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Fire and movement!


By 33LIMA, July 15, 2014
Applying some real-world tank tactics in 'Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942'       Fire and manoeuvre; fire and movement; bounding overwatch - call it what you will. But this basic drill is the cornerstone of modern small unit tactics. To quote from one British Army training publication used in my day:   'The role of the infantry in battle is to close with and destroy the enemy. To do this they must move. It may be possible to move safely by using covered approaches but usually an enemy will select positions which, as far as possible present no covered approaches. He will also do his utmost to stop advances by obstacles and fire power. It follows therefore, that attacking infantry must use their fire to make the enemy keep his head down and so make their advance possible. This process of moving using fire is known as 'Fire and Manoeuvre.'   RMAS tactical precis 14, 'Battlecraft', September 1976   This drill was equally important in World War 2 and it's as relevant to AFVs as it is to dismounted infantry. It applies at all levels. Within an infantry section (US squad) one part of the section ('fire team', 'rifle group' or 'gun group') goes firm and covers the advance of the other. Within a platoon, one section might provide cover, while the other two sections move. And so on, up the chain of command, or with tanks instead of infantry sub-units. The moving element then goes to ground, and the other element moves. Bounds will be kept short enough so that, in any given terrain, mutual support is maintained. Movement can be by 'caterpillaring' or 'leapfrogging'. When caterpillaring, the element left behind closes up with the lead element, like one of those caterpillars which loops then flattens out its body when moving. When leapfrogging, the element left behind, when it's his turn to move, will...well, leapfrog, and go beyond the other element, before halting.   'Bounding overwatch' is the US Army's term for all this. When caterpillaring, they say you're using 'successive bounds'; when leapfrogging, it's 'alternate bounds'. FM 17-15 describes both (see pages Chapter 3, Section 4).   The bottom line is this: you need to close with the enemy, to destroy him. To get close without being destroyed yourself, you need somebody to be pinning him down, while you move. Sometimes the covering fire can be provided by your side's artillery. But at some point, certainly by the time you're 'danger close', you're going to need to organise it so that you can provide your own direct fire support. It's all about splitting your sub-unit into two parts, then one part moving, while the other part fires. Or is ready to fire. Because fire and movement's not just for the final stage of an attack. When you're making an advance to contact, fire and manoeuvre - without the actual firing! - is how you make sure that you won't be wiped out in the first volley and have a better chance of spotting and hitting the enemy than you would, if everyone was moving. With part of your force sitting in cover, watching out for those who are moving, when it hits the fan your casualties will be lower and your return fire, faster and more effective.     From real world to tanksim   Most tanksims cast the player in the role of the leader of a troop (US or German platoon) of tanks or other AFVs. Some players may be perfectly happy to play the mission's hero and pay little attention to their platoon-mates, or perhaps to rely on them as little more than 'extra lives' if their own tank gets knocked out (if the sim, unlike Steel Fury, allows you to replicate this practice, common in real life...if you survived!).   If inclined to take your leadership responsibilities a little more seriously, you might make the effort to get your platoon into the best formation for the tactical situation - maybe column for a road march or close country, wedge for a move across open country, or line abreast for an assault. And then orient and lead them where you want them to go, relying on them maintaining formation on your own tank and helping you shoot up whatever it is, that needs shot up.   But if you want to take your platoon tactics a step further, there will be times when fire and manoeuvre will be appropriate. For example, when advancing to contact, perhaps over fairly open country, you don't want to risk driving with your whole platoon into what may turn out to be an enemy's killing ground, laced with the fire of several anti-tank weapons, all zeroed in and ready to give you a nice hot reception.   Different tanksims provide different ways of allowing you to do a spot of fire and manoeuvre  It's been a while since I played Steel Beasts (original) which I recall did this pretty well but I still play Panzer Elite, which also does a good job here. You can split your 3 to 5 tank Panzer Elite platoon into two elements, and order each element, or any individual tank, to move to a point in the 3d game world by mouse-clicking on that spot. You could even designate targets or order fire at will or cease fire.   But the purpose here is to describe how to carry out the drill in Steel Fury, whose platoon command and control facilities are rather more basic  - for example, you have only two formations to choose from (if you exclude the 'blob' of the 'no formation' option) - column and line abreast. Steel Fury also has less hotkeys for the facilities it does provide, requiring some platoon commands to be issued from the map screen. It took a bit of experimentation to work out how to get my platoon to fire and manoeuvre, and having got passable results I thought I'd post them here.   