Desantnik

Tiger had some nice terrain mods and i really like his Tiger ausf E. The rest is average at best... I'd love to use Shannon's Panther but that particular colouring sheme was too rare, so i use Fernando's set. Shannon's skinning job is very nice, but camoflage pattern he chose is quite disgusting. BTW, why is there so much negativity aimed at Jonh S. Tiger? Did i miss something? I know he left for some reason but why is a mystery to me.

use the mods man... i cant believe how ugly default CMBO is. Oh well i modded it PRIOR to playing so i didnt have to see all the ugliness of low res textures

Fernando could you turn your attention to modding Commonwealth tanks? Churchill, Cromwell, Comet and Challanger look particularly disgusting. Allied TDs could use some touchups as well. You Axis mods are very high qiality, how about some nice Allied skins now?

i use Fernando's tri colour scheme mods for Panther G and VG and a (i think) Fernando's single colour Panther A. Dont know about their accuracy but they certanly go over the top on the "coolest" scale as well as most detailed.

ok i'll give you blantant casualty figures by campaigns to compare: German KIA, Eastern Front 1941 - 11.30.44: estimated 3.5 million men German MIA, Eastern Front 1941 - 11.30.44: ~997.056 German WIA, Eastern Front 1941 - 11.30.44: ~3,498,060 German KIA, the West 6.06.44 - 11.30.44: Approx. 100000 German MIA, the West 6.06.44 - 11.30.44: 338,933 German WIA, the West 6.06.44 - 11.30.44: 399,860 Heer units alone took 50-70% casualties in the East. Luftwaffe was severly crippled as well (over 600 various aircraft lost above Stalingrad alone!). Comparing to the east it is really hard to even call the warfare in France in 44-45 a "Front". West was this traditional strategic warfare with rules and etiquettes while the East was a pure meatgirnder. One day a devision arries, another day replacement for it is needed. All the German best went to the East and none of it returned. Western front was more of a sidebattle that slightly annoyed Germans. later in the war Germans intentially weakened Western front so the Amis can take more ground than the Soviets who were there for revenge. Western front was a matter of land devisions while the East was the matter of survuvial of either Germans or Russians as a culture.

np, mate. Got spoiled on St.Petersburg and Moscow museums here myself. should visit the "province" sometime myself Check out the Navy and Railroad museums in st.petersburg btw, if you ever pass by. Great stuff there! "Avrora" is pretty cool too (dont think one can visit a fully intact WW1 era destroyer anywhere else )

speaking of low caliber Flaks, which one would local gurus here recommend the most? single 20mm, quad 20mm or 37mm based on a price-performance assesment. btw i once had a 20mm Flak route a Churchill crew! it damaged its gun at first and after 20 more seconds of punding the crew bailed out. i was quite surprised honestly (that same flak had been pounding that same churchill for 5 turns prior to that!).

Try E-mailing gallery@pub.sovtest.ru or calling them at (07122)2-39-36 (one weird phone they have ) It is Kursk association of museums, they should be able to tell you all you want to know. Here is the adress of the Museum of HQ of Central Front during the Kursk battle: http://kursk.amr-museum.ru/Hq/index.html Very nice place by the way.

i did ride BMP-1/2 on top qiute a few times and could fire my AK74 just fine. People fired PKMs from the hip sitting on top of BMPs. And BMPs is as bumpy ride as it can get (HTs at least had a front wheels with some kind of flexibility, BMPs are all tracks. Also i raised the point why cannot soldier fire from HTs while HTs are statinary.

ispitation for this came when 3 of my HTs w/infantry were helplessly slaughtered without firing a bloody shot. And i dont see how this works same as multi-turreted AFVs. HT and Infantry in it are separate unit entities. thus infantry should work just the same as it stands on a normal ground while riding on a HT. Oh and soldier has to be a real damn idiot to fall of HT travelling at 30 km/h. To be picky, feauture could be implemented so inf. can only fire when HT is not on the move. Though i dont see how they can't fire while it's moving.

i found that PzIV actually performs worse than Shermans. I never had Pz IV survive more than one shot from anything bigger than 30mm. Shermans on other hand seem to deflect shells with regularity that makes me jealous. Also allies get more points to spend on armor so you can buy alot of M4s and simply swarm the Axis player. Quantity seems to overcome quality in CM (which indeed is true, in practically every war quantity has won).

i am not sure if it had been ever suggested (i didnt find anything using search command) but why can't the squads shoot while riding on a halftrack or back of the tanks? In real life it was quite possible and in fact infantry did use that function as HT provided at least some protection. HTs would be really great for lightning strafes through enemy positions inflicting dissarray and panic on enemy infantry. Any thoughts or comments?

i somehow like John "Tiger" S. Tiger I mod better. I use them both but Tiger's colouring scheme is more appealing to the eye. Btw, why arent there any decent mods for Konigstiger? I use Kitty's mod, but it isn't that good looking for High res. Commonwealth vihicles could use some modding as well.

I'd like also to add several points concerning those "casualty figures": 1) During 1941-till med-1942 it were actually Germans who had 2:1 advatage in manpower on ACTIVE FRONTS. 2) Bulk of all casualties took place in 1941-1942 (some 6 million). Most of the died in German camps (camps for the Soviet POWs weren't the nice stalags provided for allied troops). 3) Total MILITARY casualty count for Soviet side was around 8 million, for Germans 3.6 million as KIAs. When people use the mindblowing 20 million figure, they seem to forget to add civilians into equation who Germans killed much more efficently than military. 4)Saying that "if Hitler didn't fight on two fronts he would win" is simple ignorace for several reasons. One, it is an "if" scenario and "ifs" are usually for people who didn't read or witnessed alot of facts and think they could have done better than someone else. Then there are numbers: only about 7-10% of German war machine was engaged on all fronts except the East (so those 10% had to be devided between France, Mediterranean and Afrika Korps). Now bulk of those troops were stationed in France and those were for the most part second and third line troops with next two nothing in experience and obsolete machinery (i dont think you would see something like Hotchkiss on Eastern front). All the crack troops Hitler used in Adrennes became crack by fighting in the East. So if going into "ifs" Hitler would probably win if he didnt open Eastern front (and he did actually) but statement is not true vice verca. Oh and another BIG point to show your lack of knowledge. When did second front open? That is right, June 1944... What was happening on the Eastern front on June 1944? That is right, German general retreat. Kursk was lost, Stalingrad was lost, Sevastopol in a process of being lost (irnoically it took Germans a YEAR to take Sevastopol from a cut off Soviet army, Soviets took it back in less than a week!). Stalin almoast begged Allies to open a second front earlier which would dramatically decrease Soviet casualties and perhaps prevent horrors like Stalingrad, but Allies perferred to sit it out while German war machine gets weakened and then take the spoils... So Soviets and Germans were practically fighting it out alone for 3 years and in June 1944 it was dead obvious who would win.

try Borodino (from 1996 i believe) for Napoleonic style wargame. Or get Cossacks for less intellectual entertaiment but lots of musket fire and LOTS of troops