The Graeme

How willing would the Arabs be to use nukes? Israel is a very small country. Any nuclear explosions would kill many Palestinians, as well as impact Jordon, Egypt, etc, thru radiation. And surely no Arab power would want to nuke Jerusalem, Islam's 3rd holiest city? In other words, is not developing Arab nuclear weapons more of a prestige obsession than a practical military consideration? Secondly, for similar reasons, Israel would be crazy to use nukes in a tactical local sense. They can only be of use in their present role, a threat in being presumably reserved for distant targets, like capital cities in Libya, Iraq, etc. It also strikes me there is a second deterrent implication, a doomsday scenario no one ever talks about. If Israel were quite obviously going down, about to be overrun, etc, why not take revenge in advance of their own destruction by dropping nukes on Mecca and Medina, the two holiest sites in Islam? And Jerusalem, on the principle 'if we can't have it, you can't have it?' I mean, if you are about to be exterminated anyway, why not take as many enemy as you can with you, and their most important shrines as well? I've often wondered if the gap between arab rhetoric and Arab performance is at least partly due to fear of pushing the Israelis too far and triggering this revenge doomsday scenario? Personally, I would hope a miracle eventually takes place and Palestine and Israel sincerely agree to co-exist in peace. I would also like world peace, putting an end to slavery, to world hunger, etc, etc, not to mention winning the lottery. But should nightmares triumph over dreams, threatening to nuke Mecca strikes me as a plausible last resort for Israel. So, are Arab leaders aware of this posibility? I wonder.

I, for one, would love a Sea People's vs Myceneans game! That would kick ass! Refreshingly different from the usual classical Greeks or Romans. What a fantastic idea! I'm all excited...

My computer can barely handle CMBB & CMAK, and since it will take me a couple of years to save up enough for a new computer, and I'm not much interested in modern war anyway, I will probably skip CMSF. But I will get the next game, even if I have to wait a year or so before I'll be able to play it. Meanwhile I'll avidly follow all info released on both so I can grasp all the new engine is capable of. And should ancient warfare or civil war be released, I'll grab those too! I'm very happy BF is going to tackle different eras. I may not buy every one, but there's bound to be a bunch of 'must haves' in the lot. I have every confidence the battlefront guys will do a wonderful job no matter what they turn to. Their track record speaks for itself. Meanwhile, arguing choice of game based on morality is pointless. All wars are about killing. All wars are immoral. The nazi regime is indefensible morally. But CMBB, for instance, is not about political advocacy, it's about history. Playing the game allows you to experience, in some small way, the hellish phenomena of the Eastern front. Which makes it easier to understand what it was like, and maybe even, a little bit, what it was all about. In short, educational. Similarily, a modern Syrian/UN confrontation will make it easier for players to grasp the subtlties and complexities of modern war taking place in the near east today, as opposed to the simplistic nonsense the media hands out. In that sense the game is a completely neutral educational tool (in addition to being an entertaining armchair general challenge which is why we buy it in the first place). At the very least, the realism of the CM games past, present & future teaches that war is not a sport, not a football game, not a contest, but a slaughterhouse where an individual's fate rests, not on individual strength or courage, but on circumstances brought about by someone elses's decisions. CMSF may only be a game, but one that is likely to give players a realistic perspective on modern war, a perspective sorely needed in this era of spindoctors and hyperpropaganda. These games don't encourage war, they encourage people to think about war, to take war seriously. In that sense Battlefront performs a public service. My two cents worth.

How about 2 new scenarios wildly different from each other to illustrate as many aspects of CMx2 as possible, AND a CMx2 version of Chance Encounter? That would be quite a hook for oldtimers like myself who still play all 3 CM games, and -- given CE's track record -- a guaranteed success for newbies checking out CM for the first time. Makes sense?

I have several tiny battles in the Scenario depot, literally named 'Tiny Battle - Wadi Washout', 'Tiny Battle - Meroe Ruin', & the like. All tiniest possible map, ten turns, 300 points per side. Just look up in CMAK under 'Tiny Battle'. Plan to add more as time goes on. Designed for a quick bit of fun.

No, the only thing the sound didn't work with was my CMBB game. Everything else worked fine. However, while I was at work the sound faded away from my wife's favourite game 'Age of Mythology'. Being a former radio technician (CBC) she opted for (to her) the most obvious solution and industriously cleaned the speaker to computer connections. It worked.

