Other Means

Or d/l the demo yourself as well and play that vs him.

That's the case I'm afraid.

What I'm saying is that if you've got the full game you can play the demo scenarios, therefore if you've got a mate who you want to play to see if they like it, they should be able to play using the demo. I think the demo is simply the game with the possible scenarios locked in.

Have you tested this with CMSF?

Are you sure Erik? I'd have thought you could.

I think you're going to enjoy it

Soldiers are trained to take prisoners and armies are set up to process them.

Really OT, Justin Bieber played Liverpool the other week. After the gig he went to the bar where my mate was DJ-ing. Got knocked back because he's 17 - ha.

It's fair to say that staying in your foxhole and shooting your Mauser at a Sherman is often the sub-optimal response to that specific tactical situation.

Theatre Europe - oh hell yeah! Damn, you could do that in Flash now in a few days.

You're spot on about the transparency of UI being dependent on muscle memory and the grouping of similar commands with modifier keys being easier to grasp - however with CMBN there was a few issues: it's Mac and PC, hence no "cmd" key, plus things like the lack of Function keys for minimal kbds plus multi-language support. It's a bit of a (M)inefield. What BFC have done is bundle the keys I created as an alternative* - however these won't suit everyone, especially people who use the wasd keys for camera nav, whereas the default layout they supply will. Give them a go when you've got the game and see how they suit you - dead easy to change if you don't like them. *see the CMSF forum for what they're like.

Does anyone remember an operational level Cold War game on the Amstrad? It was a load of counters that ended up facing each other - blue and red surprisingly - as the West you had to fend off the Soviets for 20 days (or summat) as the Russians the opposite. You could escalate up to nuclear war. If you did, you got "Warm puppy" at the West and "Midnight Sun" as the Reds. Anyone?

The gameplay seems very similar to CM1 at first, in that you're moving men etc. around using proper tactics – using the same skillset in other words. It’s only when you’ve been playing for a while that the differences really manifest. The addition of relative spotting, the greater fidelity in terrain and the 1-1 modelling add together to make it feel more realistic. It doesn’t feel like a tabletop, rules driven wargame. Of all the enhancements I would say it’s the 1-1 that has made most difference. The men are no longer amorphous blobs, they're physically there and the fact that you're getting them killed and you can see it happening gives the process more weight. In CM1 I'd take a flag with 2 left out of a squad of 12 and think I'd won. I don’t really do that any more. It has slowed infantry combat down and made me, as a player, make more of an effort to cross the t’s and dot the i’s. Because of that I've more emotional involvement with it. Not to say you can't have a rip-roaring battle, it just matters more, kinda.

A dozen 5 year olds would take *anything* apart in 30 secs flat.

The Centurion would have the IS2 or 3 on toast, with lashings of HP sauce. I'm willing to playtest any module you like to prove this.

Take a look at the CMSF forum and my hotkeys are stickied at the top. If you don’t use the keys for camera movement (like me and most CM1 players) they're a lot easier to learn. Things like: (Q)uick, (T)arget, co(V)er arc (the V looks like an arc definer) etc.

I agree, I think the UI is the main stumbling block for new players, both in what it does – the lack of movement scaling in the camera controls, the default keys with no key editor, no “snap to view” etc. and what it doesn’t do – show the amount of calculation under the hood that makes this as close to a simulation as possible, the lack of gestalt feedback when you're viewing the whole map, the lack of specific audio cues (“Enemy 500m left!”) etc. If people come to this game after being sold on the “realistic” modelling, how do they know it’s correct and that it matters? Currently they don’t really. We've got hit-text in CM:BN and that helps but it could do with so much more. But BFC know this as well as anybody and, as usual, have prioritised the game engine first. I think that makes sense. At least when you DO get to know the game, it’s something you're going to keep coming back to.

I thought it was about the use of motorcycle scouts by the German army? Six years...damn.

Pimples .

Nooo - pretty soon all advertisement will be product placement. Stop you skipping/muting/having another window open.

He's dead, and given the unrest in the ME his ideology is too. And what's brought the strategic victory - all the things we don't think about: individual rights, The Simpsons, the rule of law, a 55" 3D colour TV for £2,200, Facebook, The Sopranos, the right of peaceful protest, youtube, democracy, silly bands, burger fries and coke for £4, Liverpool 3 Manchester United 0, people being acquitted on a technicality - our culture and the standard of living it gives, in other words. The SEAL team that took him down that won the tactical victory - well done to them - but the strategic victory was won by allowing people freedom. As long as we don't lose sight of that we should be OK.

My hotkeys are in a sticky on the CMSF forum - they're better for old CM1-ers.

Hopefully without breaking my NDA: I'm playing a huge QB right now. I've walked 15/20 turns to contact - that's probably enough for anyone. Given the amount of forces I had, I just hit "start" and sorted them out en-route.

I'd assumed that was an offshoot of the oil from coal process.

Lets get some noise discipline around here.