Nippy

Had to be watching a Finnish Tank hunter team and a T-34 M40 play a game of chicken. I had ordered the tank hunters to attack the T-34 as they were only about 50m away. Meawhile the T-34 was taking fire from multipul 37mm Bofer AT guns. The Finns charged at the T-34 the exact same moment the Soviet tankers routed and tired to get the hell out of dodge. The two charged blindly and straight at each other until they were about 15m away. At that moment a lucky 37mm round blew one of the tracks off of the T-34. Moments latter the Finns let fly with the molotovs and brewed the T-34 reall good. ...but wathing the Finns and the T-34 play a game of chicken and have the tank lose was priceless. I guess all those Uber-Finn toothpick stores were true after all.

And the accuracy with anything less than a crack crew.

The Sherman was a better tank than the T-34 in most aspects, including gun and armor, except for off-road mobility. Sherman doesn't have canister rounds Not to mention the nice low profile and sloped armor as opposed to tghe Shermans Slab side armor and Empire State Building like height. At least the Russians finally got it right with the T-34 85mm model. Putting that tank in a hull down posotion gave it an advantage over the enemy, unlike the earlyer models with their tissue paper turrets. Then there's the T-26...lets not go there.

The problem with the early war T-34 is that the turret armor...to put it lightly...sucks. German 50mm L/47 rounds bounce off the front hull every time, but if it hits the turrent the T-34 is dead meat. Which means that going hull down is just about pointless. Try fighting a meeting engagment against T-34s with 37mm equiped PzIIIs and PzII in mud or deep snow. Then you'll see why it gave the Germans such a head ache.

Have you already played the Brückenkopf (Bridgehead?) scenario? You mean "The Bridgeheads"? If so I have two words for you: "Human Wave"

CM:BO + more countries Yep, there were Americans with Sherman tanks, Brits with Sherman tanks, Free French with Sherman tanks, Free Polish with Sherman tanks, Canadian troops with Sherman tanks... - just too few countries, there is only one Allied country included. CM:BO - just too few countries, there is only one Axis country included. Oh, and Heavy Machineguns no longer cause enemy infantry to fall over laughing.

I just hit a single section of barbed wire with 10,000+ points worth of Soviet heavy Arty (300mm Rockets and 280mm Howtizers). It didn't do a darn thing... Note: I sure looked cool though

I thought the Germans used them alot for Anti-Partisan Operations. Say, that would make a niffy Senario. Partisans blow up a section of rail and attack the stalled train.

You should see the VAP-250 from IL2 Sturmovik. Nothing says "Fun" like dropping 50+ Ampulamet like projectiles out of the back of the plane onto open top HT's Dropping 90 Chemical ignited Molotovs at once is pretty cool too. Hey BTS, think you could tweek CMBB's IL2 loadout a bit?

What was the experence level of the HMG? If it was Green or Conscript...well, lets just say that BTS really needs to model those NKVD "motivational" troops to get routed and paniced units moving again.

-massed ampulomet fire In "Tiger Tiger" I managed to take out a Tiger I with 1 Ampulomet, 2 PTRD rifles, and a 45mm AT gun. Overall though: When Attacking as the Soviets, try to blind the Tiger's with FO smoke missions or direct fire 81mm Mortars. When defending as the Soviets, use satchel charge or flame thrower equiped Pioneers. Update: Just got done trying a few tests. The Only Soviet tank with will kill a Tiger I with any consistance is the SU-152 with AP ammo. Oh, and Satchel charges will blow it straight back to Berlin too

A dramatic war movie without the annoying love story? *cough*enemyatthegatesPearl HarborStalingradThinredline*cough* I'm going to have to check this one out!

Pre-planned Arty missions. I love starting an attack with a huge barrage.

Man, I'm starting to think I'm the only person in the world that saw: "Once Upon a Midnight clear" Oh, and don't forget "The Keep"* and "Zone Troopers" *I read the book and it made me want to give up reading (and living) all together. How on earth did ol' Jurgen get sucked into that crapfest of a movie version?

You should have added then Locusts!!!, for good measure. </font>

I have the same problem with Soviet tanks too. Try fighting Stug's with SU-76s. I tried a test using the Mission Builder. SU-85's and T-34/76s will run away from Stugs, but these very same Stugs would stand and fight against JS-3s and T-44s!

You aren't the only one: I forgot to plan my pre-set Arty Missions After that, 2 of my 3 recon tanks bogged Next, 5 SU-76s lost a medium range fire fight with a Conscript Stug IV Then a Panther showed up...

