Seanachai

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Formerly Babra: Play with fog of war ON. Frankly, I'm amazed it's even optional. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Actually, I think he means that once a unit has been captured, even if you're playing with full FOW, the info becomes available, just as it does at the end of a game. But I haven't tried this, so I might not have what aaronb is saying correct. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by RobC: Mortars in CM are required to have LOS either themselves or by their HQ to the target location in order to fire at that location (unless firing on the predetermined fire target and not moving since setup). I believe that this is totally unrealistic and ahistorical. With this feature in place, any infantry unit can make itself immune to attack by mortar fire by simply hiding behind a hill, trees or building out of LOS of the enemy. This is totally unrealistic, since mortar fire was typically used in an indirect fire mode to hit troops (and terrain where enemy troops were suspected to be) that couldn't be seen directly. If the enemy, or the ground where enemy is suspected to be, were visible (i.e. in LOS), then it would have been (and would be) attacked by direct fire from conventional weapons! Steve, Charles, I would like you change this in the 1.02 patch to allow mortars in C&C with their HQ to be able to indirect fire to any location on the map (in range) regardless of whether it is in LOS of the HQ or not. Each HQ leader had a map of the battlefield and could direct the mortar team to fire, for example one hundred yards directly ahead, etc, even to terrain he couldn't directly observe where he suspect enemy troops may be located. Thanks for a great game, Rob C.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> But isn't this unrealistic, given the time frame and scope of CMs scenarios? We're not talking about supporting mortars, or harassing mortars, or interdiction mortars, but frontline, direct support mortars in relatively quick defense/assault scenarios. Given their role, and rather low ammo loads, wouldn't it be irresponsible for the unit themselves, or on map HQs to say, "hey, my guys think they heard movement/thought they saw something over thataway, or 'I just have this feeling', why don't you sling a significant chunk of your limited on board ammo over that way in the hopes that it's the right thing"? I mean, we, as players, have the magic flying camera of godlike determination and are only playing a game. Would a real on-map unit or HQ decide to spend a significant portion of an on-map, direct call/observation unit's ammo in the hopes or expectation of doing an enemy harm? That seems to me more the province of off map units, whose ammo supply or lack there of won't be a hinge point for 'what suddenly to my wondering eyes should appear' type situations. What you seem to be speaking of would be 'harassing' or 'interdiction' type fire, which would seem to be outside the province of units dealing with a 30-120 minute assault/defense with little or no means of immediate resupply. But I would be the first to admit I have no real world experience and am not quoting from first hand and/or reference materials. This would appear to me to be a common-sense/real world call. In playing the demo, and now the full game, I went from regarding on map mortars as useless and 'too dificult' to use, to agonizing over placing/moving them into position to gain the most advantage for the limited time they're available for fire. While dropping their load, or a significant portion of it onto what my tactical sense, and my 'superior' terrain knowledge tells me is the right place, would it truly be justified in 'historical', real battlefield conditions? Just a counter thought, and not a dismissal (out of hand) of your point. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Rommel22: My wish is: I want the Maus tank to apear on the battle field. Some may say it's over kill. But the Germans did use 4 of them. those were the only 4 prototypes they had. Although they were used on the eastern front. You ccan still make them availible in the game now. Please.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I don't know, man, since there's no significant (or even any) historical impact, and IMO nothing more interesting than seeing a (barely) mobilized pillbox/gun emplacement move across only completely perfect terrain (otherwise it becomes a fixed fortification in fact), then its inclusion seems fairly unimportant. But hey, everyone has different desires/wishes, so if it's no hassle to do, I hope they put it in for you! ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CoolColJ: 1) Undo (ctrl+Z) for map editor, the painting bit. 2) Right mouse button erase, clears tile to default grass 3) the different map editor modes assigned to the function keys, so you can switch between them quickly. 4) A button on the console to flip the camera 180 degress. Its a pain to constantly rotate around to the opposite direction as it is now. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Hmm, like a lot of these. Also, and maybe I've missed it, or just haven't played enough yet to see it occur, but would like an option on the Quick Battle generator for terrain type 'bocage'. Given how many significant battles took place in this terrain in the first 1-2 months of operations in Normandy, I'd like see it modeled for Quick battles, and there's no such setting, nor have I seen it turn up. I imagine that, graphics and code-wise, it's not an easy terrain to generate, so maybe I shouldnt' be so lazy and move to the Scenario engine and make maps. It's just that I love the Quick Battle generator's ability to set up rapid, random and semi-random forces for combat, and would like to make this very peculiar terrain type part of the process. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

Actually, according to the game manual and certain threads I've read, a certain 'percentage to occur' chance of any of your units being fanatic in a scenario is the way it works, and this percentage and what 'status' of squads it affects is set by the scenario designer. And yes, neither side will see how many or which squads are affected. Sounds to me like that squad was a for sure fanatic. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

Hey, Bullethead, thanks for the info (and clarified info!), as I was wondering about this. Also, I've meant to post to you several times before to say how much I like the George MacDonald Fraser quote. Started reading the Flashman series when I was in High School, and they probably contributed to my rather sorry present, although I feel I have a wonderful appreciation for cynical & sardonic humour. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Imperator: Is it just me, or is there room for a "Fuller" FOW setting? It seems that sometimes I get more information than a real battlefield commander would have. Particularly, I don't see how it would be possible to determine the experience level of the enemy until you capture some. At best you'd be able to guess based on their actions. Also, some unit identifications seem to be awfully fast and accurate. I often can't tell the German halftracks or the two dozen Shermans apart; how can my troops, under fire, without extensive training, at a distance, determine whether they're shooting at a rifle squad or an engineering squad? How do they count the dead members of a squad that's moved? Or even the living ones of a squad hidden in the woods?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I think some of this is just the 'mechanics' of design, and some a kind of compromise so that people get some legitimate feedback on tactics, effectiveness, and, dare I say it, satisfaction. There have been times when I've lost people in horrible battles, and finally eradicated my enemies, or at least seen who they were, and my feeling is: 'okay, let's see who did this'. It's a little of the 'okay, the butt kicking is done, we're in the taking names, phase, people, so line up and speak clearly.' ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Panzer Grenadier: Post here if you did not recieve CM on Saturday <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Okay, I worked for a small company with a mail order product division (me), and I'll tell you right now, what I'm about to say has nothing to do with BTS or their fulfillment service, it's just some horrible truths about fulfillment in general. I'm sure that when BTS's guys were there in the first couple of days, early preorders were pulled and shipped by the numbers. After the first rush, and despite the best intentions, or promises to the vendor, the people pulling and shipping just grab and ship whatever comes to hand. The least snag, question, confusion, glitch, or no reason at all can move someone's order to the end of the queue. This also encompasses any problems with processing or getting card authorization. This is not done by evil intent. It just happens, because, the people shipping this are only kind of affected by the whole process. Also, I have to say, when we had items where our quantity to ship was limited, we worked hard to make sure early orders got shipped first. When there was no concern about whether everyone would get a copy or not, the key was to just print out orders, grab packing material, and start shipping in any old order. For one thing, taking stacks of orders and trying to 'prioritize' on the basis of when ordered was, frankly, a waste of time. We just wanted to get all those orders out the door as quick as we could, not rank them on the basis of worthiness (I know I will go to hell for having proceeded this way). But believe me, for a small vendor there is a VERY REAL value to preordering: making up copies, packages, etc. as well as trying to schedule for eventual shipment and so on, let's them know what kind of ordering to do, and how to allocate resources to deal with the shipping when the product shows up. Worst case with few preorders: Vendor underestimates their first run/print job (sometimes there's big savings by doing a big run, more for paper printing than CDs, other times there's not much point besides tying up money in stock that doesn't appear to have a home yet). So what happens, the orders come in, stock runs out, and they have to go back to the manufacturer/printer, and that means delays too. And, for a small vendor, the best world is to know what kind of initial volume to aniticpate so you can make the best deal for yourself that you can. Also, although this is probably only part of the problem for some of the people, do not underestimate the vagaries of the Postal System. Am I saying blame them? No, the USPS is a goddamn wonder, handling millions of letters and packages daily. And I've said it before: Priority mail is a usual 2-3 day proposition. But I've seen it take 2 weeks, even 3 (in those cases, someone screwed up). Also, we used to ship to people who didn't know their own bloody address, or what a printer spewed out made one zip look like another, etc. etc. There are all sorts of reasons for delays in shipping: Some human error, some machine error, some apparent complete acts of God. Now, on the other hand, having counseled for patience and understanding, I feel there is nothing wrong with a good, hard session of venting and wrath! As long as it's done in an appropriate and gentlemanly way. I spent 5 years shipping to people, and sometimes I KNEW I WAS SCREWING THEM OVER. Vent on me. I deserve it. Drive me like a pig into the wilderness. And keep your good feelings towards BTS. I would have done more horrible things to most of you, and our product was worse. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

