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Allied AAR: Clearing the Niscemi Highway


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Absolutely: that's the best strategy of all! :)

Don't you know we won WWII? :cool:

Ofcourse. And because of your light-heartedness we Germans love you Italians. Our doom. ;)

But at least we can listen to the most beautiful national anthem of the world with friendly feelings and can praise the world's best cuisine with honesty. :D

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Page 2 of this tread. Post number 12. First photo of Normal Dude. Why the steering wheel of the truck is on the rigth, not in the left side? It's a captured english truck? Just curious about the detail. Thanks for answers!

Regards

That makes me remember my teen’s years when I was seeing in Italy and Spain Trucks with the steering wheel on the right.

The explanation was at the time that it was better for a driver driving on the right side of the road for seeing the curve of the road especially on mountainous roads. That has been in use before the war and at least till the sixties. I have no recollection of seeing that many in the seventies.

Some of the trucks had two steerable axles on the front in order to negotiate sharp turns more easily.

Another weird thing was the use of a green and red light at the rear to signal the following car and or truck that it was safe to overtake. I got almost killed when a Spanish driver played me a trick putting the green light, while a truck was coming our way.:cool:

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:) Thank you Steiner!!!

But we look with envy at your order, efficiency and meritocracy!

And we love your heavy-metal language! :cool:

By the way, your national anthem is also great, but i hope that one day we all could sing together "Europe Europe uber alles!". :)

I'm pretty sure the Germans don't use the Ãœber Alles line anymore. It's been replaced by Eigenkeit and Recht and Freiheit-Unity, Justice and Freedom. We'll only be fighting Germans in games now which is a good thing.

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I've heard that always changing to the winner's side does so, too. ;)

Heh. Rick Atkinson quoted an amusing observation about the House of Savoy, which was that the only time it ended a war on the same side that it began with was if the war lasted long enough for it to turn its coat twice. I don't know that that is true, but it made me laugh.

:D

Michael

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TURN 17

I spot a Semovente 75/18 M42 on the highway, and a Panzer IIIM on the hill. The Semovente 75/18 is an Italian self propelled gun, similar to the German StuG III. The 75mm cannon has a very decent explosive yield, and with its HEAT rounds it can even threaten the Shermans. I'll need to take this vehicle out quickly, but it is currently holed away in a safe spot, masked by the hill now that one of the pack howitzers is KO'd, where it can fire on the Villa and much of my defenses with impunity until I can position a vehicle east of the Villa. I currently have a T30 headed that way, which is my best hope of stopping it until more Shermans arrive. I'll have to hope that the T30 gets the first shot off, because otherwise the Semovente will cut through its haltrack armor easily. If that doesn't work, I'll call in a fire mission from the FO to at least drive it away.

The Semovente and I think one of the surviving Renaults have started blasting the face of the Villa, resulting in two casualties to my .50cal gun team. The Battalion HQ is also up there. Until that Semovente can be eliminated, I'll have to vacate the the upper floors of the Villa, thus yielding the position that can see across the whole hill and spot Bil's movements from far away.

The Panzer IIIM is armed with a 50mm cannon, and poses little threat to my Sherman now poised on the southern wooded hill. If that Panzer or his (surely to be there) buddies make any further moves forward, I should have him bagged easily.

I give my Scourge of Renaults demo team orders to hoof it quickly to link up with the newly arrived infantry platoon. The German troops are heading straight for that wooded area, so there's no point in reoccupying it. The Luftwaffe troops and a Panzer III gets a few pot shots at them from the hill as they run off, but to no effect.

pziii.jpg

sitrepw.jpg

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....Die in droves once the Axis figures it out and ranges some mortars in there? Don't see much hard cover.

True, but may still be a nice spot for counter attack at some point in battle. Ambush/Reverse slope could be quite valuable.

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TURNS 18-19

TURN 18

Both T30 HMCs arrive in position at the Villa, on either side of it. The western T30 (to the left of the villa) quickly engages and hits a Renault lurking in the Orchards objective, forcing the crew to bail although not destroying the vehicle. As the turn ends, the other T30 spots and begins to aim at the Semovente 75/18...

What appears to be a spotting round lands in front of my paratrooper defenses. I think it's time to pull them back. I'm giving about half of the para platoon orders to pull back further into the woods, and the other half orders to occupy the upper floors of the western wing of the villa. If the artillery strike hits thin air, then I'll move them back to the woods after it has run its course.

