CMBN and a bucket of iced water...

[Sulman]

Hi all, I returned to CMBN (I've owned it for ages) now that I fixed my main PC.

I've played CMSF for years on my laptop, and got reasonably good at the single player - once you get the basics down the stock campaigns have only a handful of difficulty spikes.

I've found CMBN much more challenging. I've been playing Courage and Fortitude, and - I'm aware of the second mission's difficulty - but I've been quite taken aback how hard it is to be effective with Infantry vs defenders. The first two missions remind a little of CMSF's worst drive-down-this-path-and-await-death marches, but I kind of expected that after a little reading.

One of the changes in 2.12 is seeing unit kills. In the first mission, I set up my FO with a great view of all the main approaches, and also HMG's overlooking same.

• Didn't know you can see through bocage standing next to it...
  
• My American infantry were beaten back exceedingly easily by defending units, particularly mounted MG-42's. It was hard to get them to advance at all. Reminded me a little of playing Red on CMSF.
  
• Infantry and HMG's fired tonnes of rounds but didn't cause a single casualty.
  
• Mortars and a single Sherman did most of the damage.
  
• A single German rocket team singlehandedly stopped the right flank and left three burning Stuarts; leading infantry didn't see them and got beaten back by covering MG fire which the HMG's I'd provided didn't suppress at all.
  

Pretty brutal learning curve! I kinda love it, although I may try another campaign and come back as I suspect this will get frustrating.

I pretty much feel I need to forget everything I know.

[Hister]

For the love of god, don't olay that campaign as a noob!!!

By the sound of it you haven't aquired basics for CMBN combat yet.

I would advise you to first get the grip of the game by reading theory and then apply your freshly learned,knowledge in practice. A great starting point is here:

http://battledrill.blogspot.com/2013/08/combat-mission-tactical-problems-cmtp.html?m=1

When you are done with it start road to montebourg campaign. Go to the repository and get yourself updated version since campaign maker improved it considerably and uploaded it there. I think it's called version2.

As you were soldier!

[Doodlebug]

For the love of god, don't olay that campaign as a noob!!!

Now you tell me! I'm following a very "Kettler-esque" learning curve against the AI and chose this as my first attempt at a campaign. And yes I'm plodding through the second mission at the moment. It's looking terrible but I'm persevering. Please tell me it'll get better. Won't it?

[Hister]

It will get better yes. That second mission is infamous. I started it as a green player too ang got it handed to me. Then I read the many threads about it and left that campaign for later.

[womble]

Now you tell me! I'm following a very "Kettler-esque" learning curve against the AI and chose this as my first attempt at a campaign. And yes I'm plodding through the second mission at the moment. It's looking terrible but I'm persevering. Please tell me it'll get better. Won't it?

There's at least one other mission in that campaign that has caused ragequits. If you take too many casualties in one part of your TO in previous scenarios, you'll have a very hard time of Razorback Ridge.

[Sulman]

For the love of god, don't olay that campaign as a noob!!!

By the sound of it you haven't aquired basics for CMBN combat yet.

I would advise you to first get the grip of the game by reading theory and then apply your freshly learned,knowledge in practice. A great starting point is here:

Yes, I try and follow most of the things in there; I think where I got caught out was the effectiveness of HMG's and suppression effects (seems more acute than CMSF).

In Shock Force as long as you took care with cover (and didn't mind trashing buildings) NATO units would nearly always prevail on a 1:1 basis, often with less favourable odds because their firepower and morale is so good.

I'm going to have to work on my execution of tactics, I think; I've got a bit lazy.

Hard Knocks is a beast, a bit of a Kobayashu Maru I think

[Macisle]

I would really suggest The Road to Montebourg as your first regular campaign. Before that, you should really do the Training campaign to cut your teeth.

[womble]

Yes, I try and follow most of the things in there; I think where I got caught out was the effectiveness of HMG's and suppression effects (seems more acute than CMSF).

In Shock Force as long as you took care with cover (and didn't mind trashing buildings) NATO units would nearly always prevail on a 1:1 basis, often with less favourable odds because their firepower and morale is so good.

There was a significant dial-up in the effectiveness of HMGs in one of the BN patches/upgrades, and SF wouldn't have had that, so you're seeing a Real Thing; it's not just confirmation bias.

Hard Knocks is a beast, a bit of a Kobayashu Maru I think

It's hard, and I've my own set of problems with it, but Kirk's approach is not required, particularly because there's a designed "fall back" for the very meanest of the missions, which you can take without automatically "failing" the campaign.

[Bulletpoint]

Do the training campaign - "Task force Raff". It's a nice introduction.

Then go for The Road to Montebourg. Remember to download the newest version from the Repository, it fixes some bugs and tweaks the balance. It's not easy, but it's not as tough as Courage and Fortitude.

And don't forget: All the missions that come with the game were designed before the machine guns were made more lethal and suppressive. So the difficulty for all campaigns has been increased quite a bit.

Oh, and most important of all: Keep at it, you'll start to get the hang of it quickly.

[Pak40]

Wow, Courage and Fortitude as your first campaign is kind of like having Kate Upton as your first date ever when you're 15 years old. You are just not ready, young padawan.

[db_zero]

When you get done with Normandy, try out Market Garden. Played many of the battles h2h and they are fun and I'm now playing some of the h2h battles I played against the AI.

As the allieds some of the battles are stacked against you, but being you're playing against the AI its a good challenge.

Other battles like "All Around Defense" is fun to see just how badly you can beat up the AI!

The Campaign in MG is also good. Starts off easy and gets harder as you progress.

[Bergerbitz]

Wow, Courage and Fortitude as your first campaign is kind of like having Kate Upton as your first date ever when you're 15 years old. You are just not ready, young padawan.

This is true, Grasshopper. When you can snatch the pebble from that hand, then you know you are ready to snatch pebbles from other hands.

This is the kernel of the gem that is CM x2: There are many pebbles and many hands. They all ask you to try to take them. Figure out the best course and learn. This is fun. This is Combat Mission and it's everything I knew it would be -- even in 1999 when I first started watching them.

Enjoy. I am.

[Sulman]

I think the thing that makes it tricky is it is mechanically very similar to CMSF, but the small differences add up.

Artillery is the same, essentially; as is (strangely enough) anti-tank warfare. As with CMSF's eternally frustrating ATGM's, the AT emplacements in CMBN can be handled in exactly the same way, using the same methods.

It's infantry that need a lot more care, and you're normally fighting similarly skilled units. Not having the instant base of fire that an IFV affords has taken some getting used to. At least the crew served machine guns are really very useful (not so nice to go up against ) whereas I never really liked them in CMSF.

Market Garden is on my Xmas list

[Doodlebug]

Wow, Courage and Fortitude as your first campaign is kind of like having Kate Upton as your first date ever when you're 15 years old. You are just not ready, young padawan.

Well I'll be. Just had the AI surrender with two minutes left on the clock. From wading ankle deep through blood at the bridge crossing and getting hung up on the wire just up the road it has turned out as a total victory. Really not certain how that happened but nonetheless it has. The only concern is whether the price has been too high in campaign terms.

Smashing!