Mark IV
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Posts posted by Mark IV
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I think banzai attacks and bayonet charges could qualify as "mass berserk" instances<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Aren't those really organized tactics? You train your people to respond to commands or face dire penalties, and then in battle you order them to form up and charge. That's not really reflective of the troops' state of mind, but a unit obeying deliberate orders (though their CO may have gone berserk).
Not the most sophisticated tactic (though it has its place), but neither is it a collective response on the part of the troops.
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>It's a 3rd Reich picture
had me LOL. Talk about a "studio" with production values!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Indeed. But if you've never checked out the work of Leni Reifenstahl, you're missing the best part. "Triumph of the Will" is her most famous work, but her classic film of the 1936 Olympics invented techniques still in use today.
She was a master film maker and a total babe, to boot. Tragic and fascinating life, though the association with the Nazis ended her film career.
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What I liked was: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>trees and small buildings provide adequate shelter, but grasslands and planes are usually deathtraps.
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I can understand being leery of open grassland... I guess I'll avoid "planes" at all costs, too.
Pretty nice write up, all in all. And they let the cat out of the bag: February release! Guess I'll take tomorrow off...
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I must break my recent silence to support the MadMatt Posting Style. I'll take my grins where I can get 'em.
Fawning sycophancy is not my normal milieu, but the attempt to build a cult of personality around a figure such as Matt is breathtaking in its audacity.
The expenditure of an entire belt of exclamation points, along with the Overhype mode of self-parody, contributes to a general lightening in the mood of a board that must daily deal in death and flames.
He has also posted some deeper insights into game play that show something resembling thought, at least in a marketing sense.
As noted elsewhere the board has become a community, and levity, seasoned with actual information, is not out of place. Individuals are perfectly free to find humor and occasional off-topic remarks offensive, though their identities are being carefully noted for re-education after the Revolution.
In the meantime, may the light of smiles and the music of laughter never penetrate the dark grim stillness of their monk-like cells. Have a very serious day.
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It seems to me Wright-Pat also had an Opel Rocket, the rocket-propelled fighter the Germans tried to develop near the end of the war.
Been a long time, but I probably have snapshots somewhere- truly a great museum.
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Keep the thread going and I'll get back to ya in about 10 days, when I have time.
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I liked the movie, and actually went out looking for it because of what I read about it in this forum.
But it's a rare movie I'll watch twice in the same decade, thanks.
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A highly flammable, incollapsible short building.
Also wheatfields lend concealment, but not cover. Once the lads "pop up" they'll find they're not in Age of Rifles, but CM. And they're the grass, and the MG42 is the lawnmower, to coin a phrase.
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Ack, deserts. Nice to visit but I'm not thrilled about spending CM hours there. Boring.
The Early War is my number one choice after the Eastern Front, the facination partly being how the Germans did so well without markedly superior equipment. Then, I'm ready for the Pacific and Korea.
I guess Korea would have to be a different game, although that's a lot of engine evolution by the time this comes around.
The scenario-makers can easily simulate North Africa (once the Early War is out) by removing terrain features until the map is sufficiently boring. Vehicles are the same. Easy terrain mod to resemble sand, and you're there. Desert games always make me see pink when I look away from the monitor.
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I was making an impassioned plea for Las Vegas as the convention site at the very moment of the Great Board Crash.
Reason being:
-lowest cost for everything, especially airfare (from anywhere)
-best A/V facilities and convention facilities in the world
-most amusements
If you haven't been there in the last 10 years, or your impressions were formed by old movies, you're in for a treat.
A historical location would be great but it would cut attendance WAY down. Plus, the locals might misinterpret the motives of a group dedicated to recreational war.
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>ALL indirect fire at greater than mortar range is NOT a gift from God, as JonS put it. It requires a LOT of hard, very complex work by a LOT of highly trained specialists with the proper equipment. Tank units have none of this stuff. IF is hard enough for gunners to do<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Bingo.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Tank leader to HQ: "Have arrived at, uh.... Riesburg"<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
How would we know with all the signs down?
Pretty quiet about the lawn chairs, I see.
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Geez, sending a tanker to do a gunners job..<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I figured you'd show up here....
Tanks are much too valuable to be squandered with slow, soft, target things located amidst the field kitchens.
Tankers can certainly provide 6-digit (and 8, if necessary) coordinates on request, because tanks have things called destinations, usually in the vicinity of something called the FEBA, the noisy area many, many kilometers forward of their supporting artillery.
They are busy with things like taking, holding, stopping the enemy, dodging the enemy, and generally winning the war, and therefore do not carry lawn chairs and velvet-lined boxes with laboratory equipment.
So in general, you are absolutely right. Using tanks for IF is like using your screwdriver as a hammer. On the other hand, your hammer can actually drive screws if you pound hard enough, so I don't have a problem using arty for direct fire at all.
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Thanks for the update- now back to work!
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>lots of time spent early on to make the game pretty and game engine stuff left towards the end.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Gee, if it wasn't for the word "game"... that's life in all software development, I guess.
The fact is that the polish on CM1 will create the lasting impression that the market gets- thereby guaranteeing that future BTS products will fly off the shelves (err, servers, whatever).
Waiting is so much more bearable when we hear these things.
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Right, using reverse slopes was the "rest of the story" on tank indirect fire.
It is still a poor man's artillery, and the fact remains that the relatively light round and high velocity would propel the shell right out of CM. Incoming can, as noted, be simulated.
