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dbsapp

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Posts posted by dbsapp

  1. In Soviet training missions they show how to concentrate your forces and to use them en masse under heavy artillery support, you gather momentum and rush with all you have in one focused blow. 

    In the campaign and many other single scenarios it simply doesn't work. To deploy this tactics means to lose your forces quickly and to do little or no damage to the opponent. The peculiar thing with the Soviet campaign is that it literally asks you to do the opposite things you had learnt from Soviet training missions. What is required from you in the first mission of Soviet campaign is to carefully scout enemy tanks and TOW vehicles and call pinpoint artillery strikes on them.

    Cold War Red Army is described as heavily dependent on artillery assets and massive artillery support to pin down the enemy. But in CM world  artillery strikes on areas simply don't do anything to the vehicles, the only application they have is to bombard towns or infantry positions. At best areal artillery strikes can kill one or two lightly armored vehicles, which is far from being enough to suppress enemy defense. Many times I called pinpoint strikes on single M60 tank to find out 10 or 15 minutes later that bombardment didn't scratch the tank, it seats in full health in Moon landscape among craters with no trees around. 

    In reality it should be completely destroyed or severally damaged. IRL photos from the tests:

    Artillery-Effect1.png

     

    Artillery-Effect2.png

     

    That's one of the biggest drawbacks of CM engine and inconsistences of CMCW. In theory artillery plays major role in Soviet military planning, but in game practice it has little effect on the enemy. This virtually strips Soviet army of one of its most powerful forces. 

    So does "Soviet tactics" work?

    In my experience it does, but primary in Quick battles. To work it needs certain conditions. First of all, Soviet forces must have serious numerical advantage. In Quick battles this condition is met by assigning more points to the Red side than to the Blue. Second, the terrain conditions should be more or less equal. This is also true for the most of the Quick battle maps. Even artillery, which is relatively weakened under CM engine framewok, could be applied to block enemy infantry from reaching certain zones. 

    But it definitely ineffective under conditions that differs from those of "equal" conditions of Quick battles.  

     

  2. 25 minutes ago, Halmbarte said:

    I'm actually playing the Sov with this one. I reconfigured Czechmate with '79 equipment and so far I've lost a T62 and a loaded BTR (dang window in the trees I thought was providing cover). The T62s have had a couple of close calls if trees hadn't intercepted 2 TOWs I'd be down 2 more T62s. 

    AT4s and AT7s are deadly when you get them into good firing positions w/o them being detected before they shoot. Much better than the Dragon and TOW in many aspects, such as man portability thru dense trees and the carrying BTRs actually have a reasonable number of reloads. Plus the hit rate seems higher than my Dragon teams normally manage. Although that one drunk AT4 team has dumped at least 2 missiles in the dirt. Maybe the run back to the BTR for more AT4s and back to a firing position will sober them up. 

     

    H

    When I played this scenario about 10 of 12 AT-4 missiles hit the ground. 

    I noticed that it's a common thing for AT-4 if they there is big elevation difference between firing team and the target. 

  3. 5 minutes ago, kohlenklau said:

    Nothing to do with COVID but I am struggling to finish a small Soviet Campaign. I have 2 battles playing well, the 3rd is much bigger so it just takes time. I ask a couple guys for a playtest of the campaign so far...I think finally the core unit is working, so battle 1 losses are reflected in who shows up for the muster report on battle 2...

    Wow, looking forward to play it! 

  4. 8 hours ago, kohlenklau said:

    My scenario/campaign release timeline is delayed by now learning I have COVID...

    I had Vax 1 and 2 back in the summer but now have tested + for COVID.

    Amazingly, today I had a good idea on improving scenario 2 of 3 in my play as Soviets CMRT Barbarossa Campaign.

    @Faucci Thanks Dude!!

     

    Get well! Wish you health.

  5. 30 minutes ago, M.H. said:

    Hello,

    Since a few days I have a issue with the display of the grounds, have deleted all mods, reinstalled, problem persists.

