Tim

Well Sage, I hope your not German cause then I´ll make a fool out of my self, but according to my dictionary(German-Danish) "EinsatzGruppe" means "EffortGroup". In fact it doesn´t seem to me to mean, "Overweight middle aged guys out shootin' up Jews.", but rather "Young brainwashed fools shootin´up everything they were told.". Hate isn´t something you´re born with, it´s something you´re taught. Tim

Hey, I hear you Lewis ! A couple of weekends ago my local brewery just launched their new and improved Easter Brew. 7,5 % brain busting brew and only served in portions of at least ½ litre, man life is beautiful. Aquavit, the water of life. Tim

Well, by time writing I´m so drunk I can hardly sit on my office chair, but I´ll try to make my point anyway. I see the Eastern Front as being the most important and interesting part of WW2, but I can´t see how it could be possible to depict this war correctly. As far as I have concluded by reading several eyewitness reports, the mayor differenses between the Armies was the way they were lead. The Russians seemed to lack qualified leadership, and this seemed in the end to cause a lot of unnessesary cassualties on the Russian side. The problem, to me, seems to be that CM makes you the leader of a battalion, and therefore gives you an advantage over your real world counterparts. As the Russians you would have a mayor supperiority in manpower the only way to counter this would be to make moral and leadership checks for your troops. I hope this makes sense, but I´m so drunk I don´t really care anyway. Have a great weekend. Tim

Fionn Thanks for the reply Well the fact is that I don't know very much about IG's and was suprised to find out they had been used this way. Of course there is always freak accidents in war, but this seemed to be common practice ( At least for Fríkorps Danmark). You are kind of right regarding the range thing. In one encounter it was mentioned that the FO had contact with 2 guns. One was 2km away, which was fine, but the other was 4km away, which was just barely within its range. Again I might have misinterpeted the data, because it was really never mentioned exactly which type of guns they were talking about. The only thing I know is that they were assigned to the battalions heavy company, had a maxium range of around 4km, were of German origin and were mentioned as being "Infantry Cannons". This brings me to another point about Artillery. In the book "Frikorpsfolk 1941-1943" by Erik Haeest which is based on Interviews made in 1975 with survivors from "Frikorps Danmark" the organization of artillery is descibed somewhat different than in CM. Since "F DK" only was a battalion consisting of 3 Infantry Companies and 1 Heavy Company, it seems fair to compare it to CM's scale. In the book they describe an attack on a russian beachhead which they have been tasked to remove. The attack only involves "F DK". From the Regiment they are assigned to, which is part of the 3rd SS Panzer Division, they are given a 10 minute preplanned bombardment. The only other artillery support they have is their Heavy Companys mortars and Infantry Guns which they again use for Indirect fire. The attack starts with a 3 minute bombardment on the beachhead where the enemy is dug-in. During this bombardment 3 HMG's move into position to give cover fire once the barrage has moved. In the mean time 2 Rifle Companys move forward, one on each side of the enemy position. The barrage then moves forwards to bombard the enemy further back for another 7 mins, while the 3 HMG's provide cover-fire from about 1km range. Everything goes well and the position is taken, but then the russians starts an artillery barrage on the positions they just left and the danes have to pull back. I don't know if this represents a typical attack, but it certainly states that battalion were assigned prolonged bombardments. According to the eyewitnesses the artillery was the decisive factor for both the attackers and the defenders. Of course I have only played the BETA Demo of CM, but it doesn't seem to make artillery such a dominant factor as it was stated in the book over and over again. Of course it is only one book, but it is the only one I have found that describes Battallion level combat in detail. I guess this post got a little too long but I hope it makes sence. I wish a merry christmas and a happy new year to all at this forum Tim

Steve Thanks for the reply How about making special rules for the IG's, like making it possible for them to fire indirect at a target if the target is within LOS of a FO. Of course the same rule for movement, used for the other guns, should be applied. Of course there is a minimum range for the guns to fire this way. I guess 500m seems reasonable, but I have no data to support this. I must say that I have only read about the guns being used this way in one book, but it was mentioned several times, and was quoted by the FO's. Do you have any reliable data on the ranges and usage of the IG's ?? Tim [This message has been edited by Tim (edited 12-14-99).]

