Guille's PzCorps Support Base - Multipurpose Icons and more.

[Vintage]

Superb!

[cw58]

Perfect! That's just what I wanted.

[guille1434]

Some German mortar units icons (or as the German called those weapons: Granat Werfer).

Thanks to Lennis29 who uploaded a nice icon for the 8 cm GrWerfer 34 (credit to him), and a 12 cm GrWerfer 42 from my icon chest...

Enjoy!

[lennis29]

redesign to 120mm

[lennis29]

animation morse 120mm.

[guille1434]

Hello to all:

Now, it´s the turn of a desert warrior. The Crusader tank, in the following variants:

- Crusader Mk.I: Regular gun tank variant, with a 40 mm (2 pdr) gun and auxiliary machine gun turret
- Crusader Mk.II: Close support version, with a 76 mm howitzer in place of the 40 mm gun. This one, with icons for a direct fire and another for indirect fire switches...

Enjoy!!

[guille1434]

...And, the same variety of icons for the Crusader Mk.II
Compared to the Mk.I, this version had thicker front armor, and the auxiliary machine gun turret was not installed on its front hull.

[Vintage]

Excellent as always

[cw58]

More goodies! Thanks, Guille.

[guille1434]

Thanks to you for the positive comments, guys!

[guille1434]

Now, an ubiquitous unit... the Canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider. This gun, was designed by the French in World War I, and was still in widespread use at the start of the Second World War. I worken on this unit because in the vanilla game the Polish faction did not have a heavy artillery unit in the 150 mm class. The icon present in this pack is suitable colored to be used as a unit for the Polish, and other Weatern Allies: France, Belgium, for example.
This gun was used by the following countries in the Second World War, relevant to PzCorps:

- France (of course!)
- Poland
- Belgium
- Germany (captured from the Polish, and also from the French).
- USA (made a modernized version, the 155mm Howitzer M1918, with pneumatic tires, and a straight shield instead of the original curved one) ---> Coming Soon
- United Kingdom: Received some M1918s from USA early in the war
- Italy: Captured very few fron the French and also some more from the Greeks.
- Soviet Union: Purchased some from France, and also supposedly captured several guns from the Polish, but they were not seen in service by the German when they invaded in 1941.
- Finland: Purchased some from the French, and after that another batch from German captured stocks.
- Australia: Used in the Middle East
- Greece: Used against the Italians in 1940, then captured by this last country when Greece surrendered.
- Yugoslavia: the ones the country had were captured by the Germans.
- Spain: Used by both parties during the Civil War.
- Romania: Receive some pieces from the Germans.

What´s in the pack? The howitzer (without crew) in an indirect an direct fire switches, also version of those icons with Polish artillerymen, and two separate templates with slightly different versions of crewmen to use on this gun icon (or be adapted to other artillery pieces).
Credits to McGuba (Ithink he improved the wheels from the vanilla game icon) and Phcas for the original concept of the gun crews.

[uzbek2012]

Great gun )

[Buffalohump]

Greetings Guille,
I return to the forum to find you have returned and it is good to see your work. I would like to ask if you have a Bristol Beaufighter in U.S. markings among your collection. It is one of my personal favorite aircraft and I would love to add it to my US campaign. I know the US used it early in Africa.
Regards,
Buffalohump

[captainjack]

It's good to have some extra crusaders, and the icons are excellent as usual.
The CS versions of all early British tanks suffered from too short a range to be really useful for much other than smoke screens, but I recall reading that the CS matildas were well liked for jungle conditions because short HE range wasn't an issue when you were in a matilda. Driving up to something in a thick metal box and blowing it up at close range sounds to me like the proper use of an infantry tank.

[guille1434]

Hello Buffalo and CaptJack! It´s always a good thing to see the veterans return to the front trenches!! Welcome back!

Buffalo: I don´t think I have a good Beaufighter (one of my favourite also) in US markings, but I will make an attempt on making some icons in desert and european camo. Stay tuned!

