Stacheldraht

Chamberlain and Doyle's Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two states that the Hummel was outfitted with a 7.92mm MG34.

Another problem with AT guns is how the Tac AI gets befuddled when faced with multiple targets, manically switching aim between a few tanks without ever firing during a turn. Just take a shot, please.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>As it is now, we just assume the engineers did the job the night before. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> But why are engineer troops in the game then? They often risked their lives during the heat of combat to remove obstacles and mines, shore up or demolish bridges, and so forth.

What's needed is the expert opinion of a demolitions expert, combat engineer, and/or contractor who knows about structural strength and support. (I don't mean to sound flippant; I'm genuinely curious.)

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Funny thing is, you never hear anyone complain about not being able to find certain things on the website. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Not true. Set your screen resolution to 800 x 600, and parts of the main page are then cut off and inacessible.

You're probably right, but I'd like to see empirical real-world data before reaching conclusions. Not that I expect that will be easy to come by in this case

It seems that the BTS web site looks relatively amateurish and unattractive compared to many game or developer sites. (No offense meant to anyone; I'm just being honest.) The website is BTS's public face, and someone seeing it before CM would likely have reservations about BTS's professionalism or the quality of their products. Many people have stated here how they're hesitant to order online from them, and I'd be too. You're not exactly filled with confidence looking at the site. Sure, BTS isn't some huge corporate operation--quite the opposite--but it would probably behoove them from a business standpoint to update the site, since it's essentially a form of advertising and seemingly (rightly or wrongly) says a lot about them. Sort of like handing out a business card: if you get one that's poorly printed and smudged with jelly, are you going to take the giver seriously as a businessperson? [ 06-27-2001: Message edited by: Stacheldraht ]

Don't forget, too, that compared to the Wirbelwind, the Ostwind has more ammo, slightly better armor, and slightly better armor penetration with its AP rounds. It costs the same as the Wirbelwind. All told, the Ostwind is an extremely effective weapon in CM.

It seems one of the biggest problems for defenders is the lack of points available for mines and fortifications. You just can't use them with the regularity and depth that the Germans did while still having points left for troops. Setting up a realistic mine field, for instance, is nearly impossible. Roadblock usage should be more common than it is, too, at least after the Bulge, when the Germans were basically just slowing the inexorable Allied advance.

Don't forget about Allied soldiers using captured German weapons, either. Apparently it was (rumored to be) common practice for Germans to kill Allied troops (instead of taking them alive as prisoners) found with German weapons, though, which may have curtailed the practice.

If you want some details on how WWII arty and spotting worked, as described by an expert who took part in the proceedings and has written extensively on the subject, read Barrage: The Guns in Action by Ian Hogg (Ballantine, 1970).

Steven Zaloga, Bruce Culver, Terence Wise, and others have written books on the subject. German Tanks of World War II in Color by Michael Green et al. is useful, though many pictures are of restored vehicles that may or may not have been repainted with an eye to historical accuracy.

Tanks were camouflaged in all sorts of clever ways in addition to the ones you mention. I've seen pictures and read accounts of tanks being hidden in barns or bombed out buildings, tanks (intentionally covered) with debris in bombed cities to look like piles of rubble from a distance, metal plates and new paint jobs added to tanks to make them look like an enemy model, and so forth. The Germans also dug-in tanks in a sense, by bulldozing a small slope down into the ground that let a tank take a hull-down position and then back out as needed. You'd think these sorts of things would confer a concealment bonus. On the Western Front, btw, the Germans often built AT pillboxes into the bottoms of what appeared to be houses. The gun would stick out of what looked from afar to be a grille or something similar near the ground on the wall. Too bad that's not modeled in CM. It would make assaulting towns quite an endeavour.

On-map infantry mortars for smoke and supression, then the split-rush technique described above should do the trick.

Main gun blasts also often kicked up dust, particularly with some of the very low-slung StuG and Jagdpanzer IV types. That could temporarily block the gunner's view and make the tank easier to spot.

