RMM

What I clearly would like to see in the next engine is a tool for movement similar to the one used for LOS: the color of the line changes when the LOS is obstructed. Doing it with the straight line between two waypoints would avoid to have tanks, of pixeltruppen, start to move AWAY from where you asked them to go, only because that damned little hedge is finally to high for them to cross, or because that stupid gully a little bit too deep…
 

Hi Folks 
New scenario released by Kohlenkau today and be sure tocheck out all the most recent scenarios over at The Scenario Depot.
 
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-final-blitzkrieg/cm-final-blitzkrieg-scenarios/cmfb-busting-out-of-bras/
 
 

Yes, I've also noted that the text in CMBN does not accept any special vowel accents. Also had trouble with possessive apostrophes.  Fixing the text is fairly easy. I think I'll have a read through all of the scenarios that I've created.
Thanks for noting issues.

I would need whatever password you are using if that is okay with you.
My intention is to "try" to make a short video of it after the fact or at least 'tell the story'. So I will create a written log of events

I found the TRP's unnecessary for a pre-battle bombardment plot and they seemed unreasonable/unrealistic to use later on a pitch black night with limited vision.

Also, it it Bohm or Böhm (Boehm), then?

Yeh, oops 😆

To move Gruppe Bohm's convoy, leave 10 second intervals between vehicles of the leading platoon starting. Leave more time if vehicles have to turn through the zig zags of the roads. And many vehicles should just stand still for 'a long time'. Do not attempt to move the whole convoy at once. Lead from the front and let the others wait for a needy time.

And it's game on! 

Tim: I have the two Gruppe Bohm that he's talking about. I'll post the files in Dropbox

Please consider rating the top article using the stars selector at the top of the page. I appreciate 'all' feedback, low or high.
Thank you.

Ah ok. I figured as much, but wasn't sure from the earlier writing. Tks. We're close to the end, and I have some time this evening if you do

Wasn't really aware of that, I must admit, or is that just an historical note? The scenario's VP only makes mention of the VP values for the Amfreville and Cauquigny VP areas. Would have sent more stuff onwards to Cauquigny if this is true in the scenario!

😆

@WimO I hope you don't give up and head to your garden my friend! I've generally had a blast with this 507th Good Drop (well...when my guys actually do their jobs anyway!) and looking forward to that Night to Forget !  One can only hope that the elusive 'Steve' is made aware and chooses to take on some of these egregious bugs that remain. My biggest beef is the inability to pickup and share any and all weapons and ammo, regardless of whether it was in the unit's original TO&E!
Re the discussion about movement in these scenarios, I could ago along with the speed limit of the 'Move' command, etc.; although, I would also suggest there also be allowance for leap-frogging alluded to by @Ultradave, since that's also a valid, RL tactic when moving through enemy - send out a scout team to cautiously cross an open section, while under overwatch from the rest of the unit. Then, once they're successfully across, rush over everyone else before the situation changes. It keeps a unit's exposure to a minimum, but would have to be on the honour system between players.
I do hope 'Steve' takes notes of the Engine 5 Wishlist and things like terrain v's movement that's been pointed out herein, since some corrections and the buddy-aid fixes would dramatically improve what is already a pretty good game system. Certainly better than any other I've come across over the years.

> This might have already been mentioned, but I think it bears worth repeating - a convoy command. Yes, one can micro-manage the movements of each individual vehicle, but quite apart from that being quite time consuming, it's still not guaranteed to work and can still end up with vehicles taking off in all manner of bizarre directions as faster vehicles (even with slower movement commands) try to get around or overtake slower ones!
> The manual needs to be updated with some terrain descriptions to help people better identify and understand the effects of say light v's darker muddy tiles, snow, etc. Does regular snow carry a chance of bog? I have no idea! In real life...well, it would depend on how deep it is. So, that's not an engine update per se, but would greatly help game play!

Vehicle damage modelling? It would be nice to see the odd turret popping off the tank hulls instead of the huge crater the vehicles make when hit. Also would be nice to see the effects of fire such as carbonized hulls develop as the fires take hold - especially in longer scenarios.

I am puzzled now. I was willing more AI plans, more triggers, ... but after several testing; no plan survives first contact with the enemy.
And this is it, you can do plenty of AI plans, if your AI group is entering the enemy kill zone, guess what, it will continue again and again using the same path. There is something missing that more AI plans won't help with.
An human would stop, think and try another path. Plan A, plan B for AI group? I don't know. Maybe the TacAI directly should be the one to enhance to simplify scenario author task.
Right now, PBEM is the way to go. AI is for training imo.

The game does seem to be lacking in this. Foxholes and trenches seem to provide a minimum of protection and are far too easily spotted, presumably because, unlike their RL counterparts, they stick up above the ground, instead of into it.

