Ts4EVER

I don't know about those features, but imo what CM needs above all is better accessibility. By that I don't mean "dumbing down" features, but streamlining the game so that those complex features can be enjoyed more readily. Playing a simulation game like this should be a fight against the enemy, not against the UI or the controls! 1: Camera controls as they are right now: atrocious. Best thing to do would be add fps type controls to the camera, with an additional optional rts only mode (God's eye view). The player should be able to switch between these during gameplay. 2: Streamlined controls: while the hotkeys are nice, they are also clunky and hard to learn. Not a big deal for turnbased, but for RTS mode something more streamlined is necessary. Something like: Rightclick tells a unit to walk somewhere, double right click tells them to run, rightclick + shift tells them to crawl etc. I'm sure a control scheme like that could be implemented. 3: More use for the unit icons: ATM these tell you two things, if the unit just took a casualty and if it is routed. IMO this could be expanded. I'm picturing a yellow border that gets more saturated the more a unit gets suppressed. Another idea: Once a unit spots a new enemy, an exclamation mark flashes over the icon for a few seconds to draw the player's attention.

Well they did add more plates and screwed off the muzzle... my guess is they wanted to ape a Priest. That being said, did the Germans even have a captured Priest at that point?

You need more than a skin for that, it would require a new model, since they bolted additional armor plates to the panthers, removed the gun muzzle etc. They also had these Stugs, which apparently they tried to disguise as Priests (?). The attached infantry of Panzer Brigade 150 consisted of Fallschirmjäger and SS Jagdverbände. After the Operation Greif scheme fizzled they were thrown into the bulge as a standard combat unit and fought around Malmedy.

While I don't dislike artillery in general, I hate how some scenario designers use it. Just now I was playing "The winter of our discontent" as the Germans for this first time, only to find that the Canadian defenders had placed a pre planned barrage directly outside my setup zone. Seriously? Looked like a nice scenario, but into the bin it goes...

Sorry if I didn't make clear the satirical intent of that line, I just wanted to find a funnier way to say that the source is not reputable.

That is an urban legend. Note how that book doesn't cite any scientific sources except undefined "knowledgeable people". The only material evidence for this wild story is this museum specimen they mention and where they even admit the serial number proves the weapon was not used there. Add to that the logical improbability of air dropping an experimental weapon using a new cartridge into a dangerous pocket... The MKB42 trials are well documented, including reports by units using them. They started in April 1943, a full year after this alleged incident. You will not find that kind of info in a book like the one linked though, which seems to be pop-scientific pulp marketed towards the gun obsessed American underclasses.

Well that friend still has some studying to do, considering Stalingrad was largely over in February 1943 and the frontline tests started in April.

They were used on the Northern Part of the Eastern Front mostly (around Leningrad), so maybe if a thus themed expansion is ever done they could be put in together with the PPS42.

Actually, it is not unprecedented. These pictures of a ski units were taken in February 1944 and show that there was an effort to mass equip them with MP43s (and G43s, for that matter): This is from a time where the first light infantry units were supposed to get "MP-Züge" and the pictures indicate that this always meant MP43s. Considering that ski units were called "Skijäger" I wouldn't be surprised if they used the December 1943 Jäger kstn or a slight variation.

AKD that is what I meant: before they were renamed to "Sturmzüge" in autumn 1944, they were called "MP-Züge", which lead some games to assume that they were supposed to be equipped with MP40s. There is however no evidence to suggest this, instead one has to conclude by production numbers, pictures and circumstantial evidence that they were always supposed to have MP44s. This was probably also the case for Gebirgsjäger, although if this was ever achieved is a different question altogether. In fact, to me it seems that there was a bigger shortage of MP40s than of MP44s in the last months of the war, with many sources suggesting that Beretta MPs were substituted instead.

