StieliAlpha

Aaaarghhhh, it's out and I have to on a business trip to Bahrain until 14 Apr. That's not fair!

Reminds me to: in my Bundeswehr days the manual for the tank reccon troops said something like: "The Panzeraufklärer makes contact with the enemy forces and detroys them." I could never imagine, how this would work.

I admit, I sometimes use them to race to the objective, but I am not aware that they were used "historically" in such an agressive role. For that the German half tracks were too thinly armoured and too lightly armed. The MG42 had the higher rate of fire, but not the punch of the US cal 50 MG. So, yes, drop the troops at a safe place and try to keep the half tracks out of harms way.

Just finished your new scenario. I managed a complete victory in the last minute, but with heavy losses. Something like 19 KIAs. Without 3rd Platoon it would have been a desaster. And: The map looks great. I loved the great coats and this Italian winter feeling. One question: I noted that you uploaded some of your other scenarios to GaJ's. Are they the same as the version, you offered here to test?

I mentioned that in the CMFI forum a while ago: Why not referring to the good old boardgames for "scenario starter packs"? They usually provide the historical back-ground, OOBs, maps, set-up's, etc. to start with, at least good enough for "semi-historic" scenarios. ASL alone should provide hundreds of scenario ideas and there have been dozens of suitable board games. A more recent example would be GMTs "Combat Commander" series.

Here is a link to the web-site of a tank museum in Switzerland, where they are re-building a King Tiger. They bought the beast quite wrecked some 5 years ago in France and are since then re-building it. In their photo gallery they have loads of detail pic's of the tanks internals, which one does not see too often: This is the site of the King Tiger project: www.koenigstiger.ch And this is the museums web-site: http://www.festungsmuseum.ch/xml_2/internet/de/intro.cfm Actually, there are two musuems. The tank museum and in walking distance the "museum fortress". A WW2 border fort, covering a stretch of the River Rhine between Switzerland and Germany.

I just stumbled across an interesting project. The "Liberation Route". I.e., prepared car, bike, hiking routes at places of importance for the war in Europe, from Normandy 44 to Germany 45. Looks like guided round tours, with audio comments at key spots. Apparently there is a cluster of tours on Kent, a big cluster around Arnhem and Nijmwegen and the newest section just opened in the Huertgenwald, Germany. Check it out at www.liberationroute.com

The Volko Runkhe games are published in GMT P500 project. I.e., they require approx 500 pre-orders before they start to design. Currently the Vietnam game is about to be released. If VR wants to do Ireland first and then the Phillipines, it will take at least another two years. Ireland is not even on the pre-order list.

There are a couple of quite different translations for "hetzen". However, the "Hetzer" obviously refers to "hetzen" as the "hunting mode" of wolves or a pack of hounds. This chasing of the prey until it is worn out and ready for the kill. Therefore perhaps "chaser" would be appropiate. Any way, Hetzer indeed sounds good. Though chasing his prey is certainly not what a TD should do.

Loved Steiner (well, the movie) back then in the 70's. Bought the DVD a few years ago and found it "Hm, ja, ok..." Does anybody remember the Russian movie series "Liberation"? Five movies from the 70's, too. From Kursk to Berlin. Kursk was crap, but then they improved from movie to movie. Loads of Russian equipment to see and a very different perspective.

Don't know if it is of interest, but I wanted to mention, the Swiss Army had a Hetzer variant (built in Checkoslovakia, with a different gun) in service until some time in the '60s.

Any chance that you post your scenario or campaign to the repository or GAJ's soon? That would be very much appreciated.

Interesting. I thought the ratings like "Normal", "Veteran", etc. are mere experience levels. Is there no such thing like "morale" in CM? I would think, even a veteran tends to go home, when motivation is lacking. To date we are playing the set scenarios only as PBM. Currently Lemon Hill, before that Avanti. In Lemon Hill my Bersaglieri get butchered, but do not break(yet). In Avanti I won with the Italians, despite horrendous losses. I lost something like 78 dead and wounded and yet they held, even advanced, when ordered.

