Warts 'n' all

Thanks for that fulsome explanation sb.

That fact that IanL and others among us allow BFC some slack, rather than constantly moaning at them, is not "campaigning to never improve anything". They take on board ideas that are practical, and feasible for them to work with given the size of their staff. They produce great games at an affordable price. And for most of us, that is all we want from them.

Would that be the Pistols version?

I can't really help you myself with the icons as I don't use the standard ones that come with the game. Mine are modded and I'm getting a bit vague as to what the original ones looked like. There is a little bit of info in the manual but, not a great deal. You should soon be able to pick up what they all mean.

Two little tips you might try. 1. Study the map carefully during the set-up phase. Take as long as you like over it. And make sure to study it from the defender's perspective too, before planning your own route/s of attack. 2. Split off some scout teams and give them a pause every so often, it will easier for them to pick up both sound and visual contacts whilst stationary.

The best way to get better at the game, is to take your time over it. Also, be prepared to learn from your mistakes (we all make them), study the action from as many different camera angles as you like during the Replay Phase and you will get a clearer idea of what is happening if things go wrong. And lastly, make use of the search facility in this forum. If you have a problem chances are that most of us have had the same one, and there will plenty of help here.

Quite often I find myself talking back to my troops.... So... "Did you see that?" gets answered with.. "No, I didn't, that's the f....ing problem." "Let's get some noise discipline here!" gets... "OK why don't you shut the f... up, and let me get on with the game."

The mind boggles at the fact that Barry gets vilified for trying to create a decent health service. When I was born, we had the best health care in the world here in Limeyland. Sadly, it has gotten steadily worse since a certain someone said "There is no such thing as society".

Thanks for your reply. I assume that the Brummbars are considered an army, or army group unit, and that might be why they are beyond the reach of even regimental HQs. It would be a shame not to be able to make use of them. Being something of a computer dullard I don't know how easy it is for you to switch things around. It looks like you have put in a hell of a lot of hard work into this campaign.

Sadly, with access denied to the two regimental HQs, I think it will need the inclusion of at least one FO team in this mission to bring the Brummbars into play.

This looks like a great piece of work. The Campaign Briefing is a mouth-watering read, full of interesting details. And the winter mods look terrific. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into this very soon.

Normally the modders will put a note in their descriptions if a mod is compatible across titles. And hopefully quite a few existing mods will be OK for CMFB. I think some of the winter mods being created for Red Thunder should look good in the new game.

Isn't this a still from Led Zep's "Stairway to Heaven" promo film?

Unlike it's parody Secret Army was set in Belgium, not France. It starred Bernard Hepton who had previously played the commandant of Colditz on the Beeb.

I keep the trees on all the time. I'd rather lose in a realistic north-west European landscape than win in Telegraphpole Land.

As far as I know at the moment there aren't any user-made campaigns for the Red Army, which seems a shame as I'd love to see more of them. As for which I prefer from CMFI and CMRT, I'm not a great fan of having to try to fight my way up a hill with the enemy staring down at me. So Fortress Italy isn't really my cup of tea. Whereas Red Thunder allows us to put our tanks guns to their full use in many of the scenarios, so I certainly enjoy it more.

I agree that perhaps they should look different. Although it isn't just a question of "wooden construction with gaps between the planks". Barns were constructed in a variety of ways across north-western Europe. From rough stone, to three or four courses of brick base with wooden walls, all wood, or even iron framed. I think the game handles how their construction affected combat well. But, they do look a bit too solid both vanilla and modded. Perhaps some of the modders might try not only making them look weathered, but also less well built. Although I realize that is probably easier said, than done

I concur with RH, I've always considered the construction of barns to have an in game effect, even if not clearly visible on screen. They are possible to fire out of, but also a dangerous place to linger if the enemy know you are in there. Machine gun bullets will begin to penetrate a barn wall pretty quickly.

I see things have changed since I bought my copy of the "Big Bundle" two years ago. Sorry if my earlier post was misleading, Obviously as things stand you might still want to wait until the Battlepack itself is released. Although the amount of content in the "Big Bundle" will keep you busy for a long time.

Thanks for that GvT. I was puzzled like the OP when I got the result that I did. I might give it another try sometime in the future.

When I bought the "Big Bundle" it was known as the v2.12 version of the game. Therefore you will also need to buy the v.3 engine upgrade to make use of the Vehicle Pack and any future Battlepack.

Although MG jamming wasn't a major problem for me in CMx1, just something that I got used to and took for granted. If it was re-introduced I imagine that we would get endless posts about the way the game handled it. So perhaps things are best left as they are.

Thanks for the explanation Pete. It is a great battle. And to be fair, it does state in your briefing that this battle is best played as the Germans vs the AI. When you're as rubbish at the game as myself you need all the help you can get when attacking, hence my sharing of the OP's bafflement that we were denied the arty support. I enjoyed playing my slightly re-jigged version but, will certainly give your original a go sometime in the future.

Is it the first round that they fired? They might not have wanted to take out the HE and have to reload with AP, or did they fire more than one round of HE?

@c3k It turns out that the situation that you so perfectly described is from "Crossing the River" the first mission from the Hammers Flank" campaign, so even if it didn't help me with this battle, it will still come in handy when I start that campaign. @Splinty The arty in this battle is denied to ALL of the Russian officers at the start, as the OP said. Like him I was baffled because the AI called in artillery against me when I played as the Axis. I opened up the scenario designer and checked, and no FO was listed for the Russians, so I'm not sure how the AI calls it in. Anyway I just added an FO section and renamed the battle. Then gave Jerry a beating.. haha