General Jack Ripper

The same way you can drop a water balloon onto someone from the roof of a tall building. If anyone asks, I've never done that... In fact, forget I said anything.

Remember when drones were super-secret uberweapons used only by the most technically advanced militaries? Me neither. >Buy camera drone at Best Buy. >Fit remote-controlled grappling arm. >Instant UCAV.

Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy had a similar system.

Mine was the Saratoga. I was just a kid when I built her, and I didn't glue down all the little airplanes, so I could play with them later. That was a lot of fun.

Indeed. Otherwise a 20 minute video would have 19 minutes of orders, and one minute of action.

Machine Translation Excerpt: To be clear, in addition to the HIGGINS BOAT (LCVP) was also the British version, the LCA, used by V Corps in Omaha Beach (in the sector DOG-Green and FOX-Green). These boats had a uk mate (Coxwain). The HIGGINS BOAT (LCVP) had as the crew a U.s. Navy or Coast Guard (Coast Guard) mate, with two assistants who among other things the two machine guns could operate. The first wave would land on Omaha Beach that consisted of 30 LCVP's and 18 Lcas in which the ' Assault Boat Teams ' were brought in. In the first wave of LCVP's existed an ' Assault Boat Team ' from one company in 6 landing boats, plus one boat with the Headquarters on board. HIGGINS BOAT (LCVP) or Higgins Boat ', each more popular ' mentioned by the American soldier, had about 30 men on Board (there were rules (see the classification lower on this page), but these were adjusted here and there). One company consisted of 193 men and six officers. In the seven LCVP's to the company to transport, were three rifle platoons, 35 man, divided. HIGGINS BOAT (LCVP) had five each rifle shooters on board. This gives a distorted picture, because one might think that the other men on board wore no rifle. But we must not forget that the basis of the first wave of infantry existed, and these carry firearms. In addition to the five M1 Garand rifles, of the ' rifle team ', there were at least fourteen others with the M1 Garand and M1 carbine equipped with a five. On this next page, the first landings cited those Eastern took place at Omaha Beach. This Eastern three sectors were under supervision of the 16th RCT (Regimental Combat Team), 1st Infantry Division. The two divisions would land on Omaha, the 1st Infantry Division, and the 29th Division were under command of General Leonard Gerow, Commander of V Corps. The Commander of the 1st Infantry Division was Major General Clarence Ralph Huebner. Huebner was appointed by General Omar Bradley in 1943 to ' The Big Red One ', to find out more dicipline. Among the popular General Terry Allen was sometimes the dicipline in North Africa. After the victory in Tunisia celebrated the men of the 1st Division events and robbed all loose and was stuck. Reluctantly started the men under Huebner to the rigorous training, but slowly threw the dicipline and fruit, the Division was again a regular fighting unit. Rear Admiral John l. Hall, Jr., Commander of Force "O" was responsible for the two divisions, 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions, and the Ranger Battalions and further support to Omaha Beach, part of Operation ' Neptune '. Operation ' Neptune ', part of Operation ' Overlord ', is the ultimate attack on d-day, 6 June 1944. In addition to the Maritime units are also the airborne units (airborne divisions) in. For the landing of the 16th Regimental Combat Team, led by Colonel George Taylor, 3502 men and 295 vehicles were brought together. Around 6500 staff had to make sure the 16th RCT to country came. Accommodated in Assault Group O-1 were three large transport ships to all men of the 1st Infantry Division about; two us transport ships, the USS USS Samuel Chase (APA-26) and USS Henrico (APA-45) and the British Ministry of War transport Landing Ship, Infantry (Large) Empire Anvil. There were also 6 Landing Ship Tank (LST), 53 Landing Craft Tank (Lcts in several versions) and 5 Landing Craft Infantry, Large (LCI (L) available. Also there were 81 LCVP's, and 18 British Lcas, supported by 13 other type boats, such as Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM) and around the DUKW's 64 amphibious vehicles available for the 1st Infantry Division. The second major regiment of the 1st Division which would land in the morning, after the 16th Regiment, was the 18th RCT under the command of Colonel George a. Smith Jr. The 16th Infantry Regiment was the only unit with battlefield experience in the first wave was that was used during d-day. The experiences gained in North Africa (1942) and Sicily (1943) were of no utility on 6 June 1944. On this day, these forces must be countries in the eastern sector of Omaha Beach. This sector was divided into three parts and were indicated as follows; the easternmost was FOX-Red. On FOX-Red was not an attack. Then the FOX-Green sector, which directly for Exit-3 (E-3), the route to Colleville-sur-Mer. Both sectors offered no place to hide from. At the end of the beach, lay a gravel edge, where no handhold was or a schuttersput could be dug. The area was defended by Wn Wn 62, 61 and with formidable artillery, machine guns, land mines, mortars, etc. Here had to Co. I and co. L to come ashore, but they missed this place and ' washed ' on FOX-Red. Further to the West came the EASY-Red sector, a sector at the bottom of the high Hill (which nowadays the American Cemetery is laid out). Easy-Red lay under cross-fire of 62 and 65, the away Wn Wn a crossfire that many victims would demand under the American first wave of Company e. and f. On EASY-Green would Company E, 2nd Battalion 116th RCT (29th div.) should countries. It was the only company which Western of the important "Draw" E-1, walked into the heavily defended Wn 64 and 65 Wn. As we will see later, landed co. e. 116th, not in EASY-Green, but the sector and even in FOX-EASY-Red and Green. To the West of the sector was EASY-Green DOG-Red, where co. f. had