jackholt

Aptly named. Have you played it yet? The Germans have every angle covered with deadly fire. The allies have too much, but not enough. Fun and long. ------------------ Jack Holt jackholt@home.com

I started playing board games in the mid 60s. It was hard then to find competition. I usually had to play both sides. Sometimes it took hours just to set up, much less play the game. Ah, Starfleet Command, D&D, Panzer Blitz, Battle of the Bulge, Midway... I don't miss em! Love being able to set up in a few minutes, and have an AI as the never ending competition. Best of all is TCP/IP, network, and www games. CM would be well suited to that end. ------------------ Jack Holt jackholt@home.com

I don't get this thing about time, except for setup. Take a look at terrain, develop a strategy, and order your moves. It takes me about 30 minutes to play 12 turns. I've only been defeated one time. A 42 turn game takes about about 90 minutes. I know the old saying about plans and their falling apart after the first contact with the enemy. However, if you have an overall strategy in mind the tactical changes which must be made each turn are easier. ------------------ Jack Holt jackholt@home.com

Counting mere troop numbers doesn't get it in the real world. It works for board games, but in CM it doesn't. Terrain, unit morale, experience, suppresive fire, flank attacks, weapon types, etc. can work even with a 1:1 ratio of troops. In CM two machine gun nests with 2 men each can take on a whole squad of 10 men (.4 to 1 odds). A whole platoon can be taken out by three machine gun nests providing suppression fire, and a squad executing a flank attack. 16 men versus 33. I don't want to be ugly, but don't flatter yourself with the term "lil o realist." A squad and a machine gun nest can take out an entire platoon if it is running across open ground with no suppresion fire supporting it. ------------------ Jack Holt jackholt@home.com

The best advice is grab him by the nose and thrust a knife in his side. I.E., use one platoon for long distance suppresion fire and send the other on a 90 degree flank attack. Pray your tanks take out the German's tanks. Keepem hull down until they do. ------------------ Jack Holt jackholt@home.com

BTW, the final score was 77 to 23. ------------------ Jack Holt jackholt@home.com

Great game. Received it yesterday and took time off work to play it today. I know a great game when I see it--been gamings since the mid 60s. This is game of the year, heck, game of the century, as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure bugs will emerge eventually etc., but it will still be great. I played the tutorial scen. and lost following the instructions. Replayed it using real world tactics and beat the pants off the Germans. I got my tanks hull down, put one platoon were it could provide long distance suppression fire, and send the second platoon on an end run. His two tanks came up, and assumed hull down positions. I drew first blood, hitting one tank on the turrent. Then he got one of mine and I got his second one at the same instance. Best I could tell from replay is that the two tanks killed each other! But, that wasn't the most exciting thing about the scen. When my flanking platoon got into position (easily with the covering fire), I sat up a machine gun nest and then rushed the enemy position. He was so taken up with the covering fire that I got on his position without losing a single man. After clearing out the main nest I did a second assault on his secondary line, while the remaining tank took out two machine gun nests. I watched it over and over each turn. My blood pressure went up (can feel it on the back of my neck) the more excited I became. Thanks, Thanks, Thanks, Battlefront. It will be one in a million ------------------ Jack Holt jackholt@home.com