The start of actual news

[Sergei]

You can add a pine cone for taste. On a toothpick, naturally.

[Spinoza]

Sheesh , the sleepers, as always, trying to derail the thread . All trite and smoke screens and playing with the mirrors.

The real question , and I'm not afraid to ask , is:

will we be able to blame Sosabowski again?

[John Kettler]

MikeyD,

Wonder what JasonC will have to say about the effective armor protection of the second glacis overlaid field expedient Jumbo? Whew! "Is X mm thick, but because of (insert complex tech explanation here), resists as Y, which is less than X." This will be followed by previously unknown Ordnance Corps field weld quality analyses, metallurgical tests on Rod, Welding, M1A1, produced by Lincoln Electric (complete with batch numbers) and the inspector's report therefor. That said, the stuff he comes up with absolutely blows me away. His library must be incredible!

Steve,

Isn't inviting some sort of trans-Atlantic qua cannibalistic assault on your person a violation of...? Wait! It's your Forum! On a more serious note, however much I may champion certain military views and game capability/equipment desires at odds with yours, one thing you'll never find from me are complaints about your pricing. While cheaper than the typical new X-Box release, to me, it's still a big chunk of change. But having done development, scenario writing and playtest for several wargames, which weren't even computerized, I have some small sense of how immense is the work and attention to detail required. In case I forget, I can simply ask brother Ed, who's done it for miniatures and computer games!

Sergei,

Impressive (feigned) snit! Might want to look into the possibilities of adding a revolving tantrum.

Steppenwulf,

TMI. My (inner) eyes!

Regards,

John Kettler

[Holman]

You can add a pine cone for taste. On a toothpick, naturally.

Oh, my. I remember that thread...

[Freyberg]

These games are amazing. I thought CMBB etc were super cool, but the realism, detail (I *love* the organisational detail) and sheer excitement of the CMx2 games makes me giddy with delight! (and thank ever so much for developing for the Mac). They're expensive, but only marginally. For a boutique game that answers a history geek's prayers, they're extremely good value.

[Bud Backer]

Just the fact we will have SPAA and light AA has me excited. CMBN was so fantastic as it is that this was the only thing I wished to see included. I'd pay the $35.00 for that alone. Everything else is icing on the cake.

[Michael Emrys]

Oh, my. I remember that thread...

How could he forget? It's at the core of his national heritage. Or something like that... In US schools we had the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, in Finland they start out the day by throwing pine cones, all blank of course (don't want the kiddies blowing themselves up).

Michael

[Michael Emrys]

I'd pay the $35.00 for that alone.

Hush! You'll give them ideas!

:eek:

Michael

[Bud Backer]

Hush! You'll give them ideas!

:eek:

Michael

LMAO!

Ok ok, we MUST have the Cow army included...

[Michael Emrys]

LMAO!

Ok ok, we MUST have the Cow army included...

And a morale check for soldiers stepping in dung. Soldiers who grew up in an urban environment are especially penalized.

Michael

[JonS]

Will the cows be having bells?

[Seedorf81]

Since there were about 50000 Kubelwagens built and 15000 Schwimmwagens, it is a rather safe assumption that, considering that 1 in 4 number and the ease with which an artist should be able to change the existing Kubel into a Schwimmy, Market Garden has Schwimmwagens!

I can't wait to see them!!

[Thomm]

9. Bridges. Lots of 'em We are including 5 custom made historically accurate bridges, a canal bridge, and 3 new generic long bridges. Some, like the Arnhem road bridge, are massive ...

While you are fighting about the details, please do not forget the implications of this paragraph! You will get huge, accurate bridge models on your screen, hundreds of meters long. Once you see those, I guess you will not worry about gliders or cows any more ...

Best regards,

Thomm

[umlaut]

Will the cows be having bells?

Of course - and whistles

[JonS]

Once you see those, I guess you will not worry about gliders or cows any more ...

You must be new around here.

[Sergei]

BFC add cow gliders or sumfink!

[John Kettler]

JonS,

No. They're too busy having calves. The calf animations, though, will be released in a later Critter Pack™ which'll also have goats, rabbits, chickens, ducks and geese. Steve's absolutely drawn the line on including doves. Still working on the follow my lead coding for ducklings and goslings.

Seedorf81,

You and I both! Schwimmwagen. The vehicle that looks more like a beetle than the Beetle.

Thomm,

What? No Bailey Bridge? Heavens! It'd be cool to have and useful in all sorts of places. In fact, though, I'm more concerned over the absence of those scarily flimsy British lifebuoy inner tube flamethrowers. What's the effect of harsh language in the close assault vs a live pillbox? Rather lacking in visuals, unless someone revives those cool combat comics we had at one point.

Regards,

John Kettler

[jakla1027]

Ok just a couple thoughts & questions,

So I think its safe to say that we will most likely get the M18 Hellcat, it was in US service in the Summer of 44 (late summer I think) so by Sep. 44, it should be included. I hope!

