Produktbeschreibung
Due out on 31 May is the last of our Normandy themed Battle Books. We take a brief look at what will be inside.
After weeks of battling through impenetrable hedgerows for a few yards of French soil, the US Army has broken out of the beachhead. Operation Cobra has cracked the German front lines.
The veteran 2nd 'Hell On Wheels' Armored Division smashes through German divisions still flattened by the bombing. Beside them the 3rd 'Spearhead' Armored Division races into the disorganized rear of broken German formations. Everywhere American task forces roll down roads, opposition crumbling before them.
However, not all of the Germans are done with fighting. As the Americans begin to encircle German forces cut off in the Roncey Pocket, the hardened 2. 'Das Reich' §§-Panzerdivision strikes south, breaking free of the trap. The two forces clash in the dark, each struggling to accomplish their mission and deny the other side victory. When morning light comes, both sides now know that the fight has only just begun, neither willing to relinquish the field of battle to the other.
INSIDE YOU WILL FIND:
* History of Operation Cobra, the US breakout from Normandy.
* History and complete organisation of the German 12. 'Hinkeljugend'
§§-Panzerdivision, one of the most well equipped and combat ready
divisions in Normandy, and 2. 'Das Reich' §§-Panzerdivision, full of
tough Eastern Front veterans.
* Options to field Panzer, Panzergrenadier, Panzer-pionier, and
Panzerspäh companies.
* History and complete organisation of the US 2nd 'Hell on Wheels'
Armored Division and 3rd 'Spearhead' Armored Division.
* Options to field Tank, Armored Rifle, and Armored Recon companies.
* Exploits of Oberscharführer Ernst Barkmann, one of the greatest tank
aces in history, and Staff Sergeant Lafayette Pool, America's top tank
ace.
* Three new linked scenarios.
New Company Organisational Diagrams -
One of the new features you will see in Cobra is a change in the way we display the company organisation and platoon choices. The new method will feature in all our future books.
Incorporated into these changes are the changes we first started making in Monty's Meatgrinder. We moved away from limiting the selection of Support Platoons based on the number of Combat Platoon to limiting the Support choices to just the number and types of platoons available. We found fundamentally that most forces were limited in their number of Support Platoon by the points they had available rather than by the number of Combat Platoons anyway, but of course there are always exceptions.
The first page of each new Intelligence Briefing has been converted from text to a diagrammatical representation of the company's available selections. As you can see from the samples in the images each diagram has three columns, the first the Company HQ and Combat Platoons, the second Weapons and Regimental Support Platoons and the third Division Support Platoons.
Each column is divided in to a series of boxes containing the platoons available for that choice. Each box represents one choice, so under Combat Platoons each box contains one of your Combat Platoons. Some boxes are black, while most others are grey. The black boxes are the compulsory troops, so in most cases the Company HQ and two Combat Platoons will be black. This hasn't changed from before; it just represents the choice as a diagram. The grey boxes are optional.
As you can see from the samples the Company HQ, Combat, Weapons and Regimental Support platoons mostly have only one option in each box. Sometimes, like the US Tank Company, equipment choices are also defined inside the boxes. In the US Tank Company Combat Platoon boxes the first platoon has two Tank Platoon options, one armed with M4 or M4A1 Shermans and one armed with M4A1 (76mm) Shermans. The other two Tank Platoon Combat Platoons each have a single option for M4 or M4A1 Shermans.
The Division Support Platoons often have several different platoon options available in each box. This means you can chose one platoon of those multiple choices to field for that box. The key thing to remember is that only one platoon can be fielded for each option box.
It cases where a company can field multiples of particular types of platoons, for example Armored Rifle Platoons with the US Tank Company, you will find these platoons appearing in more than one box.
You'll find the boxes with multiple options are titled by the types of platoons available in the box. For example, returning to the US Tank Company, two Division Support Platoons boxes are titled Infantry, inside the first one you find options to field Armored Rifle, Rifle, Engineer Combat, and Armored Engineer platoons. In the second Infantry box you find options to field an Armored Rifle or a Rifle platoon.
Because the numbers of particular platoons are reflected in the company diagram there is no longer any need to have the platoon numbers displayed in the main body of the Intelligence Briefings. You will no longer find platoon heading such as '0-1 Anti-tank Platoon', instead you will simply find 'Anti-tank Platoon'. The number of these platoons allowed in your force will be reflected in how may boxes they appear as an option inside on the company diagram.
Another thing to note is that choices based on particular Divisions, such as the 2. and 12. §§-Panzerdivisions in Cobra, are marked with a symbol to indicate which division's companies can have certain platoons. These are located next to the platoon choices inside the option boxes.
For example in the §§-Panzerkompanie the 12. §§-Panzerdivision can have a supporting Heavy §§-Tank Platoon, but this option is not available to a 2. §§-Panzerdivision §§-Panzerkompanie.
Even though it is a major visual change from how we have done things in the past, it will make organising your force easier to follow and the composition of your current forces will remain the same. In the next few months we hope to convert most of the online PDF Intelligence Briefing over to the new company diagrams. |
