Cavalry and Recon, how do you use them?

[SimpleSimon]

A lot of the time light recon units get sent into full setpiece battles in this game on ridiculously dense battlefields with predictable results. Three Pak 40s guarding the same T Junction are going to trash your Greyhounds yo. Not much else you can do about that. 

In reality recon sections avoided battle as much as possible unless they were certain all they were facing was lightly armed outpost positions. The game's maps and scenarios have a way of funneling you toward action and thus also high lethality play and this is anathema to many kinds of more subtle units like armored cars and sniper sections etc who generally avoided high densities of enemy troops. Scenarios with recon in all manner of circumstances can be done in CM. They can be done in circumstances which are both favorable and unfavorable to mounted reconnaissance. They just usually aren't due to the limited knowledge of what their day-to-day life looked like. 

Edited August 15, 2022 by SimpleSimon

[chuckdyke]

Move them till something start shooting. Task in a typical scenario not to find the enemy but how far the main force can advance before adapting battle formations.

[Erwin]

10 hours ago, chuckdyke said:

Task in a typical scenario not to find the enemy but how far the main force can advance before adapting battle formations.

Well said.  Once one has played a few years of games, that is the problem.  The scenarios all start to feel the same.  However, there are a very few very accomplished designers who are able to provide surprises (eg George MC).

[chuckdyke]

1 hour ago, Erwin said:

Once one has played a few years of games, that is the problem. 

How many play on Iron? Once I did, I never looked back. It is not about winning it is to come up with a model which works. If it is not possible in real life we don't do it. For us 'Hotseat' on Iron, play a few months later reverse the roles and it is possible some battles were not meant to be won. I wish we could play Campaigns on 'Hotseat'. 

[Blazing 88's]

3 hours ago, chuckdyke said:

How many play on Iron? Once I did, I never looked back. It is not about winning it is to come up with a model which works. If it is not possible in real life we don't do it. For us 'Hotseat' on Iron, play a few months later reverse the roles and it is possible some battles were not meant to be won. I wish we could play Campaigns on 'Hotseat'. 

Have  you tried converting campaigns to scenarios and playing them out via hotseat? You can always keep track of the KIA, etc between battles manually. This app converts campaigns to scenarios http://cmmodsiii.greenasjade.net/?p=7766 (I don't think it works for CMSF2 or CMCW, see below for those).

I can't say if that link for CMx2 ScAnCaDe V2.1 by Mad Mike still works for most of CM games, however, I just converted CMBS campaigns to playable scenarios. I am sure I have converted others as well. It may take several minutes for the compiling of the "btt" tiles. All the scenarios will eventually show up in folders in the campaign folder. Transfer to the scenario folder and viola! (follow the included instructions if having trouble).

There is also Uncam for CMSF2 and CMCW:

Cheers!

Edited August 16, 2022 by Blazing 88's

[chuckdyke]

13 minutes ago, Blazing 88's said:

Have  you tried converting campaigns to scenarios and playing them out via hotseat?

Thanks for the link and the tip. I just wish Battle Front would give us that option when we buy the game.