Sgt Joch

YES! I'll get to cream Nazis with Canadian troops!!! Sicily, Ortona, hmm... :cool: GO CANADA! last war we had a decent army, speaking of which: "Top Ten Reasons Why Canada Will Not Join USA in The War On Iraq 10. We have no way of getting there. 9. We are too busy at home with the Maple Syrup Season. 8. After 136 years, we are still copying off France. 7. Saddam's name pronounced backwards is "MAD ASS". We'll stay away from him. 6. There is only limited potential for sales of Canadian Bacon in Iraq after the war. 5. Our Sea King Helicopter was damaged and needs repairs. 4. Celine Dion can't sing to the troops because she has a contract in Las Vegas. 3. The rivers in Iraq are too shallow for our war canoes. 2. Lousy hockey in Iraq at this time of year. 1. Our army is needed at home in case of another snow storm in Toronto."

the 9700 is a great card, but it is overkill for CMBB. I have a 1.2 ghz Athlon with a GF4 ti4200 and I play CMBB @1024x768 with 4xs FSAA and 8xaniso and having fog really adds to the atmosphere of the game.

Even though CMBB scenarios are 20-60 minutes long, it is very rare that any individual units will be in action for the entire time. If you look at any scenario you are playing, you will see that most infantry and AFV's will shoot off most of their ammo in about 5-10 minute of continuous firing. Regarding the time compression, the player has a level of information and command and control which was unavailable to any WWII commander and even surpasses the internet command system used by U.S. forces presently in the Gulf. We also have the luxury of being able to take all the time we want between turns, something which real life commanders did not have. Because of that CMBB battles are faster and better coordinated than they would have been in real life.

hmmm...I guess I was too cautious in the first few battles. I guess I will have to ride it out and see what happens. Thanks for the response.

I am at the 4th battle of this operation playing the axis side. I have cleared out the southern side of the Aksai and am now trying to force my way across the bridge to the north side. I have tried the following tactics to force the bridge: 1. charging with my tanks en masse across the bridge with supporting infantry following close behind; 2. charging with my halftracks stuffed with infantry to effect a "landing" on the north side, while my tanks provide covering fire; In both cases, my forces suffered heavy losses. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to capture the bridge with minimal losses? I have to get across, the troops in Stalingrad are starving!

Perhaps slightly off topic, but a tank vs. tank engagement as in "Von Lauchert" was the exception rather than the rule in WW2, even though they appear to be everyone's (including me) favorite type of scenario in CMBB. From what I have read, the Soviets from 1943 onwards, were smart enough to stay away from this type of engagement and use their tanks in classic Blietzkrieg fashion (i.e 1- smash through a weak part of the german front line; 2- plunge deep in the german rear to cut supply lines; 3- bypass german strongpoints to be mopped up by infantry). German tank attacks as in "Von Lauchert" were usually stopped by anti-tank guns in tank traps and air power. One of the major cause of loss of Panthers/Tigers in WW2 appears to have been destruction by their own crew when they were cut off or ran out of gas. I remember reading something about a British Army study of 16 Panther hulks found in Italy. The study concluded that 8 of the tanks had been destroyed by military action and the other 8 were destroyed by their own crew when they ran out of gas. It seems running out of gas was a bigger threat to Panthers than were Soviet tanks.

(Spoiler Alert) Played the "Von Lauchert" scenario once as Germans vs AI. Moved my Panthers past the stream and waited for the Soviets. The Panthers destroyed about 60 Soviet AFV's, most at ranges well in excess of 1500 meters, including some at 3000 meters, against the loss of one green panther to a lucky shot by a Soviet SP. 4-5 of the Panthers ran out of ammo. Very good scenario to show the dominance of German tanks under ideal conditions (i.e. good visibility, open terrain, no enemy air power ). Off course the AI did a poor job on the attack, committing his AFV's piecemeal and over the open terrain, where the Panthers could pick them off one by one. Looks like a tough scenario to win as the Soviets though.

If you have not done so, you should also update your video card and sound card drivers. Older drivers could cause a conflict with DX 9.

