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Not quite, those were the rifle caliber M1919s. On the M2 tank, there was also only one M2 machinegun (isn't this nomenclature great?), the rest were M1919s.
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Jun 6, 2014 05:05
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My impression was that the basic bazooka was pretty darn ineffective against German tanks from the front, actually. Not sure how well the skirts on some of them protected them from the sides. In-game, at least, the bazooka is not much better than an AT grenade, in stark contrast to the German panzerschrecks. Fangz fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 09:57
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Not only are Stuarts still in use, Brazil has modernized some. Edit: Posting from a phone appears to break attaching images. 
chitoryu12 fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Jun 7, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 14:48
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Infantry would have a much easier time approaching a tank from the side or rear undetected, though. Even tanks would sneak up on tanks all the time, so a couple dudes who aren't 12 ton rumbling fighting vehicles should be able to do it. Weren't infantry historically one of the single biggest threats to tanks?
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Jun 7, 2014 02:03
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Basically. A tank (even many tanks) sent in without infantry cover into enemy trenches will get hosed up fast.
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Jun 7, 2014 02:44
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Night10194 posted:Infantry would have a much easier time approaching a tank from the side or rear undetected, though. Even tanks would sneak up on tanks all the time, so a couple dudes who aren't 12 ton rumbling fighting vehicles should be able to do it. Weren't infantry historically one of the single biggest threats to tanks? Tanks tended to be eaten alive by (properly equipped) infantry in a city fight. They can't see well to start with, and the sight lines are restricted enough that infantry can get close enough to use their antitank weapons (or just climb up on the drat thing, but that's pretty gutsy.) Infantry can climb some stairs and attack from above, and maneuver with impunity over rugged terrain. Tanks also had to deal with antitank guns or enemy armor hiding just around a corner. This all adds up to tanks needing an infantry screen in any situation but an open field.
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Jun 7, 2014 03:17
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wiegieman posted:Tanks tended to be eaten alive by (properly equipped) infantry in a city fight. They can't see well to start with, and the sight lines are restricted enough that infantry can get close enough to use their antitank weapons (or just climb up on the drat thing, but that's pretty gutsy.) Infantry can climb some stairs and attack from above, and maneuver with impunity over rugged terrain. Tanks also had to deal with antitank guns or enemy armor hiding just around a corner. This all adds up to tanks needing an infantry screen in any situation but an open field. This. Tanks are meant to support the infantry first and foremost, since infantry are the ones who can clear buildings, hold territory, perform work, etc. I think Ensign Expendable talked about it in an info post (or it may have been in one of the essays on the Tiger or Panther that he linked?), but tanks and soldiers have a sort of symbiotic relationship: both protect one another. A tank without infantry support is destined to get flanked and taken out, and it's rather embarrassing to lose a multi-million dollar armored vehicle to one random insurgent who tossed a bomb into a convenient opening or set your engine on fire with Molotovs.
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Jun 7, 2014 03:59
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Modern tanks are actually very resilient in that respect, you have to toss a bomb and then a Molotov.
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Jun 7, 2014 04:43
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Ensign Expendable posted:Modern tanks are actually very resilient in that respect, you have to toss a bomb and then a Molotov. Still, even the modern tank is dead without infantry support. Plus super close range urban infantry can lift up its skirts to put the bomb right where it's needed.
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Jun 7, 2014 05:23
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All this tank talk sure seems pretty uneducated, you really think some random insurgent can just walk up to a tank let alone climb onto it without the Tank commander who's second nature is paranoia noticing? Then even if all requirements are met, he'll not wildly accelerate away from combat to throw you off? Some tanks/crews might pack a few cannisters of frags into the launcher unit (mostly used for smoke) to clear nearby infantry, for the very purpose of close range threats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjlJi4l0cBs Ensign expendable has it right that tanks are very vulnerable without an infantry detachment, and a world where everybody and their mother has a KORNET or RPG-7(and variants) is not a very safe one. Though nobody will be running up to one Battlefield style and throwing c4 onto it as he uploads his sick nasty al'jazheera moment to instagram. 
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Jun 7, 2014 12:21
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Ultimately, there is a lot of written records of experiences of troops using the bazooka, and finding it failing to have effect. Eventually, iirc, the use of the bazooka became limited to attacks on fortifications and buildings, as an ersatz grenade launcher. While in theory the weapon can be sneaked into position, this is stymied by the fact that the backblast prevents the weapon from being used indoors, and the considerable smoke trail that would allow supporting units to spot and eliminate any shooter immediately - thus making an attack essentially suicidal. An AT grenade can at least be chucked quietly from an overlooking window in an urban environment. Overall, I think the British PIAT and the German launchers were better weapons. The PIAT because (despite being unergonomic in the extreme) it was at least stealthy and could be used from indoors, producing multiple VC-earning accounts of guys holding off platoons of panzers with PIATs in urban combat, while the Germans had a giant shaped charge on their launchers that could penetrate most tanks from any angle. In game I am not sure if they model the backblast of the bazookas. They do model the PIAT's stealth capabilities, I think - it doesn't break concealment if you shoot from bushes. For multiplayer they might rebalance the penetrations, but the handheld bazooka is palpably useless in single player - in my experience, anyway. The drat thing will just bounce off anything better than a PzII, even if you shoot them in the side.
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Jun 7, 2014 14:51
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Bazookas were pretty bad against sloped armour, I've read complaints that they kept bouncing off T-34-85s in Korea, but as long as you could catch some flat armour, you're good to go. I don't know of the game models the backblast, and if it does, it certainly doesn't animate it.
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Jun 7, 2014 17:32
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Ensign Expendable posted:Bazookas were pretty bad against sloped armour, I've read complaints that they kept bouncing off T-34-85s in Korea, but as long as you could catch some flat armour, you're good to go. It most certainly does not, which is pretty par for the course in video games to be honest. On the bright side this makes sneaky maneuvering in men of war much easier, which the multiplayer meta is (well, was) all about. The main thing the bazooka was useful for, which was immobilizing vehicles, isn't quite as useful in men of war since the crews can fairly easily repair damage to a tank.
