dieseltaylor
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Posts posted by dieseltaylor
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I look at it this way, it takes me a good 5-6 months just to appreciate a release. Any faster and they would just sit on my shelf longer and not have as much time for BF to polish them. Don't get me wrong, I LIKE looking at them on the shelf. Still it is better for us all that they are properly baked before BF turns us loose on them or we will spend more time on patches and less time on releases.
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.
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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?
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Nice maps and pictures. Soon I will workout a translation!
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Not really. Just because many of its members were not members of the Nazi party per se doesn't mean they didn't agree with the Nazi party agenda.
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:
12. In consideration of the monstrous sacrifice in property and blood that each war demands of the people personal enrichment through a war must be designated as a crime against the people. Therefore we demand the total confiscation of all war profits. ] -
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.
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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!! : )
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Guess camouflage could be pretty good. A detail that does not discuss what happened to the ATG!
During the morning the Tp Sgts tank of 5 Tp B Sqn was knocked out by a dug In 7.5 cm ak 40 at about 20 yds. Four of the crew are missing and one was rescued.http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~attwood/8thkri/war_diary.htm
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This is quite amusing from Jan 1944:
Disembarkation leave began at once on the following scale:-Those abroad for less than 2 years -2 weeks
Those abroad for less than 4 years -3 weeks
Those abroad for more than 4 years-4 weeks
It was mostly finished by mid February when Privilege Leave began. Lt Col and Major Wainman set an example to the Regt by getting married shortly after returning home and their lead was widely followed.
You can see what happens when men are together a long time. I hope they were very happy together : )
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Yes. There is no QJM/TNDM methodology in the data from the EPW reports. As such, none of the conditions of combat (terrain, weather, force mix, air support, etc.) are accounted for. One still notes definate patterns, though.
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.
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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.
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And your view on fighting experience levels? : )
The Americans started out knowing almost nothing, but they learned, however slowly and painfully, and soon overtook their insular brethren.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:
In Normandy at 3.00 pm on 20 July 1944 Lt Col Rea Leakey, took command of 7 RTR from the wounded and partially blinded Lt Col George Gainsford. The Regiment had been badly mauled and had lost half of its officers in action. The forward squadrons, 'A' under Dick Jocelyne and 'B' under Allan Taylor were each supporting infantry battalions who had together just re-captured the village of Maltot, dominated by the notorious Hill 112.Rea Leakey wrote 'At dawn my Adjutant woke me and said that the Divisional Commander wanted me to report to his Head Quarters immediately. So it was some 30 minutes later that I appeared before this Senior Officer in a beautiful Normandy orchard some five miles from Hill 112. Major General Thomas, whose nickname was 'Von Thoma', was a ruthless tough soldier, a gunner by 'trade' commanding an Infantry Division. Like many of the infantry divisions his had suffered heavy losses in the Normandy 'bocage' country. His Division had captured Maltot, but had been counter-attacked and driven out. On that occasion 9 RTR had supported the attack, and Thomas considered that they had pulled back and left the Infantry to themselves.
This was understandable because the armoured regiments had been trained only to operate by day, and at the end of the battle withdrew to replenish and carry out repairs.
This fiery little general looked me up and down, probably noted my footwear – plimsolls cut to accommodate swollen feet - and understandably took a dislike to me. I don't blame him. 'Where are your squadrons ? Back replenishing, no doubt, and leaving the infantry with no support, as usual, I suppose". I explained to him that this was not the case. 'A' and 'B' Squadrons were forward in the village with the two Wiltshire Battalions. 'C' Squadron with the Somersets were in reserve some two miles back from Maltot. General Thomas 'blew up'. 'That squadron should be well forward, there", he said, pointing to the slopes of Hill 112 and some 400 yards from the village. I tried to explain to him that there was no cover for them, but also that they would be sitting targets for Tiger tanks on Hill 112. 'Do as you are bloody well told. Order them to move there immediately and don't argue", he shouted. 'I refuse" I replied. He went pink in the face, strode over to my scout car, picked up the radio microphone and started to shout orders for 'C' Squadron. As he had little idea of our codes the orders were meaningless. I gave in, and told the poor young Squadron Commander to proceed into the 'valley of death'. As I put the microphone down the General picked it up and shouted his final order. 'This is the General speaking. Bloody well get a move on or you will be sacked." He knew only too well that the minute his back was turned I would cancel the order so he propelled me deeper into the orchard and proceeded to tell me what he thought of me and my ancestors. When eventually I was allowed to leave the Divisional Headquarters many minutes had passed and worse was to follow – I could not get through to my Regiment on the wireless.
