Bud Backer

Minute 30-29
AOA 1
While 1st & 2nd Squad 3rd Platoon remain in the woods on KT 2 in case my opponent sends AT teams to attack my bombarding tanks, the nearby BA-64 armoured car, along with the one of the two JS-IIs, continue to lay suppressive fire on the trees and houses ahead. You can see the target orders, aimed at areas where I have contacts and haven’t fired on thus far. 
One JS-II is not given any orders, leaving it free to reacts to any targets of opportunity, or more importantly, enemy armour. 

RU158
The Regimental HQ and company HQ T34/85s, loaded with 3rd Tankodesantniki Platoon HQ, 3rd Squad 3rd Platoon and 3rd Squad 2nd Platoon, start rolling toward the houses at the edge of town. The tanks and armoured cars bombard their targets, including the infantry hugging a fence line behind the first row of houses. 
I’ve suffered not a single loss on AoA 1 since the start of the battle. 

RU159
 
AOA 2
Nothing is ever easy on A0A 2. Nothing.
While waiting for my moves from last turn to finish, including infantry and tanks repositioning in the woods to the right, off-camera, 1st Platoon HQ T34/85 reacquires the German infantry unit still trying to creep more into the centre of town.

RU160
It gets a target order…

RU161
The shot falls short and enemy dives to the ground. The T34 reloads.

RU162
A follow up shot doesn’t happen as an armour-piercing round hits the Platoon Commander’s tank. The crew is stunned, and before they can try to find out where the shot came from, another hits the tank, destroying it.

RU163
Any player’s nightmare: where the heck is what just killed my tank???

RU164
This is my first tank loss in the battle.

They've all been added back as of a few minutes ago. 
 

@Bud Backer  I just stumbled upon this AAR, saw your name on it, and got excited.  It's given me something to read while I relax next to my campfire.
Thank you for taking the time to do this & keep it going.
I'm glad to hear your wife is well; cancer is a terrible & unpredictable thing.
 
God Bless.
 - Chip

There is definitely an agenda in this thread - I'm not sure it's about handguns though

My wife once commented to one of our neighbors that all of the banks seemed completely incompetent, while the Post Office can do just about anything (including simple banking and insurance) and do it well. "Aye, pretty much," was the answer.
Non-UK experienced people need to know that the Post Office is separate from Royal Mail. We banked at Barclays. They were dumbfounded by me wanting to wire transfer money to my US bank (USAA, which is well used to its members being overseas). I brought them all the info and numbers they needed and they couldn't fill out their own form. At the time, the second biggest bank IN THE WORLD, and they were completely stumped by a wire transfer. We were sending money to our US account to stay under the $10K reporting requirement for foreign accounts. I basically had to show them how to fill out every block on their computer screen. They still charged me the transfer fee 🙂  Typical experience. They also would not give my wife a debit card with a chip. Their reasoning was that "then she could spend money without you knowing" Seriously? What is this, 1952? Give her a card. (many places it's required to have the chip and pin, for security, so without it her card would have been pretty useless). 
That being said, we loved living there. We were in the northwest, just on the south edge of the Lakes District National Park, a huge expanse of mountains, lakes and quaint villages. Gorgeous country, plus we were right on the coast too, as a bonus. Mostly small towns, farms, and moors for roaming. The people were universally nice and welcomed us like family. 
Dave

Basic food doesn't attract VAT. Didn't know whether it was "exempt" or "zero-rated" (same end result) til I went and found the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-of-vat-on-different-goods-and-services#food-and-drink-animals-animal-feed-plants-and-seeds

Also, the deterioration of the NHS under the past decade of mismangement by the Tories seems to be working, if it's driving you to private care, since it's all about Privatisation of the health service by the back door.

Most of the EU countries have higher VATs.

I lived in England for some years for work. Paid taxes, enrolled in the NHS. It all works out. If you weren't paying the VAT, then income taxes would be higher. Expenses have to be paid one way or the other. I was talking to my brother once about taxes. Living in Rhode Island and working in Connecticut I had to fill out 2 state income tax forms, prorated against each other for income earned in each state. He, being in Texas, gloated that he had no income tax at all. Of course, comparing notes, his property taxes on a smaller house than mine were higher than my COMBINED property taxes plus state income taxes. And I live in *supposedly* high tax Rhode Island. Towns, states, countries have to be run and the money has to come from the same places, just by different means 🙂

Dave

November 1944…

As with many hyperbolic discussions, this one appears rooted in something real, but the signal to noise ratio clouds the message.
One has to refer to this thread, more specifically the comprehensive testing done by @Drifter Man to see where this is coming from. 
 
On page 23 of the PDF he posted, one can see that at 40m the M1911 pistol is showing a higher kills/min rate than 2 of the rifles: the Lee Enfield MkIV, and the Kar98k. At 80m they are roughly on par, as seen on page 24. (I’m discounting the rifles firing rifle grenades as the RoF would be low and their purpose is not the same as rifles firing bullets). 

However, context is king. This is not a first shot kill probability chart. Comparing someone firing a pistol at a target as quickly as possible and easily reloading is not the same as a bolt action rifle. Give each man one bullet and one would see a different result. 
I’d be inclined to say this is a poor understanding of the test and the results, but given the bombastic posting style it’s hard to take as much more than trolling. I find this unfortunate as an open and honest discussion of these results would lead to greater understanding of how things work and why they work a particular way (and perhaps an object lesson in statistical analysis). 
 
