General Liederkranz

I've done this in CMBS by popping vehicular smoke and then driving into it, and it helps. Getting under trees helps too. And with vehicles, if you park them right next to buildings you'll be protected if the plane approaches from that direction--but you never know which way the plane will come from.

Great, thanks. It's especially useful to know that weapons listed in the manual as being equipped with thermals for night fighting (like the SAW and the .50 cal sniper rifle) also have them during the day.

Thanks for sharing these results. I assume this was in daylight?

According to the manual, the .50 cal sniper rifle has a thermal sight, even if it's not mentioned in the interface (as most heavy weapons are supposed to). There's no mention of the 7.62mm sniper rifles having thermals, though.

Isn't this also built in as a QB option? I haven't used this much but I believe when selecting forces you can choose "Typical" quality, which assigns soft values according to what the game thinks the average forces of that type would've had. So Veterans are still Veterans and +1 leaders are still +1 leaders, but you're more likely to get Veterans in historically "good" formations and -2 leaders in historically "bad" formations. So if both players want to limit themselves to a little more accuracy to historical training/experience levels, it's possible.

This is how it works for off-map mortars or artillery. But on-map mortars count Smoke ammo and HE separately, like any other weapon does. I believe in the bug being referenced here, there are still smoke rounds left in the count, just no HE.

I'd be curious to see usage or production stats. It's interesting that some GIs didn't even know these rounds existed, despite coming under fire from them--for example: "I thought I was seeing mortar rounds hit the ground, bounce back up and explode. That didn't make sense. I must have been seeing them before they struck the earth." https://books.google.com/books?id=sAq5BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT322&lpg=PT322&dq=german+mortar+bouncing+rounds&source=bl&ots=-iGeVQy9gV&sig=yIf2IVo5HuO_-3ve2ZYOng7caro&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJwJbwnPrUAhWENT4KHf66D3MQ6AEIQzAH#v=onepage&q=german mortar bouncing rounds&f=false

I did this as a backup (I play almost entirely in v4, but thought I might want v3 still around for Commonwealth scenarios where I really need my Bren guns to fire bursts over 150m, which they don't in v4). As I recall, what I did was changed the name of my existing CMBN folder to "CMBN 4." Then I went back to the original download link I received when I bought CMBN (v3 at the time) and re-downloaded the game. Then I re-named that new folder "CMBN 3," so then I had both clearly labled. Note that this method only works if you bought the game before the upgrade, and if you still can access that link (either thorugh the email you got at purchase, or through your BF account). I don't know if there's a way to do this if you never had v3 at all.

Are these 81mm mortar shells? They sound like "Bouncing Betties." http://www.lonesentry.com/ordnance/bouncing-betty.htmlhttp://www.lonesentry.com/ordnance/bouncing-betty.html

I think I'm observing a bug with U.S. MMG teams and wondering if anyone else has seen it. The problem arises when canceling a Target Light order under WeGo (in update 4). The MG stops firing right away, but at the same time, at the very beginning of the turn, the team leader almost always fires one of his rifle grenades--a sort of parting shot. This isn't just a carryover of the previous order, since they don't use rifle grenades with a Target Light order. In the cases I've seen this also can't be a TacAI targeting decision, since they have no spotted enemies and the Target Light was area fire. This hasn't yet caused problems but it easily would--since MG fire doesn't hurt nearby friendly troops but rifle grenades do. I have a saved turn. I assume this is a bug, since I don't see any reason the game would be designed to work this way.

I also like the info sharing rules because they make it easy to impose realistic house rules on yourself when playing the AI. Beyond the real benefits that @domfluff notes of keeping C2 and deliberately moving units to spread around information, when I'm playing the AI I also force myself not to let units react to unspotted enemies and not to let them fire unless they have "suspected" icons in the area. I find this more fun and challenging, and having the infrastructure of info sharing built into the game makes that possible. Probably no game can eliminate God-Like-Player Syndrome, but I love that CM does as much as it can to mitigate it through programmed rules, but then also gives us the tools to further mitigate it voluntarily if we want to.

They fire in salvos. So 4 guns at Medium might look something like: 4 explosions, wait 30 seconds, 4 more explosions, wait 30 seconds, . . . whereas 2 guns at heavy might be like: 2 explosions, wait 10 seconds, 2 explosions, wait 10 seconds, etc.

I remember someone saying on this forum that open-topped vehicles receive spotting info from nearby infantry *faster* than closed-topped buttoned-up vehicles. That makes sense, and I feel like I've seen it happen, but I've never done any testing to see if it's true.

Ah, thanks! My win on Bruckernkopf wasn't entirely honest; I did a couple of resets from saved games when I made stupid mistakes. Your advice and others' on another thread I started about PzGd tactics also helped a lot. I burned up a lot of 75mm ammo for the Pz IVs but hoping I have enough left to press on for a coup de main . . .

Ah, I'm glad to know this was intended. It's a nice touch. Thank you all!

