Ultradave

Creative and well tested scenarios and campaigns make it more interesting to play Dave

Maybe after release someone (Elvis?) will describe what some of the recent holdups have been. As always though, they are about getting it right. Dave

I like Highland Games as well, and there is a point (scenario 10 maybe, you'll know when you get there because there are instructions), you get to choose between heading south of Damascus, with British forces alone, or to head to downtown Damascus in joint ops with US forces (you command both). What you can do is make sure you save right at the beginning of the "choice" scenario, give it an easy to remember name, and then when you've completed one, you can reload that save and take the other path as well. Gives you a LOT of scenarios to play that way. Dave

Yes, this is known and I've submitted a ticket on it. Affects all CM games. No progress bar when loading scenario, or when turn calculating. Also, you probably haven't encountered yet but the license screen is pretty funky as well. All on the same ticket. Dave

This is what I've found too. Sometimes planes get shot down, and sometimes they make it through. In one scenario I had the misfortune of missing with 2 Redeye from different directions and a bomb (500lb - big boom, big crater) landed smack between 2 M113s and killed everyone on board both APCs. They were not quite as dispersed as they should be (obviously, right?). It's definitely something you can't really count on. If you have a couple flights, there's at least some chance they won't even get through. But they might. For sure pay attention to setting up your AA assets somewhere with good views and protected (I know, conflicting, but it can be done). Dave

Comes with 9 missiles, as it should. I haven't used one in game yet, so I don't know the reload time. In real life it was probably significant because there was "some assembly required" Dave

I agree. This one is fun. And not huge. You won't believe the number of bullets flying in all directions. Dave

You'll notice that John at the time DID NOT have a Mac when he made that comment about Intel integrated graphics answering a Mac question (I don't think he does yet). And then my answer farther down that thread where I said (as I've said before) there is no problem running CM on a Mac with Intel integrated graphics. I've been doing it for years, with all the graphics settings maxed out. I don't know why the difference between PC and Mac and whether integrated graphics work or not, but it's not a problem on a Mac. Dave

Yup. That's one hint for everyone. If you've got scouts, before turn one, ACQUIRE the Dragons in the M113. One launcher, usually 2 or 3 missiles. And all the LAWs they can carry. If you dismount they'll leave all that in the track. Goes for infantry as well .... get those LAWs (and might as well grab all the 40mm grenades while you're at it). First few playlists I wasted time running back to vehicles to get stuff. Same goes for Redeye teams. You'll dismount them to find cover but there are extra missiles in the Jeep. Acquire those right away. Dave

That's only one scenario, in which case the land war probably wouldn't even happen. I mean, who cares at that point? What is there to fight over? What MikeyD describes is exactly the tactics and mindset that was in place. Dispersal to avoid WMD attacks, whether thy be nuclear, chemical or biological(less likely), versus maintaining close enough distance to quickly concentrate at a point of attack or defense. That's what we practiced all the time. The tactics of the day assumed that if there were release of WMD, particularly nuclear, it would be at the local, tactical level, and not a full nuclear exchange, meaning there would still be a land war to fight. That being said, the prevailing opinion was that once nuclear weapons were used, there would be no way to stop it from fairly quickly escalating to a full nuclear exchange. We all expected to never see our 30th birthday, one way or the other. I've said this in another thread, but being FA primary specialty and Nuclear Weapons secondary specialty, one of the most important things we learned was how to safely blow the nuclear artillery shells into little bitty pieces so they wouldn't fall into Russian hands if (when) we were overrun. No one thought we would ever use them. There was more worry of an accidental nuclear war, and the more information that comes out the more we realize how lucky we were to avoid it. Dave

I posted this to the Black Sea beta forum. I can't check myself as I'm a Mac user, but someone else should be able to take a look. In the meantime, can you go to the install files on Steam and take a screenshot of what your Data folder looks like? Sorry I can't give an exact path. It's where all the .brz files are located.

Canister or Beehive rounds are terrifying, and yes, 400m is a good number. We practiced with them in our 105 artillery battery. They would be used in an artillery battery for last ditch self defense. A battery of 6 guns firing a volley of Beehive rounds to the front will turn anything not armored out there to mince meat. Imagine an infantry company trying to assault the battery and facing 60000 flechettes flying through the air. And then a second volley for anything still moving. For a tank, it could be used in assault but also as close defense if you had dismounted infantry attacking. Of course it you are in the artillery and ever have to use them it means that things are really, really FUBAR. Dave

Since the Mac version exists, that might make it a bit easier I've wondered the same thing myself. It's not like Steam doesn't have games that run on Mac OS. Dave

This is the key and the way to think about it. There are TOWs in the game, both M113 based and tripod based. There are LAWs a plenty for squads. And you have Dragons. In many cases in the Mech Infantry they are in the APCs and you have to ACQUIRE them before jumping out of the PC (hint - turn 1 - go around to all your infantry and ACQUIRE everything you can carry). Better or worse - you have to consider the era. The alternative is the LAW. It's a lot better than a LAW! Yeah, you make yourself a target. You pretty much do that by taking a shot of any kind with any weapon. TOWs are definitely targets as well. Pretty rare is the TOW vehicle that gets to expend all its missiles.

