Elmar Bijlsma

KwazyDog: Yes, it was my first go at it as either side. I'll give an account of my effort as Allied. As could be expected I didn't do quite as well as above, even if I did force an auto surrender. I line up all three infantry platoons along the edge of the map near the woods on the hill, with the engineer platoon behind as a reserve. 60mm mortars, 81mm FO and .50 MG were position in the centre of the map. The bazookas I kept together near the engineers while the .30s were intended to move along with the forward infantry. The Shermans were on the left of the map along with the Stuarts and the armoured car. I intended to fake ignorance of the German forces arrayed against me, aswell as their location, because I played this scenario before as the germans. I send the infantry to move as far forward to the opposite edge of the woods without exposing themselves to enemy fire. The support weapons moved from cover to cover to take up positions on the top of the ridge with it's dominating views. Except for the mortars whom I send to the main wood area but only halfway so they could get decent LOS to the village below. The Shermans moved up to the lower part of the ridge while light armour hunted along the road. Bad timing saw the light armour taking fire from guns and the StuH while the Shermans were unable to participate. They all died without inflicting losses. But with the enemy guns uncovered the Shermans crested and made short work of them, but the StuH eluded them as it dissappeared into the village. They then strayed too close to the village before the infantry got close and three TCs fell to a sniper and two Shermans fell prey to Panzerschrecks. Flattening any building from wich they were receiving fire this avenue of attack ground to a halt while I waited for the infantry to get into place. With the bulk of the infantry finally moving in place a fire fight broke out between them and a HMG in the church and a couple of infantry squads scattered throughout the village. The massed fire quickly proved the deciding factor and one by one the contacts dissappeared. With my Shermans, FO and 60mms helping out to see off the last defenders near the church I decided to use their smoke to cover the advance from enemy fire from the centre and deeper in the village. My infantry moved out of the forest just as my MGs and engineers took their places at the woods edge and provided cover fire. And I needed them! Despite thick smoke defenders that had remained unseen deeper in the village tok their toll among the attackers but were suppresed until the attackers reached the first cover. They then proceded to take out the defender and advanced further into the village with minimal casualties. I reach the far side of the village where I encountered the StuH wich proceded to maul my infantry. The engineers were tasked to close assault it but only one squad was in position at first. Sadly the bazookas got caught in the wheat field and were in no shape to help out. Despite taking 6 casualties the engineer team managed to get in position but refused to use it's satchels. My rifle platoons meanwhile pushed length wise along the village wich made it safe for me to pass my Shermans through the village towards the StuH near the river. For several turns the engineer squad failed to attack the StuH and came under fire from the opposite riverbank. Not convinced the engineers would do the trick I pullerd them back and cancelled the attack from the other two squads. The Shermans met the StuH head on. One got immobilized as it took a round but KO-ed the StuH in return. This proved little comfort to the Sherman as the following turn the Tiger appeared and put several rounds in its engine block by way of the frontal armour. The other two poped smoke and scattered to cover where they fired smoke to cover the bazookas and enigneers taking up station to cover the bridge exit. They then moved under cover of this moke to hide behind buildings. The rifle squads meanwhile had taken two thirds of the village as they moved from house to house meeting moderate resistance. Enbolded by my succes in the town fighting I decided to drive my recently arrived TDs and AC up to the ruins of the first large building next to the street they moved into the village from and dropped their infantry there. That proved a mistake as the infantry got massacred as it leapt of the tanks and the AC was knocked out by a Shreck. The infantry that already was in town had to hurry and save their bacon and ensure that the TDs could move through the town and ambush the Tiger. This proved very succesful and I was soon mopping up the remaining Germans in the village and picking off those who were trying to flee for safety. The TDs crossed the ford unopposed and set up for a flank shot at the Tiger as it proceded out from the cover of the woods towards the bridge. It was only seconds away from destrucion, just a few metres more... Auto surrender. Nooooooooooooooo! How could I be denied this final coup de grace? In CMBB the AI never surrendered as long as it still had AFVs. I have now played this scenario as the Allies about half a dozen times and only once, when I purposely avoided engaging and destroying the German infantry, did I get to destroy the Tiger. And each time he AI surrendered I suffered a good number of casualties and avarage a 50% morale. A lucky Tiger could still swing the fortunes of war the other way. Has auto surrendering changed or is this a scenario quirk? In CMBB I routinely had 10 PzIIs reduced to 1 while not even killing a single TC of my 10 or more KV-1s and never did the AI auto surrender before the last panzer fell to my KVs. Has it changed with CMAK? If so, why and can I pursuade you guys at BFC to change it back? But still, I had a blast as the yanks in this one.

