Crews

[Soldier]

Why is it that crews carrying only hand guns, use up their hand gun ammo, shortly after loosing their main weapon ?
The closest enemy can be a kilometer away and they still end up wasting all their small arms ammo.
I even hide them, set 10 meter arcs for them and by the end of the game, they all out off ammo..
Anybody!?

[Copper]

No idea mate. Perhaps they aim for the local wildlife to sustain them until the Company Chef arrives.

[PoorOldSpike]

The instant they bail out of a tank or abandon their gun or whatever, their ammo reads 'Low' or '0' even though they haven't fired a shot.
Thats because they only have a few shots in the chamber.
Incidentally even when it reads '0' they'll still fire forever (as will all infantry units) but usually only when the enemy are close.
As the manual says - "infantry units never run out of ammo and will always fire in self-defense"

[Fredrocker]

The key to this is simple:

Don't let them become Crews!!!! ;)

That is all...

[Soldier]

Thanks guys, for all your explanations!
I think Bootie's makes the most sense, to an ole country boy, such as myself.. :-)

[Mike Abberton]

IIRC, crews in CMBO (at least the initial version) did start with a small allotment of ammo, something like 10 shots.

I believe that was changed for CMBB/CMAK to cut down on the usage of tank/gun/truck crews as scouts, infantry, assault troops, etc. Not eliminate it completely, but decrease their effectiveness for offensive operations substantially.

Really it probably makes sense, with automatic LOW AMMO, they can be used to hold the line defensively, since as Poor Old Spike noted they can still fire. However, they just aren't effective on the attack.

It is probably also a compensation that I think a crew maintains the experience rating (Crack, Veteran, etc.) of the original vehicle or gun. Those three surviving crew members might have been hell on tracks in their Crack Panther, but they are probably green infantry, at best.

[herroberst]

Generally speaking, crews tried to save themselves so as to fight another day, i.e. get another tank, so using crews to hold objectives, scout, or defend wouldn't be very appropriate... but then CM is just a game.

I think army doctrine called for crews to save themselves so they could man another tank as it was better than having to train new crews because the old seasoned crew was rubbed out trying to be infantry. Michael Wittman lost lots of tanks but survived to get others until that fateful day in Normandy for example.

Crews fighting in extremis because they have no choice is another matter. And, I would think the loss of points would be worse than trying to move the crews to the rear if possible. So, I usually try to move my crews back to a pick up point or just hide them rather then have them do anything else.

[Skeld (FGM)]

I think I have read somewhere that afv crews are worth mucho points and that losing them foolishly is not good for your score. Maybe one of the more experienced CM'ers can back me up in this? ( I hope heh) :cool: