Beer_n_Pretzels

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Grobdeutschland: it lets me do other things as well, talk to my wife, eat, potty, etc...if I'd play online I'd be a lonely, slowly starving, constipated, sleep deprived, young man. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> well said GD, Especially the talking to your wife part. An essential part of achieving domestic bliss. And a happy wife = more time for CM).

Congrats Karch on your new baby! The first is the biggest change in your life you will ever have. No more TCP/IP games for you Out first baby, Eloise, is 9 months and now is a lot of fun. For the first 4 months she just eat, screamed, shat and slept. Now she is crawling and lamost walking and talking. Just amazing. My wife is just about to kick me off hte computer but I'll send you a QB in the next day or so. see how we go

The higher the quality of the unit the better the chance to spot enemy units. Infantry spot much better than vehicles. A Crack sniper in a tall building, or a veteran split squad at the edge of a wood can see a long way, even if it is hiding. However hiding a unit does lower the chance of it spotting enemy units.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Private Pike: I find one use of carriers is to hide the presence of a Wasp or 2. If you have a swarm of carriers moving around I find PBEM oponents tend to ignore them after a while. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Now PP, this is a cunning little trick, especially if you have multiple Wasps. Once bitten twice shy

Remember these three things hwen engaging nasty German tanks with your wafer-armoured shermans: 1. Tophat & Lowsky 2. Flank attacks 3. Hull down positions search for them on this forum and also the CM Combat HQ.

Thanks GD, I'll do just about do anything for a Gin & Tonic! (Actually more like a beer while I'm watch the cricket). back to the Ram and two M5A1's; its an even nastier combination when you add in an MMG carrier, WASP and Cromwell Close Support Tank

Greetings, I'm hoping some of the WWII history Gurus and/or BTS reps could shed some light on this situation. I'm a die-hard British player and nothing warms my heart more than the continuous chatter of a 1912 Vickers machine Gun. The Vickers is the perfect sustained fire support / suppression machine gun. It doesn't have the muderous rate of fire of a MG42, or the sheer stopping power of a 50 Cal, but it just goes, goes and goes. In fact the Vickers can just about be fired non-stop for an average 30 turn Quick Battle. Sounds Good? I've also read that the Vickers 1912 MG had an amazing reputation for reliability. For example, at the Somme in 1916, the 100th Machine gun company fired non-stop for twelve hours, with not one stoppage. At the end of the action the guns had comsumed an average of 8,300 rounds, totalling 1,000,000 rounds for the entire company" (see p124, John Weeks, Infantry Weapons, Ballantine, 1971). Based on this excerpt, I decided to do a little test. I set up a firing range and got 10 Vickers MG's to fire non-stop at 10 buildings for 20 turns. 14 Jams were recorded. I then repeated this experiment with German MG42 and the US 30 Cal. The 30 Cal recorded 16 Jams and the MG42s, 13 Jams. The results suggest there is little difference between the machine guns in terms of reliability. Of course one test is not statistically valid, but it does beg the following questions: 1. How is the reliability of crew-served machine guns reflected in CM? (disregard vehicle mounted MG's) 2. What does a JAM result actually represent? is is an actual stoppage, or does it also represent barrell changes, refilling coolant etc? 3. Was the Vickers MG historically more reliable than the MG42? thanks in anticipation

IW is on the mark, kill the enemy and the flags fall to you by default... I also suggest to use armoured cars and split squads to recon approaches before sending in the tanks

Some people (read: ubertankmeisters) may consider the tactic to be gamey, but it is not a game-breaking tactic. In fact the german player is better placed to use this tactic because of the choice of three armoured cars and 2 hafltracks. Furthermore, they have a cheap and effective counter to this tactic by placing a 20mm AA gun on each flank...

I play the Brits and I favour 4.2" mortars as fast, all round artillery. You can use them for smoke, you can take down buildings and you can immobilise/kill medium tanks, and kill infantry or AT guns. The only thing they won't do (unles you're very lucky) is kill Panther or Tigers.

