BletchleyGeek

Well the idea behind having SOPs, as it has been discussed before, is as a guide for the AI to decide how it will react (with no orders from us) on its own. All units do that now but we have no influence on it. The idea that has been discussed previously is to allow us some control over how the AI decides what it will do (with no orders from us). Hunt, move etc are orders we gave. When people talk about SOPs the are talking about influencing the AI behaviour without orders.

Any time we get into discussion around making units "work just the way I want them to"tm phrases like "it's easy", or "I'm only talking about this one unit"
or "I'm only talking about this one situation" pop up.  They make total sense in our heads. But the issue is that there are side effects, corner cases and other things to think about.  It is much better to think about what a broadly applicable feature would look like.
 
That's just my opinion.

Check out the armchair general tactics videos, here is part 1 of 6:
 

 
This may also be helpful...
 

 
and this also of course:
 
http://battledrill.blogspot.co.at/2013/08/combat-mission-tactical-problems-cmtp.html
 
Then there is this:
 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/93094-a-complete-video-walkthrough-of-the-german-nato-campaign-with-narration/
 
 
 
None of these videos is specifically about CMBS, but they should help you with getting startedn anyways.

Just a quick though, but I'd say one of the most important lessons is patience. It's not like most RTS games. Take things slowly. Don't be afraid to have guys sitting around doing nothing for extended periods: the temptation to get them doing something rather than sitting there like lemons will often get them killed. Use small scout teams, let them wait in cover for a few minutes to spot stuff. Have the rest of your troops a minute or two further back, not just 10 yards behind. Make good and plentiful use of artillery and aircraft: in modern war, infantry will account for a tiny amount of casualties you cause. HE explosions do most of the work: artillery, mortars, tank rounds, 30mm guns on troop carrier vehicles. In some ways, your infantry aremostly a screen to stop the enemy infantry getting too close to your main weapons.
 
Shoot the hell out of places before you move your infantry in. Recon by fire and suppression.
 
You might do better playing a few quick battles rather than scenarios. A lot of the players of these games are pretty experienced, and the scenarios tend to be designed to be a challenge for them, which can make them rather formidable for a new players. Try some smaller quick battles at first to get used to the way things work.

Following RL TTPs (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures) can help. As you've mentioned, recon is one of the main things you need to master. Try this blog:
 
http://battledrill.blogspot.com/
 
I, personally, love to read US doctrinal pubs and field manuals. The most helpful (to me) were FM 3-21.94 (SBCT IBT Recon Platoon) and MCDP 1-3 (Tactics). The first one covers Recon TTPs, and the second one is good for general understanding of tactics.

The Cross of Iron is a interactive story driven campaign of a German tank company from June 22, 1944 thru June 26. In this campaign you take the role of Hauptman Johan Clauss, Commander of 1.Kompanie, 501 PzAbt during the opening phases of Operation Bagration. The campaign is designed with the latest version of CMRT and it is semi-historical.
 
As Clauss you will be faced with completing missions you have been given and somehow keep your Kompanie alive. You will at specific times during the campaign be forced to make hard decisions that can change the path of the campaign for better or worse.
 
It is very important that you read ALL of the briefings and designer notes as these drive the storyline of the campaign. Also Clauss must be kept alive or the campaign will conclude.
 
Also there are a number of mod tags within the campaign which will result in a rather robust download which is why the campaign is only available on the GAJ site here http://cmmods.greenasjade.net/mods/5458/details. The designer note for the campaign gives a detailed breakdown of the mods used and acknowledges the fine work done by the authors of those mods. In particular I believe that this is the first scenarios/campaign that uses a large part of Umlaut's outstanding factory mod, which in my opinion added the immersion effect that I wanted for this campaign.
 
To install unzip the zip file and copy the campaign file(.cam) to your campaign directory in CMRT and copy the folder panzermike (mods) to your data/z folder and you should be good to go.
 
I truly hope those who give it a try will find it enjoyable. I do feel it will be a difficult campaign to complete but it should be rewarding if you do.
 
