Silvio Manuel

I think (could be wrong) that the MDMP-2 (Mad Dog Mod Pack 2) at combatmission.com has some SPR stuff. There is a mod out there (not sure if it's MDMP-2) that has the great halftrack engine sound you hear when they ambush it just before they get to Ramelle (Ryan kills it w/ the bazooka). It gets used for all light AFV, i.e. Stuart, Greyhound, HT's, etc. I'm still hoping that some one has converted the following MG-42 sound into a mod: on the Omaha beach scene, right after they fire the Bangalore torpedoes to KO the wire/minefield, you hear 2 rifle shots, then this EVIL bassy cackle of an MG-42 doing suppression fire before Sgt. Horvath yells "we're in business, defilade!! other side of the hole!" ...i'd like either that one, or else some of the MG42 fire heard in the background in the Ramelle fight. Come to think of it, the arty fire in Band of Brothers episode 5 or 7 would be nice, too.

Sir Augustus, Whas a mattah? The 150mm Infantry Gun and 128mm PaK44 Kannone not nasty enough for ya?

Which missing pieces are you referring to? They have 76mm pillboxes, and various field guns up to 85mm AA I think. There is some rule-of-thumb that dictates the largest available on-map caliber for each country... something like it's the smallest divisional field gun (not AA like Soviet 85mm AA). So the Sov's had 76mm and 122mm at Division, but only 76mm makes it b/c it's the smallest. Same reason why Germans get the 105mm howitzer, but the Soviets get nothing that big.

Probably Veteran-type quality HQ units with good bonuses, but Green to Regular Squads and maybe Hvy weps teams. So if you go out of command, you really suffer. But only presumes that the Platoon Sergeants are so experienced, since isn't it true that the Plt. Sgt. is in the Platoon HQ unit? It is likely that the 12th SS may have had lots of experienced Squad Sgt's. So I guess there should be a mix of Green and Regular squads. The "use Greens b/c they simulate real troops" thing is far more applicable to CMBO than CMBB. CMBO needs it b/c troops will go racing thru MG42 fire as if they were picking tulips. Not so in CMBB, so I think you can use Regulars where you might have used Greens for realism's sake in CMBO.

Hmmm, I never thought of that, but my opponent is currently smoking a hilltop, and the smoke looks like the out of LOS pattern. It doesn't make sense that smoke could do that, esp. for a smoke mission. I mean the Spotter isn't giving a correction... :confused:

It's cheaper to use the "utterly invisible until you drive over them" real AT mines. Then the enemy doesn't even see the threat coming, and has to waste finite amounts of lighter AFV to find them. Try "Bitter Pill 2-player" in CMBO, it's a fun excersize w/ the British tackling tough pillbox/mine/volksstrum defenses using the the fortification clearing "Funnies." One of the more enjoyable scens I've played... and roadblocks and mines are a big factor.

Yeah I've been spanking some AI BT-5's with an ATG at 1100m or so, +2 combat bonus. I was weighing the virtues of either keeping my +2comb. bonus Company HQ commanding it, or rather moving him away and using my +2 morale (no combat) Platoon HQ. Thanks. btw, AFAIK, in CMBO AT-combat, the combat bonus only helped infantry AT, and NOT AT guns.

Yeah I just noticed that myself. It seems to be true of all tanks? In CMBB I have a TD rotating to face a target (in scat.trees IIRC), and it's going soooooooooo sloooow. [ May 08, 2003, 05:20 PM: Message edited by: Silvio Manuel ]

Does an AT gun in command of a Combat bonus HQ get improved to-hit%? How about with Infantry AT teams like the Panzerschreck? Thanks, SM

Plus some tanks (like early T-34) also didn't have a cupola for the tank commander, so visibility was awful once he buttoned up to fire the main gun. There were also bad shortages of tank ammo, I've heard the anectdotes of T-34's arriving at the front with no armor-piercing rounds!

In CMBO, if the battle ended with squads still split in half, you wind up losing points for the "b" team as if they were killed... the same reason why your global morale dropped... b/c it's as if they were killed. AFAIK, this wasn't changed for CMBB... so don't end the battle w/ squads still split!!

