Grisha

Yes, killmore, SU-76 was meant as infantry support, not something you wanted to use in tank vs tank encounters. The SU-85 and SU-100 were tank hunters, while the SU-76, SU/ISU-122, and SU/ISU-152 were primarily infantry support.

Here's your answer, killmore. You can thank my old bud, Jeff Duquette, for this as it is verbatim from his email to me

I'll have to ask my friends again about it. I doubt it was urban legend. More that I didn't get my facts straight. It could've been some huge square for all I know.

When I was in Russia in June, while driving down a street in Moscow my Russian friends commented on a series of old, yet nice, buildings in a lively commercial part of the city. They pointed out that these building were built soon after the war, and that their foundations were from the rubble of some huge statue built in Germany of Hitler during the war, or before it - I can't really say. The story goes that when this huge monument to Hitler was demolished, Party members were adamant about using the rubble to contruct a huge monument of Stalin - in Berlin of all places. Stalin, however, rejected this idea on the grounds that the Germans already had enough indicators of Soviet victory - namely, Soviet occupation. Instead, he ordered that the rock be used as the foundations for a number of building in the city of Moscow. I can tell you that the Hitler monument must've been huge, because there were a lot of buildings, maybe 5-7 of them, wide multi-story urban buildings.

Like Matt said, what's with all Caps in the topic header? What was that about? Also, why would a 'gruesome scene' from a concentration camp be so helpful for a game that focuses on military history? Sounds to me like you're trying to dance around an attempt at a political statement. In fact, I hope you are, because the alternative is a little macabre.

What was your range? I set mine to under 400m, and got 11 kills and 1 immobilized to 10 AT guns versus the AI. Nothing brewed, which was disappointing.

Yes, it should be used over shorter distances.

Soviet is a much more accurate term. While it could be said that Russia was the center of the USSR, remember that a Georgian ran the show for about 40% of the Soviet Union's existence. The USSR was a country of many races and cultures, and in WWII the Red Army reflected this.

I really wish I could, but I'm at work right now - and won't be home for another 7 hours

It was while playing the tutorial as Soviet that close range Soviet rifle squad firepower first made itself known to me. At close range your average 1941 Soviet rifle squad has nearly double the firepower of a German infantry squad. The two PPSh41s in the Soviet squad are responsible alone for over 50% of that value at close range! This all became apparent when I sent the Soviet platoon into the left flank of the woods that needed to be secured. As they advanced to contact in a line they ran into Germans moving in to hold that flank. These German units were basically mowed down - it was startling to watch.

No shockwaves please. The CMBB effect is much preferred and appreciated.

Yes, Amedeo, you're actually right! I didn't notice that before either. By Oct 1942 the newer rank insignias were official. Here's one more player hoping this was nothing more than a space saving measure for the purposes of the demo.

One possibilty could have to do with the way Soviets marked their situation maps. Soviet forces were always marked in red pencil, Germans in blue.

My AT guns took out 11 German tanks and immobilized another, but they never did that - cool

I love it all. Death clock, cover arc, cover armor, hull down, shoot and scoot, advance, assault, human wave, new sneak, contact, trees moving in the wind, command control, etc. etc. etc. Great improvement on a great game. And on the Russian front, too. Doesn't get any better than this

SPOILER - SPOILER - SPOILER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I played the Soviets against an AI German with the setup left pretty much alone, and got a minor Soviet victory with the loss of 10 45mm AT guns. The Germans lost 11 tanks outright with 1 immobilized. The use of ATRs in coordination with AT guns is actually quite effective. In fact, I would've traded my 2 KVs for 2 45mm AT guns.

By July-August of 1941 Soviet tanks were not a big concern for German panzers. What was a concern were Soviet AT units. Since the 45mm AT gun wasn't even in production when Barbarossa started, AT units had no 45mm AT guns, but instead were being equipped with 76mm and 85mm guns. Expect losses, maybe even heavy losses, as the German armor commander if you run into a Soviet AT defense in summer-fall 1941.

Interesting question, and one pondered by many military analysts during the early years of WWII, particularly the Soviets. According to von Clausewitz, defense would predominate given similar dispositions by each side. Kursk proved the veracity of his conclusions.

Daniel, you must not have studied what operational art is. During WWII, the Soviets were the only ones to have a distinct understanding of operational art. Nobody else even understood the need for it. Most everyone else saw the need for operations in the sense of a logistical-operational 'boundary' for a series of tactical actions (i.e. battles), but only the Soviets realized that it would improve operations to actually study the theory and practice of operations just as thoroughly as strategy and tactics. Hence, while everyone else had two levels of military art, strategy and tactics, the Soviets had three, strategy, operational art and tactics. It took them until 1943 to lay down a practical foundation for their theoretical development of deep battle and deep operations, but by 1944-45 the Soviets were conducting amazing operations in terms of scale, interdependency, and effectiveness.

Seriously, forget about amazon. Go to www.abebooks.com. Found three there, cheapest at around $38, most expensive at $68.

An interesting aside from all this. While I believe that defense, just like offense, is a combined arms affair, and a good defense has depth and sufficient reserves with armor, one shouldn't write off the AT gun. The problem with the AT guns during Kursk was the same one the Soviet tanks had: insufficient armament. From July-August of 1941 this wasn't the case for Soviet AT units, which were to a great extent armed with 76mm division guns and 85mm AA guns against Pz IIIs and IVs. During this time period the Germans lost 1,500+ tanks in the East, the greatest tank losses suffered by Germany between 1939-1943. Soviet armor was virtually nonexistent at that time, so there was little else around but AT guns to explain the substantial German losses in armor.

An interesting aside from all this. While I believe that defense, just like offense, is a combined arms affair, and a good defense has depth and sufficient reserves with armor, one shouldn't write off the AT gun. The problem with the AT guns during Kursk was the same one the Soviet tanks had: insufficient armament. From July-August of 1941 this wasn't the case for Soviet AT units, which were to a great extent armed with 76mm division guns and 85mm AA guns against Pz IIIs and IVs. During this time period the Germans lost 1,500+ tanks in the East, the greatest tank losses suffered by Germany between 1939-1943. Soviet armor was virtually nonexistent at that time, so there was little else around but AT guns to explain the substantial German losses in armor.

Okay, my friend says that in general these naval guns were placed along the southern line. There were all sorts of naval guns that were removed from ships then placed in forts, like Kronshtadt or Krasnaya Gorka. Also, a few were placed on armored trains too. Calibers ranged from 5" to 12".

Yes, one thing I remember of the map of Soviet ship gun placements was that they were all south of Leningrad.

Numerous shots of official Soviet Union brand vodka (no longer being made btw) - very, very smooth. Each shot strictly chased with sliced raw bacon fat, smoked fish, pickled cucumber, or cheese on rye. Pel'meni makes a fine alternate chaser as well Addendum: And don't forget a big fat dob each of sour cream and butter with your pel'meni! [ August 28, 2002, 11:05 PM: Message edited by: Grisha ]