General Liederkranz

Unfortunately you can’t. In the game, offmap artillery/mortar call time isn’t affected by previous missions. There’s no “memory” of previous targets, and there’s no benefit to repeating a previous mission. Each fire mission starts from scratch. That may not be realistic but it is the way the game is built. Placing a TRP before the game will speed up call time, but again that’s independent of whether you’ve fired at that spot during the game previously. It just speeds up all shots at that target. You can of course adjust the target of a fire mission BEFORE it’s finished, and that will be quicker than calling a new mission. But there are limits to what you can change by adjusting. Most notably, you can’t change the length of an ongoing mission.

Yeah, I think we're talking about the same thing. What I meant by "LOS tool" is using the Target line from a waypoint rather than from the unit's current location. Definitely, I think in two ways. First, Hide makes them stay prone. So they can't see over things they might be able to see over if they were kneeling or standing. Second, soldiers who are Hiding I believe can't spot at all, or at least get a penalty when they do. That said, some men in a Hiding unit will still occasionally rise up and change over to "Spotting"). As I think about it, I think something else might be causing this problem. Is this a US MG team? There's a particular oddity with MG teams since the line of SIGHT is traced from the stance of the soldiers, but line of FIRE is traced from the position of the MG itself. This can cause problems, especially with US .30 cal air cooled MGs, because when the gun is deployed it's usually down at ground level but the leader of the team might be kneeling. So if the team is behind a hedgerow, the the game might calculate spotting from the leader's eye level, and it might use him to trace the line of sight when you use the Target tool. BUT the MG won't be able to fire because when the game tries to trace line of fire, it finds the barrel is down at ground level, with the hedgerow berm in the way. I've seen this happen and I believe there are more details in other threads on the forum.

Was the MG already in that spot, and was it deployed? If not one reason could be that when you use the LOS tool to check LOS from a position before you move there, it uses the unit's current stance (prone, kneeling, or standing for infantry). But if the unit's actual stance when it arrives is different, that'll change LOS. This can easily happen with MG teams because they often lie down when they set up the MG.

This is great news. A number of people have suggested on the forum is that #3 affects other games, just not as obviously as in CMBN with the bocage. (I for one am almost sure I've seen the same bug in CMFI.) Is the fix for this global, or was it determined to be just a CMBN problem?

Just realized this depends on whether they have a loader's hatch.

In an ongoing CMFB game (started since the patch) I've noticed that differently types of M4 tanks use their .50 caliber MGs differently. M4 (late) and M4A1 (late) types, which carry 300 rounds, fire their .50 cals if they're given a "Target Light" order and they're opened up. The only way to keep them from using up all their .50 cal ammo is to button them up. On the other hand, M4A3(75)Ws and Jumbos, which carry 600 rounds for their .50s, do NOT fire those weapons on "Target Light," even when the commanders are opened up. The only way I've found to get them to fire their .50s (in area fire) is to give them a full Target order. I don't know which of these behaviors is better, but it seems odd that it's different between models. Maybe this difference is deliberate, but I don't see any reason why it would be.

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/134466-fortress-italy-bugs/page/6/?tab=comments#comment-1791287

This is great to hear. In general I’ve been very happy with engine 4 since the patch but the evasion thing has been frustrating. I’m looking forward to the new round!

Thank you. I appreciate that you have been on top of this issue so quickly since the patch.

I will try to see it that way.

I am playing CMFI right now and I've seen this weird evasion behavior several times. No bocage in sight, just hills. I'm not sure it's exactly the same problem, but it seems to be. It's usually Panicked teams that take small arms or MG fire and then evade toward the enemy. It may be that they're trying to find a spot out of LOS of the enemy shooting at them, and they unfortunately choose spots that don't make any sense in the overall scheme of the battle. I could understand that. But what's especially weird and frustrating is that once they reach the safe spot they're heading for (if they do), they then TURN AROUND and run back through the gauntlet of fire they just survived. Now they're heading in a more sensible direction, but why not go that way in the first place? This resembles the behavior I've seen discussed in this thread. I have two saved turns showing this that I can send to whomever is appropriate.

That’s interesting. The squads not being able to draw C2 from the company HQ I would expect based on my tests above. The squad leader in 1st squad taking over is is weird but I have also seen it once. I thought it might be a 4.0 change. But him NOT giving C2 to the other squads is weird. When I saw it, he brought the rest of the platoon back into C2. Are the other squads within sight of the new platoon leader? How far away are they?

The Russians in CMBS are baffling me. Every time I fire up a QB to test them, I cannot get squads to draw C2 from their Company HQ directly. I've tried BTR Motor Rifle units I've tried BMP Motor Rifle Units, I've tried the Recon Platoon in an MR Bn, and I've tried a Recon Company in a Recon Bn. None of them work. BUT if I try this in the stock scenario "Going to Town," I can consistently get the rifle squads to draw command directly from the Company HQ. I think it's just an ordinary BTR Motor Rifle Company in this scenario but I am not familiar enough with the Russian TO&E to know for sure. So my preliminary results for the Russians above are wrong' there isn't a Company vs. Battalion HQ difference that I can see. It's scenario vs. QB or (more likely) one TO&E vs. another based on a difference I'm missing. Or else I'm just doing something wrong. I'd be curious what others find.

