xerxes

For early war the Italians aren't half bad. Best ATR of the war. Best tankette, an L3 can rip infantry up Wasp-like flame tankette Hard hitting portee with a 75mm gun Solid general purpose 75mm field gun The 75mm AA is a heavy tank killer Later on the Italian paratrooper squads are smg armed terrors in closed terrain.

From what I've seen all units have a "survive" instinct. If something really dangerous to them appears, they'll engage it no matter what orders youi've given them. In the same way, if dangerous but virtually unkillable afv appears, your units will get the h@ll out of dodge, no matter what you tell them to do. Survival.

It depends on my mood. If I've just read a really trashy review, I lose the motivation to go through publishing at the Depot. A positive review tends to have the opposite effect. I think some authors have gotten ticked off enough that publishing at the Depot is just low on the priority list.

In earlier desert war the portees can be very nasty. The Italian 75mm portee is a terror against the Brit tanks. The Brit 2 lb can terrorize the Italian tanks. The keys to using them are: 1. Keyhole, keyhole, keyhole. Since mgs are deadly to the portee, you have to avoid those like the plague. A portee with a wide field of fire is a burning portee. 2. Keep good range (at least 300m, preferably longer). If you're chucking HE from the portee stand even further back. 3. Once your portee has engaged you have to get out of that area before mgs/mortars can strike at you. 4. Crews, yes I mean crews, can kill a Portee from close range. 5. Portees with HE can put a serious hurt on infantry. 6. Try to stay on the roads, clear can be navigated slowly but rocky terrain is terrible.

Which is why you should always rubblize any building with ** damage if you want to use it. Even single * buildings are dangerous.

I confess. I've used no bonus Company HQs as throw away scouts and as the "tip of the spear" in an assault on a heavily protected position. Hey, if they're terrible commanders they can still contribute to the victory.

I had misunderstood your position a little Michael. I haven't seen many references to company COs participating directly in the fighting. I doubt that occurred very often.

In the German army from my readings the company commander was fully expected to be on the scene. Leading by radio was unacceptable. Raus provide numerous examples and the expectation was quite clear.

If you're short on smoke and long on HE you can always knock down a heavy building to get a 2-3 minute dust cloud to obscure the keyhole. Works in a pinch.

Panthers frontally armor is nasty, you have to manuever to get those side shots on them. The Shermies smoke can be used to blind that critical panther for the minute it takes to move on a flank. Area firing HE near the Nashorn will give it fits. The sherms have plenty of HE so staying just out of LOS of the Nash and hurling HE will get him moving out of the way. good luck!

"Cat's Cradle V2" is almost exactly what you're looking for. "Haunter in the dark" is the mirror image, small number of germans hunting down a large number of T34s.

For the price it's not bad for taking on infantry. ATRs and HMGs ventilate it quite well so you have to handle them with kid gloves.

Support weapons (HMGs/mortars/guns) are particularyl useful covering fire weapons. An infantry attack backed by a hefty amount of support weapons will be much more effective.

HE fired directly underneath tanks will cause them all kinds of problems. If they're unubuttoned you have a good chance of wacking the TC. Immobilizing and gun damage are also going to occur. After immobilization you can often get an abandon. The larger the HE the more effective, the weaker the side/rear armor, the more effective.

Not possible in an operation Industrializer. Would be nice.

Area fire HE directly under the hetzer. Then laugh.

If the enemy isn't firing at you, you can't tell if you've been seen or not. You can guess/estimate, but you can't be sure. Realistic, n'est pas?

And if you happen to playing an operation where you attack a fort but don't fully control the fort by the end of the first battle, the enemy setup zones will be adjacent to yours. Good point about including that info in the briefing.

A good number of players fire arty rather speculatively, they really don't have a confirmed target. The other mistake is to penny packet the artillery. Arty should be used in mass against confirmed targets. Overtargeting with multiple FOs is extremely effective. When you hit with the arty you want to shatter the enemy formation, not just disrupt it.

I think recording the victory level is a really good idea. In some ways though, the bigger problem which we haven't really addressed is the relatively small number of reviews. I've no idea how that issue could be addressed.

No, I'm not biased, I'm not sure how you would come to that conclusion. If you'd played two scenarios by a designer that had fundamentally the same design flaw (or feature) the odds are that a third scenario would exhibit the same design flaw. It's simply statistics. From my experience a number of scenario designers have certain tendancies that manifest themselves in their designs. Not really all that surprising.

I rely on what I know about author's to pick scenarios that I'll like. I don't care for some designer's style, others I tend to like very much.

A swarm of FT armed BTs could take it out eventually. You'd lose 20+ BTs but what the heck. It can't run forever.

FYI, I have 2 east african battles (Gazelle Force & Retreat from Metemma) and one operation (Fort Gallabat) in production. An interesting little theatre where the carro armato is a fiercesome little tank! East Africa was a very impressive win for the British forces.

make sure you hit the AC with small arms fire to get it to button up. The AC will have a lot harder time seeing the FT team if it's buttoned.