[What do you do?]

Squallion- I'm with you in the new father department. Depending where you may be in the process (I'm 2 months in), you will have a prime gaming slot between around Midnight and 3AM. That's Dad Time. That's CMBN time in your near future. Sleep is a long forgotten memory, so double down on the awake to get some CM fun in.

My other advice is- once you blow through the included stuff, the game within a game is the Editor. Explore it's mysteries. It's where I spend a sizable chunk of my CM time.

Hah! Thanks. I know what you're saying. I already have a 3 year old. I'll have another and my last in November.

Indeed! Thanks for the advice. Perhaps I'll even try creating a few scenarios.

[What do you do?]

Normally I would second the multiplayer recommendation, but seeing how stressed the OP was over the German campaign I'm not sure it's a good fit. The thing about multiplayer is that you have to be able to still enjoy the game while losing (also known as "embracing the suck"), because you will lose sometimes. Inexperienced players may lose most of the time.

I'm OK with losing. I don't like the thought of multiplayer, because I don't want to feel obligated to keep up with or play with another player. Even with PBEM, what if I forget a day? The other player will be frustrated.

Single player means I only have to worry about myself, and I can enjoy myself playing it.

I used to play multiplayer primarily in most games, actually. It's almost certain that if I'm playing multiplayer, some real life obligation will get in the way.

[What do you do?]

Seriously though, Squallion, you might want to replay the RT German Campaign...without having to "cease fire". A tall order, perhaps, but a true challenge to your gaming ability. (And one that I aspire to attempting at some point.)

I will attempt that at some point.

My main problem was that the panzer IVs appeared to be too weak. They would be destroyed in one hit almost every time, and it would take them several hits to destroy the T-34s.

On the OTHER flank with the Panzer Vs, I did fine. In fact, the Panzer Vs are what won the final battle for me. Still have a lot of experience to gain.

[What do you do?]

There are a lot of different quick battle maps, so you'll be a long time exhausting those options especially when you can do different mixes of forces and battle types.

Or you can have fun making your own maps and scenarios.

I'm afraid a mod giving American forces in CMRT is probably a mod too far. CMBN is worth the money, but as far as American vs German goes my favourite is Gustav Line.

I look forward to playing that iteration intensely. lol. My wife will kill me if we buy anything besides baby apparel at the moment.

[What do you do?]

When you have done the campaigns and battles? Quick battles?

I haven't finished all battles yet, far from it, but I'm worried for the day that I do. It'll be a while before I can afford to get CMBN and CMFI, so that's not an option.

I'd really like a mod that gives me Americans in this game. I just feel like being Americans :X. CMBN demo only scratches that itch so much.

[The first german campaign mission]

Update!

In the end, I won the campaign with a major victory. I had three draws, two minor victories, and one minor loss. The campaign was a major victory.

I think that's what I love about this game. I made the decision to ceasefire in a couple of missions, perhaps at a point that some people would consider premature, but I had to do it to save my forces, in the end the campaign was a success.

I think this is the only game in which you could do that.

Probably the hardest, most intense campaign I've ever played in any game. (I haven't played any other combat mission than RT) XD.

[I have a weak understanding of radios.]

First the game, then some reality.

In the game, radios serve two functions - calling for fire from indirect fire assets, off map or on it (mortars), and keeping units in command for morale, rally, and leadership effects. They do not help units share spots, on their own.

Second on reality and WWII radios. They were very low power affairs, a few watts being typical. This meant the only carried a few miles, and made reception difficult and uncertain even within their very limited range. They were made low power because higher power sets were much bulkier and also more expensive using the limited tech of the day. A field artillery radio meant to routinely raise a firing battery 10-15 miles in the rear was typically bigger than a modern microwave oven and could weigh 40 to 50 pounds. Backpack sized radios had a best conditions range of maybe 10 miles and were typically battalion assets. Only the US widely deployed handset sized radios, and those had a range of 2-3 miles with poor connections, and would be used as platoon commander assets talking to other company officers on a company net.

