WindyCityZeke

Well, not just 8 ones on the colored die. There was his movement phase and then my Prep fire. Don't forget intensive fire too. I used to remember the whole thing but it's been years since I had to remember it so it's a little foggy. But my friend and I never have forgotten it.

No special dice, just one of those things. After playing 1500 scenarios over 12 years of ASL you'll something like that I guess. No, I meant Panthers. And trust me, I know how deadly Tigers and Panthers are and how foolish it is to take them on one-on-one from the front facing. Do you guys think buildings fall down and rubble to easy? Thanks for the link....

Hey, I had a Panther take out 9 T-34s in one turn in ASL once, was a total fist pump feast. OBA in ASL is a pain in the butt and a scenario killer. Here it's very easy to use and seems realistic to boot. Onboard MTRs in ASL are for the most part useless unless your opponent let's you shoot his guys in the woods. Today I finished the crossroads scenario and killed a Panther (who was a pain in the keister) with a Sherman's 75mm Gun. Hit the thing in the front on the first two shots. Now in ASL at long range, I'd sit there all day and let Shermans shoot at me, and they would die too. As long as they can't get a side shot, I'm good. In this game it could have been a lucky shot, but I saw a few things that made me think. mmmmmmm. I'd love to see some stats for how they calculate armor and such, would be great info to have to plan. I'm still thinking in ASL armor factor numbers so today I was real hesitant to take on that Panther. At the end when the scenario was firmly in U.S. hands I said the heck with it and tried the front shots and they worked. Not sure Panthers should be that easy though. Started a new large scenario tonight... loving it.

Been seeing some weird Lines of Sight and long range shots while playing Crossroads at Monthardrou. Even after losing a tank I replay it over and over, then get down in the weeds and try and see for myself how that unit had a LOS to the target. I'm not seeing it. Had an AT Gun shoot through smoke, trees, between two houses at a moving target and BOOM! he nailed the tank. Only leaves me saying YGBSM! Heck I laid the smoke out there for just that reason. Doesn't matter for this one though, my guys are firmly entrenched in the village and the upper objective. Even sent a platoon to deal with that nasty AT Gun, he is now Dead. Just received my last group of reinforcements. Have no idea what they are going to do, but I have a plan to take out a tricky German tank, should be fun. Question: Can you capture enemy weapons or regain your own weapons from other units?

Ah yes, that view system works just fine, saves a lot of time!! What I'm going to work on today is a VAC file for this game, I use VAC all the time in Flight Sims and it is a great little program. If you don't know what VAC (Voice Activated Commands) is I would highly recommend it. Once I have the file done I'll share it with the rest of you if you're interested. First I'm going to check to see if anyone else has one finished. Also, it would be great to have a way to review the entire battle. I think it's possible if you can link a series of save game files without having to load the map all the time. If once in the game you can load a save game file for that map that is loaded it would save a lot of time. Just thinking out loud.

Finished up my last scenario and Started up a large scenario today, crossroads something or other. Learning a lot of lessons over the past few days from both scenarios: When you see an artillery round drop even if it's a long way from you guys, look and see who been sitting where their at for a while and run like hell. I had two MG teams nailing an upper story of a building for about 6 min, then a round landed way behind them, I ignored it, big mistake. Next minute 4 quick rounds hammered my MG teams and killed everyone cept a few guys from the ammo team. Good thing though I did the same to a few of their MG teams later on. Live and learn. hehe I had a squad of infantry near a tank, but I didn't think they were that close, and when the tank got hit from a hidden AT Gun, the infantry took damage as well, wounded a few guys and changed their status. I'll have to keep my distance from those guys. Damn AT Gun must have got off 5 rounds in a minute. Had the location of the AT Gun down and tried to get the tank to shoot at it but he never got a round out. The 4th round from the AT Gun killed it. One thing I wish we had was a view mod where you could click on a units Icon and choose to have the camera view go to ground level automatically with the right toggle on. Would save a whole bunch of time. Maybe there's a way to do that already, I just haven't figured it out. Could work for other views as well. Also wish the game would have reminders on in the upper right or left corners that woods, smoke, or other things have been turned off. Having a blast.

Thanks for the answers guys, glad it's a....well glad it's not just me. I'll keep that work around in mind. I should be able to get this down pretty quick, not much different then ASL, just a lot more detail and longer time scale. Tactics are mostly the same. Oh yea, just one more thing I had in mind as I keep thinking it may not happen but it seems to always happen when I request it. If you give a 'Pop Smoke' Command will those guys always throw it out there? Only time I can remember not getting it was from a unit that was rather unstable.

