simovitch

I just recently drove right over what appeared to be a company of (AI) Russian Pioneers that had the misfortune of crossing a rather long bridge at night right into the head of my armored column :cool: . Immediately I thought "overrun their boshevic asses!" I have extreme FOW on so I don't know what morale state they were in, but they were likely pretty shook up by machine guns from from my tanks and not so distant supporting infantry as I rolled right over them. 2 squads surrendered, at least one other was wiped out, but one managed to survive and thump my Pz IIIH in the rear before he too was wiped out. A few actually seemed to escape past the head of my column to safety from whence they came. I was a little miffed that they all didn't just get wiped out or surrender. But since they were fresh Pioneers, from what redwolf says now it makes sense.

1stUkrainianFront, Pasi sent me his email address pliimatainen@yahoo.com for direct contact, so that would be the best one to use. thanks. This is an awsome operation (so far)..

I think what Moon is referring to here is that there are no "squares" in the classical boardgame sense in the current (or future) CM engine. i.e. the only function of a tile in the game is to define the terrain elements. The units themselves are not restricted to "square" or "hexagonal" movement or positioning.

from the shameless plug department: hey, what about that brutal CMAK operation "HSG B Twin Villages" ?

here's a closeup of the Panther from the 116th Pz div. now residing in Houffalize, Belgium. Got a great picture of me having a smoke next to this one... ahhhhh yes, my trip to the Ardennes. Saw one of Peiper's King Tiger's at La Gleize too, and the Hetzer at Bastogne, Sherman at Clervaux... heres the link to the site showing tanks from various sites throughout the Ardennes . (thanks to lindan & warphead) Looks alot like stock CMBO. I'm pretty sure the paint scheme here is authentic Heer, but I believe the SS mainly used the mottled "ambush" colors during the ardennes. Whitewash was hit or miss if the crew had the time and materials to do it. [ September 01, 2004, 04:11 PM: Message edited by: simovitch ]

I repackaged some Ardennes Terrain mods that were created by Tom Klimisch (for CMBO)and posted them at CMMODS. Word has it that Tom is working hard to bring an updated Ardennes Mod together for CMAK. heres the link to my stuff

The film you speak of is actually called "Days of Glory" filmed in 1944. Never saw it but from what you describe it sounds like a must see...

I was just thinking about this last night. How cool it would be if I had an Ardennes winter horizon.... Thanks for the work, it looks like the real deal :cool:

so Asid didn't use the cheat codes OR the health crystals to beat "a series of misfortunes"? :eek: now I'm even more depressed...

a noobie victorious in "series of misfortunes"? now i'm depressed...

I recently posted a scenario to the depot "HSG B Fighting Withdrawal" that has both exit conditions and flags. I also included both exit-eligible and ineligible units in the OOB, and delineated who is to exit and how many points the units were "worth" in the briefing. shameless plug? yes. Reviews would be most welcome. Im not sure if this topic is scenario-specific, but on reading through it, it occured to me that I might be confusing the player by listing the value of the exit-eligible troops and not clarifying that it is "kill value". Say I listed 400 points (not mentioning that being kill value only). If they die trying to hold the line, and do not exit, the net point deficit becomes -800. But if you are a true "point counter" you would also want to try and estimate the number of enemy that were killed off in the process of holding the flag. So should you hold the 300 point flag with 100 pts of exit eligible troops, and try to kill off another 100 point of germans? perhaps. but all plans go to hell when the first shot is fired, or something like that. So it can be a tough decision for the CM commander what to do... tough decisions=successful simulation. right? Try Sergie's "Partisan Waltz" for CMBB. I think flags can and should be included in an exit scenario, if not only for proper function of the AI but to provide a tactical decision for the player.

My scenario "HSG B Fighting Withdrawal" on the Depot is really a quicky with basically a couple of GI platoons and 13 turns long. It registers as "medium" only because of the size of the attacking German AI. It is a CMAK Northwest Europe battle however. shameless, shameless... [ August 10, 2004, 08:31 AM: Message edited by: simovitch ]

Hi all, My bulge operation (that sounds funny) at the Scenario Depot has been having download problems for a few weeks. If you want a copy of it, just email me and I will send it off. I've notified Admiral Keith, but as you know he's a busy guy. HSG B Twin Villages "December 17-18, 1944: To gain the Elsenborn ridge, elements of the 12 SS Panzer Division and the 277th Volksgrenadier Division must break through the American defenses at the twin farming towns of Rocherath and Krinkelt." If you're into that sort of thing... :cool:

