Quick Battles

[Hogzkrieg]

I just picked up CMRT recently and loving it so far. I played CMBN too but don't have a lot of experience with the system. Some of the battles in the campaigns are a little on the large side for my taste/competence level so I've been playing around a lot with the quick battle system. The OOB and troop selection screen, while workable and relatively straight forward, is not the most user friendly and I'm having trouble selecting two evenly matched forces.

I'm looking for some suggestions of troop selections that will make a fun quick battle. I'm more interested in the "small" point allocation but would be interested to hear what other players go for regardless of size. I generally pick the opposing force myself too. Knowing what the enemy has is not a huge advantage for me at this stage as I'm not particularly good at the game, plus, sometimes, if playing against the Soviets, the AI seems to go very heavy on the rocket artillery which really ruins my day.

From reading the forums I know that there are others out there who like the smaller scale battles, what sort of force composition do you like in quick battles?

[eniced73]

Medium size battles are not that hard to handle. I usually suggest to my opponent a 60-40 or 40-60 split of infantry to armor. That stops the mad tank rushes or waves of infantry. I find it gives a decent balance to games. Small and most Medium maps suck to play on as you do not have much room for maneuvers. Large maps tend to give problems with load times but offer room to actually conduct flanking moves.

I started to think about suggesting to my opponents that the purchase of troop transport trucks be free. Not counted towards point allocation. But the drivers cannot be used to fight and have to retreat if damaged or destroyed. Solves running your troops across a large map.

Also thought about allowing so many points towards recon units. AC's or jeeps. Say the first 5-7 minutes are recon moves and then you are allowed to move your main force. May stop the ME rushes to the middle of the map to occupy the OZ.

Just some thoughts. You could also have someone pick your opposing forces for you. You could email me your picks and I could set up the QB with your forces and select an opposing force balanced towards yours. I could then save the file and send it back to you to play single player. Pretty sure that would work.

[DavidFields]

I just picked up CMRT recently and loving it so far. I played CMBN too but don't have a lot of experience with the system. Some of the battles in the campaigns are a little on the large side for my taste/competence level so I've been playing around a lot with the quick battle system. The OOB and troop selection screen, while workable and relatively straight forward, is not the most user friendly and I'm having trouble selecting two evenly matched forces.

I'm looking for some suggestions of troop selections that will make a fun quick battle. I'm more interested in the "small" point allocation but would be interested to hear what other players go for regardless of size. I generally pick the opposing force myself too. Knowing what the enemy has is not a huge advantage for me at this stage as I'm not particularly good at the game, plus, sometimes, if playing against the Soviets, the AI seems to go very heavy on the rocket artillery which really ruins my day.

From reading the forums I know that there are others out there who like the smaller scale battles, what sort of force composition do you like in quick battles?

Search on my posts to learn about some very small, fun, battles.

By editing the QB forces, eliminating almost everything, you can do things like take a squad or two, with an HQ, and go against an MG or two, with a HQ. With the AI placing the enemy units in different places each time, or by using different maps, the replayability is high.

Throw in a flamethrower unit, say, or a sniper team, for fun. You get a real "hunter/hunted" type feel as you try to locate the few enemy units, and then try to eliminate them.

The turns go much faster, and mistakes are less painful--because you have not had to endure hours of movement/clicks only to find out you made some basic initial decision incorrectly.

Too small?-- just add more units. The key is to make your own victory conditions, edit, edit, edit, to keep the forces small, yet keep it challenging enough to be fun.

[Hogzkrieg]

Thanks for the replies chaps.

I took eniced73's advice and tried a medium battle on a large map, this meant I could get company of infantry and a 4 or 5 medium tanks or assault guns, it worked really well, I think this is the sort of battle size I prefer. I picked a similar force for the AI.

Rankorian, I'm going to try a few ultra small battles as you suggest tonight, the speed of the turns and quick setup time sounds like a nice change of pace, it will probably be good to get the basics of the game down too.

Many thanks for the suggestions.

[z-warfare]

company of infantry and a 4 or 5 medium tanks or assault guns.

My personal opinion is that's the scale that Combat Mission does best.

Big enough that you can have a plausible variety of assets to use, but small enough that you can actually manage everything.

[Michael Emrys]

My personal opinion is that's the scale that Combat Mission does best.

Big enough that you can have a plausible variety of assets to use, but small enough that you can actually manage everything.

I really agree. For me, giving the defender a reinforced platoon or two and giving the attacker a company or a company reinforced with a platoon or two of armor feels very comfortable. Manageable, but big enough to be interesting.

Michael

[Squallion]

I just picked up CMRT recently and loving it so far. I played CMBN too but don't have a lot of experience with the system. Some of the battles in the campaigns are a little on the large side for my taste/competence level so I've been playing around a lot with the quick battle system. The OOB and troop selection screen, while workable and relatively straight forward, is not the most user friendly and I'm having trouble selecting two evenly matched forces.

