John Kettler

Attention, buffs, grogs, mod sluts et al.! History Channel is now airing the Colors of War which not only is awash in color footage of all sorts, but is a fabulous tutorial on the process of the making and breaking of soldiers. The imagery is nothing short of amazing, including the rare M-6 tank destroyer (37 mm portee), firing of a U.S. MRL built in response to the Nebelwerfer (not a Land Mattress or that drop fed thing), plus wonderful building and combat shots. Watch mine clearing done for real. Learn about why sometimes it's better not to hit the deck while under fire, and so much more. There are all kinds of voiceover comments by the soldiers, discussions of relative weapon lethality vs. the soldiers' perceptions thererof. This show's a CM player's dream come true. Regards, John Kettler

Binkie, I've asked before for the AI to be able to take over for an AWOL PBEM foe. BTS said no way. Good idea, though. We got the same answer when we asked for AI fights AI. Sorry about both. Regards, John Kettler

A great laugh aside, I'd like to see someone post an interior turret photo for the Panzer I. From it, we may be able to learn how that axe blow apparently disabled the tank. My guess is that the force of the blow not only bent the barrel but slammed the receiver or grip into the tank commander's head or chin. If memory serves, the mount is completely unpowered in elevation, hence would move easily if struck. One good clout yields one KOed or otherwise disabled TC who's issuing no commands. Would you jump out and face an apparent axe wielding maniac who just did that to the TC? Another possibility is that when the axe bit into or bent the barrel while the MG was firing, it caused the now trapped powder gasses to blast back through the breech mechanism into the TC's face, with or without parts of the bolt. Regards, John Kettler [ 11-18-2001: Message edited by: John Kettler ]</p>

It took some doing, but the AAR is on its way to Treeburst155. Writing it was like reliving the battle. Traumatic! von Lucke and I are sending turns, slowed a bit by an oops on my end. He may or may not scare the cat when watching the new movie. Tom has also been heard from and responded to. Am waiting for the next movie. Regards, John Kettler

Having just watched the battle through Holien's eyes I now understand why I took the casualties I did and why the X were so resilient--superb enemy leaders who were able, in conjunction with Q and R, to hold even B together, plus minor things like walking into ambushes, tridirectional crossfires on the approaches, unsuppressable F and hordes of Z, whose losses nearly cost him the game. He beat the stuffing out of me in the other arena, though, making full use of interior lines to respond to my painfully difficult to assemble and harried at almost every step attacks. He was very good at negating cover in a variety of ways and ravaged me with J and L. Watching the growth of his force over time was also quite a shock, and I'm quite glad I didn't know the full extent of it then, for I was having all I could handle with what I thought I knew. The intel was so bad I'm seriously thinking of asking that those boyos be given field tribunals and shot for treason, and on their heads lies the blood of many highly trained brave men. To give some idea of the fierceness of the defense, many of my lead squads sustained 40-60% losses before even getting to K proper. I lost a platoon HQ outright, gunned down on the approaches, together with an AT team tasked to deal with the I. All in all, I conclude that the H were lucky and/or facing a far less talented foe than Holien. They were able to seize and hold the objective against repeated counterattacks. Because my force was so shot up, pinned and disrupted, I wound up on the bad end of a rapid defensive buildup, had my force almost destroyed, and wound up with a toehold. I did quite a bit of damage to his forces, but probably couldn't even defend the toehold against his surviving forces. Regards, John Kettler

Outstanding! But for a truly informed response, ask Kingfish. Regards, John Kettler