spoiler alert! p o i l e r a l e r t ! It's been over a week ago since we last had a SotW so I'll take the opportunity to boast about my efforts with this one. I played as the Germans because I just love defending. I know the AI isn't very good at attacking wich takes some joy out of it but there you go. Having guessed that the AI was most likely to go through the woods on the hil I placed all my infantry platoons on the left, streching a bit towards the centre to stop the attack in it's tracks. HMGS were located in the church and a large house. Counting on walls to slow down the attackers I extended the barbed wire past it towards the centre of he map. I placed my AT mines in front of it, hoping to deny the area on my left from intervention from any AFVs. The 20mm was in the woods acros the river while the 75mm and 50mm guns were next to each other in the woods next to the church with keyhole fields of fire. I had two Schrecks near houses opposite the minefields hoping to bag any vehicles that swerved out of the way of the mines. Another shreck was positioned in the centre while my right was protected by tank hunters and LMGs, with one LMG and the Wurfmine tankhunter squad in the most forward house along the road. The sniper in the initial deployment ocation was joined by the FO. The StuH was sighted along the road leading into town. With all the pieces in place the battle can begin. The StuH was immidantly in luck, being able to fire a HE at the scoutcar and hitting it first shot setting it on fire. It then engaged the M5 coming up from behind the scout car and lobbed a HE directly on it, killing the TC. The M5 subsequently backed off. The other M5 came up from behind and it too got hit with the first shot, but to no effect. It fired a few times more and scored a hit with it's last HC round. Kill. After hitting the surviving M5 a couple of times with HE I decided it was a waste of ammo and withdrew the StuH behind a large building. Just in time as not 10 seconds later a couple of Shermans roll into the view of my defenders. With everyone else in hiding, my sharpshooter was tasked to take a shot at the TCs and he duely did so, hitting the first two and forcing down two others, later shooting one of them as he popped up again. Meanwihle the first units of enemy infantry were spotted and the 105mm FO ordered a fire mission. With traffic in he woods remaining light he re-laid the guns. By the time the 105mm guns were ready the amount of contacts had increased enough for the FO to expend it's entire load. Whomever was in the woods, they weren't happy, as a number of contacts were seen moving back. The infantry in the woods suitable delayed, the Shermans moved towards the village on their own. With 3 Shermans metres away from death in my minefields, they came to a halt. Two turns later they moved forwards again as infantry moved out of the tree line in force. Gleefully waiting for my first kill of a tank by mines in a long, long time I nearly cried as the three most forward ground to a halt again. I see my carefully planned delay of the enemy infantry go to waste and fear I need to expose my infantry to fend off theirs , in full view of a platoon of Shermans! This disapointment was short lived as all three Shermans turn their sides to my schrecks and guns. I ordered the Schrecks and guns to open up on the Shermans while the infantry and HMGs were ordered to fire on the infantry advancing through the cornfield. Both Schrecks missed with their first shot while a turret swinging round indicated that the 50mm may have had better aim, but not better luck. The Schrecks, despite coming under heavy fire from the Shermans and infantry managed to maintain a cool head and placed hits with their second shots. One schreck didn't have his coolness under fire awarded, as the Sherman it hit fired again and killed one crewman. It got it's own back by hitting the Sherman and causing near immidiate bailout as the 50mm AT gun chipped in after hitting it's first target with 5 rounds. With three Shermans destroyed the 4th stayed still on the top of the hill, most likely still shocked by the loss of it's TC. The 5th was halfway between the three Shermans and it's cowardly platoon member. It chose to try and move towards the ambush site but almost immidiately strayed into the view of the 75mm infanry gun. The Sherman was immidiatly hit and swerved to the left out of LOS of the inf gun but presenting a flank shot to the 50mm gun wich didn't hesitate and pumped two rounds into it's flank. The crew unwisely bailed out in full view of the only HMG still hiding. With the threat reduced from five Shermans to one Sherman, this too opened up and cut down the crew before adding to the slaughter of the exposed infantry in the field and the edge of the woods. A P51 makes an impressive effort to kill my StuH by firing all it's rockets in one volley but failed to score a hit. The last Sherman finally stirs and fires a few rounds into the village. Sadly for it this is when my Tiger arives. After withstanding two shots from the Tiger it turns, reducing it's 45 degree angle and faces the Tiger head on. Bad move! It explodes in an expressive fireball. With all visible tanks KO-ed the StuH moves across town to move towards the church to aid in the defence as US infantry and support weapons start piling up at the woods edge. As the Tiger moves across the bridge into the village it spots another armoured car cresting the hill, which it swiftly dispatches, setting it on fire. It then moves to take the place where the StuH started out. On it's way to the road leading into town it spots a Tank Destroyer and kills it as that M-10 deals with losing it's TC to the sniper. Meanwhile, with my infantry running out of ammo and the StuH making it's presence felt, the last few infantry contacts disappear, only to appear in ones and twos to be easily dealt with by the HMGs. The StuH takes up station next to the Tiger where it immidiatly spots another M-10. It fires a round short breaking LOS. I maneuvre my Tiger a bit closer. Again the StuH fires short and the HE shell again breaks LOS. Suitably distracted the M-10 tries to move to a better shooting location and thus stumbles into view of the Tiger. The M-10 sees it seconds before the Tiger fires but it's fast turret isn't fast enough to save it, as the ammo storages blows up. A turn later the Stuart that had it's TC killed by the StuH stirs itself and get's KO-ed immidiatly as the Tiger spots it. The Tiger then hunts up the hill sweeping away the last few crewmembers and a few battered infantry units. Then time runs out on the scenario and a ceasefire is ordered. This wasn't a battle, this was ballet as my forces flawlessly progressed through their moves. Every plan worked as it was intended and no crew suffered from bad aim. And it shows! With only 7 casualties (1 KIA) whilst leaving just 74 men available to the enemy forces this has been my finest and most satisfying victory yet. Even if it was against attacking AI. This demo scenario rocks every bit as much as it's Tunesian cousin! {edited because I forgot the spoiler space even though anyone wandering into this thread not expecting a spoiler deserves whatever happens to him, I later cleaned the text of the worst errors} [ November 29, 2003, 12:42 PM: Message edited by: Elmar Bijlsma ]

