ParaBellum
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Posts posted by ParaBellum
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To answer your question, one first has to understand that the Panther and the Tiger were designs from "different times".
The Tiger was originally built to crush the russian T34. It developed from an late 30´s design as a "breakthrough tank". When the Tiger entered the war in late `42, it was the tank with the heaviest armour and strongest gun in the world. Although its broad tracks gave him good cross-country moving ability (compared to the Pzkpfw I-IV), its massive weight often proved problems, especially when damaged.
The Tiger especially proves its worth when dealing with infantry, since their 88´s packs a lot more punch than the Pather´s 75mm.
The Panther was heavily influenced by the design of the T 34, especially its sloped armour. (As a fact, one prototype of the Pzkfw V was not produced due to its similarity to the russian MBT...). The Panther is the (nearly) perfect combination of the three GREAT factors in tank warfare: Armour, armament, mobility.
Although (on the flanks) less well protected than the Tiger, the Panther is a great tank. I would try to use the Panther against enemy tanks, and the Tiger against enemy infantry/AT guns etc.
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Well, most of the time I like to play the axis.
I always buy some cheap 20mm Flak. Try to move one of your MG carriers in sight of those guns and they´re history.
I really like those 95% chances to hit on 300 yards...
An MG team on foot is much more likely to survive battle than those "coffins on tracks".
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Anybody remembers the b&w movie "Charge of the light brigade"? With Errol Flynn IIRC.
OK, it´s about the crimean war (spelled right?), so it´s a little bit off topic...
But still got some nice "horse-scenes".
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On 17th November 1941 the German 106th Inf.Div., 70 km NW of Moscow waited for the attack signal.
Suddenly grey figures appeared through the forest in front of the 106th positions. Cavalry! The 44th Mongolian Cavalry division attacked the German positions. The 107th Art.Reg. opened fire, together with MGs and mortars.
After the first cavalry regiment was cut down in minutes, the second regiment attacked, only to meet the same fate.
German casualties: zero.
Russian casualties: 2000+
I doubt if I would order a cavalry charge...
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This is a feature that I would really like to see in CM2.
Imagine enemy tanks thundering through some scattered trees, approaching your positions and leaving behind a trail of destruction. Aaaahh... nice!
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Well, I would already be happy if the AI stops charging my positions with FOs and Mortars... In a recent QB defensive battle against the AI I counted two 150mm FOs lying dead before my MLR. And no, it wasn´t an ambush, the FO-charge began AFTER I had already slaughtered his infantry platoons.
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What was the experience level of the bazooka team?
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I just tried 2 150 mm FOs in a QB defensive battle against the AI.
Normally I prefer to ambush the attacker and at the same time start hitting him with 81mm mortars.
This time I caught an infantry company and some halftracks in open space.
The results were 3 enemy squads running in panic back to some cover and 2 halftracks destroyed. When the rest of the attacking force met my MLR, it wasn´t a threat anymore...
Thanks for the article. As always, the CM board is an endless source of (mostly) useful ideas.
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Ahw god! And you guys call yourself grognards? Does nobody else see that this was the first battlemech of the Grossdeutsche Wehrmacht?
It´s name was the Hamsterjäger II Ausf.B.
It was an awe inspiring battle machine that used the feared weapons of the Pzkpfw I and the tremendous armour of the SdKFZ series...
It entered the battlefield on may 9th, 1945. Unfortunetly the war was already over at this time.
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Served one year in the german Bundeswehr as a sniper (better, sharpshooter) in a Jaegerbataillon (light infantry)in the german/french brigade.
Biggest fun was blowing up a 9.7 kg TNT tank mine, really big BOOOOM!
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I can only agree with all the guys.
The uniforms look GREAT!
I installed your terrain mods a few weeks before and it REALLY improved the whole atmosphere of the game! Looks far more realistic now.
Fantastic work, DD!!!
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I also don´t think that CM needs a "fast hunt" order. Beman is right, in a fast moving tank it´s VERY hard to spot the enemy. When moving offroad at high speed the tank commander was busy enough to watch out for dangerous terrain such as hollows to asist the driver.
During my service in the army, when our "Fuchs" drove at hight speed through the fields, you just tried not to get knocked out... Impossible to use binoculars when you´re rocking around like a rodeo rider...
I think CM models this quite well. Go at a medium speed and look for the enemy or make a dash for the next hull-down position.
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To all this "Jäger"-Stuff: The term Jäger in German means hunter, that´s true, but in military language it´s just light infantry. While the "Panzerjäger" really can be translated with "tank hunter/killer", the infantry Jäger just signifies higly mobile, non armoured infantry, its counterpart would be the more "heavy" Panzergrenadiere.
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I cannot stress too much how important artillery is. I won lots of small battles with just one "perfect" mortar barrage. In real world, over 80 (!) percent of battlefield casualties in ww2 were caused by artillery, so think about it. When playing as the germans I love to buy two 81mm spotters, totallly 300 rounds... That´s a hell of a punch. In some recent games I had just one infantry platoon with a few HMGs, a stug and some AT/Inf Guns, and everytime defeatet 1-2 companies. Normal casualty rate was something like 150 allied against 30 germans.
In small battles also try not to buy a tank, but rather buy cheap AT/Inf guns. Well placed with clear fields of fire they are a cheap substitute for a tank. And you got some points left for arty support...
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I thought american tank crews in Normandy were ORDERED only to attack a Tigers/Panthers if they had an advantage of 5:1 in numbers. One explanation for this could be the heavy losses of US tank formations in Africa which resulted in low experience levels compared to German tank crews and hampered American tanks till the end of `44. And, of course, I wouldn´t change my panther/tiger for a Sherm, even with a 76mm or 17 pounder gun...
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I liked Panzer Commander, too. O.K., the graphics are not so nice as those in Panzer Elite, although I liked the Panzer models a lot. The AI, especially of your wingmen was, even after some patches, not that good.
But in which game can you you drive a tank through Poland, France (in 1940), Northern Africa and Russia?
It´s a fun, fast game, but it lacks the depht of Panzer Elite. When you ever scored a hit in PE over a distance of 2000 meters with full realism, you could be really proud!
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My tank gunners and me. A long and sad story... I always like to remember my Panther gunner missing a Sherman from a distance of 7 meters... And in my last game, my Tiger Gunner knocked out 4 Chromwells, three Churchills, two Bren carriers, 2 mortars and nearly three squads ( 28 infantry casualties). I think there´s a BIG random factor in the abilities of those guys.
The one thing I ALWAYS do is unbutton the tank as LONG AS POSSIBLE. My guess is that the tank commander is able to correct the gunner much more efficient when his hatch is open ("Franz, 20m too short!". And if I´m lucky, he sights an enemy tank first and gets the first shot. I´d like to spread my armour wide over the map, so that the possibility of flank shots on enemy armour increases.
Since the engagement distances in CM are (in my games at least) often less than 500 meters, the first shot is EXTREMELY important. Because from 500 meters, nearly every armour can be penetrated (O.K., the front armour of a King Tiger is tough...). In defense I like to set ambushes with my tanks. I try to hide the tanks AS LONG AS POSSIBLE, let the enemy tanks advance and try to get flank shots when these Shermans are hammering my defences with 75mm HEs. ALWAYS try to get better cover than the enemy (hull down), NEVER try to go head-on with enemy armour (especially with allied tanks against german armour, this is suicide. With a Tiger your chance of survival increases but I wouldn´t count on it. I lost a lot of Tigers to Shermans...), always try to get a rear/flank shot.
So, be careful with armour. Wait till enemy armour crosses open space or is moving over a hill. Drive your tanks from their hidingplace and open fire! And pray that your gunner is not as blind as my Panther guy...
I hope you found anything useful here.
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To Olle Petersson:
Well, I just like picking my own troops and for most of the time I am far more satisfied with my purchase than with the AI´s.
But the problem (question) was more that the AI purchased too many "weak" units rather than one strong one.
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Thx Sarge, but that wasn´t the point. I know that when I set the AI to armour I will surely get some tanks against me. But I still do not quite understand why an allied commander (the AI) of COMBINED ARMS would assault a german position without at least one decent tank, since most of the light armour is just too vulnerable to survive and therefore a waste of points.
To GriffinCheng:
Yes, probably it´s because the AI is not that good when attacking. When I am attacking allied positions it seems to me that the AI chooses its equipment better, including tanks.
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I was playing a lot of QBs (500-1200 points, combined arms) lately. Most of them were assaults on german positions by allies. I played the germans most of the time and was really surprised to see how inadequate forces the AI chose. It only chose infantry with moderate artillery support and LIGHT ARMOUR. I never encountered anything worse than a Stuart. The allies never stood a chance against my forces due to the fact that my paks/stugs/pzkfw took out the infantry´s armoured support within a few minutes. In one QB the AI chose 6 Bren carriers... No heavy armour... My grenadiers laughed and watched them catch fire one after another...
I think that the AI in QBs with less than 1000 points tends to `spread` his points for lighter armour, rather than buying two or even one strong unit. Since I always try to maintain proper anti-tank defences this is some BAD tactis for the AI.
Anyone encountered the same situation? Or is this just a ´play another twenty QBs and you will see those Shermans` ?
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I am a German and paid 55 $ for the game, including transport. That´s 125 DM according to todays exchange rate. A normal price for a new game in Germany is 70-90 DM.
But as mentioned above, the main problem is the strong dollar, or the weak euro. By the way, I´m going to California for three weeks, aaargh! A long planned trip, so I just try not to think about DM/Dollar exchange rates... Some things are just worth spending your money.
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Whow! I'm really impressed about the guys on this forum. *bow_down_low*
Thanks for the detailed answer PzKpfw 1.
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Thanks Hofbauer, you're pretty fast! You got any numbers of the total tanks produced/outfitted with IR? Did the allies have similar technology in their tanks?
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I recently read something about PzKpfw V Panthers fitted with infrared sights. A Panther platoon operated together with a halftrack which mounted the infrared searchlight. The 2.Panzerdivision had some of those tanks while fighting in the Ardennes. Does anyone know something about the effectiveness of this early night vision equipment or the use in combat?
Since I'm still waiting for the full version of the game, is something like this modelled in CM?
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Jabos
in Combat Mission Archive #3 (2001)
Posted
Yes, it´s actually possible to shoot down enemy fighter bombers.
And I can tell you, there´s nothing better than your Flak shooting down one of those P 47´s!!
The probability of your assets shooting down enemy panes depends on HOW MUCH Flak you have. One or two 20mm won´t do the job most of the time. If you´re REALLY getting annoyed by Jabos, by more Flak (also grrrreat against those lightly armoured US vehicles...).
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