Mark Gallear

Oh my god does flaming knives actually agree with me :eek: !

Just found this interesting post. Could it be that the BFC designers have a set idea on how effective low calibre HE rounds and tank machineguns were that is based on their preconceived perception rather than reality? Maybe tank machineguns were much more effective against infantry and guns that small calibre HE? British doctrine for what ever the real reason was that 2pdr and 6pdr HE performance was not good enough and a dedicated 3 inch gun on a tank in the Squadron was the way to go. Tank Machineguns against infantry and AT guns are just not that effective compared to the HMG. Take that same MG34 HMG put it on a bipod and watch its effectives drop by a vast magnitude. Some German Squads have to have two MGs in their TO&E to keep their invincibility advantage against allied squads. I certainly have found that German tanks with 37mm guns have a hard time even against low calibre Russian AT guns in CMBB. I of course cannot be right in my perceived assertions about the CM system because if I was it would be Monty Python not only in the Desert but on the Russian steppe as well :eek: .

Not sure, what you mean! In the troop buying screen in the top right hand corner says something like "on map" - pull that down and you get a long list - you buy troops in each and set them to come on the game map on different turns with different random chances of appearing. When you go to the map a flag will have appeared with reinforcement number -- put it where you want them to appear. (Try to make the location believable i.e. so they do not appear star trek style and bare in mind that if troops are in that area already the reinforcements will be pushed forward.) Off to do some research for my next scenario/op! Mark

Just completed a "Huge" Operation game with 8 playable battles of 20+ turns. Depicts the battle during Barbarossa for the bridges at Borisov, which Napoleon's men had retreated across in 1812. The German Panzers meet the T-34 for the first time. Everbody's favourite - historical game with a long historical breifing just to keep everthing on the straight and narrow. Intended to be played singly from the German point of view. But has been tested for two player for a large e-mail campaign. However we feel it needs a bit more polishing and are releasing it as a test version. The game map uses all the unpublished Advanced Squad Leader maps that were to be used for games set in the Borisov region. Designed jointly by Mark Gallear and Brian Martuzas an ex-Avalon Hill Squad Leader designer, with Carl Nogueira another Advanced Squad Leader designer for testing it. Special thanks to Carl for sending the maps all the way to the UK from the US. Available for download from Mod Corner and the Proving Grounds for download and extra discussion. http://www.the-proving-grounds.com/scenario_details_link.html?sku=285

As far as I know you are correct. I believe there were a few 37mm-armed Mk. IIIs in Barbarossa, but most of them had been phased out by that time. Michael </font>

Just checked the Allied Paras for Invasion of Sicily - July 1943. The British Para Officer has standard Webley Service Revolver should it not be the Browning Automatic or something else in this period? (Found some more out - Standard Webley is acceptable - other choices are US .38 Smith and wesson revolvers, webley in .45, Colt .45 and Browning 9mm were issued. Not sure when Browning became standard. The Boys AT rifle in company seems unlikely - canot find any evidence of use by British paras at any time and PIAT was available at this time. Gammon grenade was also available.) The US Paras and I'm not talking about the Glider troops have squads of 12 men, ten with the Garand rifle and a BAR as they jumped with their guns I would have thought the chutes would have ripped off with that weight. (Believe it or not found Photo of US Paras getting into the plane to jump and then fight the French in North Africa with Garands just on shoulder strap! Cannot see any Bars or Thompson -one man has M1 carbine.) :confused: [ February 02, 2004, 08:37 AM: Message edited by: Mark Gallear ]

I have no idea maybe JuJu has worked it out. I don't think there is a French Service revolver in amongst them. There could be a Hotchkiss MMG. Certainly lots of gun bmps that are unused - there is a high res and low res Garand but no Springfield for example .

Sorry Michael being go through the QB game setup checking things to much - my Brain has gone STRANGE :eek: :eek: :confused: . (I honestly didn't want to confuse anybody further!) I have a date of March 31 1941 for Rommels first attack on the British - that’s when they noticed anyway according to the history book I have just picked up! (German light armoured division plus two Italian Divs) (To be fair to Michael the newer Nigel Cawthorne, 2003 Steel Fist Tank Warfare 1939-45 has a date of February 12.) I got up to May 1941 in the QB and still no DAK so something is wrong somewhere! Anyway for some strange reason I suddenly had the urge to find out which gun BMPs are used in the game - amongst my interesting discoveries are : The French Pistol (Revolver) shares its BMP with the US Pistol - the distinctive Colt Automatic - BMP 1911 The French Hotchkiss MMG 1932 shares its BMP with the Breda MMG - BMP 1932 (A bit obvious because they are both in the French list!) On the shared BMPs cannot be considred bugs point there does seem to be rather a lot of BMPs of guns that are not used! [ February 01, 2004, 05:52 PM: Message edited by: Mark Gallear ]

Don't know if this has being mentioned before but some weird things in the 1941 QB lists. German mountain and airborne available throughout the year - names not dimmed. You can however only buy support troops, tanks not infantry up until May when they both appear. German Mountain infantry but not support etc, disappears again until the end of the year. Not up that well on DAK to know when they should be available but think Rommel made his first attacks in December 1941, which would mean infantry and mech troops available from that date? Another point which I have not specifically asked for in the past - is proper icon for Italian tank Mgs not .30 Browning and a Springfield icon for US squads although listed uses Garand. US Sniper option of Garand or Springfield would be nice as well.

