db_zero

Smoke. Anything cheap and produces smokescreens will be valuable.

The Russian AT rifles if firing down from a higher elevation may do some damage to German tanks if the hit the thinner top armor. If you can get shots from a higher elevation from the rear quadrant even better. Can you buy AT mines...

My general rule is in open terrain tanks clear way and screen for the infantry. In built up areas the infantry clears way and screens the tanks. Not a 100% hard rule as there are times when you can break the rules. I once broke the rules using a King Tiger and sure enough it was immediately hit by a PIAT round that exploded harmlessly off its front hull. Had it been one of my Stugs it would have more than likely been cooked. In any even I made sure the KT beat a hasty retreat. No need to press my luck.

Everytime I got too aggressive with these I quickly lost them. Do not get into a close quarter battle with AGs or even tanks. Be patient let your opponent expose areas he is willing to contest and snipe at long range.

Whats the HE load of the SU76? Buildings become death traps for infantry when cannons are used against them. Just make sure you use infantry to screen and protect armored vechicles. I have a h2h game going and if it wasn't for my assault guns and 1 tank I would have a near impossible task dislodging the Paras from their urban defensive positions. I've also used tanks to great effect in another h2h urban battle. Mortars I find useful too. Under 120mm may not be highly effective on infantry in strong buildings, but if you're patient they are murderous if used in direct fire mode on infantry scurrying in the open which often happens in urban battles when moving to new positions.

I'm playing this h2h so the setup is different. I forgot to unhide my Russian defenders so it started out going against me, but may have worked out to my advantage. The 45mm AT guns are quite effective against Mark IVs which was a little surprising to me. The German armored cars are taking a real beating. Panthers are as expected difficult to deal with. I hope I get some reinforcements or I may get overrun.

I'm not a stats person so this sort of stuff doesn't freak me out. As I said elsewhere-as much as we'd like to think of ourselves as great commanders most play like Romans and gladiator matches. 2 opponents enter the ring and get what they want. Lots of action, blood and guts. Its been said before. Most players are blood thirsty.

Unity of Command or Command Ops may be what your seeking. Also look at HPS. The have some decent operational level games.

I might disagree a bit with the contention that by 44 all nations were about the same in quality and combat effectiveness. Some of the American units at the Bulge were very green and ineffective. Germans fielded all sorts of units of varying effectiveness. The Americans replacement system is a matter of debate over effectiveness and I think the Germans had a different philosophy in regards to replacing losses. Don't know much about the Russians practice.

How easy would it be for anyone to pick up and use a flamethrower if he wasn't fimilar with it. We're both nen in FT team fully trained in its use. How much does the tank and whole system weigh and isn't it strapped to the user? Might be difficult to take it off a wounded person easily.

As others have said avoid the temptation to jump in and fight the big battles if you're not familiar. There are multiple layers/games in CM. Tiny, small, medium, large and huge battles. The bigger battles is not only about the tactical side of things, but also the Operational Art of battle. Movement to contact, probing, deception and a wide array of other factors come into play.

You're right it is short duration. I gave the Soviets 40% boost. I killed a bunch of T-34's and a IS-1 and thought I was going to get an easy victory. I'm now holding on for dear life. 1 Hetzer and 75 mm AT gun and some infantry left. I notice the T-34's have canister rounds. Nasty.

Started another QB-so far I'm impressed. I noticed in the 2 QB's I played the AI uses artillery and the force selection is interesting. I also notice artillery creates a lot of smoke and dust in effect creating a de-facto smoke screen. I don't recall seeing this in the Normandy and Italy modules. I may be mistaken and some of my games have been in weather conditions like rain that may have played a role, but has anyone else noticed this? The more and more I play EF the more and more I'm impressed. When will all these enhancements make its way to Normandy and Italy?

