Zamo

PS: Geez, I'm really sorry you guys...I must be loosing my mind (again). Zamo

Captain, I heard a really bad rumour (of war?) that the manuals received turned out to be "Dress-up Fun Barbi" (Klaus?) manuals, and that Steve and Charles are even now penciling together replacement manuals which, unfortunatly may take the better part of the summer to complete...So, I guess you will just have to hold your horses along with me and the rest of our motley (Crue?) Crew(!) until they finish. My knowledgable source does indicate that they could use more Elmers glue to put the pictures in. Do you happen to have any? I think you live closer to them than I. Perhaps you can go hop on the trusty Captain Manieri jet-scooter and wisk it on down to them... OK, So, for all you dense types (read infantry), this was all a good natured bit of fun. Zamo

I don't think they are the same vehicles. In KH you can easily see that the turret (which is well done) sits just about flush with the front glacis. In SPR it is moved back to its correct position. A lot of people decry SPR for the use of mock Tigers. Fools. Only our discerning eyes would note the difference, and then only in the width of the vehicle and it's running gear. The fact remains there is not one availible, running Tiger I in the WORLD. Bovington has one that is in restoration, Munster has one that has the side cut out, and the French museum at Saumur has a running Tiger II. There are other tigers around, but these are the only ones even close to running/or restored condition. And I can guarantee that none of the museums would have allowed the use of their vehicles to be driven the way they were in the movie, ie over rubble and such. While a trained eye can easily and glaringly tell it's not a real Tiger, they have come a long way from using M-48's. I thank them.

Fighting in Hell: The German Generals speak Front soldaten -Fritz Loyalty Is My Honor -Williamson

I have built the 1/25th panther. It is an old kit, originally done by tamaya. It has a LOT of inaccuracies, the biggest being it is missing the entire interior set of interleaved road wheels. Of course, unless you look you'll never see that, and it does finish nicely. It has individual track links that work very well, along with working torsion bar suspension. If you condiser the dirth of 1/25th kits, it's ok. I built Tamaiya's re-release 1/25th Tiger I and was so happy with it I decided to get the Panther to augment it. I was a bit depressed by the kit, but not too much. I think it's worth building, just don't expect too much. As I said before, it does finish very nicely. It would have been a great kit in 1980. It's no where NEAR the quality of the M-18. It's simply another re-hashed old Tamaiya kit. Chris [This message has been edited by Zamo (edited 06-13-2000).]

Well said Martyr. Yes, I suppose to each his own is indeed the correct assessment. I read the Naked and the Dead at about the same time as Thin Red Line and The Barren Beaches of Hell. I am afraid I have elements of all of those books scrambled in my head. I guess I'll have to reread all of them. Speaking of good books, have any of you read Breakout! I just finished it last week and it was phenominally good. It concerns the breakout at the frozen Chosen during December '51. Very good reading. It's fact that reads alot like fiction...Four star recomendation. Zamo

Well Pawbroon, I won't disagree with SPR as being a "war movie", I really enjoyed it, despite it's many hollywoodifications, but I don't even think I'd call TRL a movie about war. I think it's more a movie about the director, and his own self-loathing. There are some really good scenes in TRL, and yes, some of the footage is breathtaking. But the over all lack of continuity and sad-sack whining of the main character is just pathetic. This is a film about the second world war shot with a vietnam era psychosis. And that sort of defeatist feeling was such an exception during that time that the movie looses almost all credibility in the first fifteen minutes. My pop was on Guadalcanal (with the 1st Marine Division, not the Army) and he became quite emotional after seeing this movie. Not that the scenes brought back bad memories, no, quite the opposite. He was literally disgusted how this movie portrayed the war and that campaign in general. He said it was a major pile of revisionist historical crap. I was really disapointed by this one in case you can't tell. My favorite part was half way through the movie when the squad is moving down a jungle trail and the camera cuts to a long, long shot of an owl perched on a branch...My pal turned to me and said, "Look: Guadalcan-owl" Sad that that's about the most memorable part... Zamo Climbing off his critics stool...

STAY AWAY FROM THE MOVIE At all costs... It is worthless tripe. It has been the only movie I have been tempted to walk out in in my life. My pals and I were howling with open laughter before the show was half way over, and so were most of the rest of the audiance. It's been years since I red the book, however, and I can't remember it's details, other than I recall I enjoyed it. Z

I too hate the circular rotate vs. point rotate. It would really be nice to have both. I wrestle all the time trying to get the view I really want, when it actually should be something I shouldn'g have to think about. Please BTS, this would really fix things up closer to perfection. Chris

Formerly Babra, et al. I hunted deer this last fall with a DSArms SA-58 FAL carbine. I have a large collection of civilianified military rifles and always will (hint hint). Did I "need" a military style auto-loader to slay bambi? No, but it sure was fun, and that is the single biggest reason I hunt...and collect arms. I only wish I lived in a less pink-o state where I could get a full-auto. Alas, Washington must be too close to Canada... So there, I am going to get off the pulpit and drink beer with my friend Steve (the other one)who sez "hi". Have a good weekend you bastards, and let's hope CM is in our hands by this time next... Zamo

