Wolfe

MGs on Tanks and Vehicles in CMBB - Chris

Le bump for those who missed this one. - Chris

Preview in Wellington - Chris

Ooooo. Aaaaah. Lend-lease stuff should be fun! Thanks for the sneak preview! And to Marco too. - Chris

Thanks, Garry! But the 'N' key isn't new. It's been in CMBO since the Gold Demo. And you call the new game 'Beyond Barbarossa' in the last paragraph on page 3. - Chris

Some more tidbits from various sneak peeks: How MGs will change - a Chicago AAR comparison Branches in CMBB CM Outpost - CMBB Sneak Preview Report - Chris

Even more info to go along with the release date announcement! Troops Signals in CMBB? Hey?!? Is that a new Weasel I see on the Homepage!!!!! BTS Fix or Do Somefink!!! London Sneak Preview Report CMBB Preview at Gamespot - Chris

An older post on what countries might be included in CM3/CM4: Will there be this type of scenario? - Chris

Some more new info. Setting the Record Straight FAQ - CDV distribution details. Question Regarding Tank Maneuvers in CMBB Death from Above in CMBB - Chris

The next thing is definitely the Engine re-write. After that should be the Med (including Crete, I believe) and the Early war (including the Winter War), but the order isn't set in stone yet, AFAIK. Not sure even BTS knows the order at this point. My guess would be the Med will be the first to show off the new engine. And hopefully they will be able to get back to CMBO and CMBB with the new engine after CM4. What BTS has had to say on the subject recently: Vtoraya Mirovaya Macgamer Article - Chris

They're listed here: SC Campaigns - Chris

Actually I don't think CM has MIPmap levels (or has them very minimally). On my old V5 pushing the LOD into negative numbers did help calm some of the shimmering very close to the camera lens, but I'm not really sure why. The V5's FSAA also helped a lot with reducing texture shimmer. I don't think you want to make the game textures any sharper (add more shimmer) than they already are. Try turning on Anisotropic filtering and 4xS anti-aliasing. Those should have the most impact on the game to reduce texture shimmer. - Chris

Video Card Specs and Ratings Jim, the 64MB Ti4200 is an excellent card. It'll handle any game nicely. The 128MB version will run some games (Return to Castle Wolf and Jedi Knight 2) at high resolutions and high detail a bit faster than the 64MB version, but I personally don't think it's quite worth the extra expense right now. [Edit] Grrr. Misread your post. I'd have to agree with jiggles below, the Ti4200 may not be worth the extra expense. But for most games I don't think the extra 64MB on the GF3 Ti200 is crucial. Of course there's nothing wrong with having more onboard mem. [/Edit] PL, the GF4 MX series gets bashed (a bit unfairly, IMO) because even though it's called a "GF4", it doesn't support Pixel or Vertex shaders which are important specs for upcoming games like Doom 3 and Unreal 2003. The MX420 itself has extremely low memory bandwidth and doesn't perform much better than a GF2 MX400. You can actually get a GF2 GTS-V from Newegg for ~$47 that will outpace the MX420! For an inexpensive card look at the MX440 or (if you can live without fog in CM) the Radeon 8500LE. - Chris [ July 06, 2002, 11:44 AM: Message edited by: Wolfe ]

Here ya go: This should hold you over for a little while...Two new CMBB Screenshots! And a bonus buy that I missed before myself: Wargamer Screenshots - Chris

I missed this one before! :eek: Wargamer Screenshots And AARs of the sneak peek of CMBB in action at Casa de Rune: Sneak Preview - Chris

Doh! - Chris

Heh. So I guess that accounts for 5 of the 6 Cromwells that were sent to the Eastern Front in that one pic? - Chris [ July 05, 2002, 03:45 PM: Message edited by: Wolfe ]

Waaah! Hope you get it straightened out soon, Hubert. Erm. BTW, I'm not sure which spelling is correct: luftlotte or luftflotte. You have the former in the game. Also not sure if you caught this one but, the mines in France and Germany seem to be linked somehow. When I bomb one with a strategic bomber, both are damaged! But the damage to the unbombed one isn't shown until you click on it. - Chris

