Der Alte Fritz
-
Posts
1,024 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Der Alte Fritz
-
-
I will have look at Tank Corps this evening and see if I can see a unit of interest but I have only got Zetterling and Glantz as references and units this low are rarely mentioned.
I had noticed the 1941 disbanding of the mech corps but was considering explaining that in the briefing. However if I can find a unit that would run all through the war it would be better.
The Vth Mech Corps seems to have been equipped with Lend Lease for a lot of the war. In the attack on the Chir River in 1942 they have Matildas and Valentines and complain bitterly about them. Later in the article the author cheers up a bit when he discovers they can kill the enemy tanks at 400m.
It is interesting that if you wanted the history of any unit in a Western army, you would have a wealth of sources to choose from.
cheers
-
Hi
It is Bank Holiday here in the UK so I should be able to finish at least one scenario (more if I do not cut the grass.)
Have you had feedback on all the scenarios in this series yet? If not let me know which ones and I will do those.
-
I am looking for the units, commanders and battle history of either
IV Mech Corps (43 later III Guards Mech Corps)
V Mech Corps (43 later V Guards Mech Corps?)
For the IVth 41 SW Front near Kiev with T34 and KV1, 42 leads Operation Uranus and capture of Rostov 44 Operation Bagration against 5th Pz Div and later advance to Riga to stop III Pz Armee.
For Vth 41 SW front Smolensk sacrificed in attack at Lepel. 42 Operation Uranus attacks Chir River and 11th Pz Div also VIZh article on crossing of Chir River 43 part of counterattack force at Kursk.
What I am really looking for is some interesting enegagements so that I can string together a series of scenarios following one of these units.
cheers
-
*********************spoiler*********************
Playing Uranus and reached move 30. Have just taken the central position outside the farm. But I seem well behind schedule - what do you think? Can the lorries cross the barbed wire and do I have to get them off the board as well as the tanks?
Also do you "see" the fog? I cannot and it may be down to my new ATI graphics card.
cheers
-
Just noticed this thread on the 1st SS Pz Div one. PC is not the only one who missed it! I did as well. But on the bright side I only managed to play one of the SS LAH games as I spent yesterday running some tests on pioneers clearing mines - having lost so many tanks during the game, I thought I needed some practice!
As you seem to have plenty of results from the SS one, I will switch to Uranus and will post reports on TPG.
cheers
-
Finished the first couple of the series, aasume you want individual posts about them on TPG.
I have noticed a kind of theme developing with your scenarios - small linked battles. I have been researching an idea along similar lines and wondered if it might appeal. The idea is a series of small linked scenarios but rather than following the course of an operation, it is to follow a unit through the war. It would show the changing seasons, new equipment introduced, enemy advances and you could set it up to follow a couple of individual commanders. My idea was to follow 19th Pz Div because they spent their whole career on the Eastern Front and have bog standard equipment like Marders. They have a number of interesting encounters, fought at the gates of Moscow in 1941, at Orel in 1942, as part of III Pz Corps at Kursk, get over-run and the divisional commander killed in 43, recce bn shoot up red parachutists at Bukrin Bridgehead, hold open the escape route for the Korsun pocket, fought in Poland in 44 and end up in Bohemia in 45. At one point they radio Corps HQ and say "we are out of fuel and the Russians are attacking. Send help." Then silence. But they survived.
6 to 8 scenarios covering 3 to 4 years of war should be enough to give a flavour. How about one of the Mech Corps for the Soviets as they were always in the thick of the fighting and so have interesting histories.
cheers
-
This has helped enormously. In the last try I had replaced the 57mm with 85mm D3 but planned to use them under 500m. My ambush worked well and the 85mm killed one Tiger at 456m and the other at 220m while the SU-152s drove up the hill and killed another. The driving and LOS is getting better and the SU-152s regularly manage to make three separate attacks in a game, managing to fire and reverse before the Tigers can turn and engage them. LOS is still a bit hit and miss though, during one attack the SU lost the target sight on the Tiger during the drive up the hill and so proceeded to turn to engage a Sdz251/9 that it thought was a better shot? Best method seems to be to walk the route yourself, stop at the point of contact, press 'Q'to mark it and then go to level 3 or 4 to plan the reverse. Will come back to this one later as I want to have a crack at the 400 series this weekend. Also someone suggested immobilising an enemy tank with impassable terrain and no ammo and then conducting firing trials so that you get a feel for what works and how it relates to the penetration tables.
cheers
-
I suppose that this situation remains more or less true for much of the latter part of the war. The rare but potent big cats being countered by asymetric means until the arrival of the IStalin series. I was reading Zetterling again and his tables clearly show the superiority of the 57mm gun over the 76mm and also it's rarity. He also mentions the 85mm D5 being specifically deployed to meet the Tiger threat. So I will replay the scenario with the 85mm to see the difference.
