JulianJ

Hi John - OK geography not my strong point her, I feel. Featherstone castle daylight Side of Castle by Infrared Light I just can't post images.

Well, f me. One of the players wanted to play Bruge because it was very expensive so they hadn't bought it....I've just looked and it is $150 second hand! That is taking the piss. Not VFM at that price, it's a fairly straightforward economy game. I did notice that it doesn't have social or religious unrest, which is a bit funny for 15C Holland.

Back now. Had a brilliant time. The place is called Featherstone Castle, near Hadrian's wall outside Carlisle. I was wrong - it is a fully-fledged castle. I walked the outer bailey. The walls at the back (non Scottish side) are low, 5-6 ft high but have crenellations and evidence of fighting (long gone wooden) platforms. I imagine that in times of trouble all the locals ran for sanctuary and defended the walls with pitchforks and woodsman's axes, which would be quite sufficient if there were enough of you. Played CamelUP (camel racing...eh?!), Bruges, a Harry Potter magic game, SteamPunk Rally (crap), and various others; The Captain Is Dead was great (you are on the starship enterprise, Picard/Kirk has snuffed it and you have to repair the jump drive before the aliens get you while all the systems are breaking down). I ran a fearsome Cthulhu rpg - in the Blue Room - dimmed the lights and played VERY SCARY MUSIC. One of the players had never done roleplaying before, even though her husband (couldn't attend) is a big RPG player. She really enjoyed it: "I see what he's on about now." I said: "I've just set a very high bar." @John Kettler After the Tudors seized the throne, England became a much safer place. Wealthy people didn't want the discomfort of living in castles, so they built fortified manors, which were much more like houses, but did have some defensible architecture, a sort of "castle lite". I don't count them as proper castles. So was pleased that Featherstone is real. I have lots of pix but I have been unable to post. I usually use MediaFire but it does not seem to appear on this forum. Suggestions gratefully received. As always matters, the people were great so had a fun time; accomodation very spartan...but that didn't bother me.

I have been working hard recently, that's why I have not been around the forum. I heard of a board gaming weekend (it's bank hol here in the Uk so the trains are rammed) and I wanted to go. Particularly as it is held in a castle. Purists might say its really a gothic style fortified manor house, but I call that w**ky pedantry. It does have a 13c Pele tower (small watch tower/keep) and that is good enough for me. Anyway, haven't done much f2f gaming for a while so looking forward to it. Will post some pix when I get there later today.

I'm just about to leave for my break, so posting hurriedly. I think that guy on the right is a Russian advisor. I've seen him in another vid speaking Russian. I've seen lots of recent pix from Idlib Province with poorly equipped SAA. Haven't had time to find them so look at these recent pix of the liberation of Khan Shaykum: https://www.syrianews.cc/saa-liberates-khan-sheikhoun-nato-terrorists-defeated/

Anyway, I haven't been around much recently (work - it really gets in the way) and I am now off to a board gaming weekend in a castle! I hope that makes some of you jealous. I don't get to do much f2f gaming so am really looking forward to it.

@Liveload I fully appreciate that the Syrians are defending their country, and Brit flippancy doesn't always travel. As I said, I just took "Typical" for everything and upgraded a couple of sniper teams, 1 Observer team, and the sole 120 mm mortar (to Veteran - they seem to be significantly more accurate than the 82mms). So everyone is green or conscript. Howver, while some of the Syrian army is highly effective: the Tiger Forces and the 4th Division, I stand by my observations about a good deal of the Syrian Army. Not out of prejudice - it is a conscript army and very different to highly professional NATO forces. Look at the photos - most of them have no body armour, not even a steel helmet. I wouldn't go into battle like that, let alone without kevlar+ceramic plates, eye protection (I met a Brit ex-Squaddie a couple of months ago who caught an IED in Afghanistan - he showed me a pic: his face was a mess but the protective eyewear saved his sight, you could see where he was wearing it cos it was fine and the rest was all bloody - it ws like a white eyemask amid red). The Syrian army has taken horrendous casualties and probably "All the best men are dead" type of thing. How motivated would anyone here be to fight without decent protection? So I think BF are very realistic in simulating what we would call "poor quality troops" and they would call "staying alive to come home" people. I have also read several accounts of westerners fighting with the Kurdish forces in Syria, and while the Kurds are clearly very heavily motivated they still have discipline problems, unprofessionalism/individualism and of course a lack of every sort of support and logistics which NATO (and I assume the Russians) take for granted.

I have been critical of BF a few times in the past but my most recent battle - still continuing - gave me a vivid insight into fighting with non-NATO forces, i.e. The Syrian Army. Mission Blunderable - We are having a big bite of the sh*t sandwich and the Uncons/Terrorists are kicking our butt. to Battlefront: Well done! Explains a lot of things - the game is robust enough to replicate what I have seen in Youtube videos etc, and explains a lot of the behaviour of the ill-equipped and not well motivated Syrian army. Basically, I've been fighting in CMBS and SF2 with well equipped, ammo'd up and professional soldiers. I have developed a method, which involves plenty of support fire. Even if my men get in trouble, they should be able to hang on long enough for me to plaster the enemy with direct fire, mortars, arty or airstrikes. When I have watched vids etc of Syrian (or Afghan, etc) soldiers, with their mismatched uniforms - or T shirts and jeans, lack of protection - even old fashioned steel helmets, and desultory support fires: I wondered why they did this. Soldiers bimbling along in group, with no-one watching the rear would get an almighty rollicking from the nearest NCO in the British Army. Find, Fix and Destroy is the motto of the British infantry. My Syrian version is Find, Freak and Flee. I am doing a QB SYrians v. Uncons. I took nearly everything as "Typical" which was a horrible mistake as nearly everyone is Green or Conscript...they cannot hit anything! Various old junky tanks. My tanks have been blown away by ATGMs. Which they should have spotted. I set up my mortars on overwatch for direct fire (I have taken to heart @DougPhresh's professional advice that a little fire support immediately is better than heavier stuff much later or may not arrive) but we have so little ammo that I can only muster a desultory fire by using Ctrl+J. I have a massive 107mm rocket stonk coming down on where I think the enemy is. May arrive the week after next. I am going to have to rethink my tactics with these troops. The one clever move - I sent a recon vehicle across a river to a huge mesa on the right of the battlefield, with a sniper team and an observer team (who got unfortunately whacked on the way). The snipers are in position to look for the enemy. But they don't have a radio! I never thought to check. I am going to have to adopt different approaches if I am to succeed. Shows how much I have been relying on the quality of troops and equipment. It's pleasing, in a masochistic sort of way.