M36 TD, I've read that it was just barely arriving in Europe & entering service in Sep. of 44. So this one I'm not sure if we'll see it in MG Module. What do you guys know & think, will it be added in MG or will we have to wait until the Bulge?

Ok here's something that I'm curious about, why was the US 90mm M2 Gun not included in Normandy or Gustav Line? The 90mm M2 gun mount was designed to be dual-purpose, used in either the AA or AT role and was accepted standard issue in Mid 43. If it was used in the AT role or not during the war I don't know. However, now that we have light AA weapons in Gustav Line & the upcoming MG module, why not the US 90mm M2? I'd like to have one around to take on Tiger's I & II as well as a Panther in a quick battle.

I understand US TD tactics of WWII & know that the towed TD units (anti-tank guns) were basically a failure due to the fact that they were never employed in their designed tactical role. (on the defensive) Yet we do have the 76MM L/50 M5 anti-tank gun in the game, so why no 90mm M2?

Anywho just had those thoughts & hopefully I can learn something from you guys on the 90mm M2.

Thanks

[JonS]

So I think its safe to say that we will most likely get the M18 Hellcat, it was in US service in the Summer of 44 (late summer I think) so by Sep. 44, it should be included. I hope!

I don't think that's very safe to say, at all. As an exercise; list all the US units involved in Op MG equipped with the Hellcat.

Ok here's something that I'm curious about, why was the US 90mm M2 Gun not included in Normandy or Gustav Line?

Not used in a ground role in Normandy to any great extent. Not used in a direct-fire ground role in Normandy at all, AFAIK.

[Holman]

I don't think that's very safe to say, at all. As an exercise; list all the US units involved in Op MG equipped with the Hellcat.

I think Steve indicated earlier that, because most of the US kit at MG is already in CMBN, they've added some US equipment and formations active at the time but not in the operation. This strongly suggests armor.

[Vanir Ausf B]

I don't think that's very safe to say, at all. As an exercise; list all the US units involved in Op MG equipped with the Hellcat.

That could depend on whether the Market-Garden module focuses exclusively on those operations or includes other actions in NW Europe during the same time period. The M18 was used in the Battle of Nancy, September 5-15 and the Battle of Arracourt, September 18-29. It actually could have been included in the base game since M18s were in theater since July at the latest and participated in the Cobra breakout.

[Sequoia]

Ok just a couple thoughts & questions,

Ok here's something that I'm curious about, why was the US 90mm M2 Gun not included in Normandy or Gustav Line? The 90mm M2 gun mount was designed to be dual-purpose, used in either the AA or AT role and was accepted standard issue in Mid 43. If it was used in the AT role or not during the war I don't know. However, now that we have light AA weapons in Gustav Line & the upcoming MG module, why not the US 90mm M2? I'd like to have one around to take on Tiger's I & II as well as a Panther in a quick battle.

I understand US TD tactics of WWII & know that the towed TD units (anti-tank guns) were basically a failure due to the fact that they were never employed in their designed tactical role. (on the defensive) Yet we do have the 76MM L/50 M5 anti-tank gun in the game, so why no 90mm M2?

Anywho just had those thoughts & hopefully I can learn something from you guys on the 90mm M2.

Thanks

This should answer your question.

From what I remember of the last go around on this, the US 90mm AA gun couldn't even depress to engage tanks. At least the early version couldn't, so right there it's out as an AT weapon. The later models were changed so that they could do this but were still not supposed to be deployed as AT weapons and apparently they weren't. Why not? Well, because the US was on the offensive for nearly the entire time the weapons were deployed to Europe. And secondly, there were VERY few of these in theater. IIRC it was something like 120 or so. Extremely rare even if 100% of them were used 100% of the time as AT guns.

Steve

[MikeyD]

I recall the towed 3 inch AT gun was deployed by the battalion in Normandy and in all that time was credited with only a small handful of tank kills. One would imagine if there were any anecdotes about a big 90mm AA gun dispatching oncoming armor we would've seen accounts of the story repeated in book after book. There's hardly anything to be found about the ubiquitous 3 inch taking on German tanks, at least not before we hit the bulge.

[John Kettler]

According to this, it should definitely be in the Bulge game, for there's a pic at the bottom here of one set up for conducting direct fire during the Bulge. Want to say a 90mm battalion was in Bastogne encirclement. The same site notes that a small amount of AP ammo was routinely provided to 90s.

http://www.antiaircraft.org/90mm.htm

Here's the skinny on the rounds developed for the 90mm for AT work. Believe many of you will find the pics revelatory. Have never seen them before myself.

http://www.lonesentry.com/manuals/90-mm-ammunition/

90s in DF at Stoumont. Franged some Panthers! Battle of the Bulge, Merriam, p. 38.

Regards,

John Kettler

[jakla1027]

Thanks for the feed back guys:)