chrisl

Norton Disklight (for the mac) seems to cause CM to exit when "Loading 3D Graphics" with a Type 2 error. You may not even know that you have it, but it seems to have come as an undocumented feature of Norton Utilities. I installed NU yesterday to fix some hard drive errors, and CM stopped working reliable! I'd rather have the drive errors. Then I noticed the disklight icon blinking away next to the apple, even while CM has the whole screen, and I'd never seen that on this machine before. I discovered that NU had installed disklight, and that when I turn it off (Disklight) CM works fine.

You can also delay the barrage a few seconds by moving the target a small amount.

USPS isn't as bad as everyone is making them sound--I got my CM yesterday (the 22nd) and it was postmarked the 20th. I ordered something shipped via Airborne 2nd Day on Monday and I still don't have it (Friday am). The left a note on Wednesday, and then didn't come back on Thursday to pick up the signature/drop off the package. USPS just left CM in my mailbox!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by TP_Bomber: I was playing VOT and had one of my Sherman 105s within 20 meters of the 75mm pillbox. The Sherman gets a hit on the pillbox only to have the backblast come back and hit him damaging the main gun. I should have known better, but really had not expected CM to take this into account. The details in this game never cease to amaze me. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Are you sure the PB didn't fire just as the Sherman did and the explosion from it firing was mixed with the backblast? I've seen a Sherman and Stug about 100 m apart fire almost simultaneously and knock each other out.

Arty rules! Even if it doesn't eliminate troops, it will keep their heads down. The first game I played of the gold demo was CE as the Germans against the AI. The amis were headed to my right across the wheat field and a spotting round landed right in front of them. 3-4 units spun around and ran! I also just played my first quick battle-- I had a company+some misc armor (2 priests, 2HTs, a T8 recon and a utility armored car) and an FO for some 81 mortars. The 81s have terrible firepower but great smoke. I started suppression fire on some germs that I was going to have to charge across a field to get, then turned it to smoke and charged. Worked great-- I managed to eliminate the platoon HQ for that sector and rout (then eliminate) the entire platoon. I also had an on-map 81 take out the lone Panzer IV with a shot through the deck. Without the mortars I would have been chewed up running across the field.

Got it today (got home late after a very succesful day in the lab). Played a quick dusk battle and spanked the AI. After losing a Priest and a Halftrack I stopped rushing it and went in carefully with proper covering fire. Tac AI was great-- my 81 mm mortar dropped a shell right through the deck of the one german tank (a Panzer IV). Awesome game. I just wish my laptop graphics could be upgraded.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Phoenix: Still nothin in Sacramento either. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Showed up today in Pasadena!!! Anybody want to PBEM?

You're cruel. Can't you play quietly against the AI for another few days while the rest of us suffer? I'm almost to the point of dressing up the trashcan in my office like a sherman and tossing empty soda bottles into it like artillery.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Blackhorse: Hey, isn't the second shot the hedgehog of Piepsk map? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Looks like it doesn't it. That was one of my favorite scenarios. Except the tank is out of place.

Wednesday and still no CM in Pasadena

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Manx: I think i can speak on behalf of my compatriots when i say that the British contingent on the CM board will remain calm, cool and collected whilst we wait for our packages to arrive. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> You should get someone with a bagpipe to march up and down the beach-- proper invasion music, and it makes you sound calmer with the non-stop music.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by TexasToast: Chalk up another Mac user - mobile CM on a new PowerBook G3 - can't wait for wireless TCP/IP play with my new AirPort either.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Another PB G3 user (but a slightly older one-- I don't get nearly the quality of graphics that you will). I originally downloaded the demo because I wanted a game to play when I had to travel for work, and was looking for something "kind of like squad leader". Now I'm addicted.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Screaming Demon: Can you scan your bin (trashcan) so i can get one just like it, then i can have as much fun as you do.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I'll check to see if I can find the model number when I get in to work. If I don't get CM today I might have to set it on top of a box (for a chassis), put a 75 mm barrel on it and dress it up like a tank. Then I could sit and toss things into it and pretend it's a sherman being hit. I think the safety people would have a major cow if I managed to brew it up though... We could have official CM Dying Tank Trashcans with penetrated turrets and a CM logo painted on them.

