CMx2 tactical notes and observations

[PoorOldSpike]

AMMO RESUPPLY
Low ammo is not a problem in shorter scens, and squads will help each other out during play by sharing bullets if some guys run out.
Also the manual says units will automatically help themselves to any spare ammo in a halftrack/ truck if they're simply near it, they don't have to board it, but what they take will be fairly random.

But if you want to choose exactly what ammo to take, you have to board the halftrack/truck as below to get the popup list so you can choose exactly what you want them to take.
(The 66mm rounds are the HE Rifle Grenades, while the AT rounds are listed with the Zook rounds and zook launcher)

A 9-man squad (circled) and a halftrack-




The squad has got 707 rounds of M2 rifle ammo




I order them to area-fire into the ground for a few turns, and their rounds deplete to 456-





Selecting the halftrack shows it's carrying all kinds of spare ammo including M2 rifle rounds




So I run the squad back to board the halftrack, and hit 'Acquire'-




and a popup appears, so I select 8050 M2 rifle rounds-




and the squads stats show they've now got enough bullets to start WW3 and can get back in the war-




and the halftracks ammo readout now shows there are no more M2 rifle rounds on board, but it has some for M1 Carbines-

[PoorOldSpike]

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Buildings with a 2nd floor make good arty observer posts



With good LOS over bocage and hedges-


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DAMAGE READOUTS
(Noob note:- don't bother monitoring the readouts all the time, just glance at them now and again, especially if your tank is behaving oddly to try to find out why)
All games start with the 'Ammo' readout showing as default, but a more important readout is the 'Damage' readout, so click the spanner (wrench) icon for any AFV in your force and the readouts for ALL your units will change to 'Damage' for the rest of the game (unless you change them back)
Here my M5 takes a hit from a Pz IVH and we see its radio, optics and tracks damage stats (circled) have turned yellow, indicating some damage. (Green=no damage, yellow= light dam, orange= heavy dam, and a red x means kaputt)
It was purely academic as the PzIVH killed it with its next shot, but if your tanks survive combat it's useful to know if theyre carrying a damaged gun or whatever.




It works the other way too, here my tanks hammer a Stug and we can click on it to see its damage readout, it's gun and optics are both red-x'd (bust), and its tracks and radio are turning yellowy-orange to indicate some damage. (the crew bailed a second later)
(Being able to see an enemy's damage stats is probably only possible in Basic Training level which is the difficulty level I use most of the time because it's nearest to CMx1)


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SHOOT AND SCOOT
There's no actual shoot-scoot order in CMBN, but you can do it manually like this. (Noob note:- it simply means you move a short distance out of cover, shoot at the enemy, then scoot back into cover before he can return fire if he's still alive)
This enemy Panther comes trundling down the road frightening the hens, and stops-




Little does he know a Sherman is lurking behind the barn-




Let's bust his ass! First we slap a covered arc on the Sher to point the gun smack at the Panths side; the trees are too thin to block LOS-




Hit key 7 to get top view, then zoom in with mouse wheel, this is always the best view for precision move plotting.
Give him a 'Slow' waypoint-




Now click the white blob on the end of the waypoint to make it glow, then click the Pause button to throw in a 5-second pause-

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Right-click an empty area of map to get a clean slate, and issue a Reverse order to take him safely back behind the barn-




Okay he's all tooled up ready to strut his stuff, so start the turn-




Bingo, the gun swings to face the arc as he motors out and stops. He's got a 5-second pause to look around, pick up the target and fire, and that's exactly what he does, bless his little heart!-




and after the 5 secs are up he reverses back for tea and medals-




So how was your day guys?



