CMBN Tactics

[Poor Old Spike]

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, 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'-

 

[Poor Old Spike]

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-

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)

 

[Poor Old Spike]

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-

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)-

 

[Poor Old Spike]

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-

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-

 

[Poor Old Spike]

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-

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)-

That's my boys, you're soldiers now..

 

[Poor Old Spike]

Suddenly I hear a telltale whoosh and see a puff of smoke as a panzershreck opens up but luckily the shot falls short-

His loader stops a bullet and goes down (red cross icon) but he stands his ground, no doubt bucking for an Iron Cross-

But not today Fritz, as Sher return fire rattles his eyeballs-

And he legs it, he had his chance..

And my boys seize the crossroads. The odd Ger gunshots keep coming out of the trees for a few turns but my boys shoot back until with 10 turns left it's all quiet on the western front-

So I hit the Ceasefire button-

SUMMARY- Like I said, I played it through with almost no micro-managing at all, I simply told everybody "go here, go there" and let them select their own targets most of the time and sit blasting away.
The trick is to STOP MOVING and return fire when you're shot at, then only continue the advance when you've neutralised or destroyed the enemy units that were firing at you.
Halt again later if new units begin firing at you. Neutralise them and carry on moving again, and so on right down the map.
The only times I issued fire orders directly was when I told the Shers to concentrate their fire against the AT gun, and when I ordered them to demolish the farmhouse with area fire.
So the system is very smooth, simple and noob-friendly and I like it..

 

[Elvis]

CMBN is much easier to play than CMBB/AK because units can't be micro-managed in CMBN, all we can do is put them into positions where we think they'll be most effective and let them get on with the job.
I learnt that the hard way last year when I staged a CMBN tourney at FGM and I took a terrible hammering because i tried to play every game the CMBB/AK way by issuing precise movement, positioning and targetting orders etc.
But when the turn began, most CMBN units kept ignoring my orders and simply moved and lined up in positions that suited themselves, and also chose to fire at whatever targets they preferred.
In a sense, that's highly realistic because real-life units act on their own initiative within the general framework of the orders you give them, but it takes some getting used to and you have to resist the urge to micro-manage them too much lest you confuse them.
Players who like micro-managing will therefore find the CMBN system frustrating to play, while others will find it refreshingly easy and realistic.
I've played about 60 head-to-head Pbem CMBN games so far and I like the system, and after the disastrous start am finding my feet and winning about as many as i lose.
So the main tactical tip I can offer so far is-
Don't micromanage. Simply tell your units ultra-basic stuff like "Go here, go there. Kill, don't kill" etc, and let them get on with it.

MadMatt turned me onto that when I first started CMSF. Right now I mostly leave the killing to the AI with 2 exceptions. If iw am looking to supress and don't care as much about if I register kills then I will target. The other time is when I want to get as much firepower as possible on one location. I. Will then target everyone who has a chance of hitting a spot, even errant shots.

 

[Mad Russian]

Good thread POS. Nice screen shots as always.

Good Hunting.

MR

 

[Elvis]

Good thread POS. Nice screen shots as always.

Good Hunting.

MR

MR!!! Nice to see you!!

 

[Poor Old Spike]

An M8 has a pot at my Stug (missed), and confirms that hedgerows don't block vehicle LOS.
The car was reversing under AI control but still fired.

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PLANES ARE INVISIBLE
Death from the sky, even in overcast and rain like here: The plane that strafed my AT gun was invisible, haven't a clue what type it was but I heard its engine; note its shells spattering on the ground

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A bailing Tiger crew is mercilessly machinegunned.
Well, the commander was carrying a schmeisser so he was asking for trouble and should have dropped it to pose no threat, hasn't he seen Predator?-

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A swarm of little M8 HMC's trash my Stugs (sniffle)

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Streets of fear..my Sher 75's overun 2 Panthers for side shots. Note one Sher firing the last shot of the game between the houses to get a 3rd Panth and clinch victory

The 3rd Panther getting it-

Incidentally you can move the camera forward to inspect the inside of tanks like this if you like.
I find the W,A,S,D keys are better for this close work than push-pulling the mouse because they give finer control-

 

[Poor Old Spike]

That Stug thought he could go up against my hunting stack single handed-

But he couldn't beat the odds-

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Units can apparently see through windowless barn walls-