her target, and in the next sector, DOG-White would co. G. walk in, but even these two groups layers of course and landed both in the field of EASY-Green! By these shifts, landed there virtually no landing boat in the sector DOG-White and DOG-Red. Dog-Green was the exit D-1, the road (Draw) to Vierville-sur-Mer. Here landed co. a., 1st Bn. 116Th RCT with later support of co. C, 2nd Ranger Battalion. A true massacre would take place among this group (about which more later). The first wave would land on Omaha Beach that consisted of 30 LCVP's and 18 Lcas in which the ' Assault Boat Teams ' were brought in. That seems like a lot, but spread over a width of more than 5 kilometers, is that only 10 landing boats per kilometre, and only one to the hundred meters! But, as many a photo proves, kept the boats away. The survival instinct does humans, and animal, together. Disadvantage of this tactic is that it is one big target. Despite the order from the commanders as spread as possible, to go, one searches protection together. Other factors for the large losses is the relatively small ' hole ' at the front of the bow making every soldier outward. One machine gun lost on this narrow space, can make short work of anyone who appears in it. Third factor that for large losses was Omaha Beach itself. During the incoming tide the landing boats were stuck in the sand banks of the beach. So, on quite some distance from the tide line, the men were discharged. These men were packed, so heavily that then in depth disappeared from the current flowing between the bar and the beach. If the LCVP's in the first wave with a part of the 16th RCT on their way to FOX and EASY, they come on quite some distance from the beach all bobbing men against in the sea. It is the 27 crew members of the sunken DD tanks. But these men could not be stopped to pick up. Probably had no one on board by whom or what those guys were, and they were ignorant that tank support would be minimal. The skippers of the LCVP's sought in the raging sea to keep their course, but in the same boat was pounding the coastline, and they had the greatest difficulty to locate their sector. The start of the incoming tide, the flow to the East, the strong wind did most landing boats drifting to the left. As mention before, is the human being compliant to someone who takes the lead. Sailors aboard the landing boats, with salt in their eyes of the splashing sea, which their compass saw squirming, looked at other boats how that ' layers ' on track. If there is one slightly forward, then the rest will use this as a beacon to course, but what if the first 20% of track, and on kilometers of the beach, and too far East trip? On board were the men pressed together. Nauseous and vomited many seasick the early breakfast out. Nowhere a seat and one tried. In addition to the infantry in the first wave also LCVP's with other units. These units would be some minutes before the infantry should countries. Would the DD tanks as first on the beach in action, that turned out to be utterly failed, especially in the eastern sector. With the entry into the LCVP's were also the LCT arrived when standard two M4 Sherman tanks, plus one Dozer tank. These tanks, equipped with so-called ' wading ' rolled out the landing boats, shafts and then looked for a way through the German obstacles. Of the 16 tanks for support of 16th RCT, five were turned off before they reached the beach. A very important task was reserved for the 16 Army-Navy Special Engineer Task Force group which had to blow up the obstacles to create holes where the landing boats could sail through it to the beach. By the circumstances that morning, came only five groups at their location, and ten minutes late (the Engineers had in the pounding sea of the LCI have to change in the LCM's, a slightly larger implementation of the HIGGINS BOAT (LCVP)). The distributed Special Engineer Task Force was to a large extent stripped of their ' tools '. From the LCM's were put in the sea in rubber boats and stuff. Loaded with explosive set up this course to their goals, the obstacles that had to be blown up. Mortars were found to be deadly to the inflatables. Several teams were victim of exploding explosives which the inflatables and the inexperienced American Navy personnel, who were responsible to bring the rubber boats to the specialists, apart jumps. The specialists, the Engineers had to make the spring loads and explode. Only a few Engineers had the required equipment with him to be able to go to work. The others, without their tools, ensured that they are safe on the beach in coverage. Here they took a new role, that of lifeguards. Many a HIGGINS BOAT (LCVP) was in trouble and the men on board and were doomed to drown in the sea by fatigue. Famous photos there are on FOX-Green created by Engineers (recognizable by the bright half circle on their helmet), that comrades from sea, hereby using their rubber boats. As almost everywhere during the landing on Omaha Beach ran the first wave stuck on the sand bank off the coast. Here were the flaps lowered and the men had to rise. In most cases the boats within the bullets flew directly. Men jumped over the high railing as they could not through the valve. Those who thought safe to go overboard, then went down in the trench flow behind the bar. From survival were bepakkingen and weapons off, to prevent drowning. Meanwhile flew deadly lead the landing craft within. Some men who were trying to get valve unscathed, could, due to cramp from the long, almost no step forward. Those who were able to scavenge from the sea on its own, fell exhausted on the beach and crawled slowly for the incoming tide. Once ' safe ' behind the gravel edge, the bottom of the hills, attacked the mortars, or ran one by mines on. Despite rescue attempts, no one could prevent alone Company E 105 men lost to dead and wounded in the first wave. Among the dead was also Captain Edward f. Wozenski. Its task would be taken over by Lieutenant John Spaulding, by that name would make a breakthrough towards Wn 64.