SUMMARY- you can of course do shoot-scoot over ridgelines, or from behind trees or smoke etc, and you can make the Pause longer if you like (every click of the Pause button adds more time).
The test was in bright sunny conditions so maybe a longer pause would be needed at night or on a dull rainy day to give your boy more time to spot and fire.
also a longer pause would give him time to get off more than one shot. But remember it'll also give the enemy more time to spot and shoot back at you.
(Noob note- Usually only do shoot-scoot against a target that's side-or-rear on to you, as the last thing you want is to emerge from cover and find yourself staring down his gun barrel or at his thick slab of front armour. Also, think twice about making a turretless Stug do shoot-scoot because it'll use up a lot of its pause time pivoting to bring its gun to bear.
And remember you don't have to go to all the trouble of doing shoot-scoots if you don't want, you can simply trundle the tank out from cover and let the crew start blasting on their own initiative)

[PoorOldSpike]

QB v AI
This may interest noobs, the AI is usually easy to beat and is good for training against.
Small size Attack, Armour only, me defending as Americans against German AI. Turn-based, Basic Training level




The computer threw up this random map-




My random computer-generated force




I place all 4 tanks (circled) in the lane so they'll get side shots on anything emerging from the gaps (arrows).
IMPORTANT- In this setup phase click a unit and select 'Target' so you can stretch its light blue LOS line around the map to see what it can see.
My Shers can see along the road but not across bocage, and that's ideal. I shall 'own' any enemy crate that come onto the road..The HQ are watching the lane on the lerft, and I'm holding my Priest and 2x halftracks well back for now.
I've placed nothing in the Obj Area in case they get an arty bombardment in their laps, I'll move stuff into the obj area before the end of the game.




The game begins, and the AI drops a poncey smoke barrage-




But it's only a diversion and a Stug comes sniffing around a gap in the bocage-




and is toasted.
Incidentally my Shers can't see through the bocage into the ploughed field because they haven't got their noses in the leaves; I deliberately kept them back from it so that it'd give them cover from anything approaching frontally through the field because I didn't want a frontal battle, I wanted side shots
And the only reason I placed them facing the boc is so that they'd be able to pivot left or right quicker to present their front armour to whichever gap the enemy came through, right or left. -




Suddenly one of my halftracks goes up in flames, I can't see what fired, but from the angle of the tracer the perpetrator must have come through the circled gap, the only gap I hadn't got covered. I thought the htrack was safe behind low bocage but obviously not-




Suddenly all hell lets loose, a gaggle of light armour comes trundling through the centre gap and a Panther breaks cover on my right flank.
My Shers quickly fry the lights and one get a shot against the Panthers side, but it ricochets!
Note how the Shers automatically begin pivoting to face the threats without me having to issue 'Face' orders-

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Meanwhile my Priest gets in on the act by pouring 105mm HE into the fleeing German light armour crews at the centre gap, proving again that low boc doesn't block veh LOS-




Briefly halting, the Panther brews a Sherman-




and a Stug races past going hard for the objective area, but a shot neatly takes him out. Another Sher takes a pot at the Panth, but its shot hits the low boc (circled) so obviously low boc does sometimes interfere with a shells flight-




At the moment none of my remaining 3 Shers has LOS on the Panther, but rather than hunt him down, I decide to sit tight and let him walk into my fields of fire when he resumes his advance on the objective. "It is best that the customer should come to the shop"- Manfred von Richthofen
I use the 'Target' line to check LOS, the blue lines indicate it's clear-




And it works like a dream, the Panth starts moving and is almost immediately hit by two simultaneous shots.
As usual the enemy AI makes every mistake in the book, presenting side armour shots to my boys, operating in sloppy loose uncoordinated attacks etc-




It's nothing personal muchachos, strictly business-

11 turns gone, 19 to go, surely the Gers have nothing left to throw at me?
I move my halftrack and Priest into the objective area to get occupation points at the end of the game. (the manual says just one unit will do)-




But the Gers launch one last attack by sending a PzIVH (circled) through the centre gap, and a Stug down my right flank.
The Pz and a Sher kill each other in a simultaneous exchange of fire, and another Sher picks off the Stug-




And the game automatically ends with a win for me, I guess jerry had run out of tanks.
X's mark the dead 'uns on both sides-





SUMMARY- the AI is usually easy to beat and I only posted this as a training tutorial for noobs. The key to winning against the AI is to remember that it usually sends its tanks against you in useless dribs and drabs like on a conveyor belt, so it's easy to pick them off one by one.
Note- throughout the whole game I never issued a single fire order, I simply let the tanks choose their own targets, nor did I issue any 'Face' orders or 'Firing Arc' orders in case it confused them.
It's fun to put our tanks into positions where they can strut their stuff and do the most harm.
"I have a high art, I hurt with cruelty those who would damage me"- Archilocus (Greek mercenary) 650 B.C.

