Grach

The Valentine doesn't look like it's reversing unless its heading towards the Pz.IV... What does he think he is? An Archer??

True. CMBB fudged the T-26 M31, its twin mg turrets behaving as one mounting. A T-28 could have been simulated in the same way that the A9 Cruiser is in CMAK. (The pair of bmg turrets behaving as a 'twin' bmg mounting.) As for a T-35, well that's a toughie. Too many turrets!

If those tracers are attached to 12.7mm rounds I can see why your PSW popped smoke and started to PSW off...

Thanks Jason. Cheers.

I note small arms and HE blast have different effects on units in various terrain types. My question revolves around the 1/2 way house, the 12.7mm and .5" machine-guns. Do these fare better than rifle/pistol calibre small arms at dealing with cover? (They should to a degree.) Or are they treated as a form of HE for cover calculation purposes? (Presumably this is why ATR's are given a blast of 1. Is the same true for the DShK/M2?) Cheers.

Jason, the RPG-6 anti-tank grenade which historically appeared early in 1945 was credited with around 100mm of penetration. Perhaps that is the source of the 95mm figure ascribed to the RPG-43? The earlier anti-tank grenades (pure blast types) are sorely missed. RPG-40 was a specialised device of this nature. RPG-33 and RPG-14/30 were the 'normal' grenade with an added heavy charge, a lash up like the German Geballte Ladung.

My wish would be to see more of these available to units as well. Differentiation between the types HE & HEAT would be nice. Differentiation between HEAT types based on date and unit would be the icing on the cake! GGP40 [LW only + rare] until Feb-42 (40-45mm) Gew.Pz.Gr.30 [all] Feb-Dec42? (30-40mm) (Hogg states 40mm in Infantry Weapons of WW2) Gew.Pz.Gr. Gross [all] Nov42-end? (70-80mm) Gew.Pz.Gr.46 [sS only + rare] late43/early44ish to end? (90mm) Gew.Pz.Gr.61 [sS only + rare] mid-late44ish-end? (125mm) Mind you I'd also like to see more Soviet AT grenades modelled and less of the molotovs! RPG-33/RPG-40 as a grenade bundle analogue. RPG-43 (75mm) available to better than average (Guards/Navy/Airborne) troops as well as tank hunters. RPG-6 (100mm) becoming available in 1945, possibly limited to tank-hunters. Hungarians with downrated grenade bundles would also be nice. IIRC the M42 stick-grenade had a threaded charge case. Multiple charges could be screwed together sequentially onto one fuze. Like some sort of demented miniature bangalore... I imagine one would only get 3 or at most 4 charges before the device became far too unweildy to throw! Alas all these wishes are moot. No more patches. I bought this game far too late it seems.

Does the game differentiate between the different models? Or is it one 'generic' type? None of them seem very effective. Admittedly the early Gross & Klein Gew Pz.Gr are pretty puny devices with only about 40mm of penetration (presumably the Gross Gew Pz.Gr has the better behind armour effect.) But the later Gew Pz.Gr 46mm with 90mm penetration and the SS Gew Pz.Gr 61mm with 125mm penetration should be somewhat chunkier. I've obviously got too much time on my hands lately!

In the Australian Army the .55" Boys ATR got a new lease of life against the Japanese as a log emplacement & wooden bunker buster during the latter part of WW2. It's effectiveness in this role apparently more than compensated for it's weight and clumsiness in jungle fighting. Go figure. Just some trivia.

Far enough. Peering at my UBD it appears to be about 20-25km from Wayville, down/up Greenhill Road to Hahndorf. The scale is small and dodgy though. So caveats apply. I'm not missing Burton's (the Arms Fair) for anything this year, he's bringing me my Bolo Mauser. Cheers.

What I meant was, from 1942 the Commonwealth 2" mortar had a WP round available for it in addition to the usual screening and signalling smoke shells. The British seemed rather reluctant to use WP/RP as, for the purposes of screening, BE 'cold chemical' smokes (the name is a little misleading, most of these mixtures did burn) produced a much more effective cloud. Incendiary smoke tends to pillar and rise into the air due to the heat of combustion. 'Cold chemical' smoke hugs the ground and spreads there, lingering longer. Indeed, most nations seemed to be of the opinion that a good HE/Frag round was far better at upsetting people than the undeniably nasty effects of WP/RP. I'd almost be tempted to say the US predeliction for phosphorous may be due to the virtues of their huge manufacturing capacity. When you can churn out that much gear you can afford a bit of variety! Nevertheless I think it would be nice if the CMx engine were able to replicate the effects of WP/RP and BE smoke. After all some BE smoke mixtures were moderately toxic and many had at least some value as an irritant/lachrimator. Not the sort of thing one wanders around in without effect. WP/RP smoke even less so. Cheers

2" mortars were initially issued with a pyrotechnic candle style smoke round. By 1942 a WP smoke/incendiary round had been added to the inventory as well and was in common use. Most other British smoke was base eject 'cold chemical' (TCE/TiTC) types. Interestingly enough there is an important caveat to this (as far as CMAK is concerned.) The smoke rounds for the 3.7" close-support mortars on the A9, A10 and A13 Mk II CS tanks were WP types being designs from the late '20's. IIRC there was also a (not very efficient) HE shell issued for this weapon too. According to Jentz's book "Tank Combat in North Africa" the ammo stowage of the A9 and A10 CS tanks was 36 rounds of (WP) smoke and 4 of HE. The 15-lb. HE/T, travelled at 620 fps. The WP smoke round was 15-lb, 5-oz and attained the same velocity. If modelled it'd make these vehicles handle a little differently. (Only other British use of WP smoke was in mortars (as noted above) and mountain howitzers. Plus whatever US lend-lease gear had it.) AFAIK the later 3" and 95mm close support howitzers adopted BE smoke. Cheers!

