db_zero

Well maybe the TOW3 engine is not the way to go. I avoided it in the past when I read the issues users had getting it to start, but today I decided to give it a try... I just purchased Korea, downloaded and tried to run and it doesn't run. Not good when you spend $45. You buy, download and expect it to start up. I've tried running as admin, in XP compatibility mode downloading the hotfix and submitting a helpdesk ticket-which after years being released all of the above should not be necessary. Wierd as I have TOW Kursk, Caen and both run with no issues.

The better solution may be to do the opposite. SMGs should be limited to 75 or 100 meters by default and the use of firing arcs to SMG units for when you want to take the long range shots outside of effective range. If you could also take carefully aimed shots with SMG's in semi auto mode-if appropriate for the type of SMG carried and combine that with firing arcs we may have a solution.

CMVN the smell of victory... When you think about it the Combat Mission game engine is well suited to the conventional side of the Viet-Nam War that focuses on the major battles, skirmishes and operations. The TOW game engine where you have individual soldiers, vehicles and helicopters is well suited to the guerrilla warfare, special operations and other very small unit actions.

I did the OP prose was a little odd, but it was way past my bedtime of 9 when I read the OP. In the spirit of the thread I think the future of BF lies in space. One could argue CM is the spiritual ancestor of AH classic Squad Leader so why not do a game on space marines and bugs like Starship Troopers a book I read and a game I bought from AH, but never even got around to playing... Thats would certainly be a huge money maker. Get creative and base some of the game off the movie and include a pixeltroopen of space cadet Denise Richards and you'll have a sure fire winner. Who wouldn't want to see that Wild Thing DR run and gun? It might even be enjoyable to see her impaled by a bug or something else for that matter...

Viet-Nam had some epic battles. Tet Offensive, La Drang Valley, The 1970 incursion into Cambodia, the 72 Year of the Rat offensive. The Mekong Delta was also a hot spot. Many skirmishes and battles may not make the history books, but if you were there it was memorable enough. It was not just Guerrilla warfare. The NVA had some very tough and competent regular units and many of the people I know who fought there had a lot of respect for the NVA. They were good light infantry. Some areas saw use of armored forces. Done right, Viet-Nam would be an interesting subject. Unfortunately Korea is a forgotten war, but it holds a special place in my fathers heart. You will never see or read about his little battle in the history books or even online, but it means a lot to him and those who were there. Strange as it may seem I find Korea and North Korea a fascinating subject. As bizarre and weird North Korean is, I find it interesting. I would love to see Asia covered more, but its probably not going to be a good seller. I would like to see BF produce an open ended modern game with various forces from Europe, Asia and North and South American forces with a potpourri of battles and campaigns as well as tools to create your own.

FRAPs is free and pretty sure it has a screen copy function. Snag-it too, but you have to pay after a period or uninstall and reinstall There are other programs free and otherwise, but be careful as they sometimes have spyware. Theres the possibility of using cntrl-print screen and dumping it to paint. Never tried it so dont know if it functions in CM. you can always buy a 70 inch tv and hook your pc up to it

Hard for me to tell whats going on due to spotting. I can tell you from playing the German Campaign game as well as Green Hell, the German Paras are tough hombres and seem to have lots of firepower. Them also seem to be troops who will fire their weapons when you tell them to as well as when you don't and they see a target. They don't lack drive, initiative and fight. We're playing a 43 scenario so they are the cream of the crop. Not sure if the one I'm using are same ones who fought at Monte Cassino.

I assume the fact AI is programmed into the pixel troops is part of the reason for the difficulty? Games like Sudden Strike, Blitzkrieg and Command and Conquer don't have the same level of AI built into squads/fireteams/platoons so they don't have the problems that CM has to contend with? As much as I realize this is your teams pride, love and joy have you ever considered opening up the engine to modders and releasing tools to allow some tinkering? This is by no means a comparison or criticism of BF and the work you've done and the product you produced, but consider this... There is a disaster with another game/simulation involving Romans and to date the modders have turned a true cluster**** into a semi playable game and while patch after patch has been released and progress has been made, there is little doubt that until the modders take the helm you're stuck with a busted product. Even past game releases have been made far better once the modders did there thing and unfortunately parts of the game engines are hard coded in so to this day parts remain broken. I realize BF is a small company with limited staff and only so much can be done with such limited resources. It would be interesting to see what could be done if some outside assistance could be mustered.

Well I just pre-ordered this. Maybe we can get a Beta AAR to get a taste of what we'll get-or better yet let those who pre-order download the beta built and report back any bugs or issues they encounter.

Nope it was another game...unless this just happened again in the turn I've yet to replay!

Ill preorder. Will it be like MG, where I had to have 2 seperate installs to play existing pbem games until a update came out?

Be nice if you could just right click and drag to set some sort of line formation, then left click and drag to set the facing. Aside from being useful to sweep woods, it would be useful in urban combat.