Does anyone knoow stats on the blast efficacy of a Sherman HE versus that of a 75mm howitzer?
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There is precedent for using tanks for indirect fire. We were told about this idea at Ft. Knox (with M60's) although we certainly weren't trained to do it. But at what range?
If you elevate the gun enough for the round to arc up, then down, how far away is that sucker gonna come down? Miles. Off the CM maps that I've seen, anyway. Tankers aren't trained or equipped for an artillery role anyway.
So I guess if you saw some really small, badly aimed arty coming from nowhere, you could assume it was some off-board Shermans with an excess of ammo and enthusiasm.
Personally, I'm more enthused about the on-board possibilities of artillery in a direct fire role.
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So many padlocks this week, though. Couldn't we just hone our flaming skills?
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PZShark: Well, I'm at work, but I think it would be Naehe, which is an accepted English way of simulating the umlaut which really belongs there, which in turn I have not figured out on my xenophobic keyboard.
Often this weapon is confused with the Nachbarscheissigungswerfer, a device for hurling feces at your neighbors.
Devils, those Boche.
Late Breaking News!!! "in der Nähe", according to the Go Translator thing. So my grammar sucks. Look at my umlaut, flying in the breeze!
[This message has been edited by Mark IV (edited 02-10-2000).]
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The nahberblaster is definitely in the beta demo and fired smoke to mask a STuG in one of my games vs. the AI.
The "nah" actually comes from "nearby", I believe. Like "in die naehe" meaning "in the neighborhood of", "close by".
[This message has been edited by Mark IV (edited 02-10-2000).]
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argie: thanks for the link- it came up dead, but when I deleted the last bit (online.htm) it worked.
I'll be in B.A. on business in March. Only been there once, last year, and it is really one of my favorite cities in the world. I may even get to hunt the rojo ciervo (our distributor there is a great hunter). Great country!
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>what are you on!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Some see things that never were, and ask, why not... ah screw it, I'm on some stuff Peng sent me. Mixed it up with stale posts and flame-bait and smoked the whole thing.
I started seeing rainbows around my monitor. Then the neighbor's cat came over and laid the whole thing out for me. He also told me the cure for cancer, the grid coordinates for Atlantis, and the release date, but just then my pencil turned into a hissing lizard and I had to throw it in the microwave... I was only gonna write down the CM stuff anyway.
Let's see those mods!
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Some hasty oil on these waters:
Non-native English speakers occasionally sound rude without intending to, if only because their mode of expression can be (understandably) abrupt. As would I, if I were attempting to post in Russian. Perhaps the thought was only that the board should be alerted to posters whose primary language is not English, so that allowances could be made. Still a curious, if more benign, suggestion.
More Americans should have the experience of being a foreigner, especially in the remoter corners where the presence of English can no longer be assumed. It is very humbling.
I can't believe you called him a något, though. Fighting words.
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There just was a thread about using HE against armor. One does what one must, but it's not something I would make a habit of, as an opposing TC.
If you target a tank with ANY kind of small arms within a reasonable range, you can force the TC to button, or kill him if he doesn't. The sniper in Riesberg is great for this.
AT gunners are much closer to ground level than the command cupola on a tank turret. If you look at pictures of those German tanks that have cupolas, you'll see the problem- there's just not that much to aim at. BIG AT guns use the same targeting philosophy as tanks; little AT guns hope for the ambush flank or rear shot. Or, they will die a lot, to quote Mr. Peng.
Tank gunners are usually trained to go for center-of-mass, generally the turret ring, and of course to try for flank and rear shots. Beyond that, specifying the command cupola seems highly unrealistic, since in combat conditions you'd be doing well to hit the enemy tank at all. Aiming for a relatively tiny target on the roof of an enemy tank would result in a high percentage of "overs" and complete misses are a Bad Thing.
Track hits are the slender hope of the outgunned. The effects of a track hit are already modeled. If you miss the track, you either miss the tank, or hit it somewhere else. Deliberately targeting tracks is a much higher percentage shot than the cupola, however. Since it's a larger target, a low shot can still skip in to a mobility kill, and a high shot will at least shake up the occupants. Of course if you hit it somewhere else with an impotent round, you have a highly pissed-off tank with a fix on your location.
So, a feature that specifies a point on the enemy tank as the target doesn't seem to add much that isn't already there. You designate the tank and let the TacAI do the rest.
aargh - every time I post this question (2 or 3) the thread gets closed...
in Combat Mission Archive #2 (2000)
Posted
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>What would be going through your mind? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
180 grains of 7.92mm?
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>disagree with your "respond to commands or face dire consequences". Perhaps in penal battalions or slave armies but most of the time people are fighting for the comrades in the unit<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Well, in the context of a bayonet charge ordered in combat by your CO, disobedience would meet dire penalties in ANY army. Some more so than others (court martial vs. round behind the ear). But the CO has deliberately ordered the fixing of bayonets and an all-out rush on an enemy position, and you can't simply opt out of that ("naw, just not into it today").
The charge may have the net result of some kind of mass fanaticism as a morale condition, but the motive is still "following orders".
Assessed as a troop morale state, "Ready" would cover the state of mind and body necessary to execute a bayonet charge order.
"Mass berserk" as a morale condition would not cause a "charge" order. However, a charge order could theoretically cause a "mass berserk" mental state.