Bertram

To all my opponents: I had a serious computer malfunctioning, resulting in me loosing my mail and my adresses. So please resend those turns. Bertram

I am also eagerly awaiting this game to arrive in an English version. Strangely enough the build appears to be in English (the beta was in English), but it is released in German and in Scnadinavia (Swedish?). Bertram

The tactic is frowned upon though if you are fighting in friendly territory, e.g. french, begium or dutch. You are there to liberate them, not to blow their houses apart. Bertram (from the Netherlands) [This message has been edited by Bertram (edited 10-23-2000).]

Additional info: I just finished a QB in wich my opponent had an airplane. I noticed it by my Panther blowing up, and could 'see' it by the targeting line to the Panther (in replay). The plane passed three times (blowinfg up a halftrack the second run). In the after battle report it was reported as shot down. The Quad 20 mm AA I had (for anti-infantery purposes) was credited with the kill. Bertram

I just fought a battle as German, and happend to have a quad 20 mm gun (for anti infantery purposes, I know, against the Genevan convention). My opponent had a plane. It was shot down the thirth turn it passed (after destroying a Panther and a halftrack) The quad 20 mm was rather effective against the infantery to. Bertram

Mail me for a PBEM game Bertram

The CMHQ ladder is working ok for me. Do recieve e-mails, and so do my opponents (well, one hasn't confirmed yet I believe). Have 4 games registered. The scoring is a bit weird(got 4 points for a total win, and 60 for a marginal, same size, opponents about even), but it evens out more or less (after 2 winns and 2 looses I am back where I started). Bertram

In a recent QB I had some trouble with a tank that insited on taking an other route than I had planned. Now this wasn't illogical in itself, as the map was fairly hilly, forested and with wet spots, not suited for tanks. Trouble was I knew this, and had the path carefully stacked out. The path was fairly short (I wanted the tank just to leave cover,, poke around a building, and shoot an enemy tank), and I had plenty of way points, because I didn't trust the tank to be able to pass along the path I wanted. The panned path was nowhere red though, so I thought it would be ok. In the execution phase the tank went a short way along the path, then replotted the move, truned around and started to move in a complete other direction. Luckily it wasn't killed at once, so I was able to see the planned route during the next order phase. It appeared the TC planned to drive around the most of the map, passing fairly close to several enemy strongpoints, just to advance those 10 meters I had planned. So my question is, could there be a command you can execute at the end of the planning phase, in which you can see if the move you have planned is possible? This should have only to check for non-infantry units, as infantry moves are hardly ever a problem. Bertram

I played Panzer elite, and liked the solo game, but it has a steep learning curve. The multiplayer was disappointing. Not only did the game crash almost always (which might be fixed with that new patch, I haven't started it since getting CM) it also basically dropped all the infantery from the game, leaving a pure tank to tank battle. While this might be fun, it certainly takes something from a WW2 tank simulation. Especially in battles fought on terrain in the Normandy. tanks are nothing there without infantery, a we CM-ers know. That new tank sim, just gone gold (or almost?) Steel Beasts looks promising. Bit bare on the graphics and contemporary (more or less, M1A1 and Leopard 2A4, just one model behind in both cases), but with infantry posible in multiplayer battles, if the rumours might be believed. Bertram

And don't forget the RPG's that were going to die out a few years ago.. Bertram

I have the Victory in the West books from Lewis. He is very stringy with maps, most are operational or strategic, not of any use for CM (used them for some TOAW I was working upon). The smallest units he talks about are regiments generally. Bertram

Buy a compagny, the compagny commander has a surprising long CC range. Really nice for spotting for on board mortars. Bertram

Actually my main gripe isn't even that the .50 took out the tanks (although they must have been real lucky to take out a Pz IV, not just damaging it, but setting it on fire) but that they were able to do this while running (repeatedly)into a Stug III hard enough to push it of the road. Try running an M113 at full speed into a M1A1 and see who moves. And I dont think the infantery in that M113 is going to shoot their MG after that (or do anything else constructive). Bertram

You have to delete the CM preference file, then the game will ask for a resolution agina when started. The file is in the CM directory, called something like 'Combat Mission Bynd Ovrlrd Pref'. Bertram Ah, crossed posts, this helps to reset your resolution, I don't know about the new drivers, it seems there are some issues with them, see other topics on this forum. [This message has been edited by Bertram (edited 08-17-2000).]

