Wild Bill Wilder

My pleasure, OGSF! These guys are leaving us every day. Its a special thing to have any contact with them, of any country. ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

I received this today from a Veteran who was there in the area where this battle took place. During my time of scenario design, I've heard from vets involved to one degree or another in many battles I've done on WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and even DS. I can't tell you how exciting it is to get these. This one is from Mr. Vernon Brown, who served as a cavalry trooper with the 14th Armored Division. Dear Bill.... I was fascinated by your Scenario on Herrlisheim, 'cause as a young cavalry trooper I got shoved into "Operation Nordwind" not with the 12th Arm'd, but in "Task Force Huddleson" of the sister 14th Arm'd Division. As you are no doubt aware, Ike sent George Patton and most of the Seventh and Third Army north to contain the Bulge leaving the VI Corps (in one briefing you have it the sixth Army ) to mind the store in the south. Hitler saw a chance to recapture Alsace, free his trapped army in the south, and wreck the relations between DeGaule and the US for once and for all, and on New Year's Eve he struck with great force. Our lines at TF Huddleson were spread so thinly, that there must have been a couple of hundred yards of forest between my platoon and the neighboring one. Kind of scary. Jerry patrols had been going through us at will on a nightly basis. In the weeks that followed bitter winter fighting took place not only at Herrlisheim, but Hatten-Rittershoffen, Soultz, Gambsheim and all the little heims in between. Tanks slid off the icy roads, the wounded had to be picked up quickly or they would freeze to death. Let me quote a paragraph from my book: "Mount up, We're Moving out!" "By the 19th of January it became apparent to General Patch that his Seventh Army could no longer take the punishment being meted out by the numerically superior German Divisions. He had already lost fifteen percent of his army, of which the 14th Armored alone had suffered the loss of eighty-three officers and 1,038 enlisted men. Some of the infantry companies were so depleted that they were no longer deemed effective fighting units. ~~~~~Colonel Hans Von Luck, commanding the 21st Panzer Division wrote in his memoirs that "towards the end neither side was fighting for anything but survival" referring to it as "one of the hardest fought battles ever fought on the Western Front" On the two sides 10,000 artillery shells were fired each day. Plans were made to withdraw Sixth Corps to secondary positions some twenty miles back along the Moder River." I play alot of strategy war games, and I want to tell you that CC is the only only that has ever approached that awful feeling of "****! There they are!" I have not completed your Herrlishheim scenario yet, my only thought is that at the beginning the guys would have taken defensive positons in the town itself, not in the woods or that broad expanse of open ground in front We hated the woods, not only air bursts but the endless cold and constant snow. In town there were good defensive positions, we could burn furniture in the stoves for warmth,and to heat our K rations. Love to see more of these great scenarios...! Best wishes, Vernon Brown ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

I received this today from a Veteran who was there in the area where this battle took place. During my time of scenario design, I've heard from vets involved to one degree or another in many battles I've done on WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and even DS. I can't tell you how exciting it is to get these. This one is from Mr. Vernon Brown, who served as a cavalry trooper with the 14th Armored Division. Dear Bill.... I was fascinated by your Scenario on Herrlisheim, 'cause as a young cavalry trooper I got shoved into "Operation Nordwind" not with the 12th Arm'd, but in "Task Force Huddleson" of the sister 14th Arm'd Division. As you are no doubt aware, Ike sent George Patton and most of the Seventh and Third Army north to contain the Bulge leaving the VI Corps (in one briefing you have it the sixth Army ) to mind the store in the south. Hitler saw a chance to recapture Alsace, free his trapped army in the south, and wreck the relations between DeGaule and the US for once and for all, and on New Year's Eve he struck with great force. Our lines at TF Huddleson were spread so thinly, that there must have been a couple of hundred yards of forest between my platoon and the neighboring one. Kind of scary. Jerry patrols had been going through us at will on a nightly basis. In the weeks that followed bitter winter fighting took place not only at Herrlisheim, but Hatten-Rittershoffen, Soultz, Gambsheim and all the little heims in between. Tanks slid off the icy roads, the wounded had to be picked up quickly or they would freeze to death. Let me quote a paragraph from my book: "Mount up, We're Moving out!" "By the 19th of January it became apparent to General Patch that his Seventh Army could no longer take the punishment being meted out by the numerically superior German Divisions. He had already lost fifteen percent of his army, of which the 14th Armored alone had suffered the loss of eighty-three officers and 1,038 enlisted men. Some of the infantry companies were so depleted that they were no longer deemed effective fighting units. ~~~~~Colonel Hans Von Luck, commanding the 21st Panzer Division wrote in his memoirs that "towards the end neither side was fighting for anything but survival" referring to it as "one of the hardest fought battles ever fought on the Western Front" On the two sides 10,000 artillery shells were fired each day. Plans were made to withdraw Sixth Corps to secondary positions some twenty miles back along the Moder River." I play alot of strategy war games, and I want to tell you that CC is the only only that has ever approached that awful feeling of "****! There they are!" I have not completed your Herrlishheim scenario yet, my only thought is that at the beginning the guys would have taken defensive positons in the town itself, not in the woods or that broad expanse of open ground in front We hated the woods, not only air bursts but the endless cold and constant snow. In town there were good defensive positions, we could burn furniture in the stoves for warmth,and to heat our K rations. Love to see more of these great scenarios...! Best wishes, Vernon Brown ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