Vehicle radios were not much better. As another poster mentioned, in some armies only platoon HQ vehicles had transmitters while the line tanks just received, and range was about five miles tops. Platoons each had their own net to hear commands, and had to switch channels to talk to higher ups. They also talked over headsets to the crew of their own tank, and one instruction could easily be mistaken for the other if the channel was open. More powerful radios required command tanks that removed the main armament to make room for them, and normally only those could reach higher HQs or rear area artillery. Weaker front line radios had to hand off messages to more powerful ones and relay to the rear, which was a clumsy process with limited channels, poor reception, and confusing crosstalk.

Some kinds of coordination were rendered impossible by technical systems. E.g. German planes and artillery observers used Morse code and voice and could not hear each other. Others by organizational issues e.g. most Russian indirect fire assets were command designated as to which unit to support, and could not receive calls from other observers, and wouldn't obey them if they heard them, because they were under orders to listen for requests from someone else, by rear echelon officers who vastly outranked anyone calling them on the radio for fire. The Russians stayed off the radio in 1941 and 1942 because the Germans had the best radio direction finding in the world, and a division HQ broadcasting at 100 watts power to reach all its subunits amounted to a giant "bomb me" sign for the Luftwaffe. They also didn't have enough coding and decoding bandwidth to handle urgent traffic without ruinous delays, so when they did broadcast often did so in the clear - and German radio intel heard them and got word out to German units as fast as it got to Russians. In both cases admittedly for higher HQs than we see in CM, broadcasting at higher wattages and therefore easier to overhear or radio-locate.

Basically you should not think of any of them as networked real time comms, of the sort contemporary western armies rely on. German armor from early on (a benefit of Guderian, the armor force designer and planner, being a communications officer), the western allies in the last two years of the war (better tech and richer equipment overall) when talking to their artillery or their armor to each other, are the only forces that come close, and they get much better coordination at the higher scales of battalion or task force, than they manage at the lowest of platoons or among individual vehicles.

As an interesting PS, the most technically advanced equipment in the world was the stuff the western allies were using to break German codes (basically inventing modern computing in the process), and the German higher HQs and staffs used a sophisticated teletype system that effectively let them run the war by email. But we are a long way from the front line radios in CM at that point...

I appreciate that. It must have taken you some time to type that! Lol. Thank you. =D

I wonder what kind of comms we will see in the next modern iteration of combat mission. (I haven't played shock force).

[I have a weak understanding of radios.]

Would anyone be willing to make my understanding strong? As far as I can tell, they are meant solely to communicate with artillery.

My scout can see 2 tanks, 1 TD, and 1 self propelled gun, however, my tanks seem to know nothing about them. Don't tanks have radios built in? If they don't, couldn't I just move someone with a radio close?

[The first german campaign mission]

Good for you for jumping right into the campaign. Sounds like you've acquitted yourself rather well, all things considered.

When's the AAR coming out?

Sorry, but I would need to read a few of those to understand what exactly it is.

After playing the campaign, I think that scenarios are definitely more for me. Either that or the German campaign just really turned me off. I did fine in and enjoyed the soviet campaign, because the losses didn't matter (If they did, I didn't even notice). This German campaign is REALLY stressing me out! The fifth mission is my first loss, I was taking too many tank losses, couldn't afford it, ceasefired. The sixth mission will be decisive.

After I complete this campaign, I'm going to sit back, take a deep breath, and relax with some battles. No stress in knowing that you can take losses and not pay for it later XD.

[The first german campaign mission]

In which case I shall be asking for your advice shortly. I'll have to pluck up the courage to actually start the campaign first.

It isn't kidding when it says to minimize your casualties. It really matters :X. That's really the hardest part. I have done this Mission#1: Draw. #2: Draw. #3 Major Victory. #4 Draw. LOL.

Most games, I start with the campaign. I think that premade battles would've been the best way to start with Combat mission. Too late now. Finished the russian campaign with a draw. I imagine I'll finish this one with a draw. I don't feel too bad about that though, considering which game this is and that I chose warrior difficulty.

