B.B.Toys

Piles of hay stacks, perhaps by modding over the Cemetery bmps. Then I can place do-dads around my villages.

I already own Wolfgang Schneider's Panzertaktik: German Small-Unit Armor Tactics and wonder whether there would be any reason for me to want to also get the Nafziger vol. on German armor tactics. Can someone comment on the amount of overlap? TIA, Richard

Many thanks for the replies. I guess nothing can be done if the PzSchreck is hardcoded.

Searched CM:HQ and this forum but found nothing. Can anyone help?

These are good points gentlemen. I did not mean to make an assertion since I have no relevant practical experience here. In fact I was simply guessing from the photograph about the use of tracer bullets. The SS soldier was was loading a MG ammo belt in front of him and has taken care to leave a blank spot after every five bullets. I was assuming that he would then stuff those spaces with tracer bullets (there's a pile of bullets in front of him; can't tell whether they are tracers or not). Perhaps someone can comment on how unusual or common the use of tracers was the eastern front. I'd be curious to know. I don't know about the visibility of WWII tracers (as compared to more modern ones) in daylight but I agree that that would have an impact on their use beyond aim correction by the specific weapon-wielder. I don't remember much night fighting around Kharkov so assumed that they could be seen by troops in day time fighting. And if infantry can see them then the MG gunner, driver and the commander of (esp. German) tanks facing in the right general direction ought to be able to make them out too given some of the better optics aboard. This assumes that they were trying to spot tracers as a way of cooperating with infantry to locate enemy resistance and AT gun emplacments. Does anyone have information about whether there was such a practice in WWII?

Hmmm.... Interesting. Neither CMBO nor CMBB would run for me when I boot with OS X and then load OS 9 in software mode. I remember an earlier thread in which people have said much the same thing in a rather definitive way. I would myself be very pleased to know that I'm wrong here. The inconvenience of having to reboot the computer everytime I want to play a game is the main reason I am still opting to boot in OS 9 even when OS X promises to deliver so much more.

Perhaps Borg sighting isn't completely unrealistic after all given the practice of using tracer bullets (fired from squad MG34s and MG42s) not only for aim correction but also to indicate to friendly forces, including buttoned-up tanks, where they should be firing. I have in front of me a picture of a SS veteran loading tracers on an ammo belt for a MG34/MG42 during the Battle of Kharkov in 'Jan 43. The process of manually replacing every fifth bullet or so in an ammo belt with a tracer bullet must have been very time-consuming esp. given field conditions but it would make sense if it served such a dual purpose. Does anyone know how common this practice was on the Eastern front over the years? Did the Soviets also use tracer bullets to coordinate group targeting?

*Bump* Almost slipping to Page 3...

This would nicely simulate how the Germans used Marders and StuGs in the defensive role. You take a shot at a target and then quickly back out of a prepared hull-down position and move (hopefully sight unseen) into one of several other prepared hull-down positions to repeat the process. Another use of the trigger command may be to allow tankhunter teams with chuckable TNT to run out of cover a certain distance and assault a tank once it has entered a covered arc (which in this case should be pointed in such a way that the TH will hit the tank on the rear or in a flank). This might be a handy (if also very risky) option if limited range of projectile and scarce terrain cover makes it unlikely that a plain hidden TH hunt will be lucky enough to get a tank to wander within effective range. Limited range in this case increases the need for such a trigger since within one minute a tank could easily have come within and then out of (the now slightly extended) range again of a TH team.

You might be able to try out a set of similar moves by creating a scenario on a map imported from the ongoing game. You don't even need to have an opposing force in that case; perhaps just an enemy trench to keep the AI in the game. Although exact placement of vehicles duplicating their location in the game will be tricky, you can still explore the terrain and test LOS etc. This solution somewhat resembles a live exercise and so should seem less gamey than having the ability to make a "dry run" (a.k.a. "try until you succeed")...

Laxx is right. You need to get hold a Mac some time soon this year before new releases come out that will no longer be bootable in OS 9. At present CMBB cannot be played in OS X, even in simulation mode.

Dear John, I am using a 800 MgHz iBook to play CMBB and it works very well. Computing speed is good except for monstrous scenarios such as Seelow Height; but then that would be the case for most computers. CMBB graphics are *not* downgraded it seems with 7500 Radeon video card. The game looks good and plays very well with the new iBook. So enjoy. All best, Richard

Tiger Is did not see action in the Battle of Kharkov due to adverse road conditions; never got to the fight. No Panthers either of course. The SS Panzer divisions used Pz IIIs, IVs, StuGIIIs and various SPGs in the counteroffensive and did rather well. But then they didn't have to slug it out with T34/85s or IS2s either.

Sorry I did mean telephone poles. I notice that you can have 3D for, say, the cemetery. Don't know whether that's two separate BMPs though.

Even Russian village roads show up in photos lined with telephone poles. Is there a Mod for this and if not can one be made? (Hint Hint...) [Edited to show "telephone" rather than "electrical" poles in header and body of post] [ January 18, 2003, 08:34 PM: Message edited by: BBToys ]