Okay, A highly modded and ultimately fun game, excellent when you just can't get to the range, Axis And Allies for the cyber age, The next step up from Panzer General II. Not much of a gamer all my life but along with Close Combat, these are what I have been exposed to as in somewhat addictive. Old yes but modding has kept this game.exe alive and very enjoyable as well as historical in some cases. Your thoughts and observations?

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Coir a glaive

Nemo me impune lacessit

Right here! I am currently playing it. I have the Barbarrosa expansion which I have yet to play. I got the game as a Christmas present. Old but great.

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

I have Blitzkreig, Rolling thunder, Burning Horizon and Iron Division. I love em! Plus it is very realistic-in the early north African missions the only way to take out a Matilda is an 88, and the best weapon for taking out a Tiger is a P-47! The only thing I dont like is that there is no Typhoon Fighter bomber or 17pdr in the game, but I love the missions where you have to defend a position .

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Caption reads: Laxatives caused an elephant called Stefan to release an out-pouring of poo, burying it's pitiful trainer alive.

You're telling me. I learned a valuable lesson. Now I know what a PAK36 crew felt like when facing a T-34. YIKES!

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

Actually I was wrong. The only ways of Taking out a Matilda are;
-88
-Stukas with 37mm guns
-Heavy Artillery

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Caption reads: Laxatives caused an elephant called Stefan to release an out-pouring of poo, burying it's pitiful trainer alive.

I gather you're not talking about the AH game.

Used to love the game and had 2 of them, since they had geo-morphic boards, the sky was the limit as far as size of battlefields went. Not to mention the shapes you could make.
It turned out (to me) to be a more detailed game of RISK.
I color photo copied the playing pieces and glued them on cardboard to have more of everything. I had massive armored formations to crush opposition, and to run amok after the break-through.
No one would play after a while (a good beatin), so it went away. The lady of the house used the boards (backs) to oil-paint on, so that was that.
I discovered Panzer-Blitz soon after, so the loss was not even noticed.

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"Danger Will Robinson!"

So, I take it the game makes field artillery (eg., large high explosive shells) virtually worthless or completely so against armored vehicles?

Just to note: I'm asking this semi-rhetorically as this is usually the case and totally incorrect. A 105mm howitzer will demolish a Matilda and did so on several occasions at Arras. Later in the war the same caliber weapon proved capable of caving in a Panther's glacis at ranges up to about 400 yards using heavy wall HE rounds.

Heavy artillery will work if you know where to hit. My Storches get shot down, and my scout gets killed as soon as he takes a peek. Now, If I provide support for my scout (two pzkw III escorts but unrealistic), then I may get a lucky shot. I find this as well as ganging up (3 or more) on the Matilda works well. Takes too much time though.

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

That wasn't the question. Does HE fire from medium caliber and larger guns have a significant effect on armored vehicles, particularly when using direct fire?

I used to play Close Combat III all the time.

Except I would get super angry when my tank try to ambush a fat KV-1 and the sneak around and shoot one shot and it doesn't destroy the blasted tank, then simple rather fire another one, or reverse and hide... it spins around.. while still aiming at the the KV, and presents its back to the blasted tank. Of course the Russians are laughing there heads off and pop one off and poof a Panzer III is in flames. And those aren't cheap in '41.

And I don't like how Useless infantry is and I seriously see no point of them unless low on points. You can tank the whole game and have a larger success. I donno, I guess its only because I don't send my tanks into a Urban area in that game unless I completely sweep the surrounding areas... and even then, the AI tends to flee at that moment.

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Time is only enemy you'll never get rid of.

If tanks dominate the game so thoroughly as you describe, then in my eyes the game is just that....a game. It is not a simulation. It is not something you can learn more than the most basic tactics from. And, in the end, it is not worth my time learning to play. The older Steel Panthers was this way.
It seems most tactical simulation games be they paper, miniatures or, video/ computer horribly under-rate the viciousness of HE weapons versus armored vehicles and grossly underrate the survivability of infantry and even towed artillery as well as their viability on the battlefield.

Terry,

Do you still play Steel Panthers? I occasionally play ver 8.x.

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Best Regards,
JW

What I am playing right now is, Hearts of Iron TRP[Total realism project] Its the closest thing to the whole world war I think you can get.

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Time is only enemy you'll never get rid of.

Sorry-Heavy Artillery CAN destroy tanks (In Fact, Its virtually the only way of Destroying Tigers sometimes), but when you have ground attack planes its a different matter.

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Caption reads: Laxatives caused an elephant called Stefan to release an out-pouring of poo, burying it's pitiful trainer alive.

I remember those

Blitzkrieg and Panzerblitz I remember well. Risk was big when we were kids. The game I was referring to was all those on steroids. It is a game for the PC that allows you to play depending on the Mod used virtually any WWII unit from obscure Yugosalvian Partisans to Waffen SS formations. The game is dominated by Tanks and Artillery but in WWII they dominated many battlefields as well. It is highly addictive and with modding endless. I see SW did some modding for his board game, that's where it all started.

If you've played Panzer General II, Steel Panthers, Eastfront, Close Combat III, IV, V then you will love modded Blitzkrieg.

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Coir a glaive

Nemo me impune lacessit

I started to play the 'Barbarossa' mod and it is killing me. Even at the 'Easy' level, I cannot get across and am left with a squad at most. Whew. This will be challenging.

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

On this game, easy is too easy. An M5 Stuat can destroy a panther in a head to head, one to one, fight. Normal is quite hard though, If it gets tough, I switch it to easy for a little while, then turn it back.

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Caption reads: Laxatives caused an elephant called Stefan to release an out-pouring of poo, burying it's pitiful trainer alive.

I agree in the 'blitzkrieg' game itself but 'Barabarossa' mod, easy is not easy. I got past the 1st mission but the next one, another challenge.

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!