Falcon988

Well, I just led the Polish 2nd Armored into oblivion at Chambois in PBEM. All my Shermans were destroyed, many men killed, etc. Thankfully I was able to withdraw most of the surviving forces so a could portion of them avoided capture. This is my second defeat in a row as I lost Panic at Gela to my opponent. That was even worse. Was playing as the Germans and ran into a wall of ATG's. 160 casualties, all my armor and apc's destroyed, infantry tried to withdraw but were cut to pieces in the open by 150mm artillery, etc. The Americans had 16 casualties. I am shamed. The last big victory for me was Brits at Anzio, PBEM as always, where I successfully led my Panzergrenadiers and captured the city. Was a grueling fight though as we had to move through a lot of open ground. So I'm not an incompetant player by any means, it just seems that lady luck has turned against me recently. So anyone else ever been frustrated by the sting of a humiliating defeat? Or make some stupid decison which causes hundreds of your troops to be killed?

Sent. Have fun with it.

I posted my review on the Scenario Depot this evening. Here is, basically, my copy & paste of it. I would also like to note here, since I forgot to mention it in my review, that I really love the briefing the author wrote for this battle. The only thing wrong with it (why I gave it an 8) is that it seems a little bit jumbled up paragraph was. But it really gives an awesome feel to everything. "Thousands of men are going to die today..." and whatnot. Minor spoilers ahead. I finished this battle playing TCP/IP yesterday and find it one of the best I've played. Certainly the best scenario about the Battle of Berlin. I myself have never been to Germany and certainly not Berlin, but from the books I've read on the subject everything seems pretty darn accurate from the Reichstag to the Opera House being "across the street". Excellent atmosphere. I played Axis and really felt the sheer desperation as Volkstrum, SS, and Wermacht fought side by side to hold back the overwhelming Soviet hordes. My opponent fought tenaciously and captured all my strongholds one by one. Though my men fought very valiantly at the Kroll Opera House, causing him many losses. He was only able to capture it at the very end of the battle when he mounted a second attack and my men were all low on ammo. He had some funny things to say about that though. Mentioned how the Soviet commanding the assault must have told his men "Okay guys, go into the Opera House and draw fire. Most of you will get killed, but hopefully the Germans will run out of ammo so that in 40 turns the survivors from the first attack will be able to capture it from them." The battle for the Reichstag itself was absolutely incredible. All my forward defensive lines slowly caved away and my 200 or so soldiers found themselves surrounded by the enemy's T-34 armies. The Russians bombarded the Reichstag into rubble and I was absolutely shocked to see one of my platoons be annhilated after the section of the Reichstag they were in collapsed. The outcome, surprisingly, was very much in doubt up until the last few turns. Though greatly outnumbered my men held excellent positions and caused the Soviets horrendus casualties. But we did eventually succumb and my opponent won a minor victory. The dramatic climax of the battle came in those last moments inside the Reichstag, amidst the ruins, smoke, fire, as my men died in droves in the face of Soviet SMG squads. In the end only TWO Germans were still alive in there to surrender to the Russians. And to my surprise there were very few Russians left also, and most of them were out of ammo. We practically killed each other off. All in all a terrific battle. Some constructive criticism though, I feel, is warranted. Firstly, the given amount of turns is a bit too low. I figured that when I first looked at the map, and had my opponent boost the number of turns to 60+. That gave us all the time we needed. The game finally ended on its own around turn 55 or so. Had we used the default timer it would've ended as the Russians were preparing to enter the Reichstag and that would've been very disappointing. Also, my opponent is curious to know about the purpose of those Soviet AT guns. As far as he and I can tell they serve no purpose, and have no line of sight on anything important. The only thing they ever did was fire upon (and miss) one of my tank hunter squads after he ambushed a Soviet Su-100. In summary this is an excellent scenario that models the final days of Nazi Germany. Anyone who is a serious student of the Ostfront, which I assume all CMBB fans are, should download & play this TCP/IP or PBEM now. Heck, it would probably be fun to play against the AI so long as the player takes Allies. We all know how the AI functions on the attack.

Anyone play this? I'm astounded by the lack of publicity for it. I'm currently on turn 33 playing blind TCP/IP on the side of the Axis. Thus far it's easily one of my favorite scenarios of all time and rivals Our Backs to the Volga with its epicness. There's no doubt that I'm losing right now, but I'm making the Russians pay dearly for every inch of ground they take on the way to the Reichstag. Whether or not he'll capture it is yet to be seen... but I'm of the opinion that the defense I've orchestrated there is strong enough to repell all but the most overwhelming of Soviet forces. So we'll see. Give this one a try folks. Seriously, it's fantastic.

