Shosties

Silvio, If you run your SMG squads on the left from the get go, then it would turn into a pretty bloody melee in the woods, as I never rush my deployment based upon how the AI acts. At least I wouldn't be taking fire from HMGs, HSMG squads, and STUGs at the same time, though. I agree with you on Rifle 45, even Rifle 44 makes it a tad difficult to consider playing non-Airborne Commonwealth and Poles instead of American (Badgers, Wasps, and Fireflies are damn tempting though). Anybody have a sound mod ripped from the beginning of SPR where you get the BAR going and the M1 clips going ping?

Silvio, Your fave approach as the Germans would make an interesting one against my fave approach as the Americans. I have the 5 Shermans go hull down in a very broad arc for shoot-n-scoot crossfire on any STUG that tries to drive up over that hump of land connecting the two patches of woods. I have the spare Loot take the Ma Deuce and the mortars to the center, behind the wheatfield to discourage a grab of the road junction or the big farmhouse in front of the woods. Everybody else moves up the woods on the right in line formation, in anticipation of a pivot based on the scattered trees flag. Company CO sets up there with the M1919s. [ September 18, 2002, 11:36 AM: Message edited by: Shosties4th ]

Thinking of making my first CM scenario (CMBO... despite my .sig my heart is still in the ETO). I won't have the opportunity to seriously work on it immediately but as the germ is loose in my head I figured it would be good to get the preliminaries down and off my chest and see if other people think the outline is interesting or not. Intended first as Allied vs. AI, maybe PBEM if it works well. American cav/armor/armor inf. attack. Late August 1944. Central France. Daylight. General situation (fictional, but I would like it to have a very realistic feel to it): Your parent unit [combat command of xth (?) Armored Division, 3rd U.S. Army] has just had a bridge blown in the face of its spearhead. A hasty attack is being mounted to secure an intact road bridge to the north along this generally north-south flowing river. There's an additional incentive driving us too. A KG staging a troublesome fighting retreat with some armor has this road bridge as it's sole ticket of escape back to Germany. Sieze the bridge and this lot is in the bag. However, there is a problem related to why this particular bridge is still intact in the first place: there is a nest of 88s and light FLAK nearby that have protected it from our bombers and they are sited so as to provide the meagre security force for the bridge with effective fire support. Oh, one more thing: your parent unit is strung out on the roads due to the speed of advance from Brittany, so there's little in the way of arty for you. Plus the FLAK concentration means no flyboys over the area. I envision a large rectangular map with the N-S axis being the long one. The N-S flowing river is close to the East map edge until about halfway up where it bows out to the West at the base of a broad hill rising from the Eastern bank. This hill overlooks a small town divided in two by the river where the road bridge is. This hill harbors the FLAK position. The E-W road has a split junction with a N-S road which the Americans will be driving up on the West side. The terrain on the West side of the river is relatively flat farmland with scattered farmhouses and copses of trees (no bocage). There is a suprise element to the scenario which I'll leave out for the moment, but it shouldn't be too hard to guess what it might be (hmmm, he mentioned a KG with some armor on our side of the river didn't he?). Suggestions, comments? Oh, any links to resources for the beginning scenario designer would be appreciated.

[Ack. Double Post. :-( Sorry.] [ September 18, 2002, 08:29 AM: Message edited by: Shosties4th ]

Flesh, Who's interface mod for CMBO is that in your first screenie? Looks really sharp!

Actually one fairly intelligent article posted on the Combat Mission HQ makes the case that within the proper scope of CM, the scenario briefing should incorporate enough information based upon true scout work done before the battle that you should be able to develop a relatively detailed plan from the beginning. Also, you shouldn't have to spend time with scouting proper as opposed to "recon by force" or screening in front of your axes of advance. How many scenario designers give you a good feel about what you're headed into as the attacker? (Of course, this doesn't always have to be totally correct information! ) I'm pretty firmly convinced now that scouting with sharpshooters well in advance of a column is pretty gamey as the last thing these guys would want to carry with them would be a man pack radio of that day! (Even in Vietnam, the antennas were referred to as "three foot grave markers" :eek: ) One man, alone, in front, with a sniper rifle and a man pack radio. LOL I'd be suprised if that happened very often! Jeeps used in a discreet fashion would be historical IMHO, esp. since .50" MG Jeeps w/ radio were standard in cavalry light sections. When we get ETO with the improved engine I doubt anyone will get much out of rushing them ahead given EFOW and more potent MGs. A dedicated radio- and binocular-equipped infantry unit would be a nice addition to represent dismounted cav scouts. (Guy with radio stays back and doesn't ever walk point, so the abstracted unit can remain relatively stealthy)

Will any unit given a cover arc command ever put area fire down on a sound contact within their arc? Will units given the move to contact order stop when they are within LOS of a sound contact?

