Other Means

this also probably been done to death, but shouldn't roadblocks (yes i'm talking to YOU Yann) be destructable by HE chuckers? and while we're at it, can i we ninjas?

2 Panthers for 3 SU-100's. i did a test & that's what the percentages came out at. hull down the SU-100 has good protection. of course, it's not got a turret but it does have great ground crossing. could be interesting i think.

Good point. You are a wise man </font>

i think the problem is the tank firing on them. IIRC squads will only close assault if they have no pin value. hide them for a bit, or get them out of the line of fire.

yerp. done the whole buying all the arty for a 5000pt assault you can. small map. large town. not anymore. pridddddy. i'll have to try it at night next time.

yeah, i wish they would pick from the top down kind of thing. or at least you could request that it did so. i love the big armour battles.

i found the proving grounds to be very helpful. players are rated by the type of battle they want, side they play, experiance etc. give it a go & good luck. BTW, i wouldn't rely too much on what you have learnt playing the AI. i don't wish to sound discouraging but you are much better just keeping in mind sound tactics. the AI is easily fooled and easily beaten. mostly. one error i made when i started playing humans, about 2 months ago, was to second guess myself too much. i'd think myself in circles "ahh, that's what he'd expect me to do" kind of thing. don't bother doing that. just do what you think is right. at least you'll make the right mistakes that way.

one of your tanks? and why did they pop up in LOS of the Panthers? and why didn't you give them target lines to the Panthers. or cover armour arcs? did you have any smoke? why were they in LOS of the Panthers again? never mind, i'm sure if i saw the setup i'd know why all these things were impossible. coz as it is, i'm starting to think you may have an Amiga. actually, do you play axis exclusively? playing allied i'm used to running scared of big cats and looking for keyholed LOS on the map. i'm going to start playing axis soon to see how the other half lives.

welcome and a big hello to all the Euporease.

sorry, i don't know you well enough to call you an idiot. can i just observe that you're stupider than your own computer? you could have won except you never expected to lose. if you'd been playing a human (or even a Penger) you would have changed your playing style to accommodate his choices. as it was it seems like you just didn't give the AI any credit and got caught. of course, sometimes it just happens & there's nothing you can do about it but that doesn't sound like the case here. what was your armour doing being visible so early on? i know you were playing Axis & therefore where looking for the long sight lines but as soon as you saw the Panther you should have scarpered. took out his T34's from ambush & then it's got to move it's Panthers. as soon as they stop doing their long range pillbox impression they're vulnerable. i don't need to tell you this, you've been playing longer than i have. you just didn't bother. BTW, i usually return a turn a night or more. if you're looking to prove me stupider than you and hence your computer, drop me a line. the params you played for the QB sound good.

i've been thinking about this myself. with the "hunt" order the AFV will advance to the waypoint stopping to engage any threats it sees. now, i've got an idea that if you give it a "hunt - reverse" order it may do what you want it to. i.e. the reverse order will engage after it's attained a contact and before the waypoint. i haven't got time now but i'll set up a test next week.

i'm impressed with the way CMBB handles mi-id's. i had no idea it went to that much trouble. but...i think if you're taking fire from a tank & you're a soldier - it's a Tiger. if you get knocked out by an ATG and you're a tanker - it's an 88. would it be possible to take in to account the psychological effects in CMAK? instead of doing a look up for what the mis-id is on the rarity table (i assume) make a look up on a seperate "what they would be scared of table".

i'm still new to this so take this advice at your peril. i'm begining to think this of like this: the defender is all about time, the attacker is all about space. to amplify & avoid talking like i'm in marketing: when you're the defender, you don't need to hold out forever. you need to delay the attacker just enough so he doesn't get to the objectives in time. as the attacker you get to be more mobile & to choose where the attacks go in. most of the time, when you've got past the main line of resistance (MLR) you can then attack his rear areas without too much bother. i try to attack by finding various areas on the map which i can dominate with ranged weapons without exposing myself then move forces into. then use that area to dominate the next. i wrote this in another thread [ August 08, 2003, 02:07 PM: Message edited by: Other Means ]

i repeated the tests. variety of ranges from 500 to 1000m. 32 vs 32 SU-100/Panthers. in groups of 2 a side & 3 a side. both with veteran crews, as the Panthers optics are a hinderance with < regular (or verteran i can't remember) crew. only 5 tests so far but they are coming out ~16 dead Panthers vs ~25 dead SU-100's. so the Panther is 1.5 times a SU-100. as usual you need numbers. however they cheap vs the Panther, with good bogging characteristics. i'll try a hull down test maybe over the weekend.

no mortars? smoke? at the point in the war that there are IS-2's the ammo loadout for most tanks is quite low. maybe you can weather the storm. hide your men. remember, you don't have to hold out forever just till the end of the game. DON'T try to close assault in the open. the tanks won't come & get you unless they're sure you're not pioneers. don't give them more info than you have too. for all they know there's a Pak kill sack just in front of the flag. hide with a 30m covered arc. remember, if your men pin, if you have them hide they unpin quicker. if the tanks are at a big distance & not in enfilade they will have to cease fire when the infantry is on top of you. i hope you gave the AI a huge point advantage.

