CM1fan

That's certainly one way to enjoy the game, but I call it micro-management. I'd prefer to control my units at a different level, giving my units paths to follow and positions to occupy and using "stance" so the AI knows what I want the units to do as the turn unfolds. I'd rather select specific targets for units only when I see my units aren't shooting at something I'd like or expect to have fired on. (Such as when I think enemy units might be in a particular building or in a patch of woods or behind a hedge. Essentially, when I, the platoon or company or battalion commander, have a hunch. Management by exception.)

As I don't have "cerebral palsy or something", a few questions: 1. Where's the "formations tab (3 flags)"? What does the "3 flags" refer to? When I'm trying to organize my units on the map, there's just the map and and a pile of icons for my units. If I could go back and forth between purchasing and placing, the set up would be much faster. 2. Why can't I select any one of my units by clicking on its floating icon? My force has three Panthers. I can select only two of them by clicking on their icons. I can only select the third Panther by clicking on one of the other two and then pressing + or - keys to select the third. [This isn't only during set up. I have similar problems during a game, both in viewing the turn and in the command phase.] 3. Another cause of my multi-hour set up time is that CM:BN frequently causes my iMac to freeze when I try to Save my set up. I have to use the "Force Quit" iMac command on CM:BN to regain use of my machine.

You may be right, but the units to which I give these orders don't seem to perform as I want and expect. And certainly not as described in the stance descriptions.

I agree with Amizaur. Commanding our troops would be much more straightforward if we could just set unit stance, turn by turn for WeGo players and whenever RT players want to change the stance of particular units. I see no need for setting ambush distances. I'd trust the AI to set them well for quality units and less well for units that are green or conscript or rattled or ... Ideally, I'd prefer just to command where my units go, what their stance is, and what my indirect fire units and aircraft shoot at, and let the AI handle the rest.

Please tell me how. The only way I've found to get fire near a ?-mark is by targeting something near the ?-mark, like a building. But then the unit just fires at that target for the rest of the minute turn. (In "The Last Defense" scenario, I targeted my Tiger at a ?-mark near my end of the bridge. The Tiger fired 8 HE rounds and destroyed the bridge while doing no damage to the jeep represented by one of the ?s.) A Target Arc might work for Ambush. Obviously, I can't tell when the AI is in Ambush stance, but it does seem to engage my approaching vehicles at better ranges than my units do with a Target Arc. The AI sets the range optimally, while I can only guess at the best range for the weapon and the situation. I've no idea what combat command equates to the Cautious stance. Face? Or no command at all? Cautious probably should be the default stance of all units. Is it?

As I said, the AI does this in a few seconds for its forces. Why can't it do the same for mine?

That's what I've been doing. Clicking on flags until I find the battalion CO. (The flags sometimes are under other icons, which I have to move out of the way to get at the flag icons.) (Another complication is that there are always icons I can't select directly, that I can only reach by pressing + or - from other icons I can select.) Double clicking on the battalion CO selects everybody, which is worthless. So I move the Bn CO icon out of the way. I then press + which takes me to a Company CO. Double clicking on a Company CO icon shows me which units are in that company. I deselect the Company CO icon, select it again and move it out of the way. I then press + to get to the company's first platoon leader. Repeat and repeat and repeat. As I said, it can take me hours to get my battalion with around 100 icons organized. By comparison, positioning the force goes quickly. The AI can do all this quickly for the forces it's controlling. I thought the AI could also do it for me.

Page 138 of the manual says, ===== manual begins STANCE This option defines the basic behavior and combat posture of a unit for a given Order. Cautious – shoot only when a clear target presents itself and don’t get too worked up when one does. This helps conserve ammo and limits how much the Group makes its presence known to the enemy. Active – shoot early and shoot often. This is generally the best option when the Group is being tasked with assaulting a known enemy position. Ambush – instructs the units to only open fire if the enemy closes within a specific distance. Several distance options are available, from 75m to 1000m. Hide – just as it sounds! This instructs the Group to avoid doing anything that might attract attention, such as moving or shooting. Units that get shot may return fire, but other units in the Group will try to remain hidden. ===== manual ends What are the commands to get your units to act in these ways? I can find the Hide command, but I can't find the others.

