Zakalwe

Curve and early Catherine Wheel are an integral part of my CMBB experience - along with bottle of decent Syrah. Somehow Unreadable Communication seems to soothe my ego when I'm plotting yet another disaster... To stray off-topic... In a recent PBEM I actually managed to lose a Valentine to German ATR fire. A rather demoralising experience. Zak

I don't think BFC could patent it. Wego systems have been around in board wargames (though usually both unwieldy and unpopular) since the 70's, and at least the V for Victory/World at War -series by Three Sixty/Atomic used a Wego system several years before CM. Zak

Just finished playing this one and encountered a slight bug that threw off the victory calculations. I should have scored a major victory, but instead I got a major defeat. I lost over 2200 points for exited units, and the AI got about 2400 for destroyed ones. I decided to open the scenario in the editor, and discovered that only the first platoon of each set of Soviet units was eligible for exit victory points. If this is fixed, the scenario should run OK. Nevertheless, I had fun revisiting the old COI/ASL stomping grounds (played this one several times with both systems – as I recall, this was a Soviet cakewalk in ASL). OK, time for the AAR: SPOILERS: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I sent my tanks in two columns. The smaller one consisting of two T-34 platoons, advanced in the centre, hoping to spot enemies and draw fire (recon by death in the true ASL style). All the other tanks were sent to the right flank. A Tiger on the slope of Hill 538 almost immediately brewed one of them up. The rest managed to reach safety behind some pine forest clusters. While the force in the centre was keeping the Fascists busy, being wiped out in the process, I assembled a horde of KVs and T-34s on the right flank. They all broke cover at the same time (took three turns of careful plotting) and charged the lone Tiger on Hill 538. The Tiger took at least fifteen hits to kill, and the hillside was pitted with scorch marks. Needless to say, quite a few burning Soviet tanks littered the low ground, but the swarm proved effective. Finally I kept the tanks on Hill 621 busy by peeking and dashing from cover – even managing to knock out one Panzer IV. The force on the right swarmed to the German rear. I exited most tanks, but sent a platoon of KVs and a platoon of T-34s to seize the flags. Both platoons lost one tank to the infantry and the ATG, but forced the Germans to attack. Using the constrained LOS between the hills, I was able to hold off the German AFVs until the end. One KV met a fiery death, but claimed a Panzer IV. An intense scenario, which also has something to offer for those who aren’t familiar with the original. Zak

I prefer company to battallion scale engagements for blind PBEM play. The point tally is unimportant, as a well-designed lopsided battle can be very good. Medium maps are fine, but map size is not very important for me if the battle is otherwise interesting. Duration can also be variable, since I have some very patient friends who are quite willing to spend the first 20 turns seeking contact, but at times it can be great fun to open a match with a bang. Since you were the one to inquire, Abbott, I'd like to point out that 'A Cold Winter's Morning' has just about the right size/scale/time ratio for a PBEM match. I just posted a (mostly positive) review at the Scenario Depot, BTW. Zak [ November 15, 2002, 03:49 PM: Message edited by: Zakalwe ]

Some spoilers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes, about evenly. The assault on the right (from the Soviet perspective) had very good success, while the other attack was initially repulsed, but the pressure from the flank swung it in my favour. Like I said, I tried it again, and this time my troops got nowhere fast, so the first victory may have been just dumb luck. Two squads managed to take out the German MG on the right on the third turn, so that helped a lot. Zak

Close enough, it's from "Use of Weapons". To be pedantic, it's Iain M, Banks when he's writing SF, the mainstream stuff is just plain Iain Banks. (Either way he's quite brilliant.) Zak

Ha! Spend half an hour carefully plotting a truck convoy so they will smoothly and gracefully negotiate a twisting road to safety. Congratulate yourself for remembering to apply PAUSE judiciously. Your opponent's armoured car gets a freaky LOS from a hill for about three seconds... One 20 mm burst results in a pile-up ready to be slaughtered at will... ...and I'm loving every bloody minute. Zak

