Fetid

Hey Matt, Just downloaded and created a small Polish frontier battle. More on that later. I want to save the Uber Patch. It's too large for a 700MB CD and my copier tells me to reduce the size which I can't because it is one large file. How do I go about this? I remember on my old machine when it would prompt me to "add another disk" to finish copying a large file that wouldn't fit on one. Is there a way to "back up and copy" the Uber Patch file? (In case I lose internet service or use another machine or need a repair after a crash and lose the file, etc....) Or are you going to make a hardcopy disk of the Uber Patch available (for a fee) in the future for those that want one? Thanks. Pat Hair PS. The mini battle is between Pz1s and Pz2cs vs. Tks's and Wz34 ACs. This was the MOST LIKELY frontier encounter. Each Polish Infantry Division and Cavalry Brigade had a "battalion" of company size consisting of 8 Wz armoured cars and 13 or 14 TKS type tankettes. The Germans had around 1450 Pz2s and over 1500 Pz1s and only 78 Pz38Ts and 98 Pz35Ts and 98 Pz4s, most of which were still the "A" variety that had no better armour than a Panzer 2c. But the chances of running into them were very rare unless you happened to be opposite of where those Pz38Ts were gathered. The most likely early engagement would have been Polish infantry and cavalry with no armour and little anti-tank equipment versus light German armour and infantry. The Poles often had artillery pieces which they used as anti-tank guns (as well as the Bofors 40mm AA gun). They also had the anti-tank rifle and HMGs which according to various sources, including other existing wargames, could knock out light armour at close range. I don't know if that will work in this game. (MGs vs light armour) But I'm going to try it.

Unfortunately, this is all Greek to me. I'm pretty good at research, board wargame design, and I can usually create scenarios from existing computer war games. But actually making units, uploading sounds, tank pictures or artwork, making the units data, I know nothing about that. I could probably do the data if a file were already present to use as a guide and I could "fill in the blanks" for the new units. But I don't know how to do the artwork and make it part of the game.

Arras: quick references: http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/ww2hist/ww21940may.htm scroll down to May 21. http://www.germanwarmachine.com/waffenss/1940/west.htm scroll down to Battle Of Arras about 40% down the page. http://www.germanwarmachine.com/campaigns/1940/battleoffrance1.htm scroll half way to "The Risks Inherent in Blitzkrieg"- Arras Consider adding the battle of Namur (may25-June 1) to the campaign. This was a huge armoured battle with the French CharB present. The French were winning but withdrew when ammo ran short and the Germans were reinforced by new units.

At Arras, the Germans also used 105mm Artillery guns at point blank range on the Matildas. Most of the Matildas were type 1 with just a Machine gun. They could still overrun infantry and gun positions. Only 16 Matilda II tanks took part but were very effective. The German 37Lmm ATG positions and infantry were overrun and destroyed. Also 3 PzIVs, 6 Pnzer III s and many lighter tanks were destroyed. (Pz II, Pz35t, Pz 38T). The French contributed 70 tanks including FT 17, H35, H39, R35, R39, and S-35. Mention is made of "heavy tanks" but not specifically the CharB. But the S-35, although large in size is more of a medium tank. I can only surmise that "heavy" refers to the CharB. Considering the overwhelming success that was only halted with 105mm ARty and 88Lmm AA guns, with Stuka support, some must have been present. Not only were the Germans repulsed but frightened. Rommel thought he was up against many hundreds of tanks when in fact he was up against 143. It was one of the reasons Hitler and the General staff called a temporary halt to further armoured offensive operations.

To clarify: that's 24 S-35s of 1st and 2nd Squadrons of the 1/1er Cuirassiers, 5e BLM, 3e DLM minus 3 or 4 for breakdowns (21) present at Arras.

