George MC
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Posts
7,417 -
Joined
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Days Won
43
Posts posted by George MC
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16 minutes ago, Grey_Fox said:
They were ordered to stay at high altitude. It was the same in 2003 after some got absolutely shredded by Iraqi air defenses early on in the invasion attempting the low-level missions they were designed to perform.
It's widely acknowledged that the Kosovo aerial campaign abjectly failed to degrade Serb forces in Kosovo, with only a few dozen armoured vehicles damaged or destroyed.
One of my mountain bike buddies flew Tornadoes in this ‘war’. He’d a few scary moments being targeted by multiple SAMs.
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Awesome bit of work. Thanks for all this effort
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1 hour ago, jheinrichk said:
error: ERROR
solution: failed to connect
Same.
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8 hours ago, Redwolf said:
Anything wireless sucks. Use an Ethernet cable.
Truth
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A vignette from a PBEM game of the Combat Mission Battle for Normandy game. Survivors from a British infantry section make a break for it.
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30 minutes ago, Vacillator said:
I think both of us couldn't resist going after each other's tanks. And as the Soviet, your briefing said 'get points for KO-ing Panthers' which I thought might be hard without being spotted so I decided in some circumstances to just go for the Panthers and not worry about the spotting...
Yeah. Me neither.
I lost one Panther to an ambush but before it died I got hard spots on two IS-IIs that has taken it down. So the surviving two Panthers hard tailed it around the small wood block to catch the two IS-IIs from the rear.
[Narrator: he didn’t. There were three IS-IIs]
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2 hours ago, Vacillator said:
Except that I was playing as Soviet, while Dave was doing the spotting with his Panthers. It ended up as a great battle anyway.
I’m in a PBEM just now myself and ended up trying to take down several IS-IIs at point blank range…
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12 hours ago, Vacillator said:
@George MC's 'BP1 Cat and mouse' if you have it. Great fun as PBEM, in my top two or three.
“Your only supposed to spot em! Not blow the bloody turrets off!”
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Day of Wrath
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35 minutes ago, BFCElvis said:
Funny you should say that. My guy at Slitherine just sent me a message with the same screenshot. I was able to duplicate it by trying to log in through the game.
Our best guess is that the servers are down. They are checking into it.
Ah grand ta. Cheers fir the update. It’s late here so will check in again in the morning.
Cheery!
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1 hour ago, Davis06 said:
On Discord I've heard of a mod that adjusts vehicle gunner animations in order to make them less 'exposed' and harder to hit by the enemy AI? Is anyone familiar with this and could direct me to it?
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7 hours ago, danfrodo said:
Yeah, I may yet end up in a disaster here. But at least I'm goin' down fightin'.
The dang fog really hurts! As was certainly intended. I am guessing there was fog during the actual battle?
Aye the weather during the action was misty with very much reduced vis. This is a good English language source about the actual action - though based heavily on a Russian language source and repeats a date error contained in that account :
https://www.tankarchives.ca/2013/07/king-tigers-at-ogledow.html
Overall the combat debut of the 501st during this and subsequent actions in the Sandomierz bridgehead was generally unimpressive. Possibly due to the original battalion being all but destroyed attempting to hold back Soviet attacks during Operation Bagration. Such catastrophic events would mean few of the experienced crews would survive to help form the cadre for the new unit to be rebuilt around.
The 501st was reconstituted on the 14th July 1944 with the new Tiger IIs but this only gave the whole unit around a month to reform and train on the new vehicles, and as a combat unit, before being sent into action – perhaps therein lays the reasons for the lacklustre performance of the new tanks and their crews through August 1944? So possible contributory factors to its poor performance:
• after the heavy losses in June 1944 the reformed 501st consisted mainly of new recruits without combat experience and lack of thorough training due to the short time between being reformed and sent into combat;
• serious technical problems with the new Tiger IIs (final drives in the vehicles being especially prone to failure, especially if the driver was inexperienced);
• lack of experience with the new tanks and their strengths and weaknesses combined with overconfidence and overestimation of what the weapon system could achieve, especially the thick armour, often resulted in poor reconnaissance measures and a resultant poor tactical handling.
