Supertanker

As evidence of the anti-personnel effectiveness of a bazooka round (which is smaller than a schreck or a faust warhead), I offer the citation awarding the Medal of Honor (posthumous) to Pvt. John R. Towle. Pvt. Towle was a bazooka gunner with the 82 Airborne. Here is a link to the entire citation, though you may have to scroll down to his name: http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/mohiib2.htm The relevant portion: "Still under intense fire and fully exposed to the enemy, Pvt. Towle then engaged a nearby house which 9 Germans had entered and were using as a strongpoint and with 1 round killed all 9." I first learned of Pvt. Towle because his story is used as the basis for a Squad Leader scenario (#37, Medal of Honor, which came with GI: Anvil of Victory). Avalon Hill states that 10 soldiers were killed by that rocket, including the SS Captain leading the attack.

Caretan, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who babbles about the game to his wife, and has been doing so for months! I guess that is just because she is handy. She does make me pay for it by listening to her stories of great deals she found while shopping. Fair trade, I think. She says that she will be happy when the final version arrives, just so I will be quiet, but she also knows I will then start pestering her with, "And then I did..." kind of stuff.

Actually, Steve wrote: "It isn't our area of expertise and the nature of the ground combat is far less interesting to us (lots of bloody static battles and beach landings)." Taking the cynical view of human nature that I do, I viewed the second part as the real reason (i.e. they find those types of conflicts boring), and the first as more of a secondary defense to ward off people whining at them in an attempt to change their opinion. I could be wrong.

As far as wallpaper from the bmps, I have set my background color to black, and am using 11168.bmp. If you prefer a Panther, use 11115.bmp. Both are quite nice.

I was one of the ones greatly disappointed when BTS stated that they would not be making a PTO version of CM ever. The justification for this decision was that it mostly just involved assaults on fortified or fixed positions, and they found that boring. But, I think the GD shows us that logic compels a reconsideration of that decision. Now the GD has been released, and many folks seem to be having great fun with Valley of Troubles. That scenario is, of course, an assault on fortified positions. So BTS, you have at least established that these kinds of scenarios are not a guarantee of boredom. I presume you will argue that doing those kinds of scenarios over and over and over will be boring. On the contrary, people seem to be making slight changes in the force levels and playing VoT over and over and over. So repetition of these types of attacks should not induce boredom, either. Now, go read an account of Bloody Tarawa. A well-designed series of scenarios patterned upon that battle would be awesome, and the AI would be well-suited for providing a worthy opponent. Have I changed any minds over there? If so, yeah! If not, it was worth the shot. Guess I will have to start designing "PTO-like" scenarios when the final version arrives. Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg

Moon, in southern California, a spoiler is a big giant ugly wing that you attach to your four-cylinder compact car to make it appear it has better handling and performance, but you actually decrease those instead.

