Renaud

I'm playing Lake Seliger (russian campaign, 5th or 6th battle I think). I've defeated the first 2 waves with only minor mishaps, but the bulk of the 3rd wave and remnants of the 2nd are sitting on the other side of the rise and refuse to budge. I sent out some scout teams and the reverse slope is filled with AC's, HT's and troops who are wisely not cresting the ridge where they will be wiped out by massed 45mm, MG and SMG fire (I captured 4 MG34's and 3 MP40's, hehe). Kudos to the AI...but the game is apparently in a stalemate and never going to end. I let it run that way for 30 minutes...no change. There's no way I can attack a concentrated force of armor and infantry over the top of a clear ridge with crunchies, trucks and wheeled 45mm guns. So is there a time limit that will run out or what? Or do I have to commit suicide. There's no way to ask for cease fire or even surrender. Thanks

You can target the ground with area fire...but yes, if you target an individual grunt, the round will put a hole through him and explode when it impacts the ground eventually. Amazingly, I won the 2nd time around even though I was planning on just taking a loss and moving on (accidently left ignore campaign loss unchecked the first time). I think it was because I didn't think I could win, so tried some novel tactics. My tactics: 1) trade 2 45mm for single zis-2, place it way in the back toward building and have them wheel it even farther back and hid in brush next to fence, in this position it can hit tanks very far out, but can't be seen from within 2-3 hundred meters; 2) place single 45mm far back in brush in defile to right so it can only be seen by tanks that blunder past first line of trenches; 3) cherry pick best marksmen and LMG's and put them in rear trench; 4) put maxim in the fenced fuel tank area so it gets keyhole fire across the middle; 5) place 2nd HMG far back as possible in bushes; 6) abandon the left front trench (too exposed); 7) make sure AT grenade guys are distributed across front trench positions; 8) create a reserve squad of 6-8 guys (who have gunnery skill) and hide behind buildings near zis2, for use in later last stand, remanning guns, or counterattack; 9) send a guy to grab the ppsh smg laying on the ground between the front 2 trench systems; 10) send a guy running out 100 meters to grab the mg34 from the dead german (you might not make it back tho); 11) put AT rifles halfway back, and far to the flanks; 12) initially HIDE, CRAWL and HOLD FIRE on EVERYONE when the game starts. I left the first wave of tanks overrun my trenches, then have at grenade guys nail them. Open fire on the following infantry. Open fire with zis 2 at all far tanks with heavier armor (pzIIf, pz35/38, MkIV), you can nail them at 400+ meters easy. Do not waste ammo on the lighter ones, or tanks which can be hit in flank by AT rifle of 45mm, or killed with AT grenades. Don't open up with HMG's on the initial wave unless they spot you first, which they might so watch out. Your first line of guys will be killed by the 2nd wave. The 3rd wave will kill everyone in rear trench and overrun the trench. By then your mg's will be empty or dead, but you should have wiped out dozens of grunts by then. Both AT guns should be up and fully manned and your reserve squad uncommitted. At the very end my reserve squad was mostly KIA and the zis-2 crew had to attack as infantry, but I won. A couple of guys won the order of the red star (or something like that). The zis killed 6-8 tanks, infantry 3, 45mm 2.

John, Thanks for the AAR...very entertaining. Sorry I didn't reply sooner, was on vacation for 2 weeks in Thailand! You probably checked later, but the Axis aircraft consisted of only 2 vet Me109 and 2 crack Ju87...these 4 aircraft have a field day as there's no russian AA to reduce their effectiveness. fyi, the Joel Hayward article is one of my sources, though I didn't put it in the references for the scenario. Thought you would be interested in actual tank strength and loss figures for the participating Soviet units on the 9th. Losses are totals for the 9th, but this was almost certainly the major engagement for all these units that day (no other engagements are indicated on the Soviet situation maps for the 9th for these units). 40th Tank Brigade: 11 KV. 6 T34, 25 T60 losses: 5 KV, 2 T34, 4 T60 56th Tank Brigade: 15 T26, 11 T60 losses: 10 T26, 3 T60 229 Seperate Tank Battalion:: 11 KV losses: 6 KV By the 11th, these units were almost gone (the 229th reporting only 4 broken down KV's remaining). I imagine the KV's didn't fare too well when forced to move far and fast. And probably under continuous air attack. The 22nd unit history claims "41 enemy tanks destroyed, 15-20 cannons and numerous weapons" for the period 9 May through the evening of 11 May. I have no loss figures for the 22nd, but the unit history concludes with "a large success... however unfortunately with many, bloody losses, the PzRgt 204 above all [sustaining] devastating Offz. - and Uffz. Losses...". One can assume that inexperienced tank commanders leading from the front in Pz38(t) suffered high casualties when pitted against russian snipers, guns and tanks.

