The_MonkeyKing

In "Breaking the bank" the on map mortar teams can only fire directly. Even the mortar is deployed it does not come up in the artillery menu and the whole point of using mortars is they can fire volleys without LOS.
In the same scenario there are some glitched building walls where soldiers inside the building position themselves outside. The enemy then fires a rocket and kills the soldier outside and inside of that building.

Same scenario I had problems with artillery fire when loading a savegame. The length and the location of the artillery fire drastically changes when loading a savegame. Same problem with helicopter attack. In one instance splash rounds were reported complete and fire for effect announced. I saved the game artillery kept firing for 2+ minutes. Then I loaded the savegame and I got message "rounds complete".

Beyond the short timescale of CM scenarios.   

Welcome to Syria!

- MOUT is really hard, a slow and costly grind, street by street.
- MOUT is also the bread and butter of CMSF, and probably the main thing that differentiates it from the other titles.

First, an excellent link: https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/call/call_01-9_karagosian.htm

What I find really interesting about the above is that it not only gives advice on how to do it, it also highlights how even the official sources have fallen into the same kind of traps that we do as players - focusing on the target building, rather than isolating it with fields of fire and concentrating on the avenues of approach.
 
Yup. This is why isolating and overwatching plausible buildings are important. 


Take this as a simple example (moving up the left street at the start of Breaking the Bank)



Platoon wants to turn this corner. This street is overwatched by a challenger from the start of the scenario, so it's reasonable to assume that all of these visible windows are free from enemy.



Team's eye view. Notably, they cannot see the large building to the right:

Peeking around the corner with the camera:



Both large buildings here seem like plausible locations for enemy. You can inch around the corner and see each window in turn coming into view - running around this corner with anything is a Bad Idea (Street Fighting is not about fighting in streets, as per the article).

The team could move into the building they're currently lined up against, but that creates some more problems:



This does allow covered LOS to the two threatening buildings, but also exposes the team to a third (large wall and taxi, above). This building has the further downside that there is no way for supporting fires to reach this one from this situation - anything firing from there will go pretty much unanswered.

So this is an awful situation, and one which is fully in Red's favour. How can we improve, using only the above?

Well, across the street from the team there is a tall building with a decent area for overwatching the two key buildings. This is the view from there:



The plan then would be to get some firepower set up in this building, and then recon-by-fire onto the suspect buildings from a degree of relative safety, granting your teams more freedom to manouevre.

This is the kind of inch-by-inch puzzle that MOUT is all about, and CMSF does really well.
 
Splitting squads minimises risk. The assault command can be useful to clear buildings, but it also commits the entire squad to the clearing, if you split a squad and run into the worst possible situation, you'll "only" lose a fireteam, and not the whole squad. As per the above article, the actual *clearing* is not the important factor, but it's easy to get hung up on. 

 

Armour is a mixed bag in MOUT, in any period. It's really effective at bringing devastating firepower quickly and ending firefights, but it's also extremely vulnerable to infantry ambushes. You definitely do not want to drive your armour up to the middle of the street, hoping the RPGs will miss, but as a way to finish a firefight they can be very successful. The key, as with a lot of combat mission, is to control the tempo as much as possible, and to engage with the minimum amount of force that you can get away with, so that you can maintain options and reserves.

Some general tips:
- fire superiority is THE key. When moving to another row of houses do it with maximum amount of troops simultaneously.
- Use AFVs to control roads and so split the city in sections. You can even block off retreat paths.
- Cover manoeuver with smoke. No street should be crossed without smoke. Throwables, tanks, mortar, artillery...
- Take your time. I always mentally prepare to be ok with time running out. (It almost never runs out)
- Divide the map in smaller sections to be cleared one by one. 
Here is some gameplay with even worse urban scenario. He plays pretty well. Good place to start learning.
 

Sounds awesome! And worth the wait.

Some general tips:
- fire superiority is THE key. When moving to another row of houses do it with maximum amount of troops simultaneously.
- Use AFVs to control roads and so split the city in sections. You can even block off retreat paths.
- Cover manoeuver with smoke. No street should be crossed without smoke. Throwables, tanks, mortar, artillery...
- Take your time. I always mentally prepare to be ok with time running out. (It almost never runs out)
- Divide the map in smaller sections to be cleared one by one. 
Here is some gameplay with even worse urban scenario. He plays pretty well. Good place to start learning.
 

Every scenario has had work done to it. The better scenarios may have been little-altered (because they started out good). The worse (I call them 'first generation') scenarios have been really REALLY changed, to the point where a few of my least favorite older scenarios are now my most favorite! One scenario in particular, the AI orders went from a single group 'assault' command into the map center to now playing with ALL the AI gizmos. Orchestrating unit movements, AI area fire commands, retreat commands, triggers, reworked victory conditions, expanded and updated terrain maps, adding AA assets and fortification items, proper AI orders for both sides, etc. Just because you recognize the name of a CMSF2 scenario doesn't mean you've played it before.

