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Terrain Types And Their Effectiveness In Cover And Concealment


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I can't even tell what is what in my games because there is no reference to go by. How on Earth is this info not in the manual?

Is there a difference between rocky ground and rough ground or are both those types even included in CMBN? What about tree cover? Is there still a difference in cover between pine trees and trees of another type?

And on a similar note, how does one even tell what terrain is what and why was this not included in the 'new' game? It seemed to work great for CMBB so why exclude that feature for CMBN?

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Don't over-think it. Basically, what you see is what you get. Rocky ground is better cover than open grass. Tall grass is better concealment than short grass. Trees are trees, it's density that matters more.

If you poke around in the editor, it can help with identifying the terrain tiles, but again I think this can lead to people way over-thinking placement.

CMx1 system for "what terrain is my unit in and how much cover/concealment does it have" would be near impossible because:

1. a unit can occupy multiple terrain types at any one time

2. a single tile can have multiple combinations of terrain

3. cover/concealment is not absolute and can depend on the relative position of the enemy

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And on a similar note, how does one even tell what terrain is what and why was this not included in the 'new' game? It seemed to work great for CMBB so why exclude that feature for CMBN?

I agree. I have often pined for an illustrated guide to terrain recognition and find it a little hard to understand why one was not included in the manual.

Michael

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1. a unit can occupy multiple terrain types at any one time

2. a single tile can have multiple combinations of terrain

I've been thinking about this the last few days, and I agree that including the information in the unit information box at the bottom of the screen a la CMx1 is not going to fly, how about a pop-up list of the various terrain types in an AS if you hold down the shift key (for instance) while placing the cursor on the AS?

I don't really need to be told how good the cover/concealment is in the AS—I agree that is over-thinking the matter and I am perfectly happy to go by my own rules of thumb and accept the consequences—but I have not been happy to guess what kind of terrain are in an AS based on appearance and then have my guess turn out to be wrong. What I am seeing is not always what I am getting.

Michael

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I agree. I have often pined for an illustrated guide to terrain recognition and find it a little hard to understand why one was not included in the manual.

I can't imagine a manual being able to properly depict the distinctions between some of the terrain types which are more readily told apart in the 3D model than they would be from a single angle view printed at pretty low fidelity. Perhaps that sort of limitation has something to do with it.

Some things to bear in mind:

It's only an 8m action spot. So a team will almost always have someone quite near the edge of it. Hence, the terrain your asset is in is less important than the terrain your asset has between it and potential observers.

Differences in elevation really matter.

Trees is trees. It's the terrain under them that counts most.

Concealment with some vertical element is better than "terrain tile" concealment. Look for scrub/brush and use that.

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...why was this not included in the 'new' game?

What new game are you talking about? The newest game is CMFI and is uses the same basic game engine as CMBN, CM:Afghanistan and CMSF. Everything is standardized and has been for 6 years at least. There's no 'new game' that's dramatically different from the others. There was the recent CM v2.0 upgrade but that certainly didn't take anything away.

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What new game are you talking about? The newest game is CMFI and is uses the same basic game engine as CMBN, CM:Afghanistan and CMSF. Everything is standardized and has been for 6 years at least. There's no 'new game' that's dramatically different from the others. There was the recent CM v2.0 upgrade but that certainly didn't take anything away.

I'm referring to CMBB vs. CMBN (new engine vs. old). Barbarossa to Berlin had the names of terrain tiles. During games, you could see what tile you were on and the manual explained what C and C each terrain offered.

Why was this removed from the new engine?

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