Nippy

Sorta like your sneaking squad falling into a latrine. "Hey, this isn't a trench!" eeewwwwww.....

So I zoom into the spot to check again and here was the trick...a KO'd hulk which you can "see" no matter what the conditions, got pushed by the oncoming T-34s.. Yes, it's a "bug", but lets be honest here. If T-34s were playing demolition derby with burned out tanks, Germans back in Berlin would be able to hear it. *CRUNCHGRINDPOWBAMSMASH!!!!* "If I didn't now any better, I'd say the Russians were on the move."

Some very helpful info from the folks at Battlefield.ru I'd love to go there someday too. It serves as a good incentive to pay attention in my Russian Class "Atee-Btee Slee Saldat-e..."

* The M17 meat-chopper/anti-aircraft vehicle. It's a remote 4x0.50 You mean "The Fantastic Rout wagon"? Oh yeah! Once you clear out the enemy tanks, sit that baby at the edge of an open area and watch whole German Infantry Companies Rout right off the map. SU-100 also gives the Germans a nasty surprise. Pretty much everything but the King Tiger and JadgPanther get cut down to size real fast. The 12.7mm HMG is pretty nice too. It's much better to use on wide open maps as you can really reach out and "touch" any German infantry it has LOS on. The super cheap 76.2mm Spotters make for some nice prep strikes and good smoke cover. I never had much luck with the Katusha though, they never seem to do much damage and they are too expensave to buy enmass. And don't forget the Uber-Ampolut! (You laugh, but I took out a Tiger I using a Ampolut and 2 PTRD teams. It felt good. Real Good.)

My 2 cents on the subject...

I think this is a just a conequence of the game that we have to live with. Both sides can do it, so I live with it. It doesn't bother me. In CMBB set the Fog of War to "Extreme". Sending single units to recon usually results in their destrustion by a still unseen enemy. Being fired on no longer results in an instant ID, especally with lower quality troops.

The Abrams may be the best American tank (I wouldn't say it is the most beautiful of all the American designs) and the Merkava is an Israeli tank. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tongue was firmly in cheek there about who funds whom. Eh, why doesn't Israel just wait for various Middle Eastern Nations to "give" them some more of those free tanks like in 1967 and 1973? "Mint condition T-55 and T-64 MBTs. Never used, only abandoned once." If things ever calm down over there, I'd love to visit the Armored exibit at Latrun(sp?) some day. Then again I'd love to stop at Kubinka, Aberdeen, and Bovington too. *Sigh* [ November 06, 2002, 09:19 AM: Message edited by: Nippy ]

"Chew on this pineapple, Fritz!" "Na suka, na!" I'll take T-34's and JS-2s over Shermans and Churchills any day.

It seems that the Germans went for a different approach in this matter. I have seen PzIIIs with underground waypoints in one of my games. Oh my God! The Germans have reverse engineered the "Zerg Rush"! The Allies are doomed! Is it just me, or is that a water-skiing pose? Fritz don't surf! "If I say this Steppe is safe to surf on! Then it's safe!" "I love the smell of Ampolut in the morning..."

#6) Whatever those guys were saying about unindentified trucks being semi-identified as halftracks, or was it the other way around, or something...? No, the problem was German (Armed) HT's being miss-identified as the Skdf-7 Prime mover. This means that AT rifles and Tanks will not fire at it and the infantry will waste small arms ammo by shooting at it to no effect.

Tiger? Bah! Well...maybe the Tiger II. For all around "Cuteness" you just can't beat the Panther. The Hetzer is like the VW Bug, it's cute because it's small. Of course, the German tanks get the advantage of the Late War como schemes while Soviet tanks are green, green, and green.

Now play as the Russians and see how you fare. Yes, it was made for the "Tiger is too weak" crowd. Ampolut + PTRD + Veteran Tiger = One Dead Tiger I pulled a 69% to 31% Tactical Victory over the AI while Playing as the Soviets. All flags were in my possesion at the end of the battle and I had an exact 1 to 1 loss ratio of tanks with a almost 1 to 1 loss in infantry with the AI taking the larger half of the losses. I think my experence with and the outcome of the battle can be summed up like this: Tiger Crewman: "Mahahah! I am invincable!" All other German infantry and Tanks on the map: "Shut up and call me a medic..." I love the smell of burnt kitty in the morning! [ November 04, 2002, 12:45 PM: Message edited by: Nippy ]

Why haven't you heard? It's the latest Expansion Pack for CMBB:

There is a senario from the Movie "Stalingrad" where the squad defends against an Armored assault on the open and snow covered steppe. It played out just like it did in the movie. Pretty fun overall.