Thanks!

My experience comes from being a CV9030 gunner.
 
Let us start with a very real live example. CV9030 company is moving along a road surrounded by dense forest. Enemy contact is possible but not imminent. The company is "traveling" so mounted and expected to move somewhat quickly. Leading CV9030 is moving slow enough to be 100% ready to open fire instantly, the gunner is constantly "pre-aimed" to the next corner on the road ext. and the gunner will engage on his own initiative.
So let us say a meeting engagement happens. What happens in the lead tank?
- Gunner sees the enemy AFV and opens fire.
- Commander knows without words what is happening (gunner shooting + direction the gun is pointed) and acts out his part of the script. Says to the intercom: "reverse, fast!" and flips a switch that pops smoke. Gunner gives a report as fast as he can while/after shooting: "IFV, destroyed"
- Commander informs the platoon/company radio shortly: "contact, heavy" (heavy meaning mechanized force) Also sometimes lead tank intercom is directly connected to platoon radio so the information is as fast as possible and if the lead tank is lost the information is not.
- Commander gives the driver instruction on the reversing (left, right, hard left...)
- Commander and driver have packed up a short distance to the side of the road and the commander gives "dismount, left" order for the dismounts. Same time more information to platoon/company radio.

My experience comes from being a CV9030 gunner.
 
Let us start with a very real live example. CV9030 company is moving along a road surrounded by dense forest. Enemy contact is possible but not imminent. The company is "traveling" so mounted and expected to move somewhat quickly. Leading CV9030 is moving slow enough to be 100% ready to open fire instantly, the gunner is constantly "pre-aimed" to the next corner on the road ext. and the gunner will engage on his own initiative.
So let us say a meeting engagement happens. What happens in the lead tank?
- Gunner sees the enemy AFV and opens fire.
- Commander knows without words what is happening (gunner shooting + direction the gun is pointed) and acts out his part of the script. Says to the intercom: "reverse, fast!" and flips a switch that pops smoke. Gunner gives a report as fast as he can while/after shooting: "IFV, destroyed"
- Commander informs the platoon/company radio shortly: "contact, heavy" (heavy meaning mechanized force) Also sometimes lead tank intercom is directly connected to platoon radio so the information is as fast as possible and if the lead tank is lost the information is not.
- Commander gives the driver instruction on the reversing (left, right, hard left...)
- Commander and driver have packed up a short distance to the side of the road and the commander gives "dismount, left" order for the dismounts. Same time more information to platoon/company radio.

We were instructed to not use laser rangefinders when possible. Because of time you lose by using it (around a second or two) and the new detection systems. CV9030s bushmasters APFSDS-T rounds are so fast (near flat trajectory) that you can set the guns range to 700m and hit any AFV sized target from 0-1500m when aiming center mass. We called this "battle sight".

I was most looking forward to playing CMSF2 red-on-red battles because 1970s technology Russian tanks are not the überweapons that 21st century tanks are. T55s vs T62s, T62s vs first generation T72s. The battles are less likely to abruptly end after 3 minutes of one-sided carnage. The closest equivalent in CMBS is playing the baseline T64 on the Ukrainian side, which behaves most like a 1970 Cold Warrior.

Ok too bad. If you have a free 'slot', let me know 😉

Her is my latest  menu mod for Combat Mission Shock Force 2. This will work for the demo as well.
The file Includes multiples UI screens and a full set of module icons. I will be updating with more mods in the future.
Cheers,
XACTO
 
Download page:
Xacto's “Camo” Theme Menu Mod for CMSF2
 
 

 
 

This week: We are 99% done!
Next week: We are 99.9% done!
The week after: We are 99.98% done!
The week after that: We are 99.998% done!
You know @Battlefront.com, NASA once considered a 99.99% reliability rating to be acceptable... If it's good enough for NASA, it's good enough for us.  
Granted, they were trying to get to the moon at the time, so they were in a bit of a rush.

My experience comes from being a CV9030 gunner.
 
Let us start with a very real live example. CV9030 company is moving along a road surrounded by dense forest. Enemy contact is possible but not imminent. The company is "traveling" so mounted and expected to move somewhat quickly. Leading CV9030 is moving slow enough to be 100% ready to open fire instantly, the gunner is constantly "pre-aimed" to the next corner on the road ext. and the gunner will engage on his own initiative.
So let us say a meeting engagement happens. What happens in the lead tank?
- Gunner sees the enemy AFV and opens fire.
- Commander knows without words what is happening (gunner shooting + direction the gun is pointed) and acts out his part of the script. Says to the intercom: "reverse, fast!" and flips a switch that pops smoke. Gunner gives a report as fast as he can while/after shooting: "IFV, destroyed"
- Commander informs the platoon/company radio shortly: "contact, heavy" (heavy meaning mechanized force) Also sometimes lead tank intercom is directly connected to platoon radio so the information is as fast as possible and if the lead tank is lost the information is not.
- Commander gives the driver instruction on the reversing (left, right, hard left...)
- Commander and driver have packed up a short distance to the side of the road and the commander gives "dismount, left" order for the dismounts. Same time more information to platoon/company radio.

