Major Tom

The Sturmgeschuetz is just a StuG, and the problems mentioned in this blurb are noticible in the game. The StuG can easily be outflanked by tanks, and, is harder to position in bocage. The battles we have seen haven't taken place in any of the terrain that is mentioned in the little blurb. These battles are on relatively clear terrain, many wide spaces and rolling hills vs. sharper sunken roads and a plethora of cover.

Frankly, you are starting to give us Italian's a bad name (50% Italian + 50% Welsh = 1 Canadian). However, it is probably just your American side which cannot grasp the humour of the above statement

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Berlichtingen: Major Tom, Peng/Elvis & Bauhaus, Hey there. Got a question for you. Do you think the "mini" in his new name is in referance to the style of dress he wears?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I wouldn't put it past Joanna. However, I would probably attribute this new name to some sort of personal biological discovery.

Always withdraw your HMG and MMGs well before the enemy gets there. Use them only for suppression and long range casualties. Have your HMGs fire from their new position, making the enemy drop their heads down, then you can retreat your Infantry forces. Against tanks, well, the best bet is to retire your infantry with a lot of smoke. This goes pretty good against just attacking infantry as well. Even the enemy's smoke screen can aid your retreat. Find some dead ground, then run your troops as fast as you can through that. Sometimes you might need a rearguard, but, their escape is virtually hopeless. Use artillery and tanks to supress enemy HMG's and MMG's. It is always good to have some sort of AFV with a good sized gun in reserve, just for such an occasion. They can throw HE or smoke to cover your retreat. If you wait too long, sometimes it is better to have your men hold their ground rather than to retreat. Best to get some enemy casualties for the ones that you will lose anyway. Firing smoke from a tank to cover an advane or retreat is much better than firing a few HE shells that MIGHT cause one of your enemy formations to drop their heads for a second.

Not really, but, every Canadian is on the Beaver patrol though The Pacific theatre would be interesting using the battles up to 1942. Malaya, Hong Kong, Philippines, Dutch East Indies, Burma, New Guinea and Guadalcanal. Each of these battles had more tactics over overwealming firepower. Casualties for both sides were fairly equal, however, the Allies would have a severe lacking in quality of troops. Steve is correct in stating that battles after 1942 will just be slogging matches, bloodier and shorter than that of a proposed Normandy Beach landing.

Combat Mission 27: THE EROTIC AWAKANING OF HITLER You are Adolf Hitler, using your charisma and cool hair you must seduce every fly koochie in the Greater Reich. You and your Pornstar Buddies, "Horney Himmler" and "Grointhrobbing Goebbels" must change the Third Reich into a funkadelic super orgy porno party. the only weapon in your inventory is your sex book, aptly named "My Struggle". Cursed with more than a limp and dead arm, attempting to attain the climatic victory could be a very short endeavor. PS. Germanboy, it is Xander, not Sander. Short for Alexander (Alexander - Ale = Xander) [This message has been edited by Major Tom (edited 02-13-2000).]

Well, wearing skirts in 1940 was the fashion of the day. However, as the war progressed, Allied tankers noticed that the skirt wasn't too becoming of their AFV's, let alone very unconfortable. The Allied tankers decided that it would be fashionably irrisponsible to keep the skirts on their tanks. It is almost as important a liberating event for Allied AFV's in the 1940's as burning your Bra was for women in the 1960's.

Yeah, but here in Canada we have a healtcare system that will take care of your Lung/Throat/Groin cancer that result from smoking tobacco without having to dish out the millions like in the States.

Watch out though! Goanna is the master of invisible Infantry tactics. He tells his troops that they are invisible and to march right into my field of fire, and any casualties that result are just mere coincidence. Oh yeah, QUIT SAYING HELLI!!!

EXACTLY, the reason why 90% of our population lives on the boarder is solely due to the fact that we decided not to change our system over to the American's. NOT because the climate up North SUCKS. You think understanding French from Quebec is difficult? Try listening to Northern Ontario French.

Heck, for CM4 just replace Tigers with Matilda I, II's and Char B1's. The equivalent of Shermans are Mk III and IV GERMAN tanks. Replace the PIAT, Zook, and Schrecks with Anti-Tank Rifles and 25mm AT Guns. You get British, French, Belgian, Dutch, German, possibly even Norwegian. I am unsure wether or not that this will include the Polish campaign. The Poles had almost 1000 AFV's, unfortunately most of them were little tankettes. I have a book about early war camoflage for Allied and German tanks, and let me tell you that there are HUNDREDS of different types of AVF's used by both sides. The Matilda II in 1940 was more scarier to the Germans than a Tiger towards the Allies in 1944. At least the Allies could hope to crack a Tigers armour with the weapons they had. In 1940, only the 88mm could possibly crack the hull of a Matilda II, and none of these guns were fitted on tanks in this period!

Who needs to HOLD buildings when you have 2 StuG's, 2 Halftracks and a Tiger vs. 3 smoldering Hellcats and the scattered bits of what you would like to call Infantry? All I have to do is finish leveling your buildings with my THREE tanks, call in my plethora of Artillery and have my remaining Platoons leisurely walk over and claim the victory points (notice platoons is PLURAL! Plural means more than one for you illiterate former convicts over there in Australia). Gone away on business, eh? Or are you just cowering and crying in the corner of your room, too terrrified to check your e-mail and see your poor troops, er, cannon fodder blown to bits by 88mm HE shells. It will be nice to kick your butt 2 PBEM games in a row.

