Kevin Peltz

Do you feel that arty may be too powerfully represented in the game? For every historical instance where arty was decisive, I have read of at least one where it didn't work out.

Do you feel that perhaps arty may be represented as too powerful in the game? For every historical instance I have read where arty was a deciding factor, I have read at least one instance where it was a complete failure.

SGTRock: Try this URL for a demo of Across the Rhine: http://happypuppy.com/compgames/pc/demos/1944acrost-dp1.htm

SGTRock: In truth, I can't recall. The scale would be about the same as what CM would cover, so I don't think you would have had "The Battle of Yadda-Yadda", at least not in the grand sense. More like a collection of tactical situations that would suit the time and place. Sorry, it has been a long time since I had my hands on it.

SGTRock: I fiddled with "Across the Rhine" when it first came out. I thought the graphics were very good (3D effect not that different from CM in some ways). The thing that put me off was that the vehicle units represented more than one vehicle- one graphic could represent a platoon, say. In combat, you might destroy one of three tanks, but the graphic would keep motoring on until you trashed all of them- you were supposed to tell how much damage you did by the size of the wreck graphic that got left behind, as I recall. This is fine for infantry units, but it didn't sit right, having a fairly nice 3D environment, and then not having individual vehicles represented. Also, the terrain types were limited- you had one brand of trees, that precluded armour movement, etc. The game got shelved after about a week or so. The manual was first rate.

KwazyDog: My brother still has both those games, and the old PC we used to play them on. I thought (still do) that they were pretty darn good games.

Sefchick: Smoke will just go more or less up. It was discussed not too long ago, and it was said to be too CPU intensive to do anything else. I don't think it will be all that noticeable in the heat of battle, any more than say the light direction not changing, or something like that.

I read "13th Valley" years ago- it was excellent. I still remember that tree...

Here is a small pix for the curious: http://store1.yimg.com/l/internethobbies_1551_23618721

"You gonna pull them pistols, or whistle Dixie?"- Clint Eastwood in "Outlaw Josie Wales"

It's a good game- I still have it, and play it too. If you can find it, get it. Another option, if you are interested in that particular battle, is Operational Art of War. It has a Crusader scenario in it that is about the same scale as the 360/Atomic game.

Prince George, British Columbia- 800 km NNE of Seattle. Just had our first frost last night (-5C)

Fionn didn't have the heart to tell you that the game has ended- in a draw. Fionn and Martin walked to the middle of the bridge, shook hands, and jumped off.

One thing that I do hope for, is that there will be sufficient info supplied with the demo with regards playing the game. I have been surprised at the number of demos that I have downloaded that have very sparse instructions supplied with them- I guess I am not very clever when it comes to interfaces, no matter how "intuitive" they seem to everyone else. One demo that I downloaded about six months ago did not even have the keyboard commands listed- that was a little too little for my liking! Rogue Spear has all these graphics selections to make the game run/look better on slower machines, but where one uses what, where, is not described- it is a laborious trial and error thing, as you have to go clear back out to the main screen and restart after each change. I guess in some ways, the amount of info supplied with the demo can have an effect on the piracy issue- spill all the beans with the demo, and the rest of the game can be figured out too easily by the wrong people? [This message has been edited by Kevin Peltz (edited 09-25-99).]

You tell them, Colin- I was like you at your current age, playing wargames while everybody else was doing whatever it was they were doing. Of course, when I was your age, there weren't any PC's (creak!). Parts of this forum are starting to get a little ugly. CC2, CC3, CM, and all the other acronyms are games: some are good, some are lousy- however, none will cure cancer or generally make the world a better place. They are just games, so let's just kick back and enjoy them with each other.

"Respect" and "goodwill"- wasn't aware that these terms were synonymous with "dickhead" and "bonehead"

Board games: Campaign for North Africa Atlantic Wall Highway to the Reich Patrol Ambush! Firefight Panzer Leader Tobruk Terrible Swift Sword Wellington's Victory PC Games All of the Talonsoft Battleground Series TacOps Panthers in the Shadows Tigers on the Prowl 1 and 2 Sid Meier's Gettysburg Alpha Centauri Chaos Gate Final Liberation Harpoon 2 Harpoon 97

I don't want anything extraneous in the game that will cause the system requirements to go up, as I am just able to meet the minimums as it is. I have played a number of games that show KIA, and I really never noticed them all that much, in truth.

I have a plan- we are all writhing in great pain waiting for the demos and game to come out- so, I figure that if we behave ourselves and stop posting to the board, BTS will be able to expedite the above, instead of having to take time to feed the peanut gallery. It will take discipline, it will take guts, but as a team we can do it. And besides, I am tired of flipping my monitor on edge trying to get a realistic LOS when I play Panthers in the Shadows.

I'm OK with work and chores around the house (no hurricanes, thank god)- I am used to turning my brain off while I get through that stuff. Been playing the Rogue Spear demo a lot, but I think the problem is that I don't really have a comparable game to CM. CC3 got a brief airing and was removed again (think someone else said the same thing somewhere around here). I play the HPS games a lot, but they are not even close to the same either. I know that once the demo(s) show up, I am going to wear them out!

I have found since I started reading ALL of the forum and looking at ALL the pictures, and reading ALL the AAR's, and watching ALL the .avi's, that the rest of my games aren't holding my interest much right now. Does anybody else feel the same way? I came upon CM quite late by most everyone else's standards. How do you make the days go by?

"Because I Said So." I think my wife read that same book...

I don't mean to make a big deal of this, but there have been a number of not uninteresting discussions re so-called "grognards" who like to blast everything in sight. I think the best way to deal with the archtype is to completely ignore them. I was pondering the glow-on some of them would be getting just by the mention of them in the forum. It's like the school ground bully thing- if you don't give them the attention they crave, most of the time they will go away. I don't believe in the term anyway- the only people who deserve to be called grognards (in the sense of having the expertise and knowledge to analyze a wargame), are the ones who have been at the sharp end for real. The rest of us are just arm-chair wannabe generals, no matter how long we have been doing this stuff.

I think spawning would be an excellent thing to do. I pay a horrendous amount for games here in Canada, and I won't buy anything now unless I can get a demo or play a sample game from a spawn. As mentioned elsewhere, by the time I get my copy of CM, it will have ended up costing me close to $80 Canadian. I played a spawned version of Diablo, and although it seemed like a nice enough game, it wasn't really my bag, so I gave it a miss, and saved $70.

R Cunningham: Info taken from THE ARMED FORCES OF WW2 by Andrew Mollo. If it's wrong- well I tried I guess?