jwxspoon

A very interesting and informative piece Jason. Thanks!

Yes StelarRat, I was an FO from 1983 to 1986 before moving on to another MOS. I called in a lot of CAS, mortars, and 105's, much fewer heavy artillery. A little naval gunfire. [ 08-23-2001: Message edited by: jwxspoon ]

DFGardner is right about the Army using them until recently. I was an FO in the 2nd Ranger Battalion at Ft. Lewis and know that we used the 90mm until 1990 at least. We loved the 90 (altho I never had to carry it), especially the APERS rounds that fired a massive flechette charge. We also carried LAW rockets, but were very happy with the 90 because it gave us a significant anti armor threat far beyond the ability of the LAW.

Modern artillery is much more effective than the World War II equivalents, notwithstanding the special munitions that are available now as well (ICM, SADARM, MLRS, etc.)

Wild Bill I just want to tell you I appreciate your attitude and class and your willingness to look at issues raised by people playing your scenarios. I was reminded reading your post how many of your scenarios I have played that are EXCELLENT and it seems I have only rated those I didn't like...I will correct this in the future. No wonder you are my favorite scenario designer. JW

Ah yes, I am one of the Total Loss players. I could not take out the Panthers in the game with my 75mm armed Shermans. By the time the M10 TD's arrived the Germans had moved their Panthers to cover the road...finally under cover of smoke we charged around the curve and closed to point blank range and still only killed a single Panther for the loss of all of our Shermans, TD's etc. I think if the Germans had fewer Panthers and more Mk IV's or if some of the Shermans had the 76mm gun, things might have changed. We did knock out almost every other vehicle the Germans had, but after repeated hits on each of the Panthers could only kill one of them. Even if we had some of the tanks entering from the road on the French left flank we could have tried for flank shots, but as it was it was the scenario for me was not winnable. JW

I just had to tell someone about this one. I am about five turns from the end of a PBEM game. My infantry force is strong and virtually untouched but must cross 100-150 meters of open ground to assault the flags, which my opponent is in tentative possession of (he has just endured some 8" Howitzer shelling). My bazookas are empty; I have one M3 HT for fire support for the infantry assault. But, my opponent has a Mk IV tank overwatching the open area, vigorouskly shelling any infantry that shows its face. Since my FO has LOS, I figure what the hell and target my last 2 rounds of 8 inch artillery on the tank. By my honor the two 8 inch rounds fall simultaneously, one of them is a direct hit on the top of the Mk IV!!!

I have found the Howitzer armed stugs to be useless, but the Stug IIIg has been very effective. I once dueled my two Fireflies against three stugs and lost both Fireflies in the same turn. The key for me is as you mentioned to set up the stug with the intention of using it as an armored AT gun. JW

Hi Holien, Spocko showed me the chart numbers on the TH chat. You might try emailing him for the actual chart - but according to his numbers the time to fall was ONLY affected by LOS and the experience level of the FO Jeff

I've learned some things about artillery that may be helpful. Evidently the only things that speed up the arrival of an arty mision are FO experience, and LOS. I used to think that command abilities of a PL or CO affected the drop time but it does not. I have seen a table from another player in which he listed the differences in time with and without los and by experience level. As a result of this I now make a much greater effort to obtain los for my FO's. Combined with larger artillery and 4-5 round fire missions I have become much more effective in my artillery usage. [ 08-02-2001: Message edited by: jwxspoon ]

I see the on-foot flamethrowers used most effectively on defense. The way I use them is to hide them and place an ambush point in the area you want them to attack. Once they fire they will not last long but you can have some spectacular successes with them when they work. In an urban setting I will put them on the second floor of a building (hidden). In the woods on dfense I will put them hidden to one side and slightly behind a platoon. Your enemy will almost always be ambushed by your infantry first, and there's no better way to cap the ambush than to add some liquid flame to the mix.

JasonC has the right idea. Just be prepared to move your TD after he fires, because an enemy tank on the other side of the obstacle can pound the building into rubble and then get a free flank shot.

I used to do a lot of rushing to hold buildings initially. Then, after a few buildings came down around my ears, or after I got to turn 25 in a 30 turn game and attempted to hold on to a building with squads mostly out of ammo and down 30-50% in strength, I realized that I was not winning these games! Now I move slowly and will rarely move more than a platoon in early on. I'll only occupy heavy buildings and will try to set up an ambush by occupying my side of a big heavy building (just barely entering it) with a couple of squads and having them hide. Most of the time they can't be seen until the building is entered and it's an ugly situation for whomever entered it.

You are right about that Moriarty - I thought we had done that but we had not discussed specifics as far as types of squads. My favorite kind of game is to pick a date, nationality and game type and then let the computer pick the forces, but I find few takers with those kinds of games.

Just ask my last opponent, I had 1 KT and a couple of Panthers; he had a few Shermans and 3 Pershings...I went head to head with an M4A3 76mm Sherman and the first shot from the Sherman penetrated FRONTALLY and killed the KT. I was mortified.

Yes - the way I look at a cheap Puppchen or light AT gun is insurance - insurance against an overrun or flank attack by enemy armor (I have succumbed to both ) and also on the positive end there might be a pleasant surprise and the map board may be open enough that your light AT gun can rule the battlefield. Yesterday an opponent had a 6lber AT gunway over in the corner of the board. I could not kill it. It killed a Hummell, panicked an HMG and got a gun hit on my Jpz IV, eventually causing the crew to bail. At the end of the game I had a minor obj and we were locked in hand to hand on the major; I got overwhelmed on the last turn and ended up losing the game by just a few points. I cannot help but think that if my we could have gotten that lowly 6lber earlier it would have ended differently.

