Sgt Schultz

It would perfectly understandable if the amount of game you got is not what you expected... if there wasn't a forum here that has covered all you are posting about in various amounts of detail since pre-release. You are of course entitled to your opinions, but to complain this loudly about things that have been common knowledge for months is counter-productive to say the least. Due diligence is the term I believe. Now once you take a breath, look around the forums at each of these issues, and decide if you wish to contribute to the community... feel free to ask for assistance.

Greetings, There is no persistent damage on maps during campaigns, and there is no static operations-style available. So while you can make a static/semi-static campaign... each battle will start with a fresh map/no damage. From what I can gather, there is a way to do what you want in some ways. You may want to make branches after each battle, depending on scores. Bad score, you go to next map which is back a few hundred meters. OK score, you play same map again(but new map with no damage). Great score, you move on to next map in series. Lather, rinse, repeat for each section of the campaign. You could start with a large master map and break it into battles, but be warned that large maps take forever to load and run out of memory when too many doo-dads are added. Your master should have the minimum amount of things on it until you carve out each piece. ----- Personally I am waiting for at least two additional Modules before tackling a campaign creation. Constructing individual battles is enough of a mind-bender for me at present.

I use pop smoke all the time, and think the smoke effect is accurate. Modern smoke does a low-order explosion to spread a globe of smoke almost instantly. Our smoke comes fuming out of a grenade and takes a while to spread. The speed of multiple launches seems OK as well. Maybe a tad quick, but nothng worth tweaking imho.

Since playing QBs is still a somewhat new experience for me(well, since cmbb), getting the purchase right is still a challenge. Finding the balance for a situation seems to be more of an art form, helped along by lady luck, than a science. This little ramble is my way of starting a discussion on purchasing habits... not an attempt to represent this purchase as some sort of winner. It is as balanced an ATTACKING formation as could be arranged with my newby skills. Of course I am working on other buys for defense. The situation.... Attacker, Rarity off, mix, German. Dry ground, light wind(yay), no bocage. It is a larger map with a village in the center/rear, with decent scattered tree concealment. I see this purchase mix to be my basic one for almost any non-bocage German attack. 3,175 points available. I am always somewhat tempted to buy a complete Battalion of Reg/High/0 Infantry Grenadiers for 2,707 points. The complete lack of mobile, long-range AT assets brings me down to Earth every time. I start with the Grenadiers though. Regular/High/0 as a formation standard. It seems that the high motivation helps a bit more when it counts... at the end of the battle. Then the pruning starts. I have found that even after separating what I "want" from what I "need"(hard lesson), adjustments are always needed to make room. I end up with this ... 1st Company - x3 plt inf(3rd plt has scout team instead of 3rd squad) 4th plt has the following- x2 HMG(instead of 4) x2 81mm(on-map) x1 251/1 HT(single vehicle addition) 2nd Company - same as 1st Company in all respects 3rd Company - reserves Co HQ no Co XO x1 plt inf Direct Btn attachments - x1 81mm off-map (vet) x1 120mm off-map (vet) x1 FO (vet) x4 TRP x1 JPzIV (vet/hi/+1) x1 PzIVH (vet/hi/+1) x2 Stummel 75mm HT (vet/hi/+1) It took some juggling here and there with single unit Motivation to squeeze it all in, but I did it. The method to the madness - All vehicles are Vet/High/+1. It's just my personal thing. They are always keystone units and they better stand and deliver. All FOs and off-map assets are Vet. I want it where and when I want it. They will proceed in an orderly, proficient and military manner. Muldoons are not tolerated in my formations. By stripping the organic heavy company and its mortars, along with most of 3rd Company, I saved a bit on HQs and got rid of excess infantry. Gave up the 2nd 120mm battery too, but oh well. I hated stripping half the organic HMG42 squads, but the points just weren't there. It's not like MG42s are scarce in any German formation. The Scout Teams in the two 3rd plts add Pop Smoke and a brace of MP40s(set to puree), while shaving a few points from the toon total. The 251/1 Hannomags turned into an elegant solution to two problems. Not only do they carry the ammo that can tide my boys over after a firefight, they can carry all on-map mortars and ammo bearers. No more "Tired" mortars scrambling to catch up and set up before they are seen. No more infantry running out of ammo at turn 38, since will I re-up at turn 20. Vet costs same as Regular too... 64 points. One for each Company and they will be kept safe. If I could have made room for 5 TRPs I would have. The outer horseshoe of 4 could have a center. It is amazing what can be done with properly placed series of TRPs on the attack. 200+/- meter separation in an arc makes for a lot of nice options. Who needs LOS when you have a Vet FO and Vet mortars with TRPs? The JpzIV is my must-have unit. It can go toe-to-toe with 76mm Shermans and still knock down a house or two. The six(or is it 7) Pop Smokes the JPz carries is perfect for my style. Fragile from the side and non-turreted, but scary from the front. All that smoke can help keep supporting infantry/soft vehicles alive. PzIVH because I couldn't afford a second Jagd. A capable beastie, but more fragile than I would like in the presence of possible 76mm Shermans. Stummel because... 103 points for mobile, direct-fire, 75mm HE/HEAT/Smoke. Beat that. They should be the last units to present themselves, but can be the last units that the enemy sees. Wonderful at suppressing structures. They make a dandy cheapo tank replacement on Damp or Wet ground as well. Why bog 1 tank when you can bring 3 Stummels? They can crawl through the muck fairly well. -- This yields two separate combined-arms columns, with a small reserve/distraction force comprised of XOs and 3rd Company's plt. Each column gets a Stummel, 251/1 and one Armor unit. The FO stays with the Btn HQ and 3rd Co near center or best terrain feature. Since I usually attack on two fronts, this buy seems to be about optimal for me. Enough troops to soak up a few losses, with an even amount of varied support assets. --- Units I used to buy... Different situations will of course change things, but these are things I have trained myself out of for the most part when attacking as Germans. I feel that the points that are now free give me more balance. Sniper - Great for defense. On attack, not so much. I have better use for the points than to have another set of binocs. Any armor not a JagdPzIV - The Kitties are great and can win a battle, no question. The spoiled brats bog in a flash and cost a mint though. 76mm Shermans can puncture anything else except maybe the odd lucky StuG. 57mm will kill PzIV reliably at shorter ranges. Being vulnerable to the front ... against the Amis??? I won't have it. In my little world I have spent three years standing up to Russian 76mm and KV-1s. Shrek Team - Any defender that allows his armor within 200m of any attacking infantry unit will most likely be vulnerable in other ways. These things are a defending player's dream, but seem to be too fragile for attacks unless it is a heavy bocage map. Pioneers - If bocage yes, if not, no. I find myself coddling them to preserve their charges. More Scout Teams - The temptation to construct a CM1 SMG platoon is alway there. They have that Pop Smoke and three MP40s. Stealthy and just scary inside 80 meters. However, they are almost twice as expensive on a per-man average than Grenadiers, and fragile. More Vets - Quantity has a certain quality all its own. I used to want everything Vet. Then I realised that Veteran troops seem to die at the same rate as Regular troops under mortar and artillery fire. High Motivation may just cower a bit longer before getting up and running rampant through the barrage. Veteran helps that unit, Leadership helps the whole team/etc. I will +1 a unit before making it Vet any time. When it is free, like in the case of the 251/1, well then of course. Specialty Half-tracks - Ma Deuce and the invisible 57mm have taught me the hard lesson enough that it has sunk in. They are expensive deathtraps. 251/1 for ammo or Stummel only, and they better stay well back. Small-caliber cannon cannot compete with the 12.7's high ROF.

