Dietrich
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Posts posted by Dietrich
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You are probably correct about how extended periods of peacetime can corrode a warriors fitness; but there were plenty of eras in European history where a fighting man likely got to see lots of action.
The infrequentness of battles in the High Middle Ages (besides, medieval warfare was characterized far more by despoiling raids and sieges of castles than by pitched battles) was one of the main reasons why tournaments caught on and became so popular and so prevalent (despite the determined efforts of kings and princes to keep such from taking place). Contrary to modern popular conception, tournaments in the 11th, 12th and early 13th centuries were not "courtly" affairs consisting entirely of one-on-one jousts but were mock cavalry battles in which the goal for any individual knight was to capture a counterpart on the opposing "team", exact a ransom (arms/armor/horseflesh/etc.) from him, and thereby enrich himself and increase his status and reputation.
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*cues Jimi Hendrix*
"♪ There's a red house over yonder...
[flurrysome guitar lick]
That's where my baby's forward observer stays...♫"
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I wonder what the folks in the cars around the 2:00 mark were thinking??
Car 1: "It's coming straight for us!"
Car 2: "Reverse! Reverse!"
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In a recent quasi-meeting-engagement (neither side is dug in at all, but each side knows the other side is in the immediate vicinity) PBEM, I called in a pre-planned linear medium-mortar barrage to screen the advance of two-thirds of my force (that is, the barrage was not targeted on the enemy setup area). My opponent, who lost about a quarter of his force to said barrage, pointed out that pre-planned arty is generally rather frowned upon; however, he also said that in his opinion the barrage earned the Best Order of the Scenario award. *shrug*
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I find that sometimes I can delete all the battalion-level units (leaving only the platoon- or company-level units I want), sometimes I can't (i.e. the battalion CO is undeletable). It seems random to me; or at least I haven't determined the criterion/criteria for being able to delete all the battalion-level units. Maybe it just depends on which formation (i.e. USMC Infantry Battalion vis-a-vis Syrian Mech Airborne battalion) one is trying to trim down.
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For 11 hours rays of glorious light shone...
Fixed that for ya.
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Man, another top-notch UI mod? We CMBN-ers sure are spoiled for choices.
Thanks much for this! Très belle work, Juju!
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Sounds like I might do well to change my moniker to something, oh, I don't know, Smedley, if only to not be presumptively mistaken for a closet-racist Nazi-honorer.
Yes, yes, I know my posts heretofore could be reckoned those of a German fanboi; but how do you know my moniker isn't meant to honor Marlene Dietrich? Besides, what I meant was more or less what gunnergoz said, especially in regard to LLF's post.
Dietrich simply means "skeleton key" (cf. Nachschlüssel).
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Not that most posters here need any convincing, but I would be delighted to take this force into action.... Yes, I know that it didn't arrive in NWE until the end of October '44.I'd rather they were just blokes in a variety of units rather than all concentrated in one unit because "all those baaws are nig........," err ... African Americans.
I wonder how those who admire and respect the personnel of the 332nd Fighter Group would respond to those who might express the wish that said personnel had been not all in the 332nd Fighter Group.
And then there's (for example) the Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
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Paging Mr. Herman[n]...
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The other day a Sherman of mine tht was hull-down behind a ridge took two hits from a PaK 40 to its right front turret which ricocheted. The Sherman took only slight damage, but the shell fragments took out half of the men in a squad of mine kneeling behind the bocage 20 feet away. (I've even seen AP shells richocet intact and arc away to hit friendly infantry more than 50 meters away. Talk about detailed simulation!)
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From an earlier, somewhat-related thread:
I understand real-world infantry squads would rotate who got to take point during a patrol because the guy up front was most likely to get shot.Ohhhhhh, so that's why when a squad of mine executing an Assault movement order in the open suffers a casualty, it's always the squad leader.Bingo. People often wonder if the AI is purposely targeting the SLs, but it's because they are often in front.It's also often because they are firing bursts with their SMGs at 300m while the riflemen are firing occasional shots. Guess who gets spotted first?
Well, being the one to yell "Mir nach!" or "Follow my tracer!" certainly has its disadvantages. :cool: -
(With reservations) "Six Armies in Normandy" by John Keegan
Without having read the whole thread, I was about to bring up this book, but now I'll "reserve" recommendation thereof. Just shows how much of a grog I'm not, I guess. Oh well; at least I've never owned or even read anything by Ambrose.
I'm not questioning your assessment, Barkhorn, just asking for further insight: Can you cite a specific example or two of Keegan "playing fast and loose with the source material"? Would you reckon such to be cause for mistrusting (in whole or in part) Keegan's other books?
