IntelWeenie

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bruno Weiss: The entire issue is not, and never was were the Finnish brave, or loyal, or nice fellers, or had good food, cute uniforms, or interesting guns. The entire issue is and still is who the devil else, (if anyone), besides the Finns are going to be in the OOB's besides then the Germans and the Russians? The silence from BTS is deafening! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I think without a doubt the "Finns are in" (hee, hee!), but I want to know how BTS will handle them switching sides late in the war. I would like to see all the Axis troops represented, though if cuts have to be made I could do without the Italians and Spanish (Blue Division). I just hope they don't have generic "minor Axis" units like those in ASL. Maybe the silence from BTS is because they haven't decided yet? ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

A big ditto to ScoutPL's post. I consider the minefields in CM to be more useful to channelize the enemy rather than kill him mainly due to their small size and cost. Making a minefield dense and large enough to be truly protective is way too expensive for QB. If properly sited, they can both force the enemy units into your EA and/or once engaged deny them use of cover or escape routes from the EA. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

Not all AP rounds are solid. Many contained a bursting charge to increase post-penetration effectiveness. IIRC, AP rounds have between 1/2 to 1/4 the effect of HE. If all you have is AP, I would say do not use the main gun unless you are short of MG ammo or if the range is over 200m. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by aka_tom_w: Are those the games with the "spiral galaxy " production charts like a BIG wheel where units move out to the edge and on to the map over time and turns? Which Ever game had that whacky looking Spiral production chart on sort of yellowy/brown paper, was One complicated bitch to learn all the rules. -tom w<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Was that World in Flames? ASL is probably the most complicated I have played. TWO phonebooks for rules! Then you get expansions with their own campaign rules, SSRs, "house" rules, tournament rules, 50+ maps........... AHH! THE MADNESS!!! Edit: A buddy of mine just picked up the new D&D rules. He says lots has changed and it looks cooler than ever (in case anyone cares since D&D was mentioned in the original post) ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit. [This message has been edited by IntelWeenie (edited 11-01-2000).]

Why do I never notice misspellings until someone quotes me? <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Maximus: A game (or series of games) is rated for their quality. Hell, I wouldn't mind going back and playing Three-Sixty's V for Victory series on my old original 386-33. My friend and I used to have a ball with those games, especially the Veli-Lukiye version. Hell, we still talk about one hot-seat game we played. Where he as the Russians thought he had me beat after encircling the city and taking several hexes into the eastern edge and then my SS reinforcements finally show up and decimate entire stacks of Russian units.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I LOVED the entire series (Gold-Juno-Sword being my favorite), but I can't remember when it was last loaded on my hard drive, let alone when I played it last (when was the last time you played it?). Anyway, the longevity I was referring to has more to do with marketable things whereby a company can continue to make money from a game through the releases of upgrades, expansion packs, continued sales and the like. BTS (or anyone else) won't get any more revenue from a game that is bought and played for 10 years by one person than a game that is bought and played for only a year then tossed. (not that I ever would! !) WRT the V for Victory series, I think it is a good example of what BTS should try to do. The game engine remained pretty much intact throught the series and there were small improvements made with each new release. IIRC, it came out sometime in 1992-3 (can't find my floppy disks to check!) and had a total of 7 releases, the last 3 being marketed by Avalon Hill. (Utah Beach, Velikiye Luki, Market Garden, Gold-Juno-Sword followed by Crusader, Stalingrad and America Invades) They ended up with 7 potential sales from what was essentially the same game code. Since I don't see BTS making too many changes to the game engine (since it's so good and really IS the game), they need to provide some other reasons for buyers to get the newer releases. True wargamers would buy CM2,3,4 just to get other troops in other theaters, but what about the non-grog customers? If someone else writes a game that plays similar to CM but looks a lot better, BTS will lose some sales no matter how much better CM is under the hood. Like I said before, I think this is something BTS really needs to take a long, hard look at since their continued development of the CM series is tied very closely to their continued sales. Making a great game look better is one way of ensuring continued success, especially since the graphics engine is one area where there is most room for improvement. Just MHO. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

