DTrill

In game terms what would be the experience of the Hungarian forces invading Russia at the start? Historically, they were known for having great cavalry forces, did this carry over with armor?

Electronic Arts is in Burnaby, British Columbia as well as Radical, there is a school of computer game graphics design there as well on the corner of Willingdon and Beta but i don't know the name of the school, but I am sure one of the above would know. There has to be some poor grad student pulling lumber in a sawmill somewhere just itchin' at a chance to do some work.

I have a pre-war source showing both 2 and 3 75mm battalions, might be they were in a transition phase of changing from one setup to the other. In both cases though it shows the 150mm battalion as part of the arty. regiment, not an attachment, it does contradict itself by calling the 150mm a motorized battalion yet later on saying that it was horse drawn. I do not have any mention of 105mm pre-war, could have changed later, I guess.

I'll take a look at the link, thanks for the info guys. I have two references to the artillery, one being "horse drawn transport" the other saying that it was "pack animals" I assume horses, but there is no mention if different cal.s had different transport so you are probably right. I'll keep on checking around, see what I turn up.

Thanks Jason, I was thinking, it being a Mountain Division, that it might be much more reliant on horses and have the motorized label as more of a formal thing.

Looking at the German 1st Mountain Division in '41 and I have a couple questions. First, in the division's AT Battalion is a listing for 20mm AA protection that is motorized, would this be 20mm flak guns with lift, and what type of lift would this be or would this AA be provided by Sd Kfz 10/4's? Secondly, the Engineer Battalion has one Company that is motorized as well and the three AT Companies are also motorized, what vehicle would provide the lift here? I see that the artillery is all horsedrawn so that is not an issue. Any help would be great.

Have 2 games on the go where we are only directing fire for units in command of an HQ, if not in command then the unit's fire is controlled by the AI, FO's are the exception. As well, there is no selecting the the other guys units. I don't think it helps with any game issues but it does force you to move and position with alot more care. It also seems to have cut down on the speedy co-ordinated and concentrated fire from support weapons. Even with armor you either spend more in a QB to get an independant unit that you have full fire control over or get a platoon at reduced cost but have to keep in command to control fire. The jury is still out but so far no issues with it from either side.

I was wondering on a more historical note, at what point is reorganisation required. There must be a point at which a platoon or company becomes ineffective due to losses. Was there a rule of thumb?

As a force took casualties, at what point did some form of reorganisation take place? It seems obvious that at 10%-20% casualties a battalion would remain largely the same with it's core force being three rifle companies plus support as each platoon and company would make do without a full roster. My question is about at what casualty percentage would platoons be dropped or even a whole company be dropped in order to fill out the remaining platoons/companies manpower? And where would the priorities be with reguards to support sections, do they go more or less understaffed then the rest of the group?

Not having been to Russia, I can't make definate statement but here in southwestern British Columbia we have a fair share of Ponderosa Pine that averages 36"+ in diametre. There is little ground cover save for some tall grasses and low sparse brush (under 18" tall). Where this Pine exists is also mixed with Fir and Balsm, again rather large trees and the terrain is very rocky with little topsoil. The trees are spaced at about 15' on average and they are up to 100' tall. I wonder if the pine in Russia is of this type or is it like or 50' tall 10" across Jack Pine that grow about 18" apart like we have in Northern BC., and the ground cover in the Jack Pine forest is thick with downed trees and brush well over 10' tall with no grasses at all and swampy/soft ground.

I would imagine that it was quite hard on the nerves to sit inside any buttoned tank and have 1/2 dozen of these guys plinking away at you.

Thanks for the response guys, I still find myself amazed at the Russians commitment to the AT Rifle, specially the manpower that they committed to those weapons. You would think that after they watched the shots fail to penetrate everything but folded tissue they would have dropped the AT Rifle like a hot potato. I would imagine the pucker-power was way up there when you got handed one of those in training ...

Been doing some reading and came across a mention of a Russian Tank Destroyer Regiment in 1941. Did not think much of it and assumed it contained various SU-types. Then remembered that in cmbb there are no SU-types available in '41, so what did a tank destroyer regiment consist of in '41 ? Was it nothing more then some towed AT guns ? If someone could enlighten me it would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the site to look through. I know it's a large amount of vehicles spread over numerous years. I was more wondering if there was more of a general rule of thumb, with reguards to what a recon company consisted of on paper. Were there 50 of these little tanketts on the Russian side in a company or way more or what have you. Just wondering as when you play a scenario you rarely see these little guys and when you do they are few in number as there is so much focus on the big boys.

