Scenarios you play...and the others

[RockinHarry]

1 hour ago, Childress said:

' Forest tiles (particular the heavy one) is good for blocking out vehicular movements at parts of a map, when needed, but beside that, I make my own forest and underbrush tile substitues (as you know). '

Reading accounts of the Hurtgen Forest campaign you encounter the frustration of mortar teams finding it difficult to find open spaces under the heavily wooded canopy from which to lob their shells. It seems that the CM engine cannot account for this limitation.

From my latest mission building, I had no problems getting mortars to fire from within a pine tree forest, but that was max tree density of 2 each tile and tree type 5. Maybe with sort of ingame abstraction, this could be the maximum density of this particular tree type, which both is tall and has branches hanging fairly high, so that mortar firing is still allowed. Other tree types and density 3 might not work anymore.

OTOH the hurtgen forest (and similar) was not of generic density and same tree age overall. There were mixes of young plantations (no canopy), medium age and size (very dense spacing and canopy) and older forest parts, which through cultivation had remaining trees spaced further apart and not so dense canopy. Beside that there were a number of clearings, fire trails, forest roads and not to forget heavily blasted areas which just left the tree trunks standing, all offering usable mortar positions.

[Childress]

On 3/31/2016 at 9:20 AM, Bulletpoint said:

I also love real curvy... roads. On huge ... tracts of land.

For the love of God, Bulletpoint, find a girlfriend. Of the shapely and imposing sort, you know, Junoesque. Similar to Kim Kardashian, but with a brain. And minus the bagage.

[Childress]

Harry, Wikipedia has a useful entry on the misery and frustration of fighting in the Hurtgen:

The German defenders had prepared the area with blockhouses, minefields, barbed wire, and booby-traps, hidden by the snow. There were also numerous bunkers in the area, mostly belonging to the deep defenses of the Siegfried Line, which were also centers of resistance. The dense forest allowed infiltration and flanking attacks and it was sometimes difficult to establish a front line or to be confident that an area had been cleared of the enemy. The small numbers of routes and clearings had also allowed German machine-gun, mortar and artillery teams to pre-range their weapons and fire accurately. Apart from the bad and very cold weather, the dense forest and rough terrain also prevented proper use of the Allied air superiority, which presented great difficulties in spotting any targets.

The American advantage in numbers (as high as 5:1), armor, mobility, and air support was greatly reduced by weather and terrain. In the forest, relatively small numbers of determined and prepared defenders could be highly effective. To exacerbate matters, as the American divisions took casualties, inexperienced recruits were brought up to the front as replacements.^{[6]:454, 468–69}

The impenetrable forest also limited the use of tanks and hid anti-tank teams equipped withpanzerfausts. Improvised rocket launchers were made, using rocket tubes from aircraft and spare jeep trailers. Later in the battle, it proved necessary to blast tank routes through the forest. Transport was similarly limited by the lack of routes: at critical times, it proved difficult to reinforce or supply front-line units or to evacuate their wounded. 

The tall forest canopy also favored the defenders. Artillery fire was fused to detonate as tree bursts. While defenders were protected from shell fragments (and wooden splinters from the trees) by their dug-in defensive positions, attackers in the open were much more vulnerable.^{[notes 3]} Conversely, U.S. mortar platoons needed clearings in which to work: these were few and dangerous, being pre-ranged by German troops, so mortar support was often unavailable to rifle platoons.

[JonS]

On 3/31/2016 at 0:05 AM, George MC said:

The designer has to use straighter roads - what i do is draw in the road "as is" then using "sand" tiles I draw a straighter road line approximating to the drawn in one that straightens out the zig zags. thereafter it becomes an artistic representation if the original road line but one in which in game it a/ looks more pleasing b/ is easier for the player to plot vehicle's movements.

I dislike zig zags with a vengeance and go so far as to say I tend to exit out of a scenario if I see them. they make plotting vehicle movement a mare and I just can't be arsed with that!

Sometimes it also works to rotate the map a bit. For example, the main road from Caen to Falaise doesn't run exactly N-S, and so slavishly following the exact layout will lead to that road having zags and jags. But rotating the underlay a little means the road is straight and all is well.

This only works sometimes though. And usually I find that a combination of rotating the map a bit (to account for the majority of roads, or the most important roads) and what George talked about works best.

[Childress]

On 4/1/2016 at 11:29 AM, RockinHarry said:

From my latest mission building, I had no problems getting mortars to fire from within a pine tree forest, but that was max tree density of 2 each tile and tree type 5. Maybe with sort of ingame abstraction, this could be the maximum density of this particular tree type, which both is tall and has branches hanging fairly high, so that mortar firing is still allowed. Other tree types and density 3 might not work anymore.

Never encountered any inhibition in using mortars however dense the forest. Buildings, yes.

[RockinHarry]

On 2.4.2016 at 2:29 AM, JonS said:

Sometimes it also works to rotate the map a bit. For example, the main road from Caen to Falaise doesn't run exactly N-S, and so slavishly following the exact layout will lead to that road having zags and jags. But rotating the underlay a little means the road is straight and all is well.

This only works sometimes though. And usually I find that a combination of rotating the map a bit (to account for the majority of roads, or the most important roads) and what George talked about works best.

Yep. From my experience it´s mostly sufficient to rotate the map layer up to 15° in order to get the majority of roads and trails straightened (or properly diagonal).

[Bulletpoint]

When the map is supposed to be a historical battle, or based on a real location, but the map in the game doesn't really look much like the actual place... I probably skip it.