Maybe the shooter knocked a firing hole through the wall-

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ARTILLERY TRAINING RANGE

Select a Forward Observer team. (the tanks are dummies) and click the gun icon (yellow circle)
Note the guy packing a radio to relay the FO's instructions to the offmap arty. (All heavy arty is off map)

And this screen will come up showing the FO is in contact with 2x 81mm mortars and a battery of 4x 105mm guns.
Let's take the 105's. There are 3 patterns available, Point, Area and Linear, let's select the Area Pattern.
Note there are 140 HE shells available, ha ha-

You then choose params like the duration of the fire mission, the intensity, the delay (short delays have an accuracy penalty), blah blah, click the desired impact point and drag an expanding circle over the area you want to plaster, then click 'Confirm' -

And in it comes-

POINT PATTERN: (As before, select your pattern at the FO screen)
Click the impact point, and the shells will saturate in a tighter pattern, here a tank takes a direct hit-

LINEAR PATTERN: click a spot on the map then click another spot and the pattern will fall along the thick line between the two clicks, ideal for duffing up a line of trenches-

 

[Poor Old Spike]

ARTY NEEDS NO LOS IF ASSIGNED IN SETUP PHASE

The Forward Observer team (circled) has no LOS to the farm-
(noob note, the blue foreground is the setup zone, click a unit, select 'Move' and click where you want to place it in the zone. The blue vanishes when the game begins)-

And because it's the setup phase the FO can assign arty in the usual way even without LOS-

And in it comes, it's only 60mm mortars in this case but will certainly frighten the hens-

IMPACT or AIRBURST
With some arty types you can choose 'General' or 'Personnel' shell types-

This is the 'General' type, standard impact-fuzed ground-bursting shells-

and this is the 'Personnel' type which seems to be a mix of impacts and airbursters.
Note the puff of dust on the ground underneath the two airbursts caused by red-hot shrapnel blasting downwards, lethal to anything in trenches, emplacements or open-top AFV's etc-

YOURS OR HIS?
It's sometimes hard to tell who artillery belongs to, especially if you and your oppo have both got barrages dropping at the same time.
Orient the view so that you can see the angle the shells are dropping at, here they're angling down from the righthand (German) side of the map, so they're German (ignore the raindrops)..

This barrage is coming in from the left (US) side of the map so these must be American-

STOP IT!
To halt a barrage, select your spotter and click the Arty button (circled)-

Then click the Available Arty window, then the 'Cease Fire' button

 

[Poor Old Spike]

THE 'EMERGENCY' ARTY CALL IS A WASTE OF SHELLS
Let's select the offmap 81mm mortar-

And give it a 'Point' target smack on that small barn.
(Note that although I clicked in the middle of the roof, the end of the target line jumped to the nearest tile, that's normal for Cmbn arty and area-fire placement)
I make it an 'Emergency' immediate mission and begin the turn-

And less than a minute into the turn the shells start coming in, but impact hopelessly off target at top left

Now let's restart the test and use any mission type except 'Emergency'. I select a 'Heavy' immediate mission-

And start the turn. Nothing comes in until almost the end of the turn when the spotting round on the right arrives, followed by two more the next turn.
(Note- sometimes only one or two spotting rounds arrive, whatever the spotter thinks are needed)

Finally the first shell of the barrage arrives about halfway through the turn

Quickly followed by the rest of the barrage smack on target-

Scratch one barn-

Summary- Emergency missions arrive less than a minute into the turn, but because they don't use preliminary spotting rounds, they're likely to be off target.
So tactically they're only useful if the target is spread across a huge area of the map, for example a zillion men and tanks coming at you, as no matter where the shells fall, they're bound to hit something.

Non-Emergency missions won't arrive for about one and a half turns/minutes, but they'll arrive on target, and you'll have to hope the enemy is still there.

Note- times may vary slightly from game to game, and might also vary according to what calibre shells are being called in)

(Incidentally if you plot any arty in the Setup phase, it arrives with no delay and smack on target even if the spotter has no LOS, so beware getting a bombardment on you on turn 1 if your oppo guesses where your start line is)

 

[ksbearski]

POS_

Very useful info indeed...

