sburke Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 The one thing the AI lacks is deviousness. I had a friend of mine convinced that I had a big complement of Panthers in one battle (he swore I had 5), when I really had two and were running their a$$es off back and forth between a couple of vantage points via a covered approach. Eventually he got eyes next to the road I was using and was shocked to see a Panther go flying past while displacing to a different vantage point. After that my plan was toast, but it sure was fun while it lasted. and the sad thing is that doing that against the AI would have no impact. It simply continues with it's plan. I think that is where most of the fun of HTH comes in. FOW matters to your opponent and they makes decisions based on what they think they know of your force. Even in a battle where you both know the force size you can still cause a reaction based on assumptions about how your force is deployed. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Williams Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 Welcome aboard, Squallion. :-) When you are ready to take it to the next level (PBEM instead of playing against your computer), feel free to contact me. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squallion Posted June 18, 2014 Author Share Posted June 18, 2014 Welcome aboard, Squallion. :-) When you are ready to take it to the next level (PBEM instead of playing against your computer), feel free to contact me. PBEM is Play By E-Mail. Correct? It must take ages to complete and E-mail match XD. I will probably message you sooner than I would've previously thought. Playing by E-mail is more viable than a live head to head match. Family and all. Thanks! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Canadian Cat Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 PBEM is Play By E-Mail. Correct? It must take ages to complete and E-mail match XD. I will probably message you sooner than I would've previously thought. Correct, although no one actually uses email any more. Mostly Drop box but any network sharing app would do the trick. Playing by E-mail is more viable than a live head to head match. Family and all. Thanks! My sentiments exactly. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Williams Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 PBEM is Play By E-Mail. Correct? It must take ages to complete and E-mail match XD. I will probably message you sooner than I would've previously thought. Playing by E-mail is more viable than a live head to head match. Family and all. Thanks! Like Ian pointed out, PBEM is kind of a misnomer. Almost everyone uses Dropbox (and many also use CM Helper) for file exchanges now. As far as how long to complete a H2H (PBEM) match.....that depends on the size of the battle, how fast you and your opponent can get to turns, and even on time zones. I generally like to play opponents who can do a turn a day, barring vacations, sickness, etc. With a fast opponent (a turn or more a day) we can generally get through a Small QB in a couple of weeks. OTOH, I just started a HUGE QB that may take months. There's no law that says you only have to have one H2H game going at a time, however. I usually have three to six concurrent H2H games. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macisle Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 The one thing the AI lacks is deviousness. I had a friend of mine convinced that I had a big complement of Panthers in one battle (he swore I had 5), when I really had two and were running their a$$es off back and forth between a couple of vantage points via a covered approach. Eventually he got eyes next to the road I was using and was shocked to see a Panther go flying past while displacing to a different vantage point. After that my plan was toast, but it sure was fun while it lasted. That reminds me of a story from the American Civil War. I forget the details, but the defending commander (Southern, IIRC) was heavily outnumbered and waiting for the attacker to make his move. It looked like a no-win situation, but the defending commander had been an amateur theater enthusiast in civilian life and came up with an idea. He realized that the landscape and enemy's position allowed him to have his own troops leave the fort unseen, then double back to the main road to march into the fort, being observed by the enemy, as if they were fresh reinforcements. He put the plan into action and repeated it so many times that the attacker thought he was heavily outnumbered and withdrew! Lots of stuff like this happens in real war. Think of all the D-Day misinformation work done by the Allies before launching the real deal. Oh, and was it the Crimea (late war, German defense) where the Russians used stick dummies with helmets and uniforms to get the Germans to open fire and thereby give away their positions to be subsequently obliterated by Soviet artillery? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WallysWorld Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 That reminds me of a story from the American Civil War. I forget the details, but the defending commander (Southern, IIRC) was heavily outnumbered and waiting for the attacker to make his move. It looked like a no-win situation, but the defending commander had been an amateur theater enthusiast in civilian life and came up with an idea. He realized that the landscape and enemy's position allowed him to have his own troops leave the fort unseen, then double back to the main road to march into the fort, being observed by the enemy, as if they were fresh reinforcements. That would be John B. Magruder at the Battle of Yorktown in 1862. "During the Battle of Yorktown, Magruder completely deceived McClellan as to his strength by ostentatiously marching small numbers of troops past the same position multiple times, appearing to be a larger force. He moved his artillery around frequently and liberally used ammunition when Union troops were sighted, giving the impression of a large, aggressive defending force." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Magruder 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macisle Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 ...Don't forget to play with the editor as well. That is a whole other area that I think not enough folks really take the time to appreciate.... Big +1. The Editor gives essentially unlimited life to the game. If you like the gameplay, then the only time you're going to stop playing a title is when Battlefront puts out a version with a more advanced engine that your old title can't be upgraded to. This won't happen often (like...every 5 to 10 years?), as the current engine is designed to be upgraded with low-cost, periodic, paid upgrade packages. So, it would have to be a MAJOR engine version change. Along with that, the Editor opens up entirely new hobbies to you: Map-Making and Scenario Design. Some folks spend most of their time with CM working with those. Like someone said: it's a rabbit hole you may never get out of! And, as others have said, do be sure to check out the many, wonderful mods out there. You can massively enhance the audio-visual game experience with them and they are very easy to use. The best place for mods is GAJ's CMMODs Warehouse: http://cmmods.greenasjade.net/mods The Battlefront Repository is also a great source, of course, but it is not as easy to use as CMMODs, so I listed it first. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macisle Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 That would be John B. Magruder at the Battle of Yorktown in 1862. "During the Battle of Yorktown, Magruder completely deceived McClellan as to his strength by ostentatiously marching small numbers of troops past the same position multiple times, appearing to be a larger force. He moved his artillery around frequently and liberally used ammunition when Union troops were sighted, giving the impression of a large, aggressive defending force." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Magruder Thanks, WW! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
db_zero Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Love at first sight.... Otherwise know as Combat Mission whooped. True love is when you spend over 2 hours setting up the dreaded initial turn making sure every detail is correct. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wodin Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Welcome. If you enjoy realtime play then Graviteam Tactics is another great wargame. For me though CMx2 is my No1 due to WEGO mechanic and the replay:) Get yourself CMBN and the modules. I will also say the modern warfare game will be amazing aswell...with all it's shiney gadgets and weapons. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umlaut Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 That would be John B. Magruder at the Battle of Yorktown in 1862. "During the Battle of Yorktown, Magruder completely deceived McClellan as to his strength by ostentatiously marching small numbers of troops past the same position multiple times, appearing to be a larger force. He moved his artillery around frequently and liberally used ammunition when Union troops were sighted, giving the impression of a large, aggressive defending force." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Magruder A popular story that comes in many variations, apparently. Here in Scandinavia, the same story is told about the danish-norwegian naval hero Peder Wessel "Tordenskjold" ("Thunder Shield"). In 1719, during a war between Denmark and Sweden, he let his inferior forces march several times through the swedish town of Marstrand and thus fooled the local commander to surrender to what he believed to be superior forces. And I´ve heard that Rommel should have used the same trick during the North African campaign to fool allied spies. Not sure how much of it is true, though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jock Tamson Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Welcome. If you enjoy realtime play then Graviteam Tactics is another great wargame. I would extend that to: "If you enjoy playing against an unscripted, reactive, AI". Both games have their place on my HDD but I think Graviteam offers the superior single player experience. I too am really looking forward to CMBS - CMSF is still my favourite single player CMx2 game and I've always found the longer engagement ranges provide a good mask to some of the AI shortcomings. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 A popular story that comes in many variations, apparently. Here in Scandinavia, the same story is told about the danish-norwegian naval hero Peder Wessel "Tordenskjold" ("Thunder Shield"). In 1719, during a war between Denmark and Sweden, he let his inferior forces march several times through the swedish town of Marstrand and thus fooled the local commander to surrender to what he believed to be superior forces. And I´ve heard that Rommel should have used the same trick during the North African campaign to fool allied spies. Not sure how much of it is true, though. I've read that the Luftwaffe used a similar ploy a few years before the war to make it appear that they had far more first line fighters than it actually did. One version of the story has them fly past a reviewing stand with foreign dignitaries, then land and be repainted with different markings, taking off and making another flypast. A more believable version has them painted with one set of markings on one side and another on the opposite side. After making their first pass and flying out of sight, they would turn around and fly in the opposite direction. During the cold war, the Soviets employed a similar trick. During their big May Day celebration in Moscow they would bring out their newest planes to fly over, have them circle around and fly over again a few times. It took good, and dangerous, aerial reconnaissance to finally allow a more accurate accounting. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wodin Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 If it wasn't for CMx2 WEGO and replay mechanic then Graviteam would easy be my No1 go to tactical wargame. I would extend that to: "If you enjoy playing against an unscripted, reactive, AI". Both games have their place on my HDD but I think Graviteam offers the superior single player experience. I too am really looking forward to CMBS - CMSF is still my favourite single player CMx2 game and I've always found the longer engagement ranges provide a good mask to some of the AI shortcomings. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLSTK Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 True love is when you spend over 2 hours setting up the dreaded initial turn making sure every detail is correct. True that, db! I've even been known to use numerous saves during the set-up phase alone. With all that planning, who has time to actually play the game? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.