Regarding Arras in France: The 1st company, 525th PanzerJaeger Battalion was present and consisted of 9 (3 squadrons of 3) PanzerJg1 SP Tank Destroyers with the 47Lmm ATG. Also 2 Batteries of 38th Battalion, 101st AA regiment with 8 88Lmm AA guns and one battery and one section of 4th company, 525 PZJg Battalion with 6 88Lmm guns. Also from the French 3e DLM, 5e BLM, 1st and 2nd Squadrons of the 1/1er Cuirassiers consisting of 12 S-35s each minus a few lost to mechanical breakdowns. There were also British and German armoured cars present: Troops A and B of the 12th Lancers (24 vehicles) and about 50 PSW of the 37th Afklaerung (Reconn) Battalion. In the South, near Amiens, was the French 18e Dragoons of 1e DLM with around 40 S-35 down from 50 and the 1/3e Cuirassiers, 4e DCR at half strength with 17 or 18 S-35s. I cannot confirm a CharB yet but they were at Montcornet 3 days earlier so as to not be impossible.

I'll have to get back to you on that info for Arras. My research materials are old style books and papers and are in storage. I believe that their is a good, detailed account of that battle in "The History of The Second World War" in 196 volumes. It would be in volume 4 or 5. They came out in the USA around 1972 when I was 13 and I started reading about WW2 in detail. Published in England in 1965 by Marshall Cavendish?? I'll have to check it. Arras was conducted with another battle at the same time. One was from the SOuth and one was from the North to try to pinch off the corridor that the Germans created in their thrust behind Allied defensive lines. A quick check of older games such as Panzer Leader, Squad Leader, and Advanced Squad Leader in how scenario orders of battle were laid out can be of some help. Although the research was not done by ME, they were time tested games that were mostly well researched by others. One ASL scenario A40 called Ad Hoc At Beaurains takes place as part of the counterattack at Arras on May 21. The British 4th Royal Tank Regiment consisting of all Matildas overran an anti-tank defense of German 37mm and "thrashed" Pz2s and Pz38ts and were only stopped when they ran into 88Lmm AA guns. John Tillers' HPS France 1940 game is pretty well done as well. One more "I Can't Win Tip" : The French 37mm is pretty poor. We all know that. But when the Germans attack, they are moving closer to you. Use the better armour of H35 and R35 as well as any S35 and CharB that you have and sit, hold fire and position, and wait for the Germans to get within 200 yards (meters). Then you'll hit and penetrate. Most of the time, the French tanks will survive long enough for the Germans to get close. At long range, those French 37mm s can't hit a city let alone a vehicle. (I'm exagerating.) But you could easily waste all your ammo and maybe only knock out one enemy vehicle. Also the German Pz38t runs out of ammo very quickly so that even though it is tough to knock out, you only need to immobilize it if it runs out of ammo. And if it's mostly an armoured battle, you can ignore it.

