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P3??? That thing had some sort of autoloading cannon. Cripes. Why did all my PIII rounds bounce off your Stuarts when I was German? I'm going to try to sweet talk Phil into letting my port a few Abrams into this battle...

Yeah, that's not good. If the weapon is a remote weapon system (RWS), then it can be fired when buttoned up. The TacAI will NOT auto-reload a RWS. That prevents the TacAI from popping a crewmember up when the player would know that he would die. Instead, every RWS needs to have the player intervene by using the OPEN UP command. Once opened, the crewmember will automatically reload any available ammunition. Okay...what's available ammunition? That would ammo which is NOT being held by the crew or passengers, but is being carried by the vehicle. It would make sense that, barring any other ammo availability, that the TacAI would "share" ammo from that possessed by the crew with the weapons operated by the crew. I'll make that suggestion. Ken

Well, then that means all the vehicles I lost this morning did so for me, as well! sfhand had far more in that little woods than I thought. And a 'schreck team in the middle hill mass got off a nice ambush, as well. There can't be any calls that my tanks spot too well after THAT turn. Very ugly. I lost 4 (?) tanks. I didn't get any shots off. Not a good way to start my morning coffee...

Gah! AND I just lost ANOTHER jeep. I think I have a deep-seated hatred of jeeps.

What's the LATW issue?

I had his nest of Nazis nicely ensconced in maze of machinegun fire... A jeep and a Stuart, with more flooding the zone. (Light woods) His last man through a potato masher...into my jeep. Sigh. At least he died without knowing what he'd done. I now have 2 more dead. That brings my total casualties to....five. All from jeeps. (I've lost a Sherman, a Stuart, 2 jeeps, and an M8 Scout Car. Only 5 casualties. That points to minimal kinetic energy kills.) I've decided to brigade the unhorsed crews into an anti-minefield unit. I'll mention that to them later.

Well, far be it from me to let a snideness go by without giving it the applaud it deserves. (Sound of crickets chirping.) Moi, a fanboy? It depends on your perspective. Show me a better game at this scale. Oh, it doesn't exist? Guess you're a fanboy, too. Now, let's look at what I posted: LOL. Really. How many times would the OPPOSITE be decried? E.g., my AT team only used small arms and refused to fire their rockets at the enemy? (Err, kind of like how this thread started?) I agree: in the situation you described, it's sub-optimal. Now, let's dig down. Were they surprised? (Real life: surprise/danger close, you trigger off whatever's in your hand.) After you've re-run the savegame 100 times, how many times did they use the sub-optimal weapons? I just had a game turn where I had 3 engineers, totally black on small arms ammo. Down to 3 grenades and some demo charges. Yeah, they used the grenades which pinned the enemy for a few seconds, then, as they were being overrun, the engineers started tossing demo charges. Why wait? Because, as happened, one of the demo charges WIA'd one of the engineers. There is a LOT going on under the hood. A one-off situation can be cause for investigation, not a conclusion. I gave you a possible reason why your troops did what they did. I also ended with a statement that your experience may raise a question, but a one-off anecdote does not mean the game is broken. See that part where I agreed that it was sub-optimal? Of course you didn't; you have chip on your shoulder. Those chips tend to stack higher and higher until they block peripheral vision, leaving one with tunnel vision. Your troops died. Waaaaa. Cry me a river. Must be the game is broken, right? Ken

LOL! Want to hazard a release date?

Yeah, what he said. My learning curve on Russian laser guided artillery started last spring. I'm still in the flat section of that curve. I had an imaginary idea of how a laser guided munition (LGM) should work, based on my knowledge of USAF LGB's. That's not a good place to start. Comms, sync'ing, baskets, arty training, ammo allotment, etc., are HUGE impediments. If you want to drop rounds on a fixed location, starting with a briefing the night prior and having all in readiness about 6-8 hours later, then this is very good. Imagine a set-piece assault with a few critical defense nodes you want to knock out before your men go over the top (SAM sites, C^3 nodes, etc.). If you want to drop an FO team on the flank of a mechanized breakthrough and plink tanks, then this is not going to work.

Well, setting up a game to ensure that I can publicly crush my oppo would take such a preponderance of firepower, that I fear it may not be playable! His demurral has spurred me to contact the runner-up. I am awaiting that person's response. Failing that, I shall just pick someone... Yeah, I know the "fear factor" of a public AAR can be a bit intimidating. NOT that Don's demurral had anything to do with that. However, the purpose of this AAR will be...err, just for fun. Remember, no matter how bad, inept, and clueless you think you are, um, somewhere there's a 9 year old girl who's worse.

