[Epic Mockumentary Video Series]

I'd love to seem them, too, but also find them marked private.

[Need Advil after Using Camera Commands]

Thanks guys for all the answers.

I'll try the different approaches recommended, and it's nice to see the variety of approaches employed by different players.

I confess I do have a mouse, but have been lazing on the bed with my Mac to read the news and such. I can see I need I whole new approach now and need to reform my ways. Our kitten has also been jumping on the keyboard, which can throw one's game off (OK, that was my last excuse).

Clearly, it's time to clear off the kitchen table, put the MacBook down and get back to using a mouse. Touch works for Combat Mission: Touch, but not so well here.

Thanks again for the thoughtful answers,

Bill

PS I think I'd read about that 'dynamic control' but thought it was with respect to the sides of the screen and how far you were from the center, the further the faster, but I clearly got that wrong! That was one of the problems then...

[Need Advil after Using Camera Commands]

Hi, more Newbie questions again, this time about camera controls.

There seem to be a dizzying array of commands. They rapidly swing my view from one side of the battlefield to the other, and I often need Advil after playing a while, detracting from the intellectual beauty of the game.

What I'd like is to just use the arrow keys:

^

|

<-- * -->

|

v

for 2-D control, plus one modifier key for 3-D (e.g., ALT for up/down), and another for rotating (e.g., CONTROL for clockwise/counterclockwise) around, and a last one (e.g., SHIFT for pitch up/pitch down).

It's too bad I can't assign to the arrow keys, or assign modifier keys to the regular letters. With the latter, I could use the default movement commands and then use shift+letter for direct commands.

I try the screen edges and rapidly move over the battlefield and end up beyond the edge. I try rotating and it happens so rapidly I literally do start to get a headache.

Sometimes I end up looking at the flowers or several hundred feet about the battlefield.

Does anyone have suggestions of easy, or favorite, ways to move the camera around the battlefield?

Most likely this is covered in a previous thread, so feel free to refer me there.

Thanks,

Bill

PS I'm not using the mouse now, just the track pad. Also, if anyone has had any luck with key macro programs such as Quickeys, for allowing assignments to arrows, or using modifier keys with letters, please let me know!

[mortors denied]

Here's another mortar question, perhaps answered elsewhere, but as I am new I seem to be allowed a certain amount of ignorance :confused: for an undetermined grace period:

Suppose we have a spotter on the left side of the game area. He sees a target. There is no mortar near him, but there is a mortar on the right side of the game area that cannot see the target.

Can the spotter pass a message up to the highest level HQ, on the left side, assuming an unbroken chain of command, who can then pass the command down to the mortar, on the right hand side, again assuming an unbroken chain of command?

That is, viewing the chain of command as a graph, if you have a spotter on one leaf of the graph, and the mortar on another, and no breaks of C2 between the root (an HQ) and either of those leaves, can the spotter call in the mortar, no matter where they are?

I suppose I am confused as whether units can first pass commands up the chain of command and then have them relayed down elsewhere, as I believe happens in spotting, at least in some of the lower levels of game skill that I am happily inhabiting now.

Or, on the other hand, if commands only flow down, and never information up, in which case information would also never similarly flow up one side and then down another.

If a lieutenant can handle a compass skillfully, I'm sure they can handle very simple graph theory. A large chalkboard on the battlefield would suffice, and be easy to read for all troops.

Thanks!

Bill

[Yet More Newbie Questions!]

Thanks, all ! I think I have enough to keep me busy for a while trying out all the welcome advice. Seems the Nazis are having another ice cream social at the Panzers-R-Us store (the one next to the hotel), so I shall try out my new lessons now! — Bill

PS Oops, I just thought of one more question. Put I don't want pose it that way, having used up all my questions for the day. Here is my key assumption so I can play CM:BN with my cousin in England: We can both play with the same PBEM files, even though I am on a Mac and he is on a PC. If that is incorrect, please someone disabuse me of the notion, otherwise I shall happily proceed with this belief.

[Yet More Newbie Questions!]

This is a good general infantry movement tip, not just for mortars -- don't QUICK or FAST units all the way up to the a tall bocage line if you can avoid it; HUNT or SLOW the last action spot if at all possible. This makes it much less likely the unit will be spotted by any enemy units on the other side of the hedgerow before getting set up in firing positions.

