l.cassidy

Aw, sorry John! I completely forgot you live in a different time zone and this post could have reached you while having b/fast. My bad. Glad you didn't spurt your Cheerios all over the screen & keyboard, though. Maybe there's some special section in model contests for this kind of...subjects, although in that picture the "model" is right between a F-15 and some other jet that might be a Su-27... :confused: Cheers, Cassidy

I suppose this belongs to the last category...

Corvidae & Jason, thanks for the instructive and entertaining thread. Comrade Corvidaevich, well done! The scenario was admittedly balanced in your favor, though it's always good to see the hitlerites down in the dust once in a while! Cheers, Cassidy

I can report this episode that occourred to me some months ago with a Stug that went fanatic, or berserk or whatever: it simply refused to give up and kept on returning fire no matter what. * (note: it happened in CMAK, though) * I was playing the U.S. attacking German A.I. I usually give the AI some experience bonus so this Stug had a high-end crew, Vet or more. It was holding a small rise of the ground and was standing behind a small patch of scattered trees. My attempts to take it out with a couple of Stuarts engaging it head-on lead to the loss of one the abovementioned Stuarts. Time to switch to Plan B. Being near the end of the game and with the enemy infantry mostly dispersed/suppressed, I rushed 2 flamethrowers and a engineer squad towards the tree patch and 2 bazookas and my remaining Stuart towards its right flank to engage it with flank shots. The flame/engineer team was mostly intended as a diversion to keep the Stug busy while the designated killer team (Stuart & zooks) was to whack it from the flank. One of the flamers never made it to the trees while the other two did, although rattled to death. In the meantime the Stuart and zooks team reached the designated flanking position (I don't remember the exact distance, but it was well within bazooka range, I'd say about 150m). The flamethrower managed to hose the Stug twice before being routed by the Stug's return fire while the engineers never managed to lob a satchel charge and never recovered from their "pinned" status. And here comes the interesting part: the Stuart and bazookas began putting round after round into the Stug's side. Not half-assed "partials", they were all "side upper/lower hull penetrations" of which 2 or 3 by bazooka hits. Luckily, one of the first hits immobilized the Stug so it didn't pivot to face the Stuart & zooks. Anyway, that monster threw in the towel only after having absorbed about a DOZEN penetrations plus the 2 initial bursts by the brave flamethrower. Never, ever saw a tank behave with such fanatical determination despite being in the worst possible situation. It continued to fire at the targets in front of it for a good half of the turn AFTER the immobilization, at least until there were enough crewmembers alive to operate the gun and MG. Though, I can't recall how many crewmembers were left when they finally decided to call it a day and bail the tank. Stupidly I haven't saved the turns, either. I'll never know if it was a crew that went fanatic or a "Elite" TC with a +2 morale that wanted very badly to add the Oak Leaves to his Iron Cross... Regards, Cassidy

Oh, you're still alive and well!!! I thought I've lost you down there in the steppe fighting the hitlerites... Well, let's celebrate Comrade! * pops open his canteen filled with moonshine * (yeah, I'm out of vodka at the moment...sigh!) JasonC, thanks for the super AAR. I'm enjoying every bit of it. No mortars in your toolbox? I feel like..."naked" if I don't have at least a couple of them! Cheers, Cassidy

Must be my booze buddy Cuirassierov, I haven't seen him since yesterday's vodka tasting session... Helluva hangover, poor son! Regards, Comrade Cassidof

Excellent reports guys, keep 'em coming! Greets, Cassidy

* takes a swig of vodka * With what, Comrade? Slingshots??? * takes another, longer, swig of vodka *

Why waste 82mm (wimpy) arty over Panzers, Comrade Corvidaevich? I'm sure there must be more suitable weapons in your arsenal to avenge the tragic loss of Grandma Kasovich's chicken coop & resident rooster... Nice thread, guys. Keep us posted. Cheers, Cassidy

Thank for posting. I agree 100% that the soundrack is totally lame and disrespectful. Volume goes off for me, too. BTW, this site is a real mine of videos: check out this journo scared sh*tless by a very low flying Spitfire. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkmHcAnPDIA&search=WWII%20planes Cheers, Cassidy

Make sure your spotter has a clear LOS over the target area (deep blue LOS line). The strike WILL be on target. It's written on the F.M. somewhere.

Cuirassier, if you want to play a good scenario that includes the Sturmtiger, try "HSG - A Tiger by the tail". I had fun playing it as Axis vs. the AI (with some experience bonus to the AI). You can find it at http://www.the-proving-grounds.com/ or http://www.the-scenario-depot.com/ Have fun! Cassidy

The insurgents' propaganda could exploit this Juba character like the soviets did with Vasily Zaitsev...

John, your reasoning holds the water well: if they already altered the barrel, nothing could stop them from adding other bells & whistles to the gun. However I have the "feeling" that it was a gun bulkier than a one-man portable AT rifle. This thing is intriguing, and after some quick googling I came up with this link: http://www.mgm.com/title_title.do?title_star=THUNDERL You can watch a trailer of the movie and there are a couple of short sequences in which the gun appears. After some still-frames, my "gut feeling" has increased by a notch...though I'd like to know your opinion about it. Cheers, Cassidy

John, I'm not sure if it was a Lahti AT rifle in that movie. IIRC Eastwood used to fire the gun from a seated position and the gun had a kind of...er..."shoulder harness", like the one you see in AA gun mounts like this one: I always thought it was some kind of 20mm AA gun like a M2 Hispano or a Oerlikon (even though probably "Hollywood-ized" to some extent). However, I'm relying on memory on this so I could stand corrected. All the best, Cassidy