    On the three screenshots you can see once with the problems in the display, it's like smeared, overlaid or something like that, then a screenshot with movie-mode where the floor appears normal, and picture number three shows the display before the problems. I use a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti.

    Does anyone have any advice?

    Thanks for the attention.

    Kind Regards

     

    https://imgur.com/a/HL4TkVV

     

    Not sure if I understand what's your problem exactly after looking at screenshots. 

    It also seems that you still using some modes, at least units icons seem unconventional. Try clearing Z folder and\or mods folder.

    You can also check nvidea control panel and return 3d options to defaults and updating videodriver. 

     

  6. 31 minutes ago, Bobjack1240 said:

    Its a good thing the devs probably used the Steelbeasts '79  M1 Abrams armor values instead of using real life documents because I've looked at real life documents and using real life documents would have been inconsistent as hell.

     

    This is especially true pertaining to their ke protection values. A British Army evaluation from 1982 ("Future Main Battle Tank from 1-3-82 to 3-28-83)  rated the '79 Abrams as "slightly less than the Challenger 1" in ke protection. If this is true, then the Abrams would be slightly less than 500mm vs ke. We know this wasn't an M1IP or M1A1 prototype because before those entered service (the IP entered service in '84 and the A1 entered service in '85), both of those carried the prototype designation M1E1. The vehicle in the British evaluation is just called M1 Abrams. 

     

    Slightly less than 500 would also imply the '79 Abrams would have been tested to withstand West German DM-13 (penetrates 450mm at 1km) which was more powerful than the Soviet BM-22 we have in game.

     

    A CIA document from 1982 ("PROPOSAL FOR INTERAGENCY INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM ON SOVIET ARMOR PROGRAM") rates one version of the Abrams as "400mm rha vs ke and 750mm rha vs heat".

     

    Another CIA document from 1987 ("NEAR EAST AND SOUTH ASIA REVIEW") rates the M1A1 as 380mm ve ke attack and 900 vs heat. 

     

    British Army doc pt1.JPG

     

     

    The firepower and armor protection results for the Future Main Battle Tank Evaluation

    British Army doc pt2.JPG

     

     

    A British MOD brochure from around the same time (the very early 80s).

    Ministry of Defense brocure from around the same time period.JPG

     

     

     

    The 1982 CIA document

    The 1982 CIA document.JPG

     

     

     

    XM1 Vulnerability Analysis 1977

     

    image.thumb.png.d4053198b21cd89fd366720822daded6.png

     

     

    XM1 British Trial March-April 1978

     

    image.png.ad9310c3e6475262e84f93fdea924936.png

    Thank you, a lot of interesting information.

    Strange, that you call you findings "inconsistent". 380, 400 and less than 500 against KE sounds pretty coherent. Seems like the number is somewhere near 400, maybe slightly less.

    M1 in Combat Mission is absolutely game breaking asset that literally overpowered boyond any reasonable simulation or realism standards. In CMCW early version of Abrams withstands RPG hit to the sides.

  7. 21 minutes ago, Codreanu said:

    That Tiger II camo looks great, and wow, those campaign casualties for the Soviets are insane, I really gotta play this one.

    This camo is from @37mm All in One modpack.

    The campaign is truly well done. It skillfully mixes company size operations with epic scale tank battles. The level of Soviet casualties is really staggering, but most of them come from 2 mission when you defend against waves of Soviet tanks and troops. 

    AI never plays well enough when it comes to attack human player.

     

  8. Finally returned to the "Broken Shields" campaign after long period of oblivion since July. I stuck on the 10th mission "The Whirlwind" and left. Turned out it was the last scenario of the while campaign and I was several inches from the victory.

    Well... not the victory actually. 

    Waffen-Total-Defeat.png

    The last mission ended in bitter defeat for my German troops. It was close to impossible to win it and I guess it was meant to be lost. After all it resulted in complete failure for the Reich in real world. Anyway, the mission did well in conveying the apocalyptical feelings of retreating German troops seeking to save their lives and trying to find exit from the deadly trap among heavy snowfall and dozens of Russian tanks. 

