#1 Tip for Newbies????

[Cogust]

I agree fully with SurlyBen, keep your armour in the back until you are skilled enough to know when to move it up front. I am also of the opinion that giving your enemy enough rope to hang himself is a good tactic, I have more than once seen an enemy advance falter without any intereference by my forces and allowing the enemy enough time to do stupid things more often than not pays off.

This will of course not work against Fionn and other great players, but it works pretty well against new and medium players. You just have to play it safe and take advantage of the mistakes your opponent makes and you'll find that you will start to win more than you lose in short time.

Try not to shoot yourself in the foot while purchasing your forces, stay away from 'spiffy' and 'cool' stuff and go for more robust things and stuff that's easy to use (T-34s for example) until you have learned to use the more exotic equipment (flame tanks and assault guns for example).

And never give up, things are almost always brighter than they seem.

[Xipe]

I find it ironic that while Fionn seemingly doesn't want anything to do with 90% of the forum, 90% of the forum mentions him in their posts (yes, including me ).

Incidently he reminds me of some of the ARI-people, which is ok I guess.

My only #1 advice is to make sure to put oneself in the position of losing, or in very close fought battles, as often as possible. Nothing breeds skill as superior/even adversity.

[ January 19, 2003, 02:17 PM: Message edited by: Xipe ]

[Cogust]

Hehe, I guess it's a kind of hero worship as Fionn was one of the participant in the original AAR when CMBO was still Beta.

It will be very interesting to meet Fionn together with a pretty scary crew of senior Soviet commanders on the fields of CMMC2, it will be no cakewalk for the Grey team I fear.

[YankeeDog]

Well, it's been an interesting discussion. At the very least, you've given me some things to think about. It is now clear to me that this thread is not the best the time or place for this discourse, though.

I hope it can be picked up at another time and place. I am easy to find.

Cheers,

YD

[jjelinek]

Fionn,

Any chance that you could send me a copy of the files that you sent to Ciphrix?

[Redwolf]

Some tips on how to do training:

why you pratice setting up killsacks (defense), do not do it with the AI attacking. Your expectations will be totally disadjusted and the first human will either go around your killsack without even noticing. It is better to do a minal hotseat. Give the attacker plenety of decent-quality units, set them up in a formation and have them crash through your defense. Not especially realistic training, but way better than the AI. You can also have a human plot one movement which is good for much of the battle (only problem is the stupid new delay for adding waypoints...).

Whatever testplay you do against the AI, you shouldn't give them high-quality units (that means do not give the AI the AI experience bonus). The hit probabilities are too different, you cannot practice armor combat that way. The supression model is too diffeent, you cann tune your supressive fire to be just sufficcient. The best way to make the AI strong is to make the battle long and give it lots of reinforcements with long pauses. That way you will have to fight the initial battle with force preservation in mind.

If you ever look at the battle results of training against the AI or inexperinced player, give the scenario enough flags. At the very least it should have 1/2 the point value of the stronger side in flags. Otherwise you can keep killing and no matter whethr you hold the terrain or decisivly defeat the enemy force the game engine will report a win. Give it enough flags, better to much than too few.

[Fionn]

Xipe,

Well, life is very strange. Plus have you ever heard of the expression regarding a "few bad apples ruining the bunch" ?

Next point. What's ARI? I have a guess but I'm sure it is incorrect so I'm curious.

Cogust makes a good point. Many people simply end up defeating themselves if you let them. This is because many CM players have no confidence in their CM play and/or little actual ability and so will do exceedingly silly things given the time and opportunity. (Kind of mirrors real life.)

You can see it on this forum actually. A lot of people on here don't check their facts before they post, over-reach themselves when they post or exhibit a number of insecurity-rooted patterns of behaviour etc. All of these errors of logic and evidences of insecurity are things which exist within their mind and, as such, they are present in that persons' interactions in the real world, their forum persona and, most importantly, when they play. I won't point out specific examples but if you keep your eyes peeled you can see them aroundabouts.

The guy on the forum who is all up tight about being right ( as opposed to being correct) is the same guy who when you play will dogmatically fall for every ruse you present in which he appears to be succeeding. The guy who has obvious insecurity while posting is the same guy who is gonna screw up his plans by 2nd-guessing himself. They guy who wants to win very badly is the same guy who is going to keep insisting (post-game) that he "almost had you". etc

Most importantly... The guy who sounds like you aren't going to enjoy talking to on the forum is someone you should avoid playing. It won't improve your skill but it will mean you have a LOT more fun since over half the fun of gaming is meeting nice new people and, unfortunately, there's a minority of guys here who are just hell to play.

All of which leads me to:

#1 Advice to Experienced Players who want to get that extra 20%. Gain an appreciation of personality types and psychology.

[jtcm]

To Fionn:

well, yes, sources do matter, as much for events of 480 BC as of AD 1944-- otherwise, ancient history just becomes a source of edifying epigrams. It's likely Leonidas didn't say anything like this; the incident was quickly mythologized, by the Greeks themselves-- but I am v. curious to know where this particular quote comes from. So if you have any time at all, I'd be interested. But there is no rush, obviously. Giving good advice is just as important, and I'm reading yours.

regards

jtcm

[Quintus]

-Looks at preceding pages-

Well, my 2penneth has largely been covered by some of the really rather good postings that have gone before buuut... One good piece of advice I was given is "Don't re-enforce failure."