[enigma6584]

Nice screens. Also some informative observations. I do disagree with you regarding difficulty level. The higher difficulty level one goes, the most realistic the game will operate at in terms of fog of war, unit LOS etc....IMHO. Also, the AI will be simplistic in its tactics in most QBs. That is because those maps in the QB section will have very, very simple and basic AI plans attached. If you want better, more sophisticated and real tactics from the AI, you've got to play scenarios made by the better scenario designers in the community; particularly with the new 2.0 upgrade where AI planes can now be expanded to 16 different groups. I've played some seriously good single player scenarios where the AI was utilizing some sophiticated defense and counter-attack tactics. Again, it will all depend on the scenario designer and those AI plans they create.

[PoorOldSpike]

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Reminder:- as I mentioned earlier, graphics and gameplay might differ slightly from what you see in these screenshots as Battlefront bring out various updates and patches and modules and stuff
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ONE SHOT, TWO KILLS
The M10 in background fires at my Marder nearest to it-




and its shot goes straight through both Marders, killing them both before impacting in the field in foreground!
I've seen shots go through tanks before and slam into buildings behind them, but this is the first time I've seen a shot go through two tanks, it's realistic so i'm not complaining-




Here's another example of a shot carrying on flying after going through a vehicle- my PzIV (foreground) drills an M10, blowing it up, and the shot exits the other side (circled) at about waist height, horizontally flying off the map without hitting anything else-




Another view of the shot going through, it gives real meaning to the word 'drilled'-


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WAYPOINTS
Unlike CM1, vehs in CMBN don't like sharp turns, so place strings of waypoints to guide the vehs like slots in a model race car track, it's not as big a chore as you'd think because you do it quickly and instinctively without having to think too much-




Here's the tactic in action, I send an M8 HMC on a smooth fast path to take that Stug in the side, and for good measure send another HMC to shoot him through the bocage-




Neat job, the Stug is toast-


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MIXING WAYPOINT TYPES
You can mix different types of waypoints into a path.
For example my Panther (foreground) has already fired at that M10 (circled), so this turn I've given it a short 'Slow' w/p (purple) so that it'll keep shooting at the M10 while moving (slow gives best spotting and accuracy); followed by a blue 'Move' waypoint which is a little faster, then finally a string of yellow 'Fast' w/ps to get it into the objective area as quickly as possible to help its mates there.
(Note- you can either set the w/p's normally from scratch, or click on their triangle/circle marker to change their movement type)-


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ARC TEST
The problem with arcs is that the unit will usually only shoot at anything that enters it. For example I slapped this very small arc on the Sherman, and it just sat watching without firing as that Stug came waddling out from behind a building and blew the Sher away-




Next test I removed the arc from the Sherman and it fired and drilled the Stug as soon as it appeared-

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COMMAND AND CONTROL
Test:
This is a US Armored Infantry platoon, consisting of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd squads (yellow circles) under the command of an HQ team (Lt West and his assistant) (orange circle)-




I click one of the squads and see they're in command because the button in their data panel at lower left is green. The eye and mouth icons indicate they can see and hear the HQ team.
I checked the other two squads and they're in command too, just as we'd expect because the HQ team is near to them too. The manual says 'about 50 yards' in open ground will put a squad in command, but in dense terrain the HQ must be much nearer to the squads so they can see and/or hear him.-




Now I run the HQ team behind a house and check the command status of each squad. They're all out of command (I checked each squad) because they can't see or hear the HQ, note the button has turned red and the eye and mouth icons have vanished.
Squads that are out of command perform badly on the battlefield, like in CM1-




