grunto2

try running defrag. i had a friend on a pentium 166 who was always crashing. he ran defrag and the problems went away. i run fine on a celeron 400. andy

i want maultiers and katyusha trucks in direct fire roles. buahaha andy

when designing scenarios, i've been known to go in and remove all of the smoke rounds from tanks, replacing them with he or c. i never use smoke when i could be laying down HE instead. =laugh= andy

weren't there also variants with 3 15mm (aircraft machineguns)? andy

how about, 'hitler moves east: scorched earth' ? that would be kewl andy

the next best are the ss panzergrenadier (motorized infantry), with 1 more rifle and one less smg, but the same number of lmg and mp44. the sound of the mp44 is my favorite of the cmbo small arms. i can see those young vandals running around, "sprayin' and prayin.'" andy

yeah, if you could send those to me, that would be great: andyt@pacifier.com andy

thanks for the follow-up Ollie. now some scenario(s) could be designed around some of these units. Andy

hi, has anyone created a rimling or herrlisheim battle or anything like that? thanks in advance, andy

i once had the same problem with clicking on the passenger units so i thought you might be interested in this: try using shift-v to make the vehicles invisible. what i do is hit shift-c to 4 times to make the units large, then hit shift-v to make the vehicles disappear, then make my passenger unloading moves. when finished making debarkation moves, i then hit shift-v and shift-c (just once this time) and i'm back with vehicles visible and everything 'normal sized.' ...and all of the passenger debarkations are done. andy

has anyone at "TH" tried the U.S. M8 HMC? that's the allied 'supertank.' 58 points. in the fog it's very hard to beat. Andy

try: 50% sdkfz 7/1 50% 75mm recoilless andy

/*Incidentally, I can't help remarking on one comment made earlier in the thread, where one fellow expressed the opinion that a certain fad for Tigers plus FJ infantry was "gamey". Those gamey Germans. In the Bulge attack, the 3FJ division was supposed to follow up behind 1SS, and 1 company of them rode on some of the KGs tanks.*/ well i saw it as a fad for awhile. fjs with heavy tanks; anything but stugs. it didn't affect any of the battles in any way, it was just kind of 'amusing.' andy

hi, in a continuation of the thread about the appearance of tigers and the realism of it as compared to that of panzer iv and panthers, what about the jagdpanther? was it used in conjunction with jgpzIV and StuGs or were there separate heavy tank destroyer battalions, with only jagdpanthers? i would think that the stugs would be separate from the tank destroyers in any case. what about marder and nashorn? were they in separate units or mixed with other, closed-top TD types? what does asl say? it says about stugs: 8,600 StuG IIIG built, another 1,000 StuG IV (no different in asl game terms). it says that stugs were used in TD battallions. between marder II and the marder III types, about 2500 were built before production was switched to the hetzer. 494 Nashorns were built. 769 of the jgpz iv were built; 'a 1944 td battalion often contained a mixture of StuG III and JgdPz IV...' 1200 jpgz iv/70 were built. finally, only 390 jagdpanther built. so they would probably be pretty rare in cmbo game terms: 'JgdPz V: With its gun, armor, and speed, the Jagdpanther was one of the most potent TD of the war. Its greatest drawback was its rarity; only about 390 were built. Use of the Jagdpanther in Normandy was limited to the 12-14 vehicles of 2nd Company, schwere Panzerjaegerabteilung (TD battalion) 654.' does anyone know of any other historical encounters against the jagdpanther? it does look like they were mixed with other TDs, at least in their limited use at Normandy. Andy

my impression is that the german ground forces were fairly 'ad hoc' or 'improvisational' toward the end of the war. i usally try to keep the tigers with the ss infantry, and use panthers and panzer ivs with regular army. with fallschirmjagers i will buy stugs. these are just general rules i use when designing scenarios. i figure tigers are my favorite, so when designing a normandy scenario i'll use ss motorized infantry with tigers. even though they were in the ss' divisional armored battalions i save the panthers and panzer ivs for 21st panzer division or panzer lehr scenarios or whatever. anyway, given the stories of the often ad hoc nature of the german units, i would say that any combination of vehicles is not out of the question. ok, here's a question? how about jagdpanthers? i'll start another thread. andy

