CRSutton

I had the chance to lift and shoulder a schreck. It is an amazingly heavy and cumbersome weapon. I would think aiming it from a standing position would almost be impossible. I am fairly strong but the act of just balancing the weapon to sight it took all my strength. (Put an eight foot extension ladder on your shoulder and try to point it at different items. Then try to point it at a moving vehicle.) I would think that, except under the best of circumstances, it would be impossible to hit a moving target at ranges over 100m and very hard to hit a stationary target. Even the lowly piat was a fairly heavy weapon.

Is there a good mod for desert terrain out there? Where can one find it. How bout other terrain? Thanks. I am gonna go blind and it ain't from anything I have been doing alone in the shower.

The Italians never figured it out. The Germans on the other hand figured out how to deal with and it really proved to be obsolete by 1942. The German 50mm really was not too effective but the introduction of the long barrel 50mm really made the difference. Problem with the Matilda was that in spite of its stellar armor, it was obsolete in so many other ways (slow, weak MG secondary armament, weak gun, lack of HE). Germans tanks were initially underarmed vs the matilda but in all other aspects superior due to their excellent overall utility. The Brits stuck with their slow infantry support tanks when all of the rest of the world was figuring out that they were not really that useful.

Yes, it is a tweak. My understanding is that this is a deliberate design feature. The War in the Western desert was relativly free of atrocities and units tended to surrender rather more frequently than you would see in say Russia or Europe later in the war where the prolonged conflict made for much more anamosity. Remember, you see no SS units in the desert. German units were Whermacht and tended to respect the British soldiers that they captured and vice versa. Likewise British and Italians had a long history of close relationships and many on both sides remembered that they were former allies just two decades earlier.

The primary purpose of the wet stowage was to deny oxygen to the ammo storage area. No oxygen, no explosion, no fire. At least in theory. The glycol would keep the stowage from freezing up in severe weather.

There is a fine example of the Italian tankette at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. Well worth the visit. Useless looking little bugger if you ask me. Slow and cramped. Could be knocked out with a decent Heavy MG.

A good point and really should be in the game. During operation Crusader, both sides had captured so much equipment and intermingled it with thier own that after a few days of fighting, air support was effectively nullified as neither air force could be sure that they were firing on friendly or enemy troops.

My understanding is that the M1 carbine was more popular in the Pacific theater where the garand-although an excellent weapon was considered too long and unwieldy for combat in restricted jungle terrain. Grunts liked the M1 due to its lightness and short barrel for jungle combat where range of engagement was generally much shorter so the range and hitting power of the garand was not as necessary as the abiltiy to swing a weapon and get off rapid shots. IIRC, there was a general shortage of M1 in the Pacific with the bulk of the weapons shiped to Europe. I am doing this all from memory.

The Allies won because the Germans managed to piss too many people off. That is, they bit off way more than they could chew. I would like to think that there was a bit of moral superiority too. Sometimes that will give an edge. As for Allied equipment, don't knock it. Both sides in the war made some excellent equipment. (and some pitiful stuff) In game terms the sherman tank is highly underated, because you are using it in a tactical battle in a controlled situation against German tanks that do not show thier own faults so readily. In reality the sherman was an excellent tank-veristal, reliable, cheap to produce, adaptable. It had excellent tracks, engine, fast turret, rapid rate of fire, good radio. It also had many early faults but many of them were corrected by war's end. The late war sherman "easy eight" with its revolutionary suspension was one of the best tanks to come out of the war, and proved itself superior to the T34-85 in Korea-where it was much preferred by American tankers over the buggy pershing. Unfortunately a game such as CM can not place as much emphasis on such mundane but critical things as track and engine life. shermans and M3s were well liked by the Brits not just for their fighting capability but for their endurance-a critical factor in the desert (in any theater). In a fluid situation, a retreating army needs reliable equipment as broken tanks get left behind. Yes, in a frontal attack against a German tiger or panther in open terrain, the sherman was at a disadvantage. But the sherman was not designed for that purpose and those sort of tank on tank encounters were rarer than you would think. As an all purpose tank in any other terrain, the sherman could hold its on. Probably the best qualtiy of the sherman was its fast turret and superior rate of fire. In any sort of unexpected meeting engagement, this adds a great tactical advantage-as usually in an armor engagement, the tank that lands the first hit holds most of the cards. I think in North Afrcia, the Germans initially held most of the tactical advantage. There equipment was better and more versital and, most important, their use of combined arms and tactical doctrine was better. Superior numbers and an overall better supply kept the Brits in the game. Eventually, British equipment and tactics rose to higher levels and that is why they were able to suceed. Set up as a test a blind meeting engagement between some PzIvs and shermans. Put the same crews in them. When they meet, watch the shermans closely. See just how fast those turrets spin. It is downright beautiful. As with the Russians, there are ways to play the Amis and Brits that focus on their strengths. This holds true with all nationalities. Just give it some practice.

