Andreas

The weapons graphic is a really great help, the unit pictures are there for a good reason, and they are modable (I look forward to a B/W mod like the one in CMBO, never liked the original, and did not like the first proposals in the beta CMBB at all), and the shockwave - well, I have not missed it at all, and the first comment I have heard about it is here. Nothing during the previews, nothing on the beta-board that I can recall. The map is helpful in QBs, to let you know at a glance where you are (remember, no briefing!) and thereby gives you a bit more 'feel' for the QB game than before.

Well, it pains me to play your 'Pride of the Luftwaffe' game too, Rune. Berli has stuff that blows up my recce assets, and machine-guns to keep my Heroes of the Working Class from liberating the Dvina bridges, as is their wont. It is just not cricket anymore. What have you got to answer to that, eh?

Please don't. You lot need to see big buildings go boom.

1. I have read memoirs indicating that these regulations were not observed, and tanks were unbuttoned right until they went out to attack, not 1-3km from the frontline. 2. It already does. If your command tank buttons, but the other tanks are unbuttoned, the command is still lost.

Smoke will be appreciated far greater in CMBB. Mace</font>

Another thing to remember (haven't seen it mentioned here) is that units that have not moved are considered to have a camouflage bonus, which could explain why you have trouble making out the Germans in the woods.

Konew's advice - and he should know a thing or two about it: Insert your infantry after you have fire superiority. Only fire superiority allows movement of infantry on the battlefield. If you don't gain it, don't bother trying with your infantry. Congrats, Comrade, you have just been relieved There is a position available in our penal battalion though, and the Commissar wondered if you considered volunteering.

Apart from the places with Disneyland castles, of which there are many.

Optics are present in the info screen, unless they are 'standard', so you have to look in a German screen. Optics are also not as hugely important as some people here seem to think - they are one factor in the equation. Secondary weapons do not all have the same amount, they have one amount, displayed at all of them. This is because the ammo is interchangeable. My infantry units do not all have the same amount of ammo, I am not sure about the demo, but there certainly is randomness in there. One grenade shown equals five present in the squad. They are being tracked by the game, and you can run out of them. It is unlikely to happen though, I think - more likely either your squad or the enemy packs it in before that occurs.

Below 105mm I would find it reasonably doubtful that you could observe a lot. I have a reference to German use of captured 76.2mm, saying that in indirect fire the gun was a bit difficult, since the impacts of the small rounds with their low HE load were difficult to observe.

Denizen, optics are just a small part of the whole gunnery equation, and the x% figure is just an indication - real chance to hit can be completely different. In your case, I am almost absolutely certain that optics only play a minor role in accounting for the difference.

Hehe - he came across another one of the new features. That can be very embarassing you know, at least he did not start shelling his mates.

Stuka-T - probably yes. I am no techy, but I would have thought you need at least the 4MB ATI Rage that came with the early iBooks. ISTR that CMBO did barely run with John Kettler's 2MB card in his 1st gen iMac.

Dunno, haven't even looked at the demo. I am, shall we say, intimately acquainted with the manual...

Your units will also concentrate more on the 'covered' area, to the detriment of observation of other areas. With obvious advantages and risks.

Chad, very nice work. Regarding the T26 'still lingering' in 1942, I have serious doubts about that. The Red Army was left with a very low number of tanks in December 1941. Seeing that the T26 was not actually built anymore at that stage, I think it is doubtful that there were even small amounts still about, let alone sufficient numbers to warrant inclusion in your list. I would suspect that the tanks that made it through into 1942 were mostly T34 and KV1. Unfortunately I only noticed that now. If anyone has any hard data, I would be interested to see it.

Chad, very nice work. Regarding the T26 'still lingering' in 1942, I have serious doubts about that. The Red Army was left with a very low number of tanks in December 1941. Seeing that the T26 was not actually built anymore at that stage, I think it is doubtful that there were even small amounts still about, let alone sufficient numbers to warrant inclusion in your list. I would suspect that the tanks that made it through into 1942 were mostly T34 and KV1. Unfortunately I only noticed that now. If anyone has any hard data, I would be interested to see it.

I suspect (but you need a gunnery grog to confirm) that later in the war, the HE load of shells from the larger calibre weapons was deemed to be sufficient to do away with cannister. After all, it just adds another type of ammo that has to be produced, distributed and stockpiled.

The 75L24 in early Stugs and Panzer IV had cannister rounds.

Any incident that I came across in German records where either T34 or KV1/2 were encountered in the early stages created a crisis. 1. PD's GHQ almost overrun near Rossienie (Rasenai), the heavies only stopped by 88s and 10cm K18. The famous incident of the lone KV blocking the supply route of KG Raus (6.PD). 13. PD stopped dead in its tracks early on in Ukraine during the counter-attacks by the Soviet 5th Army (can't find the source now). On the tactical (CMBB) scale, these tanks are a serious headache. As they were in reality.

Since I do not really do 'historical' scenarios, but prefer the sort of 'Anyday, August 1944' approach, I usually insert a bit of background in the general briefing on the actions of the real unit in the area portrayed in the scenario. The actual briefing for each side is then usually a short story-telling approach to help immersion, in varying styles, depending how I feel any given day.

What you really have to do is learning how to attack properly. CMBO was very forgiving. In CMBB you will understand why attacking with anything else than overwhelming force is a bloody business. Which is as it should be. Get your combined arms tactics right.

I think it started when the old German ship of the lne (pre-dreadnought) Schleswig-Holstein bombarded the Polish naval base on the Westerplatte, off Danzig, from its position in Danzig harbour, or somefink. Westerplatte Battle info

I have decided the QB function is so improved that there is no longer a point in doing any scenarios. Instead I used the time saved on scenario design to blow up Panzer IIIs with T34s. So sue me...