Gyrene

Michael, if the AI is trying to actually hit the troops with the HE, it would make hitting moving targets even more difficult, as if you were to simply hit the ground somewhere near the troops, the "horseshoes and hand grenades" (i.e. close enough) effect would come into play. But as it is the AI ends up overshooting most of the time, esp. with rapid firing AA guns. Infantry doesn't seem to suffer from the same easy-target malady that affects vehicles, I'm sure you've seen before how broken squads or HQ units seem almost impossible to hit even at close ranges when they are fleeing. No such luck with FT's or AT teams, even broken ones, they seem to be wearing some sort of magnetic suit, or at the very least they have different Patron Saints from other infantry. Gyrene

Unless you have to get somewhere in a hurry, I would dismount the infantry and move them well ahead of the HT's to draw out any hidden opponents, then move your HT's to semi-flanking positions to add their MG fire in support of your infanrty, being careful not to wander into another ambush with them. Once your infantry is engaged by the enemy, you should get a pretty good idead of what the safe approaches for your HT's are, allowing you to bring them up for support, but still staying behind your infantry. The following tactic for taking out AT guns that you can only approach frontally often works well: (Within 300m or so at the most, unless you have lots of direct MG support farther back) 1) A squad of infantry moves forward until they either spot or are engaged by the AT gun. 2) The other squads move forward in semi-flanking positions (i.e. directly outside the gun's covered arc, where it would require the gun to pivot to engage your new squad) and begin to target the AT gun, meanwhile your HT's move to staging positions just outside of LOS to the gun 3)The AT gun will then either duck for cover or continue to shoot at the original squad, giving you the chance to "Move" (Not "Fast") your flanking squads a bit more 4)If the AT gun pivots to engage one of the new squads, great, begin to rush with the other 2 squads and move your HT's into position to fire their MG's at the gun. 5)If the gun does not pivot, continue to move forward with the flankers and move your HT's just outside LOS of the gun 6)Contimue to target the gun with all squads, but now move your HT's into LOS and begin to fire their MG's at the gun, and at the same time rush your free squads to the gun *** the HT's should be shooting at the AT gun from widely spaced positions, preferably out of alignment with the original contact squad. *** 7)By now you should have the AT crew pinned and unable to return fire, and soon your squads will be on top of it, taking it out. This can be done in 2 to 3 turns with practice. The same platoon & 2 HT's can be used quite a few times in that role before their casualty rate gets too high, remember to try to keep the squads within command radius. Gyrene

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> Gyrene, Could you give me more information on your use of sharpshooters. When I first got the game I tried to use them as defensive snipers but never really had much success. Maybe start a thread on Sharpshooter tactics if you have the time or desire. I'd be interested. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> StugIII, have you read the "Are Snipers good for anything?" thread? There are some good hints there. The key to using sharpshooters well is to buy the best you can afford, sneak him up to a position with good LOS of your opponent's are a somewhere in the range of 300-600 meters away and leave him alone. If you never give your sharpshooters "target" orders odds are excellent that he will not be spotted, but he will give himself away if you give him orders to shoot. Sharpshooters tend to get bored (it seems) and will start to target infantry if there are no other better targets around, wasting valuable ammo. The thing to do is to "Hide" the sharpshooter until something better turns up, then unhide the him and let him do his job. If you can sneak a sharpshooter within range of field guns he stands a very good chance of breaking or outright eliminating the gun without drawing any fire in return. The best places to place sharpshooters are wooded hills (Place him in the military crest, just below the actual crest of the hill) with commanding views of likely tank paths or gun emplacements. Remember that sharpshooters are absolutely useless against pillboxes, so don't bother with them. Sharpshooters can also successfully work out of brush or rough areas, which has the added benefit of drawing much less artillery fire from frazzled opponents trying to kill that pesky sniper than wooded areas. Placing sharpshooters in isolated large buildings (Unless its a city map) is begging to have your sharpshooter die a death by colapsing timber; rubble, on the other hand, is the best cover for infantry in CM and makes a good base to work from. Setup a QB against the AI with lots of enemy infantry, some armor, a spotter or two and some field guns, against just a handful of sharpshooters in mixed terrain and practice your sharpshooter sneaking skills. This kind of practice is also great for AT teams, so add some to the mix, and see how many tanks you can button up/shock with you sharpshooters or kill with your AT teams, and how many guns and spotters you can incapacitate before the enemy infantry gets you. PIATs are the stealthiest AT teams by far, in case you are wondering, you can get off several shots at nearby tanks without being spotted. Hope any of this helps. Gyrene

