Haggard Sketchy

Well I can't judge that since I'm not the developers, but I'm pro-melee for the sake of argument. I found this (under "A useless archaic anachronism?") which brings up some points to consider about casualty figures.

Another from Korea: The attackers continued to assault his position and Pfc. Brown weaponless, drew his entrenching tool from his pack and calmly waited until they 1 by 1 peered over the wall, delivering each a crushing blow upon the head. Knocking 10 or 12 enemy from the wall, his daring action so inspired his platoon that they repelled the attack and held their position. A "bonk them on the head with a shovel as they peek over a wall" animation might be asking for a bit much. I do think one simple animation + abstracted effect is reasonable though. CoD has it. Haven't played the others, but the first game had multiple hand-to-hand animations, albeit mostly for AI. If anything, I thought H2H was nerfed in that game, since everyone could reload so quickly and flawlessly. Plus I have yet to see an FPS that models the hindrances of weapon length in close quarters, as well as the fact that someone with the drop on you probably won't leave you able to simply turn around and shoot them (tackling, grabbing gun, whatever). If you want an example of a more realistic FPS produced on a small budget, Red Orchestra had mêlée kills often enough. It looked terrible (the bayo stab looked to have as much force as a baby's punch and the butt-swing didn't even have an animation), but it got the job done. On the other hand, there was America's Army 2 without any H2H ability for similar reasons argued here. It was always ridiculous to watch the last two remaining players in a round spend four seconds next to each other doing the reload dance. I don't agree with the "It happens only an average of a few seconds per hour-long scenario therefore it's not worth development efforts" argument, for the same reason nay-sayers like to bring up regarding anecdotes versus statistics: It sticks in the mind more! Otherwise I'd complain that there aren't a bazillion different jogging animations. This is leaving something out entirely.

There already is tendency to avoid BA during fighting. It just isn't perfect. Like womble noted, CM soldiers' situational awareness is lacking. Sometimes they leave cover to perform BA because they lost LoS with the enemy or something, then die. Dragging the wounded to safety first would be a cool feature, but that would require situational awareness in the first place. Plus it's only one of many possible individual behaviors and animations to add.

Problem is that everything I've seen in CMx2 aims only at center mass. This makes sense when dispersion is high and hit probability is low, but at close range it can cause problems. For example, technical gunners in Shock Force and Afghanistan are harder to hit up close than they should be. I've seen MGs fire several bursts harmlessly at the same spot on a truck frame, only to leave the unharmed guy standing on it to return fire and wipe out the MG team. Hit points for now is a substitution for deliberate aiming at components. Otherwise antitank rifles in the upcoming Ostfront game will be as ineffective as they were in CMx1. Which is kind of a shame, because CMx2 already has a much better detailed damage model. It just needs the aiming thing.

I've tried "The Anvil" twice now. Both times the enemy exited north without coming near the ambush zone. My forces were just hiding in the default start position the whole time, so what's the deal?

Does anyone get this? The gunner of an MG team will get stuck shaking the gun left and right, unable to move/shoot/undeploy/do anything. It happens to me constantly on "A Sealed Escape". Has anyone succeeded at that scenario for that matter? A ton of enemies always manage to slip by. The helicopters are pretty useless and half the time end up friendly firing. And for some reason the entrenched squads frequently lose several men versus those down in the valleys.

Not sure how I came to that conclusion in that post. I know about shell burst effects and all that...just frustrated after one of my teams got pinned and then wiped out by a barrage I guess.

It is a bit odd. I can understand hunkering down in a foxhole, but cowering in the open doesn't sound like self-preservation to me.

Seconded. Spring has this feature for players to mark the map and communicate with each other. It's pretty useful. A contour display would be nice too. I don't like having to eyeball for every hull-down position and piece of cover in a game of this scale. Combine this with a coop ability and players could coordinate easily. Think huge battalion or regimental battles. *drool*

Yeah, CMx2 engine went from displaying ammo levels as percentage graphics to exact numbers. While I prefer the latter, both would be nice.

alt-tab works for me. *ahem* :mad:

But they can shoot through high hedgerows too?

Coop is a possible solution to management overload. One platoon per player would be nice. Just look at the demo scenarios. The one with the command post is a pain to control once the armor comes in, at least from the allied side. The two ones with bocage might as well be separate scenarios for each side of the roads.

