Keith

Say, for instance, that you are the Russian player and your troops are mostly conscripts with poor quality leaders. Further, you are the attacker and have a great deal of infantry of which a certain percentage is "fanatic" in game terms. I would imagine that under these circumstances that it could be expedient and indeed profitible to use human wave attacks as a way to make up for the poor quaility of your troops. Even more so if there is an additional penalty to take into account the fact that your troops most likey do not have radios, therefore increasing the command delay further. Such was the realities of the Russian situation during the early war. If the game does justice to these realities then the Russian player would be almost forced to use historic tactics.

Welcome back scout. I look forward to your next installment on your web site. I suggest some people on this board keep their non-constructive, snipy, comments to themselves. People we are not interested in you trading insults. Grow up.

I am aware that there are problems with The Gamer's Net scenario depot. I have made a new scenario that has been tested by myself and other players and I would like to publish this on 3rd party web sites, if possible. What are the addresses of such web sites?

In real life, if a commander sacrificed transport for the purpose of 'drawing fire' said commander would answer with his head. The Germans were chronically short of transport and such tactics would quickly de-mechanize the division. I am fully aware that the 250 series half tracks were designed for recon purposes. However there is a big difference between recon and sacrificial targets. Further I am quite sure the men in these vehicles would not be so willing to throw away their lives in such a manner!

I would give the movie a "C+". The movie has some nicely done combat sequences and you can identify with the plight of the German platoon. But the movie is way too long and many of the sequences add little to the movie. Also it is difficult at times to keep straight which characteres are which. Another annoying feature is the sense of victimization of the German Landser. The director clearly places the blame for the catastrophe on the hands of the officer corps while portraying the German soldiers as innocent, compassionate men. The soldiers show so much sympathy for the destitute civilians and Russian POWs. This is quite contrary to history!

If the wire is not in a straight line parallel then the AI will rotate your wire at setup UNLESS you padlock the wire. Send me your scenario. I have one for you to test in return. (kschur@erols.com)

The Panther Brigades should also be modelled as having an experience level of "Green" since very few of their members had combat experience prior to being commited to battle. The performance of these organizations was terrible and they lost vehicles at an alarming rate. The creation of the brigades was due to Hitler's insistence at creating new units at the expense of reinforcing/refitting existing, experienced units. The experienced 21st panzer, for instance, was starving for tanks when it fought in conjunction with a couple of these brigades in the Lorraine campaign. The badly handled brigades were wiped out.

Gregory Deych, you are absolutely correct. The T60s and T70s should be included. Jeff Heidman, I did not include PzkfwIVD or PzkfwIVF1 because I the differences between these models and the PzkfwIVE are minimal. The only real game differencs would be variations in armor thickness. If they could fit in the SU-85 or SU-100 that would be great. But what I put up was a minimal list. And knowing their schedule is to release by next Sept. I would say they are going to be hard pressed to model everyones favorite vehicle. And yes, I did read from BTS that they would not be doing vehicles with multiple turrents. It would require too much new coding for the Tac AI. Basically they are going to try to reuse the existing game engine as much as possible. I also read there will be no calvary horses for much the same reason.

Based on readings on earlier post it is apparent that BTS will have to make some compromises on the vehicles they intend to model in CM2. I know for a fact that they will not be modeling tanks with multiple turrents, so no T-35s or T-28s folks. This post is a list of the MINIMUM list of vehicles that I think should be modeled: RUSSIAN ------- T-26 BT-7 T34 A/C T34-85 KV1 KV2 (if they can fit it in) BA-64 SU-76 (most produced vehicle after T-34) SU-122 SU-152 JSU-122 JSU-152 JS-2 Guns ----- 45mm AT gun 57mm AT gun 76mm gun 122mm gun (used in direct fire role for AT) 152mm gun (ditto) GERMAN ------ Pzkfw 38(t) Pzkfw IIF Pzkfw IVE Pzkfw IIIF Pzkfw IIIG or Pzkfw IIIH Pzkfw IIIJ or Pzkfw IIIL Stug IIIb Elefant Jpz I 47mm (if they can fit it in)

Anything over 100 will result in good kill ratios. Anything over 50 will supress the enemy and keep their heads down now and then depending on troop quality. When attacking enemy infantry it is a good tactic to pin them down while bringing with your manuver elements close enough to bring the 100+ firepower to bear.

In Israel women are required to serve two years in in the military and men three years. Women serve in ALL branches of the military. And let me tell you many of these attractive women can surely out shoot many of the macho insecure men on this board who disparage wommens' fighting abilites. Also remarks about rape are rude and classless and have no place on this forum. Some of you guys sound like you are 12.

The key to success in any assault scenario against fixed positions (bunkers, etc.) is to dismantle each defensive position sequentially. Every time I played this scenario I crushed the AI. The big ACE card for the Allies is the artillery. The first step is to build a base of fire on the hill to the left of the road leading into town. Simultaneously inflitrate a platoon on the far right of the map through the dense woods. On the far left use a platoon to move through the wheatfield to the scattered woods at the base of the far hill. Once you have supressed enemy fire in the valley use smoke fire missions from your 81mm spotters to cover your engineers and last platoon when they move down the road to the town. When engagin the AT bunker you should position your tanks behind the hill to the right of the road to town. Place them in hull down positions and engage the bunker simultaneously. Put the tanks in reverse at the end of every turn and pop them up at the beginning of each turn. If you loose a tank wait for reinforcements to finish the job and just use smoke to mask the pill box.