This subject's been discussed a couple of times before, and I'm still kinda sitting on the fence. On its face, Strategic Bombing looks like an big waste of points. But Hubert and some of the Beta testers have said that it does really work over time, so I'm certainly willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm still not completely convinced it's worth it (and I probably need the whole game in my hands to figure out ), but I am warming up a bit to the idea. I've tried evacuating many units from France (including French armies), moved them back to merry olde England, and then disbanded them for 250 pts each (plus one fighter) to put towards research and bombers. If you buy 2 research points and 3 bombers, that's 2000 (though the research pts will eventually go to other things). You are then reasonably free to bomb the hell out of the ports of: Antwerp, Bergen (Norway), Brest, and even Arachon if you move the bombers to the southern part of England. This effectively removes the possibility of a Sealion. There are also two mines in range: one in France and one in Germany that are possible targets. Other ports in range if you research Long Range Aircraft include: Oslo, Norway; Kiel, Germany; and Toulon, France. I also tried putting a bomber in Malta to go after the Italian ports, but the limited supply (only 5) negates any real attack from there. The Bombers themselves (upgraded to atleast level 1 bombers) don't seem to take too terrible of a pounding from the Axis airforce (so long as they stick to bombing ports, not enemy units or occupied cities), and will usually only lose 1 or 2 strength points per bombing run, even though the Axis HQs in command of the German fighters impart some nice bonuses to their planes. By repeatedly successfully bombing the ports, you also build up your own HQ's experience. If you have friendly escorts within range, they will often take a pounding from the Luftwaffe, however. The one thing I would like to see changed is the ability to damage a city even though there is an enemy unit in it. This one has been requested before, hopefully it'll make it in. I still don't know if all the math works out, but eliminating the possibility of a Sealion and removing a number of MPPs from the German player's pool turn after turn is a Good Thing in my book. Though the strategy of emptying France to use their armies for MPP points does allow the German player to do an earlier Barbarossa, which could be a bad thing. I guess we'll hear if Hubert has done any real tweaking to this, and then see how it works in the full game. - Chris [ July 04, 2002, 06:34 PM: Message edited by: Wolfe ]

Uniforms and Ferdinands and partial penetrations, oh my! Is that a CMBB Bone I Smell???!!?? Nah, couldn't be... - Chris

Yeah I don't know what that's meant to represent in the game. I can't imagine it's a game-balance issue since once you get that city up to 5, then you can operate your units to it and all the unoccupied adjacent hexes, which is nice. - Chris

As lars said, moving a Tank around with Supply level of 0 isn't too bad, but you want to avoid fighting if you can, particularly if you get cutoff from your supporting units and have to fight your way back. That can be a bad thing. But against a human, you won't be able to drive to the Eastern side of the map like you can against the AI (atleast currently in this particular beta demo scenario). BTW, it's probably too late to get changed for the full release of the game, but I'm not sure that rivers present all that much of an obstacle. I cross them with ease and I'm even not very afraid of fighting on them. I wonder if this could use a bit of tweaking? Also, the AI has a habit of moving an entrenched unit off of a city, losing the unit's entrenchment value, and then building a new corps on the city hex. This really hurts its defensive value. See this a lot at Riga and Leningrad, even when I don't have any units attacking. The new units would be better off being created outisde the city hex whenever possible, leaving the defenders to build up their entrenchment value. Also, the AI has a tendency to use its entrenched units sitting on a city hex to attack with when surrounded. This often leads to the unit getting knocked down a couple of pegs during its attack, making taking the city that much easier. I love seeing this when I'm the one trying to take the city. I've had good luck with just leaving the city unit alone and letting the surrounding enemy beat on me, and then reinforcing back up to the max as the unit will often survive. It doesn't always happen, of course, but I think it's a good tactic. Leave the fighting to the units not guarding the city hex. Maybe the AI should try this as well. - Chris

The smoke dischargers and the M had fording equipment according to Chamberlain & Doyle. The IIIJ version came with either L/42 or L/60, BTW. Though the IIIL may have been the first to actually carry the new gun. I dunno. - Chris

Erm. Have you not been reading this forum for the past month or so? That's a Sweet looking PzIIIM. With forward 3D smoke dischargers no less! But (yes - you knew it was coming ) the track cuts through the front sprocket a bit much. - Chris

LOL! Whoops! I like the 4th unit so I can completely surround the capital without putting the HQ in danger. The corps usually doesn't die for me if I use only 3 attacking units plus the ship. Maybe I'm just not lucky enough. Beating the Swedish unit down to 1 but then having it reinforce back to max is infuriating, and it's something I definitely try to avoid. Of course, all this will become a moot point once the gold demo is released. C'mon Gold demo! Definitely. Cutting off his MPPs is far more important than worrying about supply. Corps are important for scouting, allowing your tanks to drive without fear of being surprised. Natural breaks for me often come after I've reached the mines north of Sevastopol and have cut off Riga. My army units are usually fighting for Kiev and reinforcements are coming up behind along with the HQs. Once Kiev is mine, I feel freer to lurch forward without fear of being cut off or losing my gains. - Chris [ July 02, 2002, 12:45 PM: Message edited by: Wolfe ]