MOS:96B2P

I like your COA Decision Matrix. Back in the day we used a weighted matrix based on the commanders guidance (if I remember correctly). Look forward to watching how all the planning and paragraph three of the Opord plays out on the field of battle.

This reminds me. I was practicing using demo charges in bunker assaults and noticed that the demo charge count was also deducted at the start of the playback phase. Below are some of my screen shot/notes from the practice.

What RepsolCBR, womble and IanL said. Below is a screen shot from CMBN of the concept in action. All kinds of cool stuff in this game.

You are prompted to set the skill level at the beginning of a mission. Generally, the more difficult the skill level the longer the call times for artillery and air support. (time delays) Buddy aid takes longer. Spotting is different on different skill levels. There are five different skill levels: Basic Training This is the easiest setting. - Spotting information is instantly shared among teams (aka “Borg Spotting”) etc.. Veteran - Spotting information is distributed among teams using the standard Command & Control rules - Artillery and air support arrives faster than in real life Warrior More realistic time delays for a number of tasks and events. Elite - Enemy infantry icons are always the plain “soldier” type. Iron Introduces special restrictions on what the player can do and when. There are many additional differences between the different skill levels. Page 28 of the game manual goes into all the details.

The default position of the turret is straight with the hull. If you give the Face command (say 90 degrees right) The hull with the turret will turn together at the same time in the same turn. Actually the hull is turning and the turret is just maintaining it's default position relative to the hull. (The tank rotates 90 degrees in place.) This will get the job done but many times this is a slow way to turn the vehicle if you are taking fire. If possible I try to Quick the tank and give it a tight set of curved waypoints so at the last waypoint the tank and turret are both pointing in the desired direction. Usually quicker than a Face command. I hope that answered your questioned and helped. weapon2010 you probably know this next part but I will add this additional information in case somebody else is interested: The turret can be locked to a position other than the default position by using a Target Arc. If you give the turret a 90 degree right Target Arc the turret will stay at this position relative to the tanks hull as the tank moves about the battlefield. I like to use this in shoot and scoot situations. Example: I have a tank behind a building. There is a target around the corner and down the street to the left. Target Arc left 90 degrees, Fast tank out from behind building, Pause 15 seconds, Target Briefly 15 seconds at the Pause waypoint, Reverse back behind the building. Target Arc and Face cannot be used at the same waypoint. Just one or the other.

There is also The Road to Montebourg *Redux* at the Repository.

Rough-Bocage-Water 1158 x 704 003 This one is pretty cool also. And there is this one. Also this. And several more I have yet to get to.

SPOILER ALERT ////////// ////////// /////////// ////////// ANA Platoon, with the assistance of engineers, take and clear the final objective. Objective: Suspect Compound #1. After taking the final objective I waited a few turns and went one minute into the red (extra time) waiting for the game to end. When it did not end I hit cease fire. To my surprise I had a Major Victory. With my casualties I thought I would be lucky to get a tactical victory. Very nice scenario. During the terrain walk, after the battle, I discovered many IEDs laying about the battlefield. Those had the potential to cause me a lot of problems. I am sure my units moved over many of them and even went firm next to some. Such is the luck of battle. Also noticed these guys during the AAR terrain walk. I might have to take another hunting trip. Very nice scenario. Highly recommend it.

The lost platoon. I only got part way into this video (Internet connection bad today from ice/snow storm) but it looks really interesting. I will come back to it later. I see it was made or broadcast by the BBC. When the videos are running better out here maybe I will see what else they have to watch.

Just FYI the poll only allowed one vote not two. My second would have been for French resistance.

Okay, I took another look. There is no option for what order the maps are displayed in. (I was thinking of the option for what order saved games are displayed.) The maps are not scattered about as much as I thought. Some of them are located just before the Holland maps and the remainder are at the end of the list. As womble pointed out the naming convention is also different which make the new maps stand out from the old ones. As long as I am taking screen shots here are a few shots of a new map. Very nice job!

This would work. But my maps are scattered about and mixed in with the old maps. I wonder ................ there is that option for what order maps are displayed in ....... maybe I have mine set different? I will have to give that a try.

Yes, this. I am just reluctant to try it without any adult supervision. Anybody know how to make this work?

Mark, Very nice maps. Thank you for taking the time to make them. I took some of the maps out of the zip folder and dropped them into the QB maps folder. I had some difficulty locating them when I loaded up a QB. Is there a way to isolate these maps in the QB folder and still have them load and work properly when a QB is played? My method for now is to record the name of the new maps and scroll through all the maps until I find one. I am thinking there must be a better way.