Please direct any comments, suggestions etc to this thread so I can make any necessary improvements as they are brought to my attention. It was a great deal of time involved to create this campaign and I want it to be a enjoyable experience.
 
Michael (dragonwynn)

Let me say that I also feel a bit like John - without this AAR or Chris' videos I'd have just passed on CMBS, at least for a while.

Oh god, I'm in the middle of that one and it's like Verdun.
 
There's men all over the map, cradling their buddies' bodies and sobbing. Some are running in little circles. We've broken in to an enemy position and ... there's more of them
My men also appear to have mastered the art of shooting over the enemy's heads ( one guy fired a full Tommygun clip at 2 fleeing Germans at 30-40m and missed ) whereas all the Germans have Richthofen-like accuracy
 
I started with quite a lot of men. It aint gonna end like that.  I'm going to need every strategy in this thread even if I win ( seems unlikely )

I remember why i joined the navy instead of the army   Cause I can't lead a thirsty horse to a stream and they are not shooting at the horse either

Cry and ask myself if all the death and destruction was worth it.

So while playing some quick battles with a friend of mine I came across this....
 

 
If you load up quick battle and select "Tiny - Going to Town" you will see it.
 
Now this doesn't offend me one bit but looking at it and cleary seeing not only Swastikas but also an iron cross curiosity has gotten the best of me.
 
Coincidence Or Design?

I'm sorry, sly, but seeing Brad Pitt firing a .50 cal without even looking where he's firingt at and blowing the heads of a two-man German LMG... well man, sure you can find a WW2 anecdote where something like that happened.
 
My main problem is that you can't make a "good" WW2 movie where you put together every single one of those unlikely occurrences (allegedly that is what the screenplay writer says about it) and try to keep an straight face. You could also make a "novel" by picking up randomly the least common  English words from the Merriam-Webster dictionary index. Would be a 500 pages novel - featuring every two pages very nice illustrations of tanks - but that the text was made up of sentences like "Alsike yogh futhorc kalian?" - all of them perfectly valid English words - be a good one?
 
Another analogy that might give a better sense of my negtivity. Think of Chevy Chase' National Lampoon 2? or 3? when he takes the family to Europe. I'm pretty sure that, at some point in the past, some American tourist in Europe has experienced one of those out of context problems. Now, you collect all of them together by brainstorming friends and family and you make one cracker of a comedy. But, make in the movie feature some real WW2 tanks, some war crimes and some dead civilians, and presto! you got a VERY SERIOUS war film. Or at least, that was the way it was marketed: with those stories of **** LaBeouf not having a shower for a month to get "under the skin" of US WW2 tankers.
 
If Fury works for you, all the power to you. My personal take is that this is an overrated film, which will be probably remembered by Brad Pitt playing very much the same character as in Inglorious Basterds but without the irony. 
 
EDIT - removed the hyperbole.

The fact of the matter is that videocards and processors today are not manufactured with the intent of running, by now, 15 year old API packages like DirectX 7 (e. Or old OpenGL versions). When will we see modern development for modern hardware? Or are we always destined to run decade-old looking games (on decade old architecture) with sub-30fps gameplay? I understand a lot goes on under the hood, but we live in an age where games like Crysis can now be run by most decent gaming PCs and GM chess matches can be simulated at the click of a button. The fact that I can't maintain a smooth framerate in Combat Mission leaves me in awe. 
 
I read Steve's assertion that rewriting the game for multiple cores is not viable. That's because you're dealing with an old engine running on old APIs - decade and a half old architecture - created six years before the first multi-core processor was even developed. I understand not retroactively updating old games; don't fix what's not (sort of) broken. But why on God's earth wouldn't you, with a new game, start from scratch with newer, better, more dynamic game development tools? With the technology we have today, doing just that would be easier than ever. 
 
Again, I don't mean to be inflammatory. I just discovered the game and I find it to be an incredible piece of simulation software. I just am genuinely oblivious as to how a development process works in a way that results in this kind of performance. I only speak as someone with knowledge of the pipeline and experience in game modelling, and that's why it bothers me. Thanks for reading.
 
