Barticus

Combat Mission Pacific Theatre?? (Yes I know it isn't a planned release, this is a 'what if' drool-post) oooooooh...... Gives me chills just thinking about it. ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

IIRC, shotguns were banned after WW1 where American troops used a riot shotgun. As an early model pump, all you had to do was hold the trigger down and cycle the pump in order to fire the weapon. Aptly enough, it acquired the moniker "Trench Broom". It does not seem to have affected their wide spread adoption by nearly every police and military force in the western world though. ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

I have pretty good luck with that site. If you continue to have problems, email me at barticus@home.com and I will forward the mod to you. Bart ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

......and this would be different from any other time how? ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR AT GUN / TEAM I’ve been playing Combat Mission for awhile now, and I have made some observations that I would like to share with the group. Specifically with this posting, I would like to address different usages of AT teams and Guns. As I was sitting down in front of the computer last night, rehashing some favourite scenarios, I got the inspiration to write an article for the CM crowd to see how valid my observations were in the light of public criticism. To that end, I asked myself (hey, self.....) which unit do I consistently purchase enough of to make a decent article about, and the answer was AT guns and teams. Please bear in mind that I am NOT a professional military soldier in any sense, but am a long-time addict of both tabletop and computer wargaming. Grognards and experienced gamers will probably find nothing new here, although I would appreciate your input. New gamers, or at least those new to Combat Mission may find a few things of interest here, or at least, I hope to be somewhat useful. So....here goes, and tell me what you think, all I ask is that all criticism be constructive. Clarification: For the purposes of this article, the term AT Gun, or just gun, refers to a (generally) towed Anti-Tank gun (any of the multitudes), and the term AT Team refers to an Anti-Tank team of infantry (PIAT, bazooka, Panzerschrek). WHICH ONE SHOULD I PURCHASE? I guess the best way to make this decision is to compare the two platforms and use these comparisons to guide your decision. AT GUN vs AT TEAM: MERITS Generally longer effective range More robust (i.e. Will last longer when exposed to enemy fire) AT GUN vs AT TEAM: FLAWS Far less mobile Larger target TWO RULES When purchasing AT guns and Teams, there are two rules you must remember; 1) Terrain dictates tactics. 2) Once you’ve bought it, expect to lose it. HOW TO USE THE TWO RULES RULE 1) This particular rule is not new, but is so important that it CANNOT be overlooked. OFFENSIVELY; The towed AT gun is of limited use, I find it handier to setup a couple of AT guns in defensive positions overlooking possible routes my opponent might use for a counter-attack rather than bother lugging them along. The AT team is an entirely different matter. Although slightly slower than the infantry it usually accompanies, the AT team is generally nearby should the occasion for it’s use arise, and trust me on this, it will. Care must be taken, however, to protect the AT team against enemy infantry and direct fire HE weapons. With only two men per team, it is very fragile and can be eliminated far too easily. The regular infantry should be used to sweep suspected enemy infantry positions prior to the AT Team advancing, if at all possible. Take care to use terrain to advantage; walking the Team through Woods and Tall Pines so enemy armour and gun positions cannot draw a line of sight to them. Even if buildings and woods are scarce, note folds in the ground and take advantage of them. In short, anything that keeps your infantry alive will keep your AT team alive (they ARE infantry after all). Once an enemy vehicle has been identified, the AT Team can use any number of methods to attack it. I find the best method is to have regular infantry squads advance with the team, generally with a sneak command if feasible. The reasons for this are twofold; 1) to eliminate enemy infantry covering the vehicle, and 2) to draw fire from the vehicle should it spot you. Up until the vehicle positively ID’s your team AS an AT team, it tends to shoot at full squads first. One further note, should your team ever become involved in a firefight, do as much possible, which is little enough, to keep them from wasting