[The first german campaign mission]

Third mission was pretty easy and I don't know if it can be fixed but most of the time the AI had rear of tanks facing mine and they were stopped.

It just seemed odd that the Soviet tanks were not driving pell mell for their exits. Rather destroyed the feel of that scenario for me.

The use of lots of trucks for Germans to be used a aircraft bait worked well and gave a sense of loss to air power, but overall that scenario was no where as good as the 1st two.

I am now on my 4th one and with the reduced number of infantry I have, I am not sure how it will play out. I think I should have slightly easier time as I did manage to remove most of the T34's in the 2nd scenario...

I'm on the exact same mission. I'm feeling pretty skimped on units. Four tanks, one of them has a broken main cannon, and only ONE platoon of fresh infantry, otherwise incomplete units.

I am preparing to have to hit ceasfire if losses get too heavy :/.

[The first german campaign mission]

Squallion, you might want to start with the pre-loaded scenarios. I took one look at the German Campaign and realized I was in over my head.

"Dead of Night" is a "tiny" probe (and therefore, a great place to start), while "Angriffe" took three tries before I could claim victory (challenging, yet not impossible). Scenarios may be more your speed...until you master the larger scale battle, that is.

Well, I managed to make it to the fourth mission. In the third mission, I STOMPED the Russians, so I'm hoping that when the final battle comes, I can utilize all of the units I didn't lose in that battle, which is almost all of them.

For some reason, in that battle, things went my way. I found the enemy tanks first, and my tanks seemed as resilient and powerful as theirs. Pretty much created a massive Panzer VA firing line and cleared the map slowly.

[Ukrainians Hotwire WWII Tank]

I was checking out a video link from the CM: Black Sea update thread and stumbled on this:

http://www.military.com/video/combat-vehicles/combat-tanks/ukrainians-hotwire-ww2-tank/3630574236001/

I guess Ukrainian military museums don't do much deactivation prep work on their tanks before presenting them to the public!

Wow, this is beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Magnificent. I wish I could've been there.

[I never played a CM campaign, any suggestions ?]

I am a CM novice and I only own RT. I really enjoyed the Russian campaign . The German is wayyyyyyy too tank focused, but still fun.

[Frustrated, Mission unclear.]

Kill em all and let God sort em out... um er I mean (in a PC world) Just dominate them baby.

Ya I have been the victim of what you described. Sometimes breifing intell is just Fog of War. I rely on my eyes on the field and then gaining fire superiority. When it works I am a god when it does not I blame Battlefront for inferior game design . (joking)

I just downloaded a CMRT scenario Verposten and it has kicked my keester despite multiple retries. As has any Paper Tiger designed campaign.

Losing builds character, or at least that's what I tell myself. :eek:

It's the fact that it's so hard to win at this game that keeps me playing it day in and day out. The last time I stuck with a game like this was nearly a decade ago, and it was WoW. Usually I hop games like a serial gamer. That's a good idea. I do get really objective focused, REALLY.

[The first german campaign mission]

I apologize. I mistook them for Is-2. When I click on them and look for unit information, I don't see T-34 anywhere. Just me being incompatible with the interface.

It's even worse, to me, that they are T-34s and kick so much arse.

Not that I would want the game changed. I'm learning how to handle tank combat in this game. It's just a brutal learning curve.

[Frustrated, Mission unclear.]

I just finished the second German campaign mission with a "draw". I held every objective, except for one. The one I didn't hold had ONE enemy unit in it, therefore I didn't get points for it(doh! Fought so hard for it, too.). It was East Radzymin.

That's not really my problem, though. When I look at the russian objectives and parameters, they are different.

The russians gained 300 points for holding Radzymin Park and West Radzymin, which were not shown as objectives. I don't even know where they are.

The Russians also have 400 points from "friendly bonus". What is that!!???

>.< This should've been a clear victory. I don't get it.

[The first german campaign mission]

I can also confidently say that the Russian medium tanks(they aren't T-34s), are one hitting my Panzer IVs. I almost never one hit them.