A related tip is that if you need to do a lateral repositioning along a tall bocage line, don't move the unit right along the edge of the bocage, as this way the unit will probably be seen (and shot at) by any enemy on the other side of the bocage while moving. Instead, pull the unit one action spot away from the bocage, and then move them laterally. This way, they will usually drop out of LOS of any enemy on the other side of the bocage while moving.

Thanks, all. I'm still a bit confused, e.g., as to:

• what an action spot is (a field behind a bocage hedgerow?)
  
  
• how the enemy could see troops move behind a bocage hedge. I thought that would block all sight.
  
  
• how, once the mortars are positioned, one can get any observer to get LOS on a target without getting killed.
  
  
• also, should I use smoke to set a screen to move my infantry behind it?
  

Thanks, guys!

[Yet More Newbie Questions!]

1) I use a Mac and DELETE works. Sometimes you need to press twice, though.

2) only if there is a hole - if you are talking about high hedges. Theres two sorts of low hedge: thin and wide. Thin can be jumped over, wide not. You'll get the difference after a while.

3) click on a waypoint so it lights up (the line also gets thicker). Then you can attach orders to that waypoint.

4) take your time to find out from where the fire comes by sitting behind the hedge for a few minutes. Then you have a target for your mortars and MGs. Haste kills.

Thanks, I got the DELETE key to work although it seems that I can't just tap it, but have to hold it down longer.

Before getting CMx2 I was attempting to use QuicKeys macros to reprogram the keys to my liking but I now see that is superfluous. I don't know if there is some interference, or from any other key assignments.

One anomaly is I can't get reverse view (normally V) to work, nor can I assign to it in the options where I can reassign other keys.

Has anyone run into that problem, or problems with key macro programs interfering with CM:BN?

[Yet More Newbie Questions!]

welcome! here you are one video from crossroads:

some others videos from a nam veteran : (there are six videos)

some good information from the "few good men pages" :

1)http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/threads/bocage-low-bocage-and-hedgerows.8356/

2)positioning:http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/threads/calling-poor-old-spike-positioning.9798/

3)how can croos what:http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/threads/who-can-cross-what.8379/

one wikipedia too: http://combatmission.wikia.com/wiki/Bogging

and of course a lot of good advices from veteran forum players...

welcome again!

Thanks! The video looks quite good, just watched the first 15 minutes, will catch up on the rest over the weekend. I appreciate the hospitality of everyone here!

[Yet More Newbie Questions!]

Greetings,

Last time I was here I was playing CMAK and it appears a few things have changed since then, one of which is I am now running on a Mac (MacBook Pro OS X 10.6.8) rather than a PC. My objective of course is to humiliate my cousin in England by learning the game better than he will. This time I won't even use ULTRA (convincing him not to use a password in PBEM )

OK, so here are my newbie questions:

1. On a Mac, I do not seem to be able to be able to delete the last waypoint in any way. Oh, of course the instructions explain to use BACKSPACE. But, eh, there is no backspace on my keypad. I try DELETE and that doesn't work. So how do I delete the last way point of a path on a Mac?

2. Can a squad move thru a hedge? I'm assuming a tank can flatten one, but I don't know if the soldiers care to jump over them.

3. Frequently, I'd like to provide paths for my infantry to move somewhere and then target something (e.g., a posh hotel the Germans are staying at). It's even better if I can have my tank move first and then blow up the hotel, while the Germans are having cocktails, rather than just gate-crashing with my infantry.

But how can I do this? As far as I understand if you target say 30 degrees relative to your infantry or tank then my targeting will still be 30 degrees relative once I end up facing the hotel, burger stand, whatever.

I suppose I could target straight ahead, knowing that I'll end up facing the target, but in that case I don't want my tank or infantry shooting straight ahead before it gets to the end of the move path (e.g., if friendlies are straight ahead when I start).

What to do :confused:

4. Finally, I'm playing the Crossroads battle until I get less than embarrassing at it. But I can't figure out how to avoid popping out of holes in the hedgerows the Germans have either covered with machine guns (if I use infantry) or an antitank gun (if I use a tank). Scouts, being a kind of infantry, fare no better. Yes, I know I'm supposed to use my mortars on the antitank gun, but first I have to find it and have LOS, which brings me back to the problem of having my scouts or HQ units creamed when they try to find it.

So, given a particular battle, such as Crossroads, are there:

a. Hints?

b. AARs from players?

c. Expert AARs showing you how to do it "right" ?

Thanks for welcoming me back into the fold. If all or some of these are already answered elsewhere, feel free to just point me in the right direction.

Bill