what few rounds they carry in firing their AT weapon at enemy infantry. DEFENSIVELY; Designed as primarily a defensive weapon, the AT gun is in it’s element in this role. Within the scope of CM, however, how you use the gun is dictated by which gun it is. In order to further explain myself, I will have to break ATG’s down into two categories; Light (up to and including 57mm / 6 Pounder) and Heavy (anything over 6 pounder). It should be remembered that the ATG is not an anti-infantry weapon and is particulary vulnerable to them, if you would like the gun to have any kind of lifespan at all, it should be accompanied by friendly troops to provide security. Also, in order to effectively use the ATG, when setting up, I give all guns the Hide order until such time as they are needed. All ATG’s are useful vs almost any light armour, but when attempting to destroy half tracks and armoured cars, I find the lighter guns to be more useful. They have a faster rate of fire than the heavy gun, sufficient penetration to deal with these targets, and revealing light ATG’s let the heavy guns stay hidden for use against more heavily armoured vehicles. Terrain once again becomes critical in siting AT weapons in the defensive role. Initially I sited guns in terrain that gave them a wide field of fire, but ran into problems, brought up in various threads on this forum, where they keep acquiring targets over and over without engaging any of them effectively. The only real answer I have found to this is to buy multiple guns and choose more restricted fields of fire for them, hopefully overlapping. If you are willing to sacrifice them, buying several light guns and siting them well in advance of your main line of defense can also bag you a number of scout vehicles, deny your opponent any data on your setup, and maybe throw in a little disinformation at the same time. However, their survival rate is going to be in the “snowball’s chance in Hell” range. The German side in particular has an advantage in the ‘88. Carrying enough penetration to deal with any allied tank from the front, it can be sited well to the rear of the German defensive line, and still take out it’s share of armour and other vehicles. The British 17 pounder could also fill this role, but I find that this particular gun is quite inaccurate at the longer ranges. The American 76mm ATG I have very little experience with, so it is hard to say. Another limiting factor is the superior quality of the heavier German armour. If natural cover (woods, brush etc.) is scarce, the ATG can take advantage of small hills by being setup behind them and oriented to have a field of fire off to one side or the other, making for excellent flanking shot opportunities. The AT team is also well suited to the defensive role. Shorter ranged than even a light ATG, however, it packs a punch equivalent to a heavy gun. With hidden initial placement in any type of cover, the AT Team can bag any vehicle that comes too close. I find that the AI running teams in CM has a tendency to shoot them at too far a range for my liking, and I attempt to set them up where the ranges will be under 50m or so. An experienced opponent using combined arms tactics can severely limit their usefulness, so buying extra teams is quite often worth the points. Try not to setup teams in buildings by the way, with the exception of the PIAT, they all have a backblast and can cause casualties to themselves, or other infantry in the building. RULE 2) Regardless of whether we are talking about Teams or Guns, once you’ve bought them, expect to lose them. Neither platform is particularly robust and a well placed HE round, or an enemy squad of infantrymen can wipe them out easily, if given the opportunity. Whenever I purchase these items, it is ALWAYS with the intention of making my opponent lose more points worth of equipment eliminating them than I did purchasing them. Heartless I know, but this IS a game. One further note, like death and taxes, artillery is a constant in CM. Regardless of how clever you are in setting them up, all locations are vulnerable to artillery fire. I find when playing the computer that it finds ATG’s particularly attractive and will drop artillery on them, sooner or later. Live opponents are far less predictable, but I find that unspotted lighter artillery to be next to useless in knocking out one gun. If a spotter of any artillery type can get line of sight on a gun, it’s gone regardless of artillery size, it’s only a matter of time. OK people, there it is. Am I right? Am I wrong? Am I crazy?.....oops, scratch that one. ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

