Creating ammo stockpiles

[Rex J.]

I discovered a minor bug that scenario designers can use to create stationary stockpiles for the US 60mm mortar – and possibly other weapons, though the 60mm is the only one I've tested so far.

When a US 60mm mortar is scheduled to arrive as a replacement, its ammo is already considered to be on the map at the beginning of a scenario and shows up in the total ammo available to any on map mortars that are close enough to share its ammo.

So to create an ammo stockpile for a company's mortar section, all you have to do is add a few extra mortar teams to the weapons platoon, designate the extra mortars as reinforcements, schedule them to arrive after the scenario is over, then place them on the map and voilà! When your on map mortars move to the area where the future replacements are, the extra rounds show up in the on map mortars ammo count.

*edit* it also worked for the PaK40, so it should work for just about everything.

[Oddball_E8]

Looks like a cool idea

have you tried it with regular infantry weapons? (like hmg and such, i mean)

[Scipio]

To bad that it doesn't work for ammo bearers. Would be even more realistic.

[Rex J.]

have you tried it with regular infantry weapons? (like hmg and such, i mean)

I had a chance to look at it some more today, and yes "ghost replacements" will share all types of ammo - with the exception of hand grenades and demo charges - with on map units. Regular sharing restrictions apply – units will only share within their platoon (or section), vehicles don't share with other vehicles, out of ammo units pick up one clip/magazine/belt/round at a time (per soldier) from the sharing unit, etc.

So if you wanted to give an infantry platoon a stockpile of ammo, you would add a few "specialist teams" to that platoon – a MMG for .30 cal and rifle grenades, a scout for .45 cal (or a truck if you're not putting it in a building), an M1A1 and an M9A1 (the ammo for the two types isn't compatible) team for bazooka rounds – designate the teams as reinforcements, make their arrival time after the scenario's over, then lump them together on the map where you want the stockpile.

The tactic is probably most useful when you want on map artillery with fewer guns but the same number of rounds in total. Right now there aren't that many places where infantry in a static defensive position would last longer than their ammo supply. Still, I suppose it's nice to know the option is there if you have the imagination to put it to good use.

[JonS]

Ha. Nice work

I'd be very cautious about designing scens around this though. It's a feature that's like to disappear sooner rather than later.

[LarsS]

Nice find! I can already see the low on ammo paratroopers having to fight to get to their airdropped ammo caches...

[Rex J.]

I'd be very cautious about designing scens around this though. It's a feature that's like to disappear sooner rather than later.

Nooooooooooooo. But, but... there are so many other things on the to do list and this is a bug that is actually kind of fun.

Nice find! I can already see the low on ammo paratroopers having to fight to get to their airdropped ammo caches...

Hey, that's the spirit. Set it on June 6th, and have the freshly dropped troops trying to find their lost leg bags. Small groups of paratroopers scrounging ammo from one lost leg bag to another as they fight they their way through German patrols to reach their intended drop zone might be a little more CoH than CMBN, but what the heck! It might be just the thing to ease the twitch crowd into the game.

Plus it would give us confirmed wegoers a chance to play a real-time scenario small enough that our heads won't explode. Start with one half squad (with "severe" ammo restriction) and add a freshly dropped squad every 5 to 10 minutes, scattering them all around the map.

I'm only half-joking BTW. Such a scenario would probably be quite fun. I might even make one myself and see how it goes.

[JonS]

Nooooooooooooo. But, but... there are so many other things on the to do list and this is a bug that is actually kind of fun.

I kind of agree. I think it'd also be hard to abuse since the only units that can really make any use of it are mortars, and it'd be fairly easy to make the case that they /should/ have ammo dumps available. From a scenario designer's perspective, you could plop a mortar 'reinforcement' somewhere in the middle of the map in dead ground, add some flavour-item crates, add a "Mortar Ammo Dump" label (or, objective worth no points, so the enemy can't see it), then let the player use it or not.

But ... I don't get to make those decisions

[Mord]

I could've sworn Steve had talked about having something like this in the game? Maybe the vehicles ended up being what I was thinking?

Anyway, it would've been cool if they'd supplied a stock pile of crates that were purchased in the editor like fortifications (and subject to FOW) that could've been placed the on map. Maybe move a unit into the same action spot and have an acquire button pop up to grab the extra ammo.

I'd always thought the Uncons could've used something like that in CMSF...weapons stashes and the like...would've made their defending buildings and having fall back positions much more interesting...specially if they had a chance of losing some much needed RPGs or extra MG ammo.

Mord.

[Sgt Schultz]

I was thinking of trying to place a truck on a tile, then a building on that tile, to create an ammo dump of sorts. Truck, surrounded by building, surrounded by wall, surrounded by sandbags.

I have seen smoke coming from a damaged building in a scenario at setup, so I am assuming vehicles can be tweaked in there somehow.

One could possibly make the building the entry point for further phantom ammo reinforcements to keep supplies up.

This seems to be something for longer defensive battles, where defenders can run through trenches/cover to fetch more ammo.

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[Sgt Schultz]

After a quick and dirty romp in the editor... here is a bunker/ammo dump that is 3 levels deep and has two mortar halftracks full of ammo on lowest level.

The entry is a damaged three level modular building that mates with the third level of a damaged five level modular building. They are set to differing elevations to allow a ground level entrance. I tried getting troops to use balconies from upper floors. No go. They left the building from balcony and walked right onto the field, but would not return without ground floor access.

It is too large but fits two halftracks. I can already see ways to make bunkers less vulnerable to artillery. The thing looks like a slight rise in the woods from any other view but straight in or straight down.

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Edit --- how the sausage is made ....

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[vincere]

Nice Ammo Bunker.

Mord- not just you, I though Steve hinted at an aim to get realistic ammo supply on map that wasn't just vehicles.

Edited- When I played the demo I thought we had it when I came accross the crates whit cabbages nearby; but no, just simulated cabbages.