ParaBellum

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by David Aitken: If anyone else posts to this thread, except to ridicule the content, I will come around to their house and beat them over the head with a kipper.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well said! I like your technique of convincing people.

OK, I know everyone trashes the AI in QBs. But sometimes, nobody knows how and why, the AI strikes back. Did that ever happen to you? Arty strikes that hammer your troops with godlike precision, Shermans using laser range finders and thermal sights when knocking out your Tigers? :confused: Perhaps we do sometimes get too confident... Anyway, what were your best/worst results in a QB against the AI? My best: AI lost 380 men, 12 vehicles, 3 guns and a bunch of mortars. My losses were 2 guns and 16 men. My worst:I lost 2 Stugs, 2 Tigers and some halftracks and 150 men, the AI lost 1 Sherman and 60 men. Still don't know what happened in THAT game...

Hm, seems most of you guys are still searching for eastereggs... So few people interested in a grid ? OH MY GOD! My fantastic, extraordinary and truely amazing idea doesn't get too much attention. I'm really down. Think I will drown myself in the cesspool...

A.Beevor states in "Stalingrad" that the extreme cold had frozen the earth solid. This caused a tremendous increase in the numbers of wounded by arty, especially mortars. I think I read somewhere else that when the ground is REALLY that hard, arty shells could "bounce" off the ground and detonate mid-air and thus causing more casualties. Perhaps an arty vet can clarify this?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Stixx: I suppose a gas operated weapon firing at 600-900 Rpm could jam a case in there at some weird angles. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Exactly. I can't see a reason why MG jams occur more frequently during rain. If there's a weather condition that can hamper the effectiveness of automatic weapons than IMO it is VERY cold winters. German army had big problems in winter 41/42 due to the lack of special weapons oil to protect the action from freezing.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Stixx: [QB] Simply a matter of dropping the mag ejecting or pulling out the case ... All over and done with in max 15 seconds. QB]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> The problem is that ejecting a damaged case sometimes can be quite difficult. Due to the high rate of fire the barrel gets very hot and a case can get distorted (hope that's the right expression). If that happens ejecting the case will take some time...

Surrender? What's that?

Can't help you much with the question about the rain. But during my days in the german Bundeswehr when firing the MG3 (which is very similar to the MG 42) we sometimes encountered jams that were quite hard to fix. Especially when the barrel gets too hot, you can get some nasty jams. So IMO the jam time in CM is modelled quite correctly.

*** bump *** BTW, HAPPY EASTER! [ 04-14-2001: Message edited by: ParaBellum ]

I'd like to have an option in CM2 to toggle a terrain grid on/off. IMHO it helps a lot when plotting moves and arty bombardements 'cause it's much easier to estimate elevation changes. I once downloaded a terrain grid from one of our mod artists but I don't want to see it all the time. With all those other beautiful terrain and units mods I sometimes want to enjoy the beautiful scenery without the grid. Any comments?

Nope. Assault in QB's is just "capture the flag", e.g. capture the victory locations without your troops getting toasted...

"The Bridge" is indeed a great movie. Shows what war is about. I like how the enthusiasm of these young boys gets turned into horror and disbelief. Ah, and never fire a Panzerfaust if there's someone standing behind you... And "Das Boot"? My favourite movie. Especially the TV-version. I think it's 4-5 hours long. The book's even better. Favourite scene: The two U-Boats meet in the middle of the atlantic during a storm! Bates, I wouln't say that "Stalingrad" is rubbish. If you do, you didn't understand the movie. It's not a typical war movie about tanks and fighting, it's more a study about human behaviour under extreme circumstances. Although, and on that I agree with you, some scenes are just too stereotype... ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern!

I use Flak mainly in the ground support role. Reason for this is mainly that I encountered enemy fighterbombers only ONCE in a game with human opponent. And that bastard took out my Hetzer with the first pass, shocked the crew of a StuG with the second. My two 20mm Flak apparently didn't do much damage... As Barleyman stated, the range of the Flak guns is sufficient to cover CM's battlefields. But if you want to maximise their "protective" effect, keep them close to high priority targets(mainly your tanks). I use transports early in the game to position these guns with clear fields of fire at the flanks of my troops, hoping to get flank shots on enemy armour and dispatching lightly armoured recce vehicles that try to sneak up my back. Remember that heavy Flak like the 8,8 can only be unlimbered once during battle. Once you placed it you cannot limber it again to change position. ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern!