I'm going to describe two alternative methods you can use for Steel Fury. In both cases I have started with 'Always obey orders' selected, via the main game options menu. This may or may not be essential but I believe it reduces the possibility that your crew - and perhaps your other platoon-members - will ignore your commands (eg out of fear). When running drills which require obedience, this seems like a good thing!     Method 1 - you move first   OK, you've launched the mission. Many SF missions don't tell you before you start exactly what you'll be commanding, but let's say that - as is most often the case, and thus a fairly safe bet - you have seen, say, two other tank symbols near yours on the briefing map (your tank is the lightest blue, of the 'blue diamond' tank symbols on the map). And on kicking off the mission, you confirm that both of them answer to your commands. So you're in command of a platoon, three tanks in this case. Perfect!   1. With your own tank lined up on your chosen axis of advance - pointing the way you want to go - hit F8 to bring up the map screen. Then click the 'Line formation' icon, in the vertical stack to the right of the map:     You might also want to:        (a) minimise the briefing text panel, to get a better view of the map (click the 'book' icon, in the horizontal row at the top of the map); and/or        (b) order closer formation, by clicking on the icon showing two closely-spaced dots, on the right;   This gets everybody into line (abreast) formation, which is the best starting point for this drill. It may work from other formations but could get messy. After ordering line and returning to the mission, you might need to drive your tank forward a little, to start the other tanks moving into formation.   2. Wait until your tanks have lined up - usually, on either side of you. Then - and only then - back in the map screen, click on the 'Stop' icon (the bin or wastebasket symbol in the vertical stack over on the left of the map; if that stack isn't displaying, click on the 'Orders' icon - the 'shouting head' symbol - in the top row, to display them). Again, your tank is the lighter of the three blue diamonds on the map:     3. Move off in the desired direction, back in the 3d game world, with your own tank (W-A-S-D keys). Because you ordered 'Stop' at step 2, your platoon-mates will stay put when you move off, covering you from where they sit;   4. Complete your first bound and stop in a decent position, one which gives you a good field of view ahead and as much cover as you can get. You did choose this position visually, before you moved off, didn't you? Not too far - you need your platoon tanks, waiting behind you, to be able to spot and engage anything which tries to do you any harm.   5. Hit F8 to get back to the map screen and order 'Do as I do' by clicking the 'two heads' icon at the top of the left-hand stack. F8 will take you back from the map to the game world and if you look over your shoulder - quickly, because you should be watching your arcs, ahead - you will see your platoon-mates start moving again and drive forward until they are line abreast with you, once again.   Rinse and repeat as often as necessary, from Step 2.   To sum up:   1. order 'Line' formation (from map screen) 2. when in formation, order 'Halt' (from map screen) 3. move your tank ahead a 'tactical bound' and then stop 4. order 'Do as I do' (from map screen; the others will now rejoin formation) ...repeat as necessary, from Step 2: map order 'Halt' - move yourself - map order 'Do as I do'.   That's it. Not difficult. Use when doing an advance to contact or in an assault, when you are closing with an enemy whose fire you need some of your tanks to return, accurately. Here it is, in action.   Starting from line abreast, my Tiger moves forward, leaving the other two platoon tanks halted to my rear, covering my advance   I have now halted and called the other two tanks forward; they advance to rejoin me     The others have now halted on either side of my Tiger. I am ready to begin the next bound       Method 2 - they move first   I think I prefer this method. It can be done from the game world, without having to switch back and forward from the map screen. And because you can't take over a platoon-mate's tank if yours gets clobbered in Steel Fury, sending the others on ahead is less risky. A possible downside is that it works from the tank commander (unbuttoned) station so if like me, you play mostly from the gunsight and external views, there is an extra keystoke to get there. Here's how it works.   1. Same step 1 as the first method - get your platoon into line (abreast).   2. If not there already, get to the tank commander (unbuttoned) view (F3, with external view toggled off with F9).   3. Hit the F key, which activates target or destination selection, causing a little red crosshair symbol to appear in your view. Move this crosshair with the mouse over the spot you want your platoon-mates to move to, and RIGHT click with the mouse (left click selects a target, not a movement location). IMMEDIATELY after you right-click, hit the Q key - this stops your own tank from moving with the others. Hit it reasonably quickly and your tank won't have started to move.   It's a good idea to hit the F key again at this point, to toggle off target mode, otherwise you won't be able to mouselook around.     4. Watch your arcs, while your platoon-mates drive forward and halt in the position you selected.   5. When they're set, move off yourself. You can either leapfrog and halt beyond them, which is riskier but makes for a faster advance. Or you can stop when level with them.   