4TheFront

Mike,

A possible explanation occurs to me. CMBO is fairly sophisticated in its treatment of shell fragmentation and blast, and tankborne infantry is above anything save a direct hit or a treeburst, which means that the body of the tank offers substantial protection from mortar bursts essentially landing downhill of or below the targeted infantry. We've seen numerous instances of troops being saved by terrain folds from even large caliber artillery, so it seems reasonable to me to posit that something similar may be occurring in the admittedly aggravating situation you describe.

Regards,

John Kettler

The morning turn from Bertram was full of exciting CM action, which is why we love it so. I suspect
Bertram will only like parts of the movie.

Regards,

John Kettler

Bertram exceeded his expected turn productivity and sent me another. Mixed bag. He gained ground in one sector but was driven back in another. I sent it back so he could also watch.

Regards,

John Kettler

Bertram and I continue to maul each other by increments. He grinds forward, and I charge him by the foot--in blood. The turn to which I just replied may or may not be his last until Friday.

Regards,

John Kettler

Bertram hasn't started the switchover to the new goodies, so graced me with a turn. Let's hope his graciousness holds when the movie plays. Should be highly unpleasant.

Regards,

John Kettler

Based on bitter personal experience, do not take flame AFVs in a night battle in town unless given them by scenario or you can somehow guarantee overwhelming infantry and fire support. Hint: you can't. I lost two Crocs in almost no time flat--in spite of every tactical trick I could think of. Panzerschrecks!

In daylight, though, the Croc can be most formidable, functioning as a heavily armored tank with added flame capabilities when close enough. I had one go toe to toe with a 75mm AT PB in a city fight, survive multiple head-on hits from several hundred meters, then kill the PB. I don't know how many Germans it killed, but it set many buildings ablaze and kept the Germans jumping, aided by pounding HE and stinging MG fire. Working in direct support of advancing infantry, it survived hits which destroyed its thinner armoured cousin, the AVRE. I had another one in a rural setting, also with infantry support, smash several PBs, become immobilized, then fight on to kill several AFVs and smite several AT teams. It never burned anyone but more than paid for itself.

In another fight, I had a pair of 251/16s, with which I did some good work in a village early on, but which died quickly. Part of the reason for this is that the game doesn't model the fact that this rig has two armor protected flame projectors, plus a third one which is a "fire hose" which can be used dismounted without exposing the 251/16. Am hoping for some improvements in CMBB.

I did nasty damage with a Wasp against German infantry dug into a fold in the ground atop a ridge. Infantry remnants supporting by fire kept the Germans distracted, and I repeatedly raced into range from the flank after targeting, then reversed immediately. Not only did I survive a bunch of Panzerfaust shots and grenades, but the flame attacks set a tile holding a foxholed squad ablaze, and put several other squads to flight. That Wasp, later killed by a StuG clear across the board (?), achieved for me what the near annihilation of several brave platoons could not, the breaking of a defiladed defense. Sadly, reinforcements butchered my troops from afar just as they carried the position and emerged on the exposed opposite side.

As noted by others here, flame AFVs are weapon magnets, must be used in an integrated fashion (preferably from keyholed positions limiting their exposure), and work best against foes who can't fight back effectively Smoke can be a big help, in that it limits who can see the flame AFV, but infantry needs to be with the AFV, better yet in front of it, to winkle out AT teams and infantry.
That said, there are times when flame AFVs, especially Crocs, must lead the way. Similarly, even the lighter flame AFVs can be used to deal brutal blows if the situation justifies the risk.
Of course, there's nothing quite like a flame ambush.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

John Kettler

Boris and Fate have both been heard from and responded to. Nothing from Tero in this latest batch, though.

Regards,

John Kettler

Fate,

You didn't see the royal cock-up on my end. Let's just say I have a large indentation in my forehead from a certain trademark Homer Simpson action. Your unorthodox dance steps and locale for same are your business. Footloose indeed!

Am not exactly stomping Boris into pulp either in the latest movie. Disgusted, I sent it back.

Regards,

John Kettler

Fate has been tempting his by sending me another turn. I've tempted mine by replying.

Regards,

John Kettler

Spanish Bombs,

I'm jealous! Please see my AAR in the previous RoW II AAR thread for an indication of how many bad outcomes you managed to avoid.

