Mark IV

Every single person who has ever seen or played CM wants this. It cannot be done now, but maybe in the future, is the official word.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Howdie: Is there any way to increase the number of turns, preferablt, at the end of the battle, say as an option if ya wanted to keep on fighting?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> That's what Hitler said... Not right now- don't know if they plan this in future updates. More people (including me) want to see random scenario lengths, where the end is randomly extended by 0-4 (or so) turns, to prevent last minute suicide rushes. I think what you're asking for is the ability to extend the game beyond the official time-out, and maybe that could be part of the same feature set.

rune, I think you've got a winner there. Scrolling on down to the Schofield, I believe they may have produced a runner-up as well.

How often would most Americans think about Veteran's Day if there wasn't a day off? By the way, it's a "public" holiday, not a national holiday, so it's up to the states and private companies to observe it or not... this way, it gets remembered. And not that Fire Prevention Week isn't important, but why not remind folk that Veterans are a little more special? Think about the odd holidays shown on some calendars... many things you've never heard of (I actually think they're kind've cool, but oh well). Maryland celebrates "Repudiation Day" but the rest of us fail to repudiate. Days off make people take notice. There needs to be a holiday every so often, and I'm glad one of them makes a few people think of the vets, or makes a few kids ask a few dads, "Daddy, what's a veteran?". The day off draws attention to it. I worked today, but the news headlines, sidebars, and this thread drew attention to it... There is really no magic in a date anyway. Noticing and remembering is the magic. Once a year people are going to hear about Veterans (and Memorial Day), if only because their bank is closed, and the fact that the need for "x" number of holidays in a year was met with reminding folks of the ultimate sacrifice, beats the hell out of "Earth Day" in my personal book. (No malice here, tink, your contrition precedes me).

There is a peculiar buzzing noise in the pool, not significant enough to annoy in itself, with an inflated (i.e., any) sense of self-worth... Could it be... an impudent insect? The gentle popping of methane bubbles from some pocket of decomposing egesta? Or the birthing cries of some microscopic new life, chipping with its tiny beak at the filthy walls of its birth-pod? A tender little marshmarlow? Someone roll up a copy of Newsweek and smash it, please. It's Friday and I'm off to Happy Hour, don't want to splash the clean shirt. Ciao.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by T34Rules: Another one on my wish list is a book entitled, "Condemned to Live", also a memoir of the Eastern Front. I can't recall the author, but the title says it all!!!!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> How 'bout a QB for my copy of "Condemned", versus your "Deadly Combat"? Seriously! (I didn't think Condemned to Live was all that good, to be honest). If Deadly Combat is too precious to part with, put something else up for stakes...

I think the "defend everything, defend nothing" quote is Frederick the Great? Anyway, I sort of agree with John's last. My goal is always the destruction of the enemy forces. If I'm defending, I know he's coming for the flags, or my forces, which are generally gonna be around the flags. As for defending all the flags: my approach is very terrain- and scenario-dependent. In the case of the PBEM we currently have underway, the flags generally follow a ridge (thank you, QB gods), so I am basically defending the ridge and my flanks, rather than the flags themselves. I think that map was very kind to the defense, btw. Sometimes the flags are widely dispersed, or there is a concentration of some of them with an outlier or two. I usually ignore those outliers, if they're outside the presumed axis of enemy advance. I assume that the "big" flags are the main objective and concentrate on attritting the enemy while defending the main points. If all goes well, I'll worry about the others later, when the enemy is too weak to stop me. If the feces hit the fan, at least I'm left battling over big points instead of little ones. The flags only represent geographical objectives which are valued by both sides for some reason which doesn't really concern me. I try to connect the dots of defensible terrain between the bulk of the flags to look for patterns. I also look at the possible approaches the bad guys will have to take to get to the flags, to see if I might ambush/counterattack on the way, or if there is a more defensible area between his presumed jump-off point and the VLs. Defending medium to large scenarios, I would say that more often than not, I start out with some flags unoccupied and showing neutral. This preserves my flexibility to deal with enemy forces. Attacking I concentrate. There again the terrain dictates the approach, in part. I would never go after all the flags at once just because they are flags. If they are dispersed in a lateral line, I would look for a way to hit one end of the line and roll the guy up from the flank, so that I am never facing all his guns at once. If the flags are all over the place, I would pick an area where the terrain appears to give me an advantage. Not to open any sore subjects, but I sure do want to know where the bulk of the enemy force was before committing the main force... if my hypothesis about the enemy's use of the terrain proves incorrect, I will try not to march into the hornet's nest just because it was the original plan. So I probe ahead a little to watch for ambushes and try to scope the open expanses before dashing into them.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Chupacabra: take that back or I'm gonna whup you like the Abyssianans whupped the Italians at Adwa!!!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Wouldn't have been a pimple on the butt of Cannae. Sheesh.

