GhostRider3/3

No doubt. The cool thing too is the Trees are all mangled and there are now alot of Huge holes troops can use as cover. I did notice in another VAAR that the troops were using advantage of craters.

I could have sworn in the 2nd VAAR when the US halftrack was destroyed the fire somewhat illuminated the area, or at least it looked like it. The game was fought I thought near the evening... I need to watch it again..

I think if you consider the Corps SS Divisions you would find pretty much just first rate men and Material... 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 9th 10th, and the 12th. From the beginings they had to beg, borrow and steal just to get equipment.. Sort of Like the Marine Corps of yesterday. You could say Marines are somewhat fanatical themselves, or at least we still were in the late 80's and early 90's. We thought ourselves the Best, the Elite Shock Force with one thing on our minds...Attack, Attack, Attack! Hell even the US Marine Corps considers its uniform Superior. I think the same attitude you would find with the Airborne troops of today, and 6th Mountain. Semper FI.

Ahh not sure your Tiger II data is correct aboout not being near any American positions. The Panzer Lehr had the 316. Funklenk-Panzerkompanie near the St. Lo area. Equipped with some Tiger II's. There is a picture of a Tigger II with porsche turret near Chateaudun, France That was attached at some point to Panzer Lehr. There are 2 different angle pictures that I know of, of the same tank #11. Someone quoted from this source http://fprado.com/armorsite/tigers-02.htm which is incorrect, as pictures do not lie. There was a TiggerII #11 assigned to the 316th Panzer Lehr. Just making sure that the info is correct.

Well if I had a Billion dollars I would donate at least 10 Million to Battlefront....LOL

LOL randomly dropping dung everywhere. Just think of the poor lads lying down in it using a dead horse as cover. I wonder if they would model the dung like mud?

Even today the Germans call their Machine Pistols... MP5, MP10, UMP,as they did back in the day of the MP38 and MP40. Their Rifles or Gewehr's are still called the same thing today, like their G11. Technically the Stg44 is a Rifle.... it is the Great Grandfather of all Assault Rifles. Anyways its a small matter, some keep calling it MP43/MP44. Hitler stopped all rifle production due to Infighting.. he did not really know about the MP43 at first, but once discovered he let the program commence, and after it had positive results Hitler gave the ok with the program, in which he would test fire the SturmGewehr in July of 1944. So it basically went from MP43 (deception name) to MP44, then after Hitler fired it... It became the Stg44, its true nature of being a Rifle (Gewehr) however it was Hitler that was soo impressed he was the one that actually called it a StormRifle. It was then redesignated as the Stg44. Ever since then, we call all semi-auto Combat Rifles (Assault Rifles which is pretty much the same meaning as StormRifle.

Freaking Awesome!

Also it would be nice to have this German vehicle. Sd.Kfz. 11 But for some reason there are really no AA guns, etc. But I think you needed the Sd.Kfz. 11 to tow the 88's around. I guess the notion is, when the gun is set up why would you need to move it, or something? Anyways I know the US "Duece" could tow just about everything.

Nice... I an going to try that!

Also If you check the link out below you will see what happens after Direct Fire to the Regina Rifles Command Post... NOTE: the Abbey to its left... or your right when looking at the Photo. http://www.wwii.ca/photo/306/normandy-caen/

Most defenitely. I have checked out all the Flavor objects about 30 times now! And you can defenitely replicate Caen even to the Abbey in which "Panzer Meyer" used for his observation area. You can make shops, warehouses and all kinds of stuff. My only question? Howe the heck can we replicate Airfields and Towers? There was the battle west of Caen.....Carpiquet Airport! The only buildings or tiles I have not seen would be that of Hangars, (You could make them though) Tower, and Airfield Tiles and fluff that would go with it (Like parked Aircraft...LOL) I know thats stretching it... Maybe use a Highway Tile or something? Here is a cool link from the Canadians that fought near Caen and Carpiquet Airport. http://www.wwii.ca/photo/136/normandy-caen-carpiquet/#next

Exactly! I have been playing Empire Total war for some time... Hell you can only conquer Europe and India so many times.... and Xbox... Geesh! Have not been on in a Month. I have been anticipating CM Normandy for soo long, Im looking for new books, watching movies, and looking at my HUGE map books drooling over the fact I will spend days in the scenerio editor! Thanks BF Team!

Not to get super critical.. but (MP) stands for Machine Pistol ( Maschinenpistole). The Stg44 was a Assault Rifle. Sturmgewehr (Sturm) meaning Assault, and Gewehr meaning Rifle. Its all good just lending a helping hand.

