casualties.

[Other Means]

i've just started a game & i'm doing the setup. i'm defending an assault. i've bought a lot of TRP's etc. we're playing with 20% casualties.

i don't seem to have an FO.

have i had a brain fart or has the casualties killed him?

[Sergei]

Quite possibly so.

[mike8g]

Yes, he's dead.

When you play with 20% casualties, you'll get 20% more points to spend.

But after your troop selection the computer will deduct those 20% extra points randomly from your troops, either complete units or parts thereof (e.g. squad & crew members)

Marcus

[Redwolf]

Am I the only one who thinks that spotters should be excluded from the casualties?

I mean the artillery unit would send a new spotter if the other one was killed the night before, and if they don't have a real spotter, they would grab some random officer to do the job. A drop in experience would probably be more realistic.

Or in other words, the point here is the battery which is an independent unit.

[Other Means]

*%^$£@* that's a lot of firepower to lose. it's not just him, it's TRP's & the fact a whole arm has been removed. a drop in ammo available would be more fair.

[Le Tondu]

Originally posted by Redwolf:

Am I the only one who thinks that spotters should be excluded from the casualties?

No you are not the only one. One has to admit that there are some questionable things about this game.

It is this sort of thing that I pray gets more attention for CMx2 than eye candy. Better graphics are fine (if your computer can handle them) but things like this and something like allowing a blizzard anywhere in Italy (in July with HOT weather) is just plain silly. Go ahead and try it --for a QB. See for yourself.

[Redwolf]

Originally posted by Le Tondu:

It is this sort of thing that I pray gets more attention for CMx2 than eye candy. Better graphics are fine (if your computer can handle them) but things like this and something like allowing a blizzard anywhere in Italy (in July with HOT weather) is just plain silly. Go ahead and try it --for a QB. See for yourself.

Well, you ask the game to give you a blizzard and it gives you a blizzard. If you like it warm, then don't ask for a blizzard

[tar]

I mean the artillery unit would send a new spotter if the other one was killed the night before,

Maybe so. But not if he were killed in the pre-battle artillery barrage. There's not telling when the casualties occurred, so it could really be a few minutes before the start of the battle (just long enough to recover morale state....)

That might not leave enough time to get a replacement.

[birdstrike]

I always think about it as some unexpected incident, that forced your artillery units to relocate, further back from the frontline, so they are unable to support you.

And the FO didn't disappear, but just didn't move along with the assaulting troops, after all, there's no need for an FO without artillery, right?

[Redwolf]

All I say is the fire support does not have the same statistical chance to disappear, there are other mechanism involved. In CM the FOs are just treated the same way.

And it certainly doesn't help gameplay.

If you want to model anything from counterbattery fire to airplane attack to broken wires, then the casualty option should also include that some of your mean have frozen weapon, tanks start out immobile, troops behind running off the map in panic in turn one, the ammunition and fitness should be included (modeling the same enemy fire that hit the battery hit the supply train) and that a piano falls on the battalion commander's head.

You see what I mean? You shouldn't go overboard trying to find a statistical model for everything. Just make the casualty option one that means that some of your men are absent for whatever reason. But the fire support is not entirely represented by the two men, so don't make the battery disappear.

Some positions are re-filled with so much prioty that you shouldn't treat them with the same chances. There should always be a company HQ and if it is formed by the company sergant major. There should always be an FO if there is a battery.

Personally I would like it to reduce the FO in effectivity if it is hit by the "casualty" dice throw.

[sand digger]

Agree Redwolf.

[Grimly Fiendish]

It's the missing HQ that convinces me. I can see an occasional missing FO and certainly a missing Tiger (however much it hurts), but an army would run out of bullets before it let itself run out of people to fill the role of officer. Even if those casualties were shifted down the ranks, because after all the replacements would come up from below.

[tar]

You know, I've never seen a missing platoon HQ from casualties. I have had platoons with only one or two squads, but never squads without a platoon HQ of some sort.

I can't be sure of higher level commands because I pretty much always let the computer buy stuff for me, so I don't really know what was available before the casualties hit...

[dieseltaylor]

FO is a very specialist job. Someone rings the battery from the front and says.

Hello, hello, anyone there

Hi, I'm kind of new here. Your guys have large holes

where their heads used to be. I see the phoneything here seems to work.

Can I help you. You could just fire over some shells and I could tell you where they are hitting hows that sound. Map No I have no map , map with grid. Whats a grid.

: ) Would you fire?

[Other Means]

it's a gameplay issue for me. casualties reduce the amount of men in a unit, reduce the number of tanks etc. but with the small number of FO's (especially for allied in CMAK) if the dice lands wrong a whole arm of battle is *removed* instead of *reduced*.