Claymore

Mike, Far be it for me to agree with a future opponent, whose root name suggests perhaps one with holes bored through his head to admit light, but I too would prefer a tournament where there are no preset rules. Doesn't it make the victory all the sweeter when you best your opponent upon the ground of his own choosing? The only difference being that now I will be able to toast my victories with Winecape's very generous samplings. Cheers murray

Aahh at last a chance to renew a tight gripped throttling of at least one notably scurrilous character. I must say that I was proud to be included in such a group of...shall we say...ill repute? Being perhaps a quasi-lurker in the CM forum I may not be known by some or have played others but I promise to leave my boot tracks across everyone on my way victory. Cheers Murray (Claymore)

Adam, I'm not sure what exactly you mean since this was "how to defend" not "how to attack". However if the latter is what you are interested in the absolute spotting algorithms are what lend considerable help to ferreting out those pesky ATGs. I'm sure we've all seen Fionn's AAR where he ran half squads hither and yon, through every copse of woods in his path searching. He was looking for far more than ATGs but that is obviously the low tech approach. First let's assume that you are an attacker and have the following conditions met. 1. FO's in positions of v.good to excellent LOS to defender's MLR. This is a must since you'll need the FO's for support and they have excellent spotting abilities. 2. A couple of VET sharpshooters also out in front. They're not just for defenders you know. Again...they have excellent spotting abilities and intelligence gathering is paramount to succeed in an attack. 3. A light infantry screen out front of your main forces and in skirmishing forward in half squads. These are your tripwire for nasty ambushes and provide lots of Mk.Zero eyeballs to scope out the territory. 4. Lightly armoured recon vehicles. These could be 250/9's or equivalent for the Germans or even a vanilla 250/1. But you need something with a little firepower to assist the skirmishers. For the allies, every nationality has their scout vehicles. You want something that the enemy MUST react to with AT fire, something immune to small arms fire. This fellow should be rearward of the skirmishers and picking his way in short bursts to covered locations. The Germans liked to use PzIIIs to occupy the Soviets in a somewhat similar fashion. If the defender reacts with an ATG we've solved the problem of finding the bugger. If another track appears then you've gained intelligence. Reaction to the track is too varied for a simple strategy to encompass. 4. Remainder of assault forces. Two up, one back. Infantry in the lead, spread wide enough to blunt defender artillery. Armour to the rear...200-300m, but depending very strongly on the terrain. Perhaps the most important thing for me is that I don't put my tanks in a "bounding overwatch" like conventional tactics suggest. I leave my tanks out of LOS of the skirmisher, light armoured recon, and especially the enemy MLR. Recon is not handled especially accurately in the CMBO timeframe. The exhaustive patrolling and intelligence gathering that goes on before an assault occurs is beyond the scope of its algorithms and architecture. Most defenders will uncover and take a pop at the recon vehicle...which I know sounds like an ATTRITIONIST type tactic on my part. I temper that by saying that I don't just parade the asset around with the radio blaring and half squad with cheap wine riding on the fenders. The unit must behave like a real weapons platform. If the skirmishers step into an ambush its the light armour that will help them suppress it properly. I usually take the 20mm armed PSW Germans in this case...they are just too juicey for a defender to ignore. For the Americans the Greyhound is the obvious choice...again with the 37mm a defender MUST react. As for neutralization of the ATG well.... First choice: avoid those avenues covered by the ATG with your armour and ignore it. Eventually you'll probably get close enough with your infantry to suppress/kill it. If the defender has something with a little infantry killing ability, like a Pak40, then you'll probably want to proceed to step two. Second Choice: Ok...its not a Puppchen or Pack 38 and it's taking the starch out of your infantry as well as your armour. Time to kill it. Avoid the easy answer of applying liberal amounts of artillery to the problem. Let's do the math. A 75mm/76mm ATG costs 70-80pts and in TREES or WOODS (where you'll most often find the fellows) it usually takes two FULL minutes of light mortar fire to kill an ATG. For the allies that's about half of a FO's total loadout, or about 60pts, while that costs the Germans about 45pts. That's a pretty acceptable trade. You'll miss the smoke rounds later in the midgame but its still acceptable. If all you have though is the heavier 105's then for my money the Germans just don't have the loadout (limited rounds) to start pissing it away on a lousy ATG. The Americans and Brits with their heavier mortars/artillery and bigger loadouts (100 rounds for 105) might consider it still a fair trade. My advice...if its an real pain in the ass and tasks you then pop it with some light mortars. Adjust your spotting so that half-min salvos fall on the ATG and you'll probably get an economic kill. Otherwise proceed to step #3. Third Option. Use combined arms. Pop the ATG with on-board mortars. Send dismounted infantry in assault. Put you MMGs on him. Drop some light artillery/mortars on him. Every little bit of FP will push him towards going to earth. Then when you've done this for at least a FULL MINUTE...bring up your tracks in position so that they have narrow LOS to the ATG an paste the fellow with DF HE. Rapid fire 37mm from the M8 can rapidly cause the crew to abandon the ATG, so that the light armoured recon with the skirmishers can provide the DF. For the Germans the light 20mms don't have the punch but they have a very rapid ROF and should do the trick nicely. If your light armoured recon is already hors de combat by this time then you'll have to risk you're higher priced assets to the rear. Obviously the above depends VERY strongly on the terrain and weather you're attacking in. I just finished a snowy Panther 76 attack against a stubborn German defender and eeked out a 10pt win using very similar tactics. The map was open, choked with snow and offered little space for movement. I kept my high priced tanks in cover until his ATGs unmasked. Supressed the hell out of them with MG, on-board mortars, and small arms and then brought up the track for the kill. It did well but I was also lucky. Cheers Murray