Next, I run the HQ to peer round the house. The 1st squad can now see him (dotted line) and is in command (green button), and the eye icon tells us it's a visual link, ie they can see Wests hand signals but can't hear him.
The other two squads can neither see nor hear him (I checked) and remain out of command-




Finally I move the HQ to the rear. Only the 2nd squad (centre) can see the HQ (dotted line) and is therefore in command (green button), and note there's a new icon which means the squad has a 'far figure' visual contact with the HQ.
The other squads are out of command (I checked) because there's a house and a bocage blocking their LOS to the HQ, and they're too far away to hear shouted orders-


SUMMARY- Unlike CM1's clear red and black lines to show command links, we get that small red or green button in CMBN.
The eye, mouth and far figure icons inform us what type of command link it is.
Some units in CMBN have radios (especially tanks) and are therefore virtually never out of command.
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WHO BELONGS TO WHO?
QB's usually start like this, a hopeless jumble of units that take ages to sort out especially in big scenarios-




So one method of speeding things up is to click on each HQ flag one by one.
For example clicking this one highlights all the units under his command (3 infantry squads and an attached scout-type), and all the other units turn dull grey.
You can now place the HQ and his 4 units anywhere in the setup area for the time being, away from the rest.
Do the same for every other HQ flag and his units to separate your whole force into groups so you can inspect them, then deploy them and start the game-




Note you can click any non-HQ unit to make his HQ and mates light up like this.
Also, hitting the '=' key while a HQ flag is selected will cycle through the units in his formation if you want to skip through them quickly to see what they are-


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[PoorOldSpike]

BAILED CREWS CAN SOMETIMES GET BACK IN
(unless they're shocked or beaten up, or unless the AFV is knackered)
The selected Sher earlier took a hit and the crew (circled) bailed and ran, yet the tank doesn't seem damaged, it's data strip simply says 'Dismounted'-




So I order the crew to run back to it (put their waypoint on the tank), and they automatically get back in (no need to issue a 'Mount' order), and it can be ordered around again as normal-

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THE SETUP PHASE
(This post is primarily for noobs)
In random QB's the computer sets the setup zones and setup area(s), and in pre-made scens the designers places them. Below is a typical random QB.
These small simple parameters create Attack battles but it's all a matter of personal prefs. In this one I'm taking the American side against a German attack (1-player Turn-based, and I'd recommend the Basic Training difficulty level because it's the nearest to CMx1's 'extreme fog of war' level))
The Attacker always has a bigger force than the defender, but in Assaults the assaulter's force is bigger still. (The defender gets wire, mines and foxholes etc in Assaults).
In Meeting Engagements both sides forces are about the same-




The setup screen, you must set up your defending units anywhere in the large shaded area of the map. (I've added a red dotted line to the pic to make its boundary easier to see)
The attacker will start anywhere in the unshaded area at the top-




Hit ALT-J to highlite the Objective Area (circled) if it's not already highlighted.
You now have all the vital intelligence you need, namely you know where your start area is, and you know where the enemies start area is, plus you know where the objective area is.
Both sides get victory points for having units in the Obj Area at the end of the game, so ideally you'll have something in there, and the enemy won't.
Both sides also score points for killing enemy units-




Hit ALT-I to put icons above your units (if they're not already showing)-

The computer plonked the units willy-nilly and obviously we can arrange them much better than that, so hold SHIFT and drag a box round them, then click the 'Move' button (you'll see it at lower right of screen) and click a spot on the map to place them for inspection-




like in this open field for example-




Roll the mouse wheel (or hit key 3) to go down and see exactly what you've got-




You can then select them individually and place them wherever you like in the shaded setup area and/or objective area. (I'll skip doing it for this brief tutorial).
TACTICAL NOTE- the attacker might drop a big arty barrage on the Obj Area, so be warned..
When you've deployed them, start the game and the setup area will vanish like below.
You can leave the obj area highlited or toggle it on/off with ALT-J.
You can also toggle the trees on/off with ALT-T-



