gunnergoz

One anecdote does not the game make or break. Seriously, there are some indications that spotting is awry and that FO's sometimes are not seeing the spotting rounds land and thus do not correctly call in fire for effect. BFC is looking into that AFAIK. OTOH most of my experience is that mortars are quite accurate. Anecdotal evidence is not what they go on here, though so my advice is to send BFC's your game saves or set up a reproducible trial with the game editor and see if you can show how this happens repeatedly under certain situations.

My point about not wanting to pay for the medical care of drug users was simply that everyone deserves medical care as a human right IMO and not just free care for drop-in overdoses in the ER or felons serving time in penal institutions. I'm not at all a fan of privatized insurance companies monopolizing medical care either. I would happily pay taxes for all citizens to have single-payer, essentially Medicare for all, for life. But as long as we have this b@stardized pay-for-care system for ordinary citizens, it galls me that the people taking advantage of what free care is available, are usually those who have paid least into the tax base, if at all. While my personal encounters with most "serious" drug users were limited to probationers (not parolees, there is a difference) my education in the subject tells me that if you are seriously involved in using drugs over a lifetime, sooner or later you will end up in front of a court and in all likelihood, be placed on probation, or if your conviction involved a large quantity or sales, sent to prison and later released on parole. I suppose that a strictly liberal interpretation of human rights allows for people to do all sorts of things that have negative consequences...not just substance abuse but overeating, risk-taking, etc. Young people in particular take appalling chances with their lives at times, which in later years (assuming they survive into middle age) many regret or feel sheepish about. Like others here, I am something of an idealist and the sort of society I'd ideally want to live in would be populated with people that had sense enough not to waste time and health on these unproductive and hazardous behaviors. "If it turns you on, do it" as a philosophy IMO just is the wrong message to send to youth and this is how much of this behavior is spread...by peer pressure, enthusiastic talk of its appeal and hype from the commercial sector (like the music and film industry) cashing in on what is "hip" and "with it." If you like to use the stuff, do as you will but don't expect me to respect your conduct even though I may like you as a person. It is not in my better interest as a member of society to promulgate negative behavior by tacitly looking the other way.

Germans did not have their own .50's so if your Shermans are being hit (say in the rear engine louvres, the only place a .50 might conceivably penetrate,) it would be by friendly fire. Most likely culprits are Shrecks and Fausts IMO.

It is interesting when you have a bunch of "warrior" personalities together...they can sometimes instantly "sniff out" who among them is the weak link. When I was attending Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School in the mid 1980's, we were all being trained by Marine Corps NCO's to become naval aviation officers - mostly pilot candidates, some naval flight officers (think ASW and Jammer operators) as well as naval intelligence officers and maintenance officers (me, for one.) Mind you, this is officer school, not the advanced schools we would go to after commissioning to learn our actual specialties. At the end of the course, just prior to graduation, the Marines did an interesting thing...they allowed the entire class of 30 or so to vote on the ONE member whom they lacked confidence in and the person receiving the most votes would be kicked out without obtaining the naval officer commission that he or she otherwise would have earned. Yes, we got to choose, not the Navy. In the end the class mostly voted for one gangly, geeky smart young fellow who was the class know it all but was also very accommodating and not very aggressive. He also happened to be on track to become an air intelligence officer after commissioning. But no, after this, he was kicked out and became a civilian again after 14 weeks of training for no good end. I asked some of my classmates why they had voted him out. Almost without fail it was because they felt he was not a team player and that they did not have confidence that he would have been able to stand up and tell them bad news as a potential intelligence officer and rather would have told them what he thought they wanted to hear. As pilots, their survival would eventually depend upon accurate, in your face intel about the target and opposition and not one of these guys felt that particular candidate had the guts to tell them they might die performing a particular mission. In other words, he was perceived as being too soft and not "one of us." What was said to happen to Sobel made more sense to me in the context of what I saw happen in Pensacola that year. Mind you, I'm not saying that Sobel (or the young man kicked out of my AOCS class) were weak, only that their peers perceived them to be unsuited for their military role. Those perceptions can be as damning as one's own behavior, maybe even more so.

Look closely at the running gear and compare that to other panthers.

Yep, sounds logical. We've asked for more specific movement and cover arc commands and I hope we'll see some but it sounds like it will be a while yet...probably have to wait for the first full new module release on the Battle of the Bulge. What will come before then will be mostly new variants like AFV's, scenarios and maps, as I understand BFC's postings. They have said that new commands require a lot of programming and testing to work and they do not anticipate that happening for a while. I'm betting on late 2012 at best.

