ASL Veteran

Well as SimpleSimon points out it's going to be situational. An attacker typically doesn't need a large setup zone while a defender needs a large one. At the same time though you do need to limit the defender from deploying in certain parts of the map at times so you can't just give him the entire map to set up on. A lot of times I end up with LOS to a setup area (not intentionally btw) because when I am looking at the terrain in Google Earth it's not always obvious how things will play out once you go to the 3D. Then it's like 'whoa, those guys can see all the way over there?' By then it's basically too late because your map is completed and you have been deploying troops so your kind of stuck. Sometimes stuff happens. But as far as I'm concerned there is almost never a good reason to have no setup zone at all if you have any intention of having the player play that side of a scenario.

Or still another might be that we only have 3 setup zones to work with and there are times when you need four setup zones. At any rate, yes, the designer should always give the player a set up zone that is suitable for the situation whenever possible.

I'm sorry, but you are just simply mistaken or being willfully obstinate here. So Guderian says that the Sturmtigers were prototype vehicles crewed by factory workers and the 9th army report says that two Sturmtigers from Sturmtiger Kompanie 1000 (not 500, not 1001, but 1000) arrived in their area of operations as indicated by the army status report. Two Sturmtigers at least one of which was the one with 'light steel' armor. The other one may or may not have had the light steel armor we just don't know because it is unsaid by Guderian so we can't say one way or the other. TWO STURMTIGERS not THREE. TWO STURMTIGERS from 1000 Sturmtiger Kompanie as indicated on the official army status report. TWO. Okay, now that we have that out of the way, apparently some Sturmtigers were sent from Warsaw to Hungary. Since only TWO were sent to Warsaw then those sent to Hungary must have been the same two that were at Warsaw. Not THREE, and not FOUR, but TWO. Those two were then sent back to Warsaw and then subsequently sent back to Sennelager in Germany for refitting. That should be pretty definitive unless someone wants to say that Guderian was a liar or that the official 9th army status report was wrong. If someone wants to die on that hill then I don't know what to say about that. Keep on believing what you want to believe in I guess.

Okay, well I’m not seeing any evidence of any Sturmtigers with the Feldherrnhalle. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t there, but absence of its presence is not evidence of its presence either. Jentz lists the following vehicles for the FHH There are some problems with the text on the tank encyclopedia Okay so the text here says that the second Zug was sent to France and then subsequently withdrawn back to Warsaw which would leave the first Zug in Hungary to be attached to the FHH – well that doesn’t make any sense at all because if the second Zug was sent to France, then it wouldn’t be withdrawn to Warsaw leaving the first in Hungary. Obviously if the second was sent to France, then the one that was withdrawn to Warsaw was the first Zug not the second Zug which leaves none in Hungary because there was only one Zug of two Sturmtigers sent to Warsaw (one of which was the mild steel prototype). In order for there to be any remaining in Hungary the second Zug can’t go to France and there is only evidence of two being sent to Warsaw – one of which was the mild steel version.

I wasn't feeling insulted even though his remarks could be taken that way. I just chalk it up to English not being Dan's primary language so he probably doesn't get all the subtleties. AKD's Google Fu leaves me in awe by the way . As far as Dan's position on the Sturmtiger goes - well even though he believes without a shadow of a doubt that Sturmtigers fought on the Eastern Front (or should I say Sturmtiger in the singular) he just hasn't provided enough evidence yet to prove his point to an objective neutral observer. Even if you take everything Dan provided at face value we are only talking about Sturmtiger in the singular with no evidence that it was used for anything other than taking up space on a train while waiting for the Soviets to look it over and take photos of it. What was it's operational status? Was there a maintenance company assigned to keep this singular Sturmtiger running? Did it fire at anything? Regardless, Fire and Rubble has been released so this discussion is academic at this point.

Incidentally we already know about the two that were assigned to 9th Army but those were prototypes that used light steel superstructures so you are going to have to find some different Sturmtigers. Here is from Guderian "To the Army Group, for the purpose of its being put to use in Warsaw - on August 14, dispatched: one Tiger, with a 38cm rocket firing ramp (test model), which is not suitable for use against anti-tank forces, as it is made of light steel." General von Vormann said the following about those Sturmtigers "They have only factory personnel who can't shoot" So those two Sturmtigers that you are referring to above were prototypes made of light steel not actual production model vehicles with actual armor on them.

You are the one trying to get it into the game not me. That's better info than the photo by itself. Did they engage in any action or did they just move around on trains?

Photographs are almost useless as proof of anything unless the context is iron clad (many photos are incorrectly labeled). If they are looking over the vehicle in June 1945 then it's irrelevant where they are located because there is no way to know how it got there or when. You would have to come up with 'Unit such and such was equipped with X Sturmtiger's and they were located / used in town Y. The one used in Warsaw actually was crewed by non soldiers.

Capt - you just gotta look ten forums up from the Cold War forum and there is a whole thread about it. Maybe you could toss a few things in there.

It should go away when you start your next turn. I seem to recall that it used to do that whenever you upgraded your game and continued an ongoing PBEM (happened to me a couple times when CMBN first came out). Although I don't recall it persisting after exiting the turn so not entirely certain that it's the same thing as before.

