Louie the Toad

Based on experience only, which would you buy? An armored car or a light tank, assuming: German or American Both the AC and the Tank have the same gun Large or Huge map A moderate road network No steep hills Moderate trees

Now what !! Looks like there's a hanging chad.

It makes sense. Yes 23 No 1 Abstain 1

Don't care much about the infantry. Don't want to use no artillery. Don't know what a halftrack is for. Won't sneak around with a schrek or zook. All I do know is that I want to ... Do the things a tank commander do... And what a wonderful world it would be. Doo Wop .... Toad

Capt. Spaulding and I are currently battling our way thru the Operation : "21st Panzer Counter Attacks" by G. Blake. Eight 30 turn battles. I think it was from Scenario Depot. We are near the end of battle two and find our resources depleted. Hopefully we will be reinforced substatially in the next battle. The AI is on the defense and has done a pretty good job, especially in this second battle. It is a 'run the gauntlet' type of action so far. In an effort to counter attack the D Day beaches the 21st must fight through Allied forces and make it off the map. No VLs in the game thus far. In the two battles we have been fighting there have been interesting surprizes and the maps have offered very good tactical puzzles. With limited and sometimes fragile resources, the German commander (in our case commanders) must make some hard decisions. The time factor can get dicey since one must make it to the far end of the map with as much as he can before time runs out. As I mentioned we are just finishing battle 2 with 6 more to go. So far its been a real challenge for the Germans. Schnell, schnell, schnell.... Unke (Toad)

Skunkle, I think we had the same die rolling cousin. A miniature paintin, line of sight measurin, blast radius layin, cotton ball colorin, terrain buildin sort of a guy. Reminiscin .... Toad

Regarding this 50+ thread and wishing we had had CM much earlier in our lives .... My goal is to live forever. So far, so good ........ Toad

Andreas, An Observation (pun intended) I guess I have had a problem with Recce units too, even back to my board game and miniatures days. They were either not stealthy enough, not strong enough or became a sort of adjunct force. I have now come to the conclusion, after reading your post and thinking a bit more about them, that recce units, in the scope of CM, should be fighting their own scenarios. I also believe that this was the "trouble" in board and miniatures engagements. That their true role was not accurately portrayed. Now in CM one can scale down the battlefield so there can be a meeting engagement of probing forces. Or a probe vs defensive positions. However, usually the way we want to play CM does not consider these types of skirmishes. Most players it appears, want a slugfest of some kind. I do too. That is why you will most likely hear from those who will say that "recon is or should be in the Briefing". What that means to me is that the Recon battle has already taken place. I played 49th Recce and enjoyed how it developed. I only wish we could play OPERATIONALLY. If we could, there would most often be a Recon fight followed by a major battle as one side or another brought up more units to try and overpower the enemy. Or one should be rewarded in these types of skirmishes if his force gets away after identifying the strength of the enemy. That should be a Recon victory. Of course it is not modeled in CM. Maybe those who make CM operations could design them in a manner that makes use of the Recon battle. I apologize that this post is not as tightly connected or developed as I would like, but time is not on my side. Gotta jump....... Toad

I have read the word but don't recall hearing it. Curious... Toad

Skunkle, CM is better than __________ (insert just about anything here) TV ?? -- We don't need no stinkin' TV !! Hey Ezra .... That Hail, Hail stuff ... You talkin' 'bout Harpo Marx and which Lennon sister ? Speed limit 55 ..... Toad

AFAIK the only way is to open the game to the set up and look over what ya got. If you are making some sort of chart or study about this, I would set up the battle as a hotseat and play both sides. That way you would have twice the info. Or half the time..... Toad

For what it's worth, in the episode of Band of Brothers where Easy Co gets into a firefight with enemy infantry that escalates into a combined arms fight with armor and infantry on both sides, the Shermans come into the fray with tank crew members (commander?) standing on the rear decks, behind the turret while shooting the 50 cal at enemy infantry. Seemed a bit overdone since the battle was at only a few hundred yards at most and who would expose themselves to the small arms fire that was flying around. The tank crew member did seem very exposed, even having been partially protected by the turret. It seemed especially daring since the infantry were all hugging the ground or hunkering down in the shallow trenches at the time. Does anyone remember this? Stand and deliver..... Toad

Dear Green Hornet Maybe IRL the tank platoon leader would order one tank to knock out the possible threat while the others went on to new business. I recall while playing August Bank Holiday, where I thought my forces had gun hit an enemy tank. It stopped moving, its barrel was pointing away from my forces, it didnt fire for several turns. There were lots of other targets and threats, so I moved on to engage those. Suddenly after a few turns this tank 'came to life' and gave me a lesson I will never forget. Taught Toad

Dear Cpl Carrot, The wide arc is an interesting twist {no pun intended}. How many way points did you need to plot to get a 180 turn? Apparently the waypoint pause did not slow the tank down too much. Apparently the fastest time between two points may not be a straight line. Toad

Dear Cpl C and Skolman Yes it goes w/o saying about the dangers of turning around, but as I said, with respect to speed its the distance factor that is huge. For rearfacing drivers I would expect a fast initial response from the driver and a fast speed too.

IMHO the AI is playing realistically and you are playing god. Playing with Detailed Armor Hits off is part of true Fog of War. You should not have info about gun hits and immobilization, spalling inside the turret, shocked, crew casualties and the like. Since your AI tankers still see a viable target, they keep shooting until there is smoke, fire or a bail out. On the other foot... to each his own... Toad

Before this gets into a spitting match, as to which is better,,,, why not make your choice with regard to the countries you wish to fight for and against. After all the germans are in both games. If you want to use mainly the UK and US units : CMBO. If you want to play with Russian units :BB. Either way you won't be disappointed. 'Solomon' .... Toad

I thought it was due to trenchfoot. Toad.

My impression is = MOVE speed. A second question would be... is it better, in the case of speed only, to REVERSE, Or to order FAST where the unit must take time rotating and then go forward. There are probably decreasing returns corresponding to the longer the distance traveled. Never seen one back up ...... Toad {that is}

No one has mentioned closing with the enemy on the ground as a possible evasive maneuver. Has anyone experienced enemy planes backing off when this is tried. In BO or BB ? Too close is comfort....... Toad

Guy on left: "Well if you don't know by now, I'm not going to tell you." Guy on right: ???

Were your guys wearing red berets? Its the old 'glint off the gunbarrel' ploy. Toad

I think we should have songbirds of various types singing. What about crickets, we have them in night scenarios as I recall .... And flies buzzing, think of the carrion. What about the occasional rooster crowing in the distance. And of course the chirupping of frogs and ............Toads

An Ambient Sound Byte IIRC its a QB vs AI. I'm playing the Germans vs the French. I am aproaching this quaint French village at dusk. In the distance I can hear faint sounds of music apparently coming from the town ! It's a French song, "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" being played on a concertina. I start to think: The French soldiers are all in a tavern and my guys are sneaking up on them, is this a great game or what! The tune plays again as I stealthily move forward. Suddenly the music changes to "Strangers In the Night" and I disappointedly realize its my daughter's new cell phone. Sacre' Bleu ............. Toad

What about corn, weren't there tall stalks of corn, growing in rows a couple of feet high above a man's head. Fighting in a cornfield would make an interesting scenario. Crop circle Toad