Heinrich505

Big Boss, Very nice. Pretty close to the real thing. Must have taken you a little while to capture it just right, especially with the tall tree in the background. Well done. Heinrich505

Bud, Glad to see ya back. Hope things are settling out satisfactorily. Heinrich505

Bud, Love those fall colors. What were those guys doing, Leaf Watching? Nice shooting at 1000 meters. Hadn't seen you posting for a while and wondered where you were off to. Some white sandy beach in the Bahamas, perhaps? Heinrich505

Panzer, Wow, that was incredible. I loved the angles and the selected action. That first Panther rolled right over one of his - hopefully already dead - truppen when it crossed the ridge to move up. That's why they call them "crunchies" I suppose. I've played this one several times now. Kohl did a really super job putting this together. Gotta love those Jagdpanthers. I liked how you panned around the one, showing it off. The shot from the side with the Jagdpanthers lined up with a Panther while they pounded the village was superb. Really great job. Love every minute of it. Heinrich505

Wiltz. The calm before the storm. Heinrich505

Again, B & W of the same shot posted earlier. Didn't crop the previous shot correctly...sorry about that. Krämer leads his men deeper into the shadows, expecting more enemy shells to come roaring in. His men follow quickly, trusting their leader's instincts. Krämer can feel a warm sticky wetness spreading across his chest. Dammit, he thinks, wounded again. He has lost track of how many times now. They'll be replacing my black wound badge with a silver one, he thinks to himself ruefully as he quickly pushes his way through the snow-covered branches. The war goes on... Heinrich505

Unteroffizier Schäfer huddles for warmth on the second floor of a farmhouse. He has been pushing his men for over twenty minutes through deep snow, and getting out of the cold wind is a blessing, although a short one. They are moving cautiously, ever since the tank commander warned that there is an Ami tank across the shallow valley. He watched as the tank commander blew up an enemy halftrack earlier - the flames are still visible - but the tank is still out there. Schäfer sees the tank slowly crawl to a hull-down position behind their building. The barrel lowers, and the night is split with a flash as the main gun fires. Schäffer has no way of knowing if the enemy tank is hit. In the still icy night voices carry. He can hear the tanker shout to fire again. There is a roar and the night explodes into day... One of Schäffer's men cries out "He's hit!" Seconds later Schäffer hears the screams of men dying horribly. His unit is new, and they are unaccustomed to the carnage of the battlefield. Editors Note - B & W for photograph purists. Across the shallow valley, the US tank destroyer crew views their handiwork with satisfaction. The commander knows they dodged a big one this time. There is a glowing 75mm hole cored through the armor on the front of his gun carriage. The German tank was firing down on them, so the round punched through the front but on a downward angle. It missed anything vital and exited through the floor. They were backing up too, so everything worked out pretty well. Anderson, the bow gunner, would not completely agree, as he is bleeding from several wounds caused by hot metal shavings from the enemy shell. Still, they aren't burning but the other guys surely are. Schäffer watches in horrified fascination as troops that had been near the tank rush away from the inferno. He can see a wet blackness on some of their uniforms, glistening in the flickering light from the fire. He will find out later that it is blood, as several of the troops have suffered injuries from the catastrophic explosion. Unteroffizier Kramer is no stranger to the battlefield. He instantly knows they are silhouetted by the flames and he orders his men to disperse quickly.

Those freaking guys...always clowning around...

Thank-you Bud. Yes, it took a while... Heinrich505

Five Seconds to Hell in Hürtgen - a view into the Abyss. The war goes on... Heinrich505

