New map - West Berlin, British Sector

[Plodder]

A small update: my pc has finally died a slow lingering death so development on the data file and scenario has had to be halted. It being the silly season, having two cars needing repair, bills up to my eyeballs and a 2 year old son with a broken foot, buying a new pc is not on the immediate agenda.[:D] Hopefully I'll be able to pick up a new one at decent price in the post-xmas sales.

[CapnDarwin]

Take care of your son and family matters first. The game will be here when you are back in business. I hope everything works out quickly for you.

[Mad Russian]

Games are secondary to life issues. Take care of your family first. We'll be here when you get back.

I know how you feel. My computer is also going through the lingering death throes.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Plodder]

Well, I'm back on deck with a new laptop, a quad core 64bit, no less.[:D]A pity about losing Win7 as I really like it but 8.1 is not as bad as I thought it would be. Hopefully I can reinstall creaky old PSP 8/9 on this pc so I can do some more mapping. [:)] Once I've got everything up and running,and hoping the data is ok on the old hard drive, I'll get back to work on the British Berlin Brigade.

[CapnDarwin]

Glad to here things are on the upswing.

[Mad Russian]

+1

Good Hunting.

MR

[Plodder]

Here's a sneak peek at the French 11th Regiment de Chasseurs of the Forces Françaises à Berlin. Equipped with 54 AMX-30B2s. Notice the armour (or lack thereof). Still have to do the infantry regiment and it's equipment yet.

[Mad Russian]

Yeah, that AMX-30 should do well against the T-72's and T-80's....cough...cough....

Good Hunting.

MR

[IronMikeGolf]

About that AMX-30 TIS...

In '91. shortly after transitioning to M2A2s, my company (A/4-8 IN) participated in a river crossing exercise. Elements of 15RCh from down the Autobahn (they were stationed between K-town and Mannheim), our mech company, a US bridging unit (boats used as pontoons, not sure of designation for those), and a BW ferry unit (2 x ferries).

Of course, troopers were crawling all over each other's equipment. The AMX-30's had an armored box to hold the TIS. They were empty. They also appeared to be very poorly maintained. Just might have been old and in need of depot level work, though. Each tank had 2 x half 55 gal drum for drip pans fron and rear and they parked each on a tarp as well. Even so, 'Rad came with a backhoe to scoop up POL contaminated soil.

Watched an AMX-30, during dress rehearsal (it was a dog and pony show. bleachers, etc) drive onto, down the full length, and off the far end of a German ferry with into the Rhine. About 10 inches of antenna was all you could see.

Oh, yeah, and the French put a main gun tube in some local's living room, too.

We got to spend a day and night busting track. The redesigned track shoe for the M2A2s arrived and we switched them all out. Now *that* was a J.O.B.!

[apd1004]

I remember back in '85-ish, we were leaving Graf after a month of gunnery and for some reason the railhead there was out of service so we had to roadmarch to another railhead quite a distance away from Graf. Might have been Bayreuth or vicinity. We were in our M60A3's and we typically roadmarched at about 15-20mph on paved roads. A company of AMX-30's was going the same direction as we were and they actually passed us going about 40mph. We had always heard that the AMX-30 was not heavily armored but it was fast, and I would have to say they were right because they passed us like we were sitting still.

I also remember being on the autobahn sometime in '84-'85, again going 15-20mph in our M60A3's and seeing several AMX-10RC's pass us on the autobahn. They were going along with the civilian vehicle traffic which was passing us around 50mph probably. I remember they had this ridiculously long gun tube that looked way too big for the rest of the vehicle.

I think both those designs reflect the French armored vehicle design philosophy of the '60's-'70's which was mobility over protection, or maybe mobility = protection.

Sorry Jeff, but we used to laugh at you Bradley drivers (and PC drivers too) because your track was like toy track compared to M60 track.

[TheWombat_matrixforum]

I spoke with a Chieftain commander, a very large (like, 6'4" 240lbs) Brit in Berlin, at one of the Templehof July 4th celebrations. He was standing outside of his tank, easily hefting an inert 120mm shell like it was a Nerf bullet. Anyhow, he got to talking about the French, who had one of the wheeled vehicles with the 105mm gun in the turret, sitting next to him. His philosophy was that if you put a weapon capable of engaging tanks on a vehicle, someone will make you engage tanks, and if that happened, he'd much rather be behind real armor. He had a pretty dim opinion of the French armored vehicle philosophy. Then again, he loved his Chieftain.

[apd1004]

ORIGINAL: TheWombat

I spoke with a Chieftain commander, a very large (like, 6'4" 240lbs) ...

Wow - the M60A1 & A3 are probably some of the roomiest tanks inside the turret. A tanker that big would have a hard time in one of those, let alone inside a Chieftain. I knew a guy that was about that height and in an M60A1/A3 he could stand on the turret floor in the loader's position and look out the hatch. I am 5'10 and I had to climb onto the loader's seat to see out the hatch.

I met some British tankers at Fort Knox back in the early 80's and they were crawling inside our tanks, to include the M1, at a static display. Their biggest criticism of all US tanks was the lack of a brewing vessel. Apparently British tanks come from the factory with a brewing vessel.

[Mad Russian]

I was in the M728, M60A1, Leopard 1, Chieftain and T-62 while I was stationed in Germany; mid 70's. I'm 5'8" and had no problems moving around in them but I could see how someone over 6 foot would have.

The Brits were disdainful of our tanks because they lacked the brewing stove as well. [:-]

Good Hunting.

MR

[Combatengineerjrgmail]

Link to Armor Magazine article concerning EG/Soviet plans for a possible assault on West Berlin:

http://www.benning.army.mil/armor/eARMO ... 994web.pdf

[Tazak]

ORIGINAL: apd1004

I met some British tankers at Fort Knox back in the early 80's and they were crawling inside our tanks, to include the M1, at a static display. Their biggest criticism of all US tanks was the lack of a brewing vessel. Apparently British tanks come from the factory with a brewing vessel.

This says it all

[Mad Russian]

ROFL!!

Yes, that about says it all!! [:D]

Good Hunting.

MR

[batteran]

Thanks for this wonderful looking map!

I try to add it in a blank scenario, it work ^^ But I was troubled by the big square grid instead of a hexagonal grid?

We really miss a scenario/campaign for this ^^

[Fallschirmjager]

This when finished should be placed into the next official patch so that everyone and those who have the Steam version can enjoy it.

[Plodder]

Sorry guys, I've had to put the scenario on ice as I've picked up some mapping work for another wargame company. I fully intend to come back to this when I'm done though.

batteran, the square grid is 1km by 1km. When I created the map, I used a hex grid for a template but preferred the square grid to finish it with as it looks less gamey. I could quite easily release a version with hexes if people want it.

[CapnDarwin]

Congratulations on getting work on CO2. Your logos look great and your maps should be a nice face-lift for the game as well.