So you just got your hands on CMCW...now what? Designers Q&A thread.

[dbsapp]

22 minutes ago, The_Capt said:

LOL!  So what battle are you on?

The third. 

I don't know if I gather enough mental health and persistence to march further, because watching my reinforcements arrive directly under the enemy fire for the third time (after the same trick in the first and second missions) seems too much even for me. 

[The_Capt]

Heh, well to be fair, they are nowhere near under direct fire on mission 2 at the start...indirect and air, sure.  You do need to clear that nasty hill though.  

Well that is really the Soviet condition, no way they would have moved like they planned and not constantly been getting hit just like in these fights.  The US doctrine wasn't "let them form up mass" it was hit them hard first, then pull back.  Constant pulses of "active defence".  

But 3 is nasty, the trick is to make sure that whatever is firing on your reinforcements is not there by the time they arrive.  Not easy but it is the gig.

 

Edited June 15, 2021 by The_Capt

[dbsapp]

6 minutes ago, The_Capt said:

Heh, well to be fair, they are nowhere near under direct fire on mission 2 at the start...indirect and air, sure.  You do need to clear that nasty hill though.  

Well that is really the Soviet condition, no way they would have moved like they planned and not constantly been getting hit just like in these fights.  The US doctrine wasn't "let them form up mass" it was hit them hard first, then pull back.  Constant pulses of "active defence".  

But 3 is nasty, the trick is to make sure that whatever is firing on your reinforcements is not there by the time they arrive.  Not easy but it is the gig.

 

Well, they are under the sight from the hill and are getting hit by artillery and air in the second mission, but I can agree - it was not hard, especially when my ATGM BRDM performed a true miracle,  cured itself from blindness and killed some tanks on the hill. Apart from this incident my ATGMs remain loyal to total darkness and can't see even the enemy found by their team spotters hour ago. 

I really see no options to clear the enemies from the hill in the third mission, since my artillery is as useless as my ATGMs vehicles. I placed all of my artillery exactly at m2  locations, but it doesn't bother them at all. Even the dirt from explosions doesn't stop them from firing TOWs. 

The best I could do is to use smoke cover. It definitely helped with the first wave, but the rest were not so lucky and the road to mission exits doesn't look attractive at all. 

 

[The_Capt]

1 minute ago, dbsapp said:

Well, they are under the sight from the hill and are getting hit by artillery and air in the second mission, but I can agree - it was not hard, especially when my ATGM BRDM performed a true miracle,  cured itself from blindness and killed some tanks on the hill. Apart from this incident my ATGMs remain loyal to total darkness and can't see even the enemy found by their team spotters hour ago. 

I really see no options to clear the enemies from the hill in the third mission, since my artillery is as useless as my ATGMs vehicles. I placed all of my artillery exactly at m2  locations, but it doesn't bother them at all. Even the dirt from explosions doesn't stop them from firing TOWs. 

The best I could do is to use smoke cover. It definitely helped with the first wave, but the rest were not so lucky and the road to mission exits doesn't look attractive at all. 

 

I think the best success we saw was to hug the left woodline hard, it provides cover and you can at least get an approach.  You should have airpower from the start, use it.  The rest is a game of trade-offs, one for one if you can because you will win that exchange.  Luck helps and just remember, it is bad today but it will be worse tomorrow.

If you get to Alsfeld though...wow...that is something.

[dbsapp]

13 minutes ago, The_Capt said:

I think the best success we saw was to hug the left woodline hard, it provides cover and you can at least get an approach.  You should have airpower from the start, use it.  The rest is a game of trade-offs, one for one if you can because you will win that exchange.  Luck helps and just remember, it is bad today but it will be worse tomorrow.

If you get to Alsfeld though...wow...that is something.

I double-checked it. No, you don't have airpower from the start. 

 

[The_Capt]

6 minutes ago, dbsapp said:

I double-checked it. No, you don't have airpower from the start. 

