Sgt Schultz

I so rarely encounter bocage, that I wasn't sure about that one. Thanks for that Hilts.

My Panthers cook themselves and any nearby troops quite nicely without any extras thank you very much. Although, the best catastrophic kill so far is a 105mm Sherman. That is a guaranteed massive crater. Either immediately, or on the first cook-off. The Priest is no slouch either in the "holy crap what was that!?!?" category... "Nothing but net" grenade assault just ruins a Priest's day.

They are going through, even if just for a moment. Sometimes a diagonal Blast will do the trick, but not always. Try to treat any blasting op as a multi-team endeavor. 1.Send any team that retains a "pop smoke" to the upwind side of the area to be blasted. 2. Position the blast team to the downwind side. 3. Position the assault team directly behind the blast area. 4. Pop smoke. Yes, smoke will go over the wall even if it is a tall one, and into a house no matter what. 5. Blast 6. Assault -- If you want to use blast, you have train yourself to be a pioneer/engineer. It it what it is. They had to have special training and you do to. You should test the times required to achieve a blast in a small test scenario from the editor. Test both in and out of C2, and Reg, Vet and Green. Use the Pause command to get the assault team to start their sprint to the other side of the obstruction as soon as possible AFTER the blast. If they start moving BEFORE the blast happens, they will be sprinting off to God Knows Where to try to circumnavigate the obstacle. Give the blasting team a FAST order to the rear immediately after the blast command. This will minimize exposure.

I would say the the spotting variable gets its bonus from binocs when the binoc user in that team shows as "spotting" in the info panel. Having them around one's neck should not increase spotting for the entire team. ------- Hunt is da shiznit, but only in lots of small waypoints, with a 5 second pause at each one, and staying within concealing terrain. Woods, smoke screens, any low-vis area is a prime place to use Hunt. Out in the middle of a field that sniper could pin you down in from 400 meters? Not so much. --------------------- To the OP - I cannot tell from the image size which way that team is facing. If it is facing downhill(enemy is downhill), you may want to re-consider their position. Hiding on the face of a hill in short grass like that will not help at all. Find a wall or a hedge or something. If it facing uphill, it is too far from the crest to bring tanks under fire within their primary weapons range(30m). Basically, it is not an optimal position, but it may be the best you have. Not enough info to really tell.

I would allow all the Tigers one would want to bring. I was more or less speaking to what I bring to keep my opponents happy, and as possible guidelines for others who may have issues with possible large numbers of the Big Cats. I don't like CM2 Tigers or KTs as much as I thought I would, so I don't mind "limiting" myself more there. The center-of-mass aiming seems to find nooks and crannies on my Tigers that glance off the Panther glacis. My KTs seem to have a turret ring weakness or something, because I have lost two almost instantly to weird penetrations in the upper front area. Plus, the 88mm(especially the long KT) IS a clearly superior weapon if it can be deployed properly and with a little luck, or compliance on the enemy's part. The Kitties are more challenging targets that take a coherent combination of weapons to negate, but they can be taken out by less points than they cost in a reliable fashion.

I have found that the "Big Cat" issues can be diluted by turning rarity on, playing larger battles, and adding a simple agreement. No more than one 88mm L/71 OR 88mm L/56 OR two 75 L/71 in either a "Large' or "Huge" battle. One KT or JagdPanther OR One Tiger1 OR Two Panther ---- AND/OR you can add a simple caveat to armor purchasing. * NO Big Cat HQs. * They HAVE to be independent(expensive) add-ons to existing armor platoons. You make all HQs PzIV(H) and there ain't much left for extra Kitties. I have yet to have a King Tiger make it through a battle. Mine seem to have a shot trap somewhere. They are slow, clunky and expensive. My JagdPanthers are wonderful, but ammo-limited and can be flanked easily enough. Panthers are the be-all end-all of CM2 armor to date for all-around capability, so I try to keep the numbers down. In a Large or Huge battle you have enough Allied points to buy smoke mortars, 76mm Shermans, bazooka teams, etc. Every damn Ami hannomag has a bazooka and 4 rounds, and there are Jeeps that have TWELVE rounds waiting to be acquired. German Hannomags have a single Panzerfaust 30. I feel that going toe-to-toe with any of the Big Cats at any range in any of the present Allied armor is more or less an effort in futility, other than the lucky shot/mismatched LOS. So it doesn't matter to me so much that the points do not "match" every metric. One may want to consider using all the toys(speed of both vehicles and turrets comes to mind) and superior numbers of other assets available to the Allies, coupled with a few simple tactics, to negate the Kitties. I play with them so much I have found a lot of counters to them in case someone uses them against me.

