Sublime

diesel - I play single player usually in RT at warrior or elite. however I rarely do single player any more - we usually PBEM it at warrior or elite. usually elite.

I do hope that some work is done on coding things, or even tweaking stuff to help with urban combat - since the 2nd module is gonna be Arnhem.. As far as tactics - this is probably obvious to most experienced players - but all too often when I come up against inexperienced players they defend villages and cities from the edge. If it works for you fine - but I like to run my defense lines either right behind or in the middle of the village. It kills the attacker's support weapons line of sight, and allows for some very nice ambushes... Also - if I know enemy air support is coming I rush any infantry into buildings, they usually will not get spotted by aircraft. Same with heavy artillery barrages. If you have any time at all before direct enemy contact happens, I put my men on ground floors of buildings hiding. This significantly lowers casualties to shelling. Also if you find that it'd be death for your men to flee when you see the spotting rounds, or if there are no spotting rounds or you're already being shelled use the hide command. The men keep their heads down much more, and usually it takes a direct hit to cause casualties. Be extremely careful doing this however, if enemy infantry are nearby and they can rush you, they'll slaughter your men. Also - split your squads. I see this all too often, and my mortars reap the rewards. You have got to split your men up. Keep in mind also the bullets are heavy caliber generally - and generally will also punch through walls. If you think of the walls as cardboard, you're thinking right. So like someone said on page 3, split the men up, and put them on different floors. Having a whole squad on floor one of a barn or something is asking for it. Not only are most of the men not able to fire out of windows and are just standing there, but they're filling up space that bullets will be going through. More than 3-4 men a floor on almost any building is really asking for it..

I always really liked Cornelius Ryans books. Beevor isnt so bad too, though I wont argue with the opinions posted here. The link the the Ambrose thread is great though. I never knew proof he fabricated things - but I remember when reading his books when I was 15 years old that I got a very strong sense of personal opinion in his writing - The brilliant, brave, Americans, saved the world, stopped the idiot Montgomery from mucking things up, and were ready to give the evil Soviets their what-for. And Im a proud American. I hate to say it - but this is all too often the case in our TV and half documentaries on our 'history' channels. Even in school I can remember a lot of misconceptions that will probably always be endemic to the average American - all Germans are Nazis - if you bring up Germans to this day to a lot of Americans and asked them to say the first thing to pop in their mind it'd be Nazis, that we basically singlehandedly won WW2, very little knowledge if any about the Eastern Front, etc etc etc.

So the battles in progress but I placed two 57mm ATG guns on prominent hills. A less prominent hill that had a larger hill with an old medieval keep on it blocks that one from view, and I placed a .50 cal HMG, m1917 HMG, 60mm mortar, and 2 81mm mortars on that hill. My opponent shot smoke over most high points of LOS and overwatch, and send a small Kampfgruppe on Hannomags with Pz IV's in support to rush the hill with the keep. Unluckily for him, the smoke screen was perfect cover for me to drive the ATGs up the hills and deploy, along with MG and mortar support as well. I kept my 2 shermans and priest in the ravines, one of the shermans had sight of a large hill, the other 2 tanks out of sight. And I advanced - paras on my left, (1 company) and legs on the right (one company) Right away, a Pz IV he had on overwatch on a mountain engaged some of myy inf, killing a couple, put the sherman with LOS killed him and he brewed up. Soon Jgd Pz IV's appeared on two other hills, and were engaged by my ATGs. After a couple turns of ineffectual richochets or track damage, one was hit by a bottom lower hull penetration (odd because it was facing at a slight angle the ATG) and then the other was hit with partial penetrations. Lady luck continued to smile by the keep, I ran the sherman 75 up the steep opposite side of the hill from the enemy, and a PZ IV popped up and shot and killed several paras. however the sherman hit him and got a right turret penetration - brew up. Another PZ IV engaged him however, but the shell exploded on the turret. the commander was killed in his hatch, the crew panicked, but retreated alive, and with very little damage, if any. Meanwhile, Schultz had dropped off troops who occupid the keep, and was shuttling his half tracks back to pick up more troops. I hit one with ATG fire, and started shelling the hell out of some approaching inf. by the destroyed Jg PZ on the otherside of the map. Im also mortaring the keep, and some other approach routes. Use of heavy mortars with TRPs has caught a platoon of my paras on the border between them and my leg infantry - with resulting heavy casualties, but the battle seems to be near decided already. Past experience with Schultz shelling the hell out of me with German cannon at range has shown that even though the enemies fight shouldnt be fought, it had to. The only realistic idea I could think of winning was trying to fight him with ATGs, as no tank should try to engage ATGs head on alone. Admittedly the 57mms are a little lacking in punch, but every time I use them Im more and more impressed. Ill repost the battle maps # so people can have a better idea of what Im talking about..

