TexasToast

Thanks for the vote of confidence Duke, but this one is over - the white flag has gone up. My loss began in the force selection, where my British infantry, Fireflies and Churchills were not well matched against the Jagdpanthers and veteran SMG troops. My plan of seizing the main objective and then cutting off the crossroads failed when he beat me to the top. He did a much better job of applying his artillery, and also of finding good firing positions to support his defenders atop the hill. Lady Luck frowned on my poor play, and punished me further. All in all, a total rout. Denied again, what a drag. Good game, Pondscum. TT

Pond Scum's report is patently untrue - I think I lost 100% of that rifle company. I haven't done much of anything right in this game, and he has been one step ahead of me across the board. I'm hoping for a dramatic reversal of fortune - however, scouts tell me his reinforcements have just rolled in. TT

ouch

Just a little opening turn weapons check... And that wasn't a flamethrower, that was just a leaf blower - trying to keep the camp neat, don't you know.

A very interesting and original concept for this battle, I must say. I'm not sure the screenshots do the map justice with all the trees turned off - there are a lot of places to hide out there. As per usual, I have requested (and received) the Allied side. TT

OK, we are finished. My ridiculous force consisted of two companies of green rifle/VG supported by two crack King Tigers, four flak trucks, two StuH42, and two 120mm FOs. Labappel fielded a much smarter force composed of primarily veteran British airborne with one Firefly and a couple of Daimlers and Wasps. My KTs ruled the field, but Labappel was wiping the floor with my green infantry. I managed to catch a significant portion of his forces in a nice barrage, and unloaded countless HE rounds trying to supress the plentiful infantry. I knew I could probably contest the lone VL with my armor at the end, but I was losing the infantry battle very painfully. In one of the most surprising finishes I have seen, it ended in a 50-36 Axis minor victory. My final infantry flag rush was repulsed quite easily, but the KTs shrugged off the final few PIAT rounds to claim their share of the flag. His infantry losses were only slightly higher (169-158 I believe), but I guess since his were veteran airborne they counted more than my green riflemen. So, by some miracle (or perhaps curse), it looks like I will be in the finals again... TT

No need to panic, everything is under control (I think). We are gearing up for TCP/IP extravaganza tonight. We have all week, right? TT

How come my opponents always drop off the face of the earth shortly after we begin our game? Still no replies from labappel, I thought it was only a week's vacation, but now we are sitting at two weeks. :confused: Congratulations Pondscum. TT

I'm still awaiting word from my vacationing opponent, he was supposed to be back yesterday. In the last week I have been able to analyze every possible move and counter-move to the nth degree. According to my extensive calculations, I am going to win 75-25! (margin of error +/- 50) I believe we are on turn 3. I can't really remember the current situation, or what forces I have for that matter. TT

I'm still in. I'd also be willing to help however possible, as much as possible for someone still participating. If we had the maps and a few people willing to set up battles, I don't see why it could not continue as originally envisioned in all its glory by Treeburst and Winecape.

Wow, I guess there was more going on here than I thought. If there are those who have found themselves incompatible with the competition and/or commitment of this tournament, perhaps they should gracefully bow out. Or, if somehow there are a few who are consistently making life difficult for Treeburst and the other participants, then maybe they should be removed from the tourney. At any rate, I hope there is some way to keep it afloat. If not, thanks Mike for all the time you put in to get it started, and I'm sorry it didn't turn out like it should have.

I am not opposed to the tourney being split if it makes people happy (YES), but I do not see any reason to throw out games that are already completed, or are underway, between those that end up in the same bracket.

As someone who has nearly completed five tough games already, I would hate to see them all thrown out and have to start over again. Why not let the completed or in-progress games stand if applicable? I guess since I'm not always completely sure exactly what is gamey or ahistorical, I would have to be relegated to the competition bracket, to be devoured by the sharks. Overall, this has been interesting and fun and educational for me, even if it ends right now. Coordinating games between twenty people with different goals and attitudes is certainly a monumental task, and possibly impractical in the end. I salute you for taking it on in the first place. Standing by for further instructions.

