manchildstein (ii)

does anyone know the muzzle velocity and 'grainage' of an mp44 bullet? for instance, a browning 45/70 lever action can send something like a 300-grain bullet out at nearly 2000 fps... and the 30.06 from a garand would probably be about 100 grains at around 3000 fps or somesuch... i would think the mp44 would be 'effective' out to about 150 or 200 meters... the ak-47 maybe 200-300... i say this because if one sees the cartridges side by side that's how they kind of 'look.' in any event i would prefer the mp44 over either the bolt-action or the 9mm smg... the 9mm smg is probably effective out to about 100 meters tops... but that's the strange thing about 'effective'... now i didn't run this test under battle conditions but with a rapid trigger pull on a itty bitty 9mm pistol with 15-round detachable magazine... i could hit a can at 75 yards... it was just a matter of 'leading' the shots 'into' the target... under battlefield conditions...that would assume perfect calm on the part of the firer ... and the proper 'backdrop' or ability to see where the bullets were first missing in order to get them to hit before the magazine would run out...

could the m13 'shrug off' the british 40mm frontally?

interestingly, in advanced squad leader the only german afv capable of duelling with the is-3 with any effect was also the jagdtiger... if you had king tigers or panthers or jadgpanthers you were pretty much sol...

so even as early as tunisia at least some of the tigers had some faulty plates?

also, the side armor of the tiger should generally not be lumped in with the frontal armor on the stug... the tiger had some special 'nickel anodized' armor or somesuch... this might help explain its 80mm of side armor being stronger than 80mm front on the stug... just a thought... or at least a brainfart...

when i brought up stolfi's book about 'lost victories' or whatnot... how the germans in their failure to drive for moscow had lost by august of '41... someone else posted a link to a thread along similar lines from some 'wargamers forum' or somesuch... one poster over there went by the name, 'suvarov' or somesuch... anyway, the 'suvarov' at the 'wargamers forum'... well on the one had he posted that he thought that the soviets would have attacked first if given the chance... that they were just about ready to go... but on the other hand he 'loved stalin long time'... to make a long posting short i'm simply pointing out that it is possible to believe that the soviets were indeed 'just about to' attack and at the same time be a stalin lover... or at least to post on boards such as this in that manner... ...oh and that particular 'suvarov' thought that tukachevsky was a moron... oddly enough, when i first opened this thread and saw the posting from 'oz277' i immediately thought of 'suvarov' from the 'wargamers forum'... and interestingly it turns out there was an author by the 'same' name... now 500,000 paratroopers is a new one to me... but in my humble opinion a pre-emptive soviet attack on the romanian oilfields cannot be ruled out... a general attack across the entire line though seems a bit - well perhaps that's being charitable - farfetched... now i know carell is not held in the highest esteem by many here, but he claimed in the prelude to an updated 'scorched earth' that kgb archives opened up in 1989 or thereabouts prove that the soviets were indeed ready to attack later that summer... on the one hand though carell didn't even write under his own real name (schmidt), and on the other hand; even if kgb records 'proved' a soviet attack had been imminent... i mean how trustworthy are kgb archives?... the 'wargamers forum' was 'matrix games' and here is the thread with the postings from 'suvarov' http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21873 look a few pages into the discussion for where the 'fireworks' start... the stolfi book is found here: http://militera.lib.ru/h/stolfi/ the thread about the stolfi book is: http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=003336#000000

i had some cz-52 czech pistols and a 'tokarev'... all chambered in 7.62x25... i had a box of '50s 7.62x25 and many of the casings were 'split'... they still worked fine... some people said 'don't do that' and others said, 'what me worry?'...

you probably can't move a wire spotter more than a few meters during a scenario... might get exhausted first...

look for a program called bmptojpg... if you're using win98 mspaint only supports .bmp ... if you have winME then the notepad supports .jpg too... if memory serves... use a little html for posting aars on the web find out how to embed pictures and such... when using bmptojpg... notice the default quality is 50%... set it higher for better jpgs... if you have ME and the mspaint which supports jpg, you can just save as the .jpg file type... edit... yes the default, high-resolution .bmp files produced by mspaint are HUGE... that's the main reason why you ended up with a 40mb wordpad file... [ April 19, 2003, 12:45 AM: Message edited by: manchildstein II ]

i'm not sure of battlefront's intent regarding casualty figures in the cm battles, but the way i 'rationalize' the high casualties is to figure that 50% or more of the non-death casualties were actually soldiers suffering from 'shell-shock' or who had otherwise lost any will to fight at that moment; not physically injured but psychologically out of the battle... the kias i have not found a way to rationalize... they seem high to me as well... perhaps that's why some players suggest that cm is a 'time-compressed' simulation...