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Jun 7, 2014 17:55
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 Ok, I'm pretty sure we have seen this exact same cinematic before.  Oh yeah. Same one.  Turning Point. February 18th, 1943. Tunis, Allied positions near Sbiba  Corporal "Zero Fucks Given" Robinson is flooring it to the base, blaring the horn.  Hey guys, an unidentified armoured vehicle is rushing towards our base and is ramming our gate. You know what we should do? Not shoot at it.  Just let it park next to the HQ and let the people inside do whatever, this is a chill army base.  The disembodied voice summarizes the situation.  Over here, you have a fuckton of stuff, and you'll need to use every last scrap.  The Germans are going to be here soon, since apparently your Mad Max escape won you about 5 minutes.  You might get reinforcements eventually.  Objective added: Hold against enemy attacks and protect the supply base. Corporal Robinson: Are these all the men that were left to guard the pass? Jerry Adams: Two Daimlers are out on patrol right now, and there is one sentry on a cliff to the east. Other than that, this is it, sir.  Here are anti-tank and anti-infantry mines. Use them to shore up our defenses, covering up approaches.  "Oh poo poo, we ran out of missions, let's introduce the entire goddamn British tank park in one mission. Awesome.  We also get some big guns in addition to all these tanks.  There's only one road where the Germans were coming from in the opening cinematic, so I should put my mines here I guess.  Objective added: Do not let the enemy inside the base. But of course the game flipped the map and the enemies show up on the opposite side. gently caress you, Men of War.  That Jumbo Sherman is doing a pretty good job of holding the enemy for now. Sadly my Churchills are cretins and unable to exit the tank park.  Welp.  We got those armoured cars! Better late than never.  Consider yourself lucky that you have a shitton of vehicles, as they don't last. At all.  Trying to defend at the wall is pointless, as the Germans will drive you back to the tank park, if only because you don't have time to send in more tanks to protect the wall. Might as well fight them here. Either the objective is misleading or the trigger for it is broken, as having Germans all over the base is a-okay as long as your guys are still alive.  Left unchecked, those flamethrowers will set your tanks on fire.  Due to the sheer number of enemies, your tracks will pop off almost as fast as you can fix them.  The artillery has one advantage over tanks: it only takes one man to work it. If you are running short on guys, slapping one on a 17-pdr helps a lot to hold the Germans back, even if he can't move it by himself.  Sadly, even if the men at the guns don't die, the guns themselves can't take much punishment.  My once full tank park has been reduced to cinders, and I am forced to use things like armoured cars. They are still perfectly good against German tanks from the side!  Aaaaand there it goes. I'm running low on armour.  Corporal Robinson: Sir, reinforcements from the neighbouring checkpoint! They are awaiting your orders! Reinforcements are always welcome.  There is plenty of German infantry on this side to engage.  Here's a neat little thing, an M8 Scott. It might look like a worse version of the early PzIV, but it provides me with a handy ability.  For instance, see this pesky Bison that's been picking away at my tanks?  Aaaaaaaim....  Boom! Indirect fire is always handy.  I'm down to using the AA halftrack here. Things are not going well at all.  Objective complete: Do not let the enemy inside the base. Corporal Robinson: We beat them back, sir! The base defenses are restored. Looking at the map, we haven't beaten back poo poo, but at least we get reinforcements now.  Corporal Robinson: drat, it's nice to see you guys! We were just getting ready to die.  Greg Green: You'll have time, Corporal. Take my men, plug holes in your defenses. There is no more help we can wait for, we have to manage this ourselves.  A whole minute? Oh well, better than nothing. There are a few German tanks sitting in that heap of metal with repairable damage, I should be able to fill up my forces a little.  Corporal Robinson: What the hell? Has anyone seen these tanks before? Looks like the Germans are playing their trump card...  Of course, they have a Tiger.  Several Tigers.  Corporal Robinson: drat, our shells do not cause these tanks any harm! Try to hit them from the side! I'm firing on the Tigers with 17-pdrs and AA guns, things that should have no problem punching through a Tiger, but Tigers in this mission have magic plot armour, it seems.  Eventually I bring one down with howitzer fire.  Corporal Robinson: Hah! These new giants burn as well as plain old Panzers!  Objective added: Neutralize the rocket artillery battery. Rocket artillery is more annoying than any Tiger tank.  Let's try our own! Graham Cooper: I bet you guys have never seen toys like these before! They say that it can turn the battlefield into Sodom and Gomorrah in seconds! Sadly, we don't have a lot of rounds, so only use this in an emergency. Unfortunately, this guy is right, the Sodomizer here only has 3-4 shots worth of ammo. Also its range is absolute poo poo, and it can't reach the enemy battery anyway.  drat it, game, quit shoving StuG IVs into unrelated missions! Is it so hard to model a StuG III?  There, that's the thing we're looking for.  I think I'll send its former buddy to take it out.  Objective completed: Neutralize the rocket artillery battery. Works well enough!  Right, let's see how well this thing works.   Ok, I guess it's pretty good.   More reinforcements!  Thank god we came in time! If the battle is still on, our guys are still holding out. Lieutenant, send in your tanks! All forces, reinforce the perimeter! A proper force is here, and a proper command structure!  Objective added: Deflect an enemy attack from the east. Except now we have to move all of our defenses over to the other side of the base in a minute and a half.  Oh man, get a load of this nerd. He didn't even spawn with any ammo. I got him a real gun, though.  You should still have some halftracks left to help you ferry the AA guns to the new frontline. Everyone else will have to walk.  Beggars can't be choosers. Even this dinky little thing is needed in the upcoming battle.  The AI is as horrible as ever at positioning itself.  Great, more Tigers. I'm pretty sure that literally every Tiger in Africa right now is trying to kill us. Makes you feel special, doesn't it?  Still a few stragglers back here, fixing up their broken equipment.  Here come the Germans! This attack is not all that interesting. Maybe it's because I have more men, but it feels like they throw less at me here than they did at the very start.  Objective completed: Counterattack and destroy the rest of the German division Uh, pretty sure this should be "Objective added"... The scripting is all hosed up for this mission. Corporal Robinson: Looks like we held them back. This is the perfect time to hit the Bosch back!  We're headed into a pretty formidable force here, and we still haven't wiped out the Germans directly in front of our faces.  Corporal Robinson: Get down! Their artillery is working over our positions! Sigh. Of course it is.  I'll need to clear out all the enemies up front in order to get the Land Mattress in to help me. I have plenty of time, it takes forever to push that thing over here.  It can help soften up the enemy though!  Finally in position. Feel my wrath, Tigers!  Bwahahaha!  Hahahaha  ...oh. loving plot armour.  Sigh, no damage whatsoever. Let's try the Priests.  No effect either. The Tiger has noticed me, but it can't hit me from that distance.  Oh boy, two barrages later, and it lost a track! That was definitely worth it.  There are still a few vehicles back here worth fixing.  Attacking into all those magic Tigers would be suicide. Let's see if I can achieve something with a sneaky commando squad.  Aw yes, I managed to capture one of the German mortars.  Take that, Tiger!  Hmm, I wonder...  Meanwhile, my magical levitating powers allow me to rotate this mortar to fire at the rest of the German defenses.  Let's take out that Bison before it causes us any more grief.  The Tiger is all fixed up, let's try to kill the other one! Except oops, we're both cloaked in plot armour. This is going to be a long shootout.  Oh come on, he has his side to me!  My fourth or fifth shot succeeded in knocking off his track.  Ugh, finally. He locked my turret, but it was already aimed at him, so I could just keep firing.  The Tigers are disabled, and my main forces can deal with the rest. Attack!  Toot toot!  Direct control with autocannons never gets old!  That's it for this flank, time to fall in on the defenders in the center.  Objective complete: suppress the enemy mortars My commandos take care of the enemy artillery in the meantime.  The Germans have a few StuGs left, no match for my mighty force.  One of them got a Matilda, but I don't care, I win!  Uh, I win? I guess the game wants me to kill literally all the Germans on this map.  There are a handful that got into my base and are hiding in the back. Let's see if I can root them out.  Didn't take too long. Now what?  I still have two objectives "hold the base", which I did, and "defeat the enemy", which the game told me I did, but I also finished just now.  Come on, the marker is right here!  Go gently caress yourself, Men of War. Ensign Expendable fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Jun 15, 2014 |
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Jun 15, 2014 19:48
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quote:Go gently caress yourself, Men of War. Not an uncommon utterance.