While I am fairly certain there is a thread like this somewhere in necro-land, may as well start a new one. After struggling to learn to live on a budget, I believe am starting to get the hang of it. Let's compare notes and see how people approach their QB buys. Do you have "base" forces that you tweak from battle to battle? Do you re-think for each battle? Do you have favorite units? What is your favorite size/type of battle to buy for? That sort of thing. I will post my little ramble after this lead-in, since it involves just one type of buy. We have until Commonwealth to tweak our buys. -

Excellent mod. The first screen music raises goosebumps. Incoming artillery and the ambient sounds are perfect. golf claps all the way around

"Mission confirmed Erwin Six Actual!" You mean like that?

Or rivulet or stream ... whatever. Basically a less than full tile waterway that is placed just like roads. All the little road combos, just made of shallow water. Let us underlay with whatever terrain we choose, but the water has pebbles/rocks. ------ This is of course dovetailed into the request to allow water on more than one elevation per map.

I am wondering how much folks are taking the C2 net into account for the most glaring examples of uber-spotting by armor. For the most part, armor is in constant C2, unless radios or HQ are dead. If they are singletons assigned to an infantry formation then the C2 net is even more robust. Depending on where in the net the armor in question is, it could have very good intelligence, by way of the CM2 engine, of who is where. My singles are usually attached directly to Btn, so the info the Btn HQ gets from downline gets reported to the armor rather quickly. I am not propsing that this is the cause of the issue at hand. It may be a contributing factor in some instances though. just a thought

But how does Klingon fit into this?? -

Adjust is for walking barrages that have already been dialed in. Make sure the calling unit has good LOS to both the previous and adjusted target areas. A TRP in the area helps a lot. If you are getting bad spotting rounds or inaccurate fire missions, it is always better to cancel the mision and start over with good LOS. If the FO does not have LOS to the spotting rounds, then the entire process takes a very long time.