It sure looks fine and dandy, but I'm just afraid that it's going to be another one in the vein of "war strategy games" like Sudden Strike... Sudden Strike, Good Idea but poor exection. Is the realisim of CMBB combinded with interface of RTS games too much to ask for? I hope the up and coming "WWII RTS" by the Makers of IL2 Sturmovik will fill this long empty niche.

This is getting on my nerves. Are my Veteran and Regular Finns just a bunch of pansies? Or am I doing something wrong? If so, WHAT? Tanks have the same problem. I have a Soviet Valentine (57mm equiped) a BA-64, and a whole rifle Platoon directly behind a German 88mm AT Pillbox...and I'll be damned if any of them would fire at it. Each time I would target the Bunker, the Valentine (Which was at this time 20m away and directly behind the bunker) would only fire a single round and then de-target the bunker and just sit there. Each turn I would re-target and get the same "Fire one shot and then give up" action. Then on the 4th turn the Valeintine just ups and starts to pound the bunker into submission by putting 1/2 a dozen rounds through the back door weak point and finally knocking it out. On a side note: when the German crew finally fled the bunker they walked right into a Tank, BA-64, and an entire infantry Platoon. "BLAM-O!" Man was it loud!

P 1000 would be armed with a variety of weapons such as: two 280mm gun (naval gun used in Scharnhorst and Gneisenau warships), single 128mm gun, eight 20mm Flak 38 anti-aircraft guns and two 15mm Mauser MG 151/15 gun. This is your brain on drugs, Counter-Stike, or both. Any questions?

See, humans cheat, and I can prove it. "Come on, let me, the all knowing and loving AI, pick your forces for you. You don't want to do all that hard work yourself. I swear I won't pit Human controled Armored Cars against Elite AI controled Tigers on a flat Steppe map." Hey Charlie Brown, come and kick the football...

Good luck getting it over bridges and climbing over ridges w/o breaking the suspension. From what I understand, there were very few bridges in Europe at the time that would hold the weight of the thing. 128mm Main gun with a 75mm "Coax"? Who the heck designed the Maus anyway? Tim "The Tool Man" Tayler? "What this Panzer needs is moer power! Agh Agh Agh!"