When I'm playing a QB with a battalion sized force, the initial set up shows a pile of floating icons at the bottom of my set up area. I want squads to go with their platoon leaders, platoons with their company commander, and so on. It can take me a couple of hours to organize my force before I can position them for the battle to come. I thought the AI could do all this for me, and I could then tweak the AI's initial troop placements. How do I get this to happen?

The scenario designer for CMBN's Last Defense was able to place ALL the German artillery and mortars off the map with large quantities of ammo -- as I recall, 140 rounds HE for the four 105mm gun battery and 80 rounds HE for each of the two tube 81mm mortar sections. (The German artillery and mortar units also have lesser, but still significant, amounts of smoke ammo.) <<< PURCHASING EQUIPMENT copied from manual >> At the bottom edge of the screen is a display for selecting specific equipment options, depending on which formation is selected in the Activated Troops list. Some formations allow you to determine the type of equipment that they are going to field for the battle, such as different tank or vehicle or gun types. For example, if you select a US Armor formation, typically you will be able to determine which models of Sherman tanks will be appearing in the battle. This menu is highly context sensitive and dynamic, depending on which formation or unit you highlight in the Activate Troops list. Sometimes you can select an individual squad and several choices will appear here, sometimes you can select a Battalion HQ and select the equipment for the entire formation with a few clicks. In addition to different equipment, you can usually also determine here if you want indirect weapons such as guns, howitzers, or mortars appear on the map, or be available as off-map support assets only. <<< End copy from manual >>> I'm not sure what the "here" in paragraph 3 refers to. I'd guess it's "This menu" in paragraph 2. My uncertainty is caused by the first sentence in paragraph 1, because THERE IS NO DISPLAY at the bottom edge of the screen. I don't understand the manual, so I have to fumble around with the controls for purchasing and try to discover how to purchase "off-map support assets". After hours of fumbling, I still haven't found a single mention of "off-map." I'd appreciate it if you would tell me exactly how to find what you term "this menu" in the last sentence of your response. (I deleted the RTFM sentence in your response, because I've just quoted from the FM you think I should read.)

1. I saw no off board artillery units in any QB purchase list. 2. I did see trucks available with some artillery units, and they were carrying ammo. 3. I was able to use artillery units in the prep phase. I targeted from a Forward Observer, but I recall that every platoon leader, company commander, and battalion commander showed the artillery as available, but squad leaders, MG team leaders, and such showed the artillery as unavailable.

I've been trying to use the scenario editor, but I'm still having problems. 1. How do I position indirect firing units off the map? 2. How do I purchase additional ammo for my units or cut their ammo to spend the points elsewhere? 3. Before the scenario starts, I thought I could lay down "prep" fire anywhere on the map with any delay I want, and then adjust the delay as the scenario unfolds. How do I order this in the first command phase of the scenario?

I've asked a similar question before, and I've never received a meaningful answer. I targeted a StuG to fire on a building I thought might be occupied. During the ensuing turn, the StuG fired six HE rounds at the building. During the command phase of the next turn, I dropped the target and gave the StuG a firing arc. Despite my having dropped the target, the StuG spent the entire turn pumping HE rounds into the building when there were recognized enemy units in its firing arc. How do I command the StuG to stop firing at the building and fire at other targets?

A friend in the UK and I are playing the Last Defense scenario by email. As I had played Last Defense in CM1 and was generally aware of his forces as well as my own, we'd like to play the scenario with forces we select ourselves. How can I modify the scenario to accomplish this? The Last Defense map is available for Quick Battles, but I can't figure out how to set our budgets to buy forces roughly equivalent in strength to those the designer established for the scenario.

I've installed the v1.10 CM:BN patch on my iMac running OS X Lion. I'm gun-shy about installing mods, as my collection of mods caused me serious problems. Is there a list of mods which now run correctly on Macs?

I've reinstalled CMBN onto my iMac from my DVD. There's no Z folder now in my Data folder, a condition which caused CMBN to immediately freeze on previous attempts. Now it's not freezing, although I do particularly miss some of the mods to the UI. I've also reinstalled the v1.10 patch. I'm playing the Last Defense scenario by email. When I viewed from a high vantage point the result of the latest turn in my incoming email folder, I was surprised to hear a continuous loud roar through the entire turn. It sounded to me like an airplane flying over the battlefield. There are no aircraft in the Last Defense scenario, so what could be causing that sound? I certainly never heard it during previous turns. Another minor question: What is the CMSF.icns file for? It was part of the installation from my DVD.

How can I tell which items in the Data folder are installed mods? I asked Battlefront that question, and they replied "Remove any folders from within the Data folder." Here's what I plan to tell them. <<< There's only one folder in the data folder, and that's the Z folder. After I remove the Z folder, my iMac freezes when I start CMBN. My iMac also freezes when I place an empty Z folder in the Data folder. If I remove all the folders within the Z folder, my iMac no longer freezes when when I start CMBN. CMBN runs, but I still get the CMSF text in every unit panel. My conclusions: 1. Some files must be in the Z folder. 2. Some files in the Z folder must be mods. So I must now ask a slightly different question. How can I tell which files in the Z folder are mods? >>>

I reinstalled CMBN from my DVD and downloaded the v1.10 patch from another site. The incorrect text is still there. I suspect there's a file of text strings with each unit having pointers into that file telling which text strings to extract and display. Instead of getting the CMBN file, the patch from both download sites has given me a copy of the CMSF file. I can still play, but I'd like to have the correct file of text strings. By the way, the site's advertised wait time of four minutes before the download begins is way off. I waited more than twenty minutes before the download started, and the estimated one minute download time was also off by a factor of four. That's why it took about an hour to install the patch.

I reinstalled CM:BN from my DVD and then tried your solution using the patch I had downloaded earlier. The problem's still there. I'll download the patch from another site and try again.

I've installed the 1.10 patch on my iMac. When I select either a US or a German unit, there is now strange text in the unit panel. Where before the unit would be a "Tiger", now the panel says "1 Sniper HQ Spy Forward Observer (M9A1)". The 2 green chain of command lights are labeled "4 FIST" and "2 BRDM-2 (AT-5)". The 5 crew weapons have the correct pictures but read "Fishbed", "JFS Coordination", "M1132", "G43", and <no text>. I don't own CMSF, but these text strings seem appropriate for that game. I recall reading something about a text string file I might need to install, but I can't find it. Is there a simple fix for my problem?

Are you saying that I should select the MG unit and then either press the "\" key OR click on the "Deploy" button [but not both]? On my iMac, either action in my question causes the "Deploy" button to light up. The button always has a black border which doesn't seem to change, so I don't understand that aspect of your post. I've had no luck ending a move order with a Deploy command. Before my unit gets to a location, I can't tell whether the unit will have a useful line of sight from that location. (I've read claims that, even though the targeting line starts from the starting location of a unit, it actually shows the LOS from the selected waypoint. That has not been my experience.)

The text in the display for my machine gun says it takes 20 seconds to deploy. The MG has been in its present location for two turns (minutes) now, and its state is still shown as "semi deployed." The MG crew is at full strength and not under fire, though friendly units nearby have been firing. 1. If I click with the cursor on empty terrain near the MG icon to ensure no unit is selected, what is the exact sequence of actions I should take to deploy the MG? 2. How can I be sure that the Deploy command is in effect? Is there any indication on the map that confirms the Deploy command was given? 3. What does "Semi Deployed" mean? I'd expect it to mean "part of the way to being fully deployed", but perhaps it means "being taken apart." With either meaning, the "Semi" state shouldn't last more than a full turn.

Don't expect a thrashing, but I've sent you a private message answering your request. (As you're from, or at least in, the UK, it's quite possible you have a prurient desire for a good thrashing. If so, you'll have to look elsewhere.)

It takes so long to complete an individual scenario, I can't imagine trying to complete a campaign with multiple scenarios.

I don't like hunt commands, particularly for forward observers, because I expect HUNT will cause them to reveal their locations with rifle shots at enemy units they see. I want my scouts and FOs to be inconspicuous rather than attracting enemy attention.