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.

Well said. Old soldiers never die, they just fade away. At the going down of the sun we will remember them.

That's all too true I'm afraid. Guess its all a case of money these days. Shame because people's opinions are swayed with these war films. For example in the Normandy museums they sell SPB in French. Now you kind of expect accuracy with a film purchased in an official museum don't you? Truth is that many foreigners think the film is a kind of documentary. In all truth "The Longest Day" was a far more representative and balanced war film. Sure it had mistakes, they all do, but it didn't totally enter the realms of fantasy! Do you recall the fuss caused in the UK by its release? What was it that the film said about Montgomery in it - something about him failing to break out, so the US was going to have to do it! Roughly at a time when the British and Canadians faced 7 Panzer Divisions, mostly SS, to the 1 facing the Americans. That went down well in the British press didn't it!!

I've just got back from Arromanches - absolute madhouse, Gendarmes outnumbering the vets about 5-1. It was probably quieter on D-Day! Think I'll leave my next trip until all the hullaboo has died down a bit! I kinda like stalking about the quiet places best, once I'd been to all the museums/batteries etc. Intend to check out some of the battlefields beyond Gold beach in more detail next. Lingevres is good, the famous spot where you can see the gaps in the hedge caused by two knocked out Panthers, and the remains of the lamp-post one demolished! Apparently scorch marks are still visible in some of the cornfields around Caen, the result of too many cooked-up British/Canadian Shermans. Amazing. Kobal 2, you're the exception - I've never seen such immaculate villages and towns, flowers everywhere, and no litter!

I'd agree with that Sirocco, the opening scene depicting Omaha beach was outstanding - as good as you will probably ever see. That was a heroic landing. But afterwards the film kind of had too much to live upto, maybe that's why it got a bit fictional, because after an opening like that, how do 1940's French tanks and even Marders look threatening? So they substituted some of them with Tigers! Then they turned the liberation of Ste Mere Eglise into something resembling Stalingrad! Trouble is a lot of people take these things for gospel, and I don't think the US Airborne needed their fine achievements exagerating. For the record the only airborne troops fighting off a true counter-attack by a Panzer Division was over on the British flank. Elements of 6th Airborne Div. held off 21st Panzer Div. in some very bloody and costly fighting, with PIATS and a few 6 pounder AT guns, very few were left unscathed at the end of it, as a visit to Ranville cemetary will show. But the Mark IV's and Panzer Grenadiers in Half Tracks were stopped, and the landing at Sword beach could proceed. Still waiting for a movie about that one though.

My best advice is to buy the special offer of Combat Mission Barbarossa to Berlin and Combat Mission Afrika Korps (could have been called "Desert Rats"!), you can order em both online here at a big discount, and they come in about 4-5 days. You will get the big CMBB manual included and it applies to all three games very well, generally its just the theatre of war, troops, AFV's etc that vary. Believe me once you start playing CMBO regularly you will relish the others! And no, I don't get commission from Battlefront.com! I just know when I've found the perfect gaming engine for this sort of thing. Good luck!

That's interesting regarding HE against armoured targets, I remember reading a book about tank battles in the Pacific in which, I believe, USMC Shermans engaged a Japanese tank attack across an airfield (on Palau I think). The Shermans initially fired AP at the little Japanese tanks, only to find their shot went clean through and out the other side without detonating, and being Japanese they just kept on coming, despite being well ventilated! In desperation the USMC tankers (now taking hits themselves), changed to HE and that did the trick, blowing the Type 95's apart. I guess a German armoured car would have similar armour protection to a Japanese tank? Better quality though I guess - but perhaps thinner. I should think that if you were using HE already, in the open, say on a soft target, and an enemy tank suddenly threatened, if an HE was in the breech, it might be worth firing it off in the hope of at least track damage to the enemy tank, coupled with shock to the crew (presuming a hit), rather than removing that shell to replace it with a solid shot, all of which takes time. Just trying to imagine a Pershing against a King Tiger in real life - talk about two heavyweights slugging it out!

Didn't matter how much reinforcment/supplies Rommel was sent, most of it was doomed to go to John Brown's locker at the bottom of the sea, because Britain held the ace in the pack - Malta. From that island, strategically placed, aircraft and submarines played havoc with shipping to the Afrika Korps. The Germans certainly had their forces spread way too thin because of Hitlers obsession with the east. Mind you their involvment in Africa wasn't pre-planned, Mussolini kinda dropped them in it! With friends like that who needs enemies. Still the Afrika Korps involvement gave us a great game right?

Must add my vote here for CM in the Pacific and Far East/CBI. That would just about complete the WW2 set. Japanese banzai charges, amphibious tanks and Marines, and bunker busting in Burma (try saying that after a few too many). Seriously though, that jungle fighting would be a whole new experience. As would landing on coral attolls barely big enough for a battalion of men! Please include the Burma campaign though, it did last from 1941-45. Malaya would be good too, the Japanese used their tanks a lot there. Banzai!

Don't worry, I ain't picking up anything dodgy, and I'm not going where nobody else has tread either (like in that dugout - its inaccessable anyway), why I've still got years of fighting to do in CMBO! With regard to concrete, yep that's everywhere, but earthworks are still quite a rarity away from the Ardennes, Hurtgen etc. My god the French are a tidy race! It kinda brings the battlefield to life though, to look at a foxhole and wonder who was the guy that dug it. Then to research and find the unit that was there, and what happened. To read about the assault crossing of a river, then go down there not expecting to see much, only to see one helluva shot up house, with bullet groupings still visible around the upstairs windows! The earthworks in Foret de Cerisy are almost certainly those dug by the recon. element of 17th SS PzGr. Regt. They were trying to close a gap between the US and British forces. A road junction in that forest leads to the coast, Bayeaux, Caumont and St Lo. Those in my local wood were probably dug by Panzer Lehr (remnants of which later moved to the US sector), as maps show it as part of their July line. Just came back from walking the dog, and clocked an "American" convoy passing by! A couple of Two and Half Tonners, Dodge weapons carriers, a tow truck, Dodge ambulance and about a dozen jeeps! Nice to see the locals waving to em too!

Yes, the lanes in the Normandy Bocage are very similar to those in Devon. Perhaps the allies should have spent more time training in those specific places to learn how to "bust the bocage"? One differance though, I would say the hedgerows here are much more dense and difficult to traverse, although I guess that depends on the local farmers in some ways. Here they occasionally go mad and cut the whole lot down until it sprouts again next spring, but usually they are so dense that they look like the edge of a wood rather than a hedge.