JaegerMeister

My single tank hunting team, literally saving the day when they single handedly knocked out two rampaging T34's by close assault whilst a little pz38 flank shot another to turn a battle completely around, when they threatened to flatten my un-supported infantry in Directive No.3 scenario against a seasoned PBEM opponent! I awarded them the EK1 and close assault clasp !!

quote "Once dug in, it stays dug in." is that correct?...why cant a tank simply reverse out of dug-out and battle as normal?....seems a bit wrong, unless the scenario is literally depicting tanks that are out of fuel or 'frozen' in place.

History buff, your on the same lines as me with infantry kills, but i think it should be +1 exp only per squad for a minimum of 5 kills. A 10 man inf squad should justify that exp gain with a minimum set amount, because it wouldn't gain much experience in real life from shooting one enemy soldier, but accounting for 50% of an enemy squad maybe would....ie even if they were green behind the ears, that experience would have at least 'bloodied' them.

Adding to what i said earlier, i think (in my own case at least) i will only award the +1exp for a minimum 5 casualties inflicted per squad or knocking out a HMG nest/gunpit, as i would say achieving that would raise anyones level of experience. I dont think 50mm mortars deserve any exp gain but surely KO'ing a bigger 81mm+ team might be worthy?..knowing the damage they can inflict? No advice on the maps then? [ December 18, 2002, 04:59 AM: Message edited by: JaegerMeister ]

one other thing thats puzzling me...how do we use the map pack & map rule sheet?..do we play them in an order or do we pick one that matches the parameters we rolled up for terrain & battle type? and if one doesn't match those params, do we use the next most similar map to our params?

Max, yep i was just thinking that, because otherwise the exp levels built up will not match the new 1.4 Appendix A experience levels..ie our troops would be 'crack' too fast. So, if i'm getting this right..we now get +1exp just for being 'in the battle' and also +1exp for every squad that gets at least 1 inf kill (or should we set a min number of kills..say 5?)

Eden, yes i am agreeing with what your saying, totally ! We are thinking along the same lines, my men should be gaining experience through their personal kills, whilst the commander (me) should be gaining favour (Or promotion/medals- RPG element)through victories thus enabling me to use that favour to increase my forces future sucess through the acquisition of better support!..phew...and of course, with my men getting better experience that would also facilitate future actions. What you posted earlier about the grog and RPG aspect also make alot of sense and i concur. I think i will revert to the 1.3 battle group sheet in terms of logging kills/Ko's. @ +1 exp gain. [ December 17, 2002, 04:26 PM: Message edited by: JaegerMeister ]

thanks for the tip Olaf, dont suppose you know if it is available in the UK ?

But does the 'outcome' necessarily reflect the experience your infantrymen gained during the battle? I would say the battle outcome should just reflect the performance of the commander and therefore favour under these rules? For instance, in the battle i just fought, my men (still green) fought like lions against a vastly numerically superior enemy in a heavily damaged town, despite constant ambushes and enemy positions to overcome, they fought their way forward in thick fog through rubble right upto the objectives, alas, i ran out of time before i could storm the objective building itself and therefore just got a 'minor defeat' but my men inflicted 396 casualties (104?KIA) for only 36 (12KIA) of my own and were about to win the day. When i went to fill out the new battlegroup sheet, i felt slightly gutted that all the infantry kills my men had obtained in very difficult terrain/weather, counted for nothing. The stark headline 'Minor defeat' was all that counted !..all i got was a lousy +1 exp gain.

86Smopuim...yep definitely getting Black area of cells, using full Excell, both on winXp office and on win98 office at work...so something not quite right there. I have formatted the cells on the battle sheets 1-5 and the favour sheet to get rid of the black areas, they now show as dotted cells as you described. If you want me to email these back to you, i'd be happy to.

Many thanks 86Smopuim !...any chance you could add those instructions in your post to the download file for future releases? regards. ps when i checked the sheets out, they seemed to have areas of 'black' boxes (where you normally tick for 'unit fled' etc...is that how it should appear at my end or do the cells need formatting to a different colour?

86Smopuim...you asked why no ones interested?..i am, and am sure many others are, but thought you had only sent it to Billtong so far for checking? Where can i get my hands on it?..anything that automates more of the rules gets my vote!

Grisha, you seem 'very' well informed on the Soviet recon methods. Have you close personal experience of those tactics, ie relatives that served in it? Great insight into a field that not many western authors seem to cover.Good stuff. Just to continue the debate (at the risk of digging a bigger hole for myself ), and no i'm not saying the Germans were the best at everything, was it not a case that the other nations adopted the same doctrine/agressive recon in force tactics, after witnessing the way the German forces fought in the early war years? After all the Russians seemed to teach them a thing or two about 'blitzkrieg'/encirclement ops in the later war years after learning about their adversaries tactics and improving upon them. Or did these other nations have the same doctrine in place at the start of war with regards to heavily armed recon? ie whats the OOB for an early war British or Russian recon unit? Mind you, its possibly hard to evaluate, because the Germans were the ones doing the advancing/invading and therefore needing to be aggressive.

