Andreas

What exactly do you mean by over-emphasised? Using slow German turrets was a valid and practised tactic at least by British tankers. Worked as follows: 1) Sherman platoon motors along 2) Big bad German jungle cat starts shooting at them 3) Shermans drop smoke, retreat into cover 4) Firefly positioned just in cover, Platoon CO tank revs up and gets ready to shoot out from cover into field of fire of bad bad German tank 5) Platoon CO in 75mm armed Sherman breaks from cover at high speed and attempts flanking of German heavy 6) German heavy slowly rotates turret towards Platoon CO tank but since turret rotation can not keep up with flank speed Sherman, does not manage to 7) Firefly breaks cover and whacks German heavy frontally OR 6a) German tank CO knows there is a Firefly and stays cool as cucumber, waiting for Firefly to break cover to whack it. 7a) Platoon CO whacks German heavy with flank shot OR 6c) German tank retreats from battlefield at very high speed because he knows that he is caught between the Divvil and the deep blue sea. Please note that in versions a), and c) of this the German tank loses against good tactics that are based on higher turret speed. This very interesting process was explained to me by a UK Sherman platoon commander in Bovington.

Well, I have the Mac version, so unless you finally see the light, it won't do you much good, now would it? I think it would be truly evil to send you that Stuffed version though... Mhahahaha... Christmas, eh wot? Mr.Peng's again?

Not a problem. That means we maybe up to four/five now. Hopefully Richard can make it and bring the Powerbook.

BTS did not actually charge credit cards before they delivered, which was part of what caused the problem. Quite a few people had apparently changed credit cards between putting in their pre-order and the actual release, making it all very messy for BTS. The pre-order for CMBO was a good way for BTS to gauge market interest, and to get their bankers off their backs (if that was necessary), because they could point to a guaranteed minimum future income stream. So it had clear benefits for them. There is no need to this now unless it is really easy to do, since they know there is a market.

Right, since the last lot were rather well behaved, I have permission to do this again. So, can you please post here or email me if you are interested? Date would be Saturday afternoon 27th July. While I am not a bad host, I am also no favourite of my bank manager's. Hence - it is BYOB and BYOF for the BBQ. I am slightly restricted for numbers, therefore first come first served. It would be good if at least one person could bring another Mac to play on. I think I found out why we did not get the H2H game going last time round. Suedes and Hakkos need not apply.

Working on it Richard, wouldn't want this to be the summer of your discontent...

Just found out about the first two, and the other two are old favourites of mine. Militaerhistorischer AK der RK Ratingen Kurlandkessel - Maps, pictures Site on 227.ID - pictures, maps, original AARs 62. Volksgrenadierdivision Happy surfing. If you don't speak German, here's your reason to learn it. Edited because I am a dolt, and to say that none of the last sites worship at the altar of German Panzerforces or the Waffen SS, but instead look at ho-hum infantry divisions (with horses). If you need your share of pea-camo steel lovin', you need to go elsewhere. So there. [ July 15, 2002, 04:19 PM: Message edited by: Andreas ]

Ok, I'll bite. How does it work?</font>

That is not how it works.

From Christopher Duffy, 'Red Storm on the Reich' (p.295): So much for the history. Duffy ends his book with the following paragraph (p.309): Sorry for hijacking this thread Scipio, I'll stop now.

Schoerner, may I suggest that you kindly refrain from treating the board to your particular interpretation of history. The moderators take a dim view of people with a revisionist agenda. I guess with a username like yours one should not be surprised though. ISTR that Schörner made up for a lack of skill in leading troops by fanatical devotion to 'the cause'.

Early war - either side, with an interest in Recce and light tank forces. Mid- to late-war the Red Army, since I know the Germans from CMBO, and there is nothing quite like bringing a [sNIP] to the party. The question that interests me is which time period people are interested in.

