FM Paul Heinrik

Good info. Never paid much attention to the different FT types. WOW! Check out those Soviets. That's outside granate range and their fast. I need to play Russians more.

Oh yes, flamethrowers along side an inf. platoon is awesome in wooded areas. Platoon assults short 10-15 m at a time FT walks follow up. Always use cover arcs and you will rout your opposition quickly. Even better than reg. inf. is pioneers using demos, maybe smg squad is better. There ain't nothing better than mopping up enemy inf. using a flame tank/half-track. That flame always shoots out further than the other guy thinks it will. I think it's quite demoralizing to the other player as well as the tac-AI. I've seen an AI FT guy hiding in a 2nd story building trying to ambush my assaulting inf. platoon only to miss time his shot and ended up toasting the house. The FT guy didn't hit my inf. but they immediately layed down right in the open expecting the next few sec. to be their last, only to see the FT guy come running out the front door of the buring house. Then my inf. filled the FT guy full of lead. It was one of the funniest sights I've witnessed in CM.

I've done that against the AI on QB using a small map execpt I set very high pts and selected crack quality FOs. I'm on defense and AI had infantry only. The resulting prep barrage was very entertaining. Whole battalions disappeared.

What are you talking about? It's rush hour! JJ nice pics.

Horse****e. The Soviets did not benefit any country they "liberated". True the Soviets gave Nazi Germany a beat down, but they were helped out with the pressure put on the Wehrmacht via N. Africa, ect. and fortunately, the Soviets got lucky or Germany got unlucky (?). I don't know do the French prefer German or Russian as their national language? Maybe they are just mad because the US or UK didn't force English upon them? "GIs raped French women by the thousand", what? US dollars weren't good enough for the thousands of French whores/traiters? You might not have made this stuff up, but believing it (if you believe it) just because you read it is almost as bad. I know that there are a lot of non-US folks here and it is the current fashion to bash the USA, foreign or domestic. But, the USA has never held as a purpose to harm others. The US never went around sucking the resourse of other countries like the Euro nations did and the two countries that we did "dominate" (Jap., Ger.) are very much their own masters plus have better ways of life than most of the other countries on the planet. LongLeftFlank, ask your French friend where he even gets this stuff? School or just fashionable rumor bashing? [ August 26, 2004, 07:42 AM: Message edited by: FM Paul Heinrik ]

Can you make an ATG target, fire, then immediately hide again? The "pause" command only works for movement orders right? It does nothing for targeting and shooting. I think most of the time you can get off 1 shot without being exposed by your country symbol.

I luv the 105mm howitzer. It can be an effective tank killer/neutralizer.

Thank goodness that the US wasn't like that back then. We would all be speak'en Russian by now.

How do you use towed guns for attack? If you have hills on your starting position, it should be more or less ok... but how do you handle them when starting with no LOS on the objectives? Mine are regularly smashed one after the other when advancing or setting up ... Or I try to have them crossing a wood and they are so slow the game stops before they reach firing position </font>

No, you can still hit upper hull. </font>

You got it! Game starts, move Jadgtiger, starts to bog, next turn try and reverse...but immobilized. 500 pts down the tubes. For that very reason they are not practical, just strategically movable pillboxes.

hehehe....nice link. thanks.

I would think that if you use that strategy on an attack the defender's anti-tank defenses would tear your tanks to pieces. At least that has always happened to me when I've done that. I much prefer to lead with infantry covered by infantry/AT guns if possible. Let some infantry probe the map to find out where the enemy is and see what he is willing to reveal. Once, enemy strong points are revealed destroy them enmasse with arty, towed guns, and tanks. Or if too strong, by-pass and attempt flanking. I generally, like to be very conservative with my armor only committing them once enemy tanks have hindered infantry advancement or using them to mop up retreating enemy. Occasionally, I'm forced to bring some up to take out very stubborned gun postions or pill boxes. What I find really fun is to play using Ger inf. only (no tanks) to attack Soviet armor or mech. Makes you really appreciate towed guns.

US WW2 H = not hotel? I = not indigo? Was there a standard for which companies saw action first? I have read many accounts of able, baker, charlie, easy, and fox companies but rarely hear about the exploits of the others and very rarely hear about the coys from 3 btn.

yeah, Jagdtiger was a real monster. Jagdtiger and Jagdpanther were quite different beasts. Jagdpanther was actually quite fast and mobile, and could be used both to defend and attack. Jagdtiger was more like a bunker on tracks - a thing that could be used only on defence. it was extremely slow and broke down even faster than King Tiger. i wonder if vehicles can get immobilized in Combat Mission just by turning to new direction? </font>

Why would the chance to hit the turret be any greater if hull-down vs hull-up? I understand that the to hit % increase if hull-up on the entire tank but the % to hit the turret should be no more than when hull-down. So overall effect is that it should be a smaller % chance to hit the target when hull-down (of course the only hit possible is to the turret). Your statement makes it sound as if the Pz IV has a better chance to survive if it remains hull-up? Or is this another one of those game quirks?

No, the best thing in CM against pillboxes, especially the concrete ones, are 20mm autocannon vehicles, by far. </font>

Don't forget the King Panther III :eek:

Ok, I tried using HE/Demo to blow a crater on some barbwire but every time I've done it there was no crater. I know I've seen big calibre guns leave craters as well as Demo charges but apparently there is some random factors involved to having an explosion create a crater. So trying to do that as a game plan will not always work. Good tip none the less.

I've tried to use sharpshooters (which I've found out are NOT snipers) and have not had success. For example, I have sharpshooter hiding in woods 300m away an unbutton tank comes strolling by, sharpshooter takes aim and misses. Tank buttons up, I wait to see if it unbuttons again, mortar rds or machine gun fire suppress and pins my guy. If you choose to use sharpshooters should you pick more than 1? Do you get more milage out of a Hvy Mg or mortor crew vs a sharpshooter?

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I could have sworn I've tried that (targeting the ground with explosives) and it didn't get rid of the bardwire. I have also tried shooting roadblocks and minefields and nothing happening. I have seen them clear minefields using demos but can they do it when their demos are gone? Along that rationale, shouldn't artillery bombardment, or targeting with tank guns also destroy barbwire?

Ha ha. Sometimes they even like to sneak around inside barbwire for many, many, many turns.

That's why they dropped at night. In addition, the weather was pretty bad as well. These factors combined with the inexperienced pilots were a major factor in the failure of the operation. Who knows how the Battle of the Bulge would have turned out if the entire force had dropped near the rally point and secured the crossroads... </font>

Yeah, there should be a spw 250 that can lay wire.