chrisl

in the upper right hand corner there's a button to switch the display from battles to ops. click on ops (it looks greyed out) and it will display them. You can also check in your scenario file-- they're called somebattle.cmc

oops, meant to edit previous post too early in the morning... [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-06-2000).]

Stole this naming convention from Robert Hall: [scenario abbrev][Player1 initials][player2 initials][file creator](Movie)[turn number with leading zeros] e.g. The turn 3 orders created by the German played by Robert against me would be VoTRHCLGE03.txt The US player then puts in orders and creates movie named VoTRHCLUSMovie03.txt This lets you sort by name and have nice lists of files by each player. It is a little confusing in that files are labeled by the side that created them, and not the side that can watch them. [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-06-2000).]

Hehe. I've been learning the same thing. I'm on the technical side of some aerospace contract stuff, but the contract negotiators like me because I take some interest in the rules, too. But then I also like to play Diplomacy (with the wooden pieces is preferred).

My background is not only hex based, but cardboard. I never got into computer wargames (I find it odd when people here sometimes talk about wargaming as if it were a solely a computer thing). I would really rather not go back. I can play a full game of a fairly large scenario in less time than a single turn used to take, and without taking up a 4x8 foot sheet of plywood in the basement.

I lost some Elite Paratroops because they got it into their feeble little elecronic heads to charge an MG42 (LMG) position. I also had an MMG spontaneously pick up and move into a victory location house to provide covering fire for some guys advancing alongside the house. A fine line between bravery and stupidity.

On the flags: don't believe them. The flags belong to you as long as you can't see a lot of enemy units near them (even if there are). They can be very deceiving.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by grunto: oh no didn't he get something like 2 vehicles and a gun? i didn't see his half-squad cargo but i think his was the lead t8 which came around the corner and almost... almost got past the 37mm aa. it looked like he was going to start firing his mg again but the 37mm got him just as he was running past. is that the same murphy you're talking about? andy<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Same Murphy, and that was someone elses T8, since Murphy was almost out of ammo. I double checked and he doesn't get credit for the first gun-- I think it was a greyhound behind him that got that.

I guess you weren't watching Cpl Murphy's T8 all that carefully... I think the guys you slaughtered under your halftrack had ridden up on Murphy's T8. I'm starting to really like the T8, except the ammo load is *way* too small. How can a vehicle be that heavy and carry so little MG ammo? I realize it's not supposed to park and get into a standup MG battle, but even driving fast and shooting at things that pop up you run out of ammo really fast. [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-04-2000).]

I installed them and they don't break CM, but I don't get dazzling results since I'm stuck with a cheap graphics adapter in my laptop. I haven't looked at all of them, but I see a difference in the trees and in the JagdPanther.

+2, but if I have to maneuver vehicles around each other or want to hide behind a building I go to realistic. [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-03-2000).]

I was going to make two of them: Battle of the Rose Bowl-- a meeting engagement in the Arroyo Seco and Battle of the Rose Parade-- the defenders get to hole up in buildings and side streets while the parade charges down Colorado Blvd.

I think it's mostly the too much artillery thing. I've played against a live person as both sides, as well as against the AI as both sides. Against a person, in my two PBEM games, the Germans were finsihed at turn 20+-2. Against the AI I can win handily as either side. The AI handles tanks well, but underutilizes the arty, and it makes all the difference.

Excellent!!

I've been having this problem pretty reliably with my PB G3/300, also 192 MB. The odd thing is that it almost always loads properly the second time (and later). I usually launch, load, crash, launch, load (the PBEM, bit the autosave), play. It seemed to develop only after I defragged my hard drive with Norton. I haven't had the patience to sit down and track down the problem. It's not ideal, but it works. I've been suspecting the control strip, since it tends to want to write to the screen on top of CM (and manages to do so in the set up and editor). I had some problems also with norton disklight that seemed consistent enough to turn off disklight. [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-02-2000).]

Yes, it's the "Ohmygod the're everywhere" and they're usually all King Tigers, too. I've gotten used to it-- you have to take it seriously, but also with a big grain of salt. I think better troops are more reliable, but sound contacts usually aren't worth shooting at, except with arty if you have plenty to go around.

This brings up a something I've been wondering about: How well does the AI know and understand turret speed differences? Sometimes when a Panther suddenly appears at close range the best thing to do is charge past it, rather than pop smoke and retreat. I can't imagine a green crew doing this, but vets or higher might be able to.

I'm one more in favor of area fire into smoke, even though it will hurt me as much as help-- dropping a bunch of smoke and then running through it for an assault is great, but the defender should at least be able to suppress the charging troops with area fire (grazing if possible).

Lately I have been dume to the AI when I'm launching assaults.

I just played foggy mountain-- very good. Full of surprises, and a very challenging assault. I played as amis against the grunto setup. I suffered about 50% casualties and won a german surrender around turn 16 or so. There was only one problem-- one of the AFVs (I won't name it, to avoid a spoiler) bogged and immobilized *on the road* early in the game. The commander of that vehicle was Sgt. Grunto!

CM is similar in concept and scope to SL (I played SL and all 3 gamettes, but never shelled out for ASL), but is orders of magnitude better in implementation. Because (A)SL was a board game with cardboard counters and IGOUGO (despite the intertwined turns), it was limited in how realistic it could be. CM eliminates or reduces many of the abstractions because computers are happy to remember lots of things and do repetitive tasks, and do it all really fast. And the sounds and graphics are just awesome, even on my laptop with limited graphics performance.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Elvis: I still haven't gotten it to work. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> The final does seem to consume more resources than the demo-- I had transparent buildings and smoke in the demo, but can't get them in the final. I'm guessing the textures are higher resolution. The sounds are also sampled at higher frequency in the final.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jackhammer: richochets? i should be so lucky! i had a tiger destroyed-literally blown up-by a STUART! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Something I discovered very quickly in my first PBEM of VoT is that the invincible German armor isn't. I was getting thoroughly spanked as the Germans, and waiting for that Panther to come and shred the amis. It finally showed up and the first shot against it by a Sherman damaged the gun. Meanwhile my reinforcement platoon was getting thrashed by artillery. I surrendered a short time later. When my opponent and I reversed, the Panther managed to kill an MMG crew that was mostly away from the action and providing harassing fire, then the Panther was destroyed once I managed to roll a Sherman up from behind.

IIRC, you also never get what the unit is doin g(hiding, crawling, brewing tea, picking nose) when FOW is on full. You may be using partial FOW (I've never used it).

This is a great update for the long weekend!