A Few Quick Sherman Questions

[Spanish Bombs]

I didn't see this in another thread, so I'm asking it here. Just playing the demo now, and its growing on me every time I replay it, and even in those times between the replays when I'm thinking about how to improve.

1) when using Shermans to blow a hole in the bocage, is there any way to keep them from using them up their MG ammo while area firing? I know that the AI recognizes that I'm area targeting the bocage somehow, since it stops firing when the breach happens. It would be great if I could keep from using up the .50 cal ammo in particular which appears to come in pretty limited supply.

2) If I get my infantry too close to the Shermans when they are breaching bocage, it seems like they cower, and I may even have caused a friendly area-fire casualty. I assume this is intentional and I just didn't miss some incoming German fire somewhere?

3) Similarly, I was trying to use the Shermans to fire smoke into a hole in the bocage just ahead of a squad of infantry running through the breach. The infantry, which I don't believe was in LOS of any Germans, took a couple of casualties right when the smoke round hit. Do tank smoke rounds cause friendly fire casualties if targeted too close to infantry?

Finally, a non-Sherman question. If we have Ostfront (Georgian) troops, does that mean that there will be Ostfront troops from other areas as well? OK, that one I don't really care about aside from being surprised that the origin of the troops was so particularized.

[MikeyD]

My attempt at answers.

1) Shermans aren't really supposed to be blowing holes in bocage. They couldn't make a dent in the stuff in real life so it's a tad gamey to do it in the game. When you're area firing the game asssumes you're firing at the enemy so they bring all weapons to bear. If you don't want the .50 cal used button up your commander so he's not manning the mg.

2/3) Explosions in the game are indiscriminate and will suppress your own men and cause casualties. Shermans are firing the white phospherous round (not the HC round) so its bad stuff to be close to. As bad as it is for tank smoke you really really don't want to walk through a heavy artillery smoke cloud.

Last question. Ostfront is still far-far away. It'll be a race between sea level rise wiping out coastal cities and Ostfront hitting the shelves.

[Michael Emrys]

1) when using Shermans to blow a hole in the bocage, is there any way to keep them from using them up their MG ammo while area firing? I know that the AI recognizes that I'm area targeting the bocage somehow, since it stops firing when the breach happens. It would be great if I could keep from using up the .50 cal ammo in particular which appears to come in pretty limited supply.

Buttoning up should prevent use of the .50 cal. Won't effect the bow or coax though.

2) If I get my infantry too close to the Shermans when they are breaching bocage, it seems like they cower, and I may even have caused a friendly area-fire casualty. I assume this is intentional and I just didn't miss some incoming German fire somewhere?

3) Similarly, I was trying to use the Shermans to fire smoke into a hole in the bocage just ahead of a squad of infantry running through the breach. The infantry, which I don't believe was in LOS of any Germans, took a couple of casualties right when the smoke round hit. Do tank smoke rounds cause friendly fire casualties if targeted too close to infantry?

Probably a reaction to the muzzle blast of the cannon.

Michael

[Spanish Bombs]

Thanks MikeyD - I meant Ost battalion troops of course. I'm assuming that not all the Ost troops in Normandy were from Georgia, that some were Estonian or Armenian or whatever. I was just surprised that they were labeled with so much detail in the demo.

[Hiram Sedai]

if I may tag on to this topic: question about targetting. how do you get the unit to target the next target it sees? in CMX1, I could hit one key and it would target the next thing the unit sees. The manual targetting or just using hunt is a bit tiresome.

[Michael Emrys]

if I may tag on to this topic: question about targetting. how do you get the unit to target the next target it sees? in CMX1, I could hit one key and it would target the next thing the unit sees. The manual targetting or just using hunt is a bit tiresome.

I have no personal experience with this yet, but to repeat what was posted in threads more than once while you were...ahem...AWOL...the AI does a pretty good job of picking its own targets if you leave it alone. Can't verify that at the moment, but you might give it a try and report the results.