yes, panthers were much more common, almost to the level of panzer IVs (something like 52 panzer IVs for every 48 panthers). there were something like 5,000 panthers built, and just over 1000 tigers. the tiger first saw action in 1942... it was a heavy tank design started before the germans had contacted the russian t-34. the panther was an attempt at outdoing the t-34. that's why the tiger has 'boxy' armor... because when it was designed, they hadn't thought about sloped armor yet. again, once they met the t-34 in action, they started considering sloped armor, and the panther was born. i'm still with you though; i like the tiger better; 88mm is better against infantry, 88mm still good against almost all allied armor; box shape is 'cool-looking'; holds up against air attacks well; better against side shots. apparently there was this thing that the tiger crews could 'do;' they could turn the tank in place. apparently shermans didn't do that in real life, but they do in cmbo; that combined with the slow turret speed make the tiger slightly sub-optimal in cmbo compared to its real-life performance. i still pick them over panthers whenever i design a scenario.... 'let's see... the tank support must be coming from an independent heavy battalion, and not one of the division's organic tank battalions (panthers and panzer IVs).' that's the excuse i use when designing scenarios anyway. i have this one called, 'putot' where 10 tigers can contribute a lot of mayhem to the overall battle. andy

king tigers should probably show up in groups. they were in 'a' heavy tank battalion (was there more than the 1 battalion the one commanded by otto kumm in the 1st ss panzer corps?) i would think too that king tigers should be supported by ss. did regular heer ever get king tigers? i like going up against heavy armor with u.s. cavalry. it is easy to lose, but so gratifying to win. that makes it worth the effort. if you can get the king tigers on anything but dry or very dry ground, then they have problems with becoming immobilized. heavy fog or darkness also makes the king tiger suboptimal - that's great for u.s. cav. my experience in using heavy german armor is that, more often than not they don't end up being worth what i paid for them. that's why when playing germans i go for the sdkfz7/1 and 7/2 halftracks, and lots of 20mm flak, 37mm flak, 75mm ig, and 75mm recoilless. these are 'high firepower' units which cost little. so as some people get tired of ubertanks - for awhile the craze was tigers supported by fallschirmjagers (totally ahistorical) - others get tired of my own methods where i only buy cheap, high-firepower units. the best way to get around this is to play pre-made scenarios which have been tested and are thought to be balanced, or in qbs, let the computer buy the units. andy

panthers were much more common, almost to the level of panzer IVs. the tiger was more rare, and was usually found in groups, as they were allocated to heavy tank battalions; if memory serves, most of these heavy tank battalions were in the ss while only a couple were found in units such as panzer lehr or grossdeutschland, respectively. i'm with you though; the tiger 1 is my favorite german tank; there is something about the 'boxy look' and the boom of the 88. still in cmbo the tigers are at a disadvantage because of the way the tank turning is modelled. also the turret turns at and 'average' speed when in real life it was apparently dependent upon the rpms of the main engine. in cmbo the best german tank is the panther. ..except against air attacks; the tigers seem to do really well there. in any event it's something else to see 75mm sherman guns bouncing off of the side armor of the tiger; the tiger has the panther beat there. andy

i use halftracks to lead the attack. i prefer at least 5 or 6 instead of 2. the u.s. m3a1 is deadly against soft targets, and with 250 ammo it fires continuously if it gets the chance. the m3a1 has the advantage of being able to take on - with decent odds of success - all german armored cars, open topped tracked vehicles, and halftracks. the german spw 251/1 is not as good, but it is still good enough to run ahead and ferret out then suppress soft targets. think of it this way... a halftrack at about 40 points is less of a potential point loss than to use an infantry platoon in the same role. i have this new scenario, 'autobahn: quickness kills' which has 37 u.s. m3a1s. it also has 12 .50 cal jeeps, and 36 greyhounds. these units definitely lead the attack, with chaffees and m8 hmcs providing overwatch. andy

bts should model snipers the way they do in asl. nonetheless, as it is, an elite sharpshooter with 15 rounds of ammo can be a factor in a small, company level battle. now i read in american rifleman once that a u.s. infantry company's sharpshooter carried an m1903 (bolt-action 30.06) with tracers. in the advance he would sneak ahead of his company, a couple hundred yards or so, then fire tracers at enemy positions he would spot. when his company saw where the tracers went, they were supposed to start laying in fire, manuevering, etc. now at 18 points for regular it might be a bit expensive to use sharpshooters as probes in cmbo. the debate over whether a sharpshooter equals a sniper or if a sharpshooter is 'part sniper,' or 'something completely different and not a sniper at all' is an interesting one. in game terms the roles given various units by the commander may be 'ahistorical,' but isn't the action in the game itself more often than not, itself 'realistic?' anyway for cm2 i like the idea of keeping the sharpshooter types from cmbo and adding some kind of abstract sniper cabability, perhaps not represented by a unit on the map. the example given of the company commander being down 3 guys, and the weapons platoon hq being wiped out... that seemed a little extreme. maybe something like 1 casualty in each would be more 'realistic.' andy

