Sgt Schultz

The premise behind this battle is to have two attacks that support each other, against a scratch defense of just possibly the right ingredients. So I slapped a river in the middle of the map to keep the attacks seperate, and use the valley LOS to help both attackers and defenders support the other side of the valley. From the top ... _________________________ From the top in ye olde editor ... _________________________ I also wanted to throw those that play at level 3-4 for a minor loop. From level 1 or 8 you can see that all that nice forest cover is really pretty slim. _________________________ _________________________ From the top of that rise ... road and beyond in plain sight... _________________________ A few more weekends and the plans will start going in.

Decided this map would get finished first, and let my other three lie for a while. Ran into some RL delays so it's not as filled in as I'd like it to be by this point. Two heavy Ami Armored Inf Companies(w/ armor support ofc) attacking from West to East. Approx. one German Company with various attachments in a hasty defense. No fortifications beyond a few TRPs. From one German corner ... _______________________________ Other German corner ... ______________________________ "The Watchtower". NOT in Ami hands at battle start, but it should/better be quickly. ______________________________ The fords. Plainly marked on both sides of what's left of the bridge. One is for vehicles, one for troops only. _______________________________ The village from the NE corner... (tweaking to be done all over and flavors not in yet) _______________________________ more to come...

Very nice RockinH. The devil is in the details for sure. I have pruned evergreens back from newly-constructed vinyards, and replaced with other trees, to reduce acidity in the soil. If it 'feels' real to me, I try to include it. My maps may not match Europe, but they should look natural. -

My rate of fire is fine in battle conditions. The fact that I play as Germans and buy custom supertoons with scout teams may have some minor effect on my perceptions though. Vaporizing a squad in a minute can be satisfying. As far as the M1 question... the firing range and having folks in your face are two different things. The Jar Dweller has most likely built in so many variables over the years of coding that finding ROF for any weapon in the game is now a wonderful impposibilty. Now the question of PERCEIVED ROF discrepencies is a horse of a different color. There can be no resolution of differing perceptions. Again, a win for BFC in my book for giving us enough nuance to perceive the sim in so many differing ways. Can my Ami pixeltruppen slam 'em downrange as fast I can in RL ... nope. But when the cr@p hits the fan, I am confident that they will know what to do. $.02 submitted

I love it. Still slogging through while attending to map making etc, but it's my kind of bloodbath. I fully anticipate running low/out of ammo before reaching the last objective, as I am pouring full-bore area fire into every sighting. Zooks and rifle grenades are flying all over. Pop smoke is my friend(or was while I had smoke). One Ami breach team would completely alter the entire scenario. The whole "For want of a nail" parable aquires new relevance in this battle, for which I thank SteveP... while at the same time cursing him. Edit - by the way ... imho if a player gets a total victory on the first run of a battle then that scenario may need design tweaking(unless it's a historical that worked out that way... yawn). If your boys aren't tired, bleeding, battered and just about ready to frag your butt, then the designer is not doing his job. But that's the kid in me that likes blowing stuff up talking. He's the one that makes my battles though.

Burnished & slightly colored aluminum buttons FTW please. Anything by Juju is a definite must-have.

I love me a good "Kobiyashi Maru" scenario. From the posts so far, this one should do fine. Will start it up now that road trip is done.

I would like to see resupply crates available at purchase screen somewhere, like in teams or fortifications maybe. Grenades, rifle grenades/bundles, schrek/zook ammo, etc. At setup the player places crate in vehicle or building/fortification only... one cannot just leave them laying about. High rarity/medium actual costs could possibly keep use to reasonable levels.

Perhaps the focus of the discussion could possibly move to the immediate need for reinforcements every minute, instead of every five, for the MG Module. For a proper scattering of the poor paras, we could use this improvement. Crashed Glider flavor object would be nice as well. Just a few CM-related thoughts for flavor, since I have re-fought OMG online enough for one lifetime. (btw imho there is plenty o blame for all concerned.. 'nuff said)

Glad you enjoyed it. That is one huge casualty count for both sides. You guys pushed 'em hard. I like that. A question re: this quote... "The only problem with it is that you uncovered a curious bug: my opponent tried to get one to cross under the overpass bridge and as it was getting below the bridge arch - presto! - it appeared on top of the bridge scaring the daylights out of several of my units (literally, some recon teams went from OK to Nervous)." One what? A tank? I was aware that in CM1 vehicles would pop bridges that way, but I (wrongly it seems) assumed this was no longer the case... and forgot to test for it. Which arch? A center or one of the two ramped edges? I will do some testing when I get home from holiday road trip. If this is a steady-state bug, I will destroy the other overpass as well and release a new version.