Now to diverge into yet another OT, although this one is semi-OT. The 3.7" CSH on A9, A10 and A13 Mk.II close support cruiser tanks. What sort of smoke? WP, pyrotechnic or BE/chem? I'm just trying to work out how mad those Englishmen were. CS tanks without HE?? Dammit, why couldn't they just steal HE from 3.7" mountain howitzer units eh?? Let alone shrapnel or cannister...

I love early war. But I miss my T-35... Maybe CM2...

I believe there were also a variety of designs produced as prototypes throughout the thirties that used the 12.7x108mm cartridge. (Used by Beresin, DK34 & DShK38 HMG's as well.) The performance of this round was deemed inadequate for use in an ATR (but acceptable in a machine-gun) and the heavier 14.5mm cartridge was developed as outlined above. IIRC there were trials quantities of at least one of the 12.7mm rifles around that were alledgedly used during the Winter War. Anyone have any further data? Rukavinkov?? Cheers.

Mannlicher. If you want to be accurate. You are talking about the 35M I'm assuming? This seems like a pretty small problem considering some of the small-arms curiosities in the game... (Large numbers of PPSh41 prior to Nov-Dec '41, No sign of the PPS42/PPS43 at all, every Finn rifle being an m/39, no sign of various carbines Gew-33/40, M1938, M1944 etc...) None of these make the game unplayable...

Thanks for the kind welcome people. I took care to read the FAQ, being a newb, and thus far have managed to keep a cork in it on a couple of subjects dear to my twisted little heart... However... When I saw the new molotovs thread, the subject of Soviet infantry AT got out from under the cork! IIRC M1 bazookas were indeed sent as part of lease-lend. Never in very substantial numbers, but they should definitely be around, possibly limited to Guards support picks at a rarity value? That is if another patch was ever to be remotely considered... As far as captured weapons went, it seemed that the favoured German AT weapon was the Panzerfaust (of various flavours.) Considerable numbers of these were accumulated late in the war and, being nice and simple, they were rapidly turned against their former users. There are quite a few photos and so forth showing Soviet troops lugging these things. AFAIK, Panzerschrek was not seen as commonly in Soviet hands, at least the amount of photographic and written documentation is much less than for Panzerfaust usage. Cheers! I won't mention dog mines. Or T-28/Lee/Grant using the CM:AK workarounds...

It is interesting to note that the Soviets did investigate the use of anti-tank grenades very seriously after their experiences with the Finns. They had designed a supplemental charge for their M1914 grenade in WW1 (not the RGD-33 as mentioned above) for assault & demolition purposes. I have no data on the size of this charge, but it seems to have been a somewhat unweildy expedient. Winter War experience presumably mitigated against such a cumbersome device and it is unlikely that these would have been encountered in the GPW. (Although stocks of 'vanilla' M1914's were indeed issued and used.) The first purpose-designed AT grenade was the RPG-40 which appeared in 1940. This was a substantial weapon relying purely on blast for its effect and would presumably behave like the in-game grenade bundle. RPG-40 weighed 1105g and had a considerable TNT charge of 794g, it was stabilised in flight by a trailing ribbon and had an all-ways instant functioning fuze. It had a powerful blast and fragmentation effect and was quite useful in urban fighting as well. Not currently modelled in CMBB. The RPG-43 appeared next and was available in time for the Kursk battles. This used a shaped charge and was considerably more sophisticated than the RPG-40 which it supplanted. RPG-43 weighed 1200g and had a TNT charge of 612g which could, in theory, allow penetration of around 75mm of armour at 0 degrees. This was also stabilised by trailing streamers and used the same fuze. A substantial fragmentation effect was also claimed for this weapon. As far as I can tell this is the only specialised infantry AT weapon that the Soviets field in CMBB. The last weapon to reach service during the war was the RPG-6. From what I can gather this started to appear in 1945 during the fighting in Germany itself. The RPG-6 looks suspiciously like a Panzerwurfmine save for its stabilisation arrangements. Another shaped charge weapon, the RPG-6 was undeniably more effective than the RPG-43 against armour but lacked the heavy fragmentation of its predecessors. RPG-6 weighed 1100g had a TNT charge of 562g with an improved liner geometry which could, in theory, allow penetration of around 100mm of armour at 0 degrees. Like the earlier weapons it was stabilised by trailing streamers and used the same all-ways instantaneous fuze. As far as I can tell it isn't modelled in CMBB. An anti-armour rifle grenade, the VPGS-41, was experimented with. It was a pure blast weapon and didn't employ a shaped charge. It was not proceeded with. Nice images of the above can be found here. The less said about dog-mines, the better! Cheers!