I totally missed that - thanks.