CMFI Gustav Line preorder's ready now

[Zulu1966]

The newly released videos of Gustav line are kind of weird, three videos of just AAA guns mowing down infantry. I didn't like the red line at appears when a vehicle is hit, this that something new? Can the AAA guns even shoot down aircraft?

It was a show case because this is the first time AAA guns have appeared. No they cant shoot down aircraft. That is vehicle hit data which can be turned off.

[Longdan]

This is childish but what I love about pre-ordering this latest incarnation of Combat Mission is you pay your money, the bill gets forgotten
and suddenly one day you are on here at Grogheads and somebody tells you it is out.  Instant download, send the girlfriend out for a couple
of cases of beer, kiss her goodbye on beer delivery and send her to her mother's for the weekend.  Then sheer gaming goodness ensues.

[SgtRock]

So AAA guns don't shoot down aircraft, do they effect air attacks? I think that's how CM 1 games worked.

 

[Sir Slash]

Throw in some wings to go with the beer and I'm all in.

[Longdan]

I don't need no wings.  Yahoo.  Now the wait.  I don't have to write a letter to Santa.

[Zulu1966]

So AAA guns don't shoot down aircraft, do they effect air attacks? I think that's how CM 1 games worked.

No, no effect on air attacks. Tactical Air suport in CMx2 is much more rare (which is realistic I think)  so its no biggy for me. Would be nice if it did - but to be honest have been playing the WWII games for eons now and never seen an airstrike. It is on their wish list to add but low down as its rare for aircraft to actually appear in a tactical situation.

[MikeGER]

So AAA guns don't shoot down aircraft, do they effect air attacks? I think that's how CM 1 games worked.

that would be cool, but i have not read anything over at BF's forum yet.

...shouldn't be so hard to programm-in a probability for a bigger derivation from the opponent placed hit-zone/spots, or even a less likely "Abort Message", while idle-set AAA guns swing up, track and released one salvo when a plane 'close in' to there position.... would be Über-cool to watch 8)

There may be also some grognard historical facts speaking against it?
I don't know atm if certain AAA were setup for Erdkampf (ammunition, optics tuned-in, fortification etc. ) and would need a longer time to get recofingured to antiair-usage then the scenario-clock would tick down.
so at the beginning of that (defence-line)battle the commander had ordered to place them for ground-combat, and forfeit them until reconfig (and probably also relocation to a spot with better horizontal-view, and out of LOS from the enemy) for their standard role...           
     

[Sir Slash]

Come to think of it, I've never played a CMBN or CMFI scenario or campaign yet that did include any air support from either side. Has any one else I wonder? It wasn't that uncommon in the original CM games wat back.

[Bismarck]

This is childish but what I love about pre-ordering this latest incarnation of Combat Mission is you pay your money, the bill gets forgotten
and suddenly one day you are on here at Grogheads and somebody tells you it is out.  Instant download, send the girlfriend out for a couple
of cases of beer, kiss her goodbye on beer delivery and send her to her mother's for the weekend.  Then sheer gaming goodness ensues.

A man after my own heart!  Another great mind.

[Longdan]

^^Thank you Jim.  I admire you and your work. (This is called log rolling BTW.)
About the AAA.  Seems to me on the scale we play CMBN and CMFI the Allies liked to stay comfortably back from the aviators at work
as they had a marked tendency to kill their own guys.  Behind the lines the Germans operated in great peril but up close on our scale
AAA would be likely used as an emergency ground weapon.  The AA guys also generally liked to work further back so they could look up..
which was their job.  We know the Germans had learned to use the 88 in particular as an anti tank weapon but the Luftwaffe guys
in the FLAK role did not like to be up front.  Kurt Meyer I think it was wrote a famous passage about the Goodwood fighting where he had to force
a battery of Luftwaffe 88's to fire at the British armour in front of them rather than the airplanes overhead.
Of course Allied AA guys would gleefully let fly at any Allied aircraft they weren't sure about as well.

[Bismarck]

IIRC, the US quad-50 was a helluva anti-infantry weapons. Also, some US AA batteries that were defending Antwerp were sent to the Bulge in an AT role.

[Longdan]

That is very true but doctrinally the Allies were very late to envision these things in roles other than AA.

[Bismarck]

Yeah, I remember a story about a young Brit officer in the desert proving that their 77 mm AA gun was as good as the 88. His superior said basically "Can't be done, old boy. See? It says 'AA' on the box."

[Longdan]

It is a good thing modern military guys don't think like that!!

[Staggerwing]

The 90 mm L/53 on the M-26 and M-36 TD was a variant of the US 90mm AA gun. There were also towed versions as of 1943.