Kevin and NPye, Just finished "experiencing" A Night at the Opera, which saved as A Night at the Theatre under my saved games - not sure why. I posted a screen shot in the screenshot thread from this battle. I didn't post others as they would kind of give away parts of the battle. I have a particular fondness for the 71st Infanterie Division, so I wanted to play this one first. The map is excellent. It really gives the feel of the city. It seemed a little dark in the shadows so sometimes it was a little hard to distinguish where the buildings started, especially the ones that had their sides blown away. No big deal. Immersion is an important part so there should be some uncertainty for where to move as the attacker. There is also some question, at times, on whether the troops can move from the interior of one building into the next. If the intention is to use the demo charges to blast from one building to the next, then that will work, but it might be something you'd want to mention in the briefing. I was trying to conserve demo charges and attempted to hunt from the first floor of one building to the first floor of the adjacent one. Looking at the interior, there appeared to be doorways, and I didn't get the little "can't move through that wall" indicator so I thought I would be hunting through an interior door. The troops then exited the building and hunted along the outside wall, as apparently they realized their stupid commander was trying to get them to move through a wall that didn't have a doorway. Thus, I had unwittingly ordered them into the street where the doggone Russians took a grisly toll of my troops. After that I was happy to blow holes in walls everywhere!!! There was another spot where an exterior doorway was evident but my troops happily ran past it, around the building corner, and were slaughtered. Their dying thought must have been "who is the idiot in command here?" My first instinct was to blast into that building but because of the door, I thought I could enter from that wall. Again, not a problem - it all adds to the craziness that was Stalingrad. Using my imagination, I would figure that the troops found that the door was barricaded and there was no access through it. I'm not sure there are fixes to this as there are so many buildings and you can't be sure which ones are accessible once they are modded and damaged. If I recall, Umlaut had an X and/or posters on the outside doors of the buildings that weren't accessible. This is not a deal-breaker. I completely enjoyed the uncertainty factor. The troop mix is really good. I think it is very representative of the men and equipment that were available at that time. I especially liked the modded StuG, and it really came in handy. I was trying to keep my casualties down, but historically there really wasn't any way to do that. The dead and dying lay everywhere, and most attempts to try and do buddy aid were met with the guy trying to help getting shot down as well. This was really a brutal fight. The AI seemed to behave very realistically, I thought. It reacted to my attacks in a credible fashion. You all have done a very nice job on this. The mod is amazing, the buildings are terrifying to try and clear, and this battle was a very hard challenge. I managed a draw at Elite setting, and couldn't quite get to the Theatre. I had to move quickly due to the time on the scenario, so mistakes were made, but historically, the troops were pressed for time and urged on to try and take their objectives as quickly as possible, so the time frame for the battle was correct. I greatly enjoyed all the hard work your group has put together for this. It was a real special event for me to battle across Stalingrad once more, this time with CMRT. CMBB was great for the Stalingrad battles, but you still had to use a lot of your imagination. Y'all have taken this to a really great new level. Thanks for all your hard work. It shows. Heinrich505

And so begins the decent into Hell...every damn floor the Feldwebel said. An ambush discovered just in time... Stalingrad Mod Heinrich505

Bud, Thought you would. This is Kohl's latest mod working the Bloody Bucket unit. We are trying out a map he made and the mods that go with it. It is pretty slick. Heinrich505

The dark, forbidding forests evoked nightmares of fairy tales of the Brother's Grimm in the minds of the men. They instinctively slowed their pace and became more cautious. Heinrich505

Bud, Nah, that was just ice-water Ludwig. The nearby Hetzer crew were less forgiving. Ludwig's gesture of humanity was cancelled by the Hetzer boys. Sad to say... Heinrich505