Thanks,

ksbearski

 

[Poor Old Spike]

DIFFICULTY LEVEL
I play at Basic Training level because it's the nearest to CMx1's 'extreme fog of war'.
I tried playing CMBN at 'Veteran' level but didn't like it at all because the f.o.w. was far too severe and unrealistic, I had enemy units vanishing and being replaced with question mark icons all the time even though they were near to my own units with clear LOS.
For examp here's a shot from a Veteran level game, there are two German question marks at lower left in clear view of my US tanks but I haven't a clue whether they're vehicles or infantry.
That's what I mean about Vet level (and higher) being too severe and unrealistic. If this was Basic Training level, they'd show as proper 3D units, not as question marks.

 

[Poor Old Spike]

BEWARE: ARCS PREVENT FACING
You can't normally insert a 'Face' order while you've got an arc like this, that's why the Arc order is dulled out in the orders panel.
So that means at the end of the move the tank will be unable to pivot, and although his turret is pointing down the arc just fine towards the enemy at the far end of the map, his hull will sit there for the rest of the turn suicidally presenting its weaker side armour to the enemy like this.
(Not until the next Order phase will you be able to cancel the arc ('Delete' key) to get your 'Face' option back, and can then issue the face order)

Now the RIGHT way; the tank will move AND Face all in one action phase in this second test.
Slap on the arc, place your waypoints, right-click an empty area of screen, then left-click on the final waypoint to make it glow white. This will give you the 'Face' option back, so just point the blue Face line down the map then start the action phase

Voila!, and now the machine has moved and faced all in one turn..

Summary- remember arcs won't allow facing unless you either kill the arc first, or click the final waypoint to attach a face order to it.
In fact arcs can confuse our crews during highly-mobile gameplay, so I tend to only use them when things are pretty static.

 

[Poor Old Spike]

M8 HMC's no good at long range
(Old hands will already know that but I like to make my posts as noob-friendly as possible)
A line of panzers on that distant ridge are making mincemeat of my Shers and HMC's. This HMC (circled) is bravely firing 75mm HEAT rounds at the arrowed PzIVH which is so far away it's almost invisible-

But its shot hits the ground (circled) in front of a panzer. The arrow indicates the firing HMC.
Other long range HMC shots during this game have been just as inaccurate, either sailing over the panzers or going wide and rarely hitting at this long range, especially in these dull rainy conditions. That's because The HMC's stubby low-velocity gun is only good for shorter range work in thick bocage or cities where it can't miss.
(The same applies to all other HE/HEAT-firing guns too, such as the Sherman 105mm or Stug 105mm, their accuracy drops off at longer ranges)

 

[Poor Old Spike]

NAHVERTEIDIGUNGSWAFFE
No, it's not a Klingon delicacy or an unspeakable sexually-transmitted disease, it's a short range HE grenade discharger fired by a crewman through a hole in the roof and translates as something like "close-in defence weapon".
Here a beleagured Panther pops half-a-dozen or so at couple of second intervals at an American squad.
(Inset:-one being launched, the game does it automatically with no player input. Only some tanks have it fitted.)
(PS- I was also trying a new CM1-style data panel mod)

 

[Elvis]

DIFFICULTY LEVEL
I play at Basic Training level because it's the nearest to CMx1's 'extreme fog of war'.
I tried playing CMBN at 'Veteran' level but didn't like it at all because the f.o.w. was far too severe and unrealistic, I had enemy units vanishing and being replaced with question mark icons all the time even though they were near to my own units with clear LOS.
For examp here's a shot from a Veteran level game, there are two German question marks at lower left in clear view of my US tanks but I haven't a clue whether they're vehicles or infantry.
That's what I mean about Vet level (and higher) being too severe and unrealistic. If this was Basic Training level, they'd show as proper 3D units, not as question marks.

I almost never play Basic Training but aren't you unable to target enemy units that would be ? marks in Veteran level? The reason infantry most often turns into a ? is because the men go to ground cowering and are out of LOF.

 

[Poor Old Spike]

POSITIONING

I order them to run on "Quick" to behind that low bocage

They arrive and auto-line up along it. (the sighting line is just to check they have LOS through it).
Inf will always automatically line up like that after arriving behind hedges/bocage.walls/houses

But often when they arrive behind something they might still be facing in the direction of travel, so give them a Face order like this to make them look square through the bocage. (Units spot enemies quicker in the direction they're facing)

and next move phase they'll turn to face like this. (loose guys such as the crawler often occur in CMBN, sometimes it takes 2 or more turns for them to decide to get into formation)

Alternatively you can tag a Face order on to the end of the move order like this; first place the waypoint then rightclick an empty map area to free up the cursor, then leftclick on the white ball and issue the face order-