Nick Carter

Philomath, Oregon (in between Portland and Eugene) beyond all hopes arrives today (mail slower usually as I live rurally) Already played one scenario, EFOW really is upsetting, who is killing my men? Wife is barracaded in bedroom trying to shut out the excellent sound effects....Why, why do I have to work all weekend?

While we are on the off topic subject of war photos..I went to the estate sale of a Colonel a few months ago . I bought his snapshots of the ceremonies in a town during the liberation of the Phillipines. There is one in particular of an entirely black platoon at attention. Anyway, I was wondering if there is any historical society that archives these, or would want them - it seems as if they have priceless historical value, and if I didn't rescue them would have ended up in the trash...BTW the colonels book collection was awesome, and I couldn't afford to buy all the great stuff there - tactics books from the 20's and 30's, etc, as well as his calvary uniforms, riding boots, etc.

I figured out a fix - I am running Win 98, and there is a checkbox in the dialup properties that says something like "do not connect if network connection present" when checked the behaviour goes away. Thanks for the leads.

When playing CM over my (lan) home network, the hosting computer always dials up the internet before allowing the first setup data download to the other computer. I then alt-tab to desktop and disconnect and the game runs fine after that, but it is annoying. Any thoughts?

"On D plus 16, a hurry call from Sisson's CP summons me to where I can scan the stream and shallow valley which mark our boundary. There at a bend in the road near the peaceful village of Vidouville, several indistinct figures are sauntering and reclining around a motionless tank. The 2500-yard range is too far to even determine for sure what nationality or model the prize is; Sisson believes it to be a Mark V Panther, while I think it is a Mark IV. A soldier who is a debunker of tanks and Antitanks calls it an American Sherman, but when S-2 definitely states that Vidouville and it's environs are in enemy hands, Hoppie sets up his 57 under the concealment of an apple orchard. Observing through binoculars from a tall tree, I see the first round go off right on the front of the armored vehicle, a direct hit. Hoppie's crew is doing real shooting, and far beyond the usual range of our direct-fire gun, so that ten rounds practically destroy the tank and scatter the loungers..." From "One More Hill" by Franklyn H. Johnson, Bantam, 1983 ISBN 0-533-23442-0 Draw what conclusions you will....

Being a machinist myself, I find these posts very interesting, as ultimately it is the machine tool industry and machinists (ok, engineers too!) who won the war. Successful designs also seemed to have the loosest tolerances, if success is measured by how many of a given unit could be manufactured in a given time (T-34 vs. Panther for instance) <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by thewood: I have worked in the metals and machining industry for years and know the standards by heart. But I also know the processing and the games played with tolerences and can tell you that many measuring systems, including the ruler, are single variable tools with one dimensional answers. I have seen people swear up and down that metals were delivered sub-standard, only to find out the hardness tester was never calibrated or an operator didn't know how to use it, or the user used a sample size of one. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Let's face it, our revolutionary ideals went out the window when we quashed the whiskey rebellion....(in 17 mumble mumble...) <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Eric Alkema: I just get depressed when I compare American ideals then and now. (OK, not objecting to slavery right off the bat is kind of embarrassing, but other than that, it was an accomplishment to be proud of.)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Philomath, Oregon But I am at that damn hippie market (Saturday Market) in Eugene every week trying to get a buck out of you communists. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mr. Johnson-<THC>-: Eugene, Oregon Anarchist capital of the World and the home of E.L.F. training camp, the FBI's most dangerous terrorist group in America today.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I keep coming across references to the Spandau machine gun in various WW2 memoirs, particularly Guy Sajer's excellent account. Will we have Spandau HMG's in CMBB, and how come they were left out of CMBO? They were Maxim Belt Fed, water cooled HMG's from the little blurb in "Small Arms of the World".

I jjust spent a few days last week playing shogun. It is pretty, and addictive, but compared to CM? While doing combat in Shogun I kept wanting to change views like I can in CM, the terrain, although beautiful, becomes boring after a few battles, the castle battles are laughably abstracted, AI cheats (or so it seems)in the strategic game, assaulting across a bridge also becomes boring after a few battles. The strategic game is fun, a lot like risk. You get really bored with the little movies after you have seen them half a dozen times...I now have CM back in the cd drive and I don't think I'll remove it again. If Shogun used CM's engine, then it would be an excellent game!

During a scenario I was playing this week, I had two squads hanging out behind a wood MG bunker for at least 10 turns, trying to knock it out - they just kept assaulting, and the MG bunker just hung out happy as a clam.

I've only played this scenario against the AI, from both sides, and won each way. All I can say is fire and movement, fire and movement. Spoiler************* As the axis, reposition the 88 bunker to give a good field of fire on the road and bridge. Also use that handy little causeway on the left (from axis position) as cover. Shell the crap out of the amis. As the US, use the guys in the woods to delay as long as possible, then call in the arty on the woods. It wasn't that hard....at least against the AI. I think it would be a bloodbath against a human.

