Erwin Posted March 19, 2022 Share Posted March 19, 2022 4 hours ago, Bulletpoint said: It's crazy that it's so dark you can't see a tank before running physically into it, but somehow the tank crew can spot infantry outside through their tiny vision slits. +1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artkin Posted March 19, 2022 Share Posted March 19, 2022 5 hours ago, Bulletpoint said: I don't think it's due to balance reasons, because what kind of balance is achieved by this? If anything, getting in close should be an equaliser for the infantry vs tanks. It's crazy that it's so dark you can't see a tank before running physically into it, but somehow the tank crew can spot infantry outside through their tiny vision slits. I've actually posted about this issue on the forums with proof (Turns + screenshots) and it never got acknowledged. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted March 19, 2022 Share Posted March 19, 2022 Quite a few folks have noted the same thing (as well as many others) over the years. Generally, intractable issues will not be acknowledged. Hopefully CM3 will address this and other issues. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted March 19, 2022 Author Share Posted March 19, 2022 10 hours ago, Bulletpoint said: I don't think it's due to balance reasons, because what kind of balance is achieved by this? If anything, getting in close should be an equaliser for the infantry vs tanks. It's crazy that it's so dark you can't see a tank before running physically into it, but somehow the tank crew can spot infantry outside through their tiny vision slits. No, I don't think it is "balance" either. I think it's a flaw in the game and a pain in the 'arris, as we say on this side of the German Ocean. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theforger Posted April 5, 2022 Share Posted April 5, 2022 This was Rollbahn A on Saturday. Just returned from my first tour of the Ardennes provided by Leger, with the highly knowledgeable Paul https://www.legerbattlefields.co.uk/guides/paulerrington It was fantastic for me to experience some of the battlefields first hand and compare with the scenario landscapes in Combat Mission. Will attempt to walk the ground before releasing campaigns when possible. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted April 5, 2022 Author Share Posted April 5, 2022 3 hours ago, theforger said: This was Rollbahn A on Saturday. Just returned from my first tour of the Ardennes provided by Leger, with the highly knowledgeable Paul https://www.legerbattlefields.co.uk/guides/paulerrington It was fantastic for me to experience some of the battlefields first hand and compare with the scenario landscapes in Combat Mission. Will attempt to walk the ground before releasing campaigns when possible. Great photo. Somewhat typically having had the warmest March in living memory here in Limeyland it should turn wintery again in North-West Europe. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted April 5, 2022 Share Posted April 5, 2022 For a second I thought that was a screenshot from the game. Looks very similar from level 1. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted April 5, 2022 Share Posted April 5, 2022 Beautiful photo. Very somber mood. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 10, 2022 Share Posted July 10, 2022 Ok, so I got back to the game after a long hiatus, and finally managed to beat "KG X Factor". First attempt seemed to go ok, despite some mistakes, when suddenly the game crashed and I didn't have any savegames to fall back on, so I had to start over. After that, it wasn't as fun. I had to play it four times before I managed to eke out a win, but then again, the element of surprise was lost, so I didn't really feel I won. Also because despite all precautions, towards the end, I felt I was just goading an unruly mob towards the end zone instead of controlling a kampfgruppe. The game lets us go way too far in pushing troops despite massive losses. In the end, I got a Major Victory, by touching the bridge objective and the railroad bridge objective. I don't think I could have taken the other two objectives. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted July 10, 2022 Author Share Posted July 10, 2022 5 minutes ago, Bulletpoint said: Ok, so I got back to the game after a long hiatus, and finally managed to beat "KG X Factor". First attempt seemed to go ok, despite some mistakes, when suddenly the game crashed and I didn't have any savegames to fall back on, so I had to start over. After that, it wasn't as fun. I had to play it four times before I managed to eke out a win, but then again, the element of surprise was lost, so I didn't really feel I won. Also because despite all precautions, towards the end, I felt I was just goading an unruly mob towards the end zone instead of controlling a kampfgruppe. The game lets us go way too far in pushing troops despite massive losses. In the end, I got a Major Victory, by touching the bridge objective and the railroad bridge objective. I don't think I could have taken the other two objectives. It's good to have an update from you. It made for interesting reading. I remember suffering a high casualty Minor Defeat when I fought this one. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 10, 2022 Share Posted July 10, 2022 2 minutes ago, Warts 'n' all said: It's good to have an update from you. It made for interesting reading. I remember suffering a high casualty Minor Defeat when I fought this one. It's still a good outcome if it was your first go. It's a really tough mission. