CM: Black Sea Strategy Discussion Thread

[Zulu1966]

yes they do.... the mortars must have  to be in commnand range of a HQ (access to the network) to show up in the support menu so

Yep they do ... and the combination of the new precision artillery strikes with an HQ and a drone are absolutely lethal. Probably the single biggest game changer I have seen so far.
Drones are huge in the game.
The only thing I would comment on so far is that I haven't seen any AA fire at them yet.

My drone was destroyed by a manpad. :(
Finally won by first total victory in QB as Russian Mech vs Ukrainian Mech.

Good to hear - though not for you obviously  ;D
Playing at the moment - wont tell what so as not to spoil - but my drones paired with precision mortar strikes have accounted for around 8 vehicles so far. Sometimes I allocate two guns for the strike sometimes one - but even calling "immediate" they seem to hit pretty well. The modern battlefield seems an incredibly lethal place to live compared to WWII.

[Grim.Reaper]

I thought having AA set in a game AND on the graphics card setting caused a slowdown because they fought against each other?

Not at all for me. In fact I thought you had to set in the game and on your card. Its always been that way. The options inside the game don't have any way to assign the settings - just tells it to use them - that you have to do in the card. Never had any issues doing it that way and the games looks excellent.

I turned on all those settings on my card, but didn't notice much of a difference within the game, if any.....maybe the difference is just so little, hard to notice.  Oh well, not a big deal....not a major issue.

[Nefaro]

If AA is on in the video card software, then it is overriding the in-game setting.  Not at odds with it.

Anti-Aliasing is the most demanding gfx setting.  It basically redraws each frame multiple times, depending on how high you have it set, to smooth out the jagged edges.  Just by the description, you can see that it doubles the processing power required for each frame displayed, for each step up.  AA is a hog, so if your fps is hitting some choppy troughs in any game, lowering the AA will provide the greatest improvement to framerate. 

Antisotropic Filtering (AF), on the other hand, doesn't make much of a framerate difference at all.  It just improves the look of the textures a bit but doesn't require extra frames.  If you run something at AF 2x, you probably won't notice any difference in performance if you set it to 8x or even 16x.  When it was first introduced many years ago, it made a bit of a difference but anymore it's negligible if you have a passable video card.

[JudgeDredd]

I'll tell you what is still there...the commander being the first to get chopped.

My T-90 was hit in the wheels with an RPG and right away, the only casualty was the commander. I've also lost a lot of the commanders of my other vehicles...whether they were unbuttoned or buttoned.

[Great Ajax]

US M1 tanks are freaking brutal.  A platoon of these guys in ambush can wipe a motorized company in a couple of minutes.  It was like a bad move with my Motorized Rifle Battlegroup.  Within two minutes of starting, two of my three recce BRDMS are knocked out along with my Battalion spotter heading to a sweet observation post.  Now going in blind, my motorized rifle company proceeds to get wiped in two more minutes.  We didn't even get a shot off on the M1s.

Trey

[panzerde]

The M1A2 SEP is crazy good.

Noticing the same thing as JD re: vehicle commanders dying first. I'm used to it from all of the rest of the CM games, but it does seem skewed.

On the plus side, I am noticing the crew/passenger survivability in US vehicles is fairly high. I've had a lot more guys crawl out of the wreckage than I'd expect.

[JudgeDredd]

Question - any ideas why this infantry unit (in a BMP and closed up) can spot that Ukrainian MG unit through smoke and when it's in a forest...both of which I would've thought would hinder the ability to see something...nevermind the fact they are enclosed in a BMP!

[Cyrano]

JD -- Which difficulty are you playing at?

Jim

[JudgeDredd]

Veteran

It was particularly odd because sometimes my units are being fired at and all I can see is tracer...not the unit doing the firing...and yet here I am, quite a distance away, holed up in a BMP and I can see a single guy running in a forest through smoke  :o

It was still a blast!

[Zulu1966]

Veteran

It was particularly odd because sometimes my units are being fired at and all I can see is tracer...not the unit doing the firing...and yet here I am, quite a distance away, holed up in a BMP and I can see a single guy running in a forest through smoke  :o

It was still a blast!

I think that's a BMP 3 in the picture ?
Vesna-K thermal imager would explain seeing through the smoke. I notice in the picture that its white smoke which doesn't block Thermal imagers (the other type of smoke in the game which is brown does). Woods are also not a brick wall - it depends how far back in the woods they are.
You should also read up on all the other targeting systems a BMP 3 has. Obviously the infantry unit is in the BMP so benefits from what they can see.

[jomni]

Veteran

It was particularly odd because sometimes my units are being fired at and all I can see is tracer...not the unit doing the firing...and yet here I am, quite a distance away, holed up in a BMP and I can see a single guy running in a forest through smoke  :o

It was still a blast!

I think that's a BMP 3 in the picture ?
Vesna-K thermal imager would explain seeing through the smoke. I notice in the picture that its white smoke which doesn't block Thermal imagers (the other type of smoke in the game which is brown does). Woods are also not a brick wall - it depends how far back in the woods they are.
You should also read up on all the other targeting systems a BMP 3 has. Obviously the infantry unit is in the BMP so benefits from what they can see.

Happens to me as well in the BMP 3 but why does the passengers and not the vehicle itself get the LOS?

[fabius]

I'm having an absolute blast with a Woodland QB defence. My US company vs Infantry battalion and coy of recon

Very intense as my left flank is being overrun. Some great story/movie type moments being made some turns.

[Yskonyn]

Finally was able to sit down for the game.
Download was finished in about 16 mins, installation went without a hitch.  O0

Started the training campaign to take a leisurely look at some new toys. Veteran difficulty was recommended by the scenario creator, but I choose Elite, being the stubborn bastard that I am sometimes. Well... it turns out the enemy isn't just waiting for my guys to use them as target practice! 
Perhaps this is due to the difficulty setting, but as soon as the enemy infantry spotted my men on the small arms range, they immediately opened fire.

I had them outnumbered, so once all my men had taken a spot at the wall, the enemy resistance was quickly smashed to bits. 

Then followed some butt kicking with the M1's and the Bradleys. 

After this I started the 'Crossing the Dnieper' campaign. Still in the first mission, but I'll close off for today.
I lost one BMP-3 with full crew, pax and cargo to a concealed MBT, but otherwise my advance is going as planned. I try to think about getting some screenshots tomorrow.

So far its good old CM! Loving it!

[jomni]

Is there friendly fire from air support? I suspect my hinds are hitting my men (basically similar looking equipment as Ukrainians) but I'm not sure.

[panzerde]

Is there friendly fire from air support? I suspect my hinds are hitting my men (basically similar looking equipment as Ukrainians) but I'm not sure.

Yes, and it's more likely at night. I don't know that's what happening to you, obviously, but some of the worst casualties I ever took in CMSF came from friendly fire from CAS. Keep your troops well away from airstrike targets if you can!