I Thought I'd Seen It All (Full Version)

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Charles2222 -> I Thought I'd Seen It All (6/3/2002 8:23:16 AM)

Get this guys and gals.

I had a few turns back, some PZIVE fire coming west of my infiltrating partisans, on them, and despite getting I believe within 6 hexes of the PZIVEs, only one was spotted.

A few turns later and I've breeched a good portion of the minefields, and given the hard battle beforehand, I knew virtually all or most enemy infantry had been liquidated in that area, so I sent like 3 KV1s and 3 T34s through. Upon the backside of the hill was one PZIVE with his sandbags. My first warning was a T34 getting hit on the side turret to destruction from a PZIVE 1st shot. I then raced my KV1s over and demolished that PZIVE.

All's fine and dandy right? Following the destroyed T34 I sent another T34 right behind it, in an endeavor to try to capture a objective hex before it was too late. BOOM! Side turret hit, another PZIVE first shot kill! I went back to the KV1 area and at that time there were 5, count them, 5 of my tanks within 2 hexes of that tank, and they never saw it! One was only one hex away and one was [COLOR=red]IN THE HEX[/COLOR] !!! I fire off a couple of rounds, since it's firing made it appear, and that was all I could manage before it was the AI's turn. AI turn I believe saw that PZIVE fire 2 or 3 times on my KV1s.

Now, get this. When I get my player turn back, the tank has disappeared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It turned out it was still in the same hex with that one tank and hadn't moved. I think I destroyed the thing and it's still in do-do do-do land. I decided to drive the original co-hex tank out and drive another one in, and there's no wreckage, but the new tank is offset as though it shares the hex with something alive, and other than the former co-hex tank spotting it and firing not a single unit spots it anymore. These, for the most part, are tanks which are in great shape.




Supervisor -> (6/3/2002 9:07:41 AM)

Which twilite zone battle are you playing. What ever it is I want some of that craziness. The scenario could have a very low visisbility to start with plus with smoke, and time of day could be contirbuting factors. Experieince also has alot to do with the capability of spotting but you know all this already as an experienced veteran.




Fallschirmjager -> (6/3/2002 9:46:51 AM)

You mean you didnt get the memo from the Red Army ordance office telling you about German cloaking devices :confused: :D :D :D

In all seriousness KV's were very poor for spotting even for a tank.




tracer -> (6/3/2002 10:23:51 AM)

While its nowhere near the craziness you described, I had a similar problem in spotting. I over-ran some VHs that a PBEM opponent held for a couple turns, and noticed one of my Crusaders was offset in its hex. I Z-fired into the hex, figuring I'd either hit the unseen foe or make them op-fire, but nothing happened. I moved an infantry squad into an adjacent hex...nothing; loaded a sniper onto a Humber, drove it into the hex and unloaded...still nothing. For the next 3-4 turns I leave the sniper in the hex(and of course a couple infantry squads and tanks right next-door), spinning in every direction but couldn't see who his 'hex-mate' was. After the battle ended my opponent told me his password so I could check the map: it was an abandoned 76.2mm AT gun.

Talk about being scared of shadows... :D




Jackk -> (6/3/2002 11:33:27 AM)

Sounds like the vaunted Limited Intel at work again :)




Charles2222 -> (6/3/2002 6:58:52 PM)

gmenfan: Yeah, you know if it's a crusty veteran of SPWAW you're talking to, something's amiss.

Here's the situation in a bit more detail. Once the situation ot so super-screwy I saved it, but of course the condition of the save was not that way throughout what I described.

Smoke: If there is any smoke that would block LOS, it would've been with the one I was spotting most of the time that was destroyed first. None of the units, including the 2 late T34s had anything blocking LOS. You know how sometimes you'll get the entrenched sandbags so you'll know there at least a unit there at one time? Well before the 2nd PZIVE was spotted for that brief spat, the sandbags weren't even showing up either.

Distance: At the time of the save, though I did mention there was a tank in the hex, the save is just after that. Later, I put another tank in there, so I have two different saves, though the latter one I'm playing and will be copied over before long. As of the first save, there is none in the same hex, but two are within 1 hex, and 3 within 2 hexes. BTW, one adjacent one is on higher ground, while the others are on the same level as both PZIVEs are/were.

