Miyamoto Musashi

Well, like I said... anyone interested in testing a couple of operations for me? Two are fairly long, 6 battles/15 turns, and one is shorter 3 battles/20 turns. If anyone's interested, let me know by e-mail or by posting here. Thanks ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Madmatt: a parallel idea has long been in production <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ugh, beaten to the punch by Madmatt... what a surprise I'm not exactly sure what everyone would be looking for as features, but as I was thinking about this earlier today and getting my thoughts straight (oh, and to answer the other question, my idea was to do a CM-only letter, but if the people want a general wargaming deal, then that's what the people get... ), I figured it'd be nice to have at least a detailed AAR, a scenario designer tip or article of some sort, and a nice war story from the CM front lines, along with a smattering of other stuff I haven't thought of yet. But this was only a tiny seed of an idea in my tiny brain I'm sure you've got a much more solid framework if this has been planned for a while already. By the way, Matt, what do we need to talk about? And who are these investors? And... and... oh well... ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Quigybo: I sell for a printing company in the Midwest and could get the newsletter printed and mailed cheaply. Let me know if you are interested. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Definitely... if enough people are interested, we can talk about it further. By the way, where in the Midwest? ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

Well, it looks like at least a few people are into it. Just to make sure everyone knows, if anything does get printed it would most likely be a newsletter... magazines for decent size audiences are expensive to produce (worthwhile mags, at least); mags for our relatively small audience would be way too expensive. Without advertising, running strictly on subscription fees, you can't afford to produce something like a CGM or a MacAddict. Anyway, all that is just to say I think if we do any kind of physical printing, a newsletter is the way to go. Now I'm willing to start putting together a design and work on some other things (like lining up a printer). I doubt if I would contribute too much in the way of AARs or info myself, seeing as how I'm kind of a newbie to the wargame world. But it shouldn't be any problem getting the knowledgeable people to contribute. Now if people are really serious about this thing, please chime in here and now. I don't want to waste a bunch of time doing a full design only to find out only 20 or 30 people would be willing to pay to make this happen. Oh, and to respond to one of the posts above, I wouldn't be into this to make a "profit," although it would be nice to make a teeny bit of money. But I'll decide if that's possible or if this will be a labor of love when I find out how much it would cost to print, etc. Oh, and I would like to try having an issue ship every two months. But that will also depend on cost. I'm not sure what it will cost to do an 8-10 pg. or larger newsletter (with varying factors such as color, paper quality, etc.), so we'll have to see. But whatever happens will be up to you guys. If this thread fills out with a huge amount of people who want this done, I'll start working this weekend. If not, I'll spend the weekend killing tanks So, does anyone have a good suggestion for a name? ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M. [This message has been edited by Miyamoto Musashi (edited 06-30-2000).]

Well, this subject came up before, kind of, and at that time, I offered to do some work on a newsletter. But at the time no one seemed interested. The problem is that it's too easy (and cheap) to start a website that covers the same sort of thing a newsletter would. My own opinion is that it still would be fun to get something physical in the mail periodically that I could read that had all new articles and information. I'm kind of curious now as to how many others would be interested. If there seems to be enough general interest in this sort of thing, I'll whip out QuarkXPress and get some designs going, get in touch with the appropriate people, etc. If not, I'll just keep playing CM ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

***** Warning... spoiler info on "One Long Cold Day" and "Villers-Bocage Op" ahead... if you're the kind of person who reads the end of the book first, or if you've already completed these, please read on... My favorite single scenario so far is One Long Cold Day (or something to that effect). The beginning is nice (I played as the Germans) and security teams in the small town did their job very admirably. Then things were pretty square, with the Allies advancing because of their sheer numbers... then the King Tiger shows up. End of story. It took out nearly everything that was left... it is an amazing machine, overweight and slow or not. My favorite operation so far is the Villers-Bocage scenario. I don't have any special analysis on it, I just love that fact that, no matter how good you do, it's nearly always a knockdown, drag-out fight to the end. The first time I played, I got a tactical victory as the Germans. The second time, it was either a total victory or major victory (I can't remember offhand), but it was still by no means easy. My personal favorites in the demo and in the real version, have always been the real slugfests where both sides lose a lot of men and machines and the one left standing is the one who "wins." Those to me are just as or more fulfilling as the 97-3 wins. I also really enjoyed the Stolberg-Punching a Hole op, mainly because I did so amazingly well at it on my first go-round (as Germans, yet again). Anyway, FWIW... ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

--yawn-- you've got it, Rob ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

Hi all... Just wanted to let you know that, after a few hours of work, I've finished my first user scenario. I'd be happy to send it to anyone who's interested until it (ever) gets posted somewhere. Without going into too much detail, it's set in the snow-covered mountains and is Americans vs. Gebirgsjager troops. I don't know if I got historically accurate units, etc, but it's 4:00am and I don't care now Anyways, for what it's worth, it's free for the asking (as long as you promise to give me some constructive criticism... I'm still tweaking it and may turn it into an operation eventually). ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

