Scepter

Well done, Coralsaw. Achieving a Major Victory in the face of the cumulative conditions present in Scenario #3 of "Any Port..." is indeed a feat in and of itself. While designing the individual missions within each of my mini-campaign offerings, I made an attempt to envisage the variety of tactics that might be employed by CM players in an effort to incorporate as much challenge and playability into the battles as I am personally capable of. However, you came up with a variation on a theme that is quite unique and then executed the plan extremely well. Congratulations are in order. I can see why morale in the 314th is very high after such a rewarding engagement! Keep up the good work, Captain and keep your men on their collective toes. The road to Cherbourg harbor is still strewn with challenges. Thank you for the kind sentiments, as well. I'm glad that your experience with this particular mission was such an enjoyable one. Good luck with the rest of the campaign. Patrick

Gentlemen, Thank you very much for the kind words regarding my CM concoctions. Your comments are indeed appreciated. I'm very glad to see that you've found the concept of battle-to-battle action via a linked mini-campaign to be to your liking. The intent behind the design of the 14 scenarios enclosed within "Any Port..." and "No Rest..." was to try and emulate the foot soldier's daily combat experience during WW2. If these missions have provided even a small segment of the CM community with at least a few hours of enjoyment and/or challenge, then I'm sincerely gratified. If anyone is having trouble downloading from the CMHQ Scenario Depot, just drop me a line at pware@sisna.com and I'll try to shoot a copy of the files for both (or either) campaign off to you ASAP. If you don't hear from me right away, please be patient and bare with me. Due to business concerns, I don't get a chance to get online or even check my e-mail on a daily basis. However, I will respond. Once again, thank you all for the positive feedback. Good hunting. Patrick (a.k.a. the Chef)

...at CMHQ. Well, fellow CMers, I honestly had no intention of tackling another one of these monster projects anytime in the near future, but the second incarnation of Frankenstein just somehow took on a life of its own and evolved. (Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I enjoy exploring the possibilities of the scenario builder so much.) Unfortunately, I never received anything in the way of feedback (impressions and/or suggestions) regarding the original mini-campaign, so I don’t have a clue in the world as to whether the CM community likes the concept, thinks it to be challenging, demanding, entertaining or just plain considers it to be industrial waste. I’ll probably never know. Anyway, here it is. Consisting of eight (8) all-new, autonomous scenarios, the campaign is entitled: No Rest for the Weary and is designed to be played in sequential order from the American perspective. The companion series to Any Port After a Storm, it represents the continued exploits of the U.S. 79th Division immediately following the Cotentin/Cherbourg operation, but prior to the breakout (Operation Cobra) during early July 1944. This collection is loosely based on the locations, combatants and general events of the time period being depicted. However, the operational events as well as the missions themselves are all totally hypothetical. As such, the in-depth Command Briefs are as much fictional storytelling as they are informational (just like in MC #1). Keep in-mind that, although I’ve attempted to conceive and implement a variety of unique and tactically-diverse missions, each successive scenario is not intended to be the latest, greatest epic battle yet created for CM. On the contrary. Both of my mini-campaign offerings to-date are merely attempts to place the player into as realistic a “situational” environment as possible. The contiguous missions are therefore meant to be indicative of the average foot soldier’s daily combat experience “…with death tugging at his elbow.” After all, only 1 in 100 battles ever made the history books. I sincerely hope you’ll find the campaign to be interesting and the missions immersive. You can get your copy of No Rest for the Weary at the CMHQ Scenario Depot location nearest you. FTP servers are standing by to take your order. As added incentive, the first 300+ people to respond to this ad will receive a complimentary copy of my short story “Read Me” along with a pair of .bmp mods (tunnel arches for use in mission #6) as a free gift. Hurry! Inventories are (un)limited. Note: As with all my mini-campaigns, it is important that you take a moment to review the brief “Read Me” document for complete instructions on optimal game play. *** Version 1.2 (minor changes to scenario #8) was uploaded this evening. This update should be available within the next couple of days. *** BTW, any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy! Patrick

