Kevin Peltz

I'll play, ladder or no ladder...

Hope you fellas don't plan on quitting your day jobs?

Two summers ago, I saw two tracked vehicles on a flatcar in the local rail yard. When I got closer, they were two M4 "Easy-Eights," sans the turrets, that had been modified by some logging outfit to carry steel spar poles for logging on hillsides. They were a combination of rusty red primer and yellow, but there was no mistaking the chassis and running gear underneath the logging stuff...I took a couple of pictures, but to get in enough of the unit, I had to stand back too far, and it is not obvious in the pictures just what the machinery is.

I think that internet courtesy lacks in many ways. I have contacted at least half a dozen people from this forum, claiming they wanted to play PBEM, and got no answer, yes or no, back. I even responded to one fellow about one minute after he posted his request, so it wasn't like he was being swamped with responses. It's just that you clear away some time in order to play, and then you are left hanging...I know that people lead busy lives, but if someone posts you an email, and it is with good intent, send them some sort of reply, just out of courtesy. Also, (and I am only noting this- I am not biased about this behaviour one way or the other) I notice that people tend to form cliques on forums, where they basically will only respond to each other in their particular group, and responses from "outsiders" are often ignored. There have been a lot of times I wanted to post to various threads, but never bothered, because I knew there would be no response. This doesn't really bother me too much, but sometimes, I see something interesting going on within a group, and I want to put my oar in the water too, but then I feel the same as if I overheard a conversation by a couple of strangers in a coffee shop, and then inserted a response, where none was asked for...(of course I would never do that in a coffee shop, or anywhere else- maybe this is the wrong place, too, sometimes?)

Do what feels best for you- it is a great game, but it is still only a game. Games are for fun, and if you aren't having fun, then what's the point? Some scenarios are a little easier to plan out than others. I found the VoT scenario extremely difficult to plan out, as either the Germans or the Americans. This was due to the fact that each side has a hill that commands much of the field, and placing units in cover, and still keeping them in useful areas of the map, was hard. I think you should spend whatever time you need to take setting up, or playing through your turns- that is also one of the beauties of PBEM play- you aren't holding anybody else up while you do your thing...

It all looks outstanding- but one thing about the originals is it was easy to determine where scattered trees vs woods vs tall pines were because the tiles were a slightly different colour (without having to drag an LOS line through to be sure). Is this reflected somehow in the new art- can't tell from the angle...? Jagdpanther looks great.

RCMP: Boris is right- I forgot that point. What you can do is you plot, save, send to your friend- he plots, saves (don't hit GO), sends back to you. You both will have a copy of the action and can hit GO and view the replay. I think this will work. It is a little cumbersome though.

I still have Hetzer Sniper, too. It is a spin off of another game called Patrol- again single man per counter, 5 metres to the hex, etc. Played it for hours. There was another game called Firefight that was sort of a modern (NATO vs WarPac) rendition of the above, except each counter was a half-squad or specialist unit. The scale was larger, but I don't remember by how much. All these games were originally by SPI...

Get together with your friend and decide who wants to control what. You get "A" company and he gets "B" for example. One of you start the game vs the AI and plot the orders for just the units you/him control. Save what you have done (without hitting GO), and send to the other party. They plot for their men, and then hit GO. They then save and return the save for you/him to view. And continue in this fashion. Just a thought...

I can't remember the name of the system, but a long time ago on TV there was a documentary describing this, and how the British Army was experimenting with this trick lighting effect again in the early '80s.It seemed pretty absurd, but they took an FV432 APC, covered it with light bulbs, and put it on the skyline. The day was solid overcast, but fairly bright. By carefully adjusting the illumination, the FV432 actually "disappeared" at about 500m viewing range. Now all they need is for someone to invent armoured light bulbs...

I used to watch "Combat" and then "The Rat Patrol" right after when I was a little kid. Can't say too much about TRP, but "Combat" was pretty good, a lot better than some of the crap they call TV these days. I always liked Vic Morrow in whatever he did- I was very sad when I found out he had been killed on the Twilight Zone movie set some years ago.

If possible, find a spot where your company commander has a good LOS and group your mortar teams in defilade, and within command control range, of him. The Coy commander does the spotting for the mortars.This allows you to bring down a concentrated weight of fire quickly. It is also very flexible, as you can change targets swiftly. Three US 60mm mortar teams can fire 20-25 rounds in a minute- this is a good level of saturation. The German 8cm mortars are even more effective. I find it better to use mortars this way, as keeping them with their designated platoon slows the platoon up, as well as tying down the platoon commander by forcing him to have to constantly look for good LOS positions in order to use his mortar team. He is better off being freed up to control the rest of his men. It is not easy to find a place where the Coy commander has good LOS, and can retain command/control of the mortars, but I think it is worth the trouble to find. The summit of Hill 216 in VoT is a good example of this, as is Hill 209 for the Germans. You have to balance the above with fact that the enemy will be looking at these areas too, and may try to mask/suppress them with fire of his own.

