TrailApe

Funny, I've got CM:BO, CM:BB, CM:AK and CM:SF with the Brits module and I've never felt the need to play multiplayer online. I think (looking at the CM:BN demo) that everything is just peachy. But what do I know.......

I hope you don’t think I’m being insulting here – but you do realise that the Indirect Fire assets go through the adjusting process as happens in real life? So you point to the ground and say – ‘Arty here please’ and what happens is the FOO/FIST/OP pixels look at where you have pointed – come back to you and point out the target by referring back to it from a different reference point, one they are happy you are both talking about the same target, they look at the pixel map (I’ve got a very good PC and a monitor with a VERY high definition and I can assure you they have maps) and scratch their heads, play with compasses, binoculars and animal intestines while they try to make sense of the map and get a decent grid reference for the target. So they send their Fire Orders to the CP and down comes the first adjusting round - well off your designated target – and the Arty lads get on with their job of adjusting the fire onto the target. Drop 800, Left 500, etc etc until the adjusting gun gets near enough to the target for Fire For Effect, which is what you are really waiting for. So you may find that the adjustment drops a few rounds into places you don’t want it to, but that’s what you get if you are calling arty down on bad guys who are near your troops. Currently, using 105mm in the real world, a ‘Danger Close’ mission is where your troops are 500m from the target , and I think it was 700m for 155mm. Whilst playing CM:SF and calling down arty, you had to realise that you could get 90lb’s of HE on your own troops if they were close to the target – and often that’s when you really needed the Arty, you had screwed up, your pixel squaddies were getting slaughtered and you wanted the Arty to make the problem just go away, and often they did, but once in a while they just made it worse. And if you already knew this – apologies. Could it be the bad guys artillery coming down?

Winkelreid see the thread on http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=96335 That bats the same question around a bit.

Accidental Warrior by Geoffrey Picot http://www.amazon.co.uk/Accidental-Warrior-Front-Normandy-Victory/dp/0140176268 Joins up early in the war, but becuase of his poor eyesight, gets put into second line duties (Paycorp I think) But as the war progresses and the demand for warm bodies increases, he gets upgraded and after a spell in the AA artillery is send to an Infantry battalion and he's part of the initial assualt. Well written and as he's a very mild mannered bloke just goes to show how the Green Machine (Khaki back then) can make effective soldiers out of mild mannered bespectacled Clark Kent types. (Although I think they have to do more than just make you wear your underpants on the outside to become SooperDudes)

Signing for kit is something that never appears in the Films and something that people not involved with the Services would probably find ludicrous. I think that LeakyD has covered it succinctly From my experiences and what I’ve heard, as long as you have a good proportion of the bits – whether it’s a Bradley, Challenger or bog standard shovel and it was damaged by actions that you had no control over (enemy ATGM, roadside bomb or forces of nature etc) you probably are in the clear. So when a Blackhawk pulled the plug on my Light Gun 400 feet up over a German field and gravity had it’s wicked way, I didn’t have to pay for the gun – although I signed for it. I did have to write a report, however as the rigging of the gun for heli-lifting had been checked by a posse of people, British, German and American, I really had no case to answer. The only thing that really was strange was that although all of the gun stores (picks, axes shovels and other tools) that had been strapped to the gun were recovered by the hook up teams, the aiming posts (those red and white stripey poles – bit like stadia rods) had been put down the barrel, and the hook up teams forgot that, so at ENDEX when everybody else was chilling out and drinking Pils I had to drive all over North Germany trying to find out where they had put the wreck of my gun and rescue those two aiming posts – which probably cost less than the fuel I used to find them and certainly would have cost less than the beer I was hoping to swill.. Getting back to the re-manning of Guns, must admit, if we had left the guns and then returned a bit later, whilst in theory we could have got the gun into action in a minute or so, we would probably be all over the gun platform looking at the ammunition, gun itself and immediate area just to ensure there were no booby traps or anything else that effect the safety of the crew, so it wouldn’t be a quick job getting the gun firing

