Sgt Schultz

Yeah, I wish the spires were taller, but they are maxxed at 8 stories. It is a religious-cross shape(not +), the camera angle is fooling you. I am sooo looking forward to all the graves I have to place(not).

The more locked tiles on a map the more work there seems to be on loading, for some reason. Flavors/Brush are resource hogs too.

I used Wikipedia for the specs. Cross shape. East/West orientation with entrance to the West and altar on East side(so windows catch morning sun). Naves make the cross areas N and S. Spires because I can. Found the Bamberg and said "score... 4 spires". The railway is only 200 or so meters North. The industrial/commercial area was constructed first, along the railway and back around towards the cathedral/square. There will be more buildings nearby, but sometimes towns grow out away from cathedrals rather than around them. No telling how many towns have come and gone since the thing was built. The town is Schultzberg. It is my WIP for a static CM1-style H2H Operation. Think of it as a campaign without breaks between battles. We have no persistant campaign damage, H2H campaigns, or static operations, so I am building an all-in-one 3 hour battle. -

I would tend to agree that all on-map mortars are too accurate at anything over 200-300 meters in direct-fire mode. Off-maps are also a tad tight on their patterns, but less so. BFC is usually fairly accurate in their simulation of weapon performance, so maybe there is evidence that they are working from that we have missed. It could also be that real-world CEPs would overwhelm most Small or Tiny maps, which is where the "scale of the game" has its supposed sweet spot. ---

Before I go too much further on my town, I wanted to see if this was a reasonable cathedral. St. Runes. The patron saint of sadistic scenario designers. ---- It is based on the Bamberg Cathedral .... ----

Is it possible to mod the two choices of roof to represent Shingle OR Metal, instead of two flavors of the same type per building? The cinderblock versus Tudor gables is a bummer as well. Certain buildings have certain gables and no options to match them with connecting structures. These missing choices make it difficult to construct proper compound buildings of certain types and sizes, without visual differences in roof/gable type. As it is now the two options usually just shift roof stains. wee. Damaging buildings to remove offending roofs(i always want to put rooves ) can be tedious. Any ideas?

Once again thanks for all the absolutely incredible work Ari! Your commitment goes above and beyond. I hate to ask, but I was wondering if you could do maybe a little something about .... this .... All that beautiful terrain .... and then the stock haystacks.

I would suggest that any on-map mortar within shout/eye distance of it's direct HQ should be good to go in 1 minute. Offset this by the need for 3-4 spotting rounds and all the associated baggage they entail re: LOS of spotting impact. Even with the faster response I bet folks would still rather go direct fire after burning rounds and time finding the range. I know there are already 1 minute timers. I think it is FO-directed 60mm on a TRP. --------- EDIT - Has anyone tried buying the "Formation" FO(as opposed to specialist teams) and directly attaching on-map mortars??? hmmmm scurries off to test... ---- darn. Still 3 minutes in-LOS, and 2 minutes for TRP with Vet/High/+1 FO and directly attached mortars in close-C2 range.

I was going to ask if I had to design all Brit scenarios around Tea Time. Where are the scattered scone flavor objects?

The C2 chain means more for spotting depending on the difficulty level you are playing at. If one plays slow enough you can more or less see the info run up and down the chain as people that 'should' see something, but don't, get clued in by folks that do see. "Oh.. over THERE! I see them now!" kind of thing. But mostly it is for suppression and area fire purposes like you stated. One team knows somethign is there and yells it out, so you have an excuse to hose that area now. Re: HQs... The manual states that the Leadership modifier makes everyone below and in C2 perform "better". BFC is famous for fuzzy statements like that, and I love it. No number crunching percentages to calculate best modifiers. The best way to test is to make a QB Hotseat WEGO vs yourself. Buy +2 and -2 leaders and put their squads through matching tasks. You should get an idea of what happens under fire and directing/rate of fire. 0 or +1 are the best value in QBs. Minus numbers are usually found in scenarios, and after taking casualties. --- You can use the editor to create anything from Chuck Norris to Gomer Pyle.

Nice work Broadsword. I bet that looked awesome! So, 24 TRPs for a twelve-step linear walking barrage? Bit pricey for a QB, and that many in the hands of a gamey player in a scenario could lead to all sorts of silliness if "mis-used". Now if you wanted to slim down to a 100m +/- linear front, you could squeak by with 6-7 TRPs in a direct line up the gut of your attack axis. Take all the TRP will give you side-to-side and as far forward, then back as it will go. Each single TRP gives two 100m linears approx 100m apart in depth. ------------- EDIT - Compromise... Staggered TRPs. Target Linears from far left/rear of left TRP to far right/front of right TRP. More TRPs, but more front covered. And still a bit less than pairs.

I am hoping next iteration of the game will have AAA and shoot-downs, along with the above-mentioned tweaks. That would put air right back on my design list.

Oh, and wait until you run into the Hiding 150mm siG33. Cloaking device(tiny gun shield and small firing signature) and can reduce a platoon nicely in one shot. If either(75/150) Infantry Gun is well-placed, an enemy can stare at the spot all he wants and still not get more than a sound contact for enough turns to cause major havoc. ---- Scout Teams(in C2 ofc) on Hunt may help reduce casualties as well. Better to lose two than twelve.