think of defending just a small portion of the map. consider that in general, for every large flag you defend you can leave 3 flags open. regardless of what happens, a basic idea when the shooting starts is to have more of your stuff firing - with effect - than your opponent does in return. by defending just a small area, if your opponent attacks piecemeal, there is a good chance of your getting an advantage. as for the mines, you can use them to 'funnel' the opponent, or as part of your main defensive line... you might even want to take a large chunk of your infantry and actively 'hunt' for small groups of attacking units, wipe them out, and withdraw further back before your opponent can react... see if you can find an after action report (AAR) for the 'sunken lane' by fionn for an example of this 'active defense' tactic... of course on a large mapboard as you describe perhaps this isn't realistic for infantry on the defense...

oh i put these over at the scenario depot... http://ns9.super-hosts.com/~dragonlair.net/combatmission/ they're linked through to http://peter_panzer.tripod.com

the infantry in particular seems to play a greater role in say, 1941 than it does in 1944-45... the HE loadouts carried by your typical late war tanks are deadly to infantry... in 1941 the infantry - while not having the greatest antitank capabilities - has a fighting chance... in cmbb i've played - by far - more 1941 than anything... my concern about cmak was the size of the mapboards but in an interview with (was it moon?) it was noted that the boards will be bigger in cmak so north africa... no problem... and one of the first battles i thought of was something representing the early fighting between brits and italians...