Noob tip- when games start, hit key 'C' to get a wide angle view and roll the mousewheel to see the whole map, otherwise you might miss one of your units tucked away in a corner of the map like this-




We all have our mouse and keys view control prefs, I use the mouse wheel to climb up/down; move the cursor to screen edges for camera travel; hold right button plus cursor to pan around and /up/down;hold left button and push/pull/left/right to move horizontally.
The more you push/pull while holding the buttons, the faster the camera will move, so for fine-tuning movement make smaller mouse movements while holding buttons.
Other useful keys-
Z/X to zoom;
1 to 7 to jump to heights.
ALT-J to toggle the objective area.
ALT-T to cycle trees on/off
ALT-K to toggle smoke and dust

[PoorOldSpike]

UNIT DATA PANELS
(manual pages 67-70) Click the arrowed buttons

Ammo



Damage: Green means no damage, through yellow, orange and red as it gets worse


Defence (armour ratings)- Green means very tough armour, through yellow, orange and red (weakest)-



enlarged-


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SEATING ARRANGEMENT
The 13 dots (circled) represent seats. Two are blue because they're taken by the 2-man crew, and the remaining 11 are grey because they're unoccupied-




Order a squad to get in by simply placing a waypoint on top of the vehicle a few feet off the ground, any type of movement will do-




Schnell! Schnell! the 8-man squad gets on board-




And 8 of the seats are now filled with green dots, (passenger dots are always green, crew dots are always blue.)
A black spot in the middle of a grey dot would mean the guy sitting there is wounded-


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A Panther's 5 blue crew dots.
But note that Artillery dots don't indicate the number of crew, they're a "thermometer scale" and the dots begin turning red one by one as the firing units begin to overheat!.
If all 6 dots turn red, the battery will automatically reduce its rate of fire to prevent damage to the guns.
So the dots are a warning that your guns are getting hot and you can cancel the fire mission to let them cool, or if all 6 are red you can simply carry on firing at reduced ROF.


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HQ TANKS CAN CALL ARTY
The Panther is flagged as an HQ (right circle) so he can press the Arty button (left circle)-




And the Arty screen comes up, let's select the 105mm battery-




And place the impact point back down the road in case he's being stalked-




And in it comes after the usual few minutes delay-


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[PoorOldSpike]

SCORING AND GAME ENDINGS
I've still not fully worked out the maths behind the scoring, (oh god how i hate maths) but reading about scen creating in the manual, it seems the designers can set certain percentages of enemy troops which must be killed to get extra bonus pts, and can also assign points to obj areas etc, so perhaps the computer randomly allocates such points to QB's, I don't know.
Personally my strategy is simply to kill enemy units and press hard for the objectives in every game and hope I've done enough to win, UNLESS I start taking heavy losses in which case I'd break off the attack and go sulk..

Apart from racking up points for killing enemy units, you can also score big points (the amount varies from map to map) for being the sole occupier of the objective area at the end of the game, but no matter how many units you've got in there, you'll both get zero points if the other player has anything in there such as just a couple of beat-up tank crew, or a light tank or whatever.
Here are some tests I ran to try to figger out the scoring process-

Hiram Sedai (attacking as Germans) and me used our recent QB (which he won) to experiment with the way the games scoring system works.
First we ceasefired prematurely after he'd wiped out 4 of my tanks but I hadn't killed any of his.
Final screen, the Germans have stopped short of the Obj Area (yellow shaded rectangle)-





And the computer awards the Americans the victory with a score of 671 to 209.
Obviously the big juicy green tick in the US 'Secured ground' column scored big points for them, because they had units in the Objective area (yellow rectangle) but the Germans didn't





We then went back a few turns and replayed the final few turns differently, and this time the Germans pressed some of their units into the Obj Area, then we hit ceasefire again-





