Hapless

That's some pretty impressive hearing: being able to identify the engine noise of a distant enemy tank over the sound of your own engine. Maybe it's the same kind of ridiculous myth that keeps generating unrealistic expectations about the effectiveness of German heavy armour.

That's some pretty impressive hearing: being able to identify the engine noise of a distant enemy tank over the sound of your own engine. Maybe it's the same kind of ridiculous myth that keeps generating unrealistic expectations about the effectiveness of German heavy armour.

It's Getting Bloody
I'm sad to report the Lieutenant @Hapless is no longer with us. He took a stray burst of machine gun fire observing the situation from his PzIV cupola. More on that shortly but first here's the current situation...

KG DoubleD and KG @Josey Wales have had their roles reversed. There are now at least 2x T34's covering Elvis' objective so sending across a bunch of armoured cars became a touch dicey. The two panzers from KG DoubleD is moving across to the far right of the map while the armoured cars take up positions to cover the north south main road in the centre right of the map. Honestly, I was incredibly shocked to see this road was open to quickly went to lock it down. A lend lease Sherman popped smoke and tried to cross but was taken out by the JzPzIV's.


A second Sherman appeared and the armoured cars with their 75mm guns opened fire. The rounds went slightly over it's head! The Sherman then methodically popped all four armoured cars from KG Josey Wales. Josey himself is alright but and is moving forward with the second half of his KG.




Meanwhile, KG @Bootie sends up an AT team to try and pop the Sherman but comes under fire. Well... that was close.

Meanwhile in the south, KG @Hapless exchanges fire with another T34. The PzIII with it's short 75mm gets a number of hits and causes at least one crew casualty but they lack the penetration capacity to do any noticeable damage. As the T34 is backing up, a burst of MG fire takes out Hapless himself. It was honestly a great shot, a stream of bullets arcing over the PzIII to hit the unlucky tank commander in the vehicle behind. Second image below is Hapless' last moments.

Meanwhile KG @mjkerner sends up another squad of fallschirmjager to flank the Soviet SMG platoon and takes them fully by surprise. Mjkerner's troops are holding, exposing minimal numbers to the enemy from a forward platoon, while a flexible reserve platoon as moving to engage where it's safe(r) to do so.

 
As the last turn comes to an end, another juicy target shows up in front of the JzPzIV's. Mmmm... maybe Elvis doesn't know that KG DoubleD is on this right flank???

 
 
 
 

I just stick a load of screenshots together... it takes a while!

I have considered making some kind of database, but it's a pretty daunting, time-consuming enterprise. Even more so if done accurately and comprehensively.

The Fighting Erupts

 
The Situation

(Sorry quality appears to have got hit pretty hard this time for the map)
BFCElvis appears to to be concentrating on the southern edge of the map. Only having the one armour piece (a "Bedspring" T34-85) overwatching Obj Jaegermesiter is both welcome but also has me nervous. I've only spotted I'd say a company's worth of infantry and a handful of tanks but I've fgot eyes covering two thirds of the map. Did he use reinforcements or is there a tonne of infantry hiding in buildings just waiting for me? It's the unknown that's killing me. I've managed to lock down all the main streets on my side of the map with some form of AT coverage. Elvis is going to have to commit at some point and hit hard to bust his way through. Oh and then there is this...

 
What Our Boys Are Up To
KG @mjkerner (blue) is taking on the brunt of the fight at present as the Soviets push through withering German tank fire with sufficient numbers to still sting. Soviets up close are outlaying more small arms fire than the Fallschirmjager squads in close combat. There are casualties on both sides but if KG @Hapless (green) wasn't present it would likely be a cake walk for the Soviets. Hapless' Panther is also being a real nuisance, moving forward to lay a few rounds into a building to take out a squad in two shots before ducking back behind cover. Has also managed to take out a SU-100 laden with a full squad of troops. The PzIII is also causing real problems for the Soviet infantry and giving the Fallschirmjager a fighting chance. Casualty rate I'd estimate it is about 2:1 in my favour at this stage.
KG @Josey Wales (pink) is fast moving into position to move across the north side of the map. Relying on their speed I'm actually hoping they are spotted and distract Elvis. If I can split his attention and most importantly his armour, taking some pressure off the KG Hapless and KG Mjkerner in the south it's a win. If they manage to take out the "Bedspring" T34. It's a bonus. The other half of the KG remains back in my deployment zone as a reserve.
KG @DoubleD (yellow) has given up trying to take down the building as it's built with... solidified bedrock from the earth's core. It simply isn't dropping. The JzPzIV's will continue to cover the main road while the PzIV and Panther are split off to support KG Josey Wales. I'm confident Elvis is pushing all of his armour south so time to outnumber him from the north.
KG @benpark  (orange) has split up. One platoon of pioneers his holding the centre of the map. It's my weakest area of coverage but the high numbers of SSTG44 and MP40's in these late war Pioneer squads makes up for the small numbers of men. If Elvis tries to head down the middle of the map I may not be able to hold for long but I'll know about it. The main part of Benpark's force is waiting for the order to expose themselves to Soviet observation, cross a main road and begin their assault on Jaegermeister.
KG @Bootie (white) and his Volkssturm continue to hold around the JzPzIV's giving them close cover but can provide some more rifles to KG Benpark if needed. Well then there are the 'scouts' from the last update. They weren't shot at and are still alive but I'm not confident in their spotting abilities given they have no binoculars. I wonder if old man poor eye sight is modeled in the game?
Some screenshots...
Alley of death - my side...

