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Wow! That's more images of the Finnish war than I've ever seen. Great stuff.

Another thing in the truth is stranger than fiction (or CM) department- I read of a Tiger commander who was killed by a Russian ATR round that went through his cupola vision block. That's a real-life weak point penetration that you won't see in the game.

Beren, don't stop playing, just play with people who don't distrust you. A few cool and unlikely (but not totally unlikely) events I've seen- A captured Panther and a King Tiger knock each other out simultaneously, the King Tiger dying from a weak point penetration. A British light mortar knocking himself out because a Nashorn parked next to him. "Wot a fat juicy target! For Christ's sake, adjust fire! Oh, sod it." A Panzerschreck knocking out a bren carrier with the blast effect of a miss! Not abandoned with crew casualty, but straight up knocked out. "Schlechter schuss... und ausgezeichnet!" Excuse my attempts at other languages. There's a thread on these forums somewhere with many many such stories.

Hi Dandelion, If I understand you correctly, that wasn't my sig in my last post, it was just a quote from Keegan for that one post. But your comment has encouraged me to take the 187th's motto as my signature line. Cheers.

About the air attack on geyr von Schweppengerg's HQ- (To expand on Jacob's Ladder 2's earlier point) John keegan, in Six Armies in Normandy, seems to indicate that the air attack itself was prompted simply by the volume and character of radio traffic coming from the HQ, not by the eventually decoded content of the traffic. (pp.150 to 152 of that book.) 'A by-product of the 'Sigint' which had prompted the air attack on Panzer Group West, however, was the warning, extracted by the Bletchley 'Ultra' apparatus, of its impending offensive.' (p.152)

Thanks, Andreas That's exacly the kind of info I was looking for. Yes, I meant tactical as well as small unit. (Higher context, and typical CM scale actions.) There is a lot of good inspiration for designing scenarios in those documents!

Thanks, Blue Streak! Looks like great stuff on that site!

A few Tiger questions for you grognards out there- What were the German policies for the use of heavy tanks? In other words, given a choice, where and when would the Germans use them instead of medium tank units? Was there a specific doctrine on how to mix them with other types of units? Were there historical 'textbook examples' of this, or did the Tigers mostly just end up being thrown in on an ad hoc basis. I'd be interested to know about this on the tactical level as well as on the level of the heavy tank battalion.

In the right circumstances a low ammo squad can still kill tons of enemy infantry. For example, at night, defending in a trench, armed with smg's. (Admittedly, this was against the AI, which could only find them by being killed by them, and I think the squad must have gone fanatical.) Nevertheless, they killed many times their own number with their 'last handfull' of ammo. I'm sure the same thing would work defending heavy buildings, etc.

I kind of like using guns on the offensive because: A It makes you have to think a bit (potentially). B It can be a surprise to the enemy when they get into position and open up. My habit, if there are woods on the map, is to push them through the trees with a MTC command, then blast targets of opportunity. Otherwise, a good use is to have them cover an objective flag, so they can suppress, kill or throw smoke when the flag's defenders reveal themselves. If you're feeling cocky, you could even use them to knock down buildings likely to have enemy in them. If I can, I keep them under command by an HQ with a concealment bonus while they're moving up through cover- though this may not be really necessary. See also a related topic on one of these furums titled 'PAKs in the streets'.

Yeah. I wish they'd save them for armored targets, but the infantry probably feels they need the extra suppressive edge they get by using them against infantry. Can't blame those poor little digital fellers.

I find that units with panzerfausts are TOO MUCH ready willing and able to use them, for my purposes. If I have a squad with a panzerfaust 60 or 100, I usually give them a covered arc of roughly half the range of the weapon, when an enemy vehicle approaches. beyond this range the weapon is too likely to miss, as far as I'm concerned. Regardless of how many panzerfausts your squad has, you can often only count on ONE decent unsuppressed opportunity to fire, and you want to make it count. I hate seeing my men "take initiative" and miss wildly at maximum range. It makes the enemy armor very angry.

Remember also that a smart defender may protect the flanks and rear of his bunkers with mines or ambushing infantry. I learned this while trying to destroy a bunker with 155mm artillery- I didn't kill the bunker, but I routed the hidden infantry dug in around it, who would have wasted my approaching assault element.

You never forget your first ambush- I had squad of ppsh men in woods, a squad of landsers tried to cross a road in front of them. First time I ever saw a whole squad KIA in one burst. Not surprising at all, of course, but quite impressive the first time you see it happen.

Congratulations and best wishes to COG and family!

Looks awesome! Does that shadow come with the mod? Ha. Congrats.

