Mark IV
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Posts posted by Mark IV
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>some British infantry created a false minefield using china plates from a nearby cafe!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
This one dates to the Spanish Civil War. Supposedly, a tank/column of tanks was stopped by the plates in the road, thinking they were mines, while the clever infantry made good their escape/killed all the tanks. Depends on the version.
After Dunkirk, the invasion panic in England led to all sorts of wild, home-brewed tank-stopping schemes and expedients. This story got wide circulation and became part of the Home Guard mythology. The pie plates were a relatively harmless story, compared to some of the recommended techniques.
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Steel Panthers sold quite a few copies- no blood. Age of Rifles? No blood. Most war games- no blood.
And of course, with a three man representation of the squad, splashing blood on one man representing a third of the squad is more unrealistic than not showing it at all.
(smileys detained for questioning)
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I can't wait to hear how she teaches you of our "criminal" use of atomic weapons against the poor Japanese...
Again, I rant...Sorry!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Wrong forum, flame-bait. Take it to Usenet or e-mail daveshoup@mindspring.com . No atomic or Japanese content in CM:BEYOND OVERLORD, at all.
[This message has been edited by Mark IV (edited 04-26-2000).]
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Well, Wild Bill is the ringleader of the pro-PTO CM faction, and his vote counts for a lot (there have been lengthy threads on this before).
I wouldn't trade a single installment of the current development path for PTO/Korea, so you'll hear no badgering on it from me (at least until I've got the Eastern Front and the Early War safely loaded
) . But as long as Wild Bill wants it and quite a few of us seem to, I wouldn't consider the matter closed until BTS said "Not just no, but hell no".But this would be a good one for the FAQ, to keep BTS from having to deal with it every month or so. There was a fellow named guachi who was gonna do one, once....
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...and after you've finished "Company Commander", get MacDonald's "A Time for Trumpets". You will have a few months worth of DYO scenarios right there.
Haven't read the Frost book. I'm in the middle of Keegan's "Six Armies in Normandy" now and lovin' it.
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Whats a good word for the projectile and propellent case? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Cartridge. Sounds funny for the very big bullets, but there it is.
I really don't see why the velocity of an HE projectile would have any effect on hardened armor. Concrete- maybe, a little more penetration before detonation. But I would be genuinely curious to understand why velocity would have any effect on armor, when you're just setting off a big ball of gas?
With a HEAT shaped-charge, velocity is not thought to contribute to the overall effect, so why would a conventional HE round? There would be no significant penetration. Is there some physic behind velocity alone as a shaper of non-shaped charges, by forcing some kind of blast pattern?
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>a 400 ft black pointer... came out of the sky and warped me to another position <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
The second time that happened to me, I got out. Russians we could handle, but Hunting Dogs from Space were not in the enlistment contract.
Group selection is very CAD-like. Nice. Can we add to a rectangle-selected group, with another rectangle-selected group (i.e., rectangle 1st squad, Shift-Rectangle 2nd squad)?
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I was in Ballarat once, and on a drive went down the boulevard where they have a tree for each of the local lads who died in WWI, with a plaque and a soldier's name on each.
Lots of trees. Big old hardwoods now. I thought it was one of the best hometown memorials I'd ever seen. There's a big stone arch at the beginning, and the arch is echoed by the boughs of the trees for a very, very long way.
There's a second-hand bookstore in town (the best kind, new books have no character and usually cost more) where I picked up some Digger lore that I cherish to this day. "Anzac to Amiens" is my favorite (despite the title, mostly about Gallipoli).
My keenest memory of my short trip to Oz is those trees, though.
[This message has been edited by Mark IV (edited 04-25-2000).]
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Literally LOL. Priceless.
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You remain the GENIUS.
There were no typos in my post.
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>hey can I lock it myself<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Honored. Fire at will.
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I'm with Mr.Peng<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
You are not fit to touch the hem of Peng's drool-stained, cabbage-soaked garment.
You're with Peng? That's like mixing Bud Lite with the finest triple-zero Nepalese black, my friend.
We know Peng. Peng is a fiend of ours. And OBG, you're no Peng.
The audacity! Is there no end! You run out from under the skirts of BTS to deliver a final kick, and ask THEM to lock up the thread for you (perhaps unaware that thread originators can lock up their own threads, poor evidence of a self-proclaimed GENIUS, caps yours)!
Now you DARE to coattail onto a classic Pengippic, just as you DARE to assume a position of spokesmanship for CM.
You presume to lecture others on rudeness, when you have subordinated rudeness ONLY to a startling lack of cognizance, which may be your only excuse. Survey your own posting history and review your own penchant for CM suggestions, your demands for a release date, your "tact": "what's up with that crap?", etc.