Ratings: Adjacent tanks - tank1 - exp 71, mor 87, supp 20, men 5, damage 1 - tank2 - exp 69, mor 41, supp 0, men 5, damage 0 .

Other tanks 2 hexes away - tank1 - exp 68, mor 78, supp 0, men 5, damage 0 (command tank too) - tank2 - exp 63, mor 40, supp 6, men 5, damage 1 - tank3(the only T34) - exp 71, mor 69, supp 10, men 4, damage 0.

Terrain: Mixed, sloped, with no covering features such as craters. All but one unit can see both hexes, but all were able to earlier. It's just that the hex with the shown destroyed PZIVE that one unit cannot presently see.

Visibility Factors: 26 with clear weather. Time 1700.

This isn't a scenario, it's just the standard WWII campaign I almost always play. I'm very inexperienced in playing in this manner, and it shouldn't matter, in that it's maybe only my 2nd battle as the USSR in 6/41 against GE. I've played the reverse quite a few times (as GE in 6/41 against the USSR), and I never got any uber-units in support. Maybe the very best was 85 experience, and usually they're between 60-75 for GE. The only thing that might approach explaining this was if the PZIVE in question had something ridiculous like a 200 rating.

I'll tell you something else that's screwy that's going on, though there's probably an easy explanation for it. For what that turn has discovered to date, it looks to me as though someone has reprogrammed AI mine placement. Hex 47,1 has 47,1 mined along with probably 48,1, though this is unknown, alongside 49,1 and 50,1 being mined. That's probably 4 in a row not quite at the edge. The extreme opposite southern portion of the map saw the following: Hex 48,39 was mined. This is the one my Cossacks ran into, and over much time cleared. 4 hexes due east I doscovered another mine. This latter hex, 52,39 is what you'd basically call the one of the hexes forming the general minebelt of the entire battlefield. That is the 'bottom' hex row. I didn't explore the extreme north too well either, but it's strange how it appears that the next to the top row up north is 4 hex deep with mines, while the very bottom may be the same. From what I recall, because by turn 25 a number of them had been cleared in places there was a double minebelt. As a general rule, I've always realized that the minefield never started before row 50, but I enjoyed not trying to remember where it might precisely be, by forgetting where the enemy deployment lines were, but I don't think row 48 is possible for enemy mining and there it was.

Other little oddities, and this may come mostly from my infamiliarity with playing against GE, but I'm pretty sure I've spotted at least 75% of his force, and I've only ran into the two PZIVEs armor-wise. What's more, there have been a slew of ski troops as the main infantry. Combine that with the fact that this is Barbarossa time, 6/41, and that I'm the one assaulting, and it was GE, not me, who got to select air support (and then he goes and selects those stupid HS123s).

Now I'm wondering what the 7/41 battle will bring....




tracer -> (6/3/2002 7:29:06 PM)

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Charles_22
[B]
Now I'm wondering what the 7/41 battle will bring.... [/B][/QUOTE]

Isn't that the month the Germans introduced the 'tank teleporter'? :eek:




Supervisor -> (6/3/2002 7:43:48 PM)

I think that was the prototype month. I think preduction started 3 weeks later on the Tele-Tank/cloaking device.




Jasper -> (6/3/2002 7:58:27 PM)

Still the same old reply.... u talk about cloaking device..... I am still thinking about the SPWAW future sniper which carry the guass rifle..... I still hate sniper in forest.... they are better than the AT group.




tracer -> (6/3/2002 10:55:12 PM)

Early in Operation Barbarossa, many Russian counter-attacks were stymied by creative German camoflage.
[IMG]http://home.cfl.rr.com/lagoon/img/camo41.jpg[/IMG]




Charles2222 -> (6/4/2002 12:40:08 AM)

tracer: I don't know, I picture the stands more in line with selling copies of Das Kapital. I'm not sure lemonade went over too big with Russky.




chief -> (6/4/2002 1:27:04 AM)

Tracer: great pix, I actually passed it by as 3 stands then I went back and actually saw the tanks...LOL:D :D :D :o :cool:




tracer -> (6/4/2002 1:51:49 AM)

I couldn't find a borscht stand or vodka kiosk, so I settled for lemonade. Maybe if the sign said "People's Lemonade"? Replace the glass wearing shades with Stalin's smiling visage? ;)




Charles2222 -> (6/4/2002 3:10:49 AM)

Yeah, those sunglasses make it look too decadent West.




