Ok, what happened and to who?

[Blah Blah Blah]

I have picked up the demo of CMBB, and really do like the engine mechanics with regard to the simultaneous execution.

However (yes we all knew that was coming!) how do I keep track of what happened to who? There are several levels of this for me.

Firstly, the graphics, the units are difficult to see if the units are at default size, (I need this to keep a perspective of the cover etc of the unit. The mark base is a glaring blue/red square which makes visually identifying what the unit is impossible.

This then makes the who is firing at who is made more difficult. Also there does not seem to be any other way of knowing what happened to who.

So how do I keep track of what is happening across a large battle?

PS, Is there a icon and base mode, for the directly from atop view which are like those of the Talonsoft games such as Western front.

[Dave H]

If you are playing in the directly overhead mode, I think you are missing 99% of what goes on in CMBB. To see what goes on, you need to get right down with your troops and watch them. Otherwise you completely miss the nuances of the terrain and vegetation, as well as the combat itself. Not to mention the amazing sounds as the turns progress. To my knowledge there is no unit icon other than the three (or two, or one) man infantry units, the vehicles, the guns, etc. The only icons mark the last sighted positions of units.

Come down out of the clouds and try managing a battle directly over the shoulders of your men. Try to model that with icons.

[Tankist]

Try SHIFT-G to get unit status labels (like 'out of ammo', 'panicked', etc.).

Tankist

[Blah Blah Blah]

Originally posted by Dave H:

If you are playing in the directly overhead mode, I think you are missing 99% of what goes on in CMBB. To see what goes on, you need to get right down with your troops and watch them. Otherwise you completely miss the nuances of the terrain and vegetation, as well as the combat itself. Not to mention the amazing sounds as the turns progress. To my knowledge there is no unit icon other than the three (or two, or one) man infantry units, the vehicles, the guns, etc. The only icons mark the last sighted positions of units.

Come down out of the clouds and try managing a battle directly over the shoulders of your men. Try to model that with icons.

I normally like the directly overhead mode when setting up etc.

However, the over the shoulder is nice, but with 50+ units it does not seem practical. I normally go the 45 degree angle for the battle.

[Sergei]

It is usually beneficial to divide your force into subsections, each of a size that you are able to control and supervise by itself. At the replay phase, you then follow each of them separately. Sometimes you need to watch certain parts of a movie several times from different places/angles to understand it totally (and more than often you still don't, because of FOW).

[JasonC]

You can change the unit scale to make them larger, for the higher numbered views. Turn bases off and put the units at +2 or +3 scale, and they are easily seen and distinguished.

To review what has happened, use the + and - keys to step through your units. If no unit is selected at first, that will begin with independent teams. If you select an HQ, it goes from that HQ through all its subordinates in order. A few fast hits on the + key and you see the status of a platoon. Tab centers the view on the selected unit, with its facing.

The highest angle views before overhead, 4 and 5, give a pretty wide field of view. If in addition to pick a rear unit to start from, and rotate a bit, you can often get the bulk of the battlefield where action is happening in a given minute, into 1 window. This is especially useful when watching the movie, noticing incoming and outgoing fire, armor hit reports, etc.

You can also restart the tape once it has run through once (as long as you haven't hit "done-next" yet) and view it again from the perspective of a different unit. The fast forward button steps up by 10 seconds at a time, even while the clock is paused. You can step through snapshots to see what happened to a unit by selecting it with the tape paused, and then hitting fast forward a few times.

If you want more detail about what happened, it is easy enough to get using the above method. When you see the status change while fast forwarding, reverse one click and watch 10 seconds or so of the tape from that unit's perspective, then pause. You don't have to watch a full minute from every unit's position to get the highlights, see what fire caused panic, etc.

You get use to the interface over time.