Memo to self: Whine and complain more in Tourney games, especially to your opponent. Reason? I have repeatedly observed that those who complain vehemently about the havoc I'm wreaking on them and their troops seem to consistently win. Recent examples include Holien and ? (He knows who he is.) In both cases I was bled past white by them, yet to hear them tell it, I was pounding the daylights out of them and was winning. Curiously, when the flags were counted and the losses tallied, they came out on top. And in terms of functioning combat power remaining, the difference was ludicrous, with my forces so gutted not a full squad survived, while they had functioning platoons, albeit a bit scuffed sometimes. Both battles were attacks against dug-in defenders, so maybe the problem is not the apparent one of not enough complaining, but of the "forlorn hope" nature of the forces given me and their arrival, timing, and positioning, not to mention grotesquely bad prebattle intel and an acute lack of fire support given terrain and defenses. The nature of the scenarios dictated that time was of the essence, forcing me to push as hard and as fast as I could throughout, in turn driving my losses through the roof. Maybe I'm actually doing well and don't know it, since the median has yet to be computed, but I do know that I'm pouring myself into these incredibly demanding, stress inducing battles and in spite of giving my all, immolating my men trying to seize the objectives, and inflicting all kinds of pain on my opponents, I keep coming up short when the winner's announced. My angst over this is compounded by the fact that in the Invitational I have yet to win a game either. AAARRRGGGGHHH!!!! There! I feel better. Bill, watch out for process servers. I intend to sue for intentional infliction of pain and emotional cruelty! It's California, and I can do that. The next great area of torts: suing scenario designers, followed by malpractice insurance and pay-for-play scenarios. (starts gaming mantra) I am a good tactician. I deserve to win! (repeats vehemently many times, sings "Men of Harlech" straight through, then fades out) In military frustration and exhaustion, John Kettler

Wild Bill, I'm glad you liked the psalm adaptation, but I'm not sure whether your other remarks refer to me. Holien is putting on a brave face now, but you all should've seen the hangdog look and intense dismay which came through loud and clear in his E-mails. He was forecasting an outright loss by himself only a few turns back, but now seems to have rallied a bit, confining his fretting to whether I'll be able to contest a certain VL. Yet he goes on and on about my complaining, even to claiming I'm sitting on the outcome when he actually gets to see it first. The thing's in his in basket, where it'll be for some nine hours yet. He did congratulate me on a fine game, as I did him. This is by far the most grueling battle I've ever fought in CM, even nastier and more draining than my last clash with Kingfish. The Zeta Reticulans brought Tom back briefly, during which we got in a few turns. Blood and more blood! Meanwhile, von Lucke and I have been rolling turns smartly. My men have excelled themselves in lethality from the first. Regards, John Kettler

Treeburst155, The poem you got was quite droll. Those who liked it may get a kick from a, er, psalm takeoff I posted concerning Wild Bill and his craft. It's on the latest Rumblings of War thread, probably on the last page. Regards, John Kettler

Simon Fox, It is indeed funny that, having challenged me on the basis of misrepresenting what Jon S said, when I go back to the original text you are still on me about it. I repeat. His own exact words constitute an explicit claim that on historical grounds, the 25-pdr. shouldn't be on the board in CMBO. This is not in the same league as asserting he doesn't want to see it there, a simple matter of personal preference. His is a logical argument framed on the basis of the historical record. I presented historical evidence that contrary to his information and his clearly expressed beliefs, the 25-pdr. was indeed employed in direct fire. Split semantic hairs and lampoon me if you will, but my fundamental issue here was handed to me by Jon S, in his very words. Thus, the "shouldn't" vs. "never" argument becomes a nonissue at best, a red herring at worst. The historical basis of his statement dominates, and I refuted it with historical evidnce and cited my source. Regards, John Kettler

As Holien notes, there are indeed two sides to this battle. Do I claim I've fought a perfect battle? Hardly! But I do assert that much of what may appear to be bad decisions on my part is a direct result of what I got, when I got it and where it arrived. Frankly, the coordination of force problem has been so daunting it's a wonder I'm not bald from tearing my hair out. This has allowed Holien to really put the hurts on my guys in succession, while at the same time I'm trying to beat the clock because of certain dire scenario considerations. And things went badly awry on my rate of advance. The result is the present do or die attack, which seems to be working and was possible only because I finally was able to work enough men into position to be able to launch it while relatively protected. The outcome is up in the air, but Holien seems to be sweating. Perhaps I caught him on the hop? We'll see. I sent him a turn. CDIC is going out of town until Sunday, but a turn awaits him. Am awaiting a turn from von Lucke, and Tom hasn't been heard from for quite some time. Regards, John Kettler

Gentlemen, To clarify, I am in no way engaged in erecting strawmen here. I have neither the time nor the energy, Ogadai. Jon S, your exact phrasing was "...that gun shouldn't ever be involved in any direct fire engagements (ie, it shouldn't,historically, be included in any scenarios)." Since you cited history as your premise, I replied with an example showing that you had erroneous information and that contrary to what you believed, the 25 pdr. did see action in a direct fire role in the area and time frame of CMBO. My memory was faulty, though, in that it was Trooper Denis Huett of 5 RTR, not Trooper Stewart, who saw, quoting OVERLORD pg. 208 "a nearby battery of 25-pounders was firing over open sights." You twit me over Tomcats and the like, but I clearly stated going in that they were illustrative examples intended to back my central argument. For the record, I have always supported the inclusion of the full range of weapons, ammo, and fielded combat capabilities in CMBO and beyond. If you've read my posts, you've seen me ask for vastly improved "Flying Dustbin" spigot bomb performance modeling, pop-up rounds for the German 81mm mortar, ricochet fire for both sides, better penetration and intimidation modeling for the .50 cal. MG, the historically valid inclusion of water cooled .30 cal. MGs in the U.S. weapon lists, and the proper modeling of the sustained fire capabilities of that and the Vickers MMG, to name but a few. I've also pushed strongly for WP ammo for the Allies in CMBO. As far as I'm concerned, if the 25-pdr. had smoke, and it did, base ejection, I believe, then it should be available in all 25-pdr. batteries, regardless of whether on the board or off it. Concerning whether I have disproved Jon S's main premise with the examples I've presented, there is an old rule in mathematics and logic which says that a single exception disproves the rule. I have presented many exceptions to what seems to be an amalgam of historical error combined with strongly held personal beliefs by several people here. Rex Bellator, I sympathize, having built the old Airfix kit as a youngster. From its shape, I at first thought the Quad was armored. Michael Dorosh, you raise some good points, but I remain hopeful we might get the whole thing in CM II. Some of you clearly disagree with my views. Fine. In all your QBs and scenarios to come be sure to specify no on board field artillery. Realize, though, that the historical facts are against you and that you're denying yourselves not only historical reality but also the rich gaming possibilities inherent in QBs and scenarios arising from having the guns on the board. Regards, John Kettler

Simon Fox, Jon S's argument is that it never happened historically, therefore has no place on the CMBO battlefield. I have disproved his basic premise. He therefore has two rational choices: 1) accept the new fact and withdraw his statement OR 2) withdraw his historical argument but continue the discussion on the basis of strongly held personal preference. You and he are certainly entitled to your opinions, but to adapt a quote from then Secretary of the Navy Graham Claytor, neither of you is entitled to his own facts. I produced multiple evidences that your "shoulds" regarding artillery employment in direct fire are flatly refuted by what actually occurred. To these should be added the multiple facts surfaced during discussions here on how the Germans used light flak, British release of AA units for ground combat, American use of flak assets (90mm AA battalion) for field artillery in the defense of Bastogne and strong favor shown the M-16 Gun Motor Carriage (Quad .50) for ground combat. Other examples include Rommel's commandeering of 88s at Arras, France in 1940 and von Lucke's pistol point appropriation of a Luftwaffe flak battery during operation GOODWOOD. As far as the Russians go, you might want to consider how relatively primitive their communications were, causing them to have to mass guns trail spade to trail spade in order to mass fires. For decentralized operations such as urban combat, assigning one or more guns to each street makes eminently good sense, and the Russians had thousands of guns available. Even a rudimentary viewing of late war combat footage will serve to illustrate how common the practice was. If you don't believe the footage, then read the accounts. In Cornelius Ryan's THE LAST BATTLE, a Russian artilleryman is told before the massive barrage preceding the assault on Berlin that the muzzle blast of all the guns in an enormously dense concentration firing at once will be so intense that unless he screams continuously his eardrums will rupture from the pressure. The examples I've presented are not intended to be either comprehensive or exhaustive in nature. They are given to not only to demolish the arguments advanced by Jon S and you, but to provide others here an overview of how weapons are really used in war. The F-14 Tomcat was designed to provide fleet air defense, and to that end was fitted with a set of sensors and weapons allowing it to fight that engagement from over a hundred miles away all the way down to cannon range. What's it doing in Afghanistan? Dropping bombs! This was never intended by the designers. Similarly, the mighty P-51 fighter started life as an underpowered, unwanted by the U.S. dive bomber called the A-36. The British were desperate for aircraft, gladly took them, didn't like the gutless low altitude only Allison engine, and trialed the plane with a Rolls-Royce Merlin. All of a sudden the lead sled became an aerial racehorse which, after dumping the dive brakes and such from the design, went on to command the skies. Regards, John Kettler

