LUCASWILLEN05

Buy lots of AT guns and minefields. Deploy them on the axis of attack or to channel him into an AT kill zone where you can set up an L or U shaped AT ambush. Whatever way he turns you get flank shots with a better chance of ?Tiger killing particularly at close range.

Ach so. Zey sink zey are ze II SS Panzer Korps Summer 1943 :-) Maybe Hitler Jugund late in the campaign. Maybe not entirely unrealistic. However they will be expensive in points. You could buy lots of ground units and/or air support which could knock out his Tiger. Not a gamey situation at all since that was the kind of thing that actualy happened. Consider for example the variety of claims for who killed Wittmann. If you can immobilize the Tiger it becomes more vulnerable. It will take a lot for the crew to abandon it but, if it is immobilized it is a bit easier tro hit it effectively from the air. You could even buy naval gunfire support. Really heavy naval guns would not do a Tiger much good and kills Panzer Grenadiers as well. Your opponent might not like you for it of course! But then he started it!

Following the opening encirclements in Operation Bagratation the Germans moved Panzer divisions from Army Group South who fought through July and August to close the hole created by the initial disaster. Under the able command of Model they eventually succeeded in achieving that goal. But then the Red Army launched an offensive i the South (August 1944) that knocked Roumania out of the war on the Axis side and, indeed to join the allies. The Germans were never able to entirely stabilize the front again. However, for the Russian Front I think the three month model is too short. Indeed I have the same view on Normandy (which I would like to seee expanded to cover the entire NW European campaign) In the East I would wish to see the game start with coverage of Kursk or preferably 3rd Kharkov to Berlin allowing for many more scenario options.

I have wondered about this myself. Concluding he might be an evil Chinese General or perhaps the next Bond villain? Or perhaps not :-)

the caveat of course is that the game has to be a good simulation. For the commercial market it has to be a good game. I think CMSF is certainly a good game and probably a reasonably good siimulation. No doubt some capabilities that would make it a great simulation, particularly at a professional level are. most likely missing. Having said that well designed scenarior require good and realistic tactics to win, let alne to survive sometimes. With US/NATO forces I try to win with mnimal caaualties. If I do win but take moderatel heavy losses I regard my performance as less than satisfactory even if I achieved a magor or total victory under the scenario victory conditions

Would love to see Eastern Front using this engine but three months is too narrow for my tastes. I would like the first installment oo cover a longer period, say 1943 - 5. And yer, Herr Oberst I think a Mius River campaign battle would be a great game. There is som more good info in From the Caucasus to the Alps: the history of the23rd Panzer Division (Ernst Rebentish covering that division's rle in this particular battles. Some good maps too, Probably from the Library of Congress Maps room source you mentioned

A proper Eastern European houses mod would be nice, particularly for more rural areas.

I think some games like Harpoon and perhaps, yes CMSF could have an Aapplication to training although I am not a military or civillian professional. Thhey are certainly educational for the general public as well as being entertaining wargames.

[i would like to use 82nd Airborne D Day style to drop behind the invasion beaches. By the way if Chah Bahar has decent nearby beaches and more sea room it might be the better option for the initial lodgement but with a view to cappturing an securig Bandar Abbas within the first 1 - 2 weeks and expanding the bridgehead north to link up with the Afgham thrust. This I would want to do with 101st using its airmobile capability and the independent airborne brigades you mention. 10th Mountain might do a thrust out of Afghanistan to link up with the Airmobile/Airborne type. As previously discussed the mechanized forces would be pushing north to link up with the push out of Afghanistan. I would not start the Afghanistan operation until a couple of weeks into the operaation. We would not want a repeat of Market Garden! Once the link up is achieved the 101st can be used to mount airmobile ops to seize key terrain ahead of the mechanized forces. The Airborne and 10th Mountain to be used to help secure terrain in the rear. Perhaps with support from the European corps' lighter elements.Initially this would be a diversionary operation If there are Iranian insurgents work with them as SOE worked with the French Resistance during Julne - August 1944. Pretty much as you suggest. Maybe something similar could be achieved with special forces working out of Turkey as in 2003. Much more politically deniable and could work with any insurgents in that area. Again this would be a diversionary operation aimed at tying Iranian units down Capture of places like Mashad Airport and flyng armour in might be an option but you cannot fly large numbers of tanks in. Might be too risky in the early phases of the operation though. But later on it could be a good option to plan for. A good staging area where mechanized forces can mass for the Tehran phase would need to be secured. A pause might be needed once this area is secure to build up supplies, rest and regroup. We also need to give consideration to planning for the final thrust to and capture of Tehran. Enveloping and beseiging the place might be the best option if the placeis strongly defended., Though the destruction of Iranian regular forces should be an objective of the earlier parts of the campaign. If, as in 2003 the regular forces are destroyed or melt away then a coup de main operation to take th city similar to the 2003 capture of Baghdad may be an option.

