c3k

Trying to defend against the Soviets inside woods is not the way to go, IMO. A knife-fight plays into the hands of the guy with more men and more PPSh's. I like the idea of strongpoints, mutually supporting, with lateral fields of fire, covered to the front. One little scrap of land, thus far ignored, is the scrub at 16/03. I'd put at least an HMG42 in there with a tight covered arc and wait for an opportunity. Bil will get to the edge of the woods (from Bil's view, the far edge), without too many casualties unless Elvis puts some strongpoints in there. He'll have to contest the few openings as best he can, then hightail it out of there as Bil takes time to either deploy firepower or ooze elsewhere. Without some guys up front to pop Bil in the nose, Elvis will be doomed. The town along the road: Going house to house, with heavy firepower in support, will allow Bil to roll that up. Cutting the town crosswise with HE from his backfield is something Elvis needs to look at. Just manning that objective at the end of the town will allow Bil too much freedom and cover. But then, y'all have seen how I played against Bil. Pulling for Elvis over here. Bil has shown how he places units around the map and scouts for LOS by using target lines. At least, he showed two examples of that in his thread. I never bother doing that. This type of analysis, if it is how Bil prepares, can be used against him. Find the best spot, then think about where Bil would counter it. Then counter his counter. Ken

Stretching them and then penetrating? That's my technique, as well.

Excellent. Nice picks... Now we're going to see what it was like to herd stragglers into something reflecting a coherent force. Good luck!

I like the purchase. Comrade Stalin expects the most from you. He's given you everything you've asked for. Failure will only be due to your lack of vigor. We will await your success.

Red tentacles of doom! Why limit yourself to just one route? Use them ALL! Good luck! Ken

Well played! If you like "Red Thunder", great! If you don't like it, rest assured that the previous name was FAR worse. Far, far, far worse.

Physical disk, but of course.

Yes, but which of his forces will be able to counterattack and capture Bil's base?

When I have a suitable response, I'll deign to reply...

Denial Drone c3k, present. Despite the inflammatory nature of Zels77's post, he has a point: the demo saves money. Anyone who is on the fence should give it a shot. Addressing his commentary, it seems that losing Tank Commanders was the one issue which sent him fleeing. I'm willing to be the purchase of a complete CMBN kit (base, v2 upgrade, Commonwealth, and Market Garden) that he was trying to play as Wittmann and ragequit when he kept getting killed. (Or any other imagined German tank ace.) I wonder if he remembers what happened to the real one? Regardless, this is a great advertisement for the demo. Curious; tried it; didn't like it; never spent a dime. Ken Drone out.

The ISU-122 is cool, but tossing one of them in exchange for an ISU-152 would be cooler-er. Zvierboy and all that. Who cares about reloading sequence? As if it'd need more than one shell anyway. Ken

I don't speak Finnish, Lapp, Norse, or any other funny sounding language, but I can suss out what this means. "Perkele sentas" (No umlauts allowed: they offend me: unless vertical: and at the end of a word: or Claus: ) "Perkele" sounds like "Percolate". "Percolate", like coffee, means to immerse something in water and boil vigorously. Got it. "Sentas" is simple. It means "Santa", or, in English, Santa Claus. Saint Nicholas or Saint Niklaus for you Eastern/Northern types with funny sounding languages. Therefore, when Sergei says "Perkele sentas", it translates into, "If you don't release a Finn module, we will BOIL SANTA." This is not an idle threat. The Finns obviously know the location of Santa's workshop. (Reindeer spies, donchaknow. That red nose was used for Morse transmissions. Not Norse.) The module must be released before Christmas!!! If not for us, for Santa.

Did I just hear someone mention "flares"? Mmph. Back to the cave...

The FO: what will be his function?

D'OH!!! Yep. Thanks.

Well, criminy! Have him buy a friggen' Luftflotte full of G's!! Please purchase: 26 points per plane is a price portentiously un-penurious! (The preceding pronouncement leaves me prostrate.) Thanks for the instruction on the Ju-87G. This battle could be similar to the account related by Udet about his squadron single-handedly holding back a Soviet counter-attack at Kursk. Get some.

Yes, but... The D-3 had 7.92 machineguns in the wings (one each side). The D-5 (longer wing span) had 20mm cannon replacing the machineguns. The Ju-87G had two variants, the G-1 and the G-2. The -1 was based on D-3, the -2 was based on the D-5. I don't know if the Ju-87G modification removed the existing machinegun or cannon from the appropriate D model. I -think- the G retained the existing armament and just added the 37mm gun pods. I vote that we let Elvis find out!

My take on it is what I've bolded in your OP. I started, years ago, to make a CMSF campaign. I've since realized that the folks who make campaigns and battles are not just incredibly talented, but must also be sadistic workaholics, based on how much effort and time it takes. Having said that, the editor will allow ANYONE to modify the campaigns. Ken

You have no idea how right you are! At the risk of violating my Beta NDA, I'll reveal what happend about a month ago: Beta team: "Hey, BFC, this East Front testing gig is getting us down!" Steve: "Yeah, me too. I'm totally worn out." Beta team: "How about we take a few months off and just smell the roses, or even just play CMBN?" Steve: "I like that plan." Beta team: "Should we reconvene around July?" Steve: "Wait!!! Cymru has just reminded me that I promised we'd get it out soon! Get back to work, you freeloading minions!" It was close, man, real close. Thanks. Ken

I like what Callidus87 has picked. I'd go with the cheapest strafing aircraft option, as noted, the Ju-87G at 26? points. However, I -think- tha just means machineguns, no cannon? (The best points/rarity ratio would be the Ju-87D Strafe at 80 points.) Since airpower is so fickle, you may not want it (no requirement), but it would be fun if Bil doesn't expect it. And, c'mon, this is a beta demo: the crowd demands blood! I'd buy MG42's and add them into whatever infantry you can. How about anti-personnel mines? A few sprinkled on his path early would cause a lot of caution later. Toss a few up front, then more in covered locations near your defense?

"Hetzer" name was during the war. It had other names, too, but they didn't last long. (Admittedly, it seems the German high command spent more time trying to figure out nomenclature rather than studying actual strategy, but I digress.) I crawled over/around the one at Aberdeen. Tiny: I cannot imagine 4 men fighting inside of that machine with it buttoned up. Ken

Flak: the quad 20's are sweet, especially against infantry, but the 37's have a chance against the weaker aspects of a lot of Soviet armor. But then, the ROF of that quad 20 overcomes a lot, and I know that, for the brief time they were existed, I was VERY hesitant to have my Crommies face Bil's Wirbelwind and flaktracks. Go quad!

I keel you.

ATTACK! Buy some Hetzers. Then hetz him with them, like the T-shirt says. Next, get some Panthers. Cannon fodder: straggler companies. C'mon, let's watch them flee. Next, as many mg-42's as you can beg, borrow, or steal. Don't waste money of fixed/immobile assets. They'll die before getting a shot off. Bil is the master at recon and finding gamey, er, well-researched locations from which to fire at your forces. If it can't move, it will die. How much would 2 dozen Hetzen (sp?) cost? Yes, you'd become a "hetzen-beast", forever famous. One last word: watch the edges! Good luck! Ken P.S. TRP's, rocket artillery, and some crack FO's. Heh, heh, heh...

Interesting question. My initial guess is "no", based and savegame vs. email saving, but then, this is TCP/IP.