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Jun 15, 2014 22:50
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Historical Notes: Mission 5 Thanks to Men of War developers, I have to do the entire loving British tank park in one go. Well joke's on you, assholes! I already have an article on that. Enjoy. It covers the more theoretical side of things, like infantry tanks vs cruiser tanks. For some reason, all infantry tanks in this game are classified as medium, regardless of Soviet classification, where only the Matilda was medium (Valentine was light and the Churchill was heavy). We are left with a couple of things that aren't covered in that article: M4 Medium Tank  The Medium Tank, M4 (nicknamed General Sherman by the British) was basically the Allies' T-34: durable, multipurpose, mass-produceable, and generally a pinnacle of engineering. A fuckton were made, and they are scattered over museums, monuments, and third world warlord armies everywhere. The story of the Sherman starts in the far off years of 1939 when the US heard about this world war business and decided to take a look at its armoured forces which were, uh...marginal. M2 Medium tanks were armed with guns European light tanks would spit on, and the M2 Light had only machineguns. A new and radically better tank was needed, but in the meantime, the US Army could do with a less new and not so radically better tank. The result was the M3 Lee, a weird two-gunned monster that no one really liked, but, due to delays with the Sherman, was made in pretty significant numbers. The Lee packed a pretty devastating 75 mm cannon in its hull, which migrated into the Sherman's turret (the 37 mm gun was done away with). The result was an immediate hit both with the US Army and its Allies, who were all quite tired of Lend-Lease M3s. For 1942, the Sherman contained a lot of features that were already standard in tanks: sloped front armour, a large caliber, high velocity gun good against both infantry and tanks, but also game with some shiny new ones, like a telephone to talk to infantry and a .50 caliber pintle mounted gun that was equally good against low flying aircraft and lightly entrenched infantry. Throughout the war, the Sherman was modernized many times resulting in an alphabet soup you could get lost in (M4, M4A1 with cast hull, M4A2 with a diesel engine, for the Marines and Soviets, M4A3 with a Ford engine, M4A4 with a Chrysler Multibank 30-cylinder engine, and all this isn't counting the E# modifications), Jumbo Sherman Assault tank (a Sherman with additional armour, which we see in game), the Sherman Firefly with a 17-pounder gun, Shermans with 76 mm high velocity guns, as well as many post-war modifications, including a Sherman with a Panther's gun, an AMX-13 turret, and what I consider the pinnacle of all Sherman conversions, the Yugoslavian Sherman with an A-19 122 mm gun (like the one used in IS-2 tanks). The Sherman was a hell of a platform. The Sherman was largely poo poo upon by contemporary (and modern, really) American media for not having the biggest gun or the thickest armour, but people who complain about that usually have no idea what goes into actually winning a war. The Sherman was an excellent well-rounded vehicle and a war-winning tank in every respect. 17-pounder  British guns in the early war were kind of poo poo. The 40 mm 2-pounder that was on every British tank was pretty hopeless against any enemy tank, the 57 mm 6-pounder was still inadequate against heavy vehicles. The solution was a 76 mm gun, a caliber that was pretty widely used at the time, but with a much faster shell. The result was a gun that could penetrate any enemy tank (even King Tigers, with special ammunition), but was really drat heavy, too heavy for a crew to push around. In Soviet trials, a crew of 7 men could only push the gun 100 meters on flat terrain before becoming exhausted (gun weight doesn't matter in game, so two guys can push it as far as they want). The gun was also stuffed into Sherman tanks (with some pretty creative tricks, at the cost of such unnecessary things as ergonomics), resulting in the Sherman Firefly. Since German anti-tank gunners would try to knock out Fireflies first (allegedly, at least) many tricks were tried to make Fireflies look like Shermans and Shermans look like Fireflies.   Which is the 75 mm gun and which is the 17-pounder!? It is impossible to tell! All the other stuff that showed up in this episode I don't know much about, and would only be able to tell you as much information as you'd get from typing it into Google, as (logically), there is lots of English info on English equipment. That's it for the Allied campaign! See you eventually to find out what heaping spoonfuls of poo poo the game is going to dump on me in German boots.
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Jun 18, 2014 02:42
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For those who are curious, the reason the American armored fleet was so crappy at first is because they had a bizarre doctrine where the tanks were purely infantry support vehicles and enemy armor would be engaged by tank destroyers or AT guns. This doctrine is, as you may imagine, essentially worthless on an actual battlefield. You'd end up with relatively light tanks trying and failing to beat enemy tanks and tank destroyers pressed into service as infantry support vehicles, which they didn't do a good job of (the American Wolverine tank destroyer is especially problematic as it has an open top, which is just perfect for driving past elevated positions or guys with hand grenades).
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Jun 18, 2014 03:36
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A common misconception. Tanks would not actively seek out enemy tanks to destroy, but would engage them if necessary. There is nothing wrong with open top tank destroyers, as they were used like highly mobile artillery. People don't complain about field guns being "open top", do they? The real insanity is the guy that argued that tank destroyers were unnecessary and towed guns could do all the necessary work!
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Jun 18, 2014 04:37
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Ensign Expendable posted:A common misconception. Tanks would not actively seek out enemy tanks to destroy, but would engage them if necessary. There is nothing wrong with open top tank destroyers, as they were used like highly mobile artillery. People don't complain about field guns being "open top", do they? An open top probably leads to a bad time against infantry. Against tanks, who cares!
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Jun 18, 2014 06:00
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Also, weren't open topped vehicles a lot more comfortable for the crew working the gun? I know very little about gun operation, but I remember hearing something about that.
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Jun 18, 2014 08:40
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Wait, that's it for the Allied campign? This game doesn't have very many missions, does it?
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Jun 18, 2014 09:52
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Ensign Expendable posted:British guns in the early war were kind of poo poo. The 40 mm 2-pounder that was on every British tank was pretty hopeless against any enemy tank, the 57 mm 6-pounder was still inadequate against heavy vehicles. I seem to remember that the 2-pounder's performance against enemy armour is sort of underrated - that particularly against early-war Italian and German tanks with their paper-thin armour it was perfectly adequate until the modernised Panzer IVs that came on the field around '42. Its main drawback as an early-war gun was that it didn't have high-explosive shells (at least readily available), with either armour-piercing shells of various types being the only ones available. This naturally limited the tanks' effectiveness against infantry or anything that wasn't an armoured vehicle as they had to rely on their machine-guns. Especially when paired with the generally heavier armour on tanks like the Matilda, the 2-pounder was perfectly fit for purpose against enemy tanks - as shown in the battle of Arras, where the Matildas chewed through the German panzer forces until stopped by makeshift batteries of 88mm flak guns.
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Jun 18, 2014 10:12
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Azran posted:Also, weren't open topped vehicles a lot more comfortable for the crew working the gun? I know very little about gun operation, but I remember hearing something about that.
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Jun 18, 2014 13:14
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Nuramor posted:Wait, that's it for the Allied campign? This game doesn't have very many missions, does it? Yup, only 5 missions! They barely had enough ideas for three, so I'd hate to see it drag on.
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Jun 18, 2014 19:10
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Thankfully the German campaign is a lot of fun and decently varied.
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Jun 18, 2014 20:12
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A lot of these missions are much more fun in co-op.
