Juardis

Glad to hear that! They made a mistake buying STB (although at the time I agreed with the acquisition) and now they're owning up to it. Unfortunately for me, I lost money in their damned stock during that time, but still...I love their products. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by KMan: Just to be clear...with my solution there will still be an immersion breaking pause between movies. You would have to sit through the loading screens just as if you had loaded the next movie manually. -KMan<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Understood. Now where is it ------------------ Jeff Abbott

FWIW, I agree with Ron. The point allocation in a combined arms defence just does not allow enough armor IMO. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

I had a Greyhound take out a Tiger, from the front. Having said that, I prefer the M24 Chafee. Bigger gun, faster turret, more armor, more MGs, only slightly more expensive. Not quite as fast though, but the trade offs are worth it IMHO. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

wow, very nice. At your leisure, the hi-res version please jabbott1@carolina.rr.com ------------------ Jeff Abbott

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by KMan: If people think this would be useful...I can add this functionality via a front end to CM. Of course it won't have the texture retention though -K<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Texture retention or no, I'd love to have this functionality. However, use some other key other than esc since esc takes you back to the desktop. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Charlotte close enough?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wayne: A tactic that I use, though not always successfully, is to run and zig zag. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> . I try that sometimes with my armor, but it seems that at every waypoint I change direction there is a long enough pause to prove fatal.

I play to win and end up losing. I don't beleive Sun-Tzu said that Seriously, I let the terrain dictate where I attack/defend and in anticipation of where the enemy will come from or defend at. Concentrate on killing the enemy one squad at a time and the flags will follow. As has already been said. He who defends everything defends nothing. But what do I know, I'm 0-3 in ladder play ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Well, I'm beginning to feel left out, so I'll throw my hat into the ring as well . ScoutPL, I enjoyed your tutorial and believe that it is but one of many ways to win a battle. I've experimented with scouting as Fionn described in one of his AARs. I had no success with that. I do have success in rapidly bringing as much firepower to bear on a target as I can achieve. To that end, your tactics are right on the money. I do however sometimes leave a screen of half squads/sharpshooters on my flanks to warn of any attempted flanking manuevers. I realize this takes away from the main force, but it is sometimes a necessary thing given the terrain, the type of battle, and the plan of attack. I assume that since you were attacking you were not concerned about the enemy probing you? One thing I did disagree with in your tutorial was the use of arty. I agree that if you cannot see the enemy then he is usually in parts of the map that you do not have a LOS to. However, they could just as easily be within LOS but they're just hiding. You will not spot a hidden unit in trees unless you 1) get close enough or 2) he moves and/or fires. Now, if your FO (or OP as you called it) does not have a LOS to the target, then targetting arty on that spot is a big waste IMHO. You may be targetting an area that has no troops (since you cannot see the target area). Also, you will be waiting longer for the shells to fall and the accuracy of the spread is horrendous. If there is anything in that area, then the chance of hitting anything is remote. It is a waste unless it's really big rounds where all you're trying to do is instill panic. It is much better to target areas w/in LOS for both the speed and accuracy that brings. So I would target suspected hiding locations rather than the woods in the depression that I can not see. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this. Looking forward to more tutorials. ------------------ Jeff Abbott [This message has been edited by Juardis (edited 11-10-2000).]