Can't win. Ain't it the truth. I've used the mission editor to redesign some of the battles within the campaign. Sandomeirz, the 3rd and last Polish scenario was near impossible to win. (By the way, this campaign could use 2-3 more scenarios. There was more fighting in Poland than what is portrayed.) It should not be. At least not on a tactical level. On a tactical level, the Poles gave the Germans a lot of tank losses and considering that the Poles didn't have much of an airforce that came from anti-tank units and artillery units as well as good use of the Poles limited armour. The Germans were especially rebuffed and held up in the drive to Warsaw and the push into the deep SouthEast near Lvov. That's why so many Poles successfully got out to Romania to fight for France and England. Strategically, yes, they were defeated. The Germans made resupply impossible as well as communication and coordination and movesment was difficult. It is relatively easy to start up the Mission editor, click on the campaign, click on the battle, go to disposition? I believe, first entry = COST which is the number of "points" you have to purchase units. Simply click in the box and retype a new and increased value so that you can buy more units. In defense, scenarios that allow 2 guns that set up in the open against dozens of enemy tanks will not survive. 4 guns have a much better chance. You can add new units but it is tricky making sure that they appear in the roster. You must increase the limit of each category such as Tanks= 6 to Tanks=12. Then you must make sure that a "placeholder" is made for each new unit so that it can appear on the map, and the "location" should closely match (but not an identical number) the location numbers of other units placed by the original scenario designers. The French campaign has the same problem: you are not given enough to win against enormous numbers of Germans. Especially true at Arras. Arras is totally skewed (screwed?). Arras was an ALLIED attack not a German attack. The Germans defenders were OVERWHELMED with powerful Allied armour and numbers and were overrun. The Allies easily pushed aside the German defenders at first. What stopped them? Stuka dive-bombers and the German 88mm Anti-aircraft gun. Not swarms of PzIV c and Pz38t who fight like PzIV Hs. The 4 Matildas that the Allies get are fairly easily immobilized and then their guns damaged and then their crews panicked (all novice or conscript) so that they abandon while peppered by surrounding 37mm ATGs and 75mm Inf guns firing AP and maybe even heat? The BEF or British in France was largely a professional small Army. While they had their "regular" footsoldiers the tank forces were NOT conscripts. If you go into the mission editor and change the Matilda tank crews to Regular, they won't panic so much when immobilized. IF you change one or two to "Veteran", they actually become useful and stay fighting while immobilized without panic. They realize that the chances of a 37 mm or 75mm Inf gun round penetrating are low. The French also had the S-35 and CharB1bis in this battle. I increased the Matildas to 6 while increasing crew quality, from 4, s-35 from 1 to 3 and added a CharB. Note that the German tank crews are ALL Veteran and ELITE. Mostly ELITE where it counts. All of the Pz38t s and PzIV c s have ELITE crews. Only the PzIIs and Pz35t s have some Veterans. The German tank crews were not all ELITE yet in early 1940. In Poland 70 percent of their armour were Pz1 and Pz2 and even the PzIVa which had no better armour than the Pz1. Germans were not ELITE tankers until around 1941. Strategic planning may have been elite compared to the Poles and the French and even the British, but on the tactical level the Allied soldiers--especially the armour units and artillery, including AA and ATG were not moronic dopes. The Germans took a lot of material losses which they made up by the time of the desert fighting in March 1941, the Balkans in May 1941 and Russia by June 22, 1941. So if you can't win, get out the Adobe Mission editor indtructions and spend a couple frustrating days fooling with the Mission Editor and you can improve the odds significantly and in some cases the realism. Just giving your side more purchase points so that you can use the "Reserves" provided is a start and can make a difference and give you a little better chance to win. But sometimes, you do need stronger units and then you have to learn how to do the placeholder for the new unit and make a location for the unit in the set up area so you can control the new unit's placement on the map and not have it show up a mile from your main position with rear facing the enemy and lose it in the first second of the game. This is frustrating to figure out but not impossible, as changing the location numbers of the unit and it's placeholder location will show you how to adjust the location over and over until you bring the new unit (s) closer and closer to your set up position. If you copy the location numbers of properly placed units from the original scenario designed set up area and then change the numbers from like 1284.3328 1520.80 to 1280.3328 and 1516.80 you should get the new unit close to an original unit. One number is up and down and the 2nd set of numbers is left to right. Azimuth is the direction the unit faces out of 360 degrees. This number you can copy from other units so that they all face the same direction. You may want to change the "data" for a tanks' "backpack" which is their ammo. A French CharB1 isn't going to go into a tank battle with 13 rounds of AP and 57 rounds of HE. It would be more like 37/37 or even more than 50% AP rounds. Then you CAN win as it should be and as happened in REAL LIFE.