Exactly my point. If your battle plan relies so much on one factor, there's something wrong with it. That reminds me on the "would you surrender if all your tanks are lost?" -debate. HELL NO!! As long as my infantry and supporting weapons are still in fair order I continue the fight. In many battles my opponents had more tanks than me, at least before they met my AT defenses. IMHO if you loose because of "that last enemy tank" you would have lost anyway... I try to conduct a battle so that even if I loose my tanks I can still win or at least achive a draw. If your battle plan relies too much on one factor (tanks) then you should change your plan. ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern!

Yes, forgot them. But I think their number is included in the 200000 from the other baltic states and UKRAINE (better now, Dr. Brian?). ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern!

IMHO CM is pretty balanced. Many guys here were shocked when they first played CM. Their prized Tigers and Panthers beeing knocked out by Shermans all day long... There is something like a myth about the big german cats being invulnerable and themselves firing like an M1A1... Due to the (normally) short engagement ranges in CM (500-1000m) the heavy german tanks do not have that much advantage over their enemies. The infantry is also pretty much balanced, although the axis fields the powerful SMG squads for close combat (and ONLY for that...). The germans got a wide array of supporting weapons like inf guns, flak guns and that stuff that helps a lot on defense but is of lesser value on attack/meeting engagements. The main advantage of the allies is (IMHO) in cheap and fast artillery. They also get more rounds/FO. I think it depends a lot on your style of play, if you prefer axis or allies. One can wine and loose with both. ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern!

Hehe, thx... Everyday I learn something new. BTW, I wrote "the Ukraine", since in german (I am german) when referring to Ukraine it is always "the" Ukraine. ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern!

Don't forget Italy. A few divisions took part in the eastern campaign, don't know numbers. And what about General Wlassovs russian troops who fought on the axis side? In the Waffen-SS more than 50000 men from Holland, 20000 from Belgium and 20000 from France served in the german army. 6000 came from Denmark, the same number from Norway. 1200 came from Luxembourg and Switzerland. Later in the course of the war more than 200000 men from Lithunia, Esthonia, the Ukraine and from the balcans served in the Waffen-SS. ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern! [This message has been edited by ParaBellum (edited 03-27-2001).]

IMHO this force would only be useful when playing against the AI. The biggest problem I see is that your force misses long range AT assets and close assault protection. The Püppchen has good penetration power but because of its low muzzle velocity it can only be used effectively up to 200-300m max. That means that you have to position your AT assets very close to your MLR. If your opponet uses adequate recce techniques he will discover your AT guns quickly and dispatch them with artillery fire or long range HE DF. Guns are VERY vulnerable to all sorts of arty, even 60mm onboard mortars can do the job. Once your AT guns are history he can pound your LMG positions with direct HE. I would also assault your LMG positions with infantry while using smoke to block your LOS. Once my infantry is close assaulting your LMGs there's not much you can do anymore. I DO believe that with this force mix you can REALLY shred the AI, but I doubt that it would be equally effective against a human opponent. ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern! [This message has been edited by ParaBellum (edited 03-22-2001).]

OK, this one is for the sick ones... I wanted to test my PC's performance in huge battles, with lots of arty. And I got new speakers, had to test them, too. So I set up an axis attack, 5000 points with 200% attacker bonus. Then I bought 69 105mm FOs... And lots of infantry for the allies and placed them in a beautiful village. After several minutes the earth began to shake, fountains of fire rose to the sky and the whole scene looked like armageddon. And this were just the spotting rounds... When all 69 batteries started to fire seriously, the effect cannot be described in words... I will spare you further details BUT IT LOOKED SOOOO COOOOOL! ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern!

Ah, Paris, that's the clue! I'm sure your sniper just walked into the Folies-Bergère Club and refused further orders! ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern!

I only encountered this situation when other units already were placed in that house. When you try to move a unit too close to another in a building, they wont't enter it. And as Pvt. Ryan wrote, use the "5"-view when plotting orders into a house, works fine for me. ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern!

Anyone who fields KTs and other "heavy" units without providing decent flank cover just deserves to get toasted... ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern!

hehe, thanks for the good advice... Think you didn't get my point. I surely didn't want to start over the old Zeiss optics debate. I was hoping to get some information on AT guns sights, since I don't have information on this subject. The search button, as so politely suggested didn't help much, since all the posts I found were about tank optics. The question was what kind of sights were used by AT guns, were they different than the AFV sights? ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern!

To get into the right mood I would suggest to read some nice after action reports. Highly recommended are Fionn`s battles, posted at http://www.combatmission.com Entertaining to read and great for enhancing your skills before entering the TCP/IP arena... ------------------ Klotzen, nicht kleckern!