Hi,
I just bought CMFI two weeks ago and despite the clunky controls I am really enjoying it so far. I really appreciate the degree of realism and the slow, tacticool gameplay.
Anyway I have a problem/complaint.
While I am new to the Combat Mission series I have some basic knowledge about infantry tactics and I am used to milsim games.
What really annoys me with Combat Mission is the fact that I seem to always have to attack against overwhelming odds. Most offensive missions I played have a force ratio of 1:1 or 1:1,5 in favor of the enemy and if that wasn't enough the enemy has most of the time several advantages. I will outline this a little bit:
I played the allied campaign "Troina" and while the first mission went rather succesfull the second mission was a nightmare.
I had to restart the mission after my first try to take the hill miserably failed.
The second attempt was a slight improvement...However, I am supposed to assault an entrenched, company sized enemy forced which is equipped with MGs and heavy guns with just two (or three) Infantry platoons and a platoon of totally useless halftracks. I mean these are not realistic odds, are they?
You would want to have a numeric superiority of 3:1 or even more.
So the mission was a pain, I had to advance superslow, calling in massive artillery strikes and cover every small advance with smoke. After more than an hour I was able to take the first line of defences with my infantry (artillery did the most killings while the infantry was limited to shoot some demoralized survivors).
In the end I almost ran out of time and out of artillery shells so I had to assault the peak rashly which led to high casualties.
The third mission seems to be of the same kind, you have to assault a well equipped enemy sitting on a hill top with just a weak infantry force.
I hope nobody gets me wrong, I like the game and most of the time I enjoy it, but it seems to be unrealistic if you have to achieve ridiculous kill/death ratios of 4:1 or 5:1 to win a mission.
Of course my failures may be results of bad coordination or bad tatcics but I have the impression I am always short on infantry and the enemy has such an advantageous position that the only way I can advance is to call in artillery strikes and let my infantry mop up the survivors.
I have to admit that on most mission where I have to be on the offensive I have problems, sometimes the time is runnig out and sometimes I have the feeling I have just too few soldiers (and sometimes both).
For example I found the mission of the german campaign (a moment in time) in the market garden module extremely difficult. I was unable to get even a foothold into the town. The americans seemed to be unimpressed by the suppressing fire of 2 HMGs and despite beeing pounded by 50mm mortars they picked off my infantry. After 30mins, 20 casualties and zero achievement I aborted the mission.
Maybe somebody has a few hints what my mistakes are? Or knows some custom made missions which have realistic force ratios....