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herr_oberst

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Posts posted by herr_oberst

  1. ... If you have a question, post it. I've tried to focus on the big picture at this point. I try to give specific labels to specific locations so that we're all on the same page. Big overhead shots give a nice sense of location and spatial awareness. The closeups are cool when the fight starts. However, there is a lot going on, even now. I'm actually splitting my sections down and giving each team different movement orders, with varied delays, etc., etc. Ask, and if I can, I'll post about it or take a different screenie.

    Ken

    Enough of the big picture yammering. We want to know the details.

    Back on post #60 you said:

    "Sigh. I'll correct her later, when the time is right."

    We can only hope that those corrections involve a good spanking.

    Then you said (ever so slightly edited for brevity):

    "I try to give ... Big overhead shots ... and ... closeups. I'm actually ... giving ... varied delays..."

    We await you upcoming image postings. :D

  2. The models are awesome for sure. Tip of the hat to the modelers and texture artists, beautiful stuff.

    I neglected to mention that I am using movie mode again for this AAR.

    Bil

    I think the Wirbelwind was one of my favorite Tamiya models ever way, way back in the day when I built those things.

    Gonna be a lot of fun to get it in MG, even if just to grab some screenies as a desktop wallpaper.

  3. 52 for a little while longer.

    Like many others, started with Panzer Blitz, Panzer Leader, France 1940 (cripes, I think I owned about 15 of those Bookshelf games as a teen). Then found Squad Leader in college; Cross of Iron, Crescendo, then Anvil (those I still have). Big multi-national 'capture the flag' battles on 15 or 20 boards, town in the middle, random boards to fill it out, and 2500 points to buy units. Yes, good times. Early PC games, then heard about a "Squad Leader on the PC game"... and the famous Alpha AAR.

    Since then, CM series have been my only purchases (other than a spell where I ran a home Everquest server for the kids to play on). Now they've moved on, and I've moved to a Mac, and rebought the CMBN, CW, FI, and GL games.

    Rock on Battlefront, we're here for the long haul. On my second incarnation of the Herr Oberst login (with much better backup procedures in place nowadays).

  4. Am trying to find the location of II SS Panzer Corps as of dawn July 11, 1943 at Kursk. I have no reference books here with me and have read neither Nipe nor Zamulin on matters pertinent to my question. Any help from you grogs would be most appreciated. Anything along the lines of "continuing the attack in sector from X to Y on the Z axis" would be particularly valuable, as would knowing which Army, Rifle Division and Rifle Regiments were in the path of the continued offensive as well as which might've been smashed through or partially penetrated the day before. In the miracle category would be the location of the DAG for the RD in the path of the morning attack for July 11.

    Regards,

    John Kettler

    Let me see what I can assemble this weekend. I have Nipe's "Decision in the Ukraine", and can try cross-referencing my Das Reich IV and Leibstandarte III volumes for that time period. Have no specific volumes on Totenkopf or the 167th ID.

    It's late, so you'll have to help me with the meaning of "the DAG for the RD".

  5. No interest in the modern stuff, but I've bought (and will continue to buy) any/every thing WWII-related since the Alpha AAR with IIRC Fionn and someone. Gaming time is at a premium,, but that Alpha AAR was the hook. Essentially Squad Leader on the PC, which was akin to my Holy Grail (barring Vorpal Bunnies) for gaming.

    CMBO, CMAK, CMBB, CMBN, CMCW, CMFI, CMGL, etc. Heck, I evan have dual copies of CMBN and CMCW 'cause I switched from PC to Mac during that period, and couldn't be without.

    Really looking forward to revisiting the Eastern Front in CMx2.

  6. Orders:

    Wooohooo!

    5 M4A1's have arrived! I put them straight into action, hunting forward and concentrating on BDs northern STuGs position. Even if I lose one then I will consider it a good trade, maybe even two!

    Go boys!

    If you're going hunting Stugs, you'll want more spread between vehicles. As it is, at a decent range you look like you're all lined up within gun traverse. Force the Stug to do at least some hull traverse to engage more than one of your tanks or it could get ugly real fast..

  7. Great AAR!

    There is by the way a graphic bug with the Jagdpanzer IV. Put it on a steep elevation and try to aim it's gun up or down. The gun and it's mantlet will detach itself from the tank and elevate many meters into the air since it is pivoting on a wrong axle.

    Not solely a graphics bug, but an artifact of missing main gun "elevation/depression" limits for AFVs. Long a sore spot for those fighting armor in towns, with armor able to pick off infantry where the AFV shouldn't be able to get elevation to hit, or depressing a gun below the "hard deck" of the AFV itself.

    Something we live with, and there are many historical threads discussing the issue.

  8. Reverse slopes seem to work just fine. I had a scout platoon pretty well minced by a platoon in foxholes on the reverse slope in a campaign scenario. But that was a well designed scenario -- reverse slope defense, foxholes spread amid some trees -- a real bugger to clear until I could get around behind them and setup a crossfire.

