dieseltaylor

One thing that does cross my mind is how long/sparse is the grass in Italy.? Is this generic grass for all of Europe? And what time of year is this battle? BTW this is the only thread on the battle I am reading so my questions are based soley on what is written here.

Very true. Too quick releases simply means , given the lengthier playing time of CMX2, that I can play fewer games before the next add-on is out. Why buy CMFI, and CMGL if I can jump to MG. BTW I would pay for North Africa and Russia regardless. Just for comparison of number of games played PBEM I maxed at eleven concurrently with CMx1 and using PBEMHelper could play monster games in a couple of weeks with AFAIR three turns a day. CMX2 requires much more input per move so I can never see me playing many concurrent games and really learning a module deeply unless I restrict myself.

I agree with ME about the benefit of being able to swiftly generate maps in CMx1 however we do not have that in CMx2 and there are bigger things to sort out than an auto-generator. However the halfway house of generated topographic maps is perhaps achievable by the community. This may be an attractive option in that the same underlying terrain is made available and open for a quarterly competition for noobie class, senior class etc to have their way with. This hopefully would provide a reserve of decent maps and the critique would drive up standards/knowledge and reward designers. Realism being the goal not how does it play. How any map plays depends on the force types, day/night , and weather [therefore I always think it a vain effort unless you are doing the entire scenario]. As I had sworn off CMBN until V2.00 i don't follow the threads on maps so questions: Does some sort of competition or honour system already exist? Would a small token amount also be an incentive? A permanent thread on forum?

Nice maps and pictures. Soon I will workout a translation!

Interesting line of reasoning but given the lack of indicators to go by percentage membership does seem a highly logical indicator. PS 43% of the vote gained in 1933 - they were supported by a lot of non-members. PPS. You could see this one of their platform being pretty universally popular now:

Compared to the open spaces of North Africa ....... I do think that North Africa is a great arena for battles covering all types of terrain and a great range of tanks. I can understand why perhaps US interest starts later in that theatre and it makes for some grim reading but at least it allows for open flanks and plenty of positional movement. Also the sparsity of trees helps with the LOS problem and presumably less objects means computers would be less stressed with very large maps.

In CM1 there were problems with conscript class troops as drivers etc as they could not even drive intelligently and the time lag to do anything was absurd. I am not suggesting that CM2 suffers the same way - I simply do not know if there are unforeseen side effects. A bit of exploration perhaps before deciding this is correct for scenarios!! : )

Guess camouflage could be pretty good. A detail that does not discuss what happened to the ATG! http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~attwood/8thkri/war_diary.htm

This is quite amusing from Jan 1944: You can see what happens when men are together a long time. I hope they were very happy together : )

I am not sure what was included in the CEV calculations but one is intrigued to know whether battles like Cassino were included. Also the use of battleship size supporting artillery for Anzio and Salerno might creep in ... As you can see my gut reaction is that I need to know more before trying to equate CEV. However I would not be surprised if the larger US squad and the better firepower were a significant benefit. Also we have to bear in mind that many UK troops may have already been fighting for a couple of years and become less gung-ho. However if these are stripped out of the equations it may be fairer! but does not reflect the reality on the ground.

US RL report was that the bazooka effectiveness diminished beyond 100 yards as the warhead was not striking at right angles . This would diminish the effect of the HEAT charge.

And your view on fighting experience levels? : ) Sounds good but a paucity of corroboration or even examples. Granted radial engines and Nordenfeldt sights. The armour/infantry cooperation may be a reflection of what books you read rather than fact. There is no doubt that there were some tragic examples of English bad judgement but there are also cases of good cooperation. This a is a tragic example perhaps senior officers too get battle wearied:

What an outstanding man Freyberg was. I was just reading some of his WW1 exploits mentioned incidentally in : Ian Fleming's Commandos: The Story of 30 Assault Unit in WWII A good read but not as excellent as "Churchills Wizard"s. PS. I am going to have to go up there one day and get the hang of the place. And justcouple spring to the eye .. WO 291/874 AFV armour distribution: comparison between panther and centurion under heavy attack WO 291/381 Firing tests for tank gunners

Is it not a US tradition to refer to younger generations as Junior? : ) Just because you are larger than your father does not change the fact. Just as a point of interest the US that fought longest in the European theatres was the 3rd Infantry Division with 531 day [he next five units were 531,511,500,443,421, and 400] So in terms of experience a less than English divisions. The famous 7th Armoured , the Desert Rats, did prove that men can only go on fighting so long before they begin to feel that they have done their bit and more. Then surviving becomes important to them than glory.