Direct x 9.0 cannot be easily removed. Before doing anything drastic, you might try reinstalling Direct x 9 to se if that solves your problem. I have been running DX 9 for a few months with no issue and a slight speed increase in CMBB and IL-2 Sturmovik.

Franko, I'm currently on turn 15 of the first battle. So far, I am very impressed by your operation.

I did not start this thread to have it degenerate into a flame war. Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union were both ruthless totalitarian dictatorships and either Joseph Stalin or Adolf Hitler make Saddam Hussein look like a third rate amateur. Trying to argue about which is "more" evil ia a pointless exercise. Although to paraphrase Dr. Evil, I would say Joe was the margarine of evil and Adolf was the real thing. I started this post because I was very impressed by the "Der Manstein Kommt!" operation. The map is very beautifully done with a lot of attention to details and it really gives you a sense of being there, which is something CMBB does very well. Schoerner, I disagree completely with your analysis. Hitler's stand fast order at Stalingrad was one of his most idiotic orders and doomed the Sixth Army to certain destruction, without apreciably slowing down the Russian offensive. The line about the German "sacrifice" was spun by Goebbel's propaganda ministry to justify Hitler's mistake. Except maybe for the germans in 1941-42, stand fast orders always led to disasters. Stalin's stand fast orders led to the disasters at Minsk, Smolensk, Kiev and Vyazma in 1941. Hitler's led to Stalingrad, Cherkassy, Korsun, the destruction of army group centre in june 1944 and countless others. Mobile defence was the key to success, Manstein showed that in february-march 1943 when with much depleted forces, he was able to knock back the Soviets and retake Kharkov. If the Sixth Army was there, instead of starving at Stalingrad, the front would have been stabilised sooner and farther east and the Germans would have stronger forces. Panzer Leader, I think Hitler based a lot of his decisions on his experience during the winter of 1941-42 when even though many german units were cut off, they were able to get enough supplies over land or through airlifts to survive until the spring when a coherent front line was reestablished. Hitler probably thought something similar could be done at Stalingrad. [ November 21, 2002, 06:17 PM: Message edited by: JC_Hare ]

I have always been interested in the Stalingrad campaign, which was the turning point on the Eastern front as well as of the war. In the Stalingrad operation, the campaign which fascinated me the most was Manstein's offensive to relieve Stalingrad.... what if he had succeeded? By December 1942, time was rapidly slipping away for the Third Reich. Rommel was in full retreat, the allies had landed in North Africa. The battle of the Atlantic was reaching a fever pitch. The strategic bombing campaign was increasing in intensity. In Stalingrad, a quarter of a milllion men were trapped, trying to survive on starvation rations. The Luftwaffe, despite Goering's boast, was unable to deliver even the bare minimum of supplies. Hitler forbade any breakout attempt by the Sixth Army. Any relief would have to come from outside. In later years, military historians would argue that Manstein's effort was doomed from the start, hamstrung by indequate resources and Hitler's orders and stopped cold by superior Soviet forces and "General Winter". They would state that no one could save the divisions trapped in Stalingrad and that World War II was already won by the Allies. But all that lay in the future. In December 1942, there was still hope. The german army still had an aura of invicibility that gave Soviet generals nightmares in the middle of the night. Manstein had a small but balanced force, veteran panzer troops and mobile infantry, highly motivated to reach Stalingrad, not for the greater glory of the Third Reich, but to save their trapped comrades. Trucks laden with supplies were ready to roll into the city has soon as the road was opened. If the siege was lifted, perhaps the encircling Red forces could be defeated piecemeal and perhaps a separate peace could be signed with the Soviets before the war turned into a total disaster for Germany...perhaps.. And now is the time to see if an amateur armchair military historian, with no real life military experience whatsoever, can accomplish what one of the greatest general of WWII could not. "Der Manstein Kommt!"... the 23rd Panzer division WILL break through to Stalingrad or die trying. And that is why I love this game.

tried some of the scenarios last night, currently playing "Balck at the bridgehead". Congratulations to all those involved for a very nice job, very professionnally done.