Play the British and purchase some Fireflys. Fritz isn't so cocky when you're slicing through Tigers and Hetzers at over 500m. Even a King Tiger can be taken out frontally if the Firefly uses Tungsten (Turret Penetration). Use 'Tophat' and 'Lowsky' tactics to engage German Tanks. This has been discussed previously on the forum, so feel free to use the search function. One warning, those Fireflies are still Shermans, and they usually only take one hit (ie. the first and the last...) They also make great bonfires for Fritz to toast his marshmallows after the battle Another bonus is that 17 pounder shells don't seem to break up like Sherman, Cromwell and Churchill ammo (which carry essentially the same gun). If you're really annoyed seeing Tigers all the time then insist on the Panther 75/76 rule, or buy 8" Artillery

Instead of fielding three M3A1's the Brits can use a combination of 2 M5A1's and a Ram Kangaroo. The M5A1 has 8mm of armour (compared to 7mm for the M3A1 - that extra 1mm seems to make a big difference) and sports the standard 30 Cal and 50 Cal MG's. While two of them supress Fritz from 250m, the Ram moves up and dumps its cargo (usually a pioneer squad and a flamethrower). Hopefully the flamethrower can turn Fritz into Bubble 'n' Squeak, at which time you can bring up the M5A1's with the remaining Pioneer squad and the HQ.

ooh Yeah the WASP or "marshmallow cooker" as I like to call it is one of six reasons I like to play the British. The other five are: 1. Tanks with 17pdr guns 2. Ram Kangaroos 3. MMG Carriers and the 1912 Vickers MMG 4. 4.2" Mortars 5. 6 Pdr AT Gun Time for a cup of tea now...

If you're playing open slather, then the Jagdpanther is great value if used from a reasonable ambush position. If you're playing the Panther 75/76 rule then a well handled Jagdpanzer can just about kill anything. If you're playing the short 75 rule then a Hetzer is exceptional value. To overcome the slow rate of fire, I've heard of players siting two Hetzers together in an ambush to increase the firs fire kill probability. The only thing you need to watch out for is incoming mortar fire (60mm mortars and up). probably a good time to shoot and scoot.

Keep them well away from MG42s. At 250m or less they are toast. However three of them transporting an infantry Platoon to within 300m of the enemy, and then providing fire support with 30 cal and 50 cal machine guns (only the M3A1) is absolutely devastating.

Greetings, I'm hoping some of the WWII history Gurus and/or BTS reps could shed some light on this situation. I'm a die-hard British player and nothing warms my heart more than the continuous chatter of a 1912 Vickers machine Gun. The Vickers is the perfect sustained fire support / suppression machine gun. It doesn't have the muderous rate of fire of a MG42, or the sheer stopping power of a 50 Cal, but it just goes, goes and goes. In fact the Vickers can just about be fired non-stop for an average 30 turn Quick Battle. Sounds Good? I've also read that the Vickers 1912 MG had an amazing reputation for reliability. For example, at the Somme in 1916, the 100th Machine gun company fired non-stop for twelve hours, with not one stoppage. At the end of the action the guns had comsumed an average of 8,300 rounds, totalling 1,000,000 rounds for the entire company" (see p124, John Weeks, Infantry Weapons, Ballantine, 1971). Based on this excerpt, I decided to do a little test. I set up a firing range and got 10 Vickers MG's to fire non-stop at 10 buildings for 20 turns. 14 Jams were recorded. I then repeated this experiment with German MG42 and the US 30 Cal. The 30 Cal recorded 16 Jams and the MG42s, 13 Jams. The results suggest there is little difference between the machine guns in terms of reliability. Of course one test is not statistically valid, but it does beg the following questions: 1. How is the reliability of crew-served machine guns reflected in CM? (disregard vehicle mounted MG's) 2. What does a JAM result actually represent? is is an actual stoppage, or does it also represent barrell changes, refilling coolant etc? 3. Was the Vickers MG historically more reliable than the MG42? thanks in anticipation

thanks guys, I think I'll repost this topic again under a more sensible subject heading...

