Leaderbonus

[DeutschRitter]

Are the Leaderbonus cumulative or does the unit only gets the bonus from the leader with he is connected (red line)?

[Sergei]

Just from the one with the red line.

[DeutschRitter]

Okay but a captain has an influence to the leaders. They can lead their men better over a larger distance or not when a captain is near?

[costard]

Okay but a captain has an influence to the leaders. They can lead their men better over a larger distance or not when a captain is near?

No, Captain only has influence over grunts - iff the platoon leader is out of position or dead. Captain can have influence over grunts from two or more different platoons, Leiutenant only over his own platoon (plus support elements). No performance bonuses for having two or more levels of commmand.

[JasonC]

The big advantage of the captain and battalion HQs is that they can command *any* unit. Platoon HQs can command any team, but only squads from their own platoon. This makes company HQs your "flex team" leaders. Used properly, they can more than double the effective radius of action of your squads, since those can transfer from company radius to platoon radius and back again.

[DeutschRitter]

Sorry Im german and I dont know what "grunts" mean. I consulted my dictionary but I couldnt find it there.

[KG_Jag]

Grunts generally means enlisted men. In the game context it usually means squads, guns and teams, not lower level leaders (e.g. platoon HQs).

There is no cumulative effect of more than one leader being within command range. Lower level leaders do not benefit from having higher level commanders within command range.

In fact too many leaders within an area can be a problem, especially with regard to commanding mortars for indirect fire, but also because the command bonus (package) you want for a particular unit may be "intercepted" by a less desirable leader unit, which is also in close proximity.

[DeutschRitter]

Ah ok, thx for the detailed information!

[Der Alte Fritz]

Hi

As a new player you will find the game very difficult to play and win even against the ai and certainly against a human player.

The best place to start is at www.blowtorchscenarios.com and look for the Russian training scenarios. Play through these until you can win and you will have a much better knowledge of the game. I know....you want to play as Germans/British/Americans but believe me if you can fight as the Russians, then the others will be easy. Do a search of these forums for "How to fight as ......." and you will get a load of information (mostly by JasonC) -great info.

Then you want a load of scenarios to practice on. Go to www.cmmods.com and search for the designers Phillipe_in_exile and Der Alte Fritz. Download the Sorted Scenario Packs and the Scenario Listing and you will have 3,300 scenarios to play and a means to find the one you want. Also the Blowtorchscenarios.com have the best historical scenarios you can find. Go to the www.the-Scenario-Depot.com for the latest ones.

Ok now you can play the game but it still does not look good. Go to www.cmmods.com and download the McMMM mod manager and then a selection of mods starting with these:

Complete Terrain set (gridded or not)

Nisseuh

Rocket Man

Hi Contrast Terrain set

Green As Jade

General Terrain items:

Mikey D (sky, rubble, buildings, etc)

DEY (snow)

GW (terrain)

GURRA (terrain)

Pat (Terrain buildings, etc)

VOSSIE user interface CMAK

TARKUS Dirty olive user interface CMAK Dark Steel CMBB

Vincent Splash Screens

Uncle Tgt Mystery Vehicles

DAF Mystery Vehicles

Malakovskis Dirty/Dusty Bomb

Infantry

DavidI

AndrewF

Vehicles

MikeyD

DavidI (snow versions)

DEY (snow versions)

Pat

Uncle Tgt

DavidI

Download that lot and you will cover most things and your game will look really good with higher res graphics.

How you want to fight different wars. No problem go to www.cmmods.com and download the mods for:

CMETO (Europe 1944)

CM Bulge

CM NOrmandy

CM West (West 1940-43)

Sealion

Fall Weiss (Poland 1939) (look under Pat)

Spanish Civil War

Pacific (look under Junk2drive)

When you have done all this, then my son you will be a CM gamer!

[dieseltaylor]

My recommendation for learning but enjoying CM is to play very rapidly in small scenarios so you can quickly get the basics of how it operates. It is immaterial whether you win or lose - and playing this way you should lose. The concept is to get you familiar with the orders and also the horrible effects that will occur as you blunder about.

The main reason to do it quickly is to get you used to losing : ) - no actually you could ponder , and work through someones lessons on how to do it right but that takes time. I think you will appreciate the lessons and the extra time spent ONCE you have learned how lethal it can be. Another words in 5 hours playing fast you will learn more about the game than if you did it "properly".

Once you have driven your convoy straight down the road in the tiny "A Deadly Affair"[partisans 18 turns] scenario on the disc you will start to want to learn how to avoid the pain : )

And then you will quickly want to be the partisans to show you could have done better than the AI : )

[Der Alte Fritz]

Excellent advice.

A really good site for small scenarios is Byte Battles at http://www.kretsen.nu/bytebattler/

[Joachim]

My advice is save&reload if a turn doesn't play as intended.

If the plan fails only once, it is bad luck.

If your plan fails several times, it is your mistake. Try to change your plan a bit and compare the effects.