Alley of Death - his side.

It's a mixed bag for the Fallschirmjager.

Um, for those who wanted to see this in action...

... sorry.

Notice the puff of smoke near the building on the right side of the picture? The Panther's 75mm AP round went straight through.
We're dealing with a big timezone difference but still managing to pump out around 2 - 3 turns per day. Stick with us.

The Answers

1) G209I
2) G281E  (Lee Enfield)
3) MP3008
4) 640B
5) MG-15
6) G256R
7) G612R
Don't ask me what all those numbers mean. I'm not a gun grog. But I'm guessing the "I" is Italian and the "R" is Russian.

Small Update - The Shooting Starts
KG DoubleD exposes itself down the main street opening up on the building at the end of the street. The aim is to knock it down to see any movement going on behind it. 4x 75mm guns should do the trick in a minute or two. Any additional casualties caused are a bonus.

And it looks like one of the HE rounds impacts the side of a tank of some description. No smoke yet but a nice blind shot none the less!

Meanwhile the Soviets discover that I reached the Beer first! No confirmed casualties as KG Hapless keep shooting over their heads. Granted the PzIV is trying to shoot over the PzIII.

 
Meanwhile no further contacts on my far left (northern edge of the map) so I'm probing further towards Obj Jaegermesiter with some sacrificial lambs scouts.

5 Mins in Update

The Map (North is north this time around )

KG DoubleD has managed to get into position first and effectively cut the map in half for Soviet armour. There is a small back alley way around to avoid their line of fire but it will be traffic chaos for anything more than a platoon and slow BFCElvis down.
KGMjkerner and KG Hapless have have reached the Beer first! This I'm a little surprised at honestly as I thought the Soviets would be tank riding to the objective like I was. Plenty of arcs of fire for my AT weapons and KG DoubleD covers the only other known firing solutions to their left.
Given the situation, I'm throwing two thirds of KG Josey Wales into the fray. They will advance along the northern map edge and support KG Benpark in the future. This force will be the one to pressure KG Jagermeister from the north. I'll wait a little bit though as the big unknown for the moment is what has BFCElvis got coming at me from this approach.
Waiting game for a little while as I try to gather more intel.

I feel like the ammunition types might go some way to identfying the rifles- there's German, British and Italian in there.
No.3 looks like a Sten with the magazine on the bottom instead of the side.

Meet to Volkssturm
While we wait for the action to kick off let's play a game. Who can guess all the small arms in this UI screenshot? I've cobbled together a few UI elements here so no, this doesn't all belong to the one squad. Middle column are just more K98's.

 

(Budbaker has his comics… but I’m not an artist so expect memes)
Welcome to the Fire and Rubble German DAR as I take on BFCElvis and his pesky Soviets in a very late war May 1945 urban engagement in Berlin… and it’s somehow snowing. The war has effectively ended but my guys didn’t get the memo, so our adhoc combined arms force is going to push forward into no man’s land one last time.
The mission is a simple meeting engagement. Secure Objective Jägermeister and Objective Berliner Weisse, while holding our own starting Objective, codenamed Vodka. The Soviets deploy around Jägermeister.
The map is a very small slice of Benpark’s absolute monster 2x master maps covering the centre of Berlin. Honestly each master map with no units took my PC around 25 mins just to load in 3D preview mode. The part of Berlin we’ll be fighting over is towards the north east corner of the eastern map. If I’ve got my bearings right, I think we’re close to Alexander Platz and a hostel I stayed at back in 2017… I digress.