All I know is this Halloween is a LOT better than last year for me. **Halloween horror story follows** Last year we were in a different house in a *not so nice* neighborhood and made the mistake of PO'ing the neighbors by complaining about the garbage in their yard that always somehow made it into ours. Well, these *lovely* people decided the best way to show their displeasure was to egg our house off and on for 5 hours using around 3-4 dozen eggs. They would even toss them from the shadows when there was a police car in front of the house (they came out about 5 times)! We immediately put the house up for sale and now are much happier with our current neighbors. I was never so happy to have a bunch of candy-grubbing munchins dressed up like axe murderers come to my front door this year! So think about it, it could be worse.... ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

It's an interesting idea that lots of us have dreamt for in the past, but I don't think it will happen in the CM series. Why? Because BTS would need to write a completely new operational wargame, whether it's a "layer" or not. Given the examples of CC4 & 5, I would rather see improvements to the basic CM game than adding a mediocre or incomplete operational layer. Sure, they could write a really good wargame as a CM operational layer, but that might take another 2 years (that's about how long CM took). Yet another good idea that suffers from lack of resources. Sigh. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bruno Weiss: If BTS must, as I suspect, make choices as to what will and what will not be included, then I believe they should concentrate on the weight of the issue based upon what took place over the long term, and what played the most significant role.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I think there's too much consumer demand already to not include the Finns, no matter their actual role in the war. Wargamers generally like playing with "elite" forces much more than masses of poorly led, trained and equipped troops and this will be a factor in which cauntries' forces are included in CM2. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I think the point is, though they haven't said, is that it may be logically impossible, logistically impractical, or time wise unbearable to include them all. So, who then besides the Germans and the Russians, and based upon the greatest impact to the overall result of the war on the Ostfront, should they include? Again, I too look forward to the Finnish being included, but what I question is, to who's exclusion? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I don't think any of the major nations will necessarily need to be excluded. Aside from small arms, the axis allies used mostly German equipment or equipment that could be closely modeled by German equipment (arty pieces and the like). Still, BTS has their work cut out for them modelling equipment and TO&E for several nations over a 4 year period instead of the less than one year of CM1. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lanzfeld: Also, what is a Spandau? <--SP<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Don't know about the F.M., but Spandau is one of those common names that could refer to just about any kind of MG (like calling all SMGs Schmeissers). It could be an MG08 which is an older MG used in WWI. It looks much like the Vickers although they are completely different on the inside. It saw a lot of action in WWII in the hands of rear area and second line troops. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

Getting in on this late, but... I have a PII-400 128Mb RAM and a 16Mb TNT card (PCI, though I do have an AGP slot; don't ask...). The graphics for CM run fine on my system and I have only had problems on the HUGE battles or when using some of the Hi-res mods. I remember when I first tried out the beta demo. At first, the graphics looked so cool (especially the 3D terrain), but I was rather disappointed with the smoke and fire. I then took a deep breath and told myself "Hey, self, you've been satisfied with silly cardboard smoke counters for years; what are you complaining about?" The graphics updates that came out shortly after the release did a lot to make me forget about this. The game looks good and runs smoothly on my system. I couldn't be happier (without spending a lot of money that I don't have ). I do, however, think that BTS would lose a step or two on the competition if there weren't some advances in the graphics engine. Face it, computer games of any genre must keep up with current technologies and methods or they will be slowly forgotten no matter how fun they once were. Since CM is a 3D game, it will be compared to other 3D engines no matter how fair those comparisons are. Some other (bigger?) companies are probably trying to emulate CM's success right now and the easiest way for them to entice borderline customers away from CM2 if with better graphics. I'm not saying that graphics demands more attention than gameplay, just that it does demand attention of some sort. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

The Ostwind is a good alternate if you're worried about light enemy armor. It is nearly as good vs. infantry and better against armor. I once even took out a Sherman with a flank shot with one of these puppies! Now if only the allies had M15 and M16 halftracks..... ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by wwb_99: I don't know Russian, but one thing that needs to be in there: Pass the Vodka. WWB<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Vodka is ALWAYS there! How 'bout: "Dai'tye mnye vodku." Give me a vodka. "Pobeda ili smert!" Victory or death! "Mi vcye umerti!" We're all going to die!" (did I mis-conjugate? It's been a while...) I really like the "oorah!" idea, especially if it's used while human-waving. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

Hee, hee! Is that brass from a one-second burst? ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