You're talking about board games, not computer games. Who's done a North Africa tactical computer game lately? </font>

I don't have the info in front of me, and they weren't "Tank Aces" per-see, but what about the famous 2 man PTRD team at Kursk that knocked out 7 tanks?

Because Tree/Air bust artillary was modeled even back in CM:BO...and the effects were horrific to say the least. Oh the joys of dropping 155mm VT (Air burst rounds) on a platoon of German Half-Tracks. So to answer your questions, yes and yes. Air/Tree burst is modeled and it does a great more amount of damage to troops.

I'll second France 1940. They already have the terrain and French/Brit/German voices from CMBO and the Italian Voices plus a good amount of vechical Data for German/French/Brit forces in 1940. Lets not forget the Spanish civil war either. I wouldn't mind a late war WWI game either. You want to talk about crappy tanks with long command delays... "Sargent Gudarian" +2 Moral +1 Pigon Handling Or how about the early and late WWII Soviet/Japanese Border skirmishes. I remember a battle in Steel Panthers that mentioned how Zhukov gained valubale experense in these early fights. Japanese Tankettes, proof positive that Japan has an obcession with smaller and smaller cars.

The crossroads scenario--not much too it, imho. Bound your tanks forward, trying to find hull-down positions and knock out the field guns. The infantry weren't a real threat to. Try it again as the Russians. They you will see what a true challenge is. The battalion attack--heavy and cumbersome. I lost most of one company on the very first turn when some arty shells fell on it. The remainder of the company never moved farther than about 100 meters. My other two companies were able to move forward, take one objective, and dispute the second. Still, this scenario didn't feel that much different than many other wargames when you've got to just keep pushing, pushing, pushing your infantry--regroup--push--until finally one or two shot-up and demoralized squads are fighting it out with the same from the enemy on the objective. This Senario was meant to showcase the new effectiveness of the Tripod mounted Machineguns, because in the original CM:BO they were just abut useless. CM:BB changed all of that. On the other hand, it isn't much fun to watch your forces get mowed down in a open field so I understand your frustration. The real fun is in the QB (Quick battle generator). Nothing says "Fun" like night fighting in a Blizzard with Flamethrowers or creeping your tanks and infantry through a heavy forest.

It's not until you play a truly realistic game that you realise how damn silly other RTS titles can be. The Closest thing I've found to CMBB is the older Steel Panthers and Close Combat series. Even then those games had their faults. Close Combat suffered from the "Slug Fest" problem (as does it's re-incarnation GI Combat) as combat was like that of 17th and 18th century Europe, just get your guys in a big line and blast away. Turn Based Games like Steel Panthers gave the player too many advantages, if you order a Platoon of tank to go down a road, you have to move them one at a time. If the lead tank gets ambushed you are able to save the other three by not moving them. In real life the platoon would of traveled as a group and they all would have been in danger. As for RTS "War Games" don't get me started. The problem with 99% of RTS games out there is that in the end there are only two tactics you will ever need to use: 1. Zerg/Tank/Infantry Rush 2. Take out enemy units 1 by 1 with with long range Artillary/Snipers I've always wanted a RTS game with turn based realisim. I had high hopes that GI Combat would fill the much needed "Realistic RTS" niche'. RTS blended with Grog level realisim? Be still my beating heart! Then I played the (Updated) demo and watched a Pz-IV gets it's tracks blown off by a .30 machine gun, the entire crew killed by small arms fire, and the AI lead the charge with a 57mm AT gun. Ah well, maybe next time. Although "WWII RTS" by the same team that made IL2-Sturmovik looks like it will be a hit. In the end, the CM series is pretty much the best "realistic" war game out there. Impressive in the details, but very simple to learn and play. What more could you ask for*? (*Flashy Graphics and full movie playback not withstanding) [ November 11, 2002, 02:50 AM: Message edited by: Nippy ]

October 30th, 1942 : The first recorded use of heavy sarcasm by the Wehrmacht. The results were devastating. What results? It turned Soviet troops into the Guards from Metal Gear Solid with all the "!" and "?" above their heads? I guess that would make the side effects horrific, as all the German troop's hair turned silver, lamented about he uselessness of war, and were continualy bitched out by their girl friends: "This panzer is cold and empty...just like your heart!" AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

Kind of like a full strenght, fully supplied, and fit German army unit in 1945...