Mark IV
-
Posts
1,993 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Never
Posts posted by Mark IV
-
-
Hey, y'all- we're for real (finally) at Epinions.com, with pictures & links & everthang- check http://www.epinions.com/game-Software-All-PC-Combat_Mission_Beyond_Overlord
The nice man there also said: "You'll notice that there's no reviews attached to it; right now I'm in the
process of moving the reviews that are attached to Combat Mission that was
suggested as a product to the URL above. This move will appear on the site
tomorrow night.
"I was shocked to see there was already 14 reviews written about the game!
That's fantastic.
"Thank you again for using the spreadsheet. If you are in touch with the other
review writers, thank them and send along my apologies for the delay in adding
the game to the taxonomy." -Brian White, Category Manager, Computer & Video Games
And thanks to those, you know who you are (the usual suspects), for the early co-support.
CM GONNA REWL, DEWDZ!!!
(token smiley, kinda cute now they're endangered, doncha think?) -
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Big Time Software:
Hollywood has ingrained the notion that the gun solves problems, for example, instead of creating them<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
One silver lining, is that they seem to be teaching that the best way to use them, is to shoot 2 at a time while holding them sideways. Thus those most likely to believe what they watch, are least likely to survive the first experiment.
Hollywood "gets away with" more "truth" in movies than TV. Amazing that they can sell violence and sex while engaging in social engineering.
And then "Zulu" did glorify (rightly, I believe) the men at Rorke's Drift, in a REALLY unjust war that the British provoked with a relatively harmless "savage".
[This message has been edited by Mark IV (edited 06-05-2000).]
-
3 robbers to a Brigand?
Sorry, couldn't resist. It gets even more fun when Brigades are compared to Regiments. When you lose track of all this, you form a Task Force or a Kampfgruppe, so you don't have to count so damn much.
3 squads and a little HQ to a platoon.
3 platoons of inf., plus a heavy weapons platoon and an HQ for the Company (unless it's a cavalry outfit, then its a "Troop").
3 companies plus "organic" (under their own control) big guns and stuff to a battalion.
Battalions answer to Brigades (or Regiments).
3 Brigades and a bunch of artillery and support people answer to Division.
Between Division and Army, there are Corps (they usually get Roman numerals).
-
Then there's old Francis Parkman, who wrote about the Great Lakes (and other) Indians before we knew how we were "supposed" to write about them. The Noble Savage doesn't always look so good up close- check out the Mackinac Massacre, or the Conspiracy of Pontiac, sometime.
If history had been written by the Ojibwa, the Iroquois would have been the Totenkopf SS, and the Totenkopf would have seemed downright merciful by comparison. The Iroquois are one hell of a subject in themselves.
Parkman is our most readable historian, and provides abundant scenario material for CM46: The French and Indian Wars (TELL me ice skate troops will be modelled, or NO preorder).
G&S rule. Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock. Pinafore? Penzance? Reason enough to forgive the Brits...
-
"... we received instruction in the 75mm antitank gun [spring, 1942] and how to fire mixed ammunition. Anyone being fired on by regular artillery rounds had a 50/50 chance of survival, if they hit the dirt. We were issued antitank shells tipped in steel and regular [HE] antipersonnel rounds. On the head of every HE projectile there was a screw-activated delayed fuse. With the screw turned in, or out, the HE projectile hit the ground and deflected into the air, spraying its blast downwards and forwards rather than expending its force upwards." -from "Panzerjaeger", William Folkestad (personal memoir of Bernhard Averbeck). Excellent read, and too short. No mention of how commonly it was used.
I was just reading about Korea, where tanks were often used for preparatory bombardments as a poor man's artillery. The back decks of the tanks were stacked with ammo for use in the bombardment role; once the offensive got underway, the tanker reverted to the as-yet-untouched full load-out in the racks. I have heard of this in WWII but can't think of a single reference at the moment... it certainly makes sense.
-
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Cuchulainn:
It does now appear that to write history, increasingly you not only have to win the battles, but also the ratings.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
As Steve has more or less said, only if you're the sort who gets his history from Hollywood movies (or anybody else's, for that matter).
You're supposed to get your history from history books and sometimes, teachers. Hopefully more than one of each. People who think history happened the way it does in the movies don't matter, when it comes to serious history.
Other things you should not expect the young to learn from movies, despite occasional depictions:
How to drive a car
How to fly a plane
How to aim a pistol
How to clean a pistol
How to perform a tracheotomy
How to behave around large wild animals
How to make withdrawals from banks
How to workaround network password settings
I'm sure there are others.
