JeffreyAJohnson

I'm playing a PBEM game right now. I've got a Sherman behind a wall, and it's about to shoot at a Panther that's cresting a hill. The descriptions for both of the vehicles say "hull down" and the one for my Sherman says something about me not being able to use my bow MG. I've got another Sherman tank next to a house, and it's hull down, for some reason (I think because of the woods in front of it?). Anyway, that Panther is targetting this second Sherman, who took himself out of hiding to hopefully shoot at this Panther at the beginning of next turn. The hit chances for my two tanks are 30% and 47%, with a kill probability of "OK", so we'll see who's faster on the trigger. That Panther has a "slow turret", so if he takes out Sherman #2, perhaps Sherman #1 will get another shot at him before he can rotate back that direction.

Yeah, but that's the real world. I'm talking about the game world, where the manual says minefields are exactly 20m X 20m. If they can show my minefields like that, why don't they show the enemy minefields like that. Or, do they really extend less or more than 20m X 20m. If so, then how far do they extend? If we want to be more realistic, then let's get rid of the precision range estimates (like when you do a "line of sight" or "target" command and it displays the line with "NNN meters" at the end). How do these folks know preciously, to the exact meter, how far away something is? I realize this is a game compromise, and I'm just saying that I'd like another game compromise to see the extent of enemy minefields. Also, to be realistic, which of my forces actually went out there on the battlefield and put that skull and crossbones "panzer mines" sign up in the road? Or, is this just supposed to represent an abstract marker that someone has yelled/radioed to the commander about where the minefield is. If so, then they can also mark where the approximate extent of that minefield is on the map while they're at it. Maybe when you first detect a minefield, you get a very imprecise 40x40 circle/square showing the maximum possible extent of it, and as you move units closer to it, it gets more precise, until it finally shifts itself onto a 20m X 20m area where it really is. This would be like how enemy units are first represented as "Infantry Squad?" and then more precisely identified as your units move closer to them. I also thought someone from BTS might answer me, as they sometimes do for others who post questions on this forum.

I respected minefields before. I also respected the competency of the CM manual author(s) when they asserted that units would route themselves around known minefields automatically. Why was it a "bad decision" for me to try to move my tank from point A on one side of a minefield to point B on the other side ? That's where it needed to be. I was relying on the program's documentation to be correct -- was that a "bad decision" ? Less pompousness in future replies would be appreciated.

Nope, the crew doesn't want anything to do with that tank anymore (it hasn't been shot up and isn't burning or anything). Is there a "re-crew" command I need to give them?

Oh yeah! The AT mines were in the center of a road. I told the tank to move to a spot on the road on the other side of the minefield. I thought the TACAI was supposed to move the tank around the minefield for me (?).

I'm playing a PBEM quick battle game as a Canadian attacker. My Sherman tank was simply "abandoned" when it was near an anti-tank minefield. It was also under panzer-shrek fire at the time, but I believe it missed the tank (and possibly hit the minefield). I also just had a White Scout Car get "eliminated" through mysterious means (also near this mine field). I can understand (and usually see) what "upper hull penetrated" means, like from an AT gun hit, but I don't know why these two vehicles were taken out. In the first instance, I think the tank might have been within 10m of the mine marker sign, but the scout car was (half a road + a house width + half a road) distance from the mine marker. It would help to: - See the grey minefield area extend the entire area of the minefield (or maybe just add a grey rectangle/square around the mine field perimeter) - Know what "abandoned" means for a vehicle - Know what "eliminated" means for a vehicle Thanks!