kipanderson

Hi, “It's making me think the hex scale for the Syrian map needs to come down substantially, to maybe only a few km per hex.” In my view the best hex scale in operational games is the classic one mile to one hex. At this scale it makes the operational game more fun and also gives a better starting point from which to build and draw information when constructing the CM contact battle. Essentially like playing on a 1:50,000 topographical map but with hex layered over the top… All fun stuff, All the best, Kip.

Hi, Many of the “back office” problems of MCs are reduced or disappear if you have high quality GMs/Umpires who have God like powers and use their discretion and judgement. Having a high enough ratio of GMs to players and then having not too many rules written down is the key. If I get round to doing one I intend to design it first, have GMs in place and then, last of all recruit players on a take it or leave it basis. Contact battles in CMX2 need not always be human v human… the AI is now so good that GMs can sometimes design games to be played against the AI. Also… sometimes the GMs should get a game by designing a scenario to set realistic challenges for the players with the GMs acting as the “computer player”…. Some contact battles would also be decided by the Umpires at the operational level. All good fun, All the best, Kip.

Hi, “I would pay for something like this.” Me too…. I think there is a small niche market for a kit to use as an operational layer in CMSF and future releases of CMX2 titles. Maps covering the operational area in which the title is set… examples of units and how to edit and construct them…. and a How To in how to move and track units in the operational layer… but all kept simple and basic….more a unit tracking system over versions of real world topographical maps… Good luck, Great stuff, Kip.

Steiner, hi, It does all look great… congratulations…. I am going to have to look into how to use Vassal as the operational layer in a CMMC type game. As I have said many a time before… the ultimate from of wargame is the mix of an operational layer and CM to resolve the contact battles… All the best, Kip.

Mord, Congratulations… Great thing to achieve….. Good luck with everything…. All the best, Kip.

John, hi, “I can send the pdf that shows what it can do to anyone who wants to read it.” Yes… please… hugely interested in how things are developing… one day when I have time am “very” keen to take part in a CMMC type game again… strangely… more so as an umpire or organizer than player…watching it all unfold from the inside will be fun one day. kip@su76.com All the best, Kip.

Hi, Now this really is exciting stuff… . Congratulations to all that are having a go at a Meta Campaign… “The way” to play CM…. John… great… congratulations on taking it forward… good luck… Good luck to everyone involved in these projects… hope to be allowed to follow how things go as Meta Campaigns are all about “lessons learnt”. All the best, Kip. PS. Don’t forget guys…. you always end up needing more umpires/game-masters than you anticipated…

Istari, hi I am glad you like the game… it is like having ones favourite toy back… … I too now find that nothing breaks the immersion which is the test that counts… BTW… now that the intrusive bugs are gone it is the ability of the scenario designers to script the AI which makes for such good human v AI games. All good fun, All the best, Kip. PS.. lots and lots of great titles and modules in line to came our way… Normandy, Arnhem, Bulge and Bagration plus more…

Steve… Don’t forget North Africa…. With CMX1 the absolute spotting did hit CMAK quite hard… with me anyway…. open terrain and absolute spotting are not a good mix.. However… with CMX2… shame to waste all that desert terrain… North Africa Summer ’42 then a November ’42 module would do the job just fine… . All the best, Kip.

Steve, “We have no plans to make a large scale "meta campaign" system for CMx2. It's too much work for too little payback. Don't get me wrong, we fully understand and appreciate why some people want this, but from a development standpoint it is outside of our scope. CMx2 is a TACTICAL wargame.” This is great shame… CMX2 is a tactical game… the best there is by huge margin. But the ultimate wargame would be to use CMX2 to resolve the contact battles within a genuine, high quality operational game. But I do understand that there is only so much the team can produce. We will just have to produce our own… many lessons have been learnt from previous such campaigns so it is certainly doable… . Lots to look forward to, All the best, Kip.

JonS, “I'm prepared to take a hit for the team and do the in-the-field research on the architectural differences between Normandy - Northern-France and Germany - Ardennes.” I don’t want to make you too jealous … but I have been to the Ardennes four times over the last ten years all on the 15th/16th/17th December… I have rolled out of a bar in Bastogne to find the snow falling, Christmas carols wafting through the cold winter night and a Sherman tank rumbling down the high street…. . You can still see Easy Company’s foxholes overlooking the village they fought over for two weeks… little has changed… All very good fun, All the best, Kip.

Hi, All sounds like fun to me…. Good to have steady through flow of new stuff to play with. The greater focus is good news when it results in a constant flow of new toys for us….. All very good fun, All the best, Kip.

Steve, Sounds great…. but… We need winter warfare in game three… i.e. The Bulge…. Yes… I am very biased… but it is my favourite Western Front battle… Late war Western Front surely means The Bulge…. All the best, Kip.

RommL They are stunning mods… you can’t go on and on denying us their use… it’s not “reasonable or proportionate behaviour”… Fine mods… . BTW… do you have any idea when you will release them to us masses… soon I hope… Huntarr… Very cunning stuff… ! All good stuff, All the best, Kip.

