Kingfish

B.H. Liddel Hart mentioned in his 'History of the Second World War' that on several occasions commonwealth troops were forced to abandon recently captured enemy positions, in particular Italian trenches, because of the filth, and thus got caught in the open when the Axis counterattack rolled in.

Not really. Much like the Vietcong the Taliban can easily survive within the existing infrastructure. Their logistical requirements are also very low, which is typical of an insurgency.

Well, duh, oh sage of mobile field pieces. It was a tightly scripted scenario. I chose to create the conditions which would ensure the bug would arise. I did so to prove a point, that is the bug can be created by someone who uses realistic tactics and has no intention of cheating. BTW, I'm not trying to sway your opinion or possibly enlightened you with an opposing point of view. You've painted yourself into the corner with your 'everyone who does this is a cheater' bull**** and frankly that is exactly where you belong.

Perhaps, but an important distinction needs to be made here. I wasn't looking to cheat or exploit a game bug. Instead, I was using a realistic tactic to bring my gun into action. That in the course of otherwise normal (and fair) play this particular bug surfaces is unfortunate, but also irrelevant.

Time to amend your book... The image is from a quick test I just ran. Sorry for the small image size, still trying to get the hang of imageshack. Anyway, the Pak 38 was positioned at level 7 and ordered to push the gun up the level 9 rise using the move to contact command. As you can see it the gun stopped short of the crest, it has LOS to the three Stuarts, and the LOS line has a very pronounced kink. At the time I captured the screen shot the Stuarts were firing with all they had, as evidenced by the pinned state of the gun crew. However, the main rounds consistently hit the front of the rise, and only the MGs had any effect on the gun crew. So, please let me know where in this little scenario did I cheat?

Actually, I was referring to guns that arrived w/prime movers. The kind that get driven to, disembarked, and then pushed - yes Jason, pushed - into position.

What do you do when the gun comes in as a reinforcement on a hilly map?

If such a tactic is a game killer for you then how do you deal with other coding "oddities"? Every time a smoke round is used realism goes out the window, and that is just one of many examples.

But there is no such thing as "invunerable" in this game. Every unit or position has an opposing unit or tactic that can counter it. Every one.

A round every 4 seconds? Perhaps in the triple expresso brigade. I would be more inclined to believe the stated CM figures of 6 rounds/min as a more realistic ROF. Keep in mind that the KwK 88/L56 nearly divides the turret in two. Just getting the next round out of the tray would take 4-5 seconds, let alone turned and then loaded into the breech. All this couldn't take place until the gun has returned from recoil.

During the war there were many attempts at alleviating the cramped conditions inside the Tiger's turret. Unfortunately for the Germans, these attempts were conducted by the allies on the battlefield

In a recent game vs the Opfor (this is the demo, btw) an M3 deployed on the edge of a patch of woods fronted by clear terrain fails to see (via the LOS tool) a BMP that rolls by within 200 meters, yet in the same turn an ITV takes out another BMP which is travelling in what I perceive as scattered trees. What is even more amazing is that the TOW flew across two large patches of woods and the small central village! What am I missing here? Is there any way of being able to 'read' the map besides using the LOS for each individual unit? Also, I am assuming that the letter 'E' means the unit is eliminated, 'D' is damaged, and 'S' suppressed. What does it mean when the unit just flashes but no letter shows up? Finally, I've seen numerous engagements where the Opfor fires multiple missiles in succession, yet no missile trail follows. What does that mean?

If terrain allows, the follow ups should look to flank the now "fixed" enemy defensive line. Not only is this a common military tactic, but it pays extra dividends because of a bug in how the game engine handles units firing. In a normal situation, a 10-man squad in a trench who is attacked by multiple units would spread its fire to deal with each threat. However, in CM a unit can only engage one target at a time regardless of size. Therefore, part of the attacking force gets a free ride, so to speak, allowing it to flank and fire on the defender with impunity. A defense in depth would address this to a certain extent, but if the attacker already has a numerical advantage eventually some of his command will break thru.