I always use full FOW, both against AI and opponents (okay, opponent, have only had the one PBEM so far), and wouldn't consider any other way. I certainly wouldn't expect to see any posts complaining about the AI or trumpeting their triumphs over it if they weren't using full FOW. But cerainly for people starting out and working for the basics, as well as becoming used to the interface, I could see some lessening of the FOW. I know there's been times when I wondered how effective something I did was, but had only sketchy info to judge from. Still, I suppose if I play a few million times, I'll have compiled enough sketchy info to make definitive decisions. That thought does not displease me. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

Not a war story as such, but just an observation for the people still waiting: I think many will be impressed, as I was, by how much the Quick Battle function allows you to customize&handicap the sides. Not just force multiplier sorts of things, but troop ability, points spent, etc. Unlike most current designed scenarios, which of course emphasize balance between forces/objectives so as to make them even plays, you can design scenarios in which you are slightly to severely handicapped. I have to say, the Quick Battles I've lost have taught me more than the ones I've won. Nothing like the 'Doh! Slap Your Forehead and Know Shame' factor to make you take notice and remember for next time! Oh, and try playing in heavy fog in heavy woods. I was sitting there, on the defensive with Canadians, waiting for the Germans to appear. Thick, gray fog, soughing wind, very desolate, and as I'm anxiously panning over the front, tense, waiting for signs of movement or sound, one of my Sargeants says, in a hushed, stern voice "Be Quiet!" I damn near came out of my chair. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by GriffinCheng+: Fans of Combat Mission = ??? How about "Combat Missionaries"? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Hmm, could work. And then, of course, there will be the Combat Missionary Position: 'My Side, on top, shooting you face to face, for the purpose of preventing the procreation of Your Side.' ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Germanboy: In Combat Mission I like to play the Allies much more. It is much more challenging to work with their sub-par equipment. I look forward to playing the English, because their infantry squads are probably the worst equipped in terms of fire-power. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Huh, some truth there, Andreas. I've been playing Quick Battles as the Brits with the full version, and although it's only been two scenarios of use, those PIATs have been all but useless to me so far. I read about them on one of the links I found on this Board, and remember thinking at the time they sounded like an odd execution. So far, although their 'stats' say they're max range is 200m, I've had no luck using them beyond 100m (falling short on every single shot). And this was at stationary, side-on halftrucks where for 5 shots the Piat crew wasn't even being fired at. I think the Brits should have opted for lend-lease Bazookas. As far as sides, I've been mostly playing Commonwealth troops, because there were none in the Demo, and it's interesting to see the differences in equipment and organization. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by aka_tom_w: "I then sent in about 10 air attacks per side" Did you say 10 per SIDE? I never occured to me that the Krouts might be able to call in air strikes as well as I figured by this time in the war the air over Europe was OWNED by the Allies. -tom w <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Oh, yes, you can create scenarios with air support for the Germans, both in Quick Battles and the Scenario creator. Just screwing around, I made a quick battle with both sides getting fighter bomber support. Problem is, I never knew who was killing what. As has been said above, all you see is a plane silhouette scream by on the ground. Bombs, rockets, and strafing fire came down, hitting various things. I'll have to hope that each sides airforce was attacking the correct targets! ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