true the T34-85 is an excellent tank. however any decent player will have a big cat or two on a ridge to give your 85's a good pasting. as the 85 doesn't really have a chance front to front you need something to take these out. i would recommend the SU-100. ISTM that with normal rarity the Soviet player has a real armour advantage late in the war. the SU-100 is reasonably priced & can take out the Kitties. the T34-85 can take on & beat German meds including StuGs. add to this good cheap mortars & the Russian squad size advantage PLUS LMG/SMG squad & the war is almost won, comrades. actually i've not fought enough late war battles to demonstrate this so i'll have to see how this one goes.

very well done on your extensive research. what i think would convince BFC is if you go to a tank museum in Russia & remove a cross section of the turret. yes, shipping may cost a bit but i'm sure a couple of pairs of Levi's & some "Earth Wind & Fire" albums & the authorities would lend you a junior hacksaw. seriously, well done. maybe you could send a photocopy of the relevant pages to BFC. not sure if they'd address it but how hard could it be? as long as people don't start clamoring for the IS-3 model or something. damn, i've missed a perfectly valid opportunity to say "sumfink".

i repeated the test tonight & the SU-100, while still seeming the best pick, has < 50% chance using the above params. i wonder if BFC base their random num gen on the date? no? must be me then. [ August 06, 2003, 07:23 PM: Message edited by: Other Means ]

i'll give it a go when i get home. not for this battle though it's got > 30% rarity. [edit:] i thought it had the same gun as the T34-85, which was just bouncing off the Panthers? maybe a T round would do some good but not at the long range encounters i'm expecting to be forced in to. as you know the T round is lighter & therefore loses speed quicker ending up with less P power at range. [ August 06, 2003, 12:14 PM: Message edited by: Other Means ]

i thought i'd revive this thread as i did a test last night. i'm playing 02/45 vs a friend. we're keeping everything to not more than 30% rarity. so basically, i'm expecting to meet Panthers. so as a worst case test i did an open map. flat with lanes for testing. 850m head to head. against a Panther A - G the clear winner was the SU-100. 1 v 1 the SU-100 won ~ 65% of encounters [that's being conservative. i should have wrote it down]. which surprised me. the IS-2 ROF was just too low too have a chance [even with a crack crew] and the T34-85 just bounced. 2 vs 2 the SU-100 won as well. one thing i noticed was that even when penatrated the SU-100 kept firing. it seemed to have a much lower effect on the crew & cower was a lot less evident. the SU-100 has no machine gun, which is possibly it's worst feature. however, with the availablity of shreks in this timeframe i don't want to be doing too much close in infantry killing with them. but with a 40 shell HE load i think they may do an admirable job. really makes you miss the T34M41 tho. therefore i suspect in hull down overwatch for your T34-85's these are going to be real hard to beat. especially as the top front armour was blue. P.S. actually i've just had a thought. i was thinking of using the IS-2 as overwatch, but it doesn't look suited to the role. however it may suit it's intended role as a breakthrough tank. hmm. i can feel another test coming on. i've basically gone for T35-85 with SU-100 as overwatch, expecting to lose a few of them to ATG's/shreks etc. maybe i would have been better with the IS-2 in that role? kind of all eggs in one basket but still. too late now. i may test the theory in another battle.

IIRC T round speed decays a lot faster due to their smaller size. so at range you've as much chance of penetrating with AP.

do i take this to mean that if we PBEM you just want marines? & i'd get Armour, arty & air support? email's in the profile damp boy.

i think BTS have done a great job pricing the units to achieve a balanced game. but what are the bargains? what's a waste? i'd say that any of the higher Arty modules are generally over priced for what you get. the same goes for air support. true, both have the ability to turn a game but they're not worth buying because of the gamble. the T70 though...mmmmm. used propely they're a great buy. the StuG of course. any more?

i've not been playing long but i'm finding mortars, on & off board, to be more & more useful. on the attack i like to get keyholed LOS and dominate an area with HE, then move my scout armour into that area. moving radially i expose my armour to pre defined LOS where the enemy has 1 or 2 decent AT gun placement areas. this is all behind my infantry screen which has been able to advance into the dominated area only taking fire from one flank as the area they are going into is suppressed. get your on board mortars to LOS of the AT positions & you can time your off board to hit his AT guns as they uncover to get your scouts. leave your on board unassigned with covered arcs to the areas where his guns could be. you can work your way around the map exposing your scouts for 20 secs at a time. i guess i'm just re-iterating what everyone else has said. use them for killing guns. or delaying infantry. with area fire the major problem is that you can go through an awful lot of ammo very quickly. so one trick to overcome that is: if you want to area fire at the beginning of a turn, give your team is tiny movement order. they'll fire, then get the order to move. you can time it so they're set up the next turn or are still doing it. if you want to area fire at the end of the turn, give them a rotate order. they will rotate, then rotate back & fire. IIRC with the russian 50mm 90o is about 15 secs delay.

hold the shift key down & the rotate stops & a pan starts. i believe this feature is the same as BO :confused: ?