[Kill Rings]

As a former Tank Commander, I take exception to your remark, Sergei. Sabers at dawn?

[Grog question on AMX-13]

Originally posted by Sergei:

But doesn't the AMX have a fully rotating turret??

Yes it did.

[Ski units]

I agree with Yankee Dog.

[Armor flaking?]

An addition: spalling is caused by kinetic energy from the impact (or detonation in the case of HESH) causing the armor plating to fracture along the crystallization lines in its structure. Harder steel in general has greater crystallization, so harder steel in general causes more spalling.

The Army calls it spalling whether the round penetrates or not.

[Slang Question]

Originally posted by Dandelion:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by jrrich0000:

Why don't you start another thread about UK/Canadian unit organization and history and stop hijacking this one?

I am curious about German nicknames for their equipment, but I don't want to have to wade through all the uninteresting (to me) off topic minutia and hair splitting to read about it!

The thread topic was, I belive, derogatory terms for Frenchmen. I think we exhausted that one rather rapidly.

It was in fact Martyr who hijacked the thread by bringing up German nicknames, and then again by bringing up regimental structures. In fact, he has been the engine of one of the most interesting threads in months in my humble opinion.

So you see the thread is a bit of a better box of chocolates, there's a little juicy something for everyone's taste

Cheerup

Dandelion </font>

[Slang Question]

Why don't you start another thread about UK/Canadian unit organization and history and stop hijacking this one?

I am curious about German nicknames for their equipment, but I don't want to have to wade through all the uninteresting (to me) off topic minutia and hair splitting to read about it!

[Contour Lines Desparately Needed]

Originally posted by JasonC:

Well, me, I don't think you need to fuzzy up everything and confuse the players as much as possible and map hangnails and whether socks are dirty or clean.

I just want to be able to see a 5 meter elevation change in sand without spending an hour per turn doing so.

Which some nice bright ugly neon contour lines will do for me, just fine.

Those who don't want or need them can turn them off.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled complexification and unplayability "realism as snipe hunt" factory.

HALLELUIA Brother, and AMEN!

[Towed guns]

Originally posted by Panzer76:

The beauty of a house rule is, if you dont like it, dont play with it. If some one doesnt like my house rule, hey, np, but I wont play ya. If you do agree to play me with my house rules, I do expect you to follow the ageed upon rules.

As for the reason for "towed at start", I say its "semi-realistic" in an unrealistic situation In QBs the terrain can be very favourable or unfavourable, you do not know. But if the start up pos has excellent vantage points to the enemy and his lines of advances, lining up cheap ATGs (cos they dont require transport) covering large portions of the map... well, not my vup of tea. And, you can deploy immobile guns which otherwise you couldnt have even brought to the game.

For instance, in the early yrs the sovs can buy their dirt cheap 45mm ATGs and 76mm guns in large numbers, and all the axis AFVs are vurnable. Not to mention the HTs! If you think that stimulates a fun game, good on ya, I dont.

You have a point there. But the whole idea of the game is to have fun. If I ran into the kind of situation you describe above, I would resign, let my opponent know exactly why I did resign, and not play him or her again.

On the other hand, I would also object to your house rules for much the same reasons. Blanket rules like that take some of the fun out of the game for me; it seems like you, my opponent, is dictating my choices for me. I would much rather my oponent explain up front what you did in your post. Then we could mutually decide on guidelines.

After all, the game is in some ways secondary to the interaction between the players.

[Towed guns]

I'm new to this game, but an ex-Armor Officer. I have to say 'guns must be towed' is in itself gamey as far as I am concerned. Tactical use of AT/towed arty guns on the offense would be to cover advancing forces; that is at the essence of what one uses an AT/towed arty gun FOR. That's doctrine.

Catch me moving forward without covering fire? Not likely!

Also, a ME does NOT mean that the two forces do not know there is an enemy approaching, not if the commander and higher headquarters are doing their jobs. An ME takes place where forces know enemy is in the vicinity but have not localized them, and there is an objective to be seized. Otherwise, proper tactics would be to halt and form a Hasty Defence and send out patrols/scouts.

[Tobruk]

Avalon Hill's Africa Korps was my first too. Now I have a jones on to go and play a few games... those were definitely simpler days.

[Contour Lines Desparately Needed]

Gee... Didn't expect this much reaction to my post...

OK, how about this? That little window that shows the geographic area of the battle is useless... I mean I know I'm fighting in Italy for gosh sakes. Why not use that space for a topo map of the battlefield with widely spaced contour lines that would give an overall impression of the terrain? That would be perfect for me.

[Contour Lines Desparately Needed]

Originally posted by Mr. Tittles:

I would also want a contour map if the situation warrants it . As I have tried to explain, theres terrain/situations where detailed maps would not be available.

The shading (obviously a future products request) would be nice but I would want it linked to FOW. So on extreme FOW, shading will only be turned on when you are above a friendly highlighted unit. This way, people can play the way they like.

I would also want the lower level 'fly-around' restricted on extreme FOW setting (to be clear, the player could not get down below a certain level UNLESS over a friendly). Again, not imposing any will here, just like to play on different settings. I would also want selected enemy units to NOT be highlighted due to the gamey surveying I described earlier. The highlighting is not needed.

I think a Show-View option (highlight all terrain the selected friendly can see), is another needed player aid.

Chelco, don't be a thread Nazi. I play the game to win. Unfortunately, like most people, I abuse whatever I can to do that. Thats the point of having freedom to choose options. I play 100% on extreme FOW. I would like that more extreme. You try to limit the thread to the initial request for a contour map player aid and at the same time think your dynamic shading request is worthwhile but anyone else's idea/conversation isn't? Gee! yourself.

You are operating under a mistaken assumption here I think. Very very few deserts are actually sand; most are arid rocky terrain and the terrain features, at least the prominent ones, do not change. I point you to Fort Irwin near the Mojave for an example. Maps there are perfectly serviceable.

[Contour Lines Desparately Needed]

OK, maybe I should have amplified on this a bit more in my original post. I don't want contour lines for nitty-gritty LOS computations and they don't necessarily have to be super accurate nor closely spaced.

My problem is that it is nearly impossible to get the feel for a map's general terrain from a distant zoom. I find myself trying to apply the lessons I learned at OCS and Armor School about estimating terrain, and it is nearly impossible. I don't want to micro-analyze the terrain, but a couple of times I have found myself in trouble during a game because I missed a terrain feature that in 'REAL LIFE' would have been obvious.

[Contour Lines Desparately Needed]

Originally posted by Dave H:

I'm afraid I have to disagree. You can zoom in right over your pixeltruppen's shoulder to see the lay of the land. Since the actual soldiers made do without contour lines neatly plotted on the ground, I think we can do without them as well. :cool:

I take the opportunity to rebut: Yes, it is true that as a soldier you do not see contour lines on the ground in front of you. But you do carry a map which has that information and you plot avenues of advance, defensive positions and etc. on the map before you place them.

Even just during the unit placement phase, contour lines would greatly improve the playing experience for me.

[Contour Lines Desparately Needed]

This game desparately needs some kind of contour line system to differentiate elevations!