Ammo conservation and other issues

[Moshker]

Is there a way in CMBO to get infantry units to hold fire until the enemy gets close®? Sometimes my units will give away their position and shoot at enemy units that are impossibly far away (yesterday one of my infantry units gave away his position by shooting at a tank at nearly 500 meters).

Are sharpshooters good for anything in CMBO? They seem to get spotted just as easy as other troops and their fire doesn't seem that accurate.

I have read the Platoon and Company HQ's can spot for indirect fire for on board mortar's that are within command range, but I can't seem to get it to work! Any tips on this?

I've only played CMBO and just found out their are other versions of the game. What is the consensus on these games? Worth buying? Also how do I find other noobies to play with real time? Is it uncommon for CM players to play real time? Does everyone just PBEM? Sounds like games would be obnoxiously long that way.

I've browsed through the forums and done a lot of reading and have been learning a lot. Thanks for all the awesome info everyone.

Mosh

[BitterPill]

I will answer in order:

Yes, set them to 'hide' and use the 'cover arc' command.

Yes, they are effective at killing commanders in unbuttoned vehicles. They are also useful in supressing and harrasing machine guns and mortars. It's best to have them 100m's or more from their target.

Yes, the HQ unit has to be within command range--you should see a red line connecting the HQ with the mortar. The HQ unit can't be hiding. If the HQ unit can see the target, you need only highlight the mortar unit, call up the 'Target' command and aim. The targeting line will turn from black into an orange line.

Yes, I don't yet have CMBO. CMAK and CMBB keep me quite busy.

[BitterPill]

Oops.

[JoMac]

Moshker,

Unfortunately, there are no Fire-Arcs in CMBO, and you will need to use the Hide Order and just hope for the best. If you are hiding, your units will usually automatically unhide and start shooting once enemy units get within 100 meters. You can also use the Ambush Markers, they are not used just for Field Pieces and Armor.

I have all 3 games, but CMBB and CMAK have a fair amount of changes over CMBO to warrant the purchase of them ( plus you get the Eastern Front ).

You might want to do a search on the differences as the subject has come up recently again.

If interested in playing a PBEM or TCP, I can help you thru the steps. If you need some help with the rules, tactics, etc, just email me back or post reply below.

Joe

[ October 10, 2007, 07:36 PM: Message edited by: JoMc67 ]

[jBrereton]

OK -

To get units to hold fire, use the 'hide' command, which can be useful with ambush markers (which are a bit confusing, it's true, but you get the hang of them eventually).

Sharpshooters are OK, but not as useful in CMBO as they are in CMBB/AK, mainly because of a lack of the cover arcs in those two games, and because the maps are rarely big enough to get the fact that they don't get heard over about 300 metres to be very useful.

Platoon and Coy HQs can command mortar assets, but they can only use area fire - you select the mortars and tell them to fire at a location that they can't see, but that the HQ in command can. You get a black line of sight, but with "area fire" at the bottom.

Hope that helps!

PS - CMBB and CMAK are absolutely worth it, although in my opinion, CMBB is the better of those two, due to the fact that the landscape is much more interesting, as are the units involved, and there's no bloody dust!

[John Kettler]

Moshker,

Haven't played CMBO in quite a while, but one thing that will help keep your units from prematurely firing is making sure they're in the command radius (red line) of an HQ, the higher quality and command rating the better. Another is to assign such critical tasks as much as possible only to your better quality troops, since these have much better fire discipline and follow orders better, particularly when well led. If terrain permits, you could also pull your lower grade troops far enough back into cover that they can't see until the foe's in close. Another trick which might work is to rotate your more dubious warriors completely away from the threat axis until the enemy is close. Why? They don't see well to their rear when it comes to spotting.

Sharpshooters can be useful indeed, and if you're using them properly, should be hard to spot. They make excellent spotters in their own right and are best positioned in good terrain and left to make their own engagement decisions. If the enemy's too close, sharpshooters may either not fire at all or engage with pistols. Sharpshooters should be at least Veteran in quality. Either that, or break loose an HQ with a bunch of modifiers in morale (combat staying power), combat (ability to shoot effectively) and stealth (ability to hide and also move quietly) to assist. A good HQ can do wonders in improving the performance of otherwise mediocre troops. Sharpshooters don't have to kill, for even forcing AFVs to button reduces their effectiveness considerably. The U.S. Army's own Cold War studies calculated that a buttoned tank was only 50% as effective as an unbuttoned one.

CMAK lets you play a lot of ETO stuff if you go the CMETO route, to name but one of several game reworks available, in addition to its nominal battle regions. And the dust is both a blessing and a curse, but was a very real feature not just in North Africa but even in Normandy. Don't believe me? Watch some Normandy programming and keep your eyes open for signs warning drivers to drive slowly, since dust brought accurate German fire immediately. CMBB lacks dust but has a bunch of features peculiar to Eastern Front combat, not to mention stupendous range of men, equipment and vehicles. It also makes possible a Fall Weiss version of the game via clever use of various foreign AFV inventories. Both games will require you to rethink and change your CMBO approach, for infantry behaves more realistically and MGs do what they're supposed to do. Also, forget laser guided artillery fire.

Regards,

John Kettler