Badger73

Hello all.  I used to play Combat Mission back in the day and build my own scenarios but stopped playing for a long time (10+ years!).
Recently I got back into Combat Mission and started playing CMFI.  I have played maybe 6 or so games since the patch was applied.
I noticed that the observer for off-board artillery actually adjusted shots!  I had an 81mm mortar that was shooting at a Sherman tank and the observer actually moved the fire when the tank switched positions.  I hadn't noticed this behavior previously and when my shots were falling away from the target they never seemed to get any closer or adjust.
In reading through some of the older posts I saw that people said that they rarely saw AA fire as being effective.  I started playing against my usual opponent with "rarity off" and now I'm buying a lot of the AA halftracks in our quick battle scenarios and I had 2 on a small map and I actually shot down and allied strafing attack aircraft!  It was the 37mm gun - the 20mm gun (quad) put up a lot more noise but the 37mm was the one who received the "plane destroyed" note.  One airplane shot down isn't a large sample size I realize but it was heartening to see that happen.

This is a superb video contrasting common depictions in war movies of how infantry carried their weapons against real period sources and photographic evidence. Has lots of useful pictures, including squad movement through drainage ditches in Normandy, British infantry in assault configuration complete with T-handled full size shovels, GIs advancing, Germans in city fighting and the famous BoB StG44 equipped SS moving past burning US halftrack, plus images and text from German, US and British manuals and even training film. Also describes several sites where excellent information on particulars of weapon handling in WW II are covered. Not only is this information helpful for skins and terrain info, , not to mention potential VO chrome via German command to get down, but I believe it could be fed into the soldier animations. Might be interesting to explore animations for prisoner handling upon capture, too. Have read the GIs commonly cut the belt of prisoners, so they'd have to use their hands to hold up their pants, greatly limiting opportunities for mischief!
 
Regards,

John Kettler

CMFI Rome to Victory force structure and TO&E became so daunting that it pretty much broke one of our 'workers in the vineyard' and very nearly broke Steve too. It will probably influence BFC's future decision making. I don't think they want to experience another R2V. (for example, don't expect a single years-spanning North Africa title from them). R2V isn't merely adding some equipment and moving up the timeframe, its a lot more.
The R2V French are given the option of colonial (North African) troops or actual French guys. Original French equipment is interspersed among the troops. They're carrying the old M1917 Enfield rifle (new to the game) and the French FM 24/29 lmg. Officers carry a French pistol too, I believe. Their armor gets their own markings. So they're not just copies of Americans with a name change,

I was reading about some hot new game (involving a goose, I think), the reviewer said total play time was 3 1/2 hours. I gasped at that. I'm used to CM products whose play time and replayability stretches into months and years!
The reason why there are so  few 3rd party scenarios these days (which is a bit of a shame) is because CM Quickbattles have made great strides compared to where they started from. The maps are truly excellent. If somebody wants to fight modern Brits versus Bundeswehr in a dense city environment you don't need to make your own, you just adjust QB parameters.
That being said, the editor is a game unto itself. I've spent enormous amounts of time building mountains, or flat open farm country, suburban sprawl, rural villages, even ocean islands!. then I test out the landscapes in deep snow, heavy rain, at midnight and noon, dense fog and clear skies. And then, as icing on the cake, I add forces, whip up AI orders sets and fight battles across them. If you're not making your own you're missing half the fun.

Sorry things have been quiet. We hit a snag. The build that was supposed to fix the Sikh models and textures didn't quite get things sorted and left Bud dead in the water. Such is how software development goes sometimes. Both problems are being worked. In the mean time enjoy some of these cool shots I took of the Sikh soldier's that were fixed in the latest build.
These were taken on a hazy overcast day in July.

In my real life job I design and test the propulsion plants for nuclear submarines. We don't follow those guidelines. Because, ..., well, submarines.   🙂

Think once the next patch got released we should start a dedicated "Mission design and how to set up an AI player " thread sort of. There´s quite a lot of interesting things to share and learn alike. 

I actually found my life improved a lot after I started to err on the side of pessimism. I'm now more often pleasantly surprised.