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Jun 18, 2014 20:45
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 It's a bird! It's a plane!  It's paratroopers!  Action pose!  A German is guarding this important looking box.  And we kill him? What? Are we doing a government overthrow? Because I'd be all over that.  Oh, wait, it was an exercise. Would suck to have to be the guard on this one.  OH gently caress IT'S AFRICA AGAIN Oh wait, we're a little bit to the north.  For the three of you that hadn't guessed it when they saw the paratroopers, our first mission is the Battle of Crete.  Mercury. May 20th, 1941. Greece, Crete island, airport next to Maleme  That plane looks like a shed. I think it's the corrugated hull.  Takeoff!  The unprecedented realism of Men of War allows you to experience exciting waiting action like never before!  We have one fighter as an escort? I'm no flyboy, but I think we'd need more than one.  Finally, we're out!  In an era before minimaps, this overall view of the battlefield would have been extremely handy.  This campaign gets its own disembodied voice! It's not a hilariously thick German accent, but it's a tad angrier than the Allied one. The objective of this mission is that airport over there. If we can take it, we can land reinforcements, and the British that are holding this island are going to be pretty screwed.  There are a fuckton of AA guns all over the place that are tearing our planes to pieces.  We land on the beach and move north, taking out those AA guns to allow more reinforcements to land.  Then the airport should be ours! Easy peasy.  As soon as we land, we are spotted by some Tommies. And no, this isn't fog of war, this is how big the map is at the start. This mission is ridiculously hand-holdy towards the beginning. I suspect it's the very first mission you are meant to play.  As soon as we land, we Vinzenz Knopl: Be cautious. They are not happy to see us.  Gunther Borg: Without proper weapons, we have a small chance of survival. Search the bodies, we could use their rifles and grenades! Gunther is our main character for the campaign. Unlike the previous two campaigns, he is not actually present on the map, but will talk from off-screen somewhere.  Objective completed: Search the enemy soldiers and find rifles and ammunition See what I mean? Very simple and granular objectives so you don't get lost in a huge map right away.  Gunther Borg: We can't fight a war with personal weapons. We need to find a supply crate and arm ourselves with something more serious. Objective added: Find a container with weapons and ammunition Unlike in the Allied campaigns where we had to scrub every corpse for ammo, this mission hands supplies to you like candy.  There is one in the distance, but surprise surprise, it's guarded!  Gunther Borg: There are the Tommies! Hurry, take cover! Objective added: take cover and deflect the enemy attack. Even though we only have two rifles, and the enemy has four, we have cover. After the experience gathered in the previous campaigns, this is an easy fight.  Grenades and machineguns! Good poo poo.  I only have time to equip one guy before the cinematic plays.  A few Germans run out from behind bushes...  ...and are immediately shot or surrender. That's not our squad, I hope.  They are imprisoned in that house. We should probably save them.  The disembodied voice tells us to do just that.  Guther Borg: Faster, faster! German soldiers leave no man behind, and we won't start now! Fine, I guess I could use more than three guys.  Max Lederer: There's a machinegun up there! Take cover! Objective added: Disable the machinegun on the hill.  Max Lederer: What do we do, commander? Take it head on with a grenade or go around the side? drat these guys are impatient, running off somewhere before I can even arm them properly.  This is a pretty good vantage point to clear out that yard up there.  A paratrooper! The first of many. Once we push back the British a little bit, limitless reinforcements will rain down from the sky.  As you can see, my squad has more than doubled in number already!  I guess I should double back and complete my objective, now that I have a few more guys. Gunther Borg: Excellent! Now this machinegun won't trouble us. Objective complete: Disable the machinegun on the hill.  Let's take it!  Despite not looking like it should be mobile, it is. The crew just picks it up and walks around with it. A small difference in game mechanics is present for some reason: if you do a right click and drag (set up pointing in a direction), this machinegun will enter travel mode and move automatically, unlike any other gun in the game so far.  What's all that commotion about?  Bop.  It's our buddies from before! This one looks like he's glad to see us. I think.  "Get off your asses and fight!"  Herbert Reitsneider: Commander, look, next to that downed Junkers! The Tommies are pouring in from all sides! If we don't help them, they won't last long! Objective added: Help the group of soldiers pinned down at the airplane wreck  The men I left manning this AA gun have lots of work. Even though this sector is ours, the British still trickle in once in a while. Gunther Borg: Not bad, but we are still few in number. What happened to the rest?  Karl Hammer: A portion was killed while still in the air, some were carried by the wind right into Tommy positions. Some got luckier, they managed to fortify, but they won't hold out long. We're hosed, commander!  There are a handful of enemies hiding in this corner, leaving them in our rear would probably be bad.  Some really big ammo is stored in these crates! 75 mm AP shells... why would we even use those here?  That machinegun I stole is coming in really handy. Objective complete: Help the group of soldiers pinned down at the airplane wreck Veil Stroh: Excellent, right on schedule. While we're dealing with the rest of the enemies on the right flank, our reinforcements should arrive. Forward, paratroopers!  Gunther Borg: Before we move to the airport, we should knock out the Tommies from positions at the road. Be extra careful. There are few of us left, and I don't need extra casualties.  Despite what Gunther thinks, these are much better odds than I am used to in previous campaigns. Should be a piece of cake!  Objective complete: suppress enemy resistance on the right flank.  Adolf Silberg: Commander! Enemy reinforcements spotted! They are driving towards the airport! They will be here in minutes! "Minutes" is generous: we have just over a minute and a half.  Objective added: Destroy the enemy column.  We have plenty of firepower in that area, but let's see if we can get more. Like this Jeep I saw earlier!  Gunther Borg: Attention to the road! Looks like we have visitors. Take positions, we'll give them a warm welcome!  Gunther Borg: Fire at them! If we cannot stop them here, we're going to have a bad time! My Jeep became critically damaged despite being far from the fighting. The physics engine must have glitched out again.  The enemy isn't really putting up that much of a fight. This mission is ridiculously easy.  We lucked out and got an AA halftrack of our very own!  Objective Complete: Destroy the enemy column.  Gunther Borg: They brought in tanks and artillery, we will need something heavier than rifles to break through to the airport. Our Junkers carry light guns. If we can destroy the enemy AA covering the island from the sea, we can land one right on the shore...  Gunther Borg: drat it, the AA gun near the shore is still operational! If we cannot destroy it, the airplanes cannot deliver reinforcements! Relax, dude. You told me to destroy that gun, like, ten seconds ago. Also we're getting reinforcements just fine.  There are still some survivors among the enemy vehicles near the coastal road.  Capturing the AA gun was easy, but my objectives still haven't updated.  Oh, you meant this AA gun. Hold on.  Aside from our weapon drops, there is some Good poo poo (tm) in boxes just scattered around. Lots of explosives!  This must be a record for the number of disembodied voice cameos per mission.  He tells us exactly nothing new: go that way, capture a thing.  Gunther Borg: The AA gun is no longer a threat to our planes. Now we can try to land on the beach. There should be enough space for a Junkers...  Our next objective is highlighted: the control tower of the airport.  Gunther Borg: We need to reach that landing strip before the damned Tommies pull up reserves! Hold on, I'm still playing with this new toy I got.  Boom! Take that, MG nest.  Gunther Borg: The Tommies are pulling up reserves! Take everything you have and break through to that landing strip! Looking at the minimap, the fight to the airport is going to be hard. Of course, I don't notice the reinforcements button that has appeared until much, much later.  Once in a while, these cinematics will play, showing the British sending more troops into battle. They have a vehicle with them, usually a Jeep or a halftrack.  Look what I found! A halftrack of my very own.  Oh gently caress, a Matilda. The armour on those things is impervious to any of our weapons, except the captured AA guns. Those aren't exactly mobile though.  Gunther Borg: Forward! Our planes cannot hang in the air forever!  More big things coming in from the airport. If we take that AA gun, we can take it out!  This is when I remember that I have a reinforcements button. A Junkers flies up to the beach!  There are an awful lot of pieces coming off that plane.  Seriously? You said landing, Gunther!  I can't imagine anyone on board being too happy right now.  Well, at least some of them survived. They are carrying some heavy weapons with them. Sadly heavy weapons mean they walk very slowly.  Is this dinky thing supposed to be a cannon? Please.  Gunther Borg: Attention, soldiers! We must suppress resistance at the landing strip and reach the control tower. If we can ensure safe landing for our airplanes, we'll have a chance of making it out alive!  gently caress, more Matildas.  The animations in this game may not have been all that well thought out.  Yup, even when standing. Good job.  gently caress, these guys got lost in some trenches. gently caress it, I'm going on without them.  Objective completed: capture the control tower. Gunther Borg: The transport planes cannot land while the landing strip is full of Tommies. Knock them out of there and take the territory under your control! Move, if you want to live today!  Objective completed: Take control of territory around the landing strip.  This guy calls in our airplanes. A little prematurely, I think...  Uh oh, we missed an AA gun.  Our planes are coming in anyway.   This ends poorly for them.  There's a Matilda here too!  Landing right now is a bad idea.  Gunther Borg: Curses, there are Tommies everywhere! Arriving airplanes are a perfect target! We need to take out the threat as soon as possible!  Gunther Borg: Hurry, soldiers! We need to take out the guns that are threatening the landing strip!  Rene Eisenhower: They shot down another Junkers! Soon there will be so many hulls littering the landing strip, no more will be able to land! We need to destroy the tanks and guns, double time! What, we can't use that same radio to tell them to hold off for a few minutes? No? Okay then.  The Matilda is easy prey for anti-tank grenades.  There is another gun somewhere here. They're waiting for a good time to attack, the bastards. All right, let's wait it out. Literally seconds later...  Mission complete. What the hell!? We were promised an encounter with a handful of demoralized defeatists, and instead we found a pack of rabid dogs! The English fought desperately, and I must admit, matched us in almost every respect. The main things were their AA guns and the damned heat. We started losing people in the air, and continued on the ground. All plans were shot to hell. That wasn't enough! The sun burned like Judgement Day, our wounded died of thirst, and the Tommies, time and time again, rose up to attack. I swear, when our first plane touched down at Maleme, I was ready to cry. I did not believe that we could succeed! I knew that we did all that was possible, and then impossible, but I maintain that I witnessed a miracle. A miracle, paid for with thousands of lives of loyal Reich soldiers... One thing is good: after this, it should rain Knight's Crosses on us. Enemies destroyed: 438 men, 16 vehicles Allied losses: 129 men, 10 vehicles
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Jun 29, 2014 20:23
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I guess having a German campaign where you face the RKKA would be unthinkable in a Russian-made game. Some topical music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JKar_hChU4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-4wcfDoBy8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQUFRa_UjeE
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Jun 29, 2014 23:12
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I loved the toys you can steal from the Allies on this map. Halftracks with a quad .50 on it towing another quad .50 turret, one of the biggest direct fire guns in the game and those ridiculously well armoured tanks.
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Jun 30, 2014 00:31
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 The casualty ratios in this game are insane. Dozens or hundreds of enemies slaughtered for a handful of yours.
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Jun 30, 2014 19:46
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This, THIS is the mission where the Realism Mod will really break the game. It adds realistic accuracy and range to all weapons, which the maps are not designed for. When you capture those big AA guns, you can easily shoot across the entire map and take advantage of the lack of fog of war to shoot through houses at targets with pinpoint accuracy. And yeah, I think the German campaign was initially written as the first one. This mission all has the appearance of a tutorial, and the German campaign in general isn't as blatantly unfair as the Russian and American ones.
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Jun 30, 2014 20:34
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 Did you miss Africa? No? Too loving bad.  This time we're defending fighting at Tobruk though. Not for Tobruk, that would be silly, but next to it.  Molten sands. November 23rd, 1941. Libyan desert, near the Sidi Rezegh airport    Something is coming towards us out of the desert.  A motorcycle courier!   He reports that some serious poo poo is coming for us.  Well drat, he's right! If only we had some people whose job it was to look at the horizon with binoculars, we could have had a little more notice.  Here's the scoop. The British are coming, and they have a fuckton of tanks. In order to get past us, they need to pass through two narrow corridors, so it's a perfect place to choke their advance.  If they get past us to the river valley, we're pretty drat screwed. Interesting note about the map: we get to see both halves of it (the north and south forces), but not at the same time.  Objective added: hold the heights. We must not let the British tanks into the valley. Here we can hold them in narrow passes, but in open terrain they will simply crush us with their numbers.  This being the African campaign, our tanks are pretty lovely.  Gunther Borg: Right...a few armoured cars. I think they will need to bring their tanks soon.  Vinzenz Kaiser: That's their advance guard. I know this tactic, they never start a fight without reconnaissance.  Vinzenz Kaiser: If we can't compete with the enemy in numbers, then we can only win with skilful maneuvers and correct positioning. In this case, the terrain won't let them flank us, and the Tommies would have to throw their tanks right at our 88 mm guns.  Vinzenz Kaiser: Save your shells! Without 88 mm guns, we cannot hold them!  Well, there goes my tank. About those 88 mm guns, we don't actually have any. They are only available through the reinforcements option. As you can see, I cannot afford any. Our 37 mm guns are doing the job for now, but they won't be enough when the main British forces get here.  I can afford a halftrack full of infantry though. Works the same as any nation's halftrack full of infantry.  Mortars are handy to have. They have a good chance of locking an enemy tank's turret,  Here comes their main force. We see a new tank that we haven't seen while playing as the British, an M3 Lee.  I'm moving up my guns so that they at least have some protection. Sitting here, they can hit the armoured cars coming up from the West flank in the rear.  My 37 mm gun is too slow!  Eh, still works.  loving rear end, this stupid reinforcements bug again. Sometimes they will get stuck at the spawn point and won't move at all. drat it, game, I need my guns!  The British aren't having much luck for the time being.  The British have a shitload of tanks.  Here's another newcomer, an Italian Carro M15/42 light tank. It's about as useful as a T-26. You won't be winning any battles with it, but it's better than nothing. Its gun can still put a hole in the British light tanks and armoured cars.  At this point, the game glitched out again and didn't progess past the "defend the right flank" objective. gently caress. Let's try again!  Another stolen tank with a broken turret, this time a Crusader. About as useful as our Italian lights, but hey, free tank!  Objective complete: do not let the enemy penetrate your right flank. This time it worked.  The Valentines are already troublesome targets for our lighter guns.  Objective added: deflect the English attack at your center Vinzenz Kaiser: Figure out your situation, maybe it's worth requesting additional reinforcements from HQ. Here we get a few more reinforcement options: PzIVs and PzIIIs.  Gunther Borg: There are too many of them! We must reinforce the center and the flanks, and do it quickly, otherwise we cannot hold. You can use all reserves. Just don't let the enemy penetrate the defenses and get to the river valley!  It's good that we have new tanks, since the Matildas are coming at us. Still, nothing short of the 88 mm AA guns can punch through them reliably.  A Crusader got through my defenses... and keeps going. Thankfully, my tanks can shoot it even if I can't see it.  Gotcha!  Objective completed: deflect the English attack at your center  This guy showed up in my reinforcements spawn zone, even though I didn't call him. Hey, free tank. And what a tank! A whole year early, the long barreled 75 mm gun can finally poke holes in those pesky Matildas. No more having to wheel up 88 mm guns under enemy fire!  Vinzenz Kaiser: English tanks are threatening the left flank! Let's meet them according to rules of wartime hospitality... As you could have guessed, the left flank is next.  Crusaders, Valentines, some tank riders. Nothing we haven't seen before.  And nothing that can stand up to our AA guns.   Objective added: Neutralize enemy artillery.  Enemy howitzers give us a massive headache. Neutralize them, the faster the better. Motherfucker, those guns hurt. Unlike the usual "neutralize artillery" objectives, this one is mandatory.  My left flank is in poor shape, a handful of enemy tanks have gone through.  My hasty reinforcements can't quite get them all in time.  With two of these futuristic wonder-tanks, I should have no problem crushing the British!  Forward and onward!  While my big and mean tanks are busy fighting Lees and Matildas, this old thing can go behind enemy lines and knock out their howitzers.  Objective completed: do not let the enemy into the river valley. Vinzenz Kaiser: Looks like we gave them a beating. The enemy's losses are incomparable with ours, and this is a definite victory! However, we just received a telegram from Rommel. We are ordered to leave our positions and move to meet the rest of the Afrika Corps. Get your things, we are retreating to the valley.   The enemy has followed us!  Objective added: do not let the enemy reach the valley Vinzenz Kaiser: My friend, we have big problems. The New Zealanders have attacked Rommel's division while they were en route. There is no time to build up defenses. He will maneuver and try to meet us here. Gunther Borg: What the hell? That means we have to hold in the open and fight the British until his tanks arrive... Lovely, we are defending 500 meters from where we were defending before, but this time with no chokepoints. Also no reinforcements.  Your only "reinforcement" is an air strike. It's not too useful though, as it takes 45 seconds to hit.  There's a neat boat out here.  Vinzenz Kaiser: Commander! English vehicles from the East! Turn your guns!  As before, if allowed past your lines, they will keep driving.  You have a handful of tanks, guns, and men, really not enough resources to stop the British forces.  There are a fuckton of enemies here. This campaign was much friendlier than the other two, until now.  They are all shooting at that one guy. He didn't last long.  Objective complete: do not let the enemy reach the valley drat, we did it! We held out! Finally! Rommel's tanks show up and we win, without even having to clean up the rest of the Britsh.  Mission complete drat, we did it! We held out! I heard that Rommel's methods are unusual, but in these conditions, I see no alternative. There is no work for paratroopers in the endless desert, here, the battle is won with tanks and artillery. Being the adjutant of the commander of the 11th Division of the Afrika Corps, I could see how right he was first hand. The battle at Sidi Rezegh is bound to enter history books. I was lucky enough to participate, for which I thank General Crüwell. We are constantly on the road. Where we cannot win with brute force, we must win with cleverness and maneuvers. Looks like the Tommies never learned to fight on land, and sooner or later, we will clear Africa from their stubborn leftovers. Cunningham's adventure turned into black smoke, which floats up from the remnants of his army. News from the East also bring optimism: our forces are already at the outskirts of Moscow, and soon all of Russia will bow its head before the superior German people. Enemies destroyed: 381 men, 76 vehicles Allied losses: 196 men, 65 vehicles. Ensign Expendable fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Jul 1, 2014 |
