CrapGame

Ahhh, wife..... Hmmm.... That rings a bell somewhere... Oh, now I remember! It's that thing I see in my living room when I walk by it on the way to my computer to play CM! No, that's not it! It's that thing that tells me I should get off my lazy ass and pay some attention to it...to which I reply, I already pay the bills, so why do I need to pay anything else??? I used to remember what that meant.... Many things have fallen by the wayside since I have turned to the dark side and focused all my energies and time to driving the filthy Amis from the Fatherland CrapGame out (of the house putting out the recycling)

Just read Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers. I thought it had some interesting points, but it also had many parts where his facts may be questionable. I don't know, it just reads in parts like he hurried the book out the door before his fact checkers had completed their jobs. There were some typos and the such. I still recommend it if you have the time to kill. I think what I'm currently reading is called Stalin's War on Germany. I believe the author is Irish, or a Scot. Although I am not very far into it, it has a very authoritative feel, and appears to be well documented. Just my 2 cents CrapGame out

I'll repeat the need for a manual that can be laid flat with three-hole punches. This way, we can insert our own pages of notes to any place in the manual that we want. It can help us keep track of things in our own way. Also, a complete index is a nice plus. CrapGame out

Gimme me Gold!!! Version of CM that is... CrapGame out I'll give you $100 to carry this .30 caliber...

Guachi, I'll add a few if you don't mind... Eight Chance Encounters Seven StuGs a Shelling Six Shermans Burning...

Yes they can! In one game, my GI's without a zook attacked a StuG from the rear as it fired on their comrades in the church. They men approached the StuG, there was no depicted action or explosions, but the next sound I heard was the belly hatch of the StuG opening and the gun barrel depressed. I still don't know how they killed it, but I don't think the Germans fell for the old "banana in the tailpipe" routine. That was the turning point in the game. I'll give you $100 to carry this .30 caliber... CrapGame out

Mattias, I share your difficulty in reading the terrain. I believe the abstraction of the trees to sometimes be difficult in determining where I may or may not move my vehicles and troops. I have yet to find any way other than getting down to camera angles 1 and 2, and slowly moving over the map to get a feel for the terrain. It can take me an agonoizingly long time between turns, and my games take forever as I do it for all the units. Perhaps some other poster to this board can enlighten us to easier ways to read the terrain? CrapGame

Mattias, Indeed I apologize for the coarseness of my reply. I was (and still am) steaming over the butchering of Oddball and the other 2 "Ronsons" with Moriarity and his gypsy comrades in them by the enemy. Let me explain further: I wasn't doing any spectacular maneuvering, just moving them up the scattered trees on the left-edge of the woods on the right of the American side of the map. There are what appear to be two "trails" through there. I had them in a rough "diamond" formation, 2 in front and 1 in back, and they "hunted" to the edge of the woods in unbuttoned mode. They squeaked through the edge of the woods, where they were immediately spotted by the buttoned (repeat BUTTONED!) StuG which turned and incinerated the Sherms. (similar tactic to another post, I see) I am in no way complaining this is "unrealistic" - in fact, I have never had so much fun getting my ass handed to me by a PC in my life - but merely that I thought the StuG would have at least been hit (not necessarily killed) once by the Sherman not initially being shelled. Chalk it up to bad luck, I guess. Is Tout's "TANKS!" an encyclopedia of sorts, or more of a historical work? I think I might have to pay a visit to my arch-nemesis Amazon and check it out... I also raced my other two up the left side of the field, but stopped at the two houses by the wall. I didn't think that they would be able to get hull down at the bottom of the ridge in front of it. Something new for me to try. Anyway, again my apologies, and I am off to try to take the fatherland for the forces of democracy.

I must admit, that I have had some good luck with Shermans against the AT guns, but as soon as there is any type of tank versus tank battles, including multiple vehicles versus one of the enemy, the Sherman really doesn't fare very well. I am definitely a member of Fionn's Sherman Hater's Club. It must have been an awful experience to be a WWII tanker knowing that you were going to run up against the superior German machines without any Jabo support.

