Aaron

I was under the impression that Waffen SS ranks prepended the word "Waffen" in front of the rank names if the rank holder wasn't German. Anyone know if this is true? Aaron

I did a test and had units both move and run across a long open map. I found that the running troops got there only 1 turn earlier (10 turn run) but needed several turns to rest. Meanwhile the moving troops arrived at Ready. So, move is best for long distances. Aaron

This has probably been answered several times before, but does anyone know the percentage chance of shots hitting a tank's track or gun? Is there a chart somewhere that shows the complete shot breakdown such as %15 lower hull, %20 upper hull, etc? I couldn't find it in the Strategy Guide. Aaron

Man, I'm confused. I'm about 1/3 the way through Glantz's When Titans Clash and he's talking about how the Russians were reorganizing their army for an offensive in '42. How does this refute any claims of a pre-emptive soviet invasion? Is this just a question of a late '41 invasion versus an early '42 one? Aaron

Unfortunately, CMBB doesn't model gun traverse. At least it doesn't appear to. I did a test case with 6 T-34 Fast Moving left to right down a paved road perpendicular to a 150 IG at 150 meters. When the IG spotted the tank, it started to travers left towards the tank. However, once it got there, the tank would pass from left to right and the IG would then start traversing to the right. The tanks was out of the field of view before the IG took a shot. The animation of the travers was of the entire carriage traversing, not the gun. The gun -did not- travers within the carriage at all. Note that if the IG has just held it original aim, it could have easily gotten off a shot as the tanks passed by but, instead, all 6 tanks passed by without a single shot being fired. I then sent the tanks back across, this time on the very dry open ground. Here the T-34s were slow enough and the IG was able to take a shot at each of them. It hit slightly more then 50% of the time (the HC with its improved velocity was slightly more accurate.) The simulation as is favors the T-34 in this situation due to the auto-track traversing. Aaron

Just for grins, if the T-34 was moving at its maximum possible top speed (34mph), the tank would have moved 9 meters in the time the shot is fired before impact (about 0.6 seconds). I'm curious have CMBB's Fast Move corresponds to a vehicle's top speed. Maybe its in the Strategy Guide I keep hearing about (that I bought about three months ago). Aaron

Anyone complaining about realism in a Campaign just needs to look at Operations. I can imagine a Lt Col telling his men, "Men, we are going to fight four battles each day for the next three days. After fifteen minutes of fighting, the enemy will cease-fire allowing us to reposition our AT guns in preperation for the next fifteen minute battle. OK, Go." I've said this before and I'll say it again. The -only- thing required for a campaign game is the ability to edit saved game files. If that were possible, there are dozens of programmers out there, myself included, that would love to hack out a variety of different campaigns. Aaron

I, also, would like unencrypted save game files. A campaign game would be a nice third party thing. (Of course, just the non-PBEM save files should be unencrypted) I've spent many hours trying to decode them. Its beyond my capacity. Aaron

What criteria did you use to determine that?

They do need one and they have one. The .50 Ma-Deuce!

MOVE TO CONTACT is probably my most favorite move command. I use it as a infantry hunt. For example, if you have an enemy tank on the other side of a patch of woods, you can move-to-contact your panzershreck up towards him. When playing CMBO (which doesn't have that command), you have to guess where to move to. If you guess wrong, the tank can spot you moving and you'll merrily move along as the tank your trying to kill is shooting at you. Its frustrating as heck. I use move-to-contact for panzershrecks, at rifles, small calibre AT guns, and scouts. Aaron

The M1917 weighed 90 pounds, the M1919 weighed 40. Since by 1944 we (the US) were attacking everywhere, the ability to easily carry and setup the weapon was more important than sustained rate of fire. Does CMBO model weapon setup times? I don't remember. Aaron

Here's exactly what I did ... Load the Meyer's Descision 3 file Click on Units Select Support and add several halftracks. Click OK I went to the MAP editor Click on Preview The newly added halftracks were in the far northwest corner, well behind enemy lines. I moved them all into German setup zones Click GO, and then OK. Finally I saved it as "Meyer's Descision 4" I loaded the game and the 1/2tracks were where I put them. Aaron

One thing you could do is split a normal squad and throw away (agree not to use) the assault half-squad. This will give you, essentially, a four man LMG team. I do a similar thing in my campaign game. Aaron

First off, there are no point limits when using the editor, only a max number of units. There is a field called "Location" in the upper right corner of the screen. What does that say? BTW-Are you using CMBO or CMBB? If you tell me what scenario you are editing, I can give you a step-by-step. Aaron

You can load the .exe file in Wordpad and search for the names. They are about 2/3 of the way through the file. I already did it. Its a huge list (or rather several huge lists). Email me a akkala@cyberramp.net and I'll send you the text file. Aaron

I'm not sure exactly what your problem. However, the best way to check your work is, after you have added the units, to go to the map editor and hit "PREVIEW". This will allow you to setup the new halftracks you added. You need to do this anyway since often the computer will place the new units in bad spots. If they don't show up in the Preview, they won't show up when you play the game. Also, check to make sure that when you added the unit, you didn't add it to a reinforcement. Aaron

I was reading a book (Roll Me Over by Raymond Gantter) and he makes a point that the US troops didn't call the Sherman a "Sherman" but instead refered to it as an "M4". I've only seen this mentioned in this one place. Can anyone confirm or deny this? He also make a point that everyone and his british girlfriend knew what SNAFU meant by the time of the invasion so the infantry guys stopped using it by then. Aaron

It makes me wonder about how the rarity factors are calculated. There were certainly more 150mm howitzers than KV1s. Aaron

Playing -any- game is a waste of time! That's why we do it. As to BCR, I spend more time just setting up my guys at the start of the battle than I do rolling on the BCR table. Especially now that CMBB randomly sorts my guys before battle. Aaron

I agree. However, its possible to roll 50% casualties as early as the last week of October. I guess I'd suggest decreasing the DRM to gradually ramp up the % more slowly. Aaron

This is the gun GIjOE used. I had one when I was a kid. Aaron

I think you misunderstand me. If you have a platoon in woods engaged in a firefight, you opponent will use more ammo if you split them into 6 1/2 squads instead of three full squads. This is esp. true of MGs. I think its a function of the game engines treating gunfire as one group shooting at one other group. The TacAI shifts fire around quite a bit, thus using more "shots" from the ammo pile. Whether this is realistic or not I'm not sure. Aaron

One thing I've learned is that if you split your squads, your opponent will go through his ammo faster. Its very gamey though. Same is true for 50% casualties. Aaron