Edit: DXtory falsely reported to me that the game ran under DirectX 7. It actually runs under OpenGL. I apologize for that mistake.

Well, in retrospect US illegal invasion of Iraq set a chain of events that destabilised a country which was able to function only by tough hand ie. dictator and that girl had all the right to be angry on you guys - tools in the hand of the invasive government.

I'd like to point out that there has been a thread like this for pretty much every release since Market Garden, when some massive optimizations hit loading times in general.

The 3.0 patches have really brought CMBN and CMFI a long, long way forward. CMRT with the 1.03 patch is being also awesome.

What I think has changed a lot is the map making in most scenarios and many QB maps that feels more... artistic? true to nature?

Regarding shadows: just go and find a game where you find shadows to be realistic and also 1) allows you to make your own "levels", and place objects mostly arbitrarily, 2) allows the same degrees of freedom with the camera, 3) features such a wide variety of lighting conditions.

There are not many, really, and there are good - technical - reasons for that.

I'd like to point out that there has been a thread like this for pretty much every release since Market Garden, when some massive optimizations hit loading times in general.

The 3.0 patches have really brought CMBN and CMFI a long, long way forward. CMRT with the 1.03 patch is being also awesome.

What I think has changed a lot is the map making in most scenarios and many QB maps that feels more... artistic? true to nature?

Regarding shadows: just go and find a game where you find shadows to be realistic and also 1) allows you to make your own "levels", and place objects mostly arbitrarily, 2) allows the same degrees of freedom with the camera, 3) features such a wide variety of lighting conditions.

There are not many, really, and there are good - technical - reasons for that.

As promised, here is a BETA version of my sound mod combining all previous work into one universal mod for CMx2 titles. There may also be a few small updates since my last release, but don't expect big changes if you have previously used my mod in CMSF or the WWII titles. There are specific modules for modern sounds so you can pull them out for the WWII titles, although any problematic overlaps should be minimal.
 
(edit: PM me for dropbox link.)
 
Hope it helps with enjoyment of Combat Mission: Black Sea! I am very proud to have participated in development of this title. Black Sea is one of BFC's best yet.

I'll risk a minor offtopic to just say, I paid $7 for Kerbal Space Program when it first when from 100% free alpha to buy in at the ground floor.  I scoff at those who now are buying it "early access" on Steam.  Some of the best money I've ever spent, and I feel I've gotten more than my money's worth at this point - and it's not even out yet.  Yes some developers abuse early access, but not all.  And some developers break games completely without it, even some big ones (a la Rome 2 mentioned earlier I believe, as far as I know didn't have early access). Just saying.  My opinion on BFC doing early access - don't have one: their company, their call.   Paint not with a broad brush, lest you yourself be painted. Or something.  Now, back to rewatching Chris's vids and drooling on the keyboard impatiently.   

Preorder is not a feature for you but for them. Its a common method to gauge level of interest and estimate the amount of product that needs to be printed/burned before release date. Without use of preorders they might release the game only to discover they had printed-up half the manuals they needed, or twice the number. As the industry shifts to download purchase then the preorder customer interest estimate becomes less necessary. I can't recall, there weren't any preorders for CMBN vehicle pack, right?
 
And BFC doesn't control overseas shipping costs. That's kind'a a governmental thing.

Something to look at while waiting...

Very good guess, but as far as dictionaries go I was only able to find a reference in a couple of them to a possible relationship to the ancient Greek word for "blue material" or "metallic-colored". Most of the others simply state "origins unknown". If I were to make an amateur guess, I would note that if you took the Russian word for blue ("siniy") and tried to apply it as a noun to describe a lump of blueish solid stuff in an archaic way, you would get something like "sinets", which is rather close to morph into the current form over time.

