Big Jim

I'm sure I read somewhere that the SA-80 A2, standard British army assault rifle, doesn't fit a bayonet on the end. I enjoy talking to veterans, but when anyone talks like a propaganda leaflet I think a lot of people feel the need to set that person straight. Volkov was a little cranky, but everyone is entitled to an opinion- and everyone is entitled to disagree. I must admit, this probably wouldn't have turned into a German bashing thread if the question had been 'German infantry ammo loadout'!

How distant was your armour from the enemy MLR also? If you're on enemy turf, they might think that tank, reversing into battle(?), is a target of opportunity. For some reason. Guess it depends how many squirrels were chasing it... Bring on the FACs!

I think an officer on the map, who could call air support like artillery, would be extremely useful for integrating air ops better into CM- maybe in CMx2...?

Agreed. But with German production racing ahead, could that have swung the course of the Eastern front? Supply problems would remain- but Partisans may not be as easy to recruit to fight the Germans if the Soviets had been the aggressors...

I can't remember who did it, but the Hetzer mod on CMMODs is my personal favourite- Czech production colours, or something like that. A pleasure to watch take pot shots at Shermans! The Italian last seen icon is a must to have also- call me picky, but just couldn't spot the fasces (careful to spell that one right) in the desert.

Ah, thought there was little difference between CMBB and CMAK in that regard. Is it fairer having different levels- SMGs are pretty useless over 100m, and rifles aren't very useful when against SMGs at close range. But then what would we discuss in the forum? It probably reflects ammo consumption more accurately... maybe the next patch will sort it out.

Yep. But he who does not ask, does not get.

Has the ROF been changed since CMBB then? I suppose the Russkis had SMG squads also... but changing it because squads were too powerful? Hmmmm.. the disadvantage is reversed when you've got no ammo left! Maybe they were feeling sorry for the Commonwealth infantry in that case- less up close firepower for a fairer game. How very sportsmanlike!

I didn't realise you only did internet sales- and if it hadn't been for CDV I probably would have been blissfully unaware for several months. I take back my rants against censorship. *sheepish look* Good for BFC- you guys do the legwork, you should get the profit. Hello Aussies, don't worry this pom is just passin' thru.

It would have mightily pissed off the Brits if he hadn't done those things though. De Valera knew he couldn't push his luck with stuff like that: attacking the RAF and holding British airmen as POWs. Wars have started for less than that!

True, the final form of the Panther was decided upon after encountering the T-34, with thick frontal armour, speed and a 75mm L/70 gun. According to http://www.wwiivehicles.com/html/germany/pzkpfw_v.html however: "Porsche was instructed at the end of 1939 to develop a heavy tank between 25 and 30 tons with the 7.5 cm KwK L/24 gun, and possibly later have the 10.5 cm KwK installed. Nicknamed the Leopard within Porsche. It had twin engines. Nibelungenwerke in St. Valentin built 2 prototypes in 1940. When the Russian T-34/76 was encountered the design program was sped up. In November 1941, General Guderian (commander of Panzergruppe II in Russia) wrote a report suggesting that a commission should be formed immediately to design a tank to be able to gain supremacy over Russian T-34 tanks. The Armaments Ministry sent a commission to the Russian front to study the T-34." Funnily enough they decided to up the gun size after meeting the T-34... I'm suprised Hitler didn't countermand the order so as not to lower the morale of the PzkwIV crews.

Sounds feasible to me- the Challenger II tank is the only main battle tank in service in the world which comes with a kettle fitted as standard. And what self respecting Englishman could go into battle without a hot brew?

Bad weather and heavy artillery tend to make life less fun for King Tigers, but I know what you mean- in an operation a while back, I lost about a dozen T34s killing one of two King Tigers. Then the last one killed a platoon of IS-2s in the next battle. Coordinating attacks to make sure you all break cover at the same time can give less targets he can engage effectively, and appearing from several directions at once can give them a headache. Kind of what the Germans had to do against the KV and T-34s earlier in the war!

