Pham911

What I think everyone's failing to realize is that the OOB for a QB, IMO, when picked by AI tends to favor the GI over the AP and comes up short with OB HE from a FO. This may not be a problem, but any CAS from the AI tends to make close formations KIA, especially armor. AT, HE, and AP can't shoot at CAS, so you've got to rely on AA if you've got it. If the AI didn't give you any AA, you may be able to use HMG fire from HT's, and maybe LMG, but it's pretty ineffective. It's FUBAR any way you cut it, as the AI picks at RND and doesn't offer balance to a QB. Even if you pick for a QB, you can't get AA if you're locked into using US or UK AB. Can't get armor either with AB, but can make up for it with HE and AP guns towed by a Jeep MG. QED. I'd recommend going with VG's if playing Axis, as they help getting the VL's in QB's. BTW, What was the question again?

Two key things about using split squads for scouts that I've found: 1)They're expendable once you designate them scouts(i.e. they'll have a short life span) 2)They shouldn't try to have a stand-up fight with the enemy unless you've got a good reason(diversions come to mind, as you can trick the enemy into commiting quite a bit of resources into elliminating them, as often the enemy won't know if they're scouts on the flank, forward scouts, or a forward screen for your main force, or a screen for your armor, or what.) I just got a PBEM opponent to assault a scout platoon on my flank for 10 minutes or so while I solidified my iron grip on the town we're contesting. I lost the platoon, but it was well worth it.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> she says: "We should never have been involved in WWII all the Americans did were rape and kill. They raped all kinds of women in France. They should ban war." <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I can understand the rape comments as being just ignorant. But... They should ban war? And how would they enforce this ban?

Very nice site. The mod comparison pics are very, very helpful and I hope you keep that section in and fairly up to date.

Assuming it's www.hpssims.com, but there's no mention there about #3. #1(Smolensk '41) was a great game, even if the supply model was weak. #2 I skipped to, for some reason that I can't remember now. I highly recommend #1.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Maximus: I should get my site up before too long, gotta transfer over all of my zip files to my 'downloads' folder. I think you'll like it once I get it up. It shares the same theme across all of the pages and uses shared borders. Again, it will be a MOD HQ, so anybody that wants to get a mod up quickly, just send it to me.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Swine! If you post the pics of mods we can't get it makes you a mod tease! (humble mode) please send me the mods(<--non-sarcastic serious request, as they look sweet.) (/humble mode) Edited because the system apparently thought the humble mode with <'s was a HTML command... It should be that easy. [This message has been edited by Pham911 (edited 10-31-2000).]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Elijah Meeks: Hey people, subject lines are there for a reason. If I see any more "Just wondering..." "Just a Question..." schtuff, I'm gonna, well, probably not do much of anything that will change anything, but I'll be peeved. Come on, people, be a little more topical with your topics. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> The tension between your choice of subject wording and the text of your post is almost Zen-like.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by NCrawler: I don't mind Halloween. I work the night shift and it is one of the busiest nights of the year in my line of work... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Candy factory?

Well, my kids loved it. They were a vampire, a Powerpuff girl, and a princess(respectivly, from oldest to youngest). They were also very polite, as were 90% of the kids who came to our door. The few who weren't were not impolite to me, but just talking crap to each other. I can't disagree with most points you made, though. The teens are annoying(although one guy came by as Homey the Clown and beat his friend with that thing Homey always beat people with on TV, which was funny as hell), but usually kids who don't say trick or treat aren't being rude, but are shy. Pretty much every other point you made are things that the parents are doing wrong(as in "not watching thier kids"). So, everytime you say kids stepping on my flowers(for an example), it should read "parents letting kids step on my flowers"... It's the parents that are idiots usually. The kids are just excited. And, there was a pretty interesting thing on the History Channel tonight about Halloween (it's over 3000 years old, in its pagan origins). I find Halloween much less confusing than Christmas... "Ok, so this guy Christ was born, and here's your $300 Playstation 2 to mark that occasion."