TURN 19

The eastern (to right of the villa) T30 HMC shoots away at the Semovente 75/18 without scoring any hits. My front line is pulling back to the Villa, and just in time too, because what looks like an 81mm mortar round lands right on target and kills a couple of men. My western T30 KO's what I think is the last Renault by the Orchards. My FO also gets into position this turn.

spotting.jpg

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TURN 20

The eastern T30 and Semovente 75/18 trade shots with each other throughout the turn. My T30 is in hull down, and that is a very good thing too, because each of the Semovente's shots slam into the ground in front of the T30. Near the end of the turn, my T30 finally connects with a HEAT round and KOs the Semovente!

In other good news, it is a REALLY REALLY good thing I pulled my line after seeing that spotting round, JUST in time. No sooner had they pulled further into the woods than a full-on mortar barrage hits the front of the wooded area. I'd have probably lost a squad or two if they had lingered even a few more seconds. The mortar barrage instead hits thin air, only killing one paratrooper.

Other news:

The demo team has safely linked up with the newly arrived infantry platoon, who are currently catching their breath in a orchard. They are now getting orders to complete their movement into the dead zone mentioend earlier. The demo team will accompany them. I've pulled the HMG team out of the building and into a halftrack that arrived with the reinforcements. They'll replenish their supply of .50cal ammo, then head back to the villa. I'm then going to send the halftrack to the infantry platoon so that they can grab the bazooka off of it.

semoko.jpg

whews.jpg

sitrep.jpg

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Correct. Foxholes in tree cover is excellent against a number of possible threats. Against mortars, in particular, they are practically not much better than the base terrain that surrounds them.

Understood. Would it be impractically laborious for you to introduce a more developed foxhole with some overhead cover? This would not be the precise equivalent of a bunker, but would have some intermediate value.

Michael

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Doesn't this video rather "proove" different? Looks like the guy survived to me, thanks to a pretty well dug foxhole.

Also, generally, I was more implying if protection against artillery will be improved in this title. Artillery lethality is still one of my woes I have with the game.

Didn't LongLeftFlank once conduct a test, were he meticulously recreated a German position, had the exact number of shells fired at that place and than compared the results?

In reality, the position remained mostly unharmed (or rather, it's occupants), while in game it probably evaporated.

I also remember mortar lethality was much less serious in CMSF.

I once switched back to CMSF for a while (after having already played CMBN) and one of my teams was caught in Syrian mortar barrage (airbursts!) and, based on my Normandy "experience" already thought these guys were done for, but to my amazement, nobody was harmed.

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One reason why some players dream of returning to a modern war title is body armor! After playing CMSF for so long, when I started on CMBN my poor WWII GIs seemed pratically naked exposed like that to shot & shell without any protection. In one game a stray splinter will embed itself into your kevlar helmet, in the other game into your prefrontal cortex.

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I've pulled the HMG team out of the building and into a halftrack that arrived with the reinforcements. They'll replenish their supply of .50cal ammo, then head back to the villa. I'm then going to send the halftrack to the infantry platoon so that they can grab the bazooka off of it.

I'm a new player, please help me to understand: for resupplying troop purpose, what i have to do? I have to move them over a vehicle carrying the needed ammo or i can just move them close to it? There is a specific command to give them?

What you say about the bazooka surprise me: i can order my troops to move near (or over?) a vechicle carrying a bazooka to simply have them grabbing it?

That's great!

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The specific command is 'acquire'. You'll get a collumn list of everything in the vehicle that can be picked up. From mortar rounds up to a spare bazooka or two! You have to actually mount the vehicle to get the ammo. Some people split off a scout team of two to grab ammo then come back and rejoin with their squad. The only problem with that is individuals have a weight limit so two guys can only haul so much 'stuff'.

Something entirely different is 'sharing'. That's completely automatic, where a depleted ammo unit will automatically 'borrow' ammo from a nearby unit to continue the fight. For example two bazooka units side-by-side One unit first until he's out of ammo then keep firing while his neighbor's rocket count drops. Zook rounds may be 'special'. I would swear I once saw a depleted zook team suddenly gain one more round just by walking past a parked jeep. The old 'five-fingered discount' I suppose :)

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