SpeakEasy

The 380 mm Sturmtiger.....where do I purchase it in the quickbattle menu? I don't see it as an option when I go to purchase individual vehicles. There's only the 150mm sturmpanthers.

This game looks so good. The Russians and the terrain as well as every other nuance are superbly done. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of CMRT. It's been my dream to get a next generation CMBB for years.

You gotta love the Soviets

Thank you all for the input. I was not looking to get into very many specifics with my inquiry. In hind site I could have worded my question differently. What I wanted to know was basically, what are the chances of the 76mm, 85mm, 122mm, and 152mm being able to penetrate the front armor of the common German AFVs such as PZIV, Panther, Tiger, or Stug at typical in-game distances (say between 500-1000m)? Perhaps what I am asking is impossible to answer without getting into a bunch of details. It seems thus far that the 76mm is roughly equivalent to the US 75mm of the Sherman, and that the 152mm can kill even the big cats if it can get a hit.

With Red Thunder close to making its way off the production lines, I was wondering how capable Russian AFVs are at dealing with German Armor. At first sight, many of the guns utilized on Russian AFVs have much larger calibers than the Allied guns commonly seen in CMBN. The typical Allied AFVs sport 75mm, 76mm, and 105mm calibers, whereas the stock Russian guns of T-34s, IS tanks, and ISUs are much larger at 76mm, 85mm, 122mm and even 152mm. At first glance, one would draw the conclusion that Russians tanks were much better equipped to reliably penetrate German armor compared their western counterparts. However, I don't believe that the caliber of the gun is the best indicator of armor piercing capability. For instance, I've read on Wikipedia or somewhere that the Russian 122mm gun could not reliably penetrate the frontal armor of a panther, but I've read posts in the forum that suggest otherwise. Does anyone know how effective Russian AFV guns were at penetrating frontal armor of German tanks?

Holein, which mission were you playing when this happened? I bet we were playing the same one. I don't remember the name, but you have a couple platoons of US paratroopers that are retreating from a German attack. You're tasked with taking up position in a small town/compound of buildings to hold back the Germans until a third platoon arrives off your right flank and you have to exit all of your units off the map before being enveloped. There are several German armored vehicles/halftracks that draw the fire of the paratrooper mortars regardless of their target orders.

I can actually confirm this because it just happened to me in the last Road to Njmegen campaign scenario I played. Of course, I do not have a save file to support this.

Bil is keenly aware of the status of his SMG troops' ammunition. As such he is taking precautions to avoid spending too much of it during these early phases of the battle. However, I am sure he wishes those trucks had SMG ammunition. Just like his AA halftracks in the market garden beta AAR, he is cripple by the BETA build.

Baneman, I don't believe that the SU's or ISU's used AP shells. IIRC they destroyed German armor using their massive HE shells. Given that, I presume that all the SU's and ISU's have AT capabilities.

That's quite alright, Bill. Regardless of the absence of a pre-planned rocket barrage I am VERY excited about this game as well as this AAR. Besides, I can always just get the game myself and play with the katyusha.

I am a huge fan of the katyusha, so I will be a very happy camper if some rocket artillery makes an appearance at any point in this battle.

I am interested to see what your additional defensive measure is that protects the covered avenue guarded by team Y. As always, great AAR Bill. I very much enjoy the breakdown in tactics. It is very helpful to the common CMBN player.

I do infantry only attacks in QBs as well, which has caused me great pain in H2H pbem battles. I just began playing human opponents recently and am finding that my infantry tactics are strong, but my armor tactics are an absolute joke. It'll take me a few more games before I learn how to use my AFVs. It seems the only place to learn effective combined arms tactics is in the H2H realm because of the ease with which AI AFVs are destroyed in QBs.

I agree that QBs have been improved since the initial release of CMBN, but the AI for tanks is still lacking, IMO. Regardless of this, I still have a very good time playing QBs.

Great AAR video, Odin. I really enjoyed watching it. It is edited very well. Keep putting up reminders for when you upload new ones.

James Crowley, If you want 100% realism, the game has given it to you. It has realistically enforced the tactical mistake of placing a buttoned tank up against a bocage with no support infantry scouting to see what is on the other side of that bocage.

I just unloaded on a german halftrack with a squad of elite and crack American glider infantry from 250m out. The halftrack gunner was not killed and was also able to return fire while the halftrack backed into a forest and out of LoS of my men. I was impressed with the survival of the gunner. I'm very happy that these gunners are not as vulnerable with the patch.

I have all of your previous American Sherman mods. For these to work in my games will I have to delete the V1 of each American Sherman mod that we have from our Z folder?

I only play as the attacker in QBs and I match the map with the battle type (if it says "Allied attack" I'll play as the allies as the attacker and select the germans as the defender) and still I have this problem. I wonder: could this issue be occurring because I am selecting the AI defender forces and not allowing it to be generated by to AI? I wonder if there are specific force compositions tied to each AI battle plan for the QB maps, and by selecting the AI's forces for them I may be straying from these compositions and causing the AI to abandon its preset battleplan for the map?

What's going on with this AAR? I was following it closely, but it seems to have stopped. Is this going to get picked back up?

In my most recent QB I did match the type of action to the QB map and still ran into the problem. I'll dig up some maps where I have encountered this problem.

Sometimes when I set up a QB attack as the attacker and the AI is the defender the AI will not deploy properly. The AI will deploy at the edge of its own side of the map and then attack from those positions after about 25 minutes of gameplay. Does anybody else have this issue? Is there a way to avoid the AI acting this way?

I too was drawn to Combat Mission games by a PC Gamer article. It was basically an AAR and a review wrapped into one for CMBB.

Anyone else having trouble viewing some of these screenies?

I am posting this thread to figure out what artillery assets most people bring to a QB battlefield. I find myself trying to figure out specifically what I should bring to a QB every time I am in the unit purchase screen. If I'm the Americans I'll typically bring medium mortars (2 tubes) and a battery of 105's. If I'm the Germans I'll take the heavy mortars and probably some medium mortars. I seemingly have stuck to these four artillery assets since beginning to play this game and was wondering if people out there fall into the same category as me, or if they utilize different artillery assets (maybe they take air support or use US 150mm howitzers) and have found them to be more effective than the standard combo of 81mm mortars and 105mm howitzers. Also, what do people playing the Britts use? I understand that 88's are the bread and butter.