COMBAT MISSION:
AFRIKA KORPS™

DEMO DOCUMENTATION Version 1.0
Copyright © 2003 Battlefront.com

Combat Mission: Afrika Korps (CMAK) is a tactical WWII combat simulation set in a true 3D environment. Players issue orders in turns and then see the action executed in real-time. It simulates battles in the Mediterranean theater of operations, including North Africa, Italy and Crete, between 1940 and 1945. From the sweeping deserts of Libya to the mountainous Gothic Line in Northern Italy to the islands of Crete and Sicily, Combat Mission: Afrika Korps allows you to recreate some of the most fierce ground battles of World War Two.

Combat Mission: Afrika Korps (CMAK for short) allows the player to lead the soldiers of nine nationalities (USA, Germany, Italy, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, and France) into battle, using historical Tables of Equipment and Organization (TO&E), surroundings, and combat results. Combat Mission is not a video game. It requires thoughtful strategy and tactical skill to overcome the enemy while preserving one’s own forces and achieving the mission objectives.

CMAK is the most realistic simulation of ground warfare on the Western Front made to date, and contains a mind-boggling amount of detail, research and information – from the organization of the various participating nations to the unbelievably detailed armor penetration algorithms based on real-world physics and real-world data, to the realistic 3-D representation of environment, weather and fog of war.

If you’re new to the Combat Mission series (CM for short) don’t be scared. Actual gameplay is easy and you don’t need to be a master of WWII tactics (a so-called “Grognard”) to play and win. Use your intuition and think about what tactics and strategies would work in the real world if you were on the front line. It’s easy to play CM, because CM’s “rules” reflect the real-world “rules” of combat – no need to learn an abstract game system first.

This demo documentation can only scratch the surface of what the full game offers, but it will provide you with a basic understanding of the game concept and the most important functions to start playing and enjoying CMAK.


The Basics
This part will help you to understand the basic elements of the game and how to start a new game.

Demo vs. Full Version
The CMAK Demo contains only a part of those game elements which will be available in the full version, and additional options to gameplay, graphics and other elements are available for the released version. The demo itself has been stripped down to contain only those elements needed for playing the included 2 demo scenarios – this makes the demo small enough to be downloaded from the internet – so that what you have in your hands is NOT the complete game.

Start a new Game

Double-click on the CMAK Demo Icon.

(Windows) The first time you start up the demo, a small window appears asking you to set your screen resolution. CMAK automatically tests various screen resolutions for you, and as soon as you see the window appear, a resolution which will work for your computer system has been found. (Note that it might take ten or twenty seconds for this window to appear – please be patient as CMAK tests your video setup).  You can accept it or scroll through the various available resolutions to set it to your liking. Your choice is saved in the preferences file of CMAK and you don’t have to go through this again for later games.

After the Main Game Screen appears, click on “Start Game”. A list of available scenarios appears. For the Demo, you will see two entries. These are the two fictional battles which are included with the Demo. Select one of these battles (by clicking on it) and then click the Continue button. Read the description which follows, and when you're finished with that you'll be asked to choose which side you want to play. At this point, you have three options:

1. Fog of war:
- None: all units, also enemy units, are visible and identified on the whole map
- Partial: Units need to be spotted to be displayed on the map, but will be automatically identified
- Full (default): units need to be spotted and identified separately 
- Extreme: the information you will be gather from the battlefield about enemy units is (realistically) sparse. This is the most realistic option, but will require the player to pay close attention to what is happening on the battlefield.

2. Computer Player Setup:
Allows the Computer Player to set up its own units or stick to the default set by the scenario designer. When you play a scenario for the first time, you should set this to “stick to scenario default”. This option has no effect against another human opponent.

3. Computer Experience Bonus:
Increases the experience of computer controlled units by this value, making them more deadly and less easy to rout

4. Play Balance:
Assigns or deducts units to/from one side, depending on the percentage set here. Only unit types which are already in the game will be added.

After you have decided which side you want to play (Axis or Allies), you can choose the game type. You can choose from Single Player, Play By E-Mail (PBEM) and TCP/IP (Internet play). Macintosh and Windows users can play against one another by TCP/IP or by PBEM, as long as PBEM files have the attachment “.txt” in their file name and the method by which files are attached to emails are compatible between the two systems. Note to Mac Users: HQX and SIT files can usually not be read by PCs, so it’s best to send files uncompressed or compressed as ZIP, when you have a Mac ZIP program.

After you have chosen all options, you will see the mission briefings specific to the side you have chosen to play. This will usually give you all the information you need to play and win the scenario. Make sure you read this carefully, or you might yourself without a clue what to do on the battlefield… however, you can also access your mission briefing from within in the game by using the SHIFT-B hotkey.

After the briefing, you enter the 3-D battlefield of Combat Mission. Before issuing your first orders, you will need to get familiar with navigation on the battlefield first.

Navigation on the battlefield

With no units selected, the info panel at the bottom of the screen will give you important information about the battle at hand. The value for “morale” shows you the general condition your troops are in – the lower this value, the less willing your units will be to fight. The value decreases as your units take casualties. The number in the “victory” slot shows you the percentage of victory points you have gained so far based on the highest total possible for the scenario. You will also see a figure for the enemy, but keep in mind, however, that this is an estimate only, based on what your units know about the battlefield – if the enemy is in possession of a victory location you can’t see, the victory total will NOT reflect this.

There are also a number of buttons here – the most important of which is the HOTKEYS button, which displays a screen with all HOTKEYS available for CMAK.  The other buttons (ceasefire, surrender, briefings and save) allow you to access these options quickly.

You see the battlefield through a “camera”, which can be moved freely across the battlefield, by using either the mouse (move the cursor to the screen edge to move or rotate the camera, up moves forward, down moves back, the lower left and right sides move the camera laterally, while the upper right and left sides rotate your view), your keypad (by using the arrows or number pad) or by clicking on the arrow buttons on the right bottom part of the screen. The camera can also be moved up and down. There are 9 view levels available, from levels 1 and 2 close to the ground (great for watching the action over the shoulder of your units), to levels 3 and 4 (for an overview of the battlefield), to the bird’s eye views of levels 5-9, giving a top down perspective of the action much like the earlier boardgames.

