CM1fan

When I'm advancing scouts and forward observer teams, I'd like to do so cautiously. You know, move about 10 m, pause to look around for 10 sec, and, if the teams don't spot anything of interest, move another 10 m, pause another 10 sec, and so on. Whenever I plot out a path with waypoints and pauses, CM:BN totals my pauses and counts them down to zero before it moves my guys at all. When my guys finally start moving, they follow the plotted path without pausing. What I really want is for these units to advance cautiously until they spot enemy units and then hide for the rest of the turn so I can give them the commands I choose to deal with the situation. How can I do this?

I guess the terrain changes are now in, but I don't see any grid lines. I'll reread the instructions. I may have missed a step.

That's post 132. I followed those instructions, but the automatic extraction of parts 2 and 3 didn't occur after the extraction of part 1. When I then tried extracting parts 2 and 3, I got the corrupted archive result. I just tried again: New folder with only three files -- part1.rar, part2.rar, part3.rar [full file names have the form "Aris_Terrain Mod Pack V.2.partN.rar", with N being 1,2, and 3]. Double click on the part 1 file and extraction produced a folder named "Aris_Terrain Mod Pack V.2.part1.rar Folder". Nothing happened during the extraction process to show parts 2 and 3 were involved, and the resulting folder is named "...part1.rar Folder". It's possible that the folder holds everything from all three parts. I'll try it and report back later.

When I try to expand the three downloads mentioned, I get a failure message telling me "the structure of the archive is damaged." What do I do now?

I can't find the Aris Terrain Mod pack v2 you refer to. I've searched the Repository for Aris and for (Aris AND Terrain). I get hits in both searches, but I can't identify which mods you rate so highly. I want gridded terrain which looks good and makes it easy for me to recognize from views at levels 2 or 3 where higher ground blocks vision. (You did say the Aris pack had a gridded terrain option.) I'd really like contour lines to overlay the map when I depress a key and disappear when I release that key, but I doubt we'll ever get such a feature.

The jeeps in question were in the US order of battle for a scenario, and they came with MG teams, a radio, and extra ammo for others. I believe CM:BN is now treating the ensemble as a crewed vehicle, and I'm having nothing but problems using it. One jeep is carrying eight bazooka rounds. In real life, a man from a bazooka team would come up to the vehicle, and say, "Gimme four bazooka rounds, buddy." A guy in the jeep would say, "Here you go, mac." and hand over four rounds. Total elapsed time 10 or 15 seconds. In CM:BN, I now expect the transaction to take two or three minutes, as the MG team dismounts, the bazooka team mounts / acquires 4 bazooka rounds / dismounts, and the MG team remounts the jeep.

I believe a truck comes with a driver. The jeep doesn't seem to come with a driver, so its driver must be a member of the team using the jeep. Once the team is married to the jeep, I think its relationship to the jeep is the same as a tank crew's relationship to the tank. No other team / crew can use the vehicle. And if the vehicle also has a radio, no other team / crew can use the radio. If my analysis is correct, it would explain my difficulties getting a vehicle with a radio back to my mortars. It also makes the jeep fairly useless in carrying ammo for other units and their weapons.

It's so hard to use a team's own radio, that I wouldn't waste effort trying to use some other team's radio.

I've accepted that the company first sergeant's radio is useless or will be useless until the company commander is killed or the CO's radio is destroyed. I've accepted that vehicle radios can pass fire commands to mortars near the vehicle. Now how do I move a radio equipped jeep back to the mortars? I've a radio equipped jeep lugging around a machine gun team. I want to keep the MG team where it is and just send the jeep back to the mortar position. But when I dismount the MG team, the jeep is empty. From this I deduce that one of the MG team members was driving the jeep. (And I further deduce that another member of the team must have been operating the radio.) There's a two-man MG ammo bearer team I've kept near the jeep. At least one of them should have a driver's license, but it doesn't matter because the team won't get into the jeep. Evidently, only the unit originally assigned to a vehicle may drive the vehicle, use its radio, and use any weapon in the vehicle. [A jeep carrying an MG team and a radio is different from a tank carrying an MG and a radio, but I guess CM:BN must place similar restrictions on all vehicles.] If the vehicle holds ammo useful for weapons it isn't carrying, the entire unit assigned to the vehicle must dismount; the unit wanting that ammo must mount the vehicle, acquire that ammo, and dismount; and the originally assigned unit must mount again -- or abandon the vehicle's radio and everything else in it. I'm getting the distinct impression that the only way I can use a radio equipped vehicle to pass targeting information to my mortars is by keeping everyone originally assigned to the vehicle inside the vehicle. And keeping that vehicle and its weapons out of the fight -- at least until the mortar ammo is used up.