As a full-blown Tank Destroyer it is of course almost pathetic. But you should think of it as a scout car that can kick a tank's behind </font>

What's the use, usually a single MG-34 burst preempts the cry and rush anyhow?

1812, Ozzieboy, 1812! Ye gods... Michael</font>

Oh yeah. Also fantastic is about 5:30-6:00 into it and you get a Roman Trimuph just like in C.B. deMille's silent movie extravaganzas. Well, I'm afraid the historical connotations can never be fully erased. No artist can control how their art is appropriated after the act of creation. I didn't mean to insinuate that Bruckner was a proto-Nazi or anything. He may have held some views that were chauvanistic even for his time and place, but of all the great composers he was the most humble and approachable. It would be a treat to have shared lunch or dinner with him in Vienna and given him some well-deserved and unqualified praise (even his supporters nagged him to make changes in his scores to make them more properly "Wagnerian") while wondering at his appetite for traditional Austrain cuisine. The 7th's use as funerary music in the Reich likely centers on the 2nd movement adiago which he began to sketch after recieving a premonition of Wagner's immiment death in Venice. Bruckner idolized Wagner, but did not copy-cat him (hence the attentions from his critical "friends").

1812, Ozzieboy, 1812! Ye gods... Michael</font>

Some fitting classical music to play CMBB by... Russian side: Prokofiev's 5th (2nd movement is fantastic and the finale is Bagration transcribed to music!) and Alexander Nevsky film score Shostakovich's 5th, 7th, 8th, and 10th (no longer quite so hot on his 4th) Khrennikov's 2nd... if only I could find a recording of this... caught the finale on radio once, sternly Stalinist martial stuff German side (avoiding Wagner for a change): Bruckner's 3rd, 7th, and 8th (heh heh heh finale of the 8th, can you say Cecile B. DeMille? The 7th was played on German radio before they announced the surrender at Stalingrad, along with....) Beethoven's 3rd ("Eroica", fittingly Napoleonic to bring up the ghost of the last fella who thought he could both bite and chew off Russia) Orff's Carmina Burana And I'm starting to run out of ideas... I'm not going to recommend Mahler for one big reason, even though his 5th and 6th are close to the right mood.

IIRC the Blue Division, Spanish volunteers who fought as part of the Heer on the Ostfront, were issued the 08/15 works (slang for stardard German issue). I think they had Spanish colors painted on their helmets in place of the familar black, gold, and red shield, but that was about it in terms of any thing that distinguished them in outward appearance. There were a number of scenarios regarding their actions included in the game East Front II by Talonsoft which had background information about them included in the scenario introduction blurb. But back to the original topic, it can't be them in that screenie, as it is the Germans who are fighting them... and really putting them through the meat grinder too! :eek: Could they be the "Black Death"?

Some good excerpts regarding the Lend Lease M4: ... ...

Me I guess. Dimitri Loza remembers. The top level URL is easy to remember: iremember.ru There are several other Red Army tankers interviewed whose transcripts can be read on the site.

Thanks for that link Spook, I've read that article before, but sometimes you need to do so more than once for some points to sink in. Something you'd never hear uttered in the U.S. Army. Hey, I think I know this guy! Is he in the history department at Ohio State right now? [EDIT: Nope, he isn't I think, I ran a search under the name Kussey and got no hits here.] [ September 12, 2002, 02:47 PM: Message edited by: Shosties4th ]

Re: "Operational Art"... particulary to Grisha for his common prosthelitising on this issue ( keep it up, it's interesting). If the Germans didn't have it, how do you explain the smoothness with which they carried off Weserubung, esp. since it was a "rush job"? My impression is that the Generalstab had a pretty clear picture of how the campaign in Russia was going to develop, but Hitler simply could not keep from ordering complete changes in strategic priorities whenever it suited his whim. How do you practice "operational art" in such an environment even if you have the all the other tools at hand? [ September 12, 2002, 11:05 AM: Message edited by: Shosties4th ]

Silvio, The Wasp, Badger, and the two Crocs outrange the 251/16 by a good margin, and are much better protected. BTW, the Badger is a converted RAM (Canadian medium tank much like the M4, only used in battle in converted forms as Badger, Kangaroo, and Command/Observation tanks). The interesting features of the 251/16 don't make it into the game because of modeling limitations. It had two flame projectors and a "fire hose" that could be wielded by a dismounted crew member while the HT remained out of sight of the target.

Silvio, The Wasp, Badger, and the two Crocs outrange the 251/16 by a good margin, and are much better protected. BTW, the Badger is a converted RAM (Canadian medium tank much like the M4, only used in battle in converted forms as Badger, Kangaroo, and Command/Observation tanks). The interesting features of the 251/16 don't make it into the game because of modeling limitations. It had two flame projectors and a "fire hose" that could be wielded by a dismounted crew member while the HT remained out of sight of the target.

See sig. The english translation is Independent Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment. 21 ISU-122s and/or ISU-152s. Normally they were employed with enough medium (T-34/85)and heavy tanks (IS-2) on the offensive that they could concentrate on providing fire-support for the infantry. Thus, the -152 was generally preferred to the -122 even though the -122 had superior armor penetration. But yes, they could be extremely effective tank destroyers in a pinch. The higher ammo loadout on the -122 would recommend it for CMBB battles though, I would think.

Just when did the 76mm armed Lend Lease M4A2s starting making it to the front?

Based upon how those M40s handle in Yelnia Stare, would you want to take them in an attack or ME against Mk. IIIs and IVs?

I finally got a total victory as Sovs in Citadel. My setup was pretty similar to Mikes, though I arrived at it independantly. 3 ATGs in extreme right front woods. Vets and Regs. Pointing backwards! 3 ATGs in extreme left front woods. Vets and Regs. Pointing backwards! 4 ATGs in the objective woods in front of the old river bed. Greens. Pointing to the right. 4 Maxims intersperced among them. 2 ATGS on the "mesa" overlooking the riverbed. Pointing forwards. 2 Maxims intersperced among them. 3 ATRs at the secondary crossroads. 5 ATRs at the primary crossroads. All 4 THTs in the big woods behind the ATGs. The Major in the woods with C&C to all the guns, teams, and all but one Maxim. Finally, the KVs are perched just below the military crest of the spur of high ground projecting into the river bed behind those woods. The forward deployed ATGs accounted for 1 PzIII and 1 PzIV knocked out (the HQ, YES!), 2 PzIIIs and 2 PzIVs abandoned. All these ATGs got knocked out. One vet on the left was redeployed to get a shot across the map before it was knocked out. The ATG crews took out one of the panzer crews, but didn't collect more due to MG fire from a PzIII that was immobilized up the map later on. This forward ambush was critical. The Germans left wing was stalled in the engagement, while the center-right moved on into the real kill zone. 3 PzIIIs (1 brewed) and 1 PzIV were knocked out between the woods ATGs, the "mesa" ATGs, and the KVs playing shoot-and-scoot. No losses. Everybody went back to hiding for the next group. This one was tougher, coming down the right-side. They took out the two "mesa" ATGs and two woods ATGs. But I brought the KVs around behind them via the riverbed while intermittantly firing and hiding the remaining ATGs. Turning back and forth to engage the ATGs, then the KVs, gave flank and rear opportunites. Each KV took out a one PzIII. The Maxims did good buttoning up duty the whole time. I never felt confident enough to send my tank hunters out into the fray. But in the end, it wasn't needed nor did any of the ATRs fire a shot. Auto surrender on turn 40-something, with one immobile PzIII left crewed. 84-16 Total Victory Whopping 45 black-clad POWs. 16 Sov casualties with 4 KIA and only 2 ATGs left.

[Oops. Double post.] [ September 09, 2002, 04:15 PM: Message edited by: Shosties4th ]