Regards,

John Kettler

Nidan1,
 
I'm afraid you greatly misunderstand the brain circuits involved when I post vs when I play. Online research consists of two primary tasks. The first is artful selection of keywords. The second is of digging through the resulting haul, sometimes as much as 20 pages deep in a single search and extracting the desired items of information. I then take that and present it as part of whatever case I'm seeking to make. When I do research, I have total control of how much I do, how fast and to what level of detail. While I certainly do get affected by brain glitches and sheer exhaustion, as you've likely seen many times in my posts, and at times am too fried to even post at all, the simple truth is that those sorts of posts are, unless very long and complex, relatively undemanding of my brain. Contrast that with setup and play of the game. For a QB, I pick my forces automatically after choosing a category and let the computer do likewise. I've played with the force selection screens and found the display practically unreadable and the selection process far from easy. Consequently, it's either a QB or the smallest battle type available, where I have forces assigned already. So far, so good. There have been many times in which I opened up the map, took a look at what I was dealing with, went into overwhelm and got out of the game altogether. Too much to deal with! Other times, I get further in the process and position some of my forces, then can't cope. Or I might somehow have a series of miracles occur, get through setup and even play a few turns--before it again overloads my head. And when the stars all align, and I can somehow see them to be so in broad daylight, then I'm finally able to play a complete game. To my profound relief and joy. Unfortunately, that may be the last such occurrence for months!  You can figure out how long that's been by reading about my last QB over on the CMBS Forum. 

Any kind of CMx2 game demands not merely vastly more of my brain, but it requires a whole additional set of processing areas. These are the ones which handle temporospatial, sequencing, geometric and other issues, many of which are soft, fuzzy or both. I'm pretty sure this all goes on in the other brain hemisphere, in fact. Research and posting are relatively static neural activities. Wargaming is something altogether different. Now, my brain has to figure out what goes were to begin with, how to organize my force, assess the situation, plan my moves, then commit and see what has or hasn't happened. I have to then review the turn, often, several times, grok what has happened, figure everything out from scratch, taking into account a host of complex interactions, timing, force status, troop status, effects of damage, casualties or morale hits, then do it again. For me, this usually, not always, involves 30 turns of pushing my brain somewhere between hard to breaking point, as the situation becomes ever more chaotic, with more and more moving parts in play. The last QB I fought, it went to a "kill me now" utterly draining 40 turns. I play when I can, as long as I can. For I never know when I'll be able to summon the necessary specialized brain function to play again.
 
The above challenges (what a fabulous euphemism) would doubtless be enough to test or break your sanity, but that's not the whole story. There's also the learning curve. Since I can't play very often, such expertise as I acquire is subject to rapid decay over time. This means I practically have to keep relearning the game, or at least the skills beyond the bare basics. Very frustrating!  I'd love to be able to get into PBEM, and SLIM and I have been doing the Audie Murphy autobiography title so far in trying to get there for a CMBN game (figuring out, in the face of maddening, even unexplainable problems, with lots of coaching from him and Tech Support, how to get the setup into the right part of the game, getting the setup, not the alias, into the Inbox folder, learning CMH, etc.). SLIM and I haven't even begun to get into CMH, which I have downloaded.
 
Now, throw into the mix an ever changing set of cyber issues, most having to do with a maddeningly random, in all sorts of ways, internet connection. Despite doing everything I could think of (reset browser, restart browser, flush system and run virus test, turn of, turn and reboot the computer), I went through nearly 24 hours of cyber torture in Safari, tried Firefox, found it worked marginally, then tried Chrome. that worked okay but not great. that's how I was able to do what I did on the CMBS Forum, until Chrome, too, packed it in while being down, many times to zero data rate. At that point, I gave up. I picked up Bill Mauldin's excellent Up Front, read it cover to cover, then went to bed. 
 
Unsurprisingly, I find suggestions/cracks/veritable demands from you, jointly and severally, that I should play more and post less, play and not post, stop posting, since I don't know the game and such both galling and insulting. Also, I've explained several times what happened to me that made an already tough situation for me vastly worse. Several years ago, I learned I had a lifelong condition, one in which I and others who have it tend to go deer in the headlights when in high stress situations, information overload or both. This condition has been in no way improved by hyper stress, multiple assaults on my person, four car wrecks, none my fault, the last two of which each put me out of commission for a year. This sort of damage is cumulative and doesn't get better with age. There are many other negative die roll modifiers I could name, but let's keep it simple, okay? Horrendous crash move, conducted under murderous heat and humidity with a crazy roommate. Who through his idiocy, manages to pesticide poison me. That was Night One. Night Two found me in the head around 5 AM, with the hall light on. I come out of the head at a good clip, fully expecting the light to be on. It wasn't, since he turned it off in his energy saving mania. I was dazzled, the spill light from the bathroom didn't hit the wall corner between the bathroom and my bedroom. Not good! I hit the wall corner at a 45 degree angle, immediately in front of my right ear. So tremendous was the blow that in the instant of impact, I thought I'd both ruptured that eardrum and cracked my skull. Instead, I broke my brain in a contre coup injury (brain hit right, then bounced left, hitting inside of left skull), triggering a brain bleed so extensive that I became so decoupled from reality that I wasn't even sure whether I was alive or dead. Try calling for help when in that state! I finally did get through to someone, had to wait four hours for a doctor (never get injured after 10 PM, for hardly anyone's in the ER), and when they finally did image my brain, they found a huge brain bleed. It was so bad I narrowly escaped neurosurgery. That is what you so ignorantly referred to as my "claimed neuorological" condition. That single blow wrought havoc on both cognitive function and memory, both quite useful generally and in the game! Remember, this was on top of everything else I was dealing with. That Traumatic Brain Injury occurred early July, 2011, and though I'm much better, it affects me to this day. In terms of effects, imagine a game show in which there is a group of wheels. One covers memory, another cognitive function, another faculties. "Step right up, sir. Learn what your day will be like today!" Except I don't know until I start experiencing said day.
 