Will it be possible for onboard short-barreled artillery to fire indirect ? I recently read a book about the Danish Freecorp which fought for the Germans on the Eastern Front and it appears that they almost solely used their Infanterie Geschütz for indirect fire using a FO or radio contact with the platoons themselves. Apparently the maximum effective range for these guns were around 4km but there wasn't stated any minimum. Can anyone help me find additional information about the use of these guns? Tim [This message has been edited by Tim (edited 12-13-99).]

Hey Soma It certainly sucks here in Denmark. First I'll have to pay the for the game + shipping(45+18=63US). Then I'll have to pay customs for the price of the game + the cost of shipping. The customs rate is a little unclear, but it's at least 10%, but more than likely 20%(63+20% of 63= 75,6US. Then at last I'll have to pay taxes for the game + shipping + customs and the tax rate is 25 %. That brings the price up to (75,6+25% of 75,6= 94,5 US. I certainly hope I made a mistake somewhere in the calculation. Tim

Hey Soma How much will you have to pay to get CM shipped to Germany ? I live in Denmark and according to my calculations I'll have to pay around 700 DKR ( 100 USD ) to get the game. Will it be as ridicuosly expensive in the rest of Europe too ??

I was wondering if it would be possible to bypass enemy forces in campaign mode. Say that you have two combat formations and one of them is engaged in fighting on your right but on your left there is no sight of the enemy. Instead of making a flanking attack on the forces to the right, with the other group, you bypass the enemy position and head for a position further into enemy teritory. Will this be possible ??

I still can't believe the Demo is a BETA. It's the most stable game I've ever played and for the first time in my life I haven't found anything to complain about regarding gameplay or bugs. I guess there is a first time for everything. Man I love this game. Tim

I think the problem is that Hagen wants a wargame and not a tactical combat simulator, which CM in my oppinion is. I must admit that the game seemed a little weird to me the first couple of times i played it, but that changed very quickly. Keep up the good work BTS, I'm sure it will be an excellent game. Tim

Try Sennheiser they're the best. They are probably a little bit more expensive than other headphones but they give a great sound and will last forever. I have a pair of Sennheiser HD 570 and they certainly fit my needs. The only problem with the HD 570 is that if the sample quality of the sound you're playing is low, the static like noise will really shine through. As a bonus they'll also give you a really funky hairstyle if you're wearing them for more than an hour. But i guess that won't be a problem since you'll probably shave your head before getting "down and dirty" with CM. Check out their web-site at http://www.sennheiser.com Tim

Again regarding the M60, I was just talking to a friend the other day and it seems I was somewhat wrong about the barrel change. What I said was right, but only for the early versions of the M60. Later, around the late sixties, a new barrel which could more easily be unscrewed and which wasn't attached to the bipod and sight was produced in a new version of the M60. But he also told that the real problem isn't that it is hard to change the barrel on the M60 or the Bren gun. The ingenius thing about the MG42's barrel changing system is that it is easy to do while lying down. With the M60 and the Bren gun you had to either turn the gun around or pull the gun backwards so that you could reach the tip of the barrel. This caused the soldiers using either the M60 or the Bren gun in combat to mostly change their barrels after combat instead of during combat. This produces a lot of wear and tear on the barrels rifling because the rifling gets much more worn when the barrel is hot and this in the end greatly effects the precission of the weapon. Of course this is no problem if you have plenty of new barrels. I don't think that the Mg42 would have been a succes if it hadn't had the quick barrel change system bacause the doctrines said the barrel had to be changed for every 180 shots fired. Of course if somebody is assaulting your position you coudn't care less about doctrines, but when it was possible it meant that you could fire sustained for a long period of time without degredation in precision.

Regarding the M60, it is considered to be a very bad copy of the MG42. After WW2, US engineers were ordered to make a new machinegun based on the lessons learned from the MG42. What they came up with was an almost identical weapon to the MG42, and it was aparently ( aleast according to my book), scrapped because of this. The Engineers were again sent to the drawingboard and designed, as far as I remember, what was to be known as the M60. One thing perticuarly stupid about the M60 was its barrel. It had to be unscrewed from the breech in order to be changed and could not be done while the barrel was hot. After inserting a new barrel, the sight had to be recalibrated. As far as I know this problem was not rectified until the 80'es. Gotta go.