tankski

Is there a way to move the French tanks for the Axis to the Allied menu for France 1940 scenarios? Is there a really good France 1940 mod for CMBB or CMAK? Thank you.

Hi, I just downloaded CMAK from Battlefront. I tried to start it, but, after selecting the resolution on the start up, I just got a black screen. I had an openplay.dll error when I checked my desktop. I see there is an openplay.dll in the CMAK folder. Where do I put it? Thanks.

Thanks, Kieme, that is very useful info about the range of AA guns. I will stud my setup area with AA guns to support my mobile units!

I wanted to provide my Soviet mobile units with 37mm AA. This is a striking omission! No 88mm FLAK to deploy against Sov ground targets.

Thanks for the clarification, DMS. I read as many WWII Red Army memoirs as I can find in English because so much technical information on Red Army equipment available in the West is unreliable. I found from using a Russian made tank sim that a 76mm gun T-34 in a good stationary position with a good view of the opposition could do quite a bit of damage. Trying to keep situational awareness and quick shooting on the move was very hard, but a well-positioned 76 hull down could be very effective. On the move to battle, I try to keep my commanders outside as long as possible.

I deeply enjoy using the T-34-76 because it is so hard to use them effectively. I just had the bulk of a reg destroyed by about 17 Pz IVG lates in a Quick "Kursk." Yes, they fought blind buttoned up and RT beautifully models their helplessness. The problem the Red Army had was the terrible Sov optical glass for the turret top panoramic telescope and the gun sight. The glass was cloudy and distorted. The crystal clear sights in WWII Sov tank sims are a fantasy. The Sov radios were bad. One of the biggest reasons the Red Army tankers liked the Sherman was its comparatively excellent radio which allowed them to use more sophisticated tactics. I overran the forward-deployed Pz IVs at great cost. The surviving ones were far back where they had formed a hedgehog around a house. There were maybe eight. I did not know this until after the Quick had ended when you can survey the battlefield. What I really admired about RT was that the T-34-76s could not spot them, apparently, not even their muzzle flashes and gun smoke. The German hedgehog was about 1000 meters away from my (approx 14) surviving T-34s. The Germans were completely invisible using Iron. I sent out probes with small packets or single T-34s. They were getting knocked out and I could not find the shooters. This highlighted the Sov problem in 1943. Tiger Is, Panthers, and even Pz IVGs could knock out the T-34 at long range. The photos from Kursk of one or two Tigers advancing alone on the empty steppe surrounded by distant columns of smoke from destroyed Sov vehicles tell the whole story. I find using accurately modeled Sov equipment to be a huge challenge. Even using good tactics you still face almost impossible challenges in the T-34-76. This is history at its best.

Had no trouble placing waypoints. The tanks did execute the orders when I turned off pause. Tried over and over. Fruitless. If this had happened to many units in bigger Quicks, I would have figured this was a glitch, but it rarely happens.

Yep, this was Real Time with pauses. Nope, these guys were in the open, and I was trying to get them to advance to an open space. The T-34 was behind a house but it had wide open space beyond the house. There was nothing for it shoot at and it was drawing no fire but some T-34s had been clobbered nearby. I am sure it was out of command. Don't think it was Shaken. It refused to move for at least ten minutes until the game ended. Again, maybe I have a glitch but it is interesting these refusals occurred in tense situations. I just accepted these refusals as reflecting units going "gun shy." The Sherms did recover and after some initial reluctance they joined the platoon and helped knock about some German infantry.

3.0 and Iron. They might have been Shaken initially, can't remember. They definitely refused any orders, as did that T-34. Maybe I have a bug?

Here was the sit. I was playing a completely randomized Quick. I had a seven Sherman US Army platoon. The platoon commander was a -2. As I recall, the platoon tanks were generally good but not outstanding. What happened was this, everybody performed well until I was concentrically approaching a possibly well-defended village. It was night, and I had the tanks fairly close together to keep them in command. A German mg opened fire from the front and raked all the Shermans. The CO spooked and rolled about 100 meters to the rear! Four of the Sherms refused orders, I think they had all gone to Cautious. They just froze. Didn't move, didn't shoot. None were damaged. I couldn't do anything with them. I took the two hardier Sherms and set about hunting the German infantry. I kept pausing and coming back to the four poltroons, but they refused to do anything. After about ten minutes they gingerly moved but only reluctantly. Maybe it had something to do with night and the CO bolting? I had this happen with a T-34 Mod 1942 today. It would not move from behind a house where I had put it. Stayed there and refused to come out and play despite my repeatedly giving it orders.