You can also “lock” the camera to a certain unit, which will cause it to follow that unit as it moves and rotates across the battlefield. This is done by clicking on a unit and hitting the TAB key. Even when locked, you can still rotate the camera to watch the action from any angle. The “lock” breaks when you move the camera or hit TAB again.

You can also use various hotkeys to “filter” what you see on the battlefield. By using SHIFT-C for example, you can increase the visual size of all units, making them easier to see from far away. This has no effect on gameplay or combat (the units don’t REALLY grow), but makes it easier for you to keep an overview of the strategic situation when needed. Check the HOTKEYS list to see which filter options are available.

Unit info

When you click on a unit, the info panel changes from the general scenario info to a specific unit info of the unit you have selected. This shows you what unit it is, the physical and morale state it is in, where it’s located (terrain type), which weapons and equipment it has available and what it is doing currently. If you want more detailed information about a unit, hit the ENTER key with that unit selected. This will give you all the information you’ll ever need. You can toggle the display here by clicking on the INFO/KILLS button, also. In order to close the window, press ENTER again or simply click somewhere on the battlefield.

After clicking on a unit, you might notice a number of brown lines extending from that units. These lines are called “command lines” and show you to which HQ the selected unit is attached (or, in the case you clicked on an HQ unit, which units are under its command). Units can also be out of command, which will be shown by a black line instead of brown. This can happen when the HQ unit is too far away to be able to communicate with the subordinate unit. Units without command lines are independent (and usually don’t have to be in command). Being in command has the advantage that the HQ unit is able to exert its command bonus to its subordinate units, making these units react faster, stay rallied and even fight better. The leadership abilities of each HQ unit can be checked by clicking on it and looking for the leadership icons in the unit info panel.

Winning/losing

Winning or losing a battle in CMAK depends on skill as much as luck – just like in real combat. “No plan survives contact with the enemy” is a very true military wisdom. Don’t judge your abilities as battlefield commander too harshly when you lose your first CMAK battle – you will learn and improve your tactical skills over time. And keep in mind that there is NO way to win EVERY battle.

The main goal in CMAK’s scenarios is to take and hold the victory locations on the battlefield, marked by victory flags. There are small and large flags, each worth a certain number of victory points. Unlike classic boardgames, however, you don’t need to have your units sitting right on top of the flags – each flag has a certain control radius around it (approx. 80 meters), in which you have to place a sufficient number of troops (usually one tank or a couple of non-broken squads are enough) to exert control. However, again unlike classic boardgames, when the enemy manages to keep his troops close enough also, the flag will be contested and will not be under control of ANY side! So keeping the enemy sufficiently far away from the flag is as important as bringing your troops into the territory as well.

In the full game, there are several other types of flags, as well as operations which have completely different victory requirements.

Game phases

Combat Mission differentiates three distinct game phases – setup phase, orders phase, action phase. These phases play simultaneously for both players. The setup and orders phases allow you to setup and give orders to your units (your opponent does the same), while game time is paused. The Action Phase plays the action simultaneously for both sides in REAL TIME. Each Action Phase is 60 seconds of real time, during which you can see the results of the orders you have given to your troops. After each Real Time phase, a new orders phase follows and allows you to give new orders or adjust old orders to your units.

Unless playing a timed TCP/IP game, you can take as much time as you want during the orders and setup phases, and replay the action during the action phase as many times and from as many angles as you like.

Setup phase
Often, this phase alone can determine victory or defeat! If you skip through this phase quickly, you will more often regret it than not. Scan the battlefield carefully for terrain, approaches, fields of fire. Keep your mission orders in the back of your mind (remember – SHIFT-B brings up your mission briefing) and try to figure out how your opponent will approach the battle.

You will notice a few colored zones (called Setup Zones) on the map. These show the areas that your units can be placed into. Each unit can be moved freely within such zones, and can also be moved from one zone to another, provided it is of the same colour. You cannot move a unit from, for example, a red zone into a blue zone, and you also cannot move units outside of such zones (the only exception are Target Reference Points which can be moved anywhere on the map).  Of course you don’t HAVE to move any units, if you’re happy with the default setup.

In order to move units, simply right click on them. An order menu will appear and you will be able to choose “move”, “place”, “rotate” and other orders. You can also alternatively left-click on a unit and use the Hotkeys to give it an order. Most orders have a one-letter-hotkey assigned – which one is displayed in the orders menu. For example, the hotkey for Place is “P”.

You can also move and give orders to more than one unit at a time. There are several options for how to do that – you can left-click and drag a selection box with your mouse to select a group of units. You can also double-click (left mouse button) on a HQ unit, which will select that HQ unit and all subordinate units (in or out of command). You can also left-click on units while holding the SHIFT button which will add that unit to the group. Then, with a group selected, simply use the Hotkeys to issue an order or bring up the order menu (by right-clicking on a selected unit). All units will be assigned the same order automatically. Units for which the order is not valid (for example, when by group-moving a unit would end up outside of the map or in water), will not be moved.

After you’re happy with your setup, hit the GO! Button. This will bring you to the Orders Phase of the first turn.

Orders Phase

In the orders phase, you tell your units (and the opponent does the same) what to do during the next 60 seconds of real-time action. Thinking ahead not only of what you want to accomplish but also what your opponent is going to do is essential!

Each unit can be ordered to perform multiple actions, from moving to firing to other special orders. Movement is done using an easy but powerful Waypoint system. First, you need to select a unit or group of units and give them a movement command. A number of these are available, from a simple “move” (walking) to more combat-oriented “advance” or “assault” orders (tactical movement, imagine infantry units running from cover to cover, using covering fire and the like) or “move to contact” (a recon type order which will make your unit stop once it spots an enemy). After you have selected the movement order you want, you will notice that a colored line (“order line”) extends from the selected unit to your mouse cursor. Choose a spot on the map you want to move your unit to and left click. This will place a waypoint on the map – and your unit has just been ordered to move to this location.

You can place more than one waypoint, of course. Simply issue another order to the same unit, and you will see that the new movement order now extends from the already placed waypoint. If you know beforehand that you want to issue a string of waypoints, you can also right-click on the map instead of left-clicking – this will place a waypoint and automatically select the same type of movement again. When you want to edit your orders, you can do so also. Simply right-click on a waypoint and or (left-click and select a hotkey). Choose another order and you will notice that the order line changes colour to display that new order immediately. You can also alter the position of a waypoint by left-clicking on it and dragging it across the map. 