Have saved ny game just before the SU152 attack and will play it through several times. I am interested in the actual mechanism of the attack. Set one to HUNT forward and then fire and the other to SHOOT AND SCOOT by driving forward into sight and then straight back again. Since both died, have not formed a view as to which was best. I find the only way to get a proper view of LOS is to get down to Level 1 and "walk" the ground yourself. The LOS sight tool does not seem to indicate where you will gain sight along its length.
I think a little table of penetration and armour values is a big help in judging results until you can gain experience. I have now made one and it has shattered some illusions!
-
Things are looking up the more I play this series. In the last one, I caught 1 Tiger in a minefield and then waited until the Tigers had gathered just in front of the central platoon. Then I tried a combined attack with both the SU152 driving up the slope into their flank at 330m and one 57mm ATG at about 250m. When the dust settled, I had killed 1 Tiger with an SU, a Sdz251 to the 57mm and another to the Stormovik. But I lost both the SUs and the 57mm. But it had set one of the two remaining Tigers up for a flank shot at 150m from the remaining 57mm who killed him a move later. So pretty good really but I need to practice my driving and sighting skills with the SUs.
cheers
-
Success. Actually it was the NEW driver that made the graphics card fan go into overdrive. But another install and some adjustment of the settings has cured the problem. It was only a 128 card - nothing fancy - so slightly worrying that it should go mad. Actually I upgraded it to play Rome Total War. One feature that I like of that programme is that all the basic data that runs the game is held in easily accessed files that you can modify with Notepad. This has spawned a huge mod community and people have converted the basic ancient Rome programme to Napoleonic, Renaissence, Fantasy, etc versions. I hope that CM2 will adopt this programming approach because it would allow easier correction of say the underpowered 85mm gun issue.
One follow up question on the 57mm gun, I should aim to kill a couple of Stugs with it before it gets knocked out? At the minute I open fire, kill the target and then get knocked out by a support weapon. Should I conduct a long range duel with the Stugs or wait until they are really close so that I can kill a couple quickly before the support weapons get the gun? Currently I engage at 400m, well within MG range and mortars.
I assume that the scenarios are set up with more or less ideal starting positions so I shall leave the Valentine in his position in the hollow and see if I can do better this time.
cheers
-
Was planning to add 322 Tiger defence to this one but have just installed a new graphics card and my PC is now doing odd things and sounds like a jet aircraft so this afternoon may all end horribly!
-
Advanced AT Gun Defence 320
I played this one twice, firstly with the infantry set to 150m arcs and the AT guns 500m arc. The German attack split with three tanks and some infantry attacking the right hand platoon and the rest the centre platoon. The right hand platoon managed to hang on in the rear of the position and knocked out two tanks but the centre platoon was over-run but the rear platoon stopped any further advance. So not so good. The second time, infantry arcs were set at 100m and the AT guns at 400m keyholed to specific positions with the right hand platoon hiding with 30m arcs. The entire German force drove into the central area and started attacking the central platoon. Then I opened up with the entire force and quickly knocked out all the vehicles and stopped the infantry advance, although by this time they had destroyed the central platoon and occupied the trenches. The keyholing sort of worked, the gun on the far left accounted for 3 PzIIIJ which were facing the wrong way but the rear gun did not do so well as he targeted a half track that went into the arc but got killed by the tank that was just behind it but outside the arc. So you have to anticipate potential problems! Range did not seem to be the factor but the fact that all the guns engaged at once with overlapping fields of fire and so survived longer before the return fire knocked them out. Lost one gun to a mortar, one to MG fire and another to the artillery with only one knocked out by tanks. Wasted the AT mines because I lined them up alongside the ones on the road as a last ditch defence to catch any support vehicles that went forward with an infantry attack on the rear platoon. So they never got used but if they had been further forward, the tanks may not have advanced so far into the gun zone which was the problem in the first try.
Advanced AT Combined Arms Defence 321
Great! Just when you get used to the game at a certain level, you get a nasty shock. Where are my lovely AT guns? What is this thing - a wheelbarrow! Lend Lease bah! Call this thing a tank - what were the British thinking of? What is that coming towards me – help!