Thanks for all the info everyone. I guess I'll have to hide the weapons platoon leader for a few turns and keep checking his supporting artillery tab until "out of contact" on each of the mortars disappears. Realistic radio performance is better than a company first sergeant whose radio has no value at all.

I'm not sure which HQs you're asking about. The weapons platoon HQ (with a radio) is around 200 m from the weapons platoon's mortars near (within 25 m) the first sergeant. The company HQ is around 200 m from the first sergeant and maybe 320 m from the weapons platoon HQ. Only the weapons platoon HQ is moving, trying to find a position from which he can call down fire on the Krauts. I just went back to the scenario in which I'm in the orders phase. I cancelled the movement orders for the now stopped weapons platoon HQ and then checked the status of the HQ's available artillery. It still shows three mortars, all out of contact. Even after adding 90 seconds of pause to the HQ, the mortars are out of contact. I could understand some delay after stopping movement to twiddle radio dials and then establish contact with "Pooh. This is Tigger. Over." But that should show in delaying the artillery delivery, not in the "Out of contact" status of the mortars. Could this be a "realistic" radio failure that probably wouldn't happen if I ran the scenario again?

So who can the company first sergeant talk to with his radio? What's his radio for if the information passing through it can't be used? Forward observers aren't HQ units, but I hope they can control indirect fire. (Please tell me they can!!!)

Why is a weapons platoon leader with a radio out of contact with his own platoon's mortars when the company first sergeant, also with a radio, is within 20 meters of all the weapons platoon mortars?

I echo Lotus Eater -- if he intended to say "definitely".

Yes, but if there's nobody there, you haven't suppressed anyone and there are no enemy units which need time to recover. All there is to show for the ammo expended in the shelling is shell holes which may benefit the units arriving in the shelled area after the barrage.

Yeah, but if your men can't see the TRP, how do you know there's anything near the TRP worth shooting at? I'd expect ?-icons for sound contacts might be a fair distance from noisy enemy units. There's not much value in speedily and accurately hitting empty terrain.

I agree, Wodin, that you can split squads into teams of various types, but I believe CM:BN gives you no way to select which members of the squad go into each team and to send one member of a team as a spotter to one floor of a building and the rest of the team with a radio to a lower floor with their heads most of the time below any windows. At the team level, I think it's all or nothing, with the entire team grouped on one floor (or one action point area of the floor). It would be nice if the AI automatically dispersed a forward observer team the way I believe usually would be best, but I don't think the AI does. I'm also pretty sure CM:BN doesn't let you do that either. I'm not eager to micro manage my controllers of indirect fire, but I haven't yet discovered how best to get those controllers to do what I want them to do. EXPLETIVE, I don't even know how to move a team (preferably just the team member holding the binoculars) into a position from which it can observe an area where there are a gaggle of question mark icons. (In a real situation, I'd order the team to move to where the ? marks change to enemy units.) I've tried targeting that area from each action point on a direct line from the current position of the team to the cluster of ? icons without finding a point from which the area is visible. The targeting line always goes back to the current position of the team, but, as I understand it, the line of sight evaluated is from the way point where the targeting started.

How do you split a team on different levels? Whenever a team of mine enters a building, I have to select a level for the entire team, and the whole team goes to that level. I'd much rather place a spotter on the highest level of the building who calls down to a team radioman below, but the game doesn't allow that. That sounds like a good idea, but my scouts usually get spotted and suppressed or killed -- sometimes by the AT gun they're looking for and sometimes by enemy riflemen protecting the AT gun. I'm obviously moving my scouts incorrectly, but I haven't yet discovered how to move them properly.