Charles2222 -> Man, things are getting weird, they're getting very weird. (6/5/2002 7:56:11 AM)

A slight follow-up slongside something new.

During the course of one GE campaign that I played until 6/41, and another that I played as the USSR till 6/41, I've seen some shall we say interesting things. Firstly, in the GE 6/41 battle, as far as I could determine until I quite it, the USSR had two platoons of T34s and used them behind hills in manuevering fashion. That with him in a defensive battle.

In the USSR 6/41 battle I got a marginal victory, but one of the oddities I alluded to before, was that I found 1 section of PZIVEs with a great number of ski troops (though some regular infantry was there as well). Later I found another PZIVE section, in something of a similar situation, other then he didn't have any T34 side turrets to hit this time. and these were on the back slope of a hill as well. Anyway I have like 6 KV1s that fight the first PZIVE, and then the 2nd one had a fully good KV1 2 hexes from it, and my KV1 couldn't spot it! Though at least the PZIVE hadn't fired. I couldn't spot the blested thing until my last remaining partisan squad was like 7 hexes from it.

Now, to the present. Considering my last USSR battle, and how much a hassle the mines were becoming, I decided to start a GE campaign with 2 platoons of engineers instead on one in core. I'm telling you I saw this. I saw one salvo of 81mm mort. which hit my forces on one hill, then the next shell hit about 20 hexes away on another hill that had some of my units. I'm not kidding. The salvo was like 8-10 rounds and it kept alternating between the two hills, and it was very accurate. Some plumb strange things are going on.




tracer -> (6/5/2002 10:10:40 AM)

I've seen the exact same behavior from my mortars; today I had one alternating rounds between 2 known enemy units over 10 hexes apart. No idea what causes this, but I've also seen this a few times: rounds alternate between the target hex and [COLOR=red]your[/COLOR] B0 unit...even if you move your B0 unit, the rounds will find it.

As for the ski troops, that issue has been brought up before. For some reason when it plays as GE the AI selects ski troops during certain time periods. Try setting up a beach assault battle in 6/44; you face ski troops every time. Someone suggested turning off rarity since this allows the AI to go thru its pre-determined purchasing routine.




Charles2222 -> (6/5/2002 7:40:32 PM)

Actually I always play with rarity off. OTOH I'm through being Mr. Experiment, as I found restarting a GE campaign, had the first battle against Poland with all the destroyed WZ29s and WZ34s disappear and only an icon of flames remainiing. I decided to delete the entire game (it wouldn't uninstall) and install another one. Fortunately I have all the upgardes from V.5.01, which is what is on my MCNA disk. Now I'm going to have to find out what other things need to go back on there. I have the soundpack download but I think someone said the V.7.1 upgrade already has that.




Warhorse -> (6/5/2002 8:06:20 PM)

Good luck with the icon problem, it must be something in the program, that doesn't like something with certain colors, or who knows what!! I've tried umpteen tests and some icons, like the Polish armored cars, Hungarian Turan I, and others, just disappear when destroyed!!




tracer -> (6/5/2002 9:50:31 PM)

C,
I don't think the 7.1 upgrade contains the stereo sounds (they're about 200mb in size). Remember there are 3 'official' patches on the OOB forum (hats off to Warhorse for one of them).




Charles2222 -> (6/5/2002 11:52:11 PM)

Good then, well sort of, that it's not my computer that is going insane. Funny, as many times as I've played the Poles before (maybe only 3 prior times in V.7.1) I've never noticed that.

Recently, by no telling what means, my computer got stuck in a audio loop, or that's how it appeared. A warning message with accompanying audio message would keep going over and over. I must've rebooted the computer 5 or 6 times and it kept doing it. Any programs that I could manage to click on would go into a loop too. When rebooting the HD would make lots of chirping noises. The last bootup I decided to do the ctrl-alt-del and found a program that was loading called DDL2 or something similar. I ended that task and it cleared up. Either before that point or directly after it, my desktop icons all got rearranged.

I decided to then scandisk and defrag, and that last Polish mission sealed it, where I decided to reinstall the game.




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