A Canadian Cat
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Posts posted by A Canadian Cat
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Remnants of 2 Platoon of the 145th engineers breach the wire and head up the hill.
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<snip>To experience CM as a sim (as some wag once wrote) you should play CM while in a metal 50 gallon drum, while people beat on it with baseball bats and throw firecrackers and crap into it. Anything less and you are kidding yourself re "realism".
Got it - that's fine. Forgive me if I do not try your suggestion of playing CM stuffed inside a 50 gal drum:-)
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Re monitor calibration, am very happy to go into my nVidia controls and mess around till the screen looks ok. But, it's annoying. Often when CMBN looks good during dusk/night/dawn scenarios, it's blindingly bright when one goes back to desktop.
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.
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You know I was a bit skeptical simply because the landing itself never seemed to me a good topic for a scenario. Not much strategy and you are getting slaughtered essentially right from the start.....
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.
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coooool. doesn't get old to me.was that an A Company platoon?
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.
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Maybe it's just my monitors, but I find the night scenarios impossible to play cos I can't see anything. So, I have to up the Gamma and brightness so it looks like (washed out) day just in order to play. Similarly, I can barely see anything in the picture posted in the previous message.
Can everyone else see it ok??
I am unsure what is the point of night scenarios if one can't see anything.
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.
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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
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Yes, beginning of the scenario and correct not the weapons platoon.
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However, there seems to be an unwillingness from BF to accept criticism unless it's proven in a court of law.
Ultimately, BF needs to decide whether they still want to make the ultimate wargame, or just one more realistic than the competition has produced.
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The most frustrating thing for me is not that there are glitches, but that BF seem to spend more time denying there are glitches than addressing them.
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.
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coooool. doesn't get old to me.
was that an A Company platoon?
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.
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How effective would a 50mm AT be against a sherman at this range? (How far up the beach had you made it?)
I think he is about half way up the beach. I'll check to night and report back if I am wildly off.
the 50mm was there historically (minor spoiler http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=104438&page=5), but in my playtesting of Blue and Gray, it seemed pretty ineffective at that range (300-400m) against the Shermans of the 743rd.Also there should only be one 50mm in this sector, you may have mistaken one of the two guns!
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.
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Immobilizing Shermans just makes them mad. Well, mad and immobile. I immobilized an opponent's Sherman early in my last PBEM. Mortars, tank fire, etc. etc., it goes without saying, were futile. IIRC by the end of the battle bugger had turned out to be his most lethal asset. Finally had to maneuver some AT guys into the hedgerows adjacent to it where one of the many panzerfausts launched finally took it out. I immediately went up an experience level.Rofl. I think that getting that Sherman immobilised there was probably the best possible thing that could have happened to it - it stopped me moving the damn thing about. Whenever I tried to move the other ones, they died
Very funny guys - truly LOL. People near by are wondering about my sanity now.
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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
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I recently started the Blue and Gray campaign.
Here is a screen shot from the beach:
With a video of that platoon landing:
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I am pretty sure this might be the best sniper action and results that I have ever managed out of a team.
Wow, that is good. Normally you only see numbers like that for tanks.
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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
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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.
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The same goes for the Tac AI, and you've probably seen the effect in action.
Example from Saturday: One of my Cromwells penetrated and knocked out a PzJg IV with its first round. I the godlike Player-General knew this, because I had infantry within 30 meters of the target and thus the PzJg registered as 'knocked out' almost immediately. But my tanks 800m away didn't know this (when viewed from 'their' perspective the PzJg still had an active icon) and so continued to pump shells into the wreck until it finally started to burn.
An excellent example.
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I'm only on the second scenario so far, but I really enjoyed the first one. Easily my favorite of the beach landing scenarios I've played so far. I guess my guys were a bit luckier than others, as I *only* had about 300 casualties. I think the biggest factor was that my Rangers got off the beach mostly intact, which allowed me to easily take the positions on the right.
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.
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Once you click on the highlighted button you are asked to import a .btt file from the scenario folder, so i have complete OOB's of both sides as .btt files at the divisional level, i.e. the 12th SS Pz Div, 716th Inf Div and the 3rd Canadian Inf Div.
That is very useful. I am sure I will find a way to get use out of that. Thanks.
There was a discussion of this back in March and at least 2 OoBs have been posted to use this way. It is a pretty nifty idea to create OoBs that can be easily imported into any map you want to use.Panzer Lehr by Rocko
http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=1821
And an SP regt of the RA by JonS
http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=1806
Oh I totally missed that - thanks.
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I didn't take a screen shot, as all it would be is a picture of a Sherman tank sitting in a field.
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Overall, I saw him take
5 direct panzerfaust hits,
Impressive - my Shermans usually die after the first hit. :mad:
4 side hits from the PZiv,Also impressive. The thing about this game is you never really know the condition of the tank or the crew. The game does not show you the yellow base for immobilized vehicles for your enemy's vehicles. Nor does it show the damage to systems list either.
Don't get me wrong it is amazing that this Sherman survived all this but I doubt it is good working order. Once the game is over I think you get more information about enemy vehicle condition. What did the end of game screen tell you?
Almost all the games I have played I have had no idea what kind of shape my enemy vehicles or soldiers are in. It is part of the beauty of this game. During the battle you can make some suppositions but you cannot really be sure. I have a game on the go now where two Panther tanks are sitting stationary while the battle rages on away from them. At first I though my opponent had something up his sleeve and for many turns I was careful what did just because I expected those Panthers to start maneuvering and messing up my plans. At this point I think they are immobilized (I fired many 60mm and 81mm mortar rounds at them) but I am not totally sure.
4 direct hits from 81mm mortars, andYawn
see below6 direct hits from medium on map mortars, with no discernible damage, and no retreat. This is in addition to indirect mortar hits and other hits he most likely took when he was first spotted which I didn't see as I was busy at the time with the other flank.<snip>
Yeah, mortars are probably the reason the tank did not behave as you expected. I have seen many Shermans get hit by 81mm mortars and the only thing they suffer from is immobilization. So, that Sherman probably lost its ability to retreat in the first mortar barrage. Those mortars are just not powerful enough to reliably destroy a tank. I would not rule it out happening but it does not seem likely. However they certainly can immobilize a tank and I have seen that more than once.
For example I started Blue and Grey yesterday and one of my Shermans was immobilized in a mine field. Since then they have been under near constant mortar barrage. I have no idea how many hits they have taken. Everyone is fine and so is the rest of the tank. It is true the crew have become shaken on two occasions but so far they have stayed in the tank. The German mortars are just not powerful enough to take them out.
Yes, I know there are bigger mortars my experience with *not* killing tanks is with 50, 60 and 81mm mortars (both sides). I do not know if the bigger ones would KO a tank or not.
BTW What do you mean by medium mortars? I would have thought 81mm mortars were medium.
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Fortunately not all the forces you see will be on the same map all at the same time as the players will be responsible for which units appear on which CM map
Basically i'm building all the necessary maps and OOB's to play the Panzer Campaigns scenario at my signature as an umpireless CMBN operation, what you see is the entire OOB for the Allies, in the event of a CM battle this main OOB will be imported by the Allied player onto the relevant CM maps in the CMBN scenario editor and whatever forces are not present in the battle will be deleted, another version of the same OOB will be used to track the combat effects of the CM battles that occur, the same applies to the Axis forces.
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Interesting idea - I was wondering why have an entire division on a CMBN map even though the group picture you posted is cool.
I have a question though: you spoke of importing a OOB into a CMBN map using the scenario editor, I must be missing something. How do you import an order of battle into the scenario editor?
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Yeah, we had an open forum in the beginning but was getting a bunch of trash posts, so we made it private. All of our current ladders are listed on the web sites main page.
Right above the atomic blast ;-)
Oh that I understand - those spammers can find forums so fast. But I was not suggesting an open forum only that anyone could read and only members can post.
I saw the list of supported games but not the actual rankings, games won, games lost etc. That is what I was looking for. From reading your post it sounded like while the CMBN ladder was new there were others on going. I wondered what they looked like.
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We have a new CM2 engine ladder starting up. If any one is looking for a fresh start or to continue their dominance ;-)
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I had a peak but I do not see the ladder link nore can I see any of the forum posts. I understand that the CMBN ladder is just starting but do you have other ladders? It would be nice to see what your ladder listing looks like and see what the forums content looks like. Being able to browse a site before signing up is, IMHO, the best way to support recruitment.
Ian
coooool. doesn't get old to me.
see below
Blue and Gray
in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy
Posted
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.