As I have caught Michael in a good mood - thought I would bend his ear and give some thoughts to him on features for CM2 ! I have never really missed this feature - suppose it would be useful for campaigns but even then - the second game should give enough time for the troops to recover their "morale.” However, I am a bit worried, I remember playing a miniatures system, which had a test on units lower down the command structure automatically imposed if you had a unit higher up the command scale morale break. You could get a whole army to break if the force commander was routed. Sometimes you could do this on turn 1 if you had your artillery land on him - a lot of players fielded almost all artillery armies. The Russians with a tank troop of 3 against the German 5 had inherently worse morale - 1 tank gone is 33% loss plus you had to pay for more leaders proportionally. (The CM lists stop this tactic!) However, I do want to see Squadron Tank structures modelled and a better command structure simulating the real thing. It might be useful to have the option to include routing and broken troops available to scenario designers. In "My Road to Minsk" operation I wanted to start with the large preparatory artillery strike to Bagration but realised all the artillery would then be available for all future games. Got round this by cutting the rounds available short and starting the game at the point in the battle when the barrage is almost over. (It might be nice to have brewed up vehicles available to scenario designers as well for scenic effect. You could do a fight inthe desert for the recovery of Yestedays tank losses!) To simulate this I edited in casualties from the barrage and as bad as morale as the game allows - you can’t have routed units and without some artillery landing on them must troops would be back to normal by the second turn. (The effect of this will be to lower global moral to some extent – far as I’m aware the only way you can do this on purpose.) Another possible new feature for CM2 would be reinforcements or troops in CM2 that are only available for a limited time - sort of reverse reinforcements - so I could have the big guns available in game 1 but take them backing for the following games to simulate the rapid advance leaving them behind. Sorry Michael [ February 01, 2004, 09:45 AM: Message edited by: Mark Gallear ]

Not actually tried to use a large scale map - think that will only give you a general impression of the terrain. I find that with a sketch map, it can help if you put a grid over it - you may have to photocopy it first! This will help a lot when you copy the map as it easy to do a small square. I also find it helps to copy the road and river networks first. If you get these it then they act as a guide for placing everthing else.

If you don't know Michael how would I!!! I don't think its actually possible to make a unit broken just shaky - so even if you made everthing on one side shaky they would rapidly recover - unless you dumped large amounts of artillery on them from turn 1! :eek:

Looks good :cool: .

Why don't you add it to the official patch requests thread the £d shape is in the game or they could import it from CMBB - so there is some hope.

Not checked so I could be wrong. I think that the German captured 76mm guns are from the Russian Front. Not sure what captured guns you are referring to on the allied side - far as I aware they didn't use any of the Russian guns which must have fallen into their hands.

Romulus - you can but only try - anyway you won't know until the patch comes out what the powers at be have picked up on! (what does the latin mean in your signature .)

Romulus - do you know anything about the Italian Airforce as the lists show all the Italian plane types appearing at the start of the war and go all the way through the Italian lists. I know that the Italian Bi-planes were used first then joined by the first monplanes which then replaced them. Any ideas on the exact dates - this is something BFC should be able to fix. Mark

That is of course true but Romulus in his post said that the Ariete Division had been supplied with German 88s and manned by Italian crews. I had wondered if the Italians only used them as AA guns. This passage seems to suggest that they should be in the Italian lists. Still not sure how common an event it was for them to be used as AT guns. However, the passage does give the impression that the Germans supplied them with the idea of them primarily being used in the AT role :eek: . The quoted battle was in Feb/March 1942. [ January 29, 2004, 05:21 PM: Message edited by: Mark Gallear ]

In answer to my own question on the assertion by Romulus that Italians had 88mm and the implication that they were used as AT guns. The Crucible of War volume II Barrie Pitt "Ariete had been attacked first from the west by Matildas of 1st Army Tank brigade and suffered some losses in M13s, and then by Crusaders of .... - but these they fought off with the 88mms which Rommel had given them with instructions to form an anti-tank screen, and which they handled very adeptly"

