Zulu

MS has made viewers so you don't need full versions of Access and Excel to view the files. I don't have the location now (just browsing) but I will find it and post it. The viewers and not too big I think.

Good war movies; I believe it was called "Compass Rose" - story about a Canadian corvette in the North Atlantic in WW2. Good story, gave a good idea of what life was like on those little sub hunters. I also liked "12-Oclock High". B-17's going into the heart of Germany.

LAST DEFENCE – Battle # 7 We knew that the Krauts were coming. G-2 had advised us that aerial recon had spotted some tanks and infantry coming our way. Unfortunately, crappy weather rolled in and the flyboys got socked in, so we can expect no air support. The only good news is that Colonel Jarvis cut loose some reinforcements. A tank destroyer platoon with some infantry is due at 1400. Hope we can hold out that long. We don’t have a lot to hold St. Jerome. Our orders are clear, “Hold or Delay at All Costs”. The bridge is the only way across the river for 30 km on either side. If this probe gets through us, the main thrust will come through here. If the Panthers get loose behind our lines they will have a field day. There’s supply columns galore just 15 km back. They would be slaughtered like sheep. The Major spread us our pretty thin. Our 3 bazookas are placed, one in the forward O.P., one behind the stone wall, and one on the right flank. The squads are placed in the same areas. We have our 1 heavy mg up in the 2nd floor of the bakery. Gene has a good look up the main road. One 30cal mg is placed on the left flank where it can cover Hill 219. The other 2 are on the right flank, covering the north tree line. We put the 3 mortars back on the other side of the river, flanking the road into town. It’s all we got, I pray it’s enough. Damn, we just got word from the mortar squads. Mortar Able reports lots of movement to the north, tanks, armored cars, infantry. Looks like it’s really gonna hit the fan. Everyone’s supposed to keep their heads down. Our only hope is to ambush the tanks. Pop, pop, pop, there go the mortars. They’re hoping to suppress the infantry and maybe hurt the armor. So far no return fire, our mortars are hidden well. An explosion, and a plume of smoke. Mortar Baker reports they killed an armored car. Well we got first blood but now the krauts know we’re here for sure. More reports coming in. Looks like the kraut commander knows what he’s doing. The tanks split up and we are facing a 3-pronged attack, on both flanks and up the middle. Mortar Able confirms that one tank is a Tiger, that’s very bad news. The only way the bazookas can kill it is with a flank or back shot. The krauts are moving up closer, probing on all 3 sides. The o.p. is spotted and comes under heavy fire. I see one bazooka rocket launch at the middle tank. It missed and the tank opens up. I think it’s a Stug, more bad news. They’re assault tanks with lot’s of HE. Now the o.p. is burning and getting pounded bad. Looks like we lost the bazooka team and the rifle squad there. Now the Tiger opens up on the right flank. They’re spotted the ambush teams out there. German mg’s open up on those poor guys too. They’re getting cut to shreads. I hear one of our mg’s open up on the krauts on the left flank. He rips em up some. Then a kraut tank pops up out there and opens up on our mg. Damn, another Stug. He’s blowing the crap outta the mg’s position. Our mg’s fire falters and then comes back, falters again, fires again. Bobby’s got big ones, he won’t quit! Everyone is opening up now. They realize it’s now do or die. WHAM! WHAM! BOOM! Aw hell, incoming artillery. What more can they throw at us? Shells are falling everywhere. I hear ours guys screaming as they get hit. But we’re giving it back. I see krauts getting hit. The 50cal lights up an armored car. Spud’s must have hit the fuel tank. The crew bails out along with the squad. Spud’s cuts some of them down. Then both Stugs open up on Spud’s position. The building dissolves in a series of explosions. One more gone. Suddenly the Stug in the middle blows up in spectacular fashion. Flames and explosions engulf it. What a horrible way to die. Man, I hope I don’t burn! The second Stug stops shooting. I see wisps on smoke coming from it. Then the crew bails out. Yahoo, the cavalry has arrived. This slackens the German attack somewhat. It must have shaken them to see 3 of their armor get killed when their attack was going so well. Off to the right, I hear a loud crack. Then another. A scrang screech as a shell hits the Tiger, but it keeps shooting. Another hit, how do you kill that sucker? More screeching metal and the Tiger slews sideways. They got it! But the big turret turns and fires. I look over my shoulder and see plumes of smoke on the horizon. Mortar Able radios that all 3 Hellcats are dead. The Tiger can’t move but it keeps pounding us. Man, will this never end? I look at my watch, wow, we’ve only been fighting for 14 minutes. The krauts open up again and start coming at us. I see Billy grab the bazooka and run out to the trees. He’s spotted and gets hit and falls, but gets up. Bullets and explosions surround him. He slowly raises the bazooka. The big turret is swinging towards him. The rocket slams into the side of the Tiger and it starts burning. Then mg’s cut Billy down. Aftermath A sort of truce took place after a while. I don’t think anybody had much of anything left. Most of our guys were out or down to their last few clips, those that were still alive. We tended to our wounded and marked the dead. The Germans did the same. They loaded up their badly wounded on the 2 remaining half tracks and carried out what they could. St. Jerome is mostly destroyed. The artillery and the tanks hit most every building. We lost 52 kia and 30 seriously wounded. Plus the 3 Hellcats. Those tankers saved our butts. From what we can tell, the Germans lost 3 tanks, 2 armored cars and about the same number of troops as we did. Those guys were very good, especially that Tiger. He caused us a lot of hurt. If Billy hadn’t of got him, well I don’t know how we could have stopped them. But our guys fought hard too, I’m proud to say. It cost us dearly but we held. The Major recommended Billy for the Medal of Honor. The Colonel said he will endorse it. Small comfort to his wife and kids, I know. I hope that the French will honor the men who died here, maybe in time on both sides. I hope it was all worth it. I feel proud to have fought with such men. Rest in Peace, Brothers!

