Faulty Intell???

[lczaplys]

I started to play Quick battles recently where all the parameters are set to Random except for troop quality which is set to High and where we let the computer select the forces.

Last night I played a Meeting Engagement where several of my tanks had guns of 45 mm while most where 20 mm; so did most of my opponents but I noticed one Panzer with a 75 mm gun. That caused me to play a cautious game that I ended up loosing. I saw the 75 mm tank for about 6 moves; in conversing with my opponent at the end he said he had no tank higher than 50 mm, and in fact, it was a 37 mm tank.

This happened in an earlier game where I saw a tank with 122 mm guns that later I learned was a T-34.

In many games previously, this had never occurred. It started only when we went to random selection and computer selection of troops.

Why does this happen? Is it supposed to simulate battlefield intelligence?

[Andrew H.]

Yes, it simulates battlefield intelligence. How accurate your intelligence is depends on various factors, including: (1) visibility (more mistakes in fog); (2) experience (green troops are more likely to misidentify tanks); and (3) similarity of tanks to each other (BT-7 being ID'd as T-34 because of their similar shape).

Usually tanks with uncertain ID's have a question mark after them, so you see "T-34?" or "Tiger?" in the ID box. 9 times out of 10 - or perhaps even more often - the tank is misidentified as a more dangerous tank, as happened in your situation. Very occasionally, though, particularly in bad visibility, a tank is ID's as a less dangerous tank - and if you think it is bad holding back because of the perceived threat, imagine how much worse it is when the "Pz IV?" turns out to be a "Tiger".

[juan_gigante]

As I recall, in CMBO Allies identified pretty much every German AFV as a Tiger at first.

It happened, of course, quite a lot in the real war. I recall a story in the Ruhr werein a German commander found that he was facing black soldiers. He assumed that the black soldiers, having seen less action, would be more likely to misidentify AFVs as Tigers, and deployed his forces to take advantage of this. Apparently, his gamble paid off. The black troops reported being attacked by Tigers (Panzers IVs), and the higher-ups sent Pershings to fight them. Meanwhile the German commander's Tigers emerged somewhere else and wreaked havoc while the Allied heavies were elsewhere.

[David I]

Still happens in both CMAK and CMBB, many times enemy tanks are misidentified as whatever the biggest enemy tank of the time may be. So Germans see that JSII, while the Russians and Americans think they see a Tiger. I love it.

I've played whole games of CMBB trying to avoid that Tiger tank out there and then when the game was over I saw that it was a Pz IVH.

Lord knows the Allies id'ed every tank they saw as Tigers.

DavidI

[junk2drive]

Check your Fog of War setting (FOW), extreme really changes the intel.

I had a game where a SP Gun? looked like a Marder, then a Wespe. When I moved in for the kill with my M10 I found a StuG III and lost.

[RockinHarry]

It´s a good idea to make yourself aqquainted with the various gun sounds in the game! If you see a Tiger?, but "hear" a 75mm (instead of 88mm) then YOU really know what it is! A 75mm has a shorter and sharper sound, while an 88 a more volumous one. Same goes other way. A Pz-II? shooting with a heavy gun single shot sound surely is not a Pz-II! Also check rate of fire of an enemy gun! It tells you about crew quality as well.

An experienced player knowing to distinguish gun sounds surely can´t be fooled much by wrong visiual sightings of his troops. Sometimes it´s a good idea not to use the gun if the vehicle MG does the purpose as well. Oh..and counts for small/light weapons as well. Generally the game sound clues are of great importance if you understand the language. :eek: