Matrix Games Forums

Hi guys,

Personal opinion again - you're pretty much bang on re the size & siting problems of the big 3" AT guns. That's why there aren't too many towed AT Guns left in the world. The Russians still have a 125mm towed AT gun at last check though. I'm also sure that a friend of mine sent me a picture of a ZIS 76mm of some flavour sited to cover a road in Yugoslavia during his first peacekeeping tour there and that the BiH Army still has a few in war stocks. They would be useful in some situations, like a well sited defilade position in dead ground on a reverse slope of course - but I'd still rather not be a crewman on them !

The UK 17 Pdr also had that size problem as did all the bigger guns (call it late war 76mm and higher). Even if they weren't huge in size like some of the low slung German designs they were still very heavy and hard to push around a wet battlefield. Also, the gun tractors needed were large and left ruts that air recce could find and trying to get over rough wet ground was a treat too.

On the subject of smoke I don't think that was too much of a big deal - but the muzzle blast was something else again, especially where dust was an issue. That said, I guess we should keep in mind the 4 88mm AA guns at Cagny during GOODWOOD. Of course had the Brits followed a better plan and followed the suggestions of some of their lower level commanders that may not have played out as badly for them.

For some of the later AT guns the firing drill was to either have a nearby spotter calling the fall of shot or (UK post WW2) fire 3 rounds - one at the target one below the target and one above the target because after the first one went the muzzle blast and smoke and dust thoroughly blinded the tk crew comd. The book "Men Against Tanks" is good for detailed discussions on the subject if you're interested.

ORIGINAL: RD_Oddball
if the classic Axsteams.txt has 56 team types and TLD has 102 you'd have 46 team types leftover from TLD at the very end of your classic version workbook

In the original version of the game there were rows of data which could not be substantially changed. There was some hard wire link to the .exe. Is that still the case with the classic and TLD versions?

ORIGINAL: Hughbeast
Of course had the Brits followed a better plan and followed the suggestions of some of their lower level commanders that may not have played out as badly for them.

Does this not highlight the difference between British and German command structures? Wouldn't German lower level commanders have felt free to disregard orders (directives?) and do what the situation required?

ORIGINAL: CSO_Talorgan

ORIGINAL: RD_Oddball
if the classic Axsteams.txt has 56 team types and TLD has 102 you'd have 46 team types leftover from TLD at the very end of your classic version workbook

In the original version of the game there were rows of data which could not be substantially changed. There was some hard wire link to the .exe. Is that still the case with the classic and TLD versions?

Do you mean the airplane entries in the vehicles file? AFAIK that's been fixed. As well as the 21st panzer within the ForcePools file. I'd have to check to be 100% I'm correct. Those are the only two instances I've ever been aware of that match what you're talking about.

ORIGINAL: Hughbeast
Of course had the Brits followed a better plan and followed the suggestions of some of their lower level commanders that may not have played out as badly for them.

Does this not highlight the difference between British and German command structures? Wouldn't German lower level commanders have felt free to disregard orders (directives?) and do what the situation required?
[/quote]
The way I understand it they were instructed to follow orders from "on high" to the letter of the law or risk being shot for insubordination. Was a major reason why their efforts failed. They were not allowed to adapt tactics to adjust to the situation.

For the vehicle file you do not have to worry about having a wreck on every line/row of data that had a wreck to avoid the single battle crash that occurred in CC5.

For the elements file there are still elements that should not be overwritten; example all dirt elements become mud during rain like it occurred in CC5

ORIGINAL: RD_Oddball

Do you mean the airplane entries in the vehicles file?

No, it was the weapons file in original CC V. I can't remember either exactly which entries had not to be changed but Randall warned me not to! Grenades maybe? The first four entries and another two or three much deeper into the file?

In the end it didn't matter because I was able to add all the weapons I wanted on to the end of the file without crashing anything.

Ah! Now I know what you were referring to. There is a prohibition to changing some of the weapons index positions in CCMT, which is CCM based. I don't believe this is the case with TLD, which is CC5 based.

In CCMT, there are a few game explosion type weapons that need to remain in the same rows (index numbers) because the effects have hardcoding in the .exe. In TLD, I believe you can munge them any which way that you want.

This is starting to ring bells. Flamethowers spring to mind, presumably because of the special visual effects their simulation involves.