PeterNZer

I both love and hate flamrthrower units. On the one hand they promise much devistation, on the other, I can't seem to get them to deliver on that promise! I generally find the foot-based FT units last about one, maybe two squirts before everything rains on their heads and they are supressed, paniced or killed. I have had better luck with the mobile units. In a recent game my main attack force was a group of Sturm-jager-hamsters or whatever those big squads of 13 are called.. with a cover of half squads of regular rifles at the front. Line of battle went something like this. 1) Advancing platoon of Riflemen. Two squads were split in half, the central squad was kept whole. Their job, to scout. behind them I kept close a germy FT halftrack, then behind it the main force of two platoons of heavy inf ready to assault. Now although overall the attack failed (I got majorly flanked, oops), the principle worked. When I came across a hidden English platoon my half sqauds laid down some fire, I moved my half track up and two squirts later one squad ran for it and the other two didn't last long as the rest of the force kept up. One annoyance was the halftrack with its short range was wary of getting into range. At one point I had another UK platoon supressed, but in the foxholes it wasn't dying quickly, so I advanced the HT on it.. but the HT wouldn't get closer than about 70m, so it couldn't use the FT! Kept backing out and away, was a bit scared of those cowering englisher pig-dogs. In future I'll have to try an armored FT =) Dr Al and GermanBoy both reckon that the Churchill Crocodile is great, LOTS of armor on the front, a huge 100m range and it comes with an MG and that 6lber? Something handy like that. Not sure on the points of the thing. I've not seen the Wespe do well myself. The only time i've seen it my platoon of germs charged the bastard and it fired, missed, then retreated for the hills hehe It's first squirt killed only a few of a squad.. so not so good. PeterNZ

I -think- they have mentioned that they don't intend to licence it out since it's their engine and will keep their games distinctive. However, I don't think anyone has presented a serious proposal to them, (well, not that we'd ever know), so I don't know how fixed they are. I mean, if someone came up with a lucrative deal for them, and the game that was going to be made targetted a space which wouldn't compete with the CM series or BTS's future plans, I reckon they should go for it. Ideally a developer would want to sign on for the next CM engine development, since if a game takes say 18 months to develop, assume 6 months putting **** together, and a by then some inroads on CM2 would have been made.. and an engine ready before the licenced game was due.. or something. Myself, I think that there's a huge untapped Games Workshop licence out there. The fans are already very used to turn-based games, and there hasn't been anything that 'convincing' from the other line of GW sping off games, (although I liked the warhammer series myself). I could definately see a good 40k conversion, and other squad based games GW makes could be done too. Think that licence is a bit tied up with SSI tho? And GW are total business fascists. Anyway, I ramble. I think if you seriously want to know, you'd have to put a serious proposal to them in private PeterNZ

Bump PeterNZ (Noone here but us sheep)

Well, have you? It's that unshaven look, and the green jacket thing PeterNZ (safe in corporate suitdom)

*bump* sweet as. I'll be the guy with the red hair and red goatee, and there will be some shifty looking guys there too, that'll be Germanboy and Dr Al and stuff PeteNZ

bounce

hehe i'm not that cheap man! :> some people ;p PeterNZ

Cool, we'll check it all out Also, any one from London, I thinking of heading to the playing fields tommorow night. it's a multiplayer gaming place, very cool setup.. at great portland st. email me if keen ptyson@datamonitor.com ta PeterNZ

coworker just told me it's great.. but a bit scary, (the trench section they had).. and he saw this very sureal thing, of a Japanese family getting their picture taken infront of a Big Boy replica! PeterNZ

I'd ask him if it was true that Reagan used cue-cards during the .. START II (I think) talks with Gorbachev, apparently if Gorbie strayed off the agenda slightly Reagan got all flustered and started shuffling through his cards looking for the answers or stuff to say =) (from an interview with Clive James and Gorbie.. where Clive brought it up.. and Gorbie looked meek and wouldn't commit to a YES THAT's TRUE! hehe ) PeterNZ