This is the scenario from the CD, right? It has some pretty serious historical flaws, but that is another question than playability. I really think this scenario was designed for Axis vs. AI. (there was no 22nd Panzer at the Sevastopol battles, the designer probably got that confused with the 22nd Infantry (formerly 22nd Air Landing Division). Only very limited armor was present in the 41 or final 42 Sevastopol assaults (mostly assault gun detachments from the artillery).

Mmmm...and I was looking for a scenario today! I'll let you know how it goes on TPG review.

I've always painstakingly hand transferred my topo maps to CM using the plain jane editor. Guess that's why I've only transferred a very few, it takes 20 hours!

John, thanks for the comments, always glad to hear these scenarios are getting play time. The entire 8 Air Corp under Baron von Richtofen was committed to supporting Operation TrappenJagd. This amounts to (operational aircraft) 280 medium bombers, 150 Stukas and 180 fighter/bombers committed to a battle area of perhaps 300 square kilometers. These were seasoned pilots, having served continuously since 1940 and specializing in close air support. Richtofen was a strong proponent of air-ground cooperation and had a close working relationship with Manstein. The 8th had just relocated from Greece from which they supported the assault on Crete. The v1 version (ax-vs-AI) gives the axis about half the air support. I'm sure you are playing the -v2 2-player version. You should be able to reduce air effect by spreading your tanks out (100m at least), particulary the KV's. Let me know the battle went!

The M1 definitely does not have a suspension like this - it does not need it. The gun is fully stabilized for azimuth and elevation. Oddly enough, there actually was a main battle tank in recent history that did just this. The Swedish "S-tank" raised and lowered the suspension to adjust elevation of the fixed-mount gun (this was an assault gun type MBT in service cold war through 90's). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stridsvagn_103

The suspension compressing unevenly while the hull remains at 0 degrees has gotta be a glitch. I noticed this before in some screenshots which showed the abrams going up or down a slope while the hull maintained a perfectly horizontal aspect. Regardless, great stuff. Darn, I'm going to miss the cartoony animations of cmx1.

Bannon, Played AI version, left AAR at TPG. Very fun! I have a few overhead screens of various stages of the battle. If you are interested I can email them to you.

Mmmm...I will be playing this one next. I am very interested in the Crimean theatre and am interested in seeing your take on this particular action.

Bannon DC, BigDuke6, PFMM, Thanks very much for your comments and interest. I can assure everyone that this this scenario and it's successor was researched intensively (probably 200+ hours total, not counting the actual scenario construction). Naturally, there are time and game-mechanics constraints, but these maps and scenarios are about as close to the real events as humanly possible within the CM game engine. The download package includes an essay by me summarizing the historical outcome. It's a spoiler of course, so be careful not to read it until you have finished the scenario. Note that on 1/1/2007 I uploaded a substantially changed version (see my post above) with enhanced accuracy which however preserved the original version as a 2nd seperate 'what-if' scenario file (aka, the 'fleet option'). If you liked this one, you should like the companion scenario even more (Novorossisk: Stanichka). More freedom of choice in unit placement, particularly for the Soviets. I will post my spoiler-type info in TPG comments rather than here.

diesel, Nice post, lots of helpful information and feedback. I usually fall into the 4 or 5 groups, the caveat being that in the case of 4) I provide tons of context in the form of good briefing maps, extensive briefings and background information. However, I pick situations which could be won in non-optimal ways, but the tactic employed historically by the winning side is always simulated and usually nets the best results (assuming the enemy hasn't been reading his history and was able to block that route). Obviously these type 4 scenarios don't have the highest replay value. For 5) I often call these 'historical' in cases where I a) know the time and place of engagement find a topo or hand-drawn map or at least know the general geography c)know the OOB's of both sides in some detail and d) place everything it proper historical context. The only thing missing is a blow-by-blow historical account at the CM time scale. I never end up as a '3' because I always tweak the flags, timing and bonus points to allow either side a possible victory, although of course in complex scenarios with unknown players you will rarely have chess-like balance. Also, I cherrypick historical situations which were close shaves and could have gone either way.

TRL, Let me know how it goes! I've received no feedback since the scenario was posted. Also, which version ('historical' or 'fleet-option' semi-historical version).

I'm off the Naval Infantry kick for a while. My next work will be to complete the 22nd panzer series with scenarios 6-8. These will be the 3 major actions of 22nd PZD in the '42 assault on Rostov, before they were placed into reserve behind the Chir river on the north flank of Stalingrad.

These mammoth scenarios are a remarkable achievement...I know how long it takes to research and build a decent historical scenario 1/4 as large. But I am most impressed by the additional material and depth of historical research. It's easy to become attached to these units and individuals isn't it? Especially when you spend 200 hours researching every iota of information you can lay your hands on. Now if I can just find the time to play one of these all the way through!

Scenario 2 of 2 in my Novorossisk Series is done. This huge map is an exacting recreation of the 1:50,000 soviet military map of the period. Novorossisk - Stanichka

Scenario 2 of 2 in my Novorossisk Series is done. This huge map is an exacting recreation of the 1:50,000 soviet military map of the period. Novorossisk - Stanichka

John, You might try 'TrappenJagd'. It's probably the best balanced of my scenarios and I would submit it for the next ROW if it hadn't been public for a year already! TrappenJagd Be sure to play -v2 version as it's intended for HtH. v1 is axis vs. AI. edit: moved to TPG [ January 14, 2007, 10:37 AM: Message edited by: Renaud ]

The other point of this in CMBB (perhaps in reality) is to cut down defenders trying to escape from the isolated block. Hate it when they get away, only to be rallied later! Great info. I think the novice CM player in an urban fight could do far worse than live by these simple instructions. As others have said, this sort of assumes you were able to move up heavy weapons at night or otherwise behind cover (smoke, fog, rain, artillery?). In the limited scope of CM, unless you have smoke or can suppress all spotters, LOS isn't going to change during the battle. This should change for the better in 'CM2: Stalingrad' (I just made that up, but we can hope).

Bridge at Kanev sounds really interesting. I presume that's an airborne drop of the 1st Bgde? I've already made a 3x2 and a 4x2 km map of the feb '42 Novorossisk battles (operation 'Morsky') that I could easily expand to 6x2 or 8x4 for CMC. The 1st scenario is available at TPG under author 'RENAUD' if anyone's curious. The 2nd should be ready in a week or so. It takes SO LONG to translate a large 1:50,000 map to CMBB. I think for any larger campaign I would auto-generate the majority of the tiles, adding roads and water features as necessary, focusing manual efforts on a limited number of strategic tiles.

fyi...major update to this scenario to improve historical accuracy and play. Novorossisk - Ozereika Now two versions, stock historical and a 'what-if' semi-historical, both playable HtH or Allies vs. AI (Axis vs. AI not recommended).

fyi...major update to this scenario to improve historical accuracy and overall play. Novorossisk - Ozereika Now two versions, stock historical and a 'what-if' semi-historical, both playable HtH or Allies vs. AI (Axis vs. AI not recommended).

Try "Tashkenak Station" for partisan vs. germans. Tashkenak Station Romanian security troops are also present.

Thanks MPK. Glad you enjoyed. It's a trifle on the hard side for the Russians, but better too err on the side of difficulty in this case I think.