guachi

It must have been maddening for Steve and Charles trying to find all the TO&E for the Germans. And CM1 only covers one year of war. How many divsion types did the Germans have? 10? 15? And how many times did they reorganize those divisions in the last year of the war? You must have something like 100 different formations for the Germans alone. Jason

My friend and I wrote a story back in seventh grade where, at one point during a battle, the combatants stopped for tea time. But when they were done with tea time they couldn't go back to fighting because they were so full of tea. Instead, they all had to walk around with their legs crossed to try and keep from wetting their pants. When you are in seventh grade this kind of stuff is really funny Jason

Steve, The Handbook on German Miltary Forces shows that a Panzer Grenadier Company (Armored) had an organic AA Platoon. I'm sure you have the book and the relveant pages are 126 & 127, figures 64 and 66. It shows the makeup of the company as 3 Pz. Gren. Platoons (Armd), 1 Heavy Weapons Platoon (Armd), and 1 AA Platoon (Armd). The table shows the AA Platoon had 6 20mm AA guns, but it isn't clear on whether they were towed or SP. The motorized Pz Gren companies do not have an organic AA platoon. They have 3 Pz Gren Platoons (mtz) and 1 MG platoon. Although the MG platoon is virtually identical to the Heavy Weapons Platoon in the armored company. What I do find strange, though, is that the armored Pz Gren Platoon has 30 men whereas the motorized Pz Gren platoon has 43. For the life of me, I haven't been able to figure out exactly why there is a difference. There is another difference at the battalion level between and armored Pz Gren Battalion and the motorized battalion. The Heavy Weapons Companies are different. The armored company has 4 120mm mortars and 6 75mm Infantry guns. The motorized company has 4 120mm mortars and 6 towed 20mm AA guns. This gives the armored battalion 18 20mm AA guns and the motorized battalion 6 20mm AA guns. To make things even more confusing, SS motorized and armored Pz Gren regiments had an AA company, giving the regiment an additional 12 20mm AA guns. In short, I will have to disagree with your statement that a Panzer Grenadier Company (armd) did not have organic AA support and will agree that the Heavy Weapons Company didn't, at least with regards to the armored battalion. Of course, the books I get my information from are all subject to being wrong. But I can't imagine that if this town was really important enough that the Germans wouldn't have sent along some AA support, whether it was organic or not. Fionn's chances were pretty much doomed by the appearance of the airplane. If I was the comander, I certainly would have complained even before the attack about needing AA and definitely would have done so after it destroyed so many vehicles. Jason P.S. Something has been bugging me ever since the plane destroyed the Panther. The Panther was being driven by von Kelly, right? Presumably that was supposed to be Fionn in the tank commanding the relief of the town. But the Panther was destroyed and, if I'm remembering correctly, everyone in the tank was a casualty. If that is the case, how can Fionn still be commanding his troops?

My own timeline for the beta demo release goes something like this: (Obviously, these are all guesses) Sept. 20 - beta released to testers Sept. 27 - The latest that the last of the testers is likely to get the demo in the mail. Fionn and Martin already have theirs as do, obviously, Steve and Charles. I don't know if they are mailing the rest FedEx or USPS, or what, but as long as it's not a foreign address, it shouldn't take longer than a week. Oct. 10 - two to three weeks of testing is done. Oct. 17 - A week to fix things up for the demo and we overload the BTS server downloading the demo. Oct. 17 - Nov. 17 - While we play the demo to death, BTS finishes up whatever parts of the game aren't finished. We overload the discussion forum talking about how cool the demo is. BTS is ecstatic about the great response from the public. After a couple of weeks, we drive Steve nuts with comments about how we've played the demo 100 times and we want the real thing post haste. The game is released just in time for Thanksgiving (for Americans, at least). And what more can we be thankful for than finally being able to play CM. [This message has been edited by guachi (edited 09-22-99).]