Oh yeah, to be sure I have. I almost always issue a facing order to any unit unless Im using covered arcs and cannot..

Im going on statements made by their own government for one. The uproar by their own people about how their government handle the 'election' a few years ago. And evidence pointing to support of terrorism, and sending weapons and money to the insurgency in Iraq. I am an American after all. And documentaries I've seen on Iran, show that actually a large number of people my age (26) want nothing to do with a war, and rather want the Iranian state to loosen its religious laws, and laws on freedom of speech etc. However, the same students, etc also have pointed out that they were puttiing themselves in a dangerous position saying even that on camera, and that it's unlikely change will happen anytime soon. In the end its all just my opinion anyways.

So Im bored, waiting on Schultz to send me back a pbem. Interesting map he modified. Basically is a big map, with several mountains, a few on my side, a few on his. Theres a river crossing VL, and a tall tower keep VL he added for balance, but the river crossing isnt the only crossing. Theres other ways around the river. In this situation, I have to take advantage of the mountains on my side, for the LOS etc. Unfortunately, this does play into the Germans strongest suites - accuracy at range, etc etc. I wanted to hear everyones thoughts on situations like this. I don't want to get too specific about my OOB, but I'll divulge a few nuggets to people.. First its an ME, July 44, normal weather. Daylight. I plan to put a few ATGs on the mountain tops, along with some binoc equipped units with cover arcs. Also I'm going to rush a few 60mm mortar crews to mountain tops to take out any excellent targets of opportunity, while my slower on board 81s trudge up the mountain. Then my 60s will go back to my soldiers. Otherwise, Im going to try to run my armor through valleys between the mountains, to try to engage enemy armor and units at the closest possible range. Dont see any other way. As far as my troops.. I have some paras, and some regular legs. I plan to use my legs to find a good spot to attack, or defend, depending on how the mountain overwatch battle goes, and use my paras to be actual punch to my legs jab. So.. tactics.. Tips.. interesting tricks? Anyone?

I disagree - Marines had plenty of armor. In fact of all my favorite Allied units to play with, Marines are definitely my favorite. Insane amounts of firepower per squad. That grenade launcher really makes a massive difference, and the squads are big. Plus the campaign is a nice long one as well. US Army was pretty cool as well. I loved playing the Germans. Honestly I think part of it was just me watching them run around with MG3's and zooming in so I couldnt see modern equipment so I could fantasize it was 1940 something.. But now I have CMBN for that I wasnt as crazy about the Canadians, some things I liked, some I didn.t. As far as weapons and force makeup, they seemed to be the least powerful of the Allied Armies. I often liked playing them because the amount of firepower reminded me of a Vietnam era US Army squad for some reason..

Odd. I think often they hit the ground because if the firer is inexperienced or under fire he probably flies the missile into the ground by accident. Also I think wire guided ATGM's had an option for the firer to cut the wire if they wanted. then the missile would.. explode. Obviously I dont think this is all of your problem though. I started the German campaign one day when I got frustrated at CMBN, and I noticed much of the same. Every ATGM fired at me seemed to become a lawn dart. Though in other scenarios, I had your same experience again - super lethal ATGMS.

