CMBN: The Scottish Corridor 11: No Hiding Place

The 9th Cameronians dig into Grainville against a German combined arms attack.
Mods:
HQS Sound mod: cmmodsiii.gree...
Vein's Effects: cmmodsiii.gree...
Vin's Unit Icons: cmmodsiii.gree...
Benparks British Uniforms: cmmodsiii.gree...
Luckystrike's Hedgerow Hell: community.batt...
Plus I mixed in some of Kieme's textures from CMBS.
This is Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy, set on the Western Front from July to September 1944. One of the most realistic tactical simulations ever made, Combat Mission covers a wide variety of military settings, from World War 2 (Normandy, Market Garden, Sicily, Italy and the Eastern Front) to fictional modern conflicts in Syria (Shock Force) and Ukraine (Black Sea). You can find out more about Combat Mission by visiting www.battlefront... and especially the forums.
#CombatMission

[@nbr1rckr]

I could watch you analyze terrain all day. Frankly I'd love to see you tackle some of the wackier maps in Fortress Italy to see how you'd approach them

[@usuallyhapless9481]

... I definitely don't play enough CMFI. Haven't come across anything I'd describe as wacky yet though

[@nbr1rckr]

I'm thinking like that one winding hill that has a sheer cliff on one side. I forget the name of it in the files.

[@nbr1rckr]

@@usuallyhapless9481 226Attk Huge Mountainous 226 Ramparts of the Palikoi

[@sproge2142]

Beautifully executed defence, love the fact that you were brave enough to plan a counter attack, I would have just written off that objective like the coward I am! 😂

[@lt.qwerty6146]

ahh the old "foot loose and fancy free" objectives

[@richardhutchinson4740]

Excellent defence in depth with an agile response. That arty strike was fortuitous and timely. Great job!

[@moaggwomaoimagwoga]

Thank you for the effort you put into these, i love lying in bed and watching the details and cinematic shots of this. I wish i could support but i guess ill have to support in the comments.

[@Ts5EVER]

IMO this kind of scenario could be improved by having a "casualties suffered" AI trigger. It would allow the AI to retreat their forces for the next scenario, instead of going "all in".

[@toumakamijou3206]

I need more of this. Perfect action and execution. Textbook.

[@thesovietwarbear4551]

I always find your terrain analyses, and how they influence your tactical thinking super interesting. On a separate note, do you have any plans on doing Unit Guides for the Cold War mech infantry formations? I’d be really interested in seeing how your opinion on the BMP changes from the Syrian Mech video! And how M113 formations stack up to their Soviet counterparts.

[@usuallyhapless9481]

An M113 (+variants) is definitely an option. I feel like the tactical side of a BMP Motor Rifle guide would be a tiny bit about how the BMP has a 73mm gun and AT-3, then basically a repeat of the BTR video. The doctrine isn't massively different.

[@thesovietwarbear4551]

@@usuallyhapless9481 I definitely understand that, but I still think a video on the whole formation, and perhaps comparing it to the similar formations in Shock Force and Black Sea would be really interesting. Seeing how the Motor Rifle Battalion or Company is designed to conduct itself in a time period where BMPs and Soviet infantry aren’t in a huge tech gap would be informative.

[@briansmithwins]

5 Panthers has to be a substantial fraction of available German armor in Normandy

[@crumpetcommandos779]

There were 150+ panthers in normandy, most of them fighting against the Anglo Canadian troops

[@briansmithwins]

@@crumpetcommandos779 ~3% of the available Panthers in one small fight? Those Panthers aren't going to be replaced and the dismounted crews are going to be used as emergency infantry

[@crumpetcommandos779]

@@briansmithwins exactly, and I don't think all of those 150 are fully operational either. Panthers especially were very unreliable.

[@DerAua]

@@briansmithwins Wow, I wasn't aware of that. The whole time I was thinking why the Panthers were so far forward, anyway. This makes it even worse.

[@202reece5]

This is one major flaw of CM. Fighting a defensive battle is almost too easy unless the AI scripter is amazing, or you are fighting an enemy many times larger than yours. The tactics they use are almost brain dead, there is never any challenge.

[@Euan_Miller43]

Absolutely, CM defensive battles can feel like defending human wave assaults unless the scenario designer (or yourself) puts painstaking effort in

[@DavinValkri]

I dunno, I kind of feel like facing the Waffen SS, it almost would be out of character if they *didn't* try to overrun the player with lots of firepower and no tactical sense.

[@Coddykin]

Yeah, the immersion really falls apart when the enemies act like lemmings. CMCW has some pretty good defensive scenarios but I think that's because it's largely fast moving mech forces.

[@briansmithwins]

The AI does a decent job of modeling scripted attacks, like the Soviets or Soviet trained forces would typically use

[@christiandelao2547]

That's actually a flaw across all strategy games, it's just not possible to script a dynamic enough AI system to recognize when an objective is failing, so the computer lacks offensive ability

[@aanders1990]

Always a good day when Hapless Posts

[@dash1141]

Very tense, very cinematic! Bravo as always

[@wartsnall7332]

Great result, and excellent story telling.

[@Requin87]

Great result and top work by the 17 Pdr. When I played this, I lost my 17pdr to the first round from a Panther and it made for an uncomfortably bloody affair.