I'm an old style playtester and designer for ASL and Advanced Tobruk. Some ideas for the future: Guns get knocked out way too easy. In reality they were very difficult to hit and often knocked out several tanks before even being located. In defensive positions, they were usually in weapon pits with sand bags or dug into the ground with only the barrel above the surface of the ground. This made them very hard to see let alone hit. They are also hard to see in the woods or in a building because looking into such cover from the outside during the day, it is dark in there compared to the brightness outside. Even firing would not always give away the guns position every time. Guns were dealt with by aircraft, artillery, mortars, machine guns, infantry assault, snipers, and lastly, tanks and other guns. Smoke was also used to move up close to them where grenades and small arms could effect the guns. Now I know that we have all seen pictures of guns set up in the open and NOT dug in. Usually Russian or American guns during an advance or sitting at a crossroads in the street. When advancing, guns were constantly being moved so they were not always dug in. They may have been supporting an infantry assault on buildings or covering an open area where the enemy is not yet seen and the infantry must cross over. In 1944 and 1945 both Russia and the USA supplied an overwhelming number of guns in support of their troops. There were always plenty of Russian 76mm and American 57mm anti-tank guns and they were not always dug in. But the idea was to put them all over the battlefield covering every gap and every angle of approach so that rates of fire and hit probabilities went way up. The idea was to outnumber and out flank the German tanks. There were so many of them that they did not see the need to dig in--it would just slow them down--especially during an advance. So when designing a scenario and the guns are NOT dug in, please allow the player enough guns to have a chance of being successful. 2, or 4 guns, most times is not enough to do the job when they are sitting out in the open. The guns, also used smoke to screen out some tanks and limit the number of targets that they had to engage, or limit the direction that they wanted to fire in. Guns like the FRench 75mm which the Polish used as well, could fire smoke and obscure all but a small number of targets which could then be successfully engaged without experiencing too much return fire or being pinned. Good gun crews and experienced gunners could do this. Also please include the German 88mmAA gun as this was crucial to defeating the British Matilda and French CHar B. The Italians also were successful in using their 90mm AA gun as an anti-tank gun and used the Modello 75mmAA gun with good results against British Matildas at Bardia and Tobruk in 1940 so don't forget to include them in the game at some future time. Thank you, Pat Hair

Has no units?? Only map comes up?? Anybody else have this problem?

Right on. Even a whole squad should be able to sneak up on to a buttoned up tank from behind. And even unbuttoned if near buildings or other heavy cover. A single man is less likely to be spotted but more likely to be stopped if spotted. Whereas a whole squad, approaching a tank from different angles, each man can not be engaged at the same time. Someone will deliver his package successfully. Tall grass--if you've ever seen real tall grass, you can't see into it past the outer perimeter. Like Russia, the midwest has areas of tall grass like this that you can't see into. Close assault was and still is a valid tactic to disable a tank. Even the M1Abrams has been taken down with RPGs by Iraqis. And they have a much better spotting ability then WW2 tanks. Also, believe it or not, in the early part of the war, most tanks had no locks or latches for their hatches. You could simply open them up and shoot in them or toss a grenade. Later, latches were provided although not always universally used by the crews.

Hey Matt, Remind them with a sticky note to put in the German 88Lmm AA gun and allow entrenching for defense. Thanks.

Nothing what you or some of the few other like yourself has to say on these forums has any credibilty at all. It is just an endless tirade of elephant sized whining. Have not seen you put some constructive critisicm in as of yet. [/QB]

Name one good realistic wargame of any type where a group of trees does not block Line of Sight and Fire. ANybody? They didn't have infra-red scopes. Even in Viet Nam they had to defoliate because THEY COULDN'T SEE IN THERE!!!

No, you can't shoot through a group of trees. (and hit a specific target.) Not if the trees are thick. Sure one, 2, or 3 trees. An orchard maybe. But no one shoots a deer on the other side of the woods. You can't even see it. Of course, you can shoot into a group of trees to destroy the cover. Then you could see the target.

Unless LOF and LOS are mutual it is not a fair game. You will use proper skill and tactics and still not win. That, my friends, is the waste of time. Not typing a few snippy lines in the forum. The Chazman is right on.