I arrived in Maltot village in time to see the twelfth 'C' Squadron tank 'brew up' and the Squadron virtually ceased to exist. It was my turn to loose my temper and I did. I transferred to another scout car and sent the following message to my Adjutant. 'Tell General Thomas that I am on my way to General Montgomery's Headquarters to get him sacked.' When I arrived the two generals were outside the famous caravan obviously discussing my future. I think I would have strangled him if I had been allowed to get near him. It was only after he had gone that the C-in-C sent for me. I was about to tell him that it was now impossible for me to go back to my Regiment after this disaster, but he stopped me. 'I know all about it – most unfortunate – but I order you to return to your Regiment immediately and resume command. By the time you rejoin them you will find they have moved from Thomas's Division, and I assure you that you will never serve under him again – never!" Monty kept his word.'
Post script. In early 1946 Rea Leakey was commanding 5 RTR in Rhine Army. General Thomas, as Corps Commander, paid a visit to the Regiment. He arrived alone without any staff officers. At the end of his visit he asked to speak to the officers in the mess. Rea Leakey recalls 'His talk to us went something like this.' 'My main purpose in visiting you today is a very personal one. In June and July 1944 I was commanding 43 Infantry Division in Normandy. In one of our most successful battles we captured the village of Matlot beneath the slopes of the notorious Hill 112. The next morning I summoned the Commanding Officer of 7 RTR to my Headquarters. To cut a long story short I ordered him to move his third squadron to take over a position on Hill 112. He refused but I bullied him into giving the order and made sure that he would not cancel it when I let him return to his scout car because I knew he would cancel it. The squadron was destroyed and the fault was mine. I have come today to apologise."
Such were the pressures on commanders in battle.
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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
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They seem to have found it comforting to continue to refer to the American as "our junior partners" long after that had ceased to be the case, after D-Day for instance.
Michael
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.
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From " Notes from Normandy" I note this on the included map:
1 Roads 8 metres wide,metalled or paved
2 Roads 6-8 metres wide ditto
3 Roads 3-5 metres wide ditto
4 Secondary Roads. Other Roads & Tracks
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
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From a US Intelligence Bulletin .... and possibly black propaganda
3. GERMAN-ITALIAN RELATIONSIs there a spoke or two broken in the Axis ?
There have been many reports for a long time that
German and Italian soldiers do not get along well together.
The Italians are said to hate the Germans, and
the Germans, in turn, make sly remarks about the fighting
abilities of the Italians. Some of these reports have
come from official sources. The following extract from
a German publication captured in Libya seems to bear
out these reports:
" ITALIAN WAR COMMUNIQUE
"On the Tobruk front a large force of Italians attacked
an enemy cyclist, causing him to dismount.
After heavy and prolonged fighting they were able to
puncture his tires. The front wheel was destroyed, and
the loss of the rear wheel must also be considered
possible. The handlebars are in our hands, but possession
of the frame is still being bitterly contested.
"H. Q. Royal Italian Army"
The Japanese are said to make similar jokes about
their Siamese (Thailand) allies.
483778°—42—
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I don't think there was gonna be any problem.There is a game about this conflicts(probably the only one),a flight sim called Wings Over Israel(Third Wire Prod. 2008) and I haven't heard there has been any controversy or problems about it.What's more,CMSF is based in an hypothetical war between USA and Syria.The Israel-Arab countries wars are real and you could play(and eventually win) with either side.