Just checking in... Charles has yet again pulled out his gamey stick and been giving my forces the fits. Witness the following: My ELITE JagdPanther goes down to a +100m REG zook who took his shot from inside a building. The JagP was just turned ever so slightly to allow the dastardly event. A Hummel takes another REG zook round and goes down. A third stray zook round sets fire to the WET building and scatters my infantry into the streets. I still have lots of 150mm and 2+ companies of paras but...I mean...gawd! Oh well...like some kind of boozed up lounge lizard in Vegas I am chained to the damn game and I'll continue to roll the dice until my luck changes. It's got to change...right? anyone? Hey Waitress! another 7&7 over here! Come on buddy gimmee those dice. Alright now...baby needs a new pair of shoes!

Sorry guys I didn't know I was loved so much. I saw the thread drift off the board and assumed the worst. Ok then...I'll put fingers to keys and start back up. Cheers Murray

I agree with Charles (TT)...his troops are routing into the VL! Where's the REF! FOUL! Otherwise I also like the idea of the GameMaster picking forces. Hey Charles! I sent that last file hours ago! If you are on the computer where's my update! Cheers Murray

TT and I have begun to exchange fire. . . . . . . Well, not really. TT has applied a gamey mod to all of his men and their uniforms now appear as a "bricked pavement grey". They also will not come out of their houses and play in the streets with the rest of the children. A particularly antisocial lot has taken up refuge in the sanctuary of the VL church. I am attempting to correct things by applying my own "red all over" or "black and blue" mod by filling the building he's in with 150mm HE. And...except for a lovely dance done by my JagdPanther (when I inputed a waypoint in too difficult a position) I have not seen any great examples of armoured movement. That's all for now. Cheers Murray

Turn 1 almost complete between Texas Toast and myself...nope...no tcp. The map is a maze of tall heavy buildings surrounding a central cathedral which is also the VL. Setup areas are on the corners of th maps, two for each player and which border on the opponent's setup zone. That means if you are (un?)lucky the two forces could be within sight of each other at turn #1 and start fighting immediately. I must say that I planned mostly for TT to purchase British troops. The combination of PIATs, Fireflys, Crocodiles and adequate troops is hard to beat in a city setting. After turn 1 I see that TT has instead purchased the Americans and their resiliant 12 man squads. In the close-in fighting of buildings they can take quite a bit of punishment. Luckily I've put my trust into a Bn of Crack Fallschirmjagers (or did I? ) and they should be able to handle the Americans. No fighting yet but I'm very close to his troops so the battle will be joined very soon. Cheers Murray

SOB SOB SOB SOB! I've been attempting to send my file to "the duke" since this morning! My work server is ignoring my requests...trying again. Sheesh! Murray

Ok..searching the dim past I find other Nvidia users have experienced the same problem. BTS said they were investigating a solution but nothing seemed to have been resolved. Any input? Cheers Murray

I just received a new computer and installed CMBO on it only to find all the white text and text boxes are "transparent". You see the outline of the text if you are lucky enough to have a picture in the background (e.g. scenario menu). In the briefing menu however the black text on white screen becomes black text on black screen...thus unreadable. Hardware: 1.4GHz PIII w/512MB RAM and 64MB Quadro2 Pro Nvidia Display card using Win2K Pro. I immediately downloaded the freshest drivers and DirectX (version 8a). Any suggestions? Cheers Murray

Part 2b. Support Weapons Recoilless Weapons Some might be tempted by the relative cheapness of these weapons platforms but they achieve their small size, good punch and relatively good transport for an atrocious amount of backblast. If there are any enemy units within 400m and in LOS of these fellows when they loose a shot then their position will be pinpointed. They also suffer from a very low muzzle velocity which mean shots over 250m in distance will have poor accuracy…especially the first shot. As most grognards will agree, these platforms were never really in any great usage during WWII and really came into the fore only in the Korean and Vietnam and fell out of favour soon thereafter. So if you are attempting to manufacture a defense that is anywhere close to historical I would suggest you not purchase these assets. If you can't help yourself or are given the beasties in a Auto-purchase QB then the most critical factor is MAKE THE FIRST SHOT COUNT because you probably will not get many more than that. American 57mm RCL Near useless. A woeful 370m/s muzzle velocity and only 70mm penetration in return for XXX points, a BLAST = 8 and a telltale funnel of smoke pointing to you when you fire the damndable thing off. If you are saddled with it I can only suggest that you position it for a 90 degree flank shot at some chokepoint, crew it with fanatics and go back to planning what will really work. Maybe you'll be lucky and you opponent will waste more points in artillery fire killing it than it deserves. German 88mm Puppchen Used non historically, that is en masse, the Puppchen can be the scourge of your opponent. The round, essentially a Pshrek, will frontally penetrate nearly anything the Allies have to offer and the small shield seems to give them fairly good resilience to small arms suppressive fire. At their optimum engagement distance of 200m it is very common to get first round kills which may allow the platform to go back into hiding if lucky. There are two very good ways to use this: 1. Scatter a half dozen or so in an arc flanking your defensive stronghold. Give them narrow LOS out to about 250-300m and try and cover the possible approaches of your opponents Half-Tracks (HTs) and armour. When your opponents armour comes into engagement range the Puppchen has a very good chance of getting something. 2. Place scattered Puppchen in heavy cover (WOODS) that are not along expected avenues which your opponent will take, but which have LOS back around your chosen defensive strongpoint. Your opponent if not checking all copses of wood carefully can easily overlook these little fellows. Then the Puppchen become fairly good platforms for picking off his armour, which I said before always lags behind his infantry by 200m or so. German 75mm RCL Sure its ~80mm of penetration and BLAST=34 is fairly effective, but the to maximize the chance of a first shot kill the optimum engagement range is about 300m. Once the backblast gives your position away the platform has no resistance to small arms fire since there is no shield unlike with the Puppchen. I suggest not purchasing the fellow but if you find yourself with one then placed in heavy cover it may be able to get one of the enemy's tracks…hopefully. German 105mm RCL A sometimes nasty piece of work when LOS distances fall to ~300m due to weather. This isn't because of its armour killing prowess but the BLAST=77 which suppresses the hell out of even VET enemy infantry. One or two rounds into an platoon assaulting you position and it will likely be suppressed and go to ground. Then, if the rest of his forces haven't scoped you out you do a number of things like shifting position 25m laterally (to avoid any artillery) or just go back to hiding. Next...the remaining support weapons like the dreaded PAW, FLAK and MGs! Cheers Murray (Claymore)

