Craters, the hole truth

[PoorOldSpike]

WARNING - Some craters in CM are 'unreal' craters and give no cover in CM even though they look exactly like real craters.
So you have to tell which is which by selecting a unit, hit 'L' and cursor over the crater. if it reads 'crater', its real.
Alternatively use my stunning Crater Mod as in these pics, to tell at a glance which are real and which are unreal.
(Incidentally real craters give exactly the same cover as foxholes)


PIC 1 (unmodded) -
The squad wants to run into a crater but he doesn't know which are the real ones..





PIC 2 (modded) -
With my mod the 'unreal' craters are just flat brown circles with no hole in the middle, and the squad knows they'll provide no cover at all, so he knows he'll have to run for the real ones with the hole in the middle.
(incidentally you can also drive AFV's over the unreals, knowing they won't slow or bog you)


(contact me and i'll send the mod, it works for cmbb and cmak)



REAL CRATERS
There are 4 sizes of craters, small/ med/ large/ huge,and they have two effects on gameplay:-
1 - They slow down tanks and vehicles, (the bigger the crater the longer it takes to traverse it)
2 -They provide cover (same rating as foxholes)�for infantry and mortars and guns, even big guns, and no matter what the size of crater, the unit in it gets the same cover bonus. A higher enemy firer does NOT negate the cover bonus.
Tanks/vehicles get NO cover at all, not even a hulldown bonus.

Mischievous designers can place craters at critical points such as bridge approaches (not allowed on bridge itself)��or crossroads etc to give a nasty surprise to a tank or vehicle column hoping for a nice fast clean run. (Designers should remember to check if its a real crater, as the computer randomly designates some as 'unreal')
When the lead vehicle hits the crater it'll slow to a crawl for a few seconds and the rest of the column will concertina, bunch and mill around, giving enemy units with LOS time to gleefully squeeze off some shots before the column sorts itself out and picks up speed again.
To really annoy drivers designers can put tight clusters of craters along a section of road to churn it up real bad, think 'glue'..
AFVs and vehicles entering a crater stand a slightly higher chance of bogging, worse in wet weather or snow.

[PoorOldSpike]

Normandy