Last night I played a 1000 pt ME as axis. I had some extra points at the end of the selection process and purchased a Hummell and a puppchen AT weapon. I placed the Hummell about 500 meters behind my advacing troops and placed the puppchen hidden in a small patch of woods near my front lines. In the first 5 turns the Hummell and its 150mm cannon were unbelievable. I killed or routed a half dozen enemy squads and flattened a couple of prime location buildings with 1 shot. Desperate, my opponent ran a Daimler AC and a Churchill Croc down the map edge to kill the Hummell. The Churchill finally did so, but the puppchen got them both, and a wasp a few minutes later as a bonus. I was stunned at the effect of my 80 point Hummell! Even the slow 2-3 rounds per minute swung the battle in my favor. My opponent couldn't recover and surrendered by turn 20.

I agree about the big SP's. City fighting is one area in which I'd like to improve. One thing I have learned is that some of the AA vehicles the axis has are very versatile in the city, particularly the 37mm variant. I hope that in CM2 the us quad .50 cal flak vehicle will be included. What an awesome anti-infantry and light armor killer that will be!

I appreciate the responses. I still do not buy the FT's or the CAS, but have had them used on me to devestating effect. And you're right about being aggressive - sometimes the "hail mary end run" turns the tide. I try to play all of the nationalities in the game. I particularly like to play axis and use a mixture of 1/2 Fallschirmjaeger and 1/2 Gebirgsjaeger (sp?) for my infantry, supplemented by a few additional shrecks and HMG's. I have had one platoon of G-jaegers stand off an entire US company in the woods before, after which my opponent got mad and said I was cheating... not cheating, just learning how to play and utilize the benefits of each troop type. Anyone that has had their regular infantry go hand to hand with German Stormtroopers end up with a healthy respect for their huge squads, or with Gjaegers because of their incredible close range firepower; any one playing against British paras learns very quickly how cheap they are and, therefore, how many extra squads your opponent can buy to use when you least expect it. I love this game. [ 07-15-2001: Message edited by: jwxspoon ]

I've recently been playing much higher quality opponents through TCP on some of the ladders. I have had my rear end handed to me a few times - the question is have I learned anything? Thought I'd post some of the lessons and tactics successfully used against me here, and I hope some of you will do the same. 1. Artillery - I used to buy 81mm mortars on the premise that it would soften up the enemy, keep their heads down, and I had 150- 200 rounds to play with. But that was before I learned the power of 155mm VT. I lost an entire company in 2 turns of artillery when my infantry was in a wooded position untouchable by direct fire and securing a flag position. Now I will always buy at least some 155mm (or like large-sized) artillery as I have learned that the shock and destruction factor here outweighs the lack of ammunition. 2. Patience - In ME's, I am often moving forward too fast. Several times a quality player has let me charge forward and secure the voctory flags, only to pound me and expertly eject my battered forces a few turns later. Now I am much more patient. I spend a lot more time at ground level plotting individual squad movement instead of moving the platoon as a whole. I have learned the value of the "sneak" command and the power of a (+2 Stealth) command unit when sneaking up on the enemy. Most often now in my games the really heavy fighting doesn't take place until the last 1/3rd of the game, when before the first half of the game was the fighting and I tried to "make do" in the second half. 3. Air Power Rocks - I never knew this. I had bought airplanes once in a PBEM attack when I was the British. It was a disaster, because they didn't show up until I had lost 1/3 of my force taking the dominant terrain feature. Then, as my men huddled around a burned out Tiger and Stug, we were bombed and strafed for four or five turns by moy own aircraft. I lost count of how many times they knocked out those dead German vehicles. Then I played a 1250 pt ME QB. Of course you would never buy aircraft in those, right? Well my opponent did. By turn 3 I had no vehicles left and was well on my way to a Major Loss. 4. Flamethrowers: Those little wasp flamethrower carriers rock! Several times as axis I have had a hidden Wasp zip out, roll at high speed a hundred meters or so and kill a major tank of mine before the startled crew could react. Several times my tank ended up killing the wasp and getting immolated in flame in return. Also, I have had some opponents use the little flamethrower carriers to set large areas on fire and create very effective smoke screens for his units to use, also denying my own troops the cover afforded of light buildings or woods near an objective. Hope some of this helps. I'm interested in hearing from others on lessons learned. [ 07-15-2001: Message edited by: jwxspoon ]

Ah - others have the same problem here as I. Does the statement: "Have you killed enough people tonight?" (spoken with a small bite of sarcasm) ring a bell?

OK - I give up. How do you do it? JW

Yes - my pet peeve with the CM artillery modeling is that while my arty is firing, if I shift the target slightly (+ or- 100 meters or so) I end up starting the clock all over again. This is especially frustrating with 81mm mortars - the M16 plotting board used in most infantry weapons platoons today is virtually unchanged from its WWII counterpart. The mortars would adjust very quickly. My assumption is that the system is designed to reflect the terrible tactical radio systems in use during WWII.

Hi guys, I have a bit of experience in this area. I was an FO for 2/75 Rangers for four years, 1/325 PIR for two, and then I moved on to other Army jobs. In practice we would adjust rounds onto the target. Typically you're looking at about 30-60 seconds for the FDC to compute the data and send it on to the battery and another 50+ seconds for the travel of the initial round. Then another minute and a half for the FO to get the adjustment and for the FFE get on target. In combat a good FO that has registered the battery (which WILL have been done prior to combat in all but the most extreme situations) would not need to adjust fire because he would already have preplanned targets all over the battlefield. He would simply call in a target number and a correction to the enemy troops and get an immediate FFE. The FDC will already have a copy of the target list and those rounds will come FAST

For British - I'll take the Firefly every time. I've only been burned once by dueling a pair of Fireflies with just about anything. For German - I'll take the Tiger, Panther of Stug IIIG For American - I like the jumbo Sherman, the Stuart, and the M36