Tough scenario for the russians, wide open map, veteran tigers and panthers. Don't try to engage the german armor at long range, your tanks will get knocked out all the time by the accurate german fire and your chances of penetration at that range are slim. Better strategy would be to hide behind the hill and setup an ambush. The nazis have to come over that one road over the hill to capture the flags. As they cross the map, your aircaft should be able to knock out 5-7 tanks (at least, that's what happened to me :mad: )By the time they see your tanks, they will be at a very close range where your numerical superiority will be more of a factor. Historically, the germans preferred long range duels where they could knock out soviet tanks at their leisure, while the russians preferred close in fights where it was hard to miss and their shells could penetrate german armor. The same tactics work in the game.

:eek: since yesterday, this thread has exploded like some weird alien mutant virus!... it reminds me of the movie "The Andromeda strain". Master Goodale, I salute you. Anyone who makes 250 posts in two weeks must really like this game ... or have too much time on his hand

Don't worry about the off topic post, after all misery loves company ....sorry, could not resist. Yes, I have the same issue, which appears to be in all 40.xx drivers. There is a workaround, when you first start the game, the scenario screen will be blank. You then press ctrl+alt+delete to go to deskstop. You then reenter the game and the scenario list should be back to normal and the rest of the game should be trouble free. It's a bit of a pain, but just based on my unscientific "eyeball" test, the 41.03 drivers appear to be faster and smoother than the 30.82. [ November 11, 2002, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: JC_Hare ]

MasterGoodale, Radeon drivers do not support AA in 16 bit games or table fog, this is not a bug but a design decision made by ATI. They only support AA in 32 bit games. Since CMBB is a 16 bit game, AA does not work with a Radeon. When I would turn on AA in CMBB with my Radeon, I would get a series of black horizontal lines on my screen. Even if you have FSAA turned on, it will not work in a 16 bit game. The art of finding the best video settings for a game is a lot of trial and error. I usually start with all settings to the max and then lower the settings until the frame rate is smooth. With the 9000 pro, depending on your processor and monitor, you should be able to run at 1600x1200 or 1280x960 with 16x Anisotropic filtering.

I replaced my 64mb Radeon 8500 with a GeForce 4 Ti4200 128mb a few weeks ago. Without FSAA, the Radeon's image quality is sharper, the GF is more blurry. But with FSAA at 4xs, the game is gorgeous with the Ti, not a jaggie in sight. The Radeons, including the 9700, do not provide 16bit AA, and even at 1600x1200, the Radeon's image is not as sharp as the Ti at 1024x768 with 4xs FSAA. To me, the textures look the same with both cards and I have not noticed any downsampling. In addition, with the Ti, I now have fog. Not exactly a showstopper, but it adds greatly to the atmosphere of the game. The GeForce is also very fast. On my system (Athlon 1.2 ghz @ 100 mhz, 512 mb sdram, Windows XP pro), I run CMBB at 1024x768, 4xs FSAA, 8x anisotropic filtering (41.03 drivers) and the game is very smooth on all but the largest scenarios. Currently, the GeForce 4 Ti4200 gives you the most bang for the buck in CMBB.

I tried them last night, very nice work, I especially like the air recognition stripes.

my money is on C3, as Benjamin Disraeli said:¨"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

C'est un très bel effort. J'attends avec impatience le moment où je pourrais me balader avec ce char dans les plaines de la Russie virtuelle.

well CMBB is a great game, so of course it will pull in a greater audience.

After having played Return to Castle Wolfenstein (my son's game with its outstanding flamethrower graphics, I laughed when I first saw the cartoonish flame in CMBB.

Even though it is possible to hit targets at long range, I don't believe that firing at AFV's farther than 1,500-2,000 meters is an effective tactic or a judicious use of ammunition. Beyond 1,500 meters, Panthers and Tigers are practically impervious to frontal shots from Soviet tanks, so there is no compelling reason to fire on them. At 1,500 meters, a Panther/Tiger will basically kill most Russian tanks with 1-2 shots. Busboy, that quote is one of my favorites about war. General Lee has always been my ideal of what a general should be like.