Rinse and repeat, from step 2.   That's it - easy, peasy.   There is a variant of this. Go to the map screen (F8) and order a move (click the arrow icon in the left-hand stack, then click on a spot on the map, as the destination). Then quickly toggle the map off (F8 again) AND hit the Q key, to stop your own tank. Your platoon-mates will move to the designated spot while you provide 'overwatch'. I like this less that doing it from the TC unbuttoned view as I don't have to switch to the map, my own tank will  often start moving before I get to the Q key and I have seen my platoon-mates collide when converging on the designated spot.     To sum up:   1. order 'Line' formation (from map screen) 2.  when in formation, from the TC view, mark the next fire position ahead, then quickly stop your own tank (F+RMB, followed quickly by Q) 3. when the others halt there, move off in your own tank (halt with them or leapfrog) ...then repeat, from step 2: mark next fire position+stop - when others halt, move off.   And here's Method 2 in action.   My platoon-mates move forward to the spot I selected, while I cover them from the halt   Once my platoon-mates have halted, it's my turn to roll forward, while they cover my move   Instead of stopping in line with them, I decide to leapfrog and drive on, while they remain halted, behind me   Once across the ploughed field, I halt by a track and order the other two Tigers to leapfrog past me   The Tigers roll on ahead, covered by my stationary tank.   Naturally, you can mix these two methods. For example, after leapfrogging your platoon-mates using method 2, you can switch to method 1 - order 'Do as I do' from the map screen and call them forward to join your tank, instead of sending them out in front again.   Limitations & bottom line   Not unreasonably, when the steel starts flying, your AI platoon-mates may decide that they have better things to do. So your efforts to direct them may go awry. And hitting the wrong key - or forgetting to hit the correct one - could see your tanks moving when you don't want them to, or in the wrong direction. The second method - sending your other tanks forward, before you move - seems to me to be least vulnerable to an attack of 'sausage fingers', but it needs a careful choice of fire position with that right mouse-click, followed rapidly by a 'Q' command to stop your own driver from moving, when you want him to sit still, so you can cover your buddies' move.   The mission you're playing may not cater very well to tactical subtlety - the rest of your force may rush the enemy, leaving you well behind and late for the party. Not ideal, as your Panzer Grenadiers - any who survive, that is - aren't going to be very happy that you weren't there, when needed. And that they're going to have to walk, as all their half-tracks will have been knocked out, deprived of your tank platoon's direct fire support.    However, there's an old soldier's saying that no man rushes to a market where there's nothing to be bought but blows. And if nobody else in your force seems to have heard that one, I figure that's no reason against adopting better tactics and preserving your own men's lives. No doubt, though, that everybody hitting the objective at the same time is in everyone's best interests. Missions with enough time for more cautious tactics by everyone, player and AI alike, seem like a good idea, to me.   Of course, if the mission designer has assigned you a single vehicle, or at the other extreme, has given you command of other troops or vehicles beyond a platoon of say, 2 to 5 vehicles, then a different approach will be needed. All the methods described above do, is enable you to use your own vehicle as one 'fire team' and any other vehicles you control as a second team. It's ideal with a platoon of three vehicles or even just two. If you have four or more then you really need the ability to split the platoon more evenly and command each half separately. Panzer Elite will let you do this but I'm fairly sure Steel Fury doesn't. Not a big issue, though, as most Steel Fury missions seem to give you three tanks (the usual strength of a Soviet and some British platoons, and fine for a slightly-understrength German or US one).   So, there you have it. Fire and movement, or bounding overwatch, in Steel Fury. It won't suit every situation. It may go completely t*ts up when the shooting really starts. And it won't turn you into a virtual Michael Wittmann, overnight or ever. But it's another little trick you can add to your repertoire.   Personally, I think the best sims are those which give you the additional tactical element of playing as a flight or platoon leader, with 'wingmen' who make a contribution which you can help direct and determine.   You can't run the whole battle in Steel Fury (and don't need to, this isn't a 'real-time strategy' game) but you can make some tactical decisions for your platoon, as well as fight your own tank. The sim doesn't give you the level of control or the connection with your platoon's NCOs and soldiers that you get from 'old school' classics like M1 Tank Platoon 2 or Panzer Elite. But you can still play the role of a platoon leader in virtual battle, by making the best of those command and control tools that Steel Fury does provide.   With modder Lockie's help I'm planning a training mission where you can practice this and perhaps also gunnery and some other basic drills in a 'field training area' where the targets don't shoot back - and in a Tiger tank as illustrated, for which you'll need the new STA mod. The screenies above were taken in a basic first version, cloned from an existing mission; if it works out, I'll report in!  