An opinion sought from BTS is an opinion sought from the horse's mouth, as it were. Apparently we are blessed with the horse's entire anatomy on this board, but you really should review your posts before punching "Submit", not for "color", but for content and maturity.
This is NOT a case of siding with SSPL, who may or may not have his own issues, but who has shown admirable restraint in light of your recent provocations.
This an expression of personal distaste for your recent conduct here. I do not want a flame war with anyone. Neither do most others here. Please accommodate us.
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Well, I just came back from it. The explanation is there, but I don't want to post a spoiler- it pretty much works.
This was a very good action flick, and as noted by Allan, credit is given at the end to the "real" capturers of the Enigma components, by actual incident and ship names.
As far as being a rip of Das Boot, I don't know how you could make a U-boot movie and not have that said, anymore. There are only so many ways to show crewmen looking at the ceiling, listening to depth charges.
I would agree with Peter about the explosion, by the way. The German torp packed 180kg of HE which is a lot, but it would take a magazine hit to produce anything close to the destruction this showed. Reminded me of the Death Star going up. Uniforms and weapons generally looked good.
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USS Batfish destroyed 3 Japanese subs in 4 nights, but with radar-fired torps at surfaced targets.
http://www.thehistorynet.com/WorldWarII/editorials/1997/0197.htm
The article states that as many as 20 Japanese subs were lost to US subs, though there is no data on submerged vs. surfaced.
And I'm off to see the flick this afternoon...
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I wondered how long it would take OBG to show up here. You just can't leave it alone, can ya?
Neener, neener, gotcha last? You should be spending your time researching the answers you're dishing out, not re-opening unpleasantness you've already been asked to stop.
smiley beginning to listen to the voices in his head... -
I gotta wonder about the delay time. I guess you'd need a command unit riding along to make it fair. I know I've observed different delays off the starting line for individual AFVs, even when they were all told to move fast immediately.
There might be some minor inequity in the race due to morale, capability, and command status.
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Strat: for a guy who's been out for 20 years, you still got some attitude...
The average personnel in the armed forces of today are MUCH better and more professional than we were in the '70s. Did you read the post which started this thread?
We mistreat the peacetime military and we end up getting what we pay for. This is actually a regular cycle- pay fails to keep up with reality, best and the brightest leave for private sector, manpower falls to unacceptable level, pay-and-bennie raise.
Your list of "reasons" is, well, odd. If biological warfare vaccines are the problem, they shouldn't sign up in the first place (nor would they wish to deploy unvaccinated where nasties plan to USE bios, would they?).
As for the guinea pigs, you might be thinking about the nuke experiments in the '50s. Agent Orange was not used experimentally on soldiers; it was used to defoliate jungles into which the soldiers were later sent. "Most" of the soldiers did not develop cancer. There are better forums to discuss this on.
Women's rights and issues are the reason people are leaving military service? Well, the military is often used for SOCIAL experimentation and I can't say it's done it any good. But no one is leaving for that reason.
The military is not for everybody and you clearly didn't like it. Some people respond to challenge and discipline better than others. It's our duty to compensate those who do, appropriately.
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Steve, thanks for the factual clarification. Nice to know, as always, that BTS is listening!
Of course, you've opened a new can of speculative worms with the CM roman-numeral II versus CM2 nomenclature. Controversy shall rage (like conversations about "update" versus "upgrade")!
OBG, here's the reply BTS made to your request for 3D rubble in the thread of 2/10/00: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>We aren't putting in any 3D rubble effects because it would require reworking the building code. Since this is a top priority for CM2 we decided that it would be a waste of our precious time to hack in something at this late stage. All good things come to those who wait<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Those guys- undaunted by the impossible!
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PZKW IVF 25 mph
Churchill IV 16 mph
T34/85 31 mph
Elefant 22 mph
I show Tiger I at 23 mph, and the heavier Sherman M4 A3 E8 at 26 mph
Tiger II 24 mph
Jagdtiger 22 mph
Stuart Mk II 35 mph
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Ok. I'll just wait to hear BTS's take. My work here is finished.
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In a 7 page thread we should have been able to negotiate peace in the Middle East. SSPL, why not lock this one up and let's talk about maps? ;}
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Well, my darn ISP went down yesterday and perhaps it was just as well...
The original post asked "Is it possible in future upgrades...?" There were some enthusiastic responses, mine among them, which referenced "suggestions for future CMs". Later I pointed out that "I'm gonna buy the next CM whether it does my map thing or not" (in retrospect, it sounds a little presumptuous to call it "my" map thing).