I need to remember that one myself, especially after pounding away at a pillbox that I could have bypassed for half a game and losing a lot of my reserves while doing so.

... Qui tacet, consentire videtur.

Reminds me of the Paster Niemoller quote I used to have on my door, along with the famous saying of Edmund Burke.

Some of Fionn's past stuff has helped me claw my way up from hopeless to the tottering heights of 'mediocre'. If I could only remember the lessons I might be dangerous

[Fionn]

JTCM,

I fear you misunderstood me. I wasn't being disaproving of your desire for sources. I was merely noting that it was a characteristic of those who study antiquities to seek the source for all quotes etc. I was, at most, cracking a slight smile at your adherence to stereotype but not deriding.

As to whether Leonidas said what the quote has his saying. I doubt it. At the very best he said something of the same sentiment and generations of scholars decided to enoble it etc to make it "fitting" of a man who would go on to such acclaim at Thermopylae.

Still, that doesn't change the essential message contained therein. Much in the same way as most of the Greek and Roman Myths are either cautionary tales or thinly veiled instructions on how to conduct politics, personal life, war, business etc and yet still have a value AND a literary worth which extends beyond their instructionary nature.

[ January 20, 2003, 11:50 AM: Message edited by: Fionn ]

[Slappy]

I may have missed it, but I am shocked that no one has mentioned Fionn's AAR of The Sunken Lane at Combat Mission HQ. I can only assume that he is being modest. This is one of the first AARs I ever read, and it is still, without question, my favorite. It's for CMBO, but is well worth a read for those starting out, as are many of the others in that batch.

[xerxes]

Naturally, to become very good, you have to know the "rules" of how to play. The very best players know when and how to break the rules.

For example, keep armor back, go hulldown, keyhole, strength in numbers. Good tactical armor advice. It will serve you well.

But, in some situations you can bring your armor very close and have it work out very well. I regularly bring my armor within 40m of enemy infantry and it works shockingly well. With canister modelling in CMBB, close armor is absolutely devastating.

[vbfg]

FWIW, that I have this game at all is due to Fionn's AARs on combatmission.com. I can't remember quite how I came across them but I was searching for something on Google to which the answer was found in the articles section. I had a browse around, got reading the AARs and something in it appealed to me. I'd never been much into wargames before. I'd done a bit of D&D but nothing tactical in the same sense.

Now I've been playing for 18 months or so and as an added bonus I have a whole new relationship with my Dad because of the game as he's got into it too.

Nice one mate. Should you ever find yourself in the north of England I owe you beer and curry.

[jtcm]

Fionn

We're on the same wavelength there I think

regard

jtcm

[Malcom987]

Originally posted by Fionn:

Malcom987,

Well as a first post to the forum it is certainly interesting. Did it help the newbies? No. Did it move the discussion forward? No. Was it on-topic? No.

Was it anything other than a spiteful little post designed to get an angry reaction? No. Hell, I doubt you could even define psychosis without running to a dictionary or google, nevermind accurately label it in accordance with your in-depth knowledge of what I was talking about.

P.s. BTW thanks for clarifying to people the sort of completely off-topic BS which saps my will to contribute. You were a great "case in point".

[PlatCmdr]

[ February 27, 2003, 01:17 AM: Message edited by: PlattCmdr ]

[PlatCmdr]

Originally posted by Fionn:

So, short answer. I fully intend to never, ever produce anything of help to people in this community in the future. The only caveats to that are my friends and, of course, newbies. You stated you were a newbie so I sent you files to help...[/QB]

I can appreciate your frustration over simpletons who are unable to aknowledge 9-11 as a tragic event, without the need to identify it as an "American tragedy". I am an American, and as proud and dutybound as I feel, and hurt by the great loss we as a nation continue to feel, I cannot discount or ignore the fact that there were many representatives from other parts of the world who also lost their lives that day and also deserve to be recognized. It was more than an American tragedy, it was a tragedy affecting all of humanity.

Not to tarnish the sincerity of what I said above, but I am new to CM (hence, my reason for being in this forum) and, since making a "public" offer, am wondering if you'd be able to send those help files my way as well.

[klapton]

1st Newbie tip: If you drop from a PBEM game, tell your opponent you do so.

[Carl Puppchen]

My simplest newbie tip would be to keep your units in command, including AT Guns and Mortars. It is difficult in the heat of battle when men are advancing and retreating to do this, especially since a smart opponent and the Tactical AI targets leaders. Units fight much more effectively when they are in command. Look for the green bar next to them to let you know that they are in command radius, which varies based upon the "star" power for that leader. If you are moving forward, pause and wait for your stragglers to catch up, or leave a leader in the back that can come up and rally your panicked and routed soldiers. And don't forget to leave behind leaders to stay with your direct fire MG's and AT guns / howitzers when you push forward on the attack.