Mac User since 1987, began with a 1Mb MacPlus, now B&W G3 350Mghtz, DVD drive, 128 RAM, 16 meg ATI board. CM looks great, plays great. Glad the game's on both platforms, trying to get PC buddies to buy it, and love the fact I've been able to PBEMs with no problems (other than my own stupidity!) against PC users. Bought the Mac version, obviously. And I think this game is going to have great Mac sales. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Seahawk-vfa201: What about having in CM2 tanks leaving trails of their passage on the ground? It would make for a nice realistic graphic touch <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yeah, that would be lovely, but Steve or Charles posted in another thread a while back (am I being vague enough here?), saying that the CPU hit would be immense to try and model it, and if you think about it, it would be complicated as hell. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Capt. Manieri: Wow. This is getting harder day by day. Everyday I wake up at 9, clean and go on the computer. The highlight of my day for the past week has been 12:00 Noon. That's when the mailman comes. When he leaves, I always say to my sister, "I think it'll be here tommorrow." My sister said today, "You've been saying that for, like, six days!" After twelve....it's really difficult to get through the rest of the day. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Man, I've sometimes found the Captain a little much, but this fills me with pathos. Captain, I hope you get your copy tomorrow, I truly do. But be reassured of this: it will have been worth the wait. Not only is the full version appreciably better than the Demo, but your ability to customize your battles, whether through the Quick Battle generator or the Full Scenario creator are simply unbelievable, and neither one is at all difficult to use. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Big Time Software: Actually, I think Ricky has simply fallen into a trap that I have seen other guys fall into before. If one gets a sense of warfare from wargames FIRST everything will be distorted when reading historical accounts. In other words, wargames before CM largely have infantry as an after thought to flesh out the cool looking vehicles. Infantry modeling has been anywhere from horrible to bad, but never good at CM's scale. If these experiences in wargaming are taking without more than a pinch of salt than it is easy to see how a distorted perception of lethality can come about. Steve [This message has been edited by Big Time Software (edited 06-23-2000).]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Steve, Thank you for this and previous posts of this nature. I am so pleased to be playing a wargame that actually deals with infantry as something other than window-dressing thrown in to round out the table of organization. My experiences with CM are similar to what I've read in a lot of 'soldier' level books, and that is that the life of an infantrymen is short, brutish, uncomfortable, and chaotic, but that they're more difficult to overcome and root out than cockroaches. Ricky, read some history, my friend. Read some first hand accounts. Infantry weren't recruited to perform like a bunch of movie extras, falling about and dying to emphasize the glory of the arrival of armour. They're the people on every side of the conflict who fought the war. There's not one inch of ground gained by armour that didn't have to be held by infantry, and not many tanks that went into combat without infantry to lead the way. As for the realism of what you see troops doing on map, you haven't given anyone here enough specific info for anyone to respond. Specifics, old son, specifics. I've seen troops do things so apparently weird, that I've gone: What the hell was that about? But, upon inspection, I was sitting in a comfy desk chair, crying for blood and iron, and the troops I was watching were, upon analysis and reflection, doing what humans do. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Juardis: OK Steve, you asked for it I pre-ordered two weeks ago, June 7. My credit card was billed June 16. My very own copy, personalized by BTS themselves (not really, but it sounded good ) arrived via USPS in Charlotte NC on Monday, June 19. And you know what the bit*h of it is? Last night, the day Christmas came early, I had to reformat and reinstall Winblows due to a corrupted registry unrelated to CM. Damn! Well, I've taken this opportunity to add a V5 5500 card so my pain is assuaged greatly . <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I can make with this post: I got CM on Monday (6/19), and I rush the CD to my Mac G3's DVD drive, and the drive doesn't recognize the CD. Nothing there, thank you. So sorry. So I begin wondering: did BTS have the CD copied in some weird format, is my goddamn DVD the problem, what gives? Put in my OS boot CD, doesn't recognize that either (I haven't used my DVD/CD drive lately). Figure the driver's corrupted, I'll just reinstalll. Attention wanders, people call, try to maintain installation focus while doing other things. New driver in, regular system completely trashed. Two hours and a complete clean system and all upgrades reinstall later, I'm making little whining noises of appreciation playing Quick Battles. CM not only cured my nervous twitch, it helped me fix previously unnoticed system problems. "Combat Mission: It's Good For What Ails You!" ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