howdy howdy howdy Email sent. Allies prefered. Cheers Murray

The second installment of defensive basics 3. Support Weapons This is a pretty mixed bag with certain platforms serving admirable duty against many different target types. Anti Tank Guns (ATGs) - leaving out the Recoilless weapons until the next installment When on the defensive the positioning and possible repositioning of ATGs is of as much importance as where your infantry digs their foxholes. Your ATGs serve primarily to attrite one leg of your opponent's triad of combined arms (infantry, armour, artillery) - the armour. You must resist all temptations while the game progresses of using your ATGs as anything other than anti-armour assets (with few exceptions). Your ATG is not primarily an anti-infantry tool. Opening fire on a squad (or at best two squads) and then revealing your position is not a good usage of this asset. ATGs are also useful for channeling or upsetting an attacker's timetable, which is always a good thing. An opponent who must delay his/her attack while calling in some kind of ATG killing asset (usually artillery) or circumnavigate ground covered by your ATG is reacting to your stimuli. The delay incurred can only assist the defender. It's more time for your reinforcements to arrive, more time for your stressed units to recover, more time for your artillery to start falling on his stalled units and of course less time left on the clock for your opponent to achieve his goals. Every ATG should be emplaced such that they have the opportunity to take one good "first shot" during the game…otherwise you've done something wrong or your opponent has outplayed you. A good rule of thumb is to treat all ATGs like they only have one or two shots in their ammo basket. PLACEMENT OF ATGs If possible sight your ATGs to strike against the flank of enemy armour. This means situating the ATG such that its field of fire makes at least a 30 degree angle with the direction of you opponent's attack. Place your ATGs so that they have a limited field of fire, typically about 30 degrees. That hilltop may look good and you're able to see everything…but the flipside is that everything has a chance to see you and return fire once you start popping off shots. This has a lot to do with CMBOs ABSOLUTE SPOTTING algorithms but the result is that CMBO steers you towards the placement of ATGs as in they were in the historical record. Place your ATGs in at least SCATTERED TREES…and even then move it back in the grove so that you limit the field of fire. Unfortunately TREES are a force multiplier for artillery rounds so that treebursts will cause more casualties to your crew…but it's a small price to pay for the increased cover you enjoy in the TREES. Co-locate with your ATGs a platoon leader with bonuses in morale, firepower, and stealth. One of the smaller ATGs with a firepower and stealth bonus might not even require the morale bonus. A one shot kill with such an asset is not uncommon and then if you quickly go back into HIDING mode the chances are you will survive to kill another enemy tank. ATGs and Prime Movers. It is a good idea for the budget conscious defender to take 50 pts or so and buy at least one prime mover for your ATGs. No matter how sure you are that your opponent will not advance from a certain direction, the time will come when he does and all your ATGs are out of position. Take advantage especially of the 57mm and 6pdr which have the ability to be repositioned very quickly by jeeps. Since the Kublewagon had a very low horsepower engine this capability was not present for the Germans, who must purchase HTs and Trucks to more their ATGs. In the mud the british have a capable little tracked vehicle in the Universal Carrier. ATGs and the REVERSE SLOPE ATGs DO NOT get a HULL DOWN status, therefore they get no size reduction from hiding on the other side of a hill. Even though historically ATGs were dug in so that their barrels were sometimes only 1 foot above ground level, it is not modeled in CMBO. Also, an ATG placed just below the crest of a hill WILL NOT be shielded from the BLAST of counterfire rounds arriving "LOW". In the real world of course the bulk of the hillside shields the ATG from damage but CMBO only calculates the slant distance from the explosion and it matters not if there is an entire mountainside between you and the exploding round. Counterfire arriving "HIGH" however, will sail over the ATG and be ineffective. If you put your ATG at the bottom of the REVERSE SLOPE and attempt to ambush armour cresting the hill be aware that you are paying the penalty of your rounds arriving at an increased angle since you will be shooting UP at the enemy. This might not be critical for a 57mm ATG engaging a StuGIII at 150m, but replace the StuGIII with even a StuGIV and be prepared to possibly see your rounds go ricocheting off into the sky. I generally do not use my ATGs in the REVERSE SLOPE since I try and use the REVERSE SLOPE against infantry (remember infantry always precedes armour!) and I will attempt to strip off my opponents armour well before he/she reaches my infantry. ATGs and Tungsten Usage Some of the Allied ATGs may be allotted Tungsten rounds depending on the timeframe of the battle. These rounds are potent tank killers but their usage by the TacAI is thought of by some as capricious and fickle, meaning it never seems to use the stuff when you want it to. This is especially true when you know your expensive 17pdr is only going to get off one or two rounds before being plastered by German counterfire. The real world answer is that due to the fact that first round hits are rare at ranges greater than 500m the TacAI pops off an AP round or two before switching to the more expensive Tungsten. Why don't ATGs start firing T rounds if they have one or more of them? Well, since CMBO only deals with winning the battle at hand and not the war, the logistics and repercussions of Allied tank crews firing T rounds continuously is not modeled. Believe me…if you started firing off Tungsten at every tank during WWII the platoon commander would pay you a visit right damn quick and set your thinking straight. So the reality is that although there are eight T sitting in the ready ammo basket the TacAI will not switch to Tungsten unless it is sure that: a. a T round is the only way to kill the enemy tank - positive ID required! b. it has a very good chance of hitting the tank with the next round If a Tiger II rolls up at 1.5km you can be pretty sure that the 17pdr will pickle a T round off at him. However, let that Tiger II be identified as a (Tiger ?) and be prepared to see round after round of AP bounce off into the sky until it is positively identified. We can break up the ATGs then by their optimum engagement distances 88mm Pak43 and Pak43/41 and the 90mm ATG: Important factors: 1) These fellows are immobile…so where you place them is where they stay at the beginning of the game. 2) Don't even think of having them EMBARKED at the start of the game and then moving them unless you are playing a 50 turn game…it takes too long and they are too visible. Just don't do it. 3) Since their prices are very comparable to a tracked gun the only advantages you get are a slightly lower upgrade to VET status and the "first shot" 4) Engagement distances are at the maximum the CMBO maps will allow, but I would limit the 90mm AA to about 1000m against the hull front of the thicker German tanks. 