Bud Backer
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Everything posted by Bud Backer
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Frontally? You sure? that would be great news for me!
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Okay you're the odd man out here, Ian! You're the only one suggesting rushing forward to try to be on the objectives first! I admit that is my usual approach, and as the Germans it's worked well though not in the way one would expect. I would not be first ON the objectives, I would be first in LOS of the objectives, so when my opponent arrived, in a hurry, I'd be sitting calmly and engaging his units. Sadly that is less likely to work well when you can't penetrate the enemy's frontal armour. I am concerned about the cover issue - on the north objective I may be in luck, but the south one has all the cover on his side of the river. Likely intentional as a balancing thing by the map designer...still, the idea of rushing forward with some stuff is inescapably attractive to me, so my Jeeps with PIAT and Sniper teams will be rushing to be first. I'm a bit leery of giving up the second arty troop. I keep thinking that it will be the only thing able to break his hold on the objectives. On the other hand, I think you are right in keeping my armour completely hidden until I know where he is. I have complete freedom of movement behind my ridgeline where I deploy, and can shuffle my tanks to the optimum start position. I'm not sure what you mean about Commonwealth recon units being fast? I sure you don't mean they sprint like Jesse Owens...
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Based on the discussions and awesome input of you guys as well as my own ideas, I've got a tentative force purchase: This gives me three Sherman's, two Fireflies, two troops of 4 25Lbr off map, Two FOOs, Two TRPs, CompanY HQ & XO With attached 2 jeeps 2 Sniper teams 2 PIAT teams Two rifle platoons, each with small mortar and 1 squad with a PIAT,
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Scenario Design Tips
Bud Backer replied to delliejonut's topic in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy
JonS beat me to it. Nice thing is his fantastic thread was made into a pdf included with the game now.... -
Here is a more overhead view of the map from my starting position. I love the eye-height shots but this gives you a better overview of the situation.
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Well that's what I thought! Properly used, fireflies should indeed be a game changer. Ask Wittman! Haha Can a firefly penetrate -IN GAME, not theoretically- a panther or tiger's frontal armour? I wonder at what range... The map is only 700m from my end to his end so when we meet, I'd expect to be shooting at sub-400m ranges. Crickey, I didn't think of the fords not being accessible to vehicles. I think they were all shallow. Will have to double check. And tell him. He doesn't know the game as well and didn't even realize there WERE fords until I pointed them out. I want to be fair about this... I'm still not convinced about the cover, Womble, but I hope you're right! If you have additional thoughts I'd love to hear them on the subject.
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Jon, you've completely captured my problem. Conceptually simple situation to handle, but execution is quite another matter. I get the ideas but to coordinate so many things, make sure it's properly timed is to me inordinately difficult. I suspect I lack experience.
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You're right, moving the fireflies even to the berm/short ridge mid map is risky. But where to put them initially? Hull down on my ridgeline? I know from playing the Germans enough that he can afford 4 Panthers or three Tigers, due to rarity limits. Last game he took the 4 Panthers. I'd prefer 4 Panthers over the 3 Tigers as the former are easier to penetrate from the side. I am indeed cutting down the TRPs - they cost rarity and I can't buy more than 2! The 17lbrs were something I vacillated on...I could afford quite a few, but with a packup and setup time of combined over 11 min, they would at best be a single shot weapon and that is not practical for a maneuver battle. You've confirmed my thinking.
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I have repeatedly punished him for overextending himself in previous games. Brutally. This is why I think he will be quite wary. Curiously, he did tell me he thought Fireflies are not a game changer here. (He knows I wanted the Canadians for the possibility of having them). Now I know it's very dangerous to put too much stock in a particular weapon system because you rely too much on its potential rather than tactical prowess. But still, I do think I want them over regular M4A3s...
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Really good point: keeping the infantry in LOS of the big guns. If I can get the enemy to attack the infantry close enough, I may be able to bait them into some flank shots. Thank you for that! Yes, keeping the infantry largely in the second line of trees seems like a good idea. Scouts of course would go more forward but that would limit how much if my infantry is exposed. A theme repeated by Ken below is to give ground. It seems to me I have no choice. My hope is that 1) my opponent does not stop at the objectives and wait for me to come to him, (I firmly believe that is exactly what he will do) 2) if he does advance far forward, that I still have the maneuvering room I need.