With regards to the T-34 mock-ups used in both Kelly's Heroes and SPR ( I have heard unconfirmed rumours they were the same vehicles), it wasn't the bogey wheels which tipped me, but the turret placement. The Tiger's turret was mid-hull, while the T-34's is rather far forward. Just my 2 cents worth. Bart ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

My vote: 3 Total is: 1) 1 2) 0 3) 3 4) 1 5) 0

Although I haven't had a chance to try this vs. a human opponent, I have had good luck with FT's in villages, towns and heavily forested areas. Mind you, this is against enemy vehicles, not infantry. Had one team rack up 3 M4 Sherman kills. ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! OSX!! (heehee) ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

Oops, my bad, thnx for the correction. Bart ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

Aieeee, well, I run PC Combat Mission at home, but at work I have a Mac (no, no Combat Mission at work), so I can answer some of your questions. Bitmaps and wave files will be recognized and played by a Mac if you have a fairly recent version of Quicktime installed. Quicktime does come with most Mac OS's but you can always download the upgrade from the Apple website. The new MacOS X due to be released in March is based on the linux kernel, so it's file structure is the same, but has been hidden in the GUI interface, although I haven't had a chance to get 'up close and personal' with it. The current generations of the Mac OS treat each volume separately whether they are virtual or physical. i.e, if you have a 10 gig hard drive partitioned into 3 volumes, a CD Drive and a ZIP drive, and a floppy drive, the MacOS will treat them as 6 separate volumes. An icon will appear on the desktop for each volume, in the case of removable media, this means a ZIP cartridge, CD, or floppy will only appear when the media is inserted in the drive. I do not have Java virtual machine on my Macs, and am not familiar with it. It is my understanding that you should just be able to expand the compressed file, drop them in their respective folders, and away you go. A note of caution, the Mac version of ZIP is called Zipit!, and I have had some problems in converting PC Zipped files with it. You might be better off using the latest version of Stuffit Expander, which seems to do a better job. Hope I haven't lost you on any of this. Bart ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

While reading some of the posts in the GI Combat thread, I had a thought. Ya, ya, rare enough I suppose, but here goes anyway (so nyah! ) Where did wargaming start with you? For me it was Avalon Hill's Panzer Blitz!, Panzer Leader, and Arab-Israeli wars, followed closely (and lovingly) by the original Squad Leader (sorry, not advanced squad leader, too rich for my blood) Ahhhh yes, brings back some fond memories for me. Bart ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

me3 Bart ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

Well, sounds mighty interesting to me, I'm in. barticus@home.com Preferably Axis, but I can fill in where-ever needed. Bart ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

OK, I give up, I hereby declare my status as newbie/FNG forum type. WHAT the hell are you guys referring to by these 'bump' posts? (I just KNOW I'm gonna regret this!) Bart ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

Wow, you have museums where you can CLIMB on the AFV's? The only worthwhile museum o'armour around here (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) has you just looking at the stuff. I wouldn't mind getting the chance to climb atop a Sherman, or a Mk. IV, or a T-34 <sigh> Bart ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

OK, so I have been playing CMBO for a few months now, but I have a problem. In the first few scenarios while playing the allies and a Panther shows up, I nearyly s**t myself and that Panther would become the focus of my attention. Now when I play, I don't give them another thought. If I have an American 76mm lying around or a Brit 17 pounder, it is a relatively easy task to take care of it. Likewise with any sort of infantry AT device (PIAT, Zook, Engineer squad). Is this right? I have read accounts from the war that the Panther could shed 76mm shells like water. I believe the exact reference used was 'ping pong balls'. If I play the germans, I go for Pz IV's for the lower cost, and they seem to be just as effective. Is anyone else seeing this, or am I...... a) Using allied AP ammunition effectively. Just getting lucky Now, while I would like to believe that I am a tanker's worst nightmare incarnate, common sense tells me otherwise. Looking for input. Bart ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

Oi Slim, methinks I opened a can o'worms oi coitainly do! Sorry guys, didn't know it was such a hot topic when I asked that first (seemingly) harmless question. Bart ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

Me most 'umble apologies master slapdaddy, errr, dragon. Actually, I hadn't intended that third A, but it slipped by me. Honest No, really! Any chances on getting it included in any upcoming patches? I suppose not, but MAN I love those things. Bart

No, NOT the Mattel Assault rifle! A thought struck me while sitting here at work (away from my library o'data). Has the American M16 AAA halftrack been included in Combat Mission? I can't recall ever having seen it listed anywhere. Bart ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."

OK, I think we can all agree that CM is the most damnfantasticasrealasitgets WWII combat sim out there. NOW. What's next, Russian front, I hear, anyone have any info on release dates? Sorry if this is a retread, but I don't have the time to go through 15,000+ messages. Thanks Barticus ------------------ "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...."