AC

Someone just recently directed me to http://www.theblitz.org/. I just started 2 games there =) My nick there is AC if you want to have a game

I agree with you Kitty. The plane only caused some minor damage. And if it doesn't even appear every time, the points could have been spent a lot better on some more infantry or a tank or two with a turret. Since the Americans don't have any tanks but lots of other anti-tank weapons, it could have been a lot more balanced. To me it seemed like most of the enemy was dug-in though. Dont know about that.

I agree with you Kitty. The plane only caused some minor damage. And if it doesn't even appear every time, the points could have been spent a lot better on some more infantry or a tank or two with a turret. Since the Americans don't have any tanks but lots of other anti-tank weapons, it could have been a lot more balanced. To me it seemed like most of the enemy was dug-in though. Dont know about that.

I don't prefer huge battles atleast (sucky computer also). If I need to move a lot of troops I use group movement only at the start of the scenario (when enemy contact isn't likely). Later I might use group orders but then go through all of the units one by one adjusting the target destination exactly where I want. A lot faster that way as you dont always need to adjust it.

That's exactly what I was looking for Tovarisch! Thanks to all others, too. I signed for The Proving Grounds also...

Are there any MP ladders for CM:AK? Or other sites where to find opponents... I need to get one soonish as beating the AI isn't much fun anymore... If one of you wants to hand me my ass on a plate, send a private message and we'll set up a PBEM... BTW I've never tried against a human before

You'd be safe from ATGs and AFVs basically unless a lucky shot immobilizes you. After that, infantry would probably roast you with a molotov or something.

Shep is running two scenarios per week now... so II would be the 2nd Anyways, this is the scenario found on the CMAK CD. I just played it as US against the AI. You have quite a considerable force at your disposal. 5 HTs to the east + ATG on tow, 1 HT+ATG and a MG jeep to the west, and a reinforced (?) company with lots of bazookas and FTs. The infantry is spread on the 4 corners of the map plus 1 platoon on the HTs. The bridge is located in the middle of the map and no sign of the enemy can be seen. A road goes E-W dividing the map into 2. I used the default setup. I decided to keep the platoon in the HTs in my reserves and to move the ATGs to locations where they could cover the road. Meanwhile I started to move the infantry towards the bridge through the 4 thick woods. I sent the MG jeep to scout a head so the ATG in west wouldnt get toasted before it is set up. The jeep spotted an AC on the bridge and opened fire and pulled back by my order. It took a few mins to get the guns to position and then when they did, the AC was toast. Something else started moving on the bridge too which appeared to be a SPG... it was knocked out in the following turn and turned out to be a StuG III later on. Meanwhile my infantry reached the outskirts of the forrest and engaged the first enemy infantry. I moved up the FTs (where available and roasted them quickly. The engineer platoon at NW didn't have a FT so I had to assault and took some casualties. I moved out of the woods to some scattered trees and the enemy troops sprung into action. Several squads and LMGs could be seen moving around the bridge, some opened fire on me. By now I had realized that the enemy was quite fanatic. Some of them refused to withdraw untill my FTs cooked them in their foxholes. An enemy fighter appeared on the sky and I quickly started to move my vechiles to air cover. It was too late though and I lost 1 HT and the jeep on the first attack and another HT on the 2nd. Last fighter attack was on a FT team but it took no casualties. Two enemy light guns opened fire on me on the west side of the bridge but I promtly roasted the crew of one and knocked the other out with a bazooka. By now it was just a mop up operation. I took a few more casualties but managed to kill or capture most of the enemy troops before they surrendered. The key to victory in this scenario was to take out the enemy armour ASAP and then coordinate your infantry carefully so that you can move the flamers front when needed and use MGs for support fire to suppress the enemy (which may be impossible considering the fanaticism I encoutered). Result was something around 84-16 major victory to me when the enemy surrendered. I took around 26 casualties against the enemy's 55, losing the jeep and 2 HTs and one FT team. Rest of the units had only minor casualties. Overall very fun scenario to play, though I'd slightly up the axis troop numbers to make it more balanced.

