Big Jim

Of course, without the TC, the tank may never have been in the right position at the right time to make the shot- or even alive to take the shot.

Exactly why Monty decided to stop trying to 'out-German the Germans' such as pursuing retreating armour into a destructive anti-tank screen. Suppose you learn those lessons the hard way! I imagine the FlaK would also be most useful in its AAA role there also. There's an idea for an operation right there...

I personally find just over two companys of infantry with support etc. enough to command, but extra arriving as reinforcements seems to break things up, and make them seem less unwieldy. Tank heavy scenarios, the more the better. ~2000/3000 pts

Has anyone else noticed prisoners sometimes seem to move of their own volition? I prefer keeping the blighters under guard just in case... Impressed with the numbers surrounded and captured- I normally can't resist putting the boot in and shooting at them!

Has anyone else noticed prisoners sometimes seem to move of their own volition? I prefer keeping the blighters under guard just in case... Impressed with the numbers surrounded and captured- I normally can't resist putting the boot in and shooting at them!

Very nice of both parties to leave nice large 'quarantine' signs in the thread title...

My old signature line- good choice! :cool: Always wondered how they brought 88s into attack- the range is good, but setting them up has got to be pretty visible for quite a distance.

But can the pigeon keep up with the pace of squirrel technology? 'Documents now released to the National Archives reveal that the War Office intelligence section, MI14, warned: "Pigeon research will not stand still; if we do not experiment, other powers will." ' Of course.. pigeons... *scurrys back to secret laboratory, cackling madly*

Is that a nut I see behind its tail? About.. 89mm if I guess correctly? Battle of the Bulge was on TV the other day- they used M-60 Patton tanks or something instead of KTs, painted in a fetching shade of grey. Who says Hollywood doesn't get it right! (And the SPW 250 halftracks were M3s painted grey- a crime in my mind. They should have at least used a mod or something)

I stand corrected: according to Dr. Peg Halloran's handy 'Squirrel Almanac' at http://spot.colorado.edu/~halloran/sqrl.html , "As a general rule, tree squirrels do not hibernate over winter, instead they cache food in the fall for use over winter. You may not see them as often because they do reduce their activity do to the cold and shorter days. Ground squirrels on the other hand do not cache food, but hibernate over winter. The one exception to this rule is the Abert squirrel, a tree squirrel who does not cache food or hibernate over winter - instead they eat inner bark from the Ponderosa pine trees to sustain themselves." So there you go. No mention of KTs though...

So that's how the Germans lost the war really...

Dropping a 1100Ib bomb on them seems to be quite effective, but in the first days of the Ardennes, when it was snowy as hell, I'm not sure. They don't really like bad weather, so if one were immobilized with no hope of recovery, then you'd have to blow it up to stop it falling into enemy hands. Couldn't have been squirrels anyways- they hibernate during winter.

Personally, I'd love to go into battle wearing a big shiny gold target.. I mean, helmet.

If they'd had live feeds from the battle of Monte Cassino I doubt many people would have a stomach for further campaigning in Italy. Bit easier to gloss over things when only censored newspapers feed back information to the public. Beer, due to its fetching amber colour and many bubbles, has been scientifically proven to preserve brains for longer, but has the unfortunate side effect of causing dog ugly women to materialise overnight in your bed to replace the ravishing beauty from the night before... at least in my experience.

I remember buying Talonsoft's 'East Front' for about £5, then later 'West Front' for a similar princely sum. I loved the games at the time, and I thought the level of unit detail etc. (in the unit info windows etc.) was amazing- recreating the battles of WWII and putting me in the driving seat. I bought Sudden Strike, but quickly became bored with it- C&C did the whole RTS thing better, IMHO. RTCW and MOHAA were both great fun, but essentially just FPS games with WWII clothes- although I'll never forget the first time I went up Omaha beach, very good level (but amazing to think people actually did charge into that situation- and win). Then CM came along- played CMBO a bit, thought it was quite good, and then left it for a bit. When CMBB came out however, I was truly hooked- there was never any question as soon as I saw CMAK, I just had to buy it. Now, I don't really bother buying games unless it's a fun FPS to play online- although my interest in Strategic Command 2 has been aroused by reading the articles on this website... Games have their place though, as do sims- but give me 'Sim World War II' (CM) anyday!