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Jul 1, 2014 21:39
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 Blah blah blah Rommel, blah blah blah, Afrika Corps. Oh, sweet, we finally get to Tobruk! Let's get to it.  Desert Fortress. June 20th, 1942. Tobruk, Libya   Smug motherfuckers chatting on the wall.   Meanwhile, we're preparing to attack.   Those guys have been standing perfectly still for quite some time.  Briefing time! Here's the overview of the city.  Our first task is to get our tanks over the anti-tank fortifications and into the city.  The obvious avenues of attack are likely mined.  Our path to shore will have to be the most direct, through the houses.  Once we reached the shore, we can pull up artillery and discourage British ships from coming in with reinforcements.  After the British have stopped trying to reinforce Tobruk, we can take out this small fortress in our rear before the main attack.  Objective added: take positions next to the anti-tank trench  You start the mission controlling only a small group of men. Prepare for a speech before you get to do anything. Paul Weiss: You're right on time. An experienced field commander, that is who we need for a successful breakthrough! The Tommies have fortified several neighbourhoods, and it will be tough to knock them out of there. Your combat group has the task of clearing the path to the shore and secure the positions for coastal artillery. You proved yourself in prior battles, your soldiers will follow you anywhere. Trust me, that has value. Anti-tank fortifications are impeding our progress. We need to destroy them, and only then can we expect help from vehicles.  Finally, we get to do something! Conveniently, we spawn right next to a crate full of explosives.  Paul Weiss: Anti-tank fortifications are impeding our progress. We need to destroy them, and only then can we expect help from vehicles. Sadly, I redistributed the explosives before I knew what we'll be doing with them, so I have to go and find out who actually has them now.  Use explosives or anti-tank grenades to destroy the fortifications Shut up, game! I got this!  This dynamite also doesn't work the same as when you use it in the British campaign. Instead of piling up a few sticks and having it go off automatically, you have to throw each one in direct control mode.  Objective complete: destroy anti-tank fortifications impeding your vehicles  One of our tanks moves forward and blows up immediately. Paul Weiss: We should have known that there will be a minefield after the fortifications! I cannot send my sappers at enemy machineguns. Deal with the Englishmen that are defending the passage. drat it, the more time we spend here, the costlier this assault will be!  Gunther Borg: Use smoke grenades, advance under their cover!  Smoke grenades are also thrown in direct control mode. They do in fact cover an area with smoke the enemy cannot target you in.  Unfortunately its usefulness is limited, as the enemy still has artillery and will fire at the smoke.  We need to knock out these machineguns covering the passage. This is one of them. Sadly it can't shoot at anything useful that belongs to the enemy.  Paul Weiss: Curses! Our losses are too great, our attack has nearly petered out! Use armoured cars, but act carefully, the reserves of the Afrika Corps are not endless. Holy poo poo, I get rewarded for loving up? Man, this campaign is a whole different ball game.  Oh yeah. Mines.  The first battle is ours. Now the sappers will clear the road and our tanks can get into the city. A little too late for my halftrack here.  Paul Weiss: Be careful, the Tommies are trying to flank us! If we don't do anything risky and don't let their infantry close, we can deal with them. Otherwise, they will cover us in grenades. Objective added: minimize tank group losses The objective is very vague, it doesn't actually tell me how many dead tanks counts as too much. Also, even though I get four tanks, I cannot call in any more.  And yet I get the ability to do so in a few seconds, when my tanks have entered far enough into the city. Gunther Borg: Everything is going according to plan. Next step: getting to shore and placing artillery there.  Objective added: knock the enemy off the shore.  I try to go in carefully, direct controlling one tank at a time so the AI doesn't pull anything stupid. Paul Weiss: A tank has been destroyed! Do not show your sides to enemy guns and try to be more careful, our attack must not peter our in these houses! Oops. Let's try a different approach.  Paul Weiss: Stop! You were at the briefing and you know the intel: the roads left and right of the houses are likely mined! Follow the initial plan if you want to reach the shore with minimum losses! Oh yeah. Oops.  Looks like I should just load HE and keep trucking along, hoping I'm faster on the draw than the 6-pounders scattered all over the place.  Periodically, the game will show you these boats coming from the sea for some reason.  And transport ships. I don't have artillery on shore yet, I can't do anything about them!  The enemy tank reserves are coming at us! We really need to keep an eye out to not get flanked.  Paul Weiss: Be maximally careful! The 25-pounder guns on the shore can easily destroy our tanks and wipe away our success today!  Hm, you're right. Airstrike time!  Hooray! Wait, I only had one airstrike? gently caress you, game.  The game silently moves the camera back to the tanks at the start of the level. I guess I get to control them now.  This is handy, as a constant assault of British armour is thinning out my presence in the north of the city.  Cool, you can also access another tank's inventory if you get close enough! Definitely stealing all their poo poo.  Objective complete: minimize tank group losses Uh, I'm pretty sure I lost the whole thing, but whatever. Gunther Borg: Excellent! Now we can place our howitzers on the shore and control the harbour.  Paul Weiss: The enemy does not have enough forces to attack nonstop. We need to make use of these minutes of respite to fortify ourselves. We are vulnerable here, let's not take needless risks, and bring in reserves if necessary. Two trucks with howitzers spawn automatically and are set to drive to the beach. Except that there are still enemies there! I have not had a chance to advance that far!  Objective complete: position your howitzers on the shore to fire on the harbour Uh, I'm no marine nomenclature expert, but this is not a harbour. This is a courtyard.  Gunther Borg: The guns are in position. A little more, and their last supply line will be cut! Fire at enemy ships! Let's see how long they will last without reinforcements!  I didn't clear the beach in time, and the howitzers come under fire from the infantry that was hanging out there.  This tank should be able to keep the beach secure.  Paul Weiss: According to aircraft reconnaissance, an English transport ship has entered the harbour carrying reinforcements. Shoot it to hell!  Objective added: deflect enemy counterattack. Meanwhile, the British are keeping my main forces in the courtyard busy.  I beat them back, but at a cost. They came with plenty of tanks, and it won't be the last of them.  Paul Weiss: drat, the ship with reinforcements has reached the port! Try not to allow this to happen again, and place more guns on the shore!  Paul Weiss: Understand that each ship you miss increases the garrison of the fortress and lowers our chances to succeed. The Afrika Corps is tired and bloodied. If the English replenish their losses, they can sweep us away with one counterattack! You may see the problem I face from this screenshot. The ships that are sailing are very, very far away. My two guns I got for free can fire perhaps a single salvo, and they might not even hit. As far as I can tell, two direct hits is not enough to sink a ship. You need to bring in more guns, but the game won't tell you this. You can only discover it if you watch the ships like a hawk and see how your shots are behaving.  Another silent movie cutscene. This is supposed to signify that your sappers are clearing the mines in the side passages. What the cutscene doesn't tell you is that they don't get all mines.  Another ship reaches port. I'm trying to direct control the guns to see why they are not firing. Only now do I discover that the ships are out of range for the majority of their voyage.  