IntelWeenie

I'll give you the same advice I've given my little brother about joining the armed forces: Keep your mind and eyes open. Decide what you want to do and make the recruiter give it to you. You are under no obligation to join and (as should be obvious by the advertised benefits) qualified recruits are at a premium these days. When I joined way back in '85 (17, still in HS) the words I most dreaded hearing from the recruiter were "needs of the Army" (meaning they put you where they want to). I originally wanted to get into helicopters but my eyesight wasn't up to it. I ended up going into the Intelligence field instead and had more fun doing that than I could have imagined. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

Long time SL/ASLer and I LOVE CM! Have to agree with everyone else here. Let everyone know about CM! The only nit I can see a hardcore ASLer picking is that ASL covers a LOT more details and is easier to modify to one's liking (house rules). BTW, when I say 'details', I am referring to things that aren't commonly used but are cvered by the rules: sewers, climbing, church towers, entrenching, falling rubble, different kinds of assault boats, etc., etc., etc.. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

Snipers are an excellent way of keeping tanks buttoned up, making them easier for your infantry to take out. Much more likely to kill/wound the TC, too. Spotted mortar fire is good for stripping off riders and killing HT/ACs (at least until v1.04?). I never leave a defensive setup before setting all my schreck/baz/piat teams to hide with an ambush marker (normally within 80m). All the rules for placing AT guns (limit LOS, hide terrain, etc.) also apply for schreck/baz/piat teams. I don't like giving them positions with long LOS, as they sometimes try to engage armor past 150m. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Germanboy: As far as I am concerned I hope they both get filthy rich and endow a couple of military history chairs at various universities. Or spend it on vintage AFVs. Or whatever. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yeah! They could buy a Tiger I and thus bring an end to the turret frontal armor debate. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

There's been quite a bt of talk lately about including a clickable roster like that in Close Combat. (otherwise I wouldn't be starting this thread) I don't really like the idea about a "CC roster" as I regard it to be a little gamey, but I can certainly understand people's desire for one. After all, in some of the larger scenarios it can be hard to remember who/where all your forces are. Therefore, I would suggest a compromise. Include a (non-clickable) roster that is no more detailed than the information you would normally see in the sceanrio editor or QB force picker. (3 x Rifle '44 platoons, 1 x Co HQ, 1x M4A3, etc.) This way, you get a fairly comprehensive overview of the forces at your disposal (which any WWII commander would normally have). If you forget about some platoon's 2" mortar that got left behind in some corner of the map, that's on you. I have done something like this on paper a couple of times and found it useful. In the meantime I would like to ask all scenario designers to include some text to this effect in the mission briefings (most already do). ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

Taking a guess at how CM models this (someone correct me if I'm really way off), but could part of the problem be the way MGs 'to hit' compared to heavier guns' 'to hit'? All AA, AT, main armament (including 20mm cannon) are computed as a single shot. If it hits, damage is assesed. Is this process handled any differently for small arms? Or do they directly apply their firepower rating to the targeted area ('to hit' being factored into the FP)? If this is the case, .50 cals are bypassing the normal AP 'to hit', thus making them seem extraordinarily accurate. Well, seems like a good theory to me. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by :USERNAME:: Other crews: In the case of a US 60mm mortar, lets say,they WERE infantry and could be expected to use their carbines/side arms. But the funny thing is that 60mm mortar crews that have shot off all the mortar ammo CANT fire. Lewis<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Don't remember if this came up in previous discussions about crew small arms, but the mortar crews don't have small arms ONLY while in good order. If they break and abandon the mortar, they become 'crews' armed with pistols, don't they? I think adding a nominal defense value was discussed for mortar and schreck/zook teams, but I don't see it addressed in the 1.03 readme. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

