Another thing to add to my list of dream mods...

[Larry Reese]

Greetings all,

First, on the disables, I'm fine with the new system, in fact, I love it. (Standard US infantry practice when faced by German armor was to call in artillery.) Quite apart from direct hits, throwing tracks, concussion both of crew and delicate optics, made artillery deadly for armor too, just not as deadly as direct fire. My beef was with all disables being taken against only "good" armor, ignoring X number of wrecks in a hex which are creating an overstack.

On night combat, I've done a very lengthy study of this subject and I use the term "most" quite deliberately. There was a great deal of action on most fronts after dark, but this action was small scale, raiding, prisoner sorties, probing, etc..., in most cases, quite apart from the massive, large scale engagements general undertaken in daylight. There were of course exceptions when major battles, breakthroughs, and pursuits took place at night, but these were by far the exception and not the rule. In this game, I think as a "sleight of hand" to account for more than one day of fighting it is fine to think of every 15 to 20 turns there being "night", with the forces largely static and resting, performing maintenance, resupplying, victualing, etc..., with little fighting that would measurably effect the front lines (of course, if the scenario includes large scale night fighting, the designer might better chose having the scenario itself BE at night?). Anyway, just my thoughts.

The Russians on the small scale used the T-34 and other tanks early on at night, in combination with infantry, to terrorize German units. I was particularly taken by descriptions of German corps and army commanders identifying certain German infantry divisions as reliable during the day, but worthless at night because of "tank terror" and other factors. I can recommend some really good staff studies on night action in WWII as a whole as well.

Best regards all,

LR