PiggDogg

Murph, The real short answer on smoke: "Drop smoke between your guys and something that wants to whack your guys." Cheers, Richard

Cap, Useful, a bit esoteric, but oh so cool. Thanks Cheers, Richard

I read "Face Of Battle" quite a few years ago. It is wonderful book that imparts great knowledge to all interested in warfare and in the psychology of the battlefield. Y'all should read the book. Cheers, Richard

Gaylord, I think that the German bomber induced Allied gas release was in the Italian port of Bridisium after Salerno, but before Anzio. I do not think that the gas presence was for any particular operation. The gas was there as a deterence to 'retaliate' against the Germans if the Germans used gas first. It was not an Allied attempt to 'use' gas as a first strike. Fortunately, Hitler had been gassed when he was a ground pounder during WWI. Because of his bad experience, he did not initiate battle front gas use during WWII. Cheers, Richard [ July 18, 2002, 11:09 AM: Message edited by: PiggDogg ]

Holy smoke. Some people have to chill out a lot. CMBB is a "game", only a game. Both the Nazis & Communists were evil. If anyone thinks differently, they are incorrect. I suspect that after a short time at the front, the poor soldiers of both sides in the east who fought just wanted to get home in one piece. However, millions suffered & died. I hope that BTS quickly locks any threads in the CM forum section that goes into the politics of these two despotic regimes. The general forum is OK for such discussions. Matt, lock me up now. Cheers, Richard [ July 14, 2002, 06:22 PM: Message edited by: PiggDogg ]

Italians. My greatgrand parents and grand parents came over on the boat from Italy near the turn of the century (1900s, that is). So ... Cheers, Richard :cool:

I think that I hear the clatter of MaddMatt's keyboard as he locks down this puppy. To the general board ho. Cheers, Richard

tar, Your comments were quite succint, well stated, quite logical, and informative. Cheers, Richard

Jason, You are just a wealth of info. Thanks for the work. (Also, I shall work on our set up later tonight. Work has slowed up a little bit.) Cheers, Richard

If I recall correctly, in real life, smoke and expecially infantry smoke were not used to the extent allowed and generally misused in Squad Leader, ASL, etc. In CMBO, I think that BTS decided to eliminate infantry smoke for the sake of historical correctness. Cheers, Richard

Shosties, Here is only a short answer to one of your questions. If I recall correctly, during WWII, USA armored divisions (I think, after the 1st & 2nd Armored Division which had a regimental structure) were divided into three combat commands (CCA, CCB, & CCR). CCs were full combined arms (armor, infantry, arty, logistics, intel, etc) combat forces that could and were used as independent combat units. Technically, each CC would have their armor, inf, arty mixed and matched on a task basis. However, in practice, the different units within a CC were pretty much left near permanently attached to the CC. Once again, if I recall correctly for the US Army, Regimental Combat Teams were for infantry division what CCs were for armored division. However, RCTs were used in WWII, but the RCTs were not used on a large basis until the Korean Police Action (I use 'police action' pajoratively here). Task Forces or equivalent terms for all nations before, during, and after WWII, "generally" were combat groupings pasted together for a particular objective or task on possibly a temporary basis. They could or could not be full combat arms units. This is the short answer for TFs Some super grog can correct me as required. Cheers, Richard

Matt, It is about time. Now the anticipation mounts because a true release date is present. I guess that CMBO will winnow off into obscurity. Thanks. Cheers, Richard

Jeff, Great to see that you will be showcasing CMBB. I guess that the release date must be getting within the foreseeable future. :cool: Kgsan, You live in New Orleans. I live in far away Metairie. Email me if you have a chance: richardcuccia@cox.net. Cheers, Richard

Tecumseh, Thanks for your time in having performed your tests. My observations confirm your conclusions. Me thinks that you might be more than 25% sure of your results. Cheers, Richard

Guys, Michael, & Agnault, I would bet a six pack of Guinness pints on this. If my memory is correct, the "tank" (the vehicle was not open topped) that whacked Private Jackson was one of the Tigers. This was the second Tiger, I suspect. The first Tiger had previously been knocked out. Additionally, the tank fired at Jackson over its side. This would be a most difficult shot for a Marder. Also, the upward angle of that tank's gun did seem a bit extreme however. :eek: Further, my understanding is that Spielberg used a mocked up T34 to represent the Tiger. OK, who gets the six pack of Guinness Pints? Someone pull out the Saving Private Ryan DVD. Cheers, Richard