Slightly to the left Le Tondu I don't think there is a real benefit of supplying savegames as what happens is quite realistic. It's the rate at wich it happens. During my Allied General v CMBB campaign games airplanes featured a lot. I typically saw 40% of attacks landing on the enemy. I'll give you a picture how these battles often looked. Most batles had 10 guns (ranging from conscript to crack (85mm simulating the 152mm guns being attacked in AG) by Ju87s or Me109s mostly of green quality. 2400m away on a 3600m map 10 elite 88mm Flak prevented the enemy from auto surrendering. Anywhere between 40%-60% of all air attacks hit the German 88s. I saw a drop off when the aircraft were of Regular or better quality but never less then 1/3 off attacks went astray. Anecdotal or not, you can't tell me that's right. That's CMBB and atleast a dozen plays of Line of Defense tells me nothing has changed. {edited to add actual content} [ November 28, 2003, 10:33 PM: Message edited by: Elmar Bijlsma ]

I'm sure this problem would not be nearly so galling if every now and then my troops mis-identified the P-51 and knocked it out of the sky in a hail of .50 fire. That would just make my day.

Use a narrow key hole position (limited field of view) if you suspect enemy armour is around. Keep it well back from the main fighting because it eally is a fragile thing. Be wary of on board mortars and off map artillery of all calibers.

Isn't it amazing ? What happens when a whole squadron of Typhoons fail to even scratch the paint on a PzII? "That's realistic!" goes the Grog squad, justly pointing to the overstated effectiveness of tactical airpower in WWII. A single Uber-Typhoon knees your armoured force in the nuts: "That's realistic" says the Grog squad, justly pointing to the evidence of friendly fire in WW2. Aaaargh! I don't care! I just, for once, just once, want my own airpower not to be such a huge pain in the hind quarters! ...Please. :mad:

I remember reading both the BESA 15mm and Boys HMG (direct conversion from the ATR) both suffered from barrel whipping and were used in short burst and single shot. Magazines were also unwieldy. Neither weapon was at all well-liked from what I understand.

This was an important reason to order from BFC for me too. And I want my nazi SS stormtroopers and not some waffen grenadiere. It was a test for me to see it lying in the shops today while on my way to my sister to order CMAK (don't have a credit card myself).