I managed to win the Bridgeheads quite easily with the use of the new human wave command. Basically I moved carefully forward on the first turn and then gave every single unit a human wave command. End result: lots of dead soldiers, but all the alive ones were Russian. The next time I tried it, everything went pear shaped really fast, so it may have been just dumb luck... Zak

Hmm, the one that is standing in Bovington looked awfully small to me.</font>

There have been few purely North African tactical games lately, I admit. The only one springing to my mind is Operation Crusader (Atomic/Avalon Hill), which was a brilliant grand tactical/operational treatment of the Crusader battles using a wego system several years before CM. (It also had a particularly delightful supply system). All the more reason for BFC to be the first... Seriously though, at least here in Europe, most WWII enthusiasts are quite familiar with the North African Campaign. The images of Rommel and the Desert Rats of Tobruk are instantly recognisable and highly evocative. Even Finnish übergrogs have been raised on movies and (especially) comic books on the Desert War. Visually a North African game could be stunning. There is a wide variety of terrain – eroded escarpments, sheer cliffs, wadis, salt flats, rocky waste, oasis’s, olive groves, vineyards, forests, and even sand dunes... The engine rewrite will in all probability allow for a whole new spectrum of environmental effects applicable to the North African Theatre of Operations. Heat haze, blinding sun and sharp shadows, dust, sandstorms, and extremes of temperature might be very rewarding things to experience. If the new graphics engine can convey even a fraction of the feeling of the North African light and space, people will be blown away. Of course, the game probably will not be limited to North Africa only. The inclusion of the Italian (and possibly Balkan campaigns) allows for a huge variety of actions and environments. I think it would be a wonderful thing to experience the new engine in a new setting. Besides, as the new engine is supposed to be more flexible and modular, the waiting between each instalment might be considerably shortened.

Well, North Africa has always been a mainstay of wargaming. In fact, there has never been a shortage of NA wargames (either computer or board) during the history of wargaming, so somebody has to buy them, right? I'm no übergrog , and yet there are half-a-dozen NA games on my shelves. In a way it will be a sort of homecoming for wargaming when the CM series hits the sands of Africa. Hal Hock's boardgame Tobruk can be seen as the ancestor of CM in the way it treated armoured combat... Zak

You may be right, the wheels were quite small. Still, I could swear I have seen a picture of a few 82 mm mortars being towed by a couple of sorry looking horses. Of course, due to CMBB engine limitations, that's neither here nor there concerning the game. (A kingdom for a panje-cart!) Stiil, the scout car issue is a bit puzzling. I think it should easily carry a 82 mm mortar team. Two 6-man MG teams is way too much, though - conjures images of buses overloaded with people, livestock and baggage. Zak

IIRC, the later versions of the 82mm BM (41/43?), had wheels and could be towed. Zak

Well, the M3 (White) Scout Car was not exactly a small vehicle. The name is somewhat misleading, as the official British designation was: "Truck, 15-cwt, 4x4, armoured personnel". Soviets mainly used the vehicle for liaison and as a prime mover. Still, the mortar issue is a bit strange. Maybe the fact that the later Soviet 82mm mortars had wheels and could be towed has something to do with this. Zak

I've been practising Soviet tactics (and especially T-34 tactics) for about a fortnight now, so I decided to put my skills to test in this scenario. I took the Russians and gave the German AI +1 experience and +25% handicap. A quick game resulted in a 79-21 tactical victory for the Red Army. A short replay follows... SPOILERS: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (all directions refer to Soviet perspective) I massed all my armour on the left, with infantry as riders. One platoon advanced on foot. The company HQ, two Maxims and one ATR formed a firebase near the road. I sent the tanks at full speed to the left. After a while, a German ATG knocked out one of the tanks, but all others reached the shelter of the woods on the left. Then they advanced in short leaps and bounds (heavy use of the pause command here). One Stug started to move against the formation, and was spotted and repeatedly plinked by the ATR. By careful timing I overwhelmed the Stug and killed it while losing one T-34. The infantry dismounted at this stage (some involuntarily) and set up a line about 200 m from the woods next to the flag. The T-34s engaged the guns and silenced them with the aid of infantry. One T-34 lost its gun in the process. At the same time, the second Stug appeared, and again the combined fire of the T-34s first immobilised and then destroyed it. One flanking T-34 was destroyed by infantry. Then I parked the remaining tanks about 70 m from the German infatry positions anfd proceeded to pound them into pieces. After a few turns the bypassed infantry started to move towards the flag, and my MGs and infantry cut them down in the fields. The last turns saw me just pressing the go button. I probably could have bettered the score a bit, but I had no stomach for pixel atrocities. Overall a nice, fast and fairly challenging scenario. It does highlight the importance of getting close and massing fire when facing superior German AFVs with Soviet tanks. Zak

