kmead

done and another shameless bump...

I was looking up info on Panzer Elite and the multi player WW2 web sim and saw a reference to Big Time's CM site. At the time, I think it was June 1999. I went back a few times and the graphics seemed to be getting better (certainly a relative term if you go and look at the old graphics on the site...) along with the general gameplay. I went back a few times and preordered the first week they offered the Panther print with the game. I lurked the board from then until the beta demo came out and have been playing nothing else since.

I was looking up info on Panzer Elite and the multi player WW2 web sim and saw a reference to Big Time's CM site. At the time, I think it was June 1999. I went back a few times and the graphics seemed to be getting better (certainly a relative term if you go and look at the old graphics on the site...) along with the general gameplay. I went back a few times and preordered the first week they offered the Panther print with the game. I lurked the board from then until the beta demo came out and have been playing nothing else since.

For me, the graphics are just fine for what I need in a game of this type. I don't play any of the various and sundry fps's. The next generation of CM should aim a little higher than it does today, but keep in mind in one year although the hardware will be available but not neccessarily adopted. I currently run this on a Rev iMac 233/6mb graphics and a imac 400/8mb and it works just fine until I open a huge battle when I have start dumping the smoke and so on. I expect to upgrade to a dual processor G4 in the next year with a 32mb video card, which I am sure will be the last new machine for quite some time. Not every wargamer is likely to have top line hardware, and I suspect they are less likely than most gamers. For me this game will be one of the only games I will be buying for myself this year, most of my software purchases are for my kids. I can't justify spending that much on myself and I just don't have the time to spend on multiple games with all my job and home responsibilities. Yeah it would be nice to have more eyecandy, but what is there is enough to get the job done. I want a smooth running simulation of the action more than I want a smooth movie...

You will want to buy more RAM. Go to Ramseeker.com Depending on the iMac you have 128mB is about 80 bucks. You will be glad you did. Its a small price to pay for the added stability and general speedup your machine will enjoy. Even a paltry 64mb will help... Karl Mead

I bet if I play Elmsdorf again tonight, my losses on the German side could just as easily go the other way... As thisi game has shown me several times...

Last night I played Elsdorf for the first time, SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER I chose the Germans, when my reinforcements came the KT was moved into the village and the Tiger 1s were moved forward to engage the various Jumbos. Lots of ricochets of 88s off good american armor, lots of ricochets off good early war german armor. A Pershing appears on the right flank of the T1s, the KT is moved next to a house at the edge of the village and promptly bogs (immobile) but is luckily facing the Pershing. T1s ignore Pershing as they are still engaging the Jumbos in the distance (1 T1 takes a gun hit and is retired to the village). The KT engages the Pershing which is hull down. Both vehicles trade several shots with ricochets off heavy armor (KT is at edge of village, Pershing is behind low rise accross field). Three Tank Destoyers move up next to the M26, the M26 takes a dive, the KT engages te TDs. A few ricochets and then one after the other the KT picks them off. KT is still immobile but active. At the end of the game I find out the TDs were in fact Pershings... The T1s (3 of them) were not engaged by the M26s and have moved forward to dispatch the Jumbos and engage the remaining allied light armor picking them off one by one. I was impressed by how tough the German tanks were in this, my Pz 4s were both dispatched early in their deployment but I was not surprised. The T1s suffered 1 gun damage and at the end of the game 1 destroyed as I didn't have enough infantry left to protect them form the US antitank teams. As I have seen so often in this game, it comes down to luck.... where were the units at the time of engagement, who shot first, who shot best and so on. I was lucky, my KT took out 4 Pershings from a position it just happened to end up in. Had it not bogged where it was it could have ended up in psoition in the field where it could have been picked off. Tank losses often come down to luck, and how you use your vehicles. Try going back to a saved version of a turn and replay it until you actually win that turn by modifying your orders to your units. You will find that your orders will make the difference in whether you lose a vehicle or not. No tank is invulnerable so don't put in a position which would require that it be invulnerable to survive your orders. The middle of a field is no place for a tank if you can help it. Try to make sure that your flanks are covered by buildings, trees or other protecting vehicles or infantry units. Us the advantages your units posess and consider its limitations. A KT moves slowly and has a slow turret, put it where it can pick off targets at range where it is invulnerable to its targets. Support it with units to the flanks so it won't be hit by a peashooter that zips around. If you have a M4 with a 75mm, move fast and close on your target, move en masse with several shermans in a wedge, arrow or other configuration. Overwhelm your opponent with your numbers, the sheer number of shots you can lay onto a target and so on. German tanks, at least the later ones were remarkable machines but had many severre flaws underpowered unreliable slow turrets small numbers of them produced and so on. Allied tanks had many flaws but in general therre were always alot of them around and they had excellent support from the other combined arms. I have strong beliefs and opinions, some of which are wrong or flawed. You may disaggree but on the things I am right about, I can't make you know. You must learn them on your own. thanks for reading my diatribe... Karl Mead