"Panzerjaeger", IIRC, was by William B. Folkestad (sp?), though the story was of a German he interviewed. Very good. "Panzertruppen" by Jentz is the one for the Christmas list (because each volume is expensive!). This is like a coffee table book with great photos, facts and figgers on German AFVs, but ALSO chock full of first person AARs, transcripts of mid-battle radio conversations between British tanks in North African firefights, and observations on AFV performance and development by high-ranking German officials. Fantastic!

Try http://www.greatwar.com/gwlinks.htm for many good links on WWI. www.worldwar1.com is a good one.

Finally a thread I can get into... Thanks, guys! My dad passed away this year, and it still amazes me, going through his old WWII stuff, that he was there and that those events were so close to us in time. My uncle (fighter pilot, 3 tours in Nam) died a few years ago. Talk about vets that never got their "thank you". Thanks, Dave. My own conflicts were limited to the MPs and Polizei... the more you play with the big bullet-launchers, the less intriguing actually participating in a shooting war seems to get. All the more reason to respect those who did. Special thanks to those in forgotten interventions in faraway places who are doing their jobs without glory, notice, or a clear understanding of why they're there.

I'd like to try that out, and have a few games going... Send to: markfour@mindspring.com (or click email return icon). Feedback promised.

The review is very good, and is dated September 5, 2000: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I’ve barely scratched the surface of the fantastic gameplay in Combat Mission. I could probably go on and on about the tense missions, the great atmosphere, the fabulous mission editor, etc etc…I’d rather, however, let you get the game and find out for yourself. If you’re a fan of wargames at ALL, and you don’t own this game, you’re doing yourself a disservice. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I think this guy was assimilated... <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>You can tell if a game is fun when you get that “one more turn,” or “wait, wasn’t it seven o’clock five minutes ago?” when-it’s-four-AM feeling. If there’s one thing to be said about this game, is that it’s a blast! I had so much fun playing this game that this review is late and my other work is backed up. Few other games have had such an effect on me, and when it does happen, the same effect occurs. I install the game at home and at work, transfer saved games on floppies, and tick off my girlfriend by eating into our social time by playing the game, not to mention losing productive time at work by playing the game while other projects patiently await my attention.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Sound familiar?

My first record was probably Wagner's Greatest Hits (Erich Leinsdorf, conducting), Rubber Soul or Revolver, or Endless Summer, though I can't think why anyone would care. What with the unprecedented number of simpering, conciliatory, apologetic posts on this page, I'm of a mind to move that it be stricken from the thread. I've been out, Meeks-like, to bother the Very Serious Posters, and return bloody and rejected to this little festival of love. Gah! Where, o where, is Slaw when we need him? The cesspool turns its weary gaze to you (oops, another old record I had). Peng? The thread that bears your name falls into abject decay... a miserable chat room for starry-eyed hand-holding teens... I summon the Demons of Bile and Loathing to restore ill-will here! Hakko: a battle closely resembling the current presidential race. Hopefully a recount will determine that all his HTs are dead. Slaw: MIA but presumed very close to death. Germanyouth: unspotted, either in the game or in recent email, hurling allegations regardless, generally remiss and reprehensible. Formerly Babra: A surprise comeback. Has been sent a file to ease him back into both the Cesspool and the stink of defeat. The rest of you lot: Ignored, loathed, and despised.

Not sure where I've annoyed SPL before? ...coulda been anywhere, I guess. Damn me.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Chupacabra: I feel that nationality can provide an ever-so-unkind barb to add to any taunt, put-down, comeback, or belittlement...You see? It's really that easy, and fun!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Then there are those who must leave their native lands and adopt bizarre noms-de-net for "racking up" single-digit PBEM scores that would cause the AI to rip out its own RAM and take up Pong again... but that would be really unkind.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kitty: Can't recall a time that anyone ever asked me then, "Are you really a male?" <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> That's really one of the underlying themes of this particular thread. Other attributes frequently questioned here are intelligence, ability, morals, parentage, number of limbs/teeth, and species/phylum. You started off on the right track, but... Croda has summed it up nicely, and I can only add in his defense that Germanboy is merely among the lowest and worst of us. Any personal attribute that an unfortunate reveals here will be used against him for the rest of his CM life, and if he is a girl, I'm afraid that's fair game, though it should provide ample ammunition in reverse, as you've already demonstrated. Consider carefully before maintaining a presence on this particular thread; we've driven away far more men than women.

