Best way to view the action?

[eyelevel]

Hi all,

Well I finally have got this great great game!!!

Now although I haven't even begun to scratch the surface I am finding it mightily hard to know how best to use the camera when viewing the 60 sec action.

I know you can replay it as many times as you want to, but how do the rest of you view the action?, I mean I might have 20+ Soldiers, many tanks etc, and to lock the view onto each individual unit would take forever lol

As great as it maybe to view the action in that way, I personally would find it rather tough going.

So if anyone who is experienced with this game could give me some help and tips etc....I would be grateful.

If I have the camera too far out I can't see the explosions and too far in and I find myself getting rather lost.

Many thanks in advance

Eyelevel (Chris)

[Engel]

I use the number 3 view setting most of the time, and sometimes 6 or 7 to plot difficult movement routes or determine positioning inside buildings. Sometimes I use 2 to see contouring properly, and to find hull down and approximate LOS for defensive positions during the planning phase.

During the execution phase I usually just check the most critical places, unless I suddenly start hearing fire from a direction I didn't expect.

[ October 28, 2002, 08:42 AM: Message edited by: Engel ]

[eyelevel]

Thank you, gives me some idea of what other people use, I guess in a way it's a case of what you find best, although I just get lost all the time!, I've not played a game such as this before so it will take some getting used too!

Many thanks though

Eyelevel

[ParaBellum]

Eyelevel, I guess this comes down to personal preference. I usually like to observe the whole battlefield at lvl 5 for the 'big picture', than move to the different 'hot spots' and watch the action again from lvl 3/4.

I use the lvl 1/2 mainly for positioning units or watching some real gripping scenes.

The bigger the battle, the more 'replays' I need with different views.

[Tarquelne]

I find it's most fun to view portions of the action at view 1 or 2, "over the shoulders" of either my units or my opponents, with all the graphics-goodies on high (except maybe trees, which can get in the way)

For a quick and dirty look at the action - SHIFT-T to turn off trees, and SHIFT-C (IIRC) a few times to "magnify" the units, then pull back to 4 or more. This makes it very easy for you (as opposed to your troops) to spot any enemy units and see what you're guys are up to.

I usually watch the turn somewhere in between those extremes.

It has been advocated that the best - most realistic, and most entertaining - way to play CM is to use _only_ view 1. (With some exceptions, I imagine.) I've never tried it... sounds interesting, though.

[TSword]

I'm doing a quite big operation with a lot of tanks and around 2 companies of inf.

I always view action at Level 1 or 2 with bases off, looks absolutely great. Level 3 is to far away (Terrain type steppe cannot be seen). Best would be a parameter driven Level 3 view or bigger.

I need Level 1 or 2 also to really see what is going on. In Level 3 one can miss a lot, like shooting AT-guns which are not yet noticed.

In this way i have to review action phase 3 - 4 times.

Greets

Daniel

[Bone_Vulture]

Don't know about the levels, but I use birds-eye view (directly from above, closest) to plot exact waypoint routes and check LOS's, angled view from the air to have a better view on distant threats, and hover on ground to have an accurate picture of the units' potential LOS... And of course admire the action!

Nothing beats watching a light tank go KA-DUNK after catching a 88L71 AP round... From the receiver's angle.

[Luis J]

Dependinig on the size of the battle. I generally look first on 5 then change to 1 or two when I want to see what happens in an specific spot or my main point of attack.

I really enjoy 1 when jumping on a Tank on fast movement on a road, specially those T-34s.

I use 6 to trace vehicle movement on wooded areas.

[Mannheim Tanker]

Originally posted by TSword:

I'm doing a quite big operation with a lot of tanks and around 2 companies of inf.

I always view action at Level 1 or 2 with bases off, looks absolutely great. Level 3 is to far away (Terrain type steppe cannot be seen). Best would be a parameter driven Level 3 view or bigger.

I need Level 1 or 2 also to really see what is going on. In Level 3 one can miss a lot, like shooting AT-guns which are not yet noticed.

In this way i have to review action phase 3 - 4 times.

Greets

Daniel

Try using level 3, but magnify if once or twice. Using the magnification tool works wonders for some of the views, especially since the Russian tanks and infantry blend so easily into the background.

[Silvio Manuel]

eyeslevel- you do have to be quite observant, lest you miss some crucial cue. One big one for me is hearing the distinctive sound of a .50cal MG in CMBO when the game only visually shows you "Machine gun?" - noticing the sounds might save you from losing a few lightly armored AFV.

Also- I remember not checking my flanks and rear enough in a tournament battle, and only at the end seeing that a Company HQ unit snuck through my lines during a heated firefight, and I only had two panzerschrecks guarding my rear large flag, which ended up contested instead of mine- doh! Although in CMBB a variable length game would have solved that, sort of.

[Chad Harrison]

I like it nice and close for the action, and nice and far way for the orders. And, I think the tracers are just fine!

Chad

[Granger]

I use levels 3 and 4 for both issuing orders to the troops and for viewing the replays. They seem to give you a good overall view, while still giving you some perspective. I use level 1 and sometimes level 2 for getting the lay of the land and for more precise positioning units or eyeballing LOS.

Also, one thing I've not seen mentioned yet, I usually do a replay over the enemy positions...sort of like turning the chess board. Usually that's one replay every two or three turns, and more often during heavy fighting.