5) Some of these fellow have a rotation speed of Ethel Merman in molasses…a REG Pak43/41 takes about 50sec to rotate 45 degrees! The Pak 43 is barely adequate at 21 sec but the 90mm AA is a whirling dervish at just 5.5 sec! I have been hard pressed to think of any game where one of these monsters was worth the cost. If you are defending as the Axis, then the 75mm Pak40 is more than adequate for your needs. Even if your opponent brings Super Pershings to the dance the Pak 40 still has an adequate engagement distance and the possibility of remaining invisible for successive shots. When the Pak41 or Pak43 goes off then on the CMBO map scales everybody knows what's happening and where it's coming from. As the Allies then finding some kind of can opener to use against the thick skinned Jerry tanks is more of an excuse to purchase the 90mm. Be warned however that the 90mm has a silhouette which makes it difficult to hide even in FULL WOODS. The purchase price of ~110 pts means that the defender must take out the equivalent of a PzV (Panther) just to have an "even" trade in the defender vs attacker battle. German 75mm Pak 40 ATG Really in a class by itself with an engagement distance against the Allied M4 student body tank corps of over 1.5km. If you can sight one of these fellows to have all of the placement rules I gave above and engage you opponent at greater than 800m you should have no problem bagging at least one enemy tank and seriously putting a crimp in whatever plans your opponent might have. If you engage at long distances then you will not even get to appreciate that this fellow has a respectable rotation speed of about 2 degrees/sec. Should the thicker skinned Jumbos or Pershings be expected, the Pak 40 still is a very potent countermeasure. 17pdr British ATG Almost as nice as the Pak40 but its larger silhouette makes it tougher to hide. Its rotation speed is horrible, requiring about 35sec to rotate 45 degrees, so you'll want to ensure good standoff engagement ranges. Be aware that the 17pdr suffers some peculiarities from its discarding sabot tank round, which are a little too detailed for this treatise. Just be glad that any nearby infantry will not have to worry about getting wacked in the back of the head by the sabot pieces. Luckily the 17pdr performance in CMBO does not mirror it's poor accuracy in real life, where testing showed it had the highest dispersion of all the Allied ATGs. Even the AP rounds have 150mm penetration out to 1.5km which makes most of the German armour pretty ripe fruit, especially if you can avoid frontal engagements. At a cost of ~110pts it is fairly expensive, but if aren't confident in being able to use the smaller ATGs to good effect it is a must have. American 76mm ATG If you are playing the Americans and have any desire to engage Panthers or Tigers with this ATG you are advised to wait until the distances fall. Frontally you have zero hope of puncturing the uparmoured German tanks at long range and must wait until the distance drops to ~300m. If your ATG is situated such that an oblique shot at their flank is possible and you have good cover, then you should have no trouble once the range falls to ~600m. This ATG like the 17pdr has no trouble popping off Tungsten rounds at high value enemy assets like Tigers and JagdPanthers, just as long as they are positively identified. Combine this ATG with a leader with a stealth bonus. Like all its ATG brothers, anything with trailing stabilizer arms are slow to rotate and getting the American 76mm around 45 degrees takes about 27sec. German 50mm Pak38 ATG Against the M4 common bodied tank corps the combination of low silhouette, fine AP performance and the possibility of Tungsten rounds in the early war makes this probably the most feared gun in the CMBO arena. On the oblique you want to start your engagement at distances of ~600m against M4 style tanks. If thicker skinned Jumbos, Churchills, etc… are prowling you must have situated you ATGs for 90 degree flank or rear shots at ~300m. Otherwise your chances are near zero for a penetration. British 6pdr ATG The Brits outfitted their ATGs with lots of Tungsten ammo throughout the war which makes it potent medicine against the Germans. With a Tungsten penetration of 109mm (@ 30degrees) at 500m, a British 6pdr can open up PzVs at distances where neither they nor their screening infantry can see you. The gun will likely fire off one or more AP rounds until a strike is obtained and then use Tungsten for the kill. I would not attempt frontal shots at Panthers until the ranges drop to ~300m. Unfortunately this typically means the German infantry will be about 100m from your ATG…don't expect to stay alive very long after opening fire in this case. If you are defending and expect the thinner skinned StuGs and PzIVs then you can engage frontally at about 600m and have fairly good chances for success. Costing but ~70 pts (depending upon its experience) the 6pdr can more than pay for itself by dropping a Panther or two from the enemy roster. Another huge bonus for the 6pdr and 57mm is the ability to be rapidly embarked and relocated using Jeeps or Universal Carriers. American 57mm ATG Identical in every respect except one to the British 6pdr, no Tungsten! That means this is a last ditch defender against anything with thicker armour than a StuG. Unless you are assured that you can get good flanking shots against tougher German armour, do not purchase this gun. If you have the gun assigned to you because of Autopurchases or a canned scenario, then you must situate the ATG in a flanking position. Putting the ATG so that its field of fire is parallel to the enemy's line of advance is a recipe for losing the gun to the enemy infantry screen. It takes a very gutsy commander and extremely good fire discipline to co-locate defending infantry and ATGs, weather the eventual artillery prep, and then attempt to ambush the advancing infantry + armour. The enemy armour will be lagging at least 200m behind the infantry. When the two infantry forces come into contact then you will likely have no shortage of enemy Mk I eyeballs identifying your location to their armoured bretheren. Miss with the first shot or not penetrate because of non-Tungsten usage and you will likely be pinned and dead before the end of the turn. That's it for now…next the Recoilless and Infantry Guns! Cheers Claymore (nee Murray)

