c3k

Is there a chance that vegetation blocks the gunner's sight? Low hanging tree branches? The LOS to a low spot, the ground in front of the PzIV, may be clear, but lifting the LOS up to the PzIV may intersect foliage. Just a guess... Ken

What is the ordnance listing for the "3 inch BDF" to which you've referred? An "M" series designation would be best.

c3k will SHOW you his style!!! I've finished playing this, v2 of the battle, pbem as the Allies. My AAR, as a summary, will be forthcoming. You can be assured, there was no pussyfooting around!!! Forward men, towards the machinegun nests!! Ken

Hmm, Has ANYONE tried to put foxholes in the upper floors of a building? That could be interesting... Ken

How many pix of side turret doors open (PzIV) have you seen? Lots... I don't know how many were open in combat. Closeness of enemy and temperature would probably play a role. Also look at how prominent a role the need for a message port opening in the PzV turret played into its design. I forget about the Tiger... Books are not in front of me. They used a lot of turret sights and ports. Yes, schuerzen reduced it to just the cupola, unless the doors were open. Ken

Germans heading East in the beginning of their invasion of the Soviet Union had EXTREMELY limited maps. Frequently the maps they did have, were wrong. Non-existant roads, etc., were a problem. Getting fast, radio-equipped armored cars out front were a necessity for navigation. That lesson was retained by the Soviets. All maps were considered state secrets. Couple the lack of available maps with the need to get a pass to leave your city, and you quite effectively imprisoned your population. GPS location, geo data bases, google earth, recce drones, real-time data, hyper-spectral scanning, networked forces, blue force location displays, satellites, night vision, magnified optic gunsights on EVERY weapon. THAT'S sci-fi in real life.

Mike, That looks great! I'd imagined something like the ASL Rulebook foldout chart, and you've created just that! Thanks, Ken

If you like Elite, try Iron.

The benefit, vs ATR's, was to change the round's angle of incidence against the organic armor. E.g., post-penetration the ATR round would tumble or hit side-on to the armor. Mild steel performs that function. The skirts were not meant to "absorb" the energy of the ATR round: they were meant to skew it's impact to a greater angle of incidence. It performed that function quite well. Look at the AAR's of various German armored units to be convinced of how ubiquitous, and bothersome, the Soviet ATR threat was. Vision blocks (with eye injuries), half tracks, side and rear armor, all were targeted and hit with great frequency. This threat became very prevelant in '42 as Soviet production of ATR's ramped up and they were fielded in great numbers. Coupled with the German offensive, the ATR's became a factor in armor tactics vs. infantry.

I've certainly seen trees stripped of foliage due to impacts. I don't remember caliber sizes or number of hits. Incoming vs. Outgoing trajectories ARE different. Rounds drop more at the end. It's not an arc, it's an arc with the far end smooshed in. I'm not saying it's RIGHT, but that could account for the different results. Ken

Send to me. PM me for my email. Ken

Not arbitrary. Designed to simulate the ability to pick up in situ, as it were, and relocate a short distance. The Vickers decision could be looked at again. (It may just have been an oversight.) I thought this was mentioned somewhere in the manual or change notes. (The ability to move short distances without having to redeploy.) Ken

Obviously it seems off. However, what is happening to the men? Any saves? Ken

A deployed weapon implies a STABLE foundation, capable of FULL utilization of the weapon. Try to set up a stable gun platform (say, 2' x 3') with materials at hand in any of your rooms, such that a weapon would be a few feet back of the window and at a height such that it could fire reasonably close to the structure. I'll time you: GO! A couple of chairs, back to back, with a kitchen table upside down on top? Well, first you've got to rip the legs off the kitchen table. Then, when the whole thing falls down, you've got to go grab another chair. What, the height is too low? Fine, add a few sofa cushions. Hmm, too pliant. Can't hold on target with that. Toss them aside and grab a coffee table to put on top of the inverted kitchen table. What, one of the chairs just toppled over? Okay, put it upright. Now, how's it looking? Rocks a bit too much? Sofa cushion UNDER the table, quick! How long did that take? Yes, counting the time it took to run up and down to the kitched to fetch the various pieces of furniture. Propping a machinegun barrel on a windowsill would be partially deployed AND carries the added bonus of being an excellent technique to make yourself a target for everyone who can see the window. The 2+ minute deployment time is somewhat generous. Ken

^^^ That bottom picture: "YOU pull the trigger!" "Nein! YOU pull the trigger!"

