mjkerner

Gentle people; It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that although I requested my erstwhile opponent, Chappy, to surrender to me unconditionally in order to stop this senseless shedding of blood, he demurred, even after I proposed that his officers could retain their small arms as a gesture of my respect. Alas, being the humanitarian that I am, I felt duty bound to take the high road and offer to surrender to him, again, in an effort to save the lives of not only our young warriors, but of England's, too. Terms are being discussed. I do not think he will agree to turn his numerous Shermans into plowshares, but we will see. Yours respectfully, Leutnant Stephan Burke. P.S. Guyver lives. Heinrich was vaporized in a pink mist. P.S.S. Some pictures and analysis tomorrow. Well, in short, green troops can do little more than cower once the firing starts, even armed with a panzerfaust as a Sherman rumbles by not 20 meters away. (Happened twice, with 2 different teams!) You get the idea. Bad initial placement, too...should have had all the pf troops lined up along the roadway, spaced several actions squares apart. I think chances to take down a sherman would have increased a bit.

There seem to be a number of anomalies in CMFI/GL regarding uniform bmps and mdrs. Brit para uniforms have para, para-soldier and para tropical bmps that are all the same, and can't figure out when the last 2 would be/are used. There's a German mdr set (can't remember what, atm) that doesn't have any uniform bmps apparently associated with them. Maybe for future mods, or like your appendix, just a vestige of some early alpha-phase use. Btw Phil, the Italians only have one set of soldier mdrs...any idea how the game assigns different uniforms like Bersa, Blackshirts, etc., to that one set so that you can have different types fighting alongside each other? That has implications for using the Folgore I'm working on (the ones without the jump smock--using brit paras atm for the smock ones) in the Malta mod.

The first person that came to mind when you asked if anyone knew where the jerkin was,was Benpark, Phil. I just couldn't find the documentation, and didn't want to suggest it was him if someone else did it. Benpark, it must be yours 'cause I have (or had at one time) every uniform mod anyone has ever posted on CMMODS, the Rep, or through links posted in these forums, and that's the only jerkin I've ever seen.

It's part of a British/Canadian uniform mods, but I forgot whose. I have it, so I'll put the .bmp in the CMPzC Eindhoven dropbox folder. Edit: Found 'em, Phil. There are 2 bmps with normal maps as well. They were in a folder titled "Rifle Brigade CMBN 2.00". I don't have the read me or anything, so I don't know who did them. In DB now.

Lol, he ain't goin' no where no mo'.

Sh-i-t, you're that far along?

P.S. Chappy just confirmed that Niedermeyer ("that damn little soldier of yours" as he put it, all in jest of course) immobilized that Sherman.

MOVIETIME! Too much action to cover in pictures, so I made quick and dirty (not that kind, although kohlenklau would prefer those!) movies to cover it all. (These are simple Windows MovieMaker movies...I went ahead and popped for Sony Movie Studio, but Coppola quality will take a few days. ) The actions speak for themselves...and it's all Bad Language! Minute 24 --Men Against Tanks The Right Flank Position: Heinrich's contribution to the right flank fighting: Let's see how ol' Crazy Hans is doing, shall we? Then there is the veritable barrage of 75mm guns against the center trenchworks: I think in a way, this is the worst since, as it turns out, I didn't need to move the Scout Team (3 MP40's) to the building I sent them too to get a better LOS to the enemy coming from the center bridge; enemy which neither they nor any one else could see (except for a couple of sound contact icons) in the Orders phase. C'est la guerre! Here, by the way, are the Scout Team killers. Ironic that they appear to be hit by friendly tank fire!

Not yet, Phil. Too sick and then work, plus catch up on my AAR this morning. Boy, you're a slavemaster! Glad I'm getting a massive salary for this! I haven't even started on the Folgore. This weekend I'll finally get to it.

Good news. And you're going to let me test it, right? ;-)

Bulge will be a new game family. Look what they added for Italy, then what they added for RT. Each of those game families had additions that were necessary to create the flavor of those theaters. I can't for the life of me believe they won't do the same for the Bulge. Gotta love pointless speculation, mine included. It does kill time, but that's about it.

Who's telling this story? With the hand I've been dealt, and considering what he was facing, that's a helluva deal! Not certain it's immobilized, though. No one jumped out, and it didn't do anything for the rest of the turn. Still, they could just be temporarily shook up? The thing is, Crazy's stats didn't show that he had any grenades. I know that the status info on grenades is somewhat wonky, so I wonder if he has any more?

Minute 25 (cont.) At the crossroad trench, things go from bad to worse: 1st Zug HQ takes a hit, panics, and bugs out: 1st Squad, A Team, the only "regular" infantry unit with a 'faust, tries to get away from the mortar fire but are hit squarely while upright in the trench: Scratch one panzerfaust! By the end of the turn, the HMG and 81mm have recovered from "Shaken", and can now (hopefully) fight back next turn. Now, what to do about Niedermeyer....