Don Bridgehead Play as Axis against Computer AI Default AI Setup Semi-Historical Axis (Hungarian) Attack 42-08 (Jul 1942) South, Dry, Warm Calm, Clear Dawn Size: Huge: 2k x 2k Map, Tank and Recon Battalion + Artillery Support attacks -> 2 Infantry Battalions plus fortifications. 30+ Turns version 1 It is July 1942 and the Hungarian 2nd Army closes upon the Don. Here there is a barge crossing ("Landing") and a bridgehead which is being constantly fed with Soviet troops from the eastern riverbank. Since sometime yesterday friendly FOs have infiltrated and established a forward observation post (OP). Since then the FOs have been calling in spotting rounds in order to register fire and create an on-call grid in the area. All through the night your supporting infantry have screened forward to positions in front of the OP and face to face with the enemy. Combined with earlier reports from the air, infiltration and recon sorties on foot show that the area is heavily fortified; numerous bunkers, tank turrets, and infantry positions dot the terrain. The main resistance is outlined by the 'x' markers on the map. It begins in the ravine. Overnight your available armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) have taken up jumpoff positions for this dawn attack. There is a 'full' Tank Battalion from the 30th Regiment; Panzer IVs (short) and 38(t) tanks. There are also Nimrods from the 51st Motorized AA Battalion; Toldi I tanks and Csaba armored cars from the 1st Recon Battalion. Now it is dawn and with help from the OP, the attack is set to begin. Recon has shown a large Soviet minefield on the left flank. The approaches from the south and west are clear. In the default setup: The Tank Battalion is set to attack on the right. Their Pioneers have screened ahead. Facing the enemy ravine the Motorized Infantry from the Recon Battalion have screened well forward; right to the edge of the defenses. The AFVs from the Recon Battalion - Csabas and Toldis - are assembled around the OP. The Self-Propelled AA Battalion is split into three companies of six vehicles apiece from left to right. So your entire force consists of: Tank Battalion: 1. Company: 11 Panzer IVF (L/24) 2. Company: 22 38(t) 3. Company: 23 38(t) Pioneer Company Recon Battalion: 14 Csaba Armored Car 17 Toldi I Tank (20mm) Motorized Infantry Company AT Platoon: 4 50mm Gu 51st Self-Propelled AA Battalion: 19 Nimrod OP Elements: 2nd Army: 2 x 210mm (2x2-tube) 3 x 149mm Divisional Motorized Artillery Battalions: 1. 3 x 105mm 5. 3 x 105mm The idea is to smash the Soviet positions quickly, before daylight proper. As is fairly well standard procedure of late for the tasks handed your 2nd Army, it will be a miracle if this attack doesn't result in high casualties in trying to clear the area of Soviets. Yet the West bank of the Don must be secured. Notes: It is questionable whether the Hungarian 1st Armored Division saw action in the "Don battles" of that Summer. One feature of this scenario is that by depicting the 1st Armored the Nimrods can 'realistically' be included! Tactics: If you call in artillery support on a TRP it should hit by the end of that turn. So if you hit a target (target wide or 'i') with all of your FOs you can expect a decent disruptive effect over an area of 100 or 200 meters in radius. Your Toldis and Csabas might be best kept back in defense of your OP. Daytime aerial and nighttime infiltrative recon have detected some very heavy Soviet firepower in the area and these lighter AFVs might have a tough go of it in these conditions. On the other hand this 'light armor' could assist in a larger push by your 'heavier' tanks. The thrust of the scenario is to destroy as many Soviet units as possible in the time given. The 'x' landmarks can give you an idea of where the main line of resistance (MLR) starts. The default setup is merely an example: Feel free to re-arrange the default and create your own setup, including the TRPs. Some Background: Apparently the Hungarian 2nd Army had nine "Light" (Infantry) Divisions (three each in III, IV, and VII Corps) and one Armored Division. The "Light" Divisions were Infantry Divisions with 2 Regiments instead of 3. By the time the Hungarian 2nd Army cleared its area of operations West of the Don, it was covering something like 120 Km with these same nine Divisions. And as it was these Divisions arrived in a haphazard fashion. One source claims that the Hungarian Light Divisions which saw action took 50% casualties in reaching and 'clearing' the West bank of the Don; the word 'clearing' is in quotes because if memory serves there were some Soviet bridgheads on the West bank which were never taken by the Hungarians prior to Operation Uranus. In any event, even at full strength with six Battalions per Division, the Hungarians would have had roughly one Battalion to cover every 2+ Km of frontage, with only the 1st Armored as a reserve along a front of 120 Km! And these Infantry Battalions - even if all of them were present - would have been depleted from the July and later battles. Admittedly each of the three Corps had some attached units (such as Artillery, Cavalry, and AA Battalions) but all the same they were stretched extremely thin there on the Don. As hystory later showed, it was a disaster in the making. The Order of Battle (OOB) information for this scenario came from: http://members.tripod.com/~Sturmvogel/Hung2Army.html

sounds good... i used to play those games a lot... 'ambush!' and ... 'purple heart?'... once i took all of the scenario cards from both games and played them chronologically... so this put some of the more difficult scenarios earlier into the series... really liked the BAR dudes... yeah that was a great game... may have to download your scenario(s) [ April 08, 2003, 05:29 PM: Message edited by: manchildstein II ]

the 'vussolami' series - at least in battle 10(?) - uses landmarks to point out potential soviet gun positions. this is one of the methods designers have used to help give recon to the players. i like to give a bit of recon info in my scenarios... either in briefings or as landmarks or both ...sometimes it seems that if no such info were provided, that the scenario would be too difficult... it's interesting to think that much if not all of this change since cmbo is due to the new infantry model...

i generally would not purchase halftracks in a qb, but when given in a scenario i'll use the 251/1s in particular the way laxx described, as a kind of 'screen' in front of my 'heavy armor,' particularly in areas with low los where the main force is only 40-50 meters behind the 251/1 screen. the idea is for the 251/1 to id an opposing unit, then back off if the resistance is too high, and let the heavier stuff move in to deal with it. it may be my imagination but in late war with the 251/21 (triple 15mm mg) halftracks; they seem to become priority targets of the tac ai. anyway, there to me there is almost nothing more gratifying in the game than for a 251/1 or 250/1 to id an opposing unit and survive, whilst heavier forces then mop up... in case you're wondering, when applied in this way the most common result is that the 251/1 is at best shocked and at worst knocked out... in any case i also like the idea of battle taxis for heavy weapons... but if you're in a scenario with say, more than a dozen 251/1s you might generally have a chance to get them into some recon (screening) action too... haltracks with 75mm or 20mm or 37mm guns i routintely use right alongside the heavier armor.... imagine a sector in a built-up area... typically i'll have a 251/1 screen up front then infantry platoons and tanks moving right up behind them, then the halftracks with heavier weapons just behind those... all of these within 60 meters or so from 'front to back' the main key with the heavy weapon halftracks is to find suitable targets... ones that you can effect without being effected in return...