I find running to be a good across open ground when you're going from cover to cover over a SHORT distance. I do not want my squad to stop and engage the enemy in the open, it's preferable for them to just get out of there as quickly as possible. You do not, however, want to use the Run command against enemy opposition. That will definately cause you enormous casualties. During movements where I'm not sure where the enemy is I always use the advance or Move to contact commands. Generally though I dislike the Advance command during combat. I notice that, like Run, the men move too quickly and suffer needless casualties. When my men are under heavy fire I always use the Assault command over short distances. The manual will tell you to only use it for that "final attack" over a 20m or so range. And 20 meters is indeed a good stopping point when you're issuing waypoints. But I have found that using the Assault command in place of Advance, while definately more time consuming since you need to stop & rest more, STRONGLY cuts back on casualties. Most notably during a skirmish in Crete one of my Australian platoons was ambushed by Fallshirmjagers in the woods. I ordered one of them to advance and they took 5 - 7 casualties. The squad I experimented with, by giving the Assault command, didn't lose a single man while performing the same maneuver.

I recently found my entire Canadian infantry battalion held up at some bridge in Sicily after a German ATG destroyed two of our Shermans. It had a great LOS to our positions on the other side of the bridge and so I couldn't bring in the other two Shermans until it was dead. Tried blasting it with indirect fire from mortars, but the Jerries kept popping smoke and I had no luck. Eventually I popped my own smoke, concealed our positions, and brought my entire force down. When the smoke cleared the Shermans knocked out the ATG and we continued on our way. In another scenario in 1941 my British boys were pinned down & taking heavy casualties from entrenched Italian ATG's. I dropped 25pdr artillery on their positions, blasted them from afar with Matildas, Valentines, and Crusaders. Absolutely no luck! After a Stuka destroyed one of my Valentine's and heavily damaged two, I became desperate. Charged my remaining Valentine's straight up the hill and at the Italian trenches. They came under a -lot- of fire from tanks & armored cars but just kept blasting away until all the Italian tanks firing at them were destroyed. The ATG's stopped firing and were pinned down. So I had my tanks firing at them at close range but they STILL WOULD NOT DIE. And by then two of the tanks were hit by infantry and had to be abandoned. A third was immobilized. So, I dunno. ATG's in CMAK are much tougher than I remember them from CMBB & BO. How do you all deal with them?

Pretty much. Phyric victory is worse though. It's when you achieve a victory, but at a -great- cost. Comes from that an ancient general who led his army into battle, won, but took so many casualties that he could no longer continue the campaign. Another example might be the battle of Trafalgar where the British defeated the French navy, yes, but they lost Admiral Nelson. Tactical victory is pretty much your average won battle. You win, but you took casualties.