Ah. Where do I vote? I can't find the poll. Gyrene

It all also depends on the muzzle velocity of the gun, try to hit anything moving with an M8 HMC or a 75mm pack howitzer (Same gun). Michael Emrys, I agree with what you are saying by the overshooting of troops, perhaps the AI is trying to actually hit the troops with the HE rounds, instead of the the ground at their feet? Gyrene [ 06-05-2001: Message edited by: Gyrene ]

Ok, more confusion on my side... From the rules: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>You can have EITHER: 1 150/155mm Spotter + 81/75mm Spotters OR 2 120/105mm Spotters + 81/75mm Spotters<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Does that mean: -1 x 155mm spotter + 2 81mm spotters or -2 x 105mm + 2 81mm spotters Are valid choices? If I am getting this right, the limit applies to the larger guns (1 x 155mm or 2 x 105mm + any number of 81/75mm) Gyrene

I have a question on TRP's: Being TRP's and mines are available only to defenders, wouldn't that give on side a slight edge? Unless it's possible for both sides to purchase TRP's with these map setups. Gyrene

50 veteran sharpshooters...You could play the whole game without being spotted and you never have to give a targetting order! I need to set a a night/fog QB like that versus the AI to see just how strange it would be. Gyrene

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Maybe because the FO hasn't actually killed anyone? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Stalin, now we're reaching into Philosophical territory here "The soldiers didn't kill anyone, their bullets did" Gyrene

Well, I've managed to pull out a win over Greg by a hair, we had very few turns of actual combat, but what turns were there were very intense and well played Greg, this fight could have gone either way. On to the next one Gyrene

We're almost done, it's turn 18. My Jumbo is gone, thanks to 2 P-shrecks, which seem to have set their own building on fire, giving my troops something to shoot at as they ran out. A little flame hetzer has been giving me trouble on the other side of the battle. Gyrene

Quote: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>originally posted by Phillies Phan: Mace used to be in "Blue movies". Repeat after me, kids. Blue Movies He was known for his... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> ...Ability to make large objects disappear and reappear from anatomically improbable places. "I once took in the entire Encyclopeadia Brittanica and sent it back out translated to Chinese, such is my skill!", said Mace, "I have also been able to provide shelter for the homeless and helped the war effort by smuggling weapons to partisans by the use of my powers." "But now I look for greater challenges, I hope to be able to..."

Cheap Sherms wouldn't be bad, but M8 HMCs might be even better. Dirt cheap, small, good rate of fire, decent protection, .50 cal, great against HT's and infantry, they make excellent "13th squad members" Gyrene

The best way to get balanced practice scenarios for pbem is to let the computer pick the forces of both sides for Quick Battles, this way neither side will have an advantage, unless you get really unlucky and draw some bad units. Not a common occurence, but it happens. Good luck. Gyrene

The Germans also had their own top secret program of dog-mines. The panzerwoofer mines were fed nothing but T34 shaped snacks, and when they were released in the Eastern Front they ran with great glee towards Russian T34s as they saw them as nothing but a giant snack. No word on what breed was favored for the task. Gyrene

It is turn 13 of 20, Greg and I have finally spotted each other's forces one turn ago. That will leave us 7 hectic turns to finish this thing. So far my single gamey purchase of a 76 Jumbo has payed off by killing his Crack-crewed Tiger and a PSW and now will turn its attention to Greg's infantry caught out in the open. The low visibilty makes any infantry encounter hectic, and the deep mud made driving a Jumbo over hilly roads towards the VL a heart attack inducing ride. Gyrene

