guachi

It's really not a big deal beyond looking cool. Anybod ordered units to cross the wall in Last Defense? The units slow down when they get to the wall and end up walking through it. I just use my imagination and pretend my units climb over the wall just like they were taught in basic training. I don't think any of our adult imaginations are so weak that we can't picture what our soldiers REALLY look like. More than any other wargame, CM lets me use my imagination like when I was a kid. Jason

My Tiger had its main gun hit and it could still fire at least one of its machine guns. So if it is a bug, it might be vehicle specific or something. Jason

One of my Shermans was immobolized by MG fire at a range of about 350m. At least, Ron said it was an MG. I had Ron's 88 on the hill spotted on about turn 5 or 6. I don't think Ron knew this or they would have been fired on way earlier. Due to the vagaries of LOS, one squad had a clear LOS to it but the squads just meters on either side couldn't. In Riesberg, one of the keys is spotting units. Spotting the 88 so early made it easier to move units into a firing position. It would have been an enormous benefit if I didn't already know the Germans had an 88. Jason

"Trench-cam" I love it! From now on I am gooing to call the level one camera view "trench-cam" The top down views I call "Goodyear-cam" after the Goodyear blimp. Now I just need names for view level 2, 3, and 4. Jason

I made some Excel graphs comparing the firepower of the seven squads that are available in the demo. At a range of 40m, the SMG squad is second behind the Hvy SMG squad in FP. At 100m, the SMG squad is last. The US squads are pretty much behind everything of the Germans except for the VG at all ranges and the SMG squad at medium-long range. With 12 men, though, the US squads have more staying power. In game terms, the MG42 LMG and HMG are far and away the best weapons in the German squad. At really short ranges the other weapons are pretty good, but it is a completely different story at ranges over 100m. At 100m, the MG42 LMG and HMG are 4 and 10 times more powerful, respectively, than the next best weapon, If I was a German infantryman I would do everything in my power to keep my MG operating. Jason

I have a book on combat guns that goes into the development of the MP43/MP44/StG44. Nothing much different from what Fionn has written but it does give the designation of the infrared night sight. It was appropriately named the Vampir. Jason

Not only would different animations for movement look cool, they could also be used as information by your opponent. I don't need a different animation to know if my units are running but it might belpful if I could tell at a glance if my opponent's units are running. Jason

I made the mistake of clicking on the wrong file to include as an attachment. My opponent sent me pretty much the same message that was sent ot John. I've since moved each players' turns to their own archive directory. This seems to have solved the problem. Jason

Ron, Care to post any ideas on how to defend Riesberg? I won't read them. Honest. BTW, Ron and I are playing a PBEM game with Ron as the Germans. MY first and only go as the Germans was against the AI. I set up my units in reasonable defensive positions and let the US come to its doom. Had all four Shermans knocked out by turn 7. That pretty much ended the American's hopes of victory. 10 more turns of a vicious firefight and then I sent my units out to mop up. As for winning as the Americans. Well, I'm in the middle of playing my first game. As mentioned above, it's a PBEM against. I don't think either of us could say who is winning right now. Way too early. Spotting the enemy is, I think, the key. There are so many LOS obstructions that trying to figure out a good vantage point ahead of time without your unit actually being there is quite difficult. Jason [This message has been edited by guachi (edited 11-07-99).]

I think that during setup is one time that a unit menu would be REALLY useful. When playing a scenario for the first time, a menu would be good way of quickly figuring out what forces I have. The briefing gives a short description, but a menu could give things like ammo levels and experience. The only place I would want a menu is in the setup because before a battle is the the one time a commander might realistically be able to have all of this information. Not that I really care whether a menu makes it in or not. But it would make the first turn plotting (which is my longest turn) go a little quicker. Jason