Well Andreas, you came up trumps with the information as did all others who posted on recon in this thread. I am much obliged and more informed as a result. Though in my defence, when i made my innocent (but obviously ill-informed) statement about German recon being more aggressive than other nations, i was referring to the early war years and the invasion of Russia in 1941, as that is all i fight (at present) in CMBB, preferring to do the 'war' in chronological order with my PBEM opponent. Andreas, you are obviously intelligent,as am i, so perhaps you can leave off the sniping, 'frosty-packet' remarks. I am 35 with several hundred pounds worth of military books collected, and a father who spent many years in the R.E.M.E and a heavy interest in WW2 too, so not quite worthy of your remarks. I am happy to learn more from you & other grogs on here. So can we call a truce?

Look people, Andreas, Mike Dorosh, before we descend in manners here, i do not wish to offend anybody but what riled me was the 'tone' in which Andreas answers some of these threads. Point taken about tones getting lost in languages though, and i'm always ready to hear what you 'true-grogs' have to say. But whats been lost here is that my original post was just to point people to a good read of an account from the Eastern front as not everybody knows a lot about it and these accounts set the 'feel' for CMBB. Then somebody asked the innocent question of what Aufklarung means, which i noticed while at work and threw in a quick reply based on my interpretation of what i have read on more than one occasion from various authors. It was a simple answer to a simple question. I was just a little offended by what i thought was a 'superior' response from somebody but happily bow to the knowledge of the true-grogs on here. I do not live in Kurt Meyers ra-ra land and only dare state things on what i have read myself, which may or may not be correct, i guess depending on who got their facts right in their books! [ December 12, 2002, 06:07 AM: Message edited by: JaegerMeister ]

oops s'cuse me i put an 'e' where there should be a 'u' (i'm at work so forgive me!) and sorry Master Andreas who seems to get a kick out of stomping on peoples posts, i'm sure you will correct me as usual, but i thought the Germans were known for their 'aggressive' recon as opposed to other nations who stuck to the spot, report and stay a safe distance? Thats what i've read before on more than one occasion, so i based my statement on that, and no i cant give you references and titles cos i do not remember. But i'm happy to be corrected from your vast resources, just lighten up on the put downs!

Indeed Aufklareng means reconnaisance and thats what those detachements were called ie Aufklareng Abteilung.=.recon battalion. The German recon units adopted a very aggressive policy and often performed the "recon by force", in that they were quite happy to fight it out for their information and would often seize objectives themselves, if the opportunity arose and await the main body to follow up.

Thanks guys, glad you liked it. I personally cant get enough of these personal accounts, they really paint a picture of what it was like back then and certainly get you in a mood for CMBB ! Bump too for those who may have missed it.

oops, edited my post after you posted Mike (see my earlier one with the links added now). The sites show the wehrmacht walloon uniform with sleeve badges (including edelweiss). Also (ironically) seems upto a 1000 spanish volunteers from the ex-Blue division and others spaniards joined the Walloon division in 1945 as an attached unit. [ December 11, 2002, 06:46 AM: Message edited by: JaegerMeister ]

Great stuff Mike T, look forward to your mods, even using the Blue Division will be great for starters. Hope someone can create some historical scenarios for these units. The Walloons fought at Cherkassy alongside the Viking division as rearguard to the pocket so plenty of potential there. All i know, at present, is they had the Belgian shield on their (left?) sleeve and maybe 'Wallonia' on their cuff titles when they became an SS brigade. Note: i think they also had the Edelweiss badge on their uniforms as they were attached to the 97th Jager div and 100th Jager and fought in the Caucasus mountains too. Try also these two sites (one shows the Gebirgsjager cap and badge on Degrelle). http://www.geocities.com/falconhard/presentacion.html http://www.wssob.com/028divwal.html edit: the CMMOS option would be great cos we could all easily switch between uniform mods for our favourite units. [ December 11, 2002, 06:40 AM: Message edited by: JaegerMeister ]

Sardauker.....stick that request as a new topic on the forum and all the grogs will give you a quick answer !

Superb work as always....many thanks sir!

Next time you send your poor recon boys into battle in the snows of Russia, remember this tale of suffering...... http://www.dasreich.ca/fritz_anec1.html enjoy. [ December 12, 2002, 12:21 PM: Message edited by: JaegerMeister ]

On the medals/patches subject, shouldn't this also be self implemented?..ie in a PBEM battle i had recently, a tank hunting team (1941) completely reversed a battle by assaulting & destroying 2 T34 tanks that were bashing the hell out of my infantry positions...i immediately awarded that team the EK 1 (in my mind) and announced it to the opponent, who agreed !..cos thats what they probably would have got in real life for saving the day with their bravery. Incidents like that should be reflected in these rules somehow? Also, Max, about the defensive.. i had an M.E. using the rules the other day that straight away turned into a defencive action for me due to the opposition having a regiment of infantry against my little company! It was a close run thing and i think only my 3 tanks prevented me from being overrun and the fact my men were in rubble positions on hills. It went right to the wire and if there had been a couple of more turns, they would have wiped out my forward posts for sure. Even though they were 'weakened', 50% losses? & 30% ammo, they came inexorably on towards me...a real buzz that was!

Thanks for your efforts Mike T..! Any plans to do some of the other foreign volunteer units?...i would particularly like the Belgian Walloon unit that started off as a Wehrmacht unit then rose in status to the SS Assault Brigade Wallonia led by Leon Degrelle. They grew a fearsome reputation as a storm unit using surprise assaults.