Richard III

How are casualties to TCs recorded in a unit's kill listing? In LD I had a mortar round explode quite close to a Stug which promptly buttoned up. It stayed buttoned until it was later destroyed. The mortar which was firing showed no infantry casualties caused. Had the mortar actually taken out the TC, would I have seen '1 casualty caused?'

Hi Steve, Those are great pics! IIRC the vehicle was described specifically as an M-36. Again IIRC all sides in the civil war had at least some Jacksons, most of which ended up scrapped without regard for their historical value under the Dayton treaties. At least one US armored unit took away a T-34/85 with them when leaving Bosnia.

Bah! You mugs have all got it wrong! The Nahverteidigungswaffe was actually a secret V-weapon -- the world's first weapon that fired words so long they could destroy an entire platoon in one shot. On 12 June 1944 an M-10 received a direct hit from 'Unabhängigkeitserklaerungen' and was knocked out. The next day a unit froim the 101st airborne was all but wiped out by salvoes of 'Generalstaatsverordnetenversammlungen.' Allied response to this new terror weapon were quite inneffective. The British Churchill "Antidisestablishmentarianism" tank was a failure. The US 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' was, of course, doomed from the moment of inception. Fortunately, the war ended before the Germans could deploy the 'Panzerselbstfahrlafette Constantinopolitanischerdudelsackspfeifenmachersgesellschafft.' The postwar Schwere Panzerhaubitze auf Geschutzwagen 'Transvaaltruppentropentransporttrampelthiertreibertrauungsthraenentragoedie' was declared a violation of the Geneva Convention and scrapped. Source at this location [This message has been edited by Richard III (edited 11-16-99).]

Here's my whine: Look at this picture: Look carefully at the fenders. REAR VIEW MIRRORS!!!! Do the HTs in Last Defence have rear view mirrors? NO!! How can they back up without crashing into things? How did they get an inspection sticker? I don't want to play some game that fails to take such important considerations into account!!!

No Sturmtiger?? Aaargh, I guess we'll have to make do with the wimpy ol' Jagdtiger... Hey Steve, how about a CM expansion set with some of these stranger vehicles. T28 vs Maus! What a battle! Tortoise vs Pather Ausf. F. etc...

Hmm.. Wanna compare AI with 'other' games? Let's see a ten jeep vs ten tiger scenario in this game and see what happens? (snicker)

Sheesh. And I thought getting some new furniture in the door was difficult. How about a 6 pounder? * BUMP * * BUMP * 'Hey try and kitty corner it!' * Bang * * bump* 'Try tilting it on it's side!' etc..

Accuracy of the Sturmtiger: (ripped from the following excellent page): It was found that the rocket mortar was rather inaccurate out to its maximum range. This should not be surprising if one recalls the German small arms industry's experiments with rocket cartridges. As the propellant is used up, the center of gravity will shift, causing the projectile to lose its accuracy very rapidly. Since the 38cm RTgs projectile works on the same principle, then, you can see why its accuracy would suffer at range. However, given the mission of the Sturmtiger, firing at the weapons full range would probably not be the order of the day, given that, in the Sturmtiger's ideal combat environ, it'd be the urban combat arena, where ranges are dramatically short. However, given the war situation as it was by the time the Sturmtiger entered the battlefield, they often found themselves as defensive weapons with little opportunity to engage in battle on their own terms.

How about the Sturmtiger? It saw service on the Wetern Front. IIRC one shot from this mother took out three Shermans. I want to see what happens to a building hit by a 380mm shell....

Does that mean we won't be seeing this vehicle in CM? How would you model a co-axial 75 anyway? [This message has been edited by Richard III (edited 11-14-99).]

Thinking of Hellcats on a reverse slope, I recall reading about a UN official in Bosnia encountering several knocked out Serb T-55s. He looked around and spotted a muzzle pointing down at the road from a reverse slope. When he went up the hill to investigate, there was a Jackson (M-36) sitting there in a big puddle of oil, the crew surrounded by greasy parts trying to keep the thing running. That half century year old TD had destroyed several (I forget how many) MBTs!

I've heard this weapon referred to as 'Hitler's Zipper.' I seem even to remember a cartoon in which one GI is zipping up a winter coat, prompting another to dive into a foxhole. The sound of these weapons in CM doesn't sound very 'zipper-like' to me. Did you model the sound off a real MG42? Anyone got a link to a sound file of one of these things firing? TIA

Yesterday Voodoo Exteme had a news story up that stated DemoNews had mentioned an 'Updated Combat Mission Beta Demo.' Perhaps they meant the original release but were just really late? The article is gone now so VE must have realized the mistake. Oh well...

I see that there is an updated version of the Beta Demo. However, it doesn't say what has changed from the original one. What's the scoop?