I'm a wargamer too. I design them as well as play them. I don't write computer code, but imagine playing Advanced Squad Leader without buildings. Combat Mission is turned based but the turns are paused and simultaneously resolved so that it is more realistic than a true I Go You Go turn based game. But before this can be a proper wargame a few things must be corrected. 88Lmm AA guns for the Germans must be added. How could one even think of having early war scenarios without a flak gun in the roster. They were even up with the Reconn Battalions incase they ran into serious trouble in an advance. German tanks are no match for the Matilda, the Sumoa35, and the Char B. Moveable MGs and at least light mortars were standard equipment for companies and should be included as available for platoons. With so many frontal assaults expected, SMOKE is a must. Ala CM. Smoke for tanks, infantry, artillery, mortars, and guns. Line of fire and Line of sight should not be able to penetrate trees, buildings, or rock (ground) as has been reported as occuring. LOF and LOS are MUTUAL. No matter what game you are playing. If I can see you, you can see me. With some variance of course. A unit in a building or trees can see a unit in an open field that's well lit much better than a unit can be seen from those areas. The woods are dark, even in daylight. In ASL, when an ATG fires from the woods, there's a good chance that no one will see the shot or where it came from so that the gun is still undetected. Tanks must be able to reverse and some measure of control over units must be present. Remember the "death crawl" from Close Combat? Look, I like to move stuff around and shoot at stuff too, especially when the snow is falling and the environment looks so real. But the above items I mentioned are STANDARD for any decent wargame. They should have been in the mix before release and they should definitely have been noticed in playtesting. Now, they should be fixed yesterday or at least tommorrow. It's not Battlefronts fault, but it's not whining to complain about basic elements that should be in any wargame. It's the facts. I have to sympathize with Chazzman on this even though I don't blame Battlefront.

Hey Fil, what about the problem people are reporting on trees not blocking line of fire. Forces are destroyed by unseen enemies but line of sight is mutual. You should be able to see them too.Is there any way to fix that? If anything, the unit in the trees has the advantage because it's dark in the woods and someone outside of the trees can't see into (or through) as well as those on the inside looking out.

Agreed. By the end of WW2 only the biggest cities had buildings left. Rural houses, by 1942 were largely gone as they were routinely destroyed to stop the enemy from hiding there. Open areas became barren. Unless we're talking about deep in the mountains of the Ardennes or down near the Alps. Yes, small towns and individual buildings survived in those areas. That's not to say that ALL structures were destroyed, but it would be a very dangerous thing to even sleep in a farmhouse because any enemy sighting it was likely to level it on sight just to make sure no one is hiding in it. Unless your troops NEEDED the building as an HQ or something else, it was SOP (Standard OPerating Proceedure) to level isolated buildings. In Russia, troops would use them to stay warm, but they were big targets and what better way to disrupt the enemy infantry then to fire on a heavily occupied building or house where, in the cold, everyone was located. It would be a good second game to include urban environments.

Yeah. All Pnzr. Recon. Battalions had 2 and sometimes 4 towed 88s. This was standard. ANti-tank units didn't always contain them but they were usually included in the "heavy weapons" company of certain formations. And of course Luftwaffe units doing AA duty could be assigned anti-tank duty. The Poles were the first to use their Bofors 40Lmm AA gun and also their 76L AA gun against tanks when defending. Of course they didn't NEED to use the 76L AA gun as all German armour could be knocked out by a 37L ATG at that time. So it was more just whatever they had available rather than a tactic. They also used their artillery in direct fire against tanks. Later, the Finns did the same thing and of course it is still rumoured that they had German equipment on hand such as the PzJg 1 and the 88 Flak as a secret "loan" to them from Germany even though the Germans' public stance was nuetrality. The Germans adopted AA guns vs. large tanks as a tactic in France against the CHarB, Matilda, and the S-35. Stukas were also used and close assault when that wasn't available as the FRench never had a lot of heavy tanks on the field at any one time. When all else failed, they just avoided the monster and waited for the crew to surrender when they ran out of fuel, ammo, or had to pee or eat. The Italians also used their 75LAA gun (and later the 90L AA gun) as anti-tank guns as a tactic as well. It is documented that in December 1940, some Matildas were lost due to Italian 75Lmm AA guns being used defensively as anti-tank guns. The Italians were usually the defender and often had fortress like positions. The AA guns would be knocked out by mortars, artillery, and close assault by the British. But yes, the flak 88 MUST be added to the game as a first update or even before release as it was a vital and standard piece of equipment. That's not to say that there were not at least some battles where it was not available and the Germans had to advance with weak equipment or they were surprised by French heavy tanks and did not have an 88 because that did happen as well. But even the recon Battalions (Abtelungs) had flak 88s up in the forefront of an advance.