Well, I'm currently involved (or soon will be) in 2 large 7500 point meeting engagements. I'm still deploying my forces and let me tell you, with 7500 points to spread out that's alot of deploying. We had 109 Gustav make us a map to our dimensions, we forwarded our force selection to him and he bought for us. We're playing capture the flag (one flag in each setup zone). We do the rest. In the other, I went and got Col. Klotz KG Pieper-Geimens (sp?) map, put some flags and setup zones on it, then me and another guy chose 7500 points worth of stuff. If the allies purchase their stuff first, there's no danger in your opponent seeing what you bought (unless he cheats, in which case you probably ought to do what we did in the previous paragraph). Once you buy the stuff, tournament lock the map, then setup your forces during the setup phase. But again, 7500 points worth of stuff is a LOT of stuff. We may never finish.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by David Aitken: Rather than watching a film made of a game of CM, why not just play the game? Films ideally have a storyline, instead of just lots of pictures of stuff blowing up (although you wouldn't guess that by watching the average Hollywood offering these days). David <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Because I can play the game anyway and anytime I want, but in the end, it's still just pixels moving across a screen. Any life I give to them is all in my imagination. At least with a movie, there is the human element. They can give character to each soldier/unit. Make us feel for them, make us feel the horrors of war. As good as CM is, it ain't quite there yet. Maybe with CM2? Oh yeah, and they could give them "letters from home" (TM Hasbro) ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Forget the historical battles. Take a 60 turn CM game and make a movie out of it. In the place of the briefings, use situation maps and Generals telling Battalion commanders what the objectives are. Then film the movie from the Battalion commanders point of view with many many cutaways to the Company COs, platonn COs, squad COs and various other infantry/tank dudes. Each minute could be told from each side. The script is entirely dictated by a 60 turn CM scenario. Winners, losers, dead, wounded, fanatacism, cowards, all depicted on the big screen as shown on our little screens. You could even give it a historical background in that the OOB and battleground could be based on real WW2 battle, just the events that changed. I'd love to watch a 2 hour movie based on that. Gauranteed to be action packed. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Madmatt: You can also start a Network game, save it, then continue it later as a PBEM and vicea versa. Madmatt <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> YESSSSSS! Outstanding! I Love you guys! I hope that means that the 75 turn PBEM battles I'm in right now can be finished in TCP/IP. Does it? Or will 1.05 games not be compatable with 1.06 games? ------------------ Jeff Abbott

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jKMkIII: I think that assaulta, probes and other scenario types are good and more interesting than meeting engagements. But that is just me who likes new situations and loves being kicked in the head It is fun to try to find way to survive overwhelming odds when defending.. haven't done that yet in PBEM, but against AI it was fun But playing mirrored games is good way to play unbalanced scenarios in PBEM without having to feel bad loosing all the time <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I'm with you jk. I don't mind getting whipped, ladder games or not. I learn something from each ass whipping I receive . Right now I'm defending against a German attack in one PBEM, I've taken the Free Fench in another PBEM just because I thought it'd be fun, same with the Canadians. I try different combinations of armor (like choose a bunch of PZ IVh's and Hetzers instead of Panthers and Tigers). Basically, I like variety. Also, the victory conditions are different for attacks and assaults. YAs the defender, you usually just have to hold on. I consider a draw a victory and a tactical loss as a victory in those situations. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jeff Heidman: East Coast, evenings (after 9pm) are best, except for Thursday's (wife would kill me if I didn't watch ER with her...). Jeff Heidman<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> LOL, I broke that expectation a few years ago . Now I never have to watch a TV show with her again. Allows me to play some on Friday nights while she's veggin'. Saturday nights are movie nights though. Mainly play during the week as weekends are spent with honey do's, kids, church, what not. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

