Operations

[Der Kuenstler]

OK I am trying my first operation which is called "Carentan v2." I don't get it - will somebody explain how these things work? There are nine battles in it. In the briefing screen before the first battle as the axis it says I'm supposed to protect the junction at Come-du-mont and also hold the bridges N. and E. of Carentan. Well, I defended Come-Du-mont allright but there was no Carantan on the map and no bridges. Where were they?

Then I started battle #2 a little further back for some reason. Why? This was a night battle that lasted 20 turns. NOTHING happened for 18 turns. I just sat in Come-du-mont defending the junction and nobody showed except a squad of paratroopers on foot near the end, and they ended up panicked and running.

The third battle, I have to set up outside of Come-du-mont. What the? The enemy never came close to taking that town. Why did I lose it?

Are operations worth playing or should I just stick with individual battles?

[Wicky]

Did it specify in any of the briefings if it was recommended the side you chose was best vs AI?

The AI has a notorious poor reputation when attacking

All I can say with regard to scenarios and ops is that it's best to attack the AI unless the designer says otherwise - Get to play PBEM with another human and it's another story

[Kingfish]

Well, I defended Come-Du-mont allright but there was no Carantan on the map and no bridges. Where were they?

The map for Carentan is huge, and you play on a small segment of it for the first battle. As you progress into the operation the frontline is redrawn, pushing you farther and farther back towards the bridges and the town.

In the editor there is a parameter which determines the size of the 'no mans land', the neutral space between the two sides. When a new battle begins the computer will determine what enemy unit has advanced the farthest, and then shift your (axis) lines back from there to whatever distance the no mans land is set at. If the setting is 0 meters, the two sides can start litterally face to face. If 80 meters then that is how far apart the two sides start off.

This was a night battle that lasted 20 turns. NOTHING happened for 18 turns. I just sat in Come-du-mont defending the junction and nobody showed except a squad of paratroopers on foot near the end, and they ended up panicked and running.

The AI is far better at defending then attacking, especially in Ops where there are no flags to give it direction.

The third battle, I have to set up outside of Come-du-mont. What the? The enemy never came close to taking that town. Why did I lose it?

See above. Think about it, you may have held your position, but somewhere else somebody was overrun (even if not on your map). Rather than staying in place and risk being flanked, the prudent thing to do is withdraw to preseve your line.

Many impregnable defensive positions had to be abandoned due to the enemy bypassing it and turning the flank farther down the line.

Are operations worth playing or should I just stick with individual battles?

Some are better than others. Carentan is an excellent one, but like I said it is best played as the attacking allies, even though the briefings suggest otherwise.

[Philippe]

It's one of the few operations I've actually played. From the Allied side it's a blast, and you have to fight your way into town across an enormous map. Afterwards, when you see detailed maps of that part of Normandy, you look at them very differently.

[i was a little puzzled at first about who, exactly, St. Come was, but then I realized that since the circumflex accent usually represents an 's' that has dropped out of the language (as in hotel), he must be the french hilltop half of the medieval saintly pair of Sts. Cosmas and Damien.]

[Liddell-Hart]

I have to say I played Carentan as the Axis after reading this thread and I had to knock out 3 tanks in the first battle as well as a fair few infantry skirmishes, and then stumbled into a full on firefight while withdrawing my troops to what I thought was safe ground in the second. I thought it was great. It got me interested in playing operations again after being put off by the heinous calculation times on Stalingrad in CMBB.

I think the AI must have had a particularly off day when you played it, I'd give it another go.

[MPK]

I played the CMBO version of Carentan several

times from both sides, I loved it so much.

If you want a better challenge as the Axis,

give the Americans a hefty bonus-as much as you

think you can handle. The AI will attack

poorly as it does, but you will be racing

about trying to stem the tide...a flexible

defence will be needed, and some cleverness

in order that your trucks survive Allied air

power...