Andreas

Got the book myself - I am a bit wary of trusting Lucas, and these figures seem a bit on the high side to me. I would probably substitute 'kills' by 'claims'. Jason can do the math on this one much better. Since SP guns presumably include everything, from the Bison to the Elefant, I would think that they got a very high share of the AFV kills the Germans got. There were a number of independent Stug brigades that were used as fire brigades on the eastern front, and in that job would probably have racked up a good number of kills. Does anyone have the production totals for tanks vs. SP guns in the German arsenal?

Come see the lack of Canadian tracked vehicles inherent in the system. Would be nice to have either of those, but since there won't be anymore patches to the game it is best to blame it on Steve and Charles disagreeing with the Canadians' bombing of the Baldwin residence. I miss the Crusader most of all.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Brian: I was under the impression that they were used fairly commonly for this, in the whole series of operations in Normandy after TOTALISE, according to Blackburn.<hr></blockquote> Not sure if you are talking about Pepperpots or use to fire tracer - the former I think were only invented a bit later, but I am quite unsure about dates. I would have put it about the time of the Rhineland battles - interesting and apparently very effective, something like the artilleryman's version of the Mad Minute Tracer usage I only had those two references off the top of my head, not sure if I could dig out more. I would expect them to be used fairly commonly for that though, once Simonds had come up with the idea. Good point about the offensive/defensive situation. I guess that the real value of these guns comes out when firing from a prepared position, so they would be more valuable in the defense than in the offense. Do you know if the re-designated LAA regiment was given different guns?

Commonwealth LAA regiments (one per infantry division) were handed ground sights during the campaign in France (one reference I have for 49th Infantry Division puts it at the time of the taking of Le Havre). Later-on, many of them were disbanded, to use the manpower thus freed as infantry replacements. The 40mm were also used in so-called Pepperpot fire plans (as were Vickers in indirect fire mode, and 3.7" AA guns, and even AT guns). There were problems with their barrels not being able to take the strain though. 40mm AA was also used to fire tracer to indicate the route during stage one of Totalize, and for the RHLI during the attack on Woensdrecht. They also had an AA role, engaging V-1 bombs on their way to Antwerp, and protecting rear-areas against German night-raiders (which were not that uncommon). Bottomline of that to me would be that they were quite busy thank you very much, without having to hang about in the MLR shooting up German infantry (something for which I have seen no references). This will most likely have happened at some point, but I somehow doubt it happened on the scale the Germans did it. Maybe Michael or Simon can shed some more light here.

Okay, the UK is an effin' third-world country, with email and internet connections that would be put to shame by the average service you get in the Ugandan countryside. I hate BT, NTL, and the assorted other nitwits messing up the comms systems here. All the managers deciding about how to mistreat customers in these companies would be too well dealt with by summary execution after 25 years hard labour in a mine north of the Siberian bit of the polar circle. Their ineptitude makes them worthy of running a railway in south London. So, with that off my chest, Matt, you have mail.

Actually, bugger that. I received four files, and that is about it. Which email did you send the stuff to?

Yep, got them - now I have to really sort out my mods

I like designing and playing tiny-to-medium sized scenarios best. Same goes for playing. The tiny ones are great for a weekend TCP/IP game, when you have an hour or two, and the medium ones are good for PBEM. I don't play the AI (except for testing). Large scenarios are just too unwieldy, and too stressful to control for me to enjoy them. Maximum size is about 4,000 points each, if they come in waves, i.e. you don't end up having to control it all at the same time.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by PawBroon: Guys, That last one could be mailed to me in one go (I'm ADSL) and I will then forward it the way you see fit to Mensch or any other Kesselers. Would help unburden your ISP and help spread this gorgeous Churchill MOD we had been testing. Drop me a mail to keep me posted. marcel.vie@wanadoo.fr<hr></blockquote> Despite it coming from that vile Frenchman, this sounds like a plan to me. Plan Gelb, to be precise. See you in Paris.

Matt, can you just send them one at a time, waiting for me to tell you I received the first one. Reason is that it is not only a 5MB per email limit, but also a total limit on the inbox.