I was just wondering where vehicles like the BA-10 and T-40 fit into the picture. I can find divisional oob for armor and infantry but these guys are never mentioned. Were they attached to an infantry division or an armor division, and in what kind of numbers did they appear? That might just be a better question,... what kind of vehcles, if any were part of an infantry division. Other then the typical horses, carts and trucks, how did both the Germans' and Russians' deploy thier not so glorious combat vehicles ?

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Wow, how does a person even respond to that pile of manure? With some of your statements, I wonder what your role was in the forces... were you in charge of digging the rocks out of the treads of the supply vehicles? There are a few statements that I feel have to be addressed. First, you state that War is about killing people, I always thought that it was about rendering the other side unable or unwilling to continue the fight. Mass murder is about killing people, and I don't think that CM in any form is about the mass murdering of people; whether in uniform or not. You claim to be a participant in Iraq and Somalia, but somehow I find it hard to grasp, I listened to my friend's grandfather talk of his time in WWI and he would not make it very far into his stories before the tears came. I have no combat experience at all but I work as a fireman and I have shoveled a 16 year old boy into a plastic bag so it wouldn't leak all over when they carried what was left of him away; I have looked at a father after he literally pulverized his 2year old doing CPR and told him he did a good job. The point is that, I think that anyone who has seen true horror of any sort does not want to look at it during their leisure. More gore, and killing and violence for it's own sake is not moving a game like this forward, in fact it wuld be a large step back. The whole point of the game is to simulate (within reason) the stratagy and tactics of WWII battles at various levels. A huge number of people were killed on all sides so we all could see the supression value of a vickers mg and all the rest that goes into CM. I can't help but think that you got to be joking around when you wrote yur post. If not, maybe there are some plastic army men for you to light on fire and dance around somewhere.

I just finished this scenario PBEM as the Russians and fought to a draw. As has been stated you gotta fling alot of HE at suspected enemy positions and scout out the bad guys with yur inf. It's not the enemy so much as the time limit is your biggest adversary, you just don't have the time to dig out a well placed defender, and those large SPG's aren't that nimble.

If I plan in sitting in one place for any length of time I will advance up to the location, HIDE if beind fired at and sneak a short distance to try to get out of the line of sight or to mostly cause the enemy to lose good contact and have to area fire and guess where my unit is or not fire at all.

Jason, could you send it to me as well, I am finishing up with a friend and would like to try out the ME yur talking about. Thanks Ratzki2003@yahoo.com

For the most part, I tend to not even worry about the flags any more, they tend to work themselves out in the end. They give you a general direction to head towards but that's about it. Much more interested in engaging the enemy effectively and driving him off the map. I find most QB's setup by others to be too short and the map is too wide and not deep enough to get a good game. Been toying around lately with pre-random generating the maps for a QB so both sides can have a look befor buying units. As well, allowing both sides to edit the map a bit before play starts to tweak any issues or make the map a bit better to play on, also put 1 flag in each setupzone and one in the centre gives the game much more movement.

Even a picture of a scan of a drawing on the back of a used napkin would be great.

1st turn in a QB, I got AA and am feeling pretty safe. One bomb, KO's 1 T34, thinking to myself "it's a good thing I have my armor spread out like I do". I check the rest of the force ... 4 guns damaged and 1 other crew bailing. The next closest tank to that bomb was 60m and the farthest was at about 110m with most at around the 80m mark, all with some scattered trees between them and the blast. Amazing how all your plans can change on turn #1.

Don't change: 1)PBEM 2)Game scale size, in this case size does matter 3)Turn based system 4)Relatively straight forward battle/map editor 5)PBEM Do Change: 1)Ability to flag units to stay with one HQ and not flipflop back and forth 2)Would be great to have a toggle to check what is visible from different points on the map without having to move there and then find out you have no LOS to where you want 3)Grid type maps 4)Assignable keys for different units 5)Get the AI to use any special AP ammo before it's too late.

I was just wondering if there was a mod out there that takes care of the tripods, binocs, flamethrowers, ect. I'm not much into the visuals, but that solid grey with nothing just doesn't cut it. Seeing as how I have not found any I have assumed that these are unchangable, but could someone please clear it up fer me. Thanks.