Miyamoto Musashi

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by guachi: If there are any decent bookstores in Helena, do what I do. I find books I want and then walk over to B&N and get them to order the books for me. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well, there's the catch... lol. There isn't much of anything here except casinos. If you're in the mood to gamble, come to Helena. If you want to buy things, stay clear. I've bought all the software for my Mac online as well as most of the other stuff that I've needed since I've been here. There are a couple of used bookstores, but, oh for a B&N or a Borders! I went to Clemson and Indiana for grad school before I moved out here to help dad on the ranch over the winter, and man was I spoiled! In Bloomington I had a BN, a Borders, a Reader's World, and a Waldenbooks... in Helena... hmmm... And it kinda sucks for WW2 scale modeling, too. I've been exceedingly lucky that a teeny nickel and dime store here gets Tamiya models once in a while. It's the only place in town that carries any modeling supplies (or models, for that matter) at all. Anyways, enough senseless ranting about the podunk town I'm living in. I'll be moving back to civilization in a few weeks Now I've got to go find a little shelf space for my just-completed Wirbelwind model Oh, and you are very right about the terrain here being suitable for CM... I walk around the ranch, finding ambush and hull-down positions ------------------ 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 may or may not be correct, but I know that the squads can't occupy the same space, so maybe one half is just moving to a clear area which just happens to be outside the house. Just a thought... ------------------ 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 Formerly Babra: Am I the only one having trouble doing the math on that one? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ha! Shows what you know... perhaps you've heard of the NEW MATH?!? Get your nose out of the history books and get with the program... everyone knows that 4 equals 5 equals 3. Man, the kind of intellects you come into contact with on these message boards... ------------------ 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 dumbo: What a delight I didnt even know Rommel wrote book (shows how much I know). I shall take myself henceforth to my favourite second hand book store and try to obtain a copy with all speed. May one ask when he found time to write it? Or is it concerned with his pre WW2 expereinces? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> From the synopses I've read, it concerns his experiences as an infantry leader in WWI. It's available at all the major online bookstores (which is where I'll probably end up buying it since at the moment I'm living in the wilderness territory known as Helena, MT). ------------------ 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.

Ok, just for Babra, here's my brand spankin' new signature, featuring the words of the world greatest swordsman/scholar... ------------------ 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 Wayne:

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Blackhorse: Rommel's book is good. It deals strictly with infantry tactics.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well that should be perfect... after all, CM is a game of infantry, not tanks... right Steve?

and W is for Wirbelwind...

Now THAT is funny... kinda brings me back to the days of Electric Company and Zoom...

I was just looking around today and happened upon this site: http://www.blitzkrieghobby.com/ They even have a poll, which right now is asking what your favorite panzer is... how cool is that? Plus they've got a good selection of models and assorted things. Their prices are pretty much in line with most of the other hobby shops I've seen, such as ehobbies.com and internethobbies.com . Anyways, FWIW...

I'm just wondering how many of you have read Rommel's "Attacks" or Guderian's "Achtung Panzer," and if these books have enough relevance to CM-style battles that it would be worth my while to plunk down the $10 or so to get one or both from Amazon.com. Holy cow... that was one sentence... Oh, and I know they're related to WWI and not II, but no book store in town has either one, so I haven't had a chance to flip through and see how much in the way of CM-relevant squad-level tactics is in there... anyways, I trust the judgement of the people on this board more than the reviews posted on amazon, etc. ...

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Formerly Babra: Miyamoto: Take those schweinehunde out back and have zem shot! PS: When are you going to add a quote from the great samurai himself to your signature? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> They certainly deserved it... I try to protect my guys as much as possible; I'm not one to make suicide charges or plans that recklessly endanger soldiers. But when that idiot cost me a tank kill because of his utter stupidity, I wished I could have turned my own squads' fire onto him. If anyone has ever deserved a dishonorable death in CM, it had to be that joker. As to the master fencer and his quotes, I've been too lazy to put together a cool sig... but now that you've mentioned it, I'll look through my literature and pick out a suitable Musashiden quote for a CM audience. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Manx: Miyamoto...i've had the same thing a number of times...especially in CE. If your schreck unit is'nt under any sort of pressure i.e - under fire from enemy units, then there really shouldn't be any reason for them not to make the right decision and attempt to take out the enemy tanks. These panzerschreck guys would certainly have been trained to operate this equipment and they would have known that their duty was to 'kill' tanks. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yep, I heartily agree. To be honest, I've never had a real problem with my schrecks before. Use them correctly and they repay you with good results. But this was probably the closest I had ever gotten an anti-tank squad to an enemy tank... no enemies at all saw him, other than the HQ unit who was being butchered by my infantry. And my first thought was, oh, he must be a conscript, which would have been at least remotely acceptable. Nope, he was a regular... he should have known better. And notice again, no smilies... I'm trying to win the favor of Mr. Peng, my would-be secret benefactor...