In Soviet Russia... Minefields clear you! Commissar of the Year award.

It is expensive point-wise to do this. The organic MG teams have a much smaller point value. Not to mention that you have just wedded an expensive support weapon to a Lt who will most likely get blown away at the front lines. If you want to put MG teams under direct C2, then you may wish to buy them under the Company HQ. The Company HQ has every reason to stay farther back. The MG can shoot from outside effective small arms range. I'd call that a match. -

I have been constructing hybrids for the last few months to play with my bud sublime. More than a QB, less than a scenario. Fictional tactical problems that are more akin to a sandtable exercise than any actual historical battle. I took maps that are available in the repository and tweaked them for the mission, as well as "troweling" out dimples and pimples etc. Constructed balanced combined-arms forces for each side. Placed some on map to start, with the rest coming on at 15 and 30 minutes. Scoring Example - The Big Meet - Total Terrain Objectives = 400 points(four 100 point areas) Total Destroy Points = 600 points (300 troops, 300 vehicles) Forces are reasonable, but a tad vanilla. Global Reg/High/0 with +1 leaders type of thing. FOs and off-map assets are Vet to facilitate accuracy and timing. Reinforcements come on as complete C2 nets. usually a short or complete company, with a short platoon of armor and some more mortars. I have two complete, and three older maps with my notes to re-constitute if needed. Or you can look at what I have done and order one to taste. The Big Meet - "Major" level -Modified Maltot map, with forests dividing up the four built up areas. Recon Companies meet, with short companies and armor backing them up. One hour, and seven platoons with more than enough room. The "Tapas" Assault - "Brigadier" level - 1h20m+ German assault against Canadians, with river crossing, on a modified version of the map that the now-famous 20k battle is being played on. Germans have a little of just about everything against a network of ATGs, PIATs, HMGs, mines, etc. 6-3, 9-5, 12-7 platoon v platoon odds at start, 15 and 30 minutes. By 30 minutes it is doubtful either will still be at full strength though. There are no uber-units, or platoons of King Tigers, or any of that silliness. Nothing is placed, other than the reinforcements that are placed in reasonable road-march or open-field spread configurations in the logical places. You get the problem, the force, and the timetable. You take it from there. I did set the wayback machine for 1945 and constructed some special platoons for the Germans. Example - One squad w/shrek, 4 scout teams, 1 breach team, 2 LMG teams. SMG/Sturmgruppe platoon. The Allies get a spare Ma Deuce or two, and other items, to compensate. Both sides have modified "Recon" Companies. Each platoon has one squad stripped and two scout teams added. Allows everyone to fit in one less hannomag. This is what is on the map at start. Recon armor platoon is usually a tank HQ(connected to all other armor C2) with a mixed wheeled(M8/Puma) and light armor(Stuart/Lynx) platoon on map at start. Medium tanks come on later. --------------- I will not upload these to the warehouse or repository without briefings and other finished work. These are just for fun and tactical training, unless one catches on enough to warrant final work. These are attempts to make using larger forces less of a task, by introducing them onto the battlefield in waves, and into a situation where they fit right in. By the time they show you will be screaming for them, instead of being too scared to attempt to control that many. The contrived weather conditions allow good training for smoke use. Light, right across the battlefield. The transport vehicle numbers and timing allows for reinforcement shuttle service practice, from the front back to the rear, back to the front lines... as well as carrying ammo for those later forces. The others that I can remake are all in the 5-8 platoon range, with corresponding amounts of transport and armor. A company of troops gets a short 'toon of armor of some sort. ------------- If anyone has a battle buddy and thinks this may be of interest, let me know with a PM and I will email you any battle you wish. If you wish to send me force selections and a map, I can set it up with scoring and reinforcements to reduce the "QB Blob" effect, and get a more tactically challenging experience by making the Destroy Points greater than the Terrain points. The maps are just sitting there. Come and get 'em. -