I received this today from a Veteran who was there in the area where this battle took place. During my time of scenario design, I've heard from vets involved to one degree or another in many battles I've done on WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and even DS. I can't tell you how exciting it is to get these. This one is from Mr. Vernon Brown, who served as a cavalry trooper with the 14th Armored Division. Dear Bill.... I was fascinated by your Scenario on Herrlisheim, 'cause as a young cavalry trooper I got shoved into "Operation Nordwind" not with the 12th Arm'd, but in "Task Force Huddleson" of the sister 14th Arm'd Division. As you are no doubt aware, Ike sent George Patton and most of the Seventh and Third Army north to contain the Bulge leaving the VI Corps (in one briefing you have it the sixth Army ) to mind the store in the south. Hitler saw a chance to recapture Alsace, free his trapped army in the south, and wreck the relations between DeGaule and the US for once and for all, and on New Year's Eve he struck with great force. Our lines at TF Huddleson were spread so thinly, that there must have been a couple of hundred yards of forest between my platoon and the neighboring one. Kind of scary. Jerry patrols had been going through us at will on a nightly basis. In the weeks that followed bitter winter fighting took place not only at Herrlisheim, but Hatten-Rittershoffen, Soultz, Gambsheim and all the little heims in between. Tanks slid off the icy roads, the wounded had to be picked up quickly or they would freeze to death. Let me quote a paragraph from my book: "Mount up, We're Moving out!" "By the 19th of January it became apparent to General Patch that his Seventh Army could no longer take the punishment being meted out by the numerically superior German Divisions. He had already lost fifteen percent of his army, of which the 14th Armored alone had suffered the loss of eighty-three officers and 1,038 enlisted men. Some of the infantry companies were so depleted that they were no longer deemed effective fighting units. ~~~~~Colonel Hans Von Luck, commanding the 21st Panzer Division wrote in his memoirs that "towards the end neither side was fighting for anything but survival" referring to it as "one of the hardest fought battles ever fought on the Western Front" On the two sides 10,000 artillery shells were fired each day. Plans were made to withdraw Sixth Corps to secondary positions some twenty miles back along the Moder River." I play alot of strategy war games, and I want to tell you that CC is the only only that has ever approached that awful feeling of "****! There they are!" I have not completed your Herrlishheim scenario yet, my only thought is that at the beginning the guys would have taken defensive positons in the town itself, not in the woods or that broad expanse of open ground in front We hated the woods, not only air bursts but the endless cold and constant snow. In town there were good defensive positions, we could burn furniture in the stoves for warmth,and to heat our K rations. Love to see more of these great scenarios...! Best wishes, Vernon Brown ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