My dear Germanboy, I must take exception to your previous post, and would prefer a game without any of those annoying little vermin. "Crunchies", as we used to call them, are only good for sitting on their asses at the victory points while my tanks are busy irradicating one hun possition after another. Infantry makes a fine track lube though, and we used to make a lot of money selling grunts ice cold refreshements out in the hot desert sun. Ah, for the gypsy life of a tanker... Hey any of you doggies ever refer to the turret bustle rack as a "gypsy rack"? Or was that just a jarhead term? All kidding aside, the proper employment of combined arms is really the only unstoppable solution on any battlefield, yesterday, today or tomorrow. Zamo unrepentant treadhead

I've seen them in pictures, but I still wouldn't put them in. To put it simply: they weren't "stock". They weren't universal and were actually a "field modification". So if we base our textures on "average" vehicles, then they shouldn't be there. Just as Schrullenhaft said, we can't expect to see cullins hedgrerow devices on every M4 can we? Though I have always thought they made the jeeps look "tougher". Zamo

Technically, and in the best hair splitting fashion, the FAL is NOT an assault rifle, but a Battle rifle. The difference being that an assault rifle fires an intermediatly sized cartdrige while a full battle rifle fires a full sized rifle cartridge. MP44, AK47, M16=assault rifles. M-14,G3,FAL=battle rifles. There are few nations still fielding full battle rifles these days as their main infantry weapon, the trend having long ago shifted to the lighter assault rifles, with their lighter ammo. If the ammo weighs less, grunts can carry more of it. More ammo, more bang bang. The FN/FAL, the British L1A1 (and I think it was also known as the SLR?), the Canadian C1, the Austrian Stg-58 and the South African R1 are all the same rifle simply made under license at different places. There is some cosmetic and finish differences between them, the biggest being some are metric and some are inch. It was the most widely used rifle in the free world during the cold war. The FNC is the reduced size, 5.56mm firing evolution of the FAL. Hope this helps, Zamo

I never knew Steve had a weasel. I just did a search and read some of the discussions on it. What a fun toy! When I was a kid there was an old M29 and a DUKW rusting away out in the woods near where we lived and me and my pals used to sneak in onto that guys property and play in 'em. Despite some oxidation, they were both in great shape. Needless to say, he sold them off to some lucky SOB long before I grew up to cash wielding age.

I've been using basic tactical doctrine all along and have had it work great. It always astounds me how this game models combat. Of course as Steve said, it's not perfect, but every time I have a tank back out into an enemies LOS and get toasted, or some squad gets liquidated 'cause they don't react the way a real one would have, I just chalk it up to FOW or bad luck. Lots of little white crosses over seas due to bad luck and plain stupidity. Perhaps this is an excellent "inadvertant" modeling job? I am counting the seconds until I install the full game. Zamo

Back when the United States was being created, the founding fathers voted on what our national language would be. English won over German by one vote!!! Funny, Dschugaschwili, I've always heard English is a hard second language to learn...

Regarding "copied" weapons: The Japanese copied the M1 Garand and fielded it to their some of their naval infantry units. I have also heard stories that the USSR copied the US B-29 after the war down to the serial numbers. Any verificators on that?

Yes, it is to stick leaves, twigs, branches, etc. in for camoflauge. Z

Maxis software's new title: SimDishwasher. Where you control the awesome destiny of a...dishwasher! Load, unload, rinse, agitate...It's all here! And, for the grognard, a special "Hand-washing" setting, to simulate the sculery duty at a major metropolitan diner! Fun for all ages!

"Eat hot lead you Nazi Buzzard!" Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat KA-BLOOM! Sgt. Rock, his sleaveless uniform in smoking taters, downs another 109 before escorting some French kid to the bombed out church to meet his papa, unknowingly slain by the afore mentioned 109, while a platoon of Tiger Ie's lies in ambush submerged in the lake they must cross... Ah, they don't make 'em like that anymore... Zamo

CCJ I don't know WHY BTS isn't paying you. Their images all look great and are no doubt as lavashed as they are willing to spend time on...But yours...WOW! Night and day! I really like the "ambush" camo and the buildings...Good show! Keep it up!

I hadn't seen mine, so I just now popped open the ol' trusty hex editor and...sure enough! Sehmel is listed in there in the German area. Thanks BTS!!! I had Deutsche relatives fight (and fall) in the war. My father joined the Marines so he wouldn't have to go to Europe and fight any long-lost cousins...Thanks BTS for putting our name in there. Can't wait to show the old man! Christian Sehmel Seattle

So Darwin, the blazes with the linguistics...We all want to know if you're going to make good on your promise and provide Phandaal with the unwed redhead...and if he passes, can I have her? My grandfather always told us never to date redheads as they were all insane. My grandmother was a redhead... Zamo

I used to race the Banzai class on a YZ-125 when I was in high school...seems a thousand life times ago...Last bike I had was a '92 RM-250. I tried racing the over-the-hill class on it. Crashing hurts alot more than it used to... Zamo "when in doubt, gas it!"

36, Wow, where has the time gone? Single with option to buy. No kids, no pets, lots of rifles... Former Sergeant of Marines and M60A1 RISE/Passive tank commander, B.A. in History, self employed network consultant. Beer brewing, flesh BBQing SCUBA diver extrordinaire when I can drag my sorry, aging carcass away from this damnible computer.