db_zero

I'm curious as to what the military's take on tanks is these days. A few years ago they were saying they didn't need or want anymore and it seemed that interest in armored warfare was on the wane. Now with segments in the West itching for a confrontation with Putin and Russia it seems like interest in tanks and armored warfare may be re-ignited?

Always nice to get a do over-unlike real life! A lot of time playing battles is like solving a puzzle... The panzers backed up by infantry, recon and the cannon support team is advancing up the single road. They are using recon by fire to expose enemy positions and some of the defending infantry have broken and run only to be shot down in the fields. One of my green Panther crew managed to get a kill on a TD at 1465 meters. Because this is a do over can't really call it a victory if I manage to win one. Still have a ways to go though so who knows maybe a surprise is in store. For now things are going well for Der Fuhrers troops. I'm sure Hitler would have loved to have had a few do overs back in the day...

I restarted this battle. I may bad decisions about how I would conduct the battle and paid for it. The terrain severely restricts off road movement and I didn't pay enough attention to minor objectives. They may not be worth much points but ignoring them you do so at your own peril. Some of the Panther crews are green so while they mount a deadly beast their spotting and shooting isn't all that great and they panic pretty easy. The defending 7th Armor appear to be good troops and they occupy well placed positions. Had 2 Panthers team up to knock out a well placed Sherman. At 800-900 meters it took a lot of shots as most just bounced off the gun mantlet.

Another good battle. Playing as the Germans. Finding some difficulties due to the terrain. You have Panthers which in most circumstances be able to deal relatively easily with the American tanks, but the soft terrain makes off road movement difficult. The fact that the recon and cannon had a few vehicles picked off on the road makes things worse as the Panther now have to move around them and 1 has already been immobilized so its totally out of the fight. The Germans get a rare airstrike. I may have to try and use in on the TDs that are holding up the advance. The American infantry defensive line is also holding up my infantry. If I try to move the support HTs to support the infantry they can be picked off by the TDs which are in a very good blocking position. Already lost 2 recon tanks and a few HTs to them and my Panthers are having trouble spotting the American tanks. The M-10's have a cannon that needs to be respected. I don;t know what else I may be facing, but I need to figure out a way to break the defenses..

I would really love the 41-43 period on the Eastern Front covered. On the strategic and operational level the Germans may have ruled but on the tactical level that Combat Mission covers it was a different story. The Soviets had better equipment in many cases and it would be very fun to see German tanks with pea shooters going up against KV-1s and T-34s. I would love to go head to head with my opponent as the Soviets and fight to the last man if need be.

No doubt about what you're saying, but its also true the US Army of today is a far different one that was fielded in WW2. We have an all volunteer force that is far better trained and lead. WW2 we had a force that was largely conscripted and the level of training and selection not as rigorous as today. If the stories are to be believed and I think there is ample evidence of it, the losses suffered by tank crews in Europe lead to many non trained personnel to be forced into manning tank positions-not an ideal situation. Also many tank that got knocked out were recovered and sent back into service, but the lingering smell of death was still present in the recovered vehicle. Today, they will usually be able to use chemicals to clean a recovered tank to remove the smell of death, although I'm sure there might be suspicion of a vehicle with a "new car" smell and word often gets around anyway. I have little issue with bailed out crewmen in Black Sea blazing away with their assault rifles.

I could be brutally ruthless based on my personal experience but I'll be nice and politically correct. They are very sensitive to how they are perceived.

Regarding the Saudis there are some cultural issues that sound like they have yet to be sorted out. Until you actually live in the region it's often difficult to understand what you are dealing with. There was a lot of nepotism as well as some ways of going about business that would be very foreign to a Westerner. Also in the Saudi army many of the soldiers are not even Saudis but foreigners who are fighting for the Saudis. They are often not treated well. Money and a way to get away from your situation at home where ever that may be is the prime motivation. Whether that is still the case I can't say for sure but I highly doubt things have changed as things change very slowly if at all in that part of the world. Training, motivation and good leadership trumps equipment all the time.

