Chibot Mk IX

I also noticed that a while ago https://community.battlefront.com/topic/138840-night-combat-friendly-fire-casualty-caused-by-hmg/

My Zergling rush failed miserably. I probably create a record. Before the end of turn 3 I lost all four tanks plus five full loaded BTRs (and all the platoon leaders are gone). My opponent put most of his firepower on one wing so that caught me in the open. On the other side, my AT-4 platoon was troubled by gun smoke and bad luck, so they only achieved 5 kills (1 tank+2 M150+2 M113) before expending 80+% of their ATGMs. I hit surrender after that..... If gives another chance, I am thinking a deliberate, slow advance plan for Soviets player. Let the US player rush to the VP, Soviets will attack at the later half of the game and claim two of the VPs. That requires a firebase buildup on the left wing, and need smoke to cover the final assault. Ahhh.... Sorry, didn't see this until now. I have hit surrender during my Soviet game before the new year eve. My US game also ends, my opponent hit surrender yesterday, so I guess we are even now. Proud to be the first one finish Round 1......

Scenario Czechmate has some Bradleys, although it is the M3 version from 2nd ACR I think the Dragon is underestimated here. With a clear FOV, Dragon can achieve 66% hit rate. Probably that means nothing to a T-64B, but to T-55/T-62 and soft skin BMP/BTRs that is deadly, so in many cases you can just make it hold fire, manually select soft skin AFV as its primary target. Dragon is also the only ATGM that can both see and fire through the smoke. A well placed smoke and a salvo of Dragon ATGM can turn the table. When not shooting, you can just use it as a scout assets, team up with tanks. They should spread the spotting information with unbuttoned tanks very quickly. Short range could be an issue. Especially considering many of the CMCW scenarios have very large maps. So you will need M113 or a Jeep as the platform to maneuver. Just think about these scenarios 1, in a large map deploy 4-5 dragon teams forward as a screen. When Soviets forward elements show up. If it is recon force, you can destroy it before it reveals your Tanks and TOW ATGM position. If what you meet is soviets' main effort, fine, fire the ATGM then jump on the M113 that is waiting behind. Retreat toward the main defense line and spread the information through radio network. Enemy retaliation fire will hit the empty ground 2, take the risk and send a Dragon ATGM + some other infantry team on a M113 infiltrate the enemy's flank. Hide in a patch of woods, identify the high value targets. the other infantry team deploy smoke grenade. Then the next turn Dragon ATGM open fire, taking a flank shot under the cover of smoke hopefully.

Watching the SACLOS ATGM slowly flying towards its target is the most the anxiety but super exciting experience in CM! Forgot about those fire-forgot ATGMs, those are sissy!

Bakhmut is just like the campaign of Malaya Zemlya (Little land). Irrelevant to the Eastern Front, but to the great leader Brezhnev's reputation that is everything. Russian is hurt by lacking a new generation ATGM that can be assigned/reinforced to Platoon and Squad level. On UKR side, they have Javelin at Company, NLAW at Platoon, then mixed with RPG-7, Panzerfaust and disposable AT rocket launchers that is a lot of "pikes" in their ranks. Any "Caverly charge" won't end well in the wall of pikes like this With all the available video, it gives people an impression that Russian used their ATGMs just like how UKR used their Stugna-P, engaged in long range hunting kills mission. It might effectively build some pressure on UKR side, prevent UKR to deploy the AFV too forward. In some other infantry skirmisher video, I remember saw several cases that the overrun RUS position have one ATGM. So, it is likely the Russian's forward defense position can be reinforced with a 9M111 or 9K115. Overall it seems that during the Kherson campaign, most of the UKR AFV lose was caused by mines and artillery. When the nimble UKR tank raid team (1-2 tanks + some armored cars) infiltrated the Russian position, Russian ATGM had a hard time to catch them. Regarding the training. Hundreds pages ago, someone (maybe it was Grigb?) mentioned that it will be very hard to get the trained radiomen and ATGM operators into the frontline. That was discussed before Sept mobilization. BTW, where are the mobile ATGM platforms like Khrizantema-S and Shturm-S? So far I only saw one BRDM anti tank version fired its 9M113. Even MT-12 Anti-tank guns have more video on them.

it has been a while since I played this scenario, but I remember I concentrated all the force on the right wing Sent 1-2 scout team to peek over the ridge. Then "one two three, on my mark", all the PzG infantry team leap forward (I split the squad into teams), in the meantime all the sdkfz 251 dash forward and area fire partisans' position.

