Shep

If nothing else, Sam Elliot's portrayal of SGM Plumley is worth your money. But I believe the movie did a fine job of evoking the book. The bayonet charge at the end was certainly not a part of the Ia Drang, but did anyone else feel it had a haunting similarity to Col. Chamberlain's charge at Little Round Top?

Lt. John "Lance" Geoghehan died while trying to rescue mortally wounded Pvt. Willie Godboldt of his platoon. Their names are side by side on the wall. Lt. Geoghehan's wife had already given birth their daughter Cammie at the time. The Virtual Wall A perfectly legitimate and historical inclusion for the movie, in my opinion. Poignant but true, right? I possess one impression from the Wall. It is Lt. Geoghehan's.

Joshik, As I said, I am looking for an instance of OURA as a battle cry. OURA is classical and biblical Greek. I don't know whether it is modern. It was indeed the name of the elite rear guard/left of the line formation. The "tail" joke was entirely mine. Since OURA describes exclusively the tails of predators, such as lions and "dragons," it would not indicate the human posterior. As for the Hebrew, you left out the verb HAYYAH, but that's actually much more often the case. HU is he in Hebrew. But also HI (pronounced 'he') is she. All very confusing. There is no use of the phrase 'he is evil' or HU-RA in any ancient Hebrew text that I could find. However, in Josephus' Wars of the Jews, there is this passage: (89) When they are to go out of their camp, the trumpet gives a sound, at which time nobody lies still, but at the first imtimation they take down their tents, and all is made ready for their going out; (90) then do the trumpets sound again, to order them to get ready for the march; then do they lay their baggage suddenly upon their mules and other beasts of burden, and stand, at the place for starting, ready to march; when also they set fire to their camp, and this they do because it will be easy for them to erect another camp, and that it may not ever be of use to their enemies. (91) Then do the trumpets give a sound the third time, that they are to go out in order to excite those that on any account are a little tardy, that so no one may be out of his rank when the army marches. (92) Then does the crier stand at the general’s right hand, and asks them thrice, in their own tongue, whether they be now ready to go out to war or not. To which they reply as often, with a loud and cheerful voice, saying, “We are ready.” And this they do almost before the question is asked them; they do this as filled with a kind of martial fury, and at the time that they so cry out, they lift up their right hands also. Josephus, F., & Whiston, W. (1996, c1987). The works of Josephus : Complete and unabridged. Includes index. (Wars III, v 4). Peabody: Hendrickson. That comes out in Hebrew in awkward fashion: ANANU KUN! Not real sure of the Aramaic. Wouldn't be too different I think.

As much of a stretch as it may seem, there is ample evidence in the development of Indo-European languages for similar phenomena: Mater and Pater = Mother and Father, and many, many other examples. Oorah and Huah are as abused as Semper Fi, that's true. The sounds you make and the words you say don't make you any tougher than the medals worn by a PX Ranger. On the other hand, the Rebel yell sure did put the fear of God into a lot of Yankees, as did the urrah of a human wave.

I ran across this in a recent study of the book of Revelation, of all things. I always wondered about the origins of various battle cries, such as the USMC Oorah! and the seemingly related Hurrah! and Russian Urrah! In ancient Greece, the tail of the formation on the march often contained the elite formation; what we would consider the rear guard. This rear guard would form up into the leftmost of the battle line in a set piece battle. In Greek, "tail" is OURA. Hence, I believe, the battle cry. When Russians and Marines and elite formations of history make this chilling sound they are actually saying "Tail!!!" Which I know works really well as a modern double entendre... and also works to explain why everyone was so afraid of the Theban Sacred Band. I have been looking for an instance where the hoplites made OURA into their battle cry, but alas nothing yet. Still I expect the origin of the famous battle cry is in classical antiquity.

Me! Me!!! Pick me! shepfrbc@mindspring.com

I'll throw my hat in the ring to test ASL conversions as well. Let me know... Mark

ASL Vet: Great! I will look forward to it. Assault engineers and Stug IIIBs and T-26s and Rumanians all in a nice swirling battle. What could be wrong with that?

I knew a group of playtesters for RB... they spent a year of their lives getting it ready for production. My favorite COI was Capture of Balta. I always wanted to see that one in ASL but never did. I think I checked out of the gerbil wheel of rules before it saw print. I'd love to see it in CMBB, and I imagine I will. It's a fun week. I like it when we all revert to boyishness in the glee of anticipation. I wonder who's going to set the world record for demo playing?

Maybe just the identity of a single tank in one of the scenarios... or of a platoon... Maybe just the location and date...

"Enough common sense to compare themselves with God" Enough common sense to NOT compare themselves with God... Ouch!