I found it on page 73 of CMBS manual: TRPs also double-function as “ambush” markers for regular troops and vehicles. When soldiers fire their weapons at a target near a friendly TRP, they are much better at estimating the range correctly.

Following up: In CM Battle for Normandy v3.11 Engine 3 I had US Platoon HQ teams request fire support from the same 105mm howitzer battery. All teams had the same soft factors with the exception of experience. Motivation: normal / Leadership 0 / Fitness: fit. The following are the results. Elite 13 minutes Crack 13 minutes Veteran 13 minutes Regular 13 minutes Green 15 minutes Conscript 18 minutes I thought it use to be that a Bn HQ could call for fire faster than a Plt. HQ and a HQ in a command vehicle faster than one not in a command vehicle. In CMBN it appears the only difference is with green and conscript HQs. Just when I think I am catching on to the game mechanics I find out I am wrong again...............

I make sure the action spot of the foxholes is highlighted and then click on it. After that the Face command can help some. Also, if your not already doing this, you may want to split your squads into teams so everybody gets a spot.

I think you may be on to something reference the experience of the unit and call times. I will give that a try when I get a chance. When a HQ units radio is lost (probably failed to buddy aid it off the dead RTO) I think they can still call for fire since a land line wire radio is somehow abstracted in the game. I have lost RTOs but never had a HQ unit without a lost radio call for fire support. In those cases I think my CO was KIA with the RTO.

That was a good idea. I added a Forward Observer. In CM Battle for Normandy v3.11 Engine 3 I had the following teams request fire support from the same 105mm howitzer battery both in and out of the command track. All teams had the same soft factors, Experience: veteran / Motivation: normal / Leadership 0 / Fitness: fit. The following are the results. Back Pack Radio SPW 251/3 German Bn. HQ 14 minutes 14 minutes German Co. HQ 14 minutes 14 minutes German Plt. HQ 14 minutes 14 minutes German FO 9 minutes 9 minutes In CM Black Sea v1.00 Engine 3 I had the following teams request fire support from the same 105mm howitzer battery both in and out of the command track. All teams had the same soft factors, Experience: veteran / Motivation: normal / Leadership 0 / Fitness: fit. The following are the results. Radio /PDA Stryker Cmd. Veh. US BN. HQ 10 minutes 9 minutes US Co. HQ 10 minutes 9 minutes US Plt. HQ 10 minutes 9 minutes US FO 6 minutes 5 minutes It would appear there is no advantage to using command vehicles in CMBN. However there is a small advantage to using them in CMBS. Different level HQ units in both games appear to have the same call times however Forward Observers are quicker. Not the way I thought it worked but unless I am missing something that appears to be the way it is.

That explains it. In any case, I look forward to maneuvering units across said fields.

My understanding is that there are four different soft factors: Experience, Leadership, Motivation (morale) and physical fitness. I think motivation (morale) has to do with how a unit sticks to it's orders for better or for worse and related to sticking to orders is how they hold up under fire before breaking. So using my troops as an example a veteran troop with +1 motivation would have the experience to know better than to follow my orders but because of the +1 motivation would probably follow my orders anyways. (Then after he was KIA his regular, -1 motivation next in command would take the team and get out of dodge while I cursed at the monitor)

mj, it may come down to this. Does not seem right .............. I even remember clicking different command units to see which one could get fire on the target sooner. I thought higher up the chain the quicker the arty would respond. Or maybe our memory ...............

No. Whoever is promoted up into that spot will have his own modifiers that will be passed down to the rest of the squad. Like when a +1 tank TC is KIA the gunner takes over who may be -1 or 0 or whatever. As for your first question, experience does not equal leadership. Just like when we have been in a job where some people had several years experience. Some of those experienced people were good leaders that you liked to work for and others you would dread the day when they were in charge. But they all had several years of experience. For your second question, I am not sure in terms of game mechanics how that is portrayed.

I was under the impression that when calling for artillery there was an advantage to calling for artillery from a command vehicle as compared to just using a backpack radio. I looked into this and could find no advantage. I also used Platoon, Company and Battalion HQ teams with the same soft factors in iron mode. They all called for fire from a 105mm Battery. The time was always 14 minutes. It did not matter if it was a platoon HQ team using a backpack radio or a Bn. HQ team inside a SPW 251/3 the time was 14 minutes. This was in CMBN v3.11 Engine 3. Am I missing something? Maybe there never was a difference? There was not even a difference in time between a platoon and Bn. team. I must be doing something wrong. Just does not make sense.

You are correct. In We-Go the Evade command works during the command (orders) phase. If the troops do anything foolish during the 60 second action (movement) phase in We-Go I have learned to scream at the monitor. In a few instances I think this helps. (Helps me get a WTF look from the wife)