Bulletpoint

You have to add nothing to achieve something. The mystical wisdom of Combat Mission.

No worries, it was just an off the cuff feedback remark

Which is a point in itself: Did the M8 crew get any medal for this deed? Do we even know their names? If no, then why not?

I think you might well be right. An M9 bazooka could have taken out the tank. It can penetrate up to 102mm of armour, according to the Wikipedia... so Tiger II side and rear armour would be no problem. Which makes the narrative that the infantry didn't dare to engage, while the M8 did, all the more strange.

The Hobbit celebration at his time of year was called Yule so maybe Tolkien's birthday covers it? You buy that? Cultural appropriation by Hobbits! I will make such a ****storm about this on social media, they will have to close down the Shire. Some bones might calm me down though

True, I didn't factor this in. Answering that is way above my pay-grade I guess in theory it's possible. also the point about maybe the armour was brittle, the cold playing a part, etc. But what I am left with is that in order to believe this story, I would have to accept a list of events where each event is somewhat or very unlikely: 1: Enemy tank advances completely without infantry escort. OK, that did happen, but was not exactly doctrine. 2: None of the US infantry tried to close assault an enemy tank driving right past them, not protected by infantry. OK, that happens too. Assaulting a tank is dangerous. 3: A US armoured car for some reason decides to risk its life in an attack where they would be extremely unlikely to win. A bit like an office worker challenging a heavyweight boxer to a fight to the death. Ok, that kind of thing happens too, maybe they either didn't realise how weak their gun was and how thick the enemy tank's armour was. Or they were young and full of adrenaline. Maybe they misidentified the tank and thought it would be easy to knock out from the rear. 4: The AC was able to close the distance and come in on a perfect zero degree angle without the enemy tank turning the slightest. Apparently the enemy tank stopped, though the tank commander must have known that he should try to prevent the AC getting close enough to duck under the gun? OK, the German crews were not so good at this time of the war. 5: The AC now fires three shots that manage to hit the exact same spot, despite recoil and maybe blast from the gun against the tank hull throwing off the aim at all. I don't know how likely this is. 6: Somehow those three slugs didn't just become wedged in the hole from the previous slugs. Again, I don't know if that is a possibility. 7: The second or third shot penetrates, and manages to knock out critical components. At such short range, you do have a point about the tracer still being fully lit, so if the round had gone through one of the big 88mm shell cases, it would have ignited the propellant. But it's also very likely that such a relatively small shell would have penetrated without much after-armour effect. The alternative to going through that list is to assume the story either didn't happen, or that it was a misidentified Panther (rear armour only 40mm, well in the ballpark of what the M8 gun can deal with), or that the enemy tank was in fact a Tiger but was on an incline so that the M8 shell went in through the top engine deck and continued through the engine and into the crew compartment. In each of these cases, we only have to accept one premise, instead of a whole list. So while I will never be able to prove that the story didn't happen the way it's presented in the clip, I think it's very much more likely that it didn't. Of course, that doesn't mean I don't think brave and sometimes crazy things were done during the war. I'm just puzzled by this one.

Did you just omit our good old Viking Yule? I'd be deeply culturally offended if I were sober.

I don't know if this story can be confirmed or not, but it seems pretty odd to me that the commander would scout ahead and engage enemy tanks single-handedly. Since this is a story about the SS, who knows if they might have been crazy enough to do that, but is it really superb soldiering? - or is it in fact just a story of a lucky fool? A real superb soldier would assume that enemy tanks would be screened with infantry, and trying to pull off "Rambo" antics works better in movies than in real life. And a competent commander would realise he had a job to do - commanding his troops - and sent out a scout detachment instead.

Looks like the trenches are dug 2m into the ground. Try 1m.

An AP round doesn't lose much penetration power in the first 500m. But let's say we use the best case scenario in that table: APC M51 at perfect straight angle: 61mm peneration. Then we add an extra amount of penetration because it's firing at pretty much zero distance. How much extra penetration would that give? An extra 10mm extra would be generous, but that would still need 9mm extra to penetrate. So let's be even more generous and assume that it got 20mm extra penetration at that range. 80mm penetration VS 80mm armour. But there's one thing we haven't taken into account: The rear armour of a Tiger II hull is sloped: 30 degrees from vertical. We'd need even more penetration to get through the plate. Also, the penetration tables often list the ranges where there's a certain chance (for example, 50/50) chance of penetrating. So even if the table says the round has a chance to penetrate, it's just that: a chance. It's not assured. But let's assume the AP round somehow made its way through the rear armour despite all this. The M51 is solid shot; there's no bursting charge. http://bulletpicker.com/cartridge_-37mm-apc-t_-m51_-m5.html How much kinetic energy would be left after penetrating that much armour? How would the relatively small metal slug cause a "muffled explosion" inside the tank? Here's a final thought: Even if that solid steel slug managed to penetrate and knock out the engine, the fire wouldn't spread to the crew compartment. There's a firewall: https://posterfoundry.com/cross-section-german-world-war-ii-tiger-ii-tank-art-print-poster-36x24-inch/ So, unless I forgot something, there are only three possible explanations. Either they fired as the Tiger was going uphill, so the angle made it possible to penetrate the engine from the top. Or it was a misidentified PzIV. Or... it was a Christmas miracle