WAIT!!! Don has demurred. I am contacting the runner up and will ask if he would like to wear the tiara... Ken

^^^ If the unit is "threatened" (I don't know how that works, I've just seen it work), it will ignore the covered arc. But, yeah, 180 arc out to the map-edge. Then, when it reaches the endpoint, a FACE command (which erases any covered arc and aligns hull and turret towards the desired direction).

LOL. Really. How many times would the OPPOSITE be decried? E.g., my AT team only used small arms and refused to fire their rockets at the enemy? (Err, kind of like how this thread started?) I agree: in the situation you described, it's sub-optimal. Now, let's dig down. Were they surprised? (Real life: surprise/danger close, you trigger off whatever's in your hand.) After you've re-run the savegame 100 times, how many times did they use the sub-optimal weapons? I just had a game turn where I had 3 engineers, totally black on small arms ammo. Down to 3 grenades and some demo charges. Yeah, they used the grenades which pinned the enemy for a few seconds, then, as they were being overrun, the engineers started tossing demo charges. Why wait? Because, as happened, one of the demo charges WIA'd one of the engineers. There is a LOT going on under the hood. A one-off situation can be cause for investigation, not a conclusion.

I've just found another turn waiting for me...off to that when I'm done here. As Allies, I'm pursuing an offensive strategy. sfhand is being coy... Part of my plan is to clear that isolated hill on my right. The one that sits just north of the river and is not connected to any other feature. Well, last turn as I sent some jeeps and light tanks across it to check it out, I stumbled upon a nice little nest of Germans! Lots of machinegun fire later, and there are fewer Germans. This turn will see how many there are. It's either a recce element sfhand put there, or it's a stronger unit, being saved for a counterattack into my rear. Ahh, fun little game, no?

The circled modifier in your image is their MORALE state. They are +1 Rattled. That means they are MORE rattled than just rattled. Somewhere, someone posted a cool flow chart showing morale state progression. Rattled is worse than nervous, I think. In fact, rattled isn't good. It looks good to me.

The hull rotation algorithm seems MUCH better, btw.

Womble has it.

Panther vs. T-34/85. Very rough analogy.

SPOILER * * * * * * * * * I had not looked at this at all in testing. I just went through a bit of it today. VERY cool little fight on my left. I saw the Russians putting a SA-14(?) unit in the woods after crossing the river. I sent my 3 man engineer team up to the copse. (It's the one right on the map edge.) A great little firefight left my engineers with 3 handgrenades left. The Russians kept coming. They tossed the 3 grenades, but 2 Russians were still moving. That's when the engineers used their demo charges. Outstanding! One fratricide casualty, but all the Russkis went kaput. Didn't expect that little action to be so tight.

LOL! Yeah, like everyone else, after the ragequit or reloading from a better turn, I try to figure out what I did wrong. Usually, it ends up being too rushed. Spreading my men out, creeping and oozing as if it were me down in that ditch, makes all the difference. Then, I try again (hoping that there is a new TacAI plan waiting), and see if I can do better.

WeGo, Iron. Get over your fear. Iron actually HELPS you play BETTER. It shows you what your troops see and know.

This topic was beat upon, a lot. There is a lot of evidence, pro and con, about the resistance of modern MBT's to modern artillery. On issue is that the precision rounds don't penetrate as well. That hardened, pointy warhead, has been replaced by an optic. Plus, some HE filler is removed. Splinters? Yeah. But, look at what you said: the tank is damaged. In modern combat, that tank is a sitting duck. If it's mobile, it should shuffle off to the rear. The Abrams is designed to keep the crew alive, not to keep the tank in the fight. A slight difference, but important. Ken

I'm having fun romping around as Allies against sfhand. As yet, we're still in the early phase of the battle. I'm gaining intel on his forces. That intel is bought at the expense of shattered metal and blood. As usual.

Hmmm... I wonder if BFC could have an option (after filing a help desk request or verifying a license) to download it in discrete "chunks"? Say, 10 different files of 500Mb? I have no idea if an approach like that would help. Alternatively, mailing a disk? It doesn't matter to the few folks with these problems that it is not widespread.

Very much modeled. Small arms and shell fragments are greatly affected.