The 501st’s record through August 1944 was so poor that on the 22nd August 1944 Major von Legat was relieved of his command. It is also reported that he had links to the 20th July 1944 conspiracy to kill Hitler. On the 21st December 1944 the battalion was redesignated as schwere Panzer-Abteilung 424.
It is worth mentioning that the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Corps, crucially and in marked contrast to their German opponents from the 501st, crews were seasoned and experienced armoured combat veterans. This ensured they made excellent use of reconnaissance, took full advantage of the terrain and the tactical opportunities it afforded and ensured excellent tactical handling at all levels of the unit.
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12 hours ago, danfrodo said:
And our tigers regain the upper hand. How you like me now GeorgeMC-ovich? The Boss is not gonna be happy when you tell him how many of his namesake tanks just got smoked. He'll say "GeorgeMC-ovich, if I knew you were going to mishandle these tanks so badly I would've named them Beria tanks, or maybe after that bald punk, Krushchev. It does not look good to have a bunch of 'Josef Stalin' tanks burning, now does it? Do not fail me again, GeorgeMC-ovich."
Two of the smoke columns are mine, sadly. But the rest were JS2s that were supposed to be an attack that turned into a very nasty meeting engagement in the fog when my attack blundered into soviet attack.
Two more JS2s destroyed. Also found & flanked the last one that was hiding in the trees. My two remaining tigers just loaded up infantry are will be heading into the soviet flank now with a trail of some more infantry.
I have taken the distant objective first. Despite losses, I hope to have enough combat power in this group to flank the near objective while engaging from the front. Sounds good on paper, but so did invading Russia in the first place and that didn't turn out so well. I know there's big concentration of soviet infantry still on the map, and who knows what else. Hopefully I can use dead ground to sneak up on the objective from behind w/o being exposed.
He! So Mr Bond - "The Only Question Remains: Will You Yield, In Time?"
Great DAR - enjoyed reading it thank you.
Though does sound like you've made a large dent in the Soviet armour in that sector! Good effort
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1 hour ago, Jane's said:
Does anyone by any chance have a good quality picture of CMBN steelbook art? I can't find one anywhere... I'd like to make it a box art in my Steam library since the one from Slitherine is rather awful.
This do?
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Only hit ceasefire when a grim quiet descends upon the field of battle and I can hear the lamentation of my slaughtered enemy's women...
Or when my oppo and I agree the fight is a done deal.
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On 3/18/2023 at 7:47 AM, PEB14 said:
I have a second question about "tagged" mod. I've seen that scenario can call "tagged" mod. What I don't understand is, how is a mod tagged so that it plays only when called by a specific scenario? Is it related with the mod files names?
Sorry can't help with first question as don't use a Mac. However re tagged mods:
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4 hours ago, PEB14 said:
So the lesson I got is the exact opposite: don't care too much about AT rifles...
Yeah…. That’ll bite you in the arse…
ATRs do several things to light armoured vehicles (and done tanks with thin side armour). The behind armour effects are generally small BUT if the round intercepts with any crew it’ll generally KIA them. This causes disruption to the crews morale with the vehicle often panicking. That can be, and is very, disruptive to an attack.
They’ll easily pick off gunners in SPW and I have had ATRs nail support half tracks. Empty SPW are mainly big empty boxes so unless the hit is the front - where can kill driver or gunner it’s less likely to do significant damage though May degrade subsystems eg radio antenna, wheels and tracks.
So they’re not an existential threat to empty SPW - though things like 251/9 can have a really bad day - but a real irritant that can disrupt a mounted SPW attack.