Argie is pretty much correct when he says that capitalism and morality don't have much to do with one another. But you can define property rights in a practical sense rather than a moral sense. Capitalism functions by an exchange of goods and services borne from the fruits of our labor. If people are not able to derive the rewards of their labor because of theft than capitalsm can't function correctly. But people should realize theft is wrong by the time they are four. It really is too bad that the cost of CM is prohibitivly high for some people overseas. But think of it this way. CM may actually SAVE you money. Buy CM and you won't need to buy any other games for an entire yeat. At least until CM2 comes out, that is. Argie. Your English is actually fairly good. Much better than my Spanish. Just a few mix ups with prepositions and verb tenses. Jason

I posted my message above right after turn 1. Obviously, if the 88 had been knocked out, my Sherman would still be alive. I am posting this message after I plotted turn 5. To get happy faces all you do is type : and ) but put them right next to each other like this You can get frowny faces by putting : and ( togetther like this You can also make winks with ; and ) like this When the battle is over I would like to exchange intel with you. Exchanging tactics and what we could/could not see will, I think, help both of us in future PBEM games. Jason About the 88. There are 4 shell holes near the 88 if I am remembering correctly. I just checked and it is four. A rough LOS check shows them to be 2, 4, 5, and 9 meters from the 88. All I did was highlight a random unit and draw a LOS line to the foxhole and measure from there. Jason [This message has been edited by guachi (edited 11-06-99).]

I had a problem with half of a StuG driving into the woods because my plot line was too close to it. It was my very first game so I just chalked it up to inexperience. Now I just need to remember that the movement line isn't as wide as the vehicle that is being plotted for. I think some of the problems people bring up here wrt the interface would make good points to be included in the manual. Jason [This message has been edited by guachi (edited 11-06-99).]

In one of the phases all you do is get to watch the turn, right? As soon as you get the file that includes the only viewable turn, you could just play the movie once and fast forward through it. Then you promptly send the file back. You can always load the file your opponent sent and watch it at your leisure. Just make sure the file name is different so the turn sent by your opponent doesn't get overwritten. This should reduce by a little the time it takes to get through a PBEM game. Jason [This message has been edited by guachi (edited 11-06-99).]

Thorsten, I asked a while ago about all the squads included. Charles, I think, posted the entire list of squads. And Steve is not kidding when he says there are a lot of German squads. You should be able to find it if you do a search with enough key words in it. There were even some oddball ones like escort squads and sturm squads. CM 1 only covers one year of the war. I shudder to think how many different squad types the Germans had for the entire 5+ years of the war. Jason

I think the AI is good but what makes playing a human so much better is the tension. Humans are likely to do some really off the wall stuff. Whether the tricks work or not, at least the game won't be boring. Jason

I did what los suggested just a few hours ago in turn one of a PBEM Riesberg scenario as the Allies. It was my first go as the Americans so I scouted out the terrain. It was actually fun to zoom around at level one plotting moves. Move a unit to a tree line. Move again to that depression. Run across the open ground. and stop in that forest on the hill. I don't know how effective my orders were because I had a Sherman knocked out on turn 1. But at least it was fun. Damn you, Ron! I'll get you and your little 88 gun too! Jason

I have been burned a few times before by not unhiding my units when I wanted them to fire. It especially sucked playing Riesberg as the Germans when I target my entire company on the Americans but nobody fired because they were still hiding. Luckily, it was just against the computer so I just loaded the autosave and unhid everybody. If this was a full release this kind of thing would be in the manual (I hope) and wouldn't be a big deal. Now that I know the reason they don't unhide I actually like it the way it is. Better to get all of my mistakes out now than when the full game ships. Jason

This happened to me, too. I posted this in a thread titled 'Bizarre lockup' or something like that. I determined that my movement orders to my halftracks was the problem. I was retreating them out of the way of mortar fire. Adjusting the orders did the trick. The file is on its way, Steve. Jason

The bazooka team is REALLY exposed in the stone house by the road. The bazooka team just barely made it in there before getting fired upon. He did draw a lot of fire though and quickly gave away the German positions. The German armor can just stand off and shell the Americans and I was trying to think of a way of being proactive rather than just sitting back and getting shot at. I don't really have any idea whether it is a good tactic or not, but I though it was worth a shot. Jason

I program for my parents software company part time while going to school. Like BTS we are a small company. We only have three employees. The highest compliment I can give BTS is to tell them that their level of customer service and responsiveness reminds me of that given by my stepfather and mother. They are always there listening patiently (most of the time) to the endless complaints from the customers (which for us are hospitals). The 12,000+ posts are an obvious testament to the great work BTS has done. Jason I just went and checked BTS's profile. It shows that they have posted 1859 messages! Talk about responsiveness to the customer. That's even more posts than Fionn has written. [This message has been edited by guachi (edited 11-05-99).]

