This video was brought to you by the letter M.

Soldier: get us a new M1 Quartermaster: do you realize how little that narrows it down

Ever since I first saw a picture of a halftrack in a history book as a small child, I have thought they were the absolute coolest vehicle in existence. Still feel that way, decades later!

One thing about these halftracks and the US Army in general across all combat mission games is the concept of "never enough daka" Great Job👍

You, Sir, have to be the best KZreadr for Combat Mission related content. I always come away with something new and your level of detail is expansive and the videos are just the right size for the level of information included. Keep up the good work, its really apreciated.

Always impressed. I have only played CM for a year, but I hadn't even noticed yet that there are different kinds of halftrack.

@usuallyhapless9481

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks! They are all essentially on the same chassis, so unless you get up close and look at the designations it can be difficult to tell them apart.

My still most memorable moments from CM involves these. One is when the AI drove a full one close to my German pixeltruppen, and one of them chucked a grenade into it. The other was when a single shell from a AT gun sited looking down a road took out 2 or 3 in a single shot.

@decimated550

8 ай бұрын

My most triumphant video game moments involved half tracks in barbarosa to Berlin title of the combat mission series. I was very proud of my hard-earned skill in using mechanized infantry. My best moment was a huge arcing flanking attack of a platoon in half tracks which first massacred a sneaking German infantry unit, machine gunning them on the move and leaving the survivors to be mopped up by regular infantry, and then they wield into an attack into a German held village, they dismounted with minimal losses in the rear of an enemy position, with the disembarking infantry assaulting into good cover and the half jacks pulling back slightly for machine gun fire support, I watched that video game file over and over again. It was the most stunning end game run I ever done

Imagine having your panzer knocked out by a gun made in the 1800s

The German army also used them. Just watch a 60's war movie they can't do without them ;) All jokes apart my tip for CM for what it is worth. Split teams before you assign them inside the halftracks. That way a scout can stay inside to man the .50 MG, assign him to a different team. My tip for hull down use the W Key to move inside the vehicle till you see the driver Camera Position 1 Camera Position 2 for the Gunner position and adjust down with the scroll wheel of the mouse. That way you don't waste a perfectly good .50 Browning Machine gun.

@DrewShotsFan

4 жыл бұрын

I'm so going to have to test this out 👍

@usuallyhapless9481

4 жыл бұрын

Well, the .50 will probably be fine... but yeah. Can't remember if the halftracks have access to the 'Hull Down' command, which would obviously be super useful.

@CharlesvanDijk-ir6bl

4 жыл бұрын

@@usuallyhapless9481 Eye Ball your position inside the vehicle and remember the camera position. I usually omit the hull down or do it after I position the vehicle.

Canadian Corps fighting in Italy removed turrets from some Stuart tanks making them into an early miniature form of a kangaroo and with the weight of turret and gun removed they had fantastic mobility ( much better then. Half tracks) in terrible muddy conditions in winter/spring weather and used them to deliver ammo etc to the Sherman's in the Canadian armoured Brigade

16:08 "reasonable amount of dakka" LOL

@usuallyhapless9481

4 жыл бұрын

Of course, a "reasonable" amount is nowhere near enough :)

7:01 Christ that was brutal.

I like the fact t that you give the history and and the real fact about units in the game it's really cool to make sure video is very interesting to watch

Superb knowledge and well presented as always.

@usuallyhapless9481

4 жыл бұрын

Cheers man!

Currently playing with a friend via email. Wanted to take the halftrack with the quad 50's for max dakka (M16 MGMC), but misremembered my vehicle designations and took the M3 GMC instead (which is still providing quite good service for my lads). Good vid!

Roll that beautiful halftrack footage!

YOU NEED TO DO MORE OF THESE!!!

Getting back into CM. Was a long time player of CM1 and now have nearly all the CM2 games and starting out with CMBN. Really enjoy your videos and informative tips. Great work !

@chee-yanhiew485

4 жыл бұрын

BTW, Watching your Heavy Hitters up to turn 33 now :-)

@usuallyhapless9481

4 жыл бұрын

Cheers man! Enjoy Heavy Hitters: that one still smarts a bit ;) Bodycount is the follow-on from those two battles.

@chee-yanhiew485

4 жыл бұрын

@@usuallyhapless9481 I am up to turn 36 and am feeling the tension ! Titan's tanks must be crack or vets. I suspect he plays with high level armour to kill enemy armour with minimal shots and then swarms his opponent with cheap infantry supported now by his armour superiority. His tanks kills were almost "trick shots". I also feel for you in your attack game...newbie error in not having scouts on your flanks as "eyes and ears". Will take me a while to get through all the videos of heavy hitters. Only have time to watch 2-3 a day. Really like all your other videos so far too.

Very informative video!

@usuallyhapless9481

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks very much man!

"Getting collandered" shall henceforth be part of my vocabulary.

Ho hum, yet another superbly useful CM video by Usually Hapless. You're a treasure to the CM community, UHap! Now, a challenge for you: Do one on the [Bren] Carrier, and try to keep a straight face the whole way through. If a halftrack is a light jacket, the carrier is a ... ? ... hmmm ... hospital gown? All that armor, protecting the passengers' boots. On a very slightly more serious note, perhaps you could shed light on one of the great mysteries of many CMBN CW missions: If you are given carriers to use, apart from towing guns, can any other use be found for them? So far, I've only been able to come up with two: motorized ammo dump, and direct-fire arty detector. But surely they had a point. But what was it? Inquiring minds want to know, and you're the man to meet our need.