I received this today from a Veteran who was there in the area where this battle took place. During my time of scenario design, I've heard from vets involved to one degree or another in many battles I've done on WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and even DS. I can't tell you how exciting it is to get these. This one is from Mr. Vernon Brown, who served as a cavalry trooper with the 14th Armored Division. Dear Bill.... I was fascinated by your Scenario on Herrlisheim, 'cause as a young cavalry trooper I got shoved into "Operation Nordwind" not with the 12th Arm'd, but in "Task Force Huddleson" of the sister 14th Arm'd Division. As you are no doubt aware, Ike sent George Patton and most of the Seventh and Third Army north to contain the Bulge leaving the VI Corps (in one briefing you have it the sixth Army ) to mind the store in the south. Hitler saw a chance to recapture Alsace, free his trapped army in the south, and wreck the relations between DeGaule and the US for once and for all, and on New Year's Eve he struck with great force. Our lines at TF Huddleson were spread so thinly, that there must have been a couple of hundred yards of forest between my platoon and the neighboring one. Kind of scary. Jerry patrols had been going through us at will on a nightly basis. In the weeks that followed bitter winter fighting took place not only at Herrlisheim, but Hatten-Rittershoffen, Soultz, Gambsheim and all the little heims in between. Tanks slid off the icy roads, the wounded had to be picked up quickly or they would freeze to death. Let me quote a paragraph from my book: "Mount up, We're Moving out!" "By the 19th of January it became apparent to General Patch that his Seventh Army could no longer take the punishment being meted out by the numerically superior German Divisions. He had already lost fifteen percent of his army, of which the 14th Armored alone had suffered the loss of eighty-three officers and 1,038 enlisted men. Some of the infantry companies were so depleted that they were no longer deemed effective fighting units. ~~~~~Colonel Hans Von Luck, commanding the 21st Panzer Division wrote in his memoirs that "towards the end neither side was fighting for anything but survival" referring to it as "one of the hardest fought battles ever fought on the Western Front" On the two sides 10,000 artillery shells were fired each day. Plans were made to withdraw Sixth Corps to secondary positions some twenty miles back along the Moder River." I play alot of strategy war games, and I want to tell you that CC is the only only that has ever approached that awful feeling of "****! There they are!" I have not completed your Herrlishheim scenario yet, my only thought is that at the beginning the guys would have taken defensive positons in the town itself, not in the woods or that broad expanse of open ground in front We hated the woods, not only air bursts but the endless cold and constant snow. In town there were good defensive positions, we could burn furniture in the stoves for warmth,and to heat our K rations. Love to see more of these great scenarios...! Best wishes, Vernon Brown ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

Graphics can always be improved, just like any other aspect of any game. That is progress. We've come a long way from Atari 2600 and the future is as limited as man's ingenuity. I love the graphics. I look forward to the improvements. Isn't that what these "Mods" are all about? ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

Hindsight, of course, but I strongly recommend you spell out the rules for PBEM before you start. It does save a lot of bruised feelings down the road. As to the why, only your opponent can answer that. Perhaps he inadvertently set it that way. Ask him. Explain to him you just don't play that way. If he can't accept that, you probably don't want to play him anyway. ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

Try it from the German side, Napoleon and tell me what you think. I'd be very interested in your critique...if you get the time. I saw your Kelly Operations idea. Good luck with it. I think that would go over very well... ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

I agree, Count. We need those quickplay scenarios just for a break if nothing else. Some good quick fighting when one has a few minutes and nothing more. I'm glad you all are enjoying the ones I have done. There is nice variety on the way, from quick play up to 35 turns. I rarely, if ever, do one for more than that. I am afraid I get bored with 50-60 turn battles, but that is me. I like to finish when I start. Operations are an exception, but I try to finish each battle in an operation in a sitting. I lose track otherwise. Thanks for all your comments!...These are a help to know how I should work. ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

Something that might be easier would be a French-Viet Minh or even a Korean scenario since the weapons would be mainly WW2 weapons, but even then you would have to use your imagination a bit. Nice innovation, though, I gotta give you credit for that, Armdchair! ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