Originally posted by ScoutPL: Everyone go back and read Pillar's initial comments on his movement to contact tactics then reread the AAR he posted here. I dont think they are the same. Here is the meat of his first 3 posts on the first page: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Your scouts will tell you one very important thing: Where your enemy IS NOT. During an attack this information is absolutely *crucial* to success. If you commit your main body into his defence, you'll be looking at kill ratios of 3:1 or higher for the defender. As the defender, you want to know where the enemy is approaching in order to commit your reserves there. Just as crucial in defence is the role of a forward security element to defeat the enemy reconnaisance. Poke his eyes out, and he can't hit you.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> ...and then: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I prefer to have my scouts FAR ahead of the main body (reserves). The scouts job is to find the enemy, pin him if he can, breakthrough if he is weak, but most of the time just die. In my opinion, and I feel quite strongly about this, having men only slightly ahead of the main body does *not* make them scouts -- only the first to die.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> ...and finally: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Although I disagree with having your main body close to your scouts, the reserves must be highly mobile if you are going to exploit anything your scouts tell you. Usually a Platoon in Half-tracks or on the back of 4 STUG's can accomplish this *very* nicely. On the other hand, I find that if you keep your main body close to your scouts you sacricfice a ton of space to manuever and can find yourself pinned by the enemy.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> You began your response to this with: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Scouting the last few hundred meters of an engagement (which is the whole focal point of a tactical game like CM) is a waste of assets and very gamey.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> ...and off we go. As far as Mark 4 is concerned he often has a problem with jumping into a thread without doing his reading. Actually I was in this thread on page 1 and have read every word of it all along, as I do with any thread that interests me. I did try to point out that some of the confusion might be semantic, related to the use of the word "scout". Now Pillar is a big boy and can fight his own battles. I don't belong to his religion any more than any other. If you "dont advocate doing it the way Pillar described in his original post" that's just fine. the Beehive was metaphor and the "hours" was an exaggeration to make a point. The metaphor was fine, but the exaggeration was the difference between a ridiculous position and a reasonable one. Therefore, it was also a misrepresentation, one of several in your characterizations of his argument. I can't be sure which are polemical devices, and which are flaws in your interpretation. It mostly bothers me that there are so many secret rules about "gaminess" based on increasingly obscure moral perceptions. If you are mostly interested in using CM as a training sim for your own role in modern combat, cool. It doesn't confer any moral superiority, however. Some of your language suggests that it does. Oh, well... I guess this means we're off each other's PBEM lists. We'll each just have to fill the void in our lives somehow! [This message has been edited by Mark IV (edited 11-07-2000).]

I did.

Dude, that tape is SO mine.

SP's system worked fine, and only varied the scenario length randomly 0-4 turns or so, regardless of scenario size (20% of 60 turns is around 12 turns, which seems a bit lengthy). It dealt with the suicide rush in about the simplest possible manner. It is all too easy, btw, with full FOW, to interpret an opponent's "normal" effort to capture the VL as a "gamey" last minute tactic. I wouldn't quit trying 5 turns early just to avoid the appearance of gaminess, and wouldn't expect anyone else to. Come and get it. If it was that close, you're in the Draw range anyhow.

I followed your link to that Bizarro UBB. Ugghh. How depressing. They are not ready for you/us, Peter. And as long as that portal remains open, they could appear here (again). Ugghh. your slacking Mark IV (sic) Technically that was the 4500th post, not counting those to the short-lived heretical faux Peng thread. Not being much on numerology, I chose to let the moment pass. I didn't post my Nobel prize or my long-weekend date with Elizabeth Hurley, either, because when achievement is a way of life, these things are no longer noteworthy. I will post, however, when I receive Mr. Squaw's surrender, or thrust a bayonet through his last stinking corpse.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lordfluffers: I am only inviting debate and discussion. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> This thread would be the debate and discussion you invited. What do you think, people are going to say "No, I think $44.95 would be more fair"? What say, $36.77? I mean, what sort of discussion is this really meant to provoke... Lf: CM- too much? World: No. Lf: "There is no need to get so defensive unless you have something to hide." BTS: You're right, we took the code from an alien ship that crashed in our yard and shot the survivors. We bribed Scotland Yard to keep it hush-hush. We mixed it with asbestos and used drugs and hookers to sell it to grade school kids. Nixon couldn't have bombed Cambodia without it. How 'bout we give you one at cost, say $6.95, and a T-shirt? Lf: Ok. You brought it up, people disagree, someone agreed with you, that's a discussion, right? The price is right- cheap. There is no need to get so defensive unless you have something to hide.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Goanna: Berli, Gerbiltoy, Boreiarty, Smelvis, Markymark and the rest of you mooks - just keeping score to see what order I need to humiliate you all in beginning Jan 2001.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> So you're really cut off til then? I owe you big time for that setup... please put me first.