Royal_Dragoon_Guard

Yes, its a thinking man's Warhammer ! What I like about it most is the fact that even after all this time, that damn AI still thrashes me enough to make the game still addictive - the sign of a winner in my book ! Plan everything out once you've walked over the terrain, that's right take a walk around the battlefield at ground level first. It can pay dividends later. That bit of advice SLOW is true here alright. You can also lose the battle at the purchase stage if your in "battle generator mode". Surf the net for a while and get familiar with your hardware. Learn what units do which job best. There is no shortage of this sort of info out there, print some out. Don't panic !

Hello everybody, nice to be back again after a little (unplanned) absence ! Just wondered whether any of you had done a tour of N. France coastal battlefields/sites of interest away from Normandy. We are planning a trip leaving next tuesday (I only just made it !), going north from here along the coast upto Dieppe, Boulougne, Calais, Dunkirk, then up into Holland to the Schelt estuary area. If we have time we might get to Arnhem. I'd love to go there. We've got a long list of places to call in at !Including - 39-45 Museum at Ambleteuse Todt Battery at Cap Griz Nez Railway gun exhibit ? at Fortress De Mimoyecques V2 site near St. Omer Dunkirk Museum Phew !! I feel tired already. Just wondered if any of you fellas had been to any of these and what you thought? Have we missed any in these general areas ? I would like to say thanks to the kind gentleman who sent me that excellent Hill 112 scenario too, when I get back I'll be giving it a proper go. Thanks.

Personally I dont bother with CMMOS - its far too clever for me! Besides, I prefer to download individual vehicle mods, I reckon this is far more authentic when it comes to AFV's. You dont get them all the same that way! After all, tanks etc. weren't all the same like aircraft. But you pays yer money.....

Yep that's the one, I think it only opens in summer. The museum is actually in the chapel. Outside, around the back, there are a couple of statues that were in the churchyard during the fighting, one (bronze) has a hole right through it from an AP shot, the second stone statue is minus its head! Another good, but little known museum, is at St. Martin des Besaces, not far from Villers Bocage, it deals with Operation Bluecoat - the British armoured breakout. Once again, it French and just covers the local area, but in some detail. Lots of relics, a couple of life size dioramas and a very large model of the town during the fighting. Its very easy to find the places still, the area has not changed that much. I think these inland battles are not given enough coverage. I would love to see a decent museum built inland on the British/Canadian sector, say around Hill 112. The battles here dwarfed anything that happened on the beaches. I think too much emphasis is placed on the beaches here. Even on Omaha, the bloodiest of the landings, casualties were light compared to the fighting inland. Yet I'm sure many people aren't even aware of these major battles inland. I would love to see a museum, say on Hill 112 or inland from Caen, on the sites of Epsom or Goodwood maybe, relating the story of these epic duels that some days saw 400 British/Commonwealth tanks destroyed. Why is it these battles seem to be forgotten? Even CMBO doesn't have a scenario on Hill 112! I'll just have to build one myself and stop moaning!

Thanks everybody! The museum is well worth a look over, about an hour or so is all you need - its small. Some good relics from the battlefield though, all picked up "after the battle" in the village, by the locals. You can touch most of it too, makes a change these days. Try moving a 251 roadwheel for example! Check out the Panther roadwheel on the way out - kinda dwarfs all the others!

Thanks John, but you'll that book is actually about the battle for Tilly-La-Campagne, I made the same mistake! Still a good read though.

Yeah, but do you get shot at on the way to school? if ya do its a tough area!

That' why we all love CMBO so much I guess! Probably my memories are less detailed than yours, but one that sticks in mind was a "generated game" in which I was defending a village in Normandy with British airborne. The enemy was well armoured with tanks and APC's. At first things were tough, my men got blasted out of their foxholes by Mark 1V's and I had to fall back to my second resistance line under smoke. But this was in the village, and I let those Germans come on in. For once I'd put the PIAT men in just the right buildings, and whilst the tanks concentrated on my infantry scampering about all over the place, whoosh both Mark 1V's went up in flames. My remaining 6 pounder AT gun which I'd held in reserve took out two 251's at long range, before it got stonked. All of a sudden things were even again! Wow thinks me, a well directed stonk from my mortars could turn this! I set up on the open ground between the houses and the trees, and concentrated mg fire to keep the enemy treebound for a minute or two. Believe it or not it worked! Those field greys came across that field bang on cue - and the 3" did its business superbly. Major victory complete. Oh, and I've never emulated it since with the British, but did get a minor victory with the US airborne using similar tactics.

I love defending in CMBO. Even managed some great victories (modest as usual), defending with airborne troops against enemy forces that are armour/mechanized/mixed. Don't group your forces too closely, especially the squaddies, artillery could wipe them in a few salvoes. Use cover for ambushes, try putting AT teams ahead to screen your forces and act as recon too. Keep them in cover - they are expendable! Give AT guns/tanks good fields of fire,or they might get ambushed! Keep artillery observers hidden but with a good LOS to all possible attack routes. Try and keep HQ's close to their infantry. Support AT guns with mg's. Support infantry with an armoured vehicle of some sort, pick a cheap tank destroyer. Most important keep a small reserve to act as "fire brigade" its what the Germans did! Mutual fire support is very important too, don't isolate units (except expendable bazooka teams).

Have just returned from a very interesting visit to the small war museum in Tilly-sur-Seulles(inland from Gold beach - NOT Tilly-la-Campagne), it was one hell of a battle, apparently the small town changed hands 23 times, by the end of which there wasn't much left standing! 50th Inf. Div. 8th Armoured Brigade etc. versus Panzer Lehr. Does anybody know if there has been a book written about this battle? It would make a great scenario for CMBO, or even operation as it lasted so long, nearby Lingevres could be tied into it too. But I really need more detailed information to do it properly. I have all the general Normandy books. :cool:

Are you playing defensive? or are you on a rare German counter-attack against the British etc. If you're defending, even if heavily outnumbered, then a Firefly is just another "tommy cooker" if you get in the first shots, and you should. But if you're attacking, well that Firefly is very dangerous indeed, and the reverse is often the case! Perhaps this explains why the Germans nearly always came a cropper themselves in 1944 in Normandy, (now my home incidentally), because they sufferred the same problems we did!

I'd mostly agree with this. I think the fate of Germany's panzer arm was kinda tied up with having too few, but technically advanced tanks, when they would have probably have been better off just mass producing more Mark 1V's or possibly Panthers (once they'd ironed out its early faults). Certainly the King tiger is impressive, but so were the dinousaurs! That's a good point about its mobility in the winter, the Ardennes didn't suit it. Also imagine the problems of getting it across bridges or through narrow streets, not to mention its fuel requirements. Its no coincidence that these things were often left behind when the Germans were in retreat.

Worth checking out for those colour pics DAK in Africa. Especially one with grey finish and the crew wearing their black uniforms in the boiling sun, phew!

If we're talking about the early war years though, then my choice is the good old Matilda. Needed a dirty great 88mm to stop that lump of crawling armour! 2 pounder gun was reasonable for the period too. Useless against infantry but good AP properties. Of the German I'd say Mark 1V because it was so damn adaptable.

Sherman Firefly - at least that gun looks the part, even if the tank it sticks out of is kinda iffy - but reliable! The M10 achilles for the same reason, i know its a tank destroyer. Both have that cracking 17 pounder, combined with Sabot ammo its a real tiger-tamer.