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LemuelG

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Posts posted by LemuelG

  1. Out of curiosity I was having a read through my great-uncle's (Sherman commander, NZ 19th armoured reg) memoirs to see if he ever wrote of firing while moving, which he didn't (not counting the once point-blank at a screck-holding German), but I did see this passage:

    "We had not been left to our own devices. German mortar-men, with uncanny accuracy, had seen to that and the frequent bursts of machine gun fire ensured we kept our heads down. A burst rustled through the cypress tree under which we had parked, then followed a more accurate and prolonged hail. I dropped through the turret hatchway onto the shoulders of my gunner in a shower of chopped-off foliage..."

    For what it's worth :)

  2. I don't see why not...? Tank moves towards area, spots target. Player orders tank to halt and target enemy. Once enemy is suppressed or destroyed to player's satisfaction, player orders tank to move again.

    It seems obvious, until you realize OP's 'problem' is that he just wishes it were more like CMx1.

    Suppose BFC did change 'hunt' back, what then? It would be a load of threads complaining: "my hunting tank engaged a zook team, who cowered and vanished, the tank moved on, but the zook rallied and shot my tank in the rear"; "my hunting tank engaged an enemy ATG and wounded some of the crew, the contact vanished in the shrouding smoke and the tank moved on, but some of the crew survived, rallied and shot my tank through the smoke, fix it now!". I doubt BFC made this design change without reason, I think it is appropriate.

    Why not work harder to find targets and firing positions before you move, is that not wise? You can even dismount crews to scout for themselves when there is no friendly infantry around, hardly an unrealistic tactic.

    As it stands 'hunt' has good value as move-to-contact, and 'slow' works great as an old-style 'hunt' for infantry. Infantry must halt to fire, and when tanks are 'fixed' to do the same, 'slow' should work for them too.

  3. Why take the risk then? It´s not like there forum is dependent on you giving an answer this very minute.

    Well it's hardly like jumping a motorbike across a canyon. OP asked me a question which I thought was innocent (not actually a troll to set up a "oh no, how it was in CMx1 was better" thread) and I gave my opinion, which I blatantly stated as assumption. Carry on.. bring back the real 'hunt' etc.

  4. I did manage to defeat most of the German squads, but a couple managed to make their way into the area I was supposed to control (one of them being the German company HQ).

    It's become a theme in my campaign for the last surviving German to be their company commander... resolutely holed-up alone in his original position, blazing away with his MP40 at any passing Doggies. I picture him a bit like some kind of Commando Comic villain, his contorted face lit by muzzle-flash as he cackles maniacally with one jackboot perched atop a pile of bodies; grrr, I'll get him yet.

  5. 1) Before the mission starts I use almost all the indirect fire assets available, including all the "on-map" stuff. Every mortar, every cannon. If there is a village or town where enemy might be, I use very large area circles on "harass" for maximum duration. If there are suspicious hedges in front of me, I use linear bombardments slightly behind them on "harass" for maximum duration.

    The advantage of doing this is that the bombardments are usually accurate, harassing fire lasts a long time and I don't have to think about what to do with all those ****ing mortar sections. :)

    I think you are in error; I'm all for blowing your heavy stuff at the start of a battle, but (almost) never the platoon's 60mm mortar sections; if you aren't 100% certain you'll be dropping them right on someone's head they are utterly wasted. I'd also add that careful timing is key for pre-planned barrages, maximum value is achieved when your troops arrive at the position right on the heels of the barrage to take full advantage of the suppression effect on the enemy. A fool-proof method is to set it at 'maximum' length, and cancel it when you are ready (i.e. when your vanguard is in grave danger of eating shell-splinters).

    Artillery is not a substitute for boots on the ground, and close-range bullets in the enemy's black hearts - but if the player doesn't learn to leverage it properly they'll get whipped, particularly against a human (the AI is incapable of responding on-the-fly to player tactics; will not reinforce, reposition, withdraw or counter, and in my experience quite inept at using it's own artillery assets).

    Light mortars are one (to avoid unnecessary argument :)) of the most influential infantry weapons on the field, and people new to tactical gaming should think about that, and examine their play-style with it in mind. Being hassled by an ATG? Light mortars. Pesky HMG holding up the advance? Light mortars. Targets in the open? Light mortars. Tanks to fight and no AT assets? Light mortars, why not? Might disable or damage it somehow. A few well-aimed mortar rounds can turn the tide of battle, and their use should be one of the player's primary concerns.

  6. Silly.... Have you read any WW2 stories or AARs? There is no reason a crew can't set up a gun then leave it. They can go hunker down in a trench. Once the barrage is over run over to the gun and start plugging away.. completely historical.

    Indeed. If a crew had to bolt they'd dismantle the firing mechanism and take off, if they came back they'd re-install the mechanism and are good to go. (57mm gun at La Fiere bridge being a relevant example)

    Not something that has come up in regular play for me, but if it did I'd rage a little.

  7. So the buildings seem to provide perfect cover to prone soldiers from light arms fire, but not much from even light explosions.

    Seems appropriate, buildings should if anything amplify the effects of HE by providing a large amount of extra shrapnel.