I agree strongly with DF's opinion that started this thread. I have jumped into several threads about micromanagement of individual units and dissatissfaction with the TACAI performance of our orders. Many people expect what I see as the impossible. How many times have we all gone back to a saved turn to change some seemingly minor order that ends up changing the entire outcome of the game. ( I recently changed an order for a StuIII to stay in place instead of advancing 25m, it was able to see an anti-tank team and reversed itself (no order) to safety and then went on to be part of what gave me a tactical victory) I think many blame the game for their own shortcomings as a leader (shields up, halon extinguishers at the ready...), chance and a our own inability to give the 'right' orders have a much greater outcome on the game. Had one not put the (unit name here) in that position it wouldn't have had to try and fight its way out of the situation in a more satisfactory way. The Germans lost the war, which means that each individual unit over the course of the last half of the war (41 onwards) had to have lost a larger number of engagements than they won. Not all those soldiers were hacks, they lost because of circumstances beyond their control (no art. support, lack of ammo, bad luck, the skill of the opposing unit etc), the game gives a simulation of what happens in battle. Argueably, it is a flawed simulation but when all is said and done, a very satisfying simulation all the same. The NYT writer really captured it well when he wrote: "When I finally won a battle after having my head handed to me a few times, I felt as though I'd planted the French flag atop the Eiffel Tower. And that beaming sense of pride is different from the rather clinical reaction I've had when I've been successful at other war games. This didn't feel like a game. It felt like a battle.' Its why I signed on the dotted line to buy this game last summer.

Doh, double post [This message has been edited by kmead (edited 10-06-2000).]

Keep in mind that like forts in the Civil War you could always bring enough ships cannons to suppress any crews, or more appropriately Billy Mitchell could bring enough airpower to bear to sink any battleship (Yamato anyone). A slow moving, slow firing, limited manuver vehicle in small numbers would have had great local effect, while they lasted. Bring in the Typhoons! You could also just ignore them as they couldn't move aroound very much. has anyone been to Aberdeen to see the US supertanks? The T128 with doubled tracks and HVSS units gives you pause, they had to design it so the outer tracks could be removed.

In reference to tac ai performance I think too many of us try to micromanage individual units to a degree that is really outside the scope of this game. We give the general orders to advance (retreat) fire in general at a given target. It is the reponsibility of the AI to carry out those orders to the best of its ability, just as any second louie or squad leader would. They are responding to the local threat as they see it, and a tanker in particular has a very narrow focus ( not to mention a very limited view) of what is threatening. They are fighting the battle they see, we in our omnipotent all seeing overview of the battle really would like to force them to apply their force more efficiently to win. In regards to sound contacts and so on, I can assure you that no tanker would ever hear what your cowering infantry can hear. A tank is a very noisy thing, and they almost always have their engine running, at the very least at idle and often higher to run the turret drive or so that the vehicle can bug out quickly. (picture a tank commander yelling at his driver "start the engine, I hear a tiger coming over the rise! I can't sir, its flooded...). I think we all have somewhwat unreasonable expectations for individual unit performance because we can see al the intel of what is occuring over the whole battlefield. Imagine what the ai must think of us for putting it in the position it finds itself in: that stupid human, he knew there was a tiger coming over the rise and all I have is this puny 75 and smoke to save myself and I can't even drive to safety because this is a culdesac... In regards to responses by our kind hosts what would you rather they do, respond to a point that has been hashed and rehashed many times (and will likely continue to be) or work on the next patch that may contain tcpip support or some other substantive issue. Added to that is the shear volume of back and forth that goes on. I could spend all day here (on the board) to stay up with everything that gets written, which would be nice but for the fact I need to redesign a product for my employer... My 2 cents. Karl Mead [This message has been edited by kmead (edited 10-04-2000).]

I too have had this same experience when stretching long lines for rotates. I run on an imac, don't know if this is a Mac only phenomena. It is frustrating to have your machine go off into the hinterland, often to its doom.

