dieseltaylor

The map sizes in CM and I suspect CM*2 I would think would preclude indirect fire. The maximum elevation on a Wespe is 42 degrees and max range normally 8400metres. Given borg spotting is already a problem I think this might make it considerably worse if indirect fire was included AND the terrain was such that one could lob shells over ridges. Plunging fire I just cannot see happening on the small CM areas.

I had a very very widely dispersed platoon of TD's, I cannot recall whether they were Hellcats, and the Germans fired a rocket barrage. One disabled, one gun damage and three crew lost. Huh!

Paper Tiger - I think you may be confusing current with historic. One might get excited about the current events rather more than something that is over 60 years ago and which you can do nothing about. : ) Following JonS's point about forcing the CA I was thinking of the alternative fighting methods that may have been considered for the bocage given the US did not want to use British Funnies. The ampulomet idea for slinging napalm equivalent to the next hedgeline may have been a possibility. The Calliope fired directly from beind hedgerow to the next one. ..... Fire seems the chief weapon as fear of fire works darn well even against the bravest. As for the Brylcreem Boys reading the German accounts of trying to reach the battlefield and the lack of sleep and stress of being "hunted" they were not a waste. It seems a shame that cooperation with the ground could not be raised to the level that the FB's could be vectored more closely. However my big belief is that if the US had the equivalent of the 79th's range of specials the bocage may have been less traumatic.

JC - Firstly, as I play very quickly I am not willing to trade off the time spent and given - Secondly, if I move a gun into a position I cannot know exactly where the enemy will appear so may inadvertently achieve such a position. So really it seems a solution for a problem that does not really warrant the attention. Bear in mind I think small maps an abortion and tend to play on huge maps so one can achieve angles and alternative routes. I suppose if I played on small maps where single guns could be very powerful I might feel slightly differently - but I doubt it. Mortars, artillery, planes must be used. And as I said previously with borg spotting and everything else this does seem small beer. AND if one truly cared then to cater for borg the entire game can be played with Ironman rules. In fact on small maps that may be a playable version of CM. : ) PS Why not post your Napoleon thread on Les Grognards? It will get a lot of thought there. Given the polyglot nature of that Forum perhaps you will need greater forebearance though I believe there are also some very serious grogs there.

You traditionalist you - you want buffeting back! : ) I'll write and suggest for the Oz market a few ribbons around the periphery will be necessary!! : )

Lucky you Costard. Its never worked with me but then I've never fancied any guy. : )

No, but posibly the Allies could have relied on serious material advantage to wear them down without bloody armour and infantry attacks ... I know that sounds trite and based on hindsight [ and lack of politics] but if indeed artillery is the big killer in the war then that with airpower must have been a less bloody approach. I cannot recall it but I suspect V1's and atomic bomb research may have demanded speedly ending Germnay

Popular Science Sep 1945 Google books has some stuff on LVT's - but nothing on seaworthiness. And most of them were not armoured being embarrassed by HMG fire. http://www.marineswwii.com/pdfs/LVT%27s.pdf

I just love the stuff he comes up with. Despite the cost this will be a winner. http://www.dyson.co.uk/fans/ and this is even better for people like me: http://www.gizmag.com/wikireader-pocket-wikipedia/13093/

What to do after the invasion? Mmm. From Wiki -

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps Put in Gara Bridge Devon UK. Travel eastwards and you will see the old field pattern quite clearly and a host of irregular fields and most of them looking to be in the 100ft+ region.This smay work http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&t=h&ie=UTF8&ll=50.364682,-3.763976&spn=0.012511,0.027595&z=15&lci=com.panoramio.all

Most English officers I would have thought would have been familiar with the scenic lanes of Devon [narrow high sided] and its tiny fields so it is either everyone assumed it was being covered elsewhere, a monumental cock-up, or training for that specific terrain would be seen as defeatist. However we are all using the benefit of hindsight and given armoured warfare and bocage had not met before it may have been collective group think that the Germaans would retreat and if not would be massively overwhelmed.

To be honest the Germans fighting so hard in Normandy may have surprised the Allied High Command as the Germans were fighting at the longest extent of supply and the Allies at the shortest. It is interesting to conjecture whether the German armour could have delivered a devastating example of proper armoured warfare if they had allowed a rapid expansion of the front - sans Cherbourg. Still Hitler would not countenance it and the German Home Front may have taken the news badly. Replacement dictator anyone? As for the bocage. You will see that Doubler refers to small fields of 400 * 200 yards which is 80,000 sqare yards or slightly over 16 acres or 6 Hectares. This is not a small field now compared to the UK average and certainly was not in 1944 before mechanisation took hold. http://www.gwynedd.gov.uk/upload/public/attachments/558/Arable_Field_Margins.pdf takes a figure of 3 hectares as the average arable field in 2004. This excludes orchards and small commercial woodland. So one might think Doubler with the opportunity to put matters straight has, apart from saying the fields are irregular, does nothing but provide a single field size figure which is wrong. Curiously the matter of using the "Funnies" which the British had invented and offered to the US is not covered. One might think AVRE and Crocodiles would have been very effective in firing from one small field into another - or perhaps there are drawbacks I have not considered. One nice thing about Doubler is that the success is attributed to better combined arms though I am sure that also the German Army basically bled to death in Normandy and then could hold the line no longer.

Being captured doesn't count.

It helps to read the article sometimes : )

For clarity I should have said I was thinking of infantry firing. As for tanks surely it is the buttoned ones who have limited viewing? Their is also problems with squads firing at full whack no matter how insignificant the target. Laser range finding. Superb terrain reading during night and fog. God view ...... Guns ...yeah OK so what.

But Ron dont't you think that yu have to play the hand your dealt with and we already have borg spotting and unidirectional facing infantry - this seems quite minor in comparison.

http://www.solardecathlon.org/ Loads of really interesting ideas, some very low tech and some high tech but all very much better for the planet. The news on carbon levels and sea levels is fairly worry ing so the more we do, and the sooner the better. Thats the way to do it!

Hmmm. Interesting.

Playing TOW instead of CM!!!!!! NOOOOOoooooo, bad choice.

On a slightly more realistic 3000points and letting the computer choose my 510 point airforce nailed 6 halftracks so I lost pointwise by 150 but the dislocation to the attack must also be factored in. Seems a reasonable swop. The planes probably ignored the Panthers as too tough - which is wwhat I wanted to happen.

A site with some detsails on the NA ice lakes and drainage -whwew! http://www.icr.org/article/3943/ And for tsunami fans:

How many games have you played? How long have you played in turns ? I played a game where the AI [sole player] had a biplane whilst I was on Zeppelins. I stomped him turn 95 and he surrendered 96 and I found his economy and expansion was very poor.

Absolutely. And for those who never buy aircraft ....... strafing a gun crew must be very satisfying. Just for laughs out of a 5000 point force I bought 7 strafing fighters [2 strafes] - and the tally was 9 AT guns and five halftracks. The Germans had no AA but many play with little or none. Perhaops I should also have put out some tanks to distract the pilots. I wonder what the psychological effect is on the opposing player as four fighters turn up in a single turn making mincemeat of his soft targets : )

I love geography and history. The articles first paragraph rather overstates the case a tad as the tsunami would have traveled eastwards from Sicily. So anything due West , and West would have awaited the backwash some considerable time later. Three continents! Europe in about 10 seconds, Africa a couple of hours and ... er that bit of coast on the Arabian sub-continent. If Sicily is assumed to be part of Europe then counting itself is also bizarre.