Son of Hamchuck

Here's an updated link to the Allen paper. http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA398046&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

IIRC they didn't waste any time doing in the shore defense pillbox in "Saving Private Ryan".

Been running Vista Bus SP1 for a while now, and it gives me little grief. The driver issue is nvidias, not MS( and certainly not Battlefronts). For those who are Vista challenged, or who want to separate the wheat from all the chaff being tossed around regarding it check out: http://www.tweakguides.com/VA_1.html

It would seem to me that the height of the gun platform relative to the target might have some bearing. A Panzer II's mg is close to 2 meters off the ground, where the hmg is maybe a third that, less if well dug in. At 100 meters that would be a significant advantage for the tank mg staying "locked on" with a better angle to the target as well. I'm assuming this is factored into the mechanics.

Good paper on this subject at http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA398046 Reading it one get's the feeling that Napoleon ( like Hitler ) was a larger threat to his own army's health than the Russians could ever hope to be.

Why standard issue carrier pigeons, of course.

A couple of observations: People are in too much of a rush to buy today. If you have the luxury of playing a demo, why wouldn't you take it, before laying down the cash? I can't believe all the early buyers, only did so to save what, $10? And if you were expecting this to be CM 4, you didn't read the fine print( or even the large print). As for the bugs, anyone who has at least a little computer experience, knows that the first release of most software is chock full of them. So, don't buy the first release, wait for the patch, then demo it again, and see if you like it( and if it plays nice with your hardware). It's called being patient, and prudent, something that is in very short supply these days, as some of the comments attest to. Personally, I have zero interest in this type of game, and wouldn't buy it for $10. I did play it, once, just to see what the hoopla was about, and came away non-plused, but as I said I have zero interest to begin with.

i think Tontoman has summed up the issue quite well. I demo'd the game on my friends computer ( my puter's graphics aren't supported ), and experienced similiar issues as have been registered on this thread. Suffice to say I won't be needing to upgrade my graphics just yet.

TOW doesn't support my video hardware ( Intel 925 ), thankfully. Sometimes things just work out.

So much time, so little money.

It's also freely available at US Military History website: http://carlisle-www.army.mil/cgi-bin/usamhi/DL/showdoc.pl?docnum=351 I think shmavis was taken advantage of. ffkd

Joachim, Yes that makes sense, although I would like to think that the gun crew would consider the fact that their chance of survival might be better if they block the vision of the PB with smoke, rather than take a chance on a rare KO. A lot to ask of the AI granted. FFKD

To each his own I guess. While a spiffy new game engine is nice, what makes it any different than indulging in a brain addled FPS with a spiffy game engine, if one has no interest in the subject at hand. If it's just about the "experience", then you can get that in any number of places. I have zero interest in sampling "modern" combat spiffily modeled & displayed or otherwise. I prefer my war as "ancient" history, because I believe that is where it belongs, as history, not as current reality. Reality does intrude, but I don't feel the need to revel in it. FFKD

Yes smoke can be tricky at times. Just recently I had occasion to use an infantry gun against a pillbox, and because the kill probability was rare, decided to fire smoke instead to cover assault by my infantry. Well the d**n gun would not fire smoke, but kept chucking HE, even after several turns of my pleading. Perhaps the fact that the pillbox was raking the gun with MG fire had something to do with it. Usually though, it ( smoke ) is very effective for me in that rush over the last 100-200+ m. of open ground.

"many prepared defensive positions are not going be designed so as to let me wander easily toward them with small-arms units, so I consider direct and indirect HE the usual countermeasure to such positions. " You might try using smoke. FFKD