Yes, acquire BEFORE final load. The amount available in a single "acquire" command varies depending on the total amount remaining in each vehicle. You may not want 200 rounds of 9mm for an HQ with a single MP40... so wait until the supply has been depleted by an assault team drawing 600, then hop in for a quick 100 rounds. Then hop out and allow the final passengers to embark on a stripped, and now expendable, transport. Good rule of thumb... Take nothing into the line of fire that is still carrying ammo. --- I try to bring three vehicles for every Company for ammo purposes if nothing else. A platoon can strip a truck or hannomag of all its ammo without waddling too badly.

Like womble said... split, acquire, load. Example - A single 251/3 and two Opels will hold a Panzergrenadier platoon plus additional teams. 9 man squads, except for a single squad which has organic shrek. Any squad with two or more MP40s is split into "assault" team first. This ensures best use of 9mm ammo and short range weapons. All other squads are split normally. The two-man shrek team goes into the 251/3 with the platoon HQ, filling it. All "A" teams go into one truck. All "B" teams go into another. This leaves three slots in one truck and four in another for any additional teams, such as scouts/snipers/breach. ---- No one will re-combine, and all ammo acquires will use the type needed most efficiently. ---- This also speeds the deployment process up, as each team can be given its individual orders while still in transit.

The new short-long-short bursts and increased number of bursts per minute does a much more credible job of doing what an HMG should do. Deny and suppress with area fire, or flat out vaporize troops caught in plain sight. Now an area fire down a long street with buildings on both sides doesn't leave large time gaps to allow crossing. You take a step out into the street and scamper right back. It is all about my favorite tool in the box ... smoke. Wind conditions just became a vastly more important factor in each battle.

But then we get coding issues like .. if you hit a dead cow with a flamethrower, will the gases inside explode with area effect damage? "What happened to you in the war daddy?" "I got hit by exploding cow entrails son." Hmmm, that looks like a pretty good name for a band ... "Exploding Cow Entrails"

I attempt to use my HQ/XO(teamhq) chain to stretch things out to avoid counter-battery. As long as the mortars are voice/close to the XO, and the XO is voice/close to the HQ... then all is fine with the world of German on-map assets. A Hannomag is just icing. Example- The HQ peeks over the hill and yells down to the XO, who yells further down to the mortars at the treeline... which may not even see each other but are in C2 of the XO. I understand that it is a seemingly illogical restriction to lose a capability from the loss of a lowly XO, but war is hell and as Steve pointed out, we are already getting all kinds of communication breaks. The US/radio thing is a head-scratcher, but not my table. Allies are targets. gotta have my Panzergrenadiers. I will take it into account during future design projects though, so thanks all for the heads up.

Now available in the convenient 30-pack, with the 60 and 100-packs soon to follow. Panzerfaust 30K is the lite beer variety. I can just see the ads now.. "When you want a penetration... buy her a Panzerfaust." "Nothing punches through her armor like a cold Panzerfaust on tap."

I watch the 1st time from level 8 or 9 just to see who flashes and look for vehicle penetration alerts. Then it is on to lower levels for each mini-battle, to see who is doing what to who. Each firefight or activity gets multiple views. Most of my repeat views are at levels 1-3 from the enemy perspective or alongside suspected enemy positions. I listen for the screams to see how I am doing. If some real eye-candy activity takes place, the turn is delayed for quite some time. I will watch a good team on team fight for ten minutes. Before I switch to command phase I will click through the paused movie in ten second increments using the advance button. This allows me to track enemy vehicle sound contacts like sonar. ping, ping, ping... they move across the map. I love folks that run armor flat out. Behind 200 meters of trees, and it may as well be in plain sight on open ground. I use the same basic system that is listed in posts above as well. I check ammo and state, make sure no one is getting hung out to dry, and that I am not blindly ignoring the enemy's plan to continue with my own.