Michael

[MikeyD]

Oh oh, the unit designation in the scenario. Scenario designers are able to rename units to suit the historical situation. for example the game doesn't come with U.S. Rangers specifically but a little tinkering with unit purchase and a little unit renaming and voi-la. we've got Rangers. I'm sure we'll see more than our fair share of Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers recreations posted, all with appropriately renamed units.

[Hiram Sedai]

I have no personal experience with this yet, but to repeat what was posted in threads more than once while you were...ahem...AWOL...the AI does a pretty good job of picking its own targets if you leave it alone. Can't verify that at the moment, but you might give it a try and report the results.

Michael

i did try tonight and it was okay but I had to use the cover arc quite often. I confess to being a bit addicted to the old style of tapping whatever key it was to keep a huge amount of red lines going. My largest qualm was being a bit clueless as to who my soldiers were actually shooting at. Was most disconcerting. Please let me know if you play the game.

[akd]

Even HC smoke is pretty dangerous for friendlies. You don't want to be putting smoke on top of your own guys, particularly coming out of gun at high velocity.

Thanks MikeyD - I meant Ost battalion troops of course. I'm assuming that not all the Ost troops in Normandy were from Georgia, that some were Estonian or Armenian or whatever. I was just surprised that they were labeled with so much detail in the demo.

Leave it to CMBN scenario designers to not leave out any historical details. In fact, the opposition in the training mission is a German grenadier battalion set to the the lowest possible quality to represent Ost battalion troops.

[MikeyD]

My largest qualm was being a bit clueless as to who my soldiers were actually shooting at

What level of fog of war are you playing at? The game ranges from knowing exactly who you're facing to never being sure. I recently started playing a higher FOW setting than I usually do and positive ID of the enemy opposite me has become (intentionally) more problematic. Everybody's a generic infantryman unless I'm practically on top of him.

[FragerZ]

Maybe a bit off topic... But does anyone find that front turret hits are much rarer than front hull hits, when compared to CMAK?

[MikeyD]

This was part of a looooong internal discussion, actually. Gunners are aiming for the center of mass because that's where you're most likely to hit something if you've misestimated the range. It can be entirely terrain dependent. If you turn a corner in the road and present your full silhouette - bang, he's going to aim for the middle. The demo scenarios don't offer many hull down position peeking over the crests of hills. You're not going to strike the hull if the hull's masked by terrain.

[FragerZ]

It makes panthers much better, though

[LeeW]

I suffered a few friendly fire casualties when my men were moving through the trees and the tanks were shooting through the trees at targets down range.

The ricochets of the Mg's is just awesome. I never thought about how dangerous it was on the battle field, even when you were away from the area being targeted.

In the Road to Berlin scenario I could use the low rock wall to "target light" the tank Mg's and have them ricochet back into the sunken lane where I couldn't see into because of the bocage. It made for a dangerous place back there for the enemy and the tanks were able to shoot around the corner with a few mg rounds. Even the enemy down range from the wall were being hit by shots going over the wall. So just as my troops were being suppressed and wounded from the trees being hit close by so the enemy was being suppressed and routed from all those bullets flying ever which way. Just placing the camera down there and watching and listening to all those rounds going every which way makes you want to keep your head down. Just awesome!:cool:

So you really have to watch for friendly fire, which will suppress and even kill and wound your troops.:eek:

[womble]

if I may tag on to this topic: question about targetting. how do you get the unit to target the next target it sees? in CMX1, I could hit one key and it would target the next thing the unit sees. The manual targetting or just using hunt is a bit tiresome.

I've not seen any problems yet with troops engaging threats as they appear. Sometimes they even overestimate a threat (or don't account for the fact that their friends are already dealing with it) and abandon their assigned area fire mission for something well out of their 'frontage'.

"Cover Arcs" seem to me to be more of a method of restricting fire than of assisting it.