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by bigmac@work: Yes Pham, you should be very concerned about this. This is exactly how I shall eek out a victory in our game. I shall occupy our VL with my three diminished Polish Platoons, after leaving a swath of dead and decaying Germs in my wake. Now, following my stunning victory, you may send me a setup of any of those other types of Engagements that may strike your fancy. Any one you choose shall be adequate, as the end result will be the same. Yet another loss for the almighty Pham, with no degree of wordsmithing providing even a modicum of satisfaction to the crushed and defeated Axis powers.... (or somefink...) <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ah, I waited to see if you had another ace up your sleeve before responding(and making an ass out of myself), but it appears that once more the Poles fared rather poorly on the field of battle. Still, you didn't have your whole country rolled over again, so take pride in that... I'd offer to treat the prisoners well, but I think with the last human wave assault of yours that we'll just have to settle on decent burials.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Elijah Meeks: I haven't seen it and, frankly, it sounds like you're dressing up anecdotal evidence to vent frustration about some Panther or another getting killed. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well, actually I thought about that and don't think I'm venting. But, I do believe that there's a real probability that I'm suffering from a common problem: Unlikely events are memorable, and annoying events are more memorable still. So, it could just be that I've been ignoring the results for the other side. So, it seems the game is tilted against me just based on what I'm paying more attention to. Or, could just be a run of odd luck. Not sure, but if nobody else has noticed a problem, I'll chalk it up to one of those two.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Terence: I don't know about the rest of it, but it _may_ be that you are being righly punished for bad tactics. Armor should NEVER crest hills. Any tanker will tell you that the top of a hill is a rotten place for a tank. And it is sweet and befitting that any tanker who does so get beat like a rented mule. As for the rest of it, I have no idea, but if you will permit me a general observation, I will say that even if one has great tools, one will not reap benefits if one uses them poorly. I hope I have given no offense. Terence<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Oh, jeeze, how could one take offense (rolls eyes). But, seriously, it's not my tactics that I'm concerned of. I'm wondering about penetration values, and how well the tanks aim. Repeated first shot kills at over 500m-1000m are pretty odd, IMO, unless the tankers are bionic and the rounds are magic. It can happen sure, but it seems to be happening more often than not. And, the infantry in question was halfway ringed by vet riflemen, who arrived at the same time(save the first squad who made contact), and wouldn't even pin at 5-10m distance with about 40 some-odd guns firing at them. Just seemed unbelievable. (and, honestly, no offense taken.)

I was testing something last night(after many problems in the past with this) and found some disturbing results.This may apply to other nationalities, but I only messed with the Germans. Here's a couple of examples: *Two full Vet German rifle platoons engaged a single Reg US rifle platoon in woods. Results: AI pulled back two squads to a building(which was burned and the squads routed), and the single left squad proceeded to hold off the two platoons for five minutes and reduce them to 1/2 a platoon strength. We're talking a range of between 10 to 5m for this engagement, and about 50% of the Germans bringing fire to bear on the squad at any given time. This seems wrong for that range. Armor: Tried Stugs, Panthers, and Tigers, and assorted lighter armor. Long range duels resulted in, more often than not, German casualties and about 60-70% of the time they died with the first shot fired, after cresting hills or emerging from other cover. Those that lived beyond the first shot did so only because the enemy missed. That's not only an incredible hit ratio(hit 6 out of 10 tanks on the first shot), but seems that the German armor is made of butter. Short range engagements also had many German deaths, but that much less troubling due to a faster turret speed on the American tanks. When aiming at each other at the start of the engagement at shorter ranges, the Germans didn't fare much better, despite better frontal armor. It seemed that the Allied tanks were firing rounds that could penetrate German armor, where historically, they had much more trouble. The only tank that seemed more immune to this than others was the Tiger for some reason. Has anyone else noticed any weird, ahistoric combat results for other nationalities(or even Germans), or am I just cursed? And didn't the Germans have better optics(Zeiss?)? They seem to miss far more often than thier counterparts at any range.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Schrullenhaft: Depending on your fondness for the "Move out" and "March"-like commands, these could be replaced with the "noise of movement" from whatever source you could glean them from. Problem is that they wouldn't be constant while the troops were in movement.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> And would be independant to the terrain your men are moving across and the speed they're moving at. Running jackboots on cobbelstone would seem out of place for soldiers walking across a pasture.

Not to goad BTS into including this feature, but Squad Leader has appropriate movement sounds for infantry in different terrain. Squad Leader As in letters from home, tanks that can point four directions, annoying voice quips("Mama! Eat Lead! How about a bullet for breakfast!"), machine guns that sound like my soldiers have gas, sucky game, returned to EB for a full refund. Don't tell me that SL is better than CM in one way... Say it ain't so Charles.

How does the game calculate the winner, and the degree that they won by? Could I play a PBEM game where I had a outnumbered infantry company and win even if I didn't hold most of the objectives at the end by using my resources wisely and killing far more of his men than men of mine get killed? I ask because I'm getting a little bored of generic ladder "clear weather, summer, dry, meeting engagement" games. Nobody usually wants to play anything other than meeting engagements, but I'm now wondering if probes, or assaults, etc, aren't as balanced in terms of victory levels as doing a same purchase point per side meeting engagement. Anyone know how this works?

