Kip Watson

*#* ha ha - well, your puny earthling brain seems to be having trouble coping with possibiities outside your own limited imagination. Our invasion plans are assured. -- Space Lobster Overlord *#*

It's not that I disagree with you, it just... who cares? It would be really cool to see Israeli troops in a first class BFC sim. The rest is detail. What do pesky geo-political realities matter? It's all hypothetical. I could think of a super back-story comprising Palestinians with stolen nukes and rogue Syrian special forces, and... But, really, who cares - the back story is just an excuse to set up the Sim, right?

C'mon, that's not much of an objection - if BFC can tweak the hypothetical to include NATO (and why not, I say*), why not just invent a storyline in which Israel moves in too...? It's not like anyone has to actually persuade George Bush or Condy Rice! And in the case of an actual crisis right on their border, it's unbelievable that Israel wouldn't intervene - at least locally (not that that really matters, this is a wargame we're talking about). [*...and why not France, too - on the side of the Syrians! ]

Joking aside, as a hypothetical they're a plausible force, equipped, trained and experienced in preceisely these sort of situations. They have that nice Merkava tank and some other intersting Israeli-made weapons, but they use some US gear too, right? That would make them an interesting variant. And there's also an appealing 'grudge match'/'final showdown' quality to an Israel v. Syria engagement. You don't think they're a good candidate for an add-on...?

Perhap Battlefront could consider Israelis in the list of possible additional modules. After all, they've fought Syria numerous times before - quite spectactularly - and they have an interesting mix of equipment. It would probably mean creating some new unit experience types, though. Like super-elite, hyper-super-elite etc...

The US army was overwhelmingly victorious in Vietnam. They vapourised the Viet Cong, and castrated and disembowelled the NVA. The fact that, at the point of outright victory, the American nation, for almost unrelated reasons, suddenly surrendered unconditionally will ultimately go down in history as a bizarre one-time event.

I have a Syrian Pal. He showed me some of his holiday movies a few years back. Old Damascus is a beautiful town, and a rabbit warren of bustling streets that are like Australian alleyways - only narrower. Fantastic urban combat setting - I can't wait. The 1-off mod idea sounds cool. Could you include alternate mods in a scenario file?

One obvious point seems to be that (IIRR) artillery more often wounds than kills, but I'm guessing a stab with a bayonet usually kills its victim (especially in Napoleonic times?), so there will be fewer wounded with bayonet wounds, but maybe a larger number of unsurveyed dead.

I would have thought with a good Sim you don't need toexpicitly program in things like this. If the capabilities are well modelled, players will find out strengths and weaknesses for themselves, including some surprising ones. One of the fascinations with BB and AK, is that they have made it clear why certain units acted the way they did. For example, conventional histories always implied that the British tankers in early desert war liked to charge with the enemy like a bunch of twits who thought they were still in the cavalry. Playing that period of AK made it obvious - the AP shot was useless against non armoured targets, and the only way to be effective against infantry and guns is to get into effective MG range. The tankers weren't so stupid after all. I'm sure the world's CM strategists will bring a lot more grey matter to the table than the US would ever face from the Syrians in real life. There might be some interesting and unexpected outcomes. (pssst - don't tell the terrorists)

Hey, I love the French too - and I *am* one of those Intelligent Design bigots. Saved the West in WWI (at extraordinary human cost), saved America's a$$* on at least one occasion in WWII, put their guts on the line holding back communism in SE Asia - not bad for a small country. Plus: some of the world's best movies, hilariously chauvinistic like all great cultures (British and American inculded), take no sh#t from environmentalists. What's not to like? Vive La France! (*Free French broke through the Gustav Line, saved US from potentially their worst military disadster at Anzio)

Oh right, this point was already covered... Thanks guys.

Here's a question for the chaps at BF, apologies if this has been covered (I did check, but not every single post...) Will you be close air support, in particular helecopters? And if so, is it still planned for air assets to be visible? NB - excellent choice choosing a Stryker Brigade. Very interesting, very modern and very real. Perfect contemporary/near future hypothetical. Looking forward to this title immensely.

TPG is a cool site, that would be a neat idea. Likes, dislikes... TSD: -loved the side bars, -loved the top 20 lists, -loved the bare-bones (quick loading) HTML, - the search engine was good, the icon-ised lists search results were neat - wish I could've seached for 2-player-preferred games - would like an 'omit' feature in searches (eg. omit night games or whatever... or omit scenarios by Panzerman and Steve Overton - only joking!) - the scoring was cool, screen shots were cool - the reply-to-review was really cool (although the TPG full forum is even better) TPG: - the forums are super-slick - the rollovers etc. work a bit funny on my system and the 'designer' html is kind of slow to load (IE for Mac, it hates lots of other web sites too). I like the bare bones look like CMMODs. - The search parameters are a little bettter than TSD was. (like being able to pick 'best played as') - I like the way the search results are returned in some ways better than TSD (eg. includes designer name), but the TSD unit icons etc. were cooler - I liked the way TSD had reviews and ratings right at the end of the game description Both very good - anything similar to either one would be immediately well received. Wish list: - For those designers you really want to punish (haven't we all felt like that?) a top 20 most hated scenario list? - A balance parameter that shows which side is stronger and by how much rather than just a balance rating. (did that make sense?)

I know I'm late in, but I liked the questions about buildings. The abstraction level sounds about right. Enough to see the effects of urban combat tactics - grenades through windows, kicking in doors, blowing interior walls etc... That would be cool, too much more might even detract. The pre-fab building idea is a pretty good one too (ie. like the existing factory tile options), and one where the limited module scope would make it entirely practical. ie. within a very specific time frame and geography, how many potential different types of very big buildings would be needed? - not very many I would think.

I love both but BB has the edge. All those units, all that history, so many brilliant scenarios. How can you pass up the chance to play scenarios set in Stalingrad, Kursk etc...?