Andreas

If you mean divisional artillery, probably the 10,5cm lFH 18, which was the mainstay of divisional artillery from start to the end of the war. Just short of 11,000 produced before and throughout the war (over 21,000 including the successor lFH18/40). Of the sFH18 about 7,000 were produced. If you actually mean field guns (Feldkanone), it would be the 10cm K18. Just short of 2,000 produced before and after the war. The Germans were not that hot on Feldkanonen, they mostly used howitzers. All the data from www.lexikonderwehrmacht.de and quickly added up by me.

Scipio, in your example you are really comparing Apples and Oranges. A 10cm gun has a much more significant signature when fired, and is also a lot more difficult to disguise because of its sheer size, than a 2cm popgun (have a look at footage of such guns firing to see what I mean). You may have noted that it is often difficult to spot the very light ATGs (37mm, to some extent 45mm) even when they fire repeatedly. Heavy and medium ATGs should not be so difficult to spot. I don't think the spotting model is the problem, I would agree with Sergei that the information transmission model is more likely to be the culprit. If you really want to test the spotting model, I would suggest putting a single tank against the ATG for starters. Then start adding single units to see how much more quickly it goes.

The progress of our game would be surreptiously expedited should Mr.Blue find it in himself to empty his sodding mailbox!! But I do not complain. AIU the rules of the SEPTIC Cup, the game will be cease-fired on April 30th. I am on holiday from the 28th. This gives Mr.Blue ~1-2 turns to take the VLs from me. Snicker... I knew it was a good idea to plan on those holidays.

My fashion statement is green, roars, and answers to the name of T-34. It is about to run over the toes of your two suicide bomber squads. Turn resent. Edited because I can not type. [ April 18, 2003, 03:45 AM: Message edited by: Andreas ]

Mr.Blue has found a new way to shift impending doom into the future. He has let his mailbox fill up with the inquiries by all those Soldatenwitwen he has produced. Hrmph!

Swine

Some tactical evidence that could be interpreted to mean that all was not well with the 76mm gun. From Battlefield.ru Some food for thought - I'd be interested to see some source info for Jason's claims other than 'a report I have seen'.

As long as we are talking Scottish pipes, the person playing places himself squarely outside the known continuum of humanity, and is really asking for it, by playing them on a battlefield. Irish, Bretonic and Northumbrian pipes are a different matter. I once was inside a room during a folk festival where a Scottish piper tuned his pipes prior to the concert. Made me want to puncture my ears.

They fired indirectly IRL. don't use them, buy a 105mm FOO instead.

Ah, - well you snipped while I typed. Apologies.

While I agree that it would not be amiss to mention these, I have to disagree with any argument that these are straightforward comparable. By all accounts Soviet atrocities were committed by troops temporarily out of control. German atrocities were committed as part of an orchestrated campaign, by units specifically raised to commit the atrocities, under orders from higher authorities. There were almost certainly cases of ordinary soldiers committing similar atrocities, although discipline probably rarely broke down to such a degree. They also continued for the whole of the occupation, while the Soviet atrocities stopped very quickly. So no, the Soviets were not 'just as good at rape, murder, plunder, torture, butcher and whathaveyou'. One thing for example they did not do was to select a whole group of the population and then try to kill them all in an industrialised process. That does not mean they did not commit atrocities. It just means that there was both a qualitative and a quantitative difference between Soviet and German atrocities. [ April 16, 2003, 11:53 AM: Message edited by: Andreas ]

I always thought quite a few 38(t) went to Romanian 1st Armoured Division as well, later in the war.

Well, seeing that you threw about 1.5 SS Panzer Divisions at an understrength British Infantry Division, I suppose the losses were manageable. I did not actually see any of the fighting - more a staffer, myself. I am still in CMMC2 - looks like it shapes up to be a good one. Mattias came for another visit on the way to Dublin, just before he dropped off the planet.