hi spike, remember our battle... my soviet artillery front was a real blast no? all in good fun

ok... some design notes and other spoilers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the soviet 5th tank division apparently had some t-28s so needing some kind of 'land battleship' and without the option of t-28s i went with my favorite 1941 soviet tank... the kv2... 3 of these are situated just outside the rail bridgehead the default setup is not the ideal setup, but instead one which i like to attack out of to sort of add to the challenge... that is to have my overall force roughly split into 4 pieces, one group of units on each side of two bridges... in the default setup the rail bridge is in better shape than the road bridge... the rail bridge has 3 platoons of infantry plus support weapons (1 company), lots of armored halftracks including 4 37mm types, and 3 platoons of tanks... 1 pz iic, 1 38(t) (light armor, lots of ammo) and 1 38t (upgraded armor, lower ammo loadout)... i like the 38(t) lighter versions because in a 'long' engagement like this one (45) turns they tend to have ammo for as long as they live... now i had read on the web that a battalion of flampanzers was attached to the 7th panzer, and the oob for the 7th which i have shows that it also had the 705th self-propelled gun battery attached. the presence of these afv types was what really motivated me to design this one... the chance to have 150mm self-propelled guns and flammpanzers in the same scenario! one common theme i noticed while playing this one was that, it was imperative to make good and well sure that an area was clear of soviet fire before moving through or into it. for example, due to carelessness alone i lost 2 bisons, a couple of 20mm aa vehicles, and a quad 20mm aa vehicle... in each case i simply ordered a move into a place i'd thought safe only to lose each vehicle to a hail of soviet gunfire... another similar situation happened when i tried to move roughly a platoon of pz ii tanks across the rail bridge to reinforce the bridgehead.. i lost 4 out of 4 tanks attempting to cross, mostly to the 45mm guns of t26s and bt7s on the opposite bank. now as for the near side, there is a large gun trap in the row of trees along the river road, all facing across the river and ostensibly into the rear of the german rail bridgehead on the other side... there is also a company of soviet infantry thereabouts... interestingly, it seems that the infantry kind of melts away and regroups clear down near the other, road bridge... as it turns out there was very little if any soviet infantry resistance when i overran those gun positions with AFVs... they simply melted away... the upshot of that was that by about turn 30, these same 'stragglers' were mounting an attack on the road bridge. that necessitated the movement of my reinforcement infantry company to the trees on both sides of the bridge... those soviets who made that move from bridge to bridge along the river road mounted a fairly credible attack on the road bridge in the later going... as for the rail bridge, the soviet guns and tanks in that general area fought valiantly but the onslaught from a platoon of light 38(t)s, combined with 2 platoons of dismounted armored infantry, 6 spw 251/1s and 2 (251/10?) 37mm halftracks... all of that combined with the called-in fire from the 105mm FO resulted in by about turn 25... a stretch of road littered with knocked out soviet guns and tanks... added to the assault force described above were the arrival of even more german tanks as reinforcements... as for the reinforcements from that back/left corner... at first about 2/3 of them simply pulled up to the edge of the woods and started engaging soviet t-34s, bts, and t26s on the other side of the river... the germans seemed to fare fairly well in that... one platoon of tanks joined the main force overunning the soviet gun positions, and an ill-fated pz ii platoon tried to cross the rail bridge (too soon); in the midst of that other ongoing fight these pz ii tanks simply died without having any effect on the battle... as for the rail bridgehead, from the start the kv2s became known and they destroyed a couple or 3 german tanks... i had to quickly 'break out' of that staging area and sent my tanks through the trees in a 'se' direction (roughly 1 or 2 o'clock from the german perspective)... they skirted the kv2s on the one side (left) and the open road on the other (right)... eventually a 2nd reinforcement platoon of pz iis caught up with these elements as they advanced, impressively taking out several t26 and bt tanks around the road... but that was later... in the meantime this group of perhaps 3 pz iic and 4 38(t) (heavy) accompanied by some 251/1 halftracks blitzed its way out of the bridgehead and to the wooden pillboxes at the turn in the road, then went across the diagonal section of road and into the trees. they met more success and this is about where the 2nd reinforcement platoon of pz ii tanks caught up with them... by then i though that the road through the soviet rear was open and sent what remained of these 3 platoons - perhaps 8 to 10 tanks - headlong in again a se direction and (back) across the long, n-s stretch of straight road. unfortunately there they met with some bt tanks and i lost a lot of tanks... in the end only 2 pz iic, and 1 38t would make it across the road, and race up the hill to the area behind the soviet pillboxes... and at that these tanks were all so ammo-depleted that between them they could only take out a single pillbox... the move back at the road where they had attempted to dash across and met both short and long range fire from soviet tanks... that was where the flanking movement had really gone wrong... if i could have been just a bit more patient and made it to the soviet rear with perhaps just 2 or 3 more of the 38t tanks... things would have been different.... while the 38t 37mm gun seems to knock out concrete pillboxes from the rear with no problem... the game wouldn't even allow the 20mm HE pz ii to attempt the shot... indeed 1 or 2 more 38t tanks in position behind the pilloboxes would have been a great relief... it was as my tanks crossed the road for the 2nd time and lost in those engagements... the survivors pretty much streaming away in retreat from the newfound soviet resistance... that i began to wonder out loud, 'just how many tanks do these soviets have?' by then i had destroyed literally dozens of soviet tanks and yet wherever i went i was met by a hail of fire from still more of them... on the near side of the river things didn't go much better... by the 40th turn there were about 7 friendly tanks left and they were approaching the town or already in the town... the road from the rail to the road bridge was strewn not only with soviet guns and tanks near the rail bridge, but as it got nearer the road bridge, the wrecks of numerous soviet and german tanks... the road was so clogged that it was a dicey manuever to have to get off of the road and into the trees... for any slowdown in moving through the area could