aka_tom_w

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Clubfoot: The beach, sand leading into foliage and frothy white foam are open ground terrain levels 0 and 1. The leading edge of water (graduated area of white to blue) is a straight line of marsh (slows movement and gives very minimal cover). The obstacles were achieved with the 'reed and thicket' bmp's that accompany the marsh terrain. The obstacles on the beach are a single tile of marsh with a transparent base (prevents vehicle movement).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> VERY ingenius! Nicely done! That Beach looks GREAT I'm sure Even Steve and Charles and Matt and Dan will be impressed! do you plan to share your new "toys" -tom w

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by PzKpfw 1: And this bothers no one but me?, almost makes me wanna re-open the Gyrostabilizer threads; were talking about a WW2 tank here not an M1A2 etc. Regards, John Waters [ 06-19-2001: Message edited by: PzKpfw 1 ]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> That's right John It bothers me Thats why I started the thread I'm sure that when they say there will be no further work on CMBO that we are free to abuse this "somewhat" gamey loophole (if it could be called that) to our hearts content. BUT..... I mention it in case there is any notion of using a similiar chance-to-hit-while-on-the-fast-move model in CMBB. I doubt (but I don't know) that either the Germans or the Russians employed anything like the Allied gyrostabillizer so I hope we won't have to worry about that issue again. I mention this with the hopes that we will see a substantial chance-to-hit penalty modeled for tanks on the move, especially the FAST move in CMBB Thanks for posting John! -tom w

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CombinedArms: It's gotten so I hardly use the Hunt command any more with fast Allied AFVs--Sherm and faster. They don't seem to lose any accuracy in Fast mode and are harder to hit--so why Hunt unless you're seeking a hulldown position. I haven't studied this--and I'm sure it's been widely discussed somewhere on this board-- but my guess is that tanks in general hit their targets more often in CM than in real life. A JgPzIV took out one of my Shermans at about 500m w/ a single shot in the crease between a cloud of smoke and a nearby building. I was seeking to improve my position and didn't think the JgPzIV could even see my Sherman as it moved to new cover but he nailed it w/o blinking. This happens so often both ways as to be routine. I'm not really complaining--but in generally you have to expect I high level of tank accuracy.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I like the way MOST accuracy and chance to odds are modeled. (It was different in the Demo, and early release versions) I think this game does a GREAT job of attempting to model the very difficult job of simulating the historically reality of "the chance to hit" when a round is fired. I really like the higher accuracy model that is now in v1.12. BUT those chance to hit percentages don't seem to drop very much at all for some Allied vehicles when they are on the FAST move. OH well, pick fast Allied units and send them quickly up the flanks if you think the coast is clear -tom w

I think this is a GREAT game! I play at least one CMBO battle every day (some days more) I prefer the Allies and I play them alot. I don't want to start the gyrostabilizer flamefest all over again BUT I would like to state that it is my humble opinion that in my experience (in the game only, of course) Allied AFV's Especially the Hellcat and the Greyhound are NOT heavily penalized enough while shooting on the FAST move. Either that or I'm VERY lucky. I like the Allies and I'm glad these units are so accurate on the move, but didn't the Germans demand and require that tanks NOT halt and target when firing? (i.e. not fire on the move) Shooting and moving in this game has grown to a new art form. I hope that in CM2 that tanks that are NOT moving when they fire will have more of an advantage then they do now, perhaps MORE correctly I hope that tanks and AFV's firing on the move, (not just the hunt move, they usually stop and fire when hunting which works PERFECTLY in CMBO!) but when firing on the fast move they should have a VERY low chance to hit, and the fact that they are moving fast should be a penalty applied to all vehicles. BUT it is still a great game and if you are fan of the German units you should see what those Yank Greyhounds and Hellcats can hit and kill on the FAST move! It is now my opinion that in this game a Crack Hellcat and a couple of Vet Greyhounds are more than a match for ANY German tank (All the big Cats included), because they are fast and still accurate to fire on the move and that 37 mm main weapon can penetrate the flank or rear of just about any German tank from about 500m. (While Moveing fast, faster than the turret traverse for example ) Just my humble thought for today -tom w [ 06-19-2001: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