The map from above. Well... the right way up because I'm from Australia... (I took the picture looking south <facepalm>)

 
The forces…
To show off the variety of new kit I’ve done away with forming a coherent force for a little bit of everything. Command and control is going to suck.
These small forces are organised into small kampfgruppes of between a platoon to a company in strength.
KG @benpark – In honour of the mapmaker himself, he commands the central force which is a company of Waffen SS Pioneers with enough demolition charges to level a few of his meticulously placed buildings. Part of his force will however need to remain behind to cover Obj Vodka if it all falls apart. The bulk of the force will advance. (Benpark's force highlighted in the picture below).
KG @mjkerner – Commands the Fallschirmjager who will be the main infantry force trying to take and hold Obj Berliner Weisse. (Picture of the KG that will take the beer objective).
 

KG @Hapless – Will be working in tandem with KG Mjkerner to secure the beer. This adhoc Panzer Platoon (more on that later) includes a Panther, PzIV’s and a PzIII. Yep a PzIII. For all the grief I gave poor Steve I had to include at least one in the DAR.
KG @DoubleD – The other adhoc Panzer Platoon is kitted out with 2x JzPz IV/70’s (including one of the ugly versions), a Panther and a Panzer IV. They will be initially responsible to heading up my left flank to get into a good position to effectively cut the map in half. Oh and something new...
 

KG @Bootie – The local Volkssturm unit. Initially will be responsible to provide security to KG DoubleD who will be exposed in an urban environment.
KG @Josey Wales – The adhoc Armoured Car unit. Will be holding back for the moment but will be used as a mobile reserve depending on the situation. Oh and some weird ones...

And I’ve just noticed a bug. Every single unit is set to typical/default ‘Green’ experience. The joys of betas.
 
The Enemy
We’ve picked forces in the editor and not the quick battle generator so some variety can be included in the DAR – particularly on this side. Benpark has ensured it’s roughly balanced. I’m expecting a solid Battalion (+) of Soviet infantry coming at me and probably a company or more of tanks. Probably Lend Lease heavy….
We’ve sort of agreed to avoid major spending on off board assets and focus more on the visible units.
 
Da Plan
KG Mjkerner and Hapless have the initial glory as they race to secure Obj Berliner Weisse, (Green and blue). If Hapless can get his tanks into position first it will be a big help as we wait for the foot slogging infantry to catch up.
KG DoubleD probably has the most crucial task of trying to cut the map in two, (Red). That major street running through the centre of the map will be key. It’s closer to BFCElvis’ deployment zone so I’m expecting Soviet tanks to roll past it or already be on that road by the time I arrive. But if I can split up to Soviet armoured force or I’m real lucky and BFCElvis plays cautious and leads with his infantry DoubleD’s JzPzIV’s will have a field day.
KG Bootie (white) and his Volkssturm will cover KG DoubleD, while KG Benpark (orange) will advance with the intent of pressuring Jagermeister. KG Josey Wales will remain behind in the deployment zone ready to move to where he and his armoured cars are required. Either helping Benpark around Obj Jagermeister, or to backup Hapless and Mjkerner around Obj Berliner Weisse.
The map….

That’s about it for now. Feel free to post any queries below but obviously no promises that I’m allowed to answer anything. Also, the usual caveat that all screenshots you see here are taken from a beta so everything you see is subject to change. I’ll try to avoid the placeholder art where I can but who knows, maybe we’ll have purple Panzer IV’s in the final build.

I've been playing about with the LAV TUA from the NATO module and noticed a few things. The first one is almost certainly an animation error, the other two might be bugs depending on how the TUA works- I'm not 100% sure. It should all be pretty easy to replicate.

1. The driver's hatch seems to rotate on the wrong axis when it opens, flipping sideways instead of up:

2. I couldn't get the TUA to spot targets when aiming to the left or right using a target arc, but it would instantly spot targets when facing directing at them. It looked to me that gunner couldn't see through the optic on top of the launcher and could only see to his front.

3. The commander reloads the missile turret from his hatch in front of the launcher. It seems like it would be easier for the loader to do this through the much larger hatch at the rear of the vehicle, which is presumably there for this purpose. Both the commander and loader exit the vehicle via the rear ramp with the loader exiting first, so he's surely sat exactly where he needs to be to reload through that hatch.

In all likelihood it is a radio, yes. I just got overexcited about the possibility of a secret flamethrower.