I don't have the turn numbers handy, but I will relate the events from my side as best as I can. My forces were: 1 Infantry Battalion: 9 x '44 pattern rifle platoons 3 x Heavy Weapons platoons: 3 x .50, 6 x M1919, 1x M1917, 6 x 60mm Mortars, 9 x Bazooka teams Artillery spotters: 2 x 81mm, 2 x 105mm, 1 x 4.5mm Armor: 3 x M4A3(76)W, 4 x M4A3, 4 x M4A3(76)W, 2 x M18 My original plan was based on my assumption that Abbott would make his strongest push at the Chateau area, so I decided to position a holding force on the opposite side of the ravine across from the Chateau and to send 2 platoons across to gain a toe hold on the the far side, at the same time I put together my strongest infantry force, about 4 platoons, with heavy weapons and 3 tanks for support and sent them wide to the south to hopefully flank any of Abbott's forces sent to defend the Southern bridge. This opperation went without a hitch up until the level of the far side of the bridge, where we ran into some artillery, which thankfully had little effect, killing only a MG team. At the same time I made a minor direct push towards my side of the South bridge, hoping to distract attention from my main maneuvering element, and to gauge his defenses there. A brief tank battle erupted , with both of us losing about 2 to 3 tanks each over a couple of turns, then once my main force got spotted I commenced the assault and overran the local defenders. A few turns later, I had lost all my supporting tanks travelling with the main force after a brief push North mostly, I think, to shreck fire. After my armor was gone I decided it would be fruitless to send my Infantry straight North alone, in light of the fact that Abbott had good LOS for his tanks from the Chateau area, so I sent them Northwest along the ravine to support the assault on the Chateau. At the very least I did not have to worry about the South bridge much for the rest of the game. On the very North, I found a way to send a 2 tanks and a platoon across the ravine and up to the other side, hoping to distract him and at the very least cause some tank casualties on his side. Another tank was left on overwatch on my side of the ravine and was later sent across also. This operation had mixed results, the entire force was eliminated, but they eliminated one enemy platoon, one hetzer (By the late coming Sherman) and one AT team, and contributed to the fighting at the Chateau, inflicting some infantry casualties there and perhaps acomplished their mission of tying up some of Abbott's resources to the North. On the main Chateau area I was able to slowly make my way thru the rubble, but it soon became apparent that any further advance would be impossible, due the the overwhelming presence of German armor just east of the Chateau and the heavy infantry presence along the woods there. I got lucky early in the game and killed 3 of the Tigers mainly by leaving 2 76 Shermans in view of a narrow back area between some buildings on his side, and all Tiger kills happened in that small corridor. I was able to punish his visible infantry in the western parts of the Chateau, but soon this duty became a grinder for my tanks, as a line of dead Shermans began to build up just south of the Northern bridge. For my troops at the Chateau, there was no forward or back, just to hang on to their patches of rubble and wait for one side or the other to lose the advantage. The hardest aspect of playing against Abbott, is that he is very skilled at breaking contact with his infantry, and the entire game I had little idea where his troop concentrations were, that lead me to have to make probe after probe, which slowly wore down my troops as I ran at least a couple of ambushes. Hunting his tanks with my bazooka teams was virtually impossible, all his armor was restricted to a very small area and heavily surrounded by his own infantry, any hunting trips by my AT teams was their last, and his schreck team's much greater range had a huge edge on this map, there were no safe places for my tanks at the front. I was given adequate artillery support, and I tried to guess his approach paths and troop staging areas, and I'm glad I was at least right on this. I could have held some of it in reserve, but I believe that his armor gave him the edge to make the final assault at the end and my artillery would have been of little use then. Once the new Tigers made it to the scene I knew it would be all downhill, I only had one tank capable with dealing with them left and it's lucky streak (2 Tigers with 3 front shots) was about to end. My 75mm Shermans did a good shob against his infantry, but even his lesser tanks could take them out, I scored direct hits on at least 3 of his tanks with 75 Shermans and the 105 Sherman that came with the re-enforcements with no results, the 105 being a huge disappointment as it hit a Panzer IV twice but not once did it use its C charges. Once the 76mm Sherman died, it was over. In hindsight I would have rationed my AT teams better, and held the TD's to the North Bridge area, but if even this was the case, all I would have gotten would be a Draw, the map is much too small for manuevering and Abbott seemed to have eyes everywhere. A great battle overall, I have no complaints about losing. Gyrene [ 05-29-2001: Message edited by: Gyrene ]

I don't have the turn numbers handy, but I will relate the events from my side as best as I can. My forces were: 1 Infantry Battalion: 9 x '44 pattern rifle platoons 3 x Heavy Weapons platoons: 3 x .50, 6 x M1919, 1x M1917, 6 x 60mm Mortars, 9 x Bazooka teams Artillery spotters: 2 x 81mm, 2 x 105mm, 1 x 4.5mm Armor: 3 x M4A3(76)W, 4 x M4A3, 4 x M4A3(76)W, 2 x M18 My original plan was based on my assumption that Abbott would make his strongest push at the Chateau area, so I decided to position a holding force on the opposite side of the ravine across from the Chateau and to send 2 platoons across to gain a toe hold on the the far side, at the same time I put together my strongest infantry force, about 4 platoons, with heavy weapons and 3 tanks for support and sent them wide to the south to hopefully flank any of Abbott's forces sent to defend the Southern bridge. This opperation went without a hitch up until the level of the far side of the bridge, where we ran into some artillery, which thankfully had little effect, killing only a MG team. At the same time I made a minor direct push towards my side of the South bridge, hoping to distract attention from my main maneuvering element, and to gauge his defenses there. A brief tank battle erupted , with both of us losing about 2 to 3 tanks each over a couple of turns, then once my main force got spotted I commenced the assault and overran the local defenders. A few turns later, I had lost all my supporting tanks travelling with the main force after a brief push North mostly, I think, to shreck fire. After my armor was gone I decided it would be fruitless to send my Infantry straight North alone, in light of the fact that Abbott had good LOS for his tanks from the Chateau area, so I sent them Northwest along the ravine to support the assault on the Chateau. At the very least I did not have to worry about the South bridge much for the rest of the game. On the very North, I found a way to send a 2 tanks and a platoon across the ravine and up to the other side, hoping to distract him and at the very least cause some tank casualties on his side. Another tank was left on overwatch on my side of the ravine and was later sent across also. This operation had mixed results, the entire force was eliminated, but they eliminated one enemy platoon, one hetzer (By the late coming Sherman) and one AT team, and contributed to the fighting at the Chateau, inflicting some infantry casualties there and perhaps acomplished their mission of tying up some of Abbott's resources to the North. On the main Chateau area I was able to slowly make my way thru the rubble, but it soon became apparent that any further advance would be impossible, due the the overwhelming presence of German armor just east of the Chateau and the heavy infantry presence along the woods there. I got lucky early in the game and killed 3 of the Tigers mainly by leaving 2 76 Shermans in view of a narrow back area between some buildings on his side, and all Tiger kills happened in that small corridor. I was able to punish his visible infantry in the western parts of the Chateau, but soon this duty became a grinder for my tanks, as a line of dead Shermans began to build up just south of the Northern bridge. For my troops at the Chateau, there was no forward or back, just to hang on to their patches of rubble and wait for one side or the other to lose the advantage. The hardest aspect of playing against Abbott, is that he is very skilled at breaking contact with his infantry, and the entire game I had little idea where his troop concentrations were, that lead me to have to make probe after probe, which slowly wore down my troops as I ran at least a couple of ambushes. Hunting his tanks with my bazooka teams was virtually impossible, all his armor was restricted to a very small area and heavily surrounded by his own infantry, any hunting trips by my AT teams was their last, and his schreck team's much greater range had a huge edge on this map, there were no safe places for my tanks at the front. I was given adequate artillery support, and I tried to guess his approach paths and troop staging areas, and I'm glad I was at least right on this. I could have held some of it in reserve, but I believe that his armor gave him the edge to make the final assault at the end and my artillery would have been of little use then. Once the new Tigers made it to the scene I knew it would be all downhill, I only had one tank capable with dealing with them left and it's lucky streak (2 Tigers with 3 front shots) was about to end. My 75mm Shermans did a good shob against his infantry, but even his lesser tanks could take them out, I scored direct hits on at least 3 of his tanks with 75 Shermans and the 105 Sherman that came with the re-enforcements with no results, the 105 being a huge disappointment as it hit a Panzer IV twice but not once did it use its C charges. Once the 76mm Sherman died, it was over. In hindsight I would have rationed my AT teams better, and held the TD's to the North Bridge area, but if even this was the case, all I would have gotten would be a Draw, the map is much too small for manuevering and Abbott seemed to have eyes everywhere. A great battle overall, I have no complaints about losing. Gyrene [ 05-29-2001: Message edited by: Gyrene ]

