Seedorf81

In my experience mortars are the easiest way to knock out an AT gun. Well, my AT guns never last long versus AI arty..

+1 to that. And both sides can be played equally well.

if ever there was a green recruit..

Maybe I'm a dumb SOB in using the halftracks, but as I stated earlier, Bill Hardenberger is a very meticulous and cautious player, who knows what he's doing. But even he got his sdkfz gunners annihilated over and over again in his battle against c3k. (Who, of course, will say that it was his awe-inspiring leadership that made his pixel-men perform so peculiarly well.) But in spite of this mg-gunners hassle, I just finished the "Boy's against men" scenario for the second time, and I think it is a piece of art. It shows awfully good how difficult and complex urban combat is. A pleasure to play..

Early Christmas present coming our way!!!

I quit playing after this happened: Well aware of the problem, I cautiously advanced an 251, with an HQ unit in it, nearer to the frontline in order to maintain good C2. I didn't want it to attack or support, just get it closer to the fighting infantry. Had it moving, well away from direct enemy fire, on the edge of the map. And, of course, the only one or two seconds that it was visible for an enemy unit the MG gunner was immediately killed, and the halftrack backed up for miles. (Ok, "miles" is a little exaggeration, but the rest isn't.) I've been playing for quite a while, years and years that is. Beyond Overlord, Afrika Korps, Barbarossa, Normandy, CW and now Market Garden. But after another murderous midday for my Sdkfz MG gunners, I'm sick of it. These 250/251's can't be used in a support role, so if I want to play on without this huge frustration I'll have to use them like trucks. Silly, and I disagree with those who state that this more than 100% death-rate for gunners is normal and/or because of my battle-incompetence. I'm very curious why I didn't experience this incompetence before..

P47, Typhoon.

Eastern front, battle of Bulge, whatever.. Come on with that schwimmwagen!

Well, since I didn't have any sexual connotations until your posting, it must be you that has the dirty mind. (And me, of course, be it a bit slower.)

Man, when reading this title I thought you were talking about some kinda gay, flower power, '60's "peace for everybody" thing. For a moment I had this strange image of tough GI's and battle hardened SS men, hopping along hand in hand. These nightshifts are really getting to me..

Like I didn't know that's the reply you so desperately wanted..

Mistakes? Who, what, where mistakes???

About your mortar crews, I seem to recall that during Market Garden (at Oosterbeek during the last days) a British paratrooper used a 2 inch mortar to lay direct fire on an approaching German tank or Stug. (Could it have been VC Robert Cain himself? Have to look that up.) It worked as far that the AFV backed away. Something to tell your men, perhaps?

FWIW, I do appreciate that halftrack gunners are prime targets, and even more when the halftrack is within 250 - 300 meters. But not when there are at least eight enemy teams/squads, with one or even two MG34/42's per team, and two Stugs blazing away at you and your three airborne infantry units, from at least four different positions. But as soon as the halftrack-gunner gets up to the HTMG, it seems like everybody forgets about everything but him. Instant kill. I don't mind a (very) high kill percentage for HT-gunners, but it's the 100% rate that annoys me. Even when it's true that we gamers deploy the halftracks to close and very badly, (I think Bill Hardenberger is the epitome of being carefull with his troops and look at his latest AAR against c3k!) then in real life chance and/or luck would make it possible to get survivors. Considering the losses I might be biased, but I can't remember a single 250/251 in combat that hadn't got his gunner shot.

What!? Them Cobra's could build walls?? :eek: Wow!

I too believe that the sdkfz 250/251 gunners holocaust is not the way things went in real life. It certainly looks to me that as soon as a gunner in the game pops his head up to open fire, he seems to turn into a bullet-magnet of ridiculous proportions and gets killed instantly. Even if, like I did in my last scenario, the sdkfz250 was between two houses (no side shots probable), and I had a lot of infantry and Stugs providing covering fire. Gunner gets up and gets immediately killed. The kill ratio is even higher than a 100% because any passenger-MG-replacement gets killed as well. In my experience the US halftrack gunners are better off, be it slightly.

Yeah, big commemoration in Vietnam. In the West Giap is relatively unknown, but I bet every earthling would have known his name if he'd been an American general. He's up there (no pun intended, but it's one nevertheless) with Patton, Montgomery, Eisenhower, Von Manstein and Zhukov, I reckon..

Perfect! Difficult to start loading now, because the music is so compelling. Great improvement, thanks.

In case you're wondering if we, the (finally!) happy owners of market garden, are still watching.. YES!

Playing "Boy's versus men" scenario, it's beautiful. When following soldiers on level 1 you get a real understanding for the chaotic situations during the battle around Arnhem, that have been described by many veterans. The ease with which soldiers can loose their bearings, followed by the totally unexpected deadly face to face confrontations with, also lost, enemy soldiers. The strange effect that in one house there can be murderous fighting going on, while in the next house men can be drinking their tea in relative relaxation because there is no enemy in sight. The crazy confusion on where the frontline really is, where friendlies are, and how to choose which buildings, copses or gardens are of tactical importance. The not knowing what the hell is going on at the strategic level; one platoon can achieve a stunning win and feel victorious, while the rest of the company is being wiped out at the same time. Experiencing all of this without having to put one's life on the line, Combat Mission delivers it all. Man, I can complain about things (schwimmwagen ) , but I still think this is one of the best games ever.

Just AI, so could be PBEM causing the problems?

Airborne Jeep looks very cool.

Well, you Finnish boys were very good fighters against the invading Red Army in 1939, while we Dutchies didn't even last five days in may 1940. Maybe winning or not winning is a matter of genetics?

Maybe it's a little early to ask, but since most of your Piat-power seems to be spent, do you think you might have been more successful if you had waited for shorter firing distances?

I think there maybe the possibility that the makers of these battles want to be as realistic as possible, and (IMHO at least) sometimes forget that we want to play this game for fun and that, how realistically it may be, losing without a chance of winning is not very funny. Playing a(n) (near) unwinnable battle would be ok for once or twice, but CMBN, CMCW and now CMMG, seem to have quite a lot of those. In stead of a relaxing game, I find it teeth-grinding, fist-clenching, swearing-ridden and frustratingly difficult. Maybe I'm a softy, but I would have liked a little more ease at times..