Does anybody have similar experiences with the infantry? I have the impression, my lads are holding out far too long. Even the Italians, at least on defense. Hardly anybody runs away. Reminds me to Steel Panthers, where the Japanese usually fought to the last man.

Can you post a link, please? I don't find your Campaign in the repository. Thanks!

Hi Kohlenklau I checked my archives and found some whitewash models, indeed. Even dating back to CMBO times. Altogether 256MB. Too heavy to mail. Advise your contact info and I'll put them in my DropBox for you.

Hi Kohlenklau, I still should have sets of whitewashed vehicles and equipment for CMBB. Obviously Russian and German, but I think the Russian models included some US lend&lease stuff, too. I'll have a look tonight and send to your mail what I find. Might even be a nice idea, to make a gallery of old and new CM models. Cheers Andreas

Thanks guys! That's exactly what I was looking for. Perhaps I should read the manual, after all.

In the Bear Claws scenario, I noted that two of the German squads carry a Panzerschreck into battle. Sounds stange to me with an 1.6m long, 11kg heavy beast. Considering ammo and re-loading, one would expect two man teams to handle a Panzerschreck. Well, my guys managed to kill one of the Shermans in their advance, but: As far as I remember, the official doctrine was to use Panzerschrecks from interlocking fixed positions. With plenty of alternate positions, because the smoke plumes made nice targets after the first shot. Does anybody have an idea how realistic Panzerschrecks in "normal" squads are?

Please don't. If you want to build supply lines, play Gary Grigby's "War in the Pacific". There you learn how to arrange convoys, assign escorts, load transport vessels, shuffle troops and supplies around, build stockpiles, run the transport convoys back and forth before you finally can launch an attack. Takes a little patience untill you see the action and if have not done it right, it won't last very long.

Well, I just read an eye witness account about a company size 4-day engagement in Afghanistan (in 2010, I think), where resupply was only done at night time. As always in life: There are nice examples for everything. Again, I am not saying resupply is not an issue. What I say is: It should remain abstracted, like many other things.

Hi michael Don't worry, I am well aware of the importance of supply. But simulations can not simulate every aspect of life. Some things need to remain abstract for practical reasons. In this thread e.g. everybody discusses about ammo resupply. But what about food and water? What about stretcher bearers and medics? What about command runners or telephone cable pullers? There are certainly much more things going on on a battle field, than any system could simulate. That's why I say: Keep it simple. And focus on what we want to see (and play): The combat. After all, the game is called "combat mission". And not "how to construct supply lines" or "how to administer a company". As a practical answer: I, too, liked the simplification of the old CM games. When troops are low on ammo. They still could self defend under attack, but not actively fire.

I guess my message is: this resupply should be "factored in" into the ammo supply and consumption (and perhaps is already; only BFC knows). I would find this supply runner odd. No point to overload the game with this fancy stuff and better focus on the more simulation relevant issues. E.g., planes, Flak fire, flame throwers, missing vehicles and troop types, you name it. There are nice wish lists elsewhere. But then: in GMT's "Combat Commander", they have "hero counters" to simulate the top performers (which I find strange, too) And in the very old days, in SPI's "Campaign for North Africa", the game rules even considered a higher water consumption due to Pasta cooking for the Italians.

I do not think this resupply is a good idea at all. Walking back to an ammo truck under combat conditions, asking for "some more ammo, please"? Does not sound very realistic, looking at the short 30 to 40min battles in most scenarios. Especially not in an advance situation. I guess the answer to low ammo is simple: strict fire control. The same goes for the idea to grab weapons or equipment on the battlefield, as proposed in other threads. I could partially see that in a "stalingrad style house-to-house brawl". But elsewhere? Can somebody with real life experience comment?

I must say, rather than a new teaser, i would like to see the CMFI v1.10 patch. But you are right the King Tiger coming out of the mist looks gorgeous!