gredeker

Treeburst, I am afraid that I must join the ranks of the fallen and sit this one out. I still plan to participate in the CMBB tourney. Good luck everyone! And Section I folks - somebody needs to beat Wreck this time!!!

Well, the tourney is over and Wreck has been crowned the king. I had the "honor" of playing him in Der Berg, a rainy hill climb for the Americans against a mess of Gebirgsjaeger (sp?). My Americans have four Shermans to start with, then get four more Shermans later on, in support of a battalion of infantry (some of which comes in as reinforcements). I had two arty spotters, but they were only 75 and 81mm. To make a long story short, I was bold when I should have been cautious, and cautious when I should have been bold. On the very first turn, Wreck ATTACKED - as the scenario defender. By turn 3 or 4, he had overrun and killed an AT gun, a .50, a platoon HQ, and my 75mm spotter. I found myself on the defensive on my right flank, at least until my armor could be brought up. On the other flank, I was probing in force through the tall pines, when over the course of two turns I lost two entire platoons in close-quarters fighting. This set a pattern early in the game, where if I attacked into the woods without armored support present, my guys always died. I was scenario attacker, yet I was always reacting to his moves. I was also too cautious regarding bogging my tanks, and kept my armor limited to the road for too long. Later in the game, as I'm slowly grinding forward with my remaining tanks (two bogged, one destroyed by a direct 120mm mortar hit, and one roasted by a flamethrower ) and infantry, I'm finally making some progress, but it's too little, too late. I send two unsupported tanks on a totally gamey flag rush to the top of the hill - somehow they survive the PF shots and sit on the flag. Wreck moves infantry that still has PFs back to take them out, and does take out one of my Shermans, but the other one is still alive when the clock runs out (which was 40 turns, BTW). Both flags remained under contention at scenario end. Final score was 56-34, Axis win. Details are below: Allied Attacker (Redeker) 436 casualties (92 KIA) 2 mortars destroyed 1 gun destroyed 3 vehicles knocked out Men OK: 184 Score: 34 Axis Defender (Wreck) 262 casualties (80 KIA) 2 captured 2 mortars destroyed 2 guns destroyed Men OK: 92 Score: 56 Wreck is an incredible technician, and seemed to know how to play the game to the fullest, e.g. exactly how far to run into the woods so that the enemy loses LOS, incredible fire discipline, etc. He also analyzed the terrain well, choosing good sites for his two Inf guns and placing units near chokepoints and other key areas. In summary, my early game experience getting smacked around put me into shock; I didn't really recover until turn 32 or so, when I finally started making some good combined arms advances on my left, then did the hail mary with the tanks on the right. This was enough to keep both flags under contention, but by then the lopsided kill ratio had decided the game. If anyone wants the end game file, e-mail me and I'll send it to you. [ May 01, 2002, 02:01 AM: Message edited by: redeker ]

Congratulations to Wreck, a truly deserving champion. IOW, he beat the snot out of everybody! :eek: Enjoy your wine, sir, and bask in the adulation of the (crushed) masses. I'm heading over to the other thread to elaborate on the post-graduate course in infantry tactics I received from Mr. Dickens on a little hill called "Der Berg"...

Well, it's not a huge surprise ending... I don't think that there will be any complaints about the fairness of the outcome - especially from Section III. So can we talk about Der Berg yet??? [ April 30, 2002, 07:46 PM: Message edited by: redeker ]

I'm pretty sure that the only "common" German armored cars are the 20mm variety. I want to say that only a few hundred of the 75mm were built, and less than a hundred of the 50mm version ("Puma"). The allied armored cars were all pretty common, from what I understand. As far as game use, I really like the German 75mm 234/3 AC, as it is impervious to .50 cal MG fire (unlike the 251/9 75mm halftrack), and packs a good wallop against infantry without using any armor points. The 20mm version (234/1) is good against light allied armor, and has tons of ammo. With the allies, I really like the Greyhound. It has a fast turret and a fast rate of fire, making it a great unit for running around in the enemy rear. The 37mm has enough oomph to take out most German armor from the side and rear, and its high speed allows it to actually get these flank shots.

Married, career, two girls (ages 5 and 3). Right now I have only one small PBEM underway, which averages 2 turns per day. During the ROW tourney I had a maximum of 4 games going at once (7 games total in the tourney) which generated an average of 1.5 turns each per day. My wife and I have agreed that it will be a while before I do another tourney.

I button up when armor gets within 150-200m of suspected enemy infantry positions. If it's long range, always keep them unbuttoned unless you're being targetted by arty. The decision is also affected by the tank in question - e.g., I'm more likely to keep Shermans unbuttoned, because then the AA .50 MG can add its lead to the festivities. Also, don't forget that the SPW 251/1 can still fire its MG while buttoned - in this case "buttoned" means fully using the gun shield.