I thought I read somewhere (sorry I'm too lazy to serach for it) that Steve said the Spotting and ID'ing in CM2 would be different and they were working VERY diligently to over come the absolute spotting "hive like borg inteligence" nature of spotting in CMBO. Was there not a BTS answer to a question somewhere in one of these threads about CM2 that stated that trying to implement some from of work around (short of full blown relative spotting) was a major priority for CM2? anyone else read that? -tom w

I might add that I have found that Piats are ALOT less likely to be spotted because there is no tell tale rocket blast out the back. I think the the fluke like nature of getting a hit is modeled very well in CM when it comes to the accuracy of these weapons. -tom w

Is there still a down load problem with the CM Outpost files I can't get the buildings file at CM Outpost to download? anyone else? -tom w

I WANT it "World War II Ballistics: Armor and Gunnery” manual. How and where can I get it. Is Rexford taking orders? I hope BTS will buy a copy of it Maybe they can trade a Free Promo copy of CM2 to Rexford for his book? (Just a Thought) -tom w

oops [ 06-18-2001: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

I think I need a NEW signature Line I like this new one -tom w

for those of you who missed it the first time here is the Mother of All German Have Superior Optics Threads: http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=011342&p=13 -tom w

for those who missed the "Mother of ALL Optics Threads" the first time around. -tom w

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pascal DI FOLCO: Hi all, I'm trying to get Alec's Normandy mod files, but I can't access the Combat Missions site : has it been overloaded by dloads ? Anyway I really WANTS the files !! So if it is possible to someone to mirror the files it'll be great... In fact I only need files #5 and #7, I succeeded with the other this morning (GMT).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> They should also go on Shadow's Hotline Server. -tom w

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pascal DI FOLCO: Hi all, I'm trying to get Alec's Normandy mod files, but I can't access the Combat Missions site : has it been overloaded by dloads ? Anyway I really WANTS the files !! So if it is possible to someone to mirror the files it'll be great... In fact I only need files #5 and #7, I succeeded with the other this morning (GMT).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> They should also go on Shadow's Hotline Server. -tom w

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Slapdragon: Games which tried to do the same, such as Myth, took a self limiting role by limiting the size of battle to a few dozen figures on each size for exactly the same reason.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Hey Slapdragon! Good to see you back and posting! Hi Myth.. Now that was a great new ground breaking game. True 3D environment and it WAS pretty. ALL kinds of pretty kind candy, truely polished and beautiful, but yes it was self limited to not so many units. Every man was represented and they bled like crazy when they died. I was BLOWN away the frist time I saw that game. If you have never seen it it does like very video game like in the high end polished graphics proffesional sense. It is also fun to play We are talking about Myth 3D RTS NOT Myst that mystery-run-around-on-an-island-and-figure-out puzzles-game (now available in its third release "Exhile") -tom w

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Stalin's Organ: Hi Tom - there'd better be a turn waiting when I get home or you're in deep trouble for wasting time posting here instead of playing CM!! Stalin - 2 years your senior <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> yeah yeah there's been one waiting for you for the past 6hrs. where are you? at Work it must be Monday there already? -tom w