Greetings, I'm hoping some of the WWII history Gurus and/or BTS reps could shed some light on this situation. I'm a die-hard British player and nothing warms my heart more than the continuous chatter of a 1912 Vickers machine Gun. The Vickers is the perfect sustained fire support / suppression machine gun. It doesn't have the muderous rate of fire of a MG42, or the sheer stopping power of a 50 Cal, but it just goes, goes and goes. In fact the Vickers can just about be fired non-stop for an average 30 turn Quick Battle. Sounds Good? I've also read that the Vickers 1912 MG had an amazing reputation for reliability. For example, at the Somme in 1916, the 100th Machine gun company fired non-stop for twelve hours, with not one stoppage. At the end of the action the guns had comsumed an average of 8,300 rounds, totalling 1,000,000 rounds for the entire company" (see p124, John Weeks, Infantry Weapons, Ballantine, 1971). Based on this excerpt, I decided to do a little test. I set up a firing range and got 10 Vickers MG's to fire non-stop at 10 buildings for 20 turns. 14 Jams were recorded. I then repeated this experiment with German MG42 and the US 30 Cal. The 30 Cal recorded 16 Jams and the MG42s, 13 Jams. The results suggest there is little difference between the machine guns in terms of reliability. Of course one test is not statistically valid, but it does beg the following questions: 1. How is the reliability of crew-served machine guns reflected in CM? (disregard vehicle mounted MG's) 2. What does a JAM result actually represent? is is an actual stoppage, or does it also represent barrell changes, refilling coolant etc? 3. Was the Vickers MG historically more reliable than the MG42? thanks in anticipation

I love those MMG Carriers, great to provide support for an Infantry platoon while they are advancing...I just got to remember to button them up

Greetings HP, I was going to post some suggestions directly to you, as your opponent no doubt would be reading this thread. However your profile does not include an e-mail address 1. for starters I would probably read Fionn's close terrain defence after action report to get some ideas. This can be found at: http://combathq.thegamers.net/aars/game13/closeindex.asp 2. have a fundamental doctrine to guide the deployment and action of your troops. For example, you may decide that the best form of defence is too kill his tanks. If so, buy AT guns and Panzsershrecks and setup ambushes. 3. search the Forum for threads on assault tactics 4. create your own assault quick battle and play the germans against the attacking AI using the same setup. 5. Don't go overboard with super-elite (or even Veteran) troops. Artillery shells don't care if the target is green or elite. Have your tanks, sharpshooters and maybe FO's as veterans; other units types can usually be regulars, depending on their mission. for example forwards spotting squads should be veteran (or even crack, if allowable). 6. Your reserve force should consist of at least one platoon of veteran infantry, preferably mounted in Halftracks so they can quickly reinforce the line by travelling via covered routes. 7. Get tank destroyers instead of tanks. They are cheaper and (in the case of a JagdPanther or Jagdpanzer) usually carry a better gun. 8. Have alternate positions for your tanks. If your opponenet likes artillery, then once your tanks show their ugly snouts he'll hit 'em with the heavy artillery which may not toast your tanks, but make them immobile or damage the main gun. 9. Consider using a flamwthrower or two. Can be a nasty suprise for the attacker! I hope this helps.

Hi GD and GermanBoy, Yes I too want to test the Archer in a PBEM. The Archer, deployed in pairs works very well against the AI, even knocking Panthers and Tigers frontally. I haven't tried a King Tiger of Jagdtiger - I give it a go and get back to you. The problem is that once the Archers have done a pop-up attack, any player worthy of the title "reasonably competent" would target them with off-map Mortars or Artillery. Moving to an alternate position is essential. Furthermore they are vulerable to 20mm guns at close range (ie. under 300m). Unlike other allied tanks, I think the ideal engagement range for a pair Archers (both firing at the same target) is 400-800 metres.

Yep, the cromwells get knocked out easily, especially flanks shots from just about anything. However it is thrilling to watch a Cromwell outrun a swivelling Panther Turret and then drill a shot into its nether regions...But your right, more often than not it get's taken out and it cannot take on any German tank frontally (except for the Lynx...) However their speee makes them very good for tophat and lowksy tactics...

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Germanboy: Even doing that you will lose a lot of Churchills against the AI. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Too right Germanboy. Churchillls are just too slow. Give me a cromwell IV anyday!

Hi germanboy, I did a quick mock up of the scenario you suggested. All I can say is... Ugly. very Ugly. Charging Jagdpanthers and trying to flank them with Churchills is a tough call. I lost 6 tanks out of 12 (churchill VII). Not pretty. And your right, they pivot and shoot damn fast... The biggest problem was that because the Churchills are so slow I couldn't do 'tophat' and 'loswky' with them. Of course the simple solution would have been to smoke them out and then hit them from all sides...

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by coralsaw: I find that preempting the occupation of flags with a couple of armor cars works well, as they have good speed and can delay enemy infantry. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I Agree with Gremlin on this, armoured cars should be used to scout, not occupy objectives. That's what infantry are for