Steve, “to just before Bagration (those winter pocket battles are, of course, legendary).” Steve… you’re sane after all… I am shocked… Korsun Pocket… operationally a real stunner… If not Korsun Pocket… then winter ‘42/’43…. Stalingrad… Leningrad… the Kharkov/Manstein SS counter attack… crying out for a module all of its own. The problem I have with ’41 Eastern Front is the lack of balance in the quality of the forces. If one were to build realistic scenarios, which for me is the point of CM, you are talking militia quality Soviet troops. A huge and very heroic militia but truly hopeless in their quality in all ways. Winter ‘42/’43 or ‘43/’44… . Lots of fun to come… All the best, Kip.

Steve, Dan…. Although I am a huge fan of Bagration and even more its sister operation Lvov… will we sometime in the distant future see a winter warfare Eastern Front title? The fighting of the summer ’44 on the Eastern Front is the ultimate example of mechanised warfare of all time. Amongst other things… but there is also something special about Eastern Front winter warfare… Winter ‘42/’43 with all that was happening up and down the front. The balance of forces, the fact that both sides were by WWII standards reasonably equipped, the potential use of the Manstein/Kharkov/SS Corps counter attack is the perfect module waiting to happen if ever there was one… and so on… Anyway… at some stage… are we likely to see a winter Eastern Front title ? All very good fun, All the best, Kip.

Flamingknives, hi, “I'd like to see what a Vickers capable of sustained cyclic fire can get up to.” Wow… the good old Vickers MG42 debate… I typed pages trying to convince Steve that low rate of fire but sustained fire weapons such as the Vickers were under valued in CMX1… that must have been seven odd years ago now… … Steve has block on the subject… Good to see old friends and familiar topics back… All the best, Kip.

Steve, “We will likely include some "near future" stuff that may, or may not, have a chance of being introduced.” That would be a real shame… you’d dilute the brand…. There are lots of “games” out there that do the same… and they are “games” not wargames.…one reason is the lack of realism. CM means PC “game” graphics and ease of play combined under the skin with the hardest of hard-core tactical simulations, even academically accurate to a standard that can only be equaled but not surpassed. That is the reason for your cult following…. Include stuff that has not been fielded and call the game a simulation, even a realistic simulation… and that hard won reputation is gone. You have produced a fantasy game. Even if they have only been fielded in tiny numbers… if they have not been fielded they are not real… and have no place under CM brand. In my very prejudiced view… They very latest stuff from the US, UK, Germany and Russia battling it out in Europe in 2010 will do the job just fine…if it is a real wargame you wish to produce. All good stuff, All the best, Kip.

John, hi, great find... Thanks All the best, Kip.

RommL, These are great… Just the job…am doing some Georgia scenarios… the map editor does a very good Georgia . Your mod will fit just fine…. Thanks… All the best, Kip.

Steve, Bagration means break-through operations… and break-through operations mean mine rollers.. . You know you want to… I know you want to…. We all know you want mine rollers in the Eastern Front release… . Imagine them rolling forward with mine detonations, dust and all…. They were six small regiments of 16-18 rollers in each used in Bagration…. But that is a reasonable number… they were very real… All very good fun, All the best, Kip.

Steve, International treaties are like marriages between consenting adults… if one party really wants out, then it is all over. All nations have to take the real world consequences of their actions, like divorcees have to.. but no nation can be held by so called “law”… international or not. The various different tribes are sovereign. American voters will “never” do what they are told to do by Russians and Chinese voting together… British voters will not do what they are told to do by French and German voters voting together. Unless the Americans and British want to do as they are told. i.e. International law and treaties are voluntary in a way national laws are not for the individual citizen.. All good stuff… All the best, Kip.

Hi, Before the Georgia war kicked off, say three odd months ago, one of the long-time senior writers on the British based Financial Times wrote… to closely paraphrase… “We in the West have to come to terms with the fact that big countries such as China and Russia will follow a model closer to that of Singapore than Germany and will succeed as Singapore has. Big countries will emerge that are as wealthy per head as Western nations but are not democratic as in the West.” The West no longer has the power to determine the outcome in Russia’s or China’s back yard. This will lead to a more rational world. The West has not coped well with the near absolute power it enjoyed in the ‘90s. Competition will up the quality of government in the US and UK… as a New Zealander living in the UK this is good thing. For the nations surrounding Russia the model to follow is Finland… not the Baltic States. All interesting stuff, All the best, Kip.

Hi, Red Rage posted, “In 1991 Russia signed a lot of things that it shouldn't have, giving away lands that took Czars hundreds of years to aquire” I agree with the sentiment… Due to what anyone with a brain realized was only temporary weakness Russia agreed to all sort so stuff. The problem is that the Americans did not seem to understand that the weakness was certain to only be temporary. The Germans for example did and do understand this. History never really went away and never will. Humans are tribal hence history rolls on as always. When it comes to international law… there is no such thing in the normal meaning of “law”. Nations voluntarily follow so called international law; they can and do withdraw their consent to such law at will. All interesting stuff, All the best, Kip.

Steve, “No need to speculate... we've already said Bagration” Wow… I had missed that… shockingly as I am so unhinged I regard all other versions of CMX2 as R&D for the Eastern Front version … plus… Bagration, in fact Lvov but who’s splitting hairs, was the ultimate example of the operational art in the history of warfare. People sometimes forget that the German Army of June ’44 was the best most powerful they ever fielded. Fully trained and nearer to fully equipped than any pervious. However the Allies had improved even more. Lots and lots to look forward to… All the best, Kip.