Falcon988

This was a great victory against my TCP/IP opponent. He played Axis. I, like everyone else, advanced my infantry through the left forest. There were a few casualties early on in the vineyards to German artillery fire, but nothing my men couldn't handle. The Shermans and Stuarts popped smoke and moved up the hill. The smoke covered their advance, and allowed me to protect certain units while giving others opportunities to fire. In this way I wiped out both of the German AT guns and the Stug while only losing one Stuart. It was a great armored attack. My GI Platoons reached the northern edge of the forest and engaged the defending German platoon across the wheatfield. Our overwhelming fire pinned them down and allowed me to advance several squads up to the wall. This is when we took our first heavy casualties as at least a dozen men were killed or wounded as they fought from that wall. After the German MG42 in the Church, which had caused me most of my casualties, was routed I advanced my men through the wheatfield. The GI's ran through, stopping to shoot along the way, until they reached the second wall. My two forward platoons effectively wiped out all German resistance over there. The three platoons I ran in as reinforcements was just overkill. All the while I'd ran my Shermans up to the very doorstep of the town, just far enough away to keep them out of range from German infantry. They captured a tank hunter crew, and shot the living crap out of the German troops in the town. This was very useful since it kept my opponent from moving his platoons to interrupt my infantry attack through the wheatfield. He was effectively pinned down. At this stage we lost an additional Sherman to a panzerfaust, but all in all casualties had been light. Now though my men were very quickly approaching the climax of the battle. With the left side of the village in American hands we had to move right and flank the remaining German infantry (pinned down by my Shermans). Just then the German Tiger crashed the party and wiped out 2 of my Greyhounds up on the hill to our south. It took up a position at the bridge and harassed any American infantry that came into its LOS. As of yet though my tanks couldn't see it since it was blocked by all the houses. As my platoons advanced right they met strong infantry resistance. Which we could handle. The climax came when the German tiger opened up on my infantry as they advanced and caused me some 15 - 20 casualties. One of my squads became routed and ran off. It got pretty bloody but all German troops were eliminated and my men were able to hide from the Tiger. Now all we had to do was take the bridge (which the Tiger was occupying). I fast moved all my tanks into the village streets after a Sherman was destroyed by the Tiger. They took up positions all over town hiding behind houses. Then, essentially, I rushed the Tiger from all sides with a Sherman, 2 M10's, 2 Engineer platoons, and 3 Bazooka's. In the end it came down to the final showdown. True spaghetti western style. You could hear Ennio Morricone's music as the Tiger took aim at one of my M10's, the M10 took aim at the Tiger, and another M10 further up (which my opponent hadn't seen) took aim at the Tiger's vulnerable side armor. Also in true spaghetti western style, all tanks fired simultaneously, and when the shooting died only 1 of the 3 was left alive. My M10. The Tiger and the M10 fired. The M10 was destroyed, and its shot richocheted off the Tiger's armor. But at the same time my other M10's blast ripped through its armor and disabled it. The Germans surrendered immediately afterwards. I had 65 casualties. He had about 105. Great battle.

There are thousands of moments of individual heroism in CM's virtual battlefields. The AI is really something Here are a few that stick in my mind to this day... In the CMBO battle to capture Pegasus Bridge. Corporal Perkins, head of my PIAT crew, destroyed two German tanks and saved everyone's arse. They took out the first one from the house, and then actually ran out -into the open- to destroy the other. His loader was killed by enemy fire as they were running back. It was really something. CMBB battle Verkhne Gulbaya. My German platoons put up an SUPERB defense and killed -many- Russians before they were finally overwhelmed. CMAK Demo the Last Defense. My attacking American infantry run from some woods and take cover behind a wall under heavy fire from the Germans. They breach the wall and advance under fire through the wheatfield, stopping to shoot along the way, taking casualties, but eventually manage to win the day. CMAK demo Fruhlswind. American Grants and Shermans defend themselves bravely against more Panzer III's than I ever wanted to see in my life.

