Combat Mission : Red Thunder - Goon vs Goon open thread.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Combat Mission : Red Thunder - Goon vs Goon open thread.

Horns of Hattin: Dec 21, 2011

I had a lot of fun reading the last CM thread; hoping to participate this time. Signed up for german platoon, but I'm willing to play as either side, depending how the sign-up turns out.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2014 18:43

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 22:01

Horns of Hattin: Dec 21, 2011

Jaguars! posted:

For those who are interested, and have archives, the last game is here:

Neutral
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3441897
Allies
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3450776
Axis
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3450770

And here is what you can tell your mans to do.

Is this the game where half the german team went on a cross-country run, a panzer got stuck in a freshly-ploughed field, the allies advanced so fast they ran into their own artillery bombardment and the spectators complained how the germans were overpowered right up until they lost?

# ¿ Jun 27, 2014 15:42

Horns of Hattin: Dec 21, 2011

The Merry Marauder posted:

That was the second one, run in the same threads. And, no, it was more fraught with drama than that.

But was there a more recent one than the one I described is what I'm asking. I remember the one before it was the "turn 50: still pushing the AT guns" game, but was there another goon v. goon CM game after it that I missed? If yes, then how was that game like?

# ¿ Jun 27, 2014 15:58

Horns of Hattin: Dec 21, 2011

Combat mission: Oregon trail is what this map looks like. How many tanks/ squads will meet their end at the bottom of the river?

# ¿ Jul 2, 2014 04:03

Horns of Hattin: Dec 21, 2011

I feel like I have to answer some of the questions that were asked in this thread, and others that I just want to answer.

Why was I so concerned about artillery?
Multiple reasons. First, I saw how effectively it was used on the Germans last game. Secondly, you'd have to be blind not to notice the obvious choke-points on this map. Third, I expected goons to be goons and buy rocket artillery. Why the gently caress wouldn't you want to see poo poo blow up good? Before this turned into a campaign, this game was the only chance to use it! Instead, goons chose to be massive spergs and bought two heavy tanks when the map is too small for a single one.

Why didn't the German team mutiny?
I can't speak for everyone, but I felt it would run counter to the spirit of playing a volunteer-participation LP. For one reason or another, unwantedplatypus volunteered to be commander, no one else did, we all knew he was inexperienced, so it would have been rude to tar and feather just because he's not playing a video game LP with the greatest skill or efficiency. I would politely ask him to step down for the next battle, so that his team feels like they're accomplishing more than just running around in circles shooting wildly in the air, though.

What did you think of the German plan?
Wait, we had a plan? Oh, you mean: 1. Move tank riders into town. 2. ??? 3. We win! Hated it from the beginning. I tried to explain that tanks with riders on them are slow lumbering fucks that would get shot up six ways to sunday from the L-forest. I knew the cause was hopeless when nobody thought the necessary 1 or 2 turns ahead to figure out where to drop off the tank riders. I assume it was a spontaneous decision to drop them off at C6, because it didn't make any sense to take the longer, far more exposed route through the G-ford, only to then drop them off one grid away from the B-ford.

Were the IS-2s unbeatable?
No. We knew there would be tanks at the L-forest and it didn't matter if they were IS-2s, because a single T-34 would have lit up the panthers shooting up their bums just as well. That's why we brought smoke and heavy shells to blind them or force them to move right into panzerschrek range. Why we haven't used our artillery effectively I can only speculate, but the list again is quite long:

Few people knew how artillery works in this game or how to call it in.
The mortars refused to move 10 turns straight for no explainable reason.
unwantedplatypus refused to lead while no one else felt they had the authority to call in the artillery.
Artillery is simply too useful to actually use (rather than hording it for later).

What did you think of the Russian plan?
We didn't have to think much about that, because they won the game by securing the objective before turn 10. After that they wouldn't have needed any plan at all, since we obviously weren't coordinated enough to do anything except run in single file to get gunned down from entrenched positions.

e:
Why didn't the Germans bring more tanks?
I don't know. We really should have if we were smarter. Again, all I can offer are some lame excuses:

The original OOB was so lack-luster in tanks that increasing it much more that we did would be equivalent to mutiny.
Too many players and too few points. Buying a (heavy) tank instead of a rifle company would mean 3 less people could participate in the game. Which players would you then kick out?
The map was small and didn't appear to be as tank friendly as it was.
Last game the Germans were shamed for bringing heavy tanks.
Our commander is a national traitor: "I am not buying a dumb, slow Nazi boxtank"

Horns of Hattin fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Aug 16, 2014

# ¿ Aug 16, 2014 15:39

Horns of Hattin: Dec 21, 2011

Amazing. Not even two hours since the last game finished prematurely because of unbalanced teams, everyone is trying to dogpile onto the winning team for the next one.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2014 16:49

Horns of Hattin: Dec 21, 2011

Davin Valkri posted:

I just don't want to share a team with Herp Derp. If he decides to go Soviet, I'm going German.

Now that I can totally understand.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2014 16:56

Horns of Hattin: Dec 21, 2011

I have a suggestion that a team leader, who does unit selection, shouldn't necessarily be the CO. The team leader should preferably be a CMRT expert, so that the forces we bring aren't broken from the outset. The teams are then split up according to the number of available positions in each force. Then the teams can elect one player out of them to be the battalion CO.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2014 22:24

Horns of Hattin: Dec 21, 2011

Bacarruda posted:

Eh, I'm not enthusiastic about this. The guy who picks the force and the guy who has to actually fight with the force should probably be the same person.

Right now, we've got tentative Battalion commanders (Soviet: uPen or Fangz; German: Bacarruda) and we've got some volunteers for company command (Soviet: RedLobster, The Merry Marauder, tatankatonk, and brb on fire; German: Kenzie, sniper4625, gradenko_2000, unwantedplatypus, and HerpicleOmnicron5).

To quote Rummy, you go to battle with the forces you have, not the ones you wish you have. Plus it's easier for Grey if the players can do the point tallies themselves. But you don't have to take this suggestion.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2014 01:25

Horns of Hattin: Dec 21, 2011

Bacarruda posted:

OK, so the current German roster looks like this. Let me know if I missed anyone.

I'm willing to return as a platoon commander under the condition that neither platyputty or herpderp are my company commanders.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2014 19:31

Horns of Hattin: Dec 21, 2011

There are now 21 on the Russian roster and 24 on the German one with at least an additional 5 wanting to join. Hope there are enough points to go around.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2014 21:58

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 22:01

Horns of Hattin: Dec 21, 2011

mottbag posted:

I think I'd prefer a smaller map with less players this time. Easier to manage and hopefully we'll get to the action faster.

I very much like the idea of small-scale action, like in this AAR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA3P9roGkXc, instead of just 2 heavy armor kills determining the winner.

However, the reason we ended up playing a big map was because we had so many players (and thus platoons) signed up on each side... But then the bigger map is slower to start-up and bleeds out those same players.

So what I'm proposing is that everyone steps down one level of command: instead of battalion-company-platoon, we'll have company-platoon-squad leaders. This way we can play 1 vs 1 company and fit the same number of players. Bring a few APC and armored cars along too.

For added excitement/realism, we can have "deathmatch" player rules - if your pixelman leader is killed in action, you are out of the game (you then can take over from any absent players).

# ¿ Nov 1, 2014 01:36

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