I was also thinking that we needed some more detailed AARs. Great minds think alike, Webs. After reading some of the other AARs for the Americans in Valley of Troubles, I am surprised with how quickly many were able to dispose of the Germans. I still won, but based on their response to massed artillery fire (or rather, their lack of response) the ones I faced were made of sterner stuff. I seem to remember someone (Charles? Fionn?) posting long ago that a global morale number is generated at the beginning - I must have hit some fanatics. I entered VoT with one infantry platoon on the left flank, the engineers and the Sherman 105's in the middle, and the other two infantry platoons on the right. The arty spotters were hidden on the hill near the left, or were sent on their way there. The general plan was to press forward broadly to expose defensive positions, drop a lot of arty on the hardpoints, and shift to the weak spots after the reinforcements arrived. Thing started well, then turned bad. The lead 105 killed the MG bunker on the left flank with two shots. Then, my 105s came under fire from the 75mm AT Pillbox on the hill on the far side of the battlefield, and the platoon on the left discovered there was an MG pillbox in addition to the bunker on that flank. The first three shells that hit my lead Sherman bounced off or broke up, but my Sherman suddenly couldn't hit the broad side of a, well, a pillbox. As the Shermans attempted to reverse behind cover to get out of the duel, they were destroyed by consecutive shots. Bang - dead, bang - dead. Ouch. Meanwhile, the 105 spotters were going to work. Now those AT gunners are in trouble! Umm, no they aren't. It took about 15 turns of shelling (leaving both spotters with only one round), and at least five direct hits on the pillbox before the Germans decided they had enough and ran. Meanwhile, one of the 81mm spotters dropped a beautiful smokescreen on the AT pillbox so my mobility would not be completely lost to the fire from its commanding position. The other 81mm spotter started dropping HE on the center MG bunker, mostly to try and suppress it until I could get a tank there for a shot. As the right platoons moved up through the forest, I moved the left platoon up into a position to try an assault on the pillbox. I shifted the 81mm HE to a smoke barrage, in an attempt to get my men past and behind the bunker. I flubbed the timing a little bit, and the first smoke rounds had just started to land when the troops began their run. The first burst from the MG pillbox killed three of the 60mm mortar squad, and they went to ground, but the rest of the troops kept advancing with minor casualties as the smoke mounted. Alas, their luck got no better. Simultaneously, they found the minefield and a break in the smokescreen that was on the AT pillbox. Some died, some went to ground, but the charge was definitely getting broken up. However, the MG bunker remained silent and they had to get out of the killing ground, so on they went. Bravery served where luck failed. Just as they were nearing the bunker, Lady Luck scorned them a final time. Another break appeared in the smokescreen, and at a range of less than 20m, the deadly grazing fire from the bunker suddenly wiped out the platoon HQ, two squads, and the bazooka team. The firing lasted only a few seconds, and ended only due to a lack of targets. One lone squad, with 10 of 12 remaining, had stayed in the smoke and ended up behind the bunker. When ordered to attack the bunker from behind, they instead ran laterally away toward the center of the battlefield and hid in some trees. At least they were safe from the pillbox's fire. It was around this time that the reinforcements arrived. Hurrah, more Shermans! With the AT pillbox still shrouded in smoke (and seemingly enjoying the HE massage from the 105 batteries), I sent a Sherman 75 to the left flank to dispose of that dang MG pillbox, put two others into support of the main advance (which had met little resistance so far, except for the AT pillbox), and sent the 76 to the back of the hill where the arty spotters were. I figured its (relatively) long gun would have a good crack at most of the battlefield from up there. I also decided to send the reserve platoon up on the left, to both fill a hole in my lines and exploit what I hoped was soon to be a hole in the German lines. This is about when the AT bunker finally broke. A cheer went up from my men. Err, I mean from me. Now, I thought the battle was practically won since the beta AI had never been able to stand up to my careful use of Shermans against infantry. Looking back, this was indeed when the tide started to turn. My flanking Sherman arrived on the left, and popped the MG pillbox with one shot. That man is out to make a name for himself! Now I figured I could screen him with the remaining squad and the reserve platoon, and wreak havoc in the German rear. I proceeded to do so, and began to cautiously press the right and center forward as well. I also moved my Sherman 76 into position on the rear hill. Firefights erupted all over, but most of it was concentrated in the center, on the German-occupied hill. I shifted the 81mm back to HE on the MG bunker there, and the crew soon broke and ran. I had not realized there was a full infantry platoon entrenched on the hill behind them, but they were now coming under fire from all four Shermans and some assorted infantry. Things were going well at last, with the infantry moving forward across the board, the Shermans in good supporting positions, and my flanker well in the back, behind the pond, blowing the crap out of the German mortars. Go team! Then, of course, I crapped my pants when the Panther arrived and brewed up my Sherman 76 with the first shot. Actually, the two tanks fired simultaneously, but the 76 missed. Damn those German optics! Of course, I doubt the 76 would have penetrated anyway at that range. However, each side had its own advantages in the war, and soon the Panther would be saying, "Damn those ubiquitous Shermans!" I hardly wanted to engage the Panther at long range (where it had already demonstrated its superiority), so I quickly ordered everyone behind cover and began to plan a trap. Obviously, my best hope was to maneuver the flanker, good ol' Sgt. Upham and his Sherman of Doom, for a side or rear shot. He already had racked up a pillbox, two mortars, and a couple of infantry, so why not a Panther, too? I also wanted to avoid attacking piecemeal, so I had to set things up so all three Shermans would appear and begin firing simultaneously. At the very least, as the Panther turned to kill Sgt. Upham, one of the others might get a shot at its side or turret rear. With heart pounding (BTW, when is the last time a wargame did that to me? The beta demo, I think , I ordered Sgt. Upham