Louie the Toad

When it comes to FTs I always say: "Smoke em if ya got em" Toadsted.

Shhh, Its the smuggled pictures of the Foo Fighter which is in hangar 13 at Area 51. Toad in Black.

Dear Doug In Panzer Aces, which of course views the T-34 from the receiving end, your impression seems to be validated. In almost every situation I have read, the german tanks with a commander, gunner and loader in the turret have better awareness and reaction time during an engagement. I didn't realize that the T - 34 had only a 2 man turret, but that certainly would explain why the russian tanks seem 1) to be slow on the draw 2) appear to behave in a 'herd mentality' fashion. In the book, the descriptions of tank engagements from inside a panzer have the commander and gunner seeing targets simultaneously. The gunner fires immediately upon the order, sometimes earlier. The loader puts one in the spout just as the commander and gunner are visually acquiring the next target. Commander ="Tank by the round bushes" Gunner = "I've got him". Bang. Commander = "a hit", "second tank, 100m to the left" Loader = "ready". Gunner = "I see him". Commander = "Fire" Bang. Gunner = "he's smoking". etc..... The result is a much higher effective rate of fire by the panzer as well as more accurate shooting. A typical anecdote would be 3 T - 34 s vs a PZlV. The first two 34s are taken out without becoming aware of the situation, the third russian just maybe might get a shot off, usually missing, and is KOed by the third shot of the panzer. By the way. Lots of mention of 800 m being the ideal tank fighting distance. But many of these meelees happened between 10 m (yes 10) to 100 m. Hoping for flying turret distruction in CMBB. Frisbee Toad.

" I give it to you gentlemen, we cannot afford to have a windshield wiper gap ! " There will be no fighting in the War Room. Toad

Since 4/13/2002 Fertile Fields has 17 reviews not 16. ave= 9.37 I oughta know. Toad

I think the more FOW in these situations, the better. Mistaking a gun crew for infantry can be explained easily in real life, so let it be. My favoite FOW sound mistake was in the Operation "Red Devils at Arnhem". In a night turn enemy armor was "heard" to be crossing the river two hundred meters or so downstream from the bridge. But how? Schwimmer Wagons? It made for a very tense turn because the Brits certainly were out of position to counter this move. Anyway it turned out to be a night time rush by the germans to get some units across the bridge. Explainable? Certainly! Night, no wind, large buildings and a very large bridge to reflect, distort and channel sounds. So if your guys saw soldiers and reported them as infantry --- so what. 'Expect light resistance' --- Toad

From the recent book "Panzer Aces" by Franz Kurowski --- Dr Franz Bake Hermann Bix Rudolf von Ribbentrop Hans Bolter Albert Ernst Don't have time to go back and look at which tanks they commanded, some moved up as better or other tanks became available. From PZIII to Nashorn

"Smoke em if you got em !" Duck, here come the 'gamey birds'... Toad

So what it appears to be is a fortunate (for the Germans) convergence of circumstances: Remember this is 1939 to 43 1. Effective German tank/AT doctrine. 2. Ineffective Allied tank doctrine 3. Allied difficulty in putting HE on the target 4. Low profile and more manhandable AT guns 5 Thinner skinned AFVs more susceptible to the AT guns of the time. 6. There are exceptions to each of 1 to 5. Considering 1 to 5 plus the addition of Borg spotting seems to me to make the tactic of pushing AT guns forward obsolete in CMBO. What are the years covered in CMBB ? Thanks for the replys..... Toad

Dear GenX-87 your description supports my point.

Finely textured high res bump.

In theory tanks are to attack infantry and anti tank guns are to attack tanks. One reads about how the german forces made great use of anti tank guns by moving them forward. Rommel's forces were especially skilled at this. I have yet to see a wargame that accurately models this tactic because: 1) AT guns move too slowly 2) they are easy prey for HE Or I just haven't been able to translate the tactic from the written page to a game. I wonder if it was particular to the Western Desert theatre, the lack of HE for the Britsh 2pdr gun and the desert terrain that led to the success of the german agressive AT tactics. I realize the years I am talking about precede CMBO. But has anyone else thought about this? Curious ... Toad

Check out the elevation change in Fertile Fields. This is one fine map. Nosebleed.... Toad

Or maybe it was like the story of the famous pirate Cap'n Billy. He had a hook for a hand and a patch over one eye. When asked how he lost his hand Cap'n Billy said it was bitten off by a great white shark. When asked how he lost his eye, Cap'n Billy explained that a seagull flew over and crapped in it. Of course, he went on to say, "twas just after I got me hook!" Aarrgh!! Toad

"It must have been the wind" One of my favorite 'paragraphs' frome the great board game Ambush! These will be the good old days..... Toad

Since my original post was about trucks, they too should be able to move along a RR bed better than soft open ground or fields. Addendum.

Michael, Can't slip anything by you. I couldn't think of how to say it in two words or less. RE RR Tracks. Crossing them away from a road crossing might cause tank track problems, but as you point out the RR track bed should be pretty firm ground and the tanks would not have to cross the RR Tracks, could run parallel. Depends on the gauge and width of the tank I suppose. Casey Toad.

I am surprised no one mentioned the old war movie trick where just by chance the wheel base of the trucks perfectly matched the gauge of the railroad tracks and by slightly deflating the tires the trucks could move along the tracks quite nicely. Until the train came. Thanks for the help everyone. Still inflated Toad.

Captn Wacky, To micromanage or not to micromanage, that is the option. I would like to see this too, as an option. Actually when I first started looking at CM about 2 years ago, I thought the AI was going to handle things more skillfully. Obviously not so. BUT this still is the BEST game there is. There will still be scenarios where you will want to have individual control of even teams and single vehicles. It is probably my erroneous observation but it appears that when the AI controls the enemy forces it is "smarter" than when it controls my forces. It probably just seems that way. Toad

My crack Daimler commander, moving fast cross country suddenly buttons up. Upon replay I cannot hear or see evidence of enemy fire. What does he know that I didn't see or is he just being careful? Duck ! Toad !

In the scenario I am playing I decided not to send trucks, so I did not take an opportunity to do a test. Still curious... Toad

If the HT does TopHat and acquires a target, when it does Lowski could it be that it might "stick" on target and hence fire from defilade? Has this been tried? Curious Toad.

Or is there a chance the trucks will become immobilized. Trying to get there "the fastest with the mostest" Toad.

Thanks, that was helpful. After seeing that the unlimbering of my 17pdr will take 4 minutes, I am thinking it was good that I backed into position. At least the gun will be facing the correct direction. Although it seems that there was some discussion about this some time back. Thankful Toad

Search wasn't satisfactory. Detached Toad