Master Mumbler, Although your request is couched in terms seeming civil and denoting curiousity, I discern in it a note of incredulity. Disbelief that the fine and lovely maidens of California are not in fact hotly contesting who shall assist this pagan on his holy quest. Know you not that Murray is a name denoting sweetness and care? Yet we all know physicists to be hairy chested, manly individuals of leonine proportions. Maidens crave in fact this gender reversed whore-madonna complex. They seek me out. They flock to my side. Perhaps thy briefs are riding a little too high or cutting a wee bit tight of late? I do know that thou lawyerly types are guilty of feeding with a little too much gusto at the trough of life. Well I am off and away to my home. If needs be I will regale you all with my tails of conquest on the morrow. Cheers Murray

Ok, so I say to myself "self, why not spout off what you think?" So, here's MY rules I live by (otherwise you die) for defending against an assault. I'll say right off that even the insanely obvious will be covered in this treatise. 1. Choose what is reasonable to defend A wise German (for 2pts name him) once said "He who defends everything, defends nothing". So the first thing to do is Select View #4 and fly around the battlefield. Take a good long look at the approach lanes from your opponents side of the battlefield and then pause and look at the landscape again. You will likely be given a number of VLs to defend…pick a subset which fall under the rules which follow below. If you break an attacker sufficiently then there may be time to occupy those far flung VLs before the game ends. You are trying to win here and so you must maximize your chances. Important factors (in no particular order) Map Edges: If one of your choices has a flank covered by a map edge, that's obviously one flank you need not cover. It's gamey but what can you do? Reverse Slopes: If you can keep your forces on the reverse slope and catch him as he crests the relief, then this is very attractive defensive location. Flanking Terrain: Infantry under fire from two (or more) axis rout far quicker. Tanks have thinner armour on the sides and rear than the front. If your chosen defensive location has a terrain feature offering strong flank protection then the advantages are manifold. The smaller ATGs are especially potent placed in such locations. Mutual Support: Your defensive locations must have mutually supporting lines of fire support. The Maginot line fortresses were often placed without such concerns and when they weren't bypassed but assaulted they paid for it. Always have better cover than the attacker: ALWAYS. Plan your defense so that when your attacker and you start into a firefight he has poorer cover than your men. If he is going to be in SCATTERED WOODS, you need to be in HEAVY BUILDINGS or FULL WOODS. Don't rely on the bonus of foxholes. ALWAYS be in TERRAIN at least which is (as far as cover is concerned) BETTER than the attacker. Think Angles! Two "units" of firepower arriving along one axis is much weaker than the same firepower along two axis separated by at least 45 degrees. Your opponent will likely have VET (or better) troopers in his assault and you need to push them into route/panic mode ASAP. Armour will NEVER arrive before Infantry: Only the entirely nieve will send their armour against you first. You need not plan for them since they likely have too many other tactical problems for them ever to win. Therefore always expect the armour to lag behind the infantry by at least 100-200m. That means putting zooks/Pshreks in front of your main defenses is a bad idea. They will be overrun or flushed out by the attacking infantry before they ever get in a shot. Either way they are poor runners and will quickly die. 2. Placing Fortifications (No bunkers, pillboxes or roadblocks) WIRE: In my experience most attackers will shun barbed wire like the plague. This is mostly true for infantry but I have seen it mirrored in their armour behaviour as well. They know that you are protecting that avenue of attack so more often than not the attacker will advance his forces so that they avoid going through the wire. This means wire can be a powerful deterant and are more effective than mines to channel attackers so that their flanks can be exposed. WIRE in LOS: Place the wire at right angles to where you definitely DO NOT want the enemy attacking from. Since we are discussing defenses with limited points, then you must place the wire within 200m of your defensive strongpoint. The further out you place the wire the easier it is for your attacker to bypass the stuff. Try butting the wire up against FULL WOODS and ROUGH terrain features which increases the probability that your attacker's armour will also not project along this sensitive axis. If possible place AT mines on the immediate flanks of the wire. Attackers are likely to skirt the wire and you might catch a tank doing just that. WIRE out of LOS: Sometimes you can use wire to significant advantage by placing it out of LOS of your opponents. These are areas in which only when the opponent finally comes within 10's m range will he/she see the