So it should be really, really clear that we are talking about "suggestions" for the "future". We are not badgering BTS for immediate modifications, just dreaming out loud, the spirit of which was captured quite eloquently by Bobb.
In addition to the example of smoke, there is that of rifle-grenades, which are now in the game after much discussion, thanks to the substantive evidence provided by LOS. As so many posts attest, including those in this thread, CM is a great game, and BTS has been unique in their responsiveness to the gamers.
Remember that topo maps are intrinsically cool. Battles are planned on topo maps (or lines drawn with sticks in the dirt). And most battlefields in WWII were first "seen" by the participants on maps.
JonS has done a nice job of visualizing how this might be implemented. To this I would add that your forces begin on one side of the map, and that anything in their initial LOS is already filled in. Beyond it is the topo map (hypothetically, in theoretical future versions).
As your units advance, the topo map recedes according to their LOS and is replaced by filled-in terrain (the seam between the map and reality could be nicely feathered). That's it. Once filled in, it stays filled in. Simple, no? My CPU is all over that one. There are utilities out there now which convert topos to shaded elevations. It is completely possible. Whether it's desirable is up to my esteemed colleagues and BTS.
As the lower-case major_tom/tom w has pointed out, CM is innovative, radical, ground-breaking, etc., and there is every reason to believe it will continue to be. BTS has discussed several years worth of future development INCLUDING mods to the engine (it would be ridiculous to think that that all that time and talent would be required just to add more unit types and scenarios for other fronts).
So, the CM we buy in 3 years may look a little different than Beyond Overlord. You might see the airplanes (btw, they're usually a little outside the elevation scale in CM- I guess if one actually landed in downtown Reisberg I'd want to see it).
Moon: I, too, have found that subtle terrain characteristics take getting used to, and sometimes the same scenario revisited exposes whole new possibilities based on terrain awareness. I agree that the level 1 view could preserve FOW, except that there is far less information available for planning that way than with the simplest of maps.
I'm not sure I would pursue this much further until BTS chimed in to pour the icy waters of reality on the whole scheme....
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Is it not, more or less, simulating a computerized version of a table-top board game using WWII miniatures?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
No, it's simulating WWII.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> I mean look at the boarders of the map. After that it's just a generic green "astro-turf" looking deal out to where the bitmapped mountain ridges are?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
You have to end it somewhere. I guess there could be a painted drop like a movie set with clouds on it, but what does that have to do with anything?
Obviously there is a superficial similarity to a table-top miniatures game. But if CM was simulating a miniatures simulation, big hands would move your tanks around and there would be legs under the table
.Explosions, camera shake, smoke rounds, tracers, fire, fog, and night are all simulations of combat conditions, not miniatures games. The effort which has already been put into FOW is evidence that BTS is modeling reality rather than a sand table.
I'm gonna buy the next CM whether it does my map thing or not. I just think it would be VERY cool to make my plan from the map that the actual commanders often had, then have my recon "discover" the actual terrain.
Entrenched defenders would probably have full "vision" because they would have had time in the area to physically recon it. Attackers would have topos for unspotted terrain. Meeting engagements have both sides squinting at contour lines for terra incognito. O-o-oh, yeah!
PS: Even if aerial photos were available I don't think many would filter down to battalion level in time for the upcoming engagement.
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Reising remained quite popular with law enforcement until well after the war. It was really a very well-made weapon (by Harrington & Richardson) but did not do well in WWII combat conditions.
There were lots of parts and it was very susceptible to dirt. Right answer to the wrong question, I guess. It was much more accurate than the M3... but the M3 usually went off when you told it to.
Minor upgrade, Major JOY!
in Combat Mission Archive #2 (2000)
Posted
Dug into the guts of the hoary old 300 to see what was there today.
I'm planning on a new rig anyway, perhaps around late May, for reasons which may be obvious. This old pinto gets turned over to mama-san then, so I thought I'd tweak it up.
Brought it up to 128 Mb RAM from 64, and replaced the whopping 4 meg Trident with a Voodoo 3...
WHOOOEEE! I didn't know what I was missing! The difference is startling. Smooth animation, real explosions (used to see just polyblobs appear), great textures, flowing tracers. This is great- like getting Gold a few weeks early.
I hope this inspires some other tight-fisted procrastinators to some minor capital outlay. I always thought the Beta Demo was too good to be true, but I didn't know the half of it. The interesting thing is that, having installed one at a time, the video card is what really made the difference. The RAM seems to have sped up turn resolution, but the Voodoo made the screen come alive! Do it!