  9. Turn 12

    All I've done is lose several men and give Penry a small victory that will improve his morale.

    All the better to CRUSH his morale with your coming turns.

    I'd be tempted to be content with denying movement to the degree that you can while you wait for reinforcements to arrive.

    My only advice, having just finished reading "The Day of Battle" by Rick Atkinson (a good read of the Sicily, Italy campaign, which sometimes leaves you wondering how the Allies actually won, but execution of actual warfare is filled with difficult choices (thank goodness it's only pixeltruppen that I lead to their massacre)), is not to commit those reinforcements piecemeal. If terrain denial is working, accumulate what you can so it hits hard, rather than in drips and drabs.

  10. A merry start to GL I thought. Play around with some new big clankety things, and chew up some Amis.

    And after hearing various debates about the effectiveness of Allied CAS in CM, I figured I just needed to keep my Brummbars moving to be relatively safe.

    Ahem... "CAS TOO POWERFUL!!! BFC: please fix or do sumfink!"

    The short of it, CAS plastered the command tank on turn 2 (is that a 500 lb'er it is carrying?), then proceeded to spread the guts of most of one platoon across the dusty ground over the next two or three turns.

    Gods, what a great game. To paraphrase an old BFC forums quote (was it from 1993 or somewhere's 'round then?):

    "I love CMxx games, all the frustration of golf without the exercise."

  11. It's perhaps making the best of a not-ideal situation :)

    GaJ

    For Pete's sake, give yourself some credit, man!

    I'm not sure I'd have opted for the "shoot and scoot" (or "shoot and push/pull/curse") as a way to salvage that gun. He who fights and runs away and all that.

    If Bill had that spot targeted because he thought he saw or saw a gun there, but then there isn't one, he's gotta start wondering. And that has some value.

    Not saying I'd plan a defense with that mode of repositioning in mind, but as an adhoc action, well played.

  12. No way are you putting a link in your sig to a thread about your sig. Ha you think we are total suckers?

    I would vote for "equal representation"... list all those comments where it was stated that "Emrys, you are a complete dolt, and couldn't be more wrong"

    then we'll see how long your sig is... ;)

    In the interests of full disclosure, yes, I used to wade in the Cesspool, until I decided that it wasn't worth the dirty cuffs on my trousers.

  13. John you should play more.. you are very insightful.

    There is a solution to how I am using the Elefant and that is to stay mobile, keep moving to where the Elefant is not, ambush it if possible... frankly don't allow it to engage the high value targets easily. Smoke, flank, attack.. of course that requires a much more mobile defense than GaJ has obviously fielded.

    I would think that a version of the "Find 'em, fix 'en, fry 'em" scheme is the only way to approach such an opposing element.

    Of course, Bill has done a wonderful job of making that difficult. When an asset is protected as it is, it simply compounds the problem for the Allied player. But you certainly cannot afford to let the Axis player have his way with that unit; the costs are too dear.

    An Elephant is not a "fast" unit, and the lack of a turret is an attribute that has to be pressed in order to exploit that vulnerability -- first by stripping its supporting cover. From the Allied point of view, how much can you afford to concentrate on that one unit in an attempt to kill, versus making sure that you don't show a weakness elsewhere, or provide a "target of opportunity" to that unit.

    The idea of a "pawn sacrifice" comes to mind, but that is relying more on the limitations of the game engine, and the one minute window for orders rather than beating your opponent's tactical skills.

    If you have a notion of where that unit is, I would think that you would maneuver to minimize its usefulness; while keeping an eye on the chance to attack. If the Elephant never gets another kill, then the cost-benefit ratio *might* work in GaJ's favor, provided he counters Bill's maneuvers, but he'll have to be awfully judicious in exposing other any units to its firepower.

    Playing against such a unit when you don't have something that can stand toe-to-toe is akin to playing a game of chess -- how do you minimize the force exerted by a piece -- denial of terrain. Essentially a game of "cat and mouse", but keeping eyes on that unit allows you the chance to minimize its potential usefulness. But even that comes at some cost, and Bill seems determined to make the opponent pay that cost through careful planning. A testament to both players.

    That being said, thank you both for giving us all such a wonderful set of DAR's to slobber over while we wait for BFC to actually release the GL module to us "commoners".

  14. The Twenty-Seventh Minute

    I placed my Elefant and a Brummbar in good hull down positions on a ridge in front of the Pz-IV platoon and behind 1st platoon... it did not take long for the Elefant to get a spot and open fire...

    8729574825_ca66214826_b.jpg

    First round.. first hit.. penetration...

    Kill.

    8730694714_795e30f582_b.jpg

    GaJ will not be happy with that result I'm guessing. The M10 never even spotted my Elefant.

    Nice shooting, but where's the gaping hole on the back side of the turret? :)

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