I -loved- the CMAK demo. Played both battles against a human opponent and I won both w/ the Allies. I'm sorry to hear you didn't like the Last Defense as that was my favorite of the two. I won a tactical victory and only took 65 casualties so it's not impossible. Just takes a little thought in your approach as the Germans -are- pretty well dug in. Great battle it was

I played this scenario TCP/IP with my usual Combat Mission opponent. He took the Axis side and it was a real good show. All settings and the set up were on default. Where to begin? The Axis brought down their 105mm's on 3rd Platoon positioned near the Company HQ to the right of the Orchard. The first 105 of the battle killed a member of the Company HQ. Afterwards 3rd Platoon's M3 Halftrack engaged the German PSW Armored Cars & Halftracks as they came in range, but was hit and exploded. The explosion killed one member of the crew and must've severely burnt the rest. Not only that but Sergeant Lane, 3rd Platoon, had his foxhole right next to the M3 when it blew up and one of his men got hit. They went into a panic and ran off. So things weren't going well Lt. Bozak's 2nd Platoon was holding on the far left north of the Orchard. I had a Halftrack & Grant stationed over there to support him & his men. The Germans assaulted through their sector unfortunately and we lost the Halftrack. What the Axis did not see however were the two AT guns I had hiding; Corporal Corrales with 2nd Platoon and Corporal Berger waaay back with 3rd Platoon at the Company Headquarters. When the PSW's came into sight they were promptly struck down by AT Guns and Grants. 2 Platoon was then hit by 81mm mortars and suffered its first couple of casualties. They also defended against a small infantry attack that was beaten off with the help of Sgt. Warner's Grant. All in all they had the highest casualties of the battle (although they were still relatively light). My Shermans showed up just in time to help me deal with the Panzer III's. I was quite sure I was going to get overrun since I was -very- outnumbered tank wise and had already lost one Grant (Sgt. Jack's) near the Orchard a few turns earlier. Still there was nothing for it and I set up a nice defensive line. Sgt. Warner's Grant supported 2nd Platoon north of the Orchard. Sgt's Arabian and Orton moved their M4A1's north just ahead of the Orchard and engaged Panzer III's from there. The Grant CO Lt. Hamel and his comrade Sgt. Jenner would fight with 4th Platoon on the road to Sidi Bou Zid. Sgt. Rouselle's Grant and MacGonigal's M4A1 would fight a little ways down the road from them while the Sherman CO Lt. Edison & Sgt. Sablove fought on the road behind Company HQ & 3rd Platoon. So that was my tank defense against the onslaught of Panzer III's. Essentially I had them all over the front. Here's what happened. The Axis Panzers engaged us from long range and a very long tank battle ensued. We had them in a crossfire, and he lost a few Panzers very early on. My tanks fought -very- bravely and skillfully to the end. At 4th Platoon's position Lt. Hamel and Sgt. Jenner's Grants were both hit after putting up a fierce fight and downing several Panzers. Sgt's Rouselle, Sablove, and Orton were also knocked out. All crews made it out of their vehicles safely. For those losses though we destroyed the entire Panzer force save for one or two tanks. At that point the Germans were getting desperate so they sent infantry & a Panzer III to attack 2nd Platoon again. Cpl Caldwell's two man bazooka team was killed by enemy fire while they lay in their foxholes trying to keep their heads down. But with the armored superiority I had I was able to use Sgt. Warner's Grant and Sgt. Arabian's Sherman to destroy the Panzer and shoot up the infantry. Simultaneously a platoon of Germans attacked 4th Platoon through open ground, but the story was pretty much the same. With the Shermans support 4th Platoon beat them off and only suffered minor casualties. A stronger attack hit 3rd Platoon as the Germans used a ravine to cover their movements and then attacked in force. But they were mowed down as well. At the end of the battle the last remaining Panzer III mounted what looked like a suicide attack. He rolled full speed towards 4th Platoon. Sgt. Atak's squad, seeing a fully laden Panzer III charging at them, ran away without suffering any casualties or even being fired upon. The Panzer was destroyed by a Sherman, and the entire German crew captured. Afterwards the surviving Germans surrendered, and I won a total victory. The Germans lost 38 killed, 102 wounded, 225 captured, and 22 vehicles. My casualties were 7 killed, 26 wounded, and 8 vehicles destroyed. It was a great battle. I had a good time. Line of Defense was even better though :-P