My apologies for not getting back to you sooner Waffen Joachim...er, excuse me, I mean SS Peiper!!! However, this is my first return to the BTS forum since I uploaded No Rest for the Weary to the CMHQ Scenario Depot last week. Needless-to-say, I don't get the opportunity to get online and visit this site very often. Anyway, I have revised the latest mini-campaign to version 1.1 (a tiny, minor tweak of little or no consequence to game play). I have made it available at the Scenario Depot, in spite of the fact that I just now discovered that the original version has yet to be posted. Since I have no idea when version 1.1 will see the light of day via this source, I’d be glad to e-mail you (or anyone else, for that matter) a copy of the files. If you are still interested, I’ll attempt to monitor this board and respond as soon as I possibly can. Unfortunately, it seems as though virtually ever aspect of the Scenario Depot has gotten to the point where it is slower than malaises during an Ardennes winter. Do you happen to know of any other universal, comprehensive site(s) where CM designers make available their custom works? It's a shame that BTS doesn't sponsor such a service itself. Who knows, though. Maybe something is in the works with regards to the upcoming facelift to battlefront.com. Patrick

Well, fellow CMers, I honestly had no intention of tackling another one of these monster projects anytime in the near future, but the second incarnation of Frankenstein just somehow took on a life of its own and evolved. (Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I enjoy exploring the possibilities of the scenario builder so much.) Unfortunately, I never received anything in the way of feedback (impressions and/or suggestions) regarding the original mini-campaign, so I don’t have a clue in the world as to whether the CM community likes the concept, thinks it to be challenging, demanding, entertaining or just plain considers it to be industrial waste. I’ll probably never know. Anyway, here it is. Consisting of eight (8) all-new, autonomous scenarios, the campaign is entitled: No Rest for the Weary and is designed to be played in sequential order from the American perspective. The companion series to Any Port After a Storm, it represents the continued exploits of the U.S. 79th Division immediately following the Cotentin/Cherbourg operation, but prior to the breakout (Operation Cobra) during early July 1944. This collection is loosely based on the locations, combatants and general events of the time period being depicted. However, the operational events as well as the missions themselves are all totally hypothetical. As such, the in-depth Command Briefs are as much fictional storytelling as they are informational (just like in MC #1). Keep in-mind that, although I’ve attempted to conceive and implement a variety of unique and tactically-diverse missions, each successive scenario is not intended to be the latest, greatest epic battle yet created for CM. On the contrary. Both of my mini-campaign offerings to-date are merely attempts to place the player into as realistic a “situational” environment as possible. The contiguous missions are therefore meant to be indicative of the average foot soldier’s daily combat experience “…with death tugging at his elbow.” After all, only 1 in 100 battles ever made the history books. I sincerely hope you’ll find the campaign to be interesting and the missions immersive. You can get your copy of No Rest for the Weary at the CMHQ Scenario Depot location nearest you. FTP servers are standing by to take your order. As added incentive, the first 300+ people to respond to this ad will receive a complimentary copy of my short story “Read Me” along with a pair of .bmp mods (tunnel arches for use in mission #6) as a free gift. Hurry! Inventories are (un)limited. Note: As with all my mini-campaigns, it is important that you take a moment to review the brief “Read Me” document for complete instructions on optimal game play. BTW, any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy! Patrick

Unfortunately, this lack of user feedback is something that those of us who devote time and energy to designing custom scenarios (or even mini-campaigns) for the CM community will, most likely, have to live with. As CM continues to grow in popularity, the number of user-built scenarios is becoming more and more prolific. Perhaps this veritable plethora of available missions has something to do with why many players don't consider it important or necessary to offer up some constructive feedback after game play. The reasons why an individual doesn’t respond may be as varied as the number of custom missions. Your guess is as good as mine. As for "These Hills," I personally have not had the chance to download it or the vast majority of the other user scenarios for that matter. Actually, I'm still trying to find time to play through the CM originals. However, if I had played it, I most certainly would have taken the time to at least rate it. (Even the simple ratings system at CMHQ Scenario Depot appears to generate only an average 5% response rate.) As a designer, it's nice to "hear" from those who download and play your offerings, but I wouldn't rely too heavily upon user feedback. The lack, therein, may only serve to discourage you. If you enjoy creating custom scenarios, then do it for the sheer pleasure of it. I, for one, spent several days (and nights) creating a mini-campaign. The only “articulated” feedback I've received to-date was a nice side comment within the context of another topic. But, that's OK. I didn't create "Any Port" for the attention. I did it because I desired to. Any positive feedback is just an added bonus. BTW, Armdchair, tell your friend that his efforts are appreciated…if not in words, certainly in spirit. Patrick