On the Morale? Question. In the troop buying screen - click on a unit and you can alter its status - you have choices - make it Conscript to Elite, make it Fanatic or not, have its Morale lowered, and you can also make it Weak (ill) etc, which effects how far the unit can run before becoming tired. On the second question, don't think you can do this? If you can, I would like to put some blown tanks on the map at the start of an op. But never seen it done - so I'm sure you can’t On the reinforcements - they are basically positioned with the flag - although they can be pushed forward if troops already occupy that area, when the reinforcements arrive. (It is bad gamedesign to stick somebody’s reinforcements in a place where they could only have mater-materialized Startreck style into the game or straight into the opponents guns. Had rather a lot of that recently and not by newby designers :mad: !.) I'm sure Flamingknives will be along in a bit to explain more thoroughly and with better "composition" and style than little old me . [ January 28, 2004, 07:51 PM: Message edited by: Mark Gallear ]

Sorry about that - I put a space in the name Geocities - will not upload names with spaces ! It is fixed now. As i was invited it is also up on the Proving Ground and I am looking for feedback on it :cool: . As I was in a rush - didn't make it clear that it is still a test version :eek: !

Yes, something has gone horribly wrong. I will put it up again and test it without using DAP. How do I contact the Proving Grounds.

But FlamingKnives can you get Mr Forty's theoretical 8 man squads in the White Scout Car ? I did quote from an actual Squadron organization in Italy for an Armoured Division Recce Regiment. Although Forty's appears to be from "Only the Enemy in Front" and is for Tunisian campaign. LRCs date from Mid - Late desert war. Infantry are in light trucks. (So for once Mr Forty is not all that theoretical!) I'm just splitting hairs does not matter in CM if you call in the Assault troop or the Support Troop. Didn’t know that CMAK did any squadron organizations let alone an Infantry Division Recce Regiment ! (Edited addition) The point is you are going to have a hard time recreating this formation in CM. The Humber LRC appears at the wrong date and is just the Damiler Scout 3d model - it looks much more like the Marmon-Harington AC. As does the Morris LRC which is totally missing. The small 15cwt truck is also missing from the game, it has a different capacity from the standard 'CM truck' and was used in Jeep type roles before this vehicle appeared. (Edited for Additional point) If the Assault troops in the listings are supposed to be the troops supporting these Recce Squadrons - they had 2inch mortars, PIATs/Boys AT rifle much in the same way as a carier infantry section would have been equipped. The current representation is more like an ad hoc patol. Another good reason to do a dismounted representation. They should also be bought with the light trucks or for later Armoured Recce sections the white scout car. Edited to add more Information: Logistics of a Recce Regiment http://www.britishsoldier.com/logistic.htm Excellent site with organization and vehicles. Site with pictures of a number of British AC and LRCs http://www.geocities.com/britsatwar/armoured_vehicles.html Site suggests 51st Highlands did not use the Humber LRC in Tunisia http://apma.org.au/thinktank/thinktank0077.txt Wwiivehicles gives a date of Nov 1942 for Humber LRC III in the desert. I would have thought earlier versions were used in the Desert before then? http://www.wwiivehicles.com/html/britain/asl_wheeled_vehicles.html On the Morris LRC, dates on production on the sources I found vary from 2200 in late 1940s to 1000 Mk I vehicles were built in two batches from early 1942 to mid 1943 and a further 1050 improved Mk II with four wheel drive superseded it from late 1943 onwards. It may have been limited to use by the Royal Engineers and RAF for airfield defence. http://www.geocities.com/britsatwar/morris_recce_car 3 man crew, top speed of 80kmph, 14mm of armour and was armed with a Bren and Boys AT Rifle. Model site with some details http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/britain/morris/pbmorris.htm (Edited Addition for JohnS) It is a single Squadron from an Armoured Division Recce Regiment - which is supposed to have three. (Flamingknives is again a Squadron from an Infantry Division Recce Regimnent) It is a listing for the 46th Reconnaissance Regiment in October 1944, it is diffrent from its War Establishment as C Squadron was missing its "assault troop". Each scout troop was missing a carrier section. Source Featherstone. Sorry to butt into your private club and go off on a tangent but at least I listed the called for link You never got off your mountain to explain your cryptic comment on Wasps to a mere mortal like me. [ January 28, 2004, 11:32 AM: Message edited by: Mark Gallear ]

In Italy - a typical Recce Squadron would be: Troops 1-3 Reconnaissance troops Each 3X Daimler Scout Car Troops 4-6 Armoured Car Troops Each 3 X Staghounds Troop 7 Support Troop one Scout cat - troop leader 4 X White Scout cars - "assault" personnel Troop 8 Heavy troop one Scout car - troop leader 2 X half-tacked Whites with 75mm guns Squadron HQ 4 x Staghounds 2 x Scout Cars Modern British Army TO&Es still refer to it as the Support Troop. Sorry JohnS I couldn't resist! PS You never finished explaining your cryptic Wasp comment. This link has the Salt info for download. http://www.britwar.co.uk/index.php?module=phatfile&FILE_MAN_OP=Main&MMN_position=4:4 [ January 27, 2004, 02:53 PM: Message edited by: Mark Gallear ]

I don't believe I'm the first one to congratulate MikeyD on his new excellent mod .