Wild Bill is not my shepherd, I profoundly want. He showeth me green pastures Yet soweth them with wire and mines. He girdeth them with pillboxes Which laceth me with MG fire. He granteth the foe dominant terrain While he maketh me to attack in the open. He plagueth me with mortars and artillery, and seareth my flesh with tongues of fire. He rendeth flesh from bone with iron chariots and crusheth and blasteth life from mine troops. For these and worse is his name become accursed; his work blighteth the spirit and saddeneth the heart. Unless thou somehow winneth! Battle's joined with von Lucke. Turn 1 and both of us are already taking casualties. I've heard of high combat tempo, but this is ridiculous! The relentless attack against Holien continues, a process which would be a whole lot easier if the previously mentioned accursed one had given me any number of military bounties and/or the means to really hammer Holien. Wild Bill's design philosophy here seems to be that if less is more, none must be stellar, especially after giving the foe with a full military quiver. Tom remains AWOL. CDIC hasn't been heard from of late. That's all I have. Regards, John Kettler

JonS, I regret to inform you that your statement is incorrect. At least one 25-pdr. battery was so closely pressed during the battle of Villers Bocage that it was "engaging targets over open sights" and was seen doing this by a British tank trooper who was there. I believe his name was Trooper Stewart, and his account is found in OVERLORD, by Max Hastings. I have posted the detailed version of this before, but am brain fogged and don't recall the thread title. I believe it had something to do with complaints about how certain Commonwealth weapons, such as the 25-pdr., were graphically depicted in CMBO. Would some kind soul please provide the link? If you can get search to work, you can look under my member number 1056 for threads with titles on the above lines. Not only should the 25-pdr. be available on the board, if nothing else but to provide potentially fascinating scenario possibilities based on raids, breakthroughs and such, but so should things like the M-12, and M-40 gun motor carriages which mounted Long Toms and were used in streetfighting in Aachen, Germany in a direct fire role to such devastating effect that the German commander said something about when they start to use Long Toms as rifles it's time to quit. I'd love to see the Morris Quad, proper British trucks and trailers, Bailey bridges, pontoons and all kinds of overlooked goodies. I'd like to see German trucks, Horch command cars, armed Kubels, Dodge weapon carriers, MG armed U.S. trucks in several sizes and a 90mm AA gun that looks right. Some of this will come with CMBB; maybe we'll get the rest in CM II. There have been many requests for the U.S. flak HTs M-16 and M-15. Personally, I'm all in favor of having as many historically defensible options as possible in my QBs and scenarios, and I regret that we won't get motorcycles with sidecars and LMGs for fast light recon work, but if you have a problem with seeing field artillery in direct fire, CMBB is going to make you unhappy and on a grand scale. Take a look at almost any late war streetfighting footage and you'll find Russian towed 76mm, 122mm, 152mm and even 203mm weapons in a direct fire role while sitting out in the streets. The Russians consider a given weapon in direct fire to be ten times as effective as one firing indirectly, and there's nothing quite like a well aimed large caliber shell to knock the stuffing out of strongpoints and even bring down a building with a single shot. Also, if you read the accounts of the Sturmgeschutz Brigades, it was not uncommon for such units to break through into the Russian rear and savage the Russian artillery in its firing sites. The Russian accounts even describe using whole regiments of Katyusha multiple rocket launchers to fire directly into an oncoming German armored attack. Summing up, there's the designed role for a weapon, and then there's the real world. Did the Royal Artillery want its precious guns used as AT weapons? Of course not, but the possibility had been anticipated, so AP was available when the need arose in France 1940, in North Africa before the 2-pdr. was replaced, and that or some other ammo helped see off the German attack at Villers Bocage in 1944. The same case could be made concerning the German 88. The British 3.7" AA could've been similarly employed had someone thought to provide direct fire sights and the right ammo. I hope this has been helpful to you. Regards, John Kettler