Capt: I did not know that CS versions of British tanks suffered from lack of range, I knew that they were frequently used to lay smoke screens intead of pumping HE to enemy defenses, but I thought it was more like a doctrinal matter of British war manuals (like for example they don´t use the 94 mm AA guns in anti tank role as the Germans used their 88 mm guns). Notwithstanding that, the indirect fire icons can be used to provide short range support fire for adjacent infantry units when attacked (may be giving range = 1, moderate SA and very low HA values).

Also, that there was a CS version of Matilda II tank is very good news to me, they would make a nice addition to my collection!



thanks to both of you for your comments and for dropping by!

[McGuba]

Now, an ubiquitous unit... the Canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider.

Nice, and yes, it was indeed me who tried to improve the spoked wheels as I did not really like the vanilla version. There is a small remark here, it looks like you forgot to change the small icon of the AT version. It is funny because I also often forget it when I make a modified icon: I just modify the bigger "normal" size one and then I am so happy that I just leave it like that

[captainjack]

Wikipedia mentions Matilda III (the CS version) being very popular with Australian forces in the far east. I recall some more reliable sources (probably axis history forum) mentioning the Australians deliberately trying to get as many as possible.
The early cruisers also had CS versions, as did the Valentines. Basically the 3" gun was more of a mortar rather than a real gun and wasn't suited to taking out anti tank guns byond mg range, but good smoke cover hides a lot of things and the proportion of he vs smoke changed over time and from mission to mission so they must have been useful, even if a bit short of what was really needed.
It seems that New Zealand used Valentine CS converted using 3" guns taken from Australian CS Matildas.

[guille1434]

Hello:

According to the Tanks Encyclopedia web page, the different marks of the Matilda tanks indicated changes and improvements in the engine and transmission...

- Matilda Mk.I was something like a pre-series, build in small numbers. It had a Vickers coaxial machine gun mounted in the turret, protected by a large armored cover, also had a fixed metal "tail" attached to teh rear hull designed to help the tank cross ditches and shell craters, because before 1939, tank designers expected that battlefield conditions would be similar to the ones present in the Western Front in WW1. All of those machines were abandoned or destroyed in continental Europe before Dunkirk.

- Matilda Mk.II was the first production vehicle, it replaced the Vickers Mg with a Besa one, dispensig also with the big armored protection for the machine gun barrel.

- Matilda Mk.III had a diesel engine in place of the previous variant petrol burning one. It gave the tank a much improved range and diminished the possibility of internal fuel fires when hit by enemy rounds.

- Matilda Mk.IV, had an improved dieselengine. This was the main production variant.

- There was also a Mk.V variant with an improved transmission.

It mentions the CS variant(s) but it did not mention if the CS tanks were made from only one model of the tank or if some number of each production variant was equipped with the 3 inch howitzer... About Australian forces wanting to take as many Matilda CS variants sounds logical, because of the prevalent battlefield conditions of the Far East theater of operations, where many battles where fought in jungle terrain, the short range of the howitzer would not have been an important problem, because enemy contact would be made, in general, at very close ranges.

Besides, there was an experimetal vehicle which mounted a Cromwell tank turret with a 6 pdr gun. This was a failure because the weight added by the bigger turret and the gun ammunition, made the tank even slower and less agile than the original model.

But, some interesting new icons could be derived from the basic Matilda, nevertheless...

[guille1434]

McGuba:

Yes, quality contro before a new icon release has always been an issue for me, may be the cause is the need to finish a project and release it to the community... Besides, having to work on a netbook with a 10" screen doesn´t help, because I cannot see the whole image when I zoom in it to work over the icon...

Anyway, here are the corrected icons for the Polish 155mm gun...

[guille1434]

Last, but not least... Here are the icons for the Bristol Beaufighter in US colors... Made by request for Buffalohump. I hope you like it, pal!

I also want to make a variant with a desert two-tone camo... But that, I think, will take a little more time.