Stuff I Liked on the Demo

[Scott B]

Some interesting stuff and some classic moments.

1. Soviet 50mm mortars - haha, those things are awesome. Ammo load's actually useful, they can move quickly, all around happy to have them in a way that I wasn't with any of the light mortars in CMBO (Brit 2" is fun, but not nearly enough ammo).

2. The light buildings all the way at the end of the Citadel scenario; I was so pleased to be able to blow up a building after fighting my way across the steppe. Made it all worth it, in my opinion.

3. POW collection with bypassed AT teams - I think I may have had more fun on the Soviet side when I deployed my Battalion HQ and teams forward along the first few clumps of trees and then, once the Panzers had all bypassed them, sent them out to hunt down the crews from the KO'd Panzer IIIs and IVs - the little two man PPSh equipped AT teams are fantastic for this.

4. Being counter-bombarded by the AI in Yelnya Stare on turn one. Serves me right for being lazy and taking default setup against the AI.

5. The first time 15 panzers opened fire on the same 45L66mm gun. Sucker.

6. The time I boosted Soviet forces by 200% in "Citadel" and lined up all of their 45mm ATGs behind a ridgeline, "civil war style." Totally unsuccessful, but damn cool to watch.

Seriously, this game's going to rock. I can't wait to see the full version show up at my door.

Scott

[BeauCoupDinkyDau]

Originally posted by Scott B:

The light buildings all the way at the end of the Citadel scenario; I was so pleased to be able to blow up a building after fighting my way across the steppe. Made it all worth it, in my opinion.

Heh, heh, heh. I did the same thing. It was my motivation to reach the end of the map. I really wanted to see the new post "dust cloud" that buildings left behind. I grabbed my LOS tool and yelped "cool" when my tank crew couldn't see through it. :cool:

[Doug Beman]

Originally posted by Scott B:

Some interesting stuff and some classic moments.

2. The light buildings all the way at the end of the Citadel scenario; I was so pleased to be able to blow up a building after fighting my way across the steppe. Made it all worth it, in my opinion.

5. The first time 15 panzers opened fire on the same 45L66mm gun. Sucker.

6. The time I boosted Soviet forces by 200% in "Citadel" and lined up all of their 45mm ATGs behind a ridgeline, "civil war style." Totally unsuccessful, but damn cool to watch.

Scott

Things that make ya go "BOOM!"

DjB

[gunnergoz]

Regarding the 50mm mortars...'tis well we enjoy them while we can, because they pretty much disappear from the battlefield once the initial allotments were used up in combat. The Russians began to field more 82mm and then 120mm mortars at higher levels, but the little 50mm jobs were left out of future TOE's. Too little bang for the buck, and a pressing need for trained mortarmen to be used laying down serious quantities of HE.

I loved using the 50mm's in the Yelnia demo, but doubt that I used them realistically...I gave them out to the company commanders along with the maxim guns and their grouped fires suppressed Germans most effectively. Unfortunately, for the war's first battles, most low- and mid- level Red Army unit leaders were in realilty ill prepared to handle much more than 2 or three manouver elements in a fight, let alone coordinate support arms.

[Pvt. Ryan]

Originally posted by Scott B:

5. The first time 15 panzers opened fire on the same 45L66mm gun. Sucker.

The first time 12 45L66 guns opened up on one Panzer III. Thunk x 12. That was a blast.

The first time one of my tank hunter teams tossed a mine/bomb and it actually KO'ed the tank.

The first time I saw the death clock in action. One of my tanks decided to bail but the enemy kept pounding it for another turn.

[aka_tom_w]

The Death Clock

and

Extreme Fog Of War

are Hits for SURE!

-tom w

[Wolfe]

Tanks taking loads of penetrations before bailing. The Death Clock rules.

A Panzer III taking dozens of hits from 45mm guns, many on its turret, but still not losing its gun. My God how I hated those gun hits in CMBO!

Smoke blowing in the direction of the wind. Just way too cool.

Spreading fires that start small and grow.

Smoke that doesn't completely block LOS.

Look and feel (even smell? ) of the blast and smoke coming out of tank barrels.

Increased gun accuracy for AT guns sitting back in woods.

Significantly reduced gun accuracy for tanks on the move.

Riding along on the tank looking around without falling off! Now if we could only ride the shell into the target ...

- Chris

[Andreas]

The much improved handling of artillery (I am amazed that gets so little notice), and the... oh wait, you would not have seen them...

[Bastables]

Originally posted by Andreas:

The much improved handling of artillery (I am amazed that gets so little notice), and the... oh wait, you would not have seen them...

yeh? but does it help my 25pdrs? No!

[Abbott]

Armor platoon formations.

HMG’s laying down suppressive fire.

Watching Russian anti-tank grenade bundles sailing through the air to target.

Taking fire without immediately knowing from where.

The new main gun firing animation.

Infantry being much harder to spot.

EFOW.