Way back in the days when I played with guns, there were different stages of disablement, mainly triggered by the tactical situation and the notice given. Obviously if you were expecting to be back in a few hours, you want to leave it in a situation where it cannot be used against you, but can be quickly brought back into action on your return. Drawing from an increasingly erratic memory, I think we had to take the sights (both the dial sight and the telescopic sight – indirect/direct fire respectively), the gunners quadrant (a bit of kit that in a push, combined with the iron sights on the gun, could be used to give a direct fire capability) and a few other bits and pieces with us as we legged it away from the threat. All of these bits and bobs could be taken off and put back on the gun in less than a minute and passed amongst the crew for ease of carrying. However if you wanted to ensure the gun was not used again, one shell and cartridge in the breech as per usual, one shell bunged into the barrel from the other end and then a loooooonnnggg bit of cord/cable/string attached to the firing lever. Either methods would take less than a minute to put into effect. Although the only circumstance I could think of taking these actions would be total surprise “Hey Fred, look at that tank driving through the gun position, totally ignoring the track plan – oh aren’t THEY going to catch a bollicking off the BSM. What sort of tank is it? never seen one of those before” Or the gun truck/tractor/primary mover is destroyed and there is no means of pulling the gun it off the position.

While that example might have been a ‘hollywood’ moment, I can easily imagine it happening for real, especially if the Tanks are from a posh cavalry regiment and the Rupert in the turret has hardly time for his own lads, never mind some bally footslogger – a colonial to boot! However Clanky/Grunt co-operation did occur, although I’m not sure whether it was embedded in doctrine (rule 3 – Thou shalt talk unto the Infantry before passing the Start Line) or whether it depended on the good sense of both sides. Here’s an example of where it did work, from John Foley’s book Mailed Fist. He describes the reduction of Le Havre So definite co-operation there, from the context the quote came from, it was not an organised pre-ordained fact, but something made up on the spot. Typical British reaction to current events - or just the usual muddling through:p

I'm no expert on this, but I reckon the 6 USMC divisions in existence at the time were fully committed to their Island Hopping in the Pacific. D-Day was just one, single amphibious assault (a hell of a big one to be sure) so mebbes it was not seen as a cost effective exercise to disrupt the Pacific campaign by dragging an appreciable lump of the USMC halfway across the world just to take part in one landing. I'll not touch on the politics betwixt Marines/Army, don't know enough about it but I can make a few guesses.....

Are you sure about that Herr Oberst? I know the PIAT had quite a few negatives associated with it, but I don't think the bomb slid out if you pointed it downwards................

Womble, I don't think you have - the scenario is a bit of a bugger and takes careful handling/timing. I think it was on my 26th attempt that I got the right balance between when to skulk and when to charge. I think, whilst the US light infantry have a bit more organic firepower - each platoon has a gun section with two gun groups in it - they would still have a problem with that scenario. Lets face it, there's good killing zones available to the Red forces and you have to get across a lot of open ground covered by AT weapons. The way I did it was to smoke off the left and right of the Police station and then pour everything over before the smoke cleared. The Engineers and their 'blast' command are invaluable and I then started on unlocking the defences one by one. Don't be too ambitious too soon and pay attention to the bad hats over on the right, past that well. I would question the ammo load out on the Scimitars, not enough HE, especially in the context of the enemy forces. I've got the BritForce module and whilst I'm looking forward to Normandy coming out, I'm more than happy with this game.

Fetchez la Vache, it shouldn't really suprise us when you consider how tired, angry and frightned these lads must have been. Here's another snippet from Mr Elliss' book (just to prove I've not got it in for our excellent friends from the North Of North America)

It’s an interesting point about what is elite or what is not elite. It seems to me that the perceived ‘elite’ units are those that slightly stand out from the masses. Of course training and selection counts for a lot and it’s easy to agree that most of the airborne units of all participants were a bit special as they had extra training and were selected on their ability to pass the various courses they were put on. But what about the units that were seen – and still are in retrospect – as elite, although they were run of the mill units with no extra training than anyone else, how do they get this elite label? There was a thread a couple of weeks back in which somebody listed their ‘Commonwealth Module’ elites and it went something like Canadians, Scots and Poles (and let’s not go down the what should BF call the next module debate ), now were they really elite or were they just a bit different from the bulk of the British Army which was mainly English battalions. For example of the 84 or so plain infantry battalions that hit Gold, Juno and Sword, more than half were bog-standard English battalions from ‘unfashionable’ Regiments (as per the words of Elvis Costello “the boys from the Mersey and the Thames and the Tyne”). Are they not considered elite because they had nothing different about them? Also, what is our American friends view of the Big Red 1? I’ve heard that they considered themselves elite, but did that translate into combat effectiveness? And with respect to the number of SS prisoners taken by the Canadians, are we sure that’s a measure of SS fanaticism ? A quote from John Ellis’ book The Sharp End of War By the way, that’s not a pop at the Canadians, John Ellis reckons that unless surrendering in mass, the German solder had a 50/50 chance of being shot on the spot by any allied soldier.