The following happened to me in an email QB. According to me this should not be possible, but maybe I am biased. It was dark, visibility maybe 200 mtrs. My troops (Germans) were defending a stretch of wood, with a dirt track running through it. On both sides of the track I had some troops, a halfsquad, a squad and a light MG, with some room between them. Sitting on the shoulders of the track, beside each other were a Pz IV and a Puma. Some 50 meters behind that was a Stug III, sitting in the middle of the road (and behind that a Pzkpw 251/2, the mortar thingie). All troops are regulars, the armor veterans. Last turn I spotted some light armor coming down the road. It was already targetted by the Pz IV and the Puma. I was expecting a wrecked scouting verhicle, but this was what happened: The advancing vehicle turned out to be a M3 Halftrack scout. It raced up the road, while my shells missed it (about 4 shots in all). It raced between the Pz IV and the Puma, killing the Puma in passing. It crashed into the Stug in the middle of the road, backed of, ran into it again, backed of and ran into it again. While doing this it killed my PZ IV (with the .50, from behind, tank started to burn) and eliminated a halfsquad that was shooting at them. The 4th time the halftrack hit the Stug III it managed to bump it far enough aside to pass it. Then it bumped the Pzkfw 251 also aside, and passed that to. Thus ended the one minute turn, not with the scout HT shot, but with a Puma, a Pz IV and a halfsquad killed by the .50, and a Stug bumped from the road by the HT. I fully expect the M3 the next turn to kill the Stug from behind with the .50 (it is less armored there than the Pz IV, and has no defence, can't turn, because the M3 nocked it into the woods), and then finish the Pzkfw (they are even less panzered, and very vulnarable against .50's). Somehow I have a bit of trouble with this sequence of events. I might be wrong, but I think this should not be allowed to happen outside of Hollywood. Comments? Bertram Nb.: I just realized: it could be possible that my opponent loaded the Kelly's Heroes pictures of course . [This message has been edited by Bertram (edited 08-17-2000).]

Yes, 6.18 is the Detonator 3 Bertram

If you get adventurous and decide to try it you might want to read the overclocking guide posted on Sharky Extreme. (www.sharkyextreme.com). Bertram

My worst war movie vote goes to the Battle of the Bulge. Quite apart from the fact that the story and the characters are mostly nonsense the tanks battle scene in the desert really blows it. It might not be so bad for non-Europeans, but NOWHERE in Europe is a landscape even remotely like it, and certainly not in Belgium. I think one of the better war movies I saw was Kagemusha from Kurosawa. Now this was quite another war, but hey, if we can vote for The Patriot this is rather close in time . (The other Kurosawa Samurai films are good viewing to, pity I never saw them anywhere on vid.). Bertram

I just started a QB with Gilamonster (Hi there), on a (medium) rural map with heavy forest. I would not recommend this as a regular excercise, as this will mean that about the whole map is forest. It will be a nice battle, for a change, but kind of infantry slug fest. I used the same forest setting with farmland and village, that gave a more varied map, I liked them for combined arms, especially with moderate of large hills. Morale of story: there is (I think) an interaction between the settings as well, so heavy forest will mean different things depending on the other settngs. Bertram [This message has been edited by Bertram (edited 08-15-2000).]

Deuce, I don't think it will be as simple as capturing the image (by a lens) in a fiberoptic and transporting it to the other side. First the article states that the aperture to capture the image is very smal (as it should be, or you would not be stealthed from that side). So obviously there has to be some system to get this captured image to the size needed, be it lenses or an electronic system. Second it states that the system has to correct for the ambient light (it has to: a small aperture will catch much less light as the large panels need to blend in). This again shows that there has to be some way of manipulating the image. Thirthly (sp?) there will be some distance between the image catching aperture and the display panels, as well potential displacements in height and lateral position. While this might not matter much against a broke or distand background, it will surely destroy the illusion against a closer background or straight lines. And finally: as long as they can't make a 14' flat screen viewable from any angle but close to 90 I don't see how they can pull this of with panels big enough to hide a tank. So while it might theoretically be a nice idea I don't think it will be technically possible for along time to come. The idea looks like a sophisticated version of the Cameleon camouflage that was talked about a few years ago. The idea there was to have a outer skin (paint, plastic layer, tentlike cover, the details varied) which could change color depending on the background. Only here the choise was between a number of prerendered patterns, and the way of changing them was through thermodynamics or electric currents, the choice either hand selected or by an outside camera (depending on the source). Never heard anything from it while the technoligy is quite a bit simpeler than this one. (Or did they finish it and are they looking at us? Should we send in the X-men? ) Bertram

The fact that a squad is represented with three men makes it acceptable that they just walk over a street, walk into a house through the wall, etc. You know that this is an abstracted view of what is really happening. If you are going to show each soldier in the squad those ten men walking over the street, or into a house through the wall are just going to look sily. Not to mention 12 soldiers standing around in a room. So if you want to let this look a bit realistic you would need a whole new level of AI to represent the moves of individual soldiers who cover each other, kick in doors, work in fire teams etc. Above that you would need to build lots of animations to let the figures actually do this kind of thing. This would be some sort of Rogue Spear with a thousend men on each side. The programming and the computing power needed would be awsome, and the result would be only a layer of visual vanilla over the system as it is, because you will still give orders on squad level. Unless of course you want to order each soldier around, but with a thousend soldiers the I wouldn't want to wait for a PBEM return mail in that case. So I like the solution just fine as it stands, three men is enough to give you a feeling that there ar lots of people involved, but not so much that they look silly doing the things the way they are shown. Bertram

He Germanboy, $25 an hour, that is bloody cheap. What are your qualifications? Do you do plumbing? I could use some Kitchensinks in the QB I am playing. Bertram

Actually he wrote '20% more sales', which would make mac sales about 16% of total. Not that important, and probably only a indication anyway. Bertram

Hope to reach you this way.. My postserver is on strike (or Holiday, or hungover from the weekend), so I will be incommunicando for some time. Will resume the games as soon as possible. Bertram

Does anyone know an online source for biographies of WW2 participants, like division and corps commanders? I tried the US and UK military sites, but no luck. Bertram