    To my surprise Reg Norge HQ himself was suddenly ambushed by the team of bailed out T-34!

    CMRT-snow4-ambushed.png

    I planned to send him to the extraction zone after all of his troops left, but it seems that the old fox decided to save his skin, ignore my orders and to flee first. Actually, he survived and escaped 😆 contrary to great number of troops under his command. 

    I lost all of the remaining tanks in this mission.

    CMRT-snow2.png

    CMRT-snow3.png

    Despite defeat at the end, the campaign was quite generous to me. 

    Major-Victory-After-Defeat-Campaign.png

     

  9. Having a blast with CMCW single scenarios recently. Almost all scenarios are of an excellent quality. But even among them are some real gems, like "Rumpenheim Rumpus". I give it 6 red stars out of possible 5. 

    Very clever, tense and literally perfect scenario. So much fun. 

    In this scenario you have to cross the river and capture the town. You are given really powerful forces, tanks, plenty of artillery and aviation support, but the time is limited to 1 hour and only amphibious vehicle can reach the town. 

    What's really good is AI paths. Town defenders are not stationary towers, but they are moving making very realistic impression. 

    After I called all of my artillery on the ground and my Migs dropped their bombs, the first engagement was ATGM duel. I was surprised, but my BRDM's (bottomed up of course) showed their bright side and won it against M150 Tank Hunters.

    ATGM-duel-2.png

    ATGM-duel-3.png

    One of the BRDMs achieved really remarkable results and will be turned into monument in front of the Communist Youth League building in London after this bloody war is over 🙂

    successeful-BRDM-ATGM.png

     I gained stable footing and decided to proceed to amphibious landing.

    Rumpenheim-Birds-Eye.png

    I made a mistake, wrongly decided that the river could be crossed in every part . AI led my BMPs to one of the possible crossing routs, instead of the route I planned, and they were hit by single M60 hidden behind the church. I lost 3 vehicles, but the 4th killed the tank with ATGM. 

    Rumpenheim-bmp-vs-tank2.png

    Several enemy tanks came from the rear to the front to prevent  assembling forces from attack. Town defenders called artillery right on the place of the crossing, but I launched the amphibious landing anyway, because the time was short.

    Rumpenheim-crossing2.png

    Rumpenheim-crossing3.png

    Rumpenheim-crossing4.png

    I found out that my artillery did the job and suppressed the enemy troops in the  ruins, but soon a lot of survived units showed themselves and they received the reinforcements. It all turned into spectacular guerilla warfare. 

    Rumpenheim-Enetering-the-city.png

    Rumpenheim-Enetering-the-city2.png

    When I became really nervous that I wouldn't make it on time, 5 minutes before the timer ends the mission completed with "Total Victory".

    Rumpenheim-Total-Victory.png

    The post operation picture of poor town:

    Rumpenheim-Total-Victory2.png

     

  10. 22 minutes ago, CanuckGamer said:

    A friend of mine bought Cold War a couple of weeks ago from Matrix Games and noticed that it indicated that it was 32 bit.  When he checked with their help desk he was told that there wasn't a 64 bit version.  I am thinking of buying it  from Battlefront.  Is there a 64 bit version?

    I run it on 64 bit Windows alright.

  11. 1 hour ago, dbsapp said:

    I think I understood how I create my own game. 

    But how I find and join other people's challenges?

     

    Found the answer in the manual:

    Setting Up a PBEM++ Battle
    To start a battle with the PBEM++ system either choose a premade scenario or set up a Quick Battle. When setting up battle select the “2 Players - Automated PBEM++” mode of play. At this time you may enter a password if you wish for a specific opponent to be able to play the battle against you. The battle has then been created and appears in the Challenge lobby.
    Playing a PBEM++ Battle
    All battles available for play are in the Automated PBEM++ Challenges lobby. This can be found by going into the "Saved Games & PBEM portion of Combat Mission from the Opening menu. A drop down menu will present you with several choices. “Automated PBEM++ Challenges” is where you will find battles that are available to be played. You will see the battle that you created listed there, along with battles that others have created that are available for play. To play a battle, simply select a battle from the list and click on “Fight!”. If the battle is password protected, a "*" will appear next to the battle name: you will need the password from the creator of the Challenge to play these battles.
    Once you have completed your turn, the file will automatically be uploaded to our servers and sent to your opponent. When you opponent completes their turn you will receive an email notification. Select the "Saved Games & PBEM" option in the Opening menu and use the drop menu to select “Automated PBEM++ In Progress”. You will see your game turn there. Select the turn that you want to play and click on “Fight!”. Continue this until the battle has concluded.

