[invisible officer]

BA is not an exact reprentation of real WW II.  Just a fun game. For Panzerfaust 150 the German forces had a Splitterring that could be fixed and

made it into an Anti Personal weapon.

Similar got used  on the Stielhandgranate to change that blast weapon into a splinter one.

 

Other shaped charge eapons had an anti personal option too.

 

The problem with a game is that the real world offer so many variants of weapons and fighting that the number of rules to represent  would be nearly endless.

• This reply was modified 9 months ago by invisible officer.
• This reply was modified 9 months ago by invisible officer.

[invisible officer]

Even if You’re not fluent in German Rohwer / Hümmelchen  Chronik des Seekrieges  1939 – 45 is a great source.  Giving OOB for nearly all small channel actions. (And more all over the world)

There are also internet day by day chronicles like that.

 

[invisible officer]

My friends and I use historical settings  and judge the quality of the gaming by comparing original outcome with the game ones.

 

So if in our AMC Komet breakthrough games Komet survives its a German win. If it is lost its a British, even if all RN vessels are lost.

 

 

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[invisible officer]

Well, the long lance torpedo had a crazy long range. More than once allied forces returned to old course, thinking having  succeeded in outrunning them. Then:  Bang.

The rules do just reflect reality.

Playing  pacific I would expect that the USN was inferior in that aspect.   Late war radar and new tactics changed that. 41-43 I would expect a Japanese force winning.

Most Gamers want games with equal chance forces. OK if You are not interested in a historical basing. But  some are like me, being more interested in historical abilities of vessels. So I like these rules.

[invisible officer]

The main problem is that the gamer has a composition option at all. So the math wizards are building unhistorical monster units.

 

In German army the LMG was the last weapon to drop. Every soldier was trained to serve it and most units collected more in battle. Not just the German ones but also British or Soviet. Esp. in the defensive fights of 44/45 the extra firepower for a unit was valued. If a weapon was overheated no barrel change but just using another.

 

The other problem is the low effect in game. The reason is, that a game gets boring when the gamers avoid the arcs of fire. Like in real war.

[invisible officer]

In real life there had been splinter rings to fix to the Panzerfaust head.  So it could be used like an HE grenade too.     The PIAT was even better for that role. With no backblast safe to use in rooms or trenches.

[invisible officer]

The temple of Ramses III relief show the carts  drawn by more than two oxen (= Slow) and with just one axle in mid of base (= unstable)  They seem to be ordinary trasport, carrying the belongimgs and kids. So more like a modern camper, not an APC.

 

Instead of adding power to a force they would seperate the fighters into the “crews” of a few peoples. With civilists in the way.   Formed into a line , following each other, they might prevent the enemy war vehicles from crossing that line.  But the far more mobile chariots will pass and pepper the targets with arrows and spears. Dwars line would be even more vulnarable.

 

Only very good tactical managing would make the carts into a Hussite style moving castle. And for good reasons these had been 4 wheeled.

 

The relief clearly shows the Egyptian forces clearing out the carts one by one.  I think they got attacked on the march and the men had no time to form a fighting line on foot. Trying the best to defend the families. No hint that they formed a wall.

 

So for me: Just baggage train

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by invisible officer.

[invisible officer]

The real observer was an expert. Specially trained and normally doing nothing else. A spotter was just an ordinary man that had a base training in gun spotting. Every officer and NCO had that ability in the big armies.   So the different rules are historically correct.

 

But  armies tended to misuse specialists. Not just in desperate situations.   Well mostly.  My own father was in WW II an artillery observer. Following the destruction of the guns he was used as infantry.   Badly wounded and POW.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by invisible officer.

[invisible officer]

The problems with woods in games are old, as old as modern wood farming post WW II.  It starts with wrong ideas about woods being a light problem for movement and vision.

 

Modern men are used to the cleaned industrial woods of today.  Hardly any undergrowth.  Like city parks.  WW II was fought in old style woods.  Some thick undergroth was normal. The edge of such a forrest was like a wall. No way to look into it. And the trees closer to each other.

And in WW II there had been woods that had been even more xxx. Like the Reichswald in Western Germany. Allied soldiers, that knew the jungls of Far East, had been astonished about that European Jungle.  No way to move away from the paths and zero visibility.

—

Another wrong idea is the idea of woods giving cover. In fact HE bursts on trees have a much increased effect on human flesh.   So to do an ambush at woods edge (like that on Irish Guards in A bridge to far movie) is a stupid idea.  Worse, the edge of  a forrest is easy to range in by artillery. So German AT and infantry  units would have taken a camouflaged dug in position   in front of that wood.

 

In Reichswald they hacked paths with vision cover on top, giving access to bunkers built to control the bigger paths.

 

—

I like the BA ways to give the gamer wide options.   Not reducing the gamer to slaves of mechanics.

 

[invisible officer]

Well, You gave te answer yourself.

“…..for years and year…”

 

I’m sure You use the standards with small scales,  like much stronger color differences than in reality.    The merge in a mess  thing can be seen with 1/1 scale real items at a distance. A 15 mm is like a real human in a long distance.

 

I’m lucky, even with 60 I need no optical aids.   But some of my friends got the problems decades ago.

 

[invisible officer]

The nine barrels of Fliegerfaust B produced a shotgun effect. At 500 m it was a 60 m circle.  So one can expect just one or two  its. And the expected 500 m range was never reached with the pre series front trial weapons.The circle  was reported as 10% of range, so 10 m at 100 m.

Around Saarbrücken a few of the front test series got used but scored no hits. The reports never reached the Waffenamt.

 

In may 45 some had been in Berlin, there is no report of any hits. Only proof for being there are pics taken at the door of famous Adlon Hotel, showing three fired Fliegerfäuste.

 

A C version did not exist, there was a weapon for 3 cm but that never made it from the drawing board.

 

 

In preparation of the Berlin rules the BA makers asked a professional military history scientist that had access to the German archives and spoke with many 45 witnesses for an exhibition about the Berlin fightsin 1995. He was able to assure thewriters that there was not a single plane damaged or shot down by that thing.

 

 

[invisible officer]

Its the typical rules wording over real world BA tournament  fuss. One reason why I avoid these like hell.

With the German army having no long Gewehr since 1935, but just a Karabiner / Carbine for all arms , that is just nuts. That a writer did name the K98 k by mistake a rifle is for some anal tournament rule lawyers heavenly given law. In WW 2 Wehrmacht the words got used synonimous.

 

Having no swords in field service since Weimarer Republik the mounted German  OR had to use the K98k.  He also had no pistol. OK, spitting in the foes eye…..

 

Mounted shooting was trained a lot.  Even some tricks like standing on horse back and shooting.  For that You need a superbly trained warhorse.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by invisible officer.

[invisible officer]

“My opponent stated that my mounted German HQ could NOT have rifle carbines, as the officer slot in the Armies of Germany only state that I can have the models having: “pistols, rifles, assaults rifles, or SMGs”, specially – that I could equip the models with rifles but not carbines ”

 

Wow, what a nonsense.  The Geman army standard rifle  in WW II was the K 98k.    Karabiner 98 kurz.     The standard German infantry and cavalry arm since 1935.   There was no special German cavalry long arm.

 

Seems that guy has no idea about WW II arms.  Naturally a rule writer would not extra mention such a basic thing.

[invisible officer]

°From what I can tell british line infantry could be used if I paint the shakos red. The prussian landwehr sprue for the landwehr, and the british ranked rifles as jagers. Ideally we’d have models with the distinctive red hats instead of shakos, but baring that is this a reasonable aproach”

 

The shako was never red, only the forage cap- So you might use Prussiam Landwehr. But in battle they wore the shako.  Line the Belgic, light infantry the stove pipe. Main difference in epic scale visible would be that the feathers are worn by Hannverians at the front, not the side. Unlike Britsh Light the Hannoverians wore green.

Same head dress with the Landwehr. There Officers Belgic shako, OR Stove pipe. Dressed in red,

 

Jäger like kielmansegge’s wore the field cap in fight. But no longer existing 1815  The later Hannoverian Jäger Battalion No 10 with Waterloo scroll worn in Imperal time   are doing that following the KGL tradition.  No Hannoverian Jäger at Waterloo.

 

I saw the ramaining originals in Hannover and in Celle. Nice collections but now mostly in depot. Good to be a professional historian with access.

[invisible officer]

Historically the Jäger in war of Liberation are named Schützen.   For example the Schlesische Schützen Battalion. A Jäger unit.   So the term would be 100 % correct.

 

There was a problem with producing enough Jägerbüchsen / Rifles so some used carbines or shortened muskets.

The terms got used long time for same troops, so Fallschirmjäger got also named Fallschirmschützen. In fact the Luftwaffen FJ Badge was officially the Fallschirmschützen Abzeichen

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