Viperflier

Sheesh, As an Air Ops Officer and having over 2500 hours in F-16's I can honestly say a few of those 'facts' are real klunkers. I've flown with and against literally dozens of nations within the 'Western' sphere. The ability spread amongst proficient airmen is practically non-measurable. I or any other pilot would be hard pressed to tell if our adversaries were Canadians, Dutch, Belgian, American or Israeli. There is no 'golden' path to fighter pilot perfection (as you'd guess, perfection doesn't even exist), just a lot of hard work and repetition. Each aircraft varies in its abilities but none of the current 4th generation fighters are quantum leaps better than all its contemporaries. The F-22 will likely change the picture of air combat for the next 50 years (call it a 5th generation platform) since it is more of a revolution in technology versus a gradual evolution (F-16 upgrades). Merlin VTANG

Patton would have loved the tactics used in the Gulf War. His motto was hold 'em by the ear and kick 'em in the ass. The demonstration along the Kuwaiti front with the barn door redeployment would have made him (and even von Schleiffen) proud

The Wright Patt museum is definitely worth the trip. It even has a B-57 from our unit in it. I could roam around in there for days. Merlin

Hi Fionn, My question was directed toward the Ausf G Panther and the King Tiger. I really should have pursued it concerning other Marks but it didn't occur to me at the time. Interestingly, the Panther they have on display is the Panther II chassis with a Panther I turret. The body was sent over at the end of the war sans turret and the museum plunked a spare turret onto it. Sorry I couldn't get any better info for you. I may e-mail the museum for more data. He had quite a bit of info right on hand, I just need to ask the right questions. Take care, Merlin

This was heavily discussed a few weeks ago but I thought I'd throw in some new supporting info. I was down at the Patton museum at Fort Knox with the commander of the 1st Tank of the 172nd, 86th Brigade. We hooked up with the curator and were able to get a hands on tour of some of the statics on display. During the course of our tour I asked him about the traverse rates for the German tanks. He said pretty much across the board that 11 degrees per second was the average. This really didn't vary much regardless of engine RPM (almost all these museum tanks are operational) or which German tank it was. The American tanks come in around 20 to 25 degrees per second but did seem to have more variance depending upon specific model. Lastly, the American TD's they had were all manual traverse and pretty darn slow using Armstrong to crank that 3" naval gun around. The tour was awesome and I learned more about WW2 armor in two hours than I'd ever picked up from the many books I'd read. Quite a few of these tanks had taken some battle damage and it was very interesting to see the actual effects that rounds produced. The King Tiger was very impressive. It is one massive hunk of steel but a side shot from a 76mm would definitely have a decent penetration chance. If it did penetrate, it would strike into the ammo stowage so had a decent chance of 'brewing' up this huge beast. The 88mm is massive. It fills up a lot more space than a modern 105 or 120 does. I'm shooting from the hip but think this was the 88L71 and the Tiger 1 had the 88L56. After this tour, I'm definitely getting more and more psyched for the final version of CM. Merlin VTANG F-16 Driver

Doh, I'm getting a headache just thinking about it. In the end, perhaps Scarr and I will be given a ticker tape parade OR we both end up sharing opposite ends of a hangmans rope slung over any convenient branch. I wonder if Battlefront understands how important this issue is becoming? Peoples lives are hanging in the balance. Normally, I wouldn't care but I am one of the Peoples! Darn the bad luck ------------------ Merlin

Yes, Scarr has seen to the heart of my nefarious plot. Unfortunately we have a double double negative going and I don't know if the result will be an immediate (if not sooner) release or total program cancellation. Oh well, praise me if the game comes out soon and blame Scarr if it is delayed. There, all my bases are covered. P.S. Scarr, don't be upset at my feeble attempt to use you as a scapegoat. After all it is a natural part of combat history. ------------------ Merlin

Dear Battlefront, Please delay the release of Combat Mission indefinitely. I'm rather enjoying the most excellent discussions on this bulleting board and if you release the program everyone will be too busy to post. I'd hate to see this board dry up. Er, but wait a minute, I'll be too busy playing CM to read the board. Dooo, if you delay the release then I have to read this stupid board instead of playing your most outstanding game. Gack, please disregard everything I've said and I'm sorry I wasted so much of your valuable time that you could have spent finishing the game...GET BACK TO WORK! ------------------ Merlin