*minor spoiler ahead* I'm a bit surprised at the firepower of the .50 in the demo. Was this to give it the demoralizing effects on squads that I suspect it's RL version had? Or does the engine need a high firepower number for it to give it suffcient power against vehicles? I also was a bit surprised at the amount of ammo carried around by the infantry version, compared to the vehiculair one. {sigh, I'll never learn} [ November 23, 2003, 06:50 PM: Message edited by: Elmar Bijlsma ]

You could always try what i did, deploy the Grants as far forwar on your left and fast move them over the ridge. Let your 37mm and HT deal with the ACs and HT that crest the ridge. The Grants meanwhile hug the far edge and wait for the panzers to show up. The first ones die whitout ever having a chance. Only the ones that deploy on the German left escape this slaughter...if I hadn't rushed my Sherman as fast as they can, out of formation. 22-0 in the vehicle department. Lost one 37mm AT gun to a lame arty attack. Gamey as heck but I am a great believer in kicking people when they are down.

And Fileplanet isn't hasseling me for $$$, nor has it ever.

Hah, I finally managed to get good service from my 20mm HT. I sneaked one behind the hill, the other two died on the way despite my MkIIIMs cresting way on the other side. The Lees got interested in chipping in against the IIIs after they overran the American left and destroyed two Shermans. So the HT hunts around the hill but unfortunately faces a Lee head on. It's guns adjust for range, I prepare for my HT to die as it bounces a round of the Lees front. POW! A shell from a IIIM takes out and sets on fire the offending Lee. My HT hunts further and catches a Lee side on. It fires two rounds into it's side. But then the 37mm turret swings round. Another tungsten round penetrates the Lee. The Lee fires, it hits... and my HT takes the round like a trooper! WOOT! The Lee tries to move out but another round penetrates side armour. It's dead, I thought, but the 37mm takes aim again and I'm thinking, I'm not that lucky again. But my HT gets it's shot out first. KABLOOIE! A catastrophic hit blows the Lee to bits. I was so proud of my little HT. It went on to take out the last Sherman hiding in the orchard from the rear with three shots without the Sherman ever responding. Sometimes you just know you are going to forever remember a vehicle crew. Wassisname.

Watch out, Low bridge! *bump*

Nobody has mentioned this before so I might be wrong but I'm getting the feeling that the targeting AI is changed. The AI now seems very keen to switch targets and not always to targets I would agree that needed the extra atention and often seconds after starting a turn in wich I gave a specific fire order. Let me illustrate with a few examples. I was sure to pick instances where LOS due to smoke/dust wasn't a problem. *spoiler alert* s p o i l e r a l e r t * I had 9 MkIIIMs cresting a hill and caught 4 Lee tanks in the flank at about 200m. On cresting, the 37mm depoyed in it'[s default position at the wall opened up (400m?) and a Sherman I'd spotted earlier target one of my tanks at +/-800m. All my tanks rotated towards the Lees when the turn ended. I then gave specific targetting orders to all IIIMs to fire at the Lee tanks, prefering this incentive to a cover armour arc because I wanted to deal with the Sherman and the 37mm AT-gun next when my tankers made short work of those hulking M3s. My tanks continued rotating their turrets towards the M3s but upon reaching it instead of depressing their guns rotated back 90 degrees towards either the Sherman or the 37mm AT gun. WTF? Maybe they dind't like presenting their turret sides to them (hulls were about 45 degrees to either units,) They fired a few shots, with an expectedly dissapointing result. The Lees having rotated to face my tanks began firing and decimating my tanks. Only then did my panzers rotate back and engage the Lees. But the damage was done. I managed to KO the last Lee seconds before a shot from the Sherman finally had gotten my range. Aaaargh! :mad: While I diagree most violently with my tankers decision not to open up on the Lees like I specifficly ordered to, I can see how a mistake like that could happen. My next tale of targeting woes I find harder to explain away. A MkIIIM moved near the wall near the church. I spotted three enemy units in their vicinity. The 37mm AT gun located there at 100m, a zook at slightly less then 150m and 4 infantry between 80m-150m. The bazooka was happily chucking rockets my way (what's up with that anyway? I hadn't spotted it before it started doing so, it's chances of succes were virtually nil even with an entire load. Seen this happen a lot in the demo) and the 37mm was plinking away at my tank with no results (it may have run out of AP) The infantry, wisely, was keeping their head down. So I order my tank to take out the 37mm. So imagine my surprise that on pressing GO my tank decide to engage the furthest visible infantry along the wall. I try again to order it to fire on the 37mm next turn but only gives up on firing at the infantry when the infantry legs it to the church halfway through the turn. It rotates towards the 37mm but infantry about 80m away starts firing on some German crews and being sympathetic my tank commander turns away from the 37mm again without firing and fires at this unit for a while. It then obeys my orders firing at the 37mm for the first time and eventually suppressing it. At wich point the the tank engages the bazooka wich has run out of ammo and my commander refuses a next turns order to engage the 37mm. Until the zook is dead and it starts popping away at the infantry located 80m away. It then fires a single shot at the 37mm again until it validly changes target to an infantry target wich was approaching from the rear and getting quite close. It kills it and goes on shelling an infantry unit about 120m away despite the gun still being supressed and the 80m distance infantry still taking pot shot at retreating crewmen. Finally all the infantry bugger off after I call in long range MG fire. Except the one located 80m away. It stubbornly holds it grounds and surprisingly firing the odd shot untill it is killed a turn or two later. Amazing. Finally, about 8-10 turns after first giving the order the 37mm gun is engaged again and it is killed. I come to this board calling this behaviour strange. I was calling it something else at the time, I can assure you! :mad: I had several other infuriating AI firing priorities but none stood out quite like these. So, is there a problem or is it this particulair scenario then brings the worst from the targeting AI? The Italian scenario threw me a whole lot less curveballs, might that be it? Anyone else seeing this sort of behaviour? BTW The AI bazookas are especially useless, the schrecks often decide to fire at equally long distances but atleast aren't quite as utterly useless.