Well I used the same tactics as in 320 but obviously I was going to have to be careful with the AT Guns. Good start Move 6 a Stug spotted the Valentine and killed it dead at 700m. Personally I would have put him behind the wood for use later on in the battle but I thought I would see how he got on in case he surprised me. :confused: German advance proceeded against the central platoon and infantry attack was stopped by the HMGs and mortars as I husbanded most of the infantry for close range work as the few that stuck their heads of the parapet got shot up by the Stugs. Lost my nerve a little and killed one of the Stugs with the 57mm AT gun. :eek: Almost as good a gun as the 76mm but he died in the return fire. The ATR were duelling with the half tracks keeping them at a distance. Infantry were at the wire of the central platoon. The mountain gun on the right opened fire on a Stug which was side on at 200m, missed and the Stug went hull down. The gun killed the Sdz 251/9 but died in the return fire. So now I have lost 3 of my 4 AT guns and only killed one of the three Stugs. The attack went on and the Stugs came closer and came under ATR fire. One got a track hit on the Stug on the left hand side of the central platoon so he turned around to retreat. Soviet Hero Sergeant Kapev saw his chance and fired his mountain gun at the Stug at 240m and killed it. Fired again at a Sdz250 and knocked him out and then silenced a mortar. The final Stug advanced and the two were duelling it out on Move 30. The mountain gun cannot penetrate the Stug frontally but he had a slim chance to disable the Stug and with his luck it was worth a try!
I suspect that the 57mm AT and the Valentine have to work together but need to get the Stugs all together and fairly close so that they can kill them quickly before they can turn. Not sure where best to put the Valentine? Could he be dug in as a static AT gun? The mountain guns need to hide so that they can get a decent side or rear shot. Once you have dealt with the Stugs you should have at least one gun left to kill the half tracks.
-
Perhaps for a more balanced view of the capability of Stalin II and III tanks we should look at ALLIED assessments post 1945. Certainly British assessments were that both tanks were deadly bespite the new Comets and Centurions that were available. I remember clambering over a very large old tank that was used for target practice during exercises and being told by the sergent that it was a Conquorer, rushed into service to counter the Stalins because we had nothing else to touch them.
-
My T-34 experience is sounding weirder and weirder. I waited until the lead PzIIIJ was on his own well out in front, sideways on and busy shooting up my infantry on the other side of the square. The T-34 drove round the corner of the square in FAST mode and halted just past the corner. His turret was turned towards the PzIIIJ by using an armour arc and I had TARGETed that particular tank anyway. So the panzer is side onto me with his turret turned away. The T-34 fires at 80m just after stopping and hits the hull with a PENETRATING shot but does not knock him out. Reloading as Panzer turret turns, fires and the T-34 is hit with a ARMOUR FLAKING shot so he is SHOCKED, a crewman killed and the tank PANICS. Panzers next shot kills T-34 stone dead. Perhaps I should HUNT or SHOOT AND SCOOT or should he be buttoned up before I start the attack run? Or perhaps he was just a poor old factory worker who had just driven off the production line!
Just finished reading the "Court of the Red Tsar" about Stalins inner circle. It is a great read and gives a real flavour of the period. Especially Zhukov in 1941 when the country is being over-run, generals are being shot daily and he starts an argument with the Politburo! Incredible.
-
Greetings Comrades,
Managed to defend the village rather well if I say so myself but made rather hash of the street fighting in the city!
In 315 for the first run of the scenario I left the set-up as it was. The German infantry managed to penetrate the woods on the right of the village and the tanks managed to penetrate right to the centre of the village with two immobilised on the outskirts by mines. All the tanks were finally knocked out by pioneers but only after the Russian position had been pretty heavily bombarded.
The second try was using an ambush technique with the rifle platoon spread out on the right flank with one of the Maxims covering the road. Everyone had an arc set to 100m with over lapping fields of fire, the idea being to stop the German infantry dead but so close that they could not use their artillery. One pioneer platoon was spread out around the flag to counter any breakthrough and the other in the woods on either side of the road with a minefield moved to the house beside the road. These were given 50m arcs and told to hide. The game went pretty much according to plan. The German infantry got pinned down well outside the perimeter and the tanks tried to force their way in down the road. Although they shot up two pioneer sections, the two others and the mines accounted for all the tanks and the a/c around the forward perimeter. So I thought that this was a much better result and the ambush technique really paid off. One thing that I noticed was that the pioneers had to be quite deep in the pines if they wanted to avoid detection. The two that were shot up were too close to the edge.