[The first german campaign mission]

Nobody fights better from open ground. Hide, sneak, strike, run away, gang up on the weak one, hobble the strong one, cheat... and emerge gloriously victorious.

Yeah. I am really finding this out. Second mission is turning out even worse for me. My panzers are getting WRECKED. I'd rather restart the entire campaign than try to live with these losses.

I feel like I can't beat the russian tanks. They take more hits, they deal harsh and accurate blows.

I was always under the impression that Germany had the best tanks.

Edit: Actually. My main issue is line of sight/fire. I can never seem to see the enemy first. On the rare occasions that I do, it's only one tank that responds, the others that should be able to see the same enemy don't see it.

[The engine that this game runs on.]

No the demo uses the same as the released game.

Hummm, maybe I am not really right. The confusion comes from CMx1 and CMx2 do not mean the first and second versions of the current engine. The original games CMBO, CMAK and CMBB used an engine commonly refered to as CMx1 and they were the first versions of the combat mission games.

Then they rewrote the engine and produced CMx2 games starting with CMSF and Afghanistan. That was followed by CMBN. Those games were released with what you could call version 1.0 of the CMx2 engine. I don't know exactly how BFC would like to refer to that but that is how I think of it. The next thing they did was create a 2.0 version of that CMx2 engine and create CMFI with that 2.0 version of the engine. Then they also released an update to CMBN so it too now has the 2.0 version of the CMx2 engine. I do not know if the demo for CMBN was updated to 2.0 of the CMx2 engine or not.

Now, recently they released version 3.0 of the CMx2 engine in CMRT. BFC have stated that they intend to create an upgrade for CMBN and CMFI to give them the 3.0 version of the CMx2 engine. It seems like this is the plan going forward that as they improve the engine they will create updates to bring the old games along. They have even said they plan to do the same for CMSF but they have not really given a clear time line for that - not that I can find in the public record.

Thank you for clearing that up for me! =D

[The engine that this game runs on.]

It started as CMx1 and has been upgraded to CMx2, right?

Does the demo still use CMx1?

[The first german campaign mission]

Is brutal.

One IS-2 can take out several panzer IV.

The objective is to be efficient, to put it briefly.

I lost many A panzer. I ended up in a draw, because I didn't want to lose any more of my tanks (I lost 13, they lost ten).

Upon reviewing the map, I realized that in the time I had left, I could've flanked them and completely conquered and won. Oh well. Lesson learned XD.

But seriously...

Those IS-2s.

Any advice for armor tactics? I'm not sure I'm doing it right. Doesn't armor fight better on open ground? Should I be hiding them in forests and fighting from long distances? When clearing a town area with woods all through out it, should I just leave the tanks out?

[PC specs and performance]

That must have been some years ago, I remember a time when AMD was better than Intel around 2006 because I built an Opteron system instead of an Intel system. I currently have an i5-2500K setup with a GTX 650-Ti SC Boost and I am fairly happy with the performance. It sounds like it's in the ballpark with everyone else at 20 to 30 FPS depending on settings.

Here's a review to show where your chip stands if you care to read.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/the-vishera-review-amd-fx8350-fx8320-fx6300-and-fx4300-tested/5

I do believe Battlefront is continuing to optimize the game engine so that should help in the long run.

I'm really glad to know that they may be continuing to optimize :].

[How should I go about clearing forests?]

I find using short 10-20m quick commands with long 20-30 second pauses seem to work nicely. I find that in these areas the main thing is spotting the enemy,with a long pause I find my troops spotting enemies farther than grenade range with really saves on casualties.

Are you this one?

Nice advice. I didn't think that spotting would be more efficient if you gave the troops more time to do so.

[I have found my love.]

Welcome aboard, Squallion. :-)

When you are ready to take it to the next level (PBEM instead of playing against your computer), feel free to contact me.

PBEM is Play By E-Mail. Correct? It must take ages to complete and E-mail match XD. I will probably message you sooner than I would've previously thought. Playing by E-mail is more viable than a live head to head match. Family and all. Thanks!