Ts4EVER

There were several "one-off" Flakpanzers. One good example was the Flakpanzer T34 and Flakpanther used by the heavy tank destroyer unit that had the Elefants in 1944. They also had a Porsche Tiger command tank and a Panther with Panzer IV H turret.

Not sure, I don't think defensive missions are necessarily a strength of this system.

Well the latest Fortress Italy Module didn't even have a German campaign, likely because there weren't many interesting offensive battles this late. Maybe it will be the same here. On the Eastern Front at least you had the offensives in Hungary, but on the Western front not much was going on after Nordwind.

Yes, as someone who never plays quick battles, this would be interesting. My guess: A Russian campaign in Berlin and / or the Seelow Heights and a German campaign with heavy tanks in Hungary. At least that's probably what I would do if I was in charge.

Well I have been known to get angry at them, but delays are not really a reason. They will release it when they are done, and then I can decide if I want to spend my money on it, that is the extent of the interaction. Until it is out, I will find something else to occupy my free time.

150mm HEAT

To get back to German morale and effectiveness for a moment, I recently read a study about the Großdeutschland division, one of the most prestigious German elite formations. One commander quoted in the book said that by 1943 "The infantry was only held in its fox holes by the assault guns."

You mean you are making a campaign? Generally for late war German units, I would rank the experience and maybe also the motivation of the infantry (in this case the Panzergrenadiers) significantly lower. Especially the first SS was known for filling the ranks of its infantry, which tend to have high turnover, with unreliable elements such as "Volksdeutsche".

Any way to use existing keys to migrate games over to steam? (Once they are there)

Very cool! Were these actually used in combat?

The HMGs are best used from very long range. This is why I kind of find them less useful in Normandy (outside of defending), whereas in Italy they are awesome: You put them on some hill on the back line and have them hose away.

Come to think of it, I think Red Thunder already had the 9 man organization as an option, right? It's been a while since I have played it, but I think it is already in. So possibly the 7 man organization is included as a third option for maximum variety.

Not an expert on Soviet TOE, but did they still use 11 man squads after 1942? As far as I know they switched to 9 man squads at some point?

Interestingly, the Soviets mainly used the Panzerfaust as an engineering tool, shooting it at buildings, bunkers and obstacles. This was a more common combat scenario than a German Panzer attack in the last years of the war.

The MG is an ex board weapon, MG15. That and the MG81 were often used in a ground role by the end of the war.

I always play iron, in part because I think that the information sharing system actually gives you more information.

As a little bonus, this is a picture of Viktor Leonov, commander of the Naval Special Reconaissance Detachment (Russian navy seals, basically): He is armed with the SVT40, his buddy has a rare PPD34 smg.

Yes. I am a dev for Forgotten Hope 2 and made a map set in May 1942 in the arctic circle that features Soviet Naval Rifle Troops. We found the original strength reports for them and about 2/3rds were equipped with SVT40s. They also had other unusual weapons, for example PPD34 submachine guns and even 3 Thompsons. Note that this was very early in the war though. Later it seems like many SVTs (and starting 1942, AVTs, which replaced them in production) actually went to the troops of nations allied to the Soviet, for example to the Poles and the Czechs. By 1944 and 1945 they are very hard to track, because they were actually deleted from the official strength report forms - there simply is no column left for them, that is how unimportant they were at that point.

Anyone who was ever involved in video game development knows that it never goes according to plan. They probably don't know exactly when it will be done either and don't want to do false promises.

Regarding that Operation Varsity anecdote: Note that the MP40 was actually out of production at that point, so if there was massed automatic fire, the MP44 is actually more likely.

That sounds like a "normal" Sturmzug that was supposed to be formed after the introduction of the MP43. Since it mentions the number 40, maybe it was one based on the older type of infantry division that still had 4 groups in each platoon, not three like the later ones.

Is this the start of an AAR?

Yes, the Führer Begleit-Brigade is different from Begleitgrenadiers. Begleitgrenadiers were kinda the German answer to Russian tankodesantniki troops.

That is a Russian trope that comes up often, much like every tank is a Tiger and every SP gun is a Ferdinand. Generally speaking, only Jäger formations and similar units were supposed to have a lot of smgs.

Would they be much different from a normal SS Infantry (not mechanized) unit?