OK..... I'm 40 (Hell it pains me to say that!) I did play Board games from Avalon Hill and SPI, I still have my copy of Trobuk sitting on my bookcase right in front of me.And yes perhaps compared to other wargames these are good (sure even superior) graphics, but compared to video games in general (Flashpoint 1985 for instance) these graphics or NOT leading edge or state of the art by any means. LOOK, Age of Empires is and RTS and if you have 3-4 players playing that game there can be as many units on the map as any a large CM battle, BUT those little sodliers and bowmen and horse and cavalry LOOK GREAT! if it was not for the GREAT work of the mod artists I would say the graphics in this game would be sub par for sure. BUT, and it is a HUGE but, here thanks to the WISDOM of Steve and Charles, user modifiable graphics skins were coded into the game to let others make it look better than it did when it was released. This was a stroke of genius. Sure I still hope the graphics will look better in CM2, I still hope to see WAY More eye candy and a better interface. BUT this game plays great and it is EVERYTHING (even with its limitations in the FOW and absolute spotting, and shooting straight through live vehicles, "issues") that I could have ever dreamed of in a WWII post D-Day small unit combat sim. Those folks who complain about the graphics have a valid beef if you look at "video games" and video game eye candy in general and compare it to CMBO, most here think it is an unfair comparision. I do not think the comparision is that unfair actually. I'm sure CM2 will look better and PLAY better I can't wait! -tom w

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Treeburst155: The first time you successfully ambush an enemy tank with a bazooka or panzerschreck you'll know what's so great about this game. Then you take that thrill and add to it about 100 more similar thrills and you'll understand why you probably won't need many other games on your hard drive ever again, except maybe CM2.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Make that a KO'd King Tiger from a 100 meters out, with a bazooka that you spend at LEAST 10 turns sneaking into position and you have a THRILL that is unequalled in any other game that I know of. A Vet 'zook only costs about 18 points, I have no idea how much a King Tiger costs ( I NEVER buy them) but its got to be close to 300-350 pts and then you will know the beauty of the 'zook (Same thrill for the 'faust 'schreck or Piat) Its a GREAT game!!! -tom w [ 06-17-2001: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