For 316 Left the set up as it was and gained a tactical victory with the Germans capturing all the buildings up to the main one. My men seemed to do better if you held them towards the rear of the building, let the enemy enter it and then shoot them as they tried to move around inside. If I defended the front perimeter of the building, the tanks simply killed my men from close range. Ran pioneers forward to engage tanks if they got too close. AT rifles shot up one tank. Did not do so well with my own tanks. A Pz IIIJ was shooting up the main building so I ran the T-34 down the street to the corner with an arc set in the direction of the PzIII. As the T-34 came round the corner he fired at a range of 80m at the side of the PzIIIJ – NOTHING. The return fire of the PzIII knocked out the T-34 before he could reload. The T-70 did better and got off a couple of shots before being knocked out. Then pioneers had a go and drove the PzIIIJ off. The final T-70 drove round the corner and shot at the retreating PzIIIJ and killed him! Total score 2 PzIIIJ knocked out, 1 Sdz-250 disabled but by move 25 I had lost most of my AT rifles, HMG and LMG but had half a dozen SMG sections hidden in the rubble around the flag. So I was left with some AT capability but not much. Not sure if I needed to hold my fire until close range within cities but the German infantry seemed to creep forward no matter what I did although I did kill a lot of sections.
cheers
-
Help I won 310 training scenario first time! I must be delusional.
These are the lessons I learnt:
1. Use rifle units as scouts and as flanking units because of their longer range fire. They can tie up MGs on the flanks by flanking fire from other woods.
2. When you have identified the enemy position move the SMG units up through the rifle units in short advances.
3. Keep units close so that you can overwhelm one unit at a time with concentrated fire from 3 SMG units.
4. Use rifle units as flank guards and to provide security after the advance because the SMG units use up ammo very quickly.
5. Try to infiltrate units forward through the woods to gain flanking positions. My rifle squad got to the end of the wood before the Germans and was able to pour fire into them as they retreated down the narrow neck at the back of the wood.
6. Choose several avenues of advance so that you arrive at the objective from different directions. So if one advance is held up then another will come in on the flank. I gained a great flank position on the main wood by coming round wide on the left and was able to put a rifle, SMG and pioneer section behind the enemy main line. Lost a section to the flamethrower but ended up almost surrounding the enemy infantry.
Tried 311 and Got a minor victory with this one mainly because the main attack through the woods got bunched up and then caught by artillery fire! Still managed to capture two flags and the flank force on the right managed to destroy most of the units around the infantry flag with the help of the two mortars. Was too slow in bringing up the mortars as could not find a decent LOS to the enemy position from the rear. Main lesson seemed to be that ski troops can move very quickly in these conditions but that they lose their skis when they first advance. Also do not bunch up in woods under artillery fire. I lost most of the central attack in about two moves.
I felt that 311 went better with again a minor victory, capturing two flags, destroying most of the enemy but just not having enough men to capture the house. Infiltration is the main trick here as I managed to get right on top of the enemy flags without being discovered but lost a couple of units because the first unit that fires (usually the defender) kills the other. Best to send a scout in front to get shot up and then have two or three units clumped behind to avenge him. Best to have units in Indian file so that if you find a way through the enemy position, then, follow up units will not give your position away. The right hand flank unit managed to get right in the wood by the house before anyone saw them! But the recce platoon went up through open ground and got shot up by a unit beside the second road flag.
cheers
-
Hi
Do not worry about downloading the guide. I did so about a month ago and got a perfect pdf which printed out print and pictures in good quality. I printed it out two pages to a side and then punched some holes in one end and ran some "treasury tags" through them to keep everything together but you could use string, ribbon, anything really.
What you have to decide is whether you want to learn to play as Russians or Germans to start with. If the Russian like me, then go to www.blowtorchscenarios.com and download the Russian Training Missions. There are a whole series of scenarios that gradually build up troop numbers and weapons. You can then search the forums for threads about the missions. Look for comments by JasonC the author as they are very good.
-
I would second that request as I am looking to upgrade my machine now and want to know what to look at. There is such a plethora of processor speeds, video cards and memory sizes at a huge range of prices that it makes it confusing without trying to match up the requirements to your favourite games. So will you need a 2.5 GHz processor or higher and what sort of video card are we talking about 64, 256, 512? An indication of what is needed would be a big help.
-
Thanks for the information, I have always been a fan of the SU-85 so it is disappointing to hear about the poor game performance in '43. Will look forward to using them in the 400 series but for now I am stuck in the woods of the 300 series but will start a new thread when I have finished them all. This is great information and a big help as it difficult to translate what you read on the history books into "what do I do this turn" in the game.
-
Thanks for asking this LongLeftFlank, that was my next question. I presume that the SU-122 and SU-152 are used in the same way as the SU-76 especially for assaulting prepared defences. But how were the SU-85 and SU-100 used - mobile AT Guns? Did the Russian distinguish between the various SU types or just use them all in more or less the same way? I was going to replay 201 with SUs to see what the result was.