I don't dispute the statiscal fact the PZIV is as combustible as the Sherman but perhaps the nature of the combustibility was what made the Shermans rep. Not all tanks burn the same. The Panther used gasoline not diesel and could burn but probably burned in a different way? The M-60 Patton didn't have a reputation for being a burner to my knowledge but also read when given a choice Israeli tankers would choose the Centurion over the M-60 because the M-60 used hydraulic fluid that could spray the inside of the tank with highly flammable fluid if hit while the Centurion used electrical powered systems that were safer.

By the time the grease gun was in service the Sherman already had a reputation for catching fire quickly when hit so I'm sure the last thing on a crewmans mind was grabbing a grease gun... In game terms it's ethically correct to move bailed out crewman to the rear. Doesn't always happen and players often use them as scouts or infantry. It is irritating when you see a bailed out crewmen hosing down one of your infantry sections, especially when armed with just pistols and your men have rifles, SMGs and MGs. I've seen this happen too many times. Gun slinging tank crews with six shooters Wyat Erp style... Unless specifically mentioned in house rules I've decided to join them if I can't beat them and not retreat my bailed out crews.

Don't know about that. Tank crews have an uncanny ability already with just pistols to be super crack shots and awfully effective. Some of the things they do make them supermen after bailing out. Give them 4 grease guns and they will end up being as deadly as the British Paras armed with stens In my recent Grosshau battle the flame tank was hit by a hidden panzerfaust and sure enough the bailed out crew with 2 pistols and 1 tommygun killed a lot of Germans by themselves.

I tried another try at this one to see if some different tactics would yield different results. Looks like there is an Easter Egg planted. Under the right circumstances Hansel and Grettle will appear.

Luck plays a big role. Get lucky and you win. Get unlucky and you suffer. All it takes is for 1 or 2 German shots to hit their mark and things get really difficult.

At this point in the war supplies (artillery shells, gasoline) were in short supply. A short time before this battle the allies overran their supply lines and Patton and Montgomery the 2 biggest egos in the theater had a pissing match to see who would get the lions share of the goods needed to conduct major offensive operations. Montgomery won and launched Operation Market Garden. By this time the allied were still recovering from the Market Garden debacle and trying to get the logistical nightmare solved. Not only was gas and ammo in short supply but trucks too. The Hurtgen doesn't have a vast road network. Getting artillery positioned and well stocked must have been challenging. You didn't want to wait for the supply situation to be 100% sorted out (unless you were Montgomery) as that would give the Germans more time to regroup. After chasing them out of France you had to keep the pressure up. So here you are being asked to do a crappy task. Welcome to the army ? Im sure there were countless times when a commander in this position wanted to just level a town with artillery or air support instead of assaulting it but was turned down and told to get moving and do as told or be relieved of command. So you had to just make do with what you had at hand.

The Chafee entered the war very late when it was clear the Nazis were defeated and the war would end soon. Tank crew bailed caused they didn't want to become casualties when the war was going to end anyway in a few weeks or months.

Sums it up well. Most of the time in GT so far I'm just looking at small specs of flags at a distance when hosing down enemy infantry. Like being a Company or higher commanded looking at a battle from a distance. In CMx2 you can get down and dirty right in the middle of the action with infantry. I like both systems. If I were a billionaire I'd buy both companies and lock the developers up in a room and tell them to combine features from both into the ultimate simulation. They would be fed bread and water till progress towards that goal was achieved... ?

I would shell out $125 for a WW2 version of Steel Beasts Pro

Ah yes Teut sounds about right he would come on the forum say hi and you could tell he was probably a very nice person in real life. Then some would just say nasty about the game, that must have been really discouraging. A lot of us really got pissed at the people saying bad things and let them have it. For a small what seemed to be a one or 2 man operation PE was quite amazing and you really couldn't do the things you get today with the hardware that was available. 486 CPUs and a new thing called a diamond graphics card. Was playing European Air War and Janes Combat Simulations back then. Regarding GT Tactics-I give it 2 thumbs up and will get the 2 DLCs for Muis. It has its flaws but overall its a good game. Its a different perspective and feel than Combat Mission, but once you get used to it, its very enjoyable. Unless I'm missing something you do miss things as there is no replay and in RT things happen and you don't see it at the time. I may get Operation Star, but need to see just what you get and I have other questions.