In the quest for the ever elusive and sometimes denounced “Game play balance”, here is a basic system I have begun using to generate challenging, somewhat realistic, yet still enjoyable Quick Battles. First you need the overall settings: Number of Turns: 40+ Variable ending (You’ll need every turn, trust me.) Fog of War: Extreme! Rarity: Standard Unit Condition: All units (Both Sides) are fit and at 100% strength and ammo load out. Map Size: Small Terrain: Rural or Farmland, Light or Moderate Tree Coverage, and Small or Modest Hills. Purchase Points: Anywhere up to 1,250 Map Damage: 0% Next, I will give out some unit restrictions: No heavy tanks or even up armored Medium Tanks, ever. Get used to it. No Artillery over 105mm(Germans) and/or 122mm(Soviets) No more than 3 TRP’s Use overly rare units like the Soviet 57mm or the German Pak43/88 AT Gun very sparingly, or better yet not at all. No Attack Aircraft Now I need to give out a few pointers on errors to avoid. Errors you ask? Well: 1. Never exceed 1,250 Purchase Points. Otherwise the game automatically make the map medium or large despite the fact that you have the setting at “Small”. 2. Stay away from probes at all costs…get your mind out of the gutter you pervert! Getting serious again, the game just loves to make you Auto “Cease-Fire” on probe missions even if your moral is above 75% and you are inflicting a 7 to 1 loss ratio. 3. Watch the Temperature setting when you set up the map. I’ve had “Hot” days during November of 1942 during a snow storm. Hey, hell froze over! Funny, last time I checked I’m still a virgin. 4. Always choose “Human Purchase” for your own forces. Never ever trust the AI to buy units for you, trusting the AI ends up getting you a platoon of Armored Cars vs. KV-1s 5. Always have some types of trees and hills on your map. It gives you much more room to maneuver. Unless of course you enjoy driving wave after wave of T-34s across open Steppes towards Elite Tiger Is then by all means set the terrain to pancake mode. Now that we have the rules out of the way, here are the various Battle setups I use. Name: No Hope Battle Type: German Assault Human Forces: Soviet Low Quality Guards Infantry Only. AI Forces: German High Quality Troops, Armor Heavy Force. Month: June through September Year: 1941 Region: North, Central, or South. Time: Dawn, Midday, or Dusk. Weather: Clear, Overcast, Rain, or Fog Comments – The name of the game is see to how well you can lose. Time to see just how good of a defense you can set up. Pulling off a “Tactical Defeat” should be considered a victory. This is a good game setup to use to practice before playing against other humans. It forces you to learn proper defense. Name: Early War Blitzkrieg Battle Type: German Attack Human Forces: German High Quality Troops, Unrestricted Force. AI Forces: Soviet Medium Quality Guards Troops, Combined Arms or Infantry Only Force. Month: May till September Year: 1942 Region: South Time: Dawn, Midday, or Dusk. Weather: Clear, Overcast, Rain, or Fog Comments – Restrict yourself to light and weaker Medium tanks only. Half-Tracks, Armored Cars, PzII, PzIII early model and PzIV D are the order of the day. Even against an “Infantry only” force, you will have to display tactical caution because both the 14.5mm AT rifles and 76.2mm AT gun will be as common as vodka at a Russian wedding. Name: Winter Defense Battle Type: Allied Assault Human Forces: German High Quality Troops, Infantry Only Force. AI Forces: Soviet Medium Quality Ski Troops, Combined Arms Force. Month: Winter months, November is the best to use. Year: 1942 Region: South Time: Night Weather: Blizzard Comments – Prepare for hell on earth and lots of nail biting. LOS is about 40m at best, which gives the AI the ability to get real close (and into your rear areas) without getting slaughtered and German “Uber-Optics” are rendered useless. Plus the “Combined Force” setting for the Soviet AI troops is a game of Russian roulette, AI purchase choices are pretty random when it comes to tanks so you might be up against BA-64s or KV-1s…or as I had happen, both. Name: Beginning of the end Battle Type: Allied Attack Human Forces: Soviet Medium Quality Guards Troops, Unrestricted Force. AI Forces: German High Quality Troops, Combined Arms Force. Month: May till September Year: 1944 Region: Central Time: Dawn, Midday, or Dusk. Weather: Clear, Overcast, Rain, or Fog Comments – Same as the earlier setup for the Germans, so the same rules apply. Stay away from T-34/85’s and JS-2’ and use T-70s, SU-76s and the odd ISU-122 or SU-85 instead. However, 1 or 2 M17s are still acceptable. Well, that’s about it. I wrote this because some people new to the game seem to be having trouble having “fair” fights with the AI enemy and I wanted to throw in my 2 cents. Just remember that the above isn’t set in stone. If any of you have any tweaks or suggestions, please make yourself heard.

I'm still miffed that Soviet "Sharpshooters" are listed as only one man and are never offered as a sniper/spotter team. Come on, the Soviets were on of the first countries in the world to use Sniper/Scouts in pairs instead of one person by themselfs.

Are they THAT different if one is mostly interested in the mechanics of warfare as opposed to the historical aspects? Early war tank battles alone are worth the price. 37mm PZIII vs. BT7 PZ38(A) vs T-26E PZII vs. T-60 And lets not leave out the late war Soviet Monster tanks like the JS-2 and ISU-152 that are readily available to take on the German "Kitties", unlike the ever scarce M26 Pershing. "Fair" armor match ups? Imagine that! P.S. I tried the M17 for the first time in a QB today...DEAR GOD THE FIREPOWER!

I always move my forces as one big steam roller. Cheap and expendable armored car in the front, infantry a little ways behind with the armor and support weapons right behind them. Plus lots of pre-attack smoke and arty missions not to mention a little bit of on map heavy arty guns for extra support. I always manage to pull at least a 5 to 1 kill ratio over the AI.

You recall correctly. Hitler really liked mucking the works up...</font>

Doesn't MP40 stand for 'machine pistol 1940'? MP44 is 'machine pistol 1944'? Yes and no. the MP40 was a Machine Pistol, but the MP44's full name was the "Sturm-Gewer 44" In German Sturm=Assault and Gewer=Rifle. (This Grogy moment brought to you by Nippy, the other wacky Battalion Commander.)