Franko

Thanks, Battlefront.

That's what Norman buildings actually look like...can't wait.

Well done!

BF made a DESIGN decision to say that unpassable vegetation with a lower LOS is called "low bocage". If you have a photo showing a vehicle passing vegetation that LOOKs like low bocage, then it would not BE "low bocage" for game purposes. Use "hedge" or bushes or both or something else in your designs. Jeez.

By a thousand miles.

Some of you guys should really SEE bocage in person. It's a bitch. I thought the distinguishing characteristic of low vs. High I. The game was simply a line of sight thing: but it is all basically the same nightmare.

Was this exclusively an SS uniform? It's so difficult to keep track of the dizzying array of German camo.

I agree with this. It sounds reasoned and plausible. But they choose to keep this information private, and I think that's a correct decision. If they can make a buck selling a great product that keeps a lot of history buffs happy, more power to them. But asking for their sales is absurdly personal in a way. We should let it go.

Sure you can. It would be a reasoned estimate, at best. But again, who cares. I hope that Battlefront makes a handsome profit and stays in business. That's all.

There's some information. And you can base the amount of sales based on the amount of individual participants in these boards. It's right there for someone to figure out. But why?

Great Post Broadsword: worth printing out and keeping. Thats the sort of thinking that leads to discussions which result in overall improvement to scenario quality.

Maybe a coupla thousand. Who cares. They're still here, so maybe doing well enough.

Another way of putting it..each "scenario" should be viewed as a complete war-game into itself. Sorry if I'm getting too conceptual, but I think new ways to think about these things may make for more consistently enjoyable scenarios.

Exactly. The time pressure is still there, believe me.

@Yankee: I agree. You don't have infinite time to do things, but careful thought needs to go into time limits, especially for real time players. Real life commanders can only do so much, too, and are limited by how much they can control in time and space. In the scenario I was designing, the real engagement took about hours. The Germans did not accomplish their objectives in that time frame, and disengaged. I inadvertently tried it, in Real Time, and damned if it did not come out pretty much like the real battle. If you've seen a few tanks get destroyed and other cool stuff playing WEGO, and you rewind stuff frequently, awesome. But if you want a true simulation, RT, with proper time limits, appears to be the way to go. Further, the battlefield in scenarios should be emptier, and not as cluttered with units, unless their is some historical basis for it. Basically, you shouldn't be seeing that many enemy soldiers. WW2 battlefields are deadly places, interrupted with severe bouts of violence. I think more faithful designs with that in mind can make RT games more interesting to those of us who have previously avoided them.

I've been designing scenarios and I'm hoping to release a few in the coming weeks. It's been fun, and I keep tweaking maps, OBs, etc. However, during play testing I did something by accident when trying to test: I set a real time reinforced company-sized engagement, for a two hour duration. I had previously tested a one hour version in WEGO. I discovered that the real time engagement was far more realistic and fun, a more closely reflected the tempo of the actual battle it was based on, according to first-hand accounts. I found that my troops had time to rest a bit more, they could wait to be reinforced, they could be more careful on attack, there were large periods of realistic-feeling inactivity, etc. In sum, I felt like a real company commander who had some time to make decisions. Also, I noted in my research that the battlefield was far more empty than the OB initially suggested, leaving lots more maneuver room. So the big question, should scenarios perhaps be longer and be specifically tailored for real-time if that's your cup of tea? I typically think time limits should be expanded when real-time scenarios are designed. Real life battles in the period had a lot of waiting around time, and the battlefield was more "empty" than is typically depicted in some of the scenario designs Ive been seeing. You wouldn't want to rush to get your men killed, and real life engagements tended to be longer than an "hour". I found that fighting a company engagement over two hours in real-time or so truly enjoyable under this game system. But two hours in WEGO would be tedious as hell. Thoughts?

Thanks guys. You rock.

I can't figure this one out. Yes, I've looked in the manual. Yes, I've done a search. When you click on "foilage" in the editor there are four entries: 1 tree, 2 tree, 3 trees. But what is the fourth entry four, with the little "grid" under the tree symbol? Baffled.

I love "dirty" mods. Now, I wish we'd see some more stone buildings (as opposed to brick), and lots more dirty stuff..e.g., dirty shermans.

You buried the lead here.

The only thing I find disappointing about the game is it's limited scope. Im really disappointed that there is no SS or FJ or Luftwaffe field divisions or whatever else fought against the Americans in Normandy. CMBO had the entire late war in the West. That's a big game to play with. I sorta get sick of the hedgerow stuff, and I miss not being able to design /or play some of the more interesting battles in Normandy. And it could be years before the Commonwealth Module. Please spare me the lecture about mods filling in the gaps.

I appreciate the geekery, Narses. Don't listen to akd. He's cranky.

Thank you for the Patch. When you purchase a CM game, you're really buying into a process of historical interaction with a community of geeks, and an ever-improving work in progress. I appreciate all your efforts. Now, back to killing stuff.

It would be helpful if you gave him search terms that would work.

Safe to assume that patch better come out soon.