Yes it does. But the "Deploying", "Aiming", and "Firing" actions, so far as I can tell, are completely unaffected. EDIT: I just checked my recorded video, and reloading times are also unaffected to any noticeable degree.

Daunting? Quite. I personally prefer to command nothing larger than a reinforced company. I can do Battalions, but I find it tedious, and I tend to leave large portions of it in reserve. Degradation of command ability as the situation develops is quite normal, to the point I will simply not give orders for several turns. If you're trying to micro manage every single fire team on every single turn, you are too focused on micromanaging. Only your spearhead units should be split all the way down. Follow on forces can be used in "bricks" as it were. The casualty rates you are seeing with Combined Arms are perfectly normal. First, do your homework: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmW_vcwM_qxukdDjpfUEerpICUzTrTKek Second, the "+" and "-" keys are your friends. Third, your troops don't need orders every turn. Let them shoot it out a bit before reacting. "Bullets are cheaper than soldiers, so use more bullets, and less soldiers." - Me There's no need to leave the bulk of your force in a rear area. As you clear each major terrain feature, move up your reserves. Try to plan your movement as a series of "jumps" and keep your reserves no more than one or two "jumps" behind your leading forces. Your use of tanks and heavy weapons is correct, but you might want to carefully observe the effects of your fire, and not waste time shooting empty foxholes. Use your heavy weapons fire as cover to move a small infantry force into the enemy position, don't try to eliminate ALL of the enemy with nothing but gunfire. You'll just be wasting time. Time is a precious commodity. Once you get better at managing your troops, you'll find it easier to split off separate forces and deal with multiple objectives simultaneously, which will massively relieve the time pressure you are feeling. There's nothing wrong with that picture. If the enemy cannot fire on that bridge, you might as well be strolling down Main Street, Anytown USA.

If I could +1 this post, I would +1 the heck out of it. +1. Extra double mega +1. Many, and anyone who has read them all has likely forgotten more than most other people have even read. I love big, chunky manuals, but then again, I'm a lifelong war-nerd. None. The USA was never in a position to have to rush poorly trained soldiers up to the front lines. The only technical possibility might be some garrison troops in the Pacific, but even then, the war had been going on long enough for plenty of additional training and drill. 1939 - 1941 is a long time to train. Also no. Draftees sent to the ETO were fully trained, and would be classified 'Green" according to the game manual. Remember, the variable being described is a Skill Level, not the circumstances under which the soldier enters service. Get over yourself. That's not what trolling is. Good riddance. Might as well delete your forum account too. All that matters is what the term means in the game. Everything else is useless. That would certainly turn me bitter, in fact, I might just be furious. A spacious, comfortable, ergonomic, and reliable vehicle, replaced with a vehicle that has none of those qualities. Yeah, furious would qualify. As I vaguely recall, the idea behind that is Green units would have higher Motivation, given the fact they had not yet been shot at. They were more willing to attack, but were short on results, and often suffered greater casualties than veteran units who had fought on the same ground. I forget where the discussion originated from, it's back in the shadowy cobwebs of my brain, but it is a military problem as old as time itself. You have to blood your men to get the best out of them. It sucks, but there it is.

