Sgt Joch

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.

thanks for the quick reply, I stand corrected.

I saw something last night which left me a bit perplexed. I was playing a scenario on a wide open map. I had ordered a platoon of panthers, made up of regular AI troops, to move to contact over a ridge. As the tanks came to the crest, they spotted two T-34's 3 000 meters away and started firing! :eek: I left them there and all four tanks spent the next turn happily firing off AP shells as fast as they could at these two tanks, getting few hits and causing negligible damage. I have to admit I was a bit surprised since I was under the impression that the maximum effective range for WWII era tank guns was 1 000 - 1 500 meters. I also would have thought that the TacAi would recognize on its own that the chances of killing a tank at that range are slim to none and that it would cease firing on its own. So what is going on here, were WWII era tanks that effective ? or is the AI having trouble dealing with an unusual situation (i.e. getting a clear shot at such a great distance!)

To play CMBB/CMBO, right now, the GeForce 4 Ti4200 128 mb is probably the best bang for the buck. It is nearly as fast as a Ti4600 for about two-thirds of the price and it can handle all of CMBB/CMBO's graphics. In CMBB, the CPU is more of a bottleneck than the video card. I have a Radeon 8500 and even though I find it is a great card, with very impressive image quality, it was not designed for CMBB/CMBO. The 8500(as well as the 9700pro) cannot render fog because of the way it is implemented in the game and does not support 16 bit FSAA. Kump, I am surprised you are having problems. I have a 1.2ghz athlon Tbird, 512 mb sdram, XP pro, Radeon 8500. I play CMBB at 1280x960 with max graphics and even big scenarios like "Kalinin Raid" are very smooth. A "HUGE" scenario like "On to the Volga" is a slide show, but from what I read in other posts, even users with 2.2ghz Pentium 4's are having problems running those scenarios. On your particular choice, right now the 2.8 P4 is about twice the price of the 2.53 P4 for only about a 10-15% improvement and NVIDIA is supposed to release the NV30 which will replace the Ti4600 next month. But I am in the same boat myself, trying to decide whether I should upgrade now or wait until next year.

Finally got my copy yesterday in Rosemère, Québec(pre-ordered the bundle pack on sept. 7th). It was waiting in my mailbox, no gst or extra duties. The custom declaration said it was a gift with a value of $5.00.(Does'nt Battlefront know about the severe penalties for making false custom declarations ). The cd is in mint condition and the install was quick and painless. After a quick look at the game, I launched into the "Wittman goes east" scenario...Kursk, july 1943..."Hmmm..(Homer Simpson voice)...Tigers" :cool:

Still have not received it in Montreal and I preordered on September 7th. In the meantime I tried out the Airborne Assault Demo, very interesting game.

I have preorder 80458, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed it comes in today. You never know with Canada customs.

:cool:

Did anyone get it in Canada today? I'm at work, so I won't be able to check my mailbox until tonight

18 year old single malt scotch... to steady my nerves... as I stare down the enemy