Well you can't really compare patching on Steam to what BFC is currently doing because the vehicle for getting the patch to the gamer is different. Comparing apples to oranges. Maybe when all of BFC's games are on Steam then perhaps patches will come out more frequently (if necessary of course)

I'm sorry but that's just a bridge too far!!

The crazy part about Tarawa is that the island would entirely fit on a CM sized map. You just couldn't put that many troops on it and still have a playable game so it would obviously have to be broken up.

You mean 'Grazing Fire'?

Try over at The Few Good Men THE FEW GOOD MEN – WHERE WARGAMING AND HISTORY COLLIDES or The Blitz Index - TheBlitz and you should find someone reasonably quickly

Incidentally there was also an MP34o (for Austria) but that was the Solothurn S1-100 and it was used by the German Police as well as being sold worldwide in large numbers. It was the standard SMG for the Austrian army and police but the Germans left it chambered for the 9mm Mauser instead of the 9mm parabellum.

I have two sources on the MP35 Chamberlain says In 1934 production started in Germany of the MP34/1 which was produced for export in a number of calibers, but the main production model was the MP35/1 produced for the Waffen SS by Junker und Ruh AG at Karlsruhe. About 40000 had been made by the time production ended in 1945 and the entire output was delivered to the SS. The MP34/1 was produced for such countries as Ethiopia, and the type was also adopted for Danish army use. A small batch was delivered to the German Police, but total production did not exceed 2000. Ian Hogg says The production weapon, taken into use by the German police in the first instance, was the MP34. The MP34 was in production for about a year, something like 2000 being made, and in mid 1935 a small number of changes were made in order to simplify production. This revised model was known as the MP35. In subsequent years these guns were sold in fair numbers to Spain, Sweden, Poland, and Ethiopia. In 1940 the Waffen SS adopted the weapon as their standard sub-machine gun, and from then on the entire production (which was now contracted out once more, this time to Junker and Ruh, leaving Walther to get on with more important things) went on to the Waffen SS units. It appears to have been mostly used on the Eastern Front and the few MP35 specimens which appear in the West generally have SS runes engraved upon them. So I think it’s safe to assume that all the parts about export and police are references to the MP34 (no Poland to export to after 1939 obviously) and that it’s probably fair to say that the SMG used by the Waffen SS in front line units would be the MP35 at least through 1943 and perhaps early in 1944. Incidentally the MP Erma was apparently the standard SMG used by the SS Charlemagne division, SS Latvian volunteers, and the Nederland with Charlemagne using it all the way up to the battle of Berlin. The entire production of the Kutometna Pistole ZK vz383 was used by the Waffen SS as well which apparently 35000 were produced as best I can tell but I don't know who was using it specifically. Anyway, as far as Fire and Rubble is concerned just an academic discussion, but perhaps if a future East Front module might be planned then maybe something could be done there if the resources could be spared.

After looking at the available SMGs for the Germans the only one I would be interested in seeing is the MP35. It appears that something like 40000 were produced until 1945 and every single one was sent to the Waffen SS. So it would be interesting if the Waffen SS squads in Combat Mission used the MP35 (Bergmann) instead of the MP40 (or in addition to as a random substitute). I don't think it would make a difference in firepower terms, but it would be something that sort of 'set apart' the SS squads from the regular army squads from an appearance standpoint.

The reality is that you can list any number of captured weapons that were reused by the Germans during WW2 at various times and it's probably impossible to include every one of them (Polish Rifles, French Rifles, Belgian machine guns, Czech weapons, etcetera). I'm sure everyone has a favorite, but it's probably not realistic to expect every one of them to be represented in the game. Too much work for too little practical end result. Many of the French bolt action rifles that were reused by the Germans only had a three round magazine like the GEW 302(f). For submachine guns you have the MP722(f), The entire production of the Czech ZK vz383 was sent to the Waffen SS. The Germans also had an MP18/1, MP 28/11 (used by SS), MP 34/1, MP 35/1, MP Erma (used by SS), MP38, MP41, and the MP3008. The Waffen SS exclusively used many of those weapons. Even the Soviets had the PPD 1934, PPD 1940, PPS 1941, PPS 1942, and the PPS 1943. Are all those different SMGs in the Soviet order of battle in the game? No. Does it matter? Probably not ...? Did the Germans use all of them as capture weapons? Probably? Does it matter that they aren't using them in the game? Probably not? (shrug). I just don't know why captured Soviet SMGs always seems to come up - is there some sort of reason why it seems like they get asked for all the time? I'm just not getting it. Honest question here, not trying to bust anyone's chops or anything like that. Just curious.

BFC has said that was the plan in several threads on these forums - perhaps the Fire and Rubble thread (which is big I know, but it's probably in there somewhere if you want to get it straight from the big man himself)

Did Steve really say CM3? I think someone who was dreaming about Barbarossa said CM3 but I'm not sure Steve said it ...? Or did he? I would be surprised if he did.

Guess we'll find out

Yes, there is always Cold War to wait on as well. At least with that we can all agree which direction everyone was climbing over the wall.