Supertanker

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by aka_tom_w: We also took our guns out in the back woods and hunted small birds, like sparrows and starlings and robins, and we did hit them and kill them. The BEST shot you could get was the now imfamous, "Ha JFK'd him!" shot that takes the top half of the skull cap of the bird clean off, the ONE shot kill was what we all aspired to.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Young boys are apparently all sick and twisted, as my friends and I also referred to brain shots as "a JFK." I can remember one shot on a jumping toad where I saw the spray of brains reflected in the light, just like the Zapruder film. We used to try and get headshots on crows, too, as the BB guns didn't have enough power to take down a crow with a body shot. I never used a scope much as I couldn't afford a pellet gun that was accurate enough to make it worthwhile. I'd be lucky to print 6" groups at 25 yards with mine. Regarding the appropriate age for BB guns, I think where you live plays a role as well. I was in rural Arizona, and most everyone over the age of 8 (girls included) had at least a BB gun or pellet rifle. If your father hunted, you could expect a 12 gauge shotgun or a medium rifle (30-06, 30-30, .270, etc.) on your 12th birthday. By the time we hit high school, we had access to pretty complete arsenals. However, we also had plenty of safe places to shoot them, and there was a gun safety aspect to the culture. We consciously tried to live up to the trust the adults showed us. One time I was walking down a canal road with a friend, plinking at birds with our BB guns. (Being on the canal roads was technically trespassing on the water company's property, but I don't think anyone was ever prosecuted.) We saw a police car coming toward us, so we leaned our guns against a fence and took a few steps away from them. The officer got out, asked us a few questions about what we were doing (like what directions we were shooting), made sure we weren't using .22s, and then told us that a nearby house had a window shot out with a BB gun recently. He said he could tell it wasn't us that did it, and that he used to plink on these roads when he was a kid. He admonished us to continue to be careful, then let us go on. Had we not behaved respectfully and demonstrated knowledge of gun safety, I'm sure that story would have ended differently. I doubt you would get the same treatment in an urban area, either.

Bunkers are suckers for smoke, since they can't move out of it. Tank smoke is OK, but 81mm observers are better. Smoke the bunker so it can't see, use your tanks to kill the MG bunkers & pillboxes (your infantry will thank you), then manuever around the back of the AT bunker. For tanks, it usually only takes a couple shots to hit the back door. For infantry, it goes quicker if you have some demo charges, but they will eventually crack it open, too. ------------------ "Late evening turned to early morning as you sat with fists tightly gripped and thumb poised, anxiously awaiting the next cartridge of goodness. The hardcore gamer was born from nights such as these. Show your 'Roots.'" - The description of the Atari 2600 shirt on game-skins.com

They were just using regular grenades, and I figure they got lucky. Like I said, the grenade animation is supposed to represent the various things infantry can do to try and pry open a tank & get the juicy bits inside. I don't know how it is actually calculated, but there is probably some simple chance for them to knock out the vehicle each turn. I've had crews bail into the arms of infantry, too, usually surrendering or immediately being killed. Demo charges are nice, especially dropped from buildings ------------------ "Late evening turned to early morning as you sat with fists tightly gripped and thumb poised, anxiously awaiting the next cartridge of goodness. The hardcore gamer was born from nights such as these. Show your 'Roots.'" - The description of the Atari 2600 shirt on game-skins.com

Shamelessly ganked from my new favorite gaming news site, Quarter to Three ( www.quartertothree.com ), "In some of the most discouraging news for flight simmers since EA's dismissal of the Baltimore studios that made the best Jane's titles, Empire has acquired Rowan, the British developers who created MiG Alley and the upcoming Battle of Britain. What's discouraging isn't the actual acquisition, but this snippet from the press release: 'The Rowan team will now concentrate on developing more mass-market titles for next-generation consoles'. Translation: no more of those hardcore flight sims that don't make any money. Oddly enough, the press release mentions that Rowan was bought for a mere £30,000, with the promise of another £30,000 if certain developmental milestones are met." ------------------ "Late evening turned to early morning as you sat with fists tightly gripped and thumb poised, anxiously awaiting the next cartridge of goodness. The hardcore gamer was born from nights such as these. Show your 'Roots.'" - The description of the Atari 2600 shirt on game-skins.com

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MantaRay: Can a few of you kind souls check and see if all my pictures show up on my new website?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Working fine for me. ------------------ "Late evening turned to early morning as you sat with fists tightly gripped and thumb poised, anxiously awaiting the next cartridge of goodness. The hardcore gamer was born from nights such as these. Show your 'Roots.'" - The description of the Atari 2600 shirt on game-skins.com