mean an ambush by soviet infantry stragglers... stragglers who were not only attacking the road bridge, but who seemed to be line up along the road bridge in waiting to ambush any stray german afvs.... as for the rail bridgehead, the one platoon of infantry in the default plus the 2 hmgs and the mortars and company hq... these were adequate to hold the bridgehead as the kv2s seemed to chase my armored breakout yet fell further and further behind... occasionally a kv2 would gain los to a german unit on the other side of the river, and the distinctive sound of their 152mm gun would be heard and i would hold my breath wondering where the shell would land... the near side of the river near the rail bridge was cleared early (soviet gun positions) so later those 2 infantry platoons were dispatched to make their way across the bridge and reinforce that bridgehead... interestingly, the 2nd of the 2 platoons was loaded onto 251/1 halftracks and one of the halftracks tried to cross the bridge... a lone bt tank on the opposite bank appeared and dispatched the halftrack... the squad took casualties and was then 3-7... i then dismounted the infantry from the other 3 halftracks (2 squad, hq), and those 3 headed across the bridge on foot while the halftracks sat in the cover of trees... the 3rd squad from the destroyed halftrack recovered and went across with the rest of the platoon... so by then i had more or less an entire infantry company in the trees around the 'grainery' on the opposite side of the river... they began to stalk the kv2s through the woods... i scored a success on one kv2, destroying it this way without loss... it was about turn 38... the most dramatic part of the battle was probably for the road bridgehead... there the default setup had just a platoon of pioneers (6x6) and some armored cars and flame tanks... plus a 150mm FO... on the near bank were another 150mm FO, plus 3 37mm AT guns, 2 75mm IGs, and some armored cars... from the get-go things were tight on both sides of the bridge... on the near side the 150mm FO was under pressure from some soviet infantry... armored cars were brought up in the gaps between the buildings and through establishing fire lanes they beat back the soviet tide... nearer to the river more soviets were pressuring the gun positions... a couple of flamethrower units helped drive them back... the 37mm and 75mm guns were silenced early from soviet gun and pillbox/bunker positions on the opposite side... the order of the day seemed to be to get out of LOS of the far banks... meanwhile aa vehicles and bisons began pouring in from the right/back corner as reinforcements... these helped clear the near side around the road bridge... they helped clear the area but not without great loss... one t26 on the near side in particular took out 2 20mm aa vehicles and 2 bisons before an armored car could dispatch it at close range from behind... those armored cars on the near side were what actually saved the german positions in the early going... the greatest help was the arrival of the infantry company... these quickly closed on the town and road bridge whilst the heavy weapons went straight to the treeline on the river bank. eventually, all of the bisons were destroyed, along with all but 1 of 10 aa vehicles... this is a testimony both to my own carelessness and the sheer volume of fire being put up by the soviets, particularly from the far bank... in the far bridgehead itself my pioneer squads were quickly melting away, my armored cars and tanks being destroyed. there was a 150mm FO amongst them and it began calling fire in ... not 150 meters away... on a bunch of soviet infantry... this FO would drop in fire, then adjust, drop in fire, adjust again, until he had 'swept' the area around the bridge clean of soviet troops... after a turn 40 cease-fire he was down to about 10 out of 140 ammo, had taken a casualty, but had caused 75 casualties and the loss of 1 soviet tank... by the time of the cease-fire the soviets still had tanks, and had charged and captured the far road bridgehead in particular... its flag was soviet... the only surviving unit was the FO there... all of the pioneer squads, the platoon and company hq... all were wiped out.. there may have been a vehicle crew or 2 but the bridgehead was effectively lost... and to the rear of the bridgehead i had 3 tanks but they were incapable of taking out the bunkers on the hill from behind... so the bridge itself was still covered by 45mm and 76mm fire... on the near side of the road bridgehead i had 7 or 8 tanks as i'd mentioned... but some of those were without AP and a run across the bridge was probably out of the question with several t34s on the opposite side... t34s backed by bt and t26 tanks... so on the one hand there is a decent chance that the other 2 kv2s could have been eliminated by the rail bridgehead... and the near side by the rail bridge was uncontested... completely under german control... the near side of the road bridgehead was pretty firmly under control... except that there were soviet stragglers to the north of the bridge... these though were no longer a threat to seize the bridge... on the other hand i had lost the road bridgehead and there didn't appear to be any easy way of re-taking it... my tank strength was too spent... i had no artillery shells left to use smoke to cover an advance across the bridge... so the lessons learned... at least this one time... were that a) 150mm FO fire is not very effective against concrete fortifications... the 1 FO on the near side near the road bridge spent almost his entire ammo allotment on those hill pillbox positions and only knocked out a stray t26 tank... sometimes my moves were just a turn or two too soon and these proved disastrous... the lost pz ii platoon... the shattered armored spearhead near the road... the loss of aa vehicles and bisons c) that either 1 150mm FO or the 105mm FO could have possibly been used for a smoke screen ... in any event the amazing thing about this particular 'run through' was that it was the most 'touch-and-go' of any cm scenario i have ever played... i mean that every turn the difference between disaster and ultimate victory was razor thin... and this went on for about 40 turns straight! i mean it was gain after reversal after gain after reversal... in the end the board was littered with tanks and other afvs... the area of the town around the road bridghead ... for about 100 meters outwards from the bridge in every direction was either rubble or in flames... the score was 55-45 in my favor and i had lost 78 afvs to 73 soviet... admittedly those were 73 soviet tanks and a good number of my losses were halftracks and armored cars... as for 'infantry' losses i had almost achieved 3:1... it was in the low 800s for the soviets and high 200s for axis... something like 810:280 oh one interesting thing is that i saw no ai artillery barrages - FO fire - until about turn 35 when all of the sudden i began taking what looked like 76mm - or maybe even 120mm - fire around the near road bridgehead... that was quite the shock!

Play as Axis against Allied AI, Default AI Setup Nieman River Crossing Meeting Action Map: 2400 x 1200 Axis: 2 Infantry Companies, Approx. 50 AFVs plus some prime movers, Air Support Allied: "Battalion-level" with Artillery, Pillboxes, Massed tanks June, 1941 Day, "Dry," Clear, Cool, No Wind 45 Turns German Mech, Soviet Mech, Suburban, both sides max Fanaticism Version 1.0 Semi-Historical On the 22nd of June, 1941 the German 7th Panzer was roaring across Lithuania. By daybreak forward elements of the division had reached the Nieman river and these quickly established bridgeheads. Here some advance elements of the 7th Panzer have seized two bridges on the Nieman and are awaiting friendly reinforcements so they can expand the bridgeheads. As it is, aerial recon says that the area is crawling with Soviet tanks. Luckily, you were able to seize the bridges without loss; even with some sporadic fire from the bunkers on the hill opposite the road bridge. Your job is to thwart the Soviet counterattacks and as your reinforcements arrive, expand the bridgeheads. Probable concentrations of Soviet units are marked with "?" on the mapboard. In the default setup you have elements from the Recon Battalion; armored cars along with a Pioneer platoon, 2 75mm IGs, and 3 37mm AT guns; these are at the road bridge. They are supported by a platoon of Flammpanzer IIs from the 101st. At the rail bridge you have 2 platoons of 38(t) tanks, 1 platoon of PZ IIc, and a Company of armored infantry. Accompanying your force are 3 FOs from an artillery battalion; 2 150s and 1 105. In the default the 2 150mm FOs are at the road bridge, and the 105mm FO is at the rail bridge. You can expect more mechanized elements to arrive any minute, including a mobile flak unit and "Bisons" from the 705th. There should also be some dismounted motorized infantry. Finally, friendly air support should make itself felt as well. When arranging the units at the start, just remember that - if a treeline looks like a good place for Soviets, it probably contains them. Fate has smiled upon your vanguard in that you were able to seize these bridges in what amounted to a 'coup de main.' Holding them against fierce Soviet counterattacks from the Soviet 5th Tank Division is another matter. This scenario was inspired by the 'Alytus Bridgehead' scenario from Fire and Fury Games.