wire. Locations such as: REVERSE SLOPE - excellent location, especially if in OPEN terrain. The attacker crests the hill and now looks down at a line of WIRE stretched before him. You must place HW and infantry IN COVER which have clear LOS to the WIRE and are still shielded by the hillside. This should be preferably within 50-75m. BACKSIDE OF TREEs - another good location. TREES are natural lines of advance for attackers. If a stretch of trees lead up to your defensive strongpoint and it's flanked by OPEN terrain…you know the attacker is going through the trees. It's a given. You can allow his infantry/armour to advance through the TREES knowing that until they get within 10's m of the WIRE it is invisible. If you place the WIRE so that it is 5 m outside the TREES and in OPEN terrain then the attacker must leave the cover of the woods, advance into the open, and then get hung up in the WIRE. Otherwise he/she must withdraw or move parallel to the WIRE which upsets the attack. If possible, only open fire only after your attacker has decided which he is going to do. You WANT him to attempt to breach the WIRE…of the two possibilities this is the more attractive one. So…setup your ambush marker well away from the WIRE, be patient. If he/she decides to skirt the wire instead, then you can start firing. (this is especially important for ATGs). Feel free to attrite his forces with artillery before he reaches the WIRE though…after all he's coming through there and only has worse cover to choose from if you flush him out. Again…place AT mines on the flanks of the WIRE…it's just good practice. WALLS: We will assume that the WALL inderdicts the probable line of advance of the enemy, otherwise you probably wouldn't consider emplacing WIRE along it. Now, instead of placing the WIRE on the enemy side of the WALL I put it on the defender's side and as close as possible. Then I place my defenders just outside the WIRE and since the wire is fairly narrow they still gain significant cover from the WALLs. It sounds strange but it has worked to good effect against many of my opponents. You can even bait opponents into assaulting WALLs by placing a skeleton of defenders close to the WIRE with strong defenses 50-75m to the rear under heavy cover. If the enemy assaults the WALL, attrite him on his approach and then fall back to cover. When he/she hops the wall and continues their advance, they are now in OPEN terrain, are immediately hung up in the wire and under the massed firepower of the strong defenders. WIRE and BUILDINGs: I don't usually build up strongpoints like this "blockhouse" since their construction and ultimate destruction can significantly attrite your defensive points. I also cannot put enough firepower (FP) into a HEAVY BUILDING to justify the expenditure. Instead spreading the units over a arc under cover is in my mind a better expenditure of scare defensive points. WIRE and HW support: WIRE must be emplaced such that it is under LOS by HW's. I'll repeat that. WIRE must be emplaced such that it is under LOS by HW's. HEAVY WEAPONS are Infantry Guns, Anti-Tank Guns, Machine Guns and Flamethrowers. If the enemy assaults the wire you need to make him pay dearly for the decision. If the enemy decides to skirt the wire you need to have FP available to meet him went he rounds its edge. Sight MGs down the length of the wire if possible. Although MGs are not handled correctly at the 200-400m distances correctly in CM (lack of beaten zone), by AREA TARGETING the far side of the WIRE you can cause significant casualties to all enemy who attempt to cross and get hung up. Never underestimate the power of Flamethrowers either, especially in WIRE. An enemy who gets hung up in the WIRE and is then sprayed with flammables is almost certainly removed from combat for the remainder of the game. Unable to RETREAT because of movement rates he will spend the next 10 turns in a bizarre dance, popping up and then falling to the ground repeatedly. It's especially beautiful when the ground catches fire under the WIRE when troops are hung up in it. AP MINES: Not my favourite defensive fortification. Since they are invisible until stepped upon they do not serve to effectively channel the enemy where you want them to go. Since they only cause 1-2 casualties, they don't significantly attrite them either. For the 10pts they cost, I would rather get a segment of WIRE. Distance from strongpoint is a critical factor in deciding where all mines should go. When the enemy is far (200+ m) from your lines you can expect him to be moving fairly rapidly and his chances for tripping the MINES increases dramatically. Most attackers advance in LINE ABREAST (LA) formation where all three squads are in line followed by the platoon leader or in TWO UP ONE BACK (TUOB), where a maneuver squad and platoon leader follows behind two point squads. Either of these formations (with proper spacing) hitting a patch (3-4 AP MINES) will not be delayed very long nor take many casualties if handled by a good opponent. When a squad hits the mines they usually get a bump in MORALE status and freeze, but sometimes make a sharp 90 degree turn. If you have enough MINES for a continuous