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Panther's Last Roar - SF '42


By 33LIMA, July 9, 2014
A new mission for a new tank in Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942     This Ukrainian tanksim's small but prolific and talented band of modders certainly keeps the rest of us well supplied with new kit and other toys! The latest update to the New Tank Add-on's (NTA) most recent mission pack (3.62, at time of writing) includes the new operation, map and vehicles featured in this mission report. Details of what you need to get the latest and the best from Steel Fury and the NTA mod are, as always, kept up-to-date on the Graviteam forum's NTA thread, here.   Edit, 27 July '14 - the NTA add-on has been discontinued, but a successor, the Steel Tank Add-on (STA) is now available: http://stasf2008.ephpbb.com/t6-steel-tank-add-on-steel-fury   The mission 'Panther's Last Roar' by Lockie has a most interesting premise. The curtain has officially come down on World War 2, but your German unit is one of many who have been bypassed by the advancing Red Army and who are now desperately fighting their way back west, in an effort to reach territory occupied by the Western Allies, rather than surrendering to the vengeful Ivans.   Even more interesting is the fact that your tank is a real novelty, one that didn't actually see operational service: the Panther F. This was a final Panther variant, a sort of simplified version of the originally-planned Panther II. Basically the Panther F had the hull of the Panther G (which did see service, 1944-45) fitted with a new schmallturm or 'small turret' of a type originally intended for the definitive but aborted Panther II. As you can see from the screenshot above, this turret replaced the typical Panther long, curved gun mantlet with a saukopf or 'pigs head' version, as fitted to the Henschel turret of the King Tiger. The schmallturm was also fitted for a stereoscopic rangefinder. The SF version has the armoured fairings each side of the upper turret for this device, but has only a conventional sight fitted. Fancy new optics were clearly in short supply in the last days of the 'Thousand Year Reich!   The mission briefing largely consists of a 'pep talk' from the German force's commander, a certain Hauptman Schulze. In his little speech, he tells us we are officers in the renegade Russian 'Vlasov's Army', which doesn't seem to fit a scenario involving panzers. Schulze isn't telling his platoon commanders much about what they are to do, in this mission. But it seems that the operation is in three phases - we are to break through and secure safe passage to US positions in Halbe, on the way destroying some defensive positions and defeating any counter-attack. You don't find out until you start the mission that the player is in command of just the unit's two Panther F tanks. So you can't be Schulze, who will have made the plan for the mission, whatever it is, and who commands the whole force.  Anyway, here's the start and the end of the briefing.       Scrolling upwards with the briefing panel turned off, you can see Halbe, our intended destination. Below and right of that is marked the area of the defensive positions, which lie between our force and Halbe.     In the absence of specific orders, I felt entitled to make my own plan. Looking at the lie of the land, I decided I would go left-flanking, swinging out first behind the cover of the bank which the contours showed ran right to left across our immediate front. Short of the next road that led to Hable, I would turn right, ascend to just below the top of the bank and halt in a hull-down position, well to the left of our main force. From there, I would support its advance by fire. I would then move up to the area of the enemy positions and go firm there, in anticipation of a counterattack.   I marked out my route on the planning map using the Move command, and gave my unit - whatever it was - the order to close up in column formation and to conform to my movements and actions. Time to get cracking!     When the mission loaded up, as I usually do, I first ordered an appropriate main gun round loaded (HE in this case) - there's no such thing as 'Battle carry - sabot loaded! in SF '42. And I popped the hatch open from the commander station (F3+P - operating unbuttoned is more realistic and the AI tank commander ducks down of his own accord when the metal starts to fly). Finally I switched to the gunner station (F2) and started swinging the turret. Zoomed out, I set the sights to 200 meters as a convenient 'battle sights' setting then zoomed them in (you can't see the range setting mark when zoomed in).   For some reason my 'move' command was ignored - perhaps I had done something which had over-ridden it. No matter. 'Driver - left!' 'Left again!' Driver, advance!' - and off we went, leaving the others behind us, silent and still as we rattled noisily on our way.       ...to be continued!
