Andreas

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Joe Shaw: some noise and a bad smell<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Do they still let you in here?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Geier: He was last seen riding gamily away on an incorrectly modelled streetcar followed by a tall gentleman running after said streetcar toting an MG42. Hope that helps. Johan<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I just hope that was not an HMG.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CMplayer: Can we get CM to model that?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Only if we finally can get BTS to acknowledge and correctly model the national differences in the regurgitation process of the Holstein, compared to the Frisian cow. Otherwise Brian and tero would just get all upset again.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Michael Dorosh: Hmmm....doesn't Graves go to great length at the pride they had in being called the Royal Welch Fusiliers??? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Bloody Goatsuckers - and trust a bleedin' uniform grog to call me on it... You are right, they were the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Trust the British to make a proud tradition of a spelling mistake. Incidentally, most of the Regiment hailed from the industrial towns and cities of the midlands, centered on Birmingham.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bigdog: It’s in the map but I must give a hats off the Historical Authors much more work goes into their design. So I will say Simi-Historical <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> And that's not a typo, I presume. As a designer I prefer the semi-historical ones. I think it is very difficult to get the material together, and I like the creativity of designing scenarios. Someone once dubbed these 'Anyday, August 1944' scenarios. The ones I like to design, and I rarely play, except to test.

Junior officer casualties were very high, both in the Great War, and in the second world war. Leading a platoon was probably one of the more dangerous jobs the infantry had to hand out. I have read the casulaty rate for the Canloan officers somewhere, and I think it approached 2/3rds, but I can be totally wrong. Blackburn also talks very openly about how he used alcohol to combat his loss of nerves towards the end of the campaign, and his relief when he was relieved of FOO duty. Very good books dealing with the situation in the Great War are 'Memoirs of an infantry officer' by Siegfried Sassoon, and 'Goodbye to all that', by Robert Graves, they both served in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.

Hiram, I am a bit at a loss what to say. Words are just not sufficient for something like this.

