Joachim

Always set up so you can run away. (Guess it's too late for this). Reverse slope with lookouts. Never set up ahead of the flags if you are not sure you can hold the ground - or run before you are doomed. Always include some decent AT in your core. Set up MGs so they can fire from distance - at 200m in decent covers they are usually just sound contacts. What you can do now: Hide. Ambush the little inf the AI has. Maybe scarifice a plt for a holding action while the rest withdraws. A fighting withdrawal is probably the hardest maneuver to master! So plan early (cf above ) Gruß Joachim

100 FP * (100%-95%) * (100%-70%) = 5 FP * 30% = 1.5 FP Gruß Joachim

If that is the scen I think it is there is a thread on it somewhere. Just search for its name. I won using a combo of very small covered arcs (to stop tanks switching targets) and area fire to suppress the suspected gun positions. PzIVs have smoke - use it to cover your flank, then concentrate lots of tanks on few targets. Fire from several tanks will pin a gun crew. A single tank might be enough to keep them pinned. MG fire on a fully identified gun at point blank will surely rout it. Lots of dust can work as smoke screen, too. This way you keep the covered flank. If you move, move fast or hunt. And never ever drive into rocky terrain - it will slow you too much. Gruß Joachim

I don't think they'll fix anything with the current engine - they devote their time to the new one (whcih I fully understand). Given one of Steve's posts in the CMX2 thread ops were a huge waste time - mainly because of the front lines (sorry Steve - you said it less drastic ). Another reason why they won't fix this special issue. Tarkus has an interesting idea in a current thread that might solve some problems. Gruß Joachim

A bit late... why did you bother to move anything except the plt HQ. Planes aim for the most valuable toy on the playground - which is usually the HQ of the most expensive plt or a single vehicle of the same price. The only exception I found is that they ignore an immobile plt HQ and go for his plt mates (read: toy 2-4 on the price list). Gruß Joachim

As many first posts in a thread are questions, you might have to look thru several posts to find the best answers. Often it takes a discussion to find the ultimate answer - which is spread across several posts of that discussion. Rather seldom somebody sums up the answer in one post (excpet for JasonC. But reading one post of him might take longer than reading whole threads ) Gruß Joachim

Second much of what is said here. Even a 300 pt flag is just worth the complete loss of a plt. As a rule of thumb I consider regular troops to be worth double their buy points in the AAR screen. Punish your opponent on his approach march. Maybe some 75mm IGs behind crests. Lots of cheap HE firepower: 100 rounds for the price of a 25 rounds form an FO. Some smoke rounds to block LOS. And they can even kill tanks when they come close. Mix a few ATGs with them to disturb your opponent. Have some transport available. Your opponent has to buy some hvy wpns himself if he wants to kill them. Leaves less for his SMG troops. If you have 2 LMGs per squad and your opponent has none - use your squads accordingly. Never fight on his terrain. Happily blast away at his troops while they are moving in. Concentrate on one objective. If you are sure he is there - all of your arty and most of your direct fire goes there. Move in with the last rounds of the barrage - if it is on target. If you can only target the edge of the woods but he is hiding deep inside - do not use arty on the edge. It won't hurt him. DF smoke almost works like smoke from indirect fire. Gruß Joachim

Back in the old SP days (IIRC SPWW2)... ME on a city map. One air unit allowed per side. My opponent bought a plt of air transport to rush his troops to the flags in the center of the town. A brilliant maneuver... tough luck he landed on a TRP: I had bought an observation plane that got in arty immediately. For those that don't know - cover in SP depended on speed and terrain... his inf had the speed of the planes and most of it was in the streets. In CM: A plt sized OP convinced me a village with lots of flags was defended. I assembled my forces for 15 turns, dropped arty and slowly probed thru the DF of a 105mm bty a mile away... to find an empty village. Gruß Joachim

One of the most satisfying moments where three consecutive turns in CMAK where I moved 30+ vehicles on a road to a destiantion a mile away and it took only 6 turns - including loading up infantry. Took a lot of careful planning. 4th turn had a traffic jam of the rear guard. A single bump forced all following vehicles to detour. But it can be done! Gruß Joachim

The huge advantages of the Sherman are on a strategic scale. On an operational scale the advantage still exists. But on the tactical scale the big cats rule. And CM is a tactical game. On a tactical scale, the Sherman's advantages won't show. It was the strategic and tactical scale that ensured most battles were not as even as in CM. Do you want the attacker ratio in a QB to be a more historical 3:1 instead of a meager 1.7:1? Guess it would get boring soon. Think the Allies won every battle because they won the war? For every Bastogne there is a Monte Cassino. During '44 the average casualty ratio in land battles was in favor of the Germans. The war was won/lost on a strategic scale. CM allows a weapon if it was available in the theater (maybe some exceptions). If you don't like to play vs Tigers and Panthers, just make up some additional rules (Fionn Kelly made some, IIRC "Panther vs Sherman76" is another set). Gruß Joachim