We were instructed to not use laser rangefinders when possible. Because of time you lose by using it (around a second or two) and the new detection systems. CV9030s bushmasters APFSDS-T rounds are so fast (near flat trajectory) that you can set the guns range to 700m and hit any AFV sized target from 0-1500m when aiming center mass. We called this "battle sight".

That may be a way to win, but it doesn't really meet the point of the scenario which is to defend the position.  That is more a strategy to take advantage of the limitations of the Strat AI.  I can guarantee that doing that against a human player would have you wiped out.  I have played that scenario to a win fighting to defend the position.  It can be done  

I have been trying to gather all the game manuals. (you used to be able to read them on the old battlefornt.com site) I have found all others but the British Module manual evades me. I would be thankful if somebody could provide me with the British Module manual.
Link to the manuals I have found: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OxtS25MbAZBIrwXvZb_F3Ivf110LsggH?usp=sharing

We were instructed to not use laser rangefinders when possible. Because of time you lose by using it (around a second or two) and the new detection systems. CV9030s bushmasters APFSDS-T rounds are so fast (near flat trajectory) that you can set the guns range to 700m and hit any AFV sized target from 0-1500m when aiming center mass. We called this "battle sight".

It seems to me that because of this lethality most wars/conflicts on this century have been such where the other side is clearly weaker. Older gear, worse training etc. Whether it's air warfare or land based, the good gear rarely meet. So we have little actual experience of how well those things really work against same level opponent. 
BTW: Syria's situation may be changing now that Russia has brought newer technology. Anti-aircraft, electronic warfare etc.

^^^
Great vid. The team should NOT have gone back around that corner into the beaten zone.
Of course, one big issue is the lack of "memory" for our pixeltruppen. However, I'd think a "?" or hard-contact would be something to leverage to force them not to run that way. Meaning, if that team "knows" there is an enemy there, the team should avoid that enemy (increase distance or keep LOS from occurring or get out of LOS by the quickest means).
...and then prioritize moving towards the friendly edge.

My experience comes from being a CV9030 gunner.
 
Let us start with a very real live example. CV9030 company is moving along a road surrounded by dense forest. Enemy contact is possible but not imminent. The company is "traveling" so mounted and expected to move somewhat quickly. Leading CV9030 is moving slow enough to be 100% ready to open fire instantly, the gunner is constantly "pre-aimed" to the next corner on the road ext. and the gunner will engage on his own initiative.
So let us say a meeting engagement happens. What happens in the lead tank?
- Gunner sees the enemy AFV and opens fire.
- Commander knows without words what is happening (gunner shooting + direction the gun is pointed) and acts out his part of the script. Says to the intercom: "reverse, fast!" and flips a switch that pops smoke. Gunner gives a report as fast as he can while/after shooting: "IFV, destroyed"
- Commander informs the platoon/company radio shortly: "contact, heavy" (heavy meaning mechanized force) Also sometimes lead tank intercom is directly connected to platoon radio so the information is as fast as possible and if the lead tank is lost the information is not.
- Commander gives the driver instruction on the reversing (left, right, hard left...)
- Commander and driver have packed up a short distance to the side of the road and the commander gives "dismount, left" order for the dismounts. Same time more information to platoon/company radio.

My experience comes from being a CV9030 gunner.
 
Let us start with a very real live example. CV9030 company is moving along a road surrounded by dense forest. Enemy contact is possible but not imminent. The company is "traveling" so mounted and expected to move somewhat quickly. Leading CV9030 is moving slow enough to be 100% ready to open fire instantly, the gunner is constantly "pre-aimed" to the next corner on the road ext. and the gunner will engage on his own initiative.
So let us say a meeting engagement happens. What happens in the lead tank?
- Gunner sees the enemy AFV and opens fire.
- Commander knows without words what is happening (gunner shooting + direction the gun is pointed) and acts out his part of the script. Says to the intercom: "reverse, fast!" and flips a switch that pops smoke. Gunner gives a report as fast as he can while/after shooting: "IFV, destroyed"
- Commander informs the platoon/company radio shortly: "contact, heavy" (heavy meaning mechanized force) Also sometimes lead tank intercom is directly connected to platoon radio so the information is as fast as possible and if the lead tank is lost the information is not.
- Commander gives the driver instruction on the reversing (left, right, hard left...)
- Commander and driver have packed up a short distance to the side of the road and the commander gives "dismount, left" order for the dismounts. Same time more information to platoon/company radio.