[@usuallyhapless9481]

I got lucky. It didn't make it into the video, but the 17pdr did get knocked out towards the end. I think it was the Wespe

[@System-Update]

PIAT is accurately modeled in CM. You'd have more chance hitting a barn door by throwing the launcher at it than firing a bomb through it.

[@christiandelao2547]

Right? It's so baffling that that's the design they went with, it's like an AT assets made by NERF

[@d.c.6065]

@@christiandelao2547 it’s NERF, or NOTHING!

[@Cplblue]

​@@christiandelao2547lot of soldiers actually liked the PIAT and accounted for 7% armor kills in Dday which was better than tac air support :)

[@christiandelao2547]

@Cplblue I've heard it's accuracy was pretty bad, and it was really difficult to get the thing set to fire, took some strength, but there wernt exactly alot of man portable AT options at the time, and i think its range was pretty average for the period, so compared to other launchers of the period, that sorts makes sense

[@Cplblue]

@@christiandelao2547 To set it was definitely a pain, and its range wasn't great, but the soldiers mostly liked it. Especially when it got improved over time.

[@dv6000islame]

Thanks again, Hapless! Another fantastic battle and commentary and analysis. Well done.

[@BunkerFox]

Mission name is No Hiding Place. Proceeds to hide all his tanks

[@usuallyhapless9481]

If you're hiding in modern warfare, you're doing it wrong!

[@sullybiker6520]

Oh mate..I remember this one. I am looking forward to watching this.

[@TheArcticSaint4747]

And to this day, that area is known as Folly’s Field.

[@freleki1280]

what a masterpice of a defence tbf, like wow. Mega job

[@kaleddalek5364]

Bloody well done

[@WysteriaGuitar]

Superb as always...

[@cartergeorge1545]

Great fight, although I'm not sure anything will ever match the dopamine hit from watching the boche catch that M7 Priest barrage in the last video.

[@202reece5]

babe wake up, new hapless video

[@The2ndFirst]

Good job!

[@bmhh123]

great content as always!

[@DLeadShot]

You often self-critique your victories in game due to failings of the AI. How do you think a player should have mounted the attack against you in this situation?

[@robertkalinic335]

Not parking the panters in the clear line of sight of enemy, then do some recon with infantry or speculative fire to actually give those panters something to do. Demolish houses scots use for cover and then just slowly grind forward. Also the opening barrage is kinda wasteful, if those rockets need to be fired immediately because of time to call then just pick a spot you think enemy will occupy and delete it with dense fire mission.

[@usuallyhapless9481]

What @robertkalinic335 said. The AI really struggles with coordination because it doesn't understand what's going on, a human player with the same plan would have been able to suppress Grainville and not expose the infantry before believing they had gained fire superiority. It might not necessarily have worked, but that's different.

[@renes9966]

A masterclass. Thank you!

[@TheAdronio]

Excellent job. A very impressive plan and execution.

[@itchyscoop]

Great stuff. I love it when a plan comes together!

[@bah8925]

Always love the content mate.

[@frantisekcenek1199]

Great video

[@eNoble-US]

Amazing content once again. Love to watch these.

[@zyavoosvawleilte1308]

Charge of the light brigade ass attack by part of the germans

[@ruthgeorgeholt5680]

It seems almost unfair for the AI to be attacking when outnumbered. Still very fun to watch though, especially (as others have mentioned) the deep, probing tactical analysis.

[@jonny-b4954]

Have you done any videos on Combat Mission Black Sea? That's the free demo I got from dev's website. How much difference is there between that and this?

[@usuallyhapless9481]

I've done a couple. In short, the more modern you get the faster everything dies.

[@whya2ndaccount]

Basically confirming that CM scripted AI offensive ops against competent human defenders is unlikely to succeed, unless the numbers are heavily in their favour.

[@usuallyhapless9481]

Pretty much.

[@GrumpyReaper2525]

Do you allow your pixeltruppen to perform buddy-aid? I am puzzled by the WIA to KIA ratio (being 1:1).

[@usuallyhapless9481]

Not consciously. The wounded to dead ratio in CM has always been a bit off. Buddy aid can help, but doesn't affect scoring so... there's minimal advantage in game terms.

[@PNJ452]

[@stormaries4150]

Babe! Hapless Posted!!

[@mimir4965]

I am glad that it turned out to go swimmingly. I feel you kind of deserved it considering how.... "janky" the first few missions of this campaign were.

[@romain5967]

Is operation whetstone going to continue? I super enjoyed the first episode would love more of it

[@usuallyhapless9481]

It's on the cards ;)

[@mimir4965]

Is there any difference between PIAT and BAZOOKA in terms of hit marks etc. in CM? It seems like PIAT is underwhelming.

[@usuallyhapless9481]

The Bazooka is more accurate, but the PIAT hits harder. You can also use the PIAT inside without killing yourself with backblast, which is always nice.

[@Dalaksiz28]

Britain makes the worst handheld AT weapon asked to leave allies

[@Blader445]

Hooray, the CS British tanks! Some of my favorite tanks, even if they aren’t useful.

[@jayatfreelance]

Would have been much more interesting if defending against another person, instead of the A.I..

[@usuallyhapless9481]

It would, but unfortunately takes about 4 times longer to play.

[@NoNameAtAll2]

is it PvE or PvP?

[@phillipredfearn3931]

Got to love a piat.........not