I played this blind TCP/IP against my usual opponent and it was a long, grueling firefight for control of that sodding bridge. First and foremost I advanced on the Winery with 1st & 2nd Platoons from the west and east. 1st Platoon soon took fire from a 75mm Gun and 81mm mortars on the other side of the river so I withdrew them to find cover. Meanwhile 2nd Platoon was lining up in the scattered trees & woods just to the west of the Winery. Italian conscripts had no idea they were there. I split the squads and sent 3 or 4 half squads into action whilst the rest provided covering fire. The squads made it to the wall and routed the Italian defenders. They soon began to cave, but suddenly we came under -intense- (and I mean intense) 81mm bombardment and the German AT gun started giving us hell. Several of the half squads withdrew back to the woods, but two made it into the house which was promptly blown up by a 75mm shell which killed all 4 men in one of the squads. There were still 3 men in the rubble though very much intact and still fighting. I withdrew 2nd Platoon in fear of another mortar bombardment, and sent 1st Platoon back into action. My lone half squad in the Winery held his ground alone, killing many of the enemy. 1st Platoon now went back into action and shot up the Italian defenders on the east side. They ran through another bombardment of 81mm, reached the Winery, and linked up with the 3 men from 2nd PLT. The Winery was captured but at a great price. The Italians hadn't done squat but their support fire from across the river was hell. I left one half squad at the Winery (the same 3 guys who held the line after 2nd PLT withdrew) and took the rest of the men into the woods in the west to prepare for the bridge attack. While the Winery battle had been raging, A Company had arrived and I'd sent them to their form up points in the woods just south of the bridge. B Company showed up with a squadron of Shermans and I held them back in reserve. 1st and 2nd PLT's (who had assaulted the winery) were also held in reserve so they could get some much deserved rest. While moving into their FUP's, A Company encountered an Italian platoon defending the road south of the bridge. The Italians got the jump on on 5th PLT and they took heavy casualties before they were able to assault and defeat the enemy. I sent 6th PLT to engage the Italians on the road, held the other A Company platoon in reserve, and sent two Shermans into action. They rounded the corner and were instantly destroyed by another 75mm gun across the river. This was definately a bad situation. I committed all of A Company into the battle now and slowly, yard by yard, they punched through the Italians and captured the southern edge of the bridge. But they were still under fire from the 75mm gun so I had mortars brought down on it. It was at this point, as I was preparing a recon element to cross the bridge, we met the German Fallshirmjagers. They suddenly and very unexpectedly opened fire on A Company from their positions across the bridge. Lots and lots of infantry squads, MG42's, mortars, that 75mm gun... massive casualties. Many a brave Canadian boy was killed or wounded. And I couldn't bring in the remaining Shermans for fear of that ATG. Reluctantly I ordered A Company to hold its ground on their side of the bridge. Lots of squads broke and ran off but some held just fine and traded fire with the Germans across the river. Meanwhile, having realized the 75mm gun wasn't dead, I fired more mortars on it. But my spotting kept getting obscured by German smoke. This was very frustrating. As a result I ordered the mortars to lay down our own smoke, and committed my last reserves. An entire company of Canadian infantry, B Company, and two Shermans now went into action under cover of the smoke. When it cleared my Sherman V's put two rounds into the bastard ATG and silenced it once and for all. Then they proceeded to bombard the Fallshirmjagers while B Company advanced to reinforce the remenants of Company A. At this point the enemy's other 75mm gun had a line of sight at my Shermans and started firing. But according to my opponent it ran out of ammo and fired no more. Supported by the Shermans, B Company's platoons engaged and defeated the enemy on the other side of the river. It was a beautiful sight to bombard those cursed paratrooper foxholes. Then when all was clear I ran one of the platoons across. They, unfortunately, met strong resistance from paratroopers who just wouldn't give up. Lucky for us the Shermans still had their HE rounds and pummeled the remaining Germans into submission. It was now time to move on the farmhouse. I ordered the remaining two platoons of B Company to cross the bridge. In addition to this I sent for 1st PLT, the very same that had aided in assaulting the winery at the start of the battle, to take up defensive positions at the bridge (reinforcing A Company who were scattered all over the place and pretty much combat ineffective). They were our reserve in case B Company bit off more than it could chew. B Company arrived in its form up points and I ordered a general advance to the outer wall of the farmhouse. Almost immediately an entire platoon was cut to pieces by machine gun fire from a platoon of infantry occupying the farmhouse. The German infantry were hiding behind the wall and peppering us with lead. Having lost a platoon I now ordered 1st PLT to cross the bridge and support the assault. B Company's two platoons, supported by the Shermans, advanced to the outer wall. When 1st PLT reinforced them I decided to rush the German positions. The two Shermans charged forward, up and over the wall blasting everything as they went. Right behind them came all 3 Canadian platoons and swarmed the German defenders. They broke very quickly being already low on ammo from the shooting up they'd given A Company earlier. One of the Shermans was hit by a grenade, but his attacker was quickly cut down by machine gun fire. The Canadians climbed up the hill and shot a retreating enemy platoon and company commander. We'd taken the farm. At that point the timer ran out and the battle was declared a draw. High casualties on both sides though. Canadian losses are 157 casualties, 45 of which are KIA. They had 147 men still ready for action but had lost 3 Sherman tanks. The Italians and Fallshirmjager units took 160 casualties, 32 of which were KIA's. Only 57 Germans, a platoon of paratroopers on the other side of the map, were left standing. In addition 6 Italians were taken prisoner. My assessment? Great battle. It mostly revolved around that dang bridge though. Would've liked to have taken out that other enemy position at that other bridge. Oh well. I loved this scenario.

Sure. A lucky direct hit from a good artillery or tank shell can KO an entire HMG crew. Can't think of any specific incidents at the moment but I'm positive it's been done. Just like how I've seen tank shells kill entire squads of infantry. The biggest mass killing I saw was from a friendly fire incident in CMBO. During one of my many battles in Normandy a big honking piece of American artillery landed amidst the GI's. I swear at least 10 individual squad units were eliminated.

I played this battle TCP/IP against my usual opponent and lost it as well. Not for lack of trying though. My New Zealander infantry put up one great fight and penetrated very deep into the town. Unfortunately our attack just ran out of steam as the high attrition rates (casualties) and lack of ammo took its toll. My offensive was halted just ouside the center flag when practically all my men were low on ammo.

I always play Axis against my opponent in CMBB so I have a lot of experience with the German ubertanks. As a matter of fact I recently started a battle against the AI that takes place during Kursk. The King Tiger, put simply, is a beast. My advice is to stay far far away. I remember one late war 1945 battle we played I had a very depleted force of German infantry trying to break out of a Russian encirclement. It would've been tough except that I was provided with two King Tigers. Let me tell you, with those things I blew a -huge- hole in his lines and got my force through. He lost many a T-34 trying to stop me too. Poor fellow. He gets his revenge in CMAK and CMBO though where I play Allies.

