GhostRider3/3

So playing this campaign.. I am actually having a blast. I read the scenerios very carefully and actually draw out the tactical map.. and draw up how I am going to approach my Victory conditions. ** Looking at the Map.. and the location of the bridges, I carefully surveyed the landscape. I noticed a small treeline that had a great view to the bridges and my main axis of advance. I knew that the town area itself on the other side of the bridge would be contested. sooo. Bombardment... Mortar fire the wooded patch on the right flank.. and used my 150mm to prep the town.. you get I beleive 4 Reference points.. so you can target the hell out of the town.. x2 RP, X1 treeline in front of bridges, and x1 the small wooded gnoll on right flank. Mission #1. I flanked the Left side through the woods to get to the small hamlet. I used, 1 Platoon of Pz IV, with a platoon of Infantry riding the tanks. I avoided the roads initially on my left flank... (Mission said there would be possible infantry and such. Flanked the Right side as well going through the town.. basically I engaed a few tanks at range and blew them to hell.. x4 tanks I beleive. Left Flank.. I engaed 3 hidden tanks in a wooded area.. from the rear.. I was amazed that they took off.. luckily I had another platoon of tanks near some building (covered covering my infantry heading down a dirt road to the main intersection. X3 T-34/85 tanks were engaeged and destroyed from the rear and the their right flank. The rest of the time was getting to the bridges after a few more T-34/85 were destroyed on the other side of the river by the town.. totaling a total of I think 10 or 12 T-34/85's. I have not lost a Panzer yet.. I play pretty conservatively. and wanted to keep my distance, I know the T-34/85 can outgun my Pz IV's.. and the 75mm AP rounds can penetrate their sides nicely... most of my engagements were at least1000-1400m one was knocked out at 1600m. Their was a contingent of troops in the woods near the main crossroads... I got some intiatal contacts and set up around the wooded area, knowing my front was secured from any enemy armor as I was pretty sure I had free rein of the battlefield on my side of the river. I brought up my 20mm Flak trucks, and some Stummels, with infantry and some tanks covering.. the mortars hit nicely.. and I was amazed at all the soviet infantry running for thier lives.. they made it to open ground.. and then were obliterated... I took a few casualties in the town to my Right flank.. Our entire KG then crossed the River... under Artillery fire that was off but close at tmes.. took some more infantry casualties in the town.. but it was secured... However only a Tactical German Victory.. BECAUSE 2 russian men were in the green zone... WTF... Mission #2.. Bombared the first town objective.... I decided to split my initial 4 tanks.. 2 on the left flank and 2 to go with the troops. to the first objective. Left Flank tanks engaged 2 T-34/85 from range.. then backed off.. then engaged again.. knocking them both out... I decided to wait for reinforcemnts before entering the town. KG Baker.. was stuck because their were no AT weapons available.. and I did not want to follow T-34/85 tanks in Htracks. More Tanks arrived and I had them group with men in the town.. and I split off two Mk IV platoons to cover the large field.. opposite the treline and buildings and the Train Station. ( I think it is the train station) Not the one in the center of town. Anyways.. we knocked out 3 T-34/85 at range.. took a couple commander casualties. After a bombardment.. I sped passed the town with 6 Pz IV tanks and 2 Stummels and 1 platoon of Infantry in tracks... Setting up in a small wall enclosed area on the opposite side of the first objective (Village). 3 Pz IV took position looking down the roads.. one tank took out 2 T-34/85's.. I think they were the same ones theat sped out of the village. Thats where Im at right now. 44 minutes left.. and I have alot to secure yet.. KG Baker is stuck in position.. I think there are tanks still accross their way.... Left flank.. still sketchy on the tree line.. 2 tank contacts.. but we cant really see them... Russians tried an Air attack.. but I think my two Flak trucks with 20mm scared him off.. the plane did straff the Russians though????

Nice tactic.. .very nice indeed.

By the way.. is there another site to download all of these... I heard of a Mod Warehouse or something? Is that not on the BFsite? Feel like an idiot for asking...lol

I saw the Artillery reference point and decided.. why the hell not... and unleashed all of my Mortar fire their.... *Spoiler Alert* Thank GOD!.... LOL Anyways it was fun.. I sent a platoon of troops very fast to the hill that overlooks the village.. Wow.. suprise.... Even with the two StuH's I only mangaed to knock out 3 buildings barely... pulled back super fast. their was an infantry fight in the woodline on my Right flank.. but my one Pz IV in overwatch and the SPW's nd Quad 20mm did most of the work.. escaped with 1 Mk IV being destroyed by an onslaught.. Motor platoon beet feet to in the nick of time.. It was a good victory... very fun.

I totaly here you.. "What if Scenerios" What if I had a platoon of 4 elefants.. vs 45 T-34's Starting distance 3000m.. LOL that would be fun. Im sure eventually they will get there..