An interesting thing about this story is that it is basically the old story of David and Goliath retold in a WW2 setting. In the ancient story, Goliath is a powerful warrior who challenges the Israelite army, but no one dares step forward to accept the challenge. A small boy then decides to step up, and with a fast slingshot to the head of the giant, he wins. When asked by the king who he is, he gives a humble answer. In the WW2 story, the huge German tank drives forth, dominating the battlefield, and the US soldiers dare not attack it. The tiny and brave M8 car then uses speed to hit the weak point of the tank, killing it. Then the hero vehicle humbly returns to its duty.

How would the 37mm round penetrate the tiger? It doesn't have thin rear armour. Both hull and turret are 80mm. Maybe it's just another case of mistaking PzIV for tigers? And one that the US Army was not too keen on correcting, since the troops could do with a little morale boost.. There was a legend built around those horrible all powerful tigers, and it must have been useful to have a story going around about how they could be cut down to size by even a tiny armoured car.

I also get flickering shadows, at least they turn on and off as I rotate the camera. Haven't found any solution for it. Also I play with shaders off, because when they are on, the game crashes randomly.

Are there any actual effects of temperature on troops and vehicles? I haven't been able to notice any...

Probably this story helped boost morale. But how would it be possible for the M8 to kill the Tiger II ? Even from behind at extreme close range, it doesn't seem like the M8's gun would be able to penetrate. Maybe it f it was on an incline so the 37mm shell went into the engine deck from the top?

I didn't mean to add more ambushes, just to make it unpredictable where they will be, allowing for more replayability. Sounds like you're heading in the right direction. Also with this:

My actual excuse is that I wrote it after drinking a bit of gløgg I'm happy someone took pity on me with a single "like". Now, back on topic, I think I will wait and start over with this scenario once the updated version is out. Question for @theforger: Do you plan on making enemy setup variable so that the scenario can be played several times? I really think quality maps like this one deserve a couple of AI plans and semi-random enemy placement for replayability. Not sure if you already did any of that, as I only played once...

Yes, that's true. Thank you

You should be more careful. It sounds like you had a flak of attention.

I agree with what you wrote, but also AT guns have a big advantage in CM because of the WeGo turn system. In real life, an unbuttoned tank commander would notice a shell whizzing over his tank immediately and often be able to back off (behind cover such as a hill or simply to break LOS, even deploy smoke) before the gun got a second shot. In CM, you have to wait for - on average - 30 seconds before you can respond to taking AT fire. So if you give AT guns more advantages, you change the balance of the game. One way of rebalancing would be to make them more realistically vulnerable to explosives. I often see guns - not dug in - take several very close 81mm mortar rounds and keep firing.

For all its qualities, there are many instances where something could be improved in this game. You just found another one of them.

Yeah that's a fog rendering bug. Bummer we though we go all those. Can you see this just by starting the battle? Yep, it's a regular thing. But often only appears when activating the zoom function. Which I use very often because it helps estimate LOS.

Don't worry, the offending officer has been demoted and now keeps watch over the Kampfgruppe's prisoners of war. He has been ordered to not let anyone escape. Surely he won't be able to screw up such a simple assignment.

A sitrep at gunpoint. Seems German morale is not high at this point.

Yes, they are very useful if you know how to. They're probably my favourite AFV. Move them along together with infantry, but always be careful of long sightlines. Jump in short fast hops from cover to cover. Always park them where there is LOS blockage. Behing a building for example. Then when you need them, move them out and into a similar firing position. Ideal targets are infantry in sturdy buildings, at 300m+ range. But from the front they are pretty resistant to small arms, and I've used them at much closer ranges. The thing to watch out for is bazookas, so don't go closer than about 160 metres unless you feel like throwing the dice. At 100m they become really vulnerable, both to small arms and rifle grenades.