hellfish

The Marines, at least, are significantly different. Marines operate in light-infantry centric roles. They have thirteen man squads, vice nine men in the Army. They have a lot of diverse support weaponry available to them - SMAWs, Javelins, M240Gs - plus LAV-25s, AAV-7s and M1A1 tanks. The vehicles are especially different compared to the Army. While LAVs are related to Strykers, they are not the same vehicle and have very different capabilties and roles. AAV-7s are thin skinned behemoths capable of carrying 25 Marines at a time. Even the M1A1s are different, as Marines have made a few tweaks (including ATGM decoys). Marines are a much more integrated force than the Army is too - each MEU trains together and operates as one, unlike Army units which are often patched together ad hoc. They have very tight integration with naval gunfire and close air support elements as well.

When I cross trained with the Brits, they were taught to do it (so they said), but in my six years as an infantryman, two of which I was an M60 gunner, we were never taught how to do it.

I used to love random maps too, until I got fed up with just how random they really were. Roads running into houses, lakes on the top of hills, etc. For CMBB and CMAK I went and downloaded map packs for my quick battles and I haven't looked back. I expect no less from CMSF - tons of great and logical maps made by users.

Now it's "Army Strong is Army Wrong".

I really like the box art. Can I ask who the artist was? Any way to get a print?

I know, but the fact that it's there... *shudder*

I'd be so embarrassed to wear that thing... "Army Strong" bull****.

In combat you don't wear earplugs. You might not hear something else important, like orders shouted.

I think you're restricted on size force too. I had about 200 points in my French campaign, and I couldn't add a reserve S-35 (at 180 points) because it said I didn't have any open slots available in my deployment list. I was kinda bummed about that, and had no way of knowing that there was a limit.

For what it's worth, I DLed it at about 300 two days ago. Maybe it's just the time of day you're DLing it?

Heck yes!

Close Combat has had 10 years to refine itself. ToW has had less than a week. As it stands right now, ToW is more fun and offers better gameplay than CCIII for me. Anybody remember CC1? Thats's what you should be comparing TOW to, if anything, based on gameplay merits. I love ToW so far, and while I won't say it's better or worse than the CC series, I'm going to play it for quite a while. I expect expansion packs or upgrades in the future as well, which I'll happily buy.

Yeah, I was getting 800+ kbps. It was coooooooool. :cool:

I like the game! It's definitely not the usual BS swarm & rush game normal RTSes are. I like the detail a lot. Graphics are excellent (I had a little schutzen fire his AT weapon at a T-34... very neat to watch!).

I downloaded it in about 15 minutes last night. I was impressed with that alone, nevermind the cool demo...

x2. I really enjoyed the demo. The game is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. You've really got to think about what you're doing. And besides that, the game is beautiful and well polished.

I'd argue that the Stryker has been an uncommonly successful program. What, like 3.5 years from concept to combat and within all reasonable budget parameters? The big Army albatross these days is indeed the FCS, which is thankfully being gutted anew every month.

A lot of the French equipment is great - the AMX-10RC is one of my favorite pieces of kit.

Dutch were in Iraq (still may be?) and are in Afghanistan. I'd like to see the Spanish too. They've got the nice Leopards, some cool cavalry armored cars and their own IFV. Would dovetail well with a German module, I think, especially since they use MG3s and G36 small arms.

IIRC when they decided to keep the Leo1 in service.

Actually, they canceled their MGS order. The MMEV is still a go, though. Also, check this out: Canada is rumored to have just purchased 80 Leopard 2A4s from the Germans and leased 20 Leo2A6Ms for Afghanistan. It sounds like the rumors are true this time, too! http://www.sfu.ca/casr/bg-leopard2-afghan.htm

The Aussies have diesel M1A1s now. I wonder what their experience is.

There'd have to be an option for "fix bayonets". Every firefight I read about seems to have Brits fixing bayonets at one point or another. I always thought it was easier to shoot the bad guys.

Another one I just remembered that is excellent is "The Battle of Hunger Hill" by Dan Bolger. Excellent command view of light infantry operations over the course of two rotations through the JRTC at Fort Polk. Lots of lessons learned and lessons applied, all of which are applicable to the infantrymen at the heart of the Stryker brigades. [ February 15, 2007, 06:04 PM: Message edited by: fytinghellfish ]

Close, but not quite the same.