After some deep thought and soul searching, I find myself to be (somewaht suprisingly) of the Armor+Infantry crowd in CM. For QB, I always shape my purchases around what AFVs I want/think I'll need. During play, I think I tend to use the infantry more as a stop line in the defense and as screening forces for my AFVs in the advance. Maybe I need to play some more infantry only battles. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Andre76: Are you seriously saying that you would rather be shot by a M16 (low mass, high velocity) than a regular pistol 9mm("high" mass, low velocity)?!? I was a medic (sanitet) in the norwegian army, although it's only 9 months of service we learnt a bit of shot wounds. And I can say that I would rather be shot by a 9mm pistol any day of the week than the M16! Have you heard of exit wounds? Do you think they're nice, round and clean? I think you'd better check out some bullet wounds before you make these sort of comments. André<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I think a key phrase to insert here would be "all other things being equal". I think the original post was only considering actual kinetic energy and not any other factors. I remember this sort of debate from the .45 vs. 9mm pistol debate back in the late 70's. I also remember having to endure my (ex-marine) step-dad's lengthy explanations as to why he preferred the M-14 to the M-16 in Viet Nam. He about bashed me once when I mentioned the M-93 ammo's tumbling effect causing bigger wounds than a 'clean' shot from a 7.62 weapon. I, for one, am one of the high velocity crowd. Remember when Pres. Reagan and Sec. Brady were shot? Reagan nearly died and Brady was, sadly, crippled for life. And that was from a piddly .22LR (small bullet, high velocity)! ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mikester: IntelWeenie, How jagged was it? Did they perhaps do something w/ this in v1.03 and I'm not seeing it in my op's started under v1.01 because it only works if you start the op under 1.03 (and yes, I've actually converted it to ver. 1.03 and continued playing)? Most "jagged" unstraight thing I've seen playing as the Americans in the op you reference is a 20m deep (toward the german lines) x maybe 100m or so wide jog in my start line as the Americans after both battles 2 and 3. Even though I had forces at many different depths of penetration at the end of both battles, I still pretty much got a straight line. Can you post a pick of the setup phase in view 7 / 8 showing the jagged start line? Thanks Mikester. [This message has been edited by Mikester (edited 08-08-2000).]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well, I didn't save it and the op is already over (won in 3 battles ) ****POSSIBLE SPOILER**** First of all, I should have mentioned that I let the computer shuffle it's setup. It put about 2/3 of its pillboxes within the loop of the river. If you look at the map, the front line trace pretty much followed the river, then cut almost straight across just past the village. Thus, the Germans had a partial salient sticking out mebbe 150m or so. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

For a complete listing of taunts and/or putdowns for your PBEM, I recommend the "Peng, I take Our Challenge Public!" thread: http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/007077.html and ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb [This message has been edited by IntelWeenie (edited 08-08-2000).]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Red Devils: I'm sure I'll get fragged for not checking the "search" files well enough, <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> BANG! <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>but I have a small wishlist for the Stalingrad battle in CM2. (I would buy the game for this battle alone!) Here they are: Cellars/ basements, sewars, two-man sniper teams (and flame-thrower teams for that matter), historic persons (ie. Zaitsev, Noble Sniper), Stukas (w/ sirens ofcourse), molotov cocktails, and the six-fingered man who killed my father. That should just about do it. Please let me know what I left out! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Inigo Montoya (sp?), is that you? I would add fortified buildings, trenches and factories. Don't know if BTS is taking these kind of requests yet, though. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Big Time Software: OK, there is an alternative to increasing the mantlet thickness to a single "average" value. I can add some tailored code (just for the Tiger I, our special little baby ) that will do something like Lee's suggestion of "strong points". It won't show that label when hit (like weak points do), but it could work behind the scenes, say, 25% of the time the Tiger front turret armor acts anywhere from 1-100% stronger than the "regular" 100mm armor. Charles<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Uh, oh, BIG can 'o worms yer opening there! Will the (insert favorite tank here) be the next one you can do this for? Actually, if you can make something like this workable (and easy to code), expanding the number of tanks covered by this type of fix would be excellent for CM2. YOU DA MAN! ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

No Spoilers! I tried the "Stolberg; Punching a Hole" op this weekend and was pleasantly suprised after the 1st battle that the front line was nowhere near straight across the board. I declined to attack on the left, but made great progress on the right (thinking "I'll force his line back over there without attacking those positions, hee hee!) Imagine my suprise when I ended up with what is best described as yin/yang shaped setup areas! Don't know if this is peculiar to this op, but it looks better than I recall from before v1.03. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

Hmmm, there seems to be a common theme here. AI smokes your positions and charges in a human-wave like attack. The human player ends up worrying more about how much ammo he has than taking casualties. And I thought it was just my bad luck! Seems kinda russian to me... Maybe Charles included some code for CM2 in the 1.03 patch? ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb [This message has been edited by IntelWeenie (edited 08-08-2000).]

Pekin, Illinois (1/2way from Chicago to St. Louis) ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

One problem with using area fire in a situation like this is that the MG will most likely switch targets on its own to a "threatening" unit (i.e. NOT a Kubelwagen! ), thus defeating your fire lane. Since grazing fire is modeled, I would hope it's not too much of a stretch to implement a fire lane or FPF line in CM2. Something like a 'VERY sticky' area fire target. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by coe: I've never heard of any of the Western Allies doing such kind of assaults, or did they? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Look no further than the D-day landings, my friend. IMHO, this tactic was not commonly used due to the western powers' public sensitivity to casualties and availability of other means of taking out defenders (arty, air). However, sometimes it's the only way.... ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by :USERNAME:: 3. A 57mm weapon could deliver perhaps 1/2 pound of PE? I wonder about the effects this would have. The example given for the 7.2" cited almost 40 pounds of PE! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> It would give the crew a headache THIS BIG! (Anyone remember the old Excedrin commercials? ) At any rate, I would think 6lber HESH would be no less effctive than the normal AP round on light/medium thickness armor and possibly a bit better vs. the heavier stuff. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

I think it's just as interesting to think about what HASN'T changed since WWII. Up until 10-15 yrs ago, the US still fielded the same helmet, several small arms (M1911, .50 cal MG, etc.), nearly identical personal accoutrements (pup tent, mess kit, web gear, dog tags) among many other things. On the infantry side especially, things aren't so different from what they once were. Hmmm, MP44s vs. M16s.... Granted, things have really changed in the last few years, but its amazing how long some things lasted! (and we still use the Ma Duece! ) ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ncounio: Well when I said sub par, I was refering to the B1 Bis which will be the uberpanzer of CM early years Think this will perhaps demonstrate that german early tanks were in no way superior to allies tanks in the early years of the war. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> This makes me wonder how the lack of radios and early war French tank tactics will be implemented in CM3-4. Will it be too easy to use these (relatively) fine tanks in an ahistorical manner? Will BTS find a way to force the player to mimic the way things really happened? (Yes, I'm thinking of the ASL "platoon move" among other things.) Ah, I can see the "Gamey French Tanks?" threads now... ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

OK, so maybe it's obvious from my UserName , but I was in Military Intelligence in the US Army (Reserves and active). Was originally an Intel Analyst (96B) and converted to a Voice Intercept Operator (Russian) (98G) in 1988. total service was 1985-1996. All my active time (90-94)was in the 1st Infantry Div with which I participated in Desert Shield/Storm. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

Some folks in the past have made the assertion that trenches "weren't used that much" or "aren't that common in the ETO". While I agree with this in part, I must point out that concrete pillboxes were even rarer, but they are in CM. I would definitely like to see trenches included in all future releases of CM. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

This sounds more like the Nahverteidigthingie than a ricochet to me, since it does make a slow, mortarlike loop then comes down and BAM! Tank rounds will ricochet in CM, but do PIAT (or 'faust, 'shreck, bazooka) rounds do this? I haven't seen it , but maybe it just hasn't happened to me yet. ------------------ "Belly to belly and everything's better" - Russian proverb

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