Warts 'n' all

Some great looking AFV's. And a nice informative video from Chris. His comment about the AVRE's reloading time sounds spot on to me. The Petard was both slow and dangerous to reload if under fire. I also love the Unic AFVs. They looked so old fashioned in comparison to most vehicles by 1944.

Thanks for that, John. Certainly an interesting read.

Being a Limey I'm puzzled as to why the higher ranks were given Silver insignia and the lower ranks Gold. Does anyone know the history behind those choices?

You are correct, they should be different.

I have to admit I often rant at the game for "cheating" me. Only for it to become obvious later, that I'm still making stupid mistakes. Unlike a lot of games, getting beaten by the AI and working out why it happened, both in game, and historically, is what makes CMx2 such a great game.

I think that you are right. I don't remember ever having the same problem with the US Mortar teams.

I have it happen a lot. Particularly with British 3-man mortar teams. It happens in hedge gaps, orchards, railway lines and, even once in an open field. If you don't pay attention then the guy who is stuck will just keep going around in a circle turn after turn. Sometimes there is a clue, his status will switch back and forth between "Moving" and "Turning". But of course, if you are keeping an eye on the whole battlefield then it can be too late before you pick it up. Then you have to give the unit a Halt command and wait for him and his mates to merge over two or three turns. I've found the only solution is to micro-manage my mortar team's movement. Use "Move" rather than "Quick" when they go through hedgerows, orchards etc. Give them slightly shorter "Quick" commands when they are moving in the open. And ALWAYS check that they are all still together at the end of EACH turn. It is a bit of a pain and makes the command phase a little bit more time consuming, but I haven't found any other way around it.

There should be a PM in your inbox

@ Pak40... They weren't.. hence the word being in inverted commas. I think that sometimes both newsreel cameramen and stills photographers wanted to create as realistic scenes as possible. Having burning vehicles etc in the background. Even if it meant that their own troops would sometimes pose facing the way that they had come from. And in winter newsreelmen and photographers had to make as much use of the limited daylight as they could.

There is no doubt that it is a pretty rubbish movie strewn with errors. But, just as a little aside. Even the original German newsreel footage contained scenes in which their troops are shown "advancing" the wrong way i.e eastwards. I assume because it made for easier filming on the day.

To me, one of the problems with FO and CAS within the game arises from the fact that observers are set up on the ground alongside the rest of our troops. The size of map dictates that they are not behind the line in a church tower, on a hill etc which is where there would often be. So we are left with our observers only being able to spot targets a few hundred yards away. And we just have to hope that the flyboys don't drop anything short. As the name suggests there were FO's who went forward with the tanks and infantry. Whilst other arty spotters stayed back. But to allow for the latter would mean much larger maps.

Thanks for the offers of help Mark and Mike. This Old Limey Luddite re-installed both the organizer and Java, and, unlike a month ago, it worked. It was probably me doing something wrong last time. Although I think most of the campaigns are great just as they were designed, I've tweeked a couple of the things that I felt weren't quite right. That being said, I expect that the AI will still give my arse a good kicking..haha.

I was trying to use 1.5... When I looked at the campaigns... It wouldn't give me the option of opening the folders with Java or with your organizer. Even though I had both installed neither appeared on my list of "apps".

Sadly, I can't get Mike's organizer to work. I think it might something to do with Windows 8 not liking Java.

Sadly, this is a poor bit of design, in an otherwise great looking map. Having walked along that road a few times I can vouch for the fact that it doesn't go up and down, and twist and turn like a roller coaster.

I don't have a problem with the way the game handles grenades. Just laugh when my men give it to the enemy, and curse when mine get hit by a couple. Going back to the OP, I think that you got more leverage with a stick grenade, and therefore, in theory they could be thrown further under ideal conditions. But lobbing one as a last ditch way of defending yourself and your mates which is what quite often happens in game couldn't be described as ideal. And, I've not really noticed much difference in the distances between Allied and German troops, when using them.

Such a shame that the Daily Fascist only began to oppose "Herr Hitler" on the outbreak of war.

You're lucky. I've just played the updated "La Fiere Causeway" battle. My US company commander is in the manor house a long way back from the action. Gerry mortar round sails through the roof... Bye bye to the commander and all his mates. Luckily the XO Team were in a hedge about 200 yards away.

The OP was about 60/81mm mortars and 75mm tank rounds, so I think upping things to 105 will obviously cause more damage. @Pak40... Bourbon St was fun.. But, I think the clubs on Frenchmen St provide better music, and are a better place to meet locals.

Pak40... The "hit decal" idea sounds great to me, and would help avoid confusion. Certainly better than the damage only becoming apparent in the form of dead and wounded troops. I assume it would need each slope of the roof, front, back,(left and right sides, if applicable), and the central ridge to be modelled separately. Perhaps more difficult than the designers can handle at present. But, who knows, in the future it might appear in the game. Just as an aside. My 50th birthday present from my family was a trip to NOLA. If I survive to 60, I will return.

In an ideal world all the features (Hobart's funnies, flame throwers, etc etc ) of the original game would have been included in the new generation of CM. But, given the total change in terrain, 1:1 unit ratio etc it is a brilliant job that the games designers have achieved. As customers we have a choice, buy the game or, wait for further developments. Speaking personally, there are still a lot of things that I would like to see. But, in the meantime I'm enjoying CMx2 and don't mind waiting for, and, paying for BFC to introduce the features I enjoyed from the original game, cuz I know that when they do appear they will look so much better than they did in the original game.

I saw this back in June. Very interesting.

Hello I apologise in advance if this problem has already been covered in this thread, I couldn't see it when looking over the weekend. I'm still pretty new to CMx2, and have only just been bitten by the modding bug. Most of the mods I've installed have worked first time, and if they haven't then I've found my answer in here. But, one problem I just can't solve is Infantry Shoulder Insignia.... Example No. 1 .... When I installed DC's 15th Scottish mods, the UI and the vehicles both have the "Lion Rampant" showing. But, the infantry are still sporting the 49th's Polar Bear insignia. Example No. 2 ... When I've tried ez's American Infantry mods I've encountered the same problem. I attempted to rename folders and individual files without success. If anyone can help I'd be grateful. Cheers

I think for dismounted tank crews, having just narrowly escaped death, and possibly had one or two of their fellow crew mates killed, to then be told by an Infantry Officer to go forward into the battle, they'd have told him to go forth and multiply.