I saw a Green German squad go fanatical once while holding their ground against a very strong Soviet attack. The Marxist T-34's completely broke our lines and most of my force was killed, captured, or running. But I saw this little squad of 9 rookies hold off against a bombardment by a T-34 to the last man. They were killed, but I was astounded they never broke and in retrospect realized they must've been fanatical. Was really pretty cool.

I'm currently playing the Allied side in an Australian counterattack on Crete. I was moving my company up a hill and fully expected the Germans to have their infantry up there hiding and ready to ambush us. So I split a squad, gave them sneak waypoints, and had them move ahead of the main group to try and detect enemy forces. Whether because of him or not, we encountered 7 German soldiers but the combined fire wiped 'em out (caused 2 casualties to us before they went down). The issue was that the split squad using the Sneak waypoint kept sneaking even after we'd encountered the enemy. And what's worse is that he was crawling -towards- the enemy, and started taking fire. Even after they'd taken a casualty they still kept sneaking. I was under the impression that units with Sneak orders will stop as soon as they encounter the enemy. So apparently I was wrong. To that end I want to learn a better tactic for scouting out enemy positions. I don't like to lose my men, so I prefer not to just send units scampering around the map until they get shot at. If I can have a half squad move up a ways, do a little spotting, and withdraw successfully when they make contact it would be great. But how do I do it?

Shocking a King Tiger eh? Nice job. Those things are absolute beasts. I blew a hole right through the Russian lines using only 2 of them. Flamethrowers are best on the defense. If you have them hide then they can ambush any approaching enemy troops and roast them. I was suprised when the same tactic works on armor. You'd think the flames would have no effect... anyone know why flamethrowers are effective even against a T-34?

I got my copy from the Battlefront website. We've been playing the battle for 10 turns now on PBEM, and I suppose once he logs back online we can try TCP/Ip again. Will let you all know how things turn out. Thanks for the help.

My frequent opponent reported this bug very often in CMBO, and recently it's started again for him on CMAK. We played through the entire scenario "On the Edge" via PBEM because it always crashes for him when we tried TCP/IP. Now we're playing another Crete battle, Waltzin' Matildas and I for the first time have experienced the error. At the end of the data transfer, when the red line reaches the end, I heard a "ping" and the game seemed to freeze. I couldn't do nothing, and after I hit enter (not sure if it was because of hitting enter or not though) the game crashed us both to the desktop. We're now going to have to resort to PBEM on this scenario as well. Does anyone know what this could be?

Apologies, I've only just realized that I should have posted this on the tech support forum...

Apologies, I've only just realized that I should have posted this on the tech support forum...

My frequent opponent reported this bug very often in CMBO, and recently it's started again for him on CMAK. We played through the entire scenario "On the Edge" via PBEM because it always crashes for him when we tried TCP/IP. Now we're playing another Crete battle, Waltzin' Matildas and I for the first time have experienced the error. At the end of the data transfer, when the red line reaches the end, I heard a "ping" and the game seemed to freeze. I couldn't do nothing, and after I hit enter (not sure if it was because of hitting enter or not though) the game crashed us both to the desktop. We're now going to have to resort to PBEM on this scenario as well. Does anyone know what this could be?

My frequent opponent reported this bug very often in CMBO, and recently it's started again for him on CMAK. We played through the entire scenario "On the Edge" via PBEM because it always crashes for him when we tried TCP/IP. Now we're playing another Crete battle, Waltzin' Matildas and I for the first time have experienced the error. At the end of the data transfer, when the red line reaches the end, I heard a "ping" and the game seemed to freeze. I couldn't do nothing, and after I hit enter (not sure if it was because of hitting enter or not though) the game crashed us both to the desktop. We're now going to have to resort to PBEM on this scenario as well. Does anyone know what this could be?

I've had a lot of success with flamethrowers against armored vehicles. In Our Backs to the Volga, a superb Stalingrad scenario by the way, one of the factories I'd captured was under pretty heavy counterattack and I could see the Russians moving tanks along the road to attack my men. So I positioned a few squads and a flamethrower team along the road to ambush them. My flamethrower burned the enemy's T-34 and immobilized a T-70, thereby saving my men in the factory.

I don't remember what I did. I played as the Germans and was cut to pieces by the T-34's. I did manage to cause a lot of infantry casualties in some areas though by just waiting for the Soviets to get close before firing, but I still lost the battle miserably. Didn't feel bad though since it was a historical defeat

Heh, yes I've read several of them :-P. I just want to see actual footage now.

I'm looking for some good documentaries on the Eastern Front. Preferably covering the entire war, but specifically the Battle of Berlin and the the events leading up to it. Am having a lot of trouble as most documentaries center on the Western or Pacific theaters.

Later on in the battle. The Germans probably surrendered to you before it could arrive.