109 Gustav

Good point. Buying more than about four of the same tanks or halftracks per game, unless its something common like sherms, pz IVs, or spw 251/1s or if the game is bigger than around 2000 points, is generally considered to be gamey.

Option 1: It should also include an option for running MGs, with a holographic, telepsychic interface. The manual should include a complete history of Barbarossa, with a listing of all infantry, armor, mechanized, and artillery units used by all the nations. If hot call girls can't be found,* (good idea Mike) then they should be imported from a better country. Oh, and it should include bonus material featuring a PBEM barfight between Matt and Fionn. Option 2: Someone really should tell Bates that those paint chips might taste good, but they will make you sick. *Believe me, it would be a problem where I live.

I'm surprised that the Can't Decide catagory didn't get more votes. There's a lot of wargames out there; I'd think that a lot of them would have a strong cult following. Any votes for AS/OTR, TacOps, and AA?

The only units that are basically outlawed are the self propelled flak guns- the sdkfz 7/2 and 7/3 quad 20mm and 37mm guns on halftracks. Because the tacAI considers them to be soft targets, tanks will shoot HE at the ground under them, making them much harder to kill. Units that are considered gamey if you buy more than one per battle are Allied 40mm AA, Axis 37mm AA, puppchens, wasp flame carriers, and M8 HMCs. These were either historically rare, overmodeled in CM, or too cheap for their value in the game. Units that you really shouldn't build an entire army out of are SMG squads and maybe 14 inch naval arty. Jeep MGs used to be considered to be gamey, but in the newest versions, they were slowed down can no longer carry troops. They are no longer gamey, so go ahead and use them for scouting if you want. Mixing units of different nationalities, eg brit paras supported by french armor, having units from 3 or more types, or mixing units that would have always been seperated, such as a combined gerbigsjaeger/fallschirmjaeger/volksstrum force is gamey. Limited mixing of units, such as american airborne with american army support, or volksstrum with heer guns and tanks, is ok. The most important rule is to talk with your opponent before the game. If he says a force made up of SMG squads with SS armor, Heer 37mm AA, and fallschirmjaeger scouts is ok, then by all means use them. Just watch out for his M8 HMCs and wasp flametracks. [ April 16, 2002, 03:17 AM: Message edited by: 109 Gustav ]

Ok, let me rephrase myself: Don't get into a frontal duel in which both sides slug away at each other, because the Allie's tendancy to lose is greater than 50%, based on a highly scientific study that I'm not going to bother to look up. Do a search.

First of all, do a search, because there's a lot of threads on tactics that go more in depth than I'm going to. As allies, your main advantage is speed- your tanks are faster than German armor, and almost always have faster turrets. Dash from cover to cover to get around the flanks, hitting the enemy from the side. Get in close, again dashing between cover. Don't get into a frontal duel in which both sides slug away at each other, because you will lose almost all the time.

The problem is that the AI will not move any unarmed vehicles such as trucks, kubelwagens, and non-mg jeeps. Do not ever start a scenario with any units embarked in unarmed vehicles, because they will just sit in the trucks unless they are fired on. You could try using halftracks instead, since the AI will move them. However, the AI won't know the best time to disembark the squads, so this is an imperfect solution. You could have a scenario in which the allies have just been ambushed. They would start shaken or pinned, under fire, with units scattered around some trucks. Use half squads to simulate casualties.

I don't think that's quite what he's talking about. If you are lining up a reposition and decide to opt out (Can't get a good angle, whatever), you are stuck if you had actually hit T. YOu end up being forced to do a reposision even though you had thought better of it a second later. I'm All for real live analogs, but it's silly to think that all the tubes would have gone cockeyed because you keyed your radio, ya know?</font>

Well, if you want anyone to give you specific tactical advice, you'd better post a screenshot. Maybe I just have a visual mind, but I can't get a very good grasp of the battle from words. As far as armor goes, your sherm 76s and especially the hellcats are very fast, have fairly good guns, and quick-rotating turrets, but they have thin armor. You can't slug it out in a head to head duel with a panther, so don't try. Instead, use your speed to race around to the enemy's flanks, using trees, hills, and valleys for cover. The best way to kill 75mm bunkers is to let your jumbo slug it out with them. They can't kill the jumbo, but it should be able to kill them after awhile. If you don't have jumbos, churchills or pershings, or if you are facing 88mm bunkers, your best bet is to use smoke from an 81mm spotter to blind the bunker, then move inf in close. Yes, getting the inf out of the halftracks is probably a good idea. Halftracks will let them move from one place to another quickly, but inf are helpless in them when there are tanks or AT guns in the area, and can't fire back.

