Grunto IV

'not driblets, but mass' of course if you're being hit with large-caliber off-board artillery, driblets are ok. andy

i read somewhere that the long 75 on this vehicle had a tendency to warp the chassis when fired. andy

i read somewhere that is was in the spanish civil war that the value of the 88 against ground targets was discovered. andy

i'm looking forward to the soviets, simply to have batteries of 76mm field pieces in the direct fire role. oh... then there's zverdoy... and that superlative 7.62x25 smg... andy

Name and Location: "South of Carentan" Version Number: 1.0 Editor Version: 1.12 Date: 13 June 1944 Game Type: Axis Attack Based On: Historical Length: 60 Turns Map: Huge (1600x1600m) Conditions: Raining, Wet Play First As: Axis against Computer Description: Elements of 37th Panzergrenadier Regiment, 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division, supported by StuGs and Paratroopers from 3rd Battalion, 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment, attack elements of U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne, supported by tanks from 2nd Armored Division. 4918:6883 German:U.S. points. Author: Andy Thomas If this looks interesting, please let me know. Thanks Andy

i've found my own scenario, 'midnight' to be difficult against the ai. you should play it as germans, and if you want a greater challenge, have the ai use default setup. 'midnight' is about a recon battalion of the 12th ss armored division attacking in the dark against some canadians. if memory serves most of the ss units are veteran to elite. there are a ton of armored cars and what makes it dicey are the canadian antitank guns and sherman tanks. i'm working on a new one for play against the ai. it represents elements of the 'kiss my ass' (17th ss pzgd) division ('a battalion of the 37th motorized regiment') and remnants of the 3rd battalion, 6th fallschirmjager regiment (2nd para division) attacking on around 13 june 1944 against elements of the u.s. 101st and 82nd airborne, and tanks from the u.s. 2nd armored. now in this one the ss are mostly all green, with crack paras; they're backed by a stug company (14 stugs). there are 4 motorized ss companies and 2 para companies... all companies are 'understrength.' believe it or not, in this one there are only 14 german vehicles (the stugs) instead of the usual 50 or 100 or whatever, and the point totals are around 4400 german attacking into just under 7000 american (almost all americans are crack; because they're airborne). the new mapboard represents the marshy ground south of carentan. it also has hedgerow farms. i'm not sure if such a place existed - from reading about it, it seems the general area was either marsh/woods or hedgerow country and not a combination of both - but the map is interesting nonetheless. it's 'channeled' by irrigation ditches. for a tougher battle, always set the ai to +3 experience. andy

a poem zverdoy, like a men amongst boys in cross of iron you did ok against tigers with their crew morale of 9 it is now to see you in cmbb for which i pine zverdoy, more than a toy when your gun goes off, something will be destroyed it doesn't matter which; ap or he you're as good as 2 or more late-model panzer mark IIIs zverdoy, such an armored treat the perfect killer of most any german beast andy

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by killmore: Thanks Babra! Any other votes?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> i think the one on the right might be 85mm. andy

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Slapdragon: Stuarts...the 37mm was thought to be very accurate it.).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> in asl, the stuart has a '37LL' gun... very accurate. andy

in the russian 'breakthrough' over the dnieper... i believe it was 3rd tank army... i've read that in one night battle they had sirens blaring and headlights beaming from the t/34s. this is something i would like to see in cmbb... much sooner than the maus. thanks for your consideration, andy

it's also at http://www.feldgrau.com/pnzfwd.html andy

try: http://www.feldgrau.com/ andy

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mr. Johnson-<THC>-: Not a lot of infantry, and I don't remember much of an embankment. Like 3 main roads to the village, seperated by bocage and fields. River off to the side of town. Panthers and Pz-IVs as the main striking force.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> sounds like 'brettville' and not 'putot' =grin= andy

my scenarios, 'putot' and 'tank trap' might fit the bill. 'tank trap' has 20,000 points total. 'putot' is huge too. they're at admiral keith's site and at manx's site. 'tank trap' is particularly huge in that, not only is it over 20,000 points, but most units are green (lower cost). there are a good 150+ vehicles total in that one; and probably 2 battalions of infantry, all told. andy [ 07-09-2001: Message edited by: Grunto IV ]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mr. Johnson-<THC>-: Nope its a 30 turn battle between the 12th SS and the Canadian Scottish rifles?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> uh.. that may have still been mine. there was a shorter, smaller version with mostly infantry. does it have an embankment the germans must cross and some supporting german infantry guns? but yeah, that huge one was definitely mine. the smaller, shorter one might be floating around out there though. andy

oh, and thanks to admiral keith and manx for hosting these at their respective sites. andy

I have found some more information, part of which talks about the action portrayed here: http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/9517/page76.html apparently, the actual battle was elements of the 111th (6 panthers, infantry), against c, e, and f troops (companies) of the 42nd. so the tank trap (huge) expands upon this and has the entire 111th against the entire 42nd. 20,000 points worth =grin= anyway, the link provided above is fairly interesting, and is apparently but a small part (a part of chapter 4) of a in-depth overall work on u.s. cavalry ops. andy

I have perfected the "Road to Luneville" scenario. Here are the improvements: + Detailed order of battle for entire 111th Pz Brigade (Bde.). + Easier-to-use mapboard + Balanced victory conditions + "Feel good" scenario against AI, good for "hotseat tournament" play. Also, a small version of the same has been created. It is called, "Tank Trap (Small)." The Huge version has over 150 vehicles on both sides combined, and it includes somewhere between 2 and 3 battalions of infantry between the sides. It is 45 turns on a map over 2km x 2km across. The small version has roughly 2 companies (german) attacking through 2/3 of one company (u.s.). At 20 turns, it is perfect for mirrored PBEM or TCP/IP. The map is 960m x 960m. The Huge version is for those who like gigantic CMBO battles; every German unit slot is taken up. I played it as Germans against the AI and had a really good time. If you have a copy of Road to Luneville and were thinking of 'firing it up,' be sure to download "Tank Trap (Huge)" instead. If you would like to try a small U.S. Cavalry screening action, download "Tank Trap (Small)." Both scenarios should be appearing at both Combat Missions and Combat Mission Scenario Depot in the near future. Tank Trap (Huge and Small) are simply my finest contributions to the world of CMBO. Andy

i think they're generally square fields, 100-200m across. they were found mainly in the u.s. sectors and not the british. you might want to break up the bocage with woods too. ...all generalizations but hopefully of some help... andy

Ok, let me rattle off a couple of minor issues with the game as it stands: Issue #1 - U.S. M3A1 versus German SPW 251/1: 43 points for the M3A1 and 52 for the SPW. This doesn't make sense within the context of the game. My understanding was that prices were based upon "combat value" and not "rarity." With that in mind, the SPW should be cheaper than the M3A1. Another thing: I've seen the diagrams about the .50 cal versus the MG42 regarding these vehicles facing off against each other, and the .50 cal is superior, shot for shot. However, do those diagrams take into a account that the MG42 - although it doesn't penetrate as well per bullet - is firing a lot more bullets? So I suggest either making the MG42 better against the M3A1, or lowering the cost of the SPW 251/1 so it is cheaper than the M3A1. Issue #2 - Jeep .50 versus regular Jeep: It would be great if you brought back the transport factor for the .50 cal jeep, and made the regular jeep something like 7 or 8 points. Trucks should be 10-12 points. The reason I say all of this because of the "combat value" of these respective units; the .50 cal jeep may run out of ammo quickly, but 4 or 5 of these hitting a platoon at once can be deadly. As it is, it is very difficult to design a U.S. Cavalry-based scenario because the jeep .50s no longer transport anything. One could use standard jeeps, but the Cavalry jeeps had mounted .30 cals as standard issue, and were often upgraded in the field. In addition, they transported mortars and personnel with mines, radios, demo charges, and rifles. In scenarios with mixed jeeps and jeep .50s, my heart sinks a bit when clicking on a jeep with no MG, and it raises a bit when clicking on a jeep .50 with ammo remaining on board. I guess that's just me.... =grin= A scenario could be created with just transport jeeps, and crew-served MGs could be transported. The problem is, that even with the standard Cavalry Platoon: 6 Jeep 3 Greyhound the scenario designer cannot represent the 6 machineguns inherent to the jeeps, and the 3 60mm mortars, plus the Platoon HQ. At best there will be 5 crew-served MGs and 3 60mm mortars, and that is with the Greyhounds transporting a unit apiece. Then other units like sharpshooters and bazookas have no place to ride. Of course without a modelling of the "3-man Cavalry Jeep," it is "problematic" to create a Cavalry scenario. Still, when the Jeep .50s actually transported units, it was a lot easier to approximate things. The workaround I'm using is to include 3 M3A1 halftracks instead of 6 jeeps. Then there is plenty of transport available. thanks for your consideration, Andy

i just did a little experiment: small board, 0-level 'hole' in one corner, put a u.s. squad and platoon hq in there. on the german side i put 2 spw 251/1. 3 turns in the first game, i exited the two halftracks: 100-0 germans in the second, i exited one and left the other: 50-50 in the 3rd, i added two baz teams in the hole and put one of the halftracks in there, and exited the other when playing. one halftrack was eliminated, and 1 escaped. the germans lost, 39-61. so from that it appears as though it is an even trade for those units which exit or don't exit (and remain intact). on the other hand, for those units which do not exit and are eliminated, the penalty appears to be about 2:1. so the tradeoff appears to be about 1:1 in points for exiting versus remaining intact, and roughly 1:2 for exiting versus being eliminated. andy

i've found 75mm iGs along with 20mm AA to be very effective in the defense. buy the cheapest units which have the most firepower try purchasing green troops for the defense. hopefully once you set them up you won't have to move them, and if they don't have to move, they seem to fire well enough for their cost. the problem is in moving them with the 20-second delay. if you're defending against an assault, ask the attacker if he would then defend against your assault - a 'mirrored' qb series. then you can see who is better at defending against heavy odds. the best thing is probably to find a pre-made scenario, then play it 'mirrored.' andy

I've been wondering about the same thing myself. Thanks for the clarification, Jason. Andy

ok.. one more post.. latest scenario (with fixed units 'fixed') is now at combat missions. andy

you know, i've been designing a lot of 'cavalry-type' scenarios, and i have to say, the m8 greyhound is the 'heart of the cavalry.' when a troop (company) 'moves out' with its 9 greyhounds and various jeeps (and/or halftracks), mortars, and machineguns... i have a lot of confidence in such a formation. nice mods... andy