Keep in mind though, that the more waypoints you place on the map, the higher the command delay (the time it takes for the unit to actually start moving during the following action phase) increases. This simulates the time it takes to formulate, communicate and understand more sophisticated battlefield orders, and the command delay depends on the experience of each unit, being in or out of command and so on. Watch the command delay as indicated in a unit’s info panel to keep an eye on command delays. You can also deliberately increase the delay by issuing a “Pause” order, for example when you want to coordinate the moves of your units and want to have one unit wait a little longer before moving out. Of course, even during the command delay, units will react on their own and fire their weapons!

Firing orders (like “T” for target) work much like movement orders. You will need to place a “waypoint” (which is actually a target point) on the map, instructing units to fire on that location. This target location is usually an enemy unit, but can be any spot on the map which your unit can see. Other orders work a little differently, as they are executed immediately – for example, “hide” or “button up” for tanks.

By the way, you can also select a unit by clicking on its movement order line!

After the first turn is over, you will notice that old waypoints turn red, and new waypoints are white. Red waypoints signal that this order has been given in an earlier order phase, and such orders cannot be changed as easily as new orders. You can edit the movement or order type, but can edit the location/position of the waypoint only within certain restrictions. You can at any time delete the order and issue new ones, keeping in mind, however, that a new command delay will be added!

Action Phase

After you and your opponent are ready giving orders, both hit GO! and the Action Phase begins. You cannot influence the action anymore for 60 seconds as your troops try to execute the commands given to them, but you can move freely across the battlefield, watch and gather information about your troops and those of the enemy. You can also rewind the action and replay as many times as you wish (exception: timed Internet play). Something really cool: “lock” the view to a rolling tank or a running infantry unit (by clicking on it and using the TAB key) and watch the action unfold!

IMPORTANT GAME ELEMENTS

There is so much packed into CMAK, that this documentation can really only show the tip of the iceberg! Experiment! Most of the things you would expect to play a role in the game because they played a role on the real battlefield ARE in the game, even if not mentioned here! Another great way to find answers when you have questions is to visit our message boards at www.battlefront.com and you will find hundreds of thousands (!) messages from avid players, exchanging tactics and discussing the game.

Orders

Movement orders

Run/Move fast (F) – orders the unit to move at maximum speed, will not stop to engage targets, heavily reducing spotting
Move to Contact (E) – orders the unit to cautiously advance and keep eyes open for enemy contacts. Will stop as soon as enemy comes into LOS or unit is fired upon.
Advance (A) – tactical move when advancing under fire towards enemy position. This assumes dashing from cover to cover, using covering fire and movement by bounds.
Assault (U) – similar to Advance, but especially useful for covering those last 10 or 20 meters into an enemy position. Increases morale slightly while allowing units to return suppressive fire, but too tiring to units to be used over longer stretches.
Move (M) – walking or driving at walking speed. Units won’t stop when enemy is spotted, but will break off movement (and usually look for cover) when under heavy fire.
Sneak (S) – not available for units with heavy equipment. Tells a unit to hug the ground and crawl and use stealth. Will open fire in self-defense only. 
Withdraw (W) – emergency order, tells infantry units to “get the heck out of there”. This order has NO command delay, but it increases the chance that the unit will panic while retreating substantially.
Rotate (O) – changes the facing of a unit
Shoot&Scoot (Q) – available only to armoured fighting vehicles (AFV). This is a two-leg order requiring placement of two waypoints. The first waypoint tells the unit to advance to that position and scout for targets. After several seconds, the unit is supposed to withdraw (scoot) to the second waypoint (which – usually – is somewhere out of sight of the enemy)
Hunt (U) – available to AFV only. Tells the vehicle to advance at medium speed and look for armoured targets. When armoured enemy targets come into LOS, the vehicle is supposed to stop and engage.
Reverse (R) – works similar like the withdraw command for infantry and instructs vehicle to back up out of the current position. Short command delay only.
Hull-down (D) – orders unit to move forward towards the waypoint and, on that path, stop as soon as a position is found which will result in the vehicle being hull-down relative to a possible enemy in the area of the waypoint. If no such position is found, the vehicle will move all the way to the waypoint.

Special orders

Hide/Unhide (H) – tells unit to keep its head down or engine idle and try to remain unspotted. Issuing the order again tells the unit to unhide. Obviously, trying to hide is more or less successful depending on several factors, but being in suitable terrain is one of them. Trying to hide a Tiger Tank in an open field is not a good idea.
Pause (P) – increase command delay for a unit in increments of 10 seconds. Works up to 60 seconds, then resets back to 0.
Line of Sight (L) – allows player to check what a unit is able to see precisely. Order line is blue when LOS is free, and red/black when it’s blocked. The red part indicates up to which point the LOS is clear. The LOS order also shows additional information, like distance to the area the cursor is pointing to, or even exposure of an enemy unit.
Button up (Z) – available for non-open vehicles only. Instructs crew to close protective hatches. This results in heavily reduced spotting ability, but obviously increases protection for the crew.
Split (no hotkey) – available only for infantry squads. Splits the squad into two half-squads, which can now be manoeuvred independently. However, splitting squads reduces the morale for BOTH halves, and makes BOTH halves less combat effective. It’s a good choice for recon purposes, but not for actual combat, as half-squads are more likely to panic. 


Firing orders

Target (T) – the standard firing order, telling a unit to fire at an enemy or area.
Cancel Target (X) – tells the unit to stop firing at previously selected target.
Target Next (N) – toggles through available targets, starting with the one easiest to hit
Target Wide (W) – only available for Artillery Forward Observers. Instructs the firing battery to use wide dispersion of shells for barrage.
Reset Target (R) – resets any changes made to FO firing orders during the current order phase
Smoke (K) – instructs unit to fire smoke instead of other ammunition. Only available when a unit is capable of firing smoke and has smoke ammo left.
Cover arc (C) – by placing to points on the map, the player designates a firing zone for that unit. Unit will only engage enemy units that enter this area.
Cover armor (V) – similar to the above, but unit will only engage armoured targets. This order only available for anti-tank units (AT Guns, AT teams and AFVs)



Experience

Each unit in CMAK is rated for its experience in combat, determining how effective it will be on the battlefield, how quickly it can react (command delays) and how well it can withstand the terror of war. There are five experience levels in the game – reaching from Conscript and Green (troops with no combat experience and badly trained – if at all) to Regulars and Veterans all the way to Elite (the best of the best). 