With military history being full of accounts of the impact a sudden change in the weather could have on combat operations, I think it would be a great feature to have provisions for things like variable density fog, fog burning off, sudden cloudbursts, arrival of low overcast, flash floods and the like. As things stand now, we are reduced to static environmental conditions throughout the game, and this results in such martial weirdness as players either not buying on board mortars or sending them away if scenario specified, visibility's short and no TRPs are available. Similarly, you can have clear weather one minute, storm clouds a few minutes later, followed by torrential rain, then bright sunshine. Such a sequence is quite common in many parts of the world and could easily occur within the time limits of a typical CM scenario I don't know how difficult this would be to code, but the European weather database is extensive and wouldn't require more than a distillation to provide the required flavor in the game. You could say that for the period of so many months, the weather in region such and such is typically clear, but showers occur X% of the time, with some distribution applied to their duration. You could say that under flash flood conditions fords become unusable and that pontoon bridges, rafts, and powered rafts (please, please) have so much chance of being damaged or swept away. You could start an attack in fog only to discover after you've committed that the sun has emerged and is burning away your protective shroud. You could build some sort of internal visibility table and even without dynamic lighting still be able to provide at least an approximation of the transition from night to dawn and so forth, adding a great deal of color to the game by simply increasing or decreasing LOS, basing it turn by turn on presumed ambient light. The moon could also be modeled the same way, with baseline illumination at night set by moon phase and modified by atmospheric conditions. This is by no means a fleshed out concept. Rather, it is intended to be a way of launching a discussion on what could be done even without high end graphic effects. What say the rest of you? Regards, John Kettler

Holien is blowing the Q of R apart with his D, which he has in vast abundance. I'm not sure how to react to his back patting on forces in heavy buildings being able to defend them strongly vs. attackers who must generally first cross open ground, then endure a hail of S as they storm the F. Basically, it's a hose fest, especially with nearby defenders chipping in. My means of suppressing the defenders have been grossly inadequate to the combat task throughout the game, and my casualties plus his reinforcements haven't improved matters. Holien has a full military toolkit plus dominant terrain in several forms, excellent cover, considerable depth, covered withdrawal routes when pressed, and crossfires all over the place. By contrast, my situation is not unlike the old adage about all problems being solvable with a hammer if that's the only tool you happen to have. My hammer's way too light for the job, and I need a crowbar, a sledgehammer, a jackhammer, and several other important items, such as dynamite. To mix metaphors further, Holien has a pat hand, while I need to draw an ace. I shall continue to punish him at every opportunity, but the correlation of forces is far from favorable. How the H did this for real and won is beyond me. Obviously, the defending commander wasn't as good as Holien. I could really use some serious support right now. Nothing lately from CDIC or Tom, but I did send my setup to Von Lucke. Am defending. Evil awaits! Guess I need to update my AAR for Holien. Got so wrapped up I haven't made a note since turn 5 or so. Regards, John Kettler

1. Will German use of smokeless, flashless powder be modeled, particularly for AFVs and ATGs? If so, it should help offset Borg spotting by adding a delay to the reporting time, thus increasing combat life expectancy. 2. Will the 200m delay until tracer ignition be modeled for German MGs? If so, they should be considerably harder to spot. 3. Is a fix planned for a light armor ID bug which results in wheeled ACs with quiet rubber tires suddenly transforming into tanks with clanking, squealing tracks? I'm playing such a scenario in a town and just had this happen to me. I can understand how, say, a small truck and an AC might be confused, for they could well be on the same chassis, but how do you justify confusing a small, stubby light tank with a big, tall, long 234 series or similar? Confusing a Kubel with the AC variant is fine, and at range I might well buy confusing a jeep with a BA-64 or some such, but this strikes me as illogical at best. Thanks for any feedback. Regards, John Kettler

Time for a nonupdate. Tom has been returned by the Zeta Reticulans and was therefore able to send me a turn. Holien did an evil thing to my R. His evil chortle is justified. Is that why his alter ego was shot to death in Cumbria this weekend? His G force is enormous. A counterattack seems to be starting. Before it arrives, though, I've shifted some D and moved my F. CDIC is fighting me through virtually the entire depth of the board and much of its breadth. Bullets whizzing both directions are more common than oxygen molecules. His Z losses continue to mount. Meanwhile, my Y has taken a hammering, but my Q is fighting back. The stopper remains in place, in spite of some attempted seal cutting. The attempt was punished. KR, I'm glad I'm so entertaining. Rest assured that if I actually got to mop the floor with someone in Rumblings, I'd gladly post to that effect. So far, every single battle I've fought has been of the "to the limits" sort in which the combat task is insane on the face of it, the forces grossly inadequate in quantity, quality, timing or all three, support arrangements grotesquely poor and in which the usual form involves doing everything with nothing. Don't get me started on the intel! Have sent out turns to all of the above and am ready to roll. Regards, John Kettler

Time for the traditional CM gamer's lament. "The way is clear, the yammerers are gone, yet my in box remaineth empty!" Nothing since very early morning from Holien or CDIC. Guess that means that Tom's about to send me another one of his widely spaced turns. That game will be finished about the time the sun goes nova. Regards, John Kettler PS Section II unfought foes, am looking for one or two more battles.

