Subject: Combat Mission After Action Report & General Comments (very long)
From: zen@space.net (Zen)

Here´s an after action report with comments about the game as I came
to think of them:

I am defending Riesberg as the German player. I have played both the
attacking and defending side, but when I wish to check on a games AI I
play as the defender. It´s a big bonus if it is fun to play the
defender now and then in a games campaign and missions. I left the
setup as it was besides moving the left 88 to some forest on the right
side of the rightmost buildings. No great LOS, but I thougt it could
be a good idea if I got overrunned by armor at the right flank. This
is one tactic I would consider if I was the US, more than spearheading
the town with armor(schrecks everywhere).

Turn
1-3. I hid all soldiers and waited for better targets than the
initial.

4. The 88 on the right hill makes me proud and takes out a Sherman
with the second round. The Panzerschreck ambush up the road work
excellent and takes a Sherman out with the first schreck. I get two
feelings when this happens. First I wonder why the enemy doesn't use
recon and infantry support for their armor. Then I look at the replay
again and it´s wonderful to see how a sound contact suddenly changes
to a sighting and some fire are exchanged between the tank and a
squad. Then a couple of seconds later, while the tank still is moving,
my Panzerschreck team fires away and get a direct hit. It's very nice
indeed, but as usual much want more, I wish the graphics were a little
better. Oops, that was three feelings, one big positive and two small
negative.

5. Another Sherman approaches near the 88´s kill, and both the 88 and
schreck open fire. The schreck misses with two shots and at last the
88 sends it flaming.

6. A US mortar lobs some rain at my 88 on the hill. That was quick
thinking. The crew get wounded and suppressed. I've got the
coordinates of the mortar, and try to send them to one of my mortars
to fire indirect. Yes, I can place a firemission at the US mortar, but
my team wont fire. I hope it's because the radios are Beta.
My sharpshooter aims at the commander of a fourth Sherman but fails to
fire. He also misses the opportunity to snipe at a MG-team out in the
open, right behind the tank.

7. The woods are crawling with enemies so I let my HMG´s fire free. I
could have waited a bit more but I wouldn't like the enemy to get into
good firing positions in the woods. I have surely let the enemy know
that I have at least three HMG-teams in the village, yet a stupid
squad tries to cross the road and gets locked in a crossfire. Maybe
they panicked, but I think if I was a GI I would lay low for at least
a minute.
My sniper refuses to kill. He aims at the Sherman, then the mortar
team, changes to a sqaud, all are at no more than 400 m. But he
refuses to shoot. Shoot god damn it.
The 88 fires at a squad that presents no real threat to him or any
other squad while the mortar keeps lobbing rounds at him.
The enemy are moving all of his squads instead of letting some return
fire. Where's the smoke? I would pop a smoke if I had incoming from an
88.

8. The 88 crew are shaken from the incoming mortar, partly because
they didn't return fire. I think they should fire at real threats, not
support a defense that is hardly being attacked yet. I redirect their
fire to the mortar team. The mortar takes cover as the first round hit
the ground.
The Sherman moves up and opens fire on the 88. He gets away three
rounds before the 88 crew realizes the new threat and returns fire.
Kind of slow motion reactions I think in such a deadly enviroment.
The US squads have got their shit togheter and are firing at my most
threatening HMG. That was a quick response. Still, one squad tries to
cross the road again, and retreats after taking casualties.

9. My 88 is suppressed by incoming mortar and Sherman fire. Both are
in range and view of my sniper. But he wont fire. I give him a direct
order to shot at the tank commander. In the end of the turn he finally
does and the tank buttons up.
I am still trying to call an indirect mortar strike at the US mortar.
Do I really have to move my mortar to the front?
The 88 crew get brutally butchered. Two good shots from the Sherman
kills 5 men out of 7.
I got my reinforcements but forgot to move them, damn.
The enemy charges my ambush site along the road with one squad and one
bazooka team! At 15 meters the bazooka team gets wasted. Isn´t it
better to hold back that kind of equipment until you find something to
deploy them at? He had two squads moving towards the ambush site, but
one of them ran into the LOS of my other 88. Kabooom. A third squad
could have joined the assault but they choose instead to run towards
the firing 88 and a HMG, out in the open! Talk about morale.

10. I am withdrawing the schreck and HQ from the ambush site, and
leaving a squad. The HQ runs into the open for cover in one of the
buildings but get incoming and brake and panic. I wish I had withdrawn
them sooner, but I didn´t know if there were more tanks on the road.
The enemy is shifting to the my right side of the road. The AI has
found my weak spot. The right side is only protected by two squads and
one HMG in the front row of buildings.
The sniper is shifting targets to often. In 10 minutes he has only
fired 2 rounds. There are many targets at 200 m.

11. I am sending my reinforcements to the right side of the road.
Noticing a one squad probe on my left flank.
US charging the ambush site. My squad are doing a great job, taking
care of a second squad in close combat. It is running low on ammo, and
I´m afraid that was the last of the grenades.
The 88 on the hill are destroyed by a direct hit from the Sherman. I
wish I had placed the other 88 a little different. The Sherman soon
will have LOS to the whole of my left defensive line. I hope he is
moving left where I have a Panzerschreck hiding in the bush.

12. My three squad reinforcement have 100 m left to the front line of
buildings at my right flank, but they are getting tired from running.
Trying to flank Sherman from the right with my schreck.