Just out of curiosity, whay do you think we (Ireland) were so annoying during the war? </font>

What resolution are you running the game in? A 'normal' resolution in other games sometimes causes your computer to think very hard about turns. When I first bought CMBO, my computer would crash after a few turns because it got too hot- now I've got a new fan and set the resolution a bit more sensibly (can't remember what to, though). To change resolution, I think you delete the config file in CMAK directory- but someone please confirm this before anyone does it. I don't want to be the thread whipping boy. Again.

I think there is always room for improvement with graphics, and until I see what looks pretty indistinguishable from the real thing, I'll never be truly sated. However, graphics should never be sacrificed for gameplay- if graphics are the CM high which hooks you in, then gameplay is the CM addiction which keeps you coming back for more.

lol Thought I'd have a laugh and be very unbritish for a change. Only I've managed to offend quite a large section of the world in one go... apologies, only pulling legs again. My vote is still for the SAS though.

Quite a lot of which were foreign as well, I might add.

Very true on the first point! The M1 and BAR were developed with different ideas in mind however- the Americans were working toward the assault rifle idea (slowly, and perhaps unknowingly(?)), where as the Germans were into kick-ass machine guns. IIRC, the BAR was a WWI weapon and the M1 was shiny and new, and the Germans had developed the first ever GPMG, the MG34, then the MG42. The MG42 fired something like 1200rpm! :eek: The idea behind pumping out so many bullets being to hit an enemy who was dashing from cover to cover in the short amount of time he was exposed. I suppose the counterargument to the 'superamis' is that the troops of other nations eg. Germans had to carry ammunition for the squad LMG, so were weighed down equally by that in the same way Americans had their own M1 ammo. But even so, maybe the point should be that the Germans don't get enough ammo... although a reliable source informs me American soldiers were more accurate.

Britain for best country (with Commonwealth of course)- the only country in the war from 09/39 right through to the end, and a winner to boot. None of this coming in later nonsense.

With a similar number of 'what if's', Germany could have won the war by 1942 though.

If Russia had had a good solid defence, which had been deployed in depth and ready for counterattacks, then I think Russia could have (pretty much) won in 1941. If the Germans had blunted their armoured pincers by attack solid defensive positions, and then been counterattacked by Soviet armoured forces things would have been very hairy for Germany- maybe by 1942 victory could have been Soviet. However, this idea relies on a lot of 'what if's', namely- 1. Stalin paranoid about Hitler, not his own people, instead of vice versa. 2. No purges. 3. A level of operational art which was only fully achieved after the Germans had made them learn after kicking the living daylights out of them for two years. With probably a few more thrown in for good measure...

The American supply situation wasn't really a shortage of gear though, just in that case of very bad planning- as some of the Brit troops say of the Americans "All the gear and no idea". Perhaps they may tire quicker with more ammo, but this would affect the balance of the tiredness system which works pretty well in my opinion- I just see the point that they have a hell of a lot of ammo for the pretty high ROF of their weapons. Not as high as the Germans ROF though... I'm just bitter my German troops keep running out of ammo. It's always more fun to wait until you see the whites of their eyes though.

So the question remains- is the ammo loadout for US troops in CMAK too good, especially considering low German ammo points? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing as the US troops and getting down and dirty with the infantry- and I must admit, I'd rather have Volkov on my side of no-man's land... You can actually address the problem manually if you feel strongly about it- for QBs, turn ammo percentages down, and in scenarios you can edit ammo loadout for individual units (v. time consuming). P.S. edited for spelling mistake [ May 17, 2004, 06:20 AM: Message edited by: Big Jim ]

Have you used the covered arcs option? By pressing 'c' for cover for all targets, and 'v' for cover for armoured targets, you can set the range of engagement and angle you want a unit to cover. I like to get my platoons of tanks looking in slighty staggered directions to the left and right to get better use from formations. Cover arcs work for all units except conscripts and out of command greens- a welcome addition since the original combat mission game, in my opinion. As for the reversing away stupidly business, I agree- but then again I'm not having 88mm rounds fired at me from a Tiger tank, so I ain't panicking quite the same!