Hmmm, just noticed that Dragon's speed is also about 160m/s

Thanks for the info. So they went back to the glory days of WW II Soviet Sapper tactics (and Sturmtrupp tactics) ?

Or gambling on one wing. Zergling rush! How to check your opponent's email address? I would like to have a direct contact with my opponent, so that I can let him know just in case I am away from games for couple days. Thx

+1

Ahhh, crap, that hurts. I usually play CM on a laptop. That laptop is a very popular item in my family during holiday season. My wife and kids love to use that laptop to watch movie and TV show. And it is very hard to find 4 continuous hours to finish the planning and deployment. Party, friends and family are going to occupy most of the time. On the bright side, these are relatively small size scenarios, company size battles. But the first couple turns still need a lot of time Looks like I got to run the CM on a low-end desktop in the basement. Keep the game running all day. Issue order to one squad at a time, whenever I can spare time in the basement. Hopefully kids don't press the power button when I am away from the desk ************************************ I took half day off, spent 3 hours at home and finished my US game first turn. Hopefully I can finish my mirror game's first turn tomorrow.

Hi , I am not very familiar with how the CM games work in PBEM++ server. Last night I opened the turn 1 file, spend some time to deploy the 1st platoon and plot the waypoints for them. Hit save, go to bed. This morning I loaded the save file, all my work on deployment and waypoints are gone. So PBEM++ doesn't support save game? Thank you

CMCW US 1979 campaign mission 3. The Soviets Motorized Rifle Battalion (BMP) has been totally annihilated before they reached their first objective. It's a great victory, but reading the wounded to killed ratios is a shocking. 310 KIA vs 9 WIA. Is that normal in a modern mechanized warfare?

Thanks for the heads up. I got to be extremely cautious when I play this scenario Maybe George MC put a bunch of Elite +2 T-34/85 on the map? lol Maybe he put recon platoons hiding in some forward position (Soviet recon plt leader has radio). Company CO sit together with Tank Bn CO so any spotting information can be shared with two branches. I played some PBEM involve long range engagement between Pz IV and T-34/85. So I would say, Pz IVs are the underdogs here. 7.5cm kwk40 is a powerful gun in 1943 but in 1944 era it has some problem to penetrate T-34/85’s turret (especially when Soviets tanks are coming in an angle, the AP could hit the side turret armor at a small angle impact). 85mm are as accurate as 88mm at long range. When they hit, your Pz IV is dead. The long range gun fight in CMx2 WW2 title seems to be too accurate. I remember in CMBB it will usually take 3-5 shots to hit a tank size target at 1000m (initial hit rate range between 25%-33%, then with each shot slowly improves to 70%), in CMx2, it needs only two shots. At 1500m, 3 shots then it begins to hit. So the long range engagement can be decided in less than one turn. Everything will be over before you have a chance to revise your plan. My strategy to increase the Pz IV's chance to win is: Pz IVs park behind the cover, PzG inf move forward, identify the target, share the information with Panzer formation. ID some keyhole position, or use smoke screen to isolate part of the T-34/85 force. The target is to bring a superior firepower to engage a small portion of T-34/85 at each time Move PzIV forward, better to have at least 3 IVs to engage one T-34/85. Of course, it is easy to say than done.

feel bad for you. I haven't got a chance to try this one, but felt that sending the panzergrenadiers forward first for the spotting duty should be a better solution.