Of the 8 bazooka rounds in the jeep, how many bazooka rounds will the two-man B team acquire when I move the B team into the jeep -- which is already carrying an MG team and its MG. I guess I'll first have to order the MG team to leave and move away from the jeep, with the B team paused to await the MG team's departure. (In real-life, I expect the jeep's occupants would simply hand the B rounds over and be happy to get them out of the way.) I hope there's no nearby enemy fire when I try to get this task accomplished. As I said, "should be simple."

As I recall my CM1 experiences with close air support, I never knew how it would work out. If I had a budget with which to purchase my forces, the CAS cost a lot. I'd only buy CAS when I expected my opponent was more skilled at CM1 than I was -- which admittedly was most of the time. If the CAS broke right and mostly attacked my opponent's units, it could turn the situation in my favor. If the CAS broke wrong, my expected tactical defeat would just turn into a major defeat. [in duplicate bridge circles, buying CAS would be called a top or bottom bid.] In CM1, both German CAS, whenever it was available, and German rocket and Nebelwerfer fire were similarly dual-edged purchases, sometimes inflicting heavy allied casualties, sometimes German casualties, and sometimes no casualties at all.

1. My OB has a vehicle holding ammo for machine guns, riflemen, bazookas, and mortars. I'll place my mortars where I expect they can't be seen by the enemy, and I'd like to place the vehicle's mortar ammo nearby where it also shouldn't be seen by the enemy. How do I do it? (And how long in CM2 game time will it take?) 2. Assuming that vehicle survives the time required to unload the mortar ammo and also survives the journey to get near a bazooka team, how do I get the bazooka ammo in the vehicle to the nearby team? 3. How do I get MG ammo from the vehicle to an MG team? 4. How do I get ammo from the vehicle to riflemen who are running short of ammo?

In one scenario in which the Germans are defending, the designer has placed almost as many German TRPs as the Germans have rounds of mortar ammo, and many of the TRPs are placed at locations to which no German unit is ever likely to have a line of sight. If ammo supplies were plentiful, I suppose I might fire blindly at TRPs near the enemy edge of the map and happily accept whatever enemy casualties the fates might inflict. But when ammo supplies are low, I prefer to see what my guys are shooting at before I call in fire. I try to place TRPs where I expect enemy units will be or will move to or through to accomplish their goals and where my units can see them or will be able to see them as the scenario plays out. ["Them" being both the TRPs and enemy units near them.] Is that approach too conservative?

I don't understand what you forgot. If your "forces sat there" during the first minute of action, you must not have given them commands at either opportunity to do so. Questions: 1. Can a scenario have units which can move but whose initial positions are fixed? If so, how do you identify such units, units whose setup area is a single point? 2. What is the benefit of being able to give initial commands during setup AND during the immediately following command phase? Are there commands available during the setup phase which you can not give or which execute differently during the command phase? [Artillery fire which impacts during the first minute as opposed to fire with minutes of delay?]

The placement cursor has two states, one for "legal" and the other for "illegal." Why can't the "illegal" state always be shown for set up placements you can't make? That would allow you to tell easily which units can't be placed and must be moved to change their locations. During set up, I want to establish starting positions, not give movement commands. When I'm to give commands, I'll give commands. For me, at least, it's error prone that what I want to be initial placements sometimes become movement commands.

Mild spoiler ***** When I try to place my units in what appear to be their set up areas, some units move immediately to their assigned locations while others show paths to their assigned locations. For example, I'm trying to place four 81mm mortars, two sets each with a leader and two mortar teams. I can't place either of the leaders. When I try, both of them get paths to the locations I want. However, I can move one pair of teams immediately, but the other pair of teams gets paths. Why? The four teams and their leaders start very close together and appear identical, yet I can't move them the same way. I'm finding this frustrating. I have more than fifty units to set up, and I can't tell which I can place and which I can only move. In many cases, their initial positions don't make sense -- AT guns and HMGs with no fields of fire. As I recall CM1, the units I had to place were lined up on "my" edge of the map, and I could pick them up and plop them down where ever I wanted in my set up area. You gave movement orders only after the set up was complete.