It needs some sort of scripting to become the perfect game. So when designing a mission you could specify the route of approach for different platoons and where they would pause, etc, and wait for others to keep attacks together. I like the artillery suggestion also. Good for softening up positions before an attack.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by *Captain Foobar*: When I first showed the CM beta demo to people...they said it looked like south park. A lot has changed in other areas, but the subdued color schemes are key, in my opinion.. Even if this game had the visual quality of South Park, it would still be the best tactical wargame on the market.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> "This tank is mihn. I won't commit it to the attack because it's mihn, not yours. Mihn... GODDAMNIT KYLE! WILL YOU GET YOUR PLATOON OVER THAT HILL AND KILL THOSE KRAUTS?!? Ah screw this I'm going home."

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by russellmz: SUBTLE AND TONED DOWN IS THE WAY TO BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i like the realistic mods better than the brighter ones... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Good lord, man. You can't shout the words 'subtle' and 'toned down'.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bruno Weiss: How'd the Finn's get in? Not that I mind, and infact I'm glad. I would have wanted them in CM2, as I also want to see some of the other characters on the program sheet. Realizing you have to draw the line somewhere, I understand all Nationalities involved on the Ostfront would be difficult to get into the limitations of the game. But once again, I must say that the complete ommission of some form of representation of the factions which made up the various Ostfront ethnic paramilitary resistance forces is a substantial piece of military history left out. I can only hope, that we will see actual "German" trucks in the German OOB this time. If not, then for crying out loud at least make sure there's a Ford 2 1/2 ton truck in the German OOB, which were quite common. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Less Finns, more Trucks! I'd be pretty pleased myself if the game came out and was called "CM2: Non-Finnish Convoy Mission".

Ok, on topic response part: The East Front is popular with this reporter because of the operational events, plans, and problems, and not because of anything at the level that CM deals with. Barbarossa? How cool is that? Advancing across the Russian plains in the mud, in the blizzard of '41, in the unseasonably cool summer of '42(I made that up). Again, pretty cool. The nasty fighting in Stalingrad, the desperation of the Sixth Army, the attempt to supply it by air, the attempt to open a corridor to it? Again, how cool is that? What's the West Front have? The Buldge? Gimpy few months in the Ardennes during an operation that never stood a chance. Barbarossa was a collosal gamble that could have worked, but it became Germany's undoing. Everything in the West after D-Day was doomed for the Axis, so it's not nearly as interesting. Too one sided. Off Topic part: Will CM2 feature more flamable stuff that you can ignite with tracers like hay and thached roofs? Will it have cold weather effects on vehicles and underdressed soldiers(or is this out of CM's scope)?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Steve Clark: But how many tanks can you possibly put on a CM1 map? I don't know but I'm sure it's not more than a handful.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> After extensive testing my lab techs tell me that 5 infantry Battalions lock up my computer. They also tell me that one tank is more than a handful, really.

Halo, my name is Inigo Montoya. You kill my father. Prepare to die.

Well, slap some egg on my face and call me incorrect.... After some testing, I discovered that I was, indeed, wrong. Mortars can be moved and still indirect fire, so thanks to those who pointed this out and enlightened me. Got stuck in the habit of not moving them after setup(only moving the HQ for spotting purposes), and it worked well enough that I never messed with it any more. I suppose it really doesn't affect my play all that much, as I still park my mortars for the games duration and am not sure if I can change that now. Not sure if I want to, either, as it is pretty effective. (Slyly saving face...) Also, the tracing target guide lines from the HQ and then canceling them seems to work fine. As for changing resolution, if you're talking about changing resolution on a mac, I can't help. But if it's changing resolution within CM, just go into the install directory, delete the preferences file in the root CM directory, and re-run the game. It should allow you to select a maximum resolution that corrosponds with what your desktop resolution is set at. And, the easiest way to test mods now is to just make a full copy of your BMP(and wav directory if doing sound mods) directory, install the mod normally, then backup directorycopy the directory back over it if you don't like the mod. Works for the PC anyways, but not 100% sure it will for the mac.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by dNorwood: Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I've moved mortar teams all over creation and still had nearby HQ's spot for them. On the other hand, it never even occurred to me that the HQ could be hidden and still spot. Is that a bug or a feature? (Finally, most of my experience has been with 1.03 - if you're telling me things are different in 1.05, I'm gonna be unhappy).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well, I guess some testing is in order. I had a bugger of a time getting indirect fire to work with mortars originally, and having them stationary seemed to solve it, but I suppose it could be something else going on that was tripping me up. I do seem to recall that BTS said that the mortars can't be moved, but can't find the thread. Unless someone has a definitive answer I'll test it tonight. I'm assuming that the spotting with the HQ's hidden is a feature, as they have to be in command of the mortars and could use hand signals, verbal commands, etc, to adjust fire and whatnot. They wouldn't have to be more exposed like a FO, as the FO's have to use radios and binoculars to perform thier task(though why you can't do that prone and hidden is beyond me...)