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Martin Rapier

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About Martin Rapier

  • Birthday 10/06/1961

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  • Location
    Sheffield, UK
  • Interests
    Wargaming (minis, board, computer), military history, gardening, cycling
  • Occupation
    Database Administrator

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  1. Agreed, to my mind CC2 was one of the finest computer wargames ever produced, despite the dumb AI, points based unit purchase etc etc mainly because of the scripted campaign. The higher level resource allocation issues worked very well but you also had decent tactical engagements on (for the time) very pretty maps, which were at least mercifully brief due to it being RTS(most of the time). Of all the CC series, CC2 is one I still actually play from time to time, whereas the change in the way forces were allocated in CC3 onwards meant the Grand Campaigns were no challenge at all, even playing 'iron man' (max difficulty and taking the default deployment). CC5 was probably the worst in this regard, at least in CC4 you couldn't cherry pick the units which made up your battlegroups. They are all OK against a human of course. I find that CC2 can still provide a challenge vs the AI, even if it does involve taking on half a dozen Panthers with a handful of US paratroops and a bazooka! Cheers Martin
  2. IIRC Russian ATRs were effective up to 500m - bit better than the Boys ATR anyway! It is bipod mounted a rifle firing a really high velocity round at an enormous great halftrack 200m away - I'd be more surprised if they missed it at that range. Cheers Martin
  3. In this case it was still the divisional panzerjager battalion though, one of the companies was requipping with Stugs rather than towed guns, which was common in later war infantry panzerjager battalions (as the later reference to Hetzers indicates). There was no 1007th Assault Gun Battalion, but 1st Company, 7th Panzerjager Battalion makes much more sense (although as Otto said, perhaops they were referred to as 1007th Stug Abt to 'fool the enemy'.) Remember abteilung only means 'detachment', there is no reason why a panzerjager abteilung can't have a subordinate Stug abteilung. At least they were lucky enough to get Stugs and not Marders or some lash-up on a captured French chassis. Cheers Martin
  4. Umm, I thought 'Hitlers Greatest Defeat' was a fairly awful book, managing to barely skim the surface of the battle yet taking a whole book to do so! The Osprey 'Operation Bagration' manages to pack a lot more detail into a much slimmer volume, and of course introduces us to such exciting units as the 78th 'Sturm' Division. Cheers Martin
  5. The TRP-HE defence works wonderfully well, I can now regularly get Total Victory in 1941 QBs (low quality Russian in vs high quality panzers). Covering all the infantry approaches with wire obstacles, a few AP minefields to channel them and then putting TRPs on the wire with long range MG fire from a flank and one or two battalion 82mm mortar batteries strips the German infantry away very nicely, leaving the panzers to blunder into massed 45mm AT gun fire from the flank/rear. It would be very nice indeed to see wire clearance via artillery, engineers, direct fire HE etc in v1.02 though! Cheers Martin
  6. Albert Seatons elderly 'Russo-German War 1941-45' is also very good as it has lots of maps which Erickson in particular seemed to have an aversion to. For those interested in maps, a (large) set of 1942 Russian 1:100,000 scale maps have appeared at Berkeley: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/soviet_maps.html I've already checked out the 'impossible terrain' around the entrance to the Crimea & the tartar ditch! The cover the Ukraine & Caucasus only unfortunately. Cheers Martin
  7. This sounds more like it - if 8th PD was operating divison level Kampfgruppen along these lines then you can have a much more 'interesting' force in the scenario than a bunch of armoured cars trying to assault entrenched positions! Cheers Martin
  8. At a tactical level, generally better troops, although their quality declined as the war went on. On some occasions their equipment was better than the Russians as well, on other occasions it wasn't. Pretty much the reverse, generally Russian troops were tactically less skilled than the Germans. Having a human in command of course means the Russians manouvre with the skill of SSLAH at their prime. The Russians main advantage as the war went on was the development of superior operational and strategic techniques which allowed to concentrate vast numerical superiority at the critical point and project mobile forces to great depths into the enemy rear. Conversely the Germans became less and less flexible, so more prone to piecemeal defeat. At a tactical level, probably Summer 1942. All the newly raised units in 1941 had gained combat experience by 1942 & sufficient new equipment had been issued to close the technology gap (Pz IIIj specials, Pak 40s & PzIVf2). The Russians best time was probably Summer 1944 when they were at the peak of their operational skill and again were just getting new equipment to close the temporary technlogy gap. Troop quality in their mechanised formations was at an all time high as they had not suffered repeated annihilation in combat (which they did in 41, 42 and to a degree 43).By 1945 they were running out of men and their force structures proved less suitable for fighting in the denser terrain of central Europe. Cheers Martin