I would just like to say that I think that the Volkstrumm squads represented in CM seem to be a little too well equipped. From what I have read many of these units were equipped with old captured bolt action rifles (Italian) with a a dozen rounds of ammo apiece. The CM volkstrumm squad is as well equipped as a regular infantry unit complete with MG42s and assault rifles. One thing I would like to see in the future is the ability to "arm" individual squads with equipment other than panzerfaust and demo charges. That way I could make some volkstrumm squads equipped with just rifles.

Tankgirl, I will be happy to play against you using the CM Demo. Just send me an email to kschur@erols.com. I will be away most of the weekend though.

Tank girl, here are some links to excellent books about women participating in the Russian Army in WWII. Also check out "We Band of Angels" about U.S. Army women nurses in the Philippines. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089096601X/qid=979921601/sr=1-8/ref=sc_b_8/102-3833210-9020961 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0968270239/qid=979921601/sr=1-9/ref=sc_b_9/102-3833210-9020961

I support the idea of having Partisans in CM2. The fact of the matter is that on the EF Partisans frequently coordinated their attacks closely with Russian Army attacks. For instance, during the 1941 Russian winter counter offensive there were several battles where partisans, parachutist, and calvarly all participated in the same battle simultaneously. Another example is during the 1944 Russian offensive "Bagration" partisans came out in force and wiped out whole units of retreating Germans. In Talonsoft's EF game I made such a scenario featuring retreating German units in swamps and dense woods being harassed and ambushed by partisans while they try to stuggle of the map edge. Russian partisans were primarily composed of regular Russian Army troops who were cut off from the front. The Russians parachuted officers in to lead these groups. Women participated in Russia at all levels of combat and several received the Hero of The Soviet Union medal, the equivalent of the Medal of Honor. There were female Russian snipers, tank crewmen, artillery people, bomber pilots, etc.

Tankgirl, welcome to the forum. Your web site is pretty cool. It is good to see diverse people on this forum.

I apologize if my message seemed a bit pompous, but here is some technical information to support my position. The M6 37mm gun carried in the Greyhound used a semi-automatic breach capable of firing up to 30 rounds per minute (practical limit was around 20 rounds per minute). Maximum range for the APC M51 shot was around 12,700yds, although in real life hitting anything over 2,000yds distance was a something to be proud of. At 500yds the M51 shot is said to have been able to penetrate 2.1in (53mm) of face hardened armor at 30 degrees obliquity, and at 2000yds the numbers fell to 1.4in (35mm). At the range described in this message thread the 37mm GUN M6 Squeeze Bore firing Tungsten Carbide rounds was capable of penetrating 46mm of armor at 1500 m. The 37mm gun was a fairly accurate weapon and given its high rate of fire it seems to be entirely plausable and realistic that the Nashorns were knocked out. The armor of the Nashorn varied from 37mm to 10mm.

I think the Germans should have continued to mass produce only four tanks from 1943 on: Mark IV - the sherman of the German Army. A little outdated by 1944 standards but cheap to make. Mark V 'Panther' - all around best tank of the war. Stug IIIG - reused the Mark III chassis and good quality infantry support vehicle. Hetzer - reused Pzkfw 38(t) chassis and was very good quality tank destroyer that was relatively cheap to make. The amount of resources (manpower, money, time) spent by the German armaments industry in building the super heavy tanks and tank destroyers was a phenominal waste. Do you realize that it took over 300,000 man hours to make a single Tiger tank? [This message has been edited by Keith (edited 01-16-2001).] [This message has been edited by Keith (edited 01-16-2001).]

Pardon me, but I think all of you guys are missing one crucial thing: the 37mm gun is an excellent long-range weapon that is capable of firing very rapidly. Each of those greyhounds probably got off three shots for every single shot from the Nashorns. The 37mm gun is quite capable of penetrating the armor of the Nashorn at just about any range. I would suggest people do some research on the 37mm before you pass judgement on the game... [This message has been edited by Keith (edited 01-15-2001).]

Try Michellen road maps. They show topographical features, vegetation, as well as roads. These maps were actually used by the Americans during the war. Also try the web and do a search for the name of the town or battle.

I only support adding a variable number of turns to the end of the game much like what was done for Steel Panthers. The number added should be a random number up to +10% of the specified game length, rounded up. So a 18 length game would have up to +2 extra turns and a 40 length game would have up to +4 extra turns. Subtracting turns from the game length is a bad idea because as an attacker you are given a certain amount of time to accomplish your mission and plan accordingly. I also don't think it is particullarly realistic. My final comment is that if your oponent is able to successfully rush your captured objectives in the last game truns then that demonstrates that you didn't control the objective properly in the first place.

Yes there are Bangalore's in CM. The Engineer squads' demo charges are abstractions. When an engineer unit expends a demo charge to clear a minefield it is assumed it was *really* a Bangalore.

The effectiveness of the 75mm Sherman is the reason why in late 44-45 the Sherman platoons always had a majority of 75mm equipped shermans even though the 76mm was in good supply. Something to keep in mind for historical scenario designers. Regarding "spicing up" physics lectures just do some research on Descartes - the father of analytic geometry and the theory of momentum. The guy was a part time swash buckling mercenary and general. I recall reading he once got jumped on a boat by a bunch of bandits and proceeded to cut them to pieces in a sword fight.

In Arnhem colonel Frost placed his 6 pounder AT guns in the buildings and they worked quite well. Remember buildings can have a nasty habit falling on your head.