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by The Commissar: I only ask because the opponent who I have been playing against during the lenght of this post seems to have discovered the post and found it offensive. Not sure exactly why, especially since I made it clear to him that it was solely for advice purposes and that I invited him to post his own views. Considering the fact that I did not once reveal his name or speak bad against him further proves this.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> You didn't speak badly of him, but about 40 of us insulted him in some fashion & stated our distaste for such players. I could see how he might take offense. If he suggests another game, agree to whatever silly demands he has to remove any possible advantage for your and ensure his victory (No artillery?! Puh-lease!), then send him a setup in which you take nothing but trucks. Don't even use all of your points, 30 or so should be enough to make the point. I still think you should drop him like a bad habit, but if you continue to play him after that, use only computer-selected forces. ------------------ "Late evening turned to early morning as you sat with fists tightly gripped and thumb poised, anxiously awaiting the next cartridge of goodness. The hardcore gamer was born from nights such as these. Show your 'Roots.'" - The description of the Atari 2600 shirt on game-skins.com

How big of a sample are you basing your conclusions upon? In my anecdotal experience, immobilized vehicles are usually easy pickings. When you see the little grenades being tossed at the tank by your men, that is the representation of the close-assault you envision. Some examples of pushover immobilized vehicles: I once used artillery to immobilize a StuG in the middle of a snowy field. It was a good 150m from any cover, in snow, within the field of fire of at least three MG42s and a platoon of infantry. It was going to be a tough nut to crack, but it had to die so I could manuever safely on my right flank. While I pondered this, the continuing barrage apparently convinced the crew that they had other plans, and they bailed before the end of the turn. Problem solved. Another time, I immobilized a Tiger (at the cost of a Jumbo 76, dang it). I didn't have much left to risk, so I ran a single veteran squad out to it. They knocked it out on the first try, while under fire from another Tiger that I had not yet seen. Seven of them survived the rout back to the woods.

I do not believe this a beta patch problem, as sharpshooters previously have refused to engage at close range (less than 100m?). IIRC, the previous explanation was that their AI tells them not to engage if their chance of being spotted by the target is high. Thus, they will sit next to one target (because they will be seen by it if they engage) and shoot at a more distant one (because they won't be seen by it). I learned this aroud v1.03 when I sent a sharpshooter over to kill an observer. I think I suffered a CC flashback or something & thought he would be like Bruce Lee in hand-to-hand combat. Instead, they just sat there and stared at each other. I finally moved him a 150m away, and he shot the observer dead. ------------------ "Late evening turned to early morning as you sat with fists tightly gripped and thumb poised, anxiously awaiting the next cartridge of goodness. The hardcore gamer was born from nights such as these. Show your 'Roots.'" - The description of the Atari 2600 shirt on game-skins.com

DX8 and the 1.07.00 official drivers fixed it for me, too. See http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum8/HTML/000388-3.html ------------------ "Late evening turned to early morning as you sat with fists tightly gripped and thumb poised, anxiously awaiting the next cartridge of goodness. The hardcore gamer was born from nights such as these. Show your 'Roots.'" - The description of the Atari 2600 shirt on game-skins.com

I wanted to comment on the infantry tactics. First, if your men aren't in a building, systematic destruction of the same won't bother you. There have been numerous threads about keeping your infantry out of the buildings, so do it. Second, that line of rubble he will create will provide you with good infantry positions. Let him nail a few, then smoke the area (as others advised, always have an 81mm observer for smoke purposes) and run your men into the rubble. The will be far harder to dislodge than if they inhabited the intact buildings. I recommend you try switching to British troops as well. 17lb guns, Crack PIATs (quiet & deadly from ambush), Churchills, Wasps - he will be in for a world of hurt. I also think you should never play him again. I would mock the crap out of any friend of mine that won't play unless they are Germans on a billiard table. Blatant attempts to slant the game in his favor are cowardly at best. At least make him attack so you can set ambushes, especially if he doesn't take adequate infantry support. I've know a couple of people that insisted on such games in Squad Leader - they cheated at cards, too. ------------------ "Late evening turned to early morning as you sat with fists tightly gripped and thumb poised, anxiously awaiting the next cartridge of goodness. The hardcore gamer was born from nights such as these. Show your 'Roots.'" - The description of the Atari 2600 shirt on game-skins.com

You are talking about an entirely different kind of game, moving from company level to the individual level. Battlefield 1942 is in the works, and may be what you are looking for. See http://www.ga-source.com/all/news/bits/10+28+2000/6:15:9.shtml

I'm just about done reading Band of Brothers. If you liked it, I highly recommend reading "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa." by Eugene Sledge. Sledge actually was a member of the 1st Marines and fought in those two campaigns, so I think he has a level of detail & understanding that Ambrose can't match. There is an interesting parallel in the two stories, despite being different branches in different theaters. Many of the men express the sentiment that they volunteered for an elite unit early in the war because they figured their chances were better if the men they served with were also well-trained, motivated volunteers. This proved true, but as the war ground on, the replacements came with less and less conditioning and training. Those replacements were often the next casualties, and it was very shocking when one of the old hands would be killed. [Edited because I forgot how to spell Peleliu] ------------------ "Late evening turned to early morning as you sat with fists tightly gripped and thumb poised, anxiously awaiting the next cartridge of goodness. The hardcore gamer was born from nights such as these. Show your 'Roots.'" - The description of the Atari 2600 shirt on game-skins.com [This message has been edited by Supertanker (edited 12-01-2000).]

