CMBB v CMAK

[The Coil]

Way back when I started this thread, I was sort of hoping for something along the lines of "Buy Stugs in '41..."

[Mad Russian]

Way back when I started this thread, I was sort of hoping for something along the lines of "Buy Stugs in '41..."

Sorry for the hijack....you got quite a following looking at your thread for awhile though....


Buy Panther G in 1944. Maybe that will help.

Good Hunting.

MR

[McIvan]

80mm armoured Stugs are immune to Russian 76mm. So is the Tiger. Both of them will handily dominate until 85mm armed Russians come to the party.

KVs dominate early war.

There's a short period where T34/76 M43 dominate anything other than Tigers, because the long 75mm isn't out yet.

Russian infantry is quite hard to deal with pre 1943(?) with it dropping one morale/competency level, eg regular Russians perform like green Germans.

German HMGs rock...but you already knew that.

The 57mm is the only decent Russian AT gun. Try to get your opponent to agree to rarity off in days when one side's armour has a clear advantage....but beware it is of course a double edged sword. You can buy stuff like early 75mm and 76mm AT guns for the Germans, and T34/57, 57mm AT, 6 pdr armed Valentines and SU152 for the Russians. Of course your opponent can now load up on whatever looks good, especially as the Germans.

Russian artillery is actually quite poor. It disperses a lot more than other national artillery. Russian 82mm mortar and 76mm arty spotters are, in my opinion, almost completely useless....they simply can't deliver enough fire to one spot, because of the increased dispersion, to supress anything. They can be used with a degree of sucess if you combine more than one spotter on the same spot, or even better three of them. Also the 120/122mm mortar/arty is ok. I spose. You're still much worse off than with German arty.

Green and conscript Russian spotters don't work very well at responsive fire, especially not for larger calibres, because the delays before rounds arrive is almost prohibitive. Either buy conscript large calbre spotters and pre-plan the fire, OR nothing larger than 120mm mortar fire....maybe 122mm if you can afford a reg/vet spotter and a long wait.

[Mad Russian]

Ok, so I've actually never played CMBB, always CMAK. Just got my hands on a copy of CMBB, mainly so I can get into the Domination action soon.

For those who've played both, here's my question: what are your best thoughts/tips/advice/whatever when it comes to playing CMBB v CMAK - indispensable unit picks, tactical differences, gameplay differences, that sort of thing?

The first thing you will notice is that all the German equipment is here. There was no cutting out parts of the OOB.

King Tigers, Jagdtigers, Sturmtigers even...they are all in here and then some.

The Soviets are complete except for the multiturreted tanks like the T-28.

There are VG and VS. Partisans and Axis Minors.

There is a bug that counts defensive works like trenches against the side that has them.

Soviet SMG squads are murder under 100 meters but have very limited supplies of ammo.

Germans get an automatic experience level advantage until around 1943, can't remember just exactly when. Someone might. Soviet artillery is slow to respond, as is historically accurate.

As has been discussed in another thread the BIG Soviet assault guns can be killed way too easily by German Tank/AT guns.

There are factory tiles in CMBB. Factories are a breed apart when fighting. You can not only see clear across a factory, tanks can be put in them and they can move and fight in them, you can also see out of the factory. See POS's posts on factories in the Tactical Discussion Section.

Cities can be made in Russia. BIG cities. With large buildings. Much larger than in CMAK. There is of course a much greater diversity of units since the game covers from 1941 through 1945 for all countries and not just some of them as CMAK does. Even when they switch sides!

Good Hunting.

MR