Chief Trois

The airborne units were: 517 Para Inf Rgt, 1/551 Para Inf, 509 Para Inf Bn, 550 Abn Inf Bn (Glider), 460 Para Field Arty Bn, 463 Para Field Arty Bn, 602 Field Arty Bn (75mm pack hows, trained for glider landing), 2 4.2" mortar coys trained for glider landing, the AT coy of the 442 Inf Rgt trained for glider landing, plus the British 2 Ind Para Bde and 64 Light Arty Bn. This added up to the rough equivalent of an airborne division.

There's a fairly detailed account of the action (and a 1:12,000 sketch map) in the official British History of the Second World War, The Mediterranean and the Middle East, v. v, C. J. C. Molony. These books are generally available through inter-library loan.

I noticed similar when CMBB was first released (Bren carriers standing in for Italian tankettes) but this was fixed with the first patch. Perhaps the same will happen here.

s p o i l e r a l e r t * * * * * * I played against the Italian AI for a tactical victory, and made many mistakes getting there. I knew that historically the Italian tanks and guns had nothing for the Matildas, so I decided on a combined infantry-armor assault from the side on which the Indian infantry sets up on as a default (east?). My idea was that the infantry would go first and spot any minefields, and then the Matildas would go through the gaps. I had the TRPs laid on the sandbags on that side of the camp. Lessons learned: (1) Under fire, infantry will not reliably detect AT minefield by walking through them. I lost 7 Matildas to minefields that the infantry had walked through, thank you very much chaps. (2) What artillery? I rained steel death on all of the sandbags I could see, and accounted for precisely one gun. I suspect that I was particularly unlucky in this regard. (3) Screw subtle. My surviving Matildas blew off most of their MG ammo before I realized that the most effective way to take out the Italian guns was to mash them flat. But by the lime that little idea had dawned on me, the Matildas had nothing left for the Eytie infantry. I won only because I managed to blunder the reinforcing tanks into the tank through a minefield gap. Once I had them in and close to the Italian HQ, the AI went predictably beserk and threw the kitchen sink at them. To little effect. One tank got immoblilzed at the entrance to the camp, the other two accounted for 103 infantry and a number of vehicles and guns between them. Of the original tanks, four were KO (two to the minefields) and the rest immobilized.

Any word on the number of different Allied squad types in CMAK? (I'm playing the Germans in the Frufruwindy scenario via e-mail, so I haven't been able to look at the Allied OOB.) US armored infantry squads, for example?

Echoing the posts of some others, I've seen large numbers of gun hits in the Last Defence scenario. SPOILER INFO * * * * * * * * * * * I've played both sides, and each time the US sustained 4 guns hits. I think it's a factor of the US vehicles being in hull down positions, and the German 2 cm and 5 cm guns lacking enough punch to score decisive KOs. That's a pretty atypical combo; I'm willing to wait for the real deal to see if gun hits are overcooked.

Zak: I tried the full speed up the left draw gambit, as you did, but still got picked apart by the Stus when I advanced to the right with Move to Contact commands. What did you mean by the use of the pause command, and how are you coordinating your fire on the Stus? (I batter 'em at 100m and they seem to shrug it all off.) I have't managed better than a tactical defeat, and when I tried to overload a flank and pop away from the Russian start positions, I wound up with 20 dead T-34s and all Stus unharmed in 2 tries.

Hans and Mike T. -- I'll be in touch to try out your scenarios -- AS SOON AS I GET THE FREAKIN GAME!!!! I do recall a book by Hugh Thomas that, while a general overview of the war, did provide some grist for tactical scenarios. I'll ahve to scout it out. For mods, what I really want are olive groves. For air support, do the Russians have I-16? Those and Stukas should do the trick.

PzIs . . . BT5s . . . T26s . . . Tankettes . . .Italians . . . Partisans . . . Who's going to be first in the water with a Spanish Civil War scenario? And how about some Spanish Civil War mods? I mean, once we're done with the existing scenarios.