Egon

Thank you very much for your kind assistance, Webwing ! Very helpful, point by point information (as usual). Greetings - Egon

Here is my bet: " next Friday, 16:59:59 EST "

WHEN ? Make your bet.

Here is a quote from Steve on the CMSF forum: "... we hope that the lag between when we give the files to Paradox and when the patch is up will be less than in the past. Unfortunately, this is not within our direct control because they have their own copy protection system and internal procedures they have to work through." :cool: I hope this applies to ToW and the folks at Kalypso, as well. Greetings - Egon

Howdy, thx for the news and here is my question: what delay do ya expect for the release of the Kalypso version patch ??

Excellent link (contains the polish Cav Rgt OoB, I needed urgently for a hist. scenario project) ! thxalot Slap

.. deriving it from the data for the rifle company, a soviet rifle platoon would most likely be organized like this: Soviet rifle platoon - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Platoon ldr 1 man ( 1 pstl ) Smg squad 7 men ( 1 pstl, 6 smg ) Rifle squad 7 men ( 1 pstl, 6 carb) Rifle squad 7 men ( 1 pstl, 6 carb) Lmg squad 7 men ( 1 pstl, 4 carb, 2 lmg) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - total 29 men

Sorry, at the moment I don´t have any info referring to the period of time. Will try to investigate further on this. Greetings - Egon

.. with these numbers, it appears to me that a soviet rifle company consists of four platoons four platoons each 28 men + 1 plt leader + 1 co sergeant + 1 co leader ------------------ = 118 total [ January 20, 2008, 09:35 AM: Message edited by: Egon ]

Gentlemen, to get back to the original topic, here is some info on Red Army infantry formations: Soviet rifle battallion - arming and formation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1st rifle co 118 men (8 lmg, 24 smg, 64 auto-carb, 22 pstl) 2nd rifle co 118 men (8 lmg, 24 smg, 64 auto-carb, 22 pstl) 3rd rifle co 118 men (8 lmg, 24 smg, 64 auto-carb, 22 pstl) 1 mortar co 51 men (7 122mm mrt, 12 smg, 22 carb, 12 pstl) 1 hmg co 47 men (9 hmg, 20 smg, 12 carb, 15 pstl) 1 AT gun plt 20 men (2 7,62 cm AT guns, 12 smg, 6 pstl) 1 AT rifle plt 17 men (9 AT rifl, 6 smg, 7 carb, 4 pstl) 1 staff 83 men (3 lmg, 20 smg, 30 carb, 30 pstl) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - total 572 men (inclusive 46 officers) (sources used: Middeldorf, E., Taktik im Russlandfeldzug, Darmstadt 1956)

Hmmm - very interesting stuff. Looks like the designers sorted the "on-map"-mortars out for some mysterious reason (?). P.S.: a.f.a.i.k., medium size mortars are 81mm for German and 82mm for Soviet troops.

Another problem: lots of new animations needed for those mortar squads embarking, disembarking, moving, loading, firing etc. . Something more likely to have for a future TOW 2, I guess

Quoting Sneaksie: "What map objects? Statics? You'll need to create them like units, in 3ds Max. There is no way to insert new models into the game without converting them to .msh format. You can modify textures of existing models with relative ease however."

... as I understand it, you need the "Dr.Jones-extractor-tool" to get the files you´d like to mod, after that you can modify them with 3ds Max (that means 3ds Max only).

.. that´s true - company-wise the 81mm (6 of them, or was it 4 ?) plus 2 of the heavy 120mm mortars - good indirect firepower with short delay. Although you need to change firing positions quite often, they attract enemy artillery for obvious reasons. Best to have half of them firing and the other half rushing to new firing positions (and that´s were the SdKfz 251 comes into play ).

You´re right, Slap - esp. the 50mm mortars make sense. They were standard for early war german troop formations (later succeded by the 81mm ones) and soviet infantry had tons of them available until the end of the war (quote: every second german soldiers owns the iron cross, every second soviet soldier owns a 50mm mortar). Greetings - Egon

Agreed - raising the troop limit plus larger maps, perhaps a 4x4km grid, really would make a difference (and some 80mm mortars on halftracks, of course ).

Hi there scenario designers, the ultimate link to have your (german) forces put together in a historically accurate manner: http://chrito.users1.50megs.com/kstn/kstnmain.htm Greetings - Egon

Oh wow! Looks like I have to get rich or die tryin´ to get my hands on this nasty prog .. They say in CHINA professional software is much, much cheaper but on the other hand the food seems to be worse there Greetings - Egon

OK .. at least we don´t need a PAIR of keyboards, that would be worse

SLI ?! ... a marketing trick to sell more of those overprized GPUs ? Can´t help it, but to me it doesn´t make sense to have more than one card (cooling-wise etc.) installed with my comp.

btw: the area I´m looking for is situated south of Belchatov (Poland) .. called the "Rakowka sector" (Rakowka is a small river), between Rzonsawa and Klieczy Mlyn. (but this is more a topic for the modding thread, I guess - will post there, when I have gathered more information)

... rgr that. mmmh - can´t remember who gave me following link .. for a broader view of the theatre these historical maps (1:200 000 scale) are great. In combination with Google Earth they helped a lot with my map project. http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/3felmeres.htm Greetings - Egon

... thx for the compliment, Sneaksie (reminds me of the words I heard, when they tried to make me stay in the army for another four years - lol). OK, back to the topic then. I found out, that there is a so-called "Deutsche Heereskarte 1:25000". I googled a lot, but those are scarce and high-prized on eBay and the archives don´t seem to have them accessible for Mr. Average (esp. NOT for wargamers, I guess).

.. hpoe tyhe get teh othrorgpahy rgiht tihs tmie ! Gereitgns - Eogn