Weathering and bullet-holes are easy - that's just painting on the .bmp. I did try to bend a stovepipe, but it didn't work out well, but I suspect now it is a solvable problem.

Actually, let's forget I ever said that. Anybody connected to either Awesome Demonic other-dimensional Power, and/or ruthless intelligence services, shouldn't really be insulted.

"Standard Operating Procedures" Thanks Mord. BTW is Jeffrey Epstein one of your evil cult members? He has what I can only describe as a weird Temple of Malign Gods on his private island.

What's an SOP? With the brilliant work of Aquila-CM those things are nearer than you think. And functional, not just pretty pictures. I also have felt that they are a necessity for modern combat, as well as large concrete buildings like offices, factories, hospitals, and particularly multi-storey car parks, which we now know can be converted into veritable fortresses and immune to most arty and airstrikes.

I think we have had a step change in environmental and vehicle modelling, which is down to @sbobovyc and @Aquila-CM but I think it is important to have solidity to these flavour objects, particularly like roadblocks and Hesco bastions; if they offer no cover they will not work - we can accept this in a roadsign or wrecked car, but not in something more substantial. I noted the idea of using invisible objects inside the barriers for this, but I haven't tried it myself yet. Go Fort Hesco! I am sure John Carpenter will want to make a film about it...

Thanks for your test. What I was saying is not that infantry can crew the weapons, but that you often have functional Strykers and other vehicles which have lost crewmembers. Getting drivers, gunners etc out of other vehicles to recrew and return to battle at least some of them does not seem to work.

I think there is a difference in Modern Era war and WW2. Although SOF really took off then, and resistance/partisan warfare was a factor, particularly on the Russian Front, basically it was a war of conventional forces against each other. No big deal if you don't have any SOF around. These days there are a whole gamut of "unconventional" forces at play in any conflict, from SOF, including bolstering lesser troops (clearly happened in Syria and Ukraine) in combat, PMCs (deniable), spooks, militias, gangsters and thugs, (in or out of uniform), crazies like General Butt Naked https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRuSS0iiFyo and "foreign volunteers" fighting on many sides. This needs to be represented to give a contemporay feel to this. I am glad that the CM community has stepped up to the task because it helps realism, but also distinguishes the game from WW2 games, so you can have a different experience of wargaming if you want to.

Hi Repsol, I'm sorry to hear of RL messing up your gaming. I appreciate wanting a good rig, however CM works acceptably on quite low-spec computers. I have found that if you are flexible you can scrounge or find on eBay stuff pretty cheaply. I got a 19" monitor for my laptop for GBP6 on eBay - nobody wanted it because it said "collect only." When I realised he was very near me, I offered him the money and he accepted as long as I could get right over to take it. I scooted over there, and he was a helpful, nice guy. He was moving house and did not have space for an excellent piece of surplus kit - Samsung. That way you could be gaming while you work on the custom mega PC you plan. Cheers, Julian

@Aquila-CMThe patrol boat is pure genius, I love the way it rocks when hit, then sinks - I take it that inside it is an amphibious vehicle? That is really out-of-the-box thinking and I applaud your creativity. I don't understand what you mean here - could you explain?

@RepsolCBRIf you are going to play around with walls, could you perhaps do me a favour and see if the alternate numbering that works with buildings works with walls too? Buildings have alternates eg buildingXXX front (00).bmp buildingXXX front (01).bmp are two alternate facades which you click on in the scenario editor. I wondered if this actually would work with walls so we could get more choices of texture, but I haven't got round to it. Been rather busy with RL, unfortunately. Anyway, it would be quite useful to know if you have a moment while you are modding with walls.

@RepsolCBRIf you add another alpha channel to the .bmp files (so they are 32 bit not 24 i.e. RGB) it makes things invisible. I've not tried it for walls, but I don't see why it should not work.

@37mmHow do you do that?

Is the barrier an actual barrier that will absorb hits, or is it just a flavour object and not really "there"?

Excellent! Take my hat off to you @Aquila-CMI wanted a ship, because I think port capture scenarios are good, but I only thought in terms of a static one, not a moving vessel! Brilliant.

I've seen some previews of what @The Steppenwulfis up to and I am really excited - we need this sort of battlefield stuff.

It's actually from 1972, which explains some things. However I would give it a C at best. Gigantic battlescenes don't excuse a completely uninvolving plot, lack of characterisation, dull script - read like a transcript of meetings, no POV characters, static camerawork, poor acting and the "cowboys and indians" deaths. I did perk up at the July Bomb plot and it was nice to see so many T34s.

Found it on Youtube. A bit ponderous. The title is actually "Liberation" which makes more sense - it's in the main cinema titles.