    I would also like to echo DieselTaylor's concern - tanks (with maybe the exception of M4s) simply should not be firing on the move, let alone hitting anything when they do. A definate case to be answered there... I do not expect a fast-moving StuG to be able to one-shot a moving Honey. Not something I'll ragequit over, but not even the other player was proud of that moment.

    Of course, in SF that would not raise an eyebrow. Not anymore, I think this area needs looking at ASAP.

  8. I quit that PBEM right now and wait for further Patches. As the Game is right now you cant secure some Area with your German Halftracks or PSWs wich was the Plan riding them on the Field near that Houses to cover the Approach of the German Infantry.

    Rushing your car >100m away from the support of his closest friends (straight up to a house which turned out to contain enemies) he got engaged by the better part of an armoured infantry company and suffered righteous consequence. The only surprise to me when I watched that replay was the amount of rounds the car's hull actually managed to turn.

    Patches to the game will not fix your errors in judgement.

  9. The 234/1 missed (edit: failed to spot) a half dozen vehicles zooming over the field to his right, one sprayed him with .50 to good effect; then the 234 spots the HT going past him at a more convenient angle and fires a full magazine of 20mm, but didn't really get a decent lead on him and every round missed the 'fast'-moving vehicle, the other US HTs are still going to town with their MGs.

    The 234 crew never seems to reload the 20mm, they tracked the other vehicles and fired the co-axial MG, got another 4-5 kills and then received an almighty dose of .50 which polished them off killing two of them and disabling the car.

    About 30 seconds elapsed between main gun firing and vehicle death with no sign of a reload. Keep in mind the car was parked about 30m away from an enemy occupied building at the time and taking heavy fire to it's side.

    Overall an excellent lesson in how Not to use mech inf. and recon vehicles from both sides.

  10. The Churchill was the most heavily armoured tank in Normandy and had excellent mobility, in fact had little bother with the dreaded bocage.

    My great-uncle (NZ 19th armoured reg., Italy 44-45) wrote glowingly of the 'Arks' (bridge-laying Churchill) and Crocodiles - in his memoirs there are neat photos of Arks being placed one on top of another to enable crossing of deeper channels, and of one placed by a river, with a camouflaged Sherman driven on top of it in order to fire over the stop bank. They were highly useful.

    Maybe one day we can have these interesting things in the game too (Fire! Bridging, meh :P).

  11. I'm not privy to the actual mechanics at play, but surely a hull-down tank is much harder to spot due to a far smaller profile. I'll take the first two shots over any other factor.

    As a general rule, I try to avoid taking any fire at all - hits invite damage, once your hull-down spot is identified, reverse out and move to another - if your gonna sit around exposed then the best you can hope for in this game (against a human at least) is a few pin-point light mortar rounds coming your way, you certainly want to avoid a scenario in which you can be sniped with AP rounds. Even in a Panther.

  12. Its OK. You can target troops trying to surrender, but your pixeltruppen will not actually fire.

    My guys gunned down a handful of prisoners - some flanked Germans who found themselves in enfilade surrendered, but there were still hostile teams directly behind them and they got gunned-down in the crossfire.

    And yeah, the icon should change, or even disappear, or something... this has confused me more than once.

  13. I have to be honest and say that I seldom take the time to treat the wounded but now I'm beginning to think I'm cheating myself of another way to make the game feel even more realistic.

    I play on warrior difficulty, and it usually holds a team up for at least a couple of turns. I'll also do things like split squads and leave a team behind to clean up while others keep moving. When you start playing for your men as much as (or more than) your objectives, the game takes on a totally different dimension.

    I'll admit that my play so far amounts to the campaigns Task Force Raff and roughly half of the Road to Montbourg (? Suddenly dyslexic), and the carry-over of forces between battles gives plenty of motivation.

  14. 35na4jo.jpg

    Do it just like that and you will never fail, after the blast order you can move them anywhere, even double/triple blast the same spot.

    2h4iy4w.jpg

    There I am doubling-up just to make sure the hole is large enough for my tank to get through when he charges across the road.

    Just move to a point one square away from the desired blast-point and plot a blast move into the hedge square directly adjacent; a couple of guys will poke their heads up and have a look through the hole, but they never go through, and quickly carry out whatever order is next in line.

    I am never disappointed with this technique.

  15. But when dealing with off-map weapons one can't see the kill rate, since, well, it's off map....

    It'd be a real nice (and simple?) addition to have in order to keep track of the success ratio and effectiveness of the spotters, as well as being more 'realistic', the spotters deserve just as much credit.

    Every battle in which significant off-map support is called I spend some time on the 'review map' screen adding together all my individual teams' kills, then subtracting the total from the total enemy casualties, what is left is a satisfactorily approximated number for off-map weapon kills.

    Of course, there should be some sort of algorithm for this chore, and it doesn't take into account friendly-fire or mines. But if your reasons for wanting to know this figure extend beyond whimsy, it is well worth doing.

  16. The next turn I once again selected a point beyond the bridge, again the waypoint appeared beneath the bridge. The tank commenced its move, dropping and popping back up a couple of times on its way. At the end of the turn it had managed to get to the bottom of the stream bed, where it too now sits un-selectable. Up until this event the game has preformed wonderfully. Any ideas???

    MCB

    Sounds like objects are getting in the way, try disappearing the trees and changing your viewing angles.

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