-
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Londoner:
NE1 remember the name of that MG?
.....LOL <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Chauchat. We bought 16,000 of 'em (you bought 'em, too). And they look a lot worse now than they did in WWI trench warfare.
Didn't we sell you a few Lewis guns after that? Well, it's not really a sale unless it's paid for, so ya got us there. And a yank name of Maxim helped the old empire maintain cyclic rates when it was Fuzzy-Wuzzies from here to the horizon, too, IIRC.
-
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Owen:
two World Wars and World Cup!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
If it wasn't for that little directional mix-up at Dunkirk, the second might not have counted as a World War, what?
(smiley included as general irritant)[This message has been edited by Mark IV (edited 06-05-2000).]
-
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>A subordinate only gains the benefits of leader bonuses when it's "in command". (You'll see a brown, not black, line connecting to its HQ, and a little radio icon in the info panel).
The length of the "command radius" depends on the HQ's command skill rating and whether the unit has a clear LOS to the HQ. Ranges are roughly between 20m and 80m, depending. (Sorry I can't remember the details, we'll put it all in the manual).
A unit may only be "led" by one HQ at a time and its platoon HQ takes precedence. So a company commander is useful for filling in if a platoon HQ gets killed, or for support weapons, stragglers, etc. Company commanders often have better command skills than platoon leaders (longer command radius) but lesser combat skills (firing and concealment bonuses). The +1 and +2 are simply indicators of above-average skill in leadership, morale, combat/firing, and concealment. +1 means "good", +2 means "excellent". Anything not specifically mentioned means "normal".
Charles<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Here's a nice little discussion: http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/002577.html
And then:
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>One thing I have done is, with smaller groups, used a Company HQ to break up a reinforced platoon into two parts. You can do something like charge forward with 1/2 (say the Platoon HQ and one squad) and have the CO HQ getting ready to bark out orders for the other units to move up right away once the advace units get into position. Or another one I did once was to split the force up into two in order to do a pincer attack in Heavy Woods.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
-
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Phandaal:
...the Germans counted on fleeing cilivians causing congestion on the back roads there by delaying reinforcements.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
If they're fleeing within 3-4 km of the front line, they're too late... and those that remain within that zone are huddled in basements. There are many instances of the latter (with the battle raging upstairs) but, again, militarily insignificant.
-
There is only one exclamation point in the header of this thread, and one in the text body.
Is this a cheap forgery of the real MadMatt!!!!!!!'s posts, or have they cranked up the medication? It just doesn't seem right...
-
Tried the "new" CE as Amis, and gave the Germans +50%. For further laughs, I started the whole Ami force in their left corner.
Moved Charlie (on the tanks) and Dog to the treeline, along with an M1919 to anchor the left flank. Baker took the first objective house across the wheatfield, then sprinted to the treeline as a reserve for C and D, with most heavy weapons held back in buildings and trees. All tanks then began to move right, abreast, parallel to the trees, while the grunts secured the treeline.
What happened next is why CM is SO cool:
Lost one Sherm to a StuG, but having them flanked as they crested next to the woods began to tell, and I whacked all 3. Then #4 (!) showed up. Got him too, so it's all me and 4 Sherms left (not knowing how many are left is part of what's so cool).
Meanwhile the whole German army starts showing up in the "big" woods, as my rifle company Sneaks about 10m per turn into the forest, with the .30 cal. moving on the left. Baker has to shore up the right, and the battle spreads until I have a solid line (with no reserve other than HQs and 'zooks) stretching across the woods, advancing 10-15m per turn. Never saw so many grenades in my life.
By turn 17 there are exactly 30 Eliminated markers the length of the woods, and none of them are mine. Interlocking fields of fire and the slow advance against Green and Conscript troops are a relentless meat-grinder, and the gray bodies mark the line like something at Gettysburg. I don't have a place to post the screen shot but it is grimly impressive. Classic case of getting there firstest with the mostest.
The horror is grinding at me too, and finally Charlie platoon, in the center, is down to 7 effectives. Meanwhile one tank has worked around back of the woods and is firing deep into the German line from the rear. The others work the "little woods" and the church until the church collapses with the now-familiar 5 kiloton mushroom. My reinforcement platoon mops up what's left of resistance on my right.
