NewSocialistMan

TOW's can be tricky. If the range is too tight, you don't really have enough time to properly acquire the target. If it is too far, it gives folks a chance to shoot at you. And gods help you if you're firing over water. The wires tend to short out.

I had something similar happen in Al Hawl. When a squad acquires the Javelin missiles, the launcher disappears from the vehicle inventory. Looks like a bug to me. Also, I have noticed in the Pooh scenario that machinegunners on rooftops can, very often, see bunkers or BMPs that AT teams on the same roof can not. I've tried maneuvering them around, but nothing seems to help. It is, needless to say, deeply frustrating.

I think you might have that confused with the Pooh scenario in which you can acquire AT4 rockets out of the backs of the LAV's. Those, you can use to shoot at the bunkers at close range, but they are pretty worthless for anything heavier. The Javelin would be wonderful for dealing with the T62 anchoring the center in the first scenario, but, alas, you don't get one. Instead, you have to knock it out with your offshore battery.

Where is this Javelin you speak of? Hell that would have been nice to have. That T62 was a pain in the ass.

As with all things Marine, smoke is your friend. It took me until about the third scenario to figure out that the way I use Marines needs to be entirely different from how I use Army soldiers. You can't just sit back and let the technology do the work. You don't have the logistical tail to allow you to trade artillery shells with the enemy or the mech units necessary to let ordinance do the work. You need to close into knife range and rip the other SOB's guts out with a Kabar. Probe forward with your infantry until the enemy reveals himself. Then, go to ground, call in smoke to cut off his LOS, rush up to knife range, area fire the hell out of his position, and assault. Repeat this until you have secured the position. In the specific case of Milk Run, this is accomplished with the judicious help of Lima Battery and the Harriers to take out the heavy armor and the M1A1's to take out light armor from the hull down positions on both of the peaks. The elevated road in the middle of the board gives you a natural position in which to divide the map in half. Bring a decent sized fire team up to the bridge under the cover of smoke and it will let you rain down (or up) fire toward one half of the board while being fully immue to fire from the other. Just be mindful that the armor column shows up at the upper right hand corner. A harrier strike usually deals with that pretty handily, but make sure your recon folks are in place to call in the strike. Smoke will let you cover a tremendous amount of distance quickly and once you're in knife range, you tend to kick ass in the trenches.

Okay. I just finished the Pooh Mission, but suffered casualties in the heavy category. That said, all but three of my vehicles were left intact, all my AT assets were unmolested, and my four M1A1's were fine.... until now. I'm playing Milk Run and have gotten three of my four Abrams tanks immobilized. They are still operable, but not able to move. I've pretty much destroyed all his vehicles and have managed to advance to positions that allow me to keep the badguys pinned down while I turn their flank with my infantry. I suspect I'll be done with them pretty soon, though I'm completely out of artillery ammo. How screwed am I going into the next scenario? I have plenty of Javs, one fully operable M1A1, a ton of AAV's, some gun trucks, all my Humvees, and about 200 infantry remaining. I have no ability to lay down smoke and Lima Battery is out. Will I get a resupply that will allow me to take on the final scenario or do I just fulfill my orders to die in place?

I don't know about 12" of armor plate, but I remember having loads of fun popping holes in a manhole cover with one at nearly a kilometer.

just as a side note.... I'm told that the infamous unreliability of British vehicles throughout the war had to do with the fact that the British automobile industry was pretty late to adopt the principles of mass production that were so clearly prevalent in the industries of America, Germany, and even Russia. British autos were a hobbyist's obsession rather than a common man's form of transportation. As a result, British military vehicles suffered from all manner of problems one would associate with "one off" manufacturing.

I don't think the Nazis saw things quite the same way as the Americans did when it came to the application of kinetic energy on infantry targets. The Ma Deuce is pretty unique in that it really straddles the line between antipersonnel and antivehicle weapons. Anyone who has ever used one knows that it really changes the complexion of the battlefield, since it gives you direct fire reach that exceeds that of most everything in the small arms catagory and has wicked penetration that renders most objects little more than concealment. I would like to see a game modification that makes them more effective on wooden bunkers.

They aren't the only ones. I'm pretty sure both the Egyptians and the Pakistanis still currently employ the MG34/42.

Though both are great weapons and still in current use, I don't think this is the proper comparison. A more meaningful comparison could be drawn between the MG42 and the M1919A4. Both are .30 cals with similar ranges and rates of fire. Both require roughly the same crews. The MG42 has a slight advantage in rate of fire and setup time, but the M1919A4 has a decided advantage in sustained fire reliability and barrel life. If, otoh, you want a vehicle mounted weapon that turns halftracks, trees, rocks, stone buildings, schools, churches, log walls, and statues of Saddam Hussein into "concealment" rather than "cover". Go with the Ma Deuce. And accept no substitutes.

I just played a scenario where I beat the living snail snot out of the Hitlerites only to have 13 out of 15 of my vehicles destroyed by aircraft. I have no AAA and was wondering what measures I can take to minimize damage from aircraft when I replay it.

I'm not sure all of this dissing of the 45mm AT is really deserved. Sure it can't do phallus to a tank from the front, but a well placed flank shot on anything up to an early PzIV is quite likely to turn the fascist cabin occupants into Hamburg Steak. As such, I've found that the key to correctly deploying them has been overlapping fields of fire and judicious use of the "covered arc" command so that they don't take shots they shouldn't. Though I agree that the 76.2mm AT does glorious work for the Motherland, the 45 has a higher ROF and pivot rate. It is also much more difficult to spot due to its characteristic lack of smoke. My green 45mm AT placed near the rubble took out all three PzIII's in the well known early war scenario (won't mention it by name as not to spoil it for those who haven't played it yet) in less than 60 seconds.

Just played a QB where a regular pioneer squad took out two Panther G's and two SPW251/9's. Woohoo!

The only thing this useless piece of fascist crap is good for is sniffing out AT guns.