I didn't have any issues with the P-51 in Line of Defense. SPOILERS! It strafed the enemy's Tiger tank just fine. Missed it though and apparently flew off because I never saw it again. Pain in the arse that it missed though. I had to surround that Tiger with infantry and tanks by the bridge in order to kill it, and even then it managed to get one of my M10's.

Here's an interesting thought. After all the fighting is over and the two armies go home exactly who & how does the cleaning up? I'm wondering about Stalingrad in particular. I'm pretty sure they didn't just leave a million bodies and thousands of destroyed vehicles on the streets. What is done with them? How long does the clean up job take?

I've been studying the terrain surrounding a city I'm preparing to attack in a PBEM game (to be played later today). It's the Italy scenario on the demo. Anyway, there's a lot of open ground and I just want to know how to pop smoke to cover my boys during the attack. I remember reading something long ago about using artillery, but I'm not clear on that. Also tanks seem to be only able to use their smoke shells when they're under attack by other tanks. A little help in this regard would be appreciated

I've been running through the campaign chronologically on the Allied side and have noticed something interesting. During the Operation titled "Blitzkrieg" I lost 301 men killed and another 300 wounded. Basically 1 for 1. Yet just recently I was attacked by a small mechanized force and had 8 men killed, 31 wounded which is practically 1 killed for every 4 men hit. I am very interested in knowing & understanding the reason for this sort of killed/wounded ratio.

Another question... I just played through another battle and after it was complete my troops had occupied St. Come-Du-Mont but were always under attack by the Germans. In fact right up until the end there were Germans attacking. But I had troops all the way inside Du-Mont, occupying the local Church and whatnot... but now the next battle the front line is just SOUTH of where I actually was and it looks like I have to take the town again. But if there's Germans there again that means I'll have to go through yet ANOTHER battle to take it. Why did the front line switch?

After taking St. Come-Du-Mont and the Cottage north of that we prepared for the final advance on the Douvre Bridge. What sucked though is that German armor was hassling us from the get go and each side lost a few tanks in the fighting. Then the infantry came under artillery fire and this is where I made a CRITICAL mistake... instead of ordering them to fall back I ordered them to advance under the arty fire and hopefully get away from it. Very soon we encountered stiff Infantry resistance and started taking high casualties. Then a German flamethrower started torching my boys and it became a route. I started dropping 105mm's on advancing German troops and caused them a lot of casualties, plus knocked out a Halftrack at the same time. Forward Observers are great... that is until he was killed by the German troops. In the end most of my force was killed or wounded and about 3 became POW's. We lost a LOT of hard won ground and the front line now lies at the southern end of St. Come-Du-Mont. Good news is that we've got reinforcements in the form of two Shermans and about 3 Platoons of Infantry and we're ready to start Battle 5 of the Operation. Right now my plan is to take up defensive positions in St. Come-Du-Mont for at least another day until more reinforcements show up and then launch another assault on the Douvre Bridge. Any of you expert tacticians got any advice on how to avoid another massacre like the one listed above?