This AAR might give some insight into other players approaches.
https://kriegsimulation.blogspot.com/2022/11/combat-mission-red-thunder-battle-pack.html
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1 hour ago, PEB14 said:
That's basically what I did. I went out of luck when I lost 7 casualties (!) in the first ambush position (2 green soviet scouts ! what a shame !); I never had any contact, even tentative, either with my two (overwatched) scouts, or with the overwatching squad when my own scouts got shot one after the other. The AI, in the return match, got instant contact with the Soviet scouts (I let them positioned in the very same corner) from the very same overwatch position I used!
I also positioned my SPW carefully, using hulldown positions as recommanded by @George MC's briefing and staying far enough from the enemy. Indeed 3 out of 4 of my SPW gunners survived the game, so I'm pretty satisfied with the way I used them.
Anyway I wasn't complaining about the result. This game is perfectly winnable as the German. (I nevertheless doubt the 10% German casualties is achievable together with the touch and occupy objectives, but that's another story).
My question was more about the intent of the lesson, especially regarding the use of the SPW. I still haven't understood what is the tactical aspect which is specific to mounted PanzerGrenadiers in this scenario... It really sounds like a classical infantry affair...
@George MC : thanks a lot for taking the time to answer. I obviously took the time to read all the briefing and designer's note (it would be stupid to rush in a "lesson" type scenario without doing so!). I also know Bill's website (very useful indeed), and I had checked the link you provided a couple of weeks ago. I also have looked at all Usually Hapless "basics" tutorial. A must see for sure.
I still remain skeptical about the "reconnaissance" aspect of the mission, which in my understanding is not compatible with an "occupy" objective. This scenario sounds more like a coup-de-main operation to capture a bridge. Also, I was very surprised by the AI programming you performed on the SPW, as all the gunners got killed in a couple of minutes without pinning of wouding any of my troops. I was disappointed by this part of the lesson!
Also, being a reconnaissance affair, I spent lot of time clearing the second wood patch from potential enemies, to use it as a fire base for the next step. It sounded logical from the briefing perspective but finally it looks very much like a loss of time...
Anyway I'll try it again as the German before switching to your next lesson, according to your advice. Since I wrote my first post I understood that the farm is only a "touch" objective, which opened some interesting perspectives...
Whilst it’s a ‘recce’ style mission it’s combat reconnaissance. Ie point squad leading the platoon. The platoon’s aim is to secure the bridge.
Yup reading the briefing and being super clear what the objectives are is super important to creating a course of action - the farm is relevant but not important - the bridge is relevant and important .Re the lesson aim - well to get used to the issues you’ve highlighted in your initial post and some tips for how to use the SPW units both doctrinally correct and ditching the constraints of the CM game engine. So game engine stuff like splitting squads, overwatch, MG gunners being bullet magnets. Oh and try not to go into woods head to head with Soviet SMG gunners!
Yeah playing as AI against the Germans. Yup never really intended it played that way but BFC releases have scenarios playable both sides. Don’t mean they work playing both sides… let’s face it if you can’t beat the Soviets then the German AI has even less chance!!
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This series of three missions are based on the concept lessons contained in a period German manual titled “Combat Instruction For The Panzer Grenadier” created by Major Helmut von Wehren who was the commander of a training unit and also some principles contained in the 5 August 1944 Manual ‘Panzer Grenadier: Instruction Manual for the Panzer troops: Leadership and fighting of the Panzer-Grenadier’.
Whilst direct translations of the exercises don’t translate that well to a CM environment, I used the concept to create three ‘lessons’ to help players use German armored personal carriers (or as the Germans themselves referred to them - SPW (Schützenpanzerwagen, or armored infantry vehicle) in a more doctrinally ‘correct’ manner within the limitations of the Combat Mission game engine.
Each Lesson has a ‘Tactical Top Tips’ at the end of each briefing (under ‘notes’) which may help the player new to using SPW in Combat Mission get the most out of them..
The issues you highlighted and the top tips in the briefing are meant to help you avoid em. In truth if you were frustrated in this one the others won't be much better so might be worth applying the old Kolb learning cycle to your playthroughs.