I'm the only ordained minister on this board, at least that I know about. A Bible scholar and conservative Christian (and former U.S. Army Cavalry Scout, AND ordained in a church that has two living CMOH winners as members to boot). The original statement I felt was a bit inappropriate, but I didn't feel particularly moved to respond. I think the guys at BFC are riding a well-deserved wave of success, but they seem to have enough common sense to compare themselves with God. I've read enough of their words to consider them to have a decent amount of common sense, even about their own success. "God gives grace to the humble but makes war against the arrogant." Why mess with success, right? I just decided to respect the decency of the majority around here. Interesting response though. Best, Mark

Just doing a little deductive reasoning. It seems everyone forgot about the gold demo being available when the game goes gold. That's usually 1-3 weeks before the release date. And we may still get the game before September 20th, because no one at BFC denied the significance of the grammar "...by the 20th." as opposed to "...on the 20th." I really don't want to rumor monger here, and I definitely have not heard anything except what has been posted here. And none of what has been posted has been confirmed by the powers that be.

Okay, I'll be the first to broach this. 1) Demo comes out 1st September. 2) BFC has previously stated that the gold demo will not be released until the game has gone gold (I think). 3) From gold to release is usually about 2-3 weeks. 4) Release date is on target, and maybe a little early... 5) The availability of the demo on 1 September or so is not out of line with previous statements.

Or is Barbarossa being delayed due to Italian failures in the Balkans? Or perhaps accelerated due to the herculean efforts of the BFC team? Status update requested... Sure has been quiet 'round these parts. That's a good sign that all the CMBB elves are happily slaving away.

What kind of fanfare is planned for the release of CMBB? Balloons? Biker chicks? Is there a schedule of events? Anything you all can reveal yet?

I think I started playing Panzerblitz when I was 13 or so, 1973-ish. I discovered it after I found Gettysburg (squares, not hexes) in a Toys R Us store. I regularly received a thrashing from older wargaming guys, but still like the idea and played somewhat regularly through high school... at least until Squad Leader came along... Just for nostalgia's sake I'd like to see a PB scenario converted to CMBB. We've come a long and good way since then. I remember West Front Armor Leader in a negative light. The Assault series looked great, and I really wanted it to work, but I didn't like all the record keeping. I also mostly solo-played at the time, so that was a handicap on many of the games. I was an ASL fanatic for a good while, but finally found got off the rules merry go round with the advent of CMBO. CMBO is like a 1 step program for ASL addicts.

Panzerblitz? I mean, we've all talked about the minutiae of CMBB to exhaustion, right? The effect of the left-handed smoke bender on the fighting ability of PZKW XII and such... We've even compared ASL and CM in no small amount of detail (hey! there should be an advance phase in CM, darnit!) But let's go back a ways in wargaming history... It's the early 70s, and Avalon Hill releases Panzerblitz, and all of us grognards don't even have pimples yet, right? But we dig it because it's soooo historical and has a high realism factor (nostalgic sigh). Anyone here old enough to remember the particulars? I'm old enough to have been a crew member on the M60A1 MBT... in the Army (I think Marines are still driving Stuarts, but they may have upgraded in the past few years), so I do have fond memories of 'Blitz.

It may be worse: the preview mentions that there are 25 screenshots of Combat Mission. In fact, there are 25 right here at BFC. I suspect that is no coincidence... It seems likely that the screenshots you have to pay for are not even exclusive. Unless, of course, there are 25 MORE screenshots there, all new and unique to that site.

An intentional comparison to ASL... Think about the infantry unit types: Conscript-2nd line-regular-elite-smg-smg 2nd line-Partisans Plus units for support weapons: HMG-50 Cal.-LMG-MMG-Mol P-Mine Dogs-ATR And many more, of course. The fun of the early days of CMBB will include checking out the 900 units and their innumerable weapons.

Zoiks that's a lot. 300 Vehicles, 600 other unit types, according to the Gamespot preview. So, ummm... can we speculate a little here? What will be the most surprising inclusion, vehicle or otherwise? Will there be any significant absences that haven't already been revealed, i.e., the multi-turreted Russian tanks?

I'm guessing 4-8 weeks for release. At least four because BFC will be kind enough not to overshadow the release of Strategic Command. It may slip a week or three past 8, but from all the heavy handed hints given by the CM luminaries I really doubt. I'm off to the backcountry for hiking and fly fishing for a week, so I'm eagerly anticipating a release date when I return.

I think that's part of my original point; that the guys in charge have not set a date at all, and that seems to indicate that it is a ways off yet. I am buying other games on the assumption that CMBB won't be released for another 6-8 weeks, if not longer. I would re-arrange my gaming budget if I knew otherwise, but they've made it clear that they're sticking to their no information until gold policy.

Ten days to go and no "gold" announcement. It would be a major surprise at this point if CMBB made it by then. With no release information whatsoever coming out of the guys at the top, it leaves the true release date completely to conjecture. But at least they could offer the kindness of indicating when it will NOT be released. Will CMBB be released in the month of June? Any chance at all of that happening?

If CMBB was coming out on 22 June, wouldn't it have to go gold in the next few days? I'm certainly not holding my breath. Battlefront.com hasn't let out the least indication that the release of this game is imminent. In fact, they've been scrupulously careful not to give that impression in any way. No cutesy hints or anything. That doesn't mean it's not going to happen, but color me doubtful. I think they could be more forthright about the current status of things, but they've also been firm about that policy as well, for better or worse.