buddy

OK, I'll start it off (seeing as yous guys are all shy and stuff). ------------------- "He spit on me!" "Oh, he must think the sun shines out your arse! He's never spat on me." ------------------- ". . .and what floats besides a duck?" "Small rocks!" -------------------- Some call me . . . Tim.

Call to arms! (Sort of . . .) Let's hear you favorite lines from your favorite movies and such! Lines like "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!" (Close enough) are priceless and bear to be repeated. Over and over again. Until we hear some information from BigTime. Yeah, that's it. So, give us "a frickin bone" or you'll hear all of the old movie lines in my arsenal (African or European - your choice). Signed, Chocolate Mousse "Thanks, I just had it stuffed"

Does "Hurry up and wait" ring a bell. Mark time, troop, mark time. . .

Just wondering how things are going with the testers, etc. Haven't heard anything new and this doggone cricket is driving me crazy!

Evansville in Southwest Indiana - right on the Kentucky border, y'all.

How embarasking, uh-gu-gu-gu-gu-gu!

I look at casualties the same way I do the large plumes of smoke from blown up vehicles/burning buildings - they give you an overall picture of what has happened. If you are the Ivan the Terrible type you can look back at the end of a battle and revell in the destruction. I think that all of us (doesn't matter if you are a vet or not) with any common sense knows that this is just a game and that war completely sucks. Still, the game involves the destruction of the 'enemy' - the planning and the strategy are fun - but the creation of this game and the attention to detail graphically in it reflects, in my opinion, the reason casualties should be in the game. They graphically represent what has happened.

Thanks much!

Amen, my brother. The Clinton Administration couldn't have done more to smash the moral/combat effectiveness of our military if they set out to do so.

Also, is this an order by internet only thing? Whats the deal?

Please forgive me but I'm confused about the pricing - preorder vs. order after release. ---------------------- The special US Customer, Pre-Order offer for Combat Mission and WWII Panther Print is $45 plus our standard S&H charge of $8. If you place an order for Combat Mission AFTER this offer expires you will pay $81 ($45 + $8 S&H + $20 + $8 S&H) for the same stuff. Therefore, you save $28 by ordering now. Not bad, eh? ----------------------- I don't care too much for the print - will I still have to pay $81 for the game after release? (I wanted to wait for the demo to come out before my final decision. It's not that I'm skeptical at all, just on a tight budget!) I can afford $45 bucks or so but $81 kinda puts the screws on, know what I mean?

I completely agree.

How about Polish Cavalry? just kidding....

Los, While the Mogadishu debacle didn't start as a "block-clearing mission" it certainly turned into one by necessity. Anyway, you may have missed my point the posting - the better trained troops came out on top and suffered less casualties. - Thanks

Yeah, what about those shermans (churchhills?) equipped with anti-mine "swirling mass of rotating chain thingees" (technical term). Shermans were equipped with anti-hedgerow type things as well . . . hmmm, just got a thought. What about one of my favorite German vehicles - the schwimvagan (spelling of this definately wrong) - it was a water jeep, right? (kinda like a Volkswagon/Jeep thing - very cool.)

Have to share this info, even though it is only vaguely related to combat mission... I have seen the topic of house to house fighting and extreme casualties come up from time to time - thought I'd share some semi-contradictory info on this based on one of the longest and most violent running gunfights this century perhaps. I'm referring to the ate-up snatch and grab operation in Mogadishu, Somalia earlier this decade. US Rangers, Delta Force members and others were sent in to grab some bad guys and send a message - everything went wrong and much badness followed. The Americans, considering the force it was up against, lost relatively few casualties compared to the estimated thousands of Somali wounded and dead (Red Cross estmates, actual figure not known by anyone). This may have some weight in the elite teams (recon, etc) discussion as better trained/more experienced troops seem to have less casualties. For more information on the Somali thing, check out this unbelieveable site: http://www.philly.com/packages/somalia/nov16/default16.asp

Listen up, people! I am so psyched for the demo I could just pee my trousers at this point (if I was a Nancy-boy, that is). What's that? You, first squad - alphabet!! You think this is funny? Drop and give me 20, maggot! Wait for it. . . . . MOVE! Anyway, it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas Eve . . . .

Sound off, people! Just curious as to the military experience of all participating in this forum...I was in the Army Reserves for 8 years (7 active). I was an office clerk, I made the rank of Sergeant before getting out and I spent 7 months in the Gulf War (6 in the field - 3 weeks of which in Iraq at a jump-toc or forward tactical operation center. My 8-man detachment actually captured about 9 surrendering soldiers). How's that for an office geek?

Dano 6, No offense but how about watching the language (personally I couldn't care less about the F-word but I'm kinda nauseated at the taking God's name in vain thing). 'Nuff said.

I'm getting an SUV as soon as I can afford one - simply put, you can see better and you have better protection. As far as people driving crazy these days, I just think, overall, that people think their time is worth more than yours. Instant gratification is in these days, patience and respect for your fellow man is out. I saw some dude get all peeved yesterday in a McDonalds drive-thru because of a lengthy order delay...it turns out the McD's people were having trouble with their computers. People are nuts (just check the paper these days).

Great! A lot of times I'll just post something that I think would be cool in the game - for historical accuracy, realism or just eye-candy! I concede that I have no idea what it takes to program something like this...I just thought that maybe, just maybe, once a vehicle has been destroyed then the engine would be able to access a static graphic of a totally fubar'd vehicle carcus. "For God sakes, Jim, I'm a graphic designer, not a combat sim programmer!" (Verklempt taken from a Saturday night live skit with Mike Myers playing some New Jersey talk show lady or something...)

Fionn, In answer to the following comments: ---------------------- I guess what I'm asking is what do you think a burning tank looks like? I've seen numerous shots of knocked out tanks (sometimes with burnt crew inside or hanging half out of the tanks and either actively on fire or burnt to a crisp) and I consider that the brewed up tanks look very much like what I have seen in books. What do you think they should look like/should be changed? ---------------------- I feel that the 'knocked out' vehicles should have a lot of debris scattered around the wreck - battlefields are huge trash dumps with stuff scattered all over the place! Oh yeah, the Tigers look mah-velous! (Reminds me of the model I made as a kid...) I'm feeling verklempt, talk amongst yourselves...

OK, (sigh) - just trying to make the point that, although halftracks are far better for transporting troops than trucks, historically it's the trucks that were used more often...at the battle of the bulge infantry troops were moved up to the battlefield by trucks, not halftracks. That was my only point - and, even though a truck would be a nice juicy target, wouldn't it be a cool scenario to move a column forward to a jump off point and then move tactically to the objective? I dunno, nuff said...

Fionn, I think it would apply as you have been using your halftracks to haul infantry around in - face it, nothing is better than a truck for that!

Have you considered incorporating trucks and trains into the scenario? Troops were often hauled to and fro via trucking battalions - the "Red Ball Express" is one historic example (US Army), and the Germans even had armored trains I believe with heavy artillery on them. I was just wondering how you guys will take into effect supply lines and such.