Pham, Thank you for the nice compliment regarding “Any Port After A Storm.” I’m truly glad to see that your experience with my first attempt at creating a sequential mini-campaign was a fulfilling one. After all, that’s why I created it. So far, the response to this little venture into CM campaigning has evoked good ratings feedback from a handful of the some 200 players who have downloaded both versions over the past few days. However, your comments represent the first articulated feedback on this forum to-date. As for your query, I too have kept a vigil at the CMHQ Scenario Depot to see if any other designers might attempt a similar thematic campaign. Alas, none yet. I must admit though, I can see why something of this nature might prove to be somewhat of an aversion to many designers. Creating, testing and scripting such a campaign takes a considerable amount of time and effort. There is also one other thing to consider. As I stated when I originally released “Any Port,” this type of thing may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Especially since my particular format is deliberately designed for maximum “real-world style” participation from the player in formulating a plan and deploying his units based upon the in-depth Command Briefs between missions. Once again, thank you for the reference to my first custom CM offering and the very kind remarks. I greatly appreciate it. (Hmm. A few more responses like this one and I may consider formulating another one of these little puppies for the CM community. God help me!) Lastly, I have to agree with the CM faithful. Wild Bill does, indeed, create the best historically-based scenarios around…hands down. Good job WB. Patrick

Hmm. Interesting. It appears as though this MG bug has, in fact, come into being with the realease of the 1.04 patch. I have just gone back and examined all of my custom-built scenarios. What I found was that the M1917 HMG was NOT affected at all. However, all of the "independently purchased" MG42's in a single scenario showed 65422 rounds. (Note: this happened to be the only scenario where the MG42 was given "maximum" ammo allocation during design. Could this possibly be a contributing factor to the problem?) In testing other scenarios, I've found that this problem tends to be random (with regards to the M1917, Vickers, MG42 and even some light artillery/flak) and that it doesn't seem to matter whether the scenario was "created" with 1.04 or an earlier version. I can only speculate that 1.04 must, therefore, be the culprit. Your guess is as good as mine, but I would like to see this little annoyance remedied. Thanks again for the superior product support, BTS. [This message has been edited by Scepter (edited 08-20-2000).]

"Heia Safari" is how the German DAK (under Rommel) referred to their initial exploits in North Africa. Not commonly known, I guess. I also believe it was the title to a military march/song which they sang for the occasion. Just a bit of trivia, but I thought it would make an apt title for CM3. [This message has been edited by Scepter (edited 08-20-2000).]

After acquiring CM not all that long ago, I couldn't help but anticipate great things to come. My original title suggestions for the follow up offerings were: CM2: Barbarossa & Beyond (Eastern Front) CM3: Heia Safari (North Africa) CM4: Blitzkrieg (France, Low Countries & possibly Norway) CM5: A Walk in the Sun (Sicily, Italy & possibly the Balkans) CM6: Halls of Montezuma (Pacific Theater) It's nice to see that some of these titles are not only being considered but may, in fact, be the adopted names, since IMHO these titles would be the most obvious and/or the best choices. As long as each theater is eventually addressed and the program continues to progress and maintain its quality and historical accuracy, I'll continue to be a BTS customer in the future. Good job fellas and thanks for the wonderful support. My gosh, patch 1.04 ALREADY. Yikes! That's what I call service.

I uploaded the files to CMHQ Scenario Depot last evening. I'm not exactly sure what the site's lag time is for perusing and posting individual scenarios. For all I know, the moderator(s) might actually even playtest each submission before making it available to the world-wide CM public. If this is the case, it may be a couple days before the "Any Port After A Storm" mini-campaign hits the shelves, so to speak. These guys at CMHQ seem to be pretty darn conscientious. So, let's give them a little time to do their thing. I appreciate your interest and hope you'll get some enjoyment out of this offering. That is, if you're not breaking into a sweat and cursing my immortal soul in the process! [This message has been edited by Scepter (edited 08-17-2000).]