As far as I remember, the game mechanics required the German player to forfeit armored replacements from August(?)-December, and remove from the map all of your panzer divisions around August or so. Then they would all appear at full strength in December - just in time for the player to stage a Battle of the Bulge. I don't remember if it was an optional rule or not, but a house rule could render it so...

posted by Kingfish: You will not find a more accurate Bulge map than Eric's, be it in CMBO or CMAK. -------------------- Kingfish, (and others ) if you have the time, download my HSG B Twin Villages Op (CMAK), Rollbahn A (CMBO) or my HSG B Fighting Withdrawal (CMAK) battle. They are painstakingly accurate using autocad imaging and gridding transpositions. (just like Erics Map making tutorial) I used 1:25000 topo from the time period, at 5m contour intervals. Being a Civil Engineer and Land Surveyor makes me a bit anal about terrain modelling and accuracy I do wish there were more maps like Eric's out there. Cheers,

I remember playing "Fortress Europa" by AH in my youth, and when I got the "panzer reserve" late in the game I was always loath to use them in an immediate counterattack role. It seemed to make more sense to fortify the west wall, or counterattack the allies as they pushed toward the Rhine over clear terrain. The game was truly one of my favorites of all time, and it did provide an effective model to analyze the alternative history put forth in this discussion. Did anyone else play FE, and mull over the options available to the "panzer reserve"?

You can find Eric "Mc Auliffe" website here It's top notch stuff, but at this point mostly CMBO related. Eric, of course will know more about where he's going with CMAK.

Panther Commander: AFAIK Barkmann's Panzer 401, 4th Panzer Co. got seperated from the rest of his unit on the night of December 24, 1944 during the Assault up N15 toward Manhay. I think this is the incedent you are referring to. Understrength and exhausted elements of 7th Armored recently withdrawn from the St Vith area (48th armored infantry Bn. and 40th Tank Bn.) were defending the area, as well as elements of the 3rd armored (you know these guys ) and 82nd AB. These units were in the process of pulling back to new positions when the 2nd SS struck. an excellent account of this action is found in: MacDonald "A Time for Trumpets" pp 550-553 Wild Bill did a great little CMBO scenario covering this action called "Manhay - On the prowl"

After July 20th, Adolf was running out of trusted generals. A alcoholic ex-butcher was probably all he could find.

This may help. Check out mad russian's campaign tracker at the Proving Grounds here

I think that the "small solution" was a far superior operational plan when compared to Hitler's idea of capturing Antwerp. The task of getting enough mechanized forces across the Meuse river (quite a formidable obstacle even in 1940) with enough gas to fight their way to Antwerp meanwhile holding the flanks was next to impossible, even if the skies stayed overcast (indefinitely?) grounding allied aircraft. The german high command never even considered what to do with the British, Canadian, and American armies that would be trapped by a successful Wacht am Rhein. Interestingly enough, the 1 SS panzer regiment had the key to successfully turning the flank of the V Corps on the morning of December 17th near Bullingen. given the more Northerly impetus of the "small solution" perhaps Peiper would have turned north toward Wirtzfeld and Rocherath and overrun the elsenborn ridge before an organized defense could be formed there. This maneuver would have likely trapped the bulk of the 2nd and 99th divisions, and removed a major obstacle from the path of the I SS Panzer Corps and could have quite possibly changed the whole outcome of the battle. perhaps then the US gasoline reserve stockpiles near Stavelot and Spa would have been captured as well. Its all conjecture of course, and in the end I believe the outcome would have been the same; the partition of Germany was already determined at Yalta.

ben, That poor hapless SdKfz was just target practice for my crew. now we're sniffing around corners for the big stuff!

oops it's now been moved to CMAK mods.

available (with screenshot) at the Combat Mission Mod Database: Just in time for some upcoming bulge scenarios from HSG: my personal choices for Ardennes snow terrain using Tom Klimisch's TBM mods from CMBO. All I did was renumber them for inclusion in CMAK. file 1 of 2 has muddy roads, tree bases, grain and brush. 2 of 2 has the snow and light snow. Shows elevation variations well. Thanks to junk2drive for getting me on the right track. simovitch

Just a reminder for those Ardennes fans: It seems that some of Tom's old TBM Ardennes mod - (muddy roads and tree bases) for CMBO can be loaded into CMAK directly, using the MCMMM mod manager. TBM Open ground, grain, and brush have been renumbered by junk2drive for loading into CMAK as well, using MCMMM (available at CMMODS). It still all looks great for the lighter snow conditions of NW Europe. Will these be redone/upgraded as well? Thanks Tom.