MOS:96B2P

Even for a rubbish player like myself "Iron" just feels right. I wouldn't go back to playing at a lower level.

It is actually less difficult, since you can instantly judge what is and isn't being seen by a particular unit.

Oh, man, this is gonna HURT!!! 
 

Yeah. I avoided iron for a while. Once I started using it, I haven't looked back. It really does make the game feel/play better. IMHO. It's closer to the ideal of wysiwyg.

after reading this, iron is the way to go

LOL.  Heinrich,  I was so impressed with the detail and the German and Russian phrases in the dialog bubbles that I completely overlooked the tactical problem until reminded by your post.  A freaking PANTHER!    

Oh Good Lord...a freaking Panther.  That ain't good.
 
I can't recall if Sgt. Rock's comics used much German in them.  Guess I'll have to pull out some of them and check, heh heh.
 
Nice choice of screen shots Bud.  You are absolutely right about the stories telling themselves.  I would start out with a simple cast of characters for an AAR using the names of the officers or squad leaders in CMBB or CMAK, and then the stories sort of took off by themselves as the game played out. 
 
Heinrich505

Elite is more forgiving in other ways. I have discovered through testing that Elite will allow visual C2 in situations where friendly units are marginally out of LOS.

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/116617-suggestion-for-a-better-iron-difficulty/?p=1555904

Very cool.  You keep getting more and more detailed.  Even using German and Russian words for the troops!  It is amazing the creativity the Combat Mission series of games sparks.     

Very cool.  You keep getting more and more detailed.  Even using German and Russian words for the troops!  It is amazing the creativity the Combat Mission series of games sparks.     

Looked and couldn't find these values anywhere. A list of QB battle sizes and types, and their corresponding amounts of purchase points. 
 
Attack   TINY   Defender- 738 Attacker- 1164   SMALL   Defender- 1185 Attacker- 1908   MEDIUM   Defender- 1945 Attacker- 3175   LARGE   Defender- 3236 Attacker- 5327   HUGE   Defender- 5432 Attacker- 8986   Assault   TINY   Defender- 695  Attacker- 1206   SMALL   Defender- 1112 Attacker- 1981   MEDIUM   Defender- 1822 Attacker- 3298   LARGE   Defender- 3027 Attacker- 5536   HUGE   Defender- 5076 Attacker- 9342   Probe   TINY   Defender- 780 Attacker- 1121   SMALL   Defender- 1257 Attacker- 1836   MEDIUM   Defender- 2068 Attacker- 3052   LARGE   Defender- 3445 Attacker- 5118   HUGE   Defender- 5787 Attacker- 8631   Meeting Engagement   TINY   951   SMALL   1547   MEDIUM   2560   LARGE   4282   HUGE   7209

Honestly, in all the reading I've done, I haven't found mention of platoon level radios for AIRs. Most of the tactical manuals as well seem to be avert to spreading a Company out on as much of a frontage as a regular rifle company, but then again the manuals are all a bit out of touch with the reality in the ETO. Its made even more confusing because those same manuals stress that Halftracks should only be used as fire-platforms in the most ideal circumstances; so they anticipated constant dismounted action. A few minutes of google-fu doesn't seem to give me anything that contradicts this, but I'm really not sure.
 
 
C2 can only be maintained from the mount, yeah. Normally it would be a bit of an issue, as the strong C2 links for the Americans are what I consider to be an advantage in game, but AIR platoons are large and make up for the lack of squad level firepower with the 60mm and double MMGs. They're hands down my favorite unit to play with, even in poor armored terrain, and I've never had problems co-coordinating fire support for them, but my Captains are often up front.

It has changed, as you suspect and found out. This was brought up recently in a thread, if it interests you.
 
It changed with 3.0; my suspicion was and remains that its just them incorporating a feature from Red Thunder (as in Soviet rifle platoons, the HQ is attached to the 1st rifle squad). Historically its a decent abstract. The Armored Rilfe Platoon's PNCO often traveled in a different halftrack for security reasons in practice but on paper they were deployed thusly. It also is one less team to micromanage when mounting/remounting units. Pre-3.0 the 1st Squad of this formation was under strength and led personally by the XO, who was one grade in rank above the other squad leaders.

Thanks for sharing.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/call/call_01-9_karagosian.htm
 
This is a very interresting article that I came across. I'm posting it here because it deals with exactly the situation we encounter in CM fights, the Platoon level. Usually, as far as MOUT is concerned, the focus is mostly on room clearing and the fight inside the building, but this article shows the importance of making sure you're getting to the building in the first place. You need to not only suppress and overcome the target building, you also need to consider, and suppress, any other buildings that the enemy could be using to fire on the assaulting squad. Just what you need to master to be successful in MOUT operations in CM.

Telling this one from the first person perspective I see and using some actual Russian words!  Maybe we will learn to swear in Russian by the end of this CAAR.  (Might have to include a rating on the cover)  PG13 or whatever.    
 