oops [ 06-16-2001: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by John Kettler: Arith, Please see my post at CM Forum for a highly detailed response. When you get through with mine, assuming you haven't already ordered by then, read all the other messages in the thread. All the best! John Kettler<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I just read John's post.. AND so.... HERE, in all its glory, is that well written and delightful post: " John Kettler Member Member # 1026 posted 07-12-2000 04:03 AM (Long,detailed reply) Chickenhawk, To properly answer your question, let me try to give you some perspective on myself, so that you can then evaluate what I tell you about Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord. I am also one of those posters you expressed concern about. My Background I'm a dyed-in-the-wool wargamer, having gotten started in board wargaming in 1967 at age 12.I have wargamed with miniatures since at least 1975, playing TSR's Fast Rules and later Tractics, with many more systems to follow. I'm the son of a defense engineer with a deep interest in military history, got into military history, technology, theory and practice in childhood, and have devoured it ever since, with particular emphasis on WWII. I also spent over eleven years with Hughes and Rockwell as a professional military analyst on numerous major weapon programs ranging from the TOW missile to the military derivatives of the National AeroSpace Plane (NASP). My military computer gaming was initially done on an Amiga and didn't go well (SSI's Red Lightning), because I couldn't see what was happening on the 16 screens or whatever and got whomped. My next computer wargaming was on my friend's Mac playing CC2. I well remember how impressed I was watching a guy smaller than 1/285th scale belly crawling. CM vs CC2: A Rough Comparison Now, let me give you a rough comparison. Take CC2 as a wargaming experience and increase it by a minimum factor of ten. This is hyperconservative. Combat Mission is nothing less than a fundamental breakthrough in wargame design, a revolutionary synthesis of a multitude of individual developments into a stunning, engrossing, deeply immersive, wholly original creation. Combat Mission & Panzer Elite: Trailblazers Both But Not At All The Same The only thing out there comparable in creativity, ingenuity and immersiveness is Panzer Elite, a highly detailed armor sim, and the two are in no way equivalent. Combat Mission positions the player as overall battle force commander, but he is not directly participating in the battle, which can go as high as a reinforced battalion on a side. By contrast, in Panzer Elite you ARE the platoon leader and must not only fight your tank but direct your wingmen, coordinate with adjacent units, request fire support, etc. If you screw up or are simply unlucky, the last thing you see is a big explosion. With that said, let me now justify my claim vs.CC2. Combat Mission's Features For starters, the entire Combat Mission game except the trees, which are sprites (major CPU hit if 3-D), is in 3-D. That includes individual men who are equipped, dressed, move and behave quite realistically. Squads are depicted with three figures (again, CPU issue), but are tracked by the computer down to the individual man for casualties, morale, ammo state, etc. Troop quality ranges from raw conscripts to elite units. Movement is based on simultaneous mutual order issuance and execution, called WE GO, with the computer's calculating all pertinent interactions, then simultaneously executing the turn in the form of a 60-second movie, which can be endlessly replayed from any angle until the next turn is begun. This simultaneity eliminates all kinds of gaming dirty tricks which you may have learned to hate. AI is multilayered, running everything from choosing a battle plan to the behavior of a squad under fire.Though better on defense than the attack (less to compute), it is quite capable of thrashing you at even odds and can be tailored to increase or decrease its capabilities. Play is vs. AI, hotseat, LAN (I think) and PBEM. TCP/IP will come in a few months via free patch. Otherwise, the game release date would've been greatly extended. Smoke, depending on settings and system capability, is transparent or opaque, with white smoke for screening and oily pillared black smoke for vehicle kills. Explosions are frighteningly realistic and throw up all kinds of debris. House and building collapses throw up enormous expanding domes of dust. Fires can be started by artillery fire, handheld AT weapon backblast, recoilless weapons, or even flamethrowers. It's quite possible to burn down a house by firing a bazooka from it. There are bodies when squads are eliminated, but no blood. To permit sale of the game in Germany (huge gaming market) all Nazi symbology has been excised and stand-in graphics provided. Except for wind (would take a Cray), environmental effects are modeled. You can play in broad daylight, at dawn/dusk,night;in overcast, rain or snow, with attendant effects on mobility, visibility, etc. The sun is not modeled. Don't know why. Sound is point sourced, varies in intensity with distance, and is directional. There are so many camera options I won't even try to list them here. Suffice it to say that you can have everything from a God's eye view to a view padlocked to a single figure, like a tank commander. You can even allow camera shake for that authentic "you are there" feel. LOS modeling is real world, based on terrain and is automatically computed. Players have an LOS tool as part of an elegant, easy to learn interface. Speaking of modeling, a wealth of excruciatingly detailed data on weapons, armor, accuracy, projectile types, optics, armor quality, human factors and much much more (including accurate 3-D modeling of in-flight ballistics and terminal ballistics) went into this game, and tweaks are made when needed and properly justified. The people who made CM are themselves gamers, served in the military themselves, consulted with many veterans and really are devoted to what they're doing, going way beyond the extra mile to listen to their customers and field a first rate product. Hotkeys allow you to perform a multitude of functions including removing tree renderings, smoke and such to find units and plot moves, without affecting game play in the slightest. You can select smoke rendering/building transparency options this way, thus allowing my anemic Gen One iMac w/ 64 MB RAM and 2 MB VRAM to run this incredible game, just not at high resolution with all the graphic bells and whistles those with more memory and better video boards can. Theoretically, though, it shouldn't run on my machine at all. The troops speak in their own languages and accents. Forces in the game include U.S., British, Germans, Poles, Free French and Canadians. There are some 150 vehicle types in the game, beautifully rendered and many with camouflage so good it's almost impossible to identify them in battle unless quite close--which CAN be unhealthy--ranging from Jeeps and Kubelwagen up to Jagdtigers and Pershings. Fire support covers the gamut from onboard platoon mortars to offboard 14" naval guns and 300 mm rockets. Several varieties of airstrikes are available, and casualties from friendly fire of all types not only are possible but happen often enough to make people plan their moves carefully. Combat engineers have satchel charges, flamethrowers and can clear mines, which come in three types: daisy chain AT (lie atop the ground) and buried AP and AT. The Axis has several types of wood and concrete fortifications. Defenders on either side automatically start dug-in in foxholes. Target reference points are available for preregistered artillery and mortar fire.Barbed wire is also in. Fog of war is modeled so well that the other night I lost a whole bunch of .50 cal MG armed armored cars trying to knock out a Marder SP antitank gun by shooting through its lightly armored superstructure. Unfortunately, it was a Hetzer! If you can't really see something well enough to ID it, the computer will throw up a generic ID until you can. And if you've ever read about, say, hearing movement and that triggering artillery fire or some other response, then you'll be right at home here. The game will tell you when something's heard. How cool is that? The manual is a gem, 180 well organized,easily understood, properly spelled pages. And if you can't get your answer there, there is this board (quite a few sections) and a whole Combat Mission Webring to draw upon. The game has a tutorial scenario, some 36 battles, a bunch of operations(six, I think), which are minicampaigns,each consisting of as many as six battles fought on one large map, with limited troop replacements and return of damaged (not destroyed) vehicles between battles. You also get the Quick Battle generator--a few mouse clicks to select troop types, date, weather, terrain and battle size, and boom! you're fighting. I have yet to play a canned battle from the game CD, since I'm so engrossed in ginning them out in the Quick Battle generator. You can even handpick your troops. Combat Mission has a full Scenario Editor and Map Editor, allowing you to build almost anything you can think of. If that's not enough, dozens of new scenarios, graphic tweaks and sound mods are readily available and are free. Strongly recommend you check some of them out at Combat Mission HQ (follow link at CMHQ Update posting here on this board). Then there's the Combat Mission Metacampaign, which allows you to take command of a unit and fight from D-Day until the end of the war in blind, refereed scenarios. And let's not forget the official Combat Mission ladder series for those with intense competitive streaks. Those Worrisome Posts This board is awash in the thoughts, musings and sometimes rants of some very knowledgeable, often highly opinionated people, all of whom are intensely passionate about Combat Mission,many of whom served in the military (not just U.S. either) or serve now, many of whom waited two years for the game to be released. This fearsome brain trust has invested thousands of unpaid hours in an effort to make Combat Mission the best wargame ever. Period. To that end, there is an ongoing effort to provide the players with the means in the game to perform the same tactics and give them the same combat capabilities as their World War II counterparts. Sadly, there are real limits on what can be done. This is partially because the game was designed to run on mass market computers, not 1 GHz behemoths. This in turn forces things like 3-man squad renderings to be used. Similarly, there are coding limits. Certain things could be done, were more coders available and schedule and cost not considerations. Others are practically intractable. You can't, for example, screen troops behind moving armor, as was often done in reality. The reason is that the code can't handle dynamic cover (moving cover). It does, though, model a burning wreck as cover. Certain terrain features are tough to do, too, because the game's tile size is 20 x 20 meters and many features are much smaller than a tile, trenches, for one. Because of the above, plus partisanship,egos, language difficulties and various other factors,this board is a constantly roiling sea of demands,questions and complaints--all with the goal of further improving an incredible wargame that we all love. Ultimately, though, no matter how much we huff, puff and propose, Steve and Charles dispose. It's their game, their business, and they call the tune. They're excellent listeners, though, and their tremendous wargame fully reflects this. So, Chickenhawk, I wouldn't worry about all those posts; I'd worry if no one was making any. Summing Up This game is the single biggest threat I've ever seen emerge to board wargames and battles with miniatures. You don't have to count hexes, add combat factors, hand track ammo, casualties or morale. And you haven't lived until you've seen your Shermans, Stuarts and halftracks advance under fire, tank commanders in their spinning turrets seeking hidden enemy positions, guns blazing defiance as that last volley of suppressive fire crashes down on the town's outskirts. You haven't lived until you've heard the dread clang that betokens a pierced tank, heard the linen ripping sound of MG-42 fire and watched with sick apprehension as a Panzerschreck rocket, tail afire, arcs right toward one of your tanks. You haven't lived until you've desperately fought a bitter, frantically improvised defense against platoons of Allied armor and swarms of infantry, wondering whether ere long you'd be hearing a Jabo whistling down on you or the sky tearing as 105mm fire comes shrieking in. I could go on and on, but why? Get Combat Mission. Be happy!!! Hope this helps. Regards, John Kettler " [ 06-16-2001: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Slapdragon: I think BTS plans to come back to the West Front after they rewrite the engine of the game, so I doubt they would do the new stuff to the old game. Makes sense from my point of view, since I want desert rats and 1940 ASAP, and in a couple of years, after I buy a new computer with a quad G5 processor and a NVidia Powerforce 5 128mb graphics card, I want to see the Western Front again, only this time in with ray traced shadows, better ballistics engines, and a new AI, all of which would delay the East Front by two years, and may not be possible to retrofit, being more of a ground up coding thing.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Hey Slapdragon Welcome back! We have missed you good to see you posting again! -tom w

