Von Omar

The part that I can't stand is when they come in and drill your neatly placed under a tree pak 40 on their first pass before my AA guns can even track them coming in. I just have to assume I'm going to lose my more static defenses before I ever get to use them. I'll give the AA gunners credit though. They bring down alot of planes in a short span of time. Except when they shoot down a plane that then crashes on my lone remaining Pak40 and wipes it out on impact I was both disgusted and amused at the same time. Fun, none the less. I would agree with the OP. They send wave after wave of fighter bombers. When 85% get shot down, you'd think they'd withdraw further sorties to see what the problem is.

I'd tend to agree with you completely. I think at those ranges they could keep the MG deviation but seriously nerf the rifles to compensate.

Could it be the difference between moving and stationary targets? What were the field conditions? Were the Russians in an open field on flat ground or something else? An exposed HMG team in a static position should be very vulnerable. That being said, if the Russians are in the open an HMG should rip them up pretty consistantly, all things being equal (which they usually aren't)

Firing a MG at a trench is the reverse of its inteded trench line roll. You really shouldn't be able to kill or wound much at all on a squad tactical level by firing at a trench line. That includes any direct firing weapon. The reverse, however, is true. A MG fired out of a trench should do significant carnage on a relatively exposed group of targets. The best way to deal with a trench, realistically, is indirect fire. Mortars, artillary, aerial bombardment. The only thing a MG should be for is to suppress any return fire from the trench line. The MG was originally developed to mow down swaths of advancing infantry, not to destroy entrenched earthworks. As far as ranges go, you're absolutley right. The average rifleman's effective range was 200m at most. Adjustable sights at the time ranged up to 2000m (depending on the weapon) but this was just to accomodate the range of the weapon itself. Most kills came even closer than 200m. Optics would be a very welcomed thing in ToW and would change the tank combat and AT gun abilities extremely. Even the differences in iron sights made an impact, albeit too minor to simulate in ToW. ASW is a little more realistic in this regard... The Germans were always outnumbered on every major front (other than Poland) strategically. However, on a tactical level, it wasn't until later in the war that they suffered a significant numerical inferiority at a tactical level, which ToW is inteded to represent. In your Polish BAR scenario, your men were doomed without cover and indirect fire support. Realistically they would have withdrawn and awaited further support. Your squad would probably have had a 50mm mortar nearby as well, or maybe an 80mm if they were lucky. LMG's didn't have the optics you mentioned either, if they were true squad level LMGs. They'd be lucky to have a tripod and most likely had only a bipod. You'd be lucky to hit anything at a trench line against anything but the most pathetic of foe.

Very fun game. It's like Commandos but with one character and 3rd person. I think the sound you make firing a weapon should alert people further away then it does, but other than that I had a great time playing it. Worth the demo DL time for sure. One further thought...might want to fix the lip sync in the mission intro video so it matches with English better. Makes the game seem....well...off a bit.

The problem seems to be that when you place a hold position order it only lasts until you place any other order. So if you think they're holding then move them a few feet to a better position, the hold order disapears (even though it graphically looks like it's still on). Once that happens they're free to charge ahead. That's my take on it anyway. The only way around it seems to be a rediculous amount of micromanagement. Every time you give a new order to a unit you have to wait until that unit is finished doing its thing, then give it a new hold position order. It's my single greatest pet peeve about this otherwise great game.

The back of the turret is actually just a common add-on. It was for storage only and wasn't part of the armored turret facing. You're right though, it is pretty cool to watch