I posted yesterday about US mortars possibly getting kills on the German AFV’s too easily. I had won 4 games straight, (complete victories in Last Defense) by targeting the German AFV’s with mortars (result in 4 games = 16 kills), hiding everyone, and waiting for the Hellcats to show up. Well, in game 5, I guess the mortar crews were partying the nite before. They couldn’t hit s**t. (Result, 1 AFV kill, and no ammo left). Plus the AI decided to do a 3-pronged attack instead of rolling all 3 tracks down the middle. He had a STUG on the east, one on the middle and the Tiger in the west. The German groundpounders advanced with excellent use of cover, with the remaining 3 AFV’s moving up slowly with the tracks, probing and supporting the troops. My guys kept hiding (the zooks got flushed out of the forward positions and were beat up pretty good), waiting for the cavalry to show up. When, a squad would be spotted, it was immediately pounded by the German armor, and mg’s, etc. What a great feature, during the replay to sit at the troops eyeball level, see all the incoming, they hit the dust, poke their heads up again only to get another lead shower, dive for cover again, tracers everywhere. Talk about realism! The cavalry arrived and oh, oh only 1 Hellcat had a los to the Tiger, plus the STUGS were not visible either. Ok, kill the big cat, then worry bout the STUGS. Target the Tiger, other Hellcats on hunt. Boom, boom, boom, 3 dead Hellcats. Well, between the German armor, the mortars, arty, plus all those mg’s and assorted troops, you can guess the outcome. BTS, this game rocks. Unlike the CC series where once you figure out the AI strategy, victory is pretty well assured, CM keeps surprising me. The AI is very, very good, and with what it currently does, plus the scenario generator, CM will be replayable infinitely. Steve, question on scenarios, are you going to have a dl/ul section on your site for user created games?

I appologize in advance if this has been asked elsewhere. This is not a bug, just a question as to the reality of mortars vs. armor. I spent the weekend getting in some serious CM time. I am very impressed with the demo, and can't wait for my full version to be shipped. CM taught me some hard lessons in managing men, materials etc. Anyway, to make a long story short, I finially learned not to attack tanks with popguns - I am Americans in Last Defense. Hunker down boys and wait for the reinforcements! This strategy enabled me to win 4 - 0 with Complete Victory in each game. The question is, as part of my strategy, I put everyone on hide (I redeployed the units back behind the 2nd stone wall, others to buildings on right side, from foxholes, etc.). Then I targeted the AFV's with the mortars only. In 4 out of 4 scenarios the mortars killed all 4 AFV's in quick order. Is this realistic? Mortars had good los to targets. Then the 3 Hellcats appear and take out the Tiger and the STUGS. I only lost 1 Hellcat in 4 battles (luck?). After the German armor gone, mop up time .

Do not buy this game because: -Divorce rates will climb. I d/l’d it last nite and at 6:30 AM, the dog finally got me off the puter to do his business. Addictive as all heck. -BTS, now I have all this old software that I’m gonna have to sell. I can see CC, CC2, CC3 gathering dust so I might as well sell them. Steel Panthers, woohoo you are now 18th century software. -work. CM is definitely going to give me many lack of sleep nights. I’m stocking up on coffee only for Y2K. General Observations Graphics are superb. What other game gives you such highly detailed men, vehicles, terrain. You can see the guys riding on tracks, peeking over the turret scanning for the enemy. AI – WOW!!. Got my butt waxed too much to mention. CM’s AI is light years above anything else I’ve come across. The soldiers move out of the way so they don’t become squishies (I saw one guy flip the bird at one tank jockey J). They do things right. The enemy reacts realistically. GamePlay – the interface is everything CM promised. It is intuitive and very easy to use. After about 10 min, you could easily do most everything one wanted to do. Game Size – all this in 22 meg? Where’s the bloatware BTS? I need another 300 meg because I now have all that extra room because of all the other games that are now bye-bye. What is the estimated final install, 80 – 100 meg? Thank you BTS. This is easily the best combat simulation out there. It forces you to analyze terrain, ingress routes, possible ambush sites, los, the mission, resources from a commanders perspective like nothing before.

To MikeLopez, Been there, Did that. As soon as Steve replied to my message (Steve great follow up! You set a response level that shouild be an industry standard, I can see that you guys deserve the success that this game will be.), I ordered the game. Received it 4 days later. Mike, it has exceeded all my expectations and I've blown CC2 and CC3 from my harddrive. Will easily be the strategy Game of the Year and if there's any justice, will be the GAME OF THE YEAR! Seriously, above is/will be true once the game ships. And I'm glad my Loonies are going into developers pockets instead of to the Big Companies who don't give a sh*t about quality software. If they did, why do we have 387 blowing away deer games, and so many buggy pieces of software. Do we really need patch 1.103.3.55.6667. Do it right the 1st time like BTS is doing. Anyway, PLEEEZ ship it soon!

Sorry Steve, my mistake. When I read the the Canada/Mexico part didn't have eh! after it so I misread it. Plus the Big Rock Traditional probably had something to do with it . If you get to Calgary, try some, its a really good barley sandwich. Order placed. So I should receive by late next week????

One quick question before I place my order. On the ordering page, freight to Canada is listed as $18.00. On the Policies page, freight to Canada and Mexico is listed as $10.00. Which is correct? It makes a difference with our Canadian peso