-
Tried 202 Mech Force I as found an earlier post about using this type of force. Everything went really well. The tanks advanced and shot up any infantry that tried to pick off the riders and they in turn cleared the woods. Captured both flags and the Germans only had the mortar and 1 section left. Lost one tank to the PAK but the return fire by the other tanks knocked him out the following turn.
What are the distances that you need to keep tanks away from the trees? In 1943 I think it is 50m but is is greater when the panzerfausts appear?
Also what is the proper use of the T-70? I used him to drive up to positions to spot enemy infantry so the T-34 could blast them. But in '43 the Russians had large numbers of T-60/70, which they used in infantry support?
cheers
-
Greetings Comrades!
Managed to get a minor victory in 201 this afternoon. Lost one tank to the AT Gun but destroyed him with the 82mm mortar. The infantry attack up to the rocky knoll got there but was fairly well pinned down by the MGs on the left. Managed to get some sections forward in the deadground to the right of the knoll but did not make the end of the barbedwire. Killed a lot of enemy sections in the ground around the barbedwire and the centre tank destroyed them as they came out of the wood. The right hand support section seemed to come under fire from the MGs on the left which pinned a maxim and the 120mm spotter (he never did get to fire)But the artillery spotter got the barrage on the woods in move 10 and the other weapons were able to flank the Germans as they came foward. The two sections and the tank cleared the house to the front and then brought flanking fire on the infantry in the main wood. They did well as they destroyed 3 recce sections around the house.
The left hand support unit knocked out the AT Gun and the maxims shot up German infantry in the centre but the mortars were unable to silence the MGs on the left. So the 2 sections split and went forward to scout out the position. They got within 100m of the trenchs and were able to direct the 82mm onto one machine gun and the centre tank came forwards towards the end of the battle to put direct fire onto the trench. They knocked out one machine gun, supressed the other and a mortar in the rocks.
Disappointed that the centre infantry did not get into the woods but the artillery and mortars did well against the AT amd MG defences. The 120mm would have been a big help against the MGs but spent most of the battle pinned down.
So what is the proper approach to use?
Also what do you do about the MG position because you only ever get sound contacts and you cannot seem to supress the fire with mortars onto sound contacts?
cheers
-
Had another go with 111 with greens and got the infantry up to 140m from the trench before the MGs opened up though at the end of that first move I had 1 section broken, 1 panic, 1 shaken and 1 pinned! But I managed to supress the trench MG with the mortar and maxims, then it was easy and the infantry took the trench in a couple of moves. Really suprised by the amount of fire it took to supress that MG. Even managed to supress the second MG later and launch an asault again it with both sections (the Company commander rallied the 2 broken sections) and had eliminated it by the end of the game.
Had a go with 112 but ran into some trouble as I left the mortar back with the artillery spotter in the woods on the start line but he got pinned down by MG fire. By the time I had got the mortar sorted out and firing on the trench the infantry attack on the trench had been driven back into the houses. Question? When the mortar finally did open fire the shots went all over the place and I think only one bomb landed in the trench! So we never supressed the MG. In 111 I had the mortar up with the troops in the woods and under command of the Company commander and the mortar was right on target from move 1. So is it the range or the company commander or just the fact that the mortar got shot up that made him so inaccurate? I mean he was 100m over then 100m short so really off target.
The artillery fire was planned on move one and dropped on the woods in move 6 and the assaulting infantry was up there and took out most of the enemy infantry with the help of a Maxim, though they got flanked by the trench MG and could not finish the job.
So this does not seem to present any difficulties once I get the mortar sorted out so I am going to try the 200 series next.
-
Ah Ha! Success! The regular troops did the trick as they did not sneak off out of command range every time they got shot at. Also did more of a flank attack starting off from the wood on the left so got further before the machine gun opened up. On the first try the nearest squad was about 180m from the trench so we were well and truly shot up before we got to spotting range, but this time we got to within 140m and had spotted the trench before the MG opened up so that our return fire was quite effective. Lost 9 men in the first squad but everyone else was ok. Tried RTS 111 using green troops but the same problem of losing control of squad when they got hit. Supressed the main MG but never got the MG on the flank under control so the green troops took a lot of fire. So will try again with regulars and will use the mortar to keep the flank MG supressed.
Thanks for the advice and finding the scenarios a great way to learn the finer points.
cheers
Operation Uranus Scenario Pack
in Combat Mission - Scenario Talk
Posted
Ok so it looks like Alarm along the Chir for me then.
I doubt I will be able to play them all in sequence at the moment as I have only just learnt how to play the Russians! I made a complete pig's ear of the SS LAH scenario I played recently through lack of basic knowledge, so I doubt it would be a fair test anyway.
cheers