Thank you sir! I have been using a lot of Stummels lately and they have been sticking out.

Another Hyperbole and a Half fan eh? -- wow I was unaware of that feature Jon. I've spent so long making battles I never got into the campaign part of the editor. Going to go check out how to make a "My army will beat Your Army" tournament. There goes the next month of free time .... -

Someone needs to mod those signs into the CMBB broadsheets. --

http://www.sadm.org/ I mean scary? i suppose.. but threatening the Russians??

Oh, and the briefings have had a major facelift. More warning of what may be in store, and expanded designer notes. -

Pull the cord. Throw it towards enemy. Even I could handle that one. In their most basic usage, they were like large bulky grenades.

Reworked force structures and many map tweaks await in the new version made for H2H only play. http://cmmods.greenasjade.net/mods/4553/details Many thanks to my beta testers ... sublime, vonKliest and sburke... for their time and effort. This battle is dedicated all the regular gaming pairs out there. You know who you are. You always have at least one battle going with the same person. Hopefully by the end of this battle, both of you will be ready to go again with new plans. And then again ... Replay value was one of my primary goals. Less experienced player may want to take the Germans first time out. Defending tends to be a tad easier, but not by much in this one. Flavor objects and terrain additions that were deleted in the earlier version have been reinstated. Load times are longer, but fun factor and immersion are increased I think. Hope you folks enjoy it over and over. As always, please feel free to comment here or in a PM. -

I believe that BFC already had to "tone down" artillery modeling a tad from historically accurate behaviour to keep it from owning everything even more than it can now. While bringing back the CM1 behaviour would be nice, it may unbalance things a bit. Would YOU like to be under the never-ending, always-adjusting bombardment?? I try to make sure I have TRPs, vet FOs and artillery, and multiple batteries... then pick my fire mission type carefully.

I agree it is a harsh penalty to pay for driving along a ditch. But the test was at Fast. Imagine throwing a track because you caught a few rocks in the ditch. It is not so much you got stuck, but "bog" also simulates throwing a track. Go Fast on Rocky and see what happens. You ain't bogged... you ate a rock. What you may want to look at is how long the tanks last with a Slow order along the ditch. Once I got stuck in a ditch I just made sure I kept the units either ON or OFF the road. Where is our resident Sherman crewman(retired)?? Which is more prone to throw a track at high speed driving in a ditch along a road.... tiny wheeled Christie or big wheeled Tiger suspension??

Once they have done all they can do with historical... maybe we can get BFC to give us an alternate history/fictional Module .... Me likey the P-1500 Although map size would come into play.

Now that would be a great news story... Impatient gamers steal tank from museum and assault gaming company for new release." Film at 11. That wouldn't work though. Before we got 10 miles the group would break down into an arguement on whether the tank was restored to its proper configuration.

"Armor only" arc from CM1 is good enough for me. I have found that almost everything else can be handled by a short/small arc until you are ready to arc JUST the target area you want. I have found that with proper arc management, even overlapped targets are usually engaged in the proper manner by the proper unit. Ex. 88 ATG is arced to about 5 degrees and 900 meters AFTER a tank is spotted at 800 meters. Infantry show up in the arc at 400 meters. My 88 will almost always engage the tank first. For me, defensive arcs are for prevention of fire more than anything else. I usually don't take a defensive unit off its 20 meter arc until I KNOW it can SEE the target type I want it to kill. Arcing into an area that the enemy is "sure" to traverse "soon" will bring Mr. Murphy out almost every time. A scout team, Jeep or some other useless target will wander into your arc just before the real target does. Just don't do it, and you will smile more I promise. Any enemy tank commander that places his unit close enough to trigger ANY reasonable infantry arc(<200 meters range) should die to the zook/schrek that should be right there as well. If there is no personal AT, then shorten the arcs accordingly. Arcs are there to help control what NOT to shoot imho. Too many would make it too easy. ---- Late Edit - - I would like to see one addition to our choices though... MG "Fire Lane" command. - Parallel LOF instead of arc-shaped.

All non-paved roads have semi-abstracted ditches. Especially noticeable on diagonal roads. I agree that the reported boggings seem excessive, but wanted to make sure folks were aware. Running a tank into a dry ditch should not bog it. If it were german tanks bogging more than Allied ones, then I would say it was abstracted mechanical breakdowns.

I see wrapped walls! Nice to see fortified buildings that I didn't have to do. In addition it seems that Tall Grass is showing up more than the billiard table look.