13. On the right side of the road I´ve got one jammed and panicked
HMG, a pinned SMG sqd to pit against a frontal assault of four US
squads and a Sherman. The reinforcement have 50 m left to reach the
buildings and a US squad have the same range to MY defensive line.
I´ve also got 3 fresh squads to the right of his assault moving into
firing positions. One US squad manage to reach a tree line just 10 m
in front of my house. A heavy SMG sqd 60 m away fires a schreck at
them and kills one man.
My sqd at ambush site brakes and routes.
My units at the right defense line brakes, but my flanking sqds to the
right opens up at the US sqd and pinnes him at the tree line, just 10
m from the house. This is exciting to say the least!

14. The frontal assault brakes off because of to much cross fire.
A one squad US probe to my right manages to kill my Panzerschreck I
was about to deploy at the Sherman.

15-18. Random exchanges from fixed positions. I am running out of
ammo, he´s on marale.
I am moving my left Panzerschreck towards the tank.

19. The enemy is getting desperate. He charges with HQ units and sqds
with two men left.

20. Finally the Sherman and my 88 meets face o face. My crew are tired
and and fails to hit their target. The Sherman gets a direct hit and
the 88 explodes.

21. My schreck manages to sneak up behind some bushes and get a side
shot at the Sherman who goes up in smoke. End of armor.

22-30. There's some random firefights as the US makes stupid one man
charges. Talk about heroes! I secure my line once again. I´ve got
tired on the down to earth views and played the last turns at view 5
or whatever. Nothing much exciting going on anymore.

Axis Total Victory.

Allied casualities 216(62 KIA) 4 vehicles knocked out
Axis casualities 70(22 KIA) 2 guns destroyed

This pretty much sums up how I think the game plays. This was the
fourth time I played it and it evolved kind of the same way all times.
I think I got a minor victory or something one time. I yet have to
play as the Germans on Last Defense, and this can be both fun and
difficult when the US reinforcement arrives on that hill. It's great
to know where, by the way.

Here's some general comments on CM:

I can´t see why there has to be deployment zones. If I wish to setup
Platoon A in the left sector of town, why shouldn't I? I agree that
some units may be static or locked but not the main defense line. It
should also be nice to use the higher elevation of the churchtowers.

I think Big Time should decrease the amount of booze going through the
supply lines, the drivers, especially the German drivers drive real
bad sometimes, bumping into each other so critical that they drive
straight through each other vehicles, almost...

When you pan the closest view the camera moves with the pan. This is
very frustrating when trying to look at a certain spot or unit,
because I loose track of it. Yes, I use TAB frequently but I would
also like a view that is fixed so I can look around withot moving. A
first person view from each heavy weapon and HQ unit would be totally
cool, if they were nicely done, with barrels and all.

The graphics and pace of the game makes it feel like it's playing in
slowmotion. The movements; taking cover, getting up, changing
direction, running, are very stiff and don't feel natural at all. The
firefights seem somewhat unatural to, just as if they are taking turns
firing. I haven´t figured that one out yet. The smoke looks terrible
and there´s to little. The vehicles are moving quite realistic but
they react kind of slow, not as a paranoid, hyper alert tank team
would.

This simultaneous turn thing can be a problem. I like the idea and I
have spent a couple of month thinking about it before I found CM. I am
wondering about the processing time between turns. In the Beta there
are about 20-30 units per side. The maps are about 800x800 m. Correct
me if I´m wrong, because I haven´t checked the exact figures. In the
final version of the game maps will be up to 5000x3000 m. Big Time are
talking about battalions. A battalion would be somewhere between
100-200 units per side? This can take awhile to process between turns,
and the game only advances 1 minute per turn. A long wait for little
action. If you play by email you also have to wait for the email
exchange. By then you have forgot all about what you were doing except
maybe the bigger picture. The game is very detailed and you sure don't
want to miss anything, so you'll just have to look at the replay 10-25
times to see what is happening on the ground. If you play over the
Internet it will take some time before both players are ready, and the
passive online time will be far longer than active time.

Well, there's certainly some solutions to this, one of them is to
incorporate some action reports after each turn, with maybe clickable
links to make you zoom to the time and place on the map were something
important happened. If the scenarios are going to be bigger than in
the Beta there have to be some changes and addons to the UI so that
the game continues to be managable.

There's also many things I like with this game, but most things have
been said. The things I like the most:

True 3D LOS.
A tactical overhead game style mixed with close-up action.
The detailed Armor Penetration rules.
The developers authenticity towards gamers and themselves and their
respect for historical details and wanting to simulate the real thing.
The simultaneous turn is interesting, and have a special kind of
excitement and tactical concept. It is great for multiplayer and more
fun than UGO-IGO systems.
The 3D battle enviroment, makes you feel you are being there and you
can feel the power of the weapons. You can also feel the panic as you
look from one of your gunners view as the enemy are charging towards
you from the woods.

I think this is a very good game and concept and I will follow it
closely. There´s a risk that this game ends up like most other modern
games end up for me. I play a few scenarios and then get bored with
it. Like the General games (ok, that was unfair). Try play more than
three scenarios without tiring some. This is also true for CC single
player games.

But with a campaign faithful to the original ideas from Big Time, an
even better AI than the already good one, lots of eyecandy and details
to keep the game nice for the eyes, lots of different units with
different uses, lots and lots will make me very happy. But the most
important thing, stay realistic.

Well, the length of this post tells something about the potential of
this game.

Thanks for your time.

Zen

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