Field guns are useful, particularly on the defense. The key is to use more than one if possible, protect them from infantry rushes with MG's that are near enough to lay down supressive fire but not close enough to get an arty blast meant for the IG, and to wait until the enemy is close enough to do real damage. Otherwise, as you say, they'll get hit with arty or mortar fire. Either way, you can't count on them lasting overly long, but when employed at crucial moments to turn the tide of a small spearhead, they're effective. Just keep them hidden until then. Nonetheless, investment in more infantry (particularly SMG squads) for close-range combat and/or schrecks for AT work can be a better bargain. The Flak guns are extremely useful. Very rarely do enemy fighter-bombers appear, so their main uses are: supression and injuring of infantry, destroying light vehicles, damaging (gun damage, immobilization) heavier vehicles, and/or knocking out heavier vehicles from the flanks or rear. German mobile AA guns, particularly the armored Ostwind and Wirbelwind, are even more useful, as they can be relocated quickly and can be brought to bear on different buildings that enemies are located in. It only takes a turn or so for a 37mm Flak gun to destroy a building, and with so much ammo, you can do that with impunity. Beware the open-topped SP guns, like the Hummel. Used carefully, they're fine weapons, but a .50 caliber MG alone can KO one.

Not sure I understand the question. My point was that most Sherman models in the game are easy to pop with Mk IV's and StuG III's on up. Avoid tangling with them directly using the lesser (i.e., non-Jumbo, non-Firefly) Shermans; rather use the Shermans primarily as infantry support vehicles, where they shine. It's generally preferable to use AT guns, zooks, and TD's against medium and heavy German armor, in my experience (and historically, from what I gather).

Don't forget the Mad Dog Mod Pack sound files, either. To my ears, they sound very rich and distinctive, particularly with surround sound and a good subwoofer. You can really feel the heavy guns firing, and the German MG's sound very much like those in Saving Private Ryan--i.e., frighteningly real. [ 06-25-2001: Message edited by: Stacheldraht ]

Nothing a 75mm gun and a fanatical devotion to the Pope won't handle

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Forget the shermans<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I'd amend that to say, "Forget the Shermans as anti-tank weapons." They're quite useful against infantry, though. Treat them more like self-propelled guns, and they can be very valuable. If you insist on engaging enemy armor with them, use speed, surprise, deception, and smoke to flank; work them in pairs or larger groups; and never get in head-to-head duels. (Tanks shouldn't be used that way in general, actually. The idea is to get the first shot off and get a KO then and there, not play ping-pong.)

For that matter, how about modeling the (purported) non-firing rates among combatants, as summarized in Dave Grossman's controversial book, On Killing.

Are you sure that knowing the trajectory is useless? Yes, the gunners had to estimate range, but was gun elevation not tied to the range markers on the sights? I.e, target is estimated to be 2000m out, based on its apparent size in the sight, barrel is properly elevated for the type of round used, and then fired. Fwiw, the modern M1 tank has a backup sight, called the gunner's auxiliary sight, that works this way when the ballistics computer and rangefinder are damaged. It has a stadiametric rangefinding diagram (akin, I believe to those used in at least some WWII tanks, like the Tiger) that is tied to each type of round, whether Sabot, HEAT, etc. Perhaps this operates on the same principle? I'd appreciate any recommendations for books dealing with WWII tank gunnery. Thanks.

Fwiw: "The [sturmtiger] weapon system was used at relatively close range, so the frontal armor was up to 150mm thick, and the front glacis was steeply angled. The rocket-assisted projectiles could be fired in either direct or indirect fire mode." The ST was designed "based on German combat experience in Soviet cities and the need for a very large close-range assault weapon." --German Tanks of World War II in Color, Michael Green, Thomas Anderson, and Frank Schulz (MBI, 2000) "Their [sT's] main armament was adjustable in elevation through an 85 degree range, from horizontal up to almost vertical, and through 20 degrees in traverse, both adjustments being made manually, via a worm-and-wheel/rack and pinion drive, and was a radically different design from that of any similar projector seen before." Projectiles could be fired out to 6000m. --The Tiger Tank, Roger Ford (Motorbooks International, 1998) I've also seen the range listed at 4600m and different books list the ammo count as 12, 13, or 14. I've yet to see a reliable source that discusses the reload time, though I imagine some of Jentz's books might state it with some authority.

Trajectories for the different projectiles are studied and then taken into account when aiming and firing, though. That was the case for WWII DF artillery, and I can only assume it was for tank guns.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>"Sanitäter! Sanitäter!" = "Medic! Medic"<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Vielen Dank. To me, that .wav has always been like one of those songs you hear for years but can never make out the lyrics in one or two lines