Thanks for putting notice of an update forCMHQ. It saves me some download time by not having to check directly. Also seems to provide you and others with the possibility of some lively repartee (sp).... Thanks again for your hard work. Karl Mead

You should consider the source, the John Birch Society has a long isolationist history as an organization, and are a rather exclusive group. They are also extremely conservative in thier viewpoint. As I recall, and this may be an incorrect recollection on my part, they also in the past had a strong racial slant. If I am mistaken in this last statement I apologize and mean no disparagement to any members that may frequent this board. They are among the groups who espoused the term of "new world order" and used to publicise things like soviet era military vehicles (being sold for surplus) in the USA being a indication of the Red menace. As you might tell from my post they are not my idea of a well balanced group to base decisions on your future from. Good luck in the military. I went through ROTC and spent several summers at Fort Knox, Kentucky. The army and I parted ways before I graduated which I think was good for the army and me. You have chosen an importatnt and honorable path which will be difficult and have many rewards. Some of which will not be evident until long after you have left the service. Good luck and thankyou.

In reference to the commentary on Frenchmen in the service of the German army, I recall reading a book possibly called Soldier that was written by a conscripted Frenchmen who served in the Gross Deutschland division on the eastern front. It detailed his entire sevice as I recall (twenty some odd years ago), rather gripping.

My vote is that when fog of war is on, that you only know what has occured on your own forces vehicles. Even with with field glasses, or through gun optics it would be unlikely that you would see a 3" or 3.5" (76mm to 88mm) hole in the glacis of a tank with all of the shadows and so on. A brewed up vehicle or a vehicle with its crew pouring out of its hatches would be noticeable and a clear message to cease firing on that target. In general, if you were in command of a ronson, wouldn't you keep pumping shells into what might be a very offensive target? I think too many of us try to micromanage indiviual units to a degree that is really outside the scope of this game. We give the general orders to advance (retreat) fire in general at a given target. It is the reponsibility of the AI to carry out those orders to the best of its ability, just as any second louie or squad leader would. They are responding to the local threat as they see it, and a tanker in particular has a very narrow focus ( not to mention a very limited view) of what is threatening. They are fighting the battle they see,we in our omnipotent all seeing overview of the battle really would like to force them to apply their force more efficiently to win. If this were a squad/plattoon level game I would see it as reasonable to lead my troops down to that level. With a hundred or two its not possible, nor in my estimation likely to be very enjoyable. So, no detailed gun hits on opposing forces beyond that which would be obvious to forces in the field.

For my part, and I know I'm to some degree a minority ( and need to get out more) but I don't have the time to play others... I know that the game really gets interesting against humans vs the ai my iMac generates. TCP is very low on my list of must get it dones for BTS. Maybe once the insanity of moving and remodelliing dies down I'' be ready to play well with others.

How is it that the running gear is on backwards? Is this the infamous version that used the British engine transmission combo to make more room in the crew compartment for that huge ammo?

You may have seen the one available from KayBee toys in the States. They came in two sherman versions that are the same with a slight color difference. They also offer a very nice King Tiger in winter and summer colors. All in 1/32nd scale (54mm). I have also seen them at a few other stores that carry battery powered toys in other packaging. They all have electric motors. Good luck. Karl Mead

Any possibility of using graphic converter's batch file conversion ability to change the bmp to a resource which is in the file in versioin 3.9? Very quick and easy, but it doesn't insert the resource into the program. Just another ignorant persons suggestion... KJM [This message has been edited by kmead (edited 07-07-2000).]

I believe the password is only present when you are playing PBEM/or hotseat where you are trying to pley both sides. I have never had to type a password when I am playing vs the computer.

The Microconversions Voodoo card is available for $95 at the folowing site: http://shop.macsales.com/macsales/XLR8yourmac/XLR8yourmac.taf As pointed out by PFord, another Imac user. the install is somewhat daunting but not that difficult. It is an orphan product so it won't be very well supported.

Sounds like a classic Ogre vehicle choice to me. I recall that was one of the many ways you could choose your forces to stop the strong but slow Ogre MBT. Yeah its gamey but fun. I also recall something similar in the novel "Davis" about a fictional military leader who used unusual tactics and application of forces. Of course he was vilified for it and as I recall died in the book (sort of reminded me of the Billy Mitchell story...). No I wouldn't do it in a WW2 sim unless the other party was aware that I might choose to use a very unrealistic TOE.

Ordered the Mac OS version and of course received the multi-platform CD (nice Panther poster too...). I ordered early on maybe last August when the screen shots started looking very good and the game mechanics looked like they were reasonable and playable. Of course it didn't hurt that this game was developed on a Mac. No regrets!

Hi, I saw your note. I have considered buying one of these before but heretofore had little need aside from Myth. Could you detail why you find it valuable. ie speed improvement by taking over polygon rendering vs software rendering, etc. At 8mb of vram I guess it won't look like Mad Matt's pictures. Could you email a screen shot of a typical battle scene to me at karlmead@hotmail.com? Many thanks in advance. Karl Mead [This message has been edited by kmead (edited 06-23-2000).]