(And that is how you go from discussing the tactical conditions of a simulated combined arms battle to pondering fine peculiarities of Russian etymology in four posts. )

panzersaurkrautwerfer,
 
I've got half the answer, thanks to a smattering of transliterated Russian.  "Nekulturny," which means "uncultured" on the face of it, but a great deal more in reality. While trying to find the second item, I discovered Live Journal has a page called 
 
Russian Language Swear Words and their English Translation
 
Fascinating stuff. I used to work with a guy at Rockwell who, though an American of German extraction, spoke fluent Russian and loved their obscene limericks, for which he happily provided not just translations but the cultural context after reciting each one. Imagine, if you will, scatological humor delivered gleefully by an oversized Botticelli cherub! Am deliberately not posting a link, but I think the extensive list may offer an opportunity for the sound modders to swap out existing epithets for altogether more colorful ones in CMBB, CMRT and perhaps, CMRT. After looking at the variety, force and ingenuity of the Russian expressions, I have to say American English seems woefully deficient. Time for a national effort to close the Swearing Gap!
 
Meanwhile, I've now learned the other word is "svinya," Pretty straightforward, right? Thus, nekulturny svinya, perhaps? I couldn't help but recall, though, that the Russian HVAPFSDS rounds are termed Svinets. Hmm.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler 

Using the initials might be out of the question...

BletchleyGeek,
 
Whoever designed those catapults should be fired for gross incompetence, starting with the fact the Ancient Greeks had no onagers! The onager aka scorpion was a 4th Century Roman invention, possibly because it was easier and cheaper to build a torsion weapon which had only one skein assembly than one with two separate torsion assemblies, which, like carburetors, had to be carefully synched--because they were both driving a single bowstring or stone slinging doubled bowstring with projectile band or pocket. Here is what the Greeks and Romans used when rock hurling was required. This one talent (60 lb) ballista is a very large specimen. Note the twin skein assemblies which provide the power.The quote here from Ammianus Marcellinus (cited from the classic and brilliant two-volume set,  Marsden, Greek & Roman Artillery) tells you what an onager is. Please disregard the mangonel (a Medieval term) picture and claim an onager is a mangonel. This is an onager, a line drawing of a full scale one (threw 8 lb rock 400 yards) taken from the historical reconstructions done by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey and presented in his seminal The Crossbow, referred to at prior link. Those game onagers are terrible engineering designs, too.
 
Yes. I am a catapult grog. It has been a passion of mine going back to elementary school. There was stuff in LIFE magazine at my uncle's, and when I got back from visiting him in another state, Boy's Life had instructions on how to build a simple toy catapult. I was hooked and built a series of ever more capable small working models through which I learned the same hard design lessons the ancients did--and got whacked by the arm and ricocheting projectiles a few times! This is a great Victorian catapult drawing, by Sir Edward John Poynter, a drawing which is wrong in a host of military-technical ways, but is still cool.

SLIM,
 
I shall be most interested to see what antiarmor ordnance is fitted to Bil's Su-25 and attack helos. Could be anything from HEAT bomblets in an RBK cluster munition to any number of guided bombs and TASMs, not to mention air-launched ATGMs possibly (haven't checked helo list) clear up through the 9A4172 Vikhr/AT-16 STALLION, which is operational on the Su-25T/FROGFOOT, the KA-50/HOKUM A and the KA-52/HOKUM B. Don't know whether it's modeled in the game, but the Russian trained for and used helicopter delivered bombs, the same types as delivered by fixed wing aircraft.
 
A related issue is whether the modeled APS can deal with top attack weapons or is instead in the same boat as Arena, with only limited elevation coverage. I would hope the former is the case. 
 
Krasnoarmeyets,
 
Thanks for the info on Russian MANPADS system allocations! The 9K35 Strela-10/SA-13 GOPHER is not, contrary to your assertion, radar silent. It has an active millimeter wave radar used for establishing range and radial velocity. The 9K333 missile is scary, with a three channel seeker: IR, optical contrast and HOJ (Home-On-Jam).  
 
sburke,
 
Of course, R&R for pnzrldr! You have no idea how exhausting it is writing a DAR cum novel on the fly!
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler 

Throwing rocks at stuff is underrated...

 
... these things don't show on thermals! H4XX0R!!!

Throwing rocks at stuff is underrated...

 
... these things don't show on thermals! H4XX0R!!!