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Defence of the Reich - mission 4


By 33LIMA, June 22, 2014
The heavies are back!      Here's the briefing for the next mission in my Reich Defence career, flown as per previous missions in IL-2 '46 + Dark Blue World and the same campaign from FlatSpinMan. I say 'briefing' but it's actually a conversational piece between the campaign pilot Willi Redemann and his boss, followed by what has the appearance of a piece of extended radio traffic, from the local Ground Controller to fighters outbound for an interception mission. 'Furniture Vans' - 'Moebelwagen' in German - is a Luftwaffe radio nickname for heavy bombers, so it's pretty clear that we're up against the USAAF's Eighth Air Force. And from the reference to 'butcher birds' - a little-used name for the Focke-Wulf 190 - it's evident that our Bf109Gs from I Gruppe, Jagdgeschwader 1, won't be on our own. Just as well, methinks, even if, at this stage of the war, we're not facing opposition from escort fighters. Big formations of Ami four-engined bombers bristling with heavy machine-guns are no easy meat, even unescorted.     The briefing map's a bit confusing as it shows two tracks, one leading out from the coast and the other (ours, as it turned out) running north-north-east. Neither appeared to originate or terminate at an airbase, which was a strong hint that this was an air-start mission...and so it proved to be.     As usual for an intercept mission, I've chosen 20mm gunpods and a droptank for my formation, which as before is a schwarm of four Bf109G2s. The mission started with us in echelon right at the designated mission height, which saved us the takeoff and a long-ish climb to height, though I generally prefer to start on the ground. I throttled back slightly, gave the order to change to 'finger four' formation, then opened up again as my comdades slipped into position.     As expected, there were at least two other flights on the same mission, which I could see from their contrails, above us. Who were they?     Using the IL-2 view system to 'have a nosey', I could see that our companions consisted of another flight or two of 109s and a couple of flights of 190s. If I remember my Luftwaffe markings right, the checkered-nose 190s are from 1/JG1 and the ones with the 'tatzelwurm' (which is on the opposite side of the cowling of the other 190s, with the cross-hatched fuselage side camouflage) are from IV/JG1.           Orders from the Ground Controller reminded us to turn right onto heading 090 when we reached the next waypoint, in which direction we'd been briefed to expect to encounter the American bombers heading home from their raid. Up ahead, the other two flights started their turn and rather than wait till I had reached the waypoint, above the lake just ahead, I cut the corner and turned in early.       I didn't gain much ground; the others must have been at full throttle! Whatever might lie up ahead, it looked like they would run into it first. Fair enough, I thought to myself as I rolled out onto my new course, I tried. So be it!   ...to be continued!
