Returning Veteran Question

[John S]

Returning to CM again after yet another layoff.  A few questions.

1)  I am trying the Quick Battles at the "Tiny" level to get back into the game again.  Is there any way to slightly increase the points you (and the opponent) are allowed?  I don't want to jump up to the next level but a couple hundred more would sometimes be fun.

2)  I played the "generation one" games quite a bit  (Barbarossa to Berlin etc.).  As best as I recall, the instructions in those games noted that if you had already given orders to a unit and you wanted to change the direction or the distance, you would be better, for example, clicking on the circle and extending or moving the current order rather than deleting the order and issuing a new one because the latter would cause a delay in execution by the unit.  Is that true in the current generation of games?

3)  German Heavy Machine gun.  Currently "semi deployed".  You issue a "Deploy" command BUT you also want some area fire from it ASAP.  If you have it fire from the semi deployment status does that materially slow down the deployment that you ordered?  (I would think it would).

4)  The description on the bottom left of the display telling you what the individuals within the unit are doing ("spotting" "cowering", God forbid "surrendering" etc).  I had a two man AT team fired on but there was no apparent damage to either them or to the infantry unit near by.  The little triangle was at its lowest level and all of the team members looked ok on the display.  The description on the lower left for each of the two antitank team members says "Antitank:Medic".  Are they injured? (if so, why no indicator on the unit info piece?)?  What is this telling me?

5)  When you split a squad.  Is there any way to force them to get back together?  I sometimes find it hard to get them into exactly the same location and i'd love to know about a "just get together, already" command.

6)  Enemy unit (an infantry gun) is lit up on the display.  When you click on it a nearby friendly infantry unit is shown as being one on the guys spotting it.  Nonetheless, when I try to have the friendly unit open fire on the gun there is no target.  What is the concept here?  (Did they just hear the unit shoot or something?).

7) Is there any hot key whereby you can save the game in a single click? 

Any help and tips, much appreciated.

 

[Erwin]

13 minutes ago, John S said:

Returning to CM again after yet another layoff.  A few questions.

A few answers...

1)  I am trying the Quick Battles at the "Tiny" level to get back into the game again.  Is there any way to slightly increase the points you (and the opponent) are allowed?  I don't want to jump up to the next level but a couple hundred more would sometimes be fun.

2)  I played the "generation one" games quite a bit  (Barbarossa to Berlin etc.).  As best as I recall, the instructions in those games noted that if you had already given orders to a unit and you wanted to change the direction or the distance, you would be better, for example, clicking on the circle and extending or moving the current order rather than deleting the order and issuing a new one because the latter would cause a delay in execution by the unit.  Is that true in the current generation of games?

In CM2 games you can cancel all movement orders and redo any or all of them WITH NO PENALTY (unlike CM1).  (I am one of the few players who miss the time delay system of CM1.)

3)  German Heavy Machine gun.  Currently "semi deployed".  You issue a "Deploy" command BUT you also want some area fire from it ASAP.  If you have it fire from the semi deployment status does that materially slow down the deployment that you ordered?  (I would think it would).

Not 100% sure but I don't think the HMG fires at all until deployed.  Perhaps some of the crew may fire, but someone else may be definitive about this.

4)  The description on the bottom left of the display telling you what the individuals within the unit are doing ("spotting" "cowering", God forbid "surrendering" etc).  I had a two man AT team fired on but there was no apparent damage to either them or to the infantry unit near by.  The little triangle was at its lowest level and all of the team members looked ok on the display.  The description on the lower left for each of the two antitank team members says "Antitank:Medic".  Are they injured? (if so, why no indicator on the unit info piece?)?  What is this telling me?

If the "ALERT" triangle is at lowest level, the guys are ok (unsuppressed and not cowering).  The description is their speciality or what they are actually doing at this instant.

5)  When you split a squad.  Is there any way to force them to get back together?  I sometimes find it hard to get them into exactly the same location and i'd love to know about a "just get together, already" command.

Need to move the teams move into the same "action square/location" and they will recombine after a while.  Takes longer if they are being fired at or are cowering etc.

6)  Enemy unit (an infantry gun) is lit up on the display.  When you click on it a nearby friendly infantry unit is shown as being one on the guys spotting it.  Nonetheless, when I try to have the friendly unit open fire on the gun there is no target.  What is the concept here?  (Did they just hear the unit shoot or something?).

Unsure what is going on.  It may be that the enemy unit is only being "heard".  However, if you can click on it and friendly spotting units light up, they should normally be able to fire at it.  The LOS challenges of CM2 are significant.  Some call CM2 "The game of figuring out LOS".

