Mannheim Tanker

Man - I leave the office for one day, and it happens to be the day of the Gold release!!! I'm downloading it on the trusty T1 as I type - It's gonna be a LONNNNGGGGG day at work today. Betcha know what I'm doing tonight I assume this means the official release is within the next 2 weeks?

You could take your CD burner to work and burn the file on CD there - then simply bring the CD burner back home. Assuming you understand which drivers you need, this shouldn't be tough to do. Of course, the portable zip drive option is probably even more simple than this - IF you have access to a zip drive. Good luck!

I must object to OBG's assertion that the privates and other lower enlisted soldiers have no concept of the battlefield beyond their little piece of it. At least on the American side...prior to battle, and even training ops, an Operations Order (OPORDER) is SOP. The OPORDER describes a myriad of details to everyone involved. The further down the ranks the OPORDER is delivered, the more specialized (and detailed) it becomes, but even the Platoon leader lets his troops know about how their operation ties into the bigger picture. There is a good reason for this: if the LT or SFC gets waxed, the others had better damned well know what the plan is, or things can quickly become chaotic. Just ask Sadam's army While CM may not be truly officially adopted, I can easily see it becoming part of the training regimine. I mean, the lowly sand table has been a part of training since time began As I stated earlier, I've played a part (marker mover!) in several BN level TURN-BASED microarmor exercises. The focus there is on tactics - not on real-time decision making ------------------ The original point and click interface was a Smith and Wesson.

I can tell you from first hand experience that getting a bunch of concertina wire wrapped around your sprocket is BAD news. Not only does it get impossibly tangled, but it can cause moving parts to overheat and break. Basically, it could immobilize a tank fairly quickly. Consequently, if CM truly realistic (which it IS from everything I've seen ), players should be occaisionally penalized with immobile vehicles for trying to drive across a wire obstacle. That's what the ol' engineers are for ------------------ The original point and click interface was a Smith and Wesson.

hey Zamo: Sorry this is a little late, but I didn't get to the forum yesterday because I had laser surgery on my peepers Now I'm playing CM sans glasses! I DIDN't make it to Ft Lewis, but I did help pack up all of the equipment for the move. I ETS'ed to the states a week before my BN moved stateside. I can tell you that there was also at least one Sherman, a Chaffee, and a WWII halftrack (can't remember what kind) sent back to Lewis. They sat on static display in front of the barracks and BN HQ for a couple of decades in Mannheim. My guess is that tank you saw could have been a static display from another BN (EVERYONE in Germany seemed to have a big collection of these things for some reason). Spenster: Did they really use M47's for OPFOR at Lewis? I know they use M60's at Hohenfels and IIRC at Ft. Irwin, Ca (NTC). On a side note: we trained with some Turkish troops in 1993 that were STILL using M47's! Talk about culture shock/reality check when we took them downrange in M1A1 heavies (Edited for crapping typing) ------------------ The original point and click interface was a Smith and Wesson. [This message has been edited by Mannheim Tanker (edited 05-06-2000).]

Gespenster: That probably WAS me that you spilled your beer on at Uncle Sam's! What a dive...although not nearly so much as the Skyline I sure hope you weren't firing Dragon's at me at Graf, as that was the LIVE-fire range if I recall! Maybe Hohenfels... I lucked out and had my ETS bumped up 2 months, so I got out in June - RIGHT before the move to Lewis. I DID have to pack all that crap up, though. I remember the customs inspectors actually using Q-tips to look for dirt inside the guts of the vehicles! I must have been pruned-up for a month from all that time on the wash rack. LOL! You're right - small world! Wonder if we'd be allowed to start an OT thread on "Mannheim Reunion"! Your's was the second question that I had on this yesterday

Hmmmm... I never seem to have problems with the mortars in CE - in fact I sometimes have a tough time getting them to hold their fire if they're near the church. Are you having trouble because they're under fire? Or are they just not shooting? ------------------ The original point and click interface was a Smith and Wesson.

As said previously, I can't see why this forum would/should disappear. I mean, look at the following civ/civII, etc etc has on Apolyton. I could see combining this and the CMHQ into one site (although I'm unfamiliar with the organization behind HQ, so that might be a no-go for legal reasons, etc). ------------------ The original point and click interface was a Smith and Wesson.

Heyyyy!!! You better watch it with them thar in-breeding jokes or I'll sick my Uncle Dad on you [This message has been edited by Mannheim Tanker (edited 05-03-2000).]