While I wait impatiently for CM, I'm cheered by a really odd thing at work: When I drop something (usually a 16 oz. paper coffee cup with a few drops left in it, or an empty plastic 0.5 L soda bottle) into the trash can in my office, it makes a sound just like when you score a penetration on a tank in CM. I threw away a few empties that had been sitting around for a while just for entertainment. The trash can is an old round metal can, coned out slightly as it rises, probably mil spec for offices, possibly older than me, and lined with a small plastic trash bag. It's usually empty enough (my paper recycling bin is always full) that anything I drop in hits the bottom. It makes me want to scroll around on my PC and look for the tank that got popped.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Major B: Ok, Sure, we lost our backsides in that fight. Call it a learning experience. That ambush was a sight to see, tho. Wonderful game. I am already happy I ordered it.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I haven't even got it yet, and I'm glad I ordered it! The two demos are great, and if there were more scenarios (even without all the tweaks, improved graphics, etc) it would be great. It sure beats pushing little 3/8" counters around and pretending you don't know what's under the question mark and trying to sort out LOS disputes.

Second week of Feb 00, and someone a few miles away (who I might have to go visit--Hi JWorthing) already got a copy on Monday!! I want my CM.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Seahawk-vfa201: Well, looks like in California the latest who ordered got it first. There's hope then I'll get it tomorrow: ordered 3 weeks ago. Cya<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Must be something like that, I ordered in February and still haven't got it. I think JWorthing stole my copy off the porch. This is a good way to check on USPS performance--Express Mail doesn't seem to be all that consistent. I only live a few miles from JWorthing (who received it on Monday) and I won't get it before Wednesday now. [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 06-21-2000).]

I actually had to ask someone at work who they were playing (yes I'm a serious geek).

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by GreasyPig: I can only imagine the kind of extreme heat and warpage is going on inside my mailbox as I sit here at work. (If its even there). On the bright side its only supose to be 106 here today in Az. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I wouldn't worry about the disk- I actually boiled one of those AOL cds that you get every day just to see if it would still work. It was just fine.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JWorthing: Got it here in the SGV, Los Angeles county.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Not me and I'm only a few miles away.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Scott Clinton: Boy...I will be one major grumbler if all the SS troops (even just armor) in CM are rated as "Elite". <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> One of my favorite units in Squad Leader (I think it came in the COI box) was a 6+1 SS leader. I can't remember the name. My other favorite was Lt. Stahler, a 9-2 who seemed to be in every scenario, and when you were rolling for his fire you had a much better chance of snake eyes.

There was a URL to an interview with a WWII tank team posted here a few weeks ago (if I get motivated I'll search for it). They said they kept the escape hatch lubed up really well so all you had to do was look at it funny and it would flip open so they could get out. They also gave a couple accounts of bailing out-- the last thing on their minds was a grease gun. The important thing was getting out of the tank and hiding. They (or another crew) did engage in some heroics, but it was dashing through enemy fire with a litter to retrieve a wounded tanker, not rushing a foxhole with their automatic weapons.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Scott C: \the US (mine would probably be Kansas City) would take Saturday and maybe part of Sunday, at which point it is sorted and transported to the local post office, where they should arrive about late Sunday, to be sorted into routes and delivered today. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yeah, but that doesn't take into account traffic on the 105 out of LAX. There will probably be some terrible crash on the 105 and the USPS truck with my copy on it will be held up for 10 hours while they scrape the cars off the road or, even worse, involved in the crash.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by OberGrupenStompinFeuhrer!: This is a purely subjective and emotive observation, but it seems to me that when I play as Axis, my schreck men are for the most part lilly livered, run-away, die like flies wastes of space (Well, *once* I had a chap who stood up and actualy fired at the flank of a Sherman efffectively) <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> In several games of CE against the AI (I always play the Germs in that situation) I've had the conscript schreck teams up in the west end of the woods on the right plink Shermans at a pretty good distance (100-150 m). One of them even popped two of them in consecutive turns. I think they usually were firing from relative cover (along one of the clear trails in the woods), in C&C, and had seen no incoming fire to that point (hidden). They walked up, looked for *waaaay* too long, and started letting fly with the rockets at Shermans in the open that were usually unsuspecting (firing into the church from partway up the hill).

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JWorthing: wonder if i'll get mine before chrisl<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> My mail carrier usually shows up between 11 am and noon, but I probably won't get home from work until 7 or so. Are we counting when it hits the mailbox or when it hits the spindle of my CD drive