I know what you mean. I wish I knew. I have the same problem very often with HMG teams on hedgerows. It seems often enough I position them and they set the MG up with no LOS beyond the hedge. Its extremely annoying, because if Im repositioning an HMG often enough its an emergency and they're under fire. For example, in Eroudeville I've respositioned this goddamn .50 cal HMG team about 5 times and they still have only fired about one burst at the enemy. Meanwhile the platoon with them is getting cut to pieces. I know it's probably not easy to fix, but I really wish there was some way to place where the HMG is or ensure it'd get priority to be put in a window or something. All too often I have the MG sitting while some moron is plinking away with his rifle.. And yes, I know when I issue move orders that if I select it on the hedge it can either show up by the hedge, or it can show up almost as a highlighted triangle (because the move is ordering the squad along the hedge, therefore cutting the tile in half) but even doing this, it still happens. And while I mention that, this happens all to frequently too. It seems like sometimes I can order them againts a hedge, and some spots I cannot. What gives?

Some testing would be interesting with this.... I still love having my excellent troops -but I found now I like having more regulars with a few special squads or tanks that I use when I find my main axis of advance, or my enemies..

Yeah. I see amazing stuff all the time to be honest. I think everyone just takes it in stride, doesnt feel its necessarily worth posting about rather than something that could be fixed or whatever. There's all sorts of brilliant things in the game that are modelled... To be sure its the best computer wargame ever made IMO.

North Korea is still certainly a scary possibility. The famous scenario of use it or lose it with their gigantic military if their facing a countrywide collapse is very plausible. However, Iran has been waging a de facto cold war against the US/coalition forces since we moved into Iraq, and against Israel for longer. They seem to have very little if no scruples at all. I think part of the very real threat with Iran as opposed to NK is it seems most if not all the world (except maybe China) has some problem, big or small, with how NK does stuff. While this is true with a lot of the world with Iran, many Middle Eastern states completely support their agenda, and worldview - including ideas like the holocaust is a myth, the US is being ran by a Zionist secret society thats based in Israel, that they've been selected by god to start the armageddon, yada yada yada. What scares me most of all isnt Iran starting a war itself, because they're a nation with a population, and stuff to lose. What scares me is what someone else posted - them giving nuclear weapons, chemical, or even just radiated bits of junk to a terrorist group that has nothing to lose..

i preordered the weekend after the announcement.. Im guessing it'll be released around march 6th... (my birthday)

I dont understand how I even casually espoused 'racist' logic. For one I doubt that what this would be called could even be called 'racist', if anything since I come from Irish Catholic stock, I'd consider Russians of the same race as me, that is caucasian. Now maybe an ethnic slur, perhaps, but I think its silly to even try for that, because that was never my intention. Im simply going on what I've read and gathered over my life being interested in military history. If you read Cornelius Ryans book about the Battle of Berlin, or Antony Beevor's, book, they're both replete with accounts such as a Soviet soldier sending lightbulbs looted from East Prussia home to his village. He thought the light bulb would illuminate on it's own, never having had any real experience in his village with wiring, etc etc. That doesnt make a person stupid, it's just how the world was. Fact are simply facts. That doesnt mean I get mad every time someone talks about how some Americans are ignorant, or were extremely impoverished or something in some historical scenario that took place generations ago. And I certainly dont accuse them of racism. In fact to kinda get off point, but as an American living in Boston Im getting pretty damn tired of people playing the race card in all sorts of clearly ridiculous situations. But whatever. I dont want a flame war, I just dont understand where the hostility is coming from. I always thought Sergei posted insightful intelligent posts and I'd never even spoken to him directly until he told me to go look at wikipedia or something. Figures the one time I dont preface my post with a section on how I dont need to be told to use a search engine I get exactly that. Btw thank you for standing up in my defense fry.