 
 

Equal forces, 1818 points (I think "Small" battle size). This is a QB on the Stoumont master map. 

Minute 31-30
AOA 2
Meanwhile on the other end of the Russian lines, things were a lot more quiet. I didn’t want to advance between the two treelines with unsupported armour, but my difficulty in spotting the Marder, or worse, several Marders, makes me want to ensure my tanks can support one another better. I displaced one tank left, and brought infantry close by in the woods to make sure I have more eyes on what’s going on ahead. The smoke from earlier HE fire from my tanks made vision poorer but would not last long, thankfully clearing by turn end.

 RU154
Through the second treeline the Tankodesantniki spot a German HMG and HQ unit. My opponent is moving his men around in conflicting directions. I can’t make a pattern of it. 

 RU155
Among the houses at KT 1 I move 1st Platoon HQ and what remains of 1st Squad from 2nd Platoon to the last house in the row, where the Germans had an HMG I chased out with tank fire. Once I know this is clear, I won’t have to worry about shaped charge weapons to my flanks, just ahead. 

 RU156
With my flanks clear of nearby infantry threats, I feel comfortable giving 1st Platoon HQ T34/85 an armour arc order to wait for the Marders to make an appearance. 

 RU157
Overall, I feel pretty good about the situation. I’m picking off his men little by little, I have plentiful HE ammo in my tanks, and I’m no longer taking heavy infantry losses. I am concerned about what he may have hidden away but by now if he had a powerful reserve I think it would have made an appearance.

That will work, but it’s even simpler than that. Just place both half squads in the same action square. Given time they will recombine. 

Minute 31-30
AOA 1
My tanks can offer a lot of HE support and suppression.  I will pepper the buildings ahead with HE and charge! This time, the tank riders will be going in on the tanks but not under fire. 
The JS-IIs advance and stop to provide support fire while the Company and Regiment HQ T34s both load up an infantry squad each. The inset shows the action at the map edge to the left.

 RU148
As the men board the tanks, sporadic enemy rifle and HMG fire hits the front of the tanks. The Company HQ T34 fires at the spotted HMG. A Marder is also detected but none of the Russian tanks have LOS. 

 RU149
One JS-II advances, maneuvering to get LOS on the Marder. The German vehicle gets the first shot, which bounces off the thick armour. 

 RU150
The JS-II spots its attacker and returns fire but misses. Smoke and dust break then LOS for both from one another.

 RU151
The spotted HMG and infantry contacts come under fire as well. The enemy is no longer putting out any fire at all at the advancing armour and infantry. One HMG unit takes heavy casualties and breaks. 

 RU152
The infantry in the house behind moves out behind it, not willing to take direct fire any longer. 

 RU153
There is no question I’m pushing him back and disrupting his defences. I have a big open field in front of me that I need to cross but once that’s done I’m actually in the town - the objective itself.
What’s going in at AoA2 is in the upcoming post.

I agree, I think we have established that you are totally upside down on this one.  I thought the testing that DM did is some of the most creative I have seen in a very long time.
Yes.   
That took about 15 seconds to find btw.  Also, for anyone who has played the game your statement is obviously false.
 
Sure.  You realize that military trucks are by-design all terrain?  They spend billions on making sure that they can go just about where ever.  So modding AI to do as you suggest you 1) be unrealistic and 2) restrain the player for no good reason.  My advice...play better.
AI and arty is one area that I would like to see improvements for in the next engines.  That said, scenario/campaign designers use the reinforcement option to spread the AI use of artillery out in the game.  For onboard indirect fire assets you can use the area fire command to finely tune mortars (you can even set it to triggers).  So no, not "ALL".
Prove it.
As opposed to the "outgoing" plate of armor?  In my experience if your veh armor is "outgoing" it means that you, personally, are the next set of "incoming" armour and I am pretty sure the game captures that.
Probably about half the beta testers and myself personally.  Pretty well.
This is not a question.
Now for you: when you are participating in social discourse and it has become apparent that your presence is being endured as opposed to valued, should this not lead to some serious self-reflection?  Comment?

Yes.
Yes.
Yes. I aim for test setups that allows easy "all else being equal" comparisons - not necessarily representing usual in-game situations.
Thanks - and I am happy to clarify if you can be more specific. For the M1911, I took a Battalion HQ and emptied all their ammo with area fire. Then I sent them to a supply truck and ordered them to pick up only .45cal. Similar procedure with the other guns.
Yes, you are reading it correctly - under the test conditions, the pistol shooter would likely spend all his ammo before hitting anything. I provided each team with a ton of ammo, so it wasn't an issue.
I believe this can be true in reality, just note that in the CM tests I could not find any difference between Commander/Leader/Gunner/Soldier in handling their weapons. Marksman is the only specialty that made a difference.

I have probably taken 10,000+ casualties in CM games (yeah yeah yeah, I know, it's cuz I suck, blah blah blah 🙂).  And I bet maybe 20 of those casualties are from pistols.  So the good news is that fixing this glaring bug would change my casuality rate by something like 0.1%.  Definitely a buggy game that no one should play. 
There's about a million changes/upgrades we'd all like to see, so I am just surprised anyone would spend so much time on something so inconsequential.