  12. On 11/24/2021 at 3:08 AM, Ultradave said:

    Not sure from what you've posted what the issue is so I'll try just some of the basics

    In OPTIONS on the main menu, when you get to the OPTIONS screen, at the bottom there is a new button for PBEM login.

    Click on that and there you can enter a login id and password and your email. The login id and password is your Slitherene one. If you don't have one, just go there and register.

    Now you are all ready to set up a challenge for someone to pick up.

    Back to the main menu, select BATTLE, pick the scenario, then the side, and then where you would normally select Real Time, Turn based, PBEM, you want "Automated PBEM.  You can password protect it so that only someone with the password can accept. This is common when you have already agreed to play someone and don't want someone else randomly to come in and take it.

    You'll then set your in game password, and it will automatically save and exit you back to the main menu. Later after your opponent does his first turn, you should get an email that it is now your turn.

    Open the game, select SAVED GAMES, and at the bottom of the screen, the thing you want to select is PBEM++ in progress.  There you can select the next turn to open up. when you click the red button to process the turn it will save and exit. Continue for each turn.

    I hope that helps. I think I got the whole sequence right. If you have a problem, PM me and I"ll try to help or if you want to set up a test scenario with me to try the process, go ahead and PM me a password and your Slitherene ID and the scenario so I know which one to grab. 

    Dave

    I think I understood how I create my own game. 

    But how I find and join other people's challenges?

     

  13. Agree and disagree. 

    Agree that game needs more healthy criticism instead of permanent worshipping. In many aspects it feels outdated, ancient and cumbersome. 

    Some things could be fixed quite easily without much time investment (at least it seems so). E.g. movements command, hunt etc. 

    Disagree that modules feel the same. In my opinion they are all quite different and require different playstyle, variable strategies and approach. You can't command your Soviet troops in Red Thunder the same way you manage US troops in CMBS. That's one of the best achievements of Combat Mission: basically it's the same engine, but units properties differ substantially and it makes different game every time. 

  14. 12 minutes ago, Canada Guy said:

    Halmbarte,

    I am wondering if your problem with your Vulcan crew not being able to bail is also related to one of mine oddities. My ZSU-34-4 killed a Vulcan but it did not appear to die and ZSU never got credit.

    image.png.6c56240bc39965dc66fda70975fc5338.png

    US unit appeared to remain active for 3 additional turns after status changed to knocked out. Then another of my units fired upon it which killed the remaining crew member. For those 3 turns status = 'knocked out' but the icon remained - which usually disappears after a vehicle is knocked out. Do crew not bail now when their unit is 'knocked out' and until they do, the killing unit does not gain credit for the kill?

    I had the same issue with vulcan - it didn't want to die no matter what.

  15. @Ultradave @Sgt.Squarehead thank you, guys!

    Actually, I've already comleted this mission. 

    I found that scrolling zoom in and out helps bring the game out if deadlock. The freezes begin when I try to move around one of the units (most often AT gun or ATGM). After I relaunched the mission from the beginning and applied zoom in zoom out method the freezes didn't disappear but became tolerable.

    I reported this issue because I didn't experience things like that before and it runs fine on 1.01.

     

  16. As far as I understand, no. 

    The only difference in spotting is the amount of information available on spotted unit, e.g. on basic training you will immediately get all the info on the tank model, applied damage etc. 

    Besides, all the advantages you get are also provided for AI. So if you get shorter arrillery call times, AI gets them as well, making your life really miserable. 

     

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