"One thing I learned in Vietnam is how vulnerable feet are, both in cold and tropical climes." Wait, how old is he? He must be in his 60s.... A while ago , I did alot of CMBS QB battles . Tiny to small force on a large map. dense forest. Infantry heavy scenarios with no more than 2 AFVs on both sides. It was like a green hell. Battles in forest are devastating. I am wondering what it looks like if we port some of the CMRT scenarios into CMBS. Dead of Night, The Woroblin Bridgehead, Dawn Patrol, AD Interlock OP. Oh yeah, don't forget "Garden of the Iron Cross". These are small scale scenarios focused on infantry actions on a rough terrain. They are fit into current war theme

Ahhh, good to know, thx

Mission "Dollbach Height". yes, my bad. That is Mission 4. I think I got the answer. The Mission's map direction setting is not correct. After reading the Soviets mission brief from standalone mission "Dollbach Height", I think their plan is looking like this Attacking towards Uttrichshausem. The road on the map is A7 and it is a north-west to south-east direction.

Why the Soviets takes a west to east direction? Are they retreating due to the defeat at Neuhof? Or attacking towards an unexpected direction?

That's brilliant! SOSUS , The Sound Surveillance Sonar array System come into my mind. Yes, the more of these devices the better, as the target can be triangulated. I guess Ukrainian engineer should have already know that, even with the bearing itself it should be able to calculate the coordinates and course. If a target can be quickly classified with sound signature then we will know the speed. Then distance and course can be calculated with the bearing rate changes. Right now the sensor is in a shortage, but later it will running out of cellphone towers to install the device. Maybe in the future the engineer can explore the option, hanging the sensors on a balloon?

US 79 campaign mission 3, a M150 detected a BRDM at 3200m. It took gunner 6 seconds to aim the target. a TOW missile fired at 58:51, hit the target at 58:31. 20 seconds flight time. Average speed is 160m/s. Does that sound correct? I have seen a lot of reference put TOW's max speed at 320m/s, average speed at 250m/s

looks like the bug has been fixed with the latest patch.

Yes, I am aware of that. And I hope the future engine can provide los tools based on different elevation level. Like I mentioned at the last part. After reviewing the save file, I believe this tragic event (to me) is caused by a small gap between the woods. The gap is no more than 1 action spot. See the pic below. Although it doesn't show a light blue los line, the "Reverse Slope - no aim point" line indicates a clear LOS can exists between two AFVs. I haven't talked to my opponent, but from next few turns I believe he has 2 T-34/85 in that section, one of them just arrived in the spot circled in red. It stopped there, detected and destroyed my JPzIV in the same turn. What a bad luck.....

Thanks for the tips George That’s what I did for most part of the game, put infantry in the front to be the eyes and ears. Identify Soviets main thrust then share the information through radio network. Unbuttoned JPzIV station behind, keep looking for some good fire position, move in, wait for Soviets get into the ambush zone, take flank shot, then smoke out and maneuver to the next fire position. In this PBEM game my JPzIVs took out 7x T-34/85s, only two penetrated through front, the other five were taken out by flank shots. However the imbalance of this scenario plu some pure bad luck and missteps smash my resistance ability pretty quickly. Now it is getting close to the end of the game, I guess it will end with German side minor to major defeat. I want to also add some other tips, you got to find a hull down position for JPz IV. There are several problems of JPz IV. First , it’s low silhouette doesn’t give it any concealment advantage in CM. I did couple tests in Mission Editor, looks like there is a very high chance T-34/85 will spot JPzIV first (they are setting at the same experience level, both keep at station, unbuttoned). Then, Second, CM’s long range tank duel is very likely to ended with hits on low hull part. For JPzIV, that fatal possibilities seem to be very high. I have seen majority of 1000m duel ended with 1st round 85mm fell short, then 2nd round penetrate through low hull, kill everyone inside the JPzIV. However, even assume JPzIV is in a hull down position, it is not immune to a quick, un-recoverable damage. It has fragile gun, anything hit the gun mantle will cause a damaged gun. In my experience, anything hit upper part will have 50% to damage the gun. So for German player, you should avoid the exchange fire with Soviet tanks fleet. Fire couple shots, smoke out, retreat. But that leads to another problem of JPzIV, poor mobility. It moves as slow as a snail. When you are still half-way to the next defense line, the T-34/85s have outflank your position already.

Actually, you can use the combination of pause and withdraw/fast order to make a poor-man's shoot & scoot command But I also hope shoot-and-scoot be added into future CM game (Isn't this command in CMx1?)