to hunt over to the base of the hill on which the Panther sat, and set the two center Shermans into positions where they could pull into hull-down firing positions if the Panther came over Hill 209. Aside from Sgt. Upham stopping to blow away a Panzerschreck team that was running across the field from the center (Hoping for a shot on him? None today, thanks.), everyone quickly arrived in position. But for the forest between them, Sgt. Upham and the Panther were less than 100m apart. Sgt. Upham was in perfect position for a side shot if the Panther moved down the road on the back of Hill 209, so I decided to pull the other two Shermans into firing position as bait. The Panther apparently took the bait, and started to move forward. Had he lost track of Sgt. Upham? Just as it was about to move into Sgt. Upham's line of sight, the turn ended! Oh, the tension was killing me! Not wanting to be passive, I gave Sgt. Upham orders to unbutton, hunt forward a few meters, and hopefully take the shot. The turn began, and after a short delay, he began to inch forward. Now the Panther abruptly halted, and began to turn toward Sgt. Upham, but it was still shielded from the other Shermans by Hill 209! I hadn't noticed the "slow motion replay" button on the interface, but apparently I had turned it on. The Panther had sloooooooowly completed about 20 degrees of its turn, when suddenly the red targeting line from Sgt. Upham snapped on! I did a little impromptu roleplaying as Sgt. Upham, and rapidly shouted at the gunner, "Shoot him! Shoot him! Shoot him!" My wife looked up from her book and told me not to wake the baby. Boom! Never was there a more glorious sight than the blossom of smoke and flame from the muzzle of Sgt. Upham's 75. No, I take that back. Never was there a more glorious sight than that 75mm shell slamming into the right side of that Panther and brewing that bad boy up! I cheered on behalf of my silent hero, and got another mean glance from my wife. Nevermind her; give that man a medal, and have the hatches enlarged so he can get his balls out of the tank! Now I pressed the attack home on the center hill. As the reserve platoon and the remaining squad closed in, the three remaining Shermans started blowing the heck out of the Germans up there. When the reserve platoon finally rushed the hill, the Germans were wiped out, and only one surrendered. The rest continued to fight and died in place, and few attempted withdrawal. I was stunned at their tenacity. The casualty markers did a good job of noting the carnage. Meanwhile, I began to move the engineers toward the town, and the right platoons up through the forest to take the objective on that side. Not long after the engineers started to run up the center ridge, a huge explosion in their midst blew away the 60mm mortar squad, and killed a few engineers. The rest scattered, and that advance fell apart. What WAS that? Since there was only one, I figured it had to be a tank or a gun of some type and not an artillery barrage. Based on where it hit, I had a general idea of where it came from, but could spot nothing. That made me think it was a concealed gun, and likely in the forest somewhere southeast of town. I replayed the movie several times to try and spot the incoming shell, or the muzzle flash, but nothing. None of my men saw it coming, so I don't get to see it either. As much as it hurt me here, that is sweet fog of war! In the next turn, I was able to advance one of the right platoons forward enough to spot the gun after its second shot (oops, there went some more engineers). One of the Shermans happened to be able to get a bead on it, and the first 75mm HE round suppressed the crew. Another accurate HE round from the Sherman, combined with the small arms fire from the lead right platoon, and the crew decided to take a powder. I hoped all that was left was to root the Germans out of the town, but the delay in knocking out the AT pillbox had cost me too much time, and only a few turns remained. The right platoons wiped out some token resistance on their side, and came down into the valley south of town to begin working their way into town. The reserve platoon began firing on the town from the formerly German entrenchments there, while the engineers and the two center Shermans crested the ridge and began firing down into the town as well. It did not take much of this before the defenders, maybe a platoon worth, abandoned their positions and took off for Hill 209. They were fired upon by many troops, two machine guns, and the two center Shermans as they ran from the buildings and struggled up Hill 209. Despite the withering fire and the close proximity (<100m) of my troops, they continued their retreat and none surrendered. The engineers dashed into the now-empty town, firing as they came. They continued hot on the heels of the retreating Germans, as the right platoons entered the town from the south. Sgt. Upham had been plinking at some battered infantry nearby the AT pillbox, and I ordered him to close in on Hill 209 to continue the pressure and maybe take some prisoners. Most of the surviving Germans made it over the top of Hill 209 and out of view. With the Germans in full retreat, the rout appeared to be on, and victory was in my grasp. Whatever was left of the Germans on Hill 209 probably would not hold for long. I pressed the attack on Hill 209 with two infantry platoons (the reserve and the lead right platoon, each with only 10-15% casualties), my engineers, and the three Shermans. I hoped overwhelming numbers would trigger a surrender at last. Unfortunately, the delay caused by the AT bunker paid off for the Germans now, and time ran out. American tactical victory, 65 to 35. Examining the battlefield after the game, I learned that there was still a full German squad in good order on the back of Hill 209, along with a half-strength HQ unit. Three other squads there (probably the town defenders) were nearly wiped out and broken. Again, I am amazed by the stubborn tenacity of the Germans. Despite the rout at the end, I only captured one man! The rest either withdrew or chose to stand and die. I surely would have taken Hill 209 given more time, but it might not have been the complete pushover I expected. Final Statistics Allied: 92 casualties (22 KIA) 2 mortars destroyed 3 vehicles KO Men OK 207 German: 126 casualties 1 captured 2 mortars destroyed 1 gun destroyed 4 pillboxes KO 1 vehicle KO Men OK 78 Sgt. Upham wins the MVP, ending up with 7 infantry, 1 captured infantry, 2 mortars, 1 MG pillbox, and 1 Panther G. BTS, I have waited 20 years for this game. It truly is a breakthrough, and I can hardly wait for the full version to arrive and close assault my life. Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg [This message has been edited by Supertanker (edited 05-13-2000).]

