blazethedog

Same here when assaulting. I actually managed to leapfrog 3 teams from one crater to the next over a period of 15 turns, only moving them a short distance each time and being sure they were covered well. Finally made it into the woods with them in a QB at turn 32 of 40, right near the objective, and the AI called a ceasefire due to low morale. They work a heck of a lot better on defence but are practically worthless on offence.

I haven't had too much luck with MC's taking out tanks but I love to use them on open topped vehicles. Russians took out a HT and SP in a quick battle I played yesterday that was a real blood bath. Personnally, the AI is good but doesn't seem to realize how vulnerable these lightly armored vehicles are. They were both taken out in a large town after they drove right up to the firing line that had developed. It was getting late in the battle and I had about 4 units with real low ammo and figured, what the heck, let's see what they can do. Sent them charging about under cover fire and the next thing you know there is glass breaking all over the place and the SP blew sky high. Those Marders are nothing but bait when the germans are on the offense. HEHE!

I agree that this seems to be generally true, but 2 days ago I had a tiger get taken out and they were bailing for 2 whole turns after they took the fatal hit. I was a little surprised when the AT guns kept plinking away at monster, so perhaps AT guns might work differently than tanks/sp in this instance.

That or they caught him sitting on the john less the newspaper! Hey, What happened, last thing I remember I was in the outhouse and now "puff" I floating next to a halftrack that is about to get smoked. "Oh Sh#t".

LT, Have seen this many times myself. Played a QB last night with 30+ turns and 2000pts. I lost one guy due to the fact that I pasted the commies with artillery while they were crossing a field and then launched a counter-attack(in the open) with Stugs, a MKIV, and supporting infantry. Not one of those B@stards would surrender. I finally asked by turn 27 if they wanted a cease fire. They immediately accepted. The numbers were something like 150 killed, 500 casualties, and 250 okay. Of the 20 or so units remaining, only 3 were in fighting shape and the rest were close to half strength, broken, exhausted, and or suffer panic. Global morale was 19 for them. I am wondering why they didn't initiate an auto-ceasefire?

Hmmm, I'll take your word on the low ammo issue. I was kinda hoping to see some hand to hand combat. Last night I had 2 german squads with low ammo enter a small house in some city fighting and low and behold there is a russian squad already there. My guys were still almost full strength and the AI's squad was down to 1 man. They must have be less than 3 meters apart. I watched for 2 turns as the germans chucked the few remain grenades and the little commie before he finally died. With odds of 17-1, I think they could have just gone over there and given him a real spanking and sent him home to mommy!

Obviously this guy is a huge fan of Doom, doesn't understand wargaming(back to the box games here), or has no clue what-so-ever. Let's see, he wants a bunch of crappy into flash movies(no value), music(no value as I can't hear the battle sounds), and he complains about the animated figures. This clown is what is wrong with gaming and has destroyed it in the past couple of years. Has anyone noticed how few good games have come out lately? They are now all either shoot-em-ups or RTS(click crazy). I use to buy a game a month, now it is maybe 2 a year. Nothing like spending $50 for the same old crap with eye candy, but hey, this is what this guy and others apparently want. He really should have let a real gamer provide the review!

And Finally, for my 2 cents! Yes the Stugs are fairly cheap, but if you QB a lot you will soon find out that the Ground Pressure these units exert is not insignificant and they tend to bog down and become immobilized on anything but a road. Yes there are units that have a higher GP but at least the MK III/IV's have a turret. Stugs can be cheap, but they can also make themselves bait pretty fast. And, for those that haven't tried it, when a tank gets bogged. Stop it, put it in reverse at a 45 degree angle, and then head straight out(so the tank is either 45 degrees left/right of your original heading). Check the lie of the land. It tends to work better if on a slope you back up the slope and then drive down it. Has worked about 80% of the time for me!

Talenn, My experience so far shows they target based on exposure more than anything. I do agree with you though as the exposure percentage seem to be horribly out of whack. In my battle today, I had an airborne russian platoon enter rubble that was a light building before it was destroyed. I had a platoon of pioneers right there and had to independently target them to the threat right next to them. Why, for some reason the exposure was shown at 17%. Come on now, they were in what use to be a small wood frame house. Did manage to wipe them out but you really have to pay attention to each infantry platoon or they could get themselves waxed PDQ. Oddly enough, I watched the action very closely and never heard the hand to hand and screams someone else mentioned. These guys were only 1m apart!

I agree with you. I have played about 10 QBs and very seldom have seen a tank get brewed up. Did have it happen today though. Had one of those miniture 88 guns that only fires HC rounds(not one of the normal 88's that we usually think of). Man, is that gun great on defense. You can hide it anywhere as it is so small. Took out a T26 head on after taking out 2 T34's with rear shots. The 1st 34 took a turret hit and then a rear shot and immediately lit right up. What was bizarre though is the crew actually was able to get out with anyone being hurt. I went back and checked them out after the battle and not a man hurt. That is perhaps only the 2nd or 3rd time I have lit a tank up though. Have you noticed how many turret hits are occuring though. I hate getting MKIVs in a battle now because I know they will only last minutes in a battle. My lone MKIV in this recent QB was taken out by T34/76's at over 1500m. Come on now, that was literally shooting from one end of the board to the other. The MKIV did manage to take a 34 out too but that might be expected with the higher velocity gun and better optics. Sorry to digress, it appears to me that to brew up a tank you pretty much need to get a good rear shot. Does anyone have a different experience, particularly with an M4, which should light up if someone tosses a cigerette too close to it?

I hit a M17 at about 100m or so and with the sturmtiger and blew the thing down to the chassis. Yesterday I was screwing around in a little scenerio and hit a BT64 with a StugIIIg at about 100m. Actually hit 4 BT64's, but the most impressive hit caused one of them to immediately brew up. You could replay the scene and zoom in and actually hear these guys screaming and see them flail around. Had the same thing happen with hitting one of these puppies with a flamethrower. Now those are good effects. It does lead me to wonder though, why in the game, when I have hit a tank and it has caught fire(this doesn't seem to happen very often) why don't you occasionally see and hear the ammo inside of it cooking off. Has anyone out there seen this(ala Desert Storm footage) or is this not coded in?

Herr Oberst. Have to agree with you. I really like picking my own equipment as I think the AI tends to select way too much infantry(probably realistic) but I prefer using a much smaller, well armed force. Crunch time comes though when you let the AI pick both sides. It can be very frustrating but also a lot of fun. Just finished a QB(Aug43') were I had 2 companies of Luftwaffe troops(green), a couple independent units, 1 75mm AT, 2 50mm AT, 1 37mm AT and a Pioneer Company(green). I got the living mess kicked out of me when the Reds rolled up with 1 Company of infantry, 4 BT64 cars, 1 KV1, and 13 T34's. Man, you would never expect that mix, but who knows, maybe they had broken through the front lines and caught the Hermann's worthless troops with their pants down. My point is that you just never know what you are going to face so this forces you to learn the units and try to make due with what you have. In this instance, I should have ceded 2 of the 5 large flags right from the get go. I pulled a draw out, but only because the AI was dumb enough to accept it. The results were, 75mm AT taken out round 5 after KOing 2 T34's at a range of about 150m. Concrete pillbox with MG KOed round 7 after taking about 10 76mm hits at 75m. 1 50mm AT Koed itself when attemting to fire at T34 with initial round, remaining 50mm AT was intercepted as it attempted to reposition itself and only got one round off. 37mm AT Koed after firing at front hull of T34(worthless I know) in round 10. Final tally was the Pioneers were routed or surrendered, all guns were gone but amazingly, I destroyed all but the KV and 5 T34's. I knew the moment I saw the forces I was going to lose but figured, "What the heck, let's see what the boys can do!". Could it have been different? You bet, the AI constantly picks green troops. If my guys had not broke so soon, I might have held my own and then some. Just a quick question, what does the "computer experience +1,+2,+3 do? Best to all.

Dang Tom, you are not only smart, but right too(I think) I work with the Dod folks and someone explained it too me very close to what you said. Now, tell me were caliber falls in here for the US folks?

So far, I really like using my artillery more on an as needed basis. From the german point of view, you can pretty much figure that if you see 2 or 3 russian coming your way, there will be many more behind them. The solution has been to target slightly ahead of the lead unit. Sure, he may well get pass that point and continue on but more than likely, he has a lot of buddies coming right behind him. If you play QB, spend some pts getting 2 or 3 105mm observers. Place them on the highest ground you can find where they can observe much of the battle field. When you spot the infantry coming, only target one battery initially(the first turn) and perhaps by the end of the second turn, more infantry will appear. Go ahead and target the remaining 2 batteries and get ready for the fun. The infantry will hop all over the place when the first rounds land, but when all 3 batteries come into play, there will be no one left to hop around. So far it has worked well for me! Anything smaller than a 105mm is a waste of time though and only really acts to irate and delay the enemy.

Had the same type of event occur in a 3000pt QB. Had 5 MKIV G's sitting on a rise providing overlooking capability for the start and decided to put a couple of independent MG42 units on board as riders. You guessed it. The barrage wiped out 3 of the 4 units and routed the lone remaining unit, caused on MKIV to panic(they abandoned next turn), immobilized a MKIV, and turned one unit "shaken". Talk about p#ssed off. I guess it was my fault for doing this in the open but god, those MKIVs as they are modeled tend to be nothing but a problem. Typically if you get in an exchange they almost always go immobile for me and now I just lost one to artillery. Hmmm!!!!