There is one little thing I would like to see added to Iron. I think the information screens of out of command units should go blank. This reflects the lack of reports from them and would put the commander in a bind because he would not know why the units are not performing or he might give orders to units with damaged equipment to advance or attack. He would also not know their morale state or confidence. You could be repeatedly giving orders to a panic-stricken unit or try to send a unit without ammunition into battle.

Having come up from the ranks playing the first modern wargames, the cardboard variety, in my early 20s in the early 1970s, I can't get jaded by something like "Red Thunder". It is precisely what I dreamed about in those distant years when I read articles about the US Army's computer simulators for operations. After pushing silly cardboard markers for years, knowing I had too much intel, really playing cardboard chess, becoming inflated from easy victories because receiving a nasty surprise was remote, I was ready for Battlefront's designs. The latest generation are mature, and to my estimation, amazing. To see a British Sherman troop take two casualties instantaneosly and the third tank's crew bails out from their unhit tank is mind-boggling. Here it is happening in real time and vividly. To have a platoon of American Shermans decline to advance because the platoon leader is a goon and they fear the unknown ahead after a spatter of gunfire is beyond this wargamer's dreams. It's not just physics but it is also modeling psychology under stress, a level I have not seen in even the best individual tank sims.

I always use Iron and Real Time, and, yes, I definitely use pause! Clearly, the AI is not always so brilliant. I played a Quick last night and the 3.0 AI was too conservative, failed to grab a ridge from which it could have massacred my deploying British tank regiment, and let me surround its Panthers in the target village. I played the same forces in open flat terrain and the Panthers sniped me at long range and ate my lunch. It was appalling. I would rather a system like in "Tigers Unleashed" was used. In this game units out of command control disappear until " found." But TU is mainly for regimental/brigade level. Such a drastic penalty is probably too severe for the smaller scale of Battlefront's models. I think Iron's most interesting penalty for loss of command is to deprive you of being able to see other units when you are moving the unit out of command. Thus, fine-tuning moves become hard (unless you have a photographic memory).

In defense of the RT AI, and I have the latest version of RT for the Mac, the Sov vehicles hit me when I was still blinded by dust and smoke; that's how they demolished most of my forward deployed vehicles. They had feinted to my left (I saw a mass of translucent markers), which fixed my attention, and then punched me hard right up the middle where I was blind. They shot me at point-blank range in the smoke and took minimal casualties. Everything was absolute chaos. For my money, their tactics were superb. They foxed me completely. I did not deploy in the railway cut, hull-down, because I feared a massive Sov bombardment might land right there and slaughter my tightly packed vehicles with direct hits or wreck their tracks and road wheels with fragments. I bet on dispersion in the open, but then I was hit by smoke shells, which negated my plan to use my accuracy at long range to attrit the initial assault. The speed with which the Sovs exploited my embarrassed situation was commendable. If I had not run to the railway cutting (routed would be a better word), it all would have been over. And, the Sovs did not stupidly keep running right into my guns in a frontal assault. They were constantly trying to filter to my right flank, through woods, against where I had no place to go hull-down to shoot them. I quashed this with two very strong 105 area bombardments, which, apparently, minced the open-top SU-76s and infantry. The attack up the cutting on my left flank could have been curtains had I lost three more tanks. I rate the Sov defeat as being due to their main infantry support equipment being swarms of SU-76s. If they had had SU-85s or T-34s, I would not have won. I suspect the few T-34s and SU-85s were command tanks. Still, they used what they had very well. Had I waited a minute or two more to "advance to the rear" they would have killed all but five of my vehicles, and it would have been finis. Frankly, I was stunned by the speed of their advance. They were all over me. The AI has managed to punish me severely in several Quicks where I used bad tactics. Iron settings is the key, I believe. You have a very hard time knowing what is happening. I am more than satisfied with what I have seen so far.

Yes, I did! The trouble is that the Mac version does not have an accessible folder for your Quicks in RT like the PC versions. Sorry!

Nope, not Dorosh. Sorry!

P.S. I also highly commend your modeling of command control and morale. It is fantastic to have tanks go difficult on you, moving, or refusing to move. I especially liked it when a lousy platoon commander reversed into the rear and left his tanks in the lurch. You really have to keep an eagle eye on your assets. I was amazed to see tanks elect to take a different path than ordered, in some cases wide deviations, but it was not just empty randomness. They actually took a better route! The modeling of human behavior under stress is fantastic. Iron level is excellent. It is so hard to control events. I think what you have done over the years for tactical sims is amazing. What I liked about the individual tank sims was being in the turret but once you played a mission you knew everything which was going to happen and so often your other vehicles in your command were most likely to behave ridiculously simply due to bad AI. You would get annihilated because you could not get the other vehicles to do even simple things. You were not just playing against the enemy, you were playing against the mechanics. I think the 3.0 series is everything but staring through the sight and you get so much more this is completely acceptable. You can really get "tactical."