TOT barrages in WW2 took just to the left of forever to calculate. Each individual trajectory had to be calculated with a slide rule. Texas Instruments was not around to help back then. TOT barrage in CM = 30+ minute prep time. You want that? Rolling barrages are easy once you practice. With or without TRPs. Make a test battle in the editor and play with it until you have it down.

I looked at air power from a design standpoint and discarded it for the time being. I will revisit it once I have more experience. Unless the battle is quite large, I have found that air support can be too large a variable for my design practices. If it works, it's extremely powerful. Strafing a platoon into a few screaming survivors is cool, but can ruin a battle's tempo and fun-factor. If they do a blue on blue, it sucks. That can halt a battle just as quick, and with more moral outrage. If they miss, it's a waste.

To add to the other points, which I agree with completely, any unit that starts the battle Hiding gets a stealth bonus. This makes them even more difficult to spot. Good point to remember when you start defending. Hide at start and do not even twitch until you are ready to open up. The building cover issue is known and can be addressed in the editor by wall-wrapping with low walls.

ALT I - Icons ALT H - Hit text ALT J - Objectives In the GUI there is a button labeled menus. Click it and look for the hotkeys button.

That was great. Loved the sound effects. Great camera work and the overlay cutscenes were awesome. Will watch this many times to take it all in. Thanks for the great effort. Suggestions for future projects... Mod up with everything made by Aris for HD terrain and vehicles, then use all of Vein's explosions etc. There is a "No Red Cross" mod that I have used so long I actually forgot they were in the game until watching this. Turn off the objectives unless needed for overlay cutscenes. Edit out the GUI, deselect all units during filming, and turn off Icons except for overlay cutscenes. -- Your excellent camera direction deserves the best mods and least distractions.

Thanks for the great work!

Flavors can be fussy about how you place them and where. I tried the overlapping shed thing and it stumped me. I have yet to have something get stuck though. Immobilized halftracks and tanks on the rail line can make a semi-decent armored train. I do wish we had rolling stock flavors, along with a few other obvious things like chutes and gliders. I suppose the rail cars would be in the buildings section of the editor though, since units would enter and leave them.

Hotkeys bad. Mouse good. I do things wrong almost every time I use hotkeys. With the mouse I am forced to LOOK at what I am doing. I only have to abandon a gun once to learn that lesson.

RE: the Hiding versus normal stance issues. TERRAIN is the factor here. Put an AT team in a number 4 field.... then put the same team near a wall on grass. The spotting/firing stance of a unit is linked to both enemy proximity/action and terrain type occupied. Your zook/shrek teams will fire from a prone position and not be spotted after multiple kills if placed in the proper terrain(screenies available). Fausts I believe HAVE to take a knee to fire, but I will have to test more. This means a wall, hedge or a tree would probably make the best Faust firing postion I suppose. Faust teams should be in good order and in best possible C2 to units that can see more of the target approach area. So maybe a possible scenario could go like this ... Hide faust behind wall within C2 of spotting units in good concealment. When armor approaches, unhide faust and send sacrificial unit sprinting in opposite direction to distract tank. Hope for the best. Personally, if I am down to hoping a faust30 can save me, it's about over. Once the 60s show it will be a different world.

My Bad ... did it again. Wrong forum. Thirty lashes with a small trout. Well, vote anyway since we are here.

RL and some PBEMs have given me a breather from all my WIPs. I think it's time to see if I can finish another. Since my Beer & Pretzels approach has a small audience(download numbers), I thought I would get input on which one to get back to first. All of these have maps in progress and notes on forces and missions. Some of these are for later incorporation into a campaign once the proper Modules are out and I can switch forces. "Bat'44" - Downed bomber crew trying to escape German patrols to exit, while a small SPR force tries to link up and protect. Ami vs German AI only(or ami would lose almost every time) and a cast iron biotch to plan out, but i will do it. "Dam You" - Battalion-size battle across a river immediately below a dam broken by Operation Chastise. Mud, debris, and a horrific landscape. H2H only(size). "Meatgrinder" - A remake of my CMBB battle which is still available at the Proving Grounds believe it or not. This is a "Pocket Op' that makes up for no static operations/no map damage by putting a 4 hour battle on one map with constant reinforcement. Water crossing into increasingly dense urban. H2H only(size). "The Hurtin' Forest" - Blatant steal of RockinHarry's ideas. He got me started on trenchlines and sunken pillboxes and immobilized tanks. Ami assault on deeply dug-in Germans in heavy forest. H2H only(size) Will require download of the "Small fortification icon" mod or you will go mad at setup. Over 100 trenches so far... "It's Been An Honor" - Surrounded Amis try to hold out until relief arrives... and it may not. H2H or Ami vs AI. ------- There are others in the concept art phase, like the castle(Wolfenstein) and the volcano(Thar She Blows). The castle alone could take weeks and the volcano is months away at best. Enough burning vehicles in the caldera and it is a sight though. -------- Script but no map - "Change of Command" - The "bunker" is attacked by German officers to "terminate" The Leader's command. Axis vs Axis H2H -------- Remake but no map - "Guerillas In The Mist" - Multiple route through woods exit scenario with partisans trying to intercept convoys. Anything there that anyone is interested in? I work to the engine and editor limits, not historical ones.

Didn't the Brits bring strange looking dogs along with them everywhere as well? Who will make the mascot mod?