And this time the comp awarded Germany the victory! The Americans had a few units in the Obj Area, but by also occupying the area the Germans had ripped the green tick from the US grasp and the area became neutral, with neither player getting points for it, so it was the kill points alone that gave Germany victory!-


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Incidentally, if you run your cursor over the columns in the final stats sheet, 4 other screens come up so you can analyse your points breakdown in detail if you want to.
For example here's the full set of screens for the premature ceasefire when the Germans stopped short of the Obj Area-
Noob note, don't worry about the maths, just let your strategy be
1- to kill as many enemy as you can in every game
2- to be the only player with units in the obj area at the end














And these are the screens for when the Germans pressed home into the Obj Area-











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[PoorOldSpike]

SWEEP THE OBJECTIVE AREA CLEAR
I just ran a series of small tests to re-confirm that to get points for occupying the area, you MUST drive out or kill all enemy units from it.
The map below awarded 400 pts (different maps award different points) to the sole occupier at the end of the game, but if both players occupied it, it stayed neutral and they both got zero points.
It doesn't seem to matter the size of unit you've got in there, for example the German has 3 Panthers in this zone, but the USA only has a 2-man sniper team in it, but that's enough to keep it neutral.

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SURRENDERS AND CEASEFIRES
I've also been testing them and found that a Surrender awards the other player maximum kill points for all your units just as if he'd killed them all (even if many were still alive), and it also awards him maximum objective area points even if he had no units in there, while you on the other hand, get zero points for anything.

A ceasefire on the other hand is much less drastic, and simply locks the current scores in place. (i.e.- you get points for whatever enemy units you've killed, and points if you were sole occupier of the obj area)

Personally I always surrender to make a clean break if I know I haven't a chance of winning, so why drag it out like a messy divorce, ha ha!
But if I think I'm on course for a draw, or am possibly winning, i might discuss a mutual ceasefire with my oppo rather than drag it out.

Incidentally don't let yourself be bullied into surrendering or ceasefiring if you don't want to, for example one guy was annoyed and kept saying to me- "you're beat, so why don't you surrender?", but what he didn't know was that I'd got a small squad in the obj area which stopped him getting points for it, but I wasn't going to tell him that or he'd go hunt them down.

Also, if its a tourney where scores are taken into account to determine rankings, think twice before surrendering or ceasefiring if it's going to mean you slip down the rankings.

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GAME ENDINGS
I'm still testing this, but from what I've seen so far, QB's don't automatically end, not even if you or your oppo have got no more units left, and not even if the game has run its full length!
For example a 30-turn game will apparently always go into overtime to 35 turns or more, and it seems the only way to stop it is to agree to cease fire!

One way round it would be for both players to agree before the start of the game to mutually hit Ceasefire on whatever turn they decide upon, for example after 15 or 20 or 30 turns or whatever.

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VARIABLE ENDINGS?
Unlike old Cm1, it appears Cmbn games always have an inbuilt variable ending, or else they run on forever.
For example despite setting 'Game Length 30 turns', I'm finding every QB will go into overtime, the numbers turn red after the 30th turn (circled below) and the game continues into turn 31, 32, 33 etc, so what me and my oppos do is to hit Ceasefire after turn 30 as soon as the numbers turn red, otherwise it could roll on forever or until the program decides to stop it.
(I ran a 30-turn test and it went on to about turn 38, so i got fed up of waiting and ended it myself)


PS- Of course, Battlefront might bring out updates/upgrades/ modules etc in the future with new scoring systems, so don't take all the above as gospel

[PoorOldSpike]

VEHICLE PIVOTING ON THE SPOT
(Times will of course vary with different tanks types, ground surface, mud etc)

90 degrees= 22 seconds
Before..



After..


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180 degrees= 44 seconds
Before..



After..


NOTE- pivoting is often the only way to turn if you're in a confined space such as a city street or narrow lane bordered by bocage etc, but if you've got plenty of space such as an open field it might turn slightly quicker if you plot a series of waypoints in a u-turn pattern, but be careful not to make them too close together or the tank might freak out and jump around like a crackhead