Welcome, and thanks for replying to my thread.
It's definitely one of the good parts of the game that there is some uncertainty about how troops will react in different situations. I think we all agree on that.
However, when troops consistently refuse to shoot in certain situations, but immediately start shooting once I push a button to split or combine the squad, I think it's probably not a simulation of human behaviour, but an issue with the game code.
I've been doing some more testing, and it mostly seems to affect squads with two teams and a small headcount - German recon units in this case.
Is this important enough to look into? I don't know. I just bring it here in order to help improve the game.

Now, those are some great bones right there! Awesome news.
 
Mord.

Quite right!  And you should have known better before doing it!!
(We appear to share the same experiences . . . 😱)
So, Battlefront, please continue developing your games as you see best.  They don't call your customers "Grognards" without reason . . .

You're right, your version of the word "too", was too small. It can be a risky business telling BFC what to do.

I was just dicking around in BN looking at vehicles in the Dealership files and low-and-behold there it is. I have probably looked at those files 50 times over the years and swear I have never seen that truck in there. Funny.
 
 
 
 
According to the notes DC  @Darknight (DC) provided me during the Gustav portrait mod (and what was created for it) the Indians provided 3 Divisions to Italy (4th, 8th, and 10th). Formations are as follows.
Note: [INF] denotes British infantry.
In the mod we used New Zealand to represent them but that'll be changed for the new version.
 
..................4th Indian Infantry Division...............

21st King George V's Own Horse (Central India Horse)    [Indian Armd Regt]
        5th Rajputana Rifles                    [Indian INF]

    5th Indian Infantry Brigade
        1/4th Essex Regiment                    [INF]
        4/11 Sikh Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        1/6 Rajputana Rifles                    [Indian INF]
        3/10 Baluch Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        1/9 Gurkha Rifles                    [Indian INF]

    7th Indian Infantry Brigade
        1st Royal Sussex                    [INF]
        4/16 Punjab Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        2/11 Sikh Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        1/2 Gurkha Rifles                    [Indian INF]

    11th Indian Infantry Brigade
        2nd Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders            [INF]
        4/6 Rajputana Rifles                    [Indian INF]
        3/12 Frontier Force Regiment                [Indian INF]
        2/7 Gurkha Rifles                    [Indian INF]
 
 
..................8th Indian Infantry Division...............

6th Duke of Connaught's Own (Bengal) Lancers        [Indian Armd Regt]
        5/5 (Royal Mahratta MG Bn) Mahratta Light Infantry    [Indian INF]
        1st Jaiper Infantry (Indian State Forces)        [Indian INF]

    17th Indian Infantry Brigade
        1st Royal Fusiliers                    [INF]
        1/12 Frontier Force Regiment                [Indian INF]
        1/5 Gurkha Rifles                    [Indian INF]

    19th Indian Infantry Brigade
        5th Essex                        [INF]
        1st Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders            [INF]
        3/8 Punjab Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        6/13 Royal Frontier Force Rifles            [Indian INF]

    21st Indian Infantry Brigade
        5th Queen's Own Royal West Kent                [INF]
        1/5 Mahratta Light Infantry                [Indian INF]
        3/15 Punjab Regiment                    [Indian INF]
 
 
 
..................10th Indian Infantry Division...............

1st Duke of York's Own Lancers (Skinner's Horse)     [Indian Armd Regt]
        1st Royal Northumberland Fusiliers            [INF]

    10th Indian Infantry Brigade
        1st Durham Light Infantry                [INF]
        4/10 Baluch Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        2/4 Gurkha Rifles                    [Indian INF]

    20th Indian Infantry Brigade
        8th Manchester                        [INF]
        1/2 Punjab Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        3/5 Mahratta Light Infantry                [Indian INF]
        2/3 Gurkha Rifles                    [Indian INF]

    25th Indian Infantry Brigade
        1st King's Own Royal Regiment                [INF]
        3/1 Punjabi Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        3/18 Royal Garhwal Rifles                [Indian INF]
        4/11 Sikh Regiment                    [Indian INF]]
 
 
Mord.

METT-T: Terrain
The map is about a km squared. There are some flat plateaus but also a lot of hill and valleys as well. My forces start off in the South East corner near KT1. The path to the hill top KT7 will be over the river at KT1 and KT2 adn then over the ridge line between KT3 and KT4. There is a road from the bridge KT2 leading to town KT6 and a trail leading from KT1 to KT5 just East of KT3.

 
Some views of the terrain follow as indicated by the green triangles.

