Conscript Bagger

Thanks for the suggestions; now I have to run out the door and don't have time to dl anything more. My friend expressed a desire to try Squad Leader, which is what made me think of CM. If anybody else shows up, we'll probably go with Settlers or A&A or even Rail Baron. I'll let you know what he/they think if we do fire up CM.

So I'm heading over to a friend's house for a boardgame tonight, and thought I'd bring the laptop for a little CM demonstration. What scenarios do you recommend for a good newbie experience? I want something that features English-speaking attackers, since attacking is better vs. AI and I want him to be able to understand the cries of his troops. Oh yeah, something on the smallish side would be good for manageability and time considerations. I'm thinking of getting the Chance Encounter and Riesberg scenarios for CMAK, since I have fond memories of playing these scenarios in the CMBO demo--but there may be better ones for CMAK. Your thoughts?

And you can still use the "+" and "-" keys to cycle through mounted units. Select platoon HQ, give orders, hit "+" to select Squad 1, give orders, hit "+" to select Squad 2, etc.

As long as he's got something worthwhile to say, I'll take this guy over our collection of innocuously named crapflingers any day. He's just going to have to accept that his name will influence how his posts are received.

They'll probably throw grenades, which is the game's way of showing a close assault. Do you have an HQ unit in those woods? They are (at least anecdotally) held to be more effective at disabling tanks this way.

So as not to hijack the M10 thread, I'm putting this here. Just found this info on my hard drive - I posted it here before the Great Forum Purge, etc.; maybe folks who didn't see it then will find it useful now. AARs often don't say what type of TD was in action, just the unit, and the CM-level tactics for M10s, M18s, M36s, and 76mm towed guns can be pretty different, so it's nice to know which weapon to put into a scenario. Only one type of TD is listed for each unit, except when they converted to a new type. I imagine some of the M18/36 units were upgraded from towed 76s or M10s, but the author of this information (forgotten by me ) didn't know it.

Someone groggier can tell us for sure, but I think it would be unlikely to see M10s alongside M18s. My (admittedly limited) understanding of U.S. TD battalions is that they each used a single type of vehicle (or the towed 76mm).

"So then Guderian says to Hitler, he says, 'if the Luftwaffe can have infantry, why can't the panzertruppe have anti-aircraft?'" Bah - I started mine before those other yahoos posted.

I don't think adding pauses will delay firing, just movement. For the small mortars at least, it takes several rounds to have any effect, so single shots aren't too useful, especially since the first few usually fall short or long. Same for smoke. Bigger guns tend to have bigger ammo loads, and the Area Fire order (IIRC) slows the rate of fire a bit so you don't blow through HE as quickly. Still, I agree that you can run out distressingly quickly with a Stug or whatever... you really have to pick your targets sometimes.

In CMBO I had a daisy-chain blocking a road on the reverse slope of a 5m elevation change. An AI halftrack came cruising along, crested the slope, and ran over the mine (KO'd). Either he didn't see it in time to stop, or the AI knew it was there and ordered him across anyway (that same game saw many other AI vehicles purposely driving through a standard AT minefield even after its discovery by previous vehicles). It would be interesting to test and find out for sure.

There are some Stalingrad maps at: http://rkkaww2.armchairgeneral.com/ Most don't have quite the level of detail you're asking for, but they might help with avenues of attack & OBs.

Trees off during orders, on (usually sparse or moderate) during playback. I waste WAY too much time playing movies over and over from different camera angles, and I'm a sucker for those cinematic "peering out between the branches" shots.

This excerpt from the Army's 1945 Handbook on German Military Forces is from Moon's site:

Could this be a ground pressure thing? I've never checked to see if different ground pressures affect detonation.

Immobile and gun damage last all scenario long. In ops you might get them back later. Rotten luck with those Panthers. No less a personage than BFC-Steve once said something along the lines of he'd rather have 3 PzIVs than 2 Panthers, and a lot of CM players would agree--but then, sometimes you just want to use Panthers, eh?

Shows just how little you know! Jpz IV/70 was specifically designed so that it could use its gun to swing itself across steep-banked streams, with a bit of spin the driver could make it land on its tracks. Unfortunately, sometimes the gun got stuck in the mud bottom and the Jagdpanzer would be an easy target for Allied gunners, as it would be showing its weak top or underside to them. This is where the name "Guderian's duck" came from (because it was there like a sitting duck). </font>

Isn't that a publicity shot from the much-loved Goebbels comedy, "Feldgrau Goes Bananas"?

CMBB has factories--no more running into the street just to advance to the next tile. Infantry units carrying a high proportion of automatic weapons have frighteningly few ammo points. And there are lots of different airplanes to come and blow up your tanks.

But doesn't at least one iteration of CM's editor list it as "Pz IV/70" or something, as opposed to "Jgdpz"? I remember that causing some confusion before.

Runyan: do you have problems with sighting using your terrain? A single forest tile often doesn't block LOS at the same level. Since you raise the elevation, that'll be great for blocking ground level LOS, but I'm wondering if you get elevated units sighting across multiple hedgerows.

No worries

There's one at the Depot.

Hey Boney, what was the one "good line heard so far"? Just wondering where the bar's been set.

From Jade's initial post: "It's important to know, because when you _do_ get hit, it's the turrent for sure... which is thin (usually!)." From Omi's post (#3): "But as you mentioned, if the tank does get hit, it will be on the turret. It's up to you check your tank's armor and dedice what's best in the circumstances." Can I have some of the grass mod you're using?

I've seen this assertion a lot too, but there's contradictory info out there... consider the loading instructions from 6th Airborne (emphasis added): and this bit (from here): Edit to add: Maybe there was an early version without the guide plates?