I know this may have been brought up.. but any chance of all of adding another vehicle type to the German vehicle list. I know some have moded the kublewagen before.. and their maybe no reason for a Heavy Passeger vehicle except for Recon...etc but it would be nice.. even if it was from the Single Vehicle list. Some examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einheits-PKW_der_Wehrmacht The Horch is one of my favoriest and you always see them in propaganda reels.. was thinking the Schwerer geländegängiger PKW, and the Mittelschwerer geländegängiger PKW

Very nice indeed. Thank you very much Vein! Looking forward in downloading this.

They will show up.. Elefant: sPJgr.Abt 653 was modernized and elements sent to Italy where they saw fighting at Anzio, Nettuno, and Cisterna as early as March 1st of 1944. Then.....April 1944 Elements of sPzJgr.Abt 653 were transferred to the EastFront... Autumn of 1944 and grouped into PzJgr Company 614.. there were only 13-14 still until early 1945 in which the remanants took part with KG Ritter and the defense of Berlin. VERY RARE... indeed to see one of these beasts. JagdPanther first issued to 559th and 654th Abt's in June of 1944 (west) They were also allocated to 7 Pz Divisions, Pz Brigade, and the Fuhrer Grenadier Division.. January of 1945. Also included during the defense of Budapest, the Waffen SS Divisions of the 2nd, 9th, and 10th each had 1 company of JagdPanthers.

This is going to sound nuts... but when ever I do a search in the Repository for Aris (Fuser) Im not seeing alot of the stuff from this forum.. LOL Im searching under Red Thunder? Where can I find all these improvements. Thanks.

Actually Lucas your a little wrong there. 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. They had Red Collars instead of Black I believe, and did wear Sig Runes. They did fight with distinction at Anzio and then wore the black collars with sigrunes. They further grew and fought in Plemont. The 24th Waffen Mountain (Karstjäger) Division of the SS (they wore a flower instead of SS runes) fought against mostly partisans in Northern Italy. 16 SS Reichsführer-SS sent a Kampfgruppe to contain the Anzio landings in January 1944. Anyways I am sure modders can create some of these special units if they wanted, but they did see combat in Italy. Read everyones post above.. and Im sorry but both Allied and Axis commited horrid acts against others.. War is freaking hell. I have been in two myself, sorta lopsided if you ask me but when the **** really does hit the fan, sometimes its easy to get emotions running, especially if you see a brother chewed up, People are gong to act differently, especially if your enemy fight like cowards and out of uniform IMHO. But war is war and never pretty or glamorous.

I did a QB and had 4 75mm Pak/40 AT guns and 2 Panthers.. vs 24 T-34/76 and I think 8 T34/85's. End result was astonishing.. Although the Russians had thru hilly terrain, as German Defender, the Russians never really got a shot at any AT guns.. however they did spot the cats and attack them..minimal damage... range was about 1200-1500m. all but 4 Tanks were destroyed of the Russians. They were all buttoned up as I remember... but the AT guns were having a hayday. Anyways in many reads AT/guns were a tankers worst nightmare. If I have Artillery I usually pepper the areas where I think they may be hiding.. sometimes you get lucky.

I have to agree with Apocal.. it would be extremely rare to see any Assault on a large scale township or city without Armor. I just finished reading the history of the 5 SS Wiking Division, and the fighting in and around Kharkov was epic. I know that even some German Inf. Divisions would have by 1944 integrated some armor, like the 1st Heer Inf. Div with Pzjgr.Abt. Independant StuG.Abt as well. Anyways, I also construct scenerios realisticaly from what the actual divisions at the time would have available to them on both sides.. seeing street fights are extremely violent. In Iraq.. we appreciated every Abram's tank.. and artillery, well we had the pleasure of Laser designators, GPS etc... they did not which could be extremely bad for friendlies. List of Independent StuG Batteries. http://sturmvogel.orbat.com/stug.html Iam sure alot of folks here already have books on Independent TD units (US) and StuG Batteries but this may help some folks.

I am extremely happy with Red Thunder. Its bloody Awesome. I have had enormous amounts of fun with QB's and just begining the Scenerios. I cant wait to see Hungarian, Romanian, and even Partisans.. along with Waffen SS units in the future. I had the priviledge of meeting a Hungarian Vetran from WWII who fought in the Battle of Budapest. He was a Math and science professor before the war came to Hungary. When Hungary became part of the Axis powers in 1941. He enlisted and because of his aptitude in mathmatical engineering, he became a Lt in a Engineering Company and although I dont recall his unit I know it was within the Hungarian 2nd Army of I Corps. Anyways he remembered mostly that the initial waves of Soviet troops were sparcely carrying weapons, however there were as he said "Hordes" of them. Regardless of the many soviet lives lost, they won the day. What is most interesting I found was the mix of troops he fought with who could not break out, Hungarian, Waffen SS, and regular Heer all within the city. He was captured and remained a captive until 1948, he was spared only because he was an Engineer and was able to fix things for his captors. He unfortunately died 4 months ago, but it was epic of his story from when he joined, and upon his release and I was very honored to have talked to a Hungarian Vetran.