  9. The members of penal battalions weren't 'common criminals' but had normally been found guilty of some infraction of military law specific to the army in question - doubting the ablity of <insert appropriate mad dictator with stupid moustache> to prosecute the war effectively, expressing doubts as to final victory, refusing to shoot prisoners in the back of the head etc. There _were_ a couple of very well known units made up of actual convicts released from prison, the British convict battalion which fought on Crete (although they were from a military prison) and perhaps most notoriously SS Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger, whose rank and file were originally recruited from convicted poachers(!). Later on the unit effectively functioned as a penal battalion being a dumping ground for civilian and military convicts although individuals could volunteer for service with the unit and its exciting round of 'special duties' - which a number of rear area iron cross hunters duly did. see e.g. 'The Cruel Hunters'. Cheers Martin
  10. This is virtually the _entire_ recce battalion - they only had an armoured car company, 1-3 motorised/motorcycle infantry companies and a heavy weapons company. The Sdkfz 251/10s were used as platoon commanders vehicles in armoured infantry companies so you wouldn't be very likely to find them operating independantly. A more likely advanced guard would be the recce battalion: Armoured Car Company: 1 x platoon of 6 x 6 or 8 wheelers 2 x platoon of 6 x 4 wheelers 1-3 Motorised/motorcyle recon companies 1 x recce weapons company: 1 x 75mm infantry gun section (2 guns) 1 x AT platoon (3 x Pak 36 AT guns) 1 x engineer platoon Breakdowns and battle casualties may well have thinned this lot out. It is possible that they may be supported by a detachment from the panzer regiment, but the Germans weren't keen on splitting their panzer battalions up. If they did have a panzer detachment it would most likely be either the regimental or one of the battalion recce platoons (5 x PzII) or possibly a light panzer company. The recce battalion would almost certainly be accompanied by artillery observers from the divisonal artillery regiment, possibly only a battery but more likely a full battalion. If the recce battalion wasn't leading (unless the opposition was very light it wouldn't normally try to fight the division forward) the division would more likely be led by the panzer regiment supported by the armoured infantry battalion, one of the armoured engineer companies either from the divisional engineer battalion or one of the infantry regimental companies and as much artillery and air support as could be provided. The divisonal anti-tank battalion would be on call to deal with any significant quantities of armour encountered. Cheers Martin
  11. Lots of good suggestions but to add my 2p: 1) column movement on roads 2) relative spotting 3) beaten zones for tripod MGs so that they can operate as area denial weapons 4) more realistic combat engineering functions esp obstacle clearance (mainly wire) via artillery, explosives, direct fire large calibre HE etc 5) mine rollers, vehicle launched bridges etc 6) multi-turreted AFVs 7) more detailed artillery model, specifying number of rounds per mission, rate of fire, dispersion, round type, rate of drift etc. Tigers on the Prowl was doing this ten years ago (along with 4,5 & 6) so I don't see why a modern game can't. 8) paradrops & glider landings 9) simple campaign structure - linked battles, replacements etc similar to the campaigns provided by Steel Panthers, East Front, Close Combat & Tigers on the Prowl. 10) formation movement and/or setting multiple waypoints for group moves 11) embedding pauses within waypoints so units could advance, wait for 30 seconds to provide covering fire, advance again etc Cheers Martin
  12. Bump. These are such great fun that I haven't played anything else since I came across them. Finally managed a Total Victory in 'No Hope' last night as my massed reverse slope rear facing 45mm antitank gun ambush took out an entire Panzer company in a minute. Cheers Martin
  13. Yes, the OBs are very good although the German TO&Es are done using German symbology, which is all very interesting and historically accurate but very hard to read if you've been raised on old NATO symbols! 1941 Panzer Battalions had two light companies and a medium company (generally). The light companies got the Pz 35/38/IIIs and the medium companies the Panzer IVs. Light platoons of Pz I/II were also scattered between them (although IIRC battalions equipped with Pz35/38 didn't have any Pz II). Continuing shortages of PzIVs meant many medium companies only had two platoons of four PzIV each. I have recently run a couple of operational miniatures games covering the odessey of 56th Panzer Corps & 8th Panzer certainly saw plenty of action in the 'Dash to the Dvina' and the 'Zoltsy Hedgehog'. I also did a Spearhead mini campaign entitled 'The Race for Leningrad' with Manstein & Reinhardts Corps in a competitive advance - so everyone got to play the Germans and take it in turn playing the Russians;) Cheers Martin
  14. Thanks, I'll maybe try some of the other Banshee drivers and see if it makes any difference, but personally I'm not that bothered as I know it works fine my other machine. Shame it chokes on something as trivial as browsing a list of files rather than something complex like doing the 3D map rendering! Cheers Martin
  15. Partly it is language support and partly it is to do with legal restrictions in Germany on the display of nazi insignia esp swastikas. I notice that after the 1.01 patch that 'Waffen Grenadiers' seem to have turned into SS though;) Cheers Martin
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