This has already been requested, but I'll repeat. At some point it would be a good thing for a player to tell squads/units to advance in line, staggered or other formation-especially when using the hunt command. No rational, let alone experienced troops would advance in a direction where enemy troops are known to be in a column formation where one short burst of MG file will mow them all down. This just happened to me and my troops were using the hunt command with a very short move plotted. It was a split squad with 5 men and 4 got hosed. In real life, they not only would have been in a line or staggered formation, but 1 or 2 men would have advanced a short distance while the rest of the element provided cover. The 2 initial men who made the advance would have the taken cover while the rest of the element advance in pairs. This would have alternated continually... Unless I'm mistaken and the concept of bounding over watch was a concept that was not understood or practiced in WW2 at a very small unit level and grunts made it common practice to advance in column formation in close proximity to enemy forces.

Not sure if this relates to the artillery equation, but wasn't the German army heavely dependant on horses for moving and supplying artillery till the end of the war. It would seem to me that lacking trucks and prime movers would have some effect on the flexibility of artillery.

The second Tiger just died. A bazooka team hit it on the side in the lower section. Crew bailed and died in a hail of gunfire. Keep them at distance and supported by infantry and they should be fine. I'll have to try out some Shermans and see how they fare.

Yes indeed. I just ran the next turn and the King Tiger crew did go Chuck Norris on me. 5 Engineers facing them, covered by 2 me in a house facing the Tiger and the Tiger crew kills 3 of the engineers and is on their way back to Berlin untouched

Well I just setup a QB and ran a few turn some initial observations. The King Tiger II does indeed have a close defense grenade system. It used it on a bazooka team that took a point blank shot at spitting distance at the Tigers rear at a perfect 90 degree angle. The bazooka round penetrated the upper rear armor but did not knock out the Tiger. The KT's close defense grenade system dispatched the bazooka team. An accompanying AT rifle grenade team heaved grenades at the rear top engine section to no effect. The King Tiger which was right next to a building managed to rotate the turret counterclockwise. This would have been impossible at its current position as the long barrel would have been obstructed by the building. This is a flaw/bug. I sent a engineer team to rush the Tiger and gave it a target command. They managed to toss a demo charge that landed on the engine grill and kaboom the Tiger is dead and the crew bailed. I'm sure the Tiger crew will die, but who knows, maybe they'll go Chuck Norris on me and kill a bunch of my troops. 1 King Tiger down. I more left to kill....

Before the futile close assault with hand grenades a bazooka team got off a couple of shots at the Tiger I at close range and hit the beast in the side. No noticeable effect and the Tiger dispatched the intrepid bazooka team. It wasn't at a 90 degree angle the bazooka HEAT round hit so it may have affected the penetration. I may have noticed a couple of other things-this was against a Tiger I. It appeared that at spitting distance the Tigers main armament has some difficulty depressing low enough to engage. I also think, but can't be sure the Tiger I has some sort of close anti infantry defense mechanism. IIRC they had a grenade system that could be triggered remotely to combat infantry close assault. I'm not sure if that was also used against my close assaulting infantry, but I did see some dispatched with something unusual when they tried to close assault. In any event the Tiger parked next to some woods and my infantry heaved grenades to no effect then retreated to the cover of the woods. In my current game I'm dealing with a Tiger II. I may have to setup a QB to test out what I'm against...

Once upon a time I kept up with the latest development in CPU's and graphics cards, but these days not so much. I've owned NVidia and Radeon/AMD video cards as well as Intel and AMD powered computers so I'm not really brand specific. Honestly my current setup looks very nice, so I'm not really sure if a newer video card is not going to make a huge difference, but who knows. In any case Smith and Wesson may force my hand. Today they announced they will no longer sell automatics in my states due to the laws. I purchased a couple of Rugers a few months ago and shortly afterwards they announced the would no longer sell in my state. I just picked up a S&W MP22 and now S&W announced they won't sell here. I have my eyes on a Springfield Arms 40 cal to compliment my Glock and I'm afraid they may soon stop selling here so I may have to forgo the video card for now and buy the SA 40. Until I can move to a "Free State" I have to live under the draconian laws, so the video card may have to wait and I'll have to live with what I have.

There is a nice little town in the center of the map and some light woods surrounding it, It appears my crafty opponent is content to keep the King Tiger on the outskirts of the town and snipe away with the long barreled 88mm. I have played against the AI and close assaulted a Tiger I, but the hand grenades my infantry tossed didn't do much but attract attention. This was with the latest patches and MG module. Not sure if they were paras with demo charges if it would have made a difference.

Well that takes care of that. Didn't think he'd buy one, but didn't set rules to forbid it. It is raining, but not sure if will impede the beast. It would appear that engaging from the front is futile and the sides dicey. Bazookas will be as effective as spit wads unless they get lucky and destroy the treads....

How accurate is it? I'm in a h2h quick battle and see a King Tiger in the distance. I know in real life grunts would often report MarkIVs as Tigers. If it is a Tiger2. That could be trouble.

It would be nice to see the CW troops use AT rifle grenades, but I can't recall seeing them equipped with em like American grunts. Other hand devices would also be nice. I can't imagine an Eastern Front without them.

I have a Radeon 5500 2 gig video card running in a liquid cooled AMD system with 8 gigs. It looks good and runs decently at 1650×1050 with graphics maxed out. It can get a bit sluggish on huge maps, but hardly show stopping. Im wondering if a newer video card is worthwhile or a waste of money.

Some squads have men that have AT labels but are armed with just Lee Enfields. What AT capabilities do they possess?