He's a good man. I first found out about him on an idle google search of my own username. I certainly hadn't heard of him before choosing it. Also: I didn't expect such a good page on tvtropes. You find the most interesting things, John. Trouble is, the very first thing I noticed during my test series was the fact team exhaustion has no appreciable effect on performance. Exhausted soldiers can still aim and fire their weapons nearly as well as fully rested soldiers, especially bipod and tripod mounted weapons. Setup and takedown times for deployable weapons are similarly unaffected. So, you see, we are learning things already, but the idea of doing comparative testing using a terrain course is basically null. I think the new focus will be more of a straight up firing range, with comparison of say, kneeling versus prone, with emphasis on bipod versus tripod use. Basically, I'm going to re-make my old "Machine Guns" video. It was a grand idea, but the game simply doesn't allow for it's use. Oh well.

Alright, after an abortive attempt to build this thing in the scenario editor, I quickly realized I'd bit off more than I could chew, and also having two firing ranges back to back didn't add anything significant to the exercise. I already have another plan, however. Now I just need some more free time.

Trees are modeled as solid objects, but they're not modeled according to their shape, thickness, etc. Even the smallest branches can stop enormous shells with no problem at all. My point is, if trees were modeled correctly, they would not provide nearly so much protection as they do now.

That's funny. I have a hardcover printing on my shelf I use as my "rainy day book". I'm about a third of the way through it, given it's a bit tedious, but I like the way he portrays the psychology of the characters. I guess I'll have to wait for the inevitable "blast off into space" bit.

It just arrived five minutes ago. I think I'll be busy for a couple days.

So, it's sort of like using an 88mm FlaK as indirect arty? "You can, but why would you want to?"

In CMx1, tree bursts were abstracted because the trees weren't physical objects, thus tree bursts were extremely dangerous. In CMx2, the trees are solid objects, nigh indestructible, and as a result, a shell impacting one side of a tree will barely scratch troops standing on the other side. Honestly, the tree durability has been a problem forever, and it's not going to change. The reason is very simple, you would have to model every single tree as a vehicle of it's own, with the various thicknesses of branches, and angle of impact of rounds being measured and calculated, etc. That's the stuff nightmares are made of, and CPU's melt at the very thought of it.

Honestly, when I saw the notes about infantry relocating to avoid HE fire, I thought to myself, "Why are they adding a feature which no one has requested?" I'm not here every day, but I have never seen a thread where someone has requested such a change of behavior, or even brought it up as an issue. Did I miss something?

I personally played FlakFront way back when I first bought CMAK, and I beat it easily without losing a single gun. Just deploy your 88's slightly on the reverse slope of the ridge, so the gun barrel can see over it, but the base of the gun is behind terrain, and the enemy can only kill your gun with a direct hit. When you're deploying them from their prime movers, reverse the vehicle almost in position, then issue a move order to the gun on the exact spot you want it to setup. The gun can be moved by it's crew, only so long as it doesn't stop, upon which it becomes immobile. Most gun casualties are caused by HE hitting the ground next to the gun and killing the crew. If you neutralize that ability, your guns can fire all day without hindrance.

At Start air support is only present for the first battle. If it was raining, tough luck.

American automotive reliability on fine display here. Thanks John, this made good reading.

As always, take wiki with a small grain of salt. Sometimes the sources being used are not accurate, or simply outdated.

Strange, I rather enjoyed it. As crazy as it was, it convinced me of the value of preserving history. That's when I started reading lots of history books. I guess everyone takes away different things from literature.

Well, the idea is to have the team engage targets, run through various terrain until they're tired, then setup, and engage targets again. This performance would be calculated against a clock, with points scored for accuracy. Basically, the idea is for a high-energy comparison test between different types of weapons. I.E. M1917HMG vs Vickers MG.

That's my absolute, hands down, 100% favorite book of all time. Also, Farnham's Freehold.

I just ordered a new hardcover version of R.P. Hunnicutt's "Sherman: A History of the American Medium Tank" I'm so excited I just had to share. WOOOOOOOOOOOO