Just some more questions and some weird things I've seen over the past three days and last two scenarios I've played. First, the one thing that I've seen a few times now (well three to be exact) is MG and MTR teams running away instead of deploying their weapons. They haven't been shot at and are in good shape and good morale, they just run for the hills for no apparent reason. Also, 3 MTR crews ran back across a stream when I changed their waypoints so I went back to the previous save game file to see if leaving the original wp would be ok, and it was. It has been very frustrating getting the MG's in good position since they either run away or pick a field of view that isn't good. I was using the covered arc command but I find that using the face command with the deploy command works better. Question: If you see flashes coming out of bocage are those where the bullets are hitting or are those shots being fired back? Been getting much better with the time scale and not rushing in. Made a great assault on a building today. Moved two squads through some trees to get right next to some bocage to fire into two buildings close. First had a two MGs deploy and bring both buildings under fire to draw some attention. With both the infantry and MG's smacking the buildings the German infantry had enough and ran out the back. Only thing is I had ran two scout teams behind the building through some bocage on a scout mission and they ended up in perfect position to wipe out the German infantry as they ran for it. KIAed about 8 guys not counting the 4 or 5 Dead ones in the building. Glorious!

Yep, I used to design ASL scenarios and did a ton of playtesting back in the day. Once I get a handle on this game I'd love to go back and convert some of those to CMBN. John, been reading your thread a few pages a day. Good stuff.

Hi guys, Just some thoughts and observations after playing the last two days. Played through a scenario called 'Le Desert' and all during the two times I played it I was cursing out my Ht's as they didn't/wouldn't drive in a straight lines toward the WPs I was giving them, in a nice 'open' area of the map. Looked like the 'keystone cops' driving all those things. Was able to get a German victory on the second playing. Went to start another scenario and realized I had the trees turned off from the first time I played three scenarios ago, went back to the last saved game of 'Le Desert' and noticed why all the things I couldn't understand happened the way they did. It's a whole different world out there with trees! So if you turn trees off they'll stay off no matter which battle you have loaded. A couple of other cool things I noticed and watched happen. Knocked out a Tank Destroyer only to have it cook off rounds and kill off a few of my guys who had been given WPs past it that same turn. No, No, No....crap! Saw a individual man with a PF laying on the ground with his head to the dirt looking right. Tank pulls up 30 meters to his left and he couldn't see it. Many more things keep amazing me about how detailed this game is. I have been giving fire commands to my tanks to fire at buildings that look vacant, they weren't firing into those buildings with just arcs assigned. Good thing cause they softened up those buildings very well, killing a few units and making the others surrender when I entered them.

John, thanks again. Very useful stuff there. Been playing a lot today, had one experience where a US MG held off a bunch of HTs and the HTs didn't have sight to them to fire back. Figured I'd open up the HTs to see if that mattered and it did, but they all panicked and ran away like little girls. Finally flanked that puppy with a Panther. Should have taken a screen shot of that one. The MG was looking through two low Bocage rows and was in a foxhole. This game really is addictive! Glad I found it, thanks to the guys on the 'Rise of Flight' and IL2 forums. Oh yea, one more thing, I'm running 2.0 and the CW Package.

Thanks for the link. Yes, I have read through the manual, and I played through and read through the training campaign. Sorry to ask such newbie basic questions. I don't remember every single thing I read especially a new game. As for unit status, I was thinking about the icons, not the UI, that I know. duh.

Thanks a TON! so far guys, it's nice to see that all the help I gave other players over the years in ASL is being rewarded back. Karma, gotta love it. Also, it's amazing how much more you can get out of a manual after spending 10 hours playing a game. And yes, this game is eating my life right now. Thanks!

Hi guys, Having played Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) for 20+ years and having that as my only point of reverence to this game, I was wondering about some things in this game. AFVs: Is there a way to order tanks to just fire their MGs at a target? Ht: Can you reload infantry on a halftrack? Can Infantry inside a Ht fire out of that vehicle or do they need to 'Open'. Buildings: From what I've seen so far, if there are no windows on a side of a building you cannot see out that side. Correct? Wish the floating icons told you what level the guys where on. Icons: Wish the icons told you if the unit was 'out of action' in other words what state you can determine it is. LOS: so far it's been mind-boggling to me in this game. I'm at a loss as to why some units can see others while another can't. Bocage is the most confusing, but hey it was in ASL too. OBA: Don't leave home without it!! I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions, thanks for the help. Great Game!

I'm not confused, never mentioned the PIAT, haven't even played with the Brits yet. What I've seen is German infantry (mine in Barkman's Corner) blow the crap out of Shermans with most of the shots coming from buildings. In another scenario I had a Panther shot up badly by BAZ coming from buildings. Now if I didn't see that correctly or something fine, but that is what it looked like to me while watching the replay. Hard to tell sometimes because this game doesn't let you see why someone died sometimes, it's very unforgiving. Love it so far. My biggest problem with the game so far is how much ASL I've played in the past and getting used to the 'time' difference. One Minute is NOT a turn - I have to keep telling myself before I rush everyone into the fight.