I've had at least one Quick Battle where there were some...well, strange map anomalies, I believe. One was a Wooden Bunker that was pretty much intersected with a house, and one was a German Pak 40 that was placed in a foxhole behind a house, but aimed straight through the same structure, so that half the gun was inside it (I know that the graphic representation is somewhat different from the actual game engine tracking of such things, but this gun also seemed to be firing as though the house weren't there...) On the other hand, the Quick Battle generator is our friend. It keeps up endlessly amused, saving all the designed scenarios for blind PBEMs (otherwise, I'd never have the will-power). ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads. [This message has been edited by Seanachai (edited 06-23-2000).]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Scott C: For sheer naming style, no other scotch can compete with: Old Sheep Dip! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> You know, when I was a mere youth, and had stopped into the Canadian liquor store at the border with my Dad, I was going along the shelves and found a red Australian table wine called 'Emu 666'. Wish I'd bought the damn thing to keep, for the label alone. "This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for lying down and avoiding." ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads. [This message has been edited by Seanachai (edited 06-17-2000).]

I'd rather eat a hamburger in front of a pack of starving wild dogs than admit being the first to get my copy of CM on this forum. And not to be an ill-speaker, but people should remember that the Postal Service's Priority Mail '2-3 days' is the normal expectation, not a guarantee. I've sent stuff out Priority Mail, and had it show up 2 weeks later. But that's unusual, to say the least. Still, give BTS a couple of days on when you think it should be there, before panicking. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Capt. Manieri: You said "bloody." You're English. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> My Uncle worked construction, and one day a Carpenter's Union BA caught him (a laborer), wearing a carpenter's apron: "Are you a carpenter?" "No, I'm not" "You're wearing a carpenter's apron." "Yeah, well I'm wearing jockey shorts, too, but I don't ride horses." Needless to say, we had to hide him whenever the BA came on the site, or risk having all the carpenters pulled! ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Himself: I think, therefore I post<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Huh, take the path that I've been forced to by mistakes, and that others should: I think before I post. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

Seimerst, I got that you were being facetious, but I see buddy's already chimed in acknowledging, so no harm done. No war stories of my own, but stories of war from others: I worked as a laborer on a block/brick crew building a supermarket in the south suburbs Twin Cities, MN. We had a young guy on the crew, Mikey, another laborer. We were setting up bricks and filling mudboards for this older guy, and it was a slow day, and we were all chatting, and he made a comment about 'The War'. Mikey, who was about 19, asked him which war, and the guy said WWII. Then Mikey asked him, all excited, what unit he was in. He told us: xx Panzergrenadier Division, Heavy Machine Gun Company x. Mikey just stood there blinking at the guy for a moment, and the older guy smiled and said "that's right, Mikey, I was one of Adolph's brave boys." Guy emigrated to America after the war. Told us how he and his buddies spent an entire day running, running flat out, from the Russians, looking for an American or Brit unit to surrender to. When they were finally stopped and captured by an American unit, he told us he was so used to having weapons all around that he forgot he had a pistol tucked into the back of his pants, and when the American Sargeant searched him and found it, the Sarge kicked him so hard in the ass he launched him 2 foot into the air. Says he figured the Sargeant took him for some sort of SS diehard who was going to try and kill his captors, and he didn't know enough English to explain he 'just forgot'. I'll never forget the expression on that young laborer's face; it never occured to him he might meet someone from the other side. The bricklayer had an accent, but that's not that unusual with guys you work with in south Minnesota (or north, for that matter). He was a damn good bricklayer, I might add, and a pleasure to work with. Just as glad he escaped the Russians. ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

Oh for the love of God, grunto, why did you have to mention the kitchen sink? You've set them off again. I think I'm suffering from Post Traumatic Sink Syndrome, now. I can't do the damn dishes anymore, I'm afraid to wash my hands, and if they continue to move into Armored Fighting Toilets, I'll probably be arrested for doing my business in the ally again... ------------------ After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.