********************* SPOILER about AI tactics ***************** The AI usually attacks the nearest flag to its setup zone. The standard (QB) setup allows easy prediction of the attack. Less easy if the AI has a setup zone on two siedes of the board. But that might result in the AI combining its forces and then attacking - ultimatively leading to a long delay before the attack. Something that works for me is setting up several flags in one line - it is hard to outguess which one the AI will attack. I use as many flags as possible and put them 2-3 locations to add value to the flags - otherwise I might give up the flag and just try to kill a portion of the AI forces. If it is near impossible for the AI to capture all flags, I either add lots of turns or give a negative bonus for the human player enforcing him to hold all flags. Another trick mentioned on the board is to use AI reinforcements. Each reinforcement might attack on a separate route (but you can't predict the AI... it might combine forces). Gruß Joachim

It was DEY's post that opened my eyes! The Nimrod was a FlaK - and that was exactly how the 3,7cm PaK worked vs the T34! The exhausts were not hit from behind but from the front, firing the gun at an extreme angle - just like a mortar. When falling almost vertical, the small round hit the exhausts from above, rolled down and exploded inside the motor. The secondary explosion there finished the tank. Of course it took skilled gunners to achieve this. Gruß Joachim

A support weapon is a weapon that is used (mainly) by troops which support the attack but do not actually take part in the attack into the enemy position. Once an objective is taken, the support wpns may follow up. IE a HMG will deliver suppressive fire during the attack, but the crew won't be a part of the first wave. Gruß Joachim

Try Jan '43 to Nov '44, Region: Center (or all combined). Division type unrestricted or para. Gruß Joachim

An immobile (dug in) StuG or SU might better represent a bunker.... gun damage vs firing slit pen. What's more frequent?

The trouble is that good cover is usually along good lines of advance for the enemy infantry. They are best in urban areas. Hiding in the upper floor will often avoid contact with enemy scouts if your enemy is in a hurry. Dense terrain with lots of cover will work. But don't try to hide near roads/passages the enemy will use. His scouts will probably scout exactly these areas. Stay away and slowly move in once the tanks arrive. Little cover means the enemy scouts know where to search - for cover and for the enemy. Guess this is exactly your problem. Try to cover your THs with MG fire from further back, keeping the enemy inf away from your THs forcing the tanks to lead. Gruß Joachim

How to get your forward positions away alive from the attack? a) This is rather easy in CM. Just move them off the map sides. Probably a valid tactic in reality. You don't run thru the glacis towards your own positions but first move to the side, then to the rear. Smoke. c) Use of terrain d) Any combination of these Hey - this is rather easy, isn't it. But something is wrong with it. Actually it does not work in most CM battles. Reasons: a) Smoke costs points. Most players prefer to use them as HE. Moving off the sides means your troops are gone for that battle. Not a problem in reality - they would live to fight another day (literally) and had done their job today. CM is all about one battle. So I want the maximum use of any unit I have. Moving them off-map seems to be a waste (except for units out of ammo). But forward units usually don't survive the amount of turns neccessary to spend their ammo as they are overrun or panicked before. c) Terrain in CM is approximated. In the open, you are x% exposed and will be spotted as soon as the enemy is near. In reality, a small troop could hide somewhere in the middle of the glacis. A single bush might conceal two men as their is absolutely no LOS to them. So the forward troops could withdraw a little bit, then hide in small "reverse slopes" and hope for the MLR to stop the advance before the enemy discovers/reaches them (Example: Reverse slope is 200m behind crest. Forward units are on the crest. They run once the enemy is 100m away...making it halfway to the MLR). Makes them pretty useless for quite some time - but cf above. To achieve something like this in CM, you need to have small dips in the ground with some cover - one level lower with brushes, rocks or stones and something to break LOS might work. It will not work on small maps as it will cover too much of the available ground. But on large maps you can add those dips every now and then. Some people might object - hey this is rather gamey as this terrain feature is not for real and placed exactly for this purpose. Yes. You won't see 400qm of cover spread across maps. But there are 4qm pieces. And these might be enough. But you can't model them in CM. Gruß Joachim

Double post

A scen of mine has half a btn of inf plus some tanks reinforcements. I had trucks waiting for them. 4 turns later the forward elements had raced down a dirt road and arrived in a recently cleaned village a mile away. 8 turns later 90% of the reinforcements were in position spread out across that village. It is very satisfying to see a perfectly orchestrated convoy. (Only one traffic jam when I got sloppy after the bulk had made it). I would not like this in a medium scen. But anybody who plays a huge 10000+pts per side battle will probably accept this in those huge battles. Gruß Joachim [ October 15, 2004, 09:39 AM: Message edited by: Joachim ]