I'm looking for some suggestions of troop selections that will make a fun quick battle. I'm more interested in the "small" point allocation but would be interested to hear what other players go for regardless of size. I generally pick the opposing force myself too. Knowing what the enemy has is not a huge advantage for me at this stage as I'm not particularly good at the game, plus, sometimes, if playing against the Soviets, the AI seems to go very heavy on the rocket artillery which really ruins my day.

From reading the forums I know that there are others out there who like the smaller scale battles, what sort of force composition do you like in quick battles?

I have not yet played a quick battle, but I do want to comment on battle size.

I was wondering if I'm the only one that prefers small/medium maps. Some of these campaign maps(at least soviet that I've seen) are GIGANTIC. I can barely handle it. lol.

Ultimately, I think it's the time limit that makes the HUGE battles difficult for me to handle.

[A Canadian Cat]

I was wondering if I'm the only one that prefers small/medium maps. Some of these campaign maps(at least soviet that I've seen) are GIGANTIC. I can barely handle it. lol.

LOL no you are not the only one. I personally like a variety of sizes but there are many who stick to smaller battles. Yeah, it can feel a bit daunting some times opening the setup phase and seeing a huge map with 2hours on the clock and a scary number of units to place. Whenever I feel that way I just save where I am and go play a different battle and come back to it later.

[GI Jas]

Hows does force allocations work for the defender when the menu is always under the attackers selection? And does anyone use the force suggestions and get good results? How does map size correlate with battle size. Should I go a size smaller for battles based on the map size?

[peter thomas]

I can't handle anything above a company size force. Or, I can, but it begins to seem odd as I can't then keep up with everything that's happening - meaning I can't micromanage the AI's responses closely enough, either on RT or turns. And I find the AI slow to respond to threats - so slow that soldiers get regularly killed because, for example, the AI doesn't just immediately hit the dirt when raked by a sudden MG, even if on Hunt, I still lose people before the AI reacts. But the QBs are great for setting up manageable level forces. There are limits to the fun, I think. Has anyone ever seen the enemy AI run into your forces, stop, withdraw carefully and try to pin and flank you? I have never seen anything like this. Mostly the enemy AI just keeps coming. There don't seem to be any more complex doctrines written in - am I right? And is 'Meeting Engagement' still kind of broken in QB? It's ten minutes before the enemy even appears on the map, by which time it's turned into a Defend (me defending all the easily seized objectives)? Anyone see this? Thanks.

[JoMac]

I'm with some others and only play up to Reinforced Company size Scenario's/QB.

Joe

[A Canadian Cat]

Hows does force allocations work for the defender when the menu is always under the attackers selection?

I am not sure what you mean. As long as the force selection is set to human both players get to make their own choices. If some one sends you a Quick battle that was auto selected and you did not expect that it's time to have a chat:D

And does anyone use the force suggestions and get good results?

Yes, for quick tests or a quickie game against the AI. If I am fighting for real I never use it. What I have found is that the larger the battle size the more likely I will be happy with the auto force selection.

How does map size correlate with battle size. Should I go a size smaller for battles based on the map size?

I don't thing that is necessary but you can if you want. The size of the map changes how much maneuver you can do. For Attack (and Assault and Probe) QBs going with a smaller map will make it easier for the defense and a larger map will make it harder.

[GI Jas]

I am not sure what you mean. As long as the force selection is set to human both players get to make their own choices. If some one sends you a Quick battle that was auto selected and you did not expect that it's time to have a chat.

I mean when your the defender in a assault or attack. On the QB force setup screen you can allocate more forces or less to yourself than the enemy or AI or vise versa. However, the menu is always under the attackers section and not the defenders. So if I'm the defender say, playing as Germany and the AI is the attacker as the Soviets and I want more force points which equals a larger force than the Soviet AI how do I do this? The attacker section on the left is static meaning you can change it to defender and there is no drop down menu for force allocation on the defenders side on the right on the QB force selection screen?

[GI Jas]

And is there a way other than manually tweaking the AI's force selection to limit their arty usage? The AI uses it too much.

[A Canadian Cat]

I mean when your the defender in a assault or attack. On the QB force setup screen you can allocate more forces or less to yourself than the enemy or AI or vise versa. However, the menu is always under the attackers section and not the defenders. So if I'm the defender say, playing as Germany and the AI is the attacker as the Soviets and I want more force points which equals a larger force than the Soviet AI how do I do this?

Ah, got it. That setting is meant for handy capping - to give the less experience player boost. So instead of an absolute point change for both sides it only applies to one side. In your case if you want more points as the defender instead you have to settle for giving less to the attacker. Which works out relatively but does not allow you to pick an absolute point value.

There have been a few requests for custom point settings for the QB. Hopefully BFC will consider doing that at some point.

[A Canadian Cat]

And is there a way other than manually tweaking the AI's force selection to limit their arty usage? The AI uses it too much.

Only if you take over control of their force selection and press the auto select button and then manually reduce their artillery and boost something else.

So, not really