I thought the Germans started deploying acoustic homing torpedoes in response to The Incredible Mr. Limpet (or as they referred to him, Der Limpet). Oh, sorry, I'm getting my Hollywood submarine movies mixed up again!

Eisenhower.

Just saw this preview on Gamespot of Hasbro's version of Squad Leader: http://headline.gamespot.com/news/00_02/24_pc_squad/index.html I'm a bit cheesed off because it seems to me that Hasbro is using the SL name to promote their own version of Computer Ambush, or maybe Jagged Alliance. That ain't necessarily bad, but it just ain't Squad Leader. This game has thirty missions, and you command troops individually. X-COM:WWII, JA:WWII, either of those would be more accurate. Of course, they lack name recognition, but it seems to me that those of us that recognize the SL name will not identify it with this product. What we really need is someone, somewhere, to make a WWII game that is more like SL. It should be squad level, somewhere between real-time and turn-based, with good 3D graphics and a scary level of detail. [emilylatellavoice] What? Oh. Nevermind. [/emilylatellavoice] Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg

Not to be overly pedantic, but beaning someone with a Chipwich is battery, not assault. Assault is an act which causes a reasonable apprehension of a harmful or offensive touching. Battery is an act which actually results in said touching. There is your Law 101 for the day.

We have a family friend who was a naval weapons tech in Vietnam (I don’t know what the official title would be, that is what he calls it), and he told me that he spotted for the 16-inch rifles on occasion. He described the sound as a freight train coming through the sky, and when they hit, it seemed like half a hillside would vanish. I asked him what kind of targets they would use them on, troop concentrations, hard targets, other big stuff, and he said, “No, no, no, they would use them on ANYTHING. One time, we used them to blow up a wooden footbridge.”

It is not just age to me, it is this whole idea that computer games should be left to the kids. Hmph. I'm 34, I'm married, I have two kids with the third due in April. I'm a lawyer with a medium-sized (60 attorneys) firm in downtown Los Angeles. I have an office in one of the skyscrapers, and various other accoutrements that supposedly show maturity and accomplishment. For Christmas, my beloved wife made sure everyone kept the clothes and other boring stuff to a minimum, so I ended up with eight new computer games and a force feedback joystick. It was the best Christmas ever! She understands that this is something I really enjoy, it is how I choose to blow off steam, and I'm not going to change. Sorry, she is not for sale. Hundminen, go tell your wife she needs to learn that computer gaming, especially CM, is an acceptable and good adult hobby. Then, you can sleep on my sofa until she's ready to let you back into the house. ------------------ Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg

Oh, well, it would have been fun, but not like I won't play the game to death anyway. Now, The Haunted Tank, there was a fun comic. I had a stack of those and Sgt. Rock about a mile high. I think that Stuart was responsible for knocking out about half of Germany's Tiger production, and they were always catastrophic penetrations, with turrets blowing off in a huge ball of fire. I remember one issue where they referred to using a special AP round. I had assumed it was APCR or something (did such a thing even exist?), but maybe they have some magic AP round that is the key to their 37's easy penetration of Tigers. Since I play the Americans a lot, can BTS put some of those in? Pretty please? As the HT's gunner always said to the loader, "Feed me, Gus, feed me!" ------------------ Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg

Nothing came up on the search, so here goes: After seeing the heroic Stuart in TGN's Heroes' Corner, I was wondering if the 37mm canister round is available in CM. I don't know how common these rounds were in the ETO, but I used to have great fun with them in Squad Leader. You didn't *really* want to assault that poor little Stuart, did you? ------------------ Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg

I was a beta tester for SFC. I was in the "multiplayer only" part, and it was loads of fun even when severely buggy. One of my favorite things was to play using Game Commander. "Phasers fire!" "Shields up!" "Transporter bomb!" Come to think of it, using GC to set for t-bombs was the only way to shovel them out as fast as the CPU. It was very interesting to read the discussions of the truly hardcore players. That forum is still active, and I check it once in a while. It had been a long time since I played SFB seriously, but I *never* knew the rules that well! Too many Squad Leader rules in my head, I like to think... I am embarassed to say I still have not purchased the full game, though it occupies a prominent spot on my Christmas list. I hear all testers were mentioned in the read.me, but only a select few of the very, very involved made it into the game itself. That would not include me, unfortunately. ------------------ Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg

I've seen a couple of great shots, and also seen Shermans hold up to 88 fire against the odds. To me, these bits of uncertainty are what make a great game, and they also make the great stories we all tell to each other (or bore our wives with). Heck, I remember back in High School, playing Squad Leader (just after Anvil of Victory came out), I fired a 75mm recoiless at a moving JagdTiger at maximum range (a desperation move to stop it from going over to stomp on some other poor units). My opponent laughed at the very idea, until I rolled snake eyes for the hit, a "1" to get the critical, and then snake eyes again for the kill. My opponent was shocked with disbelief, but he accepted it as the fortunes of war, and I've got lots of miles out of the story. I expect CM to give me some new bit of luck to talk about, and so far the extraordinary feats do not seem out of line with my experiences with good board games. ------------------ Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg

What, am I the only one here who is married and hard to shop for? If I ordered (or bought) a game I really, really want this close to Christmas, I shudder to think what the wife would do! When it comes to rage, I am but a Kubelwagen with a flat tire to her fully-fueled King Tiger! So, no, I have not ordered, but I sure have whined, complained, and sent her the link 30 or 40 times. ------------------ Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>As an aside, if you want to see a German slack jawed in amazment, bring him so a modern North American suburb to watch a house go up: “Mein Gott, eswird nie halten!!” In fact, I’ve see a Frenchman do this too.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> This is fairly off-topic, but I feel compelled to share this story. I've lived in California most of my life, and we still have contact with the relatives back in Germany (my great-grandfather emigrated to the USA, so it has been a while). Some of them were visiting a few years ago, and we were talking about housing. They were noting the apparently flimsy construction of many of the houses around here, as the family home in Germany is literally hundreds of years old. I pointed out that in an earthquake area, a wood-framed ranch-style home is by far a better place to be than a masonry structure. Wood-framed buildings just wobble back and forth a bit in a quake (but don't put a tile roof on, because its can contribute to a total collapse if its bulk moves too far to one side). Masonry, on the other hand, cannot flex, so it cracks and breaks. We even have a term for the real deathtraps: URMs (UnReinforced Masonry). As that term implies, there are methods for reinforcing masonry buildings to keep them from falling down on your head, but they are mostly a stop-gap. When we had the Northridge quake a few years ago, it was very common to see wood-framed homes where the house was fine except for the brick chimney, which had cracked to pieces and fallen away from the house. We are constantly reminded of the need to prepare. As you can see at this link, Los Angeles has had 43 earthquakes in the past week (though I only felt one of them): http://www.scecdc.scec.org/recenteqs/Maps/Los_Angeles.html [This message has been edited by Supertanker (edited 12-11-99).]