more improvements: 1)break the 20mm flak down into single shots, and have 6 tiny craters instead of just one crater on the receiving end; or 24 instead of 1 on the quad 20mm. 2) when shelled, have the buildings distintegrate in stages. while the 'exploding/imploding' building is fun at first, after awhile it doesn't seem realistic. it's either a building or rubble in cmbo. i know there are the * and ** markings but until the 'collapse into rubble' the building remains 'the same' from a game standpoint. 3) keep track of the ammo for every individual soldier, instead of using one abstract number for the entire squad 4) have a 'doom' mode where squads can get more ammo and 'upgrade' their weapons as they go along. example: lieut duke doesn't like his carbine. he picks up a .45 smg from the member of some other eliminated unit, and the hq unit he is a part of now has one more .45 smg and one less .30 carbine. 4) allow certain gun and vehicle crews the ability to scavenge infantry weapons and 'join the fight on foot.' while this didn't happen 'all of the time,' or even, 'most of the time,' i'm sure that it did happen some of the time. i would think that crack and elite units would be most capable of continuing the fight with whatever would be at their disposal. i've read of real-life battles where there were ammo and small arms everywhere, littering the battlefield. when trying to represent such battles in cmbo, it's frustrating when your squads start out with 60 (modified) and still get to LOW over the course of the longer battles. they should be able to scavenge. 5) recovery of abandoned enemy mgs and light guns, 'ala' squad leader. 6) light guns in buildings as a feature instead of a workaround. 7) pillboxes as buildings; 'man' them with your choice of units. 8) u.s. cavalry squadron (or troop) as a unit type.... oh i guess that would be a cmbo upgrade and not cm2.... but 'cav jeeps' would be cool, with 3-man crews trained to bail and fight on foot after taking fire. scenario editor: 1) ability to set the ammo for all like units with one click, instead of having to edit them all by hand. 2) if that can't be implemented, at least increment the FO ammo by the number of tubes represented, instead of one shot at a time. as it is it takes forever to set for instance a u.s. 81mm mortar to max ammo (800?) from the default (200?). workaround: put some sort of weight on the mouse button and go get yourself a cup of coffee. when you get back, the FO's ammo will be maxed out. 3) pay for the ammo instead of having standard allotments; as a default for instance, tungsten would be bought by the round instead of given at random. 4) pay for demo charges, rifle grenades, and panzerfausts. 5) make the hq bonus ratings (combat, stealth, morale, leadership) cost points. andy

i hope that cm2 has more unit slots. cmbo does about 2 battalions with supporting units. i would like to be able to do 4 battalions ('brigades' in russian-speak?) of russians, defending against a german recon battalion in 1941.... then a couple of companies of panzers show up, IIIs with 50mm 'medium' guns... or maybe 38ts with 37mm... then the lumbering kv shows up in the midst of 50 bt5s... and stukas.... then maybe experimental russian rockets (leningrad front later in the year?) are they going to have dog mines? =just kidding, just kidding= su152s with smg squad passengers will be cool. how about an action involving the 'elephant battalion' in the ukraine in '44? andy

cigarettes and coffee... andy

so the 37mm penetrates 65mm (did i say 68 before?) at <=100 meters. is it too powerful then in the game if stuarts are taking out king tigers? andy

ok i'm sending it now. the troops (companies) have been changed to: 1 Company HQ 3 Platoon HQ 3 .50 Cal Jeep Each Platoon has: 1 Airborne Squad 1 60mm Mortar 3 M1919 (3-man) 1 Baz 3 M3A1 Halftrack 3 Greyhound Each company has direct support from "Troop E." This is 8 M8 HMCs, split off into pairs, 2 per company in the default setup. Then you have 3 platoons of 5 M24 Chaffee from "Troop F" and 2 HQ Tanks, 17 Chaffees in all. It is a lot of fun running these 'bad boys' around the map. It presents an interesting challenge for the Germans; the forces are about 1.7:1 Ameican:German in points but the Germans have way more soldiers; it's just that they're 'all' on foot and they're mostly Conscript or Green. The U.S. are mostly Regular. I would have used mostly "Green" but the choice of Airborne platoons as the basis of the 'cavalry model' made Regular the minimum. Both sides have some superior HQ units; Veteran and Crack. Anyway, can you clear the highway, er heimat? Andy