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.
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Seriously good.
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Great site. I was impressed with the PSP chairs.
And just for fun:
During World War II, the United States manufactured a quantity of landing mats capable of building a roadway around the world’s equator. Some 2 million tons of landing mat totaling $200 million accounted for enough steel to build 650 10,000-ton cargo ships.Calumet Industries apparently still has wartime stock of PSP!
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Oh come on 76mm this is good clean fun. Totally incomprehensible of course but sure is classy compared to most forums : )
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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.
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Absolutely right Heinz
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One thing I was trying to say in my initial post in this thread that may not have come through is that my dissatisfaction with maps was largely due to a lot of the QB maps that shipped with the original release of the game were pretty crude. I had the feeling (which I admit may not have been accurate) that the designers had spent their lives in the city and really didn't know how real terrain is put together. This produced what was for me some real clinkers. As designers have gained more experience, the quality of the maps has improved noticeably. However, it would help if designers would keep a few rules of thumb in mind:
1. The basic contours of the land are established by tectonic forces. Learn how these work and what they tend to produce. The best way to do this is to spend a lot of time in rural and wilderness areas, hiking around and actually noting how things look. Failing that, there are some books that might help.
2. Once the basic contours have been established, they determine how water will flow through the landscape (hint: it does not flow uphill). This in turn will modify the landscape through erosion and deposition. It will also determine where vegetation will grow most abundantly.
3. Animals, both wild and domesticated, will modify the landscape in various ways, through grazing and path making for instance.
4. Human habitation can and will have an enormous impact on the landscape. But keep in mind that, especially prior to the end of WW II, they nearly always took the easy way. They built near water, both to consume for themselves, their crops, and their livestock, and also as a means of transportation. They did not build roads that go straight up the side of a ridge if there was any way to avoid it, and there nearly always was, including simply not traveling that way.
There is a lot more that could get added to this list, but just keeping those four rules in mind should produced better maps, or at least not glaringly unrealistic ones.
Michael
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.
Germans attacking 1940
http://ww2images.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/panzers-of-6-panzer-division-advance.html
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Cliff Notes version: German HT gunners are too vulnerable. But using HTs in aggressive manner is ahistorical and you're a gamey bastige if you do. So nothing matters.
Well it would matter if US halftracks did not also suffer in the same way!
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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
ASL Vet - your problem is that the TDB was for destruction of tanks with bazookas. It did not remotely exclude them, as they are hand held weapons. It excludes only towed PAK weapons, all infantry AT was eligible.Notice of the high command of the Army of 9 March 1942:"... The leaders approved the introduction of a special badge for the battles of low Panzerkampfwagen by lone ....
2 The special badge is awarded to soldiers from 22 June 1941 as a single fighter with
Melee weapons or melee agents (anti-tank rifle, rifle grenade, concentrated load, etc.)
an enemy armored car or other enemy armored vehicle
Melee have destroyed or incapacitated.
3 The badge comprises a ribbon of aluminum web of about 90 mm length and 32 mm
Beam with two knitted-black stripes (3 mm wide) to the punched sheet metal
Silhouette of an armored car mounted in black.
4 On re awarding another sleeve insignia will be created. "1
Notice of the high command of the Army of 18 December 1943:
"The special badge on golden ribbon is awarded after the fifth, etc. eligible low struggles of armored car instead of another special silver badge. Before the badges are awarded four silver and then pass the relevant soldiers remain in memory." 1
The destruction of a tank than assault could be counted for the purposes of (general) Storm badge. Often the soldiers in question was for "personal courage and bravery" the Iron Cross, Second or First Class verliehen.2
From a decision of 18 December 1943 allowed the "tank destruction badge" * are also awarded to soldiers who had a tank with missile destroyed 43 anti-tank rifle (so-called "stovepipe" or "Panzerschreck") or a "bazooka".
ALLIED : Gustav Line BETA AAR Round Two - Eye of the Elefant
in Combat Mission Fortress Italy
Posted
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.