I remember well, you telling me to join the dark side during that game. Many of the Germans did not live to regret that I did not take up that offer. May I remind you that my division quite clearly won its divisional battle? The Wessex Wyvern came out of CMMC2 with head held high and blood-dripping talons. BTW - good to hear that about Mattias. He came to visit me in London twice, once with his lady. Very nice couple - give me a shout when you hear of them again. [ April 16, 2003, 04:43 AM: Message edited by: Andreas ]

Well, the anarcho syndicalist commune continues to triumphantly show that being handed a rifle by some watery tart is no replacement for good combative spirit. Mr. Blue's right-flank infantry rush is Dieing-A-Lot™ in the crossfire of a number of communist tanks and infantry. Two of the tanks were cunningly placed by me to shoot the attacker in the back. Casualties on his side are mounting. On his left, another rush towards the main VL is getting bogged in the face of a barrage of red-hot lead. Here is a transmission from the Reichs TV newsroom captured by our superior Soviet antennas: 'Hallo? Ja, zis is Hermann ze reporter. I am emtombed (shurely: embedded; ed.) vis ze 34th Lederhosen Expeditionary Force near a central Russian willage.' 'Hermann, ja. Zis is Hans from ze studio in Berlin. Vot can you tell us?' 'Ve are mowing (shurely: moving) up against a rabble of Untermenschen in a small patch of ze voods. Ah, zere are now too Panzers to support our adwance.' 'Sehr gut, Hermann. Can you tell us vot kind of Panzers zey are?' 'Ah ja, gut. Zey are green. And zey have vritten on zeir side 100 times "Teutones eunt domus". Wery strange. Now zey level zeir guns at us... Vait a secund' KABOOM 'Hermann, Hermann? Liebe Listeners. Ve haf lost ze connection. Now ve vill play ze requiem by Mozart for Hermann and his Kameraden.' [cue chorus from the back 'Ich hatt einen Kameraden' /cue]

I think John is horribly in need of a good Sam Smith's bitter. Next week sometime?

General Krafft's head is stuffed over my gasfire, as are various tanks from Bovington. Peter is now up in the midlands, doing stuff for a computer game company. Mattias has gone AWOL, which is a real petty. I never heard from him again after he stopped by in London one time. If anyone has any news, can you please email me. Oh, and London, UK. I am German though. Not dead yet, just pining for the Autobahn.

All, thanks again, and thanks to those who emailed me privately. Following those inquiries, I will try and make all my scenarios, and those of my colleagues who agree available for DL somewhere as a big zip file, in the next few weeks, maybe on the Depot. That way they at least are not lost completely. When I have done that, I will post here.

There are no invaders anywhere near the flags. We will roast their stomach on the pityless furnaces of Magnitogorsk. Our truthful internationalist communist spirit will prevail against the mercenary pigdog slimey servants of international worker repression. They will come and see the violence inherent in the system. And they are still not anywhere near the flags. We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune here near the flags anyway.

We will welcome them with bullets and shoes.

How about instead of another ME, two parallel games, with mixed roles. The result of the round is the combined point total from both games.

Mr. Blue better start dipping his pen into some ink to start writing those letters to the soon to be, if not already, bereaved wailing widows of his bumbling Übermenschen. Some of them at least seem to prefer the wrath of their commander to the hot steel emanating from the guns of my ideologically superior forces of the Internationale. This is a direct consequence of a lack of training in how to deal with pointed sticks and pine-apples. As many of the members of this board now, the latter can be especially painful, if rectally inserted the wrong way round. Here are some scenes from the cutting room floor of 'Monty Python - the remake' T'is but a fleshwound. Help help! We are being suppressed. Practicing for the Philosopher's footy cup. VLs? We've already got some.

And NTL isn't? Mr.Blue has decided to use Maskirovka tactics of PBEM deception, by emailing me an old turn. Shurely a sign of utter desperation now that he has painted himself in a corner. Teutoni ite domus!

Thanks to everybody for the warm words. I must admit I feel a bit homeless myself, maybe I'll start peddling scenarios under a bridge next. I would like to add that the hard work on the site, and the excellent design are Greg's (Mensch) work, and that throughout the existence the site has really been a team effort in terms of content provision. You'll see us around individually, since many of us are all still at it, and some may even design scenarios Make sure you check out Cory's 'Gorodok' at the Depot, it is a very good scenario. Remember, the bird is not dead, it is merely resting, or maybe pining for the fjords.

John, I believe the Soviets had a habit of calling ordinary Stugs Ferdinands, for whatever reason. It is the only explanation I have for the repeated mention of Ferdinands in the Soviet officer memoirs I own.