Black Five

Yeah the 17-12 as it is usually called is actually the 17-12-1 and it has a second manual the 17-12-2 that would not do you much good as far as CM is concerned. The 17-12-1 is a little bigger than a novel in size and the 17-12-2 is more like a graphic novel in size, so don't be fooled.

If you're forward of your stated position artillery will fall short.

A Tiger tank in mud.

Keep your enemy in a combined arms dilemma. If he stays in the building he gets punished by an assault gun/arty/tank that is quickly turning the building into rubble. If he breaks cover and runs to another building he get ripped up by a machine gun that is covering the road. Try and attack from multiple angles and setup a support by fire position or two or three to cover your forces as they enter. Use tanks and MGs to "own" long flat areas and roads like a rook in chess. Use smoke like you're an addict.

>>> When lying in bed at 2 A.M. thinking about what went wrong at your latest battle.... Than you see the light.. sneak out your bed.. turn on the computer.. and your wife says, put on your headphone please?!!??? >>> Glad I'm not the only one...X-COM: UFO Defense almost cost me my girlfriend. We got over it and she's my wife now...whew. I still throw X-COM in the 'puter once or twice a year for kicks.

When your wife says......and you say just one more turn baby.

Yeah I botched that one. My wife had to school me about not linking to something before she uploaded it.

I'm the one seated in the center. The Marines around me are the best tank mechs on the planet. They kept me rolling as a platoon commander and now that I'm the XO they keep my whole company rolling. This photo was taken at the 2000 Marine Corps Ball. The tanks were added later by one of the mechs. [This message has been edited by Black Five (edited 02-15-2001).] [This message has been edited by Black Five (edited 02-15-2001).]

There are those that want realism and those that want to enjoy the game in other ways. Hell I would love to take a Platoon of M1A1's against a company or two of King Tigers but BTS has yet to implement this To me "what if" offers the most re-playability and most enjoyment. My friends and I frequently sqaure off with forces that are historically insane. (A bunch of King Tigers vs a bunch of Pershings)

This is one of those CM II wish list items.

The Tiger is great for covering fire at long range, while the Panther can really move when need be. In most situations and especially in any sort of cat and mouse encounter I'll take speed and mobility over firepower and armor any day. WWII tanks are little more then rolling coffins against even the weakest AT weapons when the AT has a rear shot or a close range flank shot.

Finally it all makes sense.

Sweet work as always

IMHO "vcents" takes the prize so far.

Kind of like that lather-rinse-repeat thing. Smoke-Indirect-Assualt-Repeat (Kind of a nice jingle to it)

>>>>>> BTS provides the equipment I can arrange to have grenades, 40mm, 60mm, 81mm, and 155mm impacts recorded at various ranges as close as 200m. (No I won't be holding the recording device). <<<<<< The closest I've every been to a 155 round impacting was 120m and I don't ever want to hear that again. The ground literally shook. Nothing worse than a short round or in this case two.

Black Five is what we call the XO in a Marine tank company. Since that is my current billet it seemed to make sense. The CO is Black Six and the three platoon commanders are Red, White and Blue One respectively. Example 1st Platoon Red One PltCmdr Red Two PltCmdr Wingman Red Three PltSgt Wingman Red Four PltSgt Anyone at the company level is Black X. It probably boils down to the CO wanting to be Mister Black or something like that. I don't think anyone would want to be Mr. Pink. I used to be Red One but always wanted to switch to Red Five just so I could say, "Red Five standing by." What movie? ----------------------------- If you are unwilling to bite, Do not bare your teeth. -----------------------------

The Amry's FM 17-12 is unclassified and you can probably find a copy on the net, maybe even a digital copy of the whole thing. It's the standard for basic platoon tactics. The bottomline is that tanking is tanking. As far as CM is concerned (what it can simulate) basic tank tactics are all you really need. This is not a slam on CM since it is not primarily a tank simulator. Until CM allows you to control turrets and set more specific orders simple tactics seem to work best.

I am glad to see this topic being debated. Granted it would be extra work to recode CM in order to allow for “what if” type scenarios it would be worth the effort. Consider this: One of the all time best selling and most popular games ever, QUAKE, by Id Software, was extremely customizable. Yes, it’s a FPS and not a tactical game/simulator but as far as audience expansion and sales were concerned it’s customizability was critical to the games success and its establishment of a new standard in open code being released to the end user. Although CM is an outstanding game as is, it could be better. Look at all of the people making countless patches for graphics, sounds, scenarios, etc. By allowing the end user to modify the game in as many ways as possible BTS would increase it’s audience and greatly expand the longevity of it’s games. Being able to fight identical units against each other would be great. It’s just a simulator after all and if people get worked up about Shermans drilling Shermans they don’t have to play those types of scenarios. I don’t really care for ABBA so I don’t listen to stations that play it

The dedicated game machines have the edge in that they are built for one thing, games. This enables the builders of machines and programmers to custom build all of the hardware to just play games. An analogy that might help: Think of a PC as a full service mechanics station. It has everything from socket wrenches and lifts to paint booths and gas pumps. A console, like the X-Box or PS2 has only the tools that it needs to play games. This enables the hardware to be much faster and the code to be very tight Hope this helps.

Yeah I would love to take identical tanks against each other but...BTS says that without rewriting the code it is impossible. Perhaps in CMII.

After searching around and failing to find anything definitive I would like to throw out a question: What two tanks would be considered equal in a tank pure platoon on platoon fight? With respect to armor effectiveness, MG effectiveness, speed, turret speed, ROF, etc. Since terrain can also make a huge difference let's just consider the tanks meeting in a moderately hilly/wooded environment. Also if anyone cares to comment on which tanks would be equal in a tank pure MOUT environment that would be of interest as well. Thanks

Sorry but I got to do the real thing today and it beats CM hands down. Called in some F-18's and Cobra's and believe it or not some Huey's with doorgun gatlings Combine that with the 155's and 81's and life was good. Nothing beats seeing a gatling fire at night. Welcome aboard. PS: I had to buy my wife a computer so I could get my fix of CM without interruption.

I banged my head against the wall for quite some time with my new system until I downloaded the lastest DirectX drivers from Microsoft. Before you spend too much time with your video drivers I'd try that. I think the lastest is 7a.

Before you look at the map from your side turn it around and come up with what you think the enemy will do Keep your plan simple and flexible. Remember that a plan is just that, a plan. Always remember to fight the fight. Don't waste time trying to fight the plan, fight the enemy instead.