Gazer

So true! LordG

Otherwise a nice article URC, but the choice of words like "Russian masses" or "hordes" and the general attitude just made it feel a bit cheap... I have used Suomi SMG during my army training. It is very easy to fire long bursts with it and it is suprisingly accurate and of especially high quality for its age. The ones we were using were from WW2! In the end I would rather take our standard assault riffle. It's lighter and more versatile. The weight and small caliber of Suomi SMG makes the sustained automatic fire possible.

I have played several PBEM games against a human opponent as Axis. I generaly lose every time. The only exeption is in mid war with Tigers on my side. It's just unbalanced. We also never play quick battles and in our battles the experience level of both sides is similar. Scenario makers tend to put a lot of cool (read expensive) stuff for Germans. I would really like to lose some "uber" qualities for numbers. I don't need Tigers, PzIV is great, but I need more of them. What I usually get is either Tigers or a decent mix of armor and infantry dumbed down with a bunch of halftracks and I end up against superior numbers even when I am attacking. In my opinion most scenario designers are victims of western cold war propaganda by trying to portrait german army as either superior quality (Tigers) or more advanced/modern by creating the image of a mechanized force with halftracks. This is not very teaching (tigers) nor fun (halftracks) for the axis side player. Maybe I'm just rambling here, but I think that the failure to modell russian armor like it should be combined with scenario makers who are just humans has resulted in problems for the german player in many scenarios. You either get the big cats against T-34's from the scenario designers who believe in german propaganda or you get the more "historical" force mix dumbed down by halftracks. You either go for the high ground with your Tiger or you go for the cover with your halftracks. Ok, this post has been a bit off topic. I just want to say that due to modelling and play balancing reasons the available battles favor an experienced soviet player in CMBB. They get numbers and know how to use the usually good enough or just plain better soviet equipment. Think how much good stuff a soviet player will get in a meeting engagement where the german player gets a couple of PzIV's, several platoons of light tanks and one mounted panzer grenadier company with their expensive halftracks. Or maybe I'm just not very good in this game.

I don't think that is true. I might be wrong, but I think that Finland payed it all some 10 or 20 years after the war. I heard it mentioned in relation to study grants available for us in USA. One was supposed to be the war loans we payed to USA and since we were the only ones to actually pay it back they decided to give it back as study grants.

Lurking - every day. I hope this game becomes reality as soon as possible. MA

Do not forget that there were rebels in soviet controlled east European countries like Estonia for a long time after the war (several years I think). These could have had an impact on the soviet supply. Especially if the soviet troops that were there to destroy them were now in the new war. Also you should check the thread on airpower effectivenes that was going on some time a go. I think it more or less showed how little effect it has against tanks and infantry, but is absolutely deadly against supply trucks. As for strategic bombing of cities. I think most of the cites not already destroyed and with significant industry are too far away. Lord Gazer

You should also remember that even if it's extremely cold you can't wear all your available cloths when moving. You must have something to put on after you stop. Otherwise you will freeze when you stop after sweating a lot. Anyway, having all the clothes issued for one soldier of the finnish army on while moving is extremely stupid. In real situation I would assume that the defenders might have a lot of clothes on while the attakers would propably have left their heavier clothes behind or would have them in their backbags. So, the heavy clothes don't have to be a problem. Knee high snow slows down a bit, but doesn't tire you unless it's wet or has a hard ice surface. In waist high snow without skis 5 meters can be too much with heavy gear. Markus