I'm playing through that right now (going through the whole game in chronological order). It's quite bloody but the Allies are gaining a lot of ground. On day 1 we lost every tank we had thanks to German AT guns that blasted them on the roads but the Infantry took St. Come Du Mont but with heavy casualties since the Germans bombarded them on the road. But the Americans in turn bombarded the village and destroyed several buildings that machine guns were positioned in, which really helped in Du Mont's capture. On the other side of the field the Infantry got pinned down in an open field and ended up staying there the whole day fighting for their lives. Day 2 what infantry I had in Du Mont stayed there for most of the day. Reinforcements showed up to help the boys on the left flank and they made a VERY cautious and VERY slow advance up the map, covering each other and whatnot. I made it the objective to capture the cottage just north of Come-Du-Mont. We threw a few arty rounds around that cottage just to shake up the German defenders (if there were any) and continued with my leftern advance. After they passed the bocage my Infantry came under withering fire from Germans on the other side of the field and the 1 remaining German AT gun (we knocked one out the day before) pounded the crap out of them. Took quite a few casualties. The Germans started to bombard them and so I was forced to move the Infantry up even more and so they were now under attack by Germans defending the cottage as well. My Two Shermans were knocked out by the AT gun (that's how I found out it was there and so I figured we were pretty screwed. That is until the battle shifted in our favor when our own 105mm's started raining down on the Germans and knocked out that AT gun. Plus my platoon & their Sherman from St. Come-Du-Mont joined in the fighting and we drove them off. It's now Battle 4, Day 2 (we had one nightfall and that's included as 1 Battle I suppose). Reinforcements have arrived and we occupy a position JUST south of the cottage. I wouldn't be surprised if the Germans had cleared out by now. In any case there's still a lot of terrain to get through so I'll be going back to my game now

I'm a bit new to this game so I would like some suggestions on the real life tactics that would be used for this scenario. I'm playing from the German side and simply trying to get my supply columns through the highway and onto Moscow but we're being harrassed by Soviet T-34's. I deployed my AT guns and Panzers on the other side of the lake to engage the enemy from long range but we were simply pulverized. Can't seem to get the right angle, and when I do the gun is quickly destroyed. Any help would be appreciated.

Well all I had to do was take a German platoon up and we flanked the bunker just fine. A squad was behind it -very- close, targetted it, and soon there was a "HIT" message and the thing was knocked out. We had to withdraw afterwards thanks to MG's but the point is that bunker busting works [ December 31, 2002, 05:57 PM: Message edited by: Falcon988 ]

Well, I'm playing both games in chronological order and in BB have just arrived at Hill 312 in Leningrad. In the last battle I commanded a battalion or so of Finnish troops in their assault on Viipuri and it turned into a slaughter when we ran into the Soviet trenches and machine guns. -My- machine gunners were fired upon, panicked, then ran so after mass casualties I called the whole thing off. 26 Finnish dead, about 90 wounded, and the Russians only had 1 man wounded. Quite a shock really. Anyway so I've been reading this thread and have got some idea on a better way to attack a fixed position at Hill 312 so... eh, I'll give it my best shot. Point is in the battle I'm about to do we -have- to take the bloody trenches to get up that Hill.

I can't seem to load up any of my saved games. Can anyone help with this?

Thanks a lot. That's really made my battles more coherent . The British Airbourne practically lost Pegasus Bridge though... would've if the invasion forces hadn't linked up at the last minute though we had some 90 killed. I don't know how the heck they did that in real life. Right now I'm with the 82nd on D-Day itself trying to hold yet another bridge with much loss. Good news is that the remaining Germans are on the other side of the causeway some 200 yards away and the causeway is surrounded by Marsh so no halftracks can come across. Hence the Germans will have to come straight down the road (if they do come at all). Right now we're just sitting around 200 yards apart facing each other WW1 style. War is so bloody difficult :-P By the way, is there any list like that for Barbarossa to Berlin? I'd like to play that in order too when I get to it.

I just received the Bundle Pack yesterday and have been having a great time ever since. Been playing with the Americans wherever I can but so far the only battle I've won is the Tutorial (where you seize the crossroads). Got my men slaughtered at Aachen and in the Carentan operation plus my French soldiers lost some 8 tanks to one Panther in Paris. I have a lot to learn I suppose Anyway, out of curiosity is there any way to organize the battles so that you can play them in chronological order? It kind've bugs me to play D-Day one minute then attack the Eagle's Nest next. Or at least some way that I know which battle comes after what... it's not a big deal by any means, just a personal preference .