Morale

No realistic combat simulation can get away with not simulating the stress and strain experience by front line units during war. The morale system of CMAK is very detailed. It will have your troops get alerted to incoming fire, causing them to possibly not follow your orders exactly as you planned them, or even panic and rout. Troops can become brittle, losing their effectiveness in face of the enemy, and can be rallied again by nearby HQs. How your units react to the stress of war depends on their experience, fatigue, being in or out of command, and not least also on your orders – when you tell a squad to storm across 200 meters of open ground in the face of heavy machinegun fire, or when you tell them to assault an enemy tank with not much else but small arms and hand grenades – don’t be surprised when they become pinned, then panicked and finally break and run away; if they survive, that is.

Fatigue

Each unit in CMAK is rated for physical fitness in addition to its experience. The possible choices are fit, weakened and unfit. This can simulate extended front line duty without much rest, or simply third line replacement troops (like the German Volkssturm units). Depending on their physical fitness, the orders you give (running without rest for several turns), the ground conditions (for example, deep mud or snow tires men much faster than running across flat paved ground) and the equipment of the unit (carrying heavy weapons), a unit’s fatigue will rise throughout the battle, from rested through tired all the way to exhausted. Making sure you let your units rest once in a while for a few turns will usually ensure keeping their combat ability. Once a unit becomes exhausted, it is not able to use fast movement types like Run or Assault.

Casualties

Soldiers seriously wounded, incapacitated, killed, or made combat ineffective by other means are called “casualties” by CMAK. There is no distinction between the various reasons for becoming a casualty, as the outcome is the same – the headcount of active soldiers for a given unit is reduced. And not only the headcount – with each soldier dropping down, his weapons and ammunition will become unavailable to that unit, also. The exception are light machineguns, which are very valuable to an infantry unit, so there is a chance that another soldier from the squad will pick up the machinegun and drop his own weapon instead.

Taking multiple casualties is also the quickest way to deteriorate a unit’s combat morale and make the remaining soldiers in a squad panic. The quicker casualties occur, the bigger the morale hit – one mortar round taking out three soldiers will cause a higher morale hit than taking 5 casualties over a time span of 10 minutes.

Once a unit has been completely eliminated, a marker – a wounded soldier – will be placed on the map where the last member of that unit became ineffective.

Spotting

Unless you’re playing with Fog of War set to None, your units will need to spot the enemy first before you will see enemy soldiers on the map. Spotting does not occur automatically when an enemy comes into Line of Sight. It depends on the cover the enemy is in, if it is moving or firing or hiding, what your units are doing currently, and if they’re panicked or tired. Spotting also won’t reveal all information about an enemy (unless you’re playing with Fog of War: Partial). There are several levels of identification of a spotted enemy, reaching from vague sound contacts to the exact identification of a unit’s type, headcount and even experience. It’s even possible to misidentify units – a conscript infantry squad will have a hard time correctly identifying that enemy tank rolling towards them with guns blazing!

Spotting works best when a unit has binoculars (most HQs units and guns and tanks have these) and when your unit is stationary. The latter because movement tends to cause “tunnel vision”, and spotting to the sides and especially the rear become more difficult.

Sound contacts occur even when your units don’t have a line of sight to the enemy, but when it’s sufficiently close that it can be heard. A tank racing down a road or a gun firing can be heard from quite far, but a unit sneaking in the woods will rarely be heard. Sound contacts in CMAK are rarely displayed in the exact position they are, and only serve to indicate a general area of where the sound is coming from – therefore don’t be surprised when you see an enemy tank sound contact rolling through a house or even off-map. It’s not, but only once you get Line of Sight to that tank, will you be able to see its location.

Command & Control

Good leadership on the battlefield can win wars. CMAK simulates this important aspect of warfare through the use of HQ units. There are platoon, company and battalion HQs in the game for infantry units, and platoon HQs for armored units. Keeping subordinate units close enough to their HQs and within their command range will go a long way to improving your chances to win battles in CMAK. Units in command profit from shorter command delays, better morale, and higher combat efficiency than units out of command.

Each HQ is rated for its leadership abilities, ie. combat, morale, stealth and command, and a bonus in any of these categories improves the abilities of subordinate troops which are in command, as displayed by the brown command lines visible when you click on a unit – and the “command icon” in the unit info panel, which glows green when a unit is in command, and red when it isn’t.

Infantry Platoon HQs can keep units from its own platoon and any independent infantry teams in command. Infantry Company and Battalion HQs can keep ANY units within range under command. Vehicle Platoon HQs can only keep units from their own platoons under their command.

The command range depends on several factors – lines of sight, the command rating of the HQ unit, and the experience of both the HQ and the subordinate unit. This is also true for vehicles, however vehicles equipped with radios do not require lines of sight. Vehicles without radios not only have to stay within Line of Sight, but both the HQ vehicle and subordinate vehicles need to remain UNBUTTONED (i.e. hatches open) in order to stay in command!

It’s a good idea to keep your HQs out of harm’s way but as close as possible to your fighting units to be able to exert control without the risk of being killed – a dead HQ can mean that the remaining subordinate units have to fight out of command for the remainder of the battle. For infantry units, moving a higher HQ to replace the killed HQ is a good option, but this doesn’t work for vehicles!

Artillery

Artillery is one of the most important support arms for ground combat during WWII, and great attention has been paid to simulate this aspect as realistically as possible. The way artillery works has also been greatly tweaked since CMBO.

There are two types of “artillery” – on-map guns and mortars and off-map batteries.

Off-map batteries require a “forward observer” (FO) team to provide them with targets – usually through radio or wire telephone. These FOs are placed and moved on the map like any other unit, but the fire orders available to them don’t mean that they’re firing small arms at the target, but instead that they are instructing the artillery battery in the rear to plaster the target area with a barrage of shells.

