76mm
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Posts posted by 76mm
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On 8/6/2017 at 5:08 PM, 76mm said:
even tanks could be driven off by a hailstorm of ATR rounds, which could break tracks, optics, weapons, etc.
John, I'm not sure what point you're trying to make, I specifically said that ATR rounds could break optics, etc.
But the fact that ATRs could have some effect on the battlefield does not mean that ATRs were an effective antitank weapons system, or at least effective enough to justify the numbers deployed. How many men were killed while they were plinking away at Tiger vision blocks? How many of them do you think wished they had a panzerfaust instead of an ATR?
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1 hour ago, MikeyD said:
One pattern I've seen in CM titles is hobbyist-players are enthused about a certain vehicle entering the game, then comes the time to use them in battles and its like "Eeeeew , these suck!"
At least with regard to the M3s, I can't say that I've seen anyone "enthused" about seeing them in the game--at best I expressed a mild curiosity if they'd make it in...they'd certainly be about the last AFV I'd choose in a game.
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Yeah, I seriously doubt that any M3s survived until Bagration.
But I was surprised that both M3s and British Mathildas fought at Kursk--I wouldn't want to be crewing either one in 1943!
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I just read an interesting Russian book about Kursk which had several interesting pix of Lend-Lease M3s at Kursk...didn't realize that the Russians had so many of them, wonder if they'll make it into the game at some point?
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1 hour ago, Apocal said:
I've heard a lot of reasons but ultimately none of them make all that much sense to me, the most prominent among them was limited effectiveness.
Sorry, but reasons for what? What is your first question?
I guess your second question is about ATRs? While they weren't super-effective, they could definitely take care of halftracks, and with as many ATRs as they had, my understanding is that even tanks could be driven off by a hailstorm of ATR rounds, which could break tracks, optics, weapons, etc. I've never really understood why they kept making the things but have assumed that they had a factory somewhere which could make them but not be upgraded to something more potent so the ATRs were better than nothing.
I will look around for stuff on ATG gun fronts, but most of my books are elsewhere. I'm sure I could find something on Kursk, but the gun fronts there were not typical.
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That's pretty cool, although I got a bored after about halfway through. So which games is it using?
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18 minutes ago, DougPhresh said:
Could it be a result of the timeline and theatre? Was the Heer so shattered in 1944-45 on the Eastern Front that there aren't reliable doccuments? Or maybe units were so divergent from their established TO&E that the scenarios and campaigns need specific, detailed research?
Sure, some units and their records were basically wiped from the earth,but many were not--the already portrayed in CMRT are those most likely to have seen German units wiped out.
In any event, I don't think this would be a good reason to delay release of the next module for years--if you can't find the exact OOB for a particular battle, choose another. Moreover, I'm not sure what level of detail you're talking about, but who cares what kind of pistol a guy has, or exactly how many rounds? I would expect that the boys have enough experience to "connect the dots" from whatever is missing from their sources to come up with a very reasonable approximation of reality.
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To be clear, OOBs probably do involve more work that I appreciate, but I've never said that anything would be a five minute job--that said, I am surprised that it is turning out to be a four year job.
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1 hour ago, DougPhresh said:
Dragon Age: Origins took 5 years, Morrowind took 6, Half-Life 2 took 5.
Uh, OK. I don't know those games but did they involve developing whole new engines (or did Half Life 2 really use the same engine as Half Life 1?) rather then just producing some new 3D models, OOBs, and scenarios? Should it really take 3+ years to take CMRT to the end of the war, especially when it seems a significant portion of the work would have been developed for CMFB?
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I'm just a bit disappointed that one of the reasons for moving to the CMx2 engine was to allow much quicker content development, but whether or not that is true, because content is split between so many other games, it can be a loooong between between new content for individual games/fronts (eg, CMRT).
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On 6/21/2017 at 10:53 PM, StieliAlpha said:
That would be simple: Cat ladders, platforms and man handling. Not very convenient, but workable.
I don't think it would be workable; I couldn't find anything online in two minutes about the size of the KVII's shells, but I suspect that they are too long/heavy to allow them to be manhandled in that kind of turret.
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Definitely fake; the original KV-II could barely move or rotate its turret, that monstrosity wouldn't be able to do either. And how exactly could you load the second and third main guns?
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On 6/4/2017 at 2:49 AM, John Kettler said:
By definition, those sent to penal units were criminals, sometimes of the worst sort.
