tuhhodge

Although they were never used in anger because the Battle of Britain was won in 1940, we have loads of pill boxes around here in Suffolk. They're just part of the rural furniture. It seems unreal that people seriously considered the possibility of battles being fought around my home, but I guess the locals in Normandy thought the same thing in 1940.

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Point du Hoc is the little triangle jutting out to the right of Omaha, at the bottom right of the photo.

Yep, it's the white concave slither of beach in the middle of each pic! Carentan is the bottom left of the first pic, Isigny just above the line of clouds in the second pic.

In the course of the day job I flew over Normandy at lunchtime today and thought you guys might appreciate some shots from the cockpit. Sorry about the poor quality. I blame the iPhone and 38000 feet of atmosphere. Hope you like these photos of Carentan, Isigny and Omaha, with Sword, Juno and Gold off in the distance. I get a funny feeling flying over Normandy. To think all of those famous events actually happened just down there!

Only when the game has done something 'gamey' or I got distracted and forgot to do something before ending the turn. I try to be honest with myself. If I made a bad decision, I live with it.

In my opinion the time constraints on most battles generally force players to act too quickly, taking risks with units. But I do sympathise, Joe, because I have average casualty figures higher than in WWII despite trying to be careful.

Paper Tiger Those locations are a little north of me. We're in south Suffolk these days although we still have a house in Needham Market. I would hazard a guess that the area from Wickham Market north towards Halesworth and Beccles is a good Normandy substitute, but if you want bocage come down to Polstead. As for forgetting ALT-T....been there...

Whether made by a professional or amateur designer, some maps are awful and others are excellent. In my experience, a lot of the quick battle maps are awful and I rarely use them, choosing to download from the Repository instead. The QB maps are generally unrealistic and dull. I live in the UK in Suffolk which has similar countryside to that found in Normandy. We have true bocage and we also have wide open fields. People have be living around here and cultivating the landscape for thousands of years, so the lay of the land bears witness to years of human influence. It is the same in Normandy, even more so in the bocage countryside. It takes a lot of effort to replicate the true nature of the countryside around here on a game map. QB maps generally don't manage it. Wide open maps with patches of trees? Hmmm. This is not the Russian steppes or in any way similar to the prairie landscapes of North America! That said, parts of Normandy are wide open, with huge cultivated wheat fields and little cover. Think about the area around Carpiquet west of Caen and south east of the City towards Bourgebus. Allied tanks were decimated in these places and attackers paid the price for attacking across large fields in full view of the enemy. Many of the carefully crafted campaign maps reflect this terrain well. In summary, the original poster makes some good points, but perhaps people need to be realistic about the terrain in this part of the world. It is varied: both bocage and big fields. Each needs careful attention to reflect reality.

I found 'It never snows in September' hard work. Well written, but terribly depressing reading from the point of view of a Brit or American and makes the Germans look like heroes. I'm all for redressing the literary balance (victors write history and all that) but... 'A bridge too far' is excellent reading. Ambrose's book on Arnhem and his book on D-Day are both ok.

Omaha last week from the flightdeck.

And my tanks arrived to save the day! A 75mm armed Sherman took out a Tiger from the front. Good man. Planning on stalking the other and taking out its supporting infantry, using the enemy's tactics to extract revenge!

PS: one of my 6 pounders managed to scare off a Tiger with a few well-aimed shots, possibly damaging its main gun. Mind you, with machineguns that kill entire sections in one burst, it's still a lethal proposition.

Thanks for the sympathetic replies gentlemen! I replayed the scenario last night and made significant progress. First off, I concentrated my troops, kept them hidden. Second, I managed to lay down a thick barrage of mortars right on the attacking troops. Lucky, maybe. I was doing quite well until a Tiger's machinegun killed 5 and wounded 3 in one burst, causing another section and an HQ to run off. Another team was panicked and instead of running away from trouble, hid behind a building before running out across a field!? Overall, things were more realistic, so I clearly was a little unlucky before. I still think the machineguns are too effective against troops hidden in buildings or foxholes. Neither cover offers any protection.