I've had it happen twice. Once in snow with a pershing and he unbogged himself. Once in scattered trees with damp conditions in my Stug III, he eventually became immobilized. Fortunately for me he still had a decent los of targets so he took some opfor down with him. What I don't understand is when you become immobilized why you cannot still rotate the turret. I understand why with turretless vehicles and I can understand why if the engine is hit, but I cannot with turretted vehicles that just lose a track. Even if done slowly by hand the turret should still be able to rotate, engine hit or no. Anybody see the turret rotate when immobilised? And General, here's hoping you throw multiple tracks on the road to St. Lo. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Big Time Software: Anybody that read the previous TCP/IP update knows that we have this really ultra slick system that makes turn sending between the two machines almost instant. This was done using sychronized random numbers so that each machine could process the turn independently of the other from the first second of combat, as opposed to the way PBEM works where one processes the whole 60 seconds and then sends it to the other. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Slick and sexy way of doing it. Too bad it didn't work . I was trying to figure out how you were doing this without one machine acting as the master and the other the slave (easy perverts, I'm talking about a game here ) Thanks for keeping us in the loop so to speak. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by kking199: lol... I just investigated this the other day... the book states that an Armor unit when Hiding engine's are in low idle, on page 159. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Doh! You're correct. That's why I always allow myself to be 1% incorrect Anyway, the point being that whether the engines are off or on low idle, the sound is greatly reduced than if you're just sitting there. Of THAT I'm 100% sure. Much harder to find them that way. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Well, I can't beat that, but I did take out a StuH42 from 163m

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Big Time Software: The Pause thing... I think we do in fact need it. Hopefully this won't be hard to code. My suggestion is that both players must select Pause to envoke it, both to remove it. During the Pause time neither player will be able to do anything so as to not give some sort of advantage to the guy not running to get the beer Steve<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ahhhh, very good. I like the freeze when paused idea. One thing though, should you still be able to chat when paused? It would be nice to give your opponent an idea as to how long your piss is going to take or how long the wife is going to berate you? That way, he knows roughly how long he can do something else before he needs to come back. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by aka_tom_w: My rule book is at home DAMN! What does it say about hiding vehicles I have never heard or read that hiding a vehicle silences its engine? Is that True? -tom w<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I'm obviously not Steve. But I'm 99% sure that a hiding vehicle is one whose engine is turned off. This reduces the engine noise to nothing and makes sound contacts less probable. Listen for it next time. If I'm wrong (that nasty little 1% I allowed myself ), then the engine is idling at low RPMs. I'm 100% sure that there is a definite increase in sound though between a hidden vehicle and one that's just sitting there without orders. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 109 Gustav: Sure I'll still set up a map for you. What preameters do you want, ie terrain type, time, weather, size of forces, types of units, etc? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> OK Gustav. Here are the parameters. Havermeyer and I will send you our force selections tomorrow (along with the parameters again). Basically we're going to limit it to 6500 points (=/- 20). I've picked mine out already and it's really not extensive. 2000m wide, 2480m high, moderate trees, modest hills, farmland, Oct44, day, clear, dry, 75 turns, meeting engagement, no flags. All else left at the default. Thanks again for doing this. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Where the hell is the wildlife?!?!? Ooops, that's LongBow 2, not CM1. One question Steve. If you have the timer going and you get interrupted (like your wife needs the computer for a minute), is there a pause button or something? Also, if both of you have to leave (like go to sleep or something trivial like that ), I assume you both have to save the game at the same spot? And when you come back the timer starts over? Thanks for the update. You guys rock! ------------------ Jeff Abbott

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 109 Gustav: I think Ron is right, it would be easier to have someone else generate the map. I'll do it for you if you want. Yeah, Havermeyer mentioned that after I posted. I'll talk with him. That would work if you're willing to purchase the units for us as well. Just make sure when you create the map you give us the ability to move our forces . Also, I guess to be completely honest, you'd have to lock up the scenario (like you supposedly can for tournament scenarios) such that we couldn't go in and edit it afterward. While not having flags would work just fine against a human, bear in mind that the AI needs at least one flag to choose a general course of strategy. Understood, this would be strictly for PBEM. The beauty is that we could get many replays out of the same composition. It would be a different game each and every time. Another thing I've been wanting to try is a capture the flag game, in which the flags mean everything. Whoever is in control of the flags at the end is counted as the winner, no matter what the AAR says. Again, I'll build a map for you if you want. Isn't that an attack, assault or probe the way it's currently coded? Or are you just talking one flag, placed anywhere? I'll get back to you on the map thing if you're still willing. Thanks <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> ------------------ Jeff Abbott