Freyberg

I quite like the challenge of the Commonwealth, as well as having an affection for them. They're quite a 'stand-offish' force - they fight quite well outside SMG range, nice accurate rifles, those little 2" mortars that set up in seconds. They feel a little bit WWI-ish sometimes. But they're not strong on close assault. You have to be patient, and in QBs, I give myself plenty of time. For the complete opposite experience, I like playing the Soviets.

I play mostly with British Commonwealth forces of various sorts, who are similar although different. They have less infantry firepower than US infantry, but some nice units and vehicles - recon troops, flame vehicles, Fireflies and similar. I tend to play then quite stealthily on the attack - Firefly is a magnificent long-range sniper - and, yes, they do depend on artillery quite a lot, although in QBs I tend to choose the carrier-based on-map mortars when available, which add a lot of punch to the infantry.

I would like to see: a more active and responsive AI persistent map damage and the ability to play over the same ground in campaigns and even in QBs more contemporary building types and fences in the modern titles

Wonderful It's a great game and more sales will be better for everyone.

That looks lovely

I often play on maps, which I make myself, that are bigger than the typical CM map and generally have long sight lines. They're fun, but very challenging - it's much harder to approach a defensive position where the enemy can catch sight of you at 1000+ metres and has good LOF from 500+ metres than it is to attack a position such as the one in the map above.

That was a really good summary - thanks. Also, I like those old training films and that was a really good one, thanks again

Thanks for the response I'll probably run the big installer next time I want to play each game, although currently the new CMFI still has my full attention!

This definitely works - and it makes sense. Walking in the door one-by-one is asking for trouble

I didn't install the following three patches, because my version wasn't the one listed in the Version Requirement screen of the installer. CMFI & CMBN seem to have updated fine. I each case I loaded my most recent saved game and it worked OK. As for the three below, I thought I was up-to-date with purchased upgrades, although I haven't tried to keep up with free patches. However, I couldn't find a link on this page - https://www.battlefront.com/patches - to bring me up-to-date with version requirements for this current set of patches, Does this make sense and could BF advise on what to do? Thanks --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CMBS Engine 4 (v2.0 through v2.13) VERSION REQUIREMENT This v2.13 Patch of Combat Mission: Black Sea requires you to have a working copy of Combat Mission: Black Sea installed and updated to v2.12. It works for both base-game only installs as well as those that have Battle Pack 1. My version: 2.10 Didn't try to install --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CMFB Engine 4 (v2.0 through v2.03) VERSION REQUIREMENT This v2.03 patch of Combat Mission: Final Blitzkrieg requires you to have a working copy of Combat Mission: Final Blitzkrieg v2.02 installed. My version: 2.00 Didn't try to install --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CMSF2 Engine 4 (v2.03) VERSION REQUIREMENT This v2.03 patch of Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 requires you to have a working copy of Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 v2.02 installed. My version: 2.00 Didn't try to install

I agree - thank you for all the excellent communication you do

Wonderful Thank you very much!

That's just mean - and unfair. You can't possibly believe the programming in this game is simple. Have you ever played other strategy games??

I remember years ago I used to do relatively simple software development - websites with little databases and stuff (a job I came to hate) - and clients would get annoyed because my time estimates were often wrong. But often it was like doing a puzzle. It's like asking, 'how many minutes will it take you to finish the Times Crossword?' Until you solve it, sometimes you just don't know what the answer is.

I'm still buzzing over CMRV. I would never have named Indian, South African and Free French forces as additions I would love to see, but I've been enjoying them immensely since the game came out. What would I like BF to do next? Surprise me - I'm certain to love it Edit: Also, I know as a community we've been over this ground time and time again, but -- we know BF is a small company, they work for months and years bringing out these amazing, detailed, realistic historical simulations, recently we've had SF2 and RV, which were both fantastic and took huge amounts of work, but almost as soon as a release comes out, members of the community start griping that it isn't enough and that they've been waiting too long for some other detailed and amazing theatre. I just wish there were a bit more positivity in the community - we're all grown ups, aren't we? We realise that hard work is actually hard work...?

It could be either one, but I don't see the problem either way. The Panther had ID'd the rear tank, but that doesn't mean it had a clear view of the whole thing, just enough of it to ID it, like maybe the sillhouette of the left side of the turret, I dunno. It's not at all far fetched that there could be a tank in front of it which couldn't be seen, presumably in front of a part of it that wasn't seen by the Panther. Especially since both the T34s were in trees - and brush...

There's foliage in the way that will block LOS but not a shell...

Can you provide a screen shot...?

If it's mortars, you can get direct fire from a reverse slope position just short of being visible - it takes a little practice...

The right sort of infantry-only battle can give you something of a sense of WWI fighting, especially if you choose forces heavy in bolt-action rifles...

I've played many many hundreds of games of CM over the years, I don't see gun damage very often and it's possible there's been a direct, frontal hit to the gun as shown, but I don't recall it.

The CM licences are not restricted to one operating system these days.

I agree with this passionately! I would much rather see the AI do things automatically, so you map designers could set up a map with simpler orders, than have more and more detailed control.

I played that campaign a long time ago and really enjoyed it. The river crossing was the mission I enjoyed the most and the one that sticks in my memory. It was engaging - there was plenty to do, with mines and interlocking defences to pick apart - but I didn't find it that hard. The Soviets have plenty of troops, plenty of time, and you just keep piling it on (carefully of course) until the German force crumbles. As @Erwin said, you need to choose a flank (I went down the left flank first, but sent a smaller force down the right flank, then reinforced it from the left when I had broken through there). I found it historically educative, engaging, challenging but achievable, and fun. Admittedly this was quite a few years ago - perhaps subsequent updates to the game engine have upset the balance...

It doesn't worry me that the game does this - it's one of those necessary shortcuts and because of FoW and my usual lazy playing style, I seldom notice it happen. But here's the moment when the MG bearer gets killed and the MG instantly appears in the hands of the sole remaining team member. Later on I know I've killed the last member of the team, because the corpse still has the MG.