Probus

More often than I care to admit, one of my spotters dies in the middle of calling in an artillery strike. Is there any way to get back control of the arty using a different spotter or does the strike just have to run its course without a pair of eyes on the target?

If I wanted to do some testing of bottlenecks on my computer using Combat Mission. What is one of the largest/slowest loading scenarios in any of the games?

@MOS:96B2P I can't replicate it again either. But something happened in front of a US bunker (M1 57mm) my first playthrough that wiped out 2 1/2 squads of men simultaneously. Looked to me like it was the flamethrower destroying the bunker. I had the bunker crew set to hide so that I could test attacking the bunker. The engineers close to the bunker were set to assault. I saw explosions from the satchel charges but they didn't seem to do any damage to anyone. Then the flamethrower opened up and everyone died. Do bunkers have any kind of special ability that I'm not aware of (I am not aware of a lot of things )? Maybe they panicked? Does ammo detonate like that? Dang. What the heck happened if it wasn't the flamethrower.

CMFI using a Pioneer company. The squads have Flammenwerfer 41 Flamethrowers. I'll see if I can get a video capture of this.

I've only been playing CM for a matter of months now, but I learned really quickly that not only was there friendly fire (from a tank shell wizzing through trees over the heads of my infantry and finding a trunk of said trees). I also learned quite painfully that tank shells can go right through a vehicle, knock it out, and continue through to a second vehicle and explode. I've seen several dual kills. I've yet to see a shell slice through 2 AFVs to kill a third. That would make a good video clip though! (if its possible). (Gets on soapbox ) That also brings up my 2nd pet peeve with CM. I could see a shell going straight through a half track and destroying a Sherman behind it. I cannot imagine a tank shell going through the side turret of a Challenger 2 tank taking out the APC behind it. Can that really happen IRL? My 1st pet peeve are reinforcements being able to pop up like they were transported down from the Enterprise AND THEN shooting up a column of tanks all on the SAME turn. Reinforcements should arrive and both players should be able to at least react to them in some way. Even if it is just sound contact markers right before they materialize. I'm not sure if its poor scenario design or limitations in the engine as it is. (Gets off soapbox ) Really, that's not very many pet peeves for a game. I'm sure others have others.

Yessir. They now prescribe to the philosophy of there is no "friendly" fire. Thanks for that tidbit of information. You just saved me a lot of time.

Well I thought I would play around with assault tactics. Here are a few things I have found out so far: Detected minefield marker is (of course) red. Marked minefield marker is yellow. Engineers (Pioneers) sitting on a minefield does not necessarily detect it. Engineers moving slowly through a minefield can still set off a mine. Engineers hunting through a minefield seems to find it faster. Re-re-checking this. Engineering squads split up into some team types can loose most of their minefield abilities. One they keep is the ability to set them off. Have not been able to get the "Clear Minefield" function to show up in anyway other than in the hotkey list outside of the game. Related Assault findings: Attacking a bunker from the side is much easier to destroy than in the front it would seem. Flamethrowers do wonders at suppressing and destroying bunkers. USE FLAMETHROWERS BY THEMSELVES!!! Using a platoon to assault a bunker using various tactics. Squad 3 in rear providing suppression. All three had flamethrowers in their squad. When the rear squad (3) decided to use the flamethrower to suppress the bunker, I found that squads 1 and 2 went from 20 soldiers total to 1 wounded soldier and 19 corpses. HQ went was left with 1 wounded soldier and 3 corpses. Squad 3 was just fine and also completely knocked out the bunker. 23 KIA and 2 WIA in ONE shot. Wow, I am happy I learned that in testing. See the troopers running away from the flametrooper. They have learned this.

Very nice analysis. Let me study it and see if I have any questions. Vassal is definitely the software I thought would work well for this application. Looking forward to this being my first "retirement" project (just hope the wife doesn't see this post).

@Erwin, Do you still have a link to the CMSF Silhouettes? Haven't seen those.

I've been working on getting retired (last day is Nov 6th) and now we are still running on generators in my part of Oklahoma due to the ice storm. Joys of living in a rural area. I've personally tweeted Elon to see if I can get in on that Starlink trial but haven't heard back from him yet. All that being said, I'm gonna try to get a trial campaign going before Christmas. I've gotten a lot of good feedback. About 6 players is all I'll need for the trial. Leaning towards CMRT but nothing in stone by any means. We've already had several volunteers. Please post here if you want to participate. If we get more than 6, I will randomly set a player to MIA for X turns to test rules for folks going on vacation. The object of the test campaign is to beat out a set of basic rules (folks have given me some already) not to beat the opposing team. I will cut the test short (unless we are having too much fun) once the campaign rules are good to go. More to follow.

Nothing for CMBS yet I suppose? How did Marco find the data he used for the Silhouettes? And dang I wish that data was available during setup and the game. Even if they stop giving it to you at the harder levels.

Here is what I've found so far: https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/threads/silhouettes-with-weapon-data.31899/

CMRT Silhouettes Marco Bergman: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AABPa38XpVVtlbDe_t3He-ada/CMRT Silhouettes Marco Bergman.zip?dl=0

Thanks @Lt Bull, I appreciate the time you put in this to this

Ah! Ok. At first I thought it was my graphics card. A little bit ago I found some snow mods and they are gorgeous and fix the problem. https://cmmodsiii.greenasjade.net/?page_id=5#search/text=KohlenklaU+CMRT

I started a QB game with light snow on the ground. Most of the terrain turned black. Same for my opponent. Is this a known bug?

Binkov often does a great job thinking things through. I enjoy his videos.

o/ Count me in!

Hmmm... Last time I used Vassal 10+ years ago it had no AI at all that I remember. It was all head to head. So that's changed?

I agree. Some QB etiquette: 1. No Arty or airstrikes on the first turn. Setup areas are too exposed. Prolly ok during assaults but make sure both sides agree. 2a. May take 2 or 3 trys to get the QB game going. If one party isn't happy with some aspect(s) of the setup, just try again so that both parties will have fun. 2b. The more a player is on defense, the less they have to do. Gravitate towards meeting engagements. 3. Talk to each other during the game like you were playing table top. Increases the fun x 2. If they ambush you or get an amazing shot, make sure you praise them for it after you get done screaming at the screen. 4. Chat, but don't give away too much information. If you do accidentally, consider it battlefield intelligence and have the appropriate pixeltroopen shot. 5. Don't gloat. Generally not a good idea. 6. The more modern the game, the deadlier it is. Slightly larger games balance lucky hits or near misses. 7. Avoid randomizing QB settings for PBEM games. Plan the fun, don't depend on luck to make a good game. 8. Keep difficulty at Veteran or higher for better fog of war.

Here is a Combat Mission campaign map made by @Artkin with actual CM maps:

You could also mix and match VASSAL engine modules to track the campaign (if someone hasn't already done this). For instance use: http://www.vassalengine.org/ Use the counters that are company sized from something like PanzerBlitz/PanzerLeader: http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:PanzerBlitz And make your own map collage from CM maps or use something representative like the map from NATO: VASSAL would let the game master(s) track the entire campaign electronically. I believe there is a fog of war mode included with VASSAL. You could give each side's 'General' his forces to deploy on the map: You could also draw from one of the included scenario's for the campaign: I'm sure there are better wargame examples that would make more sense, if anyone knows of one off the top of the head? Anyway, just some ideas.

Horses! Gotta have horse drawn artillery. Also aircraft you can specifically use as air-to-air interceptors.

Just imagine all the domestic trouble Battlefront could cause if they released it December 24th. Talk about Fire and Rubble!

Yes. I think that should/would be clear in the rules. In RL I used to be a Project Leader. Now I'm a Program Manager and I couldn't agree with you more.