Sure--this is a great-looking scenario and I look forward to playing it for real at some point. What you've done with the fortifications is amazing. And it's cool to see a flail tank in action! I just let the first five minutes run like you suggested. On my system, under CMBN 4.01, I'm not seeing anything that looks like a problem. Minute 2 (ending at 58:00): left-most bunker (Rau) takes a direct artillery hit that inflicts at least one light (yellow) wound, and then a hit from an M10 TD that incapacitates (red) the squad leader. Minute 3 (ending at 57:00): massed 75mm tank fire inflicts another serious injury/death (red) on those guys. Minute 5 (ending at 55:00): another 75 or 76mm hit inflicts another incapacitation. By now all 5 survivors are lightly wounded (yellow). At the end of 5 minutes the other two forward pillboxes, in the center and on the right, are entirely intact, all occupants green. The MG teams in the buildings did not survive quite so well. In short, all but one of the casualties I observed in the pillboxes were from direct tank and TD fire (and that remaining one was a light wound).

I did this on Iron in each game, so visual C2 wasn't automatically and required mutual spotting (but the units were close enough for that not to be a problem if I waited a few seconds). I am also puzzled by the Italians. Maybe this is a new feature introduced for the Soviets in CMRT and never applied retroactively to the Italians. I hadn't noticed that note in the Manual. To my knowledge, there are no Italian units currently that can be split (I know that their huge "squads" are already "split" into MG+rifle+HQ elements, but I mean there are no units that come joined up that the player can split). Am I wrong about this? I imagine this is a hint of a future feature, which Steve referred to a few years ago. I'm fine with how the Italians are now but it would be an interesting feature.

Thanks, that makes sense. I was trying to avoid any possible confounding variables but you're right it is just simplest to look for the voice/visual C2 icons.

That's an interesting question. I don't have time to do thorough tests but I set up a QB and the scenario "Going to Town" and preliminarily, it looks like in CMBS Russian rifle squads CAN get C2 directly from their company commanders, but NOT from their battalion commanders. Recon squads from the recon platoons in BTR battalions it seems CANNOT get C2 from their Bn HQs. This is a little bit complicated and time consuming to test beucase everyone has radios so all I can figure out to do is to start the battle and run the platoon leaders into enemy fire to kill them off and make sure they're not talking to anyone on the radio before I check back on their squads' C2 icons!

@Bil Hardenberger noted in another thread that he wasn't able to get Syrian squads in C2 by putting them close to higher-echelon HQs. This is different from other nationalities like the WW2 Americans or Germans. For them, a squad can skip over its Platoon HQ and get C2 from its Company or Battalion HQ within voice or close visual range (which @MOS:96B2P showed to be 50 meters and 96 meters respectively). I thought I'd look into this and I found something interesting: it depends on the unit, and it's not just the Syrians. It seems that in nationalities organized along Soviet lines, only certain types of units are able to take advantage of the higher-echelon C2 bypass that everyone else can use. Within a Syrian airborne battalion, for example, ordinary Airborne Infantry squads CANNOT get C2 from higher-echelon HQs. They need their Platoon HQs. I tested with Conscripts, Greens, Regulars, and Elites and none of them could, so troop quality doesn't make a difference. BUT Engineer squads in the same battalion CAN get C2 from their Company HQ. The image below shows the difference; each one is next to its Company HQ with the Platoon HQ across the map and out of sight (as you can see since the command lines are dark). The ordinary Airborne, in the inset, is out of command; the Engineers, in the rest of the image, are in command. So then I went and looked at CMRT. There too, Soviet rifle squads CANNOT get C2 from their Company HQ. But Soviet cavalry squads CAN. This is not because of the patch. It did some more tests and it's also that way in CMRT under Engine 4 (pre-patch) and under Engine 3. (I used the stock scenarios Dawn Patrol and Baranovichi to test rifle and cavalry respectively in each version.) This is NOT true of the Italians in CMFI, though you might expect it since inflexible command is one of their main traits in the game. Their rifle and Bersaglieri "squads" can benefit from Platoon or Company HQs, not just their Squad HQs. I can only guess that this is intended to reflect Soviet-style doctrine and to give players an extra incentive to keep their Soviet-style rifle platoons together. Forces that are expected to be more independent, like engineers or cavalry, aren't penalized. It's an interesting little touch. Original thread:

I couldn't resist, so I added a battery each of 105mm and 203mm artillery to the US side on Kaunitz's map and let them fire away (Point/Heavy/Maximum) at the two concrete MG bunkers I added earlier. Each one had a 4- or 5-man team from a Heavy Sturm squad inside. The 105s had 105 rounds and the 203s had 60. The aimpoints were set right between the pillboxes. First time through: one bunker took a direct hit from a 203mm shell and was knocked out with one casualty (the rest "escaped" into the withering hail of artillery outside); the other was fine. Second time through (picture): This time I fired the 105s first, then the 203s. Both were undamaged after the 105s got done. From the 203s, one took one light wound; the other took two casualties and one light wound. But both pillboxes still ended up active at the end. This seems ok to me . . . I wonder if the patch has actually improved this?

