Bulletpoint

I unknowingly played a mission like that. I was so mad at the game for weird LOS issues. Think I got a major victory though (maybe it was just a tactical), can't remember for sure. The thought that I did play with trees turned off occurred the next day; I looked and the map looked completely different: Oh so those trees are why my troops got slaughted in some magic ambush.

Joy, just invested god knows how many hours on this scenario and we are 21 mins in and just talking to my oppo he said he could not plot move for Panther on the bridge. Hmmm I thought the Jeeps I have are OK.

Now I see this is broken! It was shaping up to be a great game but this seems to place it in the bin! What a waste. I guess I can not edit game in progress to fix the bridge?

Shocking and a real shame. I will let my oppo know and see if he feels he can win without getting his tanks across. Also seriously knackers my cunning plans!!

Can't believe the play testers did not try and get tanks across the bridge!!

Apologies for necro-bumping.

I did a search to see if this issue was known. It's a bit frustrating to discover it has been for nearly a year and NOTHING was done about it. If it's a bug or flawed map design then it hasn't been fixed.

Of course, I didn't know about it until I was nearly 40 minutes into the scenario. Needless to say, it was irritating to discover that the famous Son Bailey bridge that took-up an overlong 10 minutes in a "Bridge Too Far" to be built doesn't support armor! It appears that despite Elliot Gould's best efforts XXX Corps' tanks ain't getting to Grave.

In terms of gameplay, this breaks the scenario and makes it unplayable. The Brit tanks are stuck on one side of the canal and the Germans on the other. It's absurd because there are victory locations on both sides!

The problem is that CMBN's "canal" bridges don't support armor. I don't know if once upon time they did prior to some patch or upgrade, but they certainly don't now. The description in the scenario editor is vague. The canal bridge is not described with "W" for "wide" which according to the 3.0 manual is the only type of bridge that can support all vehicles (ie tanks). It's just "canal bridge" with no descriptor. Are wooden canal bridges supposed to support armor?

Anyway, aesthetics be damned! I used the scenario editor to transform that admittedly neat looking canal bridge into a plain, ordinary, mundane stone bridge with a big old "W" next to its name! It took me a minute. I have to restart the scenario, but it, at least, now has a working bridge!

"... I will move on from Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy to try some of the other releases.
But I don't know if I should go for Fortress Italy, Gustav Line, Market Garden or Red Thunder...."
 
It would be a shame to sidestep the new modern vintage on offer.... Black Seas
 
My prediction is Black Seas (vintage 2015) will be Big, with a Buttery Bouquet, a Baked Brilliance.... Smooth, Supple, not overly Sweet and a Spicy yet Finessed Finish....  

A few words of wisdom from me:
 
Combat Mission Shock Force: "Oh sh*t the mission briefing DID say I.E.D.s. Whoops. I guess I wasn't using that Abrams anyway."
 
Combat Mission Battle for Normandy: After playing The Blue and the Gray and The Road to Montebourg for three days straight, I emerged from the darkened confines of my bedroom with a thousand-yard stare. I then realized I hadn't eaten for three days.
 
Combat Mission Fortress Italy: It's the one with the Italians in it. That's all I know about that.
 
Combat Mission Red Thunder: This is the one you buy if you're a secret communist, or if you like to shoot communists.
 
Combat Mission Black Sea: If you read Red Storm Rising and think to yourself "I want to do that!" then buy this game!

A walk in the park. Unless you're the enemy.

while testing Studienka I had a couple guys run into a Russian tank crewman who went into surrender mode right after shooting one of mine.  Of course my guy being the civilized bloke he WAS, proceeded to buddy aid his comrade.  The Russian recovered his morale somehow and proceeded to shoot him..  I have asked charges be leveled according to the Geneva convention but so far no reply.

Tough question - Kohlenkau's description of CMRT is accurate ... unless you end up in forests/woods when major SMG armed Russians make things ...interesting.
 
I haven't had CMFI+GL myself long enough to judge properly, but it gives a taste of non-uber equipment ( funny Italian stuff, PzIII's etc. + learn to cope without Pzschrecks and/or fight Tigers ) and the joy (?) of fighting with a less than stellar TO&E of the Italians ( who can pull out some decent resistance nevertheless if you treat them more carefully ).
 
IMO, Market Garden adds more firepower to the Allied formations otherwise not very different, but it's hard to tell since CMBN is the one product I've kept up to date the longest.
 
CMFI can be more puzzlelike ( esp. if you're playing the Italians or have an Italian component ), but feels very different. More care needed perhaps.
CMRT is all about shock and awe ( to borrow the modern term ) - the Russians want to move in fast and blazing to keep the opposition off balance. If the German player can slow them down, it can go very very badly for them.

I'm a Eastern Front grog but I have to say I'm back playing CMFI and GL lately and think it is probably the best family balance wise.

sounds like wine tasting! "..crisp, with hints of cherry and black oak..."
 
CMRT lots of tanks, big maps, long LOS, summer now but winter with module
 
CMFI mountains, has snow if wanted, interesting forces, not like CMRT or CMBN.
 
Just buy them all.

That's interesting/odd. Usually people complain about their TCs being too tolerant of incoming smallarms fire... Were the PzIV particularly low experience or morale? But if the Shermans were unbuttoned, they might well have the spotting advantage over buttoned IVs, so the oddness starts to shift towards, "Why were the IV TCs so chicken?"

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-%E2%80%93-a-scenario-design-daraar/page-7#entry1440462
 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-%E2%80%93-a-scenario-design-daraar/page-7#entry1441254
 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-%E2%80%93-a-scenario-design-daraar/page-8#entry1441938
 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-%E2%80%93-a-scenario-design-daraar/page-9#entry1442801
 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-%E2%80%93-a-scenario-design-daraar/page-10#entry1443370
 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-%E2%80%93-a-scenario-design-daraar/page-12#entry1446224

Did a bit of a test to see. A British MG platoon with both its MMGs dismounted and other elements used to man the UC-carried MGs inflicted casualties at about 3x the rate on individual "houses" compared to individual "churches". The targets were 3-storey with an unsplit squad of Grenadiers on each storey. The Grenadiers were Elite, Fanatics with +2 leaders. The MG platoon was Regular Fanatics. The shooters never saw a single German; this was all area fire. While the Germans were "Hide"ing, they didn't take any casualties. As soon as they "unhid", they started taking them, in both building types.

Another test with Conscript grenadiers as the target dummies didn't change the casualty rate noticeably, nor did it mean the Tommy machinegunners saw anything more of them; still not spotted at a range of 200-250m after minutes of hammering away.

I actually found the missions more difficult.
After the first mission.. which I could only achieve a tactical victory  the next 3 were complete defeats.
 
Maybe you can explain your method, because I found the German campaign to ridiculous.  The Kreigsmarine, low ammo, no support with 1 company attacking Crack troops that happen to be able to have kill zones on all points of the map.. I did that mission 8 times, every single time complete defeat, too many casualties.  Its obviously correct to make them green, vs Crack Veteran troops but they are virtually in my experience at least worthless.  Attack from the left, 3 points where the US forces see you and suppress the advance.  Right flank same thing although the Germans can be attacked by 3-5 buildings.  Center... out of the question,  Using smoke was a joke as it goes back up the hill in your face, so you cant even cover your advance...
 
The Ambush mission I found to be a joke as well as the map is perfectly created for advancing armor, there are extremely few points to even put the 88 Flak gun, and the AI usually goes in the wood on the far right flank where the lightly armed Germans are overrun quickly by the mass infantry... which can spot your hiding defending troops pretty effectively from both sides of the map.. I have played that about 5 times and at the most I can get 2 Sherman tanks and a few of the AC.. no thanks to the 88 which is large and gets suppressed easily and then destroyed.  so you effectively have to use infantry and by that time they are mostly pinned down, suppressed or already annihilated, as the designer created the AI wonderfully to advance the scouts and infantry ahead of the tanks making sure that any Panzer Shrek teams, and infantry would be dealt with by the time the tanks roll.
 
Great maps, I like the use of the interesting equipment but if anyone has any pointers on how to actually make it thru the campaign at least maps 2-4 that would be great.  I feel they should have been stand alone missions and not a campaign. If the missions were so important as to affect the entire campaign in which the allied forces would make it over the Rhine I would have expected different scenarios.  I guess I feel that the German campaign was designed with only maybe a couple ways of winning, the maps themselves do not offer much for the player to do as it seems possibly there are only one way to achieve victory.  I guess when I create maps, they offer the player multiple ways to achieve their goals.  I feel like the German campaign was like going thru a tunnel, while on the other end is the enemy.. not that many choices on how to win.  Like the German defense of the bridge,  The right side of the bridge gets completely overwhelmed in infantry at the end, and by the time you get reinforcements they can not cross the bridge because its already being attacked on the left.. Right side gets overwhelmed and again no time mission ends and you get what you get. 
 
Thanks for posting any hints, although I am a veteran player, I don't mind being critiqued.  I guess I perhaps do not enjoy such linear maps where there is only one way to successfully achieve a victory.

The next patch should make HE a little more effective.

Ok I figured it out the engineers do not search for mines using the mark mind command they have to sit in one hex for hours and hours then they see the mines then they can mark them. "This command enables engineer units to detect and ....." This is completely bogus statement in the 3.0 manual it does not allow them to detect mines 

I think we've had this problem for quite some time: halftrack and AFV crews getting killed by bullets, because they're unwilling (for AFV commander and HT gunner) or unable (HT passenger) to duck their heads under hails of bullets.

I propose we introduce a suppression mechanism for exposed vehicle crews similar to infantry, but instead of reducing them to the state of "cower", vehicle crews will be prompted to "sit back" into their buttoned positions when under suppression. When the hails of bullets have stopped, they pop back up by themselves, with no player intervention: just like with cowered infantry.

AFV commanders do button themselves up currently, but it is way too late. It looks like the game engine do not exert the same level of suppression to AFV crews compared to out-in-the-open infantry, as their suppression level only goes up when hit by a large enough cannon round. But for an unbuttoned TC or gunner, they should be treated like exposed infantry.

And yes we can already do this for HT gunner and AFV commander with manual control, but apparently it is not in a timely fashion when a turn is in progress, and it is tedious when there're lots of vehicles under your command.

For HT passenger, the space in the back of HT is cramped, so it would be uncomfortable for the riders to always hunch down. But they should... under bullet fire. When the bullet fire stops, they pop back up to stretch their limbs, which makes sense.

And maybe it can even be copied to tank riders in CMRT. At least hunching down reduces their target cross section when getting shot.

The details need to be hashed out for sure. Most obvious one: suppression level usually applies to an entire squad, but how to apply it only to the commander/gunner. Maybe the game engine can assume a split squad between him and the rest of the crew when an unbutton command is given... or something like that. It certainly requires some effort to implement this but I really hope BF can consider it for the next engine upgrade.

Maybe to represent that many of the rounds might already have been fired off against aircraft? The 88 was originally meant as an AA-gun.