My two favorite tracks off my CD of the Red Army Band and Chorus are "Meadowlands" and "Volga Boat Song". Once, when playing a Red Barricades campaign game with a friend (I was the Russians), I put the Volga Boat Song on at high volume while he was setting up his German forces. I considered it my first foray into psy-ops.

I love it!!! The doodads add a real sense of depth and realism, and the damaged buildings (looks like they got hit by a Katyusha barrage) on the "t26advance" picture look great!!!

Holien, May I recommend Sierra Nevada instead of Sam Adams. I'm not sure if it's available in your neck of the woods, but I understand it is available in Berlin.

Must... keep... fog... of... war... alive... AARRRGH!! [scuffle] My score vs. Wreck was... [thwack] NOOOOO!!! [thunk] In my game with Holien, I... [bam] [thud] [CLICK] Gentlemen, a muzzle has been applied to my alter-ego... for now. Warren - think TCP/IP. Tell your wife that you'll be finished with "that damn tournament" faster, and will be able to pay more attention to other matters with it behind you.

All three of the scenarios from Wild Bill's Rumblings of War tourney hosted at Scenario Depot have been extensively playtested (including 12 games of each in the tourney), and the most unbalanced one was an average of 53-47 or so; one of them (Real Guts) even came out dead even on play balance. Search under R for ROW - the three scenarios are ROW - Resolve at Ranville (my personal favorite), ROW - Real Guts, and ROW - Duel at Dompaire. Edit - The tourney was played double-blind, so no peeking! Knowledge of enemy OOB/setup areas would certainly change the play balance. [ April 25, 2002, 06:12 PM: Message edited by: redeker ]

After reading the info from one of the above links, I'm surprised at the ground pressure of the M1A2. It's gone all the way up to 15.4 psi. If CM is anything like reality, such a tank would be bogging and immobilizing all the time in anything but perfectly dry conditions. Is there something special about the M1A2 suspension that makes it less prone to bogging, or are we just failing to learn the lessons of history? :confused:

This is a case where real life information sources are probably your best bet. Buy a good reference book on WWII armor and that should start you off in the right direction. There are some databases online with all the stats for the tanks that will probably help you out, but I don't have the links handy.

Retreating. </font>

What sort of power plant are the Israelis using? I believe the M1 is alone in its use of a gas turbine, right? Does the turbine burn diesel fuel? You mentioned Israeli Chieftians - did you mean Centurions?</font>

Lars, Regarding M1 mileage, it's my understanding that the 35mph test would have been in the "sweet spot" for the engine. I've read that the turbine in the M1 is actually most efficient at higher speeds, and gets atrocious gas mileage when idling or doing a low-speed road march. I also seem to recall that the problem was so bad that a small APU was being considered for electrical power when stopped.

Shouldn't that be 1.83 gallons/mile? :confused: Another thing to remember is that tanks have much lower power/weight ratios than automobiles, and therefore spend much more time at full throttle.

I've already voted, but I agree with the above statement. ROW was my first CMBO tourney, as well as my first major PBEM experience. Of course, 10 years of SL/ASL has helped a bit.

I vote for #1, followed closely by #3.

I seem to recall someone in the know (can't remember who or what thread) saying that a 32MB video card would downsample the textures one notch, implying that a 64MB card would be necessary for maximum graphic detail in CMBB. Since I'll be getting a whole new system very shortly, I'm looking to equip it with a 128MB GeForce 4 4200 or 4400 to stretch the timeline of the equipment a little further into the future.

Holien and I had a much different outcome in our game, but I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to talk about it yet. I will say that there was a turn 25 flag rush conducted by both players.

FWIW, I would be less than enthused about using QBs (especially MEs) in the tourney. The total fog-of-war and Nabla scoring system worked fine in the ROW tourney, so my druthers would be to go with that. My only problem with the ROW tourney (and a small one at that) was that 2 of the 3 playoff scenarios were significantly different from what was played in the first round. Throwing QBs and MEs into the mix is a move in the wrong direction, IMHO.

As someone who is currently set to be thrown in with the wolves, I wouldn't mind a more random seeding, whatever format it ends up to be. As far as fun, fun for me happens in those little moments that comprise individual games - the tanks performing the T&L ballet, the well-executed ambush, the "Hail Mary" that either pays off or goes down in flames. Frankly, I approach each game as a learning experience. It can be anything from a simple "hmmm, I wouldn't have attacked along that route, let's see how it goes" to the advanced course in ambushes I received while playing Wreck. Debate away, but please try and keep the number of games down in the initial round - 5 or less - as it goes better for us married types.

Hmmm... In my mind I can see a certain three-vehicle depression next to two BBQ's...