Ah! Moya noga! Ah! My leg! Vnimanie! Pay attention! And of course, my old sig: Zhivot na zhivot i vcyo zazhivyot. Belly to belly and everything's better! ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Private Parts: I don't get why the developers have avoided beach battles?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Accurately modeling all the extra stuff for beach assaults was (IIRC) considered to be too much work for something that happened on ly a relatively few times. Remember, the game took a couple of years to make (without the amphibious stuff and a few other things like TCP/IP) and BTS had to make some hard decisions about what not to include just to make that release date! ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

Even more info: All the RRs in CM used a system that relied on expelled gas (the backblast) to reduce the recoil (gas is lighter but much faster and you end up with the force about the same as the projectile). Some other RRs have used a countershot method, though most have been too dangerous for obvious reasons. The Germans had a couple of experimental models for aircraft that used countershots (500kg projectiles and countershots, IIRC) There were even a couple of experiments with RRs in WWI on aircarft since the "stringbags" back then couldn't handle too much recoil. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Trooper: I give. What's a 214? NTM <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> AKA DD-214. It is a short document that outlines the amount of service, awards, rank, etc. of a US serviceman (or woman). It is commonly used as proof of service. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

I've seen lots of pictures of HTs with branches on them for camo.... (hint, hint) ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Colonel_Deadmarsh: Okay, obviously when I'm talking about "lock-on", I am not referring to infantry. If you re-read my post I am defending the use and importance of infantry. What I was griping about was that technology has taken all the fun out of re-creating these wars in a game. Fighting nowadays in terms of armor is done from long ranges and I don't think this translates well to a game. As far as training goes today, I never said that soldiers today don't train as hard or whatever. My post was just to point out that having these long-range "technology" battles would be boring.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> What is this, "Jump on the Colonel" day? OK, count me in! Col (and others who may have not served in a "modern" army), modern warfare may seem boring on the surface, but some of the most intense FUN I've ever had was during 4 training rotations at the NTC (National Training Center in Ft. Irwin, California) from '91-'94. One would think that the battles would all be standoff affairs with both sides killing one another at 2km+ ranges, but it's not so. Even with the near total lack of vegetation and urban development (it's a desert, after all) the battles often turn into knife fights with dismounted infantry playing a vital role. True, 3-4km engagement ranges are what made the news in Desert Storm, but the terrain in Iraq/Kuwait/Saudi Arabia is something of a special case. I think some of the Army brass suffered from gadget envy and wanted to show everyone that the Air Force wasn't the only service with cool toys. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

All units can "see" 360 degrees but they will not notice things to the sides and rear as easily. Experience affects this, of course. If you are concerned about enemy units coming up from behind, splitting a squad to keep a lookout is not a bad idea. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by russellmz: correct me if im wrong, but the 57mm unit can't go 'fast'. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Makes sense, as they were much heavier than 'zooks. IIRC, they were supposed to be mounted on a modified .30 Browning MG tripod, but could be shoulder fired without too much difficulty. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

Since I support PCs for a living, I thought I'd throw this in here: If you have a CD-R or CD-RW one of the best things to do is to make your own restore CD. First, make a clean install of your OS (whatever it is) with all of the necessary patches/drivers/programs you need to survive. Try to avoid big programs like games or MS Office for now; this is just a bare bones deal. Once that is done, use a disk-imaging program (like Norton Ghost) to make a backup copy of the OS and put it on a CD-R. You will also need to put a copy of the imaging program on the CD. Now, whenever you have hardware woes and need to reinstall, just dump the image you made back on the hard drive and you're ready to go in minutes instead of hours. This is how we load PCs where I work and it takes about 2-4 minutes to load Win95. (We use a network server to store images instead of CDs. Loading from CDs will usually take a little longer.) Note: you will also need a boot disk that has drivers for your CD-ROM. THe Win98 boot disk usually works OK for this. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

1)The single 20mm and 37mm FlaK guns are pretty good, too (and cheaper than the quad). The big AA guns (88mm and 90mm) do not shoot at fighter-bombers, so don't even bother with them. Most Allied tanks have flexible (AA) MGs, even though they aren't visible in the 3D models. 2) Not much you can do if you don't have AA guns besides disperse and hide. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

If you get the timing right, you can sometimes get them to disembark at the end of a turn. However, I have only gotten this to work reliably when the HTs do not have any additional movement plotted. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.

My preferences for post-CM4: China-Burma-India 1937-1945 WWII Pacific Korea Spanish Civil War All these could be faily easily oncorporated in the CM system. WWII Pacific has a lot of fans, but I think some of the CBI battles could be fun. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit.