db_zero

Really...how hard can it be to just say you earned the money and you're entitled to spend it as you see fit. What's the worst thing that could happen?

I've had h2h games where I got 5-10 additional turns beyond the time limit. Other games they ended at precisely when the time limit expired. I have no idea how this was determined. Whats the old saying? There are 2 war fronts. The actual battlefield itself and whats really going on there and the Potomac Front-the one the politicians and media dictate.

The biggest bang I've seen was when my Sherman 105 got hit by a MarkIV and KABOOM!! My entire flat screen monitor looked like a sun burst and any troops near it panicked.

I never regarded ALB as a serious military simulator. Sounds like the pause feature has still not been implemented. I spend many a night playing Age of Kings against a friend and its was a blast. By the time it was over we De-forrested the entire map so twitch games can be fun. Still some sort of pause for ALB would be nice as its can be mufti-dimensional. I always argued to the "war doesn't have a pause button" crowd on the ALB board that while that may be true, that in ALB you have armored, mech infantry, artillery and AA units and in real life a commander has a staff to help manage all of the separate arms while in ALB you're doing everything... Still it looks good...

I was just about to say that as well as the fact they were great "pack mules". 90% of the time was just boredom and surviving and anything that could transport the necessities of survival as well as anything you could scrounge up was seen as valuable. The reason they kept them out of harms way was probably just as much to not see their prized possessions get trashed as it was to the fact they were vulnerable. References have been made the most prized possession on M3's was the Coleman burner. Lost of the pack mule had serious morale repercussions.

Im baffled by the "better protection for gunner" part. Seems like he was pretty exposed in some variants. I don't think they all have Piats. Glorified Volkswagens that don't float.

I myself find them pretty useless. If CW infantry could take the mounted Bren gun with them to supplement their pitiful firepower I'd see them in a different light. They were very well loved in RL.

Anyone here played recently? I have ALB, but haven't played it much. I haven't been in the forums lately and when I first got it I thought the single player campaign game was weak and I really wanted a pause button as I got tired of the clickfest nature of the game. I know there was a debate about putting a pause button and the designers seemed reluctant to do so... Yet in spite of the "lifebars" and other less than gronard features the game subject matter interested me and with the pending Red Dragon release it seems like it be good eye candy cheap porn type of game. I may have to fire it up again. I haven't tried the online play yet, but I may have to try it out.

Medieval period rocks. I would love a battle based game with more meat than the Total War or Stronghold series. H2H with an attacker storming a castle or fort could be a lot of fun as would battles in the open field. How hard would hand to hand be to program? A Red Bull weekend or 2?

October 1st.

Why not just get medieval and do that period and the Roman Empire period too?

Bill is known. CK3 is a mystery to me. I think much may depend on the structure of the challenge. If the Germans are mandated to close in quickly on an objective that is in densely covered terrain that may spell trouble. If the Germans are free to manuver not mandated to quickly close in then its a different situation.

+10 Viet-Nam would be better. The 73 Arab-Israeli conflict would also be my number one choice. You had the Suez and Golan Heights and overall would be an interesting fight. The Israelis were better skilled, but Arab morale and effectiveness was much improved over 67. The Israeli doctrine was based on the last war-67. The Arabs learned from their past and implemented plans and tactics that extracted a high price until the Israelis changed their approach. Could really make for a great linked campaign approach where as the Israeli side you have to be very mind full of your losses.

Sure we'll just shell and gas one another for hours... You know people will be clamoring for gas...

Making sense or the American Industrial Military Complex is an exercise in futility. Base realingment is another exercise in futility.

We could go back and forth on this one... I think we needs the game already...

If I'm not mistaken Lebanon became what some labeled Israel's Vietnam and produced a lot of dissent. Just as well the militas didn't put up a more coordinated and fierce fight as it could have been quite bloody in built up terrain with lots of civilians. There were reports of Merkava tank crews panicking on a few occasions when faced by Syrian choppers armed with second generation ATGMs.

I think by this period the German Army on the EF was largely an ad hoc affair. Groups were formed, dissolved and reformed at will and any TOE was disregarded. The German soldier knew the war was lost, but also sensed what lay next if and when the Russians got to the homeland, that produced a different type of fanaticism and willingness to be flexible. I was also thinking along the lines of picking up a weapon from a dead soldier and using it until you ran out of ammo and just throwing it aside. There was no shortage of bodies with weapons on the EF and just pointing a smg and shooting in the general direction of the enemy to lay down suppressive fire is quite useful and effective in a short distance firefight.

I also suspect by this time a lot more German troops were using the Russian SMGs than what is depicted in the documentary footage. I bet alot would have a Kar98 and carted a Russian SMG if they came across one.

Too bad the Germans don't have MP44 units or do they?

I was expecting something like don't s*** in the woods. Are we talking about Soviet SMG units? IIRC they had SMG batallions/companies. Something unique to their Army. What about normal units that used rifles or not so extensively equiped with SMGs. My h2h experience with fighting in heavily wooded terrain is it's slow, bloody and like urban combat significantly weighted towards the defender all else being equal.

I would guess a coordinated attack of tanks, infantry and aggressive use of Hanomags or M3s could be very effective. Relative balance of forces being in account. Like any other attack, proper recon would be critical. You could and should expect the tracks to suffer regardless. There was a reason why you saw during the Lebanon incursions after 73, M113s being covered in blow out armor blocks and being coordinated with tanks. The trend has been towards APC s to become like tanks. The Bradley weighs as much as WW2 Sherman.

I'll disagree to a degree. The surplus M3s were extensively used in 56/67. By 73 when the M113s were used the M3s were for the most part used by support and reservists. The M113s sprouting all those machine guns was in response to the Arabs effective use at the beginning of the 73 war of sagger and rpg tank hunting teams. After the 67 war the Israeli army became tank dominated and the mech infantry and artillery neglected. They paid a heavy price for the imbalance when their initial tank heavy charges got chopped up. Quickly realizing this they rebalanced and started putting Machine guns on M113 and coordnating them with tank and artillery. The MGs were used to lay down suppressive fire to distract sagger crews who had to fly their atgms using a joystick controller.

Thats true and usually at the end of the game when one side basically breaks down HTs are great for running down broken stragglers and machine gunning the fleeing pixeltroopen.

I hardly play anything else once I started playing h2h. I also ditched cableTV because I played so much. Now I have 60 gig internet and roku/netflix and save $100 a month because I ditched cable tv and I don't miss it one bit.