Mattias, as for touching everything inside the museum, well I'll be there, so you can keep your bloody hands off me for one! :> Hanging around? I imagine we'll spend a couple of hours or three there, then wander off and drink beer PeterNZ

Hi there. Met up with Germanboy Dr A.. I can't remember his damn nick, hehe, and Chupacabra, (who is now studying in London) last night and went to a film and had a beer which was nice. Anyway, we're all going to go to the Imperial War Museum next sunday, that's Sunday 8th of October! Plan is to meet in the foyer at the respectable hour of 11am and then wander round. Digital camera owners do come! Anyone else wants to bowl on up, drop me a mail and we can have an idea of who will be there. I'll be easy to to spot, red head with a goatee, as for the rest, just keep an eye out for hungry looking Grogs PeterNZ dynamo@pobox.com

Stars! is great fun, the sequel will be out soon. PeterNZ

in London here. Ordered with my New Zealand credit card so dunno what hte conversion ended up at, but anyway, it took about 7-10 days to arrive, no problem. Just get the $55us and convert to pounds, my current calculation puts that at about £37. Well worth it, as you know i'm sure. PeterNZ

Yes it would be nice, but wait and see eh and there is a cm movie out there http://combatvision.panzershark.com and as soon as I get my butt into gear there will be a second one added =) PeterNZ ------------------ --------------------- __COMBAT____VISION__ *Film from the CM Front* http://combatvision.panzershark.com

Also they're a none-shrapnel device eh? Just reminded me because I talked to this bomb disposal guy once who said he could be 1m away from a kilo of plastique and as long as he had his super duper suit on he'd probably only loose a hand or an eye or something ..however if the bomb had a shrapnel causing casing he'd be in serious trouble. I guess satchel charges, without shrapnely bits are pretty lethal if you're close, but would only stun if you were further away and behind some kinda cover, (instead of the cover being ripped to shreds by shrapnel). Someone care to comment on this civies understanding? :> PeterNZ

Also your scout car isn't a tracked vehicle so it can't turn ot the spot, it needs to move around a bit to do a turn.. maybe he didn't know how to do three point turns? =) PeterNZ

hehe thought someone might say that Major H, and I have to say I don't have a good answer Of course, being a socialist doensn't.. I think.. necesarily mean you aren't a capitalist... hmm it's been way to long since I studied political theory. Well anyway. I guess my point is that there are other models of capitalism and political economy out there than the one we have now, and they have worked well as well! so nyah! PeterNZ

Goanna, you said it all mate No offence to the yanks on the board, but i have also noticed what you have, the peculiar blending of concepts of government and economics that results, often, in the misconception that capitalism is the political system in America. Unfortunately it often gets caught up in a kind of 'invented here' mythology as well. I've also seen the odd situation where a criticism of US government policy is seen as a criticism of the US as whole, its people and its military. Always found that one quite odd. Maybe it's the European tradition I've been brough up in. If I said the Ausie govt didn't handle Bouganville very well and were dodgy in selling the Solomons govt. helecopters, most Ausies would probably agree. Criticise some US foreign policy and you get someone get all excited saying they saved you in ww2 and now you have the cheek to.. etc etc. It's interesting that the myth of communism and socialism never 'suceeding' is brought up. Everyone notice how it's always phrased in the much the same way, and used the same way? To me that has become the first sign of fairly mindless repetition of something held as 'fact'. There are infact many interesting cases where a non-capitalist system has worked pretty well. I'm not expert on this stuff, but I can think of a few distinctly non-capitalist systems that have faired wel - Kibutz - Collectives such as Fagor in Spain, and others in the UK and so on - Anarchist governments in Spain during the revolution, (unfortunately crushed by Franco) I'm sure we could think of many more systems and times when a non-straight-out-capitalist system has been around. I think it's important we keep these other options in our minds so we avoid reaching the intellectual dead end that is assuming our way is the 'right' way. Already it has happened largely. Debate doesn't centers on whether wages are to high, or too low, never straying on to whether there should be wages at all. (I'm not arguing that way, just using it as a crude example). I think it's a pity really, that capitalism has 'won'. I hope we can collectively remember that there are other ways, and always meassure the successes of capitalism against other yardsticks. Otherwise we risk just 'assuming' the system we have is perfect.. and I think that's dangerous. Ahh fridays.. my mind does wander. O, if you're American, don't take offence.. my observations come from other forums (forai? ) in the past and through dealings with.. i'm guessing.. less educated/intelligent people. PeterNZ

