Joachim

The problem is not producing the spares - the problem is having the right spares where you need them when your army consists of too many vehicle types. Having spares for a PzIV does not help much in repairing the PzVs of the other btn. Even with computers this would be a logistics nightmare. An economy geared for total war (which is a long-time concept) would have resulted in banning all the minor designs that were used as (economically) cheap stopgaps in an economy that focussed on short-time production numbers. Gruß Joachim

Treeburst 155 did a nice arty primer which WineCape (re-)posted. Maybe try a search function - most likely on the CMAK forum.

Delay increases with the size of the formation that owns the battery. A regular Soviet regimental 122mm has slightly less delay than a regular Soviet divisional 122mm battery. So don't let the lower price fool you - you buy something cheap, you will likely get something cheap. Edit (cf 2 posts below): Change divisonal 122 to corps 152 and regimental 122 to divisional 152 to get a valid example. Or take Romanian 120mm or 81mm mortars. [ January 19, 2007, 11:31 AM: Message edited by: Joachim ]

I considered that. Stayed with the original title cause everybody can find it easily - I know the intellectual capacity of our forum members. Gruß Joachim

This topic has reached 300 posts. Regulars know what happened when a topic once got more than 300 posts. For noobs: The forum crashed. So please continue posting on the issue here: http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=30;t=005148 Gruß Joachim

New Topic cause the old one has 300 posts and might crash. Gruß Joachim

IIRC it works only into a "general direction" towards the friendly edges. If the shortest way to the friendly map edge is 0°, you can move from -89.9° to +89.9°. If there are two friendly map edges, you can withdraw in any direction. Gruß Joachim

There is a set of orders for immo'd units (bunkers, immo'd vehicles). There is a set of commands for mobile units. Those few guns that are not able to move on their own except diesembarking did not get their own command set for their one and only move per game. Call it an economical design decision. Gruß Joachim

IIRC "withdraw" halves the command delay not nullifies it. IMHO the probability of your troops continuing to run when receiving incoming is higher than with run. Gruß Joachim

@Lindsey: An abandoned tank might be re-crewed in a later battle if the crew remains on map. Just as inf might get (part of) their losses replaced. But... a) It depends on the settings - there is one for vehicle repair/resupply in the editor. It might take several battles till it comes back. Especially if there are several battles per day. c) Knocked out tanks might re-appear, too - but with a much smaller probability. d) IIRC gun damaged or immo'd tanks can disappear (and come back later) Gruß Joachim

I had an ATR delay an assualt of some 15 Shermans and Lees. I laughed when I saw it in the OOB - even more as it was elite. Just planned it to use as a scout in a position with good LOS - which means good field of fire, too. IIRC it killed a Stuart and penetrated the side of a Lee, threatening to harm more of his tanks. In their turret down positions vs my tanks they were ready to move into hull down. As the opposing armor was not supported by infantry, his tanks fired everything they had in the general direction - plus some light arty barrage. This took quite a while - until I had reinforced that flank. In the above situation, my opponent would have won the flank and the battle if he had just ignored the ATR. Even if it had killed another tank, a massive but slow attack would have overrun my flank. The keys for AT teams are stealth - and fear. But the fear is not rational. It is annoying to loose a tank to a crappy AT team. We fear that "humilation", don't want it to happen - and make bigger errors just to avoid a small one. The appearance (or worse: the effects of an AT team without being able to spot it) make us nervous - just like buttoned tankers getting pinged with small arms fire. How many of us make rational decisions in this situation? Keep this in mind when using AT teams - and when encountering them. Gruß Joachim

So we don't have just Hamstergrenadiere but Pferdegrenadiere, too? Gruß Joachim

The Allies would have an immo'd/dug in Lee pointing in exactly the direction the Germans are attacking from. The Germans are not allowed to perform any flank attacks and must attack in human waves across open ground. I suggest to put the VL in a corner to ensure the scen works exactly like the movie. If you put the VL in the middle of the map with a hill behind the Lee the scen might play a bit different... Gruß Joachim

Allowing some intel before the amount of FOs on map is decided. Allowing arty on the area after the battle turn Allowing limited supplies thru one depot or road so large maneuver elements don't receive full supplies. IIRC I read sumfink about that. Gruß Joachim

I know a tank is not dead when it is still moving for more than a few metres. And I definitely know it is not dead despite 10 penetrations if it fires back with 37mm :mad: The AAR did not see it abandoned or destroyed either. 50mm has a poor behind armor effect thru the glacis of the Grant. Closing in is one thing - getting side shots is much better. Even an ATR can penetrate the sides of a Grant if close enough. What enabled me fighting up close was the low 75mm AP loadout of the Grants. Gruß Joachim

You can try to persuade the gun by using a small armor covered arc - but with incoming from the bunker, it is likely he TacAI for the gun will consider the bunker a lethal threat worth firing at. Gruß Joachim