Look, its a Tiger crossing the bridge. On turn 45 of 45 And its not even all the way across. The fact that all that held back 5 Tigers was a single 76 Sherman has to be taken in to account. Congratulations Abbott! You have handed me my very first defeat! My record is now 12 wins and 1 loss. It was bound to happen sooner or later, and it could not pick a better opponent to lose my cherry to! This was the toughest battle by far, and I was hoping to at least hold you to a draw. Your FO with the smoke made all the difference, wherever the hell he came from, without him I could have held out. It all came down to my innability to make effective use of my bazooka teams, with only a single half track killed by them and all of the AT teams getting eliminated by turn 30, his tanks dominated the eastern side of the map and really pusnished my infantry, the virtual parade of Tigers and my 75 Shermans happily bouncing rounds off of them didn't help. Abbott is the master of stealth, nobody I've played has anywhere near his ability to make you believe an area is clear of troops, he can hide a whole company in a small patch of woods the whole game and spring them out at the worst possible time, I definitively learned a lot from him. It is hard to explain the intensity of the fighting around the Chateau, there must be at least 25 eliminated units and 12 KO'd tanks from both sides just around that area, the shooting never let up the whole battle in that small space. Well, I look forward to my new sig file and for my revenge! By the way. He didn't get within 100m of the Southern Bridge. Just one small view of the Chateau, notice the number of eliminated units. The Germans won a Minor Victory, but it was not for free. Gyrene [ 05-29-2001: Message edited by: Gyrene ]

Look, its a Tiger crossing the bridge. On turn 45 of 45 And its not even all the way across. The fact that all that held back 5 Tigers was a single 76 Sherman has to be taken in to account. Congratulations Abbott! You have handed me my very first defeat! My record is now 12 wins and 1 loss. It was bound to happen sooner or later, and it could not pick a better opponent to lose my cherry to! This was the toughest battle by far, and I was hoping to at least hold you to a draw. Your FO with the smoke made all the difference, wherever the hell he came from, without him I could have held out. It all came down to my innability to make effective use of my bazooka teams, with only a single half track killed by them and all of the AT teams getting eliminated by turn 30, his tanks dominated the eastern side of the map and really pusnished my infantry, the virtual parade of Tigers and my 75 Shermans happily bouncing rounds off of them didn't help. Abbott is the master of stealth, nobody I've played has anywhere near his ability to make you believe an area is clear of troops, he can hide a whole company in a small patch of woods the whole game and spring them out at the worst possible time, I definitively learned a lot from him. It is hard to explain the intensity of the fighting around the Chateau, there must be at least 25 eliminated units and 12 KO'd tanks from both sides just around that area, the shooting never let up the whole battle in that small space. Well, I look forward to my new sig file and for my revenge! By the way. He didn't get within 100m of the Southern Bridge. Just one small view of the Chateau, notice the number of eliminated units. The Germans won a Minor Victory, but it was not for free. Gyrene [ 05-29-2001: Message edited by: Gyrene ]

The only thing keeping the German armor from crossing the bridge has been taken out of battle. The brave crew of the Sherman 76 which almost single handedly held the enemy at bay has been hit by a 4th Tiger on the scene. Out remaining 75mm Shermans scored a few hits on the Tigers but were totally useless against them (Thanks Moriarty) The Germans seem to have pulled a FO from thin air as a heavy hail of smoke rounds filled the Chateau area to cover their advance. Infantry is all that remains at the Chateau area. It is now just a matter of time before we lose the bridge completely. Gyrene

The only thing keeping the German armor from crossing the bridge has been taken out of battle. The brave crew of the Sherman 76 which almost single handedly held the enemy at bay has been hit by a 4th Tiger on the scene. Out remaining 75mm Shermans scored a few hits on the Tigers but were totally useless against them (Thanks Moriarty) The Germans seem to have pulled a FO from thin air as a heavy hail of smoke rounds filled the Chateau area to cover their advance. Infantry is all that remains at the Chateau area. It is now just a matter of time before we lose the bridge completely. Gyrene

I've had lot of issues with vehicles and units like flamethrowers no shooting when you need them too. This could be due to the way spotting works, perhaps a driver will see something and use his hull MG but the rest of the crew will be looking somewhere else. Only non bug answer I can think of. Gyrene

In 1943 when the British had enough stens to go around. About 2 million Thompsons were made by then. Gyrene

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>CM has nothing like getting 12 friends together to play miniatures. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Not being able to find even one person to play against is the main reason I had mostly given up on ASL, having 12 people to play with would be a dream. Squad Leader was much easier to teach to a new player and usually more fun than ASL. Gyrene