Actually that 2-gun German 75mm is one of the most flexible around, esp. for a QB. Imagine targeting 4 to 6 such spotters on your target... the ROF is quite nice. Either that or maybe two 6-tube 75mm spotters, or 3x 4-tube spotters, etc. to simulate Battalion fire instead of just single batteries.

IIRC, Regular units can only do sewer travel if they are in Command. Only Veterans and up can do it while out of command. FWIW. Conscript/green can never do it.

For a PBEM, you can kinda simulate that by having two FO's of the 3" or 4.5" caliber, or 3x 4.2" all firing on roughly the same area... the caliber is wrong, but the ROF and effect could be rationalized as 25 pdr-esque. For a custom PBEM (submit unit-purchase requests to a 3rd party who sets it up in the scenario editor), you can request instead of 1 25pdr FO x 120 rounds, maybe 3x Fo's x 40 rounds (and vet/crack quality) to simulate the ROF and ETA. At any rate, I'm a fan of having two FO's of the same caliber (or 3 or more) firing on the same target... it feels more realistic as supposedly it was more common for whole artillery battalions (rather than single batteries) to be firing. [ May 01, 2003, 02:13 PM: Message edited by: Silvio Manuel ]

Wow Lanzfeld, you must be one of our blue-ribbon LURKERS.

First of all, it's highly unlikely that BFC will ever patch CMBO, and that is a big bummer for a guy like me who MUCH prefers the West Front to the Ostfront. It seems like we may be able to use the forthcoming CMAK game to make Western Front battles, and that should have the GOOD features of CMBB incorporated (and then some). MG bug: see above. One of the ways I "simulate" more effective MG fire is to play with "Low Quality troops" (i.e. Green units). Also, pair your MGs together, or give the attacker a -10% penalty to give the defender more pts. to buy MGs or higher quality MGs, etc. Lower visibility (dawn/dusk and/or overcast are my favs) also makes it tougher for the attacker, in general; same with light snow or rain. T/C rounds: You MUST have a COMPLETE "ID" of the targeted tank before your unit (tank, AT gun, etc.) will use "t"/Tungsten round. It can't just say "Tiger?". No dice. As for "c" rounds, I don't know if you need a full ID, but your unit will use them very sparingly... for example, your Howitzer or Howitzer/Close Support Tank will fire a few "h"/high explosive rounds to "bracket" the target, then fire "c" when it thinks it has a decent chance of actually scoring a hit w/ the few specialty shells it has. Hope this helps, SM [ April 29, 2003, 12:35 PM: Message edited by: Silvio Manuel ]

It is absolutely Month/Region dependent. Now all we need is a chart for all 4 years showing what's what!!

Nice post Jason, thanks for the info.

Given what WWB said, I guess you just have to hope that you get one med/heavy module at a discount due to variable rarity, and then assume that it's the guns that Corps dispatched to support your little Battalion-sized attack.

How do ppl use VT arty incorrectly?

Is it like that at a lot of different months? I would think that maybe in (Jan43?) at the start of the Stalingrad counterattack (Uranus?) that the Sovs would have lots of heavy arty available, or at least more than in the month you picked. Usually the Sovs have maybe 1 decent med/heavy module at a discount, like 122/152, or 132 rockets, or maybe something huge like 203. Otherwise they pretty much always just have the Regimental/Battalion stuff at normal rarity. The Germans typically had a much better arty system, as the Russian used direct fire (i.e. 76mm reg. cannon) a lot. Maybe on other late-war months it's better.

When an artillery ETA is shown in the unit of "minutes" it's pretty vague... 4:20 of real time might be shown as either 4 minutes or 5. So the same FO type might show different ETAs for two of the same FO. They might wind up taking nearly the same time.

That's CM's visual abstraction... that molotov "really" landed anywhere in the 20x20m tile you saw it land on.

I like playing w/ Green troops, in dawn/dusk (and/or overcast), and Short-75 rules. It's realistic-like. Esp. dawn/dusk which helps to mute the borg-spotting a bit, in that full ID's are much harder. Green Allied 75mm tanks will have it tough against even StuGs and Panzer IV's, at range at least.

do you mean the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, the US Army Ordnance Museum? I'll be in the area this weekend, not sure if I'll be there Saturday or Sunday (and maybe a 10-20% chance I won't go to the Proving grounds).