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ACTOR: Take a look at this page http://www.tankclub.agava.ru/main.shtml I think you will like what you see.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Those prices MUST be Cheap for $55.00 you can buy a M4A4 Sherman. check out this page for a Complete list: http://www.tankclub.agava.ru/main.shtml -tom w

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Frenchy: For those that don't know what a corduroy road is look here: <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> PERFECT!! Great picture of a corduroy road. Very NICE Thanks Looks like an EXTRA wide Canoe Portage -tom w

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pvt. Ryan: BTW, what is a corduroy road? I don't recall my mom making me wear them in the 70s.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I'm guessing logs hastily laid down side by side to make a road through BAD boggy ground? You can see somthing like them on canoe portages in Northern Ontario, but there it is like a narrow foot path and not a road. -tom w

I guess this is copywritten so I will credit it to GameSpot with and official reference and you can read it here: http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/previews/0,10869,2775850-3,00.html CHECK THIS OUT!!!! (and I quote from the interview) "GS: Can we expect any new orders in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin? Perhaps something like an "advance to contact" command that would send infantry forward and cause them to stop and take available cover after coming under fire? CM: This was one of our top priorities. Here are the new orders you can look forward to (the list may grow further): Move to contact: Just as you described. Useful at the beginning of the game for a cautious advance. Assault: The squad moves ahead in "leapfrog" style, with some men prone, offering covering fire, and the others running a short distance ahead. Then the two groups switch--the firers get up and move and the movers stop to fire. This is internal to the squad, so the average overall movement speed is around walking speed (the average of half-sprinting and half-stopped prone). So the speed is only moderate, but the advantage is decent use of available cover and the ability to return fire with most weapons (not the heavy ones like LMGs [light machine guns, as opposed to standard infantry rifles]). This is important because the "run" command in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin allows for much less outgoing fire than it did in Combat Mission, pretty much just limiting it to SMGs [submachine guns] at very close range. Human wave: Inexperienced troops are not allowed to use the "assault" command, but Soviets can use the "human wave" as an alternate. It involves the troops moving ahead at a brisk walk, firing available SMGs and throwing grenades once in range. Vulnerability is high so casualties are usually brutal, but morale stiffens (to a point) and it may allow you to overwhelm a tough enemy defense at close range through greater numbers. Hull down (vehicles only): Pick a spot on the map and your vehicle will move toward it until it has a hull-down firing angle on that spot. Movement is rather slow, but higher-experience units can do it faster. Cover arc: Click on two points and your unit will direct its attention to the triangular area created by those two limiting points and your unit's location. Except in extreme circumstances, your unit will only open fire on enemies inside this zone. So you can set the direction and range of engagement, which is very useful for ambush (which this command replaces), conserving ammo, or focusing a directed defense." [ 06-15-2001: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]