Learning from advice is one thing, but learning from your own mistakes will improve your ability to plan turns that run smoothly - just like Tux in his current AAR

[MeatEtr]

Just wanted to echo a few things, play smaller sized battles for learning the game. Save the big brawls for when your quicker at your decision making and user interface navigation. For example, like being able to set up a battalion in under 10 minutes versus the 30+ minutes for a new player.

Agree with Joachim on the saving and reloading for learning. But be careful, this can become bad habit. For beginners it's great for learning, but for the experienced players, it's basically cheating.

Also don't hesitate playing hotseat by yourself. You can learn quite a bit by playing both sides. Again, winning and losing is meaningless in these situations. It's all about learning.

And one last thing, when you start to feel experimental, don't hesitate to try the scenario editor. It's probably one of the most easiest editors I have ever seen for any game. I like most around here have very fond memories when first discovering the editor.

[DeutschRitter]

hey guys thx a lot for the many suggestions and especially to Der Alte Fritz for the many great links. Its like christmas and birthday together

I like playing wargames. I played many cosim boardgames. My favourites at the moment are Tide of Iron and Conflict of Heroes. Im playing since the beta Company of Heroes on the PC. Im very interested in WW2. After a couple of weeks I bought Theatre of War and I played it every day. So I came to CMSF and now to CM. The CM games are great. I will do my best to learn all the stuff to become a good player. I was reading that a new CM is coming out?! And a new Theatre of War! Battlefront is a nice company And Im looking for the Combat Mission Campaigns. It sounds really good...

[umlaut]

I´d like to add a little piece of advice that I myself have found very useful in learning the game along with for instance "save-reload":

In the beginning I used to save and surrender a lot in order to discover how my attacks had affected the opposition. After studying the oppo force I then reloaded - and adjusted my tactics. Personally, I think this probably has been the most useful learning tool.

This is of course cheating - just as save-reload - but still very useful at first when you don´t know how the game works. I hardly ever do it anymore: Now I know how the game works - and basically I´d only be cheating myself by doing it.

Cheers

[Vark]

Just to add my tu'pence worth. I came to CM from boardgames (SPI, Avalon Hill etc) and early tactical simulations, on the pc, like Steel Panthers I II and III. CM came with a severe learning curve and I created a lot of sandbox scenarios using the editor, just to find out what my troops/enemy could do/not do. My first games of CM BO were a shock and so much seemed to be happening at once that I thought arghhh, what is going on? Then I realised that the game demanded a level of tactical appraisal that had been absent from most of the games I had played, and to succeed I would have to fall back on my basic knowledge of real world military tactics. The most helpful of these were

Intelligence:

Use the Battleground forums to garner helpful hints from seasoned players, Tux's AAR's are very useful in this respect as he cogently explains each move and backs it up with clear screenshots. Understand the mechanics of the game and what each move order or fire command is trying to simulate

Have a plan (and try to stick to it)

In CM I have found it essential to stick to the axiom, order, counter order equals disorder. Even having a basic plan really helped my early games and the more proficient I became, at planning, the more effective my forces became. I built up my competency in stages, planning movement, then shooting and finally a combination of the two. I learned that being out of command imposed fatal delays as units constantly pinned or routed and that reacting to the enemy, as a substitute for a scheme of manoeuvre, was a guarantee of defeat.

METT-T

This simple formula helped with planning many a game allowing plans to be created in both time and space.

Mission:

Look carefully at what you are being asked to do and try to make sure you pick up any hints, though if a scenario writer says "there are no reports of any tanks" usually means you will bump into AFV's

Enemy:

This is where the endless sandbox training pays dividends as you begin to be aware of your opponents capabilities and restrictions. Play all sides to see the unique nature of certain forces, though hopefully CM2 will make these national differences even more acute.

Terrain:

This is where CM is unique, careful terrain analysis is essential in both the planning and execution of your offensive/defensive schemes. That overlooked patch of brush or a slight change in elevation might offer a key to crack the defences or be an ambush site. I often spend alot of time on this pre-battle recce, though I only view the battlefield from my lines and normally at troop level, as at higher levels more subtle terrain features can be missed.

Troops:

Again look at what you have before you plan. I normally line up my platoons by quality and always carefully examine the HQ's to see what bonuses they have as this helps in creating your plan. Russian 41 conscripts are only going to be able to carry out the most basic of plans, treat them like crack fallschirmjager and they will die horribly, along with your plan.

Time available:

Don't rush, CM brutally punishes incautious players and exposed or exhausted troops are only of use to your enemy. Your plan should be based on successive phases often with intermediate objectives and each phase designed to further your final objective.

For example, after supporting your lead company, where is your MG section going to move to, how long will it take and will they require any security elements? Is the most effective HQ commanding them, given the plan. When they have arrived what will they achieve, who are they supporting and why. As you get more proficient you can factor in contingencies plans and possible enemy reactions etc, etc

Finally, CM is an elephant and we all know the best way to eat an elephant, one piece at a time! Or in the CM world, use a sharphooter to button it, your MG's and artillery to suppress and pin it's supporting infantry and mines, and AT grenades/flamethrowers to kill it.

[Dietrich]

DeutschRitter,

"Grunt" heißt Landser. ;-)

Dietrich

[DeutschRitter]

Dankeschön