I was playing the 3rd scenario yesterday. It's the one where you defend against an attack by infantry supported by Tiger tanks. Well, either I'm absolutely useless (quite possibly), incredibly unlucky, or the game is hopelessly unrealistic. As I've managed to win other scenarios without losing too many men I don't think I'm that poor a tactician. And I only play the game because it seems realistic (albeit hampered by the limits of the AI). So that leaves bad luck? Examples: Houses provide no cover whatsoever. Enemy stonks landing 50m away decimate sections of my hardy warriors. One presumes they were all standing at the windows watching. Almost all enemy barrages saturated my positions. On random barrage of three shells all landed on my carefully concealed AT gun! Conversely, all my mortars missed their target areas by up to 250m, one whole barrage landed off map. I even corrected my targeting and that simply moved the stonks into another vacant area of bocage! I seem to recall that Brit arty was the best of all the WWII participants, regularly saving the infantry by breaking up overwhelming German attacks, especially around Caen. LOS? I had a bunch of blind gunners. What's the chance of that hey!? Despite pre-checking positions, after carefully moving an AT gun and setting up, they couldn't see a road 50m away. Same road was clearly visible if you viewed it through the camera at ground level. On moving the AT gun, it got shot up by Germans whose eyesight must have been much better! LOL. Oh, I don't know guys, I'm just a bit dispirited. I love the game and have been playing since the Combat Mission series began. I hate playing in a gamey fashion, so my defensive positioning reflects that. Then, after giving my hidden troops orders to hold fire until the enemy is crossing an open field in front of them, I order them all to open fire. What happens? My guys are all routed within a minute, after panicking when the enemy dares to return fire. The buildings give no protection. The enemy in the open is almost unscathed. I'll try the scenario again. Maybe I'll try opening fire earlier? Problem I find with that tactic is that the enemy tanks simply drive up to the troops and murder them. The AT guns are next to useless against Tigers unless you catch them at close range from behind... Sorry for the rant.

So far I've knocked out one bunker with the 75 and the other with the 95. Both were side shots.

In addition to hanomag gunners, I lose every tank commander to long range small arms fire. They never seem to button up.

That's the menu I use all the time, whether on set-up or during the game to find errant units or to make sure units are within earshot of their HQ etc. However, as others have mentioned, it would be very useful to be able to clear the map, organise your forces and only then start deploying using the drop down menu on the UI.

I knew I wasn't alone. Thanks chaps. Wasnt there a hotkey by which you could see only the floating icons for HQs? Am I thinking of a different game?

I find the pre-game set up quite tiresome if you have lots of units and not much space in the deployment zones. Sometimes the AI puts a first turn artillery stonk into the midst of a deployment zone even if it is out of sight, just to mix it up a bit. As a result I always do my best to place units out of sight on that first turn. What I would find incredibly useful is the ability to clear the map of all units and the select units for deployment onto the empty map from the drop down list. Perhaps even being able to place units off map to arrive in the first ten minutes of a scenario would be helpful. Otherwise you find yourself squashing a Battalion and a bit into a tiny piece of front line land, whereas in reality the assault troops tending to lager behind the front line and then attack through them. Thoughts?

I agree, hence my decision to use the word 'claimed'. Even if some claims are dubious, if you read the book you might, however, agree that the Tigers were very robust and could take masses of punishment.

If you fancy dipping into tales of the effectiveness and battle-hardiness of the Tiger tank, try reading Will Fey's book 'Armor Battles of the Waffen SS' in the Stackpole Military History Series. As an Englishman it was depressing reading of my forebears being skittled by hungry Tigers in Normandy. For example, Tiger 134 of Panzer-Abteilung 102 (Fey's panzer) alone claimed 88 tanks destroyed between July 10 and August 30. On a single day, August 15, he claimed 15 Shermans and 12 reconnaissance vehicles destroyed. On August 18 Tiger 134 was damaged and blown up by its crew. The book has many, many firsthand accounts of the encounters between Allied armour and the Tigers and it's sad reading: So many lives wasted through incompetent (albeit gallant) tactics. Whilst I imagine a lot of Allied tanks that succombed to the 88mm rounds from a Tiger were irrepairable, I'd dare say that many damaged by enemy action that could have been repaired were left in junk yards because of the overwhelming flow of brand new tanks from the factories. The Germans did not have that luxury and made every effort to repair their tanks, especially the Tigers.

I like socks. Last year's Monday to Sunday set has seen better days...

Chaps, this is just my experience of the game. And apologies for my earlier rant. I spent ages setting up the defensive positions and have a 4 week old baby. You can imagine my stress levels when I finally get to sit down in front of the computer... The Stugs were about 200m away, frontal shot with a 76mm ATG. The distance was less with the 57mm and they did gradually start knocking out the Stugs. The point about positioning the ATGs for flanking shots is noted.

In this game ATGs are pretty much one shot weapons in my experience. Almost useless. It seems wholly unrealistic that a Stug moving down a road into a village will spot and knock out two carefully positioned 76mm ATGs before the ATGs can fire back. But that's exactly what happens in this game. And why can't ATGs knockout Stugs? I've had 76mm projectiles bounce off their front armour and it takes about six 57mm armour piercing shells to knock out the Stug. Wonderful pieces of kit, those... It seems the only thing you can do with ATGs is position them round bends or for flank shots at close range. So much for doing what the AI does and site them more realistically along treelines to dominate open ground.