The scene: a well-lit French Auberge, a fire in the background, throwing a warm glow through the room. The smell of glorious food emanating from the kitchen, young females giggling in the back-rooms, a gorgeous pouting French brunette offers a glass of wine to General ‘Hakko’ Bradley, for it is him. Hakko (enraged): Patton, Shmatton, I am getting sick of this. He gets all the glory, and his men look dapper in the paper. Totally sick I am, dammit. How can I get a bit of the bloody glory. There must be more to go round. A staffer, with a whiff of sulphur about him, and the unmistakable haggard looks of a well-known certain Berli (wanted on three worlds and several minor solar systems) rolls out a map: ‘Well, let’s see. (Pointing to a forest on the edge of the border.) Here! This will be the Winter of Patton’s discontent. When our men will storm once more into the German lines, taking the banner of freedom and smashing the might of the Nazi army, the Gents of the 3rd Army lying in bed will accurse themselves. Like a lion roaring, all will flee before the onslaught of the force that is VII. Corps.’ Hakko (soothed): Make it so. The scene changes a dug-out, on the edge of the Kall Trail, deep in the dark, rain-drenched damp hell-hole that is the Huertgenwald, an area so bereft of anything interesting that only a madman, or someone of a particularly evil mind would get the idea to fight about it. This is a country where peasants marry their cousins, and cows die of boredom. Mortars whizz overhead, and the characteristic burst of the MG-42 can be heard in the background. A ragged looking Captain (let’s call him Slappy), his eyes racing from one point to another, his shaking hands holding a long-cold cigarette butt, looks at a map. A private tumbles through the door. The private (let’s call him Shaw) gets to his feet: F*ck that was close. Cap’n, what’s the story with them assault rifles? The Captain (irritated): You what?! Shaw: Them assault rifles, you know, the gamey bastards of Nazis have lots of them, and they use them too. Lots of ammo, they have. They shoot at us. Thought you should know. Don’t think C-Platoon is still there Sir, Cap’n, although they were tactically superior. Gamey SMG charge finished them off. You know, I heard somewhere that we outproduced the Germans in SMGs. Sure would be nice to have one or two of ‘em. Capt. Slappy: Well yes, I noticed. (turning to his orderly) Get me Colonel Stelios Arachnides, our Quartermaster on the horn. The phone rings back. Mortar explosions are coming ominously close. The gamey burping of assault rifles can be heard over the din of battle. A female voice (conjuring up visions of Mae West in our young Captain, until he waves his hand as if to chase them away): ‘Colonel Stelios’ office, 9th Division, you beg, we please, is our motto, how can I fob you off today?’ Capt. Slappy: I wouldn’t mind speaking to Colonel Stelios Arachnides, if you please. Female voice: He’s busy. (tapping of fingernails can be heard in the background, followed by a suppressed yawn) Capt. Slappy: I know his third-grade cousin. He was in the same school as me. Female voice: I see what I can do. Colonel Stelios (for it is him): Ah, Kapitan, Shlappy, how isa the things? Capt. Slappy: Well, I was wondering what Division could do for us in… Colonel Stelios: Ahh, but don’t ask what division can do for you, ask what you can do for division, eheheh… Justa kidding you. You want air-support, eh? Maybe a submarine? Silk stockings? Red wine? Eh, Kapitan!? Capt. Slappy: Ah, well, at the moment it’s raining, so maybe a bit of arty and I heard we produced millions of SMGs? Can I have some? Colonel Stelios: Arty (he looks terribly depressed, at the thought of not being able to help his best friend), there is nothing I can do, eh. And for them SMGs, what price can you maka me? Many picked up by drivers. But I can get you some. Nica Thompson? Burp gun? What you offa? My uncle grego always says, you pay you get, eheheheheheh. Eh, Kapitan? The mortar has now zeroed in on the dug-out. Bullets slug into the trees that guard the entrance. The company’s HQ defense platoon is being mowed down by a German squad that seems to have heard nothing of limitations on, or indeed the failures of ‘spray and pray’ fire. A 60mm mortar detachment dies in an airburst. Capt. Slappy: I am getting busy I am afraid. I’ll call you back. Tell my wife I love her. (He puts down the phone, picks up his helmet and the .45, nodding to Shaw) ‘Let’s go.’ Colonel Stelios: Eh, Kapitan!? Have a nica day, nica talking to you. You want anything, I’m your man. Justa talka to me. Eheheheheheheheh. Eh, Kapitan? The line breaks up, with German Ubertroopers storming into the bunker, emptying their SMGs in a gamey manner on the Capt. and Shaw. With the satisfaction of a job well done they look around. A Feldwebel (let’s call him tero) nods to a Private: Sehr gut, Ja! If you had not done zis terrain analysis ven you vere 12 and a lad in the Hilteryous, ve vould newer hafe been able to place our HMG in such a vay zat it could enfilade ze hole position. The scene changes back to the Auberge. The staffer (is not the smell of Sulphur stronger now?) looks at General Hakko. ‘That wasn’t so bad now, was it? Just 55,000 men. Now, why don’t we just concentrate our forces here in the north? I am sure nothing will happen in the Ardennes, nothing ever does…’ The curtain closes.