If you're referring to T-55 or the T-72 sim you may want to consider Steel Beasts 4.0 instead. I haven't tried the single player Grav. sims so I can't comment on them but I do have Steel Beasts 4.0. I still have original Panzer Elite and the ref. manual is nice. I felt bad for the creator as it sounded like he did most if not all of the work himself and when it was first released a lot of people ruthlessly attacked the product and he took it personally. Sure it wasn't perfect but he obviously put his heart and soul into it and for what it was it wasn't that bad. I know there is some independent modding going on with it but I haven't played or installed it in years. I don't know of any realistic WW2 tank sim where you command a single tank or platoon. I've heard rumors but nothing solid. Speaking of oldies but goodies I still have IL2 installed and with the new mods and add ons it's still a viable sim even after 15 years....

Played a little more. It may grow on me. If you have a powerful workstation the graphics are very nice. The infantry isn't bad IMO and the tanks definitely have a nice feel to it. It feels from my very early impression and lack of experience with it all as something where you give orders and watch it play out, you can change things once things get going but there is so much going on that its not like CM where you feel like you have more control. One might argue that commanders really didn't have much control once the fight started.I'm finding it very hard to see the infantry once the fight starts. I'm running the game at 1680x1050 The Muis Front which I got has a different interface that supposedly takes the feedback from players and improves on previous versions. I have no idea if morale, leadership, command and control or ammo is modeled. I do notice that where in Red Thunder the Russians don't have a lot in the ways of smoke, in Muis Front they seem to have no shortage of it-at least from what I've seen so far. I would really love to see WEGO and replay added. Other things I noticed is big red explosions, like someone loaded dye or red paint in some of the shells like Oddball from Kelly Heroes A different approach than CM.

I bit the bullet and bought Muis Front. Played the first tutorial and a small quick battle. It has its charm and I can see why many would like it, but it seems a bit busy to me and it's not quite my thing. I may have to watch some YouTube videos and try it out some more. I do prefer the WEGO of Combat Mission more and definitely like being able to replay turns. I could see myself enjoying very tiny battles in Graviteam say 1-4 tanks and a small section of infantry. It would appear larger battles it would be hard to keep track of things and it becomes a clickfest? To some degree it reminds me of the Wargame series which I never could get into. Only time will tell if Graviteam turns into another $$$ spent that I never play. i put it aside for the moment-I started Meijel Mayhem as FB battle and down loaded KGr Von Schroif

Smoke was my friend but also have to be aware it can work both ways and can also screen the German AT assets which may not be a good thing. My flame Sherman got lucky and knocked out one of the Stugs. Definately use the armored car assets the canister rounds are lethal and if you can get them in a position to safely unbutton the 50 cals are effective against infantry. Using 2 man scouts in half tracks that lacked a gunner and keeping them back and spraying buildings and other positions also helped. Even the XO got into the act and was used to man the 50. Most of the half tracks and jeeps had bazookas. Make sure you grab them as well as extra ammo. You need the extra ammo if you're going to be doing a lot of recon by fire.

How is it? It looks nice but other than that I don't know much about it. Operation Muis seems like latest iteration. I think I once had it years ago as Operation Kharkov which I may have somewhere along with Tiger vs T-34 which I never played.

I managed a total victory but my engineers and 2 squads were very shot up. I also lost both of the Sherman flame tanks and a couple of half tracks. I stood at the edge of the forrest with the Shermans and did recon by fire on the buildings and places where I thought he German might be. I then put a section in a half track and moved it fast on the road to a building and had them run into a building. They got shot to pieces but they did their job-get the Germans to expose their positions so I could pour fire on them. Slowly moved Sherman forward where it was hit many times to no effect by the Inf guns. Be careful as any other vehicle including TDs are vulnerable to it and infantry will be slaughtered by them. Used direct and mortar fire called by Company commander to silence the inf guns. i used 1mortar section in direct fire mode. MG section also provided long range fire support. Once I got a foothold it was a slow grind to clear the place out. The flame tanks are great for cooking out defenders but you have to be careful of the AT weapons the German inf have. I ended up using half tracks as panzershreik and panzerfaust sponges. Be wary of the other stuff the Germans have as it can ruin your day...

There you have it. Guess old habits die hard from CM1 days. I could be racing around the map at full speed and not worry anymore.