Morte Rouge

The minefield at the bottom of the first hill was marked at the beginning of the scenario (or shortly thereafter -- I forget). I got some engineers down to the scattered trees near the minefield where they sat a few turns. Voila, the sign went away. Quite a while later, after knocking out the Panther, I sent a Sherman merrily down that road and BOOM, it got knocked out by the minefield. Suddenly the mine sign was back up. Doh! Questions: How close do the engineers have to be to disable the things? Why did the sign disappear and then reappear only after I was suckered into driving over them? Hopefully this is covered in the manual in greater detail.

At one point there was discussion of an end of scenario replay of the entire battle. Did that get nixed or is it just not in the demo? BTW, add my voice to "AWESOME" and "INCREDIBLE" -- can't wait for the full version. MR

At the risk of being thrown into grognard hell for suggesting I like sims too: what's the verdict on this game? I can't find a review anywhere. While I prefer wargames, I occasionally like to jump in for a ride. There -- I said it.

I'm glad Steve and Charles aren't here. It means they're quite busy. All I want for Christmas . . . And I vote against RT as well. This is the best of both worlds. I do like the idea of a full game movie (replay) at the end though.

I started a defense in The Last Defense last night and hid a bazooka team in the wheat field. "Stay put and wait for the itty bitty Tiger to rumble past you." Well the Tiger or something, spotted the team 100 yards before it got to the wheat field. The team had not come out of hiding; in fact I had set an ambush marker that had not been crossed. Now I know the wheat field ain't gonna protect those boys from the 88 mounted on that sucker. But shouldn't I be able to hide in there? One other note, I haven't seen any vehicles smoke or brew up the way they did in Fionn and Moon's game. I've enabled smoke and fire. Is that not in the demo? Otherwise, this is awesome -- damn you Charles and Steve, I'm dreaming about that 88 on top of the hill.

While I hope I've graduated beyond it -- I credit PG I with getting me interested in wargames. There's a place for such games.

What if any control did Martin have over the Jabo? Did he know ahead of time he would get one? Did he get to call for it at a certain turn? I think he mentioned he was not in direct contact with it so he couldn't order it about, but this was the first AAR where I've seen it mentioned.

What? Someone hasn't pre-ordered? <G>

Great. I picked it up but haven't had the chance to read it yet. Just started Steel Inferno which is quite good.

There appear to be two schools of thought here: 1. I want it now regardless. 2. We will sell no wine before its time. One of the constant whines about the PC gaming market these days is that no game is released complete and that purchasers are paying to be beta testers with no guarantee of patching. It seems to me that Battlefront's approach to sales is the perfect antidote and would also give them a host of beta testers who are anxious, passionate and choose to be testers. Since everyone who purchases must do so here, let those of us who have pre-purchased beta test IF WE WANT TO. Those in group 2 above could choose not to participate. The only downside would be added cost to BTS (which I know nothing about) and possibly some bad word of mouth if there were some serious flaws. On the other hand, look at all the willing beta testers you'd have. Go ahead and charge our credit cards when you send the beta (good for cash flow), then we could just download the patch.

I second that opinion of Beevor's Stalingrad. Just finished that and it was a "can't put it down" read. Need to rent the movie "Stalingrad" by the same guys that did Das Boot.

I'm in the process of reading John Eisenhower's The Bitter Woods. While some of the research is dated the descriptions of small unit actions, particularly on December 16, 1944, are an absolute delight to read. Can't wait to experience them first hand in CM!!!

WOW -- count me in too!