Sydney Preview Debrief points and attendee feedback

[hoolaman]

Many beta testers, like me, still have "Senior Member" tags. I've been on since British Forces. I don't mind, I definitely haven't earned the title as much as a bunch of these guys. Some of them put in literally fulltime hours (or much more) working on this game. Just a few that pop into my head are animals... probably shouldn't start naming names, but a lot of these guys are a huge part of the game. It really is a labor of love for these guys.

And some don't want the beta tag lest someone read too much into their ramblings.

[Destraex1]

Better late than never, my feedback from the Sydney preview;

I greatly enjoyed meeting fellow Combat Mission players. I can

say that they are certainly a cut above what I have met for

other more cliche computer games.

Others have mentioned the intro along with what generally

happened on the day, so I will skip this. Instead I will get

straight on to some of my observations.

The terrain is great and presents many more challenges than the

shock force terrain did due to the more complicated nature of

what Normandy geography is.

There are low hedges, high hedges. Infantry pass through hedges

through small openings that are somewhat hard to spot. This

gives the effect of the hedge appearing unbroken as it should.

It also means that men path through it by almost "feeling" their

way through. Also as it should be. German tanks cannot break

hedges, however in the short skirmish we played our ze Germans

were able to use pioneers to punch holes in the hedge enabling

tanks to fire through the hedge. We did not test whether this

meant that a tank can then drive through the hole. Infantry

seemed to be able to fire through hedges somewhat by setting up

directly behind then. Since infantry cannot sit in the hedge

itself this makes sense.

We were shown a few of the maps and in one ridges were shown to

be both highly visible and almost invisible depending on how the

map maker tiles them. Another was a very large map with a

massive complex landscape. It looked a little like Arhnem with

nice looking water complete fords and bridges. The bridges were

mined in this scenario. Pre-Marked Artillery markers were also visible.

Artillery is a product of ww2 and can only be called by an FO or

a unit commander. Otherwise it works fairly identically to what

we currently see in CMSF. As the Germans Fenris and I hit the

emergency, heavy buttons a lot With devestating results.

Command Structure is vastly different to that of CMSF for

obvuous reasons. For instance, for a infantry unit standing next

to a tank to point out a target they must use their radio to

call the infantry commander and have the sighting filter back

down the chain of command into the tank's radio. At least from

what I saw of the German side.

In some scenarios it was also possible to cherry pick your

formations and then add "special" units under any of the command

trees. For instance choose a infantry unit and a panzer

grenadier unit and attach a king tiger to the panzer grenadier

unit from the special unit pool. This King Tiger would then

report to the Panzer Grenadier unit commander under his personal

command Vs the over all army commander for that mission.

The last thing we did hands on was play a quick battle. I think

this took us around 30 minutes. Fenris and I in command of the

German forces and Willight and Bodkin in charge of an American

force protecting a village.

The map was one with many maze like hedges. A road down the

centre entered a town that dominated the map, the road exited

town and then forked in two directions off the end of the map.

On the forked end their was a river to one side with a ford

allowing one to cross to the other side. All round the town were

hedges in a maze. Some hedge squares were filled with forest,

but most were just grassed. Each hedge row had 4 or 5 places a

side for infantry to squeez through a man at a time. I thought

the holes were really neatly done. It looked so natural.

The germans started on single narrow road at the end of town.

Two panthers and a few HTs with infantry. The tanks could not

move through the hedge and so were forced down the road into the

centre of town. This meant the Ami would know exactly where

to wait with every AT weapon at their disposal.

We dismounted our Panzer Grens and forked out on each side of

the road probing for enemy positions and ways through the hedge

maze. On the right the infantry were stopped in their tracks by

a particulary large field between hedges. Many Ami fox

holes had been dug just behind the opposite hedge. Apart from

the the village had clear view into the field. Most of the Grens

on the right with hunt orders did not make it past here.

On the left even though the infantry met with fairly heavy fire

from the town and hedges while flanking we were finding our way

through the hedges. Grenades were flying back and forth over

hedges and pioneers were making large holes in hedge rows.

Meanwhile the two panthers approaches town peaking around

corners and feeling out the main road. Since we were playing on

the medium difficulty setting sighting the enemy is a little

more lenient and the FO had a field day plastering the town and

the trees on the right with emergency heavy barrages. Fenris and

I pretty much used everything we had as quickly as we had. It

was a small town and their was no sense waiting until we were

entering town to use the arty. Several AT guns were disposed of

this way along with many infantry units hiding is fox holes dug

all around town.

Mark had a little chuckle at one of our Panthers doing what he

called "kissing" enemy infantry in a building 5m away from its

main gun. I was using the panthers as close combat assault

vehicles. Very unconventional and a good way to get them

killed. Fenris and I were lucky though being cautious about how

many lines of fire were exposed to our panthers at once.