Speaking of the unpredictability of war... I was playing CE just now and had several of my squads on the German side hill (playing as Germans). A Sherman parked itself on the hill, trying to get at my men, so I moved a schreck up at the same time I made an infantry charge to keep enemy squads off my schreck's back. It worked perfectly, the Sherman was dead to rights... almost. The schreck got to his position, right next to the unsuspecting Sherm, when he suddenly had a case of indecision... he began to think "Now should I destroy this tank looming in front of me, or the Platoon HQ 20 feet away who's being cut down by my fellow infantrymen? Let's see... this weapon I'm carrying is anti-armor, but I'd LOVE to see what it would do to that HQ squad over there... hmmmm..." Back and forth he went, targeting first the tank, then the HQ unit. Finally, the Sherman got wise to this idiot sitting next to him and backed out, far out of sight. When the turn ended and I finally got some control back, the Sherm was out of LOS. Now THAT little episode really steams me... I ended up quitting the program I was so peeved... A little hiccup, or even cowardice I can take, but when a schreck unit is sitting literally millimeters of screen distance away from an American tank, it should be an immediate decision to blow the tank. Especially when he has about 40 seconds to decide what he wants to do... he's not ducking for cover, he's not in any peril, and the tank apparently doesn't see him sitting there. He could have MANUALLY placed the shell into the tank's armor in the time he took to figure out what to do... I've got my fingers crossed that in the real game this kind of bonehead AI is solved. Anyways... I just had to vent a little

Hmmm... probably anywhere from 4 to 10 times each day. More now that the game's about to ship (I'm looking for that "The Game Has Shipped" thread from BTS), but I've always checked at least 4 or 5 times a day. (Wow... no smilies in the post... maybe Peng's getting to me...)

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by tss: In the end I lost with a minor defeat because one Sherman destroyed the Panther with one shot with a front upper hull hit. - Tommi<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Man, I know how you feel... I played VoT the other day with the Axis up 150... The two Panthers got one-hit kills on 5 of my 6 Shermans... argh

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Epée: I played CE yesterday as the allies, and gave the Axis +25% balance. I scored 90-10, so there is still room for improvement! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well, I played CE at 2am last night as the Amis with the Axis up 150% and... well, I managed a draw Even though I figured I should have won a minor victory since I had killed all 10 StuGs (while losing 4 of 5 Sherms) and caused 334 casualties (104 killed). Plus I controlled both hills while allowing the Germans to kill themselves as they tried to retake my real estate. Oh well... in my book I won, so there

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Richard III: To credit the ship with the name "Virginia" would be to legitimize the Confederate government and its activities. If I were to steal your boat and paint some other name on it, would you suddenly insist on using the thieves' new name?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Oooh, hoo, hoo... Being a person who went to college and grad school in South Carolina, I cannot wait to hear the return salvos for that little comment... To speak of "not legitimizing" the Confederate government is to argue something entirely different than the name of the ship. The Confederacy believed that it was the Union that became illegitmate when the Union began passing laws which were directly targeted at Southern businesses. I'm sorry, but if anyone out there still believes slavery was the cause of the war, I'm really at a loss. But the South's contention was that if they weren't getting a fair shake in Washington, they would simply negate their contract (i.e., the Constitution). The federal government, not wanting to show weakness or allow the Southern states to set a precedent, fought to hold the South in the Union. While the South fired the first shots at Sumter, the North was still largely responsible for the outbreak.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JeffRaider: Another "don't matter much" suggestion, but I'd really like a Movement to Contact Order.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Personally, I think it's a good idea. The alternative is to sneak in tiny increments, hoping that you won't see the enemy before the guys stop sneaking. I'd love to have a move/attack command that allows the boys to move along until they find an enemy... I hesitate to say this, but StarCraft had such a command; but that was an RTS and I've already sold in on auction. But yeah, I think the move to contact idea is a good one... is this something you guys have thought of already and discarded Steve/Charles/powers that be?

Ok, even though I've never been in the service, I've got to share one of my dad's Vietnam stories... He was in the AF and worked munitions, working with bombs, etc. In fact, he was one of the few certified to work on the high-drags... if you put those together you had to sign your name on them so they'd know who to get if one failed. Anyways, that's just background material My dad and his crew would head out to their huge concrete bunker (which was WAY away from the base in case one of the bombs accidentally... well... blew up ). They took a bus out to their worksite every day. Now regulations said that while you were out and around you had to wear your floppy hat. My dad at the time was just an airman and he walked to the bus early one morning without his hat on. Unfortunately, on the way to the bus, he met up with a brand new Lt. who asked him immediately where his hat was. "In my pocket," dad told him. "Well, why don't you have it on?" "Cause I couldn't fit my head in my pocket..." Well, dad was escorted promptly to the company comm. who just told him not to bother the new Lt's.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bobbaro: It is not only the impact of the media, electronic, auditory, and printed that often impairs the learning process, there is the diploma; it also can distort by conveying authenticity undeserved. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> A very good point. When I was a teaching assistant in grad school (and when I was doing my semester of student teaching), one of the recurring themes was "how did this student graduate without being able to --insert necessary skill here--" Many of the freshmen in my TA class had virtually no writing skills and found it very difficult to convey a thought into words that made sense. And when I or one of the other TAs would give them a low grade on an essay test, they would balk and complain, as if the fact that they put anything down at all was worthy of at least a C. And many of these kids were coming from the bigger schools which had internet access, etc. And to address one of the earlier posts which said the internet was good for education, please understand that I DO think the 'net could be valuable if used responsibly. Reading foreign news is a good example of this. However, our reliance on the 'net as an education savior is what I'm appalled at. Instead of throwing money (federal and otherwise) at the school systems to buy servers, computers, etc., some of that money could be used to increase teacher salaries to make that profession attractive enough to bring in quality teachers at every level. In addition to quality teachers, the school systems could also use a tweaking of priorities. I don't know what's taught in kindergarten anymore, but it must not be reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic. If reading and writing were being taught early, there'd be less need for "Hooked on Phonics" or any of the other reading helps out there. Now some kids might need additional help with reading, I understand, but if these things were taught as they should be in the schools, the need for outside help would be much less. And that's only one example that comes to mind. I can only assume that if reading and writing are not being taught in the early grades that math is not being taught either. So what are they teaching the children? Maybe someone on the board with a little one in kindergarten or first grade can help with this. I'd hope they aren't teaching them social history or computer science... but you have to wonder why the spelling bee champions from the last few years (as well as many of the other competitors) come from home schools and not the public schools. Now this isn't meant to be a broad condemnation of all public schools... I know some are very good. When I did my student teaching in college, I taught at a top-notch school. There were only 20 or so computers for 3200 students, but a good portion of the students were very bright and really wanted to learn. But I started this post to agree that many diplomas are being handed out hand-over-fist when a good number (if not a majority) of the students getting them don't deserve to graduate from high school yet. High schools (and in some cases, colleges) are, as Bobbaro said, validating the product they are producing by giving them the diploma, whether the products are truly finished or not.

I read through all six pages of this thread and all I got was this lousy... oh, wait a minute... I didn't even get a t-shirt. Bummer...