 

13 minutes ago, John S said:

7) Is there any hot key whereby you can save the game in a single click? 

Check HOTKEYS? 

Any help and tips, much appreciated.

 

 

[domfluff]

3) Semi-deployed MG's are handheld/using the bipod. They can still fire, but with reduced accuracy and rate, as you might expect.

6) Spotting is incredibly complex, and fairly obtuse. The unit can know precisely where the enemy is, but may have no way of shooting them (line of sight but no line of fire). One (semi)common example of this is where a tank crew member can see a target, but the gun cannot rotate to point at them since terrain is in the way.

An easy example here might be armour with only a working front-mounted MG, behind a wall. The unbuttoned commander may well see the enemy from his high perch, but the MG can't fire over the wall to get to them.



 

[A Canadian Cat]

@Erwin mostly covered it.  Just a few additions from me....

 

14 hours ago, John S said:

Returning to CM again after yet another layoff.  A few questions.

Welcome back.

 

14 hours ago, John S said:

1)  I am trying the Quick Battles at the "Tiny" level to get back into the game again.  Is there any way to slightly increase the points you (and the opponent) are allowed?  I don't want to jump up to the next level but a couple hundred more would sometimes be fun.

No, that cannot be done.  One thing you can do is use a small battle but only spend 3/4 of the points.  That mean you would have to manually select the enemy force though because the computer will not adhere to that house rule.

 

14 hours ago, John S said:

3)  German Heavy Machine gun.  Currently "semi deployed".  You issue a "Deploy" command BUT you also want some area fire from it ASAP.  If you have it fire from the semi deployment status does that materially slow down the deployment that you ordered?  (I would think it would).

Good question.  I was going to say they will be longer at setting up and slower in their rate of fire but after reading @Erwin's post I think he might be right.  This happens from time to time so it would be a good idea to test it out but I never have.  I think a lot of the time it does not matter too much since the deploy times in the open are not too long.  But in a building this could be an important thing to know.  If it is going to take 2-3 minutes to setup and there are enemy is dangerously close it might be better to fire as best as you can before setting up. 

 

14 hours ago, John S said:

4)  The description on the bottom left of the display telling you what the individuals within the unit are doing ("spotting" "cowering", God forbid "surrendering" etc).  I had a two man AT team fired on but there was no apparent damage to either them or to the infantry unit near by.  The little triangle was at its lowest level and all of the team members looked ok on the display.  The description on the lower left for each of the two antitank team members says "Antitank:Medic".  Are they injured? (if so, why no indicator on the unit info piece?)?  What is this telling me?

If the actions for the AT team is "medic" then they are providing fist aid to someone who is a casualty.  That is what medic means.  So at least two someones from some team have been hit and your AT team is tending to them.

 

14 hours ago, John S said:

6)  Enemy unit (an infantry gun) is lit up on the display.  When you click on it a nearby friendly infantry unit is shown as being one on the guys spotting it.  Nonetheless, when I try to have the friendly unit open fire on the gun there is no target.  What is the concept here?  (Did they just hear the unit shoot or something?).

If your spotting unit has a ? icon then that is just hearing them or seeing something but not being clear what it is.  If they have a selectable non ? icon (which is what you describe) then they can see the enemy unit.  The vast majority of the time they can be given a target order too.  Occasionally your unit cannot be given a target order to that unit.  @domfluff gave you one example where this can a happen but it happens other times too.  I don't have a clear explanation but it probably means the LOS is pretty poor and the LOF is just as bad.  This will hopefully not happen often (I see it once in N games where N is greater than 3:-).  One thing you can do is give your unit an area target order at the ground near by.  Another possibility is to not give them a target order and they will likely target that enemy unit if the visibility situation improves (someone shifts positions).  In fact you don't really need to give target orders - your soldiers will pick their own targets.

 

14 hours ago, John S said:

7) Is there any hot key whereby you can save the game in a single click?

No, I do not believe there is any way to do this. 

[cool breeze]

On 9/9/2016 at 8:00 AM, IanL said:

No, that cannot be done.  One thing you can do is use a small battle but only spend 3/4 of the points.  That mean you would have to manually select the enemy force though because the computer will not adhere to that house rule.

This gave me an idea.  one could use the handcap slider to REDUCE the AIs point to spend, and then spend even a little less of that yourself.

[cool breeze]

I think there is a "ctrl + s"or something to save

[Sublime]

If not clicking on the options button in the game svreen will present a menu including option for saves