Don't know about undermodeled. I have great success with the Commonwealth 2" mortar. Works every time, if you use it right, and does exactly what it says on the tin. Regarding casualties from mortars - yes the Allies took a lot. But there are also a lot of accounts of mortar rounds hitting very close to slit-trenches, with no harm to the guys inside. Really I think that is not a fair comparison. One seemingly standard practice for the Germans was to zero their forward defenses (well shown in episode 3 of BoB), and when they retreated to the fallback position, let the attacker have it. Since that would catch the attacker in the open, it would be painful. Basically, I find casualties as they currently are believable, for want of a better word. Anyway, I am also clueless WRT mortars, and can only judge this based on reading and game experience. Great post Ligur.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Kirill S.: then shouldn't the squad be able to increase ammo?<hr></blockquote> What would be different? They never run dry now, so that is modeled.

err, is there not a misunderstanding here? I interpret the 40 shots as 'every gun in the squad has 40 shots'. Since the squad is modeled as an entity for its actions, that should be it. So since every single weapon has 40 shots, losing a man does not make a difference. FP goes down, but ammo does not.

Guilty as charged. I look forward to DL'ing 7 MB of mods through my 28.8k connection. Should be done by Sunday. Please enclose the old sarcastic comments, together with some new ones.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Feldgrau: Andreas, Are you referring to my Churchill mod, or the nice new one with the cast turret recently released (can't remember exact artist- bfamily, perhaps?). I have sent my mod pack to der Kessel twice now, and yet it still does not appear. This, even AFTER I have included changes made to conform to pictorial evidence you sent to me. I fear I have offend you and der Kessel somehow. If so, please allow me to apologize for whatever it was that I said / did. Currently I think that it is at the CMHQ / Manx combined site (CMHQ), although where exactly I do not know. Hope that all is well with you! Regards, MSP<hr></blockquote> Matt, hi. Who did you send it to? I never received a final version of it. I think there are just some crossed wires here, and certainly no offense taken in any form. BTW - the air recognition was not a request, but a suggestion. Being totally inept at modding, it would never enter my mind to request anything, I just ask politely. What is the size of that email? I can only take up to 5MB on this account, and I have had some serious trouble with it in recent weeks.

I'll buy you lunch in Bastogne, on the 17th. What? Can't make it? Shame. In the new year, I could buy me lunch at Mr.Peng's. That would still leave you hungry though. Well, with that portly stature of yours, you will be able to make do without that eating thing. So no problem there.

Fionn plays according to Red Army Infantry Regulations 1936. Why that makes people angry is puzzling.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bruce: What's this then? Has the new nick prompted you to emulate your idol Jacko? Are we to expect an interminable procession of evangelical "I'm here to teach you" posts? Isn't it enough that the rest of the Forum is subjected to the Sloppy School of Historical Research, the Sloppy College for Delinquent Debaters and the Sloppy 10 Step Program on How to Win Friends and Influence BTS? Are we now to be subjected to the Biermann School of MBT Post Composition? I suppose we should be grateful that thus far you haven't been able to reach the same mind bogglingly amaranthine monotony. I sincerely hope that despite the recent trumpeting of your attainment of 'manhood' you won't be following in a similar vein and inflicting upon us the news of every minor inconsequential milestone in your paltry existence. Mind you I'll do you the courtesy of assuming you won't. Blathering on about and big-noting oneself is such a seppoesque activity and aren't they good at it? If we tried the same it would just seem a parody.<hr></blockquote> Bruce, you should do something about that phlegming. Don't you have medicine to deal with it in the outback, or is that all given to the sheep, as the dominant and most worthy life-form down in your neck of the bush. Always remember Rule No.7, Bruce, and live by it. Now shoo, I believe the sheep dip needs some attention. Honestly, you sound like you are having a bad couple of days, with that repeated cough of yours that seems to appear whenever I deign this place worthy of a visit. Or did you just have too much of Sheila's homebrew again, and woke up with your face firmly lodged in the crotch of a geriatric Koala? Which would somehow explain the smell around here. Inquiring minds want to know. Mace, you've got mail. Joe - hasn't anyone ever told you about Rule No.1 'Don't abuse the person building the scenario before the scenario has been built.'? No, obviously not. Well, you will understand its wisdom soon enough.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Warphead-: I give him about 48 hours... OGSF: How about starting a small PBEM? Just a small one. I don't have time of course, but... And yes: Hallo, Mutti!<hr></blockquote> I would have just the scenario for you. Your friendly neighbourhood CMBO Crack Dealer

Whatever happened to that Churchill mod?