The tank comes crashing through an opening in the hedge. It has been causing mayhem in the small village and now has broken through the defensive line. Ludwig has been hiding in the grass, listening to the approach of the steel monster. His squadmates say he has ice water in his veins. That is why they gave him the only panzerfaust for their squad. The moment it appears, Ludwig steadies the weapon and tenses for the recoil. He doesn't even notice that the position of the turret is facing him. Ludwig grips the trigger - there is a roar and the tube bucks in his arms. The warhead is away. The tank is still moving. Ludwig knows he led the moving target just enough... Smoke envelops Ludwig, giving away his position to the enemy. He drops the empty panzerfaust tube and takes up his assault rifle. He also sees, with grim satisfaction, that his aim was true. The question remains - is it a killing shot? Ludwig begins to drop for cover. A billow of flames signals the end of the steel monster. Ludwig can clearly see the point of impact on the flat side of the Sherman. A second explosion occurs, the final nail in the steel coffin. Ludwig is now hugging the ground for cover. He is way too close to the inferno brewing inside this tank. He can hear screams from inside the tank. Incredibly an enemy tanker is scrambling from the inferno. The tanker drops from the turret, uniform scorched from the flames, into a cloud of smoke. Ludwig suppresses the urge to cough, blanketed as he is in the smoke from the burning tank. He can't see the tanker any more. He glimpses yet another survivor clawing his way to dubious safety and dropping to the other side of the tank. The smoke clears somewhat, and now Ludwig can see the tanker, running for his life. The man is groaning from the agony of his burns but has the presence of mind to have his weapon out and ready. It is an easy kill - practically point-blank. Ludwig refuses the shot. The war goes on... Heinrich505

JonS, Just finished playing DZ Charlie (a), the US paras version. Managed a total victory with the surrender of the Luftwaffe and about 35 minutes to go, playing Elite. What a remarkable battle. I won't post spoilers but the challenges are really something. Several of my recent screen shots came from this battle - I posted them in the screenshot thread. You really need to know your infantry tactics on this one. The opening is pretty much like herding cats - total chaos. Then again, when everyone lands there is always the reorganization period because all the troops are scattered. I thought this was well simulated. I really enjoyed this battle, and the map was extraordinary. Casualties are easy to amass if you don't plan out the moves well. Because there are so many victory locations I found that I really had about 6 separate battles going on within the big one. This made it really neat, because you had to approach each victory location differently with different mixes of troops. It meant that it took a long time to play out, but each turn was comprised of several different struggles. Very nicely done. I'll wait for a while before I try the British paras version so the enemy locations won't be fresh in my memory. Thanks for your efforts. Heinrich505

Thanks Bud. Just a touch as the smoke was a little thin. I liked the effect of running with the men. Heinrich505

Dash through the smoke into uncertainty... Heinrich505

Seedorf81, Thanks for the nice compliment. Heinrich505

Bootie, Thanks for posting. I enjoyed the action. Anyone who is willing to post their battles deserves a commendation just for doing so. Heinrich505

Seedorf81, Thanks for the compliments. Always appreciated. I think it isn't so much the computer as it is the alterations of the screenshots. My computer is probably a bit on the long-tooth side. Dell XPS 8700 Intel i7-4790@3.60 GHz RAM 16.0 GB 64-bit NVIDEA GeForce GTX 750 Ti I have many mods, most recently Worghern's , and lots of the others for uniforms and vehicles. Probably it is the use of my other program that really makes the difference. I take the screenshots with FRAPS, and then I transfer the shots to Corel Paintshop Pro X6. I've been involved in photography from way back when my father and I used to take 35mm shots and then develop them ourselves in the darkroom. I never went on to do anything professional, but I've kept my eye for certain types of shots. I am sure this has helped me try to find the particular compositions for the screen shots. Then I can bring out some of the dramatic by altering the visual effect with filters or backlighting. I can't take much of the credit as the Corel Paintshop program is what highlights the presentation of the shot. Glad you like them. Heinrich505

Bud, Thanks for the kind words. Always appreciated. Heinrich505

Thanks Erwin. It was a lot of fun putting it together. Heinrich505

PanzerMike, I posted some screenshots and a story of sorts in the screenshot section here for the battle at Singling. I absolutely loved the map. It was so well made. I was down at ground level most of the time and felt immersed in the town, running from building to building. It was great. I lost 4 tanks to immobilization from bogging. I did swing some of them off to the left flank. One bogged and was immobilized almost immediately. I used very short hunt movements for the tanks, and most of them seemed to do okay with that when driving off the road. I saved one that was bogging by reversing it out of the bog area and then moving in a different direction. I managed to eek out a tactical victory. Cpt. Leach survived the battle. The AI was a challenge and as my infantry got whittled down, I found myself clearing buildings with one or two men. It was very nerve wracking. You did a really sharp job on this one. Heinrich505