Paul Weiss: Another ship broke through to our guns! If the Tobruk garrison will keep getting reinforcements, we will never take the fortress! Oh, and be ready for another counterattack. They have enough forces now.  Direct hit, sweeping some vehicles off the deck. And yet, the ship still floats. Hey, only two shots fired? What is taking my guns so long?  ...oh. Turns out there are still British soldiers kicking around, and they stopped my column that decided to take a shortcut. Yay, AI.  Let's help them out. The trucks are totalled though, the gunners will have to push their howitzers by hand.  In all this excitement, another ship sails away.  Motherfucker, there are still mines in these buildings! I thought the sappers got all of them.  Another good shot, sending vehicles flying.  That boat is stuck. No amount of shots sink it. The next boat is coming, but the objective marker still points to this one!  Let's see if I can sink this one in time.  Nope, it's going around, making it juuuuuuust past my reach. Boo! At this point, I figured the game has glitched into an unwinnable state again and restarted from the checkpoint.  I only had two cannons on my last save. Reinforcements are proving tricky to acquire.  FOUR GUNS WHAT NOW MOTHERFUCKER  drat STRAIGHT YOU'RE GONNA SINK  Objective completed: destroy the enemy transport ship Wolfram Lowenthal: The artillery is working successfully on new positions! We just sank one of their ships! Finally, sank one of the fuckers. And now...well, now we wait.  Objective added: destroy the enemy transport ship Eventually, another ship will show up, with zero indication that it's any different from the last one. Yeah, this is not a short mission.  After you destroy a number of identical transport ships, something different happens! Gunther Borg: an enemy assault ship has been spotted in the harbour! Pull back your artillery from the shore and sink it from a safe distance!  This thing? Not a chance. My heavy guns outrange their AA gun by a mile.  That, and it's really, really slow. Slow enough for me to reload before it makes any progress.  Objective completed: sink the enemy assault ship  Back to the same old routine! You may have noticed the FlaK 18 I have pulled up next to the howitzers. That was because the option to call in more howitzers has vanished (even though the game assured me I have 20 in reserve) and I wanted to see if there was another way I could shoot far enough to get the ships. There isn't.  My gunners are loving brilliant. This entire volley missed.  Here's what one of these identical ships contains, I guess. Oooh, three jeeps and two Crusaders, I'm soooo scared.  Bye!  Peter Becker: Another transport sank! Now they will think thrice before sending another ship into these waters!  This whole time, my courtyard group has been deflecting counterattacks. They are not as grandiose as the first one we saw, with only a handful of tanks here and there.  The game just kind of sits around for a long while. I try to see if my howitzers can reach the fortress walls.  They can! I found something to shoot at while I wait for the boats.  Accuracy still leaves much to be desired.  The stream of identical transport craft continues unbroken.  Yawn.  Objective complete: destroy the enemy transport ship Gunther Borg: Our artillery continues to sink the English ships! This is their third kill! The different voice messages are the only indication that the game isn't stuck in some kind of looping purgatory of ship-sinking tedium.  Many ships later... Paul Weiss: Commander! Reconnaissance reports that enemy ships have changed course and are leaving the Tobruk harbour!  Finally! Now we can move on to the next part of the mission. Objective added: destroy the fortress garrison  That fortress is not giving up easily.  It's pretty small, but the forces inside are tightly packed.  Plus they have pretty big guns in there.  Time to bring in big guns of my own!  Sadly I only have one truck left, so I will have to make a few trips. One down...  Paul Weiss: Curses! The open terrain ahead can be shot at from all sides! You will lose the guns because of your hubris! Huh, didn't expect them to have a clip for that. But yeah, if you get too close to the main fortress, the AA guns on its walls will tear you to bits. My truck is fine, but one of my irreplaceable guns is not.  Revenge!  Objective complete: destroy the fortress garrison With the support from my remaining three cannons, taking the fortress is easy.  Helmuth Keller: Look, a passage! The tunnel goes in the direction of the fortress! Gunter Borg: It seems rarely used. If it is really a passage to the fort, we will make an unpleasant surprise for the Tommies! Here is what we'll do. Take five men and figure out where this tunnel goes. No heroism! When you get to the other side, look around, and come right back! Then we will decide what to do. gently caress, this mission never ends.  An exciting cutscene of heavy breathing and a narrow corridor.  A plot twist!  20 minutes later  Lukas Mehlmann: Curses! I thought we would be crushed. Something banged us up, I think we were hit with a bomb. Maybe our forces destroyed the wall and will finally break through to here? In any case, the explosion caved in the tunnel. Looks like we are in the fortress, and since there is no other way, let's move forward and act according to the situation. There are warehouses here...almost no people left. Everyone that can hold a gun must be on the walls. It looks like there are fuel reservoirs here. Let's try to capture them. It can't hurt, and maybe they will come in handy.  Thankfully they don't try to pretend that this is a stealth mission like the Soviet or American campaign would.  For instance, you spawn right next to an AA half track allowing you to wreck everyone's poo poo.   Oops.  Mission failed Having encountered fierce resistance, Gunther Borg's strike group took heavy losses and was forced to retreat. The attack of the Afrika Corps in this direction was not successful. Tobruk's defenses were built over many years, and now Rommel threw all his forces at them. Two armies clashed at its walls in a desperate battle. The yells of commanders drowned in a sea of explosions, the scorching sun blinded them, and the air was thick with smoke. Despite the stubborn defense, German soldiers slowly advanced, giving hundreds of lives for each captured position. It looked like this battle would have no end, but the resources of both sides were finite. Next morning, the defenders surrendered. Tobruk was taken, but the Afrika Corps ceased to exist. Few Germans remained alive. Gunther Borg and Erwin Rommel himself fell at the fortress walls, and less than ten surviving tanks could not influence the course of events in Africa any longer. Germany paid too high a price for this assault... Enemies destroyed: 579 men, 60 vehicles Allied losses: 151 men, 27 vehicles Really? Because these five guys died, the course of history changes so greatly? Riiiiight. Let's try again.  This time, I stay far from the explosions.  Here's that fuel store I kept hearing so much about.  Objective completed: take control of the fuel warehouse Benjamin Hoffmann: Done, the territory is ours! Now we should hold here and wait for the results of the battle. If the assault is unsuccessful, we can use the detonators to leave the garrison without fuel. If fortune favours Rommel, these warehouses could come in handy...  Helmut Keller: These wires lead to detonators on the reservoirs. I'll cut them, otherwise the Tommies will blow the place as soon as they realize they can't hold the fort.  We basically do the same thing we've been doing before, but with less driving.  Apparently there are no other armoured vehicles left, so we can effortlessly destroy the enemy.  Objective complete: protect the fuel warehouse  Mission complete Today, each soldier and officer of the Afrika Corps can consider himself a hero. The assault on Tobruk has resulted in victory! While the English held the fortress, they grew its defenses with minefields, anti-tank trenches, artillery...None of this was enough to prevent the assault of the Afrika Corps. This was a brilliant operations, Kesselring's dive bombers and cannon fire punched a breach in enemy defenses, which was soon filled with tanks and infantry. One after another, enemy positions fell, and now all radio stations of the world report that Tobruk has fallen. Warehouses packed with fuel and ammunition are our well deserved trophies, and the French cognac is always handy. We drink for victory, and for Erwin Rommel, who had earned his rank of General-Feldmarschall. Enemies destroyed: 621 men, 71 vehicles Allied losses: 147 men, 26 vehicles But wait, Borg is saying something! Gunther Borg: we need to try and save the fuel for our tanks, so act carefully, a stray shot and the reservoirs will blow sky high! Really?    Borg, you loving liar.