Right, if any of you slugs can be bothered to go here - BBC Radio4, and look for the 'Food Programme' (it is under 'F', for the hard of thinking), and click the little speaker button, you will (hopefully) be able to listen last Sunday's programme. If you speed ahead for about 15-20 minutes (yeah I know, you may end up having to listen to five minutes of irrelevant yet interesting talk radio, something the debilitated lot of you, with the attention span of a dim-witted fruitfly, certainly will find exceedingly hard to do), you will be able to listen to a nice little excerpt about Mr.Peng, and how he treats his customers in his non-menued Chinese restaurant in London. I hope you hate it, and it makes you really miserable. Oh yes, and you have to get a technician in to install Real Player, since I doubt any of you is capable of doing so. It is worth it so, and if you are lucky, you can get a leg-over with the technician, you sick sados.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Hakko Ichiu: Who am I? Very good question. 10 points for Hufflepuff. I'm someone who's been around in this thread a lot longer than you, although I'm fortunate enough not to be an Olde One. I'm also someone who only posts when he has something worth saying, unlike you, you prognathous, microphallic sniffer of public urinals. I'm someone who's contributed more to the general welfare with one (1) of my posts than you could by donating your body to science. I'm someone who doesn't have to play the grogabee, unlike you, who couldn't produce a paragraph of Grog Porn™ with a Panzerfaust 100 inserted rectally -- not that you haven't tried, I'm sure. In short, I am I, which makes me so much better than you that one must measure the difference in astronomical units. {edited for all the right reasons} [ 11-29-2001: Message edited by: Hakko Ichiu ]<hr></blockquote> I would just like to take this opportunity to point out that this is a gem of a post. It is full of unbridled arrogance, it is a glorious putdown for someone who clearly is deserving and needy of it. It speaks of a self-assuredness so vast and noble, that if it were an altar, I would not be worth worshipping at, maybe not even worth being on the same planet as it. Ethan clearly has the sun shining out of his arse, and it shows us The Light™. There is in this not just an ember, but a roaring fire of what the Peng Thread once was. I wept. All this despite it being edited. There is a message in there.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Mace: ****ATTENTION, ATTENTION**** Wanted, One scenario! Must be suitable to bash Joe Shaw about the ears with, and must not include any copious quantities of that white, cold stuff! Please submit any submissions either to Joe Shaw or myself. Each submission will be reviewed for suitability, weight and sexual preference. Must also be available immediately (unlike that scenario Mensch is building for Sir WXYZ and myself...it's been what, 3 weeks, and still nary a sight of it...sheesh...I swear, I'm convinced that Mensch is really a government employee!...and if he's not, HE SHOULD BE, he's so good at it!!! *rants*) Thankewe, Mace PS. I've noticed a few Cesspoolers I have yet to have the misfortune to actually play a PBEM against....LUCKY ME!!!!!<hr></blockquote> Email me - you or Joe, I sort you out. Got some unpublished stuff lying around. All sizes and types catered for. The Anglophile Nick Chameleon™, aka Your friendly CM Crack Dealer.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Simon Fox: Too late you say? Not too late to go back and edit your last several hundred posts for that nasty flaw. Their imperfection must be really grating on you. You were planning on doing that weren't you? While your about it you might like to fix up that "constirpated rethoric" (sic) of yours. No doubt some editing of my own posts wouldn't go astray but not having proclaimed their perfection, I don't see the need. I take it that this new nick indicates that you are no longer a 'boy' and have at long last persuaded (via 10 pints of lager most likely) some cockney bint to bonk you in a dreary London alleyway. I guess 'Germanman' just didn't have the same ring to it?<hr></blockquote> I would not date any woman willing to go out with me. Quite apart from that, I must say it is a welcome sign to see some decent posts going on here. Will wonders ever cease? Carry on.

I am using the correct German spelling. You should have caught me on that other mistake, before it was too late (as it now is). No licence fee either. If you want any money, I am going to pay you between Christmas and New Year, in person, at the main exit of Waterloo Station. Why don't you go and edit some of your posts? Would employ you more gainfully.