This doesn’t happen instantly, as there is a delay between ordering a battery to fire and when the first rounds arrive on target. The delay depends on the experience of the FO, the type of gun ordered to fire, and whether the target area is within Line of Sight of the FO or not. Don’t be surprised when you see delays of 10 turns (minutes) and more! It took a long time for a battery to do the necessary calculations to adjust their guns on target, sometimes from as far as 10 or more kilometres from behind the front lines!

The delays are different for all nations, reflecting their different firing procedures and artillery asset allocations. Firing delays can be improved dramatically through the use of Target Reference Points (TRP). These points reflect areas “registered” before the battle, so that all the needed ballistic calculations have been done, and therefore it is possible, even for guns with usually high delays and for all nations, to unload a barrage within 1 turn on these points. TRPs work regardless if a line of sight exists or not and are always accurate.  However, TRPs are rarely if ever available to an attacking force, or to either side in a meeting engagement.  And even the defending side often does not receive them.

Talking about accuracy, yes, barrages – especially those fired outside of LOS of the FO – can be inaccurate, and terribly so sometimes. There is no indication if a barrage is accurate or not, except to watch the battlefield closely and see where the artillery rounds impact. Usually, before the full barrage arrives, you will see a couple of “spotting rounds” impact somewhere on the map, giving a good indication if the barrage will be on target or not. If it’s not, you need to adjust.

Adjustments made to artillery barrages work the same as placing a new target order, except that the delays are usually shorter, as long as the new impact point isn’t too far away from the originally plotted point. When a barrage seems off-target, simply replotting the original point is enough to adjust the target. Even when the barrage is on target, you can “walk” the barrage in any direction up to a certain distance, and the shorter “adjustment” delay will be calculated. In order to achieve this, the new point has to be in LOS, however, and not too far away from the original point. A green target line (instead of a blue line) indicates an adjustment bonus. At any time, you can use the Reset order (hotkey R), which resets any changes you have made in that order phase.

Any infantry HQ unit exerting command over an on-map order can serve as a spotter. The on-map mortar is then able to fire at areas which it can’t see itself, but which is within LOS of the HQ unit. This is also true for vehicle-mounted on-map mortars!

Ambushing

One of the best ways to smack your opponent hard is to use ambushes. In CMAK, a successful ambush can be sprung in a couple of ways.

- Covered arcs: You can issue “covered arcs” and “vehicle arcs” orders to units, by defining a killing zone laterally and in depth. Units with active covered arcs will only engage enemy targets within these arcs, and while they are not allowed to hide (they need to be observing so they can’t keep their heads down), chances are that the enemy will not spot these units until after walking right into the killing zone. By setting such an arc, it is often possible to have the enemy come within 100 meters or less before opening fire. Covered arcs apply to all enemy unit types, while units with vehicle arcs will only open fire on armored vehicles.
- Hide: hiding your units is the best way to make sure the enemy won’t see them until it’s too late. The downside is that hiding units are not able to spot very well. Once an enemy comes very close to your hiding units (usually within 20-30 meters), your units will engage the enemy automatically. Of course you can simply unhide your units manually during an order phase once the enemy has come close enough to your liking.

How well your units are able to spring an ambush depends on their experience, however, and also if they’re under command (especially of a leader with high stealth leadership ability). It takes nerves like steel to hold fire when you can see the enemy approaching your position so close that you can see the white in their eyes.

Armor penetrations

CMAK uses the most advanced unclassified historical and physics research currently available to simulate gunnery and armor penetration with maximum accuracy and precision. The algorithms under the hood are incredibly detailed and based exclusively on real-world data. The following is a very brief description of how armor penetrations are calculated in CMAK:

- determine (with some randomness) the impact point of a projectile, ie. upper hull front, turret side or top armor. The impact is based on real-world ballistics, and takes into account the exact position and “tilt” of a tank – since CMAK plays in a 3-D environment, it is possible to determine the impact angle relative to the angle of the tank exactly – in all three dimensions!
- calculate the basic armor of the area struck by the projectile, including a plethora of values like armor thickness, armor quality, “Brinnell” hardness factor, face- hardened armor (whose effect depends on type and “shape” of the striking round), armor slope, vertical and horizontal angles, spaced armor, bolted-on supplemental armor, curved armor and much much more. The underlying real world values for each tank can be seen in the detailed unit info window.
- determine the velocity of the striking projectile at the impact point and calculate its kinetic energy
- determine the ability of the projectile to penetrate the armor, including the “shape” of the round, structural weakness, the size relation between projectile and armor and much more. Some randomness is built in here, since no two projectiles or armor plates are the same.
- When the penetration energy is higher than the armor can withstand, a penetration occurs. But this doesn’t mean the tank is knocked out immediately. CMAK differentiates between minimal penetrations (where the striking energy is just enough to punch a small hole) and complete penetrations, and assigns the possible damage to the tank and its crew depending on this, but also the location, the size and type of the round, and several other factors (including some randomness).
- When the penetration energy is not high enough, rounds can ricochet (and will land somewhere else on the map) or even break apart. But even non-penetrating hits can be dangerous, as CMAK simulates the possibility of armor “flaking” or “spalling” (even non-penetrating rounds can cause damage inside the tank by causing metal fragments from the inside armor to break loose under the impact from the outside, and injure the tank's crew).



Troubleshooting

Common Issues: 
CUSTOM THEMES/CURSORS: Do not use custom Windows “themes” or custom mouse pointers! If you get mouse pointer “flicker”, or notice any unexplainable problems (even those which seemingly have nothing to do with cursors or the mouse) try changing the “Windows Theme” and mouse pointer to the Windows Default. 

MICROSOFT INTELLIMOUSE: has been linked to various problems including crashes and graphical corruption. Obtain and install the latest drivers from Microsoft. If this does not solve the problem, disable the Intellimouse software (there should be an icon you can click in the lower-right portion of your screen, in the task bar). 

LOGITECH MOUSE/TRACKBALL: Problems have been linked to obsolete drivers for these products. Obtain and install the latest drivers. 

OVERCLOCKED GRAPHICS: If your video card has an over-clocking feature, this may cause very strange graphical problems. Drop the clock speed back to normal, using its control panel. 


Problem: When game is launched it reports that a resolution of at least 800x600 is required in order to run but my desktop is set to 800x600 (or higher) already.