One thing I found is that 3" mortars must have left their Air Jordans at home, because they can't jump over walls. I'm not sure if this is also true for 81mms, but keep this in mind when moving them on the attack.

Victory flags are 300 points for big flags and 100 for small flags. By comparison, your sherm 105s are something like 150 points. When you have a VL a good distance behind your lines, if you don't have any units near it, than it counts as unoccupied. The best thing to do is move a throwaway unit near the flag to keep it occupied. Crews from KO'd tanks and badly shot up squads that have been routed (will have an ! marker in the morale box), as well as units that are low on ammo, are good throwaway units. They aren't much good for scouting and are next to useless at combat, but they are capable of holding down a flag that is already secure. No edit [ April 09, 2002, 04:06 AM: Message edited by: 109 Gustav ]

Hi guys, it's quiet hours now, so I'd appreciate it if you could keep it down a little... Oh, wait. I can only do that in the dorm. Better call the Residence Director - I mean Madmatt.

Use the search tool to find a thread that he posted in. Use his post to get his profile, which should have an email address.

1. If you want to be historical, buy transportation for it. I think that you need at least a truck or spw 251/1, I don't think that the smaller 250/1 halftracks can haul the 150mm. Better try it out before you use it in a pbem. Transportation also allows you to use it on maps with poor lines of fire. If there's a hill in between your setup zone and the enemy's foxholes, the gun isn't much use unless you can drive it where its needed. Plus, the halftrack can provide covering fire while the gun is unlimbering. 2. I've tried it in a few QBs against the ai. It works well against americans, but when playing against brits, you really have to watch out for those 2" mortars. They'll be firing from cover and in foxholes, so they can often take out the gun. No matter what, you shouldn't rely too heavily on fixed guns, since the ai and lots of humans will dump arty on them as soon as they see them, and again, you won't have a foxhole.

I agree with Jarmo, if you're more or less historical and use panther-76 rules http://www.rugged-defense.nl/cm/Fionn3.htm attack scenarios become very balanced. If you want to swing things in favor of the defender, play with short-75 rules. The defender can get 57mm AT guns as allies and set up a deadly AT defense for very few points, or go with a pak 40 and 38 combo when playing as axis. This lets them spend more points on arty or infantry support, since the tanks are taken care of. Also, I think a lot of QBs are fought in ideal conditions for the attacker- medium trees, clear weather, and medium hills. Playing with open terrain gives the defender a better opportunity to hit the attacker out in the open. Closed terrain lets the defender maneuver more agressively, although effective ambushes are much harder to pull off. Or you can play in the rain or snow (an excuse to try out that new BotB mod) and slow the attack down and maybe bog a few tanks. [ April 08, 2002, 03:54 AM: Message edited by: 109 Gustav ]

Sure, send me the game file along with our next PBEM. Might give me a little incentive to send you the turn in less than three days

Yesterday.

I've been playing CM for two years and I never knew about that.

Was the enemy unit an engineer squad? Engineers have demonition charges, which are very powerful. They are used like panzerfausts and gammon bombs; the tacAI chooses when to use them.

That's because its in the manual Pg. 101: "The ratio determines the victory level displayed below, as follows: < 1.25 to 1 - draw < 1.75 to 1 - minor vic < 2.50 to 1 - tactical vic < 5.00 to 1 - major vic > 5.00 to 1 - total vic The < signs are actually "greater than or equal to" signs, which you apparently can't type here. [ April 01, 2002, 02:17 AM: Message edited by: 109 Gustav ]

So, when do we git pix of the other BTS members? I want to be able to drop a little arty on Charles the next time there's a delay on CMBB!

Would anyone else feel just a little nervous learning how to throw a grenade from the manual?

Doesn't seem like it to me. (At least not this late at night) Just take Jason's numbers, add 5 or so ammo points to all the squads on the defense, and you have your stockpiled ammo. Does anyone recall BTS saying something about SMG squads going through ammo faster in CMBB? I think they did, but I'm too tired to do a search right now.

When on defense, I first set up an antitank network of guns and zooks/shrecks if Amis or Germans. Then I place my infantry platoons, which include PIATs and 2 inch uberdeathrays if Brits. Then come the other supporting weapons, arty spotters, and finally the tanks. On the attack, I set up the inf first, then armor, and finally the support weapons, which inculdes PAITs and mortars (I seperate them from the platoons when attacking with Tommies).

I haven't seen anyone trying to sell their game here in months. You'd be better off buying the game and waiting the four weeks. Problem is, you can never really finish playing CM. It's easy to create scenarios, so there are hundreds if not thousands of really good maps free for the downloading. Plus, there's the auto-generator that can set up a different quick battle for you any time.