SpitfireXI

Well I ran some tests last night with German Panther PZ VA's versus Russian Panzer VA's. Ran three tests and the Russian came out ahead each time. All crews were Vets open flat terrain. No orders were given, ten on each side facing each other 1000m away. All three battles lasted less than three minutes and by the end of the three minutes the Russians were the only ones to have any tanks in working/fighting order. The only strange thing that I noticed is that when comparing the stats of the Panther VA (early) the German ones had better pentration values against 60 degrees. Against 60 degrees of armor GERMAN APCBC 100m 500m 1000m 2000m 62 61 61 53 Against 60 degrees of armor RUSSIAN APCBC 100m 500m 1000m 2000m 60 56 51 46 However, only Russian PZ-VA's had tungsten so that must have meant why Russian captured PZ' s did better. Anyone have a guess why their are differences in penetraing values above and why the Russian Panzers are better equipped?

Since more tests are probably needed, has anyone tried using Russian captured tanks vs. Germans. Such as Russian crewed Panthers vs. German crewed Panthers. I do not think the Russian ever produced ammo for their captured Panthers and both had cupolas, so this test might have less variables. I am at work right now but will try this test when I get home, but would appreciate other doing the test as well.

There are no signed orders, but the Wannsee conference notes make it very clear Hitler ordered the destruction of the Jewish race.

Thanks as well!

I agree with you on the dust issue, but even worse I find is the Artillery spotter ability to correct.

Thanks for the clear-up.

I am confused is the footnote an error or is the game in error? The footnote does mention that one track can go the opposite of the other.

I am currently reading Dmitry Lozas account of fighting in Shermans on the Eastern Front. Two things that he has mentioned really have me bothered. One is that the ground pressure ratio of the Sherman (I am assuming M4A3) is one of the lowest of any tank. Lower than T-34's and Panthers. He tells a story about killing a Tiger beacause the Tiger would not be able to follow him into the mud. I have always been led to believe that the Sherman had narrow tracks and was always getting bogged down. I have noticed this often in the game with the Sherman. And the other thing that really bothered me was that T-34's have differential gears. He specifically mentions that a T-34 can have one track moving in the opposite direction of the other and allows it to turn fast and in confined areas. Notice that in the game the T-34 never does this. Are these things not just modeled in the game?

I think that in Beevors book on Berlin mentions that the Soviet army by that time was a effective as the German army ever was. Can't recall the exact quote and figures though.

I found that AT pillboxes in the open desert are very scary. If you ever were able to pass these in a game I would like to know how. These at long range open and flat terrain are real big killers.

I initially beleived it was the German optic superiority but in one battle my Shermans were less than 500 meters from the offending German tank. Do optics even matter at that close a range?

I have noticed this problem before but recently its bugged me so much that I had to write here to find out more. Going against German armor either as Russians, Commonwealth, and Americans, I find that my tankers often have a hard time seeing the German tanks but being fired upon ny German tanks at the same time. I am not talking about tanks buttoned up. During the last game I had a Sherman unbuttoned no one firing at him and a Panzer not Panther sees him and fires twice before my Sherman commander decided to fire back. On a CMBB game I remember a ISU moving unbuttoned through scattered woods being fired on by a Panther. I was able to notice that the Pather had a nice red line straight to my tank but from the ISU position a blocked line back to the Panther. I can sort of understand the Panther being able to see a tank in 1000 meter range but the Sherman versus regular Panther problem has left me very frustrated. Any ideas on what gives?

I love lobbing small motar shells at halftracks and wasting them. Any sized motar shell will take out a halftrack.

I have read that most Soviet FT teams were given that task as punishment. Makes more sense to me why they last only a few minutes in battle.

I believe you have some motars in this game, in which case assign those to destroy the closests guns and use your tanks in a group to fire at one gun from long distance. Once you have killed one side of the gun defense move your tanks through the gap. Also use your infantry to storm the guns. This was a costly scenario, I think I won the game with one tank left and it had gun damage. I just used it to hose down the enemy infanty and do overrun attacks on them.

Just play games knowing you will lose to get practice. I used to intentionally do dumb things to see how the AI would kill my units. Helped me quite alot. Also, having no fog of war really helped as I was able to better understand how my units fight without having to worry about ambushes and such.

I found that the experience level of tank crews is much more important than in any other unit. When I get green or conscript crews I really have to coddle them and not expect much from them. Try not to move them and place them for ambush otherwise they will get bogged down or reverse toward the enemy or something else really stupid. Plus grouping them togther is imperitive as well as keeping the HQ unit out of harms way. With these crews I always put the hq unit in the back of the formation. Inexperienced crews without leadership are pretty much useless.

I was wondering if the Russians ever used the Shermans they got as smoke screen laying tanks. They are one of the few tanks that get smoke shells and I tend to use them more for this purpose than any other. Is this something that would have been done historically? On a related note, why do the Russians have a shortage of these rounds?

If you look closely you can see the Virgin Mary.

That was a facinating show, I must watch it more often. The devastating effects of HE artillery vs. barbed wire was interesting. Any reason why I can't do the same in CMAK? On a related note did anyone see the Battlefield Detectives about Market Garden?

No my tank had a functioning cannon and guns, but once I started ramming the thing I would have thought the AI would be smart enough to shoot at the truck. And in the first case, do you mean to suggest the AI had armor only covered arcs? That would be smart.

I have noticed in a couple of games that the AI has significant trouble targetting trucks. Last night I have 5 trucks spaced apart evenly out in the open within range of AT guns, and not once were they fired upon by AT guns or soldiers. I even drove my targeted tank behind the trucks and the AT guns still did not fire even after losing sight of my tank. On another note I was trying to hit a towed AT gun on a truck and after giving it orders to fire at it, the tank just sat there and never fired, not even at the truck. After a couple of minutes of this I resorted to have my tank run over the AT gun. In a comical scene my tank is actually pushing the truck and still not firing after numerous attempts to target both the AT gun and truck. Eventually the AT gun dismounted and then the tank targetted both the AT gun and truck destroying both. Any ideas, what gives?

I love hearing the Germans fretting about the couple of times they have to destroy a big scary enemy tank. The Allies hae had to deal with this problem throughout the entire war.

Man I missed it! Any idea if they will repeat it?

Thanks, it appears I lost way to many tanks and now that I think of it, I lost 4 fighters which really probably tipped the balance. Kind of annoying since I really did not have control over them. However, I really thought they were brave going through all that AAA to kill tanks.