Wildwolf45

I know that's what I plan on doing. I wonder how much more enjoyable they'll be?

Yes, it is a game. Which is why I took more than a little offense when you felt you needed to sarcastically call my tactics "extremely creative" and then go on to imply that I was "tactically impaired". It ticked me off so I replied in kind. Alright? Can we get back on topic?

Perhaps this was the tactic you should have used in the first place rather than the extremely creative frontal assault. Out of curiosity, how many casualties do you personally think is a reasonable number when conducting a screaming stand-up and sprint frontal assault against an AT gun blasting away with HE? Zero, one, two, three, four, six, eight? Or are any one of these casualty rates a statistical possibility?</font>

As more evidence for the AT Gun sniper syndrom - Playing the German campaign and came up to the "Wacht am Rhine" scenario. I plowed over the US defenders and fought of the tank wave with only one Panther immoblized and my poor PzIIIM destroyed. So when I discovered a 57mm AT gun down in the little riverbed next to the town, I decided to send some infantry after it. They were able to sneak to within about 100m of it by crouching behind the wall of the town and use the buildings to block LOS. When they reach the end of the wall, I issued storm orders and upped their speed to double time. Within that 100m of having a full squad of screaming Germans charging from out of their line of sight, that 57mm gun was able to (using AP rounds it seemed) kill six of my men. This is after having to move the trails to fire upon them! I ended up having to order another squad in and they managed to catch it on the flank.

I've found that left in the open and given the hold position order, they will tend to stay still. However, and this can be KILLER in setting up infantry ambushes, it does not stop them from standing up for a look around. This then alerts the AI that there is some inf there, and bam!, ambush is no more.

The problem is that they are not facing a threat, they are turning and looking at the blank side of a hill. Meanwhile, on the road to their left, an enemy tank is just about to roll into view, and my carefully place Jagtiger has to spin about to shoot it, and thus usually wastes its first shot (as the gunner rarely waits for the tank to stop moving before firing).

I am DEFINITELY using the hold position order. The tanks can be on the other side a hill, with absolutely no way to shoot at the thing they are rotating to face, and still spin about anyways. The infantry do stand still in the open, but seem to ignore that in the trenches.

This has been an increasing frustration of mine. Infantry in the open will stay where they are when ordered to do so. When I put them in a trench though, they will constantly move forwards in the trench, get bunched up in groups, and then when a shell lands on them, BAM!, half the squad is gone. If I order a squad into a trench, even when ordering each individual soldier, they always, without failing so far, move towards the action and bunch up. This is despite the fact that as soon as they hit the trench, I pause the game and issue prone, hold fire, and hold position orders. Then what do I see? Instead of staying down and spread out, they bunch up and keep standing up for a look around. I actually lost 3 troops to an HMG in the Wacht am Rhine mission because they would not keep their heads down! Tanks. Why do they constantly feel the need to rotate towards enemy they cannot see but other units can? I issue hold position orders, but they are always spinning. I tell them to rotate to a certain position and then re-order them to hold it and almost as soon as I finish the order, there they are, spinning round to face an enemy they can't see. This ABSOLUTELY ruins ambushes, especicially with hull-mounted guns. Please tell me this will be fixed in a patch!

Actually tried that - twice. The first time I set it off to the right of that main road in some bushes, had it hold fire and not move. a PzIIF lurks into sight, so I tell it to fire and remove the hold fire command. It scores two hits at a range of about 200m, on the side, and one hitting inside the tracks. You would think that that would at least panic the PzIIF, and most likely should have either destroyed it or gotten the crew to bail out. But no, instead the panzer lazily turns it gun towards the Zis2, fires a few rounds, and blam, my whole crew is dead. *sigh* I want to like this game, I really do, but I keep getting hung up on how truly terrible some of the missions are.

As the title, says, I am completely stuck on Surrounded in the Soviet campaign. I am playing on regular difficulty. Usually I drop the two 45mm AT guns and take a T-34 with a good veteran crew (gunner is at 80). However, it often takes two-three shots from the T-34 to knock out a PzII or PzIII at ranges of 200m or less. The 45mm guns when I take them are even worse. Are all Germans tanks Tigers in this scenario? Meanwhile, the German Death-Laser-Satellites, I mean, artillery, usually kills about half my infantry before they get to do anything. Amazingly, the AI seems to always know exactly where they are. One game I placed them near the town and then when the scenario started I had them run into the town itself. Sure enough, the artillery landed right on them, not the trenches. Is the AI just rampantly cheating even on regular difficulty? Can a 76.2mm gun really not penetrate 30mm of zero degree sloped armor at 56 meters (yes this happened!)?

Almost certainly a bug. In that mission the only tank I had trouble taking out was the T-34 (appropriately enough). The BT-7's died easily to AP rounds from my PzIVC's. My PaK's went almost completely unused in that one oddly enough... And BillyBob, if that was the case, then how do you explain the Prokhrovka(sp?) scenario, where aside from a tracked Tiger and PzIVH, I eliminated EVERY Soviet tank, most with one shot, and suffered no actual tank destructions myself? Or how a scenario or two later, on the defense, on JagpanzerIV took out a SU-85, SU-122, and at least three T-34's? Oh, and the JPIV was fine at the end of the scenario?

I managed to win this scenario using the reverse slope defense as well. Here's how it went for me. The first wave crested the hill and my 2pdrs and 75mm guns took them out without problems. The extra gun, TKS's and the car then showed up. I moved the tankettes into my lines and, this is important, told them to hold position! Tanks absolutely LOVE to wander about on their own, so I use the hold position button a lot. Anyways, the second wave comes and I deal with them easily enough as well. Then I sat and waited, and waited, and waited just as you did. I managed to sneak a 2pdr up into the bushes next to the main road, and it was able to take out two panzers without being taken out. But there were still some that would not budge. Then I noticed that the hill in front of the town stretches a long way to the right on the flank. I sent the TKS's around that ways and came up on the side of the German forces. At that range and from the side the little guns on the TKS can take out the German tanks. Once that was done I just let them go wild, along with the armored car, over the trenches that the Germans had occupied. Finally, I sent my infantry to the first line of trenches and routed those Krauts! Back to your fatherland!!!

I'm having quite a success by taking two 75's and two bofors and deploying them all in the town. Just behind the fences in those two little villas behind the hill. As soon as the PzII's crest the hill I tell them to open fire, and it usually only takes one shot at that range. Unfortunately I seem to have encountered a bug now. I've taken out the first two waves, and now I see there are some PzIV's out there. Problem is the Germans seem to have stopped at the first trench line (which I never manned). Now they won't advance at all...