It makes you wonder what would have happened in a WW3 scenario with the high tech weaponry the US military went into desert storm with. So a late 1980s scenario. whether or not it quality would have defeated quantity this time around. personally I think we would have been overrun and gone nuclear. Sergei - I still dont understand where this hostility is coming from? No ones propagating racist myths or anything else. For one, I was wondering whether it was a decision made by Soviet High Command or weapon makers. Obviously people have used more complex weapons than a bazooka in stressful enviroments. The Mujahideen or Viet Cong spring to mind immediately. However that doesnt mean that some weapons designer or commissar assumed that peasants would not be able to figure it out or use it. A bazooka is a new weapon design and type at that time, and so maybe it seemed a more alien idea or method compared to the PTRD which is basically a giant rifle. And what exactly was made up bs that had nothing to do with the discussion?

well I do know that you cannot have men bail out of a bunker once they occupy it. and that is definitely a bug. as far as what you.re saying - you make a good point. after one or two penetrating hits you'd think a tank would cease fire. Id be sure one penetrating hit, especially through the firing slit, with HE would kill for sure anyone inside a bunker.

haha cool. I wish I could find it, I saw a great documentary online (in parts on youtube) a few years ago about recruitment in the Russian military etc etc. All the way from them kicking out draftees with needle marks on their arm, to the barracks where they talked about the Army subculture. Which is brutal as anyone could imagine. Hazings, beatings, fights for the veteran soldier's amusement.. etc

Both from the same battle huh Schultz? that was a miserable affair. I was enraged when that kill was made. That IG was killing GIs the whole battle. That was really insane. I had spotters in a tower and everything. And still just that loud boom everytime it fired and then the even louder explosion. Never got more than a semi solid ? as far as gun location

A good point. Which leads me to something I've often wondered about - There seems to be two ways to group designs - quantity over quality, or quality over quantity. Seems to me the Allies in WW2 chose quantity, with Shermans, T-34s, etc etc. While the Wehrmacht went with quality. I've always found it odd that since the Wehrmacht lost the war, the US Army and military has seemed to adopt (in the postwar/coldwar/present) the quality over quantity strategy. Any thoughts?

Desavage - my and Schultz are playing La Meaffe too and its been working great H2H! My shermans got blasted in the river crossing. (stupid mistake on my part) However I've blasted myself with artillery and heavy MG fire into the compound after the river crossing itself. Schultz is giving me a hell of a hard time, and Im taking awful casualties. So now Im edging into the first little village compound, with a small push trying to get to the second compound after the wheat field. not a lot of luck to be honest. I expect to capture the first, but I'll be spent after that. Still - great battle.

While I have no doubts that Nazi propaganda helped propagate the illiterate Soviet peasant image - any statistics from the USSR (really at all) but especially in the Stalinist period I take with a large grain of salt. Though apparently Cuba has the highest literacy rates in the world - wonders of communism! I think who was well educated depended a lot on where they were from, among other things. IIRC interviews with Kalashnikov (the AK designer Kalashnikov) he mentioned that he always loved mechanical things, and since his village was almost entirely devoid of any mechanical items he was left doing things like taking apart the few doorknobs that were there. Apparently he was pleased as punch to get in the Red Army, to be able to tinker with more items. I think part of the point Schultz was making was that even if you're technically literate, as in reading and writing, if you've never been exposed to much machinery at all, beyond simple tractors or things like doorknobs, it may be a bit much to expect you to be able to use a bazooka in a extremely stressful enviroment. Of course Im sure many could, but one of the biggest proponents of the myth of the idiot peasant was the Russian High Command itself. From what I've always understood, the Soviet High Command always wanted rugged, simple devices for its troops for ease of use, being easy to teach and use, not needing much maintenance, etc etc. And like you mentioned Sergei, the USSR had so many different ethnic groups, etc being thrown together in the melting pot of their gigantic military that it must also have been important to have easy, simplistic things to use, what with Uzbeks, Mongolians, Ukrainians, Russians, etc etc etc.

I agree completely with your above post Erwin. Geez, even when you just consider the Israeli - Palestinian issue, which I sort of believe will never be resolved (except maybe by NBC type weapons)..

Yeah to be honest I preferred the satchel looking thing from Cmx1. The lunchbox o doom looks comical.

Yeah, Luke, that point occured to me as well. Along with AT weapons, IL-2 Sturmoviks,etc. I guess their doctrine didnt exactly have a place for it. Still, Im surprised.