From Wikipedia: They were first encountered in the west in very small numbers late in the Battle of Normandy, where the German 654 schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung ("654th Heavy Antitank Battalion") deployed about 12 Jagdpanthers against British units. Probably see them in the next edition of CM Normandy for sure! Here is a Quote from Achtung Panzer! "On July 30th of 1944 near Les Loges in Normandy, three Jagdpanthers from schwere Panzer Jaeger Abteilung 654 ambushed a squadron of British 6th Guards Tank Brigade destroying some 10-11 Churchill tanks in a short period of two minutes.At the same time, other squadron of British 6th Guards Tank Brigade opened fire at three Jagdpanthers causing crews of two of them to abandon their vehicles (because of damaged tracks), while the third one retreated."

As far as direct fire goes... Urban combat, one tactic was to bring up a sIG 33 SP 15cm/155mm gun (Bison) "in the earlier days like with Poland". In the Normandy campaign the STuH42 with its 105mm gun would be a good choice for direct fire, as would the 105mm Sherman. I guess if you are making a scenerio and you dont want your beautiful town blown to hell, then you could set the parameters to make one of the goals of having calateral damage to the buildings? I mean hey, The GI's are going to want to sleep inside a nice cozy place right?

Cool, and good to know. Yes I have about 6 books from Michael F. Reynolds and you pretty much hit it right on the button. For a British chap, he does is homework. Say Barkhorn, you know any good Authors for the Market Garden operation? I have a couple books that touch on the subject, but was looking for the best book that really breaks it down with great tactical maps etc.

It could be seen as a Officer Candidate? possibly.... One who is being groomed to be an officer, the Germans did this alot, in fact in our German Reenactment group one of our NCO's has this "ribbon" if you will, indicating that he is an officer candidate... I am pretty sure they were steering that direction, although if you look up german army insignia, you will see that the officer candidates have 2 silver cords over their lapels. You can check it on Wikepedia or other sources. Hope that helps. source: Wikepedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_German_Army_Ranks_and_Insignia#Officer_candidates.2C_F.C3.A4hnrich near the bottom you can see the German Color coordination for the different branches that they served. CMx1 they really did a good job with the uniforms etc.

Wanted to know what you all think of Michael Frank Reynolds books. I have to say I have read alot of books, and he seems to be very objective and non biased in his material. Anyways just seeing if anyone else here has either read his material or had an opinion on his books.

I wonder if someone is going to "Link" a campaign together for that? There are soo many maps of those areas, Im sure someone is bound to make some epic maps, if not upon release then Im sure they will be downloadable.

The cool thing I just got done reading the manual, and yes they do have "Specialized" buildings, they call them "Comercial" Not to mention you can have 8 story buildings, and if you link the churches together it creates a Cathederal. They have posters and road signs and all sorts of groovy "Flavor Objects"... damn Im drooling again.

You can probably create your "Tank Holes" with the finely tuned editor! Just got done with page 110.....90 more to go, but I will probably go back and re-read everything again. Ahh is the demo coming out soon then.. LOL

It is interesting to see peoples views here on the German war machine. Interesting... I guess I have the utmost respect for the German Soldat for a few reasons. Germany was not the Largest country in Europe by no means, however it took on albiet a weak but numerically strong in manpower Poland, Pascifist Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, France (Who supposedly had the strongest Military at the time). France as far as aviation was just turning out 1st rate aircraft in 1940. UK although stretched had a first class Military. All defeated by lack of leadership on part of the Allies. Hell France was almost in a civil war because of the communists. Spain had her Civil war. Russia Numerically superior was an obvious mistake. Russia was a Huge mistake... However given casualty numbers I think the Germans inflicted more on its enemies.. but they still lost. Hell give them credit though, they were taking on 2 of the Largest Industial Machines on the Planet... take one away, and ask then could they have won then? That said the fighting Spirit of the Allies never broke either, all fought for what they thought was right, and for the man next to him. As a former Marine it basically comes down to the man next to you. You fight hard because you dont want to see the man next to you get chewed up, but it happens and combat is hell. Semper Fi 3/3

Does anyone know if they are going to have City type buildings? example, a Cafe, Hotel type buildings? This was the only gripe I had with the mission editors was that there was no special buildings except for a Church. I know in shock force you could change the color, texture etc. But again there was no special buildings like Hospitals etc. I think having special buildings would only enhance the depth of the editor, and make for more realistic larger towns. IMHO