Pak40

According to the "American Arsenal" - U.S. 37mm Cannister M2 Standard The round has 122 lead balls imbeded in a resin matrix held within a case. When the round is fired, the case leaves the barrel and travels appoximately 100 feet before the case explodes, scattering the lead balls. The Germans were probably within 100 feet of the tank, thus avoiding the shot.

I've read some accounts where it was quite effective, at least at driving the enemy off. But, I'd have to agree that it's probably only good against exposed infantry at close range. It's no good for trying to dig out infantry in any sort of cover. I have a U.S. Army Arsenal book at home that describes all ammunition used in WWII. I will check it when I get home, but I seem to recall that the cannister rounds didn't burst until 100-150 meters after leaving the barrel. I could be wrong. I will check tonight.

Yes, I saw that thread, but Kazaa is quite a bit different than normal hosting on a web server. Madmatt didn't really specify whether point to point filesharing is OK to do.

Do you mind if we file share the demo on Kazaa or other file sharing clients? It might help people out, since the two download sites seem slow.

Eric, Thanks for the insight on the MG42. It sheds some light on the topic. However, I'm still a little confused about the recoil. Isn't the barrel rise caused by successive recoil of the rounds? Also, from what you describe, it sounds like you were using live ammo. What is the difference in recoil & barrel rise, if any, between blank and live ammo?

...but people who have actually fired MG-42-like weapons consistently state that the weapon is quite controllable in burst fire from the bipod. [/QB]

Since the cyclic rate of the MG42 is so high, you could imagine the recoil of 20 full size rounds being fired within 1 second. You would have very little control of the gun with just a bipod. However, the tripod actually stablizes the gun. In other words, it isn't just a mount for the gun - it actually "locks" or stiffens the gun so that the effects of recoil are reduced. That's how I understand it anyway. As for amrored vehicles, I think the MG38 was used in tanks because the barrel fit better. I'm not sure about halftracks.

Im not sure if this has been asked after all of the recent sneak previews, but: Will CMBB model dust/smoke eminating from normal HE barrages? It seems quite odd that I'm still able to target enemy units that are in the middle of my barrages. Obviously, weather/ground conditions will effect this. Dry ground will be more susceptable to creating dust but wet ground may not have any. I remember seeing this discussion in another thread a few months ago but can't remember the outcome.

Very true. If you're in the middle of a field on a sunny day, a tree line 200 meters away will have a very strong shadow. Due to the brightness around you, your eyes will not be able to adjust to see much of anything in the tree line. However, on a cloudy day that same tree line will be much clearer.

Legend42, I'd like to point out, if it hasn't been said already, that TCP/IP play on the defense isn't very time challenging. Maybe in the setup phase, but that's it. Once play begins the defender only needs to make a few commands per turn, typically. The attacker is the one who is usually under the gun. It sounds like you play a lot of meeting engagements where both sides would be pressed for time. The problem is that meeting engagements weren't as common in WWII as they are in CM. In the vast majority of historical battles there is an attacker and a defender.

Also, I seem to remember Kevin Dillon use a shotgun in the movie Platoon.

I remember a shotgun in The Thin Red Line, the movie. I think they were more common in the pacific, maybe used by combat engineers who delt with clearing out bunkers, holes, caves etc..

By targeting an enemy vehicle, you can get a % to hit shown when it the line "snaps" to the enemy vehicle. It is, of coarse, only a general % number, but it takes into account unit type, distance, movement, target size etc.. If you want to figure out all of the tanks' % to hit, then simply create a custom scenario that has every allied tank. place an enemy tank equidistant from all of the allied tanks(ie. 1000 meters from each allied tank). Use the targeting command from each allied tank to get the % to hit. Be sure to use the same model German tank, since differnent tanks have different sizes. yup, this is pretty much historically accurate. Close Combat only had rifle squads, IIRC. They may have given them different names such as BAR, Assault, and Ad-hoc, but the primary weapon in all of these squads was still the M1 Garand rifle. The U.S. Ranger companies is not modeled in CM, unfortunately.

Janster, you are the only person I've seen in a long time complain about the accuracy of allied tanks. Usually, it's people complaining that they're too accurate, especially gyrostablizer tanks on the move. Which specific tanks are you talking about, other than the Challenger? What is the quality of your crew? What is the quality of your enemy's crew? Are you using any tanks with the 95mm or 105mm guns?

Thanks for the description, Dan. I wasn't aware that they would back out of trouble.

LOL! IIRC when we played you were more than 4 hours late with your PBEMs... several times! Things must have really gone down hill since we played. I think someone else on this board was starting a 12 step program - CMA .

I think it would help greatly with recon vehicles where you want to find and identify the enemy's location but reverse out of trouble before it starts.

Oh yea, I seem to recall, from a very old thread, that snipers will go into a self preserve mode. This will happen if enemy units are too close and could discover the location of the sniper if he were to fire. I don't use snipers enough to know the distance at which enemy units are deemed "too close", but it's probably less than 50 meters or so.

RE: smoke What are you smoking with? It sounds like you're trying to smoke with a gun or tank. If so, usually what happens is that the Tac AI quickly changes the smoke order for one that it deems higher priority. Even if it sees one infantry unit it may switch the smoke order to a HE target order. [ August 05, 2002, 05:28 PM: Message edited by: Pak40 ]

The bottom line on the Jeep Recon: Not Gamey - Using jeeps as recon on your "own side" or in no man's land in a "carefull" manner (i.e trying to keep the jeep crew alive). Gamey as all Hell - Using jeeps as recon well behind enemy lines, fully exposed, when you damn well know that they will not come out alive. Reason that this is gamey: Because that sort of S#$t never happened. There isn't an officer alive who gave orders like "Private, I'm going to give you a jeep and a radio. I want you to drive this thing around behind enemy lines as fast as possible; but before you die, radio me and tell me everything you see." Sorry, this never happened. It's pure suicide, and no sane man would ever do it.

yea, get the details at lordoftherings.net

Wouldn't it be nice to have SOP Settings for armored units in CMBB, just like the ones for TacOps 4. Or would it be considered too much micro management?

Quick, somebody send a copy of this to Ad Libs for publishing!

CM doesn't model damaged weapons (rifles and handheld AT weapons) but we damn well know that it happened. So just chalk it up to a jammed or damaged weapon and move on with your life.

Folks, It also helps to download the latest Direct X drivers. Currently they are on version 8.1, I think. I reloaded my OS (win 98SE) and forgot to update Direct X. The sky was black in CMBO, then I realized that my Direct X was out of date.