Tanks were surprisingly complex. It is not just the gun that gets knocked out. More often it is the gun sight. A solid hit from any large ordinance-even non pentrating would rattle a tank quite hard. Many times the force of the impact would damage of knock the gunsight out of allignment. This would serve to make the MA all but useless in battle and require the tank to withdraw. Very few tankers stuck around after losing the use of their gun. Many tanks carried spare gun sights but would have to withdraw to repair and this would be outside of the time frame of most CM battles. Of course, depending on the conditions and nationality and year, spares may not have been as readily available.

Coward is a relative term. You have to have an understanding of the political situation in Italy to really understand the motivation of the front line troops. By 1940, many Italians had soured on the facists and their leader. Italian overseas adventures had sapped the economy and most of the troops and a substantial portion of the high command had little if any reguard for the African campaign. Few saw any merit in their presence in North Africa. The were disliked by the local population, poorly equipped, and poorly treated by their officers. This did not create a situation where the troops were highly motivated to fight. Italians are men just like any other nationality. When given the proper motivation, they will fight. WWI gives us a clear picture of that.

Yes, they are much tougher now, you pretty much have to get behind them, but once you do, they should go pretty quick. I can't understand why you baz did not take it out. PB should be all but invulnerble from the front. 75mm should not take them out too readily. It is what the good lord created smoke for

What was he trying to mount? Allied infantry rarely rode tank in that era. If it is a SC or HT, I would think he should be able to mount up.

I played around a lot with skins for my old CMBO but have yet to fool with them in CMBB. What is the best place to go to get new high res skins? Are most skins for CMBB compliant with CMMOS or do I have to fiddle around a lot with them? Lastly, has anybody put together skins in packages where I can download a bunch of the most popular skins in one sitting rather than pulling them down one at a time? Thanks

I am pretty sure the boys at BF.com overmodeled the ST just for grins. In reality the 9 minute loading time is sort of skewed as well as that represents optimum conditions. The shell was loaded frontally just like a mortar round and the ST carried a small crane for loading purposes. IIRC, that would mean that some or all of the crew would have to exit the vehicle to reload-something that would not do when in close contact with the enemy. Those dang machinegunny things tends to keep men in thier tanks. I would think than any real chance to reload would require the tank to pull back out of LOS-thus making the loading time factor more like 20 minutes or more in combat conditions My guess is that the three minute load time and total carnage produced by the ST is in the game more for the fun factor than anything else. When CMBB first came out. I sprang it on my friend in a QB. It was a town map and there were lots of buildings. Each shot would collapse three to four buildings and we giggled like little girls the whole game through. I would warn about trying to thread shots with it. Once I tried to shoot between two buildings at a target further away. The shot clipped the building that just happened to be full of my men. Needless to say, my friend had more to giggle about on that particular turn. I think I would decline to play against it in any serious game.

Not Jim Stahler is it?

Uh...man, was that thing filthy. Everything was clogged with lint. Hopefully, that will fix things.

I have been having the same problem since installing the 1.30 patch. Mostly in CM but in other games are rebooting as well. I will clean my machine out and check the fans first and let you know if it helped.

Never mind. Just found them at the CM Mod HQ web page. Thanks.

Hello all, Been gone for a while. I need grid overlays for CMBB. I see that there are some old ones at the CMHQ site for CMBO. Will they work in CMBB? If not, where should I go for grid overlays for CMBB? Thanks.

German production and reasearch was hampered by rampant cronyism and bureaucracy. It was an inherant flaw of the Nazi system where every stage of production and research was influenced by a layered decision making process. Interservice rivialry was a key source as well. A lot of wasted production resulted from duplication of effort and half baked ideas championed by influential Nazis. The end result was some fine weapons, and many average and useless weapons-plus, a logistical nightmare resulting from the vast variety of parts, fuel, ammunition, etc. needed. Vaunted German efficiency in production, actually was a myth and German production was never what it could have been. That said, no matter what sucess German production could have acheived, it would not have spared Germany from the major spanking that she got from the Allies. Just bit off a bit too much to chew there.

I am late getting back but thanks for the replys. I will try some of the tips offered here.

If it is early war Russian, you are gonna get a slew of greens.

My buddy and I were playing a night game with zero viz. (try it, its a hoot) and he ran a jeep right through my lines. The jeep came to a halt, far to the rear, five feet from my wespe. Using my brilliant tactical acumin, I ordered my wespe to target the jeep and the resulting shot blew them both up!