Exactly- in the abcense of orders, issuing orders normally issued by superiors in order to meet objectives. Such 'admin' work would not normally need an order from the HQ to carry out. Of course, today this is hammered into junior leaders- that is how we learn, through the mistakes of the past. Units in US/UK armies today are all elite in comparison to CMAK, if not better, and this would also apply to the command and initiative structure in place. Such latitude also builds confidence in junior grades to take decisions- and if your officers keep dropping like flys, this can be very useful to avert disaster when in contact with the enemy. Anyone reckon Monty would have fitted in in the Red Army?! From earlier, the ammo difference makes sense between recon (8 men, 28) and pzgr (10 men, 35) squads- 2 lmgs in each, gives 6 and 8 men to carry ammo respectively- a difference of 1/4, which is reflected in the ammo points. Would this be the case for US squads, which are typically 12 men squads as opposed to 10 men squads for the commonwealth? If 2 men make such a difference in an identically equipped squad, this could be the bone of contention we have been looking for... *appears with mop and bucket in hand* Apologies for the knuckledragger- do you reckon he's another Oscar Wilde kind of man?

Of course, if one were a Bayesian statistician, the data from the North Africa tests could be taken as a prior belief and so give a posterior set of beliefs when combined with the data from the more statistically significant test in England. How much difference (in weight, accuracy, etc.) is there between HE and smoke shells?

Tests designed to catch drug drivers involve monitoring response times of an individual- if they're too fast, then they must be on something. No doubt reactions are faster, but I agree with the cloud judgement principle of the USN- if you can't drive a car at 40mph on these things, how can you fly at 400mph and blow things up!? Lost a Tiger in my last game to enemy FB hitting it square on with a 1100Ib bomb. My air support then preceded to turn up late and strafe already 'knocked out' tanks for a few passes, then head back to the airfield. And who says pilots overinflate their claims?

That would make sense, especially with your earlier observations on the need for such weapons to 'equal the numbers' as it were on the Ostfront. Thanks for the new sig line, Andreas- I want that weapon for Christmas!

So they used the 'paper' strength in game for the German squad's weapons, when they were more likely to have old K98s etc.? I think the 'democratic' business is about that, one would think that in a totalitarian dictatorship such creativity of thought in subordinates would be supressed, whereas in a free democracy, one would expect much more freedom of action for subordinates. It appears it was the other way round however- the Germans favouring the idea that doing anything was better than doing nothing, and catching the enemy with his pants down. Proverbially, of course. I've got to go and change my sig line now...

It could also be argued that, as the MG42 came into service in 1942, when Germany was on the defensive, that a highly effective machine gun (improved on the MG34) actually lengthened the war. German squads don't seem to carry many K98s in the later part of the war- think I'd rather have a StG44 personally. Just playing QB in Feb 43, and my Panzergrenadier squads (7 rifles, 1 smg, 2 lmg) had 35 points of ammo, where as my recon squads (5 rifles, 1 smg, 2 lmg) had only 25 ammo points. Would this be because recon units carried less ammo? :confused:

LOL You forgot the Italians.

Agreed. But hopefully with BFCs experience with TacOps, creating this environment should be possible- they've done such a great job with WWII, now it's time for some cold (or should I say hot?) war action...

Mummy, mummy I want one!

According to one JonS' posts in 'close air support', the air force resisted FAC coordinated strikes due to the waste of aircraft, fuel, etc. for the number of targets hit. I suppose they had artillery for the front line stuff. If for example though, CM went into the Cold War time period, would a FAC be more applicable in the game then? Ian Goodersons book 'Cassino' looks like a good read, I think I'll have to track it down.