StellarRat

I'm assuming an M8 is cheaper than a Sherman. Still better to lose one of those scouting than a tank. Surely there has to something faster than a Sherman for cross country scouting???

In CM1 bailed out crews were expensive to prevent such gamey behavior.

How else would they listen to their MP3s!?!? Haven't you been around young'uns lately? :-)

It seems the key here is that Bill made better use of the woods and spent more resources scouting to determine where best position his forces. I'm impressed that CM2 has put recon into its proper and important role in warfare. Most games don't have an adequate system to do this. I can see now that light recon vehicles will be much more useful in CM2 then they used to be CM1. Bill might come out even better with some armored cars out in front.

I saw the review in Strategy Games magazine around 1999. They used to do excellent reviews. I knew if somthing got over 90% I wouldn't be disappointed. It's no longer in publication. I believe I also received the demo on a disk in the magazine. Anyway, I was a wargamer since the late sixties. I played everything from D-Day by AH to Squad Leader to miniatures on a ping-pong table (Tacforce.) Computer gaming was the answer to a lot of problems (like needing a ref for miniatures, human opponents and arguments over the rules.) When CMBO came out I saw it as a logical extension to my hobby. I looked at it as computerized minitures except much faster and easier. Never looked back and BF has never disappointed me. Some of my suggestions were used in CMBO patches even. That really impressed me as most companies don't give a S*$* about what the customer thinks after their games come out as long as the code doesn't blow up while you're playing. BF has always strived for accuracy and logical rules.

Yeah. The old Shermees got the smack down laid on them.

LOL. SEE! At least we're not talking about grass mods, bailed out crews, horses or hull rotation ..... the old timers will remember those threads.

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow....? :-)

There is no place impassible to men. Their machines are a different story. Although I did see a creepy robotic dog that can move through woods with no problem.

True. At least you don't have worry about the wildlife. Any that can really hurt you can be seen and shot. However, in the winter hypothermia becomes a distinct possibility. Still better than horrid diseases, continuous unbearable heat and nasty bugs in my book. I lived in Alaska too. The trees are much smaller but the terrain is worse and the woods swarm with millions of mosquitoes and biting flies (in the summer) and thousands of small muddy gooey pits of water filled moss and peat plus nasty thorn bushes of every description. I would say its a toss up with tropical jungle. Been to Honduras too. Nasty super big death ants and incredible heat.

Well I wouldn't say it's "easy"....yes you can hike through it. It's not as bad as a real tropical jungle, but you certainly aren't going to get any vehicles through and on foot progress is SLOW. The time of year also makes a lot of difference.

You'd never get a tank through an old Oregon forest. They are nearly impassible even on foot plus they are usually hilly or in the mountains and lots of steams.

Yea! Progress!

There is also a ricochet factor to take into account when angle your armor. If round doesn't hit the armor nose first then initial energy might be spread over a much wider area then normal causing the round to bounce off. I believe that's one reason why some AP rounds have a flat nose instead of a pointy nose (which is more aerodynamic) .

If I remember right the long 50 in some of the IIIs combined a different type of armor plate actually made them superior to the early IVs with the short 75. That being said the Sherman was superior to nearly everything in NA. I should have prefaced my earlier comments by saying if armor and guns are nearly equal on both sides. Obviously your tactics are formed to a great degree by the capabilities of your equipment. There isn't much point in angling your armor if its impenetrable or if the enemy guns will penetrate from all ranges and angles. I remember one Tiger crewman who said he couldn't imagine fighting in anything else. For most of the war that was probably true.

True, but in the desert you can begin firing at maximum range so unless the enemy is really spread out for the first few minutes you can manage your facing somewhat. Personally unless there is some reason to hold the line I'd be doing a lot of reverse driving to keep my front armor toward the enemy (on defense) .

I remember reading somewhere that the Germans had a tactical doctrine of angling their tanks to face 15 degrees off the direction of enemy fire. It's worth noting that anytime you expose the side of your AFVs the chance of track damage is much higher.

But France and England aren't in active geologic areas at least as far as I know. The danger of tsunami s and earthquakes seems very small.

There are far safer designs now. The pebble bed design would not have had any problems in scenario that we are seeing. It goes quiet when the temperature gets too high.

If your all feeling generous I suggest doing what you can for the Japanese and the people in Christchurch.

Hey! Naval gunnery is topic! :-) All big gun talk has made me sad about complete lack of any new WW II surface warfare games for large fleets. The last one that was any good was Fighting Steel.

I don't know. One hit doesn't mean much other than luck. Several hits would indicate some amazingly good shooting.

Why don't you fill us in then? I'm only going by what I've read. I do know 16" guns have way more foot tons of impact energy and that radar rangefinding is far superior to optical range finding especially at night. I also know the Washington managed to sneak in to less 8000 yards eventually.

Perhaps...:-) or it could have been radar. :-)

It was 18500 yards in the DARK. Only 117 rounds of 16" were fired and it sunk the Japanese BB. You Limeys spent two hours and 2800 shells shooting at the Bismarck with two BBs and two CAs and still couldn't sink it. They finally got bored and scuttled their own ship. :-)