Hey Admiral, the site looks great! I haven't checked it out since the early days and it has come a long way since then. I encourage everyone to head over and do a few reviews, just reading through the names reminded me of some great battles. TT

I'm a little nervous about that due date. We played 3 or 4 turns this weekend, but labappel is gone on vacation and won't be back until next Monday. I have a two day business trip the following week. That leaves us with 9 days (including only one weekend). How about one extra week? TT

Still no status from the suddenly sluggish sock simian. Deadline is in jeopardy. TT

Sock and I are only about halfway done. I am at the lone VL in force and have amused myself with destroying his expeditionary force (including an inspirational close assault of a Hellcat), but the turns are going slowly and his main body is taking forever to trek across the sprawling urban area. Unfortunately, his Jabo's strafing runs have cost me several trucks and a Wirblewind (my "anti-aircraft" vehicle, how embarassing), and I've managed to fritter away a few Pumas. In other words, it may take some drastic measures for us to finish on time... TT

Here is the AAR from my game with Fionn. I wrote my description first, then he added his comments from the German perspective: SETUP AND INITIAL PLAN The map consists of a square urban area with large heavy buildings and three major east/west streets. The city is divided left/right with a wide main street down the middle, and many buildings in the center are separated from their neighbors by scattered trees instead of open ground or pavement. There is one flag in the center on the near/far edge of the town, plus four flags in a line from far left to far right midway into the town. There is considerable open ground with woods surrounding the city. It is daytime and raining, August 1944. We decided to play an all-infantry battle, I was Americans. I selected a Crack Rifle Company and stripped all the mortars and bazookas. I then added 5 Veteran Rifle Platoons and a Regular Rifle Platoon, which got me to an even 1500. I did not spend anything on artillery since I expected close quarters fighting, it isn't that effective in heavy buildings, I wasn't sure I could pin Fionn down long enough, and I wanted as much infantry as I could get. Comment: I also purchased an infantry Bn. I stripped it of its mortars and Fos and went into the village with a GREEN Panzergrenadier Battalion (including mortar support). I planned to simply advance to contact, determine which flank was weakest and hit Charles there. I planned to position 3 x HMG42s in buildings with a clear view down the long main avenue dividing the left and right halves of the town from eachother with a view to preventing lateral displacements of reserves to whichever flank was most threatened. 3 MGs wouldn't stop all movement but they would slow it and possible disorder it a little and that was sufficient for my purposes. I also purchased on Regular company with a view to providing a ready reserve on the most crucial flank. I felt the game would be decided on Charles' left flank and placed the entirety of the company on that flank. I went with more experienced infantry because my general plan was to concentrate on a few good defensive positions and then let Fionn provide the momentum. I needed for the infantry to be able to withstand the initial charge in good order and be prepared to counterattack. I broke my force into three companies, each led by a crack platoon. I chose two forward positions to create defensive strongholds, and sent two of the groups off and running to man them. I held the third company (which included the regulars) back roughly in the center/left. I sent one veteran platoon up through the woods on my left flank to watch for a wide flanking maneuver or to advance on the enemy flank. Comment: I merely disposed the German forces in a wide skirmishing line and moved cautiously into the village with the entire Green Bn. The Regular company moved through woods on Charles' left flank since I wanted them on hand on the decisive flank and away from the meatgrinder that cityfights end up being. FIRST CONTACT My forward elements reached their positions just seconds before the Germans. Comment from German Player: The price I paid for choosing Green troops. Their extra command delay proved decisive at several points in this scenario. Fighting erupted in three buildings. On my left and right side I cut down a squad or so, and in the center an entire platoon. Comment: When Charles refers to "left and right side" he should be more clear. What he actually refers to are the left and right flanks of his leftmost position ( occupied by 2 out of his 3 companies). This is important since he allowed himself to be geographically concentrated in a small section of the city. All the forces I had encountered were green. At this point I chose to press my advantage with counterattacks on the left and right to try to eliminate the panicked and reduced forces. On my right, the scattered trees provided good cover for moving house to house and inflicting damage. Comment: Agreed. It was most disconcerting