On the other hand, the presence of fortifications and/or obstacles is usually a pretty good indicator that there are enemy troops about. Having said that, I find that I don't use the Move to Contact -command very often nowadays. It's fine for the recon troops at the point, but otherwise just plain old Move seems a better choice. Zak

The covered arc defines the area where your unit will fire at the enemy. So if you want your tank to shoot at enemies at the maximum range, you'll have to set a long arc. Perhaps not aesthetically too pleasing, but very useful... Short arcs are useful for close-range ambushes. The armor arc gives the unit orders to engage only armoured fighting vehicles. So an ATG with this order will ingnore e.g. trucks and infantry. Zak [ November 07, 2002, 05:47 AM: Message edited by: Zakalwe ]

Not at all - on the contrary, particularly if you are the attacker. IIRC, the fusilier battalions (or companies) of infantry division were often used as assault troops. Similarly, an Aufklaerungs Abteilung (a recon troop) would often be involved in a CMBB scale battle. These units performed aggressive reconnaissance, and were heavily armed with automatic weapons. Jäger units were, at least in the early part of the CMBB timeframe, crack troops (not in CMBB terms, of course), and saw more than their fair share of fighting. Zak

Ok, changed the subject header, since it seems factories aren't the only buildgs which are too weak. I've been playing several PBEM and hotseat games, and buildings seem like deathtraps to me. I was used to this in CMBO, where the problem was not too pronounced since the engagements were (generally) shorter, and the ordnance deployed was often of heavier caliber than in CMBB, so the effects seemed to be more in line with my expectations. In CMBB T-34s often carry large amounts of HE shells, and pounding buildings is often not a waste of time and shells. Last night I had a talk with a fellow gamer, who happens to be a tanker and trains men in urban combat. He stated that if you spend two days straight pounding a factory with a 76 mm gun, the end result is a factory with many holes, not a rubbbled ruin. To be fair the effects of larger guns (120 - 155 mm) seem to be pretty much ok. A non-reinforced building will bee blown to pieces with a few 122m he shells. Of course things arent that simple, but it almost seems that the durability of builfings (light to heavy to factory) seems to increase linearily, while in real life the increase is closer to exponential. At the same time guns less than 105 mm seem to be a bit overly effective against buildings. Zak

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OK, an update. Looks like fourth time's the charm... I finally managed to win this one, and achieved a tactical victory. It was very close, however, and if the game hadn't gone on to 26 turns, it would have been a draw. The scenario is winnable, but requires some skill and a bit of luck. I still think it might be a better fight if the time limit were extended to 27-30 turns. The timing is so unforgivable thart you have absolutely no room for setbacks in your timetable. Another option would be to give the Finns another FO (possibly 81 mm mortar). Spoilers: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This time I decided on a flanking attack on the right. I sent one platoon to the west to support the guys in the race track building. One Maxim and the Sharpshooter stayed behind to give some cover. Everybody else advanced on the right flank. Two platoons made a stealthy approach right of the railroad track. I set up a firebase in one of the clumps of trees with two Maxims and the Spotter. They were supported by two platoons with good leaders. As soon as the trenches were spotted, the one on the hill was kept under suppressive fire. The other trench was under heavy direct and artillery fire for a while, then I dropped smoke on it and commenced an assault. Soon the trench was cleared, and after that the cemetery was under Finnish observation and fire. The Soviet barrage hit at that point, so one or two turns were spent mainly regrouping. Then advance continued on the right flank. The troops on the left flank had been hiding, but now they began a diversionary firefight to keep the defenders from shifting. Even the tank ventured into the open on turn 16! Finally I managed to gain a foothold in the factory and made an assault on the victory building. Aside from two platoons held back for this purpose, all of my troops were running low on ammo, but the tank helped a lot. The initial assault was repulsed, but my last platoon carried the day in the end. The Soviet defenses are very well constructed in this one. The positions are mutually supporting, and the right flank (left for the Finns) is practically unassailable. The combination of steep terrain, fortifications and fire makes it a lethal trap. I think the other flank is the only real possible approach. Zak

