Bulletpoint

Yes, I think that would go a long way to make them at least viable weapons. A simple "max range" rule would do the trick, at least for the long distance problem. The short distance issues would remain. You're right that it's possible to split off the assault team and use Target Light for the firebase, but what happens when your firebase or any other team suddenly spots an enemy hiding in the forest? Rifle grenade time. Right now, if I could choose to simply drop off all rifle grenades before the mission (not to substitute for anything else, just to get rid of them), I would do that. Call the EOD.

So, talking about rifle grenades in forest... I need to use the regular "target" command to throw hand grenades at an enemy contact, but then my troops start firing rifle grenades, straight into the trees in front of them, killing their own guys. Shouldn't rifle grenades benefit from the same rule as other weapons, where they can't hit the trees immediately in front of themselves? (so that infantry and tanks can fire out from forest, assuming they are intelligent enough to position themselves so that they don't shoot straight into a tree...). Or use the "hand grenade rule", where a team is generally protected against its own grenades, because it's abstracted that troops take care to not hit friendlies. Also, I guess in real life, rifle grenades were useful to shoot through a window of an occupied building, or into a trench, or a wooden pillbox, or maybe at a vehicle (with AT ammo). But that's not how troops use the rifle grenades in this game. No, they either fire them all at long range against infantry, without a chinaman's chance of hitting anything, or they fire at close range, hitting themselves. In the rare case where they fire at a medium range, they are still worse than useless, since at that range, rifle fire would be much better. It takes a lot longer to fire a rifle grenade than to fire a bullet, and a bullet works just fine against an enemy soldier. In the timespan they are fumbling with their "fireworks", they could have gotten maybe 2-3 regular shots off. So, the rifle grenades turn into a liability. It would be so great if the TacAI would just save those darned things for what they are actually good for...

Higher level headquarters can serve as commanders for lover level troops, if they are close together. So, your broken squad was rallied by the Coy HQ. You can also use this if one of your platoons lose its leaders, by rushing out the company leader to take command. Doing so is risky though, because you don't want to lose your company commander. But if you keep the XO team back in safety, they will take over if the company leader is killed.

Update: Vanir has confirmed the issue and sent it on to BFC. Thanks.

it's on the Repository.

A number to tell you how many shells a fire mission will expend. Currently, you can only choose options such as "Quick" or "Short", but you have to know from experience how much ammo will be expended. It also varies a lot depending on artillery type. Or maybe make it so that the mission durations will always expend a fixed percentage of the available shells. So that you'd know that you could always make, say 10 "quick" missions, or 3 "medium" ones.

I just had the chance to read it now, thanks for the link. Never knew this story. Sometimes, reality really is stranger than fiction. I'm very fascinated by alternative history. That good Brit was haunted that he had shown decency to a monster, but who knows what kind of world we would live in today if he had pulled the trigger... history might have taken an even worse turn for all we know.

Sounds really good, I fully agree with this style of scenario design. Bodes well for the scenario pack.

Also, the changes in version 3.0 includes changed rates of fire for automatic weapons, if I'm not mistaken. Not sure what the changes are, if weapons fire faster or slower, but it might have something to do with infantry casualties.

Seems he has a stiff... upper lip.

Can't upload here, file size too big.. please send me your email by PM, and I'll send you the save.

I think troops can rally themselves, without any leader, but it just takes longer. Maybe they even rally faster on their own than when they have a -2 leader nearby.

@RockinHarry From your testing, what is your impression of the effects of squad Leadership compared to Motivation? Are there some overlaps, or are they two completely different things? I was thinking maybe Motivation is basically the same as Leadership, but "built into" the unit, whereas Leadership only gives the bonus as long as the leader himself is alive. So, having a +1 Motivation squad would always be better than to have a +1 Leadership squad, if all other factors were equal...

Or, maybe this feature of the PIAT is simply not modelled in the game

Oh, they are not my videos! I just linked to them because I thought they might help you out. But yes, I remember the mines in the field. If I remember correctly, there's only one single square of them, so you can go around them. And yes, there's an AT-gun pointing down the road (and more nasty things at the road bend). It's not advisable to send your armour that route.

The StuG used to have a problem where the crewmemebers would poke a bit through the vehicle, so that they could be hit by small arms fire. I think the American M8 Scout Car has the same problem, as I just lost two crewmembers that should have been inside the hull: the radio operator and the driver, both killed to MG fire from 6-800 metre distance. I know the M8 is not a tank, but there was not a single "penetration" message. The vehicle was unbuttoned at the time, but the only crewmember shown poking his head out is the commander, and he survived. So, either it seems there's the StuG bug, or that the driver and radio operator are in fact also opening their hatches, even though this is not shown in the game? I have a save game if anyone would like to take a look at it...

Well, I care. Maybe it's because 90% of battles take place around noon, when the issue is not apparent? Should be easy for BattleFront to correct the problem, as everything is in place - it's just a matter of switching coordinates.

Apologies, I mistook it for another mission that also starts with E and ends with -ville But take a look at this video about the mission, actually it's in 5 parts. Maybe you get some ideas from that.

I'm wondering how this bug never got noticed before.. Fighting a dawn quick battle, the sun comes up in the east, so east-facing hillsides should be lit up, and west-facing hillsides should be in shadow. But it's the other way around. Shadows from troops, vehicles, trees and buildings are not affected, they fall in the right direction. Tested using the latest version: 3.11.

Funny you should ask.. I just passed it finally, after many, many tries. It's one of those "puzzle maps" where you have to figure out what the designer wants you to do, and unless you do exactly that, you're not going to beat it. The key to solving the mission is to make a flanking move towards the hill with the 88s. If you do this very fast, you can knock out the two bunkers and set up your two 76mm Shermans to hit the German counterattack in the flank when it arrives. Then it's mainly just a matter of shooting fish in a barrel. It's not very satisfying to beat the mission in this way, as the only way you can pull it off is because you know the road is clear all the way to the flanking position, and you know a counterattack is coming exactly there. You only have this information because you have been replaying it over and over. If you play the mission without this knowledge, you need to slowly scout your way, and then there's no way you'll make it in time. Once the enemy tanks and infantry are in position in the hedgerows, it's basically game over.

I believe this is what they call Southern hospitality?

Congratulations. Also, the difficulty levels don't really affect the difficuly. They are more like optional realism levels.

Turret facing command.

There's no easy solution to bocage fighting, but basically the first thing you should try is to flank the enemy. That's the optimal thing to do. If you can't do that, then the next best thing is fire superiority, simply bringing more guns to bear on them than they can fire back. Then let them shoot it out for some time (no area fire! once the enemy ducks down behind the bocage, they become nearly invulnerable to small-arms). He'll take more casualties than you and eventually start to fall back from the hedge positions. Then you can advance. But remember that you set yourself up for a mortar strike when you concentrate your forces to achieve fire superiority. If you can't get definite fire superiority, but still have a good number of guns on the line, then try area firing on the enemy for some time to suppress them, while you move up an assault squad to grenade them at close range. It's possible to do it without too heavy losses, but it's always risky. Expect losses. Once you get close, even suppressed enemy squads often fire back in last-ditch self defense, or manage to throw a grenade.

Nice crossing of infantry across the road in front of the Sherman, I wonder if that distracted it for a second or two?