Cause/Solution #1: Whatever video card you have is not properly identifying itself and as such the game does not know what video resolutions it can support. You should reinstall the latest video drivers available for your video card and also reinstall/upgrade your version of DirectX.

You can download the newest version of DirectX (currently 9.0a) directly from Microsoft here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A19BED22-0B25-4E5D-A584-6389D8A3DAD0&displaylang=en

Problem: Sound in game used to work but is now silent.

Cause/Solution: The sound in the game can be toggled between ON, ON+Ambient and OFF. These settings are toggled via the Shift-S keystroke.

Problem: When mouse is moved across the screen it leaves a trail of corrupted graphics. Cursor itself may also appear as a white block.

Cause/Solution: That is usually caused by running with Custom Mouse cursors or having a Windows Theme Packs installed. Make sure that you are only using the Standard Windows Default Mouse cursor and disable or uninstall any custom mouse animations and effects that may have been loaded with a Theme pack. You may also want to upgrade your mouse drivers as applicable. Check with the manufacturers website for updated mouse drivers. 

Problem: When game is launched an Unhandled Exception: c0000005 at address: 0053d978 & 005419e5 (can also be some other addresses but they always start with c0000005) error occurs.

Cause/Solution: At some point a DirectX component file has become corrupted or is no longer correctly functioning. In order to resolve this issue you should re-install DirectX. Recommend the latest version, which is now DirectX 9.0a and can be obtained directly from Microsoft at the following URL: 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A19BED22-0B25-4E5D-A584-6389D8A3DAD0&displaylang=en

Problem: When viewing a turn in the Action Phase, the timer jumps to the end of the turn or displays random numbers. Action on screen may or may not be affected.

Cause/Solution #1: Make sure you are not running and Instant Messenger software in the background. Programs like MS Messenger and AIM can cause this to occur.

Cause/Solution #2: Some older Dell computers had a problem correctly computing their Windows "UPTIME". This causes the game to loose its timing and corrupt the action playback. Contact Dell for an updated Bios which should fix this problem


Problem: Sound in game used to work but is now silent.

Cause/Solution: The sound in the game can be toggled between ON, ON+Ambient and OFF. These settings are toggled via the Shift-S keystroke.




Video Issues- Nvidia cards
(Geforce-GeForce 4, FX series cards)

Problem: Game seems to lock up or display a black screen immediately after game is loaded, you may hear the intro music or sound still. Video card is a Nvidia (GeForce, GeForce 2,3, 4 or newer FX card) and you have newer drivers (41.09 or higher) installed for it. 

Cause/Solution #1: The problem is with the video drivers. They have a problem properly initializing the screen graphics when Anti-Aliasing is enabled. Turn off Full Screen Anti-aliasing for your video card. This can be done via the video cards display properties panel.

Cause/Solution #2: Minimize CMAK by pressing Alt-Tab and then re-maximize it by clicking on its icon on the Task bar. The display should properly refresh and everything should be visible again. If it does not, you can click the mouse buttons a few times, your system may seem to freeze for a few seconds or it may even beep one time (Windows Application error beep) but after about 20 seconds the screen may properly re-appear.

Cause/Solution #3: Since those drivers will not correctly work when Anti-Aliasing is enabled you maybe able to install older video drivers which will work fine and allow you to use Anti-Aliasing.

Cause/Solution #4: See the Problem entry below for another possible fix.

Problem: Game seems to lock up or display a black screen immediately after game is loaded, you may hear the intro music or sound still. Game may also display a black screen when minimizing and maximizing back in.

Cause/Solution: This issue on some Windows XP systems has also been traced to the installation of a Microsoft Hotfix from their Windows Update service. If none of the above solutions are working for you, you may want to try and uninstall Windows Hotfix #328310 (also called MS02-071: Flaw in Windows WM_TIMER Message Handling Can Enable Privilege Elevation).

Depending on how your system has been configured you may or may not be able to remove that hotfix. Check the Add/Remove Programs list accessed via the Control Panel. If you see it listed,( it should be listed under "Windows XP Hotfix (SP2) Q328310"), remove it and see if the problem continues. 

Problem: All in game text and scenario list appears blank. 

Cause/Solution #1: The problem is with the video drivers. They have a problem properly initializing the screen graphics when Anti-Aliasing is enabled. Turn off Full Screen Anti-aliasing for your video card. This can be done via the video cards display properties panel.

Cause/Solution #2: Minimize CMAK by pressing Alt-Tab and then re-maximize it by clicking on its icon on the Task bar. The display should properly refresh and everything should be visible again.

Problem: In game text is corrupt or colored improperly. I have a GeForce FX5200 video card.

Cause/Solution: This seems to be isolated to the FX5200 series cards and is a bug in the Nvidia drivers. You can use Alt-Tab to minimize and then maximize the game to get the text to appear normally but you can only use the Alt-Tab solution once per game session. If you Alt-Tab out and back in a second time the problem will reoccur and will persist until you reboot. UPDATE: Recent Nvidia drivers seem to have fixed this issue.

Problem: In game textures/graphics seem to have a black or miscolored border around them. Video card is a Nvidia FX series (5200, 5600, 5800, 5900).

Cause/Solution: This seems to be a bug in the recent Nvidia drivers and occurs with the Nvidia FX series video cards when you frequently task switch in and out and of the game. You can use Alt-Tab to minimize and then maximize the game to get the graphics to appear correct.

Problem: When game launches the monitor goes black and reports a error message that says "scan frequency out of range" or similar message. Monitor may also display graphics which seem very distorted and duplicated repeatedly across the screen.

Cause/Solution #1: The game will launch in the same resolution and refresh rate that your desktop is set to but Windows can sometimes report those settings incorrectly. Check in Windows Hardware/Device Manager that your monitor is not listed as "Default Monitor". If it is, check with your monitor manufacturer for specific drivers. Windows should list your monitor with the correct make and model, if it does not, Windows will not be able to access all the refresh rates and resolutions your monitor supports.

Cause/Solution #2: If you have a GeForce video card download and install the NVRefreshTool utility which will allow you to customize the refresh rate for any resolution and bit depth (Note:CMAK always runs in 16 bit color mode). Try setting your desktop resolution to 60Hz and then launch the game. You can experiment with raising the refresh rate higher until you reach the limit of your monitor. In general, the higher the refresh rate the less the screen will appear to "flicker". Check with your monitor manufactures to locate the monitors highest support refresh rate by resolution.