 
Map View #1

 
Map View #2

 
Map View #3

 
Map View #4

 
Map View #5

 
Map View #6

 
Map View #7

 

I've found over the years you need to be careful reading AAR's, particularly as reported in secondary sources focusing on a wider battle/campaign. Many authors generally don't drop down below the battalion level with their writings, saying "The 1st Battalion launched a dawn assault on the village of 'X'." At face value seems like overkill for such a small target. Dig a little deeper elsewhere and you realise it was only "A Company" with a few sections of HMG's provided for additional support. Rule of thumb read multiple sources and double/tripple check everything.
When I committed to recreating Operation Windsor in Lions of Carpiquet campaign it was a Brigade level engagement but for the most part (and as you'd expect) the battalions were operating independently, so with the exception of two engagements there were never going to be more than one Canadian Battalion on screen at once with a set of objectives to meet. What turned out to be a huge help relatively late in the piece was discovering someone had scanned the original operational briefing material and made it available online in a PDF. Have this primary source really outlined how everthing was meant to proceed and what forces were committed when. But that doco allowed me to confirm was the intent to proceed forward in the standard 2 companies forward 2 companies behind box like shape the Commonwealth used quite regularly. It didn't happen on the ground because the German's shelled their deployment at kick off time and everyone was intermingled from the get go, which I could then represent in the appropiate sceanrio with the extensive use of reinforcements coming onto the map with no real order/command structure intact. Of course no plan survived contact with the enemy so this great source becomes useless after about Mission 2.
There's another idea that I'm still toying with for over a year. A CM campaign on the same map where each scenario is one distinct objective. The scenario designer is like the battalion commander ordering he forces around with distinct objectives and the player is the poor junior officer that has to carry it out in the field. For instance, there's an end goal but to do that the player has to hop across a series of objectives successfully before progressing. Failures lead to repeats of the same objective rather than a whole new campaign path, though the player can also 'do what they want' if they feel like it - for instance ie hunting down additional enemy units early that may make future objectives easier to complete. Though I started to try and do this in CMBN as outlined here... http://community.battlefront.com/topic/126346-experimental-design-cm1-operations-in-cm2-video/ , I'm currently of the mind that maybe the modern era is a better fit where the player can have a much smaller effective force to cover a wider open map allowing much more freedom of movement and exploration. One massive problem however is the lack of carry over battle damage on the map. Doesn't make the concept impossible but makes the force selection somewhat more limiting - ie no major high explosive support that can level city blocks.
 

Quite right!  And you should have known better before doing it!!
(We appear to share the same experiences . . . 😱)
So, Battlefront, please continue developing your games as you see best.  They don't call your customers "Grognards" without reason . . .

Whatever you do, don't go to Tulsa. Things ended a tad badly for a Mr. Pitney

Would have been ironic if I had been nasty towards you and tried to tell you that I knew better. But in this case, it's just a good thing that you were qualified to answer my question.

The route you end up taking is based mainly on your results, as indicated by..... ToV ... MiV.... Dr.
Sometimes a designer will create missions that will lead to a certain path that the player will be told about in the briefing, in this particular campaign the mission "Command Decisions" fills that role.
If you would like to pick up some ideas on how to get to the other version of "To the Meuse", I would suggest that you take a look at the youtube series produced by Jamies Games. In the meantime I would be interested to see a list of the results you achieved that led to you getting the final battle that you faced.

I recall BFC made a tactical error by opening the original CM2 game engine/CMSF(1) discussion forum much too early in the game's development. That allowed posters months and months to construct impossible fantasy cloud castles imagining what the new game engine would entail. Absurd, unachievable expectations that only resulted in the posters' disappointment when the real world game was released. The opposite was true of CMFI. The CM community didn't have a clue an Italian theater game was under development. Then one day a new discussion forum opened with preorder notices and the forum went wild with joy. No months-and-months to build expectations, they were simply happy with what they got.

Well, I wish all those silly Wally's would stop posting bug reports without proper evidence . . .

Thanks, brother! I am doing everything I can to make this the best one yet.
 
Here's a start. I had a lot of fun making him. He's made up of four different pictures. I think he came out really nice.
 

 
 
Mord.

I mailed you but I can actually get them uploaded tomorrow evening onto the new CMMODS.  Uploading has been slow over the summer holidays as my free time disappeared with family stuff but about to start working on it again.

Please see this thread.