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Iron Warriors - Balkans on Fire


By 33LIMA, June 14, 2014
Campaigning in the Balkans - in a tanksim with a storyline!     For my first tanksim campaign to get its own set of mission reports, as a ground-based counterpoint to the concurrent IL-2 campaign reports, I thought I'd start with something slightly different - one of the few tanksims that will let you fight in Cold War era Soviet tanks.   It's none other than IDDK's 2005 release, Iron Warrior - T72 Tank Command, also sold as T72 - Balkans on Fire. I've had this for a while but never really got to grips with it. Now I've made a start and I'm glad I did. You won't get big all-arms battles between NATO and the Warsaw Pact on the North German Plain. But what you do get is an impressive simulator of the T34, T55 and T72 with an unusual and engaging backstory, which reminded me of Operation Flashpoint - Cold War Crisis - or perhaps more appropriately, the Red Hammer expansion. For Iron Warriors casts you in the role of a former Soviet Army tanker and Afghanistan veteran who's volunteered to fight with the Serbs in the Yugoslavian Civil War of the 1990s. You'll fight vicious little battles in rolling countryside, with both sides making the best of whatever kit they can get hold off.   As well as playing the Russian volunteer's campaign, there are some training missions; plus you can play some of the campaign missions singly, from the other side. Furthermore, there's a good selection of user-made single missions still available online, here. At the time of writing, the sim itself is still available; for example from Steam, and at a very good price.   Iron Warriors is highly configurable and my DVD-cased version came with a small but decent manual. Like any good tanksim, it takes practice to pick up on all the controls and become reasonably proficient at fighting your tank. In many respects the sim is reminiscent of Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942 (I believe some of the dev team moved on to work on the latter sim) with a map interface which allows you an element of control over any units attached to yours and the ability to cycle through and inspect the units after a battle.   The first mission In keeping with the Russian volunteer backstory, when you kick off the campaign, you are presented with your diary, in a military-style notebook. This is nicely crafted and it certainly helped me get 'in character' for the campaign.     Turning the pages, my sim persona has added a little more detail, reminding me who I am, where I am and what I'm doing here. And now we also have the basis for the first mission - basically, my crew and I must get some war booty - in the form of an abandoned but functional T34 tank - back to our local base.       Starting the mission itself, here's the actual briefing and map. Information is a little sketcky, notably on the strengths, dispositions and equipment of both sides, but the job is clear enough. Looking at the map (which you can expand) it's good that the contours show the lie of the land, as well as the location of an enemy oupost or ambush, apparently covering the road that would take me back to base.     I quickly decide that I will not follow the road. Instead, I will attempt to by-pass the enemy, to my right. I can see from the countours and spot heights that if I keep far enough right I will be in dead ground, with the enemy the other side of a hill. If the Croats are mobile and have someone watching their backs I might still have to fight my way through. But as in that old Scots saying, no wise man rushes to a market where there's nothing to be bought but blows. My orders are to get my trusty old tank to our base, not go looking for trouble when I can avoid it. Plan made - time to get busy!     ...to be continued!
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IL-2 DBW - Defence of the Reich


By 33LIMA, June 5, 2014
Mission # 3 in Flatspinman's campaign     My first campaign featured as a set of mission reports - with Jasta 5 in Wings Over Flanders Fields - having come to an early and inauspicious ending, I thought I'd wind the clock forward to World War 2 and pick up on a campaign first reported here last year. This is none other than Flatspinman's IL-2 campaign covering the Luftwaffe's attempts to defend 'The Thousand Year Reich' from those who rather thought that Nazi hegemony over large swathes of eastern & western Europe for the aforementioned period was, perhaps, not entirely a good idea.   In case you're wondering where missions 1 & 2 got to, they're here and here, respectively. To recap, my pilot was operating in Scandanavian skies flying the Messerschmitt 109G with Jagdgeschwader 5 'Eismeer'. But I've been transferred south to JG1 'Oesau', operating in the Reichsverteidigung (Defence of the Reich) role. My first mission had been a transfer flight south which had ended with an unplanned but successful interception of an RAF Mosquito shipping strike.     The second sortie was my first mission with JG1, intercepting an unescorted raid by USAAF B-24 heavy bombers over the North Sea.       As for this third mission, here's the briefing. As you can see, my virtual alter ego is bitching about various things, not least being sent on a shipping protection mission in poor weather. But orders are orders! As you can also see, an IL-2 map covering the eastern Baltic is doubling up for the German Bight, the area between the German North Sea coast and Denmark.     With the map scrolled fully north and the briefing text scrolled fully down, you can see our flightpath and the tail end of the nicely-written briefing. Basically, we are to fly north along the coastline below the clouds then turn west and fly a rectangular patrol pattern, presumably in the vicinity of the shipping we are supposed to protect. Enemy airstrikes are going to be the threat, as the risk from U-boats, minefields and the Luftwaffe makes Allied naval incursions too risky.     Before kicking off the mission I checked that I had the recommended 'skin' selected. I also chose to take a droptank and two underwing 20mm cannon gunpods. Rightly or wrongly, at this stage in the war - early-to-mid-1943, if I recall right - I wasn't expecting to meet enemy escort fighters so far from England and the extra firepower might come in handy.   There are four of us in the mission and I'm the Schwarmfuehrer. My aircraft has been renumbered, had its JG5 unit badge replaced with the JG1 'winged one' equivalent (not actually carried till early 1944 I think) but is otherwise mostly in the same markings carried previously. From my rudder markings I'm something of an ace already and from the black disc with the white diagonal cross on the rear fusealge, I have evidently been in Spain with the Legion Condor.     Wasting no time I checked my controls, locked the tailwheel and started up. With flaps set I opened her up gradually, ruddering to control the swing as the power built up. Off we went, past the parked aircraft and other paraphenalia of a busy operational airfield. Regardless of the weather and the mission, it felt good to be back behind the controls of a virtual 'Gustav', the most-built if not most successful version of the Luftwaffe's classic fighter. 'Bring them on!' I thought to myself, as we climbed away from our airfield.     ...to be continued!