That's interesting. I added a couple of MG concrete bunkers to @Kaunitz's map and they seemed to hold up as well as the PaK pillboxes--they took multiple 75mm and 76mm hits without casualties, then at some point after a minute or two of firing they would get a penetrating hit that inflicted casualties. One or two of those would knock them out. That seems like better protection than I'd expect from a building.

I just had some fun with this blowing things up, not really putting any thought into my maneuvers aside from getting units within LOS of each other to see what would happen to the bunkers. (It's a good looking and interesting map! It seems like with the forces currently on it, the long range gun duel will decide things. The little streambed was nice and it provided enough cover for a couple of guys to stage a Panzerfaust ambush (that's what I get for ignoring the US infantry and just drove the tanks toward the bunkers)). Anyway I agree, the concrete PaK bunkers seem to hold up fine. I had it in Hotseat so I could see what ammo the US was shooting and what damage the Germans were taking. One of them took multiple rounds of 76mm AP and then several more of 75mm HE with no casualties (but some suppression). The only thing that eventually caused casualties and then knocked it out was a 57mm AT gun firing HE from very far away on the other side of the valley. It seemed like they managed to score hits on the opening--good shooting! The other one took casualties from a very close-range 75mm AP shot through the side (without hit text, oddly), and then from an equally close-range 76mm HE round that scored a penetration (complete with hit text and a hit decal) on the front--but not at the firing slit itself. That one did seem weird. I was a little puzzled by the TacAI's targeting logic. It seemed like it picked HE if there were any chance of getting through the opening, and AP otherwise. I don't have enough experience with concrete bunkers to know if this is how it was before the patch, but for what it's worth that's what I saw happening in this case.

It looks to me like this was designed back before the CMBN 2.01 patch, which greatly increased the effect of MGs. That might explain why people who played in 2012 were able to get at least some men off the beach but now it's impossible?

Thanks! My pictures are from CMFI. It hadn't occurred to me this could be different between titles.

Could the vehicle be abandoned? If I recall correctly, abandoned-but-not-destroyed vehicles still have floating icons, but they won't reveal who can see them when you click on those icons. It's something about it being only sort of a real unit I guess. If I'm remembering this right, I assume it would work the same way when a drone is involved. The fact that in your last screenshot, you can see the vehicle icon while the JTAC Team is selected proves that they are the ones who have spotted it.

I've noticed in the last couple of weeks that the 4.01 patch fixed several bugs I'd seen reported on the forums, even though they weren't listed in the patch notes. In many cases I wasn't aware that BFC had even officially acknowledged them. It's been fun to find these things, so I thought I'd start a thread to compile them. I'm grateful to the BFC staff and testers who have harvested these and fixed them, and I'm curious what others have found! Here's what I've seen so far: 1) In CMFB, Volksgrenadier Sturm squads no longer have extra Assistant leaders. Reported and acknowledged after the 4.0 upgrade in 2016, now fixed: 2) In CMFI, Italian HMG teams no longer carry superfluous US 60mm mortar ammunition. Noted back in 2013, in 2017, and again in March 2019 but now fixed: 3) In the CMFI Troina campaign, US infantry company MG teams used to have M1919A4s instead of M1919A6s--but no longer. I noted that here in 2017: 4) In CMBN, you can now buy Vickers teams in QBs without getting XO teams instead. @Oliver_88 confirmed this. 5) Perhaps related to (4), in CMBN and CMFI, CW Vickers platoon 2IC teams no longer have erroneous MG icons, as used to be true (noted here): 6) In CMBN, the problem with acquiring mortar ammo from CW Carrier Platoon vehicles is fixed, confirmed by @domfluff here: 7) In CMBN, US MMG teams no longer fire off a rifle grenade as a "parting shot" after an area fire Target Light order is cancelled. I noticed this under 4.0 back in 2017 and I saw it again just now with my version of CMBN 3.0. But it seems to be gone in 4.01! 8 Another pet peeve of mine, in CMFI 4.0 US units with area fire orders would fire off their AT rifle grenade before their HE grenades, instead of saving it to use against armor. (At least, that's what I observed and noted). Not true in CMFI after the patch! (I also noticed that under 4.0, unlike 3.0, early US rifle squads carried two rifle grenade launchers. This hasn't been changed in 4.01, so I assume it was a deliberate TO&E update.) Patch notes themselves here: