Munter

The mobility might be regained when these gadgets become popular. Link

Right, it's time to go back to using iron sights if these become popular. http://www.rheinmetall-detec.de/index.php?lang=3&fid=3234 Or, it's time to find a reticle which can not be detected. M

Russian shields captured during the Winter War.

Battle is battle is battle. I don't care about the theatre of operation. Just give me the hardware and I'll see what I can do with it. I was just as surprised about the goal of the "shock force" as a big majority of this community seems to have been, but in my opinion it isn't a big deal. Instead of trying to rewrite history we get an opportunity to write a possible one with the help of excisting tools of today. What is most surprising for my part is that people are still looking down at russian weaponry and the supposed lack of effect of those. The military history should have taught already everybody not to underestimate the so called inferiour hardware in the hands of a determined enemy. You only die once. I'm looking forward to this game with an eager look. The lessons learned might become handy if/when our eastern neighbour will again follow her true call.

There are at least 2 Stu-40's in more or less running condition. The second one was "adopted" by a bunch of technology students from Lappeenranta in the mid 90's. I saw them working on the old warhorse during my visit on the museum. About the picture, check the wheels and tracks. There should not be any reason for doubts. (edited: no picture to compare with for some reason) M [ March 07, 2004, 05:59 AM: Message edited by: Munter ]

Well, no. The origin of their concept was even better, but I'm really being partial in this. http://guns.connect.fi/gow/suomi1.html M

Det är nästan så att man blir besviken, och det på riktigt. Inga kommentarer från Seanachai nu ännu heller. Borde man bli orolig? Ifall det blir nånting av Sverigekampen så har jag tillsvidare en intresse att delta. Det är ändå en relativt kort väg från Åbo till Helsingfors (i Fjärran Öster). M

Just for the record, Shades. What was the final score in our battles? M

Keine Ahnung. I and Shades finished the battles already in July, Webs has sent in a comment few messages up about the unexcisting progress (as I understood it) in their battles. So: what's happening next? M

Any progress in the tournament? Just anxious to see the final results. M

I read i Beevor´s "Berlin 1945" about the same method used by the russian troops, that is making an extra door in urban warfare by using captured Panzerfausts. In the TV-documentary (BBC?) where they interviewed the author there was also a short clip of a Red Army artillery crew rushing to reload a battery of captured Nebelwerfers. M

M [ May 23, 2003, 09:18 AM: Message edited by: Munter ]

We (GWDWD and Yours Truly) have now finished the battles on round 3. The results have been sent to Cpl Carrot. For those who want to discuss about the tactics used by separate participiants, feel free from now on. M

OK, now we've finished up with the Battle for Remulka which ended up as a tactical victory for the Germans. I'll send the result file in a minute. Counter Strike is still on, but I guess you can fell free to talk about the first mentioned battle in public. M

OK, OK! I got the hint. So far we're on the turns 13 and 14 in respective battles (CS, BfR). We'll have to take a heavy TCP/IP-session to finish this round sooner as it has been so far. Too bad we don't live in matching time zones. M [ March 06, 2003, 07:36 AM: Message edited by: Munter ]

