CMx2 tactical notes and observations

[PoorOldSpike]

Infantry too can't see through bocage if they're too far away from it..



although they might get the odd fleeting glimpse (grey partial LOS line) through it as they move closer-





But the only way to guarantee good LOS is to get their noses in it-






AT guns too have to get their snouts into the bocage to get guaranteed LOS-





"With fatal barrels gaping on girded Harfleur"- Shakesp's Henry V

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FORDS

They can be difficult to see, basically they're a gap in the riverbank where the grass comes right down to the water's edge.
The manual tells us there are two types, Shallow and Deep, and that infantry can cross both types, but vehicles can only cross shallows.
This below is a shallow ford, otherwise the tank couldn't get across. (I haven't seen any deep fords yet). I only found this ford below by accident, I never even knew it was there because they're hard to see.
I'd given the tank a move order straight across the blown bridge to see what he'd do, but he refused to cross it and veered off and found the ford himself!









(PS- maybe a mod has now come out to make fords more visible, i don't know)

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TOWED GUNS

Let's hook up. (i'm using the Waffen-SS mod because i like their kewl spotted shirts)
Give the gun a 'Move' order towards the HT, make sure the waypoint is sitting a few feet in the air on top of the veh to indicate a valid embark lock-
(Note- if the veh already has too many passengers you have to kick them out first to make room for the gun crew)-




The crew push the gun to the HT, limber it, then get in-




Give the veh any type of move order (yellow line) then give the gun a move order (light blue line) to where you want it to set up. Right-click an empty area of the map to clear your cursor, then click the guns waypoint to make it glow white and give it a 'Face' order (dark blue line)-




And finally give the gun a 'Deploy' order-




Start the turn. The veh moves off and stops at its waypoint and the gun crew unhook the gun and begin pushing it into position. Note its trails are still in the limber position for ease of pushing-





They then deploy it (trails spread). but it won't be ready for several minutes yet, you can click on it as turns tick by to check its progress, here we see the face order (blue line) is still pending which means they're working on it and presumably its not ready to fire yet, although I suppose we could cancel the Face order right now (Delete key) if we don't want to wait any longer





Finally ready to rock-

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WINNING THE ROADBLOCK SCENARIO
I thought I'd put this up as a noob tutorial to show how simple the play system is; I played it last year against the AI and won easily enough at about the 3rd attempt. I never even had to look at the manual during play, it's that simple. The key to victory was to wait til ALL my reinfs were on before going clobbering..:)







The start positions, they come ready-placed in this one. The objective is to occupy the crossroads at the far end of the map.
Note the clock at lower right, the game lasts 45 minutes at 1 minute per turn-





To begin, I toggle trees off to avoid clutter (ALT-T)
To select a unit I click on its floating icon and give all the units move orders into that field (circled); no need to micro-plot, just click a spot and they'll make their own way there, (but I did plot my 2 tanks through that gap to give them a bit of help)
I find 'Quick' is good for infantry because they'll jog at a nice steady pace without getting tired, although I do throw in other types of movement sometimes by way of experiment.
I'm still experimenting with tank movement, but for now I use 'Move' or 'Hunt'-




After a turn or two they're nearly all in the field.
(Inf units with flag icons are HQ units, I try to keep them a little way behind the front line troops but close enough to be in visual contact-

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I skip through a few more turns while they settle down, which also gives time for these reinfs to come on, so I order them into the field too-





And after skipping through more turns this final batch of reinfs arrives, so I order them to join their mates-





My whole force is soon assembled and ready to kick butt, my plan is brutally simple, I'll put everybody including the tanks up against that bocage in front (yellow line) and say to the jerries "right, analyse this!"





Top view (key 7 and mouse wheel zoom) helps with precise plotting, I try to get everybody's nose right up close to the bocage or they won't be able to see through it.
(key 3 returns to oblique view)





The move plots-





Bingo! my boys move up and it hits the fan as they begin slugging it out with jerry (note the tracer)
But I forgot to order one of my squads to move (foreground), duh-





It's neat the way infantry in CMBN auto-align themselves along the bocage in line abreast formation without having to be told-

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After a few turns jerry begins to get rattled at the other end of the map and abandons the shelter of this stone wall, the Shers have already punched a hole in it.
So far i've issued no fire orders at all, i've simply let my boys pick their own targets-





We can set targets if we want, like here. Incidentally, stretching the target line around the map like this is a good way to check all your tanks and infantry really can see through the bocage.
(If you didn't move them close enough to it they won't be able to see through)-





WTF? I hear a sharp clang on the Sher at left and the crew bails in panic!
But looking at the German icons down the map I can see nothing to suggest an AT-gun!
(PS-note the clock, 31 gameturns left, with 55 secs left in this turn)-





Next turn a Ger AT gun icon (circled) appears near the crossroads-





So I scroll over to the spot and there he is-





Okay it's payback time; I give my 4 remaining Shers a fire order on his position-

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They can't get a solid lock on him so i'll settle for Area fire..:)
(don't worry if the cursor jumps a few metres away from him when you click, as the blast will still get him-





He fires again-





But not any more after the Shers guns begin speaking-





Okay, with the AT gun out of the way (there's only one in this battle hehe), I can continue the advance, beginning with a reverse move by the Sherms followed by a second 'Move' waypoint to take them through the gap-





They go through and I toggle trees on (ALT-T) to remind myself where the trees are, they hamper LOS and movement-





By the way, I had two 60mm mortars but forgot to deploy them which is why this 'Not Positioned' message came up when I tried to call in barrages via the HQ unit (orange icon), duh-

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Hitting ALT-T again toggles leafy clutter off and you can see the tree trunks.
I order my infantry to advance, just giving them one waypoint per squad and letting them find their own way to it-





Some find a gap in the bocage and some go round the end.
German fire starts coming in from the farm, but my inf automatically return fire and the Gers begin to run.
The Shers couldn't fire because the trees were blocking LOS (toggled off again so I can see things clearly)-





Okay let's do what I should have done before and move the Shers out of the trees to that farm track-





I give them area fire orders against the farmhouse to finish off any dazed Ger survivors still lurking there-





Down it goes in a cloud of dust. Some running Gers are also spotted and blasted in some trees.
21 turns left on the clock-





The advance continues to the crossroads objective, I 'Move' the tanks forward and jog the infantry ('Quick)-