Bulletpoint, Another thought to remember is that as the game matures, so too do the skills of the designers. Early maps and battles, like those that ship with the game, will be surpassed by later efforts. As the game is patched, some gameplay foundations get shifted. What was balanced in v1.00, may be a cakewalk in v2.01. Or vice versa. Map makers adopt one another's best practices. As one good idea gets created, it spreads to others. For example, many early maps have "hidden" bocage gaps. Many later maps have dirt tiles underlying the bocage gap, making them much more visible to the player. Ken

Since you forgot that you'd toggled the trees to be off, I guess I'll mention that you may want to check to make sure you have not done the same with smoke. Not that _I_ have ever done anything like that. Ken

About the 1070m LOS from the bunker to the Elefant: I notice that the bunker team has NO BINO'S!? Trying to spot men in tall grass almost 1,100m away can be a bit difficult. Binoculars may've been helpful. Ken

The LOS issue is something I've been investigating on my own. The low tripod US .30 seems to be the culprit. More testing needed. Deploy/non-deploy: Deployed is the ultimate state. Since it should take 14 seconds to un-deploy, let me ask this: how much un-deploy makes deploy not deploy? Confused? Yeah. Let's work it backwards. Assume 10 seconds to deploy. If they get interrupted at 9 seconds, would you cry foul if they are not deployed? No. It would make sense. So, 1 second less than full deploy equals undepoyed. Now take a fully deployed weapon. How many seconds of "pack up" will take it away from its deployed status? I say 1 second. So, "instantly" it loses its deployed status, but they cannot MOVE until the full pack up is complete, 14 seconds later. Does that make sense? Ken

^^^ Agreed. Making the map does NOT make the battle. The battle is a dance. A pas de deux, sometimes under the moonlight with wine, other times in sweaty clothes on a cluttered desk with a stale beer and a burnt out cigarette whose ash is perilously dangling over the keyboard as the unshaven player squints at the screen and tries to ignore the plaintive wailing of his long-ignored wife. Ooops. That reminds me: I've got to go.

BDW, if the teams are interrupted, the deploy starts anew. I've run MANY teams in MANY different situations and they have always, eventually, deployed. You're trying to simulate a STABLE platform being created in a room. There are variables. Let us know if it never works. Ken

Nice job! Of course, we need MOAR!

Okay, I don't have PC. If each hex is km, then what are you using for a firing order for the CM artillery? I would HOPE that you've set up an area target which has a 500m radius. I mean, if you're going to bombard a 1 km wide hex in PC, you should bombard a 1 km wide circle in CM. Next, you should give the CM men some trenches and bunkers. Order me to entrench, and give me two hours, and I'll have multiple layers of logs over my head, with a small firing slit facing the expected direction of attack. I'd give the arty a "light" command. I mean, the goal is to stretch out the time the arty is falling to approach 2 hours. Next, let the CM game go for 2 hours. Now, how much suppression does your CM force have? It should be near zero. Casualties should be near zero as well. I mean, you DID split the squads up into teams, right? No one shell should take out more than a single team. My .02. Ken

Re: version numbers. You CAN have different versions installed at the same time. CMBN started as v1.00. A patch brought it up to v1.01. An expansion, Commonwealth, brought it up to v1.10. After CMFI was made, a lot of improvements were backported into CMBN. They were different enough that a new version number was created. Yes, you need to PAY for this one. It was v2.00. Then a free patch was made: v2.01. Confused? Good. Each version should have its own shortcut. You select which one you will play. The gist of this is that you CAN have CMBN v1.11 (or v1.01 if you don't have Commonwealth) and CMBN v2.01 installed at the same time. But, really, you should just get v2.01 at this point. It is a FAR better game to play. The version number is on the bottom right of the opening splash screen. Let us know how your pbem goes. Ken

Amnesia is a horrible thing to behold. +1 to the SAUBCOAMP (Select A Unit By Clicking On Any Movement Path) functionality. (Pronounced "sawb camp" for those reading along aloud.) Ken