I just bought CMFB and I'm enjoying it so far. In several scenarios I've observed German PzGd squads--which in other titles have 2 Gunners with MG42s--in which one man marked "Gunner" only has a Kar. 98K (the other has an MG42 as usual). Just to make sure I don't have some sort of odd TO&E glitch, this is normal, right? I assume representing late-war equipment shortages?

I just started Schnelle Truppen Angriffe! (having followed Option B ) and noticed that the briefing indicates there will be 105mm Wespe support, but this doesn't show up on the map. Is this a bug, or does the artillery show up later? (This is a fantastic campaign, and I enjoyed the challenge of Angriff Gegen Einen Bruckernkopf--thanks for making it!)

Thanks to you both for your replies! I uploaded a saved turn at the link below showing the problem. @IanL, the problem is that instead of switching to a ? icon when they lose LoS, they lose any icon at all. You can see it in the turn if you click on the HQ Support Team of 1 Platoon, 2 Company, I/Pz.AA.3 at the beginning of the turn, and then again at the end. At the start, the team has a full spot on the ZiS-3 on the western side of the map, but at the end, after moving out of LoS, it has nothing. Likewise, the 1. Battalion Scout Team has a full spot on the gun, but the nearby Sniper Team never picks up a ? icon despite being within 50m of the Scout Team. One quirk I hadn't noticed until now: this applies if you're clicking between units, as I was doing while playing the turn. But if you select one of these units and stay with it throughout the playback, everything works normally and these units *do* have/gain ? icons for the gun. The issue arises if you ever click away and then come back, and in that case the ? icon goes away or doesn't get picked up. The icons also don't show up at the end of the turn, or during the following orders phase. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9hoz1igl1eq8xt8/AADLt-zNnSWdJcR1L5y9mAvxa?dl=0

I've seen this in a number of titles, but most recently in RT, so I thought I'd post the topic here. I occasionally encounter a situation where one of my units gets a "full" spot (with a complete ID and icon) on an enemy unit, usually an AT gun, but then that information doesn't disseminate outward. In other words, other units of mine don't get a "possible" icon for that unit, no matter how close or how well in C2 with the spotter, and no matter how long I wait. Sometimes the original spotting unit itself doesn't even keep the "suspected" icon after it moves out of line-of-sight. It just completely forgets that the enemy unit exists. Has anyone else seen a situation like this? Is it a bug, or meant to represent something in real life? (This matters to me because when I play against the AI, I try to keep my units from area firing or reacting to units they're not aware of, which means I pay a lot of attention to C2 and information sharing, based on @MOS:96B2P's very useful findings.)

Thank you, everyone! GeorgeMC, I've been getting some practice (slowly) playing through your awesome KG von Schroif campaign, and I asked this question as I planned out my moves for Scenario 3. Der Ring is also on my list.

Thank you, everyone. This is helpful.

No, this is not about halftracks! I've seen those threads. I'm looking for tips on using plain panzergreandiers (the kind that come in 8-man squads with 2 MG42s and 1 MP40), especially against Russians, in cooperation with tanks. It seems to me that one of the main roles for infantry in an armor-heavy force is to clear out close terrain like woods or buildings so the armor can maneuver around it or, if necessary, through it. Russian tank-riders are great at that because they have the numbers to absorb losses and tons of SMGs for close-in firepower. But PzGds are both relatively fragile, and light on SMGs. The MG42s are best at longer ranges and if one of the gunners goes down, that takes out a big chunk of the squad's firepower. So far I've learned to stay away from close terrain, hose it down with LMGs and tank area fire, and clear it only when absolutely necessary. But it seems to me that PzGds are basically not well suited to what tank-following infantry needs to do. Russian tank-riders' ability to clear patches of woods or clusters of houses seems to give their tanks more tactical flexibilty to use cover and maneuver behind it. Does this just reflect the reality of doctrine (and maybe the reason the Germans armed the Sturmgrenadiers in the Panzer Brigades with MP44s)? Or are there other tips I should learn?

Sorry if my terminology wasn't clear--I'm including entrenchments as "hard cover." I completelyagree with you about anyone with a foxhole, a trench, or in a building, and I don't think that's working well in the game at the moment. But I like the new morale effects in general, for those who aren't in good cover. I like that attacks can fail in the face of enemy fire after only a couple of casualties, as the pixeltruppen are less eager to press on in the face of losses. And I like it when Green troops making a risky move under fire will go to ground and ditch my orders even without taking casualties.

I agree, I generally like the morale under Upgrade 4. It seems more realistic and forces me to use better tactics. The place where it seems off is only when troops run from hard cover, and especially when they run towards the enemy.

I've seen this too, usually where I've plotted waypoints, hit "Hide," then added one one waypoint and unclicked "Hide." "Hide" then stays on the earlier waypoints but is removed from the last one. I'm not sure whether it's a glitch, or if it means that the unit will Hide at each way point excpet the last one, where it will Un-Hide. I think the latter would be a cool feature but I haven't tested it.