Probus

Amen!

That's what I did.  Go to the various opponent finder threads like this one:
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/forums/combat-mission-opponent-finder.451/

Hi Guys
I have uploaded the campaigns into The Scenario Depot under a single zip file.  On my return from family commitments on Monday I will upload the map pack for you all to enjoy.  Good work Frank!
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-red-thunder/cm-red-thunder-campaigns/cmrt-summer-of-destruction-campaign/

Combat Mission:Drone Wars

Combat Mission:Drone Wars

@BFCElvis just started a thread about jeeps that includes their role in reconnaissance:
 

I often use a jeep in this fashion. To probe enemy lines and use it's speed as a defence. Then open up on any positions that fire at the jeeps with overwatching tanks.  It works 1/2 the time.  I didn't realize it was 'gamey'.
I am also notorious for using the Recon by Fire tactic.  I'm attacking a town in CMBN currently and one of the first things I did was hose down the church bell tower.

That's funny.  We were just talking about jeeps and reconnaissance over in the PBEM thread:
 

Yeah. You can get away with it against the AI. But they're almost always one of the firs things I shoot at. One of the lesson's from Monty Python's "How Not To Be Seen" is that you shouldn't hide behind the only bush in the field.
 

I often use a jeep in this fashion. To probe enemy lines and use it's speed as a defence. Then open up on any positions that fire at the jeeps with overwatching tanks.  It works 1/2 the time.  I didn't realize it was 'gamey'.
I am also notorious for using the Recon by Fire tactic.  I'm attacking a town in CMBN currently and one of the first things I did was hose down the church bell tower.

I often use a jeep in this fashion. To probe enemy lines and use it's speed as a defence. Then open up on any positions that fire at the jeeps with overwatching tanks.  It works 1/2 the time.  I didn't realize it was 'gamey'.
I am also notorious for using the Recon by Fire tactic.  I'm attacking a town in CMBN currently and one of the first things I did was hose down the church bell tower.

Not gamey at all. Using fire to deny an area to the enemy is a real tactic. Free Whisky actually did a video on how best to use artillery in Combat Mission. He describes four types of effects that artillery strives to achieve in real life, and which can be recreated in Combat Mission:
Suppress: Keep the enemy's heads down.
Obscure: Prevent the enemy from seeing your troops.
Secure: Prevent the enemy from occupying a piece of terrain by making it too dangerous.
Reduce: Inflict casualties on the enemy.
There's no doubt a similar formal list of effects that you can achieve with direct fire, whether it be from small arms or tanks/IFVs. But as I haven't come across it yet, here's my somewhat less formal (and not necessarily comprehensive) list of what you can do with direct fire:
Suppressive fire: Keep the enemy's heads down.
Recon-by-fire: Find the enemy by shooting at suspected positions, baiting them to shoot back.
Secure: Make a position dangerous for the enemy to occupy by shooting at it.
Destructive fire: Inflict casualties on the enemy.
Fire is a tool. Ultimately we want to use that tool to destroy the enemy. But it has many other uses that can make it easier to reach that ultimate goal, or make it harder for the enemy to destroy you. If you can think of any way to use fire to manipulate the enemy into doing what you want (or not doing what you don't want), then that's a legitimate use of fire, and one that has probably been used at some point in the real world.
 

??  One has to assign all "prep fire" in the setup turn.  The only choice (for offmap arty) is whether it is "immediate" or starts 5, 10 or 15 minutes later.  Prep fire from an onmap gun is always "immediate" (onmap arty fire cannot be delayed).
I cannot see how firing on possible approaches is gamey.  The only house rule that makes sense is "No firing on known enemy set-up locations on turn 1."  (How would one know where the enemy set-up locations are without first loading the game as the enemy player?)

And you've ended up playing me 😂.  I am reasonably flexible.
On a serious note I think playing other humans is the best way to be challenged.  You may or may not find that with me, but you surely will with others.

Well, I have to disagree with this and @Artkin. What you describe is *exactly* what I'd do in real life. 
But, hey, make any rules you want in agreement with your opponent.
Taking away that capability, to me, would remove a perfectly valid tactic. I'd do that even without the TOW firing from the woods. Ooh, look, treeline ahead. Blast it with whatever we've got to keep their heads down, while I have maneuver elements close in. Is it really that much different than putting a smoke screen in front of the treeline even if you haven't spotted anything? Pretty much accomplishes the same thing.

Dave

My rules are as follows and agree to most of the Community, I guess:
- No artillery or air raids in the setup zones or close to it for the first turns (except on defenders setup zone)
- No preplanned arty or air raids for meeting engagements. 
Just 2 simple ones Id like to have for every engagement. The last one can be discussed with the oponent, so it is not set in stone.
Everything else is optional. Some I like to take for more immersion and a more realistic feel, some I like to take to make matches more balanced. (e.g. italian vs everyone else )

In general I like that one but in my opinion it would be wrong to cancel area fire all together.
However I have sometimes seen players standing behind with their tanks and blast everything at an instant as soon as their infantry has found the enemy.
And while Im guilty of this myself to a degree I really try to play like that more often than not.
Keeping a good C2 between infantry and tanks to make them notice contacts faster is one way to go.
In general though I find the disadvantages of keeping no command structure not great enough.
Would be cool that you could only area fire with a delay when no contacts are noted by the unit itself. Imagine it pretty much like calling artillery. On the other hand you could call for fire at an instand when a tank knows that enemy troops are around that point.
Another thing I wish for CMx3...

I agree 100 percent. So much I'm replaying instead of just upvoting 🙂

I think I've mentioned before that I strongly disagree with this one. You can't implement realistic tactics without area fire. Without area target you can't maintain suppression on enemy positions when the enemy takes cover and your own troops lose the spot, you can't conduct recon by fire, you can't use speculative fire on suspected enemy positions, and you can't use fire to deny an area that you think the enemy might want to go. Fire is a tool with a lot of uses. Only one of those uses is aimed destructive fire against clearly identified enemy units. If you disallow realistic tactics then what's even the point of playing the game?

I  wouldn't mind being able to level some 155mm artillery at Jar Jar. 😁

I  wouldn't mind being able to level some 155mm artillery at Jar Jar. 😁

I think it's going to be an operational level game set in the Pacific Theater featuring space lobsters armed with all of the Soviet Union's stolen DShKs.

It doesn't matter even if the unit is exhausted. It won't affect their performance in the slightest in finding mines. It affects only their move orders they can do the standard move (N) and the slow move (O). Spotting and firing is not affected. I appreciate we all play the game differently. I use slow finding mines that is the purpose of engineers and breaching obstacles. Once they achieved this regular infantry takes over. I use slow a lot when the terrain offers concealment the unit moves under LOS. Other units which move on slow are FOs and HQs. Not meant for combat and if they are exhausted it is fine.

That wasn´t my meaning. I was comparing hunt with the move order to spot/react to mines. The problem with the move order is that everyone that has it applied will start running once bullets or explosions occur, what will most likely happen when a mine is triggered.
Running through a minefield has just that much more potential to trigger another (maybe unseen) minefield too. The hunt order prevents this because everyone will just hold at the spot, preventing them from triggering another mine.
Moving slow is an option but will tire out the searching parties way to fast. And especially when you don´t know if there is a minefield or not, it can be difficult getting them to another location afterwards at high speeds.

That's my experience too. They stop when they trigger a mine on hunt, but not when they just see mines. I usually don't have time for slow though. So I use hunt with the aim of limiting casualties, rather than outright preventing casualties. I generally use slow to move troops out of an already detected minefield when I don't have engineers available to mark the mines.

Greg: The "horrible" reality of the game is that the only way to efficiently spot mines is to send "Expendable" units ahead to trigger a mine.  (And even then the first unit could be lucky and run over mines without triggering anything.)
I consider engineers valuable so would send them to a triggered minefield in order to mark them (If it is absolutely necessary to cross that location) which makes the minefield a little safer to cross on SLOW.  But even when traversing a marked minefield moving SLOW a unit can still trigger a mine and get blown up.  
Theoretically you would think that the first unit should be a mine-clearing vehicle.  If one is concerned about AT weapons and has the arty, try blowing up any potential hiding spot within a 100 meters...  or... use SMOKE to hide the vehicle so it can clear the mines with no enemy having LOS.