There were two versions of the M3, right? The Grant and the Lee. The Grant, which the British used, only had 3 MGs and the Lee had 4 MGs. Which, for the Lee, brings the average down to only 2250 rounds per gun. That means the Lee had six guns. A 37mm in the turret, 75mm in a sponson on the right side of the hull, a co-ax MG, a cupola mounted MG, and two more MGs in the hull. Even with a crew of six, it must have been a mess with all of the ammo. Jason

For some games, like Ardennes Offensive, showing the numbers is fine because there aren't many of them. Although I wonder if anyone was like me and took the time to figure out all the attack tables for each terrain type and combat odds. I even went through and figured out all of the attack and defense strength bonuses for division cohesion for every unit. I had them in charts comparing them for just about every conceivable variable. I turned the game into a big math exercise, which is probably why I managed to crush the AI so thoroughly. I enjoyed the game, don't get me wrong. The game was a blast, the map was gorgeous, and the units looked cool. And I know that when CM comes out I'm going to pore over the units and compile a massive unit database, print it out, and put it in my bulging computer game folder. But I don't think I will have to do it because I think Fionn is already doing it. My folder is stuffed full of charts and graphs of data from computer games. I've got color graphs of RRT2 data showing speed of trains in relation to consist weight and grade for every single train. Civilization data tracking my empire's growth at ten turn increments tracking every commodity with graphs in both logarithmic and regular scale. Charts showing percentage increases for everything over a 10, 50, and 100 year increments. I've done the same for Imperialism II, Masters of Orion I and II. Data for Panzer General I and II tracking the experience and casualities of all my units. I have tracked unit experience for X-com and even went to the trouble to figure out which of the various gadgets could make me the most money based on profit per hour of production. I have a massive database listing all of the units in every Battleground game with leader, strength, and quality rating. I left columns in so I could track enemy fatigue because the game doesn't show that to you. Currently, I'm tracking casualities day by day in my CC2 game by quantity and type for every battle. I'm doing pretty good, actualy. I'm managing about a 2-1 ratio. And last, but not least, I've got hand-drawn maps of all the cities and dungeons with copious notes for my as yet unfinished Might & Magic VI game. I probably have over 500 pages of information for all of my games. And that's just the stuff I've saved. Please, Steve, don't feed my addiction Have pity on trees and save them from my data addiction Jason

HerrOberst, Did all of your information come from Panzer Truppen? If so, it look like just the kind of book I'm looking for. Your information is obviously far more comprehensive than mine, but I do find it odd that our numbers don't really match. Does anyone else think that 9000 rds of ammunition (like on the M3) is a little ridiculous? Jason [This message has been edited by guachi (edited 09-21-99).]

Ensure is some kind of health drink supplement for old folks. The evening news here on the Big Three networks was spammed day after day with these commercials. You'd think after all these commercials I would remember their tagline. Jason [This message has been edited by guachi (edited 09-21-99).]

John (Pender), In reference to your question about good books for scenarios: The US Army Handbook by George Forty is a good litle book about US forces. It's a Barnes & Noble exclusive and it's only 10 dollars. I think you already have one of the best books out there in the German Handbook. I was at Barnes & Noble and saw a book following Patton's Third Army. It doesn't go into tremendous detail, but it lists day by day where the army fought. You can also find books that follow small units throughout the war. I think 'Band of Brothers' by Stephen Ambrose is one of them. I have seveal vehicle books, too. 'World War Two Tanks' by George Forty and 'The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II' and a few others. I will use those to make sure that I don't have vehicles in places they shouldn't be and making sure that I don't have platoons of rare vehicles running around. I'm not going to have 20 sturmtigers in a scenario when they only ever made, like, 10 in the first place. And I'll use the books to make sure that I have the right kind of units and experience levels, too. I think that if you can get books that give the general description of the units and the terrain, you can make a thoroughly believable scenario. I certainly won't know the difference. On any scenario I design, I'm going to try and stay away from blatant errors more than anything. I mean, there's so little info on company level engagements that I think most grognards won't be able to tell if you are exactly correct. Jason [This message has been edited by guachi (edited 09-21-99).]

