Bulletpoint

I think you might be mixing up Danish and Dutch

I think that's the reason. But it probably also costs them sales to stay on the ancient and buggy engine. At least it plays an important part of why I never bought more of the games than I did, despite liking the gameplay.

If they do a new game set in modern Afghanistan, I hope they include the Danish forces. Not only because I'm from here myself, but because we are the country that has suffered the heaviest losses there, when compared to the population size. Denmark, 1 per 177,000 (31 deaths)Estonia, 1 per 186,000 (7 deaths)United Kingdom, 1 per 224,000 (272 deaths)Canada, 1 per 236,000 (140 deaths)United States, 1 per 302,000 (1017 deaths)Latvia, 1 per 733,000 (3 deaths)Netherlands, 1 per 810,000 (21 deaths) Numbers are from http://www.newyorker.com/news/steve-coll/burden-sharing

One of the things that really bugs me is how orchards (each tree in the exact middle of its square) will block LOF extremely well, even though there should be plenty of space between the trees to see and shoot. I believe it might be a quirk of the way the engine handles LOS centre-to-centre.

They are all basically the same game. Same technology but with different gear.

If you already placed a (working) target order, the unit will keep shooting even if the target is obscured by the resulting smoke. But if you then cancel the firing order and try to re-do it, you will find that it's now blocked by smoke.

I've seen this happen many times. It's one of my biggest annoyances with the game, good as it is. I think what happens is that the (basic, somewhat crude) logic that draws the targetting line looks at the target square and estimates that there will be line of fire - but then when the gunner actually tries to aim and fire, there's a separate and more fine-grained logic that kicks in and finds that something is actually just blocking LOF. Then the gunner adjusts his aim just slightly and tries again. Sometimes, that will result in a shot being fired, but in some instances, the vehicle is just trapped in the aiming-firing-aiming-firing loop and you have to reposition it or choose another target. If I am correct about these assumptions, I wish they would fix it somehow. Also if I am wrong I wish they would fix it.

Who cares? It's not like this forum is bursting with new posts anyway

Actually tanks arguably miss too often in this game. Not because of accuracy but because the high-velocity metal slug meant for punching through heavy armour will get stopped cold by a few twigs on a tree or a bush, or burst harmlessly against the leaves of a hedgerow. If Hitler had been a gardener, who knows if he might have won the war...

It definitely seems the most dangerous targets get priority. Or maybe it's based on who puts out more lead (and attracts more attention). Machinegunners for example will often get hit first, in my experience.

After digging more into this, I think the problem is actually that there's not just one "ghost HQ", but many. The problem units all have different superior command levels beyond Kampfgruppe Engel, because they come from different parent regiments. So, it seems as if the game thinks each of these units is connected to its own personal off-map Kampgruppe Engel, which again is connected to a different regiment: Pioneer platoon -> Kampfgruppe Engel1 -> Parent Regiment1 SS infantry platoon ->Kampgruppe Engel2 -> Parent Regiment2 King Tiger -> Kampfgruppe Engel3 -> Parent Regiment3

I also noticed that these problem units don't even get connection to Kampfgruppe Engel HQ when they are standing next to each other in the same square. It seems all these units are connected to another HQ with the same name but off-map. This "ghost HQ" will never share any spotting info.

In the scenario Kampfgruppe Engel, I noticed that several units in the Kampfgruppe are unable to share spotting with Kampfgruppe Engel HQ. This happens even though they are in radio contact (both units have radios, C2 info panel shows the little green dot). The problem only occurs with some units. These problem units display no red line to HQ, and clicking on the HQ name in the C2 panel will not centre camera view on the HQ as it normally does. All units are OK, stationary, radio operators are alive, and the radio is working. The King Tiger for example is supposedly connected directly to K.E. and shows the little green dot. But when clicking on the Tiger, no red line appears to HQ, and no information will be shared, even after waiting 30 minutes. Manually moving a unit with spotting info close to a unit having working C2 with K.E. transferred info to Engel in less than 10 seconds. Is this working as designed? If it's something about the rag-tag nature of a Kampfgruppe, I would expect the C2 button to be red when out of contact zu dem Hauptmann.

Not to say you're wrong, but just to offer an alternative take on it: That is not my experience at all. I've played many games with people I met on this forum, and they have all been good, worthy opponents.

I'm googling the game now and it looks a lot like a game I played back when I was 15, but that one was set in Vietnam. Can't remember what it was called, and googling "steel panthers vietnam" doesn't really come up with much. Never really understood the gameplay; I think I was a bit too young at that point.

Any chance of this fix getting ported to the WW2 games?

This is true, also tanks really like to shoot at close-by infantry, even choosing to do that over firing at nearby tanks. I've even seen tanks turn their backs to (clearly spotted) enemy tanks in order to fire at infantry.

Just out of friendly curiosity, isn't that basically the same as giving a direct fire order? I mean, if there are 5 potential targets and you only place your target arc on one of them, your unit will likely fire at that enemy unit. I'm reminded of that chapter in "The Little Prince" where he meets the king who orders everybody around, but only ever gives them orders to do the things they were about to do anyway...

I'd like to see a CM:Stalingrad with a big reworking of how buildings, ruins, fortifications, trenches, bunkers, etc. work.

When I started playing, I always assigned manual targets. Now I nearly always let troops pick their own. As you say, there's a cycle of enemies popping up, firing, taking return fire, ducking down, etc. But that's the kind of firefight that actually kills the enemies. The trick is to have fire superiority so that while the enemies are up, they take lots more fire than they are able to deal out themselves. If you just suppress them, they will often just stay down. Then if you have no assault team to flank and kill them, you're not gaining much for your spent ammo (of course if they are green or unmotivated, the enemies might be forced to fall back and take a morale hit, but you can't depend on that happening). I usually only do suppressing fire if I have a purpose with it. Such as moving troops across an open area or flanking. And it's rare that I suppress by squads without machineguns. Rifle fire is not very suppressive on its own, unless you have a full squad of fast-firing American rifles. With tanks, I sometimes do a manual targeting order if the tank has several targets in view. Just to make sure it doesn't decide to fire at a halftrack and ignores an enemy tank. Sometimes I will manually target a specifically dangerous tank to make sure it gets attention first.

I think that when you get an occupy objective, that's the same as a direct order to make sure that place contains literally no enemy units. A lone guy with a pistol (or more likely: a rifle) could pose a danger to any unit passing through that area later. But of course occupy objectives should be used sparingly. A good example of how to do that in practice is the mission Crossing the Dives from the Kampfgruppe Engels campaign. You're tasked to take a village, but there are actually only three occupy objectives in that town, and they are all very small. They are difficult to take, but once you get there, it only takes 1 or 2 teams to make sure the zones are clear.

I actually like that occupy objectives need to be completely cleared. If the objective is too big, I think it's the fault of the scenario designer.

That's impressive. I thought I had a critical eye

You said the reason for the slowdown was that the game loads and unloads textures several times. I'm responding that I think it's just because you're using bigger textures that the game has to load for longer. I have no interest in fighting anything out with anyone - my comment was only meant to be helpful.