Well, that guide was based off my infantry-only attempt so I didn't think of that. 75mm for breaching bocage is a waste IMO. Use engineers or 155s if you have them, but in this case you can simply advance under smoke instead. I just finished the scenario again using only tanks. Smoke was the key. Unfortunately, after overrunning the ATG and just before it ended, one of the German officers managed to knock out a Sherman with a hand grenade. :mad: Tip: Smoke shells are good for long range, but the great thing about the smoke discharger is its ability to fire over hedgerows. That way you can make a screen without exposing your tank.

The whole map is only 670m long and the PaK40 is an accurate gun. Ever letting it see your tanks is a big mistake, let alone trying to beat it by rushing across its field of fire. I just finished the scenario with ~15 casualties, without using the tanks. Here's a tutorial: Your basic plan should be to have one rifle platoon carefully advance on each side of the road with 2 tanks and 1 MG supporting each. Keep the tanks back until your infantry find the ATG and mortar it. Don't bother moving down the road since it has no cover. The company HQ can be sent wherever an extra HQ or extra spotting is needed. Deploy your rifle platoon along this line. Have two tanks just behind it, but not on it. At the beginning of any attack scenario you should note the possible extent of where the enemy can shoot. I've drawn this line orange. This is where you should first deploy your infantry platoons to find and fix the enemy. This is also where you should not send your tanks, since the ATG may have a shot along here. Send your reinforcement rifle platoon this way. The yellow zone is suspected unsafe because of the gap in the hedgerow near 3. I was never shot at there, but it's good practice to make sure. So first move a squad to the first gap at the beginning to spot for any threats. Once it's determined safe, move the whole platoon to deploy along the orange line. Follow with 2 tanks behind them if you feel its necessary, but try to keep them away from from the yellow zone since the ATG might have a shot there. Start advancing your infantry. At this point you'll have made contact. As long as your infantry are behind hedgerows, they should win all firefights with 0 or near 0 casualties. Mortar fire on 'harass' will help with any tricky opponents (mainly at the crossroads), but make sure you save at least 20 bombs for the ATG. On north flank: The enemy can't see that big open field from the crossroads very well. Use bounding overwatch and you'll win versus the opposite hedgerow easily. Send the two tanks at full speed to the north side of the field, then along the arrow, right behind the infantry. Chances are the ATG doesn't have a shot along that route, but use a smoke screen to the southwest to be safe. On the south flank: Have a squad dash across the gap (not through it) to get a shot at the farm. Your platoon should be engaged with enemies around the crossroads. We'll assault the farm later. If at any point you find the ATG, mortar it! If at any point 81mm mortars start falling, run away from the impacts! Continue advancing along this route, with tank support. Once again, the enemy can't fire at north flank from the crossroads so your tanks should be safe from the ATG. But don't put them ahead of the infantry; panzershrecks are about. Once that second hedgerow in the north is secured, move an MG here to fire at the farm. Maybe a tank close behind, too. Assault the farm. Put lots of suppressing fire on the farm and crossroads. Start the assault with one squad towards the short stone wall. Fire from the crossroads may cause a few casualties around the trees and bridge. Once the farm is secured, move the whole platoon in. The hedgerow is good for the rifles, and the 2 story building is a good MG and mortar spotting position. You'll have definitely spotted the ATG by now. Continue advancing through the hedgerows. Flank wherever you can. The south corner of the 4th row is a good spot for flanking fire. The big field to the northwest is where some enemies will retreat. Send a squad to flank north as shown to take care of them. I should've just made this part of 6. Nevermind. Continue advancing. The squad flanking north should wipe out the rest. Same. This open area is unsafe for infantry. By now you should've spotted and eliminated the ATG, so use your armor. Axis should surrender about now.

That's odd, RT in my experience has the same quick order across the obstacle. The "Busting the Bocage" briefing describes a tactic of using a rhino and then a breach team on the same hedge...this confuses me. What's the point of explosives when a rhino already went through?

Yeah. I haven't noticed this in other scenarios, but in "Busting the Bocage" from the German side this seems to happen all the time, to the extent I thought it was bugged or something. One striking example was when a few American riflemen assaulted my squad in a trench in the woods frontally. My squad just got wiped out without putting up a fight since they could hardly see the enemies running straight toward them. And the trenches seem to offer little protection. Often my soldiers just started dieing en mass without ever being fired at before. I know getting shot by things you never see is common in war, but not nearly so much if you're on the defense and in cover... edit: and now, trying the tutorial mission I just sent a rifle squad to the first hedgerow on the left. They instantly spotted several Axis teams behind the wall on the other side of the map. Is there some huge discrepancy between the two sides' spotting ability or am I missing something?