The real swearing was when I saw my drained lake. -

three stooges voice mod request.... -

I had to take my dam map and let the Brits take it out(operation chastise) because of this. I put in the lower river tiles and suddenly it looked like someone pulled the drain plug on my reservoir. So I have to sculpt the lake contours now that they are exposed. Tweaking a dam with the center third missing is ... an adventure. On the up side... I made a great Spartan well. Set off some HE in front of troops by the well while yelling "THIS IS SPARTA!"

LOS changes constantly during sunrise and sunset. I have not done any tables or tests of exact distances, but I know it does. "No Exit" will confirm this to any doubters. Any additional weather effects will pile on more LOS variables. Testing should be done in turn based mode during orders phase(duh, since you cannot do it during playback). If you try it in realtime or in the editor, the clock is running and LOS changes. It seems unlikely that exact numbers can be derived, which I consider a good thing. It's a sim not a game... and sims, like life, can be a biotch. ----

------- -------- Instead of searching CMSF(facepalm now), I blundered into this on my own. The secret to bunkers/basements seems to be building a connecting ground-floor entrance. Here is a quick and dirty house with a 1 level basement. The only real drawback about this configuration is that while troops can leave through all balconies(and right out on to the surrounding ground), they will only return through the small house ground-floor door. Make sure any players read the scenario designer notes if you put basements on your maps. That would suck if someone predicated their plan over having access to a balcony that only LOOKS like it's at ground level. -

One could assume that any/all weather effects are another layer of LOS calculations for every tile between every unit. From a GPU standpoint the issue is more self-evident. It all has to be drawn and redrawn as the POV changes.

I was hoping fog would stay within about 10 meters above the ground. I made hills to poke up above the fog that I wanted to hug the river. No go. No biggie. Extremely minor disappointment that I figured would be a memory hog anyway. Making battles start either just before dawn or just before sundown makes fog(or any weather variation) much more of a tactical variable as far as LOS is concerned. It depends on whether you want better LOS in the beginning or end of a battle. If you want 50 meter LOS, you may want to mix and match some weather and time variables. ---

From a design perspective, rather than QB purchase, I can see using trenches and craters for fixed defenses. The glazed chocolate doughnuts ( ) can be parceled out in small numbers with designer notes on proper usage/placement. Foxholes seem to be a two-edged sword if not placed just so. One edge should be dulled a bit with the patch, but it appears they are still more for adding cover to existing terrain than providing their own. Its not "I wish that spot had cover, let's put foxholes there". It's more like "I want my troops to HOLD that wall, so they get extra cover. Green/Low Morale/Unfit troops(which I believe contributed to GaJ's experience somewhat) can be seen in historical battles, which is as it should be. Be aware that they suck(BADLY), and plan accordingly. One of the primary reasons I make fictional battles is so that I am not constrained by those Undermensch. My humble suggestions for profitable foxhole use are... 1. wait for patch 2. use them to add to rather than create cover 3. put hardy troops in them 4. 360 degree cover circles allow best range control without targets wandering out 5. use HIDE only for incoming arty strikes or direct fire HE ---

woot! Very very nice sir. ---

Didn't troops have a noisemaker like a cricket for signaling at night? Maybe we could have a noisemaker symbol for night ops. ==

After a quick and dirty romp in the editor... here is a bunker/ammo dump that is 3 levels deep and has two mortar halftracks full of ammo on lowest level. The entry is a damaged three level modular building that mates with the third level of a damaged five level modular building. They are set to differing elevations to allow a ground level entrance. I tried getting troops to use balconies from upper floors. No go. They left the building from balcony and walked right onto the field, but would not return without ground floor access. It is too large but fits two halftracks. I can already see ways to make bunkers less vulnerable to artillery. The thing looks like a slight rise in the woods from any other view but straight in or straight down. ---- Edit --- how the sausage is made .... ---

I was thinking of trying to place a truck on a tile, then a building on that tile, to create an ammo dump of sorts. Truck, surrounded by building, surrounded by wall, surrounded by sandbags. I have seen smoke coming from a damaged building in a scenario at setup, so I am assuming vehicles can be tweaked in there somehow. One could possibly make the building the entry point for further phantom ammo reinforcements to keep supplies up. This seems to be something for longer defensive battles, where defenders can run through trenches/cover to fetch more ammo. --

It can be simulated by only allowing the planned(large) artillery to be available at scenario start, with designer notes suggesting use. All other calibres could come on as reinforcements.

All your pixeltruppen are belong to us. -- --

What a mod that would be ... sneak a "Skynet Online" in every now and then. ---