Air ID flags / contact lenses

[Reverendo]

A couple of days ago I was playing a Quick Battle -hotseat- with a good friend of mine here in Spain. He was defending a town -with lots of German-looking lads- and I assaulted as the Brits.

Since I suspected there would be some very hard targets around the area, I chose to purchase a couple of fighter-bombers and a jeep -that is, a pretty small rhubarb and a light recon unit for spotting so I could check if the bombs actually hit something-.

In the first two turns my jeep sneaked its way forward and hid behind a hill. It spotted a Tiger (and soiled his pants). Then the sound of fighter engines was heard.

The first fighter-bomber dropped a couple of bombs and totally leveled an empty, tiny wooden house next to my infantry. Then, the second one flew two times over the Tiger doing nothing -it actually followed the Tiger's course, but did not drop bombs or strafe- and then chose to head back towards my units and bomb at will. It killed a British rifle squad and damaged an Archer and a Challenger.

Now, I am more than happy with the Fog of War system CM has. But please, can we have flags on the top of tanks for identification? One thing is to have fighters attack whatever they feel like attacking, but having them attack your units every time they fly around is frustrating

The saddest part is that none of my two Bofors fired back. There should be hotkeys for telling your flak guns 'Yes, I ken they do look like Spits, but they are fat BF109s. Yes, really. Come on Tommy, believe me, frag them!"

[Paco QNS]

Firstable, sincere regrets for your bad luck (or choosing? )

You know, there are a few excellent mods to identify correctly your vehicles from above, "paineling" them with flags and/or distintc colour sheets. Unfortunately, the CMBO virtual fighter-bombers can´t see those mods (that is their loss!).

I think in the future CM II (rewrited engine) exists a need to model correct Forward Air Controllers units (for very late 1944 and 45), using smoke to signal targets. ((and, of course, the very good Luftwaffe systems during 1939-43 -until they were banned from the skies-)).

BUT, in the very edge of the later-named F.E.B.A., errors in both sides during almost all campaigns were very common. Take a view to this link -for an example-:

Innovation Close Air Support in World War II: The Roots of the Tragedy in Operation Cobra by Dr. Michael D. Pearlman

Regards.

((O.T.; Eh, Reverendo, ¿no has recibido mi correo?; lo mandé a tu nueva dirección .))

[Reverendo]

Thanks for the interesting links you provided, Paco.

As for the decision of purchasing air support, I have to admit that it is not quite a wise tactical move, as they generally fall short of being worth their cost. I have rarely seen fighter-bombers take enough units out to justify their acquisition. Only once, a lone fighter-bomber hit the track of a KönigTiger with its guns and turned it into a sitting duck for my ifantry AT teams. Pointwise, the fat cat was not nearly as expensive as the two fighter-bombers I had purchased, but the tactical weight of the latter's actions was astonishing and I managed to win the scenario.

My last case of misidentification was certainly a case of bad luck, I am afraid, since both fighter-bombers mercilessly attacked my own units raid after raid. After the battle, I spoke to my friend: his unit list did not include CAS, and none of his units had been attacked by my fellow RAF friends.

Life is cruel.

P.S: sí, Paco: recibí tu e-mail en la dirección adecuada. Te he incluído en mi lista de ICQ, pero aún no he logrado verte conectado. Si te interesa, podemos especificar un día y una hora para una charla.

Aye, my lads: the above text is written in Spanish. And no, we do not wear Mexican sombreros, we eat more hamburgers than Paella, and soccer is way more popular here than bullfighting will ever be.

Sure, my family is from the UK, but I know this place very well.