Just in case you missed em:
Tactical Top Tips for Lesson 1
In this first lesson the player starts off with one SPW and associated gruppe (squad) on the map as the ‘point’ element, closely followed ten minutes later by the rest of the zug (platoon). Good practice would be to send at least two vehicles on such a mission. If one breaks down the other can at least take it under tow; if moving tactically the other vehicle can at least provide ‘overwatch’.
In Combat Mission SPW gunners are prime targets and if ‘opened up’ will attract fire. At anything under around 500m this incoming fire will stand a high chance of killing the gunner. Having the gunner (and hence all occupants) keep their heads down reduces the chances of them coming under fire and suffering casualties. However, having them buttoned down comes at the cost of them having reduced spotting ability.
If moving through close terrain consider dismounting the squad, split off a scout team and send them ahead to scout ahead. If ambushed, then you ‘only’ lose two riflemen. However, the ‘scout team’ lack binoculars. If you split the squad into an assault configuration the A section will have the squad leader and the binoculars so may be a better option if scanning the terrain at distance is desired.
Panzer-grenadier squads often have smoke grenades. Whilst you cannot use them from the vehicle, they are useful for when they are dismounted to provide cover.
With practice you will find you can position a SPW hull down where the gunner is less exposed and using a short cover arc means they will not engage a target and less likely to be spotted and in turn be engaged. This only works at distance – 300m plus being ‘safe’ against rifle fire but up to around 500m against MG fire.
If attacking with SPW and infantry mounted you MUST ensure that you suppress the enemy. Launching an attack against unsuppressed enemy forces in Combat Mission will not end well for the attacking SPW. So, ensure enemy/defenders are SUPRESSED. Not firing back but cowering and hugging the dirt. SUPRESSED!
If you want a deeper dive then check out the attached PDF. These two videos give a CM-specific view which might also be of interest?
“Tactically Correct Driving with the Armored Personnel Carrier” by @Bil Hardenberger
https://battledrill.blogspot.com/2020/02/tactically-correct-driving-armored.html
Combat Mission Units: Summary and overview of German Halftracks SKDFZ 251 in CMRT and advice on their pros and cons in game by @Usually Hapless https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQrOjrJKoJI
Hope you find it clicks but feel free to ask questions here.
Cheery!
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That sounds like a core units file issue. ALL the missions in a campaign will need to be synced with the core units file. Anything else you'd never be able to compile and it would give you an error message. So reckon it's an easy fix. Happy to take a wee look if helps. A lot of time and effort to throw oot the windae...
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On 3/4/2023 at 12:22 PM, Shady_Side said:
I always by from BFC. Yes tried running as administrator. This is the wrong forum but CMBN ran fine until I installed the last patch. CMCW never has ran on this laptop. CMBS runs great on it. CMSF2 with all modules runs great on it. CMRT with F@R and battle pack runs great on it. CMCW will not launch. CMBN ran great until last week when I installed the new patch.
Before you ask, yes a help ticket was submitted for CW back in December and another recently, and a ticket has been summitted for CMBN as well.
Yeah not much more I can suggest. I’ve tagged @BFCElvisas he might not be aware or have a possible solution to the issues you describe.
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2 hours ago, Shady_Side said:
How did you solve it? I currently have 2 games refusing to start and am coming up pretty dry when asking for help.
Which games? BFC or Steam?
Assume you tried running the games by tight clicking ‘run as administrator’?
Common reasons are borked install, and anti-virus interference.
Printable Planning Forms, Tools?
in Combat Mission - General Discussion
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I’ve used the whiteboard function in Windows - by importing a screenshot of the map (you can import multiple copies see later) then annotating that as I go, including using post-it’s etc. you can also use this to track different phases of the e battle by using a fresh copy. Saves everything getting to cluttered.
You can also export the mission briefing via the editor and copy/paste relevant info from this into your whiteboard.
For smaller scenarios I’ve also used the IPad and imported image and annotate using Apple Pencil but find for larger scenarios the screen size constrains things. Though this is more accessible.
Cheery!
George