I usually game within that grey area between ahistorical/fictional, and what some would consider gamey. I may tweak a platoon or two in a battalion, but they will all have a global Regular/High/0 soft setting. No Elite/Fanatic/+2s for me. Just because I may jump the gun a few months and create an SMG toon before BFC "gives" us one... does that make one gamey? A dozen MP40s are just too tempting for certain maps. Tactics such as immediately throwing any crews, ammo bearers, support units, etc into the fray can be construed as gamey. This did happen in WW2, but only after actually gathering the troops into ad-hoc units somewhere to the rear, not just throwing them out of the frying pan and directly into the fire unsupported and out of any C2. This can be countered somewhat by assigning destroy points, but takes QBs into another level of commitment. It seems to me that battle size has a very real effect on perception of "gameyness". A "huge"(7200+ point) battle may tend towards a more lenient perception, since there is room to bring counters to everything in at least some amount. A "small" or "medium" though, could present some genuine play-ability/enjoyment issues without a little understanding between opponents in regards to numbers and distribution of unit types. Pre-battle communication can reduce or eliminate any issues one may have in this area, so try to make sure both are singing from the same hymnal as it were.

You can "land" paras behind the "lines". Set reinforcements to appear anywhere, at any time you wish, within five minute increments.

In my experiences to date, Tiger and King Tigers have more nooks and crannies to catch AP rounds than the Panther. That sloped glacis and thick gun mantlet, coupled with uber-optics and a high-velocity cannon, make the Panther(VAlate) my favorite all-around choice. TigerI may penetrate a target, but Panther will punch through into other things, hills, counties...

A Towed 20mm or 37mm that can been deployed for AAA-only use would be nice. Allowing the dedicated AAA vehicles to function in a semi-abstracted way would also be a treat. The quad .50 Hannomag, the Whirblewind, etc. Maybe have them track and fire, then a dice roll determines if you drive the airplane off, shoot it down, draw its attention, or have no effect for the next turn's fire. The trail of smoke leading off into the map-edge bitmap would be worth another 10 bucks to me. With the correct sound effect of course. Heck, have the plane pancake onto the AAA vehicle in a fit of revenge and I will applaud. None of the large-calibre AAA should be allowed either on-map or as "off-map AAA". That IS outside the scope.

Smoke, and coming in from the rear quarters, will help a lot.

Unfortunately, we do not have ammo crates. It is something I have been asking for, but am not sure if it is on any list of improvements. Your ATGs will not last long anyway if there are direct-fire mortars on the map. Once an 88mm lets one fly, its position is known. It is only a matter of time before smoke or HE comes calling. You can work around long battle times by "teleporting" new guns onto the map as reinforcements, already set up and in positions. -

That depends on building type, artillery type, and number of direct hits. A multi-tile, Modular, wall-wrapped building will offer maximum protection by issuing the "Hide" command on the ground floor, facing the direction of full wall wrap. Case in point ... the ground floor of this structure offers almost complete protection for up to approx 60 rounds of 105mm in a linear mission across the structure. Once the roof takes damage, the second floor becomes a death trap to the next hit. ----- If troops are in a non-modular single tile structure or Barn... GTFO ... now. They were made by the little piggy that built out of straw. Building Rule of Thumb --- If you are modded, and the building is beautiful... get out, it's a death trap. ----- The AI plans may vary from battle to battle if there are multiple plans, so don't think a restart buys you anything. Be patient, and try to think a little outside the box when possible.

Not exactly the Bluebird of Happiness flying over yonder Panzer...

I want clown costumes to put on the enemy troops.