Oh, also- I understand that in real life, generally, snipers benefit most from being placed high up in buildings and MG's at ground level, to get the greatest effect out of their firepower. If the game could model the grazing/plunging issue just well enough to reward realistic decisions like that, I would be satisfied. I seem to recall that Squad Leader allowed machine gun fire to affect a column of three hexes. (120 meters) Maybe not a bad abstraction for a complex issue. I recall killing nine cavalry squads in a street that way, with one blast from an MG. But that was another lifetime...

Anybody ever heard of the US quad .50 cal used as an indirect fire weapon? They used it that way in Vietnam. I wonder if it was used that way in WWII as well, and if it could be in CMX2? (Not holding my breath waiting to see that, though.)

Great -looking mod, Aristoteles. You've got that dark shadowy smokestained look going on. Hope you don't mind if I point out the typo in your picture. The concept of a 'battleworm' raises frightening possibilities. Congrats.

If you have a map, maybe it could be given as part of the breifing. Then you may find out whether it's accurate... My personal wish list- (sure, not all original) Streetlamps, telephone poles, civilian cars, train cars several types of bridge structures- steel superstructure, stone wall as railing, no railing, etc. several types of walls- tall stone walls, tall wooden fences that block line of sight even for tanks. Tank ditches impassable to vehicles. Very short los areas, like denser woods or series of urban back yards with many high fences. (You sure you want to send troops in there?) Several types of industrial structures- silos, cranes, etc. several types of boats. The Germans had motorized assault boats, for example houses on sloped terrain. several types of victory conditions- have an amount of troops pass a line on-board. Clear enemy from a certain area. I find the focus on flags a bit gamey and unrealistic, makes it too easy to know exactly where the enemy is focussing. Several types of SOP orders- "fire once then retreat" "retreat if spotted"(good for scout cars), etc. A combination movement command, like- "advance when in open, MTC when in cover, pause if tiring". That would save a LOT of pointing and clicking. ...hope these haven't ALL been suggested before...

If you have a map, maybe it could be given as part of the breifing. Then you may find out whether it's accurate... My personal wish list- (sure, not all original) Streetlamps, telephone poles, civilian cars, train cars several types of bridge structures- steel superstructure, stone wall as railing, no railing, etc. several types of walls- tall stone walls, tall wooden fences that block line of sight even for tanks. Tank ditches impassable to vehicles. Very short los areas, like denser woods or series of urban back yards with many high fences. (You sure you want to send troops in there?) Several types of industrial structures- silos, cranes, etc. several types of boats. The Germans had motorized assault boats, for example houses on sloped terrain. several types of victory conditions- have an amount of troops pass a line on-board. Clear enemy from a certain area. I find the focus on flags a bit gamey and unrealistic, makes it too easy to know exactly where the enemy is focussing. Several types of SOP orders- "fire once then retreat" "retreat if spotted"(good for scout cars), etc. A combination movement command, like- "advance when in open, MTC when in cover, pause if tiring". That would save a LOT of pointing and clicking. ...hope these haven't ALL been suggested before...

It's interesting that the US Army's ETO "Battle Experiences" book (basically a real-life Tips and Tricks forum) published at the end of the war, doesn't mention the use of halftracks at all. This seems significant since the book covers practically everything down to the best improvised combat use of the P-38 can opener. It leads me to believe, or confirms, that the Army didn't really intend for HT's to be fighting on the front line. One nice thing about the US halftracks in CMAK is the substantial AA capability their MG's have, especially combined with the .50's on tanks. I once had a couple platoons of HT's and tanks approaching their objective, an Italian fighter flew over, and the whole sky filled with tracers. An awesome sight! That was the end of that fighter plane. If anyone wants to do a search, there are other big threads on thiese forums about using HT's.

I think I read on this forum that the Sturmtiger took 10 minutes to reload, but the game reduces that to 3 minutes to increase playability. It might be interesting to reduce the ammo load to one round per ten minutes of scenario length, as a way to "abstractly" model the vehicle's influence on the battlefield more accurately. For example, in a 30 minute battle the Sturmtiger would get to fire three times. Granted, it would be less fun.

Well, not exactly, but here are a couple reasons that you should keep your units away from vehicles if you can. 1. Vehicles that blow up can kill nearby units. Guns seem especially vulnerable to this. I just played a scenario in which 3 irreplaceable AT guns were killed by their own soft-skinned vehicles blowing up nearby. It was just small arms fire that caused it. Also, the trucks start moving all over the place when fired upon, so you want to keep them further away than simply parked across the street. 2. Vehicles, even knocked out ones (unless on fire), can attract air attack from either side. If it comes in the form of bombs, any nearby unit is in danger regardless of cover. I guess this advice applies mostly to the defense, to prevent somewhat random losses of valuable units like guns or FO's. When you're attacking you have different priorities.

Rule number 9: Use TRP's (if ya got 'em) .This works for stationary ambush position, not shoot and scoot. Especially valuable if you're firing from a considerable range; if your first shots miss, you're in trouble.