Interestingly I had some problems when I fought the scen as Germans vs AI. The 50mm guns in the IIIS were pretty weak vs Grants (in another game I had several PzIIIs firing at point blank into the front of a Grant with little effect). The IVs can easily be killed by 37mm thru the front turret. From the German perspective I found a Grant is almost proof to 50mm fire when presenting only its front and not staying on lower ground than the shooter. Fire from above partially negates the slope of the hull and enabled some penetrations. The IVs died as easily from 37mm fire than the Grants from 75L4x fire. 75mm hits vs PzIVs results in quick knockouts. So all you've got to do in the scen is to find firing positions, concentrate your fire (which is most easily done by concentrating your armor) and avoid flanking fire. Once the German tanks are engaged, you can try your luck with the GMCs from the flank. Or use Shoot and scoot with them to divert the German tanks. Which is what you did. Another thing I found is that between even tanks the side using shoot&scoot is usually the side dying as the other side gets off more rounds when you have a frontal fight where you can't achieve surprise. If you are doing shoot and scoot with 5 tanks vs 5 tanks where both can kill each other, the stationary side wins big - they shoot more often and if shoot and scoot is not perfectly timed and placed the stationary tanks have numbers. Plus the advantage in finding range for consecutive shoots at the same target. Shoot&scoot never gets that. The stationary tanks get it sometimes. Gruß Joachim

Good luck! Gruß Joachim

FaxisAxis, first I'd suggest that you search for some threads by a certain JasonC about attacking with inf. It is with Soviets, but that doesn't matter. They should be some help. Just ignore Jason being rude. You don't have to like him to find some of his posts useful. Then I suggest three things: 1.) Patience. 2.) Patience. 3.) Patience. Do not race your men across the map. No matter how short the scenario is - as a beginner, learn to move your troops in textbook style. The other things to consider: a) Overwatch is very important. Bunching up seems to be a favourite for some people because then they have more firepower in a given area - but an arty barrage might ruin the party. I prefer concentrated firepower - it is not necessary to be in the same spot to be able to fire at the same target. Learn to read the map so you can achieve this. This is my preferred method. c) Recce is important. A half-squad advances ahead of the plt if the area is unsafe. It is the bullet magnet. But the rest of the plt is in firing position should somebody try to shoot. If you keep a good formation, you should be able to outnumber lone enemy units. If there is a whole plt firing - try to get your half-squad to safety while just fixing the enemy. Then bring your killers: Arty, tanks, lots of inf. d) use your bonus HQs accordingly. Stealth bonus for the recce, combat bonus for those doing the firing. Morale for recce ain't a good idea - it is better to have them hug the ground when there is incoming. As they are often without cover, brave deeds are deadly for them. Morale is good for shooters. e) Early Soviets are cheap. They are even cheaper as they are low quality. If you have high quality troops, you have less than them, despite being on the attack. So try to buy a mix of vet/reg troops. These usually do the job for me. f) Frontal attacks are deadly. Try to find weak spots. The trick vs the AI is to outmaneuver him, capture a flag and await its counterattack there. Then mop up and take the remaining flags. It is much better to be the defender - even when you are attacking. That was the strategy of Germany in WW2. Bypass the enemy. Set up blocking positions. Let the enemy choose to run out of supplies or to attack to remove you from your positions. g) Cheat. Yes! Cheat. If a single turn has an outcome you think is wrong, re-run that turn without changing the orders. If the outcome is about the same, you made a mistake. Change a few commands, but do not use the info gathered in the turn (which is tough). Try to find a tactic that you would have applied with the info you had before. Think about your mistake. Why was it a mistake. Learn from your mistakes. Gruß Joachim PS: Just in case... always use the right commands. Move to contact with covered arcs when close to the enemy. They are slower but less prone to panic. Advance across open ground.

Foreigner

Plus initiative and readiness levels.

Herbert Grönemeyer - Zeit das sich was dreht! Queen - Who wants to live forever ...there's no time for us...

Yes, discussed often. You need to see the impact point, not the effect. Dunno about the second question but I guess it was discussed before. Gruß Joachim

Ah yes... a former boss of mine told me he wanted to have a project in 3 month cause somebody (aka his ex-XO aka his girl-friend) planned it to take 3 month. A colleague told me he would not have accepted it if he hadn't been allowed 6 month. I considered it to be a suicide mission. Wherever I analyzed the existing programs I found trouble resulting in additional resources. Got myself another job after 8 months when the bigger part was almost done. The guy who had to finish it left the company a little bit later. Perfect example of Hofstadter's law applied to the remaining time of a project. It is interesting to note that if you plan too often, the project will never end as the sequence does not converge: If you plan again before more than half of the estimated time has elapsed, you're screwed. Gruß Joachim

Addendum: Not sure if this works from saved scens. AAR saves of QBs should work.