I think your sytstem is more than adequate for this game. I think that the reasons that BTS isn't making a game with higher system requirements are twofold. One, the lower the requirements the more potential customers and ,two, many wargamers don't have bleeding edge systems like FPS and RTS fans have. As to the beta demo. The beta for the testers was released today, Monday. And it should be a couple of weeks after that for the demo to be released to the general public. I guess the timing depends on how many problems the testers find. And BTS will have to come up with some good scenarios that show off all the cool things and can tide us over til the real thing is released. I think Steve mentioned that he was shooting for an end of September beta demo release and that, at worst, they would miss it by only a week or so. Jason

14, eh? Welcome to the wonderful world of wargaming! I'm only 25 and I sometimes feel a little young compared to some of the other guys here. When I was 14, I only had one person to paly wargames with. His dad was an Avalon Hill junkie so we had many games to choose from. Now there is the entire internet full of people to choose from. I hope you don't go through the problems many of us did in trying to find someone to play against. Hurry up and pre-order Combat Mission. Only being 14 is no excuse Jason

I was in Barnes & Noble today and picked up a book called The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II. It's a big book that has a brief entry on everything from rifles to carriers with a color drawing and photograph for just about each of the 1,500 entries. Someone on the MG ammo tracking thread asked if anyone knew how much ammo tanks carried. Unfortunately, MG ammo loads are only given for Axis tanks, but I hope this information is useful. I also incuded ammo loads for the main gun. LT vz 35 (Czech) 37.2mm Skoda vz34 - 72 rds 7.92mm ZB35 or 37 - 1,800 rds TNH P-S (Czech) 37.2mm Skoda A7 - 90 rds 7.92mm MG37(t) - 2,550 rds PzKpfw I 7.92mm 2 MG34s - 1,525 rds PzKpfw II 20mm KwK30 - 180 rds 7.92mm MG34 - 1,425 rds PzKpfw III (no ammo loads listed) PzKpfw IVA 75mm L/24 - 122 rds 7.92mm 2 MG34s - 3,000 rds PzKpfw IVF2 75mm KwK40 L/43 - 87 rds 7.92mm 2 MG34s - 3,192 rds PzKpfw V Panther 75mm KwK L/70 - 79 rds 7.92mm 2 MG34s - (not listed) PzKpfw VI Tiger 88mm KwK36 L/56 - 84 rds 7.92mm 2 MG34s - 5,850 rds PzKpfw VI Tiger II 88mm KwK43 L/71 - 84 rds 7.92mm 2 MG34s - 5,850 rds Carro Armato L 6/40 (Italy) 20mm Breda 35 - 296 rds 8mm Breda 38 - 1,560 rds Carro Armato M 13/40 (Italy) 47mm L/32 - 104 rds 8mm 4 Modello 38s - 3,048 rds Carro Armato M 15/42 (Italy) 47mm L/40 - 111 rds 8mm 4 Modello 38s - 2,640 rds KE-GO Type 95 (Japan) 37mm Type 94 - 119 rds 7.7mm 2 Type 97s - 2,970 rds CHI-HA Type 97 (Japan) 57mm Type 97 - 120 rds 7.7mm 2 Type 97s - 2,350 rds Does anybody know of any tank books that have a comprehensive of these and other tech specs? The few books are have are generally spotty in this regard. Jason [This message has been edited by guachi (edited 09-20-99).]

I haven't got a computer game in awhile, either. Mostly it was from a lack of money. Now that I have money (thank you, student loan) I went out shopping today. Nothing looked really interesting. Not even the stuff that was dirt cheap caught my eye. I basically thought to myself, 'No matter how cheap this is, I'd rather be reading about Combat Mission or reading some book on WWII weapons or tactics.' Although I have picked up on my CC2 campaign that was laying dormant. My Arnhem paratroopers are being hard pressed by the Germans. This is my first campaign and I'm having a hard time with German armor. I think the sounds of CC2 are its most immersive factor and I'm looking forward to the demo so I can HEAR how great CM is (it already LOOKS great). Jason [This message has been edited by guachi (edited 09-20-99).] [This message has been edited by guachi (edited 09-20-99).]

Number crunching and bean counting is what I am good at. Poring over charts of numbers and analyzing them is what I plan to do for a living; that's why I am getting my degree in finance. Combat Mission is one game where I don't want to do that. I wnat to actively not number crunch. If the manual had all of the equations, I would go over them one by one. And I would enjoy it, too. If they were in I wouldn't be able to stop myself from looking at them so I'd rather they not be there. If BTS is serious about wanting us to unlearn how to play a wargame they shouldn't provide them as a basic point of game philosophy. I know my play will definitely suffer from not having all the numbers, but I think I will enjoy getting my butt kicked. Gotta go and do some multiple regression on some sales data for a school assignment. Jason PS Completely off topic, but I just realized today that the love of my life's last name is aleready in as a German (Janz). If my name makes it in to the unit list as an American (McGrody), then we could end up fighting each other she didn't think that was funny.

I pre-ordered because, if you think you will like CM, there is no reason not to. I was going to wait for the demo to come out before I decided to buy. But you can cancel your order after you've seen the demo, so why not order? It's $45 before the demo comes out and $45 after the demo comes out. But you get a free poster if you order before the demo is released. So, in conclusion, pre-order the game. Jason

This discussion of tracking tank MG ammo begs the question -- why did tanks have so much ammo anyway? Ammo for everything else is tracked because of the possibility of running out. Why were tanks supplied with several thousand rounds of MG ammo when they might have had a few more HE or AP shells instead? I admit to being completely ignorant on this subject so I hope you can enlighten me. Jason

I raise my hand in support of this idea. And since I'm not the world's greatest writer, you can be guaraneed my AARs will be short. I think a great part of the fun of CM will be discussing battles and tactics with other players. The amount of messages on this forum show that there is no shortage of interest in discussion of CM and it is still a few months away from completion. Jason

I live in Montana, so we don't have any traffic problems on the Interstate. 70% or so of the vehicles here are either trucks or SUVs, but people actually drive off road in their trucks here. And Montana was actually a trendsetter in a way because SUVs were popular here before they were even called SUVs. I walk to work, so don't have any problems with traffic. But it sure does get busy here in Billings on weekends when all of the out of towners come here to shop. Jason Steve, give us CM so we can stop off topic posts

I've got an SBLive souncard and I like it. But I highly recommend getting a good set of speakers. I use my computer speakers and CD-ROM drive as my stereo. Less clutter in an already cluttered room. My speakers are S2 Midiland 4100 and these things ROCK. The subwoofer is bigger than my tower case. I can't wait to hear a Tiger on these babies The website is http://www.midiland.com and they have links to reviews of their products. BTW, Steve, I've been wondering for a while if you couldn't post some sounds on the battlefront.com website. We've seen a lot of great screen shots but not many sounds. Maybe a few wav sounds of tanks and MGs and screaming men. I think it'd be cool. Jason

Ok, your plan makes more sense now. I've actually only been reading your AARs so I can have the sense of FOW too. I was just working under the assumption that Martin has probably as many bazookas as MG. And whatever he got as reinforcments for the town fight, there were probably bazookas in them. But 200m seems a good distance to keep the tank at. Although your choices are limited being low on ammo. Once it runs out it will be nothing more than a heavily armored halftrack. Of course, Martin doesn't have to know it ran out of shells. I think it's intimidation factor outweighs its combat effectiveness when it runs out of shells, so keeping it alive is a valuable asset. Not to mention game things like VPs and morale. Looking forward to the end game. Jason

Ok, I'll shut up now. Jason

Fionn, if the Panther is destroyed, how can you still be commanding? Jason

And there was much rejoicing! Probably even more so if you happen to be a beta tester. Jason

Fionn, it looks like you've learned your lessons from the woods. Excepr for the airplane attacks, things are mostly going your way. I'm up to turn 28, I think reading the AARs (the turn you toasted his Sherman in the north) and I think you are nuts for wanting to run the tank into the town. You have time on your side so you can be patient. The PzIVJ is worth a bunch of victory points. If you lose it, your morale will seriously drop. Why you don't move it to a safe distance from the town (approx 200m) and machine gun anything that moves? You are running low on machine guns and could use a little more fire support. Jason

Oh how correct you are. But then again, it's a better deal than having the hospital do the maintenance itself. It's cheaper and they get better quality service. Heck, in our case, they get the people who wrote the actual code. Which is the same kind of support we'll get with CM. And without a service contract. Jason