I just started (turn 1) a PBEM game (my first) as the Allies in Riesberg. One thing I WON'T be doing is close assaulting all of those German SMG squads. When I played the Germans I targeted an American MG at a range of about 20m with a full strength SMG squad and its firepower was over 300! A couple bursts from 8 MP40s was all it took to silence the MG. Jason

Steve, I think I should also have mentioned that the mortar was in scattered trees with something like 10 or 15 % exposure and the fleeing squad it targeted was in the open with something like 50% exposure. I've noticed that the TacAI will willingly target at units in the open. Almost always this is a good idea because you can rack up major kills this way. I love it when the computer targets units fleeing in the open and they get mowed down. Unfortunately, the computer can't read my mind and know why I'm targeting an otherwise harmless unit. And, ultimately, I can't fault the computer for not being a mind reader. Jason

The first time I played Last Defense as the Americans (my second time ever playing) I sent a bazooka team running into the lone stone house outside the US setup zone and one running into the forest on the Anmerican right. The one on the right fired off every shot at a StuG on the drit road but missed with every shot. I don't think he was spotted because the StuG never fired back. The bazooka in the stone house was as different. He came under withering fire but managed to pop a StuG with his final shot. I got one halftrack with my mortars. The rest of the vehicles were taken out by the Hellcats which all miraculously survived.

I have a case of unit insubordination to report. In Last Defense, my Tiger drove all the way across the map to the hill on the other side. I was 35m away from a mortar team that was shelling a halftrack. I wanted to blow the mortar up to save my halftrack. There was no other unit within 300m. My Tiger was pointed at the mortar team. Nothing was targeting the Tiger (like there was anything that could hurt it, anyway) The Tiger was unbuttoned. I hit go. The turn started and the Tiger immediately started rotating its turret to target a fleeing infantry squad hundreds of meters away. And I do mean immediately. As soon as the turn started the red targeting line vanished. I targeted the mortar again next turn. Same thing. Halfway through the third turn the Tiger decides that maybe shooting the mortar would be a good idea. It blows it away with one shot. Of course, by that time my halftrack was destroyed. No LOS problem. It couln't have been that because when the Tiger finally did decide to shell the mortar, neither had moved for five minutes. The Tiger had been sitting there earlier waiting for the sound contact to turn into a real target. As far as I could tell, it was the Tiger that identified the unit as a mortar in the first place. No other threat. The mortar team was seven times closer than the nearest observable unit. Same Tiger different game. The Hellcats appear and my Tiger is about 100m away. The Tiger and a StuG fire smoke and back away. Next turn begins and only one Hellcat remains. I order the Tiger and StuG which was about 100m away to hunt forward through the smoke. I figure that the Hellcat can't get both of them. The Tiger can't see the Hellcat so it can't target it, but I can see it. What does the Tiger do? It hunts forward but decides to target an infantry squad 250m away. I know the Tiger couldn't see the Hellcat but it acted like the Hellcat no longer existed because it couldn't see it. Result- the Tiger exits the smoke with its turret turned ninety degrees the wrong way. Thankfully, the Hellcat wsa equally stupid and decided to turn its turret and shoot at a SS squad 400m away. What resulted was a race between the Tiger and Hellcat to see who could swivel its turret fast enough. The Hellcat won and the result was a dead Tiger. I replayed the turn and did a 'gamey' thing. I did an area target in front of the Tiger to make sure the Tiger didn't swivel it's turret. Result - instant insubordination. Didn't fire a shot, didn't even move its turret in the right direction. Result - dead Tiger. Jason