Wonders of wonders, I come home from work and the sound is working again! Turns out my wife cleaned all the speaker connections while I was at work. Seems odd dirty connections only muted the one game, and an odd coincidence the sound disappeared just when I did something wrong with the folder, but what the heck, I'm not complaining! What a world of difference CM's excellent immersive sound makes! So happy to have it back. So, a hardware glitch after all. Thanks for all the advice guys. Very sound advice it was too, but fortunately not needed. This tech support CM forum is very cool. A part of the overall cool of Battlefront. Good stuff! Cheers all!

First time I uninstalled used the pc uninstaller. Second time the uninstaller with the game. Silent both reinstallations. Only thing I can figure, I kept my old PBEM folder (because of ongoing games) & my old Scenario folder (because so many of them I created) while discarding the fresh scenario folder. Perhaps the problem has to do with those... no, wait a second. I tested the last reinstallation before swapping scenario files, so it was as fresh and original as can be, yet still didn't work. So perhaps there is some remnant not caught up in the uninstalls which is lurking somewhere causing a conflict. Hmm. Try & find it I guess.

Yes, there's a folder present with a whole bunch of wav files. Maybe they can no longer be accessed for some reason? Basically I accidently dragged the CMBB folder too close to the CMAK folder (I hadn't intended to move it at all) and had to open the CMAK folder to remove the CMBB folder. Ever since, no sound at all.

Plus, the sound works fine for my PBEM opponents on the turns I send out, but not when I get the turns back. So it seems how my computer is handling the file is the problem...?

No, shift S makes no difference whether it says, off, on , or on & ambient. Wav file? How do I know which is the sound file?

This may sound weird, but.. I accidently moved my CMBB file into my CMAK file. Promptly took it out again. Since then no sound on my CMBB game. I uninstalled CMBB and reinstalled it, complete with the 3 patches. Still no sound. CMBO & CMAK work fine. But CMBB silent. Is this just something I'll have to get used to? Sure takes away from the enjoyment of the game. Or is there something I can do?

By the end of WWII the Royal Canadian navy was the third largest in the world. Mostly corvettes and destroyers tho, since convoy protection was its primary task. Some submarines & cruisers, & yes, one or two aircraft carriers I think, on loan from the British. Not entirely sure. I know we always had at least one postwar, from 1946 up to early 60s or thereabouts. Anyway, given the importance of Canadian North Atlantic convoy escorts I certainly hope they'll be included.

Greetings all! Just posted my second Italian / Ethiopian scenario 'IEwar - Last Stand Ad Termaber' at The Proving Grounds. (See link above in GJK's posting) April 1936 - 116 Ethiopian Army Cadets under a Swedish Army Officer plus 200 peasant conscripts defend the last pass between Addis Ababa, the Imperial Capital, and the approaching Italians.

Greetings all! If you go to GJK's excellent The Proving Grounds site you'll find my first CMAK scenario posted: 'IEwar - Starace's Column'. 'IEwar' stands for Italian/Ethiopian War, namely the Italian Invasion of Ethiopia circa 1935/1936. Of course, have to make certain compromises. No Ethiopians in the East Africa setup, so I make do with South African and British units as standins. Also set the CMAK date as early as possible so that the weapons are at least roughly comparable with what was actually used. 'Starace's Column' is about the motorized Blackshirt Column which Achille Starace, the brutal Secretary of The Italian Fascist Party, commanded in March of 1936 as it raced down the road to Gondar, the ancient Imperial capital of Ethiopia, only to be confronted by elements of the Ethiopian Army of the North led by Ras Imru and the Dejaz Ayalew Birru. Historical, in that Birru & Imru actually planned to halt Starace's advance at the village of Dabat. Fictional, in that what actually happened was that the warriors of the Army of the North, having been beaten in an earlier battle, ran off into the mountains rather than combat Starace's column. The premise of this scenario is that the Army of the North instead chose to make its last stand at Dabat. I plan a whole series of scenarios to do with this little known but fascinating war. My primary source is Anthony Mockler's excellent book: 'Haile Selassie's War - The Italian-Ethiopian Campaign, 1935-1941'. Cheers!