That said... the box looks suspiciously similar to this:

In all likelihood it is a radio, yes. I just got overexcited about the possibility of a secret flamethrower.

That said... the box looks suspiciously similar to this:

Hi
I stumbled across these resources in researching map making for a campaign I'm building.
The detail of the Stavelot Town Plan is fantastic. If anyone has similar for towns and villages on Peiper's route including Malmedy for Skorzeny's attack and Trois Points I'd be grateful.
http://www.oldhickory30th.com/Stavelot PDF Map File.pdf
And
http://www.oldhickory30th.com/Maps.htm
Maps of  December 18th-25th action of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler (1st SS Panzer Division), Battle of the Ardennes, from the LAH unit history books, German archives, BA-MA Freiburg, Germany. 
If anyone has access to the 16th/17th for the above, I would really appreciate it.
Found these useful from the late 1890's.
http://www.deutschefotothek.de/documents/obj/71056459/df_dk_0010001_5502
I'm also using old post cards and the occasional German recon from their 1940's advance in the same area.
https://www.ak-ansichtskarten.de/ak/93-carte-postale-ancienne/44289-Ville-de-Stavelot/5828339-AK-Stavelot-les-tanneries-au-bord-de-l-etang/?&lang=6
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gare-Stavelot-CPancienne.jpg
Cheers

... if you play as the Germans! Don't think I've ever had an Allied tank with a destroyed main gun.

Obviously this has a lot to do with German anti-tank weapons slicing through Allied armour like a knife through hot butter but acknowledging your tanks are fragile makes you play them better.
On the other hand, the mythic allure of superior German armour might encourage people to play more aggressively and recieve a face full of subverted expectations when they inevitably get damaged.

This is the point of zeroing.
Because that is exactly what they are doing.
It's pretty pointless to compare real world data for Tiger 2 and ingame data for the Sherman 76 (Have you got a link or reference for the Tiger 2 accuracy stuff?) It would more useful to compare the ingame Sherman accuracy once zeroed to the Tiger 2 ingame accuracy once zeroed.
The Sherman gunner's main optic is 4x IIRC, so it looks even smaller! Im not 100% up on my Sherman fire control and gunnery mechanics, but I don't think firing the gun is going to change the gunner's point of aim... so why would the gunner voluntarily aim somewhere else once he's on target?

Finally... in theory you could increase the deviation to make the guns less accurate to simulate the gunner "shifting his aim" or "targeting different points of the tank", but
a) how do you know that BF hasn't already done this?
and b) It's such as an edge case. This setup- one tank plinking another 2000m which isn't allowed to shoot back on a flat map with no cover- is an accuracy test (which I understand is what you're testing) but it's not an accuracy test that takes into account likely battlefield conditions. What you're effectively testing is the maximum accuracy of the Sherman vs the Tiger 2, but there's no indication that this is relevant to actual gameplay. If the Sherman doesn't survive long enough or isn't exposed for long enough to get that maximum accuracy- or the Tiger 2 is smart enough to avoid getting plinked like this- then does it matter?

This is the point of zeroing.
Because that is exactly what they are doing.
It's pretty pointless to compare real world data for Tiger 2 and ingame data for the Sherman 76 (Have you got a link or reference for the Tiger 2 accuracy stuff?) It would more useful to compare the ingame Sherman accuracy once zeroed to the Tiger 2 ingame accuracy once zeroed.
The Sherman gunner's main optic is 4x IIRC, so it looks even smaller! Im not 100% up on my Sherman fire control and gunnery mechanics, but I don't think firing the gun is going to change the gunner's point of aim... so why would the gunner voluntarily aim somewhere else once he's on target?

Finally... in theory you could increase the deviation to make the guns less accurate to simulate the gunner "shifting his aim" or "targeting different points of the tank", but
a) how do you know that BF hasn't already done this?
and b) It's such as an edge case. This setup- one tank plinking another 2000m which isn't allowed to shoot back on a flat map with no cover- is an accuracy test (which I understand is what you're testing) but it's not an accuracy test that takes into account likely battlefield conditions. What you're effectively testing is the maximum accuracy of the Sherman vs the Tiger 2, but there's no indication that this is relevant to actual gameplay. If the Sherman doesn't survive long enough or isn't exposed for long enough to get that maximum accuracy- or the Tiger 2 is smart enough to avoid getting plinked like this- then does it matter?