[massimorocca]

I replay in level 1 locked with x2 magnification 10 or 20 degree angle up. With a Tank you have the sight of the commander, only the battlefield, somtimes with the muzzle brake of your tank visible if the tank is climbing. Very exciting when the crew spot a new menace and your sight switch with the turret slowly only to vanish in a cloud of fire and smoke. You are hit!

[Ellros]

Try Franko's camera rules in CMBB out on the steppes for an interesting experience.

View 1 ONLY.

[Vergeltungswaffe]

Franko's will always be the way the play the AI. Its really cool now as a TC on a map with an LOS to a target 2000m+ away, using zoom to look through the binoculars.

[eyelevel]

Thank you all very much for your hints and tips,

I think alot of my trouble though and this is probably going to sound ridiculous but I only have a small Monitor 14/15 inch and if I am locked on in the view or just manually following in the 1st level viewpoint I kind of miss alot of things going on, but I will try the various suggestions and thanks again,

I tried and still am in a generated battle just to see if I can get used to the viewing and playing of this game, and I am struggling a great deal, I can't understand the manual to well due to my understanding of things being weaker than most other peoples, and don't know the best way to approach a scenario.

Take this generated battle I am in right now, all my troops are lined up on the edge of the map and all I see ahead of me roughly in the center of the map is a grey flag with a ? on it, now I understand that that means both sides are fighting to control that part of the map, that much I do know lol, but as for the approach I started off by dragging a box around lets say 6 units of Infantry and told them to start running to a point where there were some tree's and then left them there.

I did the same with the next lot of units which inc infantry and two armoured vehicles, in the end of this process I had a line of all my troops behind the flag and the enemy was in control of it and a mass of them in a line like mine are, now I'm telling my troops to fire on a certain enemy and they do, but no-one is getting killed!, is this right, the scenario I generated is 60 turns as I love long battles, (even though I have no idea what I'm doing lol), so the gunfights are raging but so far one of my men is down and out, but although my men are firing like mad, the enemy look firmly in control, although the bottom left of the screen in the stats it say's that my morale is a certain percentage something like 95% but the flow of the battle is quite close indicating that the enemy has lost a few units.

I hope you all follow me here and please forgive me if I sound stupid in my explanation but I don't find it too easy explaining things

I love this game to bits but just wish I could really get into it, it does'nt help when I have to keep an eye on my forum website either as I want to play but can't as much as I want to!!! lol

I really appreciate all the help I'm getting and I apologise if I don't answer straight away, but like I said I have a forum to look after too, but I will always come back and reply sooner or later.

Cheers

Eyelevel (Chris)

[Cameroon]

Hi eyelevel,

This may sound obvious, but have you tried the "beginners" tutorial in the manual? If you have, then it might be worth checking out the "advanced" tutorial. If you do that, make sure to read this thread, it contains fixes for the printed errors. And if you've done one or both, then try a quick battle that is small and has few troops to manage. It will be easier to get the hang of things at first, and then build to larger battles.

To further address your questions, well it is hard to teach tactics via a BBS, but here's some basics I apologize if this is basic stuff, I didn't know where to start so I figured the beginning would work.

Your infantry is usually your main force. They are what allow you to take and hold terrain. Furthermore, some infantry are support units. These are units like machine guns, mortars, flamethrowers -- in CM units that are usually teams.

The basic goal is to support your infantry with your other units, support infantry like above and vehicles. What this means is that in general, you want your support units to stay behind your advancing forces BUT be able to see them. This is so that they can shoot at enemies that appear.

Also, it is very important to keep platoon's together. You probably noticed the line that goes from the Platoon HQ to other units. For squads in that platoon, the line will be black if that squad is out of command range. That's generally not a good thing, so try to keep them in command range.

So when a Quick Battle starts off and your troops are all lined up, you want to organize them into platoons and probably think about what each platoon and the support weapons are going to do.

To do so, you'll want to look at the terrain. Find the hills, the covered areas (e.g. trees, dips that the other side can't see into, buildings, etc). You'll want your forces to be in cover as much as possible (generally) to protect them from the enemy's fire. Also, you'll want to knowo what you can see from these places and identify what your enemy can use for cover.

Then you'll want to make some plans. This is when you give yourself some objectives, like being halfway to some point after so many turns, and when you think about what routes and units will be used to reach those objectives. Its probably also a good idea to think about what your enemy might be planning, doing the same things you are but from the other side (and with different units ).

Once you've met the enemy, then of course your plans will likely change some, but it's important to have a general idea of what you want each "group" of units to accomplish. Anyway, you'll want to make sure to understand the different movement orders. For instance, Run is usually a risky order if your troops are under attack. You could test the movement orders by using the scenario editor to create a very basic sandbox with which to explore how the different orders work.

I hope I've not made you confused or that that was too basic. Like I said, I didn't know where to start but I figured that if you were just selecting a bunch of troops and marching them off, that maybe I should start at the beginning

As for who or what is getting killed, that's not easy for your troops to determine most of the time. Until your troops are very close to the enemy, don't expect to know anything about casualities. Plus, most infantry weapons don't have very much effect at long range. So if you are 500 meters from the enemy and firing with your infantry (besides machine guns and mortars), chances are you aren't going to be doing much

Hey, I'm also a Chris. Heh, go figure.

[eyelevel]

Hi Cameroon,

That was a very good explanation thank you for taking the time to do all that!!

I will take heed of what you have described and try to put it into practice.

Many many thanks again

The two Chris's eh? lol

Nice to meet you Chris