nothing wrong with futile! PeterNZ

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Hmmm, you may want to rethink that. Take from the rich and give to the poor is classic bleeding heart politics.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I seem to remember there was was this guy who was nailed to a tree for expousing this 'bleeding heart politics'. I think quite a few people thought he was pretty neat guy. Never knew he was a bleeding heart liberal, guess he must of been wrong then! PeterNZ

Read the article sneaky posted about the UN getting rid of soveriegnty (bla, spelling), and um.. no! The article was about a debate in which varous luminaries talked about the UN and its role. There was no 'the un is here to destroy national soveriegnty' The idea is ludicrous, the UN is made up of states, they're hardly going to vote themselves out of existence are they? Anyway Joe! What do you think of all this? PeterNZ

Hm. Well since i've done a paper on the IMF and WB I am more than aware of their invovlement in various countries. (In particular I studied Nicaragua, but i also looked at mexico, south east asia and so on). As for the shinning path being a democratic movement.. please.. Just because there are rebels who are counter a government you don't like doesn't mean the Rebels are good! The Shinning Path are pretty damn nasty. The RUF are another case where the rebels are often MUCH worse than anything the government, even if it was a lackey to a foreign power, could ever dish up. I think i'm one of the few who thinks that there is in fact, hope for the WB and IMF. Until 5-10 years ago it still considered itself totally a 'non political' organisation involved with finance and economics, an organisation that didn't have to deal with 'petty' develoment issues. In recent years it has been slapped around a bit by the worlds nations, (GO THE USA IN THIS ROLE RECENTLY WOOO!), saying it needs to think of the social costs of its actions as well. I'm hopefull that the IMF/WB will do a serious rethink.. i understand it is slowly invovled in that process now. It's going slow, but it is moving. Only downside with voting Nader is that it bassically splis the liberal vote, ensuring even more than conservatives get in.. and some of those people, frankly, scare me, (Jesse Helms for example.. what a horrible man). Still, it's not my country, so no matter. PeterNZ

Ah, we can all avoid a flamewar, just ignore what'shisname, (see I can't even remember) who posted a flame troll. Move on, nothing to see here. As for your Q. Min Joe, what do you think of all these answers so far? I think it's a pretty interesting thread so far. UN service? Don't worry, after all the poster does say "see the world!" doesn't it? A bit of UN service has got to be better than sitting in a army base somewhere.. also most UN service is pretty damn quiet, eg border monitoring, election monitoring asistance. etc etc.. and you can have an interesting time as well I've been told, and you can help people! I know from the NZ troops that they were widely loved in Bosnia because they got stuck in. If there was a bombed out school, they'd be in there with everyone else helping to rebuild, (ausies and Kiwis are like that), if something was needed by the locals, they'd work hard to get it. I reckon it'd be pretty cool to help people out in that situation. You never know, might pique your interest in all sorts of post-forces directions! PeterNZ

You know, the borg are about the only interesting thing in ST universe. I mean, you have Voyager, two interesting characters, the doctor, (who's just a damn Hologram, but they grabbed some Convenient Plot Devices to make him more of a main character and 7 of 9 who is borg!) DS9 just turned into a poor bab5 ripoff and ST:NG hasn't done anything interesting ever i think. Of course, I am a total Babylon 5 fan.. Unfortunately there are irreconcilable differences between bab5 fans and trekies hehe.. What we really need is a CM Kosh, (from bab 5).. He/it/they had some good quotes.. damn can't rememeber them now. I think a Kosh answer to all those newby questions would be hysterical. "I don't know how to ambush, what do i do?" "there is knowing.. there is unknowing. In the light you find shadows. Walk the line" kinda stuff haha ramble.. PeterNZ