I and Japper have just got finished. Germany won in both battles. Munter

It's been done before without knowing about the consequenses. This happened years back, in the 80's before I stated my studies in Turku. In SW Finland, that is... We had a traditional competition for our Boy Scouts in the end of October and I had been given to my responsibility to take care of one of the controls points out in the deep woods. The event was supposed to start early in the saturday morning, so I headed out for my coordinates already on friday evening. I set up a simple piece of surplus canvas between a couple of young spruces, put up a small fire and made myself comfortable with a bottle of Vodka and some food. After having solved all the problems in the world by myself I crept inside my sleeping bag and prepared for the day after. In the morning I noticed that the first snowfall that autumn had covered the ground in an even layer of snow, about 2-3 inces deep, including my sleeping bag. It was nothing remarkable so I cleared the the fireplace again and started making some breakfast. Then I heard a distant noise of a car engine coming closer. Between the tree branches I could see it was a familiar terrain vehicle that was parking on the turning point 100 meters away. As these two men came out of the car I saw that the driver, Koskinen, was the boss for the local hunting club, but his companion was a total stranger to me. The newcomer had clothes made of green (and seemingly expensive) felt, short boots and a peculiar sort of hat that had a long feather stuck in it. Clearly, not one of the local people. They were talking English to each other and passed me and my little camp by some 5 meters or so. There were no footprints or anything else revealing my location, so it was no wonder they both got "a bit" startled as I said: "Good morning, Koskinen." It took him a couple of seconds to reconize me and my rag-tag "tent" all covered in snow, before he started laughing, "how the Hell did YOU get here? I saw no tracks anywhere." The other guy, however, got almost his eyes popped out of their sockets, "mein GOTT, ein WALDFINNE (a forest-finn)!" and grabbed his 8 mm film camera (widely used before the cheap video cameras came to the market) and put it to work. He was a German tourist who had come to Finland for moose (sp?) hunting and Koskinen was showing him the platforms they were going to use later. I told Koskinen about the day's agenda and showed him on the map where we were supposed to have our other control points and suggested for them some breakfast I was preparing but they had already had some before. I gave the German guy, a dentist in... Duesseldorf if I remember it correctly, some of my Vodka, though, while he was continuously filming me and my gear, obviously impressed. He was really a sympathetic man. For a dentist. They left after a while and then I hiked a few km's to see the start of the competition. I almost forgot all about this small incident. A year after, when I already was studying elsewhere, I met one of Koskinen's friends while visiting my parents back home. "Was it possibly you a certain German might have filmed out in the woods for, like, a year ago?", he asked. I admitted that it had been me. "Yeah, we werent sure but figured out it must be you or somebody else from the scouts. Also, you look like the guy on the film he showed us recently." "What the...?" "Yup. He came back with some of his German hunting friends. He has been showing that film all over Germany as a living proof of the modern Finnish youth who, instead of getting together with their friends and having a few beers in a Bierhalle as youngsters in Germany, go alone out in the deep forests with a bottle of Schnapps and a couple of sausages and feel quite comfortable with that kind of life." "Oh." "Then he said something touching about our eternal "Waffenbruderschaft", but you don't need to know more of that." "Hey, that's pretty cool!", I said.

Was it only a figment of my imagination, or does it really excist? Yesterday I played the Yelnia battle with 200% extra German troops with EFOW on. A bunch of Russians were pinned down in the middle of a brush by -all- of my mortars. After a while all the troops had vanished from my view and only the Soviet markers after cowering troops were left in place. When I counter-attacked a few turns later and got closer to the brush the Soviet markers were replaced by visible casualties one after another. Death-clock for infantry? The Russians capitulated anyway, but the funny thing on the results table was negative German casualties, that is -19 total and -6 dead. Did I create a platoon of Undead Heros? Grrreat Game! M

I think the other one is bone of Russian tanks with no markings. There should be at least Ps.-numbers visible if they were Finnish. </font>

Mmh, I guess I too have to put my spoon in this soup. Instead of having great expectations I was merely curious about the new CMBB. There were some aspects in CMBO that weren't exactly as it was supposed to be (IMHO), and by that I mean for example weak MG's and the notorious borg-sighting. The game was entertaining, however, and deserved its good reputation. It still does. I downloaded the demo for a week ago (41 min. at work), rushed back to my home computer and installed it. Wow! The terrain looks a whole lot better, the trees are well made and moving slightly with the breeze. Doodads give new depth to the surface, fires can (will?) spread and the smoke looks better. MG's and AT-guns are actually able to hide from the enemy even if they open fire . EFOW rocks and fixes the most problems with Borg-sighting, just don't let enemy inf. too close! The demo is supposed to be a "teaser", not a shorter version of the whole game as it was with the CMBO. It worked for me as I had to unlearn to use the "gamey" shortcomings I was familiar with the previous version. I'm really looking forward to the release of the CMBB. As far as I can tell from the demo, it has been worth waiting for. Thank you for ruining my civilian life (as if I had any)! M

Sergei, Tero and Kuma: do the last TWO bones show Finnish tanks? The one on the left looks like the ill-fated "Rynnäkkötykki" with a British gun. The swastikas are gone, though. Oh well, it takes only a while to put them in. M [ September 04, 2002, 11:29 AM: Message edited by: Munter ]

I'll second this! It's way too easy to track enemy casualties by simply watching their symbols disappear under artillery fire. M

The CDV version of CM:BO arrived on the shelves in Finland a week after the European retail release last February. Hopefully it will be the same with CM:BB. (Not pre-ordering, but using Force to get my copy if necessary...) M

Well, yes. And while there isn't any mention in the source how the group was actually shot, we'll never know. Argh, dammit! Now I have to purchase one of those SMG's to try it out myself as it stimulates my scientific personality. Good thing they're not too expensive... M

The distances where SMG's were used were mostly less than 100 meters. In dense forests even 20-50 meters at max. In that kind of enviroment you have no time to use the sights as instructed, instead of taking aim as with a shotgun and "hosing down" the targets with short bursts while keeping yourself more or less constantly mobile. These weapons were mainly given to the toughest and most cold-blooded soldiers you could find in order to make the most of their effect. Yet another capture from the page: Markmanship as we know it was cultivated by riflemen and snipers. M