Is what you spot on the screen and not what a unit spots in the game. @Bil Hardenberger has an excellent blog with suggestions. I read it and took inspiration from it https://battledrill.blogspot.com/

It would be helpful we could split squads into more subunits. Most squads (under 10 men) can only be split into two teams.  If one splits off two men, on is often left with a large remnant team that cannot be split any further.  It would be good it one could always split off an extra 1-man or 2-man team to use as medics.
IIRC in CMBS the Red force squads of 7 men can be split into 2+2+3.

Have read all the other requests for years.  But, 5) is original and may be a useful idea.  

My list:
Little things:
1) Follow road command
2)  Adjust fire mission length not just location.
3)  Better survival skills for routed troops (i.e. hide more, run less)
4)  SOP type order for what to do at first contact with enemy (important for turn based play).
5)  Ability to decompile campaign core unit and briefing file.  Important for being able to modify campaigns.
 
Bigger things:
1) Combat medics.  Dealing with wounded is not "optional".  An aidman is assigned to every platoon.  Also, the killed to wounded ratio needs to be tweaked.  The ratio seems way off.  Lastly, there should be incentive to try and save wounded in the points calculation.
2)  Be able to split squads in vehicles.
3)  Be able to use aquire command as part of order string, i.e. run to vehicle, aquire Javelin, come back.
4)  Shading to show what terrain a unit can currently see.  I.e. light areas would be potentially visible to Unit.  Would make it a lot easier than using the FIre command tool.
5)  Some sort of news feed to let you know when important stuff happens. For instance you might get a message that says "Stryker destroyed".  If you click on message it would take you to the right place on the map.  Would be extremely useful in large scenarios.
6)  Be able to see path that AI will take when clicking on end point.  
7)  Some sort of way to let the AI headquarters take over part of command.  Would involve accessing part of the AI plan for the scenario editor for a particular formation.
 

I have seen BAZ & PzSK recovery from buddy aid, but I would add that in the same event, I saw the weapon recovered but none of the ammo!! Seriously?
There also seems to be another weapon/ammo oddity to buddy aid, where if only one body is being recovered from, quite often there's no ammo addition. Grenades yes, but no ammo. Doesn't seem right and can be really frustrating when trying to restock a platoon leader with .45 ammo, since he's the only one with that weapon! If he buddy aid's another, downed, platoon leader, why wouldn't he recover more .45 ammo?

Biggest thing CM needs is a major update to the line of sight system. The LOS/Spotting system is very sophisticated but it can sometimes mess up in extremely frustrating and unrealistic ways. The things below I would personally like to see given attention:
1) The Spotting system needs to incorporate spotting memory. If a unit or units have been spotted in an area before, the likelihood that they are found again if the sight is lost should go up VERY dramatically so long as the units dont leave the area they were spotted in. As an example, I point out the situation I discovered that units in CM cant do this as of now. In one of the CM cold war NTC scenarios, the tank battle between 2000-2500m turned into a very slow affair with tanks losing each other every time dust obscured them. Due to the range, it took some time for each side to spot each other the first time, which I can buy. But the time to spot completely reset each time a tank was unspotted, and tanks just sat there oblivious to each other starring at each other over open desert while the entire spotting process cycled through again. Sometimes tanks were never re-spotted, or it took ten turns. 
2)Sometimes small bits of foliage completely hide units. 
3)The smoke effect needs reworked to more accurately convey to the player the amount of dust or smoke. Very often the spotting system is calculating much worse conditions while to the player it looks like it would not obscure much of anything. 
4) A general improvement needs to be made, there are more weird spotting problems than I know how to list here. 
 
 
 
 
The Second Biggest thing CM needs is for the tank infantry mechanics, especially in towns, to be looked at
-Infantry need some kind of orders set that allows for specifically ordering AT teams to fire and then move. Yes I know you can use pause and movement commands but it leaves too much to chance when firing a RPG and then running away is not exactly a complicated thing to do. 
-AT guns should be re-mountable, and crew able by personnel other than their original crew. There could be penalties if the new crew isnt a trained AT crew, but other personnel should be able to operate the gun, especially against close range targets. 
-AT weapons like the Bazooka should be recoverable by the rest of the squad so that the entire unit does not become helpless versus tanks if the one guy holding the RL dies. 
-In General, infantry aiming at tanks need to miss their targets less when the range is extremely close. I have seen alot of ATRL shots miss at 25m and less, and the unit firing was not being suppressed or anything. The problem seems to affect the world war two titles more. 
-Tanks needs to be inhibited from firing on infantry that would be well outside any known tanks ability to elevate. 
-Tanks are WAY too good at spotting infantry that are behind them, in particular when buttoned up. I cant tell you how many times I have seen a tank that was completely buttoned up notice a infantry squad sneaking around behind the vehicle, and generally instantly. Yes, a TC can look backwards in a cupola, but this would be the most uncomfortable place to look especially for any length of time. It not uncommon for tanks in CM to reliably detect infantry to their six o clock virtually immediately. My suggestion would be that the probability of spotting infantry in the open to the six oclock be dramatically reduced unless there is a target arc or some specific reason the tank would be focusing their like taking fire from that direction.