A Canadian Cat

Cool must be caused by quantum entanglement.

Question: does this use the reverse of Mord's tricky turn helmets into barets hack?

OOOw does that mean you are going to do a version of the Royal Tiger earlier than expected? The Tiger I looks fantastic BTW.

I have seen the same on two occasions now. Long ago when a squad was on a long march one guy went the long way and met up with his mates eventually. And just recently when a member of a mortar team went way off course. When I tried to correct it by canceling their order and setting a new one right in the middle the way ward guy over shot while the rest of the team stopped in the right place. Canceling the order and giving them an order to where they were fixed things. Of course they are tired and very much behind the rest of the platoon.

Wow that looks dramatic. What is it like to fight on?

Well the tank did show as destroyed after that second grenade. However the crew did take 20s to bail which is not typical.

You guys crack me up. My US friends think I talk funny too. I still cannot hear the difference:-)

Recently there was a discussion about close assaulting tanks with infantry. I was looking through my captured video and found I had video footage. I screwed up and lost this Sherman by pushing way to far forward. He was trying to get a flank shot on a Stug III but instead ended up dead. This was from a recent game I had against Siffo998: Bloody St. Omer Chapell. I lost - for obvious reasons when you watch this video:) http://youtu.be/aKLZ5CdQFDc The tank has no idea the infantry are there until the first grenade hits. Then it tires to pop smoke and flee. The second grenade destroys the tank (I checked) then the crew takes 20s or so to bail out (not sure why that is) and then goes down in a hail of bullets. The crew trying to get away:

I use them either as scouts - a little a head of my M8s means the jeep takes fire first and the M8 an back them up. And more commonly for moving heavy weapons teams as needed in safe areas.

I am curious how did you track those numbers. Clearly you were tracking it as the game progressed because you mentioned your % casualties number as you were forming up your final attack plan. Did you keep a tab as you watched the turn and saw guys getting hit or did you check the status of each unit at the end of the turn? I was just wondering about the logistics of keeping count of the number of soldiers in each company.

Lets say you have an infantry unit that is currently facing the enemy and you want them to pop smoke and withdraw. This will work: Plot your movement order away from the enemy (and any additional way points as needed to get to their new position). Then, with no way points selected, set a face command towards the enemy and set a pause and pop smoke. When the turn starts your guys will pop smoke and wait for your pause time then turn around and head away from the enemy. This will not work: Set a face command towards the enemy and issue a pause and a pop smoke order. Then plot your movement order away from the enemy (and any additional way points as needed to get to their new position). When the turn starts you guys will turn around and pop smoke in the direction they will be moving pause and wait then they will get up and start moving towards the smoke. Sadly this will mean they will leave cover and move into the open before they get to their smoke. The problem with the second order sequence is that the face command is canceled when you issue a movement order - because by default they will face towards the next movement order.

Smart guy. Probably saved his life and those of his buddies be being so suborn.

I recently had this problem to and asked about it. Other than @slysniper's advice the other thing I do now is increase my elevation level and tilt the camera down. Once I am looking almost straight down and am high enough to see the whole bridge plus some of the land the way points will drop where I want them. Then I plot the movement orders close to one end of the bridge and I make sure one way point is on land right next to the bridge centred on the bridge. Then I plot the next way point on the land on the other side of the bridge so the path runs right down the middle (this is @slysniper's advice from above). Then continue the your pathing as normal on the other side of the bridge. In my case I was having trouble getting way points to drop on the land near the bridge and the tanks ended up in the water instead of on land.

For the passenger - it is right hand. Very James Bond or was that Johnny English

I miss understood your question. The town we are trying to occupy is in a slight valley. He knew I had a force on that hill because my lead tanks had taken up positions on the tree lined ridge of my side of the valley. The were dueling with his tank destroyers and tanks on the opposite ridge. So he dispatched a sizable force to flank my positions. He felt his tanks were safe in their field because he thought my main force was further away (behind the tanks dueling on the ridge).

I found the Generic Mod Enabler from Jones soft but I tried it out once to see if it worked. But I went looking for where I got it but the web site is not more and I cannot remember where I picked it up. Does any one know if it is official still supported?

He only found out when the four Royal Tigers appeared on the treeline of *his* field and destroyed 6 Churchill tanks in 2 minutes.

I just discovered one really good tip. Another reason to have infantry support for your tanks: because they can hear nearby enemy tanks! And your tank commanders cannot. This just saved my behind in a huge tank battle I am fighting. I had a Royal Tiger Platoon in position on a reverse slope waiting for their infantry to arrive before going over the hill and attacking the near by town. They were in place and waiting for four minutes (the infantry were delayed and the attack moved further away due to enemy artillery). The tanks were happily waiting with no contacts of any kind. The truck with the infantry pulls up and the guys file out and with in 20s enemy contacts appear in the field next to my tank platoon. I was astonished - my opponent had managed to flank me and I did not even know it. The Royal Tiger platoon was in a wheat field next to the field was a 20m or so wide strip of light forest but lots of trees then a road and another thinner tree line so they had no visibility into the next field over - and neither did the infantry. Clearly these contacts were sound contacts. Since I knew something was there I swung right and attacked through the trees. Caught his Churchills totally by surprise and shredded 6 of them in 2min with no casualties. Afterwards I talked to my opponent about it and found that his tanks had been there for nearly 10 minutes waiting for me to attack the town. His plan was to bring them at me from behind while I was distracted fighting in the town. A brilliant plan. But he had no infantry support with those tanks and therefore he did not hear my tanks either.

Thanks for revealing the mystery. In one of your screen shots you had a shrek team target a tank at what looked like 143m. Did I read that right? I never let my guys fire the shrek at those distances 100m is my go for it zone. Do you find you have success at distances like 140m? I know your guys took 3 shots to get their hit but I find they don't usually get a chance to fire three times. Usually they start taking fire from some where faster than that. Perhaps firing at 140m mitigates that and your guys survive longer than mine. I usually give my Shrek team a 100m circular cover arc.

So, true. Making a map is hard. I am hoping Stoneage's tool will help but you are right there is more than just elevation and terrain that needs to be right. To all the map makers out there - a big thank you.

Excellent I love it when that happens. I have only seen it twice. Once when a 105 barrage killed and AI panther (when it happened I had no idea there was a Panther there). Suddenly a black column of smoke came out of the middle of a barrage and later at the end of the battle I found it was a Panther that was hit. I have never had that happen with 105 again - and I have seen at least 4 other tanks hit by 105s. I was lucky that day - still lost though. It was one of my first battles and I had no idea what I was doing:) The other time I had an immobilized Sherman blasting away at an opposing bocage line supporting my infantry who were trying to cross the open field to get there. One round went through an infantry gap and hit something solid on the other side. Turns out it was my opponent's last Marder trying to move laterally to meet my flanking attack. Amazing. I hope I did not miss you saying what you hit before: My question is what was it you hit? The explosion is big; so from that I would guess an M7 Priest but I do not think it was part of the American's order of battle. So I'll revise my guess to; a lucky hit on a Sherman.

Excellent work guys and thanks for creating this. I saw your AAR start but did not read fully until this morning. Awesome. What a great game. I love how it ended - by the Americans breaking contact due to high casualties. Clearly having an operational layer helps mitigate the all in slug fests that can happen in a one off battle. Makes me want to try it. Can you guys share info about what you used for the operational layer? A friend and I are in the middle of a huge mostly tank battle that is total fantasy but we are having a blast. This game is amazing. Our plan from the start is to write up an AAR so hopefully we can come close to the quality of yours.

Great idea - I wish I had thought of that:-)

I do not have any real life experience but urban fighting really interests me so it was one of the first things I tried in the game. My friend and I have fought several urban battles now and I admit to some disappointment. Some comments on your comments below and further discussion about what I think will help below: True, but the buildings in the patch seems stronger - or the troops are positioning them selves inside better now than the original game. Couple that with the fact that I learned to split my squads and spread the teams over the floors in buildings at ALL times. Makes this a lot better. I would like some fortification ability for buildings - I think it would be great to buy building fortifications like you buy trenches. Having said that I can live without this. Not sure what that is can you clarify? Yep spot on. My other big gripe for urban fighting has to do with the action square to action square visibility requirement for area fire. What this means is that a tank in a street can target spotted enemy soldiers in buildings down the street. But when those soldiers duck or run suddenly the tank can no longer target the front of the building with area fire. Even though they were just putting rounds on that very building face moments ago. The problem that causes is that as I am clearing a street my armor support cannot fire at the face of buildings down the street while my guys move to the building next door. Yes, yes I can hear the tears - armor is already to powerful:D Which brings me to my opposite gripe - tanks being able to target enemy soldiers on the sixth floor of the building they are parked beside. I know why they gun elevation is not modeled and I understand why. I get it. But I don't like it in a close quarters urban fight. I wish some bright person could come up with some limits that would not break the AI but would allow me to safely have solider's in upper floors when the bad guys tank is on the street below. What I want is for it to be a bad idea to just drive tanks down streets with out coordinating infantry support. +1 Oh amen to that did I say +1 already? Allowing some of that would be cool yes. I am not sure if this necessary for good urban fighting but it would be nice. Some changes here would be nice yes. Again I think this would be good for the game overall and not sure if it directly effects urban fighting. Probably the single biggest issue I had with my urban fights was the maps. So, let me start by saying I mean no disrespect to the map makers. I have tried it. Clearly it takes an iron constitution to create a good map. So far the maps I have fought my urban fights on, have not been good enough. The problems of infantry not surviving long enough in an urban setting to punish poor use of tanks is real and the factors mentioned above all play a role. But, I submit another large factor, is with map design. For infantry to dish out the proper punishment they need to get close to enemy tanks and fire their AT weapons from some kind of cover. The maps I have used lack enough cover in the streets, twisty alleys that tanks cannot drive down. I have lost tanks to close assault - yes I was using tanks recklessly and I was punished, just as I should have been. So I know that infantry can destroy tanks if they survive getting close to them. An urban map that is more like a real urban environment would go a long way to making urban fights more fun. IMHO. To improve urban fighting the goal to strive for is to make it harder to just drive tanks down streets without coordinated infantry support.

I'd Rather Dig, A Moving Fox hole attracts the Eye.