@arandomperson7713

Жыл бұрын

they can work as a free bren gun for mid-long range support

Informative and entertaining as ever. Thanks for this.

@usuallyhapless9481

4 жыл бұрын

No problem man, glad you enjoyed it.

Very enjoyable video. In general I find the mg mount on US halfracks makes the gunner more vulnerable to small arms fire, but the heavy.50 caliber mg mauls most enemy light armor and is still devastating at long range for whatever mg role you want to use it for. I would be interested in an in depth comparison between half-tracks and universal carriers (I am doing my best to not call them Bren carriers).

wow thanks for not talking about bren carriers, the one unit I never know what to do with.

@decimated550

8 ай бұрын

I really played it in the first combat mission barbarosa to Berlin, But when I did it always did good service. Bringing a mortar team or machine gun team protected from machine gun fire. Much better than the half tracks were, I always had good results with them

Oof. Gruesome photo at 1:22 with the dead tank crewman still hanging out of the commander's hatch. Nice video

@usuallyhapless9481

4 жыл бұрын

Whoops. I do try and avoid that sort of thing, but obviously I was focused on the halftrack.

Very nice work Hap, really enjoying your CM docos. Potential Steam audience accelerating their production?? ;D Looking forward to the German halftrack video!!

@usuallyhapless9481

4 жыл бұрын

I honestly have no idea how I'm going to approach the German halftracks. The Americans are a pain with their M-number designations but nothing like the millions of types of Sdkfzs.

@gnarlyification

4 жыл бұрын

@@usuallyhapless9481 I just want to hear you trying to say 'Sdkfz' a squillion times....!

@usuallyhapless9481

4 жыл бұрын

Still probably easier to an English speaker than "Sonderkraftfahrzeug"

I don't play the game but I do enjoy seeing the videos. Does this game have converted tank APCs (e.g. Kangaroo?)

@DrewShotsFan

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, in Combat Mission Rome to Victory

@usuallyhapless9481

4 жыл бұрын

Yes. Priest and Sherman Kangaroos are in. CMBN and CMFI have them for the Commonwealth Forces, the CW expansion for CMFB will almost certainly have them too.

@MG-fr3tn

5 ай бұрын

Yes, it has everything, hundred foot flame throwers, field guns too. Should do a video on field guns ,so hard to place.

5:26 Road to Wiltz still hurts huh

@usuallyhapless9481

4 жыл бұрын

Honestly, the number of times I could have avoided problems by going out and testing is ridiculous.

I have a M15A1 halftrack that i regularly drive around town. They are very noisy inside and hot. 45 mph is not fun. They like 25 - 34 mph and get 3 mpg

@usuallyhapless9481

3 жыл бұрын

Very nice! Rubber tracks, I hope...

@yelwing

3 жыл бұрын

@@usuallyhapless9481 American halftracks only had rubber tracks. They are just big rubber bands with a few metal cables and many metal bars inside the rubber. No metal touches the road

@usuallyhapless9481

3 жыл бұрын

@@yelwing Oh good. Nothing annoys people like tearing up their roads.

@yelwing

3 жыл бұрын

@@usuallyhapless9481 American halftracks have rubber tracks

@yelwing

3 жыл бұрын

@@usuallyhapless9481 American halftracks had rubber tracks only

7:01 Roasted GI BBQ.

1:18 rip that poor lad:(

UH, i always wonder what pixel trippy means? i assume its refering to those soldiers, but why do you call them pixel trippy?

@icedragon7489

4 жыл бұрын

pixeltruppen german for pixel troops i assume

@Spider-Too-Too

4 жыл бұрын

@@icedragon7489 wow, that's some deep inside joke

@nomennisceo6495

4 жыл бұрын

@@icedragon7489 I can confirm you are correct, 'Truppen' refers to any active military man whether land, air or sea

Any plans to make a guide about the Abrams?

@usuallyhapless9481

3 жыл бұрын

Yes. It's not next in line, but it's on my list.

Would it kill front mission to improve their graphics geeze.

@decimated550

8 ай бұрын

The idea is not that it's going to be war, thunder or world of tanks graphics. The idea is that the gameplay the tactics. The combined arms realism is the main point of the game. There has to be a trade-off. Otherwise you're just doing an arcade game like world of tanks which looks pretty but No one pretends is a realistic simulation

Half tracks came into existence as a result of fragmentation saturated battlefields-where providing even basic splinter protection to troops dramatically increased their survivability. CM frequently still neglects the sort of day-to-day threats in favor of close engagement its designed to emulate-so a lot of barely armored and protected vehicles still seem weird given he kind of threats they can face on the battlefield. Heck even a machine gun can kill these half tracks-they were barely bulletproof. That wasn't the point though-the point was just keeping men on the move from getting killed by all the artillery falling everywhere. Harassing fire was very frequent-and would cause delays or casualties way out of proportion to its cost. The British saw before anyone else that in particular the weapon sections eg mortar crews, machine gun crews, etc needed better endurance against this threat and came up with the Universal "Bren" Carrier for them. Getting a set of tracks under a weapon team was the foremost priority. By the time of the war the line infantry would get it too from the M2 and Hanomag.

11:30 somebody had to be a real asshole to deliver these without a rear door.