Some of the things I learned and correct me if I'm mistaken... I sometimes get the temptation to position support weapons like AT guns, MG and tanks to maximize their long distance capabilities and ability to cover a wide area. That often is a mistake. A smart player will do a through terrain analysis to deduct likely hiding places. Its often better to place these weapons where they can ambush an advancing opponent. This may mean giving up the long range fire capability and and ability to cover a wide area-you may only be covering a short distance and small area, but anything that comes into this area will be eviscerated. Being on the attack doesn't always mean you have to advance and be on the attack. Ambush is often the best offensive tactic and if you can maneuver in such a way to compel your opponent to put himself in a position to get ambushed is always a good thing. No matter how small or large the force always maintain a reserve.

Posted this elsewhere. Not CM specific, but still useful. http://www.2ndbn5thmar.com/dm/CCMWorkbookMcBreen2002.pdf

Don't know that is what it says and doesn't say any more-this is from the World Tank Museum illustrated reference book-a very fine piece of work. From the looks of the reference and illustrations it looks like it may be in the context of the problems with engine overheating and the automatic fire extinguisher system which was supposed to automatically come on if that happens malfunctioned-which was often was the case. I'm also now wondering if that was another reason to try and attack a Panther from the rear. Not only is the armor weakest, but it you tilted the tank slightly upwards from the rear the fuel tanks would explode-the illustration sorta implies that. The heat from the engine was piped via fan system on top of the engine grill into the crew compartment to heat the tank-don't think that would be very pleasant if a flamethrower was used against it. All sorts of other interesting tidbits about the Panther and other tanks in this book.

IIRC-from my model building days I remember a Revell T-34 I built that had 2-4 long cylindrical cans on the rear sides. I thought they were gas cans that could be jettisoned or they could have just been storage bins.

Doing a quick look between games and errands. Saw something interesting-when the Panther G was tilted the gas tanks exploded. Have no idea what that is about...

Most if not all tanks have engine covers that allowed for some sort of ventilation for the engines and I would imagine like a car had plenty of rubber tubing for fluids so I can't imagine getting hosed with a flamethrower would be good for it. I would also guess the engine would be covered in gunk and fluids that could ignite. I also think the Panther has some sort of fuel storage or some other very vulnerable spot in the rear that was an aimpoint tankers were instructed to aim for. Some tanks carried extra gas in jerry cans or even fuel tanks that could be jettisoned. Question may be how much time and effort would BF need to rectify any weakness in the game to cover something so rare in real life. May be other more pressing things to worry about? And really just how common and often were fts used in Europe?

I haven't been able to dig up a reliable reference and what I have found isn't reliable so I'll have to say I was mistaken and bought the urban myth... Speaking of urban myths iirc a source I once read mentioned the blast effect from a FAE approached that of a tactical nuke. Does that sound about right or would that too fall under the category of urban myth? I am going to continue to look for the reference to the collapse lungs stuff, I have a ton of books, magazines and other reference material lying around. Speaking of reference material. I swooped in and won a bid on Ebay for a lot of S&T mags at a very cheap price. I got the mags and in it I found something interesting. Its a map labeled "OBERSALBERG Hitler's Residential Area 1923-1945" On the bottom it has AFRC T-200 also has No 13389 Information gathered by the Berchtesgarden Recreation Area March MCMLXIV Engineer Section. Interesting map...

Let me see what I can dig up when I get home. I thought I recall reading that in one of my old reference material. In all honesty I may have confused it with fuel air explosives or something else.

I have the suspicion some have some tricks they learned the hard way but keep it under wraps and classify it as operational secrets. That being said there are some good tips here. You'd be surprised at the bodies of your enemy you find when you advance that you never saw previously...

I've seen a boxes version by Paradox for $1.99 at used book stores and I'm sure you could do a google search and find it. Don't know about how you would upgrade and patch it. IIRC you could purchase some patch from BF for $10, but don't know if that's still an option.

Experience plays a big role from what I've experienced in h2h play. In Devils Hill I was wary as the attacker due to past experience, but was surprised at how I was winning most of the firefights when attacking. When I looked at my unit stats. I saw just how seasoned my troops were. I do agree with OP who mentioned the lack of tac AI when it comes to troops moving in heavely wooded area hurts as they do move in column-I posted this a while back as I had a unit that suffered badly because of this in DH.

Be interesting to see results of FT vs HT with a load of infantry. You would think the infantry being transported would get cooked and panic.