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Jul 13, 2014 02:22
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Wait, it is possible to move from vehicles inventory to other vehicle's inventory? Goddammit, I have always used infantry as midstep, which is extremely cumbersome when moving large shells. 
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Jul 13, 2014 17:30
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Banemaster posted:Wait, it is possible to move from vehicles inventory to other vehicle's inventory?
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Jul 13, 2014 19:57
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 Rommel's forces are rolling across the desert, to El Alamein.  However, he forgot the crucial "supplies" part of the equation, and the British forces that actually bothered to bring things like fuel and water are rolling him all the way back to Libya.  On the road to Tunis. November 14th, 1942. Libya, road to El-Ghazal  This is a pretty good road for middle of nowhere, Africa.  This guy pops out of his armoured car and signals for the convoy to halt.  Here's the situation: we have to cross this river. The closest crossing is likely a trap laid by the British. We need to go and check it out. If we can't break through there, we need to go to the further crossing out east.  Hey, that truck is empty!  Max Lederer: It's too quiet. I don't like it. The riverbed that the convoy is going to move through is clearly seen from the opposite shore. If the Tommies hold the village, they'll have an excellent view. The narrow passages are easily mined, and are perfect for an ambush. Take some men and scout out the area. We don't need surprises.  We get a handful of guys and a halftrack.  It's not long before we run into the enemy. Objective added: destroy the enemy recon group Ulf Krieg: The British are in front of us! Don't let them get away. If they send word that we're coming, the entire 8th army will be here soon.  You outnumber the British squad handily, so it shouldn't be hard to take them out. David Jung: Looks like no one got away. Good. Time to go back.  Arnold Schroeder: Commander! There are anti-tank mines here. Looks like they mined the crossing and didn't have time to bury these. I wouldn't go further without sappers... Daniel Roth: We did not finish our mission. We need to check out the village up ahead. We can deal with mines later.  There are indeed mines lying about. Take them, they will come in handy.  Stefan Berfn: Squad, listen up! We are going to perform recce in force in the village to the west. If we see a radio of any kind, its destruction must take priority. The enemy cannot send a message about our presence here.  Oh yeah. Mines. Don't try to send your halftrack up here.  We can engage the British right away, but that puts us on the opposite side from the village from the radio. Let's go around.  Sneaky sneaky.  There, a much better position to fight from.  David Jung: I see the radio operator! The Dodge next to the house is likely the radio car. We need to stop him, or come evening, we'll be corpses!  Since we started out in a favourable location, taking this guy out is easy. Objective completed: prevent the radio operator from sending a message Arnold Schroeder: Excellent! Now, to deal with the rest.  Objective complete: destroy the radio car Arnold Schroeder: Excellent! They don't have a radio anymore. Destroying the radio car and killing the radio operator are both satisfactory ways of dealing with the situation that get their own objective.  Ulf Krieg: One less problem to worry about. Search the area. If there were sappers working on the crossing, then there ought to be metal detectors somewhere here. Time to deal with that road. There are three metal detectors scattered around the crates, but don't leave once you found one. There are all sorts of goodies like ammunition and machineguns waiting for you, too.  Grab some more mines.  With three metal detectors, clearing the road takes no time at all. Udo Elman: Looks like it's clear! The convoy can move up.  The trucks start crossing the riverbed. A counter up top tells us how close we are to completion. Objective added: protect the convoy from enemy attacks David Jung: The trucks are moving! All units be on alert, they can attack at any moment!  The British don't give us a lot of breathing room here and begin attacking right away.  Good thing we have a halftrack, and they don't!  That machinegun I have here has abysmal range. It has barely shot at all during this entire engagement. Vinzenz Kaiser: Hold the line! More of our vehicles are crossing!  The enemy has Willis jeeps with 1919s on them, but they aren't too threatening to us. Just remember to replace the halftrack gunner when he dies. Julian Kruger: Commander! Air recon reports that a large enemy group is moving up from the north-west, with tanks! The advance guard will be here in minutes!  Sadly, the Willis is too beat up for me to use.  Peter Becker: Move your vehicles and men back to the river. The Junkers are in the air and will be here in minutes. Not before I grab these mortars the British left behind!  Peter Becker: Crusaders, from the north! We cannot hold them off without air support, commander!  There they come. My halftrack is no match for them. However... Tim Schneider: Several tanks have arrived! Time to use them for their intended purpose.  Three entire tanks! And not a moment too soon. Stefan Bauer: The English have blocked the crossing! Destroy them before they tear our trucks to shreds!  Our tanks are so much better than what the British have, it's not even funny.  Meanwhile, my infantry is carrying off anything that's not bolted down from the village.  The Junkers drop by.  Deitrich Mehlmann: The Tommies won't come to us through here anymore, the avalanche has cut off the path for their tanks. The Afrika Corps will move through the other crossing. Our objective does not change: provide the trucks with safe passage. You can still move your infantry through those rocks, even though infantry is not that important in this mission.  Dietrich Mehlmann: More trucks made it here, try to ensure their safety.  I send my tanks to the east, and not a moment too soon. That armoured car on that hill will wreck your poo poo if not taken out immediately.  There are also some enemy soldiers running around the bushes and a particularly dangerous bit of road that warrants personal attention.  Now this is where things get difficult.  Ulf Lehrer: Large enemy forces are attacking through the riverbed from the east! If the Tommies form a defense at the crossing, knocking them out of there will be difficult!  The battle is made that much harder due to the fact that your tanks are morons and will routinely show their sides to the enemy for no reason.  Also, these armoured cars can and will flank you if you're not paying attention.  However, it's not too difficult to deal with the enemy once they spread out.  Unfortunately, any tank you are not personally babysitting is bound to get knocked out by an opportunistic infantryman with a grenade. No amount of infantry escort can take out someone that sneaks up from the top of that shore.  At this point I don't notice the reinforcements that the game is feeing me at my starting point and feverishly repair anything I can get my hands on.  Fresh tanks turn the enemy forces into mincemeat.  Man, even more tanks here. This is definitely the easiest campaign of all.  Valentine repaired! Not that I need it at this point.  The only remaining enemy tank is stuck here. I think its AI glitched out.  Dealing with it isn't too hard. Objective complete: take control the territory of the eastern crossing Dominik Schulmann: Good job! The last trucks from the convoy are on their way. Let them cross, and we're done with this godforsaken place.  This guy also glitched out. He's just standing there, not moving at all.  I tried to shoot him, but he just walked slightly out of range.  At this point there's nothing left to do but watch the trucks cross and the counter tick up to 100%.  Mission complete The Afrika Corps convoy successfully crossed the river and slipped out of the trap laid by the English with minimal losses. These battles drained the corps enough that there was no longer any strength left to advance. drat it, we got to the ancient lands of Egypt, and now we have to show the English our backs and go back where we started! Only one thing consoles us: we'll make up for our losses and come back. We must! Meanwhile, the 8th army is hot on our heels, and a battle with its advance guard in some dried-up river almost turned fatal for us. The Tommies were too self-confident, and that let us slip out at the last moment. Now, we continue our march westward, to Tripoli, where we'll fortify and teach the Allies a good lesson... Enemies destroyed: 163 men, 22 vehicles Allied losses: 12 men, 3 vehicles
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Jul 26, 2014 19:21
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Ample guns and armour. What game is this and
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Jul 28, 2014 11:29
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New page would be dear.
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Jul 28, 2014 16:12
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Veloxyll posted:Ample guns and armour. What game is this and Next mission is like the second mission of the Soviet campaign, except I get reinforcements and artillery support, and the enemy only comes from one direction. This campaign really is piss-easy. Banemaster posted:New page would be dear. Post more 
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Jul 28, 2014 22:49
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| # ? May 15, 2024 19:24 |
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Here is a new post to help reach a new page. Also yeah this one seemed really easy for once! Quite a nice change. Well, for you, anyway. Less schadenfreude for us, alas.
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Jul 29, 2014 00:55
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