On 6/5/2017 at 7:01 PM, John Kettler said:Cowardice in battle, however understandable now in terms of what the human psyche can handle, was a crime, SIW (self-inflicted wounds) were criminal acts (because they deprived the State of otherwise usable soldiers). Abandonment of weapons wasn't a disciplinary infraction, either. Speaking of SIW, I would note this was a military crime punishable even in ancient times and is substantiated by Roman legionary records. The glory hungry battalion commander was, from a criminal standpoint, guilty at a minimum of mass negligent homicide and enormous wastage of a scarce State resources (line infantry). Again, not a disciplinary infraction.
I guess if you widen the definition of "crime" wide enough, all soldiers in all armies would be considered "criminals" (killers, arsonists). That said, the infractions described in your second quote are exactly what I would call disciplinary infractions, not "crimes", because they not what would be considered a crime in a civilian matter (cowardice? losing property?). Calling something a "disciplinary infractions" does not mean that it is a minor infraction--things like falling asleep on sentry duty, desertion (also what I would call disciplinary infractions) have always been very severely punished. But they are not what I would call crimes.
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8 hours ago, John Kettler said:
By definition, those sent to penal units were criminals, sometimes of the worst sort.
Having read many of the same books as you, I agree with some of what you say, but the statement above is not correct in my view...my understanding is that a large part of those sent to penal battalions were sent for disciplinary infractions, not because they were criminals (in the common usage of the term). The example you gave of the glory-hungry commander is a case in point.
Also, I view DMS as a very credible source on Red Army matters and so would not write off his opinion so easily. It is possible, for instance, that the incidents recorded in the various memoirs were extraordinary incidents rather than every day occurrences.
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22 hours ago, John Kettler said:
I own about four books total in that category
In the meantime, you can buy more books by Russian veterans, dozens are available on Amazon, of varying quality.
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I think someone has posted about this book on a different thread, but just to mention it on this thread as well: I just finished Glantz's latest work: The Battle for Belorussia.
This book is actually not about Bagration (the famous battle for Belorussia), but for the battles leading up to Bagration, conducted from Feb 1943-March 1944. Frankly, the book is typical Glantz--an amazing amount and quality of research, but difficult (ie, boring) to read. There are some interesting bits, particularly about Rokossovsky and Sokolovsky's sacking, but generally it is a rather dull read, although given the paucity of sources, this is likely to be the only book out on the topic, so if you're interested in the topic you don't have much choice to read it.
Unfortunately, the book is not a good choice for a source for battles for CMRT, for several reasons: (1) it is a bit too high-level (focusing on divisional-scale), (2) it is in the dead of winter (snow!), and (3) many of the attacks involve river crossings or battles in swamps, which would be impossible or difficult, respectively to show in CMRT.
Finally, one more book, which I'm currently reading now: Objective Ponyri
This book is from Jason Mark's Leaping Horseman Books, and it meets his usual standards--an amazing account of the battle on the Northern Face of the Kursk salient, complete with a massive number of German aerial recon photos from the area, including during the battle (showing individual Ferdinand tracks through the steppe).
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Amazon seems to be having an awesome sale on kindle history books now (or they've been hacked!). See the books below:
Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1943-1945: Red Steamroller Kindle Edition by Robert Forczyk $1.26
T-34: The Red Army's Legendary Medium Tank (Images of War Special) Kindle Edition by Anthony Tucker-Jones $1.26
German Army on the Eastern Front - The Retreat 1943-1945: Rare Photographs From Wartime Archives $1.26
Hitler’s Heavy Panzers 1943-1945: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives (Images of War) $1.26
For $1.26 each, I went ahead and bought all of the books above (and some others on ancient warfare). Note that there is no point in buying most of the books above (all of the "picture books") to read on a Kindle device, because they display pictures poorly; that said, I anticipate being able to view them satisfactorily with the Kindle app on my iPad.
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Weird, I read the holiday message but didn't see any detail about this...will look again. Traveling for the holidays so stuck on a tablet, maybe I'm missing something.
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Um, i dont see anything about patch 4 on this site--is it some kind of secret? Where did this info come from?
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That would be great, I'll pm you with my e-mail address!
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Is this map available for download?
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Scipio's link doesn't work for me...what is the tool called and what does it do?
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Questions about Soviet AT capabilities.
in Combat Mission Red Thunder
Posted
Yes, but... I doubt that the useful range of an ATR when aiming at vision blocks, etc was greater than a panzerfaust's. Moreover, I've never read that ATRs were very useful against infantry, whereas panzerfausts could be used against buildings, etc. And finally, I just can't imagine that their utility in combat was worth the manpower expended in creating these units. So not a useless weapon, but not especially effective either.