Shep is running two scenarios per week now... so II would be the 2nd Anyways, this is the scenario found on the CMAK CD. I just played it as US against the AI. You have quite a considerable force at your disposal. 5 HTs to the east + ATG on tow, 1 HT+ATG and a MG jeep to the west, and a reinforced (?) company with lots of bazookas and FTs. The infantry is spread on the 4 corners of the map plus 1 platoon on the HTs. The bridge is located in the middle of the map and no sign of the enemy can be seen. A road goes E-W dividing the map into 2. I used the default setup. I decided to keep the platoon in the HTs in my reserves and to move the ATGs to locations where they could cover the road. Meanwhile I started to move the infantry towards the bridge through the 4 thick woods. I sent the MG jeep to scout a head so the ATG in west wouldnt get toasted before it is set up. The jeep spotted an AC on the bridge and opened fire and pulled back by my order. It took a few mins to get the guns to position and then when they did, the AC was toast. Something else started moving on the bridge too which appeared to be a SPG... it was knocked out in the following turn and turned out to be a StuG III later on. Meanwhile my infantry reached the outskirts of the forrest and engaged the first enemy infantry. I moved up the FTs (where available and roasted them quickly. The engineer platoon at NW didn't have a FT so I had to assault and took some casualties. I moved out of the woods to some scattered trees and the enemy troops sprung into action. Several squads and LMGs could be seen moving around the bridge, some opened fire on me. By now I had realized that the enemy was quite fanatic. Some of them refused to withdraw untill my FTs cooked them in their foxholes. An enemy fighter appeared on the sky and I quickly started to move my vechiles to air cover. It was too late though and I lost 1 HT and the jeep on the first attack and another HT on the 2nd. Last fighter attack was on a FT team but it took no casualties. Two enemy light guns opened fire on me on the west side of the bridge but I promtly roasted the crew of one and knocked the other out with a bazooka. By now it was just a mop up operation. I took a few more casualties but managed to kill or capture most of the enemy troops before they surrendered. The key to victory in this scenario was to take out the enemy armour ASAP and then coordinate your infantry carefully so that you can move the flamers front when needed and use MGs for support fire to suppress the enemy (which may be impossible considering the fanaticism I encoutered). Result was something around 84-16 major victory to me when the enemy surrendered. I took around 26 casualties against the enemy's 55, losing the jeep and 2 HTs and one FT team. Rest of the units had only minor casualties. Overall very fun scenario to play, though I'd slightly up the axis troop numbers to make it more balanced.

Yeah I know Michael, just cant do that in pre-made scenarios Thanks for your replies all.

Yes, they are surprisingly rare in CM. I have been trained in real life (Finnish mechanized infantry) as a platoon leader. If I had to set up defenses for my platoon, I'd setup atleast 5-6 TRPs in the vicinity of the positions. Most likely advance routes like roads and forests would be covered + the positions themselves (incase we have to counter-attack back). Usually a mechanized company has 1 artillery spotting squad attached to it, with 1 light spotting tank and 1 team on foot (so basically 2 spotters). A spotter could call fire from all kinds of artillery, usually only 1 type would be attached at a time though.

Bah I wish it was IF too. Tried to use it like that in 2 scenarios.

Is this gun direct fire only? If you can use it for indirect fire, how do I do it? I could only fire direct fire with them... And yes, I know how to use indirect fire with mortars and a spotter.

Or the enemy had engineers or pioneers in the woods and cleared them. Infantry spots daisy-chain mines very easily.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG42 Dunno how reliable the source is but doesn't sound unrealistic at all. Since only 10 were ever built, I don't think it's in any CM versions.