I finally get to see the standings! The ones from Rumblings of War make fascinating reading. Most of the few survivors from the original group have yet to play me, and Fionn's departure for medical school (all the best on that, Fionn!) has removed one of my completed games. Treeburst155, in your view, given that I've presently got three games going in Rumblings (CDIC, Holien,Tom), have completed one other (Kingfish), plan to add one or two soon, and in light of the short deadline for that tourney, do you think it's a good idea for me to start another game in the Invitational, or should I wait until I've fulfilled my Section II play requirements? Regards, John Kettler [ 11-10-2001: Message edited by: John Kettler ] [ 11-10-2001: Message edited by: John Kettler ] [ 11-11-2001: Message edited by: John Kettler ]</p>

No, KR, I'm not. Was born and reared here in the United States of America. Haven't even been to the U.K. What makes you think I might be a Pom, which I presume is short for "Pommy" as in being English? Where do you hail from? Regards, John Kettler

Sample Wild Bill briefing: "Enemy opposition weak. Quickly seize objectives and hold against counterattack." Reality: The approaches are quite exposed, are mined, wired and protected by roadblocks and pillboxes, not to mention infantry and MGs in upper floors of buildings. Even though the area is heavily photographed and Resistance elements have helped build the enemy positions, nothing shows up during setup. Did I mention that you can't see most places, that your fire support ranges from nil to laughable, your force is depleted, maybe can barely move, and the "counterattack" is bigger than most of your force? Alternatively, you start with almost nothing, get reinforcements in weird, inconvenient, even under fire places, then advance into the teeth of a down the throat shooting gallery or are suddenly betrayed by an unexpected keyhole into a covered approach or by an enemy unit that pops up where none was expected. Don't get attached to your troops, for they won't last long. Pray, though, that all the other people face defenders as talented and tenacious. Otherwise, you take both the personal morale hit of the loss and the statistical hit vs. the median of others playing the same position. Based on all of my experiences so far in Rumblings, Wild Bill is a demonic personage who delights in torturing the people who play his scenarios, either that or he's on speed and read way too many accounts of "Situation X" while studying the history of OSS training. The best approach is to think of yourself as a 'droid and remember C3PO's maxim: "We 'droids are made to suffer." With one finished game and two in progress, I'm suffering enormously and have a score of 4000 on the Holmes-Rahe stress scale. I console myself with the knowledge that I am inflicting a great deal of pain on my foes and by so doing, am perhaps raising the bar on those playing my position in the scenario. Wild Bill's building a golem with all the angst manna he's harvesting from his victims. Just remember, the default value in these scenarios is military nightmare. Wild Bill is a master at constructing them. CDIC returned from several days away with a turn so awful I wish I could return it. To call it suboptimal would be a vast understatement. Holien screams bloody murder at my unfair X, my ahistoric Y and my plentiful Z, but he's dug in, has lots of R, S, T and just got U accompanied by V. How the H won this historically is beyond me. I fight on! Regards, John Kettler [ 11-10-2001: Message edited by: John Kettler ]</p>

Holien and I are rolling turns again. Yes, I am killing things instead of being a target drone. Tom has finally been heard from, and the battle has become even messier than before. Tactical problems abound! I have sent CDIC a turn as well, but he is on hiatus, being out of town until Friday. Regards, John Kettler

No turn yet from Holien, though I did finally get the one he mentioned after some three tries from his end, and my turn from CDIC was unfortunately corrupt, meaning I have to wait until he gets home from work in China to get the repeat transmission. I believe the problem was a powerful geomagnetic storm (8 on a scale of 9) which put just enough static in the file/line to make the turn unopenable. I've seen multiple reports today of phone and Internet problems. Mine were so bad I couldn't get online most of the day. I did finish my AAR for my recently completed game with Kingfish and sent it to Treeburst155. Fair warning to all--reading it can lead to major sanity loss. Still nothing from Tom. Regards, John Kettler [ 11-06-2001: Message edited by: John Kettler ]</p>