Well, the best PTO game I have seen, has to be Pacific War. This game came out in the early 1990's, so, it is graphically, well, sad. But, there is a project on the works to revamp the game, modernizing it and stuff. Check out this site. http://pacificwar.thegamers.net/whatsnew.html

Just have to add to the question about Canadians wearing American Helmets. Nope, didn't happen, except probably for the "Devil's Brigade" and possibly the 13th Brigade which fought in Alaska, and the 6th Division which was to participate in the landings on Japan. I am sure that most Canadian equipment was produced here in Canada. Since the American's decided only to join the war in 1942, and us Canadians have been fighting since 1939 our production facilities were in full gear reproducing British uniforms and equipment. It wouldn't make sense to change the entire system over just to emulate our southern distant relatives. I would definitly assume that there will be MULTIPLE uniforms availible. This is only the demo, we only get to see a few units and uniforms. I would assume that there will be different pictures for the units also. These guys pride themselves on detail..

Well, CM3 would have to have more than 1 BMP to represent faces. You have Caucasian, Indian, African, Japanese, Canadian... Frankly, I don't think that it would be too difficult to represent every nation and their weaponry in the Medeterranean theatre. Many nations used the same weaponry, or, didn't have multiple weapons, or in any quantity. It will "basically" probably be British, German, and Italian units and weapons, with the few indigenous weaponry of the other nations. Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Canadians and Indians were all equipped by the British. The French at this period were mostly equipped with either their own personal weaponry (small arms), and/or American equipment. The Brazillians were probably equipped just like the Americans also. The number of different types of weaponry will be very similar to that of CM1. Plus, many items can be reused from CM1 to CM3 (Sherman tank, etc...). I think that the Japanese battalion was called the 100th Battalion. They were able to keep their name because they were so successful and such a brave formation. Always found the American denomination of Battalions (and the German one at that) to be pretty bland. It is either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd of whatever regiment. The Commonwealth got it right by having battalion names, with regimental histories to boot. Forgot to mention, there was a Czech battalion in the Middle East, and, there was an Iraqi rebellion which required the "British" to invade Iraq. There was also Vichy French (Syria) and the Free French (1st and 2nd FF Brigades), plus the regular French Army (XIX Corps) after the Torch Landings.

Oh man! I can't believe all of you! Germanboy got most of them but, you are forgetting some of the most important nationalities ever to be a part of CM. CANADIANS, Poles, New Zealanders, Australians, South Africans, Brazilians (1st Division), African Americans (in the 92nd Division), Indians, etc... This is the most multinational theatre of war. Battles could range from North Africa, Middle East, Italian East Africa, Malta (possible theoretical invasion), Yugoslavia, Greece, Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Italy. Each with very good terrain. Reenacting some of the battles on Crete will be amazing! Imagine, ANZAC troops armed with Matilda II's and Mk VI's take on crack paratroops armed with only 75mm Recoiless guns.

Never mind, just got working

My e-mail is currently down for some weird reason, so, it will be a little time before I can wupp your butts around the battlefield. This will give you time to bury your dead and think up an evacuation plan.

Actually, you can beat these hasty tactics very easily. I had a PBEM game where my opponent bursted through with 3 of his Shermans up to the church. Right away I lost 2 StuG's and the thrid soon after that with him only losing 1 Sherman. But, I only lost the equivalent of 2 Squads of Infantry, plus a HMG and a Panzerschreck. Well, I just consolodated my forces, went on the defensive well within forest territories. Generally, when people get such a success early in the game they tend to get overconfident. This is a vital weapon at your disposal. I managed to take out 2 more Shermans with hidden and cut off Schrecks which he didn't discover (the only bonus of being overrun!). He then tried to break into my first defensive Hedgehog, the small forest inbetween the German Start off point and the Chruch. I had 2 Green, yet untouched squads, 1 previously routed Conscript Squad, 2 HMG's, and 2 Schrecks. This hegdehog was covered by my larger defenses in the Big forest on the German side by HMG's. When the Allied forces moved in, after bombarding the side of the forest that I wasn't on with virtually all their Mortor shells they spent time dealing with the bypassed Schreck and it's HQ unit, then they advanced on my defensive line and were promptly stopped with severe casualties. I also had 3 Veteran and Regular Platoons in the American big forest advancing on the single American Platoon there. We called a cease fire with about 20 or so turns left, ending in an American victory (as he held 3 of 4 victory flags), but, my force was still in good order, causalties were about equal on both sides. This was well after turn 5 or so when I thought things were hopeless. The key is, to never rely on a single unit, especially tanks, in order to win a battle for you.

One problem I can see using this, is, that you yourself will lose your units. How can you see a hidden unit at the bottom of one of these squares? Some sort of marker will be needed to find your own troops.

Contrary to everyone's belief, it seems, the terrain in North Africa is not entirely desert. Infact, only a relatively small portion of the area that was being fought over was just flat desert. Most of it took place on ridges, wadi, torn up and uneven ground, basically, like CM1 without the green or trees. You still have rolling ground, buildings, fortifications, etc... There is plenty of cover in North Africa. Albeit, I would much rather see a 1939-40 CM before North Africa, but, remember, for 2 years the British, Italians, and Germans were battling over this terrain.

Wait a minute, this lesbian bar doesn't have any fire escapes! Enjoy your deathtrap ladies!

No, this is purely graphical. Nothing to do with the status of the unit involved.

Operation Veritable: Along with 1050 Guns and Howitzers the Canadians utilized 60 stationary Shermans using their 75mm Guns as Artillery. They could have built up some sort of elevated ramp, drove the Sherman up on it allowing for higher elevation.

Forgot about the monitors, but, I am pretty sure that they were armed with some leftover WWI 15" Turrets. Possibly there was a monitor with one of Furios's 18" after she was converted into an Aircraft Carrier.