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 10, 2022 Share Posted July 10, 2022 The first attempt: I tried to probe on the left , using mortars to take out enemy positions, while moving my US vehicles slowly along the road. Game crashed. Second attempt: I decided to gamble on rushing the town under the cover of darkness. I stopped about 300m out and thought I could shoot it out from there. I couldn't, and then the artillery starts to come down on the masses troops. There was a TRP there. Third: I went back to probing and mortaring, but I sent two Panthers to the right flank to help taking the railroad bridge. The other two I sent to take the town. Suddenly the US Tank Destroyers showed up and wiped out my tanks in short order. Fourth: I went on a big flanking move to the railroad bridge, coming down on it from the hill on the map edge. Got absolutely smashed by enemy mortars and artillery, but they did manage to take out the nearest foxhole positions and some of my survivors got all the way down to the road. I tried taking out the enemy gun position behind the bridge by mortars but the mortar halftrack couldn't find a position where it could fire without return fire. It got destroyed. I finally managed to put a couple of smoke rounds on the road and bridge and then rushed some teams through to touch the objective before they got wiped out by the plentiful enemies behind the bridge. Meanwhile I advanced on the town across the open ground, using mortars to take out enemy strongpoints little by little. It's not very effective, as mortars are very inaccurate at long distances. My M8 scout car got immobilized in mud. Meanwhile I kept my Panthers on the top of the hill where I thought they could fire on the town without risking return fire from the TDs. However, I was wrong about that, and lost 2 Panthers pretty quickly, with one taking a bad turret hit but it kept going. I used this as an assault gun while I slowly advanced my infantry on the town. It sometimes seemed the US positions in the buildings were almost invincible, but I guess there were just lots of infantry in there. Hit some of the buildings several times with the 75mm guns from the hill and the MGs just kept shooting. But eventually I managed to neutralise the side of the town facing my way and then I could slowly wrap to the left towards the bridge. I was surprised it was a touch objective, because I thought I would have to also occupy the other bank. At this point both Fallschirmjäger companies had taken around 80 pct. losses and while I did have a couple of platoons in vehicles back at the starting point that I could have used as reinforcements, the enemy TDs were still not neutralised, and with daylight they would start to dominate the map. I decided to call it a day. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted July 10, 2022 Author Share Posted July 10, 2022 That was a great read. Thanks for taking the trouble to share your thoughts. I'm not sure how long it will be before I revisit this campaign, but if I make it to this mission again it might be a case of baiting the Ami tank destroyers with the light vehicles, then having the Panthers take them out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 10, 2022 Share Posted July 10, 2022 1 hour ago, Warts 'n' all said: That was a great read. Thanks for taking the trouble to share your thoughts. I'm not sure how long it will be before I revisit this campaign, but if I make it to this mission again it might be a case of baiting the Ami tank destroyers with the light vehicles, then having the Panthers take them out. Well, thanks for reading my ramblings. I'm even back at it again, trying to do a fifth attempt at doing this mission "right". Instead of flanking the Amis along the railroad, in this attempt, I'm engaging them head on from the hedges along the road heading towards railroad crossing #1. Then using the infantry mortars and the mortar halftracks to knock out the identified positions (I'm not cheating by firing at positions I know are there but that I haven't revealed yet). It takes a long time, and I'm getting the usual artillery barrages in return, but this time, they are less lethal because I'm less bunched up. Still, first platoon is pretty much gone by now. Meanwhile, I put all 4 Panthers on the main hill but without LOS to the AT guns in the town. This means keeping their fronts towards the Tank Destroyers who start out towards the second crossing of the railroad. While this is going on, I'm doing some probing again to ID enemies in the town and using mortars and the 75mm light inf. guns to take out key positions - the AT guns, enemy mortars, and MGs. In this particular attempt at this battle, I took out one of the AT guns quickly, but the one towards the river just stubbornly refused to die, and the dispersion of my mortars always seemed to go either way too long or way too short. The gun soaked up enormous amounts of mortar ammo, and I think I only got it with literally the last bomb. This meant I could not bombard the enemy positions on the hill behind the bridge properly. Anyway, about your idea to use light vehicles to bait the TDs... yes I think it could be done. However, it has to be light vehicles with bigger weapons than MG. In this game, I tried to use a jeep to "recon by fire" at long distance, forgetting that its muzzle flash is not big enough to be seen at long range. I'm thinking probably the scout car could do the job, but I used that to bait the AT guns. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 13, 2022 Share Posted July 13, 2022 (edited) Onwards to No Prizes at Neupert. I have to take the high ground over Trois Point, but I am not really sure why, as it seems all bridges are blown. Maybe that was no apparent to Knittel at the time? Spent far too long time slowly combing the forest before finally making contact. Note to self: It's much better to send some scout teams to save time. I should know this after playing this game for ten years. I just don't like "suicide scout missions". Luckily, the mission was generous with the time allotted, so I didn't run out. Won the battle with the usual high casualties from forest fighting. It showcases some of the worst parts of the CM game system... LOS through forest often seems completely arbitrary, so it can be an exercise in frustration. Not a frustration based on a difficult tactical situation, but the frustration of endlessly scanning with the target line to find the "magic square" where a target order can be made. Then sometimes, there's no LOF anyway, even if the target line "sticks". I used my mortars to good effect at very short ranges to take out the enemy in the foxholes. At short range, mortars are quite accurate, so ammo expenditure was low. Which was good, as I only had 4x24 rounds available. At one point, I made a really stupid mistake - I had selected a whole company in the rear to send them forward, forgetting that two of my mortars on the front were from that company. So the batch move order also sent them running straight into the teeth of the enemy... Edited July 13, 2022 by Bulletpoint 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted July 13, 2022 Author Share Posted July 13, 2022 4 hours ago, Bulletpoint said: At one point, I made a really stupid mistake - I had selected a whole company in the rear to send them forward, forgetting that two of my mortars on the front were from that company. So the batch move order also sent them running straight into the teeth of the enemy... Oooops! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 14, 2022 Share Posted July 14, 2022 Next mission: Punishment at Perfondry I must admit I skipped this one by simply ceasing fire pretty early. Didn't want to invest hours into a mission that I assume that I was meant to fail. Did let some turns pass, and noticed that the US infantry were able to keep running across open ground even while getting gunned down by machineguns. After I ceased fire, I checked their quality, and found that they were only veteran +1 morale. In my opinion, CM exaggerates troop courage and determination even with these modest quality levels. Only fanatics should be able to keep running forward under so much fire. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted July 14, 2022 Author Share Posted July 14, 2022 You weren't "meant to fail". It was a bit costly, but even old warty fizzog managed a Total Victory. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 14, 2022 Share Posted July 14, 2022 28 minutes ago, Warts 'n' all said: You weren't "meant to fail". It was a bit costly, but even old warty fizzog managed a Total Victory. Alright, I misunderstood the scenario then. I looked at the map, seeing I only had a few scattered squads and a single KT with all systems wrecked, and read the briefing saying that I would get attacked by a huge force from all directions. So I assumed it was only a scenario included for historical accuracy, showcasing how the offensive was crushed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted July 15, 2022 Author Share Posted July 15, 2022 @BulletpointI've gone back a few pages to refresh my memory. What wrote at the time was that my Total Victory was due in part to US tanks getting stuck in the mud. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 15, 2022 Share Posted July 15, 2022 (edited) 4 hours ago, Warts 'n' all said: @BulletpointI've gone back a few pages to refresh my memory. What wrote at the time was that my Total Victory was due in part to US tanks getting stuck in the mud. It might also depend on what kind of losses you sustained in earlier battles. Did you have any working tanks of your own left? I only have one Tiger left, and it's toothless.. But I will go back and give the mission another go. Edited July 15, 2022 by Bulletpoint 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted July 15, 2022 Author Share Posted July 15, 2022 Going through my records I'd lost 10 tanks up to that point. But, the details of this particular mission completely escape me, sorry. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 15, 2022 Share Posted July 15, 2022 Ok, not to be outdone by an old oil painting, I returned and gave the mission another go. This time also achieved a minor victory. Losing nearly my whole force though. Had a couple of depleted units at the end, many completely without ammo. Like with your playthrough, all enemy tanks got immobilized and that's why I could hold out. Looking at the map after the battle, there was a whole new enemy company that had appeared outside of the central town, including many new tanks. However, the designer seems to have forgot to assign them orders, so they just stayed where they were. If they had joined the attack, I would have been doomed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 15, 2022 Share Posted July 15, 2022 I'm wondering if what we're "supposed to do" in this mission is to realise that it's better to withdraw from the forward positions immediately, since a big attack is coming and those locations are not really defendable with such small forces. Pulling back, you could maybe make a perimeter in the forest to defend the farm area, but then again, the US garands are murder at those short ranges, and I think they would just smash right through. At least with defending the outposts, you catch the enemies at long range on open ground. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 19, 2022 Share Posted July 19, 2022 (edited) Next mission: "TF Jordan storms Stoumont". I set up a very clever and capable defence that would defeat any attack from the north. The enemy attacked from the west. This is in fact shown on the briefing tactical map. I just overlooked it in my eagerness to find just the right firing angles for tanks and mortars. Oh well. Edited July 19, 2022 by Bulletpoint 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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