A HEAP OF SPOILERS FOLLOWS * * * * * * * * * * * I'm resurrecting this thread to throw in my kudos to KwazyDog. This is a very enjoyable big scenario, and I really liked the feeling of a long, consistent push that comes from it not being an operation. I played as the Brits vs. the AI, and the Germans surrendered on turn 65 with the following stats: Allied: 90 casualties (23 KIA) 2 mortars destroyed 10 vehicles knocked out Men OK: 550 Score: 75 Axis: 267 casualties 78 captured 2 mortars destroyed 2 pillboxes knocked out 16 vehicles knocked out Men OK: 47 Score: 25 Lady Luck was definitely on my side in this one. I had a Cromwell lose its commander and then lead my column from the first bridge, up the right side, and all the way into the town before being knocked out (by a shreck), and he took out the 50mm PaK and the 75mm RCL in duels. One of my Challengers won a duel with the Tiger at a range of 1020m, and a Sherman III knocked out two MkIVs and the Hummel from the top of the big ridge where the first bridge starts. One of my Churchills was immobilized right at the start of the first bridge, but that gave him a wide field of fire to serve well as a pillbox, and it was after he knocked out the 88 in a duel. Several tanks were almost out of ammo by the time the town fell (less than 10 rounds remaining). I felt like I had enough artillery to get the job done, but not too much. I used a fair amount of it firing blind into suspected positions ahead of my column, and had good luck rooting out infantry (and a couple of those damned 20mm guns) doing that. The wet conditions did make plotting movement a bit tedious at times, but I thought that fit well with the idea of a push up a narrow road. My infantry reached the main bridge first, and when I saw the huge number of mines around it (combined with my lack of engineers), I abandoned that route and moved everything up the right. I did leave a few platoons of infantry near the bridge and on the ridge to spot and harass. This gave me a pretty good picture of what went on in the town, but is where most of my casualties came from. Once I reached the town, my armor poured in and I moved up as much mechanized infantry as possible. The Sextons and the Wasp worked their way up the riverbank, burning and blasting the Germans out of position, while about 6 tanks, several halftracks, and a couple platoons of infantry sat near the back of the town and shot the fleeing Germans. About a full platoon of SS eventually surrendered as I worked toward the last flag. Probably something to do with being surrounded and on fire. Tough and satisfying. KwazyDog picked the defensive positions well, and the AI took advantage of them. Anytime I made a mistake, I was punished for it. Several times I began to doubt I would have time to reach the town, much less conquer it. I wish there were more scenarios like it. ------------------ "Late evening turned to early morning as you sat with fists tightly gripped and thumb poised, anxiously awaiting the next cartridge of goodness. The hardcore gamer was born from nights such as these. Show your 'Roots.'" - The description of the Atari 2600 shirt on game-skins.com

DX8 seems to have fixed it for me as well. In accord with 3dfx's instructions on installing the new drivers, I uninstalled the 3dfx tools, rebooted, installed DX8, rebooted, installed 1.07.00 drivers, rebooted. After that, I played the last 20 turns of All or Nothing with full trees, transparent smoke and buildings (and there was a lot of smoke & burning stuff), at 1024x768. This is the configuration and scenario that was guaranteed to whiteout within 3 turns, but not even a hint of the whiteout bug this time. Yay! ------------------ "Late evening turned to early morning as you sat with fists tightly gripped and thumb poised, anxiously awaiting the next cartridge of goodness. The hardcore gamer was born from nights such as these. Show your 'Roots.'" - The description of the Atari 2600 shirt on game-skins.com

If you don't want to build your own, and it is not a mission-critical machine (i.e. you will only do work on it and not CM ), I usually recommend the Dell Outlet: www.dell.com/outlet . This is where Dell resells the returned & refurbished machines. $1800 will get you a pretty nice box from there, probably in excess of your specs. For example, they currently list a P3/1000mhz, 256MB, 40MB HD, geFORCE2(64MB), SB Live, CDR 12X, 56K 3Com, 3Com 10/100 for $1785 (plus shipping, no monitor). Edited because I went to close that window and noticed that they are having a holiday sale, so knock $300 off any machine priced $1600-$1999. The inventory is always changing, so watch it for a box you like. I have several friends running these machines now, and all are happy. ------------------ "Late evening turned to early morning as you sat with fists tightly gripped and thumb poised, anxiously awaiting the next cartridge of goodness. The hardcore gamer was born from nights such as these. Show your 'Roots.'" - The description of the Atari 2600 shirt on game-skins.com [This message has been edited by Supertanker (edited 11-30-2000).]