Be careful of that barn.  My experience is that barns offer concealment but are basically death traps that provide little cover.  However your opponent may have trouble area targeting the barn due to the wheat field.  Good luck.  See you in Berlin.       

I pick my pauses to create staggered movement between the teams. It is not based on spotting. If the enemy fires on one team there are one or more other teams not moving that can respond right away. If I wanted them just to spot from of place before moving on I would have much longer pauses. Perhaps even a minute. Do not think that if your unit has one spotting cycle they will see everything the can at once. It just isn't like that. Staying still for a while increases your chance of seeking something. Just like in real life. How much hidden stuff do you see when you stop for 10s?

Actually you bring up a really good point. Those scout team are on point. They are not really scouting. I am conducting a recon in force. So if I had sent a couple of scout teams into the forest they would have short circular covered arcs. They would also have 45s to a minute pauses too.

My goal with this set up is that once the enemy is encountered my men will engage and they have other teams ready to join in.

Thanks for the reminder because it is an important difference.

Notes: Showing movement orders and setting up the movement of a platoon
 
First thing I want to mention is: I play at all times with “show all movement paths” turned on. The hot key <alt>P toggles this setting. Turn it on and leave it there. This allows you to see what the movement orders are for your units whenever you have someone selected. The unit you have selected will have white circles for each way point at the end of each movement path segment while the movement orders for all other units will appear as just lines.
 
The next thing of note is that if you are moving with a chance of making contact with the enemy you need to be scouting and not everyone should be moving at any one moment. So, split a scout team from your lead squads or split the squads up totally and use one team as the scout team. That team should be moving while the bulk of the squad is not. Then once the scout team reaches a spot it should stay put while the rest of the squad moves up. Do not plot too many movement orders if your men run out of orders before the minute is up that is a good thing. Staying still allows them to spot the enemy. To manage the bounding movement of your split teams or even whole squads plot several short (two or three action square long) movement orders at each way point pause for a while. In clear terrain 15s is a good length but in rougher terrain 20s is better. Then stagger the start times for each team. Do not give the scouts an initial pause but give the follow on units a 15 or 20s pause at the start. When you watch the turn you should see the scouts head off and after a while they will stop and observe while the rest of their squad moves up behind them. Once the squad stops the scouts should start moving again. Repeat.
 

Figure 22 Bounding movement orders
 
The picture above is a composite of two teams’ movement orders. Because of the closeness it is a little hard to read but the scout team’s movement orders are on the left. They have no initial pause and a 15s pause at the first way point and a 20s pause at the second. The rest of the squad’s movement orders are on the right. They have an initial pause of 20s and a 20s pause at the next way point. This should mean that the scouts start out while the rest of the squad watches. About the time that the scouts stop for their first pause the rest of the squad will move forward stopping to wait at which point the scouts start moving again.
 

If there's ever CM: Fulda Gap I hope they make some sufficiently small town American looking buildings so we can recreate the 1989 US drive from St Louis, and the final encirclement of Soviet Forces outside of Portland Oregon in 1991.  
 
Not trying to harsh on people's more modern scenarios, just if there's a time period that meshed well with "America under attack" for me I feel it was the 1980's.  

I think you need the higher HQ for the C2 within the unit.  Example: Over on the left flank 1st platoon spots an OpFor tank.  This information is reported up to the Company HQ.  The info is then passed down to 2nd Platoon on the right flank.  Without the Company HQ this C2 link would be broken.
 
Using command vehicles in Black Sea will result in a slightly quicker call for artillery.  (No effect in the WWII titles)  See below link.
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/118608-command-vehicle-radios-vs-backpack-radios/
        
The Company support team (The XO Team) will take over from the Company Command Team if the company commander is KIA.  I sometimes delete the XO teams if I need the purchase points elsewhere.  If I keep the XO Team I normally use them as medics.
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/118325-xo-takes-over-from-kia-co/

John unfortunately CMx1 was before my time with this game.  As a result I am not familiar with the skill settings of the CMx1 game.  I read posts from you old timers about CMx1 and I am sorry I missed out on it.  Sounds like it had a lot of cool stuff especially considering how long ago it was originally released.  I read a thread just recently where they said a tank could push a second vehicle out of the way to open up a blocked bridge.  Fire in buildings (and I think fields?) that spread is another CMx1 feature that comes to mind.  Makes me wonder how cool CMx3 will be.  I am thinking something along the lines of the Holodeck on the Enterprise.       
 
 
Thanks.  This helps to explain where the verbiage in the manuals came from.  And I did not even think about TCP/IP.  Maybe in a future version of the manual they can change the wording some to differentiate between the different play styles.  Wow, Real Time Iron, now that is hard core.
 
 
Your welcome.  Now back to making those CAARs!!!   

