Hull Down Trouble

[Uncle Socrates]

Hello CM community, I'm new to the game and I just had a quick question: I'm playing CMBB and I'm doing the "Advanced Turtorial" as found in the back of the manual. I'm having trouble getting the assault guns into "hull down" positions. I'm doing exactly what the manual says, however.. I put the waypoints over the little crest of the hill, and on the way there they're supposed to "look" for a hull down position relative to any enemy. Well, either the SU's stop 30m before the crest even begins, or they go to the top, completely revealing their hulls. So, what am I doing wrong? and how do I know if they're hull-down? Only when I target an enemy and a "hull-down" line comes up?

Any help or advice would be appreciated. :cool:

[Redwolf]

The hulldown command in CMBB sucks. It is only reliable if you could inspect the terrain manually to ensure that there actually is a hulldown position. If you could do such a close inspection the command would not be required in first place.

Most players inspect the terrain manually and then use hunt to get into a spot which is likely to be hulldown. If you use hunt you have the extra safety that an enemy AT unit in sight will make your tank stop in hulldown (temporarily, but probably enough til next turn) even if you screw the plotting up.

[Demonize666]

I find an excellent trick to get in a good hulldown position is to: Firstly, use the hunt command upto jus behind the ridgeline,Secondly , use the "rotate" command to gauge how"hulldown"that position will be relative to were the hunt command ends(were ur tank will finish its movement) u can tell how hulldown the tank will be by the rotate command line contouring to the ridge, like it jus rises slightly upto the top of the ridge (case of Practice makes perfect)

[Specs]

Be thoughtful when considering hull-down positions -- if you go hull-down and leave a poorly armored turret exposed, then every hit will penetrate. It can actually be advantageous to expose the entire AFV if its forward armor can stand up to whatever's shooting at it, as most hits will strike the AFV's hull (which has a larger cross-sectional area than the turret) and ricochet off.

It's counterintuitive, I know, but c'est la guerre. Trouble seems to be that the reduced silhouette of a hull-down tank doesn't incur a sufficiently large "to hit" penalty to offset the poor pretection of a thinly armored turret. Better to give the enemy gunners a bigger target, most of which their shells can't penetrate, than a small target that's vulnerable everywhere.

[Louie the Toad]

Do the 'assault guns' you mention have turrets?

Hull down = turret up.... Toad

[Joachim]

Originally posted by Louie the Toad:

Do the 'assault guns' you mention have turrets?

Hull down = turret up.... Toad

Hull down = Lower hull down... Joachim

[Eric Alkema]

Originally posted by Uncle Socrates:

I put the waypoints over the little crest of the hill, and on the way there they're supposed to "look" for a hull down position relative to any enemy.

I think this is your problem. The hulldown command causes the tank to move toward the end point and stop when it is hulldown relative to that end point. If you want to ambush tanks that you expect (or hope) to be appearing in a certain place, give the hulldown command and put the end point in that place. The gotcha is if the end point is not visible or there is no hulldown position along the rout to the end point, you will go trundling along the entire distance. If the target is already in view, the hunt command is often more reliable.

[General Tacticus]

Or, if you'd like pictures with your tutorial (because Eric beat me to the punch...), here is my contribution.

This panther wants to gain a hull down status with respect to the ridgeline some 700m in front of it - note that the ridge it is behind blocks it's view of it's "target"

So, give a Hull Down order, placing it on the point (the top of the target ridgeline) you wish to be hull down to.

....and hit "GO!" - the Panther trundles forward, stopping when the waypoint comes into view - voila! Hull down!

Some common sense has to be applied when using this command - it is silly to try to go hulldown to a point behind a stand of trees, for example - the unit will never gain line of sight to the waypoint.....and you will bash you head against the nearest wall....

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As an aside, I believe there is a bug concerning how the HD status of units is calculated which makes gaining a "Hull down advanatge" over enemy unit very difficult. In almost every case, if you are hulldown, so is the enemy - it is next to impossible (I have found...) to gain a HD advantage from a ridge - it is a bit easier from a hollow, but not much....