For those of you who have given up on the US Lobby thread (and because I like to see my post number increased) I just repost something here, inspired by Brian's (sic!) Uberaustralianness... Spook, Slappy, just give up, I have by good luck found The true history of World War II, according to Terry Gilliam. Here goes: Following the successful forays into Germany in 1939 that forced her to withdraw her forces from Poland to meet that threat, the British Army inflicted a major defeat on the tactically incapable Germans in Norway in 1940, leaving the Germans reeling, and forcing their withdrawal in the summer of 1945. This was but the opening volley. It was followed immediately by a crushing blow in northern France, where the Germans were annihilated, and their trapped army had to be rescued from Dunkirk, to be shipped to Bremerhafen in a flotilla of little ****s. This accomplished, British and Commonwealth forces were instrumental in delivering unmitigated defeat upon the German invasion of Greece, forcing a German airlift to Crete to rescue their troops, where they were annihilated by numerically inferior New Zealanders. The island was lost to Germany in the summer of 1945, as a direct consequence of the gallant action. Not content with this series of total victories, a numerically outnumbered Commonwealth force beat the desert-experienced Germans and their well-led Italian allies back across the desert not once, not twice, but thrice, with the 8th Army finally advancing to El Alamein in pursuit. But then the trouble started. Not happy with being sidelined, the American army insisted on having a go. Being sporty, the British allowed them to land, supplying them with all the ships and planes they might need (after previously giving generous aid to the Americans to help them building up an army – the years 1939-45 saw a constant stream of armament go across the Atlantic to that end). Of course, the Americans being not only amateurs but also clueless, they had to be bailed out by the British time and again. This would draw out the war until 1945 when the Australian flag was hoisted on the Reichstag. Meanwhile in the Pacific, the Japanese were left reeling by the defeats inflicted on them at Hong-Kong, in Malaya, and finally at the siege of Singapore. The Indian Army rapidly advanced across Burma into the North-Eastern parts of India in pursuit of the beaten Japanese. But here the problem of American meddling showed much earlier. Time and again the Australians (who were already lacking supplies of Castlemaine XXX, and had been cut off from the support of Shane, the Feng-Shui consultant) had to bail the Americans out of the trouble they got themselves in. Saipan, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, and finally Okinawa are major battle honours for the Australian army. Not only that, constant support with Australian weapons and advisers kept the Kuomintang in business in China. Finally, in 1945, having dropped nuclear bombs on Japan, Australian tank forces revisited their earlier maginificent victory at Kalkin-Ghol, when they inflicted the final defeat of the war onto the Japanese Army of Manchuria. All lifted from ‘Monty Python’s History of WW2’ by John Cleese and Winston Churchill.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Matthew_Ridgeway: WWII maps and those of today have a scale of 1 meter = 50,000 meters. A 1,000-meter by 1,000-meter grid square is thus represented by only 2.5 cm by 2.5 cm area on an FO’s map. On these maps the village you are attacking is a few black dots that denote the village and individual building representation is in most cases an impossibility. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> WW2 maybe, although I have seen 1:25k maps galore for that time (if there was time to prepare them, e.g. Normandy). Today, I know for certain that the Bundeswehr has access to 1:10k (!) maps. Even so, on a 1:25k it is absolutely no problem to represent individual buildings. I have a number of the French blue series 1:25k, and their representation of detail is superb. I have a scanned 1944 British Army map of Maltot, that has individual buildings on it.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Triumvir: Is no one going to mention Seelowe Heights and Zhukov's batteries of searchlights? Admittedly, they didn't work very well, but...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> As you can see, much more reading on the West than the East, in my case at least.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kingfish: With 4 out of 10 going to Germanboy one would think he'd be inspired to get off his lazy ass and design some more <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Hey, making good scenarios takes time. you can have some crap ones now if you want to Hmm, I think I have four out of my total of seven published in the Top 10. I like that Thanks for your reviews, Kingfish. I have a bit of stuff in the pipeline, Berli is suffering through the testing process at the moment

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Michael emrys: I have the vague notion that something like this was used on the opening night of 2nd. Alamein. It proved of greater benefit to the Axis as it tended to silhouette the advancing Commonwealth soldiers against the bright sky. :eek: Michael<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I think the same happened at the start of EPSOM, IIRC. They used it again during TOTALIZE, AFAIK.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bigdog: Hey that’s my line I gave a 8.21 on 8/9 that’s a Woof Woof Woof Woof Wo-- out of 5 woofs On the Dog Meter<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Hehe - I use that line all the time. I remember, thanks for the review.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bigdog: Yes Sir you are correct. BTW played it myself and had great time playing the Allied side on a PBEM, loved force selection!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Go and review it then

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Hon John Howard MP LLB: Actually it was the British who developed and deployed the only "artifical moonlight" systems. They developed the CDL (Canal Defence Light) turret for the Matilda in 1940. Original intention was to use a very powerful searchlight to dazzle the enemy. To prevent from being destroyed easily the light actually shone directly up from the floor of the turret. A mirror turned it through 90 degrees and concentrated it and an armoured shutter moving rapidly across the beam to prevent shrapnel and bullets from damaging the mirror. The shutter gave a strobe effect which they discovered actually improved its effects on defenders. Later transferred to a Grant/Lee chassis it was also supplied as a complete unit to US units. First used in the Rhine crossing and the North German Plain. One of many of the "funnies" deployed by 79 Armd Div.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I read these were not actually used, and I have seen a call on the Tankmuseum website for veterans to come forward with information. At least one of the regiments with CDL was converted to (IIRC) Buffaloes around the time of the Scheldt clearing, according to my reading.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Rex_Bellator: As there are a lot of arty experts here this might be the right thread to get a question answered for me. I'm not sure about the way CM models rocket impacts. AFAIK one reason Nebelwerfers were so feared was that the rounds would land virtually instantaneously and give the target almost no time to seek cover. So I wonder if we should see very high concentrated bursts of half a dozen rounds impacting together to represent each launch rather than the present spread of rounds over several turns. Thoughts welcome and hopefully this won't detract from the main topic much.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well, from my observations it arrives a lot faster than other arty. You get through 25 rounds in one turn, I believe. Which incidentally is almost exactly 4 Werfer battery w/6 tubes each. What I am not sure about is whether the airburst of the 150mm is modelled. Apparently it should detonate 60cm above gorund. Does anyone know?

