BletchleyGeek

Okay, I had no idea he had real AFV in his OOB... I just hope they're not heavies otherwise it is going to get more grim BTW I must say that the representation in a comic book form works very well when it comes to understand the flow of the action - timing is clear from the order in which vignettes are presented. Besides the doctoring of colours etc. Here's as well a LOT of editing work... How long does it take you to do an average panel?

Looks like your forward force has been annihilated without making much of an impression on the Germans... What's the plan now? Waiting for him to advance and pounce those halftracks with your armor?

My bad - indeed, that was the V Corps area!

What a beautiful AAR, Bud - and good luck with the ambush!

The AA4 variant may be the slowest but it is also the most covered one, ideal to infiltrate and fall on your outposts from close range (and his infantry may be found lacking in a lot of departments, but sure doesn't lack short-range firepower). But I can't really argue against a big push on KT1/KT2 being the most logical immediate objective for Baneman, and indeed AA1 looks like the "optimal" route for that.

Just checked the OOB in Robert Caddick-Addam's "Snow & Steel: Battle of the Bulge 1944-45", and in effect, of the three TD battalions attached to Middleton's Corps, the 630th and 802nd were equipped with towed ATGs, and the 803rd is listed as equipped with M-10s.

Talking from memory, there were at least two towed tank destroyer battalions attached to VIII US Corps at the start of the offensive, one of them committed to Rocherath-Krinkelt. They were never very popular, the US take on turreted TDs looks quite good on paper and in Cm scenarios, though.

So those ridges are there after all... Ben has done an astounding work recreating the lay of the land in this part of the Ardennes. Any idea what are you going to do with this excellent terrain? I guess that deploying a couple batteries of 76mm ATG is too static for your liking (and too risky, if Baneman has so much artillery support as you suspect).

Probably the elevations I was talking about fall out of the map boundaries. Looking forward to the maps!

Just spent a while "walking" through the battlefield on Google Earth. I can see that there are two ridges on either side of Recogne, which have pretty good overwatch on Cobru and the road into Recogne (the left flank ridge significantly higher than the ridge on the right). Echoing Kohl, what is the visibility like? You don't really want to engage (o be engaged) by German armour over 1,000 meters, you're going lose pretty much every match up. With the very limited (and probably not exact with respect to the actual CM map) feeling I am getting from Google Earth is that your plan of playing an aggressive defense doesn't seem to me to be supported by terrain (and here my interpretation of "aggressive defense" is "spoiling attack"). If Baneman gets some serious AT firepower into Cobru fast, you aren't going to have an easy time approaching undetected and unharmed. But if you catch him while he's developing his attack on the town... that's another story.

I had to ask It is Christmasy, reminds me how much I look forward to Xmas break. Keep these beautiful comics going, Bud.

Beautiful effort, Bud :-) One question. On the last vignette above I see some windows lit up... does this mean that light sources have been made into the engine?

Subscribed!

And the part I highlighted is the bit which was "new" in 1944... The Red Army had had many run ins with excellent German defensive positions (in front of Rzhev during the ill-fated Operation Mars, or in front of Vitebsk in December 1943), taking between 48 and 72 hours to break through... only to be hemmed in and German infantry hold outs relieved by mobile German reserves. In June 1944 there weren't enough of such reserves in the sector the Red Army chose to do their main effort. Regarding Jason... Sometimes I have been on the receiving end of his "tough love" on some occasions, less often I have found myself agreeing with him. The difference with him is that he goes a bit unreal when people stand his ground as Sgt. Joch has done in this thread. I didn't know he had "real life issues", and I hope that those get resolved. He is a man with a theme, which has to do with his fixation with the "average case". Fizou may want to comment on the following "average" I got from this site https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/10-things-to-know-about-swedish-food/ if we extrapolate Jason's reaction to the above, according to him Swedes consider eating anything sweet on any day other than Saturday to be completely and outrageously treifFamilies with one or more than two children should be reported to the social services, the parents must definitely be completely abusiveIf you eat less than 1.2 kilos of sweets on any given Saturday you're causing unduly damage to Swedish confectionery industryIf you eat more than that, you're a disgusting glutton and you should spend a couple years working in a logging camp in northern Sweden, living off the landIf there was some humour (as there is above) in Jason's take on certain things, well, he would be one of my favorite posters ever. The problem is that there isn't any humour in his posts, or it is so subtle that only Boltzmann Brains, after pondering over them for an infinite amount of time, will conclude Jason was the funniest human ever alive...

Some unusual and sensible suggestions there.

Muchael driving a Google Streetview car was truly hilarious that I agree with.

Did you like Season 4? For me was a lot of misses and not many hits.

I find Covered Arcs to be all but indispensable to ensure fire control of units providing supporting fires or when in the defense (basically because the infantry orients itself in the correct direction always and they "hug" the terrain). Using covered arcs when "moving to contact" is a mistake more often than not. For tanks and ATGs are also very useful, very much as Bil suggests. I find that to be quite frustrating sometimes, too.

That was a hard question, I found this on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/whatstheword/comments/2ldswj/wtw_for_the_opposite_of_nostalgia/ Longing for the future we are, indeed

I don't find the "blog style" confusing or intimidating. Writing substantive feedback and not reading like an asshole isn't easy, it takes time. And there plenty of hoarders out there in the Internet who never do actually interact with the stuff they download. ... Besides that, people get really timid on the Internet unless feedback becomes "safe" as in: 1) nobody contests my statements, therefore everybody can feel like a genius or 2) giving constructive feedback is hard, basically because being considerate and thinking about what you write on the Internet matters isn't precisely something we're used to. Rocketman, Bootie's design principle lies on not having an "I like " kind of button. So you can't get one star ratings without comments. So unless someone comes along and sh*ts on your designs, the more downloads the more endorsements!

I have started my n-th read of A Time for Trumpets. And last night I started a "Losheim Gap" game in Command Ops 2. It helps...

Being in this business of making computer wargames they must be quite frugal I reckon. That lottery win doesn't need to be huge

No news = Good news?

Thanks for the update, looking forward to see how your rendition of Bulge looks like.