you know it's conventional wisdom that stopping the panzers outside dunkirk was a mistake... i believed that myself for a number of years until it dawned on me... what if the panzers had attacked... in overcast as it were without luftwaffe support?... wouldn't the royal navy have wiped the panzers out with shore bombardment?

Maybe I misunderstood what you were saying... But in CMBB 20mm cannons definetly fire more than one round. They might create one crater, but at least in the graphical representation multiple projectiles can be seen flying. I'm not sure though how the shots are actually modelled. </font>

if it helps to clarify at all, 'assault gun' pretty much means a direct fire vehicle like the german stug75, stug105, brumbar; or for the soviets su-152 and such... the other category is 'self-propelled artillery'... i'm not sure about soviet classifications but for the germans these would have been the open-topped 105s (wespe) and 150s (hummel, bison, etc.)...this class of vehicles was used primarily for indirect fire... actually, the bison or whatever may have been used in a more assault role... anyway the basic rule was that if it was fully armored, it was used in a direct fire role, and if it was open-topped it was probably for indirect fire... by the way the stug evolved into a 'tank destroyer' dual role with the fitting of the longer 75mm guns... but was originally 'infantry support' (short 75) of this entire 'class' of vehicle my favorite is probably the basic jgdpz iv with the 'regular' and not L/70 gun... yes technically it's a tank hunter but if you jigger the ammo loadout it can carry a lot of HE with AP to spare... having said that, it would be pretty cool in cm if... the crew intimately knowing the trajectory of their gun they could fire into certain blind spots... but maybe with 'borg spotting' that would be too powerful an advantage

indeed the t-60 and the soviet 25mm aa gun use the same, 6-report sound file... the diagram on the previous page is interesting ... my take was that all of the german 20mm guns used 6-round 'clips'... and that for convenience the sound was taken and used for 'all' of the other '20mm' weapons in the game... that picture on the other page does make me wonder if the germans had a 10-round 'clip'... or if it was dependent upon the exact model of gun and the firing platform... also, yes in the game these auto-cannons are represented on the receiving end of the fire by a single shot... ...ideally cm3 will have the 20mm rounds separated and make a tiny witto cratew for each one...

try the spw 251/21 halftrack... it has triple 15mm machineguns... if you can keep it alive it's murder on opposing infantry... goes through ammo like nobody's business...