I got my BA majoring in philosophy, and here are my faves: Heraclitus and Parmenites, which are usually given lipservice by the Platonists, but are available in excellent translations from the University of Toronto (my alma mater) are quite fascinating, and quite similar to Lao Tsu and Chuang Tsu, the Taoist philosopher/theologians. Since we play a WW2 game, then everyone's favorite nazi philosopher, Heidegger, is well worth reading, and it's easy to overlook his politics during the war. Aristotle, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Thomas Aquinas are important to the tracing of philosophical thought in our society. Then of course, there's Ayn Rand, who some revile, but I rather like. Don't overlook sociology, I loved Peter Berger's "The Social Construction of Reality". Bishop Berkeley has some interesting things to say on the nature of reality as well. Von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu are of course excellent for those interested in the philosophy of war. the great thing about philosophy is so much is subsumed by it, so that you can branch out into sociology, theology, psychology (Jung is quite important for understanding the Nazi regime). Of course instead of reading you could just play CM.

I just finished reading "Soldier of Orange", about the dutch resistance during WW2, and I understand it's Paul Verhoevens first film, has Rutger Hauer, but Amazon says it's not available until April 2001 - anyone seen this film or have a copy? It was an entertaining book!

If it would just say "ETA" instead of "Time" then no one would be confused, but I'm guessing that it's hard coded into the game.

(warning, sligt spoiler for "Midnight Madness at Prum") I played this scenario yesterday (excellent, btw) and as it was at night was very careful about FF. I had encircled the germans by the roadblock and was bringing my men back through the lines and made very sure that the men coming back first walked around the flank and re entered my lines from the right direction. Since there was no FF in this episode, I assume this is the way to handle it.

****Possible Spoiler**** In Team DeSobry, as the US you have a flamethrower. If you save him until the night battle, he can do some good, if hidden in a building. Mine took out a SP gun and a HT, as well as supressing a few squads. In South of Sword (maybe, I can't quite remember) I was attacked by German Pioneers, and rained mortar shells upon them - some sought refuge in scattered trees, when all of a sudden the tile was engulfed in flames - because I assume, there was a FT team in there. When playing as the axis, I set up a few of the FT teams in buildings, and when the AI blundered into town with their shermans, with no inf. support, I fried several shermans. In "Move it or Lose it" you have a FT team as the US, I moved him up to the church where a squad or two of suppressed security squads were cowering in, and set it on fire. Any time I am on the defense, at night, or in fog, FT teams are great. In "Sherbrooke Fusiliers" the first thing that gets blown up as the Canadians, is the WASP, no matter how you try to move it, it gets blowed up real good.

If M. Bates hates WW2 humor, he must hate "Kelley's Heroes", and that's an unforgiveable sin. What about Willie and Joe, or the Sad Sack? Or is it just photo's that bug you? It's called humour, it makes a bad day seem brighter, especially after losing another game of CM.

I was at the PRIME (Pacific Rim International Model Expo) this weekend, and among all the usual steam and gas engines, there was a display of radio control tanks up from the bay area. There was a Jagdpanther, Stuart, Sherman in 1/15 scale, and some 1/25 scale tiger and shermans. The club that displayed them has mock combats (although the Sherman is being modified to have a paintgun), but I got to thinking how it would be cool to computer control them with the CM engine - imagine plotting your turn and seeing them lumber around in a truly 3d environment! Just musing....

When screwing around with quick battles, I like to take 3 or 4 81mm mortar FO's, keep them together and target the same spot simultaneously. The rain of shells will kill everything except armour in that area. I then walk the mortars around destroying concentrations at leisure until the ammo runs out.

There was a great documentary about the brigade that aired on PBS last winter (spring?)

This has been one of my "to do" scenarios since getting CM. The book "Hit Hard" by David J. Williams, the commander of the 761st tank batt. is an enjoyable look into racial politics of the 1940's, black history, and the operations of a tank battalion. Several things: The need for black (african-american) troop mods, including one driver wearing a top hat (yes I know it's not possible, but it would be cool), and one large aid to Capt. Williams named "Big Tit". The book is in the "Bantam War Books" series.

This is a lazy response, as I can't for the life of me remember which of the 20 WW2 books I've read in the past few months had it, but... When infantry spots a unit a ways off, with binoculars (not that common on the battlefield apparently) and a radio, as well as other kit, it's a good assumption that it's a FO unit. Nobody likes to let FO's go about their business unmolested.

Assuming that you are referring to "Village Bocage - Tiger", I have played this about 20 times with the same results you note, I always get knocked out, re-enforcements get knocked out, etc. I finally won a major victory though... . . .spoiler . . . I buttoned up, and advanced Wittmans tiger into the infantry & halftracks for three turns, then reversed out, back along the road and into the wheat fields, still in line with the road, with a nice clear LOS down the road. I unbuttoned (out of range of most inf. fire at that distance) and proceeded to kick ass. Even the pzIV, while dying later, took out an impressive array of vehicles, while covered by the Wittman. Try it and have fun.

I just started having this happen (maybe with the 1.05 patch, could be unrelated...) and I have an NVIDIA TNT2, I'll be downloading the latest drivers soon, but it would be nice to know if this is really the problem..