JohnH

Hi, I'd also be interested to know what happened to "Tactical Notebook". Surely someone on this bulletin board must know. What is Bruce Gudmundson up to nowadays, anyway?

Hi Superted, This sounds like you are running out of texture memory. Maybe weather effects=more texture memory and you are running out. Have you tried playing at a lower resolution, thereby making more texture memory available? 4MB isn't really very much in today's world.

According to my confirmation email, I preordered on August 9th, 1999.

Hi Dar, On my wish list for CM would be a "Hide and Seek" command that would tell a tank to advance until it sees something to shoot at, shoot, and then reverse in the direction it came from. It is very awkward trying to sequence something like this with the commands rovided. I also think it would be nice it your tank actually stoppped after finding something to shoot at using the "hunt" command. I hate it when my tank, moving with the hunt command, spots a juicy target only to track it for a second and then roll on by. That sounds more like a "move" command to me. In any case these are minor points in a great game.

Hi, I'm a CM player from Toronto. Anyone want an email game? I don't think I'll be able to manage more than a turn a day though...

Hi, I've seen the headquarters squads do the same thing in CE. When playing the Germans I had three sqauds, an HMG and a panzer faust in the church as well a stug parked just outside. To my amazement some american troops tried to storm the building. They were wiped out to a man. When I checked the "bodies" I found out the american troops were two platoon HQs and a company HQ. One of the platoon HQs actually made it into the church before being wiped out. I chuckled over this for a bit, but it did strike me as a bit gamey.

Hi, I can run in 1024x768, but if I try and run it in 1280x1024, I don't get any textures. I've been running at 800x600 to get a reasonable frame rate. I'm using a Dell Inspiron 7500. Can the graphics chip be upgraded on this lap top? It sure would be nice to have a better 3D chip ... I'm hoping the transparency problem is "just" a driver issue and not a hardware limitation. I checked the ATI web site and it said the drivers on the Win2K CD were the latest available - rats. Looks like I'll have to buy a desk top system after all.

Hi, I've been playing on a laptop under Win2K. The first time I ran CM it told me I had an "ATI Rage Mobilty P". I can't seem to get transparent smoke, buildings or explosions. Is this a driver problem? Or is the 3D card just too crappy to handle transparency? Great game, by the way. A joy to play. Any help is appreciated.

Hi Again, Here are the details of the book as promised. The title is "Feuer : An Artilleryman's Life on the Eastern Front" by Werner Adamczyk. It was published by "Broadfoot Publishing Company", 1907 Buena Vista Circle, Wilmington, North Carolina, 28405, in 1992. The ISBN is 0-916107-97-3. Here is a brief passage from the book. "We also had to learn about the types of shells we could fire. First there was the general purpose or high explosive shell. It exploded on impact and it was the most widely used type. Then there was the nasty one. This one had a built in time delay fuse. This shell was fired at a very flat trajectory; when it hit the ground it would bounce and rise into the air. On impact the time fuse would be activated and the shell would explode about 10 feet up in the air. This was very effective in combating large masses of advancing infantry." There are other passages describing the combat use of this type of shell, but unfortunately I'm a pretty slow typist, so they will have to wait for another day.

Hi Scott, I'm at work now, but when I get home tonight I'll dig up my copy and get you the correct spelling of the author's name as well as publisher, ISBN, etc. I got my copy from "Articles of War" some time ago. Maybe they have some copies left? JohnH

Hi, I didn't want to mention this in the other thread, since there was a pretty intense flame war in there. There is evidence for the Germans using "bouncing" HE as a standard tactic , at least for the sFH 18 ( 15cm howitzer ), in the book "Feuer" by Werner Adamczyck ( spelled something like that ), who was a gunner with a 15cm HE battery in Russia from '41 to '45. A good read, if you haven't read it. The author seemed to think that this tactic was very effective as it created an "air burst" above the enemy infantry, which could be deadly if they were caught in the open. He talks about this tactic as if it were SOP. I'd be surprised if this tactic were restricted to 15cm howitzers and not used with smaller weapons like the 7.5cm. More fuel for the flame war. Thanks for reading.

Hi, My dad was a sapper ( 754th Pioneer Battalion ) in the Wehrmacht during WWII. He was drafted in 1940 and arrived at the front in Russia sometime in the summer of 41, after June 22nd, as an Obergefreiter ( hope I spelled that right ). He was awarded an Iron Cross second class after leading a small team to clear a Russian mine field at night under the noses of the Russians during the drive on Moscow. Later his unit was inside the pocket at Stalingrad and was destroyed, but he just happened to be outside the pocket with some other men picking up some trucks. He spent some time in the winter of 42/43 fighting with Alarmeinheiten ( hope I spelt that right too ) outside of Stalingrad and was awarded and Iron Cross first class for commanding a platoon during a lengthy ( 6 hr. ) machine gun battle against a heavy Russian attack. His unit was reformed in Poland in the summer/fall of 43 and was then sent back to the front. It was again wiped out in Romania in the Summer of 44 in the Yassy-Kishinev operation. This time my dad was unlucky enough to be inside the pocket. He managed to make it into the mountains where he tried to make it toward German lines in the guise of a sheperd but the Russians eventally captured him. He managed to escape and was recaptured, he escaped again and finally was recaptured again. He spent from the fall of 44 when he was captured until the Christmas of 49 in a POW camp near Chaklov ( I probably spelt that wrong too ) working as a slave labour. His rank at the time of capture was Unteroffizier When he came home he found out that while he was in Prison his mother had been arrested by the Gestatpo for telling a neighbour that she felt that Hitler was a butcher. Her neighbour turned her in and his mother was sent to Dachau where she was eventually liberated by American troops. He has many interesting stories about the war, about what it was like to be attacked by tanks, about terrifying Russian artillery barrages and even about being bombed by Stukas ( freindly fire ). I don't think he liked army life much. His most telling comment to me was, "When I was drafted I went and did my duty, but thank God we lost the war!"

Hi, weren't shields used, even on IF artillery pieces, to help protect the crew from CB fire? Doesn't the lFH 18 have a shield? It is not an IG. Also, weren't the 7.5cm IG and 15cm IG equipped with IF sights as standard equipment? Wasn't the role of the IGs to give an Infantry battalion or company commander an artillery piece that could not be taken away from him? Wouldn't it be up to the commander how to employ the weapons, DF or IF? I believe the crews were trained in IF. Wasn't IF the primary role of the 15cm IG? There are lots of photos of the 7.5cm IG being used for DF but I don't recall seeing any of the 15cm IG used for DF. This could just be my faulty memory, however. Thanks

Hi, I too thought it was common for Infantry Guns to fire indirectly. I've seen several photographs and films of German Infantry Guns in action and it seemed pretty clear that these guns were being fired indirectly. The guns were at high elevation and the crews were standing around and not trying to hide. This is true for both the 15cm and 7.5cm IGs. I find it hard to believe that the primary role of the 15cm IG was direct fire, but I guess it is possible. It should also be mentioned that lFH 10.5 cm was sometimes ( often? ) used to fire directly. There is an account of this is Knappe's "Soldat", I think, where he is wounded using a lFH to fire directly at a French MG position. Knappe is wounded in the hand by return fire from the MG. On the other side of the coin the Germans often used the PAK 40 as a field gun as it had a high rate of fire and could reach a 9km range even though it could only elevate to about 20 ( 22? ) degrees. They even had a special term for the PAK 40 in the field gun role, but I forget what it is right now. More fuel for the fire. Thanks.

Hi, That did it. I am now happily downloading the demo. You are right, I am using IE 5.0. Thanks for the help, and I'll let you know what I think.

Hi Again, I have repeatedly tried to force refresh the page, but I'm still having no luck. I'd appreciate further suggestions. Thanks.

Hi Again, I can download the Mac beta demo, but that doesn't help me as I don't have a Mac. Just thought you'd like to know. Thanks.

Hi, I can't seem to download the demo. When I click on the "Windows Demo" button, I just get a "page not found" error. Of course I'd appreciate it if this could be fixed QUICKLY. Thanks.

Hi, I thought it was, sometimes, the Soviet practice to abandon anti-tank guns when under fire, but then to re-man them when the "fire" went looking for other targets. This does sound like a good way to try and reduce crew casualties for anti-tank guns. "The tanks are shooting at us - run away!". "They are shooting at something else now - back to the guns!" I'm sure I read this, in a late war combat report from a Panzer Division, in the Nafziger book on Panzer tactics. It also talks about the Soviet practice of using "pak nests". I'm just throwing this in for discussion, and for possible consideration for "East Front CM" .