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Unofficial Screenshots & Videos Thread
Bud Backer replied to agusto's topic in Combat Mission Black Sea
Nice ones, Antaress! -
Welcome to the game, and the forums! It's a good bunch here, I'm sure you'll find some great opponents.
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I'm off to bed so I will reply more intelligently tomorrow. But I'll toss out this one other major concern: What if he stops on the objectives on his side? I can't win by sitting waaaay back on my side of the map. At best I can get a draw if I get a man on each objective and hide them. What then? Is arty the solution? An adequate one? (Put please don't stop the rest of the strategizing, this is one possibility, but he may very well want to see if he can destroy me utterly.)
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The Preliminary Plan: (open to suggestions - in fact I'm asking for them!) Basically I want to smoke a line across the middle of the map, but on his side. If he wants to occupy his objectives it would be nice if he had to come into my waiting guns, at least as first. Ill have to back away fast to avoid a bad matchup once he does arrive. So with the smoke, I have to wait a turn for it to develop more fully (made the mistake of thinking a smoke screen forms the turn you start firing - not good!) then charge forward with my fireflies. One behind the low ridge so that it is firing sideways across at his units coming to the southern objective. I'd like to keep the second Firefly over watching the first from hull down on the ridge directly west. Two jeeps each with sniper and PIAT team will go to the woods in front of each objective and hide. Their job is to watch for him and give me info I need to flank his armour. If he parks his armour out of flanking position for me, then I need arty to encourage him to displace. My two platoons of infantry are to split off and scout, as c3k suggested. I'll keep a full squad from each on overwatch, but I want to know if he is trying to use the fords at the north and south map edges as he attempt to flank me. That's where the PIATs already in the woods may be crucial. What do I need to pull this off? I can only afford two Fireflies, as Rarity is set to normal. I have 2560 points to spend as does my opponent. I intend to spend the points needed to get those Fireflies as I think they offer me the best chance to take out the big cats at something other than suicide range. I was going to buy three platoons of infantry but I'm thinking of cutting it down to two - this will not be a static fight and the ground pounders are my scouts not my fists. I'm reluctant to buy ATGs in a maneuver battle, but I wonder if two 17lbrs hull down on my Ridgeline is a good idea, sniping at his tanks when they expose themselves. I have to check the sight lines. If he has to be on my side of the river to use them then there seems little point. A troop of 4 off-map 25lbrs seems like a decent compromise between power and cost. They give me smoke and HE. That would cost 1/6th of my points. With TRPs as suggested above. Have to think about where to put them. Maybe a second troop? Not sure I want to spend 1/3 of my points on arty? I'll need at least one if not two FOOs. I'm not sure, but I think perhaps some HMGs on my ridge line, for the same logic as the ATGs, might give me some longer range anti infantry power. For some reason, my gut tells me he will try to push through along the southern edge. But that's just a wild guess and I maybe really off base there. The reason I think it is because the houses will provide cover for his men and a chance to establish a base of fire there.
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To give more information to go on and a frame of reference for everyone (including me!) I've marked up the overhead view map. Also I misremembered the name; it's actually Meet Med Forest (Water) QB-257
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Ken, I'm so glad you dropped by, I was hoping you would because I love your AARs and wondered if you might be able to enlighten me. So the message I'm getting from you is to scout with small units. The object being to locate the enemy. Fair enough, that makes sense. My original idea was to plunk four PIAT teams in two jeeps and rush them forward to the woods near the river and hide them for ambushing. I take it that would NOT be your approach? Now, in my post earlier I referred to 88's. I meant those attached to Tigers, and not the AA gun. And therein lies what I feel is my biggest challenge - getting freedom of maneuver. Still hung up on creating that...
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TRPs are indeed something I can get. I considered that. But I am wondering how much arty to buy. Back to that later when I discuss my purchases and what you guys think of them... I definitely think that having arty able to scare him into backing away from places that can target me easily is a good idea. It isn't cheap to have the FOO, TRPs and sufficient arty, but it might be exactly what I need. What scares me is what I can do to stop him if he just charges across the river. Last game he showed up with 4 Panthers - which was not fun. I killed 2 and likely had the game not ended would have done in a third but still...there was bocage and lots of cover so I had places to hide. On this map, I feel as if I'm in the open, everywhere. I looked for reverse slopes. There is one lump mid map, but otherwise, the only reverse slope is just ahead of my starting positions, that seems too far back to be effective if I try to push at all forward. In fact, it's so far back I would have to let him cross the river, and that seems a bad idea. Isn't it? A natural barrier like that is peculiar to concede...