You can download the NVRefreshTool utility from this webpage: http://www.guru3d.com


Problem: My game is playing very slow and I have a Nvidia card (GeForce-GeForce 4 or FX) in my computer.

Cause/Solution: This seems to be a bug introduced in some Nvidia drivers released after version 41.09. Nvidia has recently released a new driver version (52.16) which fixes the slowdown issue.

Download the new 52.16 drivers from Nvidia's webpage located at www.nvidia.com


NVIDIA DRIVERS (40.72 and newer) AND FULL SCREEN ANTI-ALIASING (FSAA)

With all Nvidia drivers released after version 30.87 there has been a persistent bug which has caused issues in the game when Anti-Aliasing was enabled. The most common problem reported is invisible text in all 2D portions of the game interface including all game menu's but you may also encounter a issue where the entire screen is all black.

There are several current workarounds for this problem.

A). If you wish to use these new drivers (current version 52.16) AND also have FSAA enabled you can minimize (alt-Tab) and then maximize the game. That should make the hidden text reappear. If the screen started off completely black and you alt-tabbed in and out and the screen was still black, move the mouse around the screen and click it several times. Your mouse may appear to freeze, when it does, click the mouse button several more times, you may hear a Windows error beep at this point, after about 15-20 more seconds the game screen should re-appear properly (This work-around tested with a FX 5600 Ultra).

B). If you disable FSAA with these drivers you should not have any problems with in-game text.

C). The older driver releases (30.82 and 30.87) were both stable, high performing and did not have this FSAA bug. Those drivers can be found below. Note: Those drivers will not work with the FX series of cards.

You should be able to find those drivers listed above either at Nvidia's website at http://www.nvidia.com or at Guru3d which is located here: http://www.guru3d.com



Video Issues- ATI cards
(Radeon)

Problem: Game seems to lock up or display a black screen immediately after game is loaded, you may hear the intro music or sound still. Video card is a Radeon card.

Cause/Solution #1: The problem is with the video drivers. They have a problem properly initializing the screen graphics when Anti-Aliasing is enabled. Turn off Full Screen Anti-aliasing for your video card. This can be done via the video cards display properties panel.

Cause/Solution #2: Minimize CMAK by pressing Alt-Tab and then re-maximize it by clicking on its icon on the Task bar. The display should properly refresh and everything should be visible again.

Cause/Solution #3: See the Problem entry below for another possible fix.

Problem: Game seems to lock up or display a black screen immediately after game is loaded, you may hear the intro music or sound still. Game may also display a black screen when minimizing and maximizing back in.

Cause/Solution: This issue on some Windows XP systems has also been traced to the installation of a Microsoft Hotfix from their Windows Update service. If none of the above solutions are working for you, you may want to try and uninstall Windows Hotfix #328310 (also called MS02-071: Flaw in Windows WM_TIMER Message Handling Can Enable Privilege Elevation).

Depending on how your system has been configured you may or may not be able to remove that hotfix. Check the Add/Remove Programs list accessed via the Control Panel. If you see it listed,( it should be listed under "Windows XP Hotfix (SP2) Q328310"), remove it and see if the problem continues. 


Problem: All in game text and scenario list appears blank. 

Cause/Solution #1: The problem is with the video drivers. They have a problem properly initializing the screen graphics when Anti-Aliasing is enabled. Turn off Full Screen Anti-aliasing for your video card. This can be done via the video cards display properties panel.

Cause/Solution #2: Minimize CMAK by pressing Alt-Tab and then re-maximize it by clicking on its icon on the Task bar. The display should properly refresh and everything should be visible again.

Problem: I have a ATI Radeon card but I can not see any fog graphics on my PC with Windows installed.

Cause/Solution: This is a problem with the drivers that ATI makes for Windows based systems. For some reason they have decided to not support "fog table emulation" which is needed to show the fog graphics in CMAK.

Problem: I have a Radeon 9000 video card and while editing map elevations in the scenario editor changed elevation numbers do not display.

Cause/Solution: Alt-Tab out and back in to the game. The proper elevation numbers should now be displayed.

Problem: When game launches the monitor goes black and reports a error message that says "scan frequency out of range" or similar message. Monitor may also display graphics which seem very distorted and duplicated repeatedly across the screen.

Cause/Solution #1: The game will launch in the same resolution and refresh rate that your desktop is set to but Windows can sometimes report those settings incorrectly. Check in Windows Hardware/Device Manager that your monitor is not listed as "Default Monitor". If it is, check with your monitor manufacturer for specific drivers. Windows should list your monitor with the correct make and model, if it does not, Windows will not be able to access all the refresh rates and resolutions your monitor supports.


RADEON VIDEO CARDS AND SLUGGISH GAME PERFORMANCE 

If you have a Radeon video card and are noticing sluggish or stuttering game performance you may want to try and disable the Z-Mask setting on your card. Many people have reported substantial performance improvements when they disabled the Z-Mask. This is a setting that is accessible using a Radeon Tweak Program which you can find here:
http://www.rage3d.com/r3dtweak/



Video Issues- SiS Chipset's

SiS VIDEO CARDS AND CMAK INCOMPATABILITY

If your computer has the integrated SiS 650 chipset on the motherboard you will not be able to run CMAK.

Certain models of Sony Vaio's use this chipset as do some Pentium 4 motherboards. Please check with the manufacturer to see if you have the SiS 650 chipset in your computer.

This issue appears to be a bug in the current SiS 650 video drivers but, to date, it has not been fixed by either Sony or SiS and we have no indication if or when a updated driver release will address the problem.

A similar issue with the SiS 6326, 530 and 540 may occur so we recommend any owners of SiS cards to test compatibility with the demo.


Video Issues- Kyro Chipset's

Problem: Video Card uses the Kyro or Kyro II Chipset (ex: Hercules Prophet 4500) and text and graphics in-game are blurry or corrupted.

Cause/Solution: You will need to add a entry to the registry to clear up the corruption. Launch the Regedit program and locate the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PowerVR\KYRO\Game Settings\D3D

You will need to add the following entry to that key.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\PowerVR\KYRO\Game Settings\D3D\Afrika Korps.exe] "DisableCopyBlt3D"="1"

NOTE: You must make sure that you enter that entry with the EXACT name of the game executable. If you for some reason have renamed your game .exe to be "CMAK.exe" for example that registry entry should look like this:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\PowerVR\KYRO\Game Settings\D3D\CMAK.exe] "DisableCopyBlt3D"="1"


Note: If you are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with manually editing entries in your registry you can contact support@battlefront.com and we will send you a .reg file which can automatically add that entry to your registry for you.

Battlefront.com takes no responsibility for any damage that may occur due to editing your registry.


Problem: Video Card uses the Kyro or Kyro II Chipset and some solid objects appear transparent when viewed in front of other transparent objects.

Cause/Solution: You can do the following at the expense of some performance loss. Go to Control Panel then click Display Control Panel and then the Settings tab. Click the Advanced button then click the 3D Optimization tab then click the Direct3D tab (default). Under the Control Full-Scene Anti-Aliasing make sure the setting 'Application specified anti-aliasing' is selected. Check mark the 'Enable External Depth/Stencil Buffer' and under that check the 'Enable External Depth/Stencil Buffer Storing'.

You may also need to disable Full Screen Anti-Aliasing if graphic corruption persists. You might want to view this thread from the Tech Support forum for a discussion on this issue:
http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=003746

     
   TCP/IP Troubleshooting
     Firewalls and Proxies - If either player is behind a firewall (hacker protection) or is using a proxy system, you might need to reconfigure your system.  In order to play a network game, Combat Mission requires that TCP port 7023 be open for all outgoing and incoming transmissions. Please configure your firewall and proxies accordingly.  Users of the software packages Black Ice Defender and Zone Alarm may have to disable the software completely before a successful connection can be made. It is possible that some users of Black Ice Defender might have to do a full uninstall of the package in order for CM to be able to work correctly for TCP/IP play
     
     Cable/DSL Router Configuration - If you use a home broadband router like the LinkSys Cable/DSL 4 port Router and wish to host games you will need to add TCP port 7023 to the routers forwarding table. You then need to match port 7023 to the internal IP address of the computer that you want to host the game with, then use the routers control panel (usually accessed via your browser) to get the external IP address given out by your ISP. Give this external IP address to your opponent and connection should work with you as Host.
     
     Internet Connection Sharing - Many people use ICS on their home LANs to access a broadband or modem connection to the Internet across multiple computer systems. Currently a computer that is connected to the Internet via an ICS connection can not Host a Combat Mission game out to the Internet. They can however host locally to systems that are connected on the same home LAN.  They can also still attach to a hosted game normally on the Internet or the home LAN. This limitation on hosting affects systems that gain their access to the Internet SOLELY through an ICS connection.
     
     Problem: I am on Windows XP and I can’t seem to host a game. I can connect to game though.
     Solution 1: Windows XP comes with its own built in Firewall which may need to be modified or disabled in order to host games. First check your network properties by going into the Control Panel>Network Connections. Find the network adaptor that is used to establish your connection to the internet. Right click on the Network Adaptor and select “Properties”. Click the “Advanced” tab. If there is a checkmark in the box labelled “Protect my computer and network by limiting or preventing access to this computer from the Internet”, you have XP’s built in Firewall and will need to configure it to allow you to host CMAK games. If it is not checked, then see Solution 2 below. In order to enable the firewall to allow you to host a CMAK game you will need to click the “Settings” button from the “Properties>Advanced” screen. Once you click the “Settings” button you will see a list of Services and three buttons at the bottom of the screen. Click the “Add” button. You will be presented with another screen with several blank fields. The first field is for you to describe the service you are adding. Just type something like “CMAK Network Games” in that field. The second field is for the name or IP address of the computer which needs to host this service.  You can type 192.168.0.0 (default IP of your system) or type in the computers “name”. If your computer is part of a home network where each system has its own configured IP address then type in whatever IP is assigned to your computer or alternatively you can use the computers “name”. In the third field “External port number for this service” type in the number “7023” (without the quotes). In the fourth field, “Internal port number for this service” type in the number “7023” (without the quotes). Make sure the button ”TCP” is selected. Click the OK button 3 times to save the changes and exit. You should now be able to host games.
     Solution 2: If your Windows XP is connected to the internet through a computer running Internet Connection Sharing you can not host a game but you can still join a game hosted by someone else. 


Game performance

There are several options to improve game performance. Try one or all of the options listed below.

* (Windows only) Activate the hardware acceleration for DirectX/Direct3D (in the DirectX settings)
* adjust visual display of trees (Shift-T) to “moderate” or “sparse”, or disable them altogether
* adjust visual display of terrain elements (Shift-N) to “moderate” or “sparse”, or disable them altogether
* set the horizon (Shift-H) to a lower max value than “infinite”
* set smoke display (Shift-I) to “quick and compatible” or disable it altogether
* set the amount of men displayed per squad (Shift-M) to “2 men per squad”
* set Weather/Fog (Shift-W) to OFF
* set SOUND (Shift-S) to OFF or “no ambient sound”
* buy a newer 3D video card with more RAM (16 MB or more for best results). This will immediately improve game performance.

Playing by email or TCP/IP – different version?

When you or your opponent see the message that the PBEM file or game version is different, then one of you is using an older version of the CMAK Demo or you are trying to play a game between the CMAK demo and the full version which is also not permitted..


Full Game Features:


* Wage war in the Mediterranean Theater from Libya in July 1940 to Italy in 1945

* Hi-res 3D graphics and dynamic stereo sound effects

* Larger battlemaps! Operations up to 32 square kilometers in size and individual battle maps up to 20 square kilometers

* Unique Turn / Real-time hybrid system - allows for both detailed planning and exciting action

* Internet / LAN / Play By Email / Hotseat head to head play

* 10 nations: German, US, British, Canadian, Italian, French, Australian, New Zealander, South African, Polish

* 700+ different tanks and vehicles and other unit types

* 70 Scenarios and Operations

* Quick Battle Maker for unlimited computer made scenarios

* Full featured Map and Scenario Editor to create your own battles and operations

* New effects including dust clouds, desert fog and more

* Unparalleled realism and attention to detail

* 32 page printed Quick Guide with removable Quick Reference Card, and 210+ page PDF manual


All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Battlefront.com, Inc.