Rune: Maybe there is not much reaction because at first glance it does not look like the final Panther II many grogs are familiar with. The museum specimen is an incomplete, hybrid Panther II - it has the hull of the Panther II but with the regular Panther I turret. The Panther II turret was an entirely new design reminiscent of the Tiger II"s turret, with the small circular mantlet. What was most obvious about the Panther II as planned for production was the turret and this specimen does not have it. Yes, it is the only preserved specimen but unfortunately it is easy to pass by unless you really know what to look for. Best links I could find find on short notice: http://preservedtanks.com/Types.aspx?TypeCategoryId=160&Select=2

Re: 37mm vs 234 Spahwagen: I'm seeing penetrations by the 37mm on the Spahwagen but these 8 rad AFV's are big and it takes a lot of solid shot penetrations to hit a vulnerable point. The ammo is small and not easy to hit, the engine is in the rear and can only be hit from the side or rear and the only thing left for the peashooter 37mm to do is to knock out the enemy gun/mount or kill enough of the crew to panic them. Indeed, 2 of 6 234's I got credit for in Huzzar! were functioning vehicles abandoned by panicky crews after multiple penetrations.

It may be because the side armor is smooth and does not interfere with hits bouncing off but the front armor is cluttered with protrusions like the driver's vision slot and bow MG mount which conceivably trap shots and not allow them to bounce.

There's almost always a reason the game does something like this. The BFC guys haven't missed much. I shoulda been charged $100 + for this game, no kidding.

Nice. I wish I could find my hundreds of slides of APG in the 1970's. Everything was in the open so it would be a pretty traumatic experience for the AFV buffs here...rust, rust and more rust. They'd had a nice selection under cover for many years but in the post-Viet Nam budget cuts they had to close the building and shove everything outdoors...or so I was told at the time. Also had some photos of OPFOR Soviet armor, which the GI's working on were not too happy to have me photograph at the time. Nothing special, BMP's, BTR's, PT-76, mostly Israeli captures but back then a big deal and not widely known to civilians.

I find tanks turn better if you run corners in two or three smaller increments, and slow speed is best. If not hunting, I'll run them at normal or quick then slow to turn and use at least one if not more slow legs to complete the turn. They also seem to slow even more if you have to cross a different type of terrain during the turn, e.g. go from road to shoulder/grass and back to road again.

I recently saw a 20mm H/T take out an M5 light with a side shot...that's credible, especially since it was up close and personal, firing from a side street as the tank came down the main drag. As for the .50 cal, well, Ma Deuce was the army's primary anti-tank weapon, believe it or not, until we licensed the German 37mm gun for our own use. It has the ability to penetrate light armor like H/T's which only have a quarter inch everywhere except for the drivers windshield armor, which is .50". German AC's and HT's are fair game for the .50. What frustrates me is that the US 37mm round is solid and it takes several hits from one to knock out most of the German 8-wheelers.

Only AP shell had a bursting charge. There was also AP solid shot, which would presumably be what we are speaking of here.

I don't think the challenge lies in fidelity of modeling, more in getting AI to act anywhere near as smart as the dumbest human without investing a small country's GDP in the programming development process...otherwise, we'd be playing against unholy smart computer games by now. Instead the most common complaint people have about games is their lackluster AI. That said, the AI in this game is quite good compared to most and seems open to even more development and improvement.

Given the M3 has .25" armor on the sides except the .50" windshield cover, I could see it theoretically happening if you caught 4 of them lined up, and assuming the round could penetrate over 2" of armor overall. Still, pretty freaky event. I've read of a few double penetrations in WW2 AFV combat, but never more than that.

Yes, I have a sense the answer lies in what may be undetected, untreated wartime PTSD. I long suspected my father suffered from it, after seeing him jump out of a patio hammock and hide shivering uncontrollably under it when a car backfired in front of the house. Dad finally passed away of Agent Orange induced squamous cell carcinoma in 1985.

Thanks, Myles, I forgot about some of those. I'm a Peck fan and "Twelve O'Clock High" was indeed splendid. I'd forgotten about "Hell is for Heroes" and as for the others, I need to find a copy sometime and check them out. I was overseas a lot as a kid (army brat) and missed out on some of these films. I asked my mother take me to see Pork Chop Hill when we were living in Rome, Italy. Dad was serving in Korea at the time and there was a special premiere there for US troops. He raved about the film and when it came to Rome, I finally got to see what he was talking about. Dad, an Army sergeant, was a war film buff - until he went to Viet Nam a few years later and lost all appetite for war movies, having finally experienced the real thing. Sometimes I wonder how many forum members here would still be "war buffs" if they'd had any actual combat experience. I know we have a few modern vets with us but still it is an interesting question.

I'm an OF too and the hexagonal bases really help the old eyeballs, try them.