I played this one as the Italians vs. AI. I won easily again, most of my troops never even saw combat. I lost 3 vechiles (1 tank, 2 ACs) and only 15 men. The AI really spread it's forces thin and left much of them at the roads where they enter as reinforcements (I think?). I started off with basically the default setup. I split the AC platoon into two and sent 2 cars north (I think?) and two east. The north cars took out 1 enemy AC, 3 trucks and some infantry and a carrier before one was abandoned and 1 paniced with a casualty. One tank mopped up the rest of the brits (1 more AC, 1 carrier and 2 trucks + infantry) after they arrived as reinforcements. On the east side I lost 1 tank to the cruiser tank before nailing it. The flame tankette took out some trucks and ACs, gotta love that thing. Some AT-tankettes and the 75mm motorized gun nailed the rest of the enemy armour. The enemy surendered on turn 22 with 2 IVBs and 1 AC left and few routed troops scattered around.

Ok, here goes... My first AAR. I hope it's not too much into detail I played as the US against the German AI. Based on the briefing, I was expecting a lot tougher fight than the result was. Also, what surprised me was that even though the briefing says that "we do not have many AT-guns", there are still 8 of them (4 are crap though). But anyways, I rearranged my troops to a much better defensive position. Here is a screenshot of my setup: http://tik.cs.hut.fi/~aalestal/Panic_at_Gela_setup.jpg Here is what I had at each of the numbered locations: 1) 1 rifle platoon, bazooka, 2x57mm AT-gun, 1x37mm AT-gun (larger guns to the south), 155mm spotter, extra HQ unit, MMG. 2) 1 rifle platoon, FT, bazooka. 3) 1 engineer platoon,1 bazooka, 1x37mm AT-gun, 1x MMG. 4) 1 engineer platoon, bazooka, 2x MMG, 2x37mm AT-gun (one across the river), 1x57mm AT-gun, Company HQ. 5) 1 rifle platoon, bazooka. 6) 6x60mm mortar, Platoon HQ. 7) 1 engineer platoon, FT, bazooka 8) HQ squad, 155mm spotter, 1x57mm AT-gun (I actually forgot this here), Section HQ(?). Like I said, I didn't expect to do very well because I thought my guns wouldn't hit hard enough. I was very wrong. First few turns passed with only 1 sighting of infantry. Only then I noticed the northmost ford at the NE corner of the map. I was going to get pummeled I thought. Then a column of tanks ID'd as panzer IVs came rolling along the road. I set both spotters for indirect fire at the northmost TRP and ordered the two 57mm guns to open fire on the first panzer IV (which was ahead of the others). Four of the five tanks were right on the TRP when the first shots landed (way off target by the spotter without visibility). Next salvo hit right on the target though and all the tanks buttoned as the first one took couple penatrations from the AT-guns and was KO'd. I thought my guns couldnt fire on the last 4 but to my surprise the middle gun (at number 1) killed 1 more tank on that turn. On the next round 2 more tanks killed by the 2 guns and the last remaining PzIVG on the following few mins. Meanwhile the enemy infantry could be seen advancing on the north side of the riverbank from the NE. I tried to find a visible point on the riverbank for my furthermost spotter and managed to do so with luck. Soon the 155mm shells were pummeling the supposed location of enemy infantry. At the same time first tanks came to view from the NE ford of the river. It was identified as Tiger and I was sure my days were numbered. Soon I got a full ID and it turned out be "only" PzIVH. Yet again my 57mm guns gave a pleasant surprise by knocking it out. Two more of the Hs tried to cross the steep slope but both were killed by the AT-guns. One PzIIIN managed to get to the woods near the river but it had a damaged gun from a lucky shot. Here is a picture of the battle outcome (viewed after battle ends): http://tik.cs.hut.fi/~aalestal/Panic_at_Gela_enemy.jpg First infantry contact came at point 2 where my slightly missplaced rifle squad went to hand-to-hand combat with some panzergrenadiers. The grenadiers took heavy casualties and fled as my FT opened up on the next incoming squad, which also quickly fled. Next a platoon HQ attempted to attack my defenses and caused me some casualties. My infantry wasn't placed that well because I could only spot the enemy when they were right on top of me. However the 155mm barrage had considerably weakened them and only total of 4 squads and 2 platoon HQs got that far. I moved a fresh squad to the foxhole at point 2 and defeated those, taking only light casualties (7 or so). I continued to shell the riverbank and withdrew from the northside. However, that was pretty much it. Only 2 more PzIIINs were killed on the northmost ford while the infantry attacks were on and 1 HT on the northmost TRP by the 37mm gun. I lost one gun when the enemy finally managed to lay some indirect fire (81mm mortars I think) on my AT-guns. The heroic gun with 7 tank kills was KO'd and light infantry casualties to one squad. Basically only the 3 guns and 1 platoon + spotters did most of the work. I had moved some of my guns and the mortars incase the enemy was to attack but it never happened. On the screenshot after the combat you can see the 5 PzIVGs and the HT at location 1, loc 2 is where all the infantry action basically took place, location 3 is the north ford where rest of the enemy armour was stuck (maybe due to poor AI, I don't really know). There are total of 3 destroyed PzIVs, 2 destroyed PzIII and 1 with gun damaged, 1 immobile PzIV at the ford and 2xIV, 2xIII, 7xHT unscratched left at location 3. One silly tank can be seem soloing at loc 4. Basically all the enemy infantry died to my artillery, my spotters racked 74+58 kills. I could only find 1 squad and 1 MG team + a spotter team after the combat had ended. Three or so squads had only 1 or 2 soldiers alive. The rest were scattered dead between locations 2 and 3. Frankly, this was way too easy and I don't even consider myself to be a good CM player. I've never played this scenario before and I played it through with one sit. If I had to improve this scenario, I'd take away 3 or 2 of the heavier AT-guns to make it more of a challenge. Artillery should also have less ammunition and maybe add a tad more infantry to the germans. Against a human it would probably be a different story. Ok came out pretty damn detailed :eek: I hope someone finds it enjoyable to read or something. [ January 05, 2004, 06:51 PM: Message edited by: AC ]