The AI finally surrendered, and I can only attribute it to the efficacy of the Sneak command in tight formation in deep forest (thank god there was no arty- they shot it all at where my tanks used to be). Special thanks to D3, with 24 killed and 2 captured, though all infantry had high kill stats.
There were so many cool little things in this that I can't recount them all. This game is so cool... sometimes I just get emotional... sob (wipes tear)...
-
We had 6 WP rounds as standard load-out in the M60A1, in special silver-colored receptacles in a separate part of the turret (the color was just to ID the WP stash). There was nothing special about the type of storage and we received no special handling instructions. I never heard of one spontaneously combusting, though these weren't the same rounds issued in WWII. They were the only "smoke" rounds we carried.
We were told that it was "against the Geneva convention" to use them on enemy troops, though we could use them on structures that might CONTAIN enemy troops. This was not necessarily an official doctrine, but when your drill sergeant tells you that's the rule, that's the rule. He went on to say that if you were being targeted and that was all you had, of COURSE you would use WP against troops or whatever, adding that they had used it in Korea. I never saw one fired.
My thought is that if they are as devastating (under the right circumstances, like pillboxes or bocage) as indicated above, I would use them, and I would be surprised if any WWII tanker with the same alternatives would not. If you don't want me to use them, then don't load them in my tank.
So either they did, and we don't have enough evidence yet, or they were either not as effective or as available as some apparently believe. If they were a small part of the ammo load, as they were in our tanks in the 70s, you would use them sparingly. It would generally have been very stupid to shoot one at a Soviet tank (like teaching a pig to sing).
-
Same with von Luck's "Panzer Commander". Excellent reading and operational stuff, but not much nuts-and-bolts help with CM-level tactics.
I do recommend it highly, however.
-
Yeah, I had to pay for the patch to Win 95...Win 98.
Now I'm longing to get the Win2K patch for NT.
-
Download the Japanese character set option from your friends at MS and all will be clear- as mud.
As I understand it, the Martian characters above were Kanji with a phonetic representation, instead of the usual ideogram deal. The rice character (bei) was used to represent the "A" in America, because the hiragana (phonetic) "a" was already being used as a standard abbreviation for "Asian", so they wanted to avoid "a" confusion with another geographic/ethnic identity.
Etymology is interesting and controversial enough in western languages, without this. Dunno about the conspiracy theory, but it's not beyond plausibility... isn't that how we got "fernsprecher" over "telefon"?
-
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lorak:
Hell SuperTed,
I feel like I should have paid $50 for the beta Demo as much as I played it.
Lorak
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Ditto. Already allocated to CM2 instead (now that we're promised a release date, only 4 years hence, for CM5: The PTO).
just kidding, already!!! -
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Seanachai:
Excuse me? Where in my post did I advocate ripping off corporations? Or imply that I thought that behaviour was alright?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Where did I say you did? I rejected the use of "shareware" to describe CM, partly because shareware is so widely cracked on the internet. Many netizens think this is OK because the shell is "out there" in the first place. I never said you advocated piracy. I still oppose the use of the term because, among other reasons, it makes piracy seem "softer".
And why would you think that something being 'shareware' makes it permissible to pirate it?
Obviously, I don't.
And I've bought plenty of 'shelf' software that wasn't worth the price of setting a match to it, with no response from the retailer or the manufacturer beyond a shrug and a $mile. I've found a lot of shareware that was superior to commercialware
I believe I said that ("Agreed") in my follow-up 2 posts down. See it up there? Response to G4A?
Your entire post seems intent on misrepresenting what I'd said originally, and taking exception with it for no particular reason.
Reason #1: CM simply isn't shareware (you do not get a fully-functional game for free, for any period of time).
Reason #2: some reviewers use "shareware" (as in "OK for shareware") to slam the product, the implication being that it is not suitable for outright sale as a finished game. One has already done so, with regard to CM, in exactly those words, with exactly that intent.
Reason #3: "Shareware" is especially prone to piracy since it is so easy to crack. As a good sycophant I would prefer to see BTS get paid for all release copies of CM. Therefore, I try to avoid the impression that it is anything less a full game for sale, which also happens to have a free demo.
It's too bad if you took this personally, since I was responding to "In my opinion, Combat Mission qualifies as shareware..." which I believe is incorrect.
You justified your belief with "...because it's a product created by people, as opposed to a corporation, not merely responsive to its customers, but personally responsive, with a version available for evaluation, without millions being spent on advertising, marketing, and strong-arm distribution tactics".