It's Hollywood at its worst, promulgating all sorts of BS stereotypes, bad history and appallingly bad characterization. There were real historical heroes aplenty to share with the American viewing public, but Hollywood has always gone for the lazy way out with cookie cutter bad guys and phoney dialog. Probably because most of the producers and directors never went closer to war than seeing each others' films. Some stars were veterans and when they could, they'd work with a movie to make it better - sometimes. Other times it seemed they just wanted to be paid and then get the hell off the lot. Audie Murphy worked hard to try to give "To Hell and Back" an authentic feel and given the restraints of Hollywood's culture of the day, succeeded more than some others did. But then, he had a personal investment in it that went far beyond ego. In the end, I think these sort of bad Hollywood films were catering to a special sort of audience, who went for the popcorn and the cheering the good guys and booing the bad ones, not for a reminder that War is truly Hell. First war movie that ever I saw that left me feeling I'd seen something of value, was "Pork Chop Hill" (No not Hamburger Hill); but then too, Gregory Peck was a thinking audience's sort of actor. If you haven't seen it, you might want to look it up.

noxnoctum - why would any sane, healthy person want to put substances in their body which alter brain function and have god knows what other effects? This is not simply an issue with drugs or alcohol of course, much of what we consume today is tainted. Given that, why would one wish to give up what shred of sanity or health we have in this crazy world? BTW, I don't call employment as a civil servant for 25 years (plus 6 in the military and an odd 5-6 in the civilian sector) an "ideal life;" I just called it working for a living. If I supposedly "retired with a bunch of money", why is it I cannot afford to buy a home in California or even to have health insurance for me and my family? Not all local governments pay employees like royalty, but you'd never know that to hear the Tea Baggers and GOP talk. I especially like the part, "Travel the world like a walking corpse." Sorry, I can't even afford to travel. But that sounds like most drug users I've met, who have no idea what real life is and instead live in their little addled minds, roaming the streets in some sort of desperate zombied fixation for their next fix of whatever it is that replaces joy in their pathetic lives. In re: enforcing my values or ideas on others, I was paid to enforce the laws - laws I didn't create or always agree with, but that was my job. As for "workaholic potheads" I just hope that I don't have to buy any products they've produced or be subjected to their skills and services, thank you. Sure I indulged in alcohol excessively as a young man and I see it now as a colossal waste of time, money and spirit. And my advice to those younger who are still questioning what to do with themselves is: life is short, don't blow it blowing your mind. But if drug and alcohol users OD from "putting what you like into your body" why expect me to pay into the medical bills they will rack up in the publicly funded ER's? When I can't even get affordable medical coverage myself? Sorry, but it is the collective selfishness of all these self-indulgent, irresponsible people that led to this mess and now the entire society is paying for these people's inclination to place their next high above what is best for everyone else.

I love all this discussion of how the US fought a war based on having superior numbers - of artillery, tanks, aircraft - and in large part that is true. Yet, when the army's own modern historians take note of the fact that WW2 army leaders were concerned that their tank inventories and reserves were insufficient, suddenly to some people here, numbers don't matter any more. We won so everything must have been fine. Sure, we can say that in hindsight. We know they wind up winning. That was not a sure thing in 1944, it still had to be made to happen. It seems to me to be hubris to think we today somehow know better (wink, wink) than these apparent fools who ran the war back then. Today we know that the shortfall in Sherman numbers in 1944 was not going to affect the outcome of the war on either front, ETO or PTO. Back then, it was not so obvious and had to be paid in terms of lives lost from a generation of men who are now mostly gone. It is easy to criticize today from the comfortable distance of time but I wager that it was nowhere so easy for those men in leadership back then to evaluate their situation, make decisions and then carry them out while watching their peers die for their miscalculations.

Many - if not most - of those helmets are German, either regular or para. I'll bet that reflects where, at some point, they collected POW's and divested them of their weapons and helmets. They are almost lined up as where their guards might have had them form lines to be marched to the POW collection cage and had them drop their helmets where they stood. The litter on the ground is also reminiscent of what's left over after you rifle through prisoner's pockets and toss out anything you don't want them to have and that you don't plan to keep.

BFC would never go for it. It has horses.

One more contribution and that's all I can do here to make my point. Here's some figures from the WW2 HQ ETO AFV & W section reports of tank losses and unit status. Sorry I can only find figures from August on, but I think the point is clear enough: there were significant shortfalls in Sherman inventories in some front line units. If there were such reserves on hand as some claim, then perhaps the totals would not be so low. OTH while we won without the 25% reserve 12AG would have liked to have had on hand, it probably cost some blood because units had to make do with less. That I think is the crux of the matter - if unit strength falls short, firepower on hand decreases and you have to work harder to kill off the other guy. If we supposedly fought a war based on the idea of quantity over quality, I don't see quantity reflected here but it does speak more of the quality of US units that had to accomplish more, with less.