Dipping a toe into the Dark Side.

[petercooman]

I think now that that is where I got a lot of my ideas on how to run campaigns on my tabletop; I was always sneaking into the 'stats' pages to see how many kills a guy/team/vehicle had rung up, who had gotten what medals, etc... 

It's certainly a lot cheaper than miniatures gaming

V/R,
Jack

Yes i loved that, Looking at the post game stats! (And looking at who had the most 'acts of cowardice') 

[bigjackmac]

"And looking at who had the most 'acts of cowardice'"

Oh?  I didn't even know that existed.  You see, none of MY troops EVER acted cowardly 

V/R,
Jack

[petercooman]

You could look at the other side too you know 

[bigjackmac]

Well played, Sir 

Certainly when you had a guy/team/crew that racked up a lot of kills, won a lot of medals, you started treating them a bit better, a bit more careful.  'Why don't you guys go sit over there and have a picnic, while these guys go and close assault that machine gun nest.'

V/R,
Jack

[petercooman]

Yes, support duty as we call it 

[Tawa]

Was that the one where you could pop coloured smoke on a target and watch the navy blast it to bits (in one of the beach fights)?

That's the very one. The airstrikes were a bit "meh" as sometimes you'd get a tanker load of bombs from an A26, and sometimes you'd get a pretty useless strafe from a P51.......

Well played, Sir 

Certainly when you had a guy/team/crew that racked up a lot of kills, won a lot of medals, you started treating them a bit better, a bit more careful.  'Why don't you guys go sit over there and have a picnic, while these guys go and close assault that machine gun nest.'

V/R,
Jack

That always made me giggle. I once had a Stuart tank with over 300 kills (Infantry), 3 MoH, 2 Silver Stars, 5 Bronze Stars and about 12 Combat Badges between the crew. Admittedly it was part of the force I sent to seize the airfield, but still..... 
The cheeky little bugger even killed off a PzrIV at one point!

[bigjackmac]

Tawa,

Yeah man, I had no problem with the Stuarts in those games.  They were fast as hell, and could take anything out from behind.

I remember that there was nothing worse than hearing the 'ka-choof' of a panzerfaust being launched.  You had just enough time to look around and think 'I don't even see any German infantry' before one of your Shermans blew up...   

I can recall playing CC2, thinking 'man, I wish the maps were bigger.'  Then they made the maps bigger starting with CC3 (East Front), and it was cool, but it was never as dramatic as those tiny little maps in CC2, with Tigers and King Tigers dragging up the street, and me trying to sneak a PIAT into a building.  Man those were fun.

V/R,
Jack

[Tawa]

I remember that there was nothing worse than hearing the 'ka-choof' of a panzerfaust being launched.  You had just enough time to look around and think 'I don't even see any German infantry' before one of your Shermans blew up...   

Or the sudden explosion next one of your tanks rom a hidden AT gun  Usually right in the bottleneck of a couple of hedged lanes.....

[petercooman]

OR looking at the status of your bazooka team when it just missed it's target.

Loading loading  come on!!!!

Loading loading loading Come on!!!

Loading    taking cover 

Loading loading loading

Firing 

Crater in the ground 2 meter in front of the target

Loading loading loading   


Just send in the flamethrower

[Last Hussar]

Close Combat is the top down one with the coloured pins?

I had the Arnhem one, but couldn't get on with it - it seemed too much micromanagement.  Was I doing something wrong?

[Ithoriel]

Close Combat is the top down one with the coloured pins?

I had the Arnhem one, but couldn't get on with it - it seemed too much micromanagement.  Was I doing something wrong?

Only if you consider playing a game that requires micromanagement, when you don't like games that require micromanagement, wrong. As my mother would say about food when I was young, how do you know you don't like it unless you try it!

Troops in most of these games require constant attention or they do dumb stuff, less stressful if turn-based where you can take a break from the action between turns. Which is why I'm less keen on turn based games.

[fsn]

One of my pet hates in rules sets is allowing troops to do stupid things.

In Napoleonic terms, an infantry regiment in line should be allowed to form square unless specifically ordered not to (yes, Prince of Orange, I'm looking at you.) Col von Ompteda isn't sat on his horse saying "well bless me, there's some Frenchies on horseback approaching at a lick. Wonder what to do. Better wait for orders."

Similarly, Americans in Korea when confronted by a 85mm shell going through the the lead half track, aren't going to carry on. They will run away. That's unfair. Half of them will run away, the others will debus and dig in, and then run away.

Anyway, my point is that some rulesets are skiddy panties.     

[fred.]

In the CC games it did require a degree of micro management - but you generally didn't have too many squads / vehicles to look after.

In the later games there were more options to put troops on to overwatch and set way points when moving, which did allow them to be a bit more independent.

CC2 (market garden) was my favourite of the series, probably because of the subject matter, even if it was a bit clunky. The Normandy and Ardennes ones got much better graphics, but the underlying engine didn't really change much.

[petercooman]

Yes they needed some management, especially the mortars. If you forgot about those, they would generally fire their entire payload at a field 15 minutes after the last enemy had passed through.

Machine guns were also prone to firing all their lead, when you weren't watching them.

[fred.]

I'd forgotten about the ammo management. It was a method of attacking, if you were in good cover you could get the enemy to shoot off all their ammo, then you could attack them.

Controlling your MGs to keep firing in burst was important. I think the Vickers MGs fired a lot slower so were able to be used for the whole battle much more easily, whereas the MG42s could shoot off their ammo very quickly. In many ways this seems pretty realistic.