Shortly after this more German forces started to arrive. Another

Panther and some more HT loads of infantry.Fenris and I decided

that the left offered less resistance and sent most of the

infantry that way. Setting up a flanking tri-pod heavy MG on the

way. Firing into the town. The infantry made good head way past

a few hedge rows and blew holes allowing a tank to move over and

fire into the flank of the town as well. While covered by the

tank the infantry moved in form the left flank and took

the centre of town.

Mean while down the centre road, half tracks, which had no

particular use in this battle. Not being able to move through

hedges and not able to withstand the punishment down the main

road. They were used in a penal battalion style lead scout and

mobile shield capacity. Much to the horror of Mark who was

spectating on a large flatscreen TV.

A Panther and support upon making it to the end of town started

beating up on a re-enforcement column coming in for the

Americans. Three of four M10 AT carraiges, including one coming

down the flank on the opposite fork to the panther's

direct right were destroyed. American Greyhounds and their

sister ACs with the 50cals also got cleaned up in fairly short order.

Not long after this the Americans threw in the towel. The

Germans declaring a major victory.

The scenario was one chosen at random by Marc and undoubtedly

the Americans were completely outgunned. It served its purpose

however, demonstrating a lot of the games functionality and feel.

The terrain and models actually imho look better than the

screenshots can do justice.

I recommend that anybody who likes shock force and ww2 go along

to a Normandy preview. It is certainly worth a chunk of weekend time.

I have to thank Mark and his Wife, who was very understanding,

for their hospitality.

[aka_tom_w]

And some don't want the beta tag lest someone read too much into their ramblings.

Yes :cool:

[Broadsword56]

I can't stand it! You guys are killing us with these reports -- must...have..game..now.

[gunnersman]

Thanks Destraex1!

[scottie]

Better late than never, my feedback from the Sydney preview;

EXCELLENT loads more stuff to read :):) thank you !!!

(forum has been devoid of any new info recently faction)

[Destraex1]

no problems scottie. I certainly know what its like to be fumbling around in the dark waiting for some news.

[Erwin]

Hope the earthquake problems aren't affecting you.

[gibsonm]

Not directly.

Just working flat out to send “stuff” (technical military term) over to those who have been (personally I’ve never seen a C-17 full of water for example).

[Vark]

Regarding the following C2 example from Destraex1's highly informative write up, a couple of points arise

"Command Structure is vastly different to that of CMSF for

obvuous reasons. For instance, for a infantry unit standing next

to a tank to point out a target they must use their radio to

call the infantry commander and have the sighting filter back

down the chain of command into the tank's radio. At least from

what I saw of the German side."

a) What radio? Unless it was a Panzer Grenadier unit.

Was the Panther fully buttoned, as a quick hop on the engine deck and a bellow in the commanders ear would surely suffice. German infantry were noted for their good combined arms training, allied armies, especially the Brits with their rigid regimental system, were not known for this.

c) It truly will be fascinating to replay encounters like Villiers Bocage (a highly documented encounter) and see what multiple replays produce. I never managed the historical outcome in the CM1 version, always had my Tiger bailed in the first attack!

[MeatEtr]

In some scenarios it was also possible to cherry pick your

formations and then add "special" units under any of the command

trees. For instance choose a infantry unit and a panzer

grenadier unit and attach a king tiger to the panzer grenadier

unit from the special unit pool. This King Tiger would then

report to the Panzer Grenadier unit commander under his personal

command Vs the over all army commander for that mission.

The last thing we did hands on was play a quick battle.

Interesting and surprising nobody caught this yet. So is this a new part of the campaign or is this for regular standalone scenarios? Is there some kind of new force pool screen for the player to cherry pick his forces? I left the start of the next paragraph to show that this was indeed separate from the quick battle.

Here's hoping for some clarification.

[JonS]

Interesting and surprising nobody caught this yet. So is this a new part of the campaign or is this for regular standalone scenarios? Is there some kind of new force pool screen for the player to cherry pick his forces?

Here's hoping for some clarification.

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1222704&postcount=3

[bodkin]

Interesting and surprising nobody caught this yet. So is this a new part of the campaign or is this for regular standalone scenarios? Is there some kind of new force pool screen for the player to cherry pick his forces? I left the start of the next paragraph to show that this was indeed separate from the quick battle.

Here's hoping for some clarification.

Just to clarify we were looking at a QB setup, and it was a Tiger 1 before anyone gets too exited.

[MeatEtr]

Just to clarify we were looking at a QB setup, and it was a Tiger 1 before anyone gets too exited.

Ok thanks for clarifying that, his post indicated an ability to cherry pick/customize forces prior to start, outside QBs.

[Destraex1]

Yeah sorry guys. It was a quick battle setup we were shown.

Poorly written on my part. With the tiger2 hypothetical example I was just trying to accentuate the "special" vs the normal units. I certainly did not see any tiger2 units in the preview.

Sorry for any confusion.

[Steiner14]

Well the day started well with being locked out of the Forum courtesy of Battlefront’s security software.

Interesting. Since i changed my provider, i'm always blocked and the only way for me to access the forum is using the TOR-network. Don't know how to buy the game, if my provider's IP stays blocked until the release date.