The cowbell originally used was in fact a Swiss cowbell (Mk VII) which was not historically accurate as in fact it should have been – as everybody knows - a ‘cowbell normandie T2’.

I started on an Amstrad (1980's?) There was a strategy game called Vulcan, which covered the North African Campaign from El Alamain through to the Tunisian battles. It was mainly at Divisional level (the units were shown as squares) although you could detach separate Brigades. When you 'attacked' the enemy divs, all divs involved in the attack buzzed and rattled for a few seconds and the result was announced. One thing it did teach me was the importance of supply, after a stunning left hook attack out of the desert (pick the bones out of THAT one Rommel), you can quickly find one of your divisions high and dry, and almost defenceless if you forgot to ensure the supply lines were not dominated by enemy units. After that, Steel Panthers 1, I can remember, to this day, the excitement and trepidation of those grey tanks appearing on the far edge of the screen in the desert phase of my first 'Long Campaign'. I had successfully dealt with the Italians, but here was the first XV coming up! Main lesson I learnt from that particular phase was keep the British Tanks behind the ridges and hope I could get the Pz's with a side shot, no cavalry charges with my tanks - very Monty-ish and deliberate, and in most cases I scraped a victory. I kept with the Steel Panther series and particularly enjoyed the SP:WW2 version that the Camo Work shop put out. ESPECIALLY the ability to tweak the units. It started off ‘ooh lets give any British AFV with a 2lb gun an HE capability’. Then it progressed – ‘Let’s give all of the 2lb (HE enhanced) a 6lb gun’. Bit later, ‘what the Hell, what’s the weapon number for a 17lber?’ No more hiding behind desert ridges for this generals A9’s and Matilda’s! Then I came across a CD of a game called CM:BO. Money was tight at the time, but it had been reduced to £5, so I bought it. Talk about an addiction.

Blyth? That's where my old battery was based. Now I'm not suggesting that your friend is anything other than a wonderful person, but South East Northumberland, especially the old pit villages, produce a very strange breed of people. If you want a 'life experience' that's probably a lot more educational than Swimming With Dolphins or Seeing The Winter Solstice Sun Rise at Stonehenge (etc etc) see if you can arrange a friday night 'oot on the lash' with your mate in Blyth. Probably a bit more dangerous, but if your looking forward to the simulated combat in CM:BN, why not experience the 'real thing' - Skirmish in extended order in the Blyth and Tyne or a fighting retreat from the Oddfellows Arms. Of couser if your folk are Smoggies, they'll be able to give plenty of similar tales from their neck of the woods. "I love the smell of White Lightening Cider in the morning... The smell, you know that cider smell... Smells like ... victory"

Magpie Oz Heh heh, well, given my heritage is Northern English, extreme irritation with bagpipes is a gene passed down from Father to Son. Although with my such extensive exposure to the devilish instruments over the years, I have developed a certain resistance, I have even developed a fondness for ‘Black Bear’ – not on music grounds I hasten to add, mainly because if the Cat Stranglers were blatting out BB it meant that the parade or whatever was finishing and it was time to knock off whatever ceremonial silliness we were enduring and schlepped off for our Tea (always the best meal of the day when we were in Camp or Barracks). Nolltyboy I’m not breaking any SecOps here, as its got a big red and white sign “TA Centre’ pointing at it and it’s address freely given on the internet, so 204 Bty Drill Hall is currently located at Kingston Park, a trading estate in the north of Newcastle. Google 204 bty – loads of info available Not only do they have the gall to allow a pipe band to squawk on interminably, they also wear that brown hat with the red hackle (looks like a red budgie has kamikazed into a pork pie) and the SNCO’s and Ruperts used to wear Tartan Trews as Barracks Dress, disgraceful behaviour for English Sergeants of Artillery! (although understandable for h’officers.)

"I think you are supposed to throw them down from a high building on top of a passing enemy tank (heh)." Never work - who in their right mind is going to lug a Charley-G up all those flights of stairs?

Bagpipes? good god NO! As a Northen Englishman who has often to listen to that noise pollution that some call 'stirring music' I must cast my vote in for the Nay! party. Before you colonials step up to the plate to defend the cat stranglers, please note that I often have to put up with these 'objects' in the main street of my home town (often drowning out the sweet notes of the Northumbrian smallpipes), and to really add insult to injury, one of the batteries of the Territorial Army Arty Regt. I was a member for for 20 years was '204 bty - The Tyneside Scottish'. And yes, they had a flaming pipe band. So no thanks.