[ September 09, 2002, 07:19 PM: Message edited by: Abbott ]

[Abbott]

bump

[Tarquelne]

1. Using x8 (or maybe x16!) mag with unit lock view to be one with the binocular guy in my 45mm AT crew.... to see a PzIV's turret poke up above the ridge.... watching a couple of 45 shells fly at the PzIV.... watching the tank's gun rotate toward me... watching a 75mm shell come _straight at me_ and shouting "Ahhh!" just before the rest of the crew shouts "Ahhh!" as the shell hits.

2. Playing with more realistic MGs.

3. Getting 7 side penetrations in a row on a PzIII and laughing (nastily) at the crew as they bail out.

4. Playing with more realistic MGs.

5. Playing with more realistic MGs.

6. Troop behavior feels more realistic.... or at least closer to what I think is realistic.

7. Err.... most everything already mentioned. /Shrug/ I have a generous soul, I'm easy to please.

8. Playing with more realistic MGs.

(CMBB just has EF scenarios and improved MG modeling? I'd still buy it without hesitation.)

[PK]

Has anyone noticed the 3d flagpoles. Now thats attention to detail. Also the camera shake following running infantry units and also that those infantry units no longer run in static formation but drift about. I also like the colour coded armour thickness on the interface when a tank is selected.

I can't imagine what else we will find in the full version but I can't wait.

[Prinz Eugen]

Originally posted by Tarqulene:

1. Using x8 (or maybe x16!) mag with unit lock view to be one with the binocular guy in my 45mm AT crew.... to see a PzIV's turret poke up above the ridge.... watching a couple of 45 shells fly at the PzIV.... watching the tank's gun rotate toward me... watching a 75mm shell come _straight at me_ and shouting "Ahhh!" just before the rest of the crew shouts "Ahhh!" as the shell hits.

2. Playing with more realistic MGs.

3. Getting 7 side penetrations in a row on a PzIII and laughing (nastily) at the crew as they bail out.

4. Playing with more realistic MGs.

5. Playing with more realistic MGs.

6. Troop behavior feels more realistic.... or at least closer to what I think is realistic.

7. Err.... most everything already mentioned. /Shrug/ I have a generous soul, I'm easy to please.

8. Playing with more realistic MGs.

(CMBB just has EF scenarios and improved MG modeling? I'd still buy it without hesitation.)

I'm afraid you forgot something ;

Realistic MG's !

[Andrew H.]

The sounds are much improved, downsampled or not. There's a cool "thwapp" sound that is - I think - MG bullets landing nearby. I heard it a lot when an ATG in Citadel opened up on a German Panzer and was targetted in turn by 5 others. On view 1, shells fly overhead, or land nearby and explode, while there is a *thwapp, thwapp, thwapp* sound of MG shells hitting nearby.

[Zitadelle]

Originally posted by Wolfe:

....

Spreading fires that start small and grow.

....

I am impressed with many aspects of the demo- I can't wait until I get my hands on the full version.

As for the above quote, I found an interesting use of fire while playing the Yelnia scenario. The Russians were advancing through the brush towards the woods. I started by dropping 81mm and 50mm mortar fire on their position; which started two small fires at the back of the brush.

Meanwhile the Russians continued the advance. As they closed on my positions, I opened up with the MG34s effectively pinning the majority of the force.

Now, the fire starts to spread- effectively sealing off the Russians ability to withdraw. So, I have the Russians pinned with MG fire and fire to their rear (which is continuing to spread). The end result was amazing to watch.

Yes, provided fires spread correctly- they will be your ally. I can see a CMBB tactic coming into play that is very similar to fighting a forest fire. You start a back fire behind your enemy and take away his escape routes.

Of course, I guess fires can also be the death of you if they spread the wrong way.

[Chad Harrison]

Nice to see someone saying what they like about the demo, instead of expecting it to be exactly how THEY personally want it to be.

What I like about the demo? Everything

Chad

[JeF]

Hi,

Newbie here. Recently downloaded the CMBO and CMBB demo.

I cannot really comment on this or this feature.

What I liked (it was a real shock) is that you can save your game.

For me, the CM demos are not demos, they are complete games. Limited in coverage (only two scenarios) but complete in features.

Some games from the same publishers have time limits and don't allow to save games. You cannot finish what you started.

It's very frustrating. But on the other hand, frustration from the demo may help selling the real thing.

Cheers,

JeF.

[_Axe_]

That rain of steel sound when bullets start pinging off your AT gun and your men get off one more shot.

[Runyan99]

Winning my very first CMBB tank duel in a PBEM game:

Two hull down PzIVs engaged one hull down KV at a range of 1500m, and destroyed it after several partial penetrations to the front turret.

Hooray for good optics! Somewhat suprised that the mighty KV was not more resistant to the 75mm L/48.

The victory was not without loss, however. The KV scored a partial penetration on the turret of one of the PzIVs, resulting in an injured crewman. Still, my brave crew did not abandon the tank!