Minute 25 (cont.) The British infantry tried again to push onto the road near the crossroads area. Slebner with his LMG, the AA guns, and the 2nd Zug in town opened up with all they had. More Brits are hit! The Fliegerern view: As always, there is a price to pay. A Sherman (I assume) lets a round loose: Slebner buys the farm!

I just un-privated it. I think I need to go back and remove the ability for Youtube to display ads while I think of it. Edit: any luck, Heinrich?

Ahh, me neither! I think I must have put it on a private setting or something? Let me check. If anybody else is out there, are you having the same problem?

Minute 25 Lots and lots of action this turn! I'll start with Crazy Han's situation, but I won't be able to get to the rest of this minute's Sit-Rep until later. I figured you'd want to see this one "live"....

Minute 26 Here is the general Sit-Rep at minute 26. Two platoons of Shermans, plus bren carriers and infantry, coming from the right. Obviously, Chappy will grab the road exit, and swing left (his right) to hit the road full-on broadside. At least I hope so, since that is now the only real hope I have to nail or immobilize a Sherman or two. I will keep 1st Zug spread out a couple of action squares away from the road in the tall grass, while the AA guns and infantry in the village and trenchworks rake the road when his infantry tries to actually take possession of the road sections, then hope a tank gets close enough to loose a 'faust at it. Besides a general shellacking from tanks, machine guns, automatic weapons and mortars along the road, this minute of action wasn't as bad as it could have been, I guess: The HMG at the road exit made it into the 81mm trench, but the assistant gunner went down. And Niedermeyer's situation went from bad to worse. He's soaked in sweat now....

Minute 27 (or "From Bad to Worse") Thinking that since the remnants of the AA crew and ammo team already started heading on their own towards the Exit hexes, I would have them lay doggo for a minute to get a sense of where the enemy was, then try to hustle them off the map. But to their complete surprise, British infantry pop up right on top of them! One makes a break back toward the gun position... ...but is gunned down. Those not hit, surrender. Although a calculated risk, the HMG team wisely broke from cover and headed over the road toward the 81mm position, and made it safely, despite all the lead flying all around. As the enemy continues to fire up and down the road positions, Neidermeyer is still in a sweat....

Minute 29 (cont.) As for the stalwart heroes of the earlier skirmish at the bridge most are still safe in the village or the nearby trenchworks... Guyver: Slebner, who seems to have swapped his heavy machine gun for a lighter version. (He moves into the trenches next turn): Leutnant Burke: Heinrich's situation is a bit more precarious, along the road between the crossroad trench and the 81mm position: And then there is poor Crazy Hans. Despite his general psychosis, he still can sweat bad situation...

Minute 29 (cont.) Luckily, the nearby HMG team was neither targeted nor affected by the chaos next to them. Minute 28 As the panicked remnants of the AA crew and ammo team take off on their own in the general direction, and relative safety, of Valkernswaard, British small arms fire and a Sherman's bow machine dogs their steps... Meanwhile, the 81mm crew finally gets their nerve up--for a few seconds, anyway--and lobs 3 rounds on target. No casualties are seen, but at least one bren team is keeping its head down. Elsewhere along the road "line", tanks, machine guns, small arms and mortars sweep the unfortunate Fliegerern. Casualties mount.

Well Heinrich, perhaps I should have warned the Flak boys after all.... Minute 29 The turn after the first tanks were spotted, the flak crew on the right flank near the road exit lifted their heads and saw "something" straight ahead...they could hear an engine, but the gunner couldn't get a bead on whatever it was. Feuer, feuer, for Gott's sake, feuer!!, shouted one of the crew. At what?, the gunner yelled back Just then, something exploded on the other side of the trench. A tank round? A mortar? A piat? Heavy automatic fire followed, causing part of the gun crew to jump into the trench, leaving the gunner and loader at the gun, with one of the ammo crew nearby. [Has anyone ever seen that happen in CM games? Maybe because part of the trench was actually in the same Action Square as the gun--although I don't think it was...will have to check that????] Before the gunner could get a shot off at whatever was firing at them... there was a loud CRACK!, and half the crew were dead or wounded, the gun just a piece of twisted metal.

Chappy, I for one can say that the just the sight of your Shermans in the battle we are fighting without a doubt has my troops shaking in their boots, and they're 300 yards away!

Battery CO? I'll double check an earlier file. ohh, that's Slebner. The other HMG is in town, so he should be safe. I was going to put up the very last turn...Chappy won't see it until he plays the file I sent him after he went on vacation. My doc said the new medicine I started last week (nothing major) might cause my to get pretty sick for a few days. Looks like it took hold this evening. Feel like crap...hopefully better in the morning so I can bring you all up to date.

...that said, I like kohlenklau's ideas, he is always thinking, and for the good of the game with an understanding of its limits.