One day, I might have pretty good memory, enough cognitive function to post, but might be having problems understanding what someone says to me. Another day might find me with so little short term memory it takes three trips downstairs in order to get what I went there for to begin with, read only cognitive function and audio cortex processing issues. The next day might find me with halfway decent memory, the ability to get various mental tasks, maybe even gaming, done, but no real sense of smell. Or it might be major difficulty talking clearly.  There are more wheels and nuances I didn't cover, but this should give you some sense of what I'm up against. And let's not forget the people who grotesquely abuse me while flouting the Forum Rules, people so callous they won't stop even when I tell them they are compromising my health because of the terrible stress they cause me. People whose attacks have been so vicious that on occasion they've even caused me to lose ground in my recovery! 
 
Given all of the above, I would dearly love to know it it is even remotely rational for anyone here to expect, still less demand, I play more CMx2 wargames? I would if I could, not just because I enjoy doing so, but because playing them is a great way to help alleviate stress. Unsurprisingly, given what I've said to you, the more stress is applied to me here, the less able I am to play the games at all. Yet, despite everything I have to deal with, I welcome newcomers, help where I can, actively participate in a range of open threads, do the OP thing, make suggestions and more. I do these things while ever having to remain anally retentive about what I say, how I say it and how strongly. I can't afford to let my tormentors bait me into saying or doing something prohibited, things they do with impunity. I can't so much as mention certain topics or personal activities. And no matter how horrific the attacks on me, no matter how outright damaging, I'm the one who, despite all his debilities, has to keep his cool and remain ever the gentleman. So bad have things become that several other Members have called out the hellish trio, for Admin (not Steve) is doing nothing to stop them. Not so much as a syllable of reproof. They dance flamenco on my supine battered head, but all that ever happens to them is that the thread gets locked. No worries, though, for there's always another thread in which they can do the exact same evil things to me! Which I'm sure includes downvoting every post I make. One of them, recall, was caught upvoting his own posts after Members downvoted them.
 
(moves on)
 
Coming full circle, I've always found the Bulge fascinating. I used to play some SPI game in which the attacking Germans got a 3 x multiplier in the first turn, representing effects of artillery and surprise. As the Germans, the glory days tended to go away all too soon, and I couldn't believe how difficult a nut Bastogne was. In game terms, I think we now need the ability to blow up bridges during the game. The historical accounts on this are quite clear. Time and again one of Peiper's columns would finally be about to take a bridge and cross it, only to have the seemingly omnipresent US combat engineers  demo it in his face. Such demolitions shouldn't be certainties, either, for what inn battle is? We also need the 90mm AAG and, I believe, 105s (?) and 155s on the map, for they were there were there and in action. Additionally, we need the ability to deploy hasty minefields, as was also done historically. Am sure I remember reading about US AT mines being set on the roads and covered with bazookas as hasty roadblocks. Working Schwimmwagens and Weasels would be most helpful, with the latter very useful for mud slogs, not just in the Bulge, but for later games in Huertgen Forest. US will definitely need 57 mm and 3-inch ATGs, for both were there. TDs may or may not have field expedient or kit roof armor. But to keep our priorities straight, what must be handled correctly are sheets. Good Belgian sheets! Whether draping OD AFVs or freezing GIs, these things are important and deserve lots of BFC love. Who's with me?  And, yes, this post took a lot of time and thought.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Krasnoarmeyets,
 