line this makes his/her casualties mount as they run into the next field. This is why I put AP MINES 75-100m from my lines, I need to take the opportunity for the "freeze" and morale hit to use combined arms and attrite the opponent even farther. AP MINES placed farther out and/or out of LOS for effective FP are usually a waste of scarce points. Closer than 200m and the attacker is also moving a little more deliberately and perhaps maneuvering smaller skirmisher teams forward of his main assault. This allows for the skirmisher to trigger the AP MINES and then the attacker is forced to maneuver around them. The only exception is when I have enough MINES to lay an effective line of them along one flank of the forward slope of a hill. I need my opponent to meet my defensive line at a particular angle for maximum efficiency. I can't cover the forward slope of the hill because of his superiority in tanks/assault guns, so I channel his forces to where I wanted him to attack in the first place. Hopefully his tanks/assault guns will tail behind the infantry and present a flank or rear to my ATGs as well. AP MINES and REVERSE SLOPE: I usually place the AP MINES just on the defenders side of the slope if possible. I WANT the attacker to crest the hill, advance into the AP MINES, freeze, and then be torn up by my defenders. If you put them on the forward slope or too near the crest the defenders will get 1-2 casualties, uncover the MINES and be forced away from your ambush. Not good. AP MINES and FORESTS: I usually don't want to deny my enemy from moving inside forested regions until he gets very close to my defensive strong points. This means I rarely place them in FORESTS. The exception is when they border my strong point and then I treat it exactly like a building. AP MINES and BUILDINGS: AP MINES dotted in front of buildings are especially nasty in villages. Your opponent is going to attempt to leapfrog through town, taking building each in turn while being overwatched by strong units. If you put an AP MINE down in front of the building you are almost guaranteed of a RUNNING squad tripping over the MINES and freezing. Then a flanking defender (or two) can ambush that team and put him into flight fairly rapidly. It just this to happen a few times (say three) before your attacker will almost become hyper-sensitive to the tactic. Getting inside your attacker's head is a good thing. If you can upset his timetable and start him twisting this way and that to avoid you, the battle is half won. This means you can take just a few AP MINES and setup this type of obstacle. AT MINES: A much better bang for the buck. A reasonable string of 5 AT MINES costs 75 pts which is the approximately cost of the cheapest assault guns in CM (with some exceptions of course). Since vehicles cannot move through WOODS or ROUGH then chokepoints become evident on some maps, chokepoints even many hundreds of meters from your frontlines are usually worth expending a few AT MINES on. Although you maybe cannot cover those chokepoints with ATGs or anti-armour infantry, never underestimate the disheartening effect to your opponent when he/she loses a 200pt tank 600m from your front lines when they know they are safe from ATGs. They will look at the map entirely different from that point onwards and probably fritter away precious turns circumnavigating areas in which they are "sure" you've placed mines. It usually doesn't pay in my experience to place AT MINES directly in front (and never to rear) of WIRE or AP MINES. Infantry precedes armour by 200m or so…WIRE or AP MINES act like infantry repellent and if you channel the infantry away from some location then the armour will likely follow, never to override the AT MINES you so carefully placed. If you are going to use AP and AT MINES in concert, then their usage becomes very terrain dependent. Something obviously far too complex for a simple text discussion on the BTS forum. General rule of thumb though would be to keep them separated by about 200m, closing the gap in direct relation to the LOS distances in the general area. (i.e. LOS = 80m, separation should be about 80m) AT MINES and the REVERSE SLOPE: AT MINES are best placed well back from the crest on the forward slope of the hill. If your attacker is advancing uphill you will likely see a wise commander mixing in some armour with the infantry. Otherwise when the infantry crests the hill he will be bereft of HE support until his armour far downslope makes its way to the top. You need to strip his armour from the infantry. No armour should be cresting the hill and supporting his infantry advance. Even an immobilized tank out of LOS from the REVERSE SLOPE is useless. AT MINES and WIRE: See above. Maybe even leave a small gap in the wire but put AT MINES under it. Better yet…don't do it but tell your opponent via email that you probably did. He will avoid the area like the plague just in case. AT MINES and IMPASSABLE TERRAIN: A great idea. Butted up against ROUGH or WOODED terrain, a heavy building, etc…makes a nice little blockage. Gawd…that's a bit long winded. Ok enough with the fortifications. I'll move on to SUPPORT weapons next. Cheers Murray