 

So we are still talking Mission 3 "Nuke and Bypass", you are not seeing Mig 17s with cluster munitions and a Air Controller team?....well that is a bug then.  Good thing we are doing a refresh of the campaigns before wide release.

[dbsapp]

14 minutes ago, The_Capt said:

So we are still talking Mission 3 "Nuke and Bypass", you are not seeing Mig 17s with cluster munitions and a Air Controller team?....well that is a bug then.  Good thing we are doing a refresh of the campaigns before wide release.

No. I wonder if they will make any difference since hundreds of artillery shells including clusters don't impress mighty bradlies at all. 

[The_Capt]

6 minutes ago, dbsapp said:

No. I wonder if they will make any difference since hundreds of artillery shells including clusters don't impress mighty bradlies at all. 

Sorry that should be an SU-17.  Soviet Air cluster munitions should have a level of dual purpose, so they just might.

[danfrodo]

Took a short detour from F&R campaign to play a CW battle, Valley of Ashes.  Looks like I have a lot to learn.  I had M60s hull down ~2km from T80s.  Baaaaaaaad idea.  Take look, ~20 hits and no joy.

So I gotta re-think how I engage these nasty T80s it seems.  Abrams chew 'em up & spit 'em out, that's what I was used to.

https://imgur.com/a/jdLbKVm

 

 

[danfrodo]

https://imgur.com/6oPsTOAhttps://imgur.com/6oPsTOAhttps://imgur.com/6oPsTOA

trying to figure out best way to link imgur pic...

[danfrodo]

well, that didn't work

[HerrTom]

20 minutes ago, danfrodo said:

https://imgur.com/6oPsTOAhttps://imgur.com/6oPsTOAhttps://imgur.com/6oPsTOA

trying to figure out best way to link imgur pic...

Right click and "Copy Image Link" and paste it here, it should automatically convert to an embed:

Should look like this (I undid the embed) https://i.imgur.com/6oPsTOA.png

[danfrodo]

https://imgur.com/6oPsTOA

[The_Capt]

1 hour ago, danfrodo said:

Took a short detour from F&R campaign to play a CW battle, Valley of Ashes.  Looks like I have a lot to learn.  I had M60s hull down ~2km from T80s.  Baaaaaaaad idea.  Take look, ~20 hits and no joy.

So I gotta re-think how I engage these nasty T80s it seems.  Abrams chew 'em up & spit 'em out, that's what I was used to.

https://imgur.com/a/jdLbKVm

 

 

Welcome to the Cold War, hope you have fun while re-learning (we sure did).  Try Valley of Ashes from the Soviet side it is also pretty challenging.

[danfrodo]

thanks, Capt, I'll do that at some point.  First I am going to re-play this one.  Soviets have arty, air power, and their tanks have significant reach on me.  I stopped less than halfway thru so I wouldn't ruin re-play -- I'm not looking for cheap win, this is a training battle at this point.

For the enemy air power I want to stay in the woods, but that limits my hull down options.  So maybe I'll stay in woods until soviets commit and hopefully come closer, then go to hull down positions just outside of the woods.  And try to use my arty & air to even things up -- didn't do a great job of that first try.  Also need to keyhole so I don't have shootout w entire soviet overwatch force.

With just 5-6 abrams instead of all the M60s I'd smash them to pieces

[Thomm]

19 hours ago, danfrodo said:

https://imgur.com/6oPsTOA

Don't apply shot peening to enemy armor. It will just harden it up.

Best regards,
Thomm

[danfrodo]

Too funny, Thomm .  I suppose the russians owe me some money for that fine service?

[danfrodo]

I think I collected the bill on the soviets.  I replayed Valley of Ashes, though having only gone partway through first time so didn't know complete soviet deployment and paths of advance.  Now knowing that I needed my M60s to engage at shorter range, I used woods & smoke to get them into good kill zones.  nearly all units spent much of the first 20+ minutes hiding in the woods w much of my force due to soviet air attacks.  I had my stinger teams out and did knock out multiple aircraft. 