I hope they didn't make the classic mistake of thinking that the "MP" in an "MP-Zug" in the earlier iterations of that concept refer to the MP40. Cause these always meant the MP44/StG44. There was to my knowledge never a German unit supposed to be equipped with a large number of MP40s "out of the box" and if you look at Ardennes era divisional status report, the number of MP40s is diminished greatly, while the number of StG44s, especially in VG divisions, often approaches thousands. In fact the production of MP40s was cut back significantly by the end of 1944. Some examples from status reports: 183rd Volksgrenadier Division from September 1944 I. Deutsche Waffen (in Kriegsgliederung nicht eingezeichnet) 6.720 x Karabiner 49 x Zielfernrohrgewehre 765 x Gewehre 43 440 x Gewehrgranat-Gerät 1.230 x Maschinenpistole 44 60 x Maschinenpistole 38/40 1.925 x Pistolen 08/38 120 x Pistolen 7,65 363rd Volksgrenadier-Division from December 1944 I. Deutsche Waffen 6.196 x Karabiner 25 x Zielfernrohrgewehre 481 x Gewehre 43 313 x Gewehrgranat-Gerät 910 x Maschinenpistole 44 138 x Maschinenpistole 38/40 13 x Maschinenpistolen (i) 1.538 x Pistolen 08/38 246th Volksgrenadier Division from November 1944 I. Deutsche Waffen 6.183 x Karabiner 109 x Zielfernrohrgewehre 208 x Selbstladegewehr 43 230 x Gewehr-Granat-Gerät 143 x Maschinenpistole 38/40 268 x Maschinenpistole 44 1.093 x Pistolen 08 120 x Leuchtpistolen 6th Volksgrenadier Division from November 1944 I. Deutsche Waffen 5.059 x Karabiner 98k 1.130 x Karabiner 43 162 x Zielfernrohrgewehre 1.531 x Pistolen 1.042 x Selbstladegewehr 356 x Gewehr-Granat-Gerät 15 x schwere Wurfgerät 41 12 x schwere Granatwerfer

Did Gebirgsjäger really have that many MP40s?

Comet as well, with the 11th Armored Division.

About the SVT40, it is true that these weapons mostly saw use in 1941 and 1942. There are some curious exceptions though. For one, it appears they were still issued in significant numbers to Marines and Paratroopers. They also show up en masse in a series of photos of the Soviet controlled Polish Forces in the battle of Lenino (late 1943): It is possible that these photos were staged for propaganda to insinuate that the Russian allied nations were well equipped by them, but it is interesting nonetheless.

In retrospect I wonder if he hasn't been a bit too aggressive. Maybe if he had put his m36 and shermans in ambush positions enfilading the main road and used his m18 more conservatively to maneuvre around...

Interesting. I suppose then that they used a Sturmzug system similar to the Volksgrenadier Divisions?

I may have underestimated the JT. It is easy to say "It's impractical, slow, bogs easily, has no turret etc..." but at the end of the day it is individually superior to any American tank in terms of combat power.

Not sure I would drive into that forest with the JT, seems a good way to bog it down in some mud........

Yeah the mapper has to make it, but it's a bit more advanced than the CM terrain. Generally you get a heightmap that is as big as the main one, just not as high resolution.

I map for BF2 and there you have "secondary terrain" that is very low res so it has little performance effect.

afaik Red Thunder is about Army Group Centre right?

That is true btw, since the 1st Infanterie Division was one of the few units completely re-equipped with them in early 1944. Question is if they were used within RTs time and space scale.

True, that being said I could see the advantage in making the games completely modular, so you basically buy 1 engine + the content modules all applied to the same framework. That way you could upgrade all games at once as well. Then again, there might be something in the structure of the engine making this undesirable.

Hopefully including some of the unusual Italian late war weapons, like the FNAB43 or the TZ45.

Interesting thing about the equipment of the SS-FJG: They were apparently issued with the MKB42(H) prototype version of the StG44, which is pretty rare to get pictures of.