coe

I do guess zooming would be key but it would be interesting also from a distance perspective (seeing how long the line of vehicles are, or if deployed, the dust clouds etc. and how quickly it might be able to concentrate

I was re-reading a few old war books but you eventually run into those stories where a panzer division is reduced to about 25 tanks but somehow stops the massive offensive (or at least delays it) while having a favorable exchange ratio. then I realized that 25 tanks of WWII size couldn't even fill a small parking lot, and yet at times somehow manage to check an enemy advance without the enemy swarming all over where the tanks were not and somehow engulfing them.

This might be a strange request, but we see in maps represented by military symbols how an entire armoured division might move but has this ever been simulation - as in through computer graphics/special effects so that you actually see the many thousands of vehicles and see how crammed they get or not or the formations they form and perhaps a visual scale sense of it all.

anyways, to return to the earliest part of this thread, what was causing allied HP to be more than Axis HP towards throughout the war?

so at the start of the war, do you think the axis was behind in engine technology?

This isn't specifically a game question but a WWII question I haven't been able to find much on (so if someone can point me in the right direction I'll close this down right after). I was looking at German and Allied engine technology and was wondering how they stacked up at various points of the war in vehicles (land and air) ... for instance allied engines in airplanes (not jets) were regularly getting 2000 hp alot sooner than german engines. Were tanks and trucks and half tracks affected similarly?

So I have a Pzkw IVH which has a straigh shot down a street, ... it plinks the first one or two T-34's that nudge into the street (one after another but not all at once)... but then it usually gets tagged after that. But in general are there any good tactics in using Pzkw IVH or Js vs. T-34/85s ? (not just in the above but in other conditions - what tactics were actually used in real life to maintain the kill ratios it had). Conan

what? it's there? ahhh ok I probably didn't think to look under CSDT ok thanks! Conan

can anyone tell me where to find the stalingrad and seelow heights packs again? I can't seem to find them on the new scenario depot. Also wasn't there some scenario that heavily featured the Hetzers? or was that in CMBO? Conan

wow so MGs would actually be the last to pull out? I thought you'd want to have the HMGs a little bit further back so it could constantly pull back and set up again and not have to pull out under fire...

This is true but then again, german tank numbers weren't that massive (I also guess on the western front there were vast quantitites of ATGs facing them ?)... hmmm if you were a crew would you man a tank with a hole in it? I'd be a bit sketched out...even though I'm a senior member here. I actually wonder how hits are repaired...they do leave some scrape marks and perhaps take a little bit off the top...thus I would presume after several deflected hits you'd need to replace the plating that took the hits?

Hmmm even so, if the guns are well sited and hidden (and theoretically might get the first shot off), it'd seem at least they might have scored higher (especially with tanks being hung up in minefields and obstacles and not maneuvering). Or do you you think that arty and other prep seemed to neutralize them first (sigh in CMBB there's always that single or two ATGs which seem to knock out my tanks!

hmmm well I'm thinking about how when artillery gets suppresed it goes firing a few minutes later... this didn't seem to happen with ATGs? Wait since when did I become a senior member?

Ok, maybe this is an old topic (but I couldn't find the answer)...so the Russians did field the 45mm, and 76mm both of which could defeat a Panzer III or Panzer IV. So if you have a place like Kursk with large amounts of prepared AT guns and Russian Pakfronts of which from what I was reading a while ago, the first warning you get is when the first tank explodes. Excluding vehicles that would be recovered and brought into action again, I would have expected massive German tank losses due to the masses of AT guns and lack of German Artillery to be constantly blasting everything to smithereens. In CMBB where a russian AT gun can seem to kill a whole bunch of german tanks at a time. (I am guessing that at Kursk, in the Tank vs. AT gun battle the German tanks still had a greater than 1 tank per 1 gun loss ratio?) So how did the Germans manage to take lesser losses in tanks (tank recovery aside, and ignoring losses when repair depots were overrun)?

So if a gun doesn't get destroyed but gets supressed in counterbattery fire is that like people just running for cover for a few minutes or maybe parts of the gun damaged by splinters etc. and not fully knocked out...kinda interesting how ATG's seem to get easily knocked out by Artillery fire but that artillergy guns are more resiliant (perhaps this is because counterbattery fire is very much indirect (i.e. no spotters) and therefore pretty scattered?

yeah this is one where you are supposed to start probing forward first at the very least...

I suppose this isn't an issue in CM since a Co Commander can exert effective control over any squad regardless of whether it is in the same company. However in real life I wonder how this would have been handled - a company advancing on a wide front with others constantly arriving - I suppose at some point the front company would either be pulled back or consolidated on one side of the the front with the other companies filling in? this would be tough under fire I bet

***KING OF DEBRECEN SPOILER ALERT*** Interesting... in the CM world, sometimes I think you can discardthe 2 up, one back if you have reinforcements constantly arriving (I wish they'd arrive in an organized manner instead of a hodge podge group of intermixed sections of various platoons). SPOILER: In King of Debrecen you initially start with a complete company on a wide frontage and then you get some platoons of another company gradually arriving...this is a bit of an organizational headache because initially you'd want to be advancing on both sides of the road (this is to avoid flank traps and also in my experience those King Tigers seem to bog alot and so I need to keep em on the road a bit more - yes I know the ground is frozen but I've had them bog alot) and thus your might have your company widely spread about but advancing. So much for the company commander being able to effectively pick up routed/panicked units. What ends up happening is that on one side of the road you have a platoon of the first company plus several platoons of the next arriving company and same thing on the other side. Anyways, in KING of DEBRECEN, I think it's a good exercise for open ground advancing. Just I'm not sure if the 2 up one back should be initially used in this case (given the reinforcements)

hmm ok let me give that a shot... I tend to advance german platoons in kind of diamond shape... (two flanking squads , a lead squad and the platoon hq in the back... and I have the flanking squads and the lead squad leap frog or should I just have everyone advance and let the overwatch worry about things). I'm wondering about this advance till tired and pause for a turn...I presume this is why you might have two platoons start a minute ahead of another platoon so that there will be overlap of who's advancing and who's resting?

hmmm advancing all the time... you'll get there with enough time? some of these games require you to cover 800-900 yds just to get to the first line of defense and you only have 30-40 minutes to chew through the different layers. also if everyone is always advancing don't they get tired? I've noticed that the computer has an uncanny ability to identify headquarters and machine gun units and pin them even at a long distance. Do you attach a machine gun to a platoon or do you have the machine guns follow en-masse as like a wave in the back.

Ok so I have tried several several battles like King of Debrecen and Into the Void If you are german, you have to take over the open essentially against unknown positions...(and for some reason your infantry in some of the cases is in very vulnerable half tracks). I'm not sure how to do this and have the small number of casualties in both men and equipment that the germans had in these type of scenarios. Any tips? (you have tanks, a lil bit of artillery and infantry and somewhere after about 800-1000 yards of openness there are enemy troops with AT guns, infantry and tanks etc. hidden in the trees and all are at least in fox holes. (You can't do the massive bombardment before hand there's just too much space).

As I've read a bit more about the winter of 42-43 on the Eastern front. I'm starting to think that even if the 6th Army wasn't cutoff at Stalingrad (or lets miraculously assume even if it was cut off that it was well supplied) the Axis would likely have suffered some serious defeats anyways or would have to have retreated significantly. That the Soviets were able to attack Rhzev (Rzhev?) and Stalingrad simultaneously and despite having to use significant forces to contain the pocket, still managed to launch major offensives indicates to me that there was at least a significant manpower advantage. They were able to rub out the Satellite armies one by one tearing huge gaps. I'm starting to wonder if this could have started earlier than in mid November 1942. Then again I'm also wondering how the Satellite armies could have been successful on the offensive drive only to suddenly be defenseless in the late fall/winter. Anyways, it does seem to me that in the winter 42-43 the Soviets seemed to be everywhere to a point where I think that an intact Sixth Army would not have been able to prevent a general retreat even if the Germans conducted mobile operations with skill. So... any opinions? (the other thing that is rather neat are times when Pz divisions attack with only 30 tanks left and somehow that made a difference over a 100 mile front - I started to think how little amount of space 30 tanks take up... that's like 60 cars parked on a road...not much). Conan

that's interesting, because given the prepared nature of the russian defenses all over the salient you'd expect german artillery to have been not that effect and the PAK fronts to have inflicted staggering losses but from what I understand, that wasn't the case (losses were higher than a normal day but not like on Goodwood proportions)...

I wish I were designing a scenario... no no I'm trying to win some of the kursk scenarios (where they don't start out supressed unfortunately.

ahh so there's a bit of creep forward aspect... hmmm but how does this translate into a CMBB context (e.g. only have 30-35 minutes, limited artillery, closer starting ranges). ....