...and another...

Fionn: I don't know what is available where you live, but a good water based acrylic paint that I used to use was Polly-S. I cut it with about 25-30% water by volume, and one drop of isopropyl alcohol (to help the mixture atomize better), and stirred very well. Airbrushes are wonderful things, but they must be kept spotlessly clean. I recommend a filter that slips over the siphon hose of your brush, if you haven't got one. This keeps errant bits of paint, like the bits of crust from the edge of the bottle,from clogging up the airbrush.Take some newspaper and practice spraying patterns, and adjusting your controls, before going to your model. There is a definite "feel" to using one that only comes with some practice. If Polly-S is not available, Humbrol's enamel can be another good type of paint- but it has to be thinned out with paint thinner (petroleum distillate type), and the brush cleaned with the stuff also. This is not good to do except in a well ventilated space, and you don't want to be doing this around a gas furnace or gas hot water heater (talk about "fuel-air explosives!")

There was considerable discussion at various points on this board about both tank hierarchy and small arms for teams- the end result was nix to both. I tend to agree that this is the way to go. At the scale that CM will GENERALLY be used at, tanks would have been allotted in penny-packets as support, not in case-lots. Having teams with small arms would tempt people to use them as regular infantry once their main weapon (MG, bazooka, mortar, etc)ran dry. This would tend to both unbalance a scenario, and be a little gamey. Not to say it didn't happen in reality- there are examples of it having happened. I don't think it would fit within the parameters built into the game. You have specially trained soldiers to use special weapons- it would not be too good to have all your mortar/MG/bazooka guys run forwards and get chewed up. Who would man the weapons in the next round of the campaign/battle?

The Scheldt Estuary (Walcheren, the Albert Canal, South Beveland) Sept- Nov, 1944 Fighting between the 101st Airborne and the 6th Fallschirm Regiment on June 6-8, 1944 San Pietro (I know it is in Italy, but I want to do it anyway).

I have been playing Smolensk multiplayer almost every Sunday night, and it is excellent. I don't find the interface too bad- but I am used to playing the Battleground Series, of which Panzer Campaigns is quite similar (same designer). Normandy will be much different to play then Smolensk: Normandy will be more an attrition battle, whereas Smolensk allows sweeping flank movements. The unit count is pretty high in N44- the designers have tried to take a few steps to alleviate the congestion, without compromising the historical OOB. One of the reasons there are more units stems from the fact that some types are represented as low as platoon level, where appropriate. The ability to combine units is retained, however. Also, the maps and OOB are extended enough to cover right up to the final breakout in Operation Cobra- the scope of the game as shipped doesn't go that far, but the scenario editor will allow players to create scenarios after the period originally mirrored in the game. The editor is very good- I have fiddled with the editor in Smolensk, and creating new units and orgs is very easy to do. I would recommend the series to anybody who likes to play "hex-based" games. The series reminds me a lot of SPI's old board games, such as Highway to the Reich, and Atlantic Wall.

Normandy '44, by HPS is out- their site has not been updated, but one of my TCP/IP friends in Colorado got his copy a couple of days ago. He sent me the notes section to read while I wait for my copy...Canadian Customs is probably using it for a coaster...

The feature is intentional, and you can push things to a limited extent. You won't push a Tiger with a Hanomag, but vice versa would be true.

KwazyDog: Thanks, I just read the other thread and found out about the non-toggle. Didn't do too good in math at school... By the way, I ordered that tape about the Scheldt from the Canadian War Amps, it proved to be very useful and informative... [This message has been edited by Kevin Peltz (edited 05-02-2000).] [This message has been edited by Kevin Peltz (edited 05-02-2000).]

The plane in question was the F-111 Aardvark. They stopped the testing as you indicated. The aircraft is supposedly limited to under 300 seconds at +2.2 Mach due to the canopy distorting and possibly imploding due to heat induced stress... [This message has been edited by Kevin Peltz (edited 05-02-2000).]

Is this a selectable feature, like the level of vegetation or disappearing roofs? I am wondering about CPU hits, not the philosophical aspect. Other games have used bodies in a similar way to reasonable effect (SM's Gettysburg, for instance). [This message has been edited by Kevin Peltz (edited 05-02-2000).]

Looks like half-time at an old-timer's soccer game. Seriously, the effect is quite good. If this is for real, is it a selectable feature, and also, does each figure represent 1/3 of a squad, etc?

There was a thread started a long time ago (by me) about the use of WP in the game- there won't be any, was the final verdict.

Michael Wittmann used to love it when all the vehicles were in a nice neat line...