Normally, it would be foolish to place the sniper in the belltower (not much in the way of a stealthy route of escape, among other problems), but in this case, I am smiling because know something you do not know: I am not left-handed.

I tend to like my war movies full of bloody carnage. To me, they should be shocking; it is war, after all. That said, here are my favorites, not limited to WWII: Last of the Mohicans - this was advertised as being a chance for the gals to see that hunky Daniel Day-Lewis run around in deerskins. Big mistake by the ad people. I came in on the middle of it on cable, and it was pretty good. If you ignore the mushy parts, it is just lots of blackpowder, bayonets, and hatchets. The Siege of Firebase Gloria - My favorite scene is where they are being overrun and the Sgt. (forget his name, but the same guy who played the DI in FMJ) picks up a fallen weapon and leads an immediate counter-attack to push Charlie back outside the wire. Hamburger Hill - lots of pointless shooting and killing. I still get a little chilled from the scene where the gunships come in too late and start shooting up the friendlies. Cross of Iron - Can't add much to what has already been said. What's not to like in a Sam Peckinpah war movie? Go rent "The Wild Bunch" and "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," too. The Big Red One - when watching this on late night TV back in college, the announcer kept mispronouncing the name of the film. He would say it kind of fast and emphasize the wrong words so it sounded like "the BIG RED-one" instead of "The Big, Red, One." Maybe he thought it was about firetrucks? All Quiet on the Western Front (not the one with John-Boy, thank you) - despair, pain, suffering, pointless random death. Sounds like WWI to me. A Bridge Too Far - A little too much "Hollywood Extravaganza," but not bad -especially the urban combat, and the armor on display. The shot of the PIAT in action was neat, too. The Wild Geese. Mercenary wars in Africa. Lots of small arms, betrayal, and having to mercy kill your best friend and then taking revenge on the guy that betrayed you both. The Dogs of War is pretty good, too, though it has Christopher Walken's weird style to work past.

CM may be a little too complex for this, but sometimes workable solution is to have real time play that can be paused for unlimited periods. I thought this worked pretty well in XCOM Apocalypse, even after the excellent turn-based play of the original XCOM. The drawback comes where there are multiple fronts/battles going on simultaneously, as it is difficult to monitor and intervene quickly enough to prevent silly mistakes. Often in XCOMApoc, I would lose squaddies from Squad A to tactical errors while I was watching Squad B or C carry out some orders. However, when I had a good killing zone set up in front of a UFO, it saved a lot of time to let the clock run and rely on the squaddies to shoot anything that moved. This system might work with CM, especially where I have firing positions set and we are just blasting the defensive positions prior to an assault, but the greater complexity of combined arms battle would create more headaches and more casualties than would result from straight turn-based play. ------------------ Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg

Actually, we need a good "Combat Mission Grognard" bumpersticker, so that we can identify each other in real life, and perhaps make new friends. There is a precedent for this in the Aubrey-Maturin bumperstickers for fans of Patrick O'Brian. Go to this site, http://www.sea-room.com/ , and click on the "The Aubrey-Maturin Bumpersticker" link for an image and more info. Hardcore fans of POB know that they have found a kindred spirit when they spot one of these, and sightings are quickly reported to the Searoom-l mailing list. Perhaps we could use the same sort of thing around here. Finally, if you have never read any of POB's Aubrey-Maturin novels, I both pity and envy you. Pity for not having yet read them, and envy for not having yet read them. Grognard Age of Sail novels at their finest. ------------------ Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I would love the game to have real time fighting like close combat<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Surely, on this board, this is trolling. If not, I strenuously vote against RT. ------------------ Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg

Since searching gave me lots of blank thread titles, I don't know if this has been covered yet. I have a request: could we please have some additional controls for the turn playbacks? I often am trying to see the particular result of a shot, or setting up the perfect screenshot, and it is a pain to only be able to back up 10 seconds at a time, and hopefully hit pause at the right moment. If we could move one frame or one second at a time, forward and backward, that would make my life more pleasant. On the other hand, are these already in the demo somewhere, and I've just hit a dense spot in my head? ------------------ Brad "Supertanker" Wohlenberg