You might be able to deploy light units out of Afghanistan as was done from Turkey in 2003. You might be able to do the same from Turkey into Iran. But for military and political reasons Turkey and Iraq could well be out. Light forces fro Afghanistan would soon link up with the Baluchistan forces so, assuming that nothing goes horribly wrong their supply problems would be short lived. In terms of exactly which beach to use this may well depend on the nature of the beach itself. One within the Persian Gulf would be highly risky. An amphibious invasion force would have to pass through thr=e Straits of Hormuz and would be highly vulnerable to Silkworm missiles etc, Easily concealed in the Zagros mountains. Therefore I would be looking for something on the Gulf of Oman coast. This would be more easily supported by carrier air support and the amphibious landing ships would have more sea room to manouvre. I would also want somewhere reasonably close to a magor port or two with a view to their early capture to build up the mechanized forces required for the next stage of the campaign, the breakout from the lodgement area and the capture of Tehran, Linking up with the light forces from Afganistan would be an early part of that.

Somewhere round that area yes. Altough it wold still be neccessary to take Bandar Abbas quickly. I don;t think using Iraq as a jump off point/staging area would really be feasible for political nd military reasons. However, even with the Baluchistan plan you would want to get mechanized divisions in fast to support and expand the lodgement area established by the Marines and airborne troops. There would still be a fair bit of rough terrain in the interior of Iran It might be neccessay to destroy any Iranian forces pulling back into the Zagros range. \A MATO contingent can still be used, perhaps a German/British/Dutch/Canadian corps

Boche your real name is not, by any chance Donald Rumsfeld is it? :-) Woops. Since we don't have French or Spanish in the CMSF lists we will have to ignore them, On Iraq. US troops pulled out at the end of last year and, for various political and military reasons might not want to go back. First , unless you could use Saudi ports it would be dangerous to ship them through Basra. Turkey might not agree to allow US mechanized force through as happened in Operation Iraqi Freedom. And the Zagros Mountains would be a significant obstacle too mechanized forces invading from Iraq. Thi doesn't mean impossible however. Which leads us back to the amphibious invasion obstacle, After the air.naval operations to take out Iranin aipower use the Marines to secure an amphibious lodgement reinforced by some army units. This allows you to outflank the Zagros Mountains rather like the Germans outflanked the Maginot Line in 1940. Terrain inland would be better for mechanized operations and you can link up with your thrust out of Afghanistan. Then, on to Tehran, Blitzkrieg style. However, like Iraq 2003 this plan might have to be something of a "running star2" with some of the mehanized forces landing as reinforcements. Luke

You would need a major port like Bandar Abbas to support a mechanized drive to Tehran. There might be other Iranian ports that could also be used. The reason I suggest the Marines is that the US has now witnhdrawn from Iraq and might not be llowed to use that country as a basing area for an inmvasion. A Northern thrust via Turkey might be possible but politically unfeasible. Basinng a mechanized thrust in Afghanistan is probably a non starter. If Pakistan closed the supply routes your mechanized drive woul grind to a halt very fast. Which leaves a Normandy style invasion as the only real option. You would first have to seize a lodgemen, take a port or two in good repaiir or do a modern day version of the Mulburry harbours. Then you would have to build up for your mechanized breakout to take Tehran. We are looking at a campaign lasting a minimum of 3 months or so assuming all goes well Luke

Thought we'ed been spammed here Wodin and Sergei:-) Perhaps I just have a dirty mind :-0 Luke

Since the Commenwealth expansion should , I hope be out "soon" would it not be sensible to do a follow up as the Siegfried Line Campaign covering Market Garden, the Bulge, the battles over Aachen/Hurtgen Forest and the Voges Mountains. I would anticipate german Volkgrenadiers as being the major new unit added here. If you covered the final battles of January - May 1945 Volksurm as well. Some new Allied tanks like the Pershing wou,ld be needed for the final phases and robably some additional German tanks like the Tiger II or, for those with a snsee of humour the Maus. Lke

I would love to see a Russian Front CM but for this a three month time window as with Shockforce and Normmandy is too short for my tastes. If you have to split it up whsat about 3rd Kharkov to Berlin January 1943 to May 1945 and Barbarossa to Stalingrad June 1941 to December 1942 instead. You can probably use the same basic program as for Normandy and you will probably be using suitably ammended versions of the German graphics for the later period and obviouslty new Russian Front terrain graphics. Luke