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Well oorah and currahee, Mord ol' pal! I'm sure I'm gonna dig this! =)
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I've considered making a scenario based on the premise: What if the US 101st Abn had been the division tasked with capturing the bridges over the Caen Canal and the River Orne instead of the UK 6th Abn? In particular, what if Winters & co. had been the ones (a la their Brecourt Manor exploits) to actually capture Pegasus Bridge?
I haven't yet started working on the scenario, though, on account of my virtually nil knowledge of the historical battle and the resultant need for research thereupon.
using the argument of there being a thousand or so user made scenarios per title as opposed to the hundred or so ones we have for CMSF.The CMSF forum may be kinda dead at the moment (indicating the much-decreased level of interest in the game vis-a-vis the interest in CMBN), but some of the veteran and highly skilled CMx2 scenario designers have expressed interest in revisiting CMSF at some point and making yet more scenarios, even campaigns for it.
Sure, I imagine scenarios are still being made for the CMx1 games (and I applaud them), but the fact that scenarios will yet be made for CMSF (which some have as good as likened to horse-urine beer next to the vintage Calvados that is CMBO) tends to counter the naysayers' assertions.
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ahhhh Captain America.... jajaja
Well, as I understand it the tactic has a precedent, but Captain America ued it in a situation where neither tracers nor following were necessary or prudent. =P
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Bingo. People often wonder if the AI is purposely targeting the SLs, but it's because they are often in front.It's also often because they are firing bursts with their SMGs at 300m while the riflemen are firing occasional shots. Guess who gets spotted first?
Well, being the one to yell "Mir nach!" or "Follow my tracer!" certainly has its disadvantages. :cool:
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I understand real-world infantry squads would rotate who got to take point during a patrol because the guy up front was most likely to get shot.
Ohhhhhh, so that's why when a squad of mine executing an Assault movement order in the open suffers a casualty, it's always the squad leader.
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New animations, especially casualties — no longer just falling backwards Hollywood-style Infantry firing from inside halftracks (though I could've sworn I saw some Marines start blazing away from the bed of a pickup truck in the "From the Dawn to the Setting Sun" campaign) Kill stats — when a squad of mine gets decimated in seconds, I like to know which enemy unit was responsible
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"Supporting players" in a team opening fire — sure, the target is within rifle range, but why are the MG team's leader, loader and ammo bearers firing as well?MG-Schützen using their pistols instead of their MG34s/42s for no apparent reason (though I have seen MG-Schützen really blazing away under appropriate circumstances; not the 5- or 10-second bursts that some have doggedly advocated, but still)...and actually no other "worst" things are coming to me at the moment. *shrug* Guess I've been doing too much modding and not enough actually playing the game!
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Looks great! Very much looking forward to this one, George. =)
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There are no bicycles or Schwimmenwagens either
And no Kettenkrads used as recon vehicles. =P
(Company of Heroes reference)
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Speaking of historical fiction... Len Deighton, anyone? (Other than his spy novels, that is.)
This thread brings to mind a thing I saw on the History Channel a little while ago. The doco was talking about the US in Europe and spoke at length with first hand interviews with veterans on how amazing the BAR was and how it outclassed the MG42 with it's rate of fire..............I would've liked to see that doco (or at least that part of it), if only for a laugh. =P
Speaking of Ambrose, though... in BoB, when Winters & Co. reach the crest of the embankment and surprise-attack that Waffen-SS company, did the Germans have no MGs, or what? Because it certainly seemed to me that the paratroopers were taking very little return fire. Sure, I reckon there are practical/tactical reasons why the Germans in that instance didn't/couldn't make use of what MGs they had (to say nothing of the tentative counterattack by that "whole other company"); but I'm thinking, rather, that it's actually a case of "SPR-osis": namely, in the final battle scene of SPR, the Germans have several MGs but are never seen to actually fire them, nor (IIRC) do the paratroopers/Rangers ever come under high-volume fire.
Yes, yes, I know my posts heretofore could be reckoned those of a German fanboi; but how do you know my moniker isn't meant to honor 
"Supporting players" in a team opening fire — sure, the target is within rifle range, but why are the MG team's leader, loader and ammo bearers firing as well?
Armour problems
in General Discussion Forum
Posted
Those analogies would correspond if tournament fighting was conducted with blunted weapons and astride ponies. But it wasn't. The participating knights wielded the same weaponry, wore the same armor, and rode the same destriers they did in actual combat; the difference was that in a tourney the aim was to capture a knight on the opposing team rather than kill him. Despite the non-lethal goal, injuries were typical, even for the knights that came out on top, and deaths weren't uncommon.