Reich, About two - three weeks ago, I purchased GeForec4-Ti4200-128 meg from FTI (Future Technologies) Computers for $160 plus about $10-20 shipping. You might be able to get it even cheaper now from there or elsewhere. The 4200 has all the bells & whistles of the GF4s, it is faster than GF3s & GF2s, and it doesn't cost an arm & a leg. It is good bang for the buck. Cheers, Richard [ July 06, 2002, 09:16 AM: Message edited by: PiggDogg ]

Kestrl & Red, Generally, I will have a schreck, piat, or zook accompany my infantry platoons. Without doubt, Allied infantry need AT capability. I feel that even German faust armed infantry need extra AT capability of schrecks. However, I don't place these AT teams immediatley near their infantry brothers. I'll have the AT teams 25 or so meters from the foot sloggers preferably in command control. Hopefully this helps preserve the teams from stray bullets and incoming arty. Additionally, I'll purchase a few extra AT teams to guard flanks and approaches to tag any vehicles that may try to flank my guys. Further, I have recently switched to purchasing vet AT teams instead of regs. The extra hit ability of the vets make them worth the extra cost when compared to the reg AT teams. Cheers, Richard

Breakthru, I think that someone (JasonC, I think) in a recent article describing some tests that he performed regarding Stuarts versus infantry. If I am not mistaken, the net result was that Stuarts were pretty bad versus infantry. Once again if I recall correctly, this seemed to be due to two reason. First, the 37 is just putrid versus infantry. :eek: Second, all mgs (including those on all tanks, medium & light) seem to be undermodeled in CM. In short, don't expect to stop much infantry with Stuarts. Cheers, Richard [ July 05, 2002, 08:08 AM: Message edited by: PiggDogg ]

John, Thanks for your work. This is quite interesting & informative. Cheers, Richard

ICM, Generally, don't fight with split squads. Use the splits to dig first & second line foxholes. After the splits dig their holes, send one half of the splits to the other half of the splits. Let them join together. Then defend the forward line for one shot (and only one shot) & immediately withdraw to the second line. Cheers, Richard

zukkov, I saw "Windtalkers" this past weekend. Good flick. Go see it. Very, very John Woo-ish who is the successor to Sam Pekenpaugh. Lots of people (way too many) shot a close range (way too close). Lots of tumbling and writhing bodies after being injected by bullets. There waw some cool and realistic stuff like artillery tubes recoiling. Very, very unusual for almost all war movies. Most of the tactics used by both sides seem quite a bit over the top which means quite unrealistic. For example, in the last battle, some big Japanese arty fires on an advancing Marine road column. After the arty impacts, instead of the marines scattering into the bush around the road, they hug near the road near targeted vehicles. Quibble, quibble. Too much quibbling from me. I enjoyed the flick; go see it. Cheers, Richard

A position of attention is assumed and a sharp, but sad, salute is given. God bless Merli and may consolation be given to his family. Richard

Winkelreid, Yes, you did forget something: German 120 mm Mortar FOs. :eek: They are the German's only fast response arty that can kill. All the other German fast response arty (75s, 81s) don't kill squat, they generally only surpress. Cheers, Richard [ July 02, 2002, 12:05 AM: Message edited by: PiggDogg ]

Pz Leader, That was really good. I love it. :lol As silly as it seems, I have won most of the games with the 234/3s (75 AC). Those 75ACs are generally a pretty good buy for the point spent. Hussar, You mean that you have played enough CM games to equal the approximately 500,000 German soldiers in France & Germany. :eek: Boy, you have played a whole bunch of CM games. Cheers, Richard [ June 27, 2002, 12:46 AM: Message edited by: PiggDogg ]

Guys, So far in CM human choose games, I have used every single Puma & 234/3 ever built. :eek: Does that mean that I can't ever choose these vehicles again and that no one else can ever choose these vehicles again. Cheers, Richard