I totaly agree with Jason C here. After reviewing my technical books on the construction of the Pz IV, Pz V etc.. and that even of the T-34 and T34/85 you would really need a sustained hit on the rear deck or an Open hatch to either cause any significant damage or casualties... I know both sides would usually have Infantry either not far behind or flanking the tanks or Vice/ versa... and any flame spewing out of a tank, or Human.. would be targeted rather quickly. Not sure what the lifespan of a Flamethrower unit was.

LOL no doubt... I took two weekends off in May so I can experience the full weight and fury of the Russian Offensive.. and see flames licking from burning buildings set afire by flamethrowing tanks and me.. and to see a series of different Rocket attacks.

The Pictures really do look amazing. Waiting for my copy to arrive. I think I will go out and get a larger monitor.

I see Partisans in a future release with ???? Maybe Hungarian and Rumanian Forces... Hell maybe even Soviet Naval troops etc... Soviet para?

I have a question, will we see the Ppsh41 used with German Infantry.. I know they picked up many as they were better in some ways then the Mp40 (CQB). So would it be normal to see some squads with the Mp-40, Ppsh41, and Stg44? as well as the usual K98 and MG42's?

Thank you Battlefront! It just keeps getting better and better.. And the modders are just doing a great job as well. My hats off.

To the OP. I believe that units distinguishing themselves were granted "Guards" title after 1941.. however there were no badges awarded or such to distinguish a Guards unit until 1943.. since Bagration is 1944 you would defenitely see "Guard" infantry etc with Guard badges worn on uniforms. However I think the fact thet they were "Elite" should be used loosly as in the end they had 11 Guard Armies (equivelent to a German Corps) and 6 Guard Tank Armies.. They were no doubt better equiped and had more experienced men, but to call them Elite in my opinion is stretching it. PS: Russian tand units awarded Guards status, like their Aircraft would usually paint The Guard Badge emblem, I believe the land forces were given Guard Banners by 1942.. Anyways I beleive by 1944 it would not be uncommon to see most Guard tanks displaying the "Guard Badge". Could be wrong, but I dont have my books in front of me right now.

As with C2Yeung, I first load my troops up with ammo. For me depending on the scenerio I either keep them in the back or move them forward with security. I usually deploy them in a Armored Recon Element with fast moving AC's again with security. Either I have already prepped up the tree line toward my axis of advance... Shooting at upper floors with MG, or HE rounds... Rapid advance up. Michael Emry has a good point in only move few units to contact first.. so even when I have a forward Armored Recon element either platoon or Company size, I will only move a few first. AT guns are a nightmare! Basically I mostly have them in the rear moving behind Armor, but at a lengthy distance as they are easy targets for AT and HE rounds, also if a FO gets a bead on where your Motorpooling your transports they will not hesitate to try to obliterate them.. usually. Once I have fire superiority, I wont hesitate to use them to assist with suppression, or taking out, capturing routing troops.

Did anyone notice that the JagdTiger was missing among the list? I know they are rare but they should still be there. unless I missed it. Also the Elefent was still in combat.. albeit only a handful with the 653rd Heavy Pzjager.Abt. There are pictures of them in 1944 still in combat.

What I normally do is just pick a date closer to 1945 and month. usually most things are available.. but since only around 2000 were made.. it was pretty rare. Quote from JonS "There is one other setting, an easy one to overlook, which alters the force at the time it is purchased. This is the Quality setting in the middle of the left hand panel, and which has a default of ‘Typical’. The system's vernacular has things rated ‘Excellent’ to ‘Poor’ in five steps. But in many cases the terms are better thought of as Typical through Rare, with perhaps the "best option being the one at the bottom of the picking order. This setting alters the mix and quality of the weapons the battalion is equipped with. In the case of the SS grenadier battalion making up KG Harder, Excellent means: * All rifle squads have a rifle grenadier * Rifle squads have a higher proportion of G43 semi auto rifles and MP44 assault rifles. * All MGs are MG42s Poor means: * None of the rifle squads have a rifle grenadier * Rifle squads have a lower proportion of G43 semi auto rifles and MP44 assault rifles." I think this would help mayb

Yeah no kidding.. Damn! Thats why I love this series... Cheers to the entire BF team and the moderators, you all really do care.

Nice battle... and the AAR is great. I would say great job.. at close range gettng hit by the JgdpzIV or Panther surely has wreaked some havoc, but nicely played. Say im not sure if you have one.. but (and I could be wrong here) the 57mm UK AT gun is one powerful.. Mother!!! It may depend on the year, but it has I think 4-6 APDS rounds that can basically penetrate Tiger's or Panthers like butter from anything under 600m.. I would say that it is crazy effective.. (lost 2 Tigers in street fighting 400-350m) and 3 Panthers from side and front shots from around 600+ meters. The tanks Menace... ATG's