Well - I was wrong

[GSX]

And Im not afraid to admit it.

Yesterday, after BF sorted out my Windows 8.1 DRM fankle (thanks Martin) I though, 'what the hell' Im going to buy MG, just for the German Airborne so I can play them in Normandy.

Well, I was wrong, not only is MG a very, very decent addition to the CMBN club, it feels much more polished than the others and the maps are excellent.

I had a 2 hour battle with a Fallschirmjaeger Recce Company against the AI (US Glider Inf Coy) and had an absolute blast. I played it over one of the new MG Bridge maps. I did a proper advance to contact recce, fix the enemy, flank by Platoons and everything. I did have a couple of Stugs as a back up and 2 x 75mm Inf Guns, one of which I even managed to get into action (not often I manage that against AI mortars in CM).

Those Para recce Squads pack a punch, 2 x MG42, 2 x MP 40 and 2 x Kar per six man section and you get six sections to a Platoon. No real need to split those babies.

I put the AI on defence and chose the force myself as I think that if you let the AI choose it always goes artillery daft and has an uncanny ability to choose just where my set up zone is. This happened just the other day when I had spent literally 40 minutes planning 1st moves and Blam, the AI hits my whole Inf Coy with Rockets. Game over in 30 secs.

Anyway, after a great and glorious struggle, I managed a Major win against the US force which as I said, I chose myself (does spoil the surprises a wee bit but does make for better QB in my opinion).

So yes, I was wrong and the MG module has quite a lot to offer, some very interesting and well made maps and of course the German Airborne, to mention just 2!

Strangely though, no Brit Campaign? I was looking forward to being Michael Caine and yelling 'Start the Purple'!

[mjkerner]

Hey GSX, you must not have gotten the FJ uniform bug! Btw, there are some Brit scenarios in the Road to Nijmegen Campaign.

[Michael Emrys]

...if you let the AI choose it always goes artillery daft and has an uncanny ability to choose just where my set up zone is. This happened just the other day when I had spent literally 40 minutes planning 1st moves and Blam, the AI hits my whole Inf Coy with Rockets. Game over in 30 secs.

Hmmm, I thought that had been fixed a good while ago. I haven't had it bombard my setup zone in ages, though it is not shy about dropping a load just in front of a setup zone. No doubt hoping to catch me as I advance, which is fair. But I always wait a turn or two to see where it is going to hit and then steer my units away from the targeted area.

Michael

[YankeeDog]

Btw, there are some Brit scenarios in the Road to Nijmegen Campaign.

Yep; Road to Njmegen is basically a hybrid Brit Armor + U.S. Para campaign.

I think a Market Garden Brit Para campaign dealing with the action in and around Arnhem would be very cool, but harder to do well in the game engine as it is right now due to some capabilities that haven't made it into game engine yet. I think capability that would be important for doing an Arnhem campaign right is persistent map damage, but there are others.

So the action in and near Arnhem can probably better be modeled as individual scenarios, rather than linked battles in a campaign.

[Battlefront.com]

Thanks for the post GSX. I'm happy to see you're seeing the value in these addons and how TO&E can have a significant impact on gameplay. Part of the reason for the feeling of "polish" is in part because we're not trying to purse a "broad front" strategy as we did with the CMx1 games.

I'm also happy to hear another Win 8.1 problem has been solved. Major headaches from Microsoft's latest attempt to drive everybody to drink. Heavily.

About the choices of campaign. Yeah, we felt that without persistent map damage and and frontline adjustment, similar to CMx1's Operations, we felt the battles around Arnhem would be better as stand alone battles. Every system has it's weaknesses and for the CMx2 Campaign system it's intensive battles fought over the same ground. The weaknesses in CMx1's Operations is that's all they were designed to do. Having seen both systems in use we're very, very glad we made the choice we did.

Steve

[MarkEzra]

Hmmm, I thought that had been fixed a good while ago. I haven't had it bombard my setup zone in ages, though it is not shy about dropping a load just in front of a setup zone. No doubt hoping to catch me as I advance, which is fair. But I always wait a turn or two to see where it is going to hit and then steer my units away from the targeted area.

Michael

The problem was the rockets not the AI arty plans.

[Holman]

Thanks for the post GSX. I'm happy to see you're seeing the value in these addons and how TO&E can have a significant impact on gameplay.

The CMSF series taught us this too. The differences between U.S. Army units, Marines, British forces, and NATO units called for almost entirely different tactics.

[Michael Emrys]

The problem was the rockets not the AI arty plans.

That thought occurred to me too. Glad to see we agree.

Michael

[GSX]

The problem was the rockets not the AI arty plans.

Yes indeed, the rockets hit beyond my set up but devastated the infantry in the set up. Hence why I now prefer to choose the enemy, or of course play against a human, who might just rocket my set up zones!!!