Unfortunately, no. At least not with custom-made scenarios. About the best you can do is copy the scenario, rename it, open it in the editor and modify the map. At least this way you preserve the work you put into the OOB.

Change the date to allow for purchase of 'fly, then change back to original (or keep to first date to ensure a supply of T rounds). BTW, I played the CMBB version (yes, it is a Mad Russian design) and achieved the desired kill quota. One thing I did do is move into cover after the first shot. The AI lacks situational awareness, so once the T34/85 is out of LOS the KTs resume their parade as though nothing happened. Pop back out to plink another KT, scoot behind cover, rinse-repeat.

I suspect its more of the former. By the time the KT was fielded Germany was in a desperate situation, with AG center all but wiped out and the Russians pushing deep into Poland. That had to have led to hasty decisions and deployments.

The settings "place own units" or "scenario default" only apply to the first battle, so your best option is to choose scenario default as the designer will always do a better job at deployment than the AI. This is true even with Ops that feature huge maps, where units placed further back in depth. The AI will almost always redeploy these units, sometimes to less than optimal locations. The exceptions to this rule are units which do not allow for redeployment, such as fortifications or large guns. Once past the first battle the terrain, parameters (especially no-man's setting) and OOB dictate where the AI will deploy its units.

The title is "Knights in plywood" or somesuch, and the author is Scott Boston. I would greatly appreciate it if you can e-mail it to me. My address is in my profile.

I'm not too sure that is the culprit. Although having d/l problems with all 3 CM games would point in that direction, I was able to completely install Uncommon Valor as well as McAfee security suite without problem, plus CMBB works now that I patched it.

No, this isn't CDV. I was part of the beta for CMAK so I got a free copy from BFC for my time. I now got CMBO to work by downloading the 1.12 patch. Strangely, the CD still locks up at 41%, so I am still unable to d/l the full game. However, I am able to open the exec. that came with the patch, and from it I can access the game, editor (important!) and a couple of scenarios that I am guessing came with patch. Weird. Anyway, 2 down, 1 to go. Edit: I spoke a bit too soon. It appears I can only play if the CD is in. Not the end of the world.

Looks like I won't be playing CMAK anymore thanks to a large crack running nearly halfway down the CD. Shame, I never got to do Termoli... and Platamon... and Narvik... Gavrus... CMAK convert of S. Hertengobosch...

The problem with CMBB appears to have been fixed now that I have patched it to 1.03. I can download and play from the depot. The original CD scenarios do not show up, but I had played the daylights out of these anyway, so its best I start looking for newer material.

Edit: I just downloaded a CMBB scenario from the depot and it doesn't show up in the scenario selection screen, although it does when you open the scenario folder from the C drive.

I recently had my HD replaced and am now experiencing problems installing all 3 CM games. With CMBO the install stops at the 41% mark. A box appears mid-screen with the header 'component transfer error'. In the box it lists WAV\0006130.WAV and 'Error: Data Error (Cyclic Redundancy Check). Click on the OK button (the only choice) and the game crashes to desktop. CMBB appeared to have loaded all the way, at least according to the progress bar. However, at the very end I got the same error message as CMBO, although no WAV file was mentioned. No desktop Icon was created, nor is the game listed when navigating Start-All Programs. However, I was able to find and start the game by navigating into my C drive. What is even weirder is none of the stock scenarios/Ops show up, but I was able to get in a QB so the game appears to work correctly. Finally, CMAK also appeared to install completely, with desktop icon and folder in the 'all programs' menu. The scenario folder is also full. Problem is when I try starting I get the error message: This application has failed to start because Openplay.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem. Any help is appreciated.

I'm back up and running, sorta, but problems with the sound card means the rig goes back in the shop yet again. The loss of the scenarios is really not that big a deal. Its only a game, IMO. What really slapped me was the 4 years of family pictures now locked in a small metal box I can't access. The local geek tells me there are places to send it to retrieve the data, but expect to pay thru the nose. Not in the cards at this time. How many times I told myself I'd backup the data, how many times I put it off for another day...