Got into an excellent flanking position on the left, lost 2 of 3 tanks in heavy fighting but 3rd one had 10 kills total, including sneaking behind 3 tanks that were overwatch.  On the right side had one tank in woods that the enemy just couldn't hit and he had 11 kills.  Total victory at cost of 6 tanks and multiple APCs, plus 40+ casualties.  Not bad. 

GREAT battle, thanks to The_Capt et al

[The_Capt]

1 hour ago, danfrodo said:

I think I collected the bill on the soviets.  I replayed Valley of Ashes, though having only gone partway through first time so didn't know complete soviet deployment and paths of advance.  Now knowing that I needed my M60s to engage at shorter range, I used woods & smoke to get them into good kill zones.  nearly all units spent much of the first 20+ minutes hiding in the woods w much of my force due to soviet air attacks.  I had my stinger teams out and did knock out multiple aircraft. 

Got into an excellent flanking position on the left, lost 2 of 3 tanks in heavy fighting but 3rd one had 10 kills total, including sneaking behind 3 tanks that were overwatch.  On the right side had one tank in woods that the enemy just couldn't hit and he had 11 kills.  Total victory at cost of 6 tanks and multiple APCs, plus 40+ casualties.  Not bad. 

GREAT battle, thanks to The_Capt et al

Excellent.  Have you tried the US Campaign yet?  

[danfrodo]

The_Capt: Haven't tried it yet.  I am in battle 5 of 9 in F&R campaign and want to finish that first, but maybe I'll start US campaign and switch back & forth.  Takes me forever due to lack of playing time -- job, chores, sore wrist (from job). 

Actually, I just loaded Contigney 82 -- I think I'll take a little longer detour from F&R than I had planned on.  Now that I am over the shock of my m60s being outgunned by soviet tanks (valley of ashes scenario) I think I've got a fighting chance.

How many battles is this campaign?

[The_Capt]

20 minutes ago, danfrodo said:

The_Capt: Haven't tried it yet.  I am in battle 5 of 9 in F&R campaign and want to finish that first, but maybe I'll start US campaign and switch back & forth.  Takes me forever due to lack of playing time -- job, chores, sore wrist (from job). 

Actually, I just loaded Contigney 82 -- I think I'll take a little longer detour from F&R than I had planned on.  Now that I am over the shock of my m60s being outgunned by soviet tanks (valley of ashes scenario) I think I've got a fighting chance.

How many battles is this campaign?

Campaign is 8 battles deep on a couple different tracks.  Some of the later fights are pretty big but Valley would have prepped you pretty well.  

[danfrodo]

So Battle #1: I've got height and good hulldown all across my front, assuming soviets arrive N/NW as expected.  Tree cover/Dead ground relative to the town for escaping convoys.  What could go wrong?  oh, a massive soviet force w T80s &  I've got M60s instead of abrams, that's what could go wrong.  But that is yet to be seen

[Ultradave]

17 hours ago, danfrodo said:

So Battle #1: I've got height and good hulldown all across my front, assuming soviets arrive N/NW as expected.  Tree cover/Dead ground relative to the town for escaping convoys.  What could go wrong?  oh, a massive soviet force w T80s &  I've got M60s instead of abrams, that's what could go wrong.  But that is yet to be seen

Could be worse. You could have M48s

[Vergeltungswaffe]

6 hours ago, Ultradave said:

Could be worse. You could have M48s

Having M-48's is never a bad thing.

Even if you lose, you do it with style and grace. 

[danfrodo]

Playing battle #3 of US campaing (1982).  Great battle but sooooooo many russians!  I've learned that M60s & TOW-m113s need to be keyholed.  My one advantage is that I know soviets have to pass thru the central terrain and there's lots of nice blind corners I can had behind to get shorter range flank shots.  One this I should've done more of was have dragon teams hiding in woods as tank hunter teams looking for targets of opportunity.  The overwatch BRDM-sagger about to be destroyed has given me a lot of trouble.