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Panzer Elite Tiger Hunt


By 33LIMA, June 1, 2014
Normandy '44 with the latest version of the classic tank sim!     The sim  Fifteen years old it may be, but Wings Simulations' classic WW2 tanksim is still one of the best of its breed. By the time the Special Edition (a.k.a. PESE) arrived in 2001, it was the sim that had everything. Well, almost everything; it didn't have any time of flight for its projectiles, which arrived immediately after firing. And one of the things it did have was rather crude, cartoon-like graphics, even by the standards of the time. But PESE did have a marvelous combination of tanks and places to fight with them - full campaigns set in Tunisia, Italy and Normandy in the stock game, to which PESE added North Africa, the Eastern Front (and British tanks for Normandy) along with the appropriate range of extra tanks and other kit, and improved graphics and effects. The Wings PE forum was a hive of tank enthusiast activity, with lead developer Teut Weideman and the dedicated modding community ever present.   Those days are gone but it didn't end there. In particular, modder 'Brit44' Aldo developed a new PE executable - 'PE-X' - which added proper ballistic trajectories and other goodies, while BobR of the 'Ostpak' team built around this a full package known as PE3, which features much of the best modder material combined into a single package. You can find out about PE-X here and PE3 here.   While even the latest PE's graphics and animations are still not up to modern standards and the tanks sometimes teeter on the rather angular landscape as though made of cardboard rather than steel, the visuals are by no means unserviceable, with Geezer's tank textures a particular highlight. And its unrivalled scope isn't PE's only asset. It has decent briefings, combining voice recordings (not all the user-made missions have these) and animated maps; full control of your tank platoon, including the ability to take over another of your platoon's tanks, if yours is knocked out; and a good representation of intercom and radio communications, including decent target indications. It also implements the tank commander role well, with the ability to designate and hand off targets to your gunner. The Artificial Intelligence and path-finding are not stellar but are reasonably good. In many respects, the Old Girl is still the premier WW2 tanksim, in my experience, still well worth playing.  
  The mission I wanted to play with the British Army in the fighting after D-Day for which the obvious choice would have been the Panzer Elite Development Group's Britpack '44 mod, released with other major mods on the bonus CD that came with PESE. However, I believe that this mod hasn't yet been adapted to work with the new PE-X .exe, so instead I opted for PE3. This mega mod rolls into one much of the latest mods, apparently including Britpack and the famed Ostpak campaign, and adds to the already good stock campaign set others which enable you to play from the first year of WW2 right to the end in eastern & western Europe, the USSR, Italy and north Africa. So having installed PE3 and the recommended mission packs and terrain enhancements - and enabled a couple of desirable mods which replace US with British infantry and US-accented with British-accented voices -  I chose 'Villers Bocage' from the list of single missions (PE allows you to play any mission from any campaign, individually).   Villers Bocage in Normandy is of course famous for the 13 June 1944 battle between the 22nd Armoured Brigade of the British 7th Armoured Division ('the Desert Rats') and the Panzer Lehr Division, re-inforced by the Tigers of SS Schwere Panzer Abteilung 101. It was in the early stages of the battle that Tiger 'ace' Michael Wittman famously surprised the British point troops, stretched out on the narrow road between point 213 to the east and Villers Bocage itself, with devastating results.       If we met Tigers on this mission, would I be able to do any better? There was one way to find out!   ...to be continued!
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