This is the point of zeroing.
Because that is exactly what they are doing.
It's pretty pointless to compare real world data for Tiger 2 and ingame data for the Sherman 76 (Have you got a link or reference for the Tiger 2 accuracy stuff?) It would more useful to compare the ingame Sherman accuracy once zeroed to the Tiger 2 ingame accuracy once zeroed.
The Sherman gunner's main optic is 4x IIRC, so it looks even smaller! Im not 100% up on my Sherman fire control and gunnery mechanics, but I don't think firing the gun is going to change the gunner's point of aim... so why would the gunner voluntarily aim somewhere else once he's on target?

Finally... in theory you could increase the deviation to make the guns less accurate to simulate the gunner "shifting his aim" or "targeting different points of the tank", but
a) how do you know that BF hasn't already done this?
and b) It's such as an edge case. This setup- one tank plinking another 2000m which isn't allowed to shoot back on a flat map with no cover- is an accuracy test (which I understand is what you're testing) but it's not an accuracy test that takes into account likely battlefield conditions. What you're effectively testing is the maximum accuracy of the Sherman vs the Tiger 2, but there's no indication that this is relevant to actual gameplay. If the Sherman doesn't survive long enough or isn't exposed for long enough to get that maximum accuracy- or the Tiger 2 is smart enough to avoid getting plinked like this- then does it matter?

This is the point of zeroing.
Because that is exactly what they are doing.
It's pretty pointless to compare real world data for Tiger 2 and ingame data for the Sherman 76 (Have you got a link or reference for the Tiger 2 accuracy stuff?) It would more useful to compare the ingame Sherman accuracy once zeroed to the Tiger 2 ingame accuracy once zeroed.
The Sherman gunner's main optic is 4x IIRC, so it looks even smaller! Im not 100% up on my Sherman fire control and gunnery mechanics, but I don't think firing the gun is going to change the gunner's point of aim... so why would the gunner voluntarily aim somewhere else once he's on target?

Finally... in theory you could increase the deviation to make the guns less accurate to simulate the gunner "shifting his aim" or "targeting different points of the tank", but
a) how do you know that BF hasn't already done this?
and b) It's such as an edge case. This setup- one tank plinking another 2000m which isn't allowed to shoot back on a flat map with no cover- is an accuracy test (which I understand is what you're testing) but it's not an accuracy test that takes into account likely battlefield conditions. What you're effectively testing is the maximum accuracy of the Sherman vs the Tiger 2, but there's no indication that this is relevant to actual gameplay. If the Sherman doesn't survive long enough or isn't exposed for long enough to get that maximum accuracy- or the Tiger 2 is smart enough to avoid getting plinked like this- then does it matter?

This is the point of zeroing.
Because that is exactly what they are doing.
It's pretty pointless to compare real world data for Tiger 2 and ingame data for the Sherman 76 (Have you got a link or reference for the Tiger 2 accuracy stuff?) It would more useful to compare the ingame Sherman accuracy once zeroed to the Tiger 2 ingame accuracy once zeroed.
The Sherman gunner's main optic is 4x IIRC, so it looks even smaller! Im not 100% up on my Sherman fire control and gunnery mechanics, but I don't think firing the gun is going to change the gunner's point of aim... so why would the gunner voluntarily aim somewhere else once he's on target?

Finally... in theory you could increase the deviation to make the guns less accurate to simulate the gunner "shifting his aim" or "targeting different points of the tank", but
a) how do you know that BF hasn't already done this?
and b) It's such as an edge case. This setup- one tank plinking another 2000m which isn't allowed to shoot back on a flat map with no cover- is an accuracy test (which I understand is what you're testing) but it's not an accuracy test that takes into account likely battlefield conditions. What you're effectively testing is the maximum accuracy of the Sherman vs the Tiger 2, but there's no indication that this is relevant to actual gameplay. If the Sherman doesn't survive long enough or isn't exposed for long enough to get that maximum accuracy- or the Tiger 2 is smart enough to avoid getting plinked like this- then does it matter?

Just as an outlier in case no one has considered it:

There are two uniform options for the Ukrainians in vanilla Black Sea: Standard and Digital Camo. It might be that the mod only changes the Digital Camo uniform and the pixeltruppen in the campaign are set to wear Standard.

Intrigued. Could also be handy for those wanting to play linked games/campaigns using the QB system to purchase forces.

Oh wow. Err... I'm not actually up on my late war Eastern Front stuff. So I guess... an IS-2? Not sure whether we've seen one of those yet.

Or who/what-ever shot those unfortunate pixeltruppen in your first screenshot.

Yeah, I just had a play about with it. Definitely something weird going on.