to me to find some Crack squads suddenly appear in the middle of houses occupied by entire Green platoons. How I didn't see them marching through the trees and moving into the house in between at least 2 and sometimes 4 or more watching squads is beyond me. Not being able to shoot them down as they approached meant that his Crack platoons on his right of his main effort ( near the central avenue) got into positions from which they could butcher two well-entrenched platoons at little cost. I was most disappointed. Still, Charles failed to decisively follow up this thrust by immediately committing his reserve. It is my understanding that the reserve was being kept in waiting until I showed my hand and therefore missed an opportunity. On the other hand within 2 turns of his first sneaking into my positions ( and before he had even cleared the houses he snuck into) I had improvised a defence by strippping solitary infantry squads from the infantry platoons on my left flank and rushing them across, under command of Company HQs, to provide support to the forces stemming the American advance. However, on the left I ran into further forces behind his initial advance and lost the entire platoon in the woods and one of the Crack squads attempting to move across open ground (Sgt Grammont, sadly). On the right side of the city, undefended except for a machine gun outpost watching the street, I saw what seemed to be a few scouts. Comment: Feeling that this might be a weak flank I was taking care to keep the majority of my force on that flank out of sight of the enemy. In the end I think that the 5 platoons on that flank didn't look like more than 2 or 3 half-squads to Charles as I spotted his HMGs early on and utilised covered routes of advance ( see the Kettler AAR for more info). THE CRUCIAL STRETCH At this point my forward left company is down a platoon+ and my forward right company is relatively intact. I have spotted enemy activity further to my left. I decided to commit two reserve platoons to counter the expected heavy push on my left flank, leaving the one regular platoon to hold down the right rear area. This would turn out to be the critical error. Comment: Agreed. Given NO other information about a PBEM game other than who committed their reserve first I could probably get a 90%+ accuracy rate by simply saying that whoever committed their entire reserve first was the loser. I began, at this point, a conscious attempt to make the right look like a major attack which had stalled. I made feints into unoccupied buildings which I knew Charles would have to be immediately and decisively counter-attack. If he did then it would mean his reserve was being committed ( I feinted into two buildings and 2 of his reserve platoons re-occupied those two buildings. Chance? I think not.). If he didn't commit his reserve to force me out of those buildings then he knew I'd follow up and turn the feint into a subsidiary attack. The attack on my left turned out to be nothing more than what I had already seen, and was easily stopped by my initial forces plus the reinforcements. Comment: But IF the reinforcements hadn't arrived the front would have crumbled eventually. IOW committing the reinforcements saved the front BUT committing them also meant severely weakening the Allied ability to respond to new thrusts. Perhaps a platoon was all that was required? Unfortunately, a company of Germans appeared on my right/rear and overran my undermanned defenses there. My forward right company was also coming under pressure from new forces to its front and flank. I felt my only option at this point was to go on the offensive on my left where I still had the advantage, to drive his forces back and potentially regain the far left VL. This attack succeeded in pushing the Germans completely out of the buildings on my left flank and the woods behind. But German forces were flooding in the right side, and my forward right position was being overwhelmed. Comment: Aye, by this stage Charles was reduced to holding significantly less than 25% of the city with forces streaming, unopposed, to his flanks. THE ENDGAME Here I had to decide whether to continue my attack and try to hunker down while being surrounded on three sides, or to withdraw. My latest attacks on the map edge left me a clear corridor to the left edge, and I would get the jump on the green forces with my shorter command delays. So, I selected 21 volunteers to cover the retreat, and set off with 87 guys, primarly remants of my reserve and forward left companies. Of these, 82 managed to exit the map. Final result: Allied auto-surrender somewhere around turn 13, Axis tactical victory 65-35. Comment from German Player: Basic info to be gleaned: 1. Don't commit your reserve too early. 2. Don't commit too much of your reserve whenever you DO decide to commit it. 3. Don't be too afraid to ever commit it. 4. Don't commit too little of your reserve. Several of these are contradictory but as with all difficult decisions the ART lies in dealing with the tension between these requirements and balancing your decisions appropriately in the uniquely different circumstances of many PBEMs.