Does anyone else think that factories are too easiy to demolish in CMBB? I hadn't really thought about this until I read a replay where the poster said that he took a factory by turning it into rubble with T-34/M40s. Up to this point I had considered using any guns smaller than 105 mm for area fire into factories as total waste of ammunition. I then decided to run some tests with the scenario editor, and I was surprised at the ease factories crumbled from 75/76 mm HE shells. It took a T-34 less than four minutes to rubble a factory tile. This seems a bit too easy. I've read quite extensively about the urban battles of the East Front, and the durability of factories is often described. Reinforced concrete and thick brick walls were very hard to rubble. I have actually lived in a converted 19th century factory, and to say that the walls were thick and strong is putting it very mildly. Now, not all CMBB factories should be fortresses like the Tractor Works or the Barrikady, but I think that they might be a bit stronger... Zak [ October 26, 2002, 07:57 AM: Message edited by: Zakalwe ]

Good to hear about the stugs! I'm positive that none of the Panzer IVs saw any combat. They arrived too late to fight the Red Army, and they were not used in Lapland against the Germans. I'll nip down to library this afternoon and see if I can dig up some references. Funny thing about those PzIVs - they seem to pop up in almost every tactical EF game. It's like a self-perpetuating myth... Zak

Has anybody managed to score at least a minor victory with the Finns in this one using EFOW & fixed setup for the Soviet defenders? This was the first CMBB scenario I played when I got my eager paws on the game. Naturally I lost big time. I chalked it up to inexperience with the new infantry features, and went on to hone my skills in less demanding scenarios. A week later I returned to the battlefield and tried again. This time I actually made some headway, but still suffered an embarrasing defeat. Time to practise some more, I thought. Today I made a third attempt. I was of course forearmed with some intelligence about the enemy positions, and planned accordingly. Yet again my poor troops were beaten back with heavy losses. I was very close to a draw this time, but my only two reasonably intact platoons ran out of ammo... Now, I'm not the hottest CMBB player around, but I have some experience (hell, I even managed a victory in Directive #3 as the Soviets...) Generally I do much better with infantry than with AFVs. This time I just seem to suck. SPOILERS: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The one thing I did learn was never to bring the solitary tank into action before the ATG and at least one ATR has been silenced. The tank can be invaluable later, providing encircling fire on Soviet positions. I´ve now tried flanking the defenses from both sides, and did achieve some success on the left flank. The terrain there is however too hard on the attacking troops, and even though they can gain a foothold in the town with lots of suppressive fire and smoke, the assault uphill leaves them too tired to fight. The centre is too open to cross in the face of the enemy, and artillery smoke cannot adequately cover the appproach. The right flank seems promising, but the trenches are very hard to take, and crossing the graveyard is not apicnic (if you want to hounor the spirit of the scenario and not bombard it). Zak

On the subject of forward observers... Maybe the delays are due to German infiltration of the Finnish artillery corps In at least two scenarios (Retaking Viipuri and Lake Ladoga), the info screen brings up German Infantry Spotters, when you check on your Finnish spotters. Probably a remnant of the beta days... Of course, even the improved CMBB artillery model does not accurately portray the Finnish artillery practises, particularly in the Karelian Isthmus battles of 1944. Using a lot of TRPs seems to be the best, if inelegant, solution. Zak