I just played a completely computer-generated Quick with part of a StuG brigade defending against a Sov onslaught of Guards Su-76s and Su-85s. I was using Iron level. It started with an epic artillery bombardment which astounded me with its realism. The air was so full of dust I could see nothing but my own line. The Sovs had plonked their smoke right on my tanks. I was blinded completely. Out of this came wave after wave of Su's which destroyed so many of my tanks with point-blank fire I was ready to concede. They had penetrated right into my forward platoons. What was so great was that I had no idea from which directions the attacks would come. I didn't think there was much point in continuing but I decided throw the dice, roll back to the railway cutting, go hull-down and see what I could do to try to salvage the miserable situation. As it happened, I made the right decision. My remaining tanks stopped the Sovs cold. Then I was socked with another bombardment and the Sovs tried hitting me in the flank. I had deployed three tanks to shoot straight down the cutting and they stopped the flank attack as my others stalled the frontal assault. To say all of this was exciting and tactically engrossing would be an understatement. Right up until the surprise game end announcement with 45 minutes left I had no idea I was winning. I thought my initial heavy losses precluded a victory. I was just attempting to have some tanks left at the end. To my surprise, my tanks had destroyed many more Sovs than I realized. This is really a terrific design. I have played other Quicks but I hadn't let the computer surprise me with complete randomness until this one. I am delighted by the opportunity to fight battles with no knowledge of the enemy's strength or their direction of attack. I had tried your previous system ("Barbarossa to Berlin" etc) but I never cared much for the mechanics of commanding the units though I was very impressed by the detail (I had started with tactical games with "Panzerblitz" in 1972 and continued with manual games through the later "Squad Leader" series). I played your "Combat Command: Touch" to death. Having a new Mac, I decided to try "Battle of Normandy" and "Commonwealth". Then I bought "Shock Force" and "Red Thunder". Have been playing them all and nothing else. This "Red Thunder" Quick knocked me backward. I normally much prefer tank sims to tactical sims on this level but no more. The ability to be a battalion commander (or higher) is far more interesting. So many more tools to use. So many more things to ruin my day! All are extremely impressive. I really like your graphics and the models. 3.0 is terrific. Can't wait for the new Ukraine addition. It is great to have high-quality tac sims for the Mac. 15 Stars out of 10.

Since thrown smoke grenades were used by Su-122 and T-34 units, not just one particular unit, I think the designers ought to give this a look because the Sovs need every little bit of help they can get, especially when there are no mortars or artillery to provide smoke. I can imagine the trouble a regimental commander would have explaining to his Commissar the deliberate use of HE shells to create a dust cloud. He would probably get time in a penal battalion. This is a "game world" solution!

Ah, unfortunately, there is no Saved Game folder in the Mac OSX SF folder.

How do I do this?! There is no button for deletion like in Battle for Normandy or Red Thunder.

See Krysov's book. All the Sov tank units with which he operated used smoke grenades.

I use real time. Popping up the commanders and lobbing grenades could be done very fast by using a box and two or three clicks for the entire unit. At the very least, the smoke grenades might prevent the complete annailiation of the armored unit. True, even British 75mm Shermans, which have smoke mortars and smoke shells, usually get wiped out if they are ambushed by something very nasty, like Panthers. I would like the capability just in case the German doesn't have the numbers to instantly wipe out the Sov armor. The Sov needs something to protect himself in an ambush. Since this was a real capability, it should be in the system.

Sov must get smoke grenades for tank commanders, otherwise no way to get out of a killing zone. Help Battlefront!

I recently played a Quick in which I put my regiment of T-34 Model 1942s in a tight spot, and they were annihilated by some happy Pz IVG Lates. Before the situation spun out of control, I popped up my T-34 commanders in hope I could order them to chuck smoke grenades in the direction of the Germans, but, to my disappointment, this was not possible. My disappointment was small compared to my T-34s'. A year ago I read the excellent "Panzer Destroyer: Memoirs of a Red Army Tank Commander" by Vasily Krysov (Pen & Sword, 2010). The author commanded Su-122s and T-34s. Always he kept a pile of smoke grenades ready to throw in case his vehicle was caught in a killing zone. The vehicles under his command did likewise. Gauging from the book, this was Red Army SOP. Please give the Sov crews smoke grenades. Otherwise, getting caught in a killing zone is a party for the Germans. P.S. "Red Thunder" and 3.0 "Normandy" are gems. I am delighted to have first echelon designs on my Mac. I am through with years of fighting the perversity of Windows.