Warmaker, one can expect these things to change when you bring a platoon of ISU-152 or a company of IS-2 along. Late war the Red Army got a lot better at what it did and an historical late war assault would feature the following: 1) more efficient and heavier prep bombardment and air strikes 2) integrated engineer assets (large numbers of flamethrowers) 3) integrated armour support 4) regular/veteran Soviet infantry 5) integrated SP gun support to dig out those HMGs. 6) much smaller frontage (about 500 yards to a battalion with all this support) 7) at least one battery of towed DF guns (76mm) and 45mm guns. 7) Immediate reinforcements from the regiment available in the form of armour, men, guns, engineer assets 8) Germans with lower experience levels, training in the Wehrmacht went down over time 9) Better staff work on all levels, in particular a better understanding of one's own capabilities and pitfalls 1-7 of these were a direct response to the problem of attacking a well-trained, dug-in enemy, and were based on 3 years of fighting. Follow all this up with a tank army or two ready to exploit the breakthrough when it occurs, and you begin to see how the very short operations in Silesia, from the Vistula to the Oder, and for Berlin took place. [ July 14, 2002, 05:27 AM: Message edited by: Andreas ]

The Blue Division aka 250.ID was a standard Wehrmacht TO&E infantry division on the 1942 pattern (I think) and was reorganised during its existence in the same way as German IDs were. The men wore German uniforms (except for blue shirts and a red/gold/red shield on the right side of the helmet, and sometimes the right sleeve - my God, I am turning into Michael Dorosh... The horror, the horror). Apart from that, the only difference was according to their 2nd GOC, Esteban-Infantes, that they were all small guys with black hair who died with a smile on their lips. And they spoke Spanish. These Spanish soldiers are not dieing, although they smile. (From the cover of Esteban-Infantes 'Die Blaue Division', Druffel 1977)

Actually, I made it happen when you were not in town. I don't think I could inflict you reciting Grogporn™ while standing next to the Barby onto my neighbours. BTW - where is the next installment of the eagerly awaited Amsterdam Leather Press Publications? BTW2 - when are you in London next? I have to make sure I have plans then.

von Shrad, thanks for the accolades. Unfortunately I have no idea what 'Aftermath' you refer to, are you sure that was one of mine? Regarding scenario design for CMBB, let's just say that some of us are working hard on all sorts of things to make sure that people stay here and don't go fishing or somefink on the 20th September

They all died with a smile on their lips.

Polish Army in the East No idea how accurate that site is. seems fairly comprehensive though.

Grisha should be correct. The Red Army contained two Polish all-arms Armies (1st, and 2nd Polish Army). The first was first used in the Magnuszew Bridgehead across the Vistula in 1944 as part of 1st Byelorussian Front, and the 2nd in the Berlin Operation as part of Koniev's 1st Ukrainian Front. Skipper posted an AAR about the Magnuszew fighting here that he translated. Do a search if you are interested, it is well worth reading. Hope I got that right, working from memory here. It is quite probable that smaller Polish formations (Rifle Corps and Rifle Division size) were fighting earlier than the two armies.

Dook, you should be fine. Depending on resolution it will down-sample more or less, but it runs well on my G4/400, and did run well on that G3 iMac that was there last night. 16MB VRAM does it, in fact, 8MB is enough to play it on. I am not sure on the memory, but you could always buy a stick of 128MB and that would certainly be more than enough. I just have 384MB because the machine had that when I bought it. Karch, I am pretty sure your iMac would have 8MB VRAM. Does the clamshell iBook have 4 or 8MB VRAM? If 4, that maybe pushing it.

There are a few references to British MG Battalions (one organic to each infantry division) used plunging fire into 1945, during the Rhineland battles, as part of the 'Pepperpot' preparatory barrages.

Never a problem. We aim to please, as they say in the Royal Artillery. Good post before that one, I fully agree. I guess many people don't understand how BFC works because it is a very unusual and old-fashioned (in a very good sense) approach.

Mattias, it would never be as bad, if only because there was a BBQ and Chris to tend to it. There was also more beer and no G/T. John, the graphics looked slightly worse than on my own G4/400, and it ran on a lower resolution (I run the game in 1280x1024). On the G4 t already downsamples. That said, on the iMac it still looked about as good as a fully modded CMBO, comparing it to my own iMac (that I got rid off before I received the Beta). Michael will have to answer regarding the specs, and what he thought of it looks-wise. I was very positively surprised to see this relatively old iMac handle it so well.

Ah Mattias, yep, very sorry about this. well, you can always make another trip here. with the help of Mike I even managed to figure out how to operate the BBQ. Trust a South African to know about that. Well, I guess you can pencil in a PBEM once you hold the game in your hands. I'll make you eat Lutefisk, or somefink...

I just thought I post that here again, in case it will be missed at the other place. CMBB ran very well on an iMac G3 lime with OS 9.x today. No idea about the processor, but it has the stock ATI Rage 8MB card. Even when a number of vehicles were on the map, smoke billowing and stuff, it went well. Sounds good too.