I assume that would be TF Butler the scenario, and not the operation. Thanks for posting that here Big Dog, should increase interest for the depot, and hopefully lead to more reviews. Good work on the screenshots too!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SlowMotion: That was the reason why I suggested the recommended scenarios feature. Instead of the current automatically calculated lists based on review scores, people could just write their own top ten lists or whatever. Then other people could see if some list has a scenario they've liked. And if yes, then see what else that person is recommending. The problem is not the lists, but the way they are made.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> You don't get an argument from me - I think that would be a great addition. I think the current idea is that the occasional bad or glorious review that is unwarranted will come out in the wash, with enough reviews. The depot has not been around that long, so it needs time to stock up on reviews. At the moment there are certainly problems with the lists, because of the low number of scenarios reviewed. Be that as it may, I think your suggestion has a lot going for it too. Have you made it on the Depot's forum?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Michael Dorosh: That being the case, what is the harm?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well none, if everybody went to read the reviews - my gut feeling though is that many people just go by the top 10 lists. I just don't think it is right, and I don't agree that I reviewed my work when I did it, at least not in terms of the Depot reviews. I have a few scenarios on my HD that will never see the light of Der Kessel, because of a gut feel that they are 'not right'. Others I have tweaked a lot based on feedback. But I never thought 'I think this will be a 5-7 on the PBEM scale' - when the testers said it is okay I went to publish it. I can't tell you myself whether 'Into the East' is a 10, or a 7 for PBEM. Whether the map is a 5 or a 9. I leave that to people who played it, and who did not work on it (on and off) for months, but who come to it fresh, who play a lot, and therefore have a frame of reference that they use to compare. Remember, everbody will tell you that their child is: a) the brightest the cutest c) the loveliest baby in the world. And they are all right, too. Leave the review to the players, and stick to the notes as a designer.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jarmo: I don't think there's much left to discuss, but it'd be nice to know that "powers that be" have taken note of the issues raised...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well, since it won't be an issue pre- CM II, I doubt it really. If I were BTS I would not open any thread dealing with US/Commonwealth equipment at the moment, unless there was the potential of it impacting lend-lease stuff.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Clubfoot: Ya know, Max. Besides the constant Mac bashing, the recurrent TwoShed's Mod Manager bashing is quite silly as well. Rather a mess. Nonsense. Mod Manager files are quite tidy. Easier to make a CMMOS compatible mod? Well, I've made both and this statement just ain't true. It amazes me you could repeatedly sh!t on a program you've never seen or bothered to download. It's really no wonder that TwoShed's gave up on updating his Manager, I suppose.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Clubfoot, I totally agree. I am in constant amazement that Maximus has not been banned yet, but I guess there is still hope. He has absolutely nothing to contribute to the board, except his constant trolling, and putting the work of others down.

I am totally against that. There is a space for the author to add comments, and the review should be all the author needs to add. How could I (or you) as the author decide how good a scenario is for PBEM or against the AI? Sorry, but this is extremely dodgy, and likely to destroy the credibility of the review process.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Slapdragon: How about calling the war WW2? And the area the Russo-German front.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well, one might do that. Then again, it wasn't just Russians and Germans who fought. Soviet-German War would be better, but I like the ring of Great Patriotic War, and I like the way the acronym rolls, so I am going to stick with it. Not an issue for me, really.

I don't think this is a question about rank, but really one of command hierarchy. In the Commonwealth armies, an FOO would work under the command of the infantry unit commander, and react to his orders/needs, even if the FOO outranked him (e.g. FOOs often were Battery commanders, rank of Captain or Major, IIRC, but they could receive the requests for help from a platoon commander, rank of lieutenant). This did not always work out like that, and there were cases where the FOO took over command (if the infantry officers had become casualties), but generally they would not just saunter about and bomb the enemy to their heart's delight. And since to my understanding the command delay is simulating the co-ordination problem to some degree, it is correct that an FOO should be subject to it.