From " Notes from Normandy" I note this on the included map: Map is not great but I am having trouble spotting any thing higher than a 4. Here it is modern day with improved roads http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?q=englesqueville+la+Percee&mkt=en&FORM=HDRSC4

From a US Intelligence Bulletin .... and possibly black propaganda

As you are new here you may not be aware that CMSF when announced caused quite a furore and certainly a lot of CMAK etc fans would not buy it. American sales may have made up for some losses as it was generally non- Americans who had views on its "correctness". Israeli-Arab war games whilst there continues to be bloodshed etc. might be a problem. I think the desert makes excellent terrain and I must admit I was very surprised that BF did not do North Africa first as I assume scenery etc was to hand and they could concentrate more on the engine, And from a players point of view the bocage is an absolute pig to fight let alone to learn a new game system. My own observation at WeBoB with around 100+ menmbers then [it was decided that WW2 was the only club acceptable time period] very few played CMSF additionally so for many CMBN was a new game system.

Seriously good.

Great site. I was impressed with the PSP chairs. And just for fun: Calumet Industries apparently still has wartime stock of PSP!

Oh come on 76mm this is good clean fun. Totally incomprehensible of course but sure is classy compared to most forums : )

I have always thought that it is possible to take realism too far and having extremely fragile troops just seems masochistic in the extreme. Reading the US Army "Tankers in Tunisia" some of the squads were getting replacements who had been to the army's bakery school and would no doubt rate as conscripts. The point being though that the majority of troops were green or slightly better so adding raw recruits did not degrade the unit too much. Particularly as some got themselves killed pretty instantly by not realising that digging deep holes was a very good idea when bombardment was possible.

Absolutely right Heinz

I agree with Michael ....its safer : ) However straight roads and hills/ridges one has to consider the Romans who were generally in favour of straight roads. And a lot of Western Europe inherited straight roads as they tended to run between the important points of the Empire. River crossings, admin hubs etc. Wikipedia The vast majority of roads are post Roman and adopted a more practical line. And for some areas the Romans were never very interested. I can highly recommend "Ways of the World" by M G Lay as very interesting and in print. I do however begrudge his using the megametre as a unit of distance and not giving miles in brackets for those of us challenged by megametres. Bizarre considering its published in the US. As for the original maps published as QB's with V1.00 it was embarrasssing how bad they were. I looked at one recently and it was simply an undulating grass plain with a single clump of buildings. Any similarity to real scenario was absurd. However the community has been getting together to produce more realistic ones. Though they are hampered by the limited range of road shapes but more particularly rail track which really is shortchanged. Perhaps those in the US do not realise how heavily tracked Europe was in the 1940's and it was a very common tpye of scenery particularly in townscapes. The other thing is cultural. People who are used to post and rail fence may think they are the norm but this is not the case. I wince when I see a large map with a mix of post and rail, hedges, and stone walls applied almost randomly. The best thing is to look at maps, Google Earth etc , photos taken in an area, to get a feel for the terrain. Remembering of course to strip out multi-lane roads and post war building sprawl!!! Here is a town that the Romans took over from the local tribe. AT this height you can see the various roads clearly. http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?client=firefox-a&hs=Dfz&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.45645796,d.ZWU&biw=1990&bih=1001&q=cassel+france&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x47dce57463aa897d:0x3c6c4591ba7ac9ec,Cassel,+France&gl=uk&sa=X&ei=-jN6UbaNA8irO9SQgSg&ved=0CM0BELYD Germans attacking 1940 http://ww2images.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/panzers-of-6-panzer-division-advance.html

Well it would matter if US halftracks did not also suffer in the same way!

Incorrect I am afraid. The translation is a little rubbish but the award was extended in December 1943 to include bazooka type. It may also be that you had to nail more than one ... JasonC