Splendid. I can't wait to hear that pinging metal clip being ejected while while watching SMLEs firing. That should add immensly to the immersion factor. Regards JonS </font>

I have never seen tank MGs jam. Can they? I hope and think not, it would be near impossible to notice during play. [ November 20, 2003, 08:14 AM: Message edited by: Elmar Bijlsma ]

I did notice in the demo that the tanks didn't converge on one road of advance but fanned out a bit to strike my entire line, after dealing with the defending tanks. While I was aware of the weakness of the AI on the attack this scenario made the AI look good. I was very impressed with the AI marshalling their PSWs into and along the wadi. Either the AI was improved upon or the map was exceedingly well suited to it. I'm thinking both, very well done Rune.

*demo spoiler* d e m o s p o i l e r * I hope I wasn't the only one who while playing the demo variant of this map kept fearing the moment when the Germans would move up their heavy stuff? Even with only the MkIIIs showing up the only thing that handed me a minor victory was the mauling of the German infantry. My tanks kept being partially penetrated by 50L60 fire but failed to even hit their opponent except with puny 37mm.

So it's official then? Moon types with one hand and counts with the other?

Really the new sounds are all great. But the noise of bazookas firing was a bit weird. I don't know how realistic it is (very, undoubtedly) but I didn't warm to it. I especially love the new sound of a tank engine dying. Fantastic...provided it happens to the other guy. Good work, Madmatt.

From the demo readme: So, what happened to the crack troops?

Damnit! A download site in Amsterdam while everybody knows Haarlem is atleast 10 kilometres closer and DL-speeds suffer over distance. :mad: And two yank misson while I explicitly asked for one with CW/Brit forces? What's up with that! :mad: Did I mention that whining is a sign of happiness with me? 40% done.

That one got past me. So Ethiopia is in? I know Ethiopia had been discussed here but never thought it would be included. Or are they mistaken and/or do they simly mean Egypt?

JonsThanks for giving me a credible escape, but I honestly can't remember where I got the 6 gun battery idea from. I suspect that it is in part me mis-remembering that 4 was the normal size and so 6 must have been the number that gave rise to the 'automatic field gun' myth. And that 6 guns has been a usual number for RHA for ages before. /JonS But can we have some CMAK info on this most famous gun? Or *gasp* a piccie? I am just soooo curious. Pleeeeease? Pretty please? If not to satisfy my curiousity then to stop my whining, which isn't very pleasant in kids let alone an adult.

Came across this website today. Some of you might want to have a look through it, it's pretty good. http://www.btinternet.com/~ian.a.paterson/main.htm