Simply stunning video shot with perfect parade weather! The T-14, sad to say, after 40 zillion posts about it, looks like the AFV equivalent of a cheap hooker. It's got so much Tank Bondo™ smeared on it as to be almost unrecognizable relative to what we've seen prior to the actual parade. To me, it looks as though some last minute decision was made to make it look as much like a "proper tank" as possible. In the process, a lot of sensor openings, surface detail and such were made to disappear. So much tank cosmetic work was done that it almost doesn't look real, instead more resembling bad model work for a Hollywood film. Rather than make a big splash, the T-14, in paint about the color of baby poo, was completely overshadowed by the very impressive, sharp looking and highly detailed T-90A in its powerful looking dark green paint. The Kurganets-25 looked great, but I don't understand the MG only version. I saw some Tank Bondo™ there, too, in the areas around the APS radar module on the right front. Tigr with 2 x quad Kornet was an eye opener. As for the T-15 and Bumerang, I must be so tired, or blinked at the wrong time, that I didn't see them, even the second pass through.
 
I feel thoroughly unimpressed and let down by the T-14 Putin showcased to his people and the world. What we saw before the parade had so much more presence, pugnacity and sense of new and different than what just rolled through. To me, the summary statement of the tank as shown would be T-14 Armata--The Boringly Bland "Revolutionary Breakthrough" Tank! Rather than having left foreign military observers stunned and awestruck, I believe the reactions will be more along the lines of "Why did we ever get worked up about this tank in the first place?!" and sniggering. Worse for him and the nation, the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, and his wife were there for the Potemkin village on tracks! In my estimation, Putin would've been better off coming up with some reason, say, belated MoD security concerns, not to parade what we saw. Maybe Putin should've borrowed some of these from his neighbor? If you paraded the two side by side, I guarantee this toy would outshine the T-14. By a mile. I know this isn't the kind of response you'd like to see, but I'm giving you my honest opinions and reactions--not just personally but from the perspective of someone whose professional beat for over 11 years was the Russian military as a Threat Analyst for two tip US defense firms.


 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

OT, but MD, I triple dog dare you to post your FoTM AAR to one of the appropriate threads at Scenarios. I am most interested in seeing your detailed analysis.

Regards,

John Kettler

Thought I'd hallucinated it before, but thanks to someone's having posted the German fire support menu, I've now decided I was right. What, praytell, is a 158mm and 214mm rocket? Neither of those fits any reference with which I'm familiar. If they're typos, please fix them in the pending patch.

Regards,

John Kettler

agusto,
 
Fair point. The trick about such approaches is remembering to use them while tired, frazzled and urgently trying to solve a maddening tech problem (Michael Emrys has same rig and OS as I do, and SLIM was waiting on me to get things sorted out so we could play)! Am sure you've heard the one about how alligator superfluity detracts from swamp drainage effectiveness. This is by no means the only place where I've had this problem. For example, playing chill out music while stressed is a good thing to do, but what isn't helped at all by stress--which for me degrades cognitive function. And what else? Memory!  In any event, at least I posted it here.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler 

A couple of things to add fat to the fire. If such things as rendering assistance and taking a disabled AFV in tow while under fire did not occur,
why was an explicit order forbidding such actions
issued to the Panzer troops before the Kursk attack? This action would strongly imply that such things were pretty commonly done, absent orders to the contrary.

Also, months back while at Borders I saw a good book in English on Panzers at War (don't recall title). It had some fascinating combat art in it, including what I first thought was a StuG towing a sibling while obviously under fire. Guess what? The presumed StuG doing the towing was actually an ARV based on a deturreted Panzer III chassis. I believe that an Iron Cross was awarded in the action depicted.

From my limited reading, I have found multiple instances of functioning tanks taking their wounded fellows under tow or pushing them, and there are some exciting accounts of battles waged in the Western Desert while recovery crews worked under fire. Others describe skirmishes fought by recovery crew escorts from both sides while tanks were recovered at night after a daylong battle.

I believe even cursory reading of Panzer unit battle diaries will show all kinds of things going on under fire we can't even do when there's none. Since I don't read Russian, I can't offer much help there, but I can say that Milsom's RUSSIAN TANKS 1900-1970 has many pictures of Soviet ARVs, often a deturreted tank with the opening plated over and a cupola on that cover plate.

Russian Battlefield (www.battlefield.ru) has a nice shot of a pair of ATS artillery tractors recovering a T-34 from a ditch, but they're not under fire. There is probably a lot more there, but I haven't looked. Pinging Valera (one of the site principals) might prove most illuminating.

All in all, I think this area would benefit greatly from scrutiny via historians and grogs alike. It occurs to me that the Finns, being armor poor, probably went to extremes to rescue their damaged vehicles even in the midst of battle.