Mattias - The AI must be a one sided trigger-puller, as although I might pick the target, in CM it is the AI that pulls the trigger for both sides... unless, that is, your CM is different from the rest of us non-ubermen... Rommel, I didn't realize the targeting speed was that different. Another lesson learned. When my Sherms came out of the woods, they were lined up in a diamond formation, with two in the front, separated by 10 meters or so of scattered trees, and one in the back, about 10 meters behind. That StuG lit up all three! He couldn't even be targeting all of the Sherms at the same time. That means that at least one of them had undisturbed fire at that StuG for some time...a lot of good that did it.

I was playing Chance Encounter for the first time last night. I was the Americans, and was slowly advancing three Shermans with a lot of infantry support through the woods on the right side of the map. The infantry moved into a couple of houses, and as soon as the three Shermans approached the end of the woods, I put them in unbuttoned HUNT mode. Within 2 turns, 1 StuG in the center clearing in the German resistance line had smashed all three of the Shermans - only getting killed by the third Sherman in a simultaneous death similar to one of the AARs. I could see it was "Hull Down", but my Sherms were partially hull down themselves. My fourth Sherman quickly got killed in a duel with another StuG that came out of the woods on the German right, which in turn got the kiss of death right square in the lips from a 'Zook in a second story window at a range of 161 meters. My last Sherman, the "+" version, got its TC killed, and had to hide to recover from shock. The last StuG was killed in an unknown fashion by a US infantry squad that close assaulted the buttoned up vehicle from behind, while it fired on my troops in the church. It was really neat to see the grunts run up to the back of the vehicle, see them crouching around the rear of the vehicle, and the next sound was the hatch opening. There was no explosion, and after watching the film from every angle, I can't tell what they did to kill it. But there were no survivors from the crew. CMOH for those GI's for sure. Does the StuG have one of those mortar projectors?? My question is this - WHY CAN'T SHERMANS, UNBUTTONED OR NOT, HIT ANYTHING OTHER THAN BUILDINGS???

Christmas in November!!!!!!!!!

Well, I thought it might be in the code. I do agree with the damage probably being sever enough to take out the coax. But, I can't figure out how it could have been severe enough to damage the bow gun without taking out the unbuttoned driver and/or commander of my Sherman... It is certainly not impossible... What an incredible game. I love the sound of the tankers opening their belly hatch to bail out. Every day I see something else that makes me say "Damn, I never thought of that". CrapGame

Fionn, Please try and check it. I could understand the blast taking out the coax MG, but it is hard to believe that the blast could then take out both the roof mount and the bow gun as well. Anyway, I preordered long ago, and am trying my damnedist to convince the wife that this game needs a new computer with 21" monitor and subwoofers to play on. It seems to be working..... CrapGame

Something weird enough finally happened for me to give up my lurker status. I was playing Reisberg as the Americans last night (Germans surrendered on Turn 27!), and one of my Shermans was blasted by an 88. The shell hit the gun (message was something like - "Gun hit - no serious damage") consequently knocking the main gun out of action with no injuries to the crew. Two other Shermans then took out the 88. My question is this: Is it a bug that for the rest of the game, neither the bow mg nor the roof mounted AAMG were fired at all, despite being able to keep the Sherman unbuttoned for the majority of the battle? There was plenty of ammo, there was great vision, and plenty of targets. I basically had to use the Sherman as a moving armored observation post. Has anyone else had this happen? Outstanding game BTS....

Damn you readers to hell. Amazon.com and Visa thank you both very much. On the other hand, my wife would like to open a really large can of whoop-ass on many posters to this thread. My delivery of nine different books was a direct result of lurking in this forum and writing down many of the suggested tomes. Unfortunately for me, I had them sent to my house instead of work, and she got the delivery.... Ughhh...