Either way you do it, the main thing to keep in mind is that the StuG is an assault cannon, not a tank. They are best used by finding good ambush positions and waiting for the Sherms to expose themselves. I've got two strategies I use, depending on how lucky I feel. One is to position the StuGs behind the hill to the Germans' right. There are several plateaus there that give good firing positions, and you can wait until the Sherms come into view... the problem is that once you kill the first one, the other Ami tanks gang up and try to outnumber you all at once... there will be a shootout, and you may lose one or all your StuGs. So I usually have a 50-50 chance with that tactic, depending on how lucky my gunners are. A better tactic is to race the StuGs, along with your veteran squads, a couple of COs, and a couple of schrecks and MGs (riding piggyback on the StuGs) down the left side of the map. The main bulk of your infantry go to the top of the wooded hill on the right. The 81mm FO runs to the Amis side of the German hill, where he can get a view of the wheat fields and two-story building. Order him to target the fields (either target or target wide). A small group of schrecks, an MG or two, and a couple of regular squads and COs run for the tiny wooded area on the German side of the church. Run 2 of the StuGs to the road and position them, one on the road facing the crossroads, one on the Ami side of the road, on the German side of the small hill there. The third StuG stays on the German side of the road, and is positioned behind the clump of scattered trees that looks like it was made for it All of the veteran infantry, along with the piggyback riders, runs into the trees on the Amis big hill. Not long after you get this set up, the first Sherm will come into range, at or near the crossroads. He will be an easy target. The rest of the tanks will be bunched up near the Amis' hill, trying to decide how to approach the StuGs. Nine times out of 10, they will end up being forced to roll into view one at a time, where your StuGs should make easy work of them if you positioned them correctly. If you're lucky, one of the Sherms may get bogged down near the hill and will be taken out of the play altogether. With the tanks gone, you move up your forces on the Ami hill toward the objective flag. Move slowly in case there are any troops there. What's left of the Amis that made it through the 81mm barrage will run into the large infantry group on the German hill while your guerrilla group fights its way to the Ami hill flag. The StuGs come in handy to suppress the troops around the wheat fields and houses, keeping them contained. When you feel you've weakened the enemy enough, rush your infantry troops en masse, using your StuGs as close support. If you've done everything correctly, you should rout the enemy completely. Last time I played CE as the Axis it was a 97-3 victory. ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M. [This message has been edited by Miyamoto Musashi (edited 06-25-2000).]

Never use tanks on the front lines? Well, I won this one on the second battle (night) and used my tanks on the front lines, but kept them mobile. I positioned one Panther in the town in a hull-down spot and the other I would move occasionally from two spots in the town and into the group of three buildings (2 small and one large) on the right of the main town. Both Panthers did most of the damage... the 88 box was taken out fairly early on during the first battle by a lucky shot, but not before it had taken out a 105 and a Stuart. My main goal was to maintain the town and hold out for the reported reinforcements. At night, when the StuGs and the men arrived, I started a flanking maneuver on the left and ran into the Amis attempting the same thing... that skirmish ended fairly quickly, with most of the Amis dead and several captured. With them out of the way, the StuGs, 251/1s, and troops moved past my bunker line on the left and swept around the hill, hidden from the remaining Ami tanks and men that were attempting to assault the town itself. At the end i had 28 casualties (11 KIA) with 4 boxes nixed. The Amis had 195 casualties (91 KIA), 10 captured, 2 mortars destroyed, 24 vehicles down. I was actually kinda hoping this one would last the 6 turns so I could delve out more punishment ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

... was up... til... 4:00am... need more... caffeine... zzzzzz... must not fall... asleep... must... play... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

--big sigh of relief-- finally... I said I wouldn't post the day I got it, but I'm taking a well-deserved break after whipping the AI in my first mission and first operation. The bad news in my first op was that I lost 32 vehicles... the good news was that they lost 73... Anyways... did you get it today, Capt.? It won't feel right if I got it and some of my waiting compatriots didn't... ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

Well, my mail doesn't come until 2pm or so mountain time, so we'll see... but if all the other posts are any indication, I won't be seeing mine today either. Yep, sure am glad I avoided the rush and preordered ahead of all those guys who didn't know about CM until the gold demo... I assume that mine shipped at least around the 20th since a lot of the others here who ordered kinda sorta around the time I did were told that... but the 20TH?!? let's see... shipping started last wednesday and went through thursday and friday... then monday and then mine gets shipped out tuesday (if then)?!? the very last day of shipping??!!!??? So much for the mistaken early orders having "no effect on all following orders..." I could go into a really long and venom-dripping tirade about the guys who "pre-ordered" in May and June 2000 again, but rather than say how pathetic and unfair this entire shipping ordeal has been, and how amazing it is that a company that can make such a superior game can botch the shipping so badly, I'll keep my mouth shut and sit in the corner. ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Capt. Manieri: Guys, listen. Steve said the last BUNCH of pre-orders went out the door THIS MORNING. 6/22/00. I'm betting my copy went out the door as the absolute last one..so I'm putting my money on Tuesday of next week. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yep, now that I read that, I'm hoping mine comes by NEXT weekend... I hope all the bums who ordered in May and June are enjoying their frickin' game... cause I'm really beginning to near my breaking point. This whole situation is really ridiculous... And the message board has become virtually worthless to me until I get the game, with all the "For all those that have the game... he he"-type threads being posted... my only interest here anymore is to check the whining forums and see how many others are sharing my fate and sitting idly while those who ordered two weeks ago are happily playing their game. It truly is a dark time... ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

Well, without getting into the war of the Scotts... I'll chime in and say I've had great luck with priority mail before this point. I think the USPS is doing its thing like always... the problem is that a lot of the late arrivers to CM got their stuff shipped before the pre-order people... and THAT's what really burns... I don't know whose fault it is, and I'm not prepared to start throwing blame around, but the fact is that its pretty depressing to see guys who preordered in May of this year posting how great the game is, etc etc when people who preordered before I did in February haven't gotten it yet. ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by thetoad: Sigh. Why bother pre-ordering if there is no advantage to doing so?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> If I hadn't already wasted too much time asking this question in another thread, I'd heartily agree with you ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Quigybo: I ordered last year and I am supposed to get the print and I have yet to receive the game or print{I am in the Midwest}. Slapped the mailman today and I still received zero intel on my package. No more long term preorders seeems to be the best solution. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Man, I guess it's good I didn't take down my mailman today then... he probably wouldn't have had any answers either. But I'm with you... it seems as though the long-term preorder gives little in the way of rewards, since in this thread and several others, people who ordered in May have made sure to tell us that they've had their copy for days... what was I thinking? I only preordered at the beginning of the year, so I knew I wasn't going to be first in line by any means... and the waiting wouldn't be nearly as difficult if the people who were getting it were the people who SHOULD be getting it... those who preordered long before I did. But these johnny-come-latelys are a real annoyance. Guess I'll have to hope that Thursday will be the day. And now I've got a running bet with my brother that the model I ordered on Wednesday is going to get here before CM does. Here's hoping I get something before Saturday... ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by LouieV: I'm thinking about ordering the game, but it seems as if a lot of people haven't gotten the game. So if I order the game today, when should I expect to get it? I'm in Texas (an hour and a half outside Houston). <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yeah, I've gotta go with JgdPzr on this one... you should already have the game, if the past experience is any indication... And I don't know about slowing down later pre-orders shipments, but I do think there should have been some sort of advantage to pre-ordering early...It's as if there's a middle class here. The guys who ordered during the "Panther Print" period got theirs, the guys who preordered in May and June got theirs, and all of us who preordered during the "beta demo" period are catching the shaft... ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

I feel kinda betrayed... why'd I preorder so early if people who ordered last month were going to get the game before I did? I should have just waited and ordered now... Maybe I'd have it already. Of course, I do live in Montana, which is out in the middle of nowhere... but I've had priority mail packages from Florida reach here in 2 days... It's just depressing... ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

Well, I got accomplished what needed to be accomplished... there is now a singular post to put all happy declarations of CM on. If the dialogue continues to spiral downward, I suggest you close this thread, Steve. (Although I won't know if he does or not since I should get my copy of CM tomorrow, and therefore won't be visiting the board 'til the weekend or so And by that time, all this nastiness and gloating will be old news and most likely forgotten...) ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MantaRay: Well, it is included in the game, so no need to download it. Ray <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Oops... ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MantaRay: And Night at Cheneux is simply awesome folks. Wild Bill made it and I had to say WTF a few times cause something happened that I was unprepared for. Great scenario!!!! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> So where can I get my grubby little hands on that scenario? Or will that be one of the ones Wild Bill posts this week? ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

Well, unfare or not, it still feels good to get those high 90s scores. But I'm with you... I'll trade in my high scores for some unknown enemies and a real slugfest to the end ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

Well, I'm not going to waste my time arguing about it or I'll be as guilty as all those who seem to feel the need to post their individual USPS experience... but I don't care how well labeled the threads are... my point was to ask why is it necessary that everyone who gets their copy must immediately start a new thread saying they have it?? Post to one of the existing threads and be done with it ... as it is, the first page of threads is almost entirely "I got it" or "CM landed in --location--" I just don't understand why this is necessary... when I get my copy tomorrow or Wednesday, you can be sure I'll be way too busy killing Shermans to worry about selfishly telling everyone that I got it... and that's my final word on this subject. ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.

It's getting pretty sickening here... every new topic is "I got CM" or "CM in --insert state--" Ok, we're all happy you got the game... but if this is all the message board is going to be for awhile, I can do without it, starting now... I can understand the first couple guys posting (like GhostOne), but is every single person who gets it now going to start an "I got CM" thread?!? Hearing that you've got it serves fairly little purpose except to, wittingly or unwittingly, taunt those who are waiting... besides, you'd think the people who have it would be too busy playing to post "I got it"... sheesh... ------------------ In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit. -- M.M.