Regards,

John Kettler

A few days ago, the History Channel (U.S.), ran a two hour program on possible seers, among them Nostradamus. Part of that segment showed spectacular streetfighting in Berlin, among which was a clip, which I missed the first part of, showing a Russian soldier firing some sort of short gripstock equipped weapon from amid the rubble, after which he retained the gripstock assembly. This leads me to believe that the weapon, whatever it was, may have been reloadable. I clearly saw a handle on the underside, complete with trigger assembly.

Did anyone else here happen to catch the program? If yes, what did you see? Am most curious.

Regards,

John Kettler

German players who won this meatgrinder? How incredibly refreshing! Those needing to learn how not to win are directed to my AAR on the RoW II AAR thread.

Regards,

John Kettler

I still have no idea exactly how I'm going to manifest a new/newer CMBB capable Mac computer (am attempting several angles, though), but working on Goethe's principle of "that moment one definitely commits, then Providence moves too" have decided to order the game first, committing myself to the game and the Mac at a time when funds are tight and my 233 MHz iMac simply won't cut it.

That said, I'd like to suggest that the receipt screen after ordering be fundamentally rethought, for it is an ink slurper of the first magnitude.
Why not add a button which offers a simple printer friendly black text on white background version?

Regards,

John Kettler

The vanilla Sherman can crank out a very high ROF because the complete round is both light (20 lbs per SHERMAN AT WAR http://books.google.com/books?id=SOTDzoncMroC&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=apc+m61&source=bl&ots=xdN2Z097FI&sig=lKEfZcsCT8Q-uW_cMbIevzEzs44&hl=en&ei=e7_fSp_yEYKMswO1oPzbCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CBYQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=apc%20m61&f=false and short compared to both the 17 pdr and the 88. This is painfully obvious in the comparison between the standard 75mm APC M61 and the 88 as shown here. http://www.inert-ord.net/usa03a/usa5/75mm/index.html

Regards,

John Kettler

kulik,

You may be interested to know that BFC is STILL selling CMBO, the CMx1 game which started it all, for $15. Digital download only. Was $45 as a physical product when released in 2001!

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=60&Itemid=100

I seriously doubt (at, say, 12 Sigma level of confidence) BFC would ever give away one of its games. A demo? Sure. But a complete game? Nyet!

Regards,

John Kettler

Warning! While this is very groggy, presenting a wealth of material on the various mechanisms by which humans come to grief, both visibly and invisibly (blast lung, TBI, etc.), where sustained, how sustained, typical outcomes and such, it is also necessarily gory, being intended for doctors and other trauma care types who need to understand what they're up against. I strongly recommend that combat veterans soberly consider what seeing the high resolution full color pics might do to themselves, in terms of triggering PTSD and the like, and emphatically advise not letting small children see this!

LINK REMOVED

Regards,

John Kettler

Bil,
 
Not a problem, considering I didn't do a great job with the title! The issue itself is bugging me, because I know I described what happened and posted it, evidenced by "Tree growing through roof of Abrams"  and "Bug Report--Maybe : 4 Second Kill Chain" posts on CMBS Tech Support. Both drew upon things I noticed in the very QB I can't find.
 
(notices something in those posts, goes off and returns, exultant)
 
Found it! Never in a million years would I have found it by title search (who searches under "brutal glitch?"), but I noticed the dates of the Tech Support posts and went back in with a severely delimited Advanced Search by my name and a period covering about a week (Feb 9-15, with the trouble report dates in the middle). Top of the results! In looking at it, I think it best to start a John Kettler vs CMBS thread and simply include the formerly missing part. That way it'll be immediately clear what the thread is about. 
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Michael Emrys,

You are needed over at CMBS Tech Support, please. The below explains the whys and wherefores.

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/119348-what-happened-to-the-posting-ui-and-the-font-and-size-controls/

Regards,

John Kettler

sburke,
 
Unfortunately, I'm way past the window for removing the exclamation point. I would note, though, Yahoo has a bunch of Ukraine and region stories.
 
173rd Airborne Brigade in Ukraine training the Ukraine National Guard
 
http://news.yahoo.com/300-us-troops-ukraine-train-ukrainian-forces-us-073153737.html
 
Russia resurgent & Finns worried  NATO membership not an option
 
http://news.yahoo.com/resurgent-russia-worries-finns-nato-not-option-161002400.html
 
Moscow says US paratrooper presence in Ukraine could reignite fighting
 
http://news.yahoo.com/us-troops-ukrainian-soil-could-reignite-fighting-moscow-210913750.html

That's only a partial list. 
 
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler