Sargon70

I think it's a little misleading to attribute the allied tank losses to the quality of German armour. At least, Anthony Beeovor in "D-Day: The Battle for Normandy" states somewehre that the overwhelming majority of allied tank losses was not due to German tanks but to 88mm Flak guns that became a major problem especially for the British near Caen. Best regards, Sargon70

I think when we look at the strengths and weaknesses of armies we should always remember that an army is not created out of thin air, usually it mirrors the society that created it. So, sometimes it helps to look at other parts of society - the business world, for example. The success of the German industry was largely based not on it's managers but on it's workforce, especially foremen, master craftsmen and engineers. The same was true for the army: it was the NCOs that formed the backbone of the force, they trained the draftees and so their quality determined the quality of the army. Even the best CO won't achieve anything without good NCOs and the large number of well trained NCOs was the Wehrmachts biggest advantage over most of it's early war enemies. Sargon70

Joined the German Bundeswehr as a draftee in June 1989 for 15 months: first basic training at FMAusbKp 1/4 in Regensburg, the remaining time in 3. RakArtBtl 250 in Engstingen as a radio operator (VHF-Schreibfunktrupp). As a member of the reserve, I attended a sergeants course (Unteroffizierslehrgang) in 1992, the course for staff sergeants (Feldwebellehrgang) in 2002. Until 2006 I served in various reserve units, the last few years in the Heimatschutzbataillon 851 (HSchBtl 851), which was disbanded in 2006. The homepage of the remaining fellows is www.hschbtl851.de (in German). Since the end of 2006 my military home is the Ersatzbataillon 874 (ErsBtl 874). Sergeant First Class (Oberfeldwebel) since 2007. Awards: Ehrenmedaille der Bundeswehr Ehrenkreuz der Bundeswehr in Silber Sargon70

Somehow I get the feeling that the "I" for "improvised" in IED is a huge understatement... Sargon70

Please change: - Borg Spotting (!!!) "nice to have": - a campaign game mode that allows me to lead my troups through several battles over several months where the outcome of one battle influences the available troups and their condition in the next Please don't change: - PBEM-capability. IMHO the feature I love most at CM - next to the realistic approach. Oh, and I would like to run CM2 on an AMD Athlon 2000 MHz System with Radeon Mobility 9000 graphics. But that's just a personal preference... Sargon70

Smoke, for example...

In my CM-experience, suppression is the most important thing to do if you want to be successful in urban terrain. Use HMGs, tanks, flame-throwers and 80-90% of your infantry to suppress enemy positions and storm a house only with one or two SMG-heavy squads. That should reduce your casualty rate. Still, your casualties will be higher than in most other environments - which is quite realistic, as Stalingrad, Berlin and Grosny demonstrate. In a city even a superior attacker will have a hard time against a determined defender.

It seems that German tanks required a lot more maintenance than their allied counterparts. On the other hand, a retreating army will always lose more tanks due to mechanical breakdowns than an advancing one. If you're retreating, there are many instances in which you can't wait for a mechanic because the enemy will find you first. In this case you have do destroy the vehicle or leave it intact to the enemy. If you're in an advancing army, you can afford to wait for the mechanics as the frontline is not coming to you. In addition to that and as already mentioned, allied air superiority made it much more difficult for the Germans to recover their vehicles than for the allies.

105mm is nice. 150mm might be even better... (QB German Defender against AI with +200% troops)

That depends on the plane - and luck. In my first CMBB PBEM game my enemy had chosen a FW-190 fighter-bomber. The first attack killed a tank commander of a IS-2, but the blast of the bombs killed two dozen infantrists some 70m away, too. The next attack killed one of my AA-assets, an M-17 halftrack. Then that pesky plane killed an M-5 halftrack an immobilized a BA-64 scout vehicle. The M-17 - when it was still usable, of course - and two 25mm-AA-guns fired at the plane all the time, but without any effect. Sargon

The author appreciates the depth of the game but criticizes it for being hard to learn he misses some flashy films and briefings before and after the missions. In addition to that he points out that the graphics of the game are not up to date and the sound is not his taste, either. According to his judgement CMBB is a game for hardcore wargamers and not the casual gamer. He may be right with that. Really puzzling to me is his last sentence in which he states that a test of CMBB's multiplayer capabilities was not possible with his version of the game.

I had a similar problem and solved it by putting CMBB in my CD-Rom and CMBO in my CD-RW Sargon [ September 22, 2002, 10:22 AM: Message edited by: Sargon70 ]

From the communist point of view, the real conflict is not between nations, but between workers and capitalists or communism and capitalism. According to communist doctrine, fascism is only a very radical form of capitalism, in which the capitalists' grip on power is not camouflaged by democratic institutions. Other means of controlling the masses have failed, so the capitalists have to use brutal force as a last resort. Franco, Mussolini, Hitler: For a soviet communist in the 1930s they were all agents of capitalism who had been given the order to contain socialist movements and the Soviet Union. This point of view, while overlooking some important details and IMHO not correct, explains two things: First, it answers your question why the invaders were often called fascists instead of Germans. Second, it tells us something about the reasoning behind Soviet foreign policy of that time: Stalin thought that Hitler was the tool of other capitalist nations to overthrow communist rule in the Soviet Union. He knew that war with Hitler would be inevitable, but this war would only be one part of the larger conflict between the Soviet Union and a capitalist world. Remember that during the russian civil war many countries had send troops to Russia, including France, Great Britain and even the US. For Stalin, they were all the same with Hitler only being the most brutal of them. So Stalin wanted to weaken the capitalist world by helping Hitler with strategic resources while buying time to prepare for the war against Germany. That way he tried to turn around his nightmare that the western allies were using Hitler to weaken the Soviet Union. So much for the term "fascism" according to paranoid stalinist thinking. What fascism really means is a different question because "fascist" is also used by many as an invective for their political enemies - which makes it hard to analyze it in a scientific, non-emotional way. The only thing I know for sure is that I prefer to live in a democracy...

I have just visited CDV's site and they sell CMBO for EUR 19,99 (REALLY!!!) and the price for CMBB will be EUR 45,99 Sargon

This afternoon I put it up for testing purposes. If you would like some changes to be made, please let me know. The site is in German, btw, and the URL is www.ag-combat-group.de.vu Sargon [ September 08, 2002, 01:53 PM: Message edited by: Sargon70 ]