There are choices in the TOE for several different kinds of Soviet battalions, both motorized infantry and armor. There are Reserve armor battalions that are equipped with T-55s an T-62s compared to the frontline ones with T-64s and T-62, and two varieties of those with 3 tanks per PLT or 4. For the motorized battalions, different selections of BMP equipped or BTR equipped, although they aren't specifically listed as reserve. That's taking one setup example from a 1982 quick battle selection. think you should be able to create whatever you want with all the combinations, as long as it falls in the years covered. Is that what you were looking for with your question @Megalon Jones? Dave

The only place I see something like that is the edges of shadows at low sun angles. But when I had a MacBook with a GPU I still had that, so I don't think it had anything to do with the integrated graphics. The models and textures I am able to run on highest settings. My MacBook Pro is 3 years old now, so no longer the latest and greatest. Dave

It would be and it has come up, however we were told it's a limitation of the animations and they have to be one way or the other. Dave

That kind of problem indicates something wrong or missing with the resource files. Somehow something is missing or in the wrong place. I would try installing from the all in one installer for each game, rather than installing and upgrading each version. There should be a link to that in the game engine 4 email you got. Dave

They're in there.

One place this is not true is submarines in the US. Which is probably a really good thing. Dave

I AM that old that I got Panzerblitz when it first came out. At the time it was absolutely amazing. Such a change in wargaming. And then Panzer Leader. My real reason for answering is to add that in addition to which tank is better in the lab, I will say that using tanks of any kind in this game requires a change in thinking. It's not modern warfare like SF2 or BS. M48A5s are good tanks for their time, but ALL the older tanks are brittle, on both sides, even against each other. I found in my play testing I almost always had to play like I knew I was facing tanks of much better quality, playing either side. It was either that or leave a lot of smoke plumes decorating the battlefield. I've played as US with M48s and had them exploding all around me, thinking "Damn, these things are useless", and then played the Soviets thinking I'll set up a nice overwatch and plink away at the M60s in the valley and had my T62s and T64s shot off the hill like so many bottles on a fence. Hull down, keyhole firing positions, "Hunt/pause/reverse" fire and move plots, using the ends of treelines to snipe from behind, are real keys. You just can't stay exposed. This may all seem obvious, or maybe not. Makes for a lot of fun. Having been an Army officer at this time and after, what they used to drill into us was "If you can be seen you can be hit. If you are hit, you are dead." This is SO true in this game. (note that I haven't used any M1s yet, but they are early M1s so not the land battleships of SF2). It's gonna' be fun. Dave

You are right, you can't do anything with the mouse buttons, that I'm aware of. I can't tell from your post but there is a hotkeys.txt file in the installation that you can modify. One of the sections is on camera settings, so if you wanted to you could change this file so it's more in line with other software you are used to. Apologies if you are already aware you can do this. Dave

I was in the 82d then. We had already had our new Kevlar helmets for a couple years by then. Dave

Kind of apples and oranges because I too use a Mac (13" 2018 MacBook Pro). But one similarity is the integrated graphics. CM runs just fine with Intel integrated graphics, so I wouldn't let integrated graphics scare you off, unless you want a separate GPU for other things. Before this laptop one I had a 2015 MacBook Pro with a lesser integrated graphics and also had no problems. Dave

They can. I can tell you having been play testing the US 1979 campaign, the AI is a challenging opponent, so lots of credit to the designer for making it 1) challenging and 2) as much as possible act like a real Soviet opponent doctrine wise. You won't be disappointed. From the questions above, I'm not sure it's completely clear, but there are 2 completely separate US campaigns included - one set in 1979 and the other set in 1982. The course of the campaign is the same/very similar depending on how you do, but your forces and equipment are appropriate to the period. For example 1979, M48A5s and early M60s, M113s, M150 TOW vehicles, and if you are lucky some brand new M60A3s and a few M1s, facing a bunch of T-62s and BMP-1s. In 1982 you get new stuff. Of course, so do the bad guys. The premise of both campaigns and the area fought over are the same. Dave