Yep - 1991-94 at Sullivan Barracks. Was in 5/77AR. Good old 'heim They pulled the whole damned BDE out and moved it to Ft Lewis in 6/94...what a nightmare! I'd love to get back there some day...I still have some (German) friends in Stuttgart that I keep in touch with. Good memories there Actually, the handle I use is something I picked up over Xmas (as in Mannheim Steamroller - M1's make the best steamrollers though!)

THAT was the perfect break from work for me. I just recently moved from Michigan to southern Louisiana (I work in Mississippi). That just hit a little close to home there! (No offense to anyone in this area - just a lot of inbreeding jokes goin' around here right now - I REALLY do like it here - No snow!)

That can trick is a great one to to pass on to the next generation. Even better than the time-honored potato gun BTW Madmatt: The tank looked like the rear end actually rose into the air when it backed into the building... maybe just an effect from the perspective. Looked pretty cool though! I thought I had him nailed, but he floored it out of there about 50 seconds later Back to blowing stuff up

AML's = Arc Macro Language (Stupid IT joke). Some kind of landing craft I assume... Our sponson boxes were also locked with padlocks, so in theory, the infantry could still jump on board and steal your tools, food and water! I know first hand of a story of tanks in Desert Storm (from a former army buddy), where one used its coax MG to knock the infantry off of a wingman. "Hey buddy, scratch my back for me!"

Well, I guess I can consider this thread officially hijacked I confess that I have sacrifice many a model plane and ship (not any tanks, though for some strange reason) to the BB gun. Even a firecracker or two (they also sound really cool when lit off inside a culvert!) Back to my question though: I think that it's realistic to expect a tank to get immobilized fairly often (20%) if it enters a building. They're tough, but not invincible. As a former tank driver, I know that I'd think twice before driving through a building without knowing anything about its construction. I realize that BTS hasn't modeled basements, but there could be a modifier to create the possiblity - AND to reduce the number of tanks running through buildings as if they weren't there (unless this has already been changed in the release version).

When I was in the US Army (early 90's), I was involved with several microarmor training exercises (I'm serious!). This was done at everything from the platoon to the battalion level. We even had a 2-D networked computer simulation (battalion level) called JANIS, and a networked simulator (each tank crew in a sim) called SIMNET. CM blows them ALL away! I'm not sure how far things have come since I've been out, but I'll guarantee that CM is cheaper! Certainly a selling tool for routine training in the barracks

Just remember that computers are labor-saving devices

I was playing Last Defense tonight against the AI (I was the Axis). I managed to sneak some infantry up to a buttoned up tank destroyer - it suddenly noticed them and backed up into a house which caused the rear end of the vehicle to rise up a few feet (Ol' Heinz on the Panzerfaust must have been blind as a bat since he missed at 8 meters). It managed to extricate itself the next turn with little trouble. My question: In the release version, is there a chance that a vehicle could become irretrievably stuck pulling this stunt? In reality, there's a real chance that the tank could fall into the basement, throw a track, or even wind some wire around the drive sprocket. Just wondering...

Zamo and Harold: Exactly (I think we're in total agreement here on this point) - you can do the same thing on an M1 The point I was making was that the way the cops got into the tank (I remember the article) was by using bolt cutters on the loader's hatch. That was an unusual sitation, since the hatch wouldn't have been secured with a padlock like that during combat Bottom line: In CM, it should be darned near impossible for infantry to enter a buttoned vehicle. Anyone disagree with this? I'm not as familiar with the mechanics of WWII era hatches, so I may be assuming too much by extrapolating from my own experience.

I was an M1A1 tanker with the US Army, and have actually heard about this story. Here's my recollections on what happened: Padlocks are normally used to secure the loader's hatch (on M1's and M60's anyway) when not in use. They can be locked from inside the turret when in use and NOBODY can unlock it from outside without a torch. I think that the driver's hatch (in the hull) was open, and THAT's how he got in, since the loader's hatch was still padlocked (and he didn't have the key anyway). After stealing the tank, he closed and locked the driver's hatch - and forgot to lock down the loader's hatch from INSIDE to secure the tank! Once he threw the track, the police jumped on and cut the padlock off the loader's hatch, thereby exposing the guy via the now-open turret (you can reach the driver fairly easily through the turret if the turret is traversed so that the main gun is over the back deck). Had the guy locked down the loader's hatch, it would have been hours or days before they'd have gotten him out! Of course, on the M1, there's a fire extinguisher handle on the hull, that if pulled, disables that engine and fires off some halon bottles in the engine compartment. How's THAT for an easy way to disable an M1!? Of course, you still need to get right up to it!