Hmm, when I saw the map with short lines of sight and lots of good cover, I thought it was ideally suited for an INFANTRY heavy force. I guess we'll find out shortly. Standing by for decisive counterattack (thanks for the tip)... TT

I believe you are looking for: Random Battle Generator TT

Cool, another Mac thread! Another Titanium PowerBook G4 here, very nice. The recall only affects the G3 PowerBooks, by the way. TT

Just surfing the net while trying to find a trace of Sock Monkey's forces in this god-awful maze... <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> Texas Toast: The Secrets Revealed By: Lt. Col. Francis Rawdon Freedom Press: 01/12/01 The cafeteria special, Texas Toast, is a loved meal by hundreds of students. According to an anonymous counselor it is "probably the best lunch at [school]." During the month of January, we have repeated days off of school, depriving us of that oh so scrumptious, cheese-filled delight. Missing my Texas Toast, I took time to learn some things about my beloved meal. The secrets may shock you, so those weak of mind please stop reading now. There are some basic facts about your Texas Toast you should know, so that you may still be able to identify it 3 long weeks from now. Texas toast is 4in. by 4in. by 1in. It has a volume of 16 cubic inches and a surface area of 48 sq. in. The standard deviation of length and width is 0.5in. The average stretch of the sandwich is 1ft. 7in., with the estimated world record, held by high school grad John Doe, of 9ft. The toast maybe accompanied by an 8 oz. cup of either "chicken noodle" or "tomato" (affectionately called by one student "the parts of the pig you thought they didn't use") soup. These are simple outer appearances though. You must look deeper to find the legend that is Texas Toast. According to an anonymous lunch lady, long, long, ago, "Someone thought up the idea for Texas Toast. I don't know who it was. Stop asking me questions and move down the line." I went around the school, desperately looking for the answers, trying to find the origins of the toast. One student shared my initial suspicions that the toast may not be from Texas. He said, "American bread, American cheese, then why the hell is it called Texas Toast [obviously unaware of the fact that Texas is part of America]?" Strangely enough, a teacher, when asked where the toast came from answered, "Texas, yah weirdo." Others had theories of their own. One person said, "From the spawning pools of Hades," while a former Texan said, "Texas Toast is my brethren." Another lunch lady, who also was surviving the delicacy of Texas Toast, said, "we make it here in the kitchen. When pressed she even admitted that "nowhere else in the universe can our Texas Toast lunches be found." Since no one knew for sure where it came from, some colleagues I did some scientific experiments to determine the date of origin for the Texas Toast. Sadly, it was not discovered, but some other very useful information was. Our first finding was the Texas toast and the soups accompanying it are industrial cleaners (and the chicken noodle soup has too much garlic). The second discovery was that Texas Toast was made of two cheeses, American and Mozzarella. The last and most important discovery was that which would provide us our sole lead. Texas Toast is made of cheese from Gordon Foods Service international. GFS, as they like to be called, is a subsidiary of Marriott Hotels Intentional and is a nationwide food provider to many businesses. Pretending to be a man searching for a provider of enough cheese for 200 cheese sandwiches for a party, I uncovered vital information in the quest for Texas Toast knowledge. First, I contacted the manger at the Columbus distribution plant. He referred me to the Springfield, Ohio distribution center, which then referred me to the regional distribution depot in Brooklyn, Ohio. Upon talking to 3 subordinates, I finally talked to Bill, the manger of customer relations there. In talking to him for 10 minutes, I told him I needed some cheese and I wanted the GFS house brand (the kind the school uses). The smallest available quantities for purchase were 10 lbs. slice blocks and that they ran for $8.39 (that is 84 cents a pound, roughly 1/3 the price of the cheapest sliced cheese at Giant Eagle). He told me, "I wouldn't buy that sir, get a higher quality of cheese. Our house brand is only meant for low level organizations like public offices and schools." After evaluating this information and assuming that the cheese slices are 1oz. (Kraft singles size), I found that one Texas Toast sandwich costs about 30 cents to make, and the school sells it as part of a lunch that is $1.80. Supposing the soup costs 20 cents (approximately 1/3 the cost of a Campbell’s soup can), and the side dishes cost 15 cents on average, the school is making a whopping $1.15 profit off of each Texas Toast lover, each week, and that’s just wrong. What kind of evil government would want to make money off of providing this delightful delicacy to children? But what really is at the heart of our apparently el-cheapo Texas Toast? Why is it made? Where did it come from originally? We may never know. Some theorize that the toast is poisoned so that one person dies every week and is used for meat for the hamburgers for that week. A lunch lady said that under extreme conditions, that Texas Toast is "possibly lethal." The true origins and benefits of Texas Toast are unknown at this time. Hopefully, the next generation will find the secrets lost in time. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Probably more than you wanted to know.

I just finished my (ahem) setup phase in the matchup with Sock Monkey. After the rocket barrage is over, I plan to just load up the SMG troops onto the King Tigers and follow the Flak Trucks over the the VL. TT

Hey Hoop, you may be running into the 16MB limit on the Mac. Check your resource files to see if any of them are near 16MB. When that happens, some of the resources in the new mod don't get added to the file and get left blank. CM then ends up using some other (seemingly random) texture to fill in the hole. If you look at the resource file with ResEdit you will probably see the resources missing. You can get around this by being careful with hi-res mods when the files are getting big, or you can manually move resources from large files to smaller ones, since it doesn't really matter which file they are in. At that point you will have to be careful modding those same textures again since the mod managers will not know which file they are in.

OK, I'm back. It just doesn't pay to go on vacation, I've got 20+ CM-related emails piled up here. I'll try to get things moving on my end ASAP. TT