jBrereton

Drive them normally, but using cover all of the way to prevent easy take-outs, and then rotate them. You'll get there faster, and will be just as safe, due to your speed advantage offsetting the lack of a weapon. *edits* And everyone's new at one point or another, no worries.

Hmm... I would say if you have the time then do it yourself, just get the end-point but be prepared for a bit of stupidity en route.

Hmm I've played very little online, but I'd love a game or two for sure. josephbrereton (AT) hotmail (dot) co.uk I'd prefer something in the 300-700 points range, larger battles get a little slow sometimes.

Indeed, Jason. Flags are useful for a few victory points, but if your opponent has overlapping MG and AT fields over said flag, then the hundred-or-so points you'll get for taking the flag will be instantly meaningless when you lose your only tank, or a whole platoon of infantry.

From what I've seen, they're pretty bloody effective. The best things to kill off Shermans in BB, infantry wise, seem to be Finnish FL44 teams. They've only got 3 shots, but they're as fast as TH teams, and much more effective, too.

Veterans and above will rarely fire unless given the order when hidden. Regulars and worse will, sadly, open up due to being a bit shaky.

They cover up their vehicles a bit and turn their engines off, as well as not moving their turret?

I think they're a bit more vulnerable to flamethrower attacks, but on the other hand, as JasonC says, they've got a better hull MG and hence should mow down any flamethrower teams foolish enough to charge at you.

The best molotov range is 44m, as long as it hits, correct?

so i should go get some crack, smoke it, and that would be the equivalent of playing a CMSF demo? sweet </font>

Koios and Matrix put out a game called Panzer Command: Operation Winter Storm that looks a lot like CM:BB with a limited campaign. Has anyone played that game, and how does it compare to the CM series? </font>

That team or squad may well have been taking cover, which reduces their visibility IIRC. This would make sense, and would mean that if you could only see the star, and were hence at a long range, that you could no longer even see the beginnings of the unit.

Zmoney - I've more heard it said by people who've served in Iraq, on other forae (NationStates as one example). A fair few of them have stated that their colleagues have picked up AKs whilst on a mission (generally in cities) and have then got back their M4s later in the day.

Stoat - I was more talking about Russian forces who have to split their squads if they want them inside Universal carriers. Hmm... three man half-squads, eh? There are probably some scout cars which have a transport class so low that it was presumed that people'd put support weapons on them, but could be used to carry such half-man squads. And halftracks have less going for them defensively than Universals defensively - if they button up then they can't do anything about attackers, as opposed to Universals, which can still fire their MG.

birdstrike - There are a fair few reports of US troops using AK-type weapons taken from Iraqis due to their superior close-range firepower compared to American 5.56mm calibre weapons. The Brits prefer their SA80s, seemingly, and I don't know much about the actions of other Coalition troops.

I'm sixteen. So I'm probably quite young for this forum (no offence meant).

The only thing I find half-squads genuinely good for is mechanised reconnaissance. That's because they can fit in Universal Carriers, unlike full squads, and are safer in those that on top of tanks. That also allows, very rarely, for mechanised attacks, if one of the half-squads is quite well armed compared to the other, as I can use the APC's machine guns to pin down the defender when the half-squad attacks. Still, the only real use for them is for platoon-level reconnaissance for tanks, armoured up (although I've had good results with them being moved around in jeeps, too).

I would say that taking a company of Panzergrenadiers or Soviet Mech. SMG/LMG squads along with your Panzers and T-34s is pretty much invaluable. I've even found Tank Hunter teams to be of quite a lot of use, as they can cover ground quicky, spot, and, at close ranges, neutralise enemy armour effectively if need be.

Molotov cocktails are actually alright in the hands of Elite Finnish Sissi squads, against halftracks. That's just about their only use. People who go "ah yeah, I'll just human wave this Russian conscript rifle 44 company where there are a few Molotovs about towards this tank and I'll clearly take out that bloody Tiger" are horribly deluded. Because not only will most of the conscripts piss themselves and run off, most of the Molotovs that do get thrown will miss, and you'll be pretty lucky to get a kill with a hitting one. They're only good against open-topped, unarmed vehicles that are bogged, preferably, unless someone really special is using them, (Elite/Crack infantry, basically) in which case they are of some use against a slow moving, weakly armed and armoured target, that's preferably open-topped. Tank Destroyers can fall foul of them, as well as halftracks, but getting infantry into a position in which they might threaten a tank destroyer is far more easily said than done.

I've seen this as well, most comically with a sharpshooter. He fired a couple of longer-ranged shots at an enemy Platoon HQ, and then as the came closer, launched a fusilade of fire against them, which didn't take his sniper rifle's ammo away at all. And once he had them pinned, over the next ten or so turns he must have fired roughly forty or fifty times, until the Platoon HQ were all wiped out. Which was odd, but pretty handy for me.

It has worked for me in the past, but not very well. Usually my opponent realises what I'm trying to do and moves their MG elements to a place where they can fire upon my infantry before they get to the craters, causing them to sneak towards solid cover such as houses or scattered trees etc. It's worked well before, but it's quite a gamble.

Thank you very much, everyone. That's helped quite a bit.

Sorry if this has been asked a million times in the past, but please could you clear these two points up for me? What is the range of rifle grenades? What is the difference between a Panzerfaust30 and the 30K? (sorry if that sounds like a stupid question to you) Thanks in advance.

One thing that I've found useful is that if you split a squad, you can put both teams from it in Jeeps, to move them around quickly, and then reform them later. You're taking a bit of a risk due to the poor morale of split squads, but if you're doing some reconaissance, it's priceless.

I actually made a pretty good CM:BB mission (lost in the dustbin of XP re-install history, sadly), which had FJ Pioneers (a company, all elites with full special weapons etc.) leading up an attack on a Russian base before a battalion of normal soldiers went in to finish the job. It was a very large operation, which was pretty good in the end. Anyway, that was a bit irrelevant, sorry. Top-notch plan, though, it'll be good. *edits* If it gets made