Actually Claymore has two meanings...either of which usually meant unprotected individuals being reduced to a greater number of smaller, wetter pieces. ewhhh! I'm not sure if a Claymore was ever used on baked goods before though...toasted or otherwise. Lately "this" Claymore has been a little dull against "that" crunchy Toasty one. My Highland ancestors demand then that I retreive my whetstone, hawk up a good luge on my steel and prepare for battle. I will not fight in the nude however, nor paint myself blue (my ode to wode!) My RPS file is now in the Duke's email slot. I go now, to deflower a virgin and examine her naughty bits in hopes of discerning the wishes of my gods. Cheers Murray

Charles, Wooo-hooo big man! I KNOW that our tournament organizer needs no help steamrolling over your forces. Such a pitiful and disgraceful attempt to pander favour. The Duke is a great and laudable example of manhood, who should be held up for us poor wretches to emulate. Should he decide which side each of us will get I know it will be with the calm and deliberate intelligence that he has demonstrated time without fail. So I say to you...abase yourself before the Iron Duke and ask forgiveness for such a base attempt. Should he in his infinite mercy decide to suffer your existance further I can only believe he will give you the Allied side as just penance for your deeds. In fact I implore you to ask him for these forces! Do so now! If you are lucky he shall give you the Yankees but tempt him not for he shall saddle you with the lowly Polish or Canucks if he rises to anger! Cheers Murray

Game final Claymore: 93 (42 casualties) Carboy: 7 (254 casualties & 5 tanks) As evidence showed in the first A**Kicking Tournament artillery is the Shiva of the CMBO battlefield. I ran through Carboy's movies after the end-of-game and made a count of casualties vs their cause. Rickets: 3 M-10TDs and 200+ casualties 37mm DF HE: 15 75mm DF HE: 22 (the 37mm and 75mm HE were used on the broken and scattered remnants of Yankee infantry and was really not necessary for the win) 75mm AP: Two M-10TDs (This was the result of 2 x Crack Hetzers vs 2 x REG M-10s at 600m, no surprise) So it appears as though Texas Toast and I will be dancing in the next round. I eliminated him from an earlier tournament but lately he has been a real bitch. In a Panther 76 game he put the big hurt on me, while in another custom 75 game my crafty tactics have been continually blunted. It has all the makings of a very good match. Charles? If you're listening...I'm going to be even sneakier this game! Muahahahahahaha. How shall we choose sides?...I propose we get an independent third party to toss a coin. Cheers Claymore (nee Murray)

Well, a brilliant mid-term AAR from my game with Carboy was wiped out by the Great Crash of 2001. Wearily then and in a much more bland style our game has gone as thus: Deep Mud Map with wooded VL in centre Claymore: Axis Carboy: Yanks Noting that we have very slow movement rates and very dodgey LOS from setup zones for artillery spotters I purchased 3xGreen 201mm Rickets and 2xGreen 150mm Rickets. With the width of the map and the slow advance of any Allied units the simultaneous arrival the artillery should (and did) take the starch out of anything Carboy was planning. I filled out my kit with 4xCrack Hetzers, 2xVet 234/2, 6xREG Fusilier Platoons, 2x 37mm FLAK and 1xCRACK 75mm ATG. Carboy appears to have taken Shermans, 2 companies of infantry and an artillery spotter of the larger variety. The game stands now at Turn 12. Carboy appears to have had his infantry decimated by the ricket barrage. What armour didn't bog or bug out from the rickets was quickly put down by the Hetzers. I had one PSW bog in the mud but all other units are now overwatching the VL which is occupied by the two companies of Fusiliers. German casualties: 12 men Allied Casualties: at least 3 tanks and 2 companies of infantry. I expect the game to end very shortly. Cheers Claymore

Well, a brilliant mid-term AAR from my game with Carboy was wiped out by the Great Crash of 2001. Wearily then and in a much more bland style our game has gone as thus: Deep Mud Map with wooded VL in centre Claymore: Axis Carboy: Yanks Noting that we have very slow movement rates and very dodgey LOS from setup zones for artillery spotters I purchased 3xGreen 201mm Rickets and 2xGreen 150mm Rickets. With the width of the map and the slow advance of any Allied units the simultaneous arrival the artillery should (and did) take the starch out of anything Carboy was planning. I filled out my kit with 4xCrack Hetzers, 2xVet 234/2, 6xREG Fusilier Platoons, 2x 37mm FLAK and 1xCRACK 75mm ATG. Carboy appears to have taken Shermans, 2 companies of infantry and an artillery spotter of the larger variety. The game stands now at Turn 12. Carboy appears to have had his infantry decimated by the ricket barrage. What armour didn't bog or bug out from the rickets was quickly put down by the Hetzers. I had one PSW bog in the mud but all other units are now overwatching the VL which is occupied by the two companies of Fusiliers. German casualties: 12 men Allied Casualties: at least 3 tanks and 2 companies of infantry. I expect the game to end very shortly. Cheers Claymore

Thanks Robert, There was something in my memory which approximated FK's decision process, but it required clarification. Cheers Murray

Mark you dog! I wondered if the "m" and "p" in the email stood for your moniker. Ah yes...the carnage of "Hertzer Hill" shall live in my memory for a long time. Seems to me like at least two of those fellows were immobilized before you scooted around back of them with your Greyhounds. Can't be held responsible for guy that can't move don't cha know. Besides I won that game fairly convincingly, while our latest is completely up for grabs. I was far far far too aggressive with my infantry and you spanked them nicely for their commander's poor judgement. Please resend your turn's file. I believe the question at hand was "in the face of no infantry left to hold the highground, can my three M4(76)s and M8 suffice?" Beware of my flanking infantry though! Excellent game now but it's too bad the first 20 turns were so dull. Cheers Murray

Offwhite, Unless you used an alias and email address that were completely different than your BTS profile, we have never crossed swords. And...nobody ever flanks my Hertzers. Ever. Charles..ah...Texas Toast, I had already sent my purchase list to our third party when I posted this message. No Hertzers...and I don't need'em for the likes of you. Cheers Murray

Since the search command is kaput I will rely upon the CM minions and their memories of past discussions. What was the result of the argument to include Hetzers in the ALLOWABLE under Short 75 rules? I recall that 1) FK believed it should be 2) its side and rear tissue-like armour compensated for the 60/60 upfront. If I am in error, please set me on the path of correct think. Cheers Murray