This idea sounds interesting.  I look forward to it.  Will you wait for comment before playing every single turn or maybe every five turns or so?  Or maybe when decision points are reached.  I was just thinking it could become long and drawn out if you waited before every turn.  Especially in the first 10 minutes (turns) while the scouts are using the hunt command to find the defenders.  
 
In any case this is different and I hope to learn from it.     

IanL and I are trying a little experiment. We're going to play a CMBN mission with a DAR, but with a little twist: we'll be reading and commenting on each others' post as we're playing, and we invite everyone to post suggestions as well. Feel free to suggest strategies, tactics, orders, whatever you think we should do on our next turn.

Here's a bit of background on how this experiment came about. IanL and I are very good friends in the real world. As the forum regulars will know, IanL is a pretty serious CM player. He's a very active member on these and other boards, he's very knowledgeable about the game, and he's even written software to help players get more out of the game. I, on the other hand, am not that experienced with CMx2. While I own just about every CM game released by Battlefront (even the CMx1 titles), I've probably played less than a dozen CMx2 missions, all of them almost exclusively against IanL. To say that I get regularly pummelled by him would be an understatement.

During our last battle, we were discussing problems I was having as the defender. Clearly, everything was wrong: strategy, tactics, orders, etc. The chat eventually morphed into a broader discussion about how to get new players up to speed faster. Obviously, reading posts on the forums or on blogs (such as Bil Hardenberger's excellent Battle Drill) is a big help. But nothing really teaches something as complex as battle strategies and tactics like a skilled practitioner's experience. So we started comparing CM to other strategically and tactically complex games (like bridge or chess), and started thinking about how they train new players. One method they use is open play: a strong player plays against a newer player, and they talk aloud about what they're thinking and doing, and why. We thought this would be a good idea for CM, and that's how we ended up here.

Here's how we're going to proceed. IanL and I will follow the usual DAR format; we'll each start a thread discussing the mission from our respective sides. We'll provide screenshots and our thoughts on what we're PLANNING on doing and why. But before we actually give orders and send the turns, we'll read, comment and take advice from everyone on the boards, including from each other. We'll normally post our plans, and give forum members 24 hours to provide advice before playing our turns.

As mentioned in the inital paragraph of this post, if you have any questions or suggestions about anything we're doing, feel free to post. The idea here is to learn and get as much insight as possible into CMx2. There are a large number of skilled players, all with different strategies and tactics, tips and tricks, and I'd like to soak up as much as I can.

And remember, this is an experiment, feel free to comment on this idea as well.

This is the thread for my half of the experiment with @Method Gamer. The plan is to have me on the attack against him defending in the scenario Buying the Farm.  The goal is for this to be a good introduction for new players to how to play the game. Clearly my goal will be to execute a well thought out attack and use good tactics but the main purpose is to illuminate "the how" of playing the game.  We want to show how to use the game commands to guide your troops to bring your tactical decisions to life.

I know @Method Gamer in real life and we have worked together in the past but keep in touch now.  We live about a 10 minute drive away from each other.  Between himself and @Dungeon Tiger they introduced me to the CM series.  One day outside @Dungeon Tiger's office I heard them talking about a new version of one of their favorite games that had just been announced.  I'm not a big gammer (I only play CM games and the odd game with my kids but that is it) but I love hearing their stories.  But when I head about Combat Mission I could not believe it. They were describing the game I always wanted to play (I gave up miniature war games long ago due to lack of players and rules that got in the way and never did much for the fog of war).  So we bought the CM1x games CMAK and CMBB and the three of us played them the whole time we waited for CMBN to arrive.  Once CMBN arrived we never looked back.  Except I lost them, a couple of times.  They both gave up and stopped playing and started again.  I think this is due to the steep learning curve with the CM games.  I also think that the changes away from borg spotting were another large issue that @Method Gamer and @Dungeon Tiger had trouble figuring out how to play.  @Method Gamer plays a lot of Eve Online (I totally love to hear stories from that game) where he has been part of the corporation that teaches newcomers to the game how to play.  So, he has put a lot of thought into how to help people to learn to play.  In fact we have been discussing a couple of projects to help people learn.  This is just the first one that we are executing on.  To test the waters so to speak.

Over the last few weeks with the three of us playing against each other they hit problems and I shared solutions which is when @Method Gamer came up with first the idea that we should play an open game - like when you teach a new player poker by playing with everyone's hands exposed.  That quickly evolved into this concept.  Why play an open game between two of us and talk amongst our selves when we could do it with all of you?   More is better right.

So, here is the plan for this thread.  Both @Method Gamer and I will be posting and commenting in here (and his thread too).  This will be the place I post the AAR portions from my side of the battle but I want  you guys to join in with you tips and comments.  By all means talk tactics but more importantly talk execution share your tips on how to make the tactics happen.  Read both threads spill the beans - cause we are going to be reading both sides anyway.  Hopefully this will be a little different and helpful for future players.