"People as opposed to a corporation"? Millions spent on "strong-arm distribution tactics"? This sounds a little... misrepresentative.
I think you owe me an apology, buddy.
-
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Darwin:
Literally translates as rice country devil but the meaning is American devil.
Funny they would refer to the US as rice country. Makes sense though as their economy was based on rice and the US's agricultural capability is rather huge.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I was curious enough about this to ask Her Imperial Majesty, my blushing Chrysanthemum, a native Japanese. She did not know why the name for America came from rice, "it just does". Then I found this:
"The `bei' in `beikoku' actually means `rice' and is written with the kanji ÊÆ. However this has nothing to do with rice production. It originates from a kanji method of writing `amerika' (America, the USA) as °¡ÊÆÍø²Ã.
"The reason Japanese uses the `me' kanji (ÊÆ) of `amerika' rather than the `a' one (°¡) is because Japanese uses the `a' kanji as an abbreviation of `ajia' (asia): this originates from the kanji writing of `ajia' as °¡ºÙ°¡."
-from http://andys.stun.de/databases/texte/japanfaq.html#beikoku
-
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SuperTed:
I would still be curious to hear other people's thoughts on what they think CM will be "worth."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
It is worth $45 USD + s&h. Only a fool would voluntarily offer more. I would feel guilty offering less. A deal's a deal.
For the record, there is a difference between sycophancy and obsequiousness. Sycophancy is a badge of honor here, except for the designated Troublemakers, who in turn give Sycophants raison d'etre.
Obsequiousness, on the other hand, is merely objectionable.
I hope that is clear now.
-
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by G4A:
Quality has nothing to do with it! ...
There's plenty of Shareware and Freeware that's as good as any commercial program.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Agreed. I refer only to the implications. As I said, "shareware" has been used in a sneering, pejorative sense about games for outright purchase, and whether it is precisely correct is beside the point. CM is not shareware in any sense.
-
Just got it in a major raid on used military bookstores back East.
Among other treasures:
William Folkestad's "PanzerJaeger", the story of AT gunner Bernhard Averbeck (very good but short; there is one paragraph in here that provides the fuel for the great HE-skip fire debate),
"Condemned to Live", the story of Franz Frisch, artilleryman in Poland, France, Ostfront, and Italy (not as good from the tactical POV, but a few nuggets),
"German Battle Tactics on the Russian Front" by Steven Newton (haven't started).
I also reclaimed my old Army Manuals:
"German Defense Tactics Against Russian Breakthroughs" (DA No. 20-233) and "Russian Combat Methods in WWII" (DA No. 20-230).
These are must reading for CM2 and quite helpful in general. Looking forward to Doubler's book after all the good things I've heard here.
[This message has been edited by Mark IV (edited 05-30-2000).]
-
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Blackhorse:
Allied Forward Observer.
Able to destroy all concrete Bunkers in just one fire mission.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I just ran through VoT with the idea of truly treating FOs as public enemy #1. Wherever I could find one rearing his ugly, bespectacled head, I targeted him with everything in sight, ignoring all but the most immediate threats.
The results were dramatic. There was only one sustained Allied bombardment, of C platoon on the German left, which suffered heavily. Both concrete pillboxes and one of the wooden ones survived the entire game (and the other wooden one was killed by a bazooka). I left the AT box on the hill in the default position, and used it freely against FOs when there were no Shermans to shoot at. Result: Axis total victory.
I must say I was assisted in this by the AI's propensity to move the FOs up front... but the FO-die-a-lot-now strategy seems to have worked. There was no major bombardment of the hill, Plomville, or the other VL hill on the German right. I believe there were 2 Allied FOs left at the end, but with casualties and heavily-soiled uniforms.
-
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Combat Mission qualifies as shareware, because it's a product created by people, as opposed to a corporation<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
CM does NOT qualify as shareware. This implies that it is OK to copy (pirate), and also implies indirectly that it is of lesser quality (the term has been used sneeringly in other fora to slam games as lower-quality). CM is competitively priced with "shelf" games and worth every penny.
Without getting overly political, corporations are MADE of "people", who often care as deeply about their products and customers as BTS does. It is not OK to rip them off, either, regardless of what you think about them.
Improving my Military Knowledge
in Combat Mission Archive #2 (2000)
Posted
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Err, you did mean the Roman Millitary of c.50 AD didnt you?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
What! No triarii, hastatii, et principii? Peltasts? Balearic slingers? This modern army will never amount to anything, I tell ya.