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Fion's AARs on the old website made me aware of it. Valley of Trouble was my first scenario. The graphics were a little off putting at first but I remember dropping artillery on the town and it arriving at just the right moment and I was sold.

Couldn't agree more, it really is good. There was a point last week where I was very frustrated with it and was almost at the "sod it, I'm writing my own" point. But now that we have our heads around it it's working wonderfully well and is a tremendous time and effort saver.

I'm happy to report that with v1.46 and a new game we now have this working. Couldn't get the ongoing game working, but honestly with chat and the incentive to finally getting around to installing Dropbox it still proves quicker and more useful than email. Thanks to the author for putting in the effort on this.

That explains some things from recent games. I shall now be paying more attention to what my little dudes are shooting at.

Ooh, thanks for the bump. I missed the last update.

I'm playing para. It's very odd behaviour, it must be detecting the files because it lists the game in the app. I've tried it with "Incoming" DB folder set and with both incoming and outgoing set, but it neither copies out or copies in. Fwiw, we had already exchanged the first couple of turns when we started using this. I tried starting a game from scratch so that I could go through the process of having h2hh set up the DB folder for me, hoping for better results. It didn't detect file at all on my system, so I didn't get the context menus to let me do that. We're both on 1.40 btw, I couldn't find 1.46.

Yes, but in some cases it seems that a hotkey for a command also "works" for another command on a different menu where the button is in the same position. For example, on the Movement menu the "hunt" command is in the same position as "bail out" on the Special menu. If you're in the Special menu and you absent mindedly hit "k" expecting to be able to set a movement waypoint for hunting forward you'll likely find you've just ordered your guys to bail out. This doesn't seem to happen with all commands, just those that sod's law dictates will be most annoying. I picked up the habit in CMSF of hitting "N" for move before hitting any movement key because it switches you to that menu no matter which menu you are currently in, and I hit "T" for target before issuing any target command for the same reasons. Bit of a pain but it works. I seem to use the mouse for the Special and Admin menus, unless issuing the "deploy weapon" order.

Really? I thought this was only true if they were passengers (i.e their icon shows separately) rather than for drivers and crew, as a MG team would be in an otherwise empty Jeep or the driver and gunner from a half track.

Are you sure you hit "I" for quick? It's quite close to the dreaded, evil "K". You're quite correct to say that you cannot dismount and move at the same time though.

It does work. A Sherman will create a hole in about a minute. I've made some firing holes out of farm compounds this way. I've also carelessly wiped out whole squads of my own this way too.

A stopped calender is right once every 12 months.

Only a Brit or an Australian would wear shorts like that. edit: I'm going with Australian. If he was British his socks wouldn't be down round his ankles.

The history of Finland and Russia in the 20th century are not even slightly like the history of Sweden and Russia or the history of Switzerland and Russia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russification_of_Finland It is not possible to seperate their decision to fight, especially in the context of the recently concluded Winter War, from the rest of their recent relationship. It might seem, with the benefit of a 21st century perspective and the knowledge of what was to follow, that it was a crazy idea. Right now I'm struggling to think of a major 20th century decision that wasn't insane, with the possible exception of my mum and dad not going to the pub one night in 1973.

One of the features of those forums I always found was that, over time, by far the best game specific tactical information was compiled through people answering specific questions. "I have x and y, this is the situation they're in and this is my objective. How would you go about it?" That kind of stuff. Sometimes it's somebody coming up with an idea and wanting to write about it, but that's far more rarely. There are people who enjoy that, but I'm sure there are more knowledgeable people who want to be helpful and can trip off an informed answer than knowledgeable people who want to think of, plan and write an essay on a particular topic. In all the generations of tactical forums we've had over the years I learnt a bunch of stuff from those kinds of threads. Often from the same people as it happened, and I'd search those forums for posts from those users. I'm not going to massage egos but I'm delighted to see names I recognise that I haven't read posts from in a few years now. There's some good info in the CMSF tactical forum that translates well, but most of it is about game and user interface mechanics. It's not really about cracking a particular tactical nut with WWII era equipment. And who would post those questions in there anyway when the lights above the door say "CMSF"?

Simple thing I love: making the AI attack across open ground and defending with a minor over-abundance of artillery. Never gets old.

Third mission: First time through I forgot to plot my prep arty. I went round to the right, hugging the road but moving through the fields. Infantry led the way to each hedge with tanks following on. I took the farm and the buildings across the road, dashed my tanks across the road and moved up the edge of the map using the pioneers to blast through any hedges. I set up a couple of MGs in the three story building and using that as a pivot swung a two platoon wide arc around to the church and the buildings over the road from there so that everyone was firing into the village. I had a tank either side of the church and was able to fire deep into the village and surrounding woods and copses from there. I had no idea there was an AT gun. I suspected there would be and avoided the road as much as possible but I didn't see it until my infantry was on top of it, and by then the battle was over. I forget what my casualties were but they were in the single figures on the Warrior setting. I loved this map so much I've played it a couple of times through since, each time trying a slightly different plan. I've had two platoons, a couple of MGs and a pioneer squad go round to the left and attack the village from the left whilst a platoon of infantry and the tanks follow my original route. I've sent them back the same way as I originally went. I've led with the armour up to each hedge, brought them all on line at the same time and riddled every hedge across the field with bullets and shells. Each time I've had a prep barrage plotted on the town. I get the AT gun every time but I am completely unable to repeat my original success even knowing what's out there. This thread persuaded me to have another go. Thirty wounded, fifty dead. Sigh, that's the worst yet. One more attempt.

That's fighting talk.

A Nobel Prize would be a really good marketing angle.

Thanks guys. Great game, you've got me for life. Now, back to eagerly awaiting the chance to play the missions from the CMBO demo. Chance Encounter is a cert but I don't think I ever saw an updated Valley of Death in the other games. It was the sight of artillery destroying buildings on that map that hooked me into these games in the first place.

I could not be happier. It's beautiful and plays extremely well.

All the time, especially with infantry. They seem to take the Target option to be a request to fire a Javelin at whatever they're firing at, whether that's armour or a single wounded survivor of a big arty strike.

If the pictures are shown in the order that they were taken, that shot is after the ones showing levelled buildings. Maybe they used a good chunk of the HE doing that.

The technology part would be relatively easy. I'm not sure how Frappr does it, but Google Maps accepts lists of lat/long numbers in a coded form and displays a flag for each location identified. It ought to be fairly simple to colour code those flags according to some arbitrary criteria as well, the year the battle took place for instance.

Yes, currently in Bradford.

Cool, I *so* want one with Stalin's face on.