Well, it took me the better part of three weeks to design, script and test (mainly due to a lack of free time stemming from business concerns), but here it is fellow tacticians and WW2 history buffs. CM: Mini-Campaign #1. What I’ve created is something of a hybrid. It expands on the single scenario concept, but is not limited to the confines of an “operation” map. In essence, it’s a custom series of autonomous scenarios that combine to create a sequential mini-campaign. Although not exactly dynamic in nature, I’ve worked around this inherent shortcoming by giving the player command of one of three different units within a specific battalion every three-game cycle. The whole idea of this format is to create the impression of a contiguous operation without the concerns of unit attrition that can detract from campaign continuity. Although loosely based on the U.S. 79th Division’s drive from Carentan to Cherbourg during late June 1944, this mini-campaign is totally hypothetical. Those players whom prefer company-level battles, with primary emphasis on infantry tactics, may find this particular collection to their liking. You can obtain the mini-campaign at the Scenario Depot within Madmatt’s excellent CMHQ web site. Unfortunately, Madmatt doesn’t have a specific category available to accommodate this multi-scenario concoction. Therefore, you can download the entire collection by accessing the single scenario zip file entitled, “Any Port After A Storm.” IMPORTANT: Whether engaging in single or multi-player action, please be sure to examine the READ ME file before commencing with game play. It’s very important that you observe one simple setup instruction. Otherwise, the game play experience will not be as challenging as it is designed to be. I hope that you enjoy this little project. If not, that’s OK too. Even though it was created for other people’s amusement, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. My thanks goes out to BTS for not only creating what is perhaps the finest PC strategy program to-date, but also for covering such an important era in world history. Lest we forget the sacrifices made by those who participated in mankind’s worst conflagration or a generation of Americans the likes of which may never grace our great nation again. Enjoy!

The original purpose of the swivel-mounted LMG on the rear of the 251/1 (as well as certain other Sd Kfz 251 vatiants) was to give the vehicle and its onboard infantry some light AA protection. The gun was typically an MG34 with an AA bullseye gunsight attached to it. However, it was not uncommon for the 251's LMG to be missing in action (especially late in the war), since the infantry found it much more useful in the anti-personnel role.

First off, I'd just like to say that CM was obviously created by a group of dedicated people whom harbor a considerable amount of drive, passion, dedication and respect for accuracy and this amazing era in world history. I, personally, only indulge myself in maybe 2-4 PC games per year (all historical strategy) in the hope that one day I'll find a program worthy of the ole built-in CPU (or Cerebral Processing Unit, as I call it). Fellas, I've got to tell you, this is the program I've always searched for. Hallelujah! My journey is complete. Well done, BTS. Well done indeed. Now for a continuity question and the other reason for this post. After acquiring my copy of CM a couple of days ago and marveling at the intense OB incorporated into the program, I discovered one (and only one) minor discrepancy. The German troop transport (truck) depicted in the game is the U.S. six-wheeled "Duece and a Half" and not the Opel Blitz or even the Krupp Protze. Is this simply a glitch on my machine or have this equipment been ommitted from CM deliberately? If this is not an oversight, can we expect the Opel or Krupp to be modelled in the upcoming 1.03 patch? I would dearly like to see one or both of these vehicles (along with a metal girder style bridge) represented in the game, in order that my TEF (total emmersion factor) can be boosted from a mere 99% to a nice round 100%! I hate to be a stickler, but...!!! Once again, I must say I'm extremely impressed with this offering. Especially when you consider the fact that maybe 1 in every 10 PC games released these days is more than 80% complete when it hits the market. Thanks BTS for such fine piece of work. BTW, I'm already looking forward to all the new features, units, graphics and audio forthcoming in CM2: Barbarossa and Beyond, CM3: Heia Safari, CM4: Blitzkrieg, CM5: A Walk in the Sun, CM6... Whoa! Now I'm really overclocking the ole CPU in anticipation of great things to come! Any repsonse to the above query would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.