I thought Maximilian of Bavaria was granted the Electorship of the Palatinate as a reward for staying loyal to the Emperor in the 30YW, when the hereditary Elector Frederick was put under the Imperial ban? </font>

Sharp turns, a reverse in the middle of the movement path or anything that makes the HT slow and a first movement point for the inf 25 m or less to where the HT is slow should work, too. But on the more important topic: Jason sums up how I use my HTs. I have them in a campaign core (vs AI, but usually the AI has a bonus so I can't suppress ever unit) and they get really old. I like the German PzGr company (mot) with the HTs in the wpns plt. 3 HTs as taxi for heavy wpns and guns, 2 mortar carriers (more round per point spent) as part of the overwatch group. Pretty much everthing you need for those tactics - at discount rates. The "Stummels" (251/9) in that company are less effective. Behind tanks, keyholed... they survive, but their effect even point blank is rather low. Sometimes I even use the HTs for rare mounted counterattacks vs retreating or unaware parts of the enemy. Mounted attacks vs prepared positions are near impossible - but in MEs or in counterattacks they often work. Reason: Enemy heavy wpns are too far away and/or the positions are usually known and can be effectively suppressed as you saw them advancing. Gruß Joachim

Last seen him in mid September.... His plans were to not work too hard and to move house last weekend. Probably busy scouting for the best bars in Paris? Gruß Joachim

@Hans: It is most likely just "Hugenotten". I don't know of anything else. "To stem from an old Huguenots family". Lots of them, especially around Berlin. @DT: Mandatory use of German language in the Alsace? a) Before Luther translated the bible there wasn't even a "standard" German. Only accents. So I doubt "German" was mandatory in the Alsace before 1550. German control from 500 AD on is a bit confusing.... In 800 AD Charlemagne (for the French) or "Karl der Große" (for the Germans) was "Kaiser" (aka Ceasar) of the "Holy Roman Empire of the German nation" - the formal successor of the ancient Roman Empire. Yet the French still claim him as one of theirs. He ruled the Germanic tribe of the Franks, and "Frankreich" (=German for France) is an abbreviation of "Frankenreich" (="Empire of the Franks") in German. As Charlemagne was French for the French, the French will claim the Alsace was French in and after 800. The "1st empire" slowly faded away after 1200AD. The Alsace was not under control of the French King then and it was considered part of Germany. But then... what actually is "Germany"? In 1871 the "Kleindeutsche Lösung" (the "small Germany" solution - leaving Austria and its possesions out of Germany) was chosen by Bismarck. Before Germany was more an idea than a reality. I like the slogan "Germany in the borders of 1154 - Sicily is ours!". Best describes the problem. A weak Germany - or the many weak German states and fiefdoms (more than 100) that existed was easy prey for France. France expanded and the French kings favored "natural borders". One of those was the Rhine. There were several attempts to get there. During the 30 years war, Germany was devastated and found itself a bit smaller afterwards (1648). Read: The Alsace became French. Following that were several attempts to seize the Palatinate (which is North of the Alsace and between France and the Rhine) to seize a bigger part of the Rhine, but most failed - or had only limited success. Heidelberg castle was scorched in one of those wars. I was born south of the Queich creek, which was the northern border of France until Waterloo. Then the border shifted a bit south to the next creek and that small territory got German. Thus a part of the Palatinate instead of the Alsace. Part of the Kingdom of Bavaria, to be exact, as Germany did not exist then. And the ancestors of the Bavarian kings were in fact Counts of the Palatinate long before they inherited Bavaria. But this is another story. And it is just as confusing as the history of the Alsace. Probably as confusing as the history of most European borders. Short: That problem is to big for just a few lines in an encyclopedia. There were so many shifts of the borders - I doubt the language of the common people changed fast enough to keep up that pace. What did happen was that the "official language" and the administration changed. No ruler (until '41) was dumb enough to enforce a language to the Alsatians. People in that area are rather stubborn (believe me, I'm local ). Gruß Joachim

"Feigling" = "coward" "elend" increases it in this context. So mike8g is absolutely correct. Gruß Joachim

To avoid serious losses, you need lots of covering fire. A classic is the 3:1 attacker odds to win the battle (and I don't mean a victory like those Pyrrhus suffered vs the Romans). In CM, you get less than 2:1. Too little for decent support. You either need a map big (or dense) enough to get 3:1 local odds for a breakthru or to be able to outmaneuver the enemy and grab some ground you will actually defend vs counterattacks. If nothing like that works, you will suffer casualties. Gruß Joachim