Oh, and Steve's "dumbing down" point reminded me of something I meant to include in my earlier discourse... I heard on the radio the other day about Pres. Clinton's discussion with the new Russian president, Putin. I guess Bill's dream (aside from erasing his embarassing episodes from the world's collective memory) is to put a computer with internet capability in every village and hamlet in the world (literally, no sarcasm there at all). Now I have no problem with this... at least no problem with the internet being available as a communication tool. But Bill's looking at this as a big educational thing... as if internet computers will help these villages and hamlets across the world begin to produce cancer researchers, etc. I DO have a problem with this view that the internet is an end-all to the education problem. I use the internet every day, so I don't want to appear as though I'm knocking the 'net... but I don't think the internet is this big education solution that's going to turn our slouching schools into genius factories (unless we redefine "genius" to mean someone who's ultra-competent with a computer... but that's another story). How is a computer in a village going to improve those people's education? How is it going to help those children's minds to blossom, anymore than reading books can? In the U.S., we have a computer per child in a lot of the wealthier school systems, and at least one computer in most if not all of the other schools (as opposed to a computer per town) and this hasn't seemed to help our world ranking in education. Of course, the argument against an overreliance on technology has gone on for years, especially in the last half of the 20th century. And as I said, the Internet is a fine tool for doing all sorts of things (like buying superior wargames )... and I believe it can be responsibly used to aid in the educational process. But I still don't think that surfing the web and looking at streaming video can replace reading information in a book. I just don't see how the mind watching pictures is more stimulated or grows faster than the mind which is forced to paint its own pictures as it translates words on paper into viable thoughts. Now I may be proved wrong in the coming years; we may begin to see a rash of superbrains emerge from the new "wired" schools. But judging from the early returns, I seriously doubt it...

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by KwazyDog: Instead of getting upset at us for not having them yet converted to a Mac format, HELP US DO IT!!!!!! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Sorry Kwazy, Matt and Bil... just got a little carried away . I didn't mean anything personal against you all by my out of place comments... it's just a little frustrating being a Mac user in a Windows-dominated world sometimes, and I guess I kinda boiled over a bit, so I apologize Anyways, if I knew how to do the conversions, I'd be more than happy to, but I don't know much about that end... I do freelance graphics and publishing, but for print sources... I don't know how to convert Wintel files, etc.

I think most of the discussion here has been right on, and I think the jist of the article, that Hollywood enjoys distorting history, is unfortunately very true. I'm surprised the article didn't mention movies aimed at children, like the animated Anastasia and Pocahontas, which were huge lies wrapped up in cartoon form. Anastasia came out when I was in grad school, studying the American Revolution, ironically enough. A friend of mine was doing his thesis on Russian history, and the trailers for Anastasia irked him to no end. And Pocahontas... well I don't want to waste my time on that Anyways, the point I wanted to make was about something that was said in the article. The Times piece said that Hollywood was more interested in portraying all historical characters (or at least the ones portrayed as heroes) as modern liberals. I think this is entirely true, as is the point that, instead of looking down on Nazis, etc., we should be more concerned with the circumstances which created those ideas. Who's to say that modern liberalism is the ideal? Obviously the predominately liberal Hollywood personalities would say this is the case, but I think personally that many stories in history are very interesting as they actually occurred. There's nothing wrong with showing the men and women of the various periods as who they are, with shortcomings and differing ideas... this would be much more interesting (not to mention truthful) than transposing a bunch of 21st century attitudes and ideas onto 18th century people. Anyways, FWIW...

Well, I played CE today, and though it wasn't the quickest victory ever, it definitely was one of my most decisive. I was playing as the Germans with no side having an advantage (and after playing several times lately with the Amis pumped up 150%, which gives them between 12 and 14 tanks, 5 Shermans seemed like a cakewalk... ) I simply positioned my StuGs on the left-side plateaus behind the big hill and waited. I pushed the 81mm FO to the front of the hill and targeted arty onto the hill on the Amis side, then casually walked most my troops onto the crest of my big hill, positioning them accordingly in case they were discovered, while my two vet groups, a couple COs and three schrecks ran to the small wooded area near the road on the right. The arty kicked in and confused the Sherms and inf on the hill and they began to sprint in all directions, with the infantry heading toward my hill and the Shermans splitting into two groups, one group of two heading for the church, the remaining three heading for the two story building on the Amis side of my hill. To make a long story short, the two Shermans near the church were popped off quickly, and two more who came to avenge them shared their fate. I began moving my mass of troops (and their reinforcements) across the hill toward the objective flag, annihilating the isolated Ami infantry which were scattered around in the woods. One of my schrecks in the trees near the road opened up on the last remaining Sherm, and I finished him off with a mad schreck charge out of the woods on my hill. Then it was simply a matter of hunting with the StuGs and running a banzai charge with all my troops, sending Ami infantry running for cover and yelling for their sweet mamas Anyways, it was 97 to 3 at the end... pretty fulfulling (and way too easy after playing with a 150% disadvantage for several games!!)