Ok, here goes... My first AAR. I hope it's not too much into detail I played as the US against the German AI. Based on the briefing, I was expecting a lot tougher fight than the result was. Also, what surprised me was that even though the briefing says that "we do not have many AT-guns", there are still 8 of them (4 are crap though). But anyways, I rearranged my troops to a much better defensive position. Here is a screenshot of my setup: http://tik.cs.hut.fi/~aalestal/Panic_at_Gela_setup.jpg Here is what I had at each of the numbered locations: 1) 1 rifle platoon, bazooka, 2x57mm AT-gun, 1x37mm AT-gun (larger guns to the south), 155mm spotter, extra HQ unit, MMG. 2) 1 rifle platoon, FT, bazooka. 3) 1 engineer platoon,1 bazooka, 1x37mm AT-gun, 1x MMG. 4) 1 engineer platoon, bazooka, 2x MMG, 2x37mm AT-gun (one across the river), 1x57mm AT-gun, Company HQ. 5) 1 rifle platoon, bazooka. 6) 6x60mm mortar, Platoon HQ. 7) 1 engineer platoon, FT, bazooka 8) HQ squad, 155mm spotter, 1x57mm AT-gun (I actually forgot this here), Section HQ(?). Like I said, I didn't expect to do very well because I thought my guns wouldn't hit hard enough. I was very wrong. First few turns passed with only 1 sighting of infantry. Only then I noticed the northmost ford at the NE corner of the map. I was going to get pummeled I thought. Then a column of tanks ID'd as panzer IVs came rolling along the road. I set both spotters for indirect fire at the northmost TRP and ordered the two 57mm guns to open fire on the first panzer IV (which was ahead of the others). Four of the five tanks were right on the TRP when the first shots landed (way off target by the spotter without visibility). Next salvo hit right on the target though and all the tanks buttoned as the first one took couple penatrations from the AT-guns and was KO'd. I thought my guns couldnt fire on the last 4 but to my surprise the middle gun (at number 1) killed 1 more tank on that turn. On the next round 2 more tanks killed by the 2 guns and the last remaining PzIVG on the following few mins. Meanwhile the enemy infantry could be seen advancing on the north side of the riverbank from the NE. I tried to find a visible point on the riverbank for my furthermost spotter and managed to do so with luck. Soon the 155mm shells were pummeling the supposed location of enemy infantry. At the same time first tanks came to view from the NE ford of the river. It was identified as Tiger and I was sure my days were numbered. Soon I got a full ID and it turned out be "only" PzIVH. Yet again my 57mm guns gave a pleasant surprise by knocking it out. Two more of the Hs tried to cross the steep slope but both were killed by the AT-guns. One PzIIIN managed to get to the woods near the river but it had a damaged gun from a lucky shot. Here is a picture of the battle outcome (viewed after battle ends): http://tik.cs.hut.fi/~aalestal/Panic_at_Gela_enemy.jpg First infantry contact came at point 2 where my slightly missplaced rifle squad went to hand-to-hand combat with some panzergrenadiers. The grenadiers took heavy casualties and fled as my FT opened up on the next incoming squad, which also quickly fled. Next a platoon HQ attempted to attack my defenses and caused me some casualties. My infantry wasn't placed that well because I could only spot the enemy when they were right on top of me. However the 155mm barrage had considerably weakened them and only total of 4 squads and 2 platoon HQs got that far. I moved a fresh squad to the foxhole at point 2 and defeated those, taking only light casualties (7 or so). I continued to shell the riverbank and withdrew from the northside. However, that was pretty much it. Only 2 more PzIIINs were killed on the northmost ford while the infantry attacks were on and 1 HT on the northmost TRP by the 37mm gun. I lost one gun when the enemy finally managed to lay some indirect fire (81mm mortars I think) on my AT-guns. The heroic gun with 7 tank kills was KO'd and light infantry casualties to one squad. Basically only the 3 guns and 1 platoon + spotters did most of the work. I had moved some of my guns and the mortars incase the enemy was to attack but it never happened. On the screenshot after the combat you can see the 5 PzIVGs and the HT at location 1, loc 2 is where all the infantry action basically took place, location 3 is the north ford where rest of the enemy armour was stuck (maybe due to poor AI, I don't really know). There are total of 3 destroyed PzIVs, 2 destroyed PzIII and 1 with gun damaged, 1 immobile PzIV at the ford and 2xIV, 2xIII, 7xHT unscratched left at location 3. One silly tank can be seem soloing at loc 4. Basically all the enemy infantry died to my artillery, my spotters racked 74+58 kills. I could only find 1 squad and 1 MG team + a spotter team after the combat had ended. Three or so squads had only 1 or 2 soldiers alive. The rest were scattered dead between locations 2 and 3. Frankly, this was way too easy and I don't even consider myself to be a good CM player. I've never played this scenario before and I played it through with one sit. If I had to improve this scenario, I'd take away 3 or 2 of the heavier AT-guns to make it more of a challenge. Artillery should also have less ammunition and maybe add a tad more infantry to the germans. Against a human it would probably be a different story. Ok came out pretty damn detailed :eek: I hope someone finds it enjoyable to read or something. [ January 05, 2004, 06:51 PM: Message edited by: AC ]

Long battles suck because often my infantry runs out of ammo. Scenarios suck because sometimes when you have managed to delay the enemy advancement in the first battle, it will jump right on you in the next because of small no-mans-land setting (ie. you use longer range guns to delay but have no units close to the enemy). Next version of CM definetly needs a way to get more ammo. Several versions could be implemented, ie. different size supply depots and perhaps supply trucks and so on.