Thought the Iranians had fielded the Zulfiqar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulfiqar_(tank) in small nummbers, perhaps about a hundred or so. I would suspect a major role for a major Marine amphibious assault perhaps on the GGulf of Oman coast, less likely along the Persian Gulf coast until later in the campaign. I suspect the Zagros mountains could be a serious obstacle alhough it might be possible to outflank them if you coul seize the port of Bandar Abbas. Think Maginot Line/ I suspect any conflict would be fought by air and sea but wargaming a land invasion is interesting. Luke

Depends on how badly the vehicle is damaged. If immobalized the tank may have sustained track or engine damage. Maybe a few hours repair work to fix. If knocked out but not burning I would regard this as more serious damage reguiring a day or two of work to make it fit for action again. In the event that the tank is burning I would regard this as a write off. You would also need to consider the time taken to recover the vehicle and get it back to the divisional workshops (probably a knocked out non burning tank would require this sort of work while an immobilized vehicle could well be repaired in situ) Finally, any vehicle knocked out and is behind enemy lines at the end of a battle or if you loast the battle sufferin a masjor defeat should be counted as lost and therefore ineligble for repair whatever level of damage it has. For your 20 hour operation I would regard any knocked out vehicle as lost. I probably would not bother with replacemnts in an operation as short as this but you could allow a very small number if you wish. Most likely however replacement tanks woul join their unit at night while in leaguer for resupply, refueling ec. Immobilized tanks you could leave out of action for, say the next 3 or 4 hours allowing for the minor repairs they might need and time required to get them back to their parent unit or perhaps formed into a new unit. Luke

Real world reports this morning indicatesd that rival Syrain army units have clashed in Daraa. Could be the start of a civil war along Libyan lines. Luke

Look forward to the road opening and takeover scenarios. Sounds like they could be fun Speaking of mechanical failures one of the scenarios I am working on is based around a couple of broken down M1A1s Some engineers escorted by a Bradley company are sent to secure the area prior to recovering the tanks, Just as they start deploying they are surpised by insurgents and a Syrian recon platoon. Other Syrian mechanized units and some tanks are in the vicinity move up while the US calls for air and artillery support. Anyway, going back to the counter attack scenario, yes, expanding the map could certainly be an option depending on how many reinforcements are deployed. You might get away with a couple of German/Canadian tank platoons and an infantry platoon or so but anything larger you would definately want a 4000 x 4000m map. Either way I would definately have the reinforments arriving at least a couple of hours into the battle. Luke

Just finished playingthis one. I always enjoy playing tank battles like this one. It might be that a "Turbocharged" version could be done including more NATO forces (perhaps Germans, Canadians or even a combination of both rushing up to reinforce the US, say a couple of hours into the battle along with some more air support) for a massive armoured engagement. Luke

Recon groups are often in fast but highly vulnerable vehicles. While their speed protects them to a certain extent I prefer to dismount the recon teams behind cover, preferably a hill, then carefully move them into positions where they can have a good look around. Armoured Cavalry and similar types are somewhat better protected in Bradleys, Scimitars etc but these vehicles don#t have great armour either. It might be a good idea to at least consider a pre attack bombardment and air strikes against possible enemy positions in scenarios where this support is available but don't overdo this as you might want some support later. Luke

True and sometimes you just have to take an educated guess - or try to do your recon better next time! It is a good idea to try to supress enemy before dismounting infantry and using some to continue suppressive fire while the assault goes in. Cowering enemy soldiers won't be doing much shooting, IFVs can help here but dismounting on an enemy position is very risky. Best to take a little time to dismount in cover or behind a smoke screenbefore commencing an attack. Luke

A tactic the Germans used late in WW2 whwn AT weapons became a really major threat was to send the infantry ahead of the tanks to spot enemy AT guns and take them on. To counter the threat of ATGMS like the Kornet a similar approach might be needed as part of a combined arms approach to the problem. Other suggestions such as the shoot and scoot tactic can also work as part of the above but I don't think there is a single, simple solution to this one. However, one other tactic you can try is blinding the enemy with smoke. Try to figure out where the enemy positions might be and call in smoke. If the enemy does not have TI he will find it very hard to spot you Infrared smoke will blind TI as well. I have seen the Syrians use it frequently but NATO never seems to in my experience. Luke

T90s and Kornet ATGMs are top of the range for the Syrians and are therefore the most dangerous capabilities you will face during the game. There are a number of factors to consder here/ You need to be careful when moving your tanks into hull down positions. I would suggest either using the Hunt command which will stop your tanks when they spot an enemy unit. You could do a Fast move up onto the ridegeline and reverse back down into a hull down position or you could give a slow command to get your tanks to move carefully into position. None of these are easy. Popping smoke or firing an artillery smoke screen when moving into a hull down position might be worth considering. You might also consider tactical solutions such as moving infantry equipped with ATGMs up first to cover your tanks/knock out enemy armour. You might also use artillery and airpower against suspected enemy positions All easier said than done. Luke