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Right, so the smoke idea is something I considered but thought I was being gamey or even unrealistic. I used it extensively in CMBS in the one battle I ever won in that game. Here's my worry - the land is gently rolling, with trees that will leave things close to ground level quite exposed. Let me show you. There are a lot of open spaces. I can cover the objectives but I don't think I can help but be obvious and a ready target for those nice 88's! You can see the foot bridge ahead, and the river. There are 2 bridges and 4 fords total on the map. This is the view from near my start position, looking down the slope toward the river. You can see the brighter yellowish objective in the distance. It seems like there is a lot of cover, but in fact, I am not convinced that there is much at all...
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In theory, I know all this from reading military books for ages. Implementation however is another thing. When playing the Germans I take great pains to avoid offering the enemy a flank, as I've seem even an M8 armoured car penetrate the turret side armour of a panther from 250m away. As the Germans I maintain good distance from my targets, I screen my precious heavy tanks with infantry and light armour and it's worked very well for me. I seem to be unable to be very effective in countering that approach, however. I also find artillery virtually useless in a meeting engagement, (which may be me and my own lack of skill). Doing what you suggest in a battle where the enemy is unlikely to sit in one spot for more than 2-3 min seems like chasing unicorns. So what happens is that I end up turtling. I get extremely cautious, and frustrated, because I can't seem to move ahead. I'm dependent on my enemy coming to me and attempting to surprise him and flank him. That discards any strategic initiative I may have, which is not a good thing for any commander to do.
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The map: Meet Med Bocage (Water) Conditions: Midday, meeting engagement, I am Canadians, he is Wehrmacht. He is starting in the East (right map) and I'm in the West (left map). Overview: Center detail
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The problem: I've played the Germans plenty of times and am fairly comfortable getting decent performance from their kit. Hardly expert, but I don't feel handicapped using them. I've played a lot against a good friend who is new to CM games, and he has consistently complained about being unable to deal with my use of the Panther and Tiger I against him. My play against German opponents in the past made it a tough challenge but I'd fare better than my friend fighting me. I suggested we swap sides for a number of games and let him take the Germans, while I take the allies. I definitely feel that there is a difference in how one fights as the allies. I've not had the success I did as the Germans, especially when one does meeting engagements where I do not have either superior numbers, or prepared positions to compensate for what feels like a qualitative disadvantage. I'm hoping with this thread, and the comments/discussion it brings, I get a better idea of how to handle German armour as the allies, and also have something to show my friend when it's all done to boost his game as allies in the future.
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Introduction: IanL and Method Gamer started two threads seeking contribution and discussion from the forum members in order to improve knowledge and share techniques in playing CMBN (and I think largely transferable to other CM games). Something not really discussed because it was outside the scope of their scenario is how to deal with the German heavy armour - Tiger I, Tiger II, Panther - as the allies, especially before the introduction of units like the Pershing. I checked with Ian and he didn't think this would have much overlap with his own thread, so here goes!
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comic Somebody's Hero - A CAAR
Bud Backer replied to Bud Backer's topic in Combat Mission Red Thunder
Thanks, Ian. I knew I was in trouble from the moment I saw the Panther. It was able to shoot almost everywhere on the map, and the few places it could not left my T34 utterly useless, cowering in the shadows. Honestly, it was a slaughter. In the end, Dima caused more casualties than the rest of the force. Not a planned outcome but he was the only one who deployed, and found targets. The rest of the force was being shelled the moment they exposed themselves to shoot. That Panther was damned good! On the other hand, it took no staging to have Dima pick off one German after another. Getting the different screenshots of them falling in battle was....most satisfying! -
comic Somebody's Hero - A CAAR
Bud Backer replied to Bud Backer's topic in Combat Mission Red Thunder
Thanks!!! I don't know if people realize it, but the translations are not in all cases literal. The Russians do not say literally "piece of cake," but rather, "easy steamed turnips." I try to find the idiomatic equivalent that we can relate to. The fading from/to black and white at the beginning/end was something that had me worried. I wanted it to not be jarring, but to,fade from and to history. Nice to hear it worked, thank you very much. Serzhant Ivanov will be back.... -
comic Somebody's Hero - A CAAR
Bud Backer replied to Bud Backer's topic in Combat Mission Red Thunder