A lot depends on the type of battle you are designing, Jackson. Meeting engagements should be about equal. In the editor, notice the points accumulate as you pick units. Try to get them so both sides have about an equal amount of points spent. In attack-defend scenarios, you want about a 1 1/2 to 2 to 1 edge for the attacker. Disaster has made some good points in his comments. Testing will tell you what you need to do. If there are too many, you can remove some. That is what I call "fine tuning" the scenario and it can only be done with personal testing of both sides. ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

You are right, Frank. I have no idea. I'm not sure Matt knows of this, or he may be trying to find a way to speed it up. Did you try a search by name or auther? I'll try to find out what is going on...WB ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

You might have a good point there, Napoleon! The fantacism might be increased by 50% in the editor>parameters for a little harder push by the Germans. Thanks... ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

Very nice website, David!... ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

Works for me, Capn! I don't think it might for them. They are a fine group and it was a joint effort. What we did not design we tested, so yes, Raider work. Pedro, that is an outstanding accolade and I promise we'll try to keep that standard of quality for you. For that reason, we'll never flood the scenario listings with scenarios. We do strive for a mix of historicity and playability to create the final goal, a lot of fun and excitement. The encouragement is greatly appreciated. ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

Thanks for posting them,Colin. The site looks very nice. It's easy to access and you have an impressive list of battles. ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

I think I got it, Elvis. Thanks! The glory for those two go to Bryan Marauder Melvin (Turnbull) and to Kinch Kinscherf (Cabbage Patch). These guys are some top notch designers. Glad you are enjoying them. Wild Bill ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

I was somewhat involved in the testing of this game and the thing that impressed me the most was the excellent tutorial on how to use modern weaponry. Alas, my manual dexterity has made it hard for me, but that is my problem, not the game's... ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

Can't ask for more than that, Crepitis. Thank you! ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

Hey Cap'n! Those two you've mentioned are excellent ones, not mine, but done by part of the Raider team that worked with the CM Beta team very closely. I would agree that those were well done. We'll try to keep the standard high now and in the future too. ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

German Boy! Good to hear from you. And of course, you are right. Tanks on those small streets without infantry support are relatively easy meat. Not many games portray this as well as CM and the newly revised SPWAW. The dogface, tommy, grenadier finally get their due. I really like your website... ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com [This message has been edited by Wild Bill Wilder (edited 10-28-2000).]

You could be right, Ethan, IF it is one of mine. I don't have a "Reckless" scenario, at least as far as the title goes Some are pretty reckless, however! Give me the title again and let me take a look. I'll do it as soon as I hear from you. If you are waiting to send your turn, write me directly at my e-mail address and I'll get right on it. billw@thegamers.net Standing by.... ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

Andy, your analysis is right down the line. You need all your Panthers, and locating them properly is the key. Losing Barkmann on turn 2 to a Greyhound? Talk about fortunes of war! ARGH! The fact that you held on till turn 18 speaks well of your tactical capabilities, even in the most adverse of circumstances. NO ONE can forsee these flukes of combat. Really makes you love (and sometimes hate) the game, doesn't it. I know that M-8 commander talked about that one for years afterward. Incidentally, I did read of an occasion during the BoB when this actually happened. A Greyhound was suddenly confronted by a Panther tank at a bend in the road. The gunner panicked when firing his puny 37mm gun. The shell hit the pavement and ricocheted through the bottom armor, penetrating the crew compartment. It so shook the Panther crew that those still alive abandoned the tank immediately. Thanks for the update. It is definitely replayable and is great for lunch hour, or just before bedtime type of play. ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

Oh, it gets worse, Mace. I also have Kwazydog, Kinch, T Hagman, and Rune. And now a new Raider has joined us, Ted Quincey. Now can you imagine dealing with this wild and rowdy bunch? Colin, I feel honored. Oh, I sent you that package you asked for, the batch of scenarios to post on your site. Thank you! WB ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com

We'll try to never let you or the other gamers down. Quality is much more important to us than quantity. And if we ever should, tell us. We have a listening ear. I'm always open to suggestions and criticism. Just leave some skin on the bones. Flailing is very painful Thanks for this very kind note, VF!... ------------------ Wild Bill Lead Tester Scenario Design Team Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord billw@matrixgames.com