Admiral

I live in DC, in the posh Kalorama district, and work for a little newspaper nobody's heard of. A trip to Aberdeen sounds great, but I probably won't be able to go since I work most weekends. I also work Friday nights, so I'm pretty much lost to the bar hopping too. Nelson

Von Schmidt, I studied a bit of philosophy in college. I highly recommend the Greek authors, and you seem to have already discovered them. One of my favorites is Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Plato's Meno is a short and very interesting dialogue on whether virtue can be taught. Also, and perhaps of more interest to people on this forum, would be Plato's Laches, which is about courage. Nicias, a famous Athenian general in the Peloponnesian War (who later met with disaster on the Sicilian expedition), is one of the interlocutors. For the moderns, Hobbes and Locke are great. You could not go very wrong by reading the U.S. Constitution and the Federalist Papers, either. Nelson

Hey Brian, I wrote that Combatsim review! Glad to see some people actually read those things... Nelson

Anyone here play an old SPI game named "Soldiers"? It was a WWI game which consisted of scenarios from 1914 and the other theaters of the war, where maneuver was still important. There were some interesting battles from the African campaign, and some featuring Japanese troops. The basic unit was the company, though... Nelson

If you're participating in the Combat Mission Meta-Campaign, or are just an interested observer, swing on over to The Newsroom on Madmatt's CMHQ Annex: http://cmhq.tzo.com/cmmc/press_corps/pcintro.asp The second issue of Der Adler, the Axis newspaper is out. You can also check out back issues of the paper. Madmatt also told me to pass the word that he was planning to update the site last night but TGN's FTP server went down. I'd expect plenty of CM goodness tonight! Nelson

Thanks PzKpfw 1 -- that was very informative. It will be really interesting to see how the evolution of the Red Army is rendered. As one German officer said, "The Russians began the war as good fighters--they ended it as good soldiers." My guess is that a lot of the battles where Soviet artillery played a big role won't be in there, because who wants to play a game where you are getting blasted to bits by the huge concentrations of artillery the Soviets historically had? Static situations don't seem to be what BTS wants (e.g. the decision not to do the Normandy beach landings in CM). Fortunately, there were plenty of mobile battles on the East Front which should provide many, many great scenarios. Nelson

I wonder how they will represent Soviet artillery? I've read that the USSR had impressive preliminary barrages but their on-call support was pretty bad. Anyone familiar with Russian artillery doctrine? Also, didn't their commanders usually have a shortage of radios? Perhaps they ought to get an extra command delay because of this? Nelson

Glad you guys liked it. The vast majority of the people I have heard from have preferred the PDF format, so it looks to me like we will stick with that. Nelson

The latest issue of The Forward Observer is out and available on the CMHQ-Annex! Follow this link: http://cmhq.tzo.com/CMMC/cmmcnews.asp Highlights of this week's issue: * Action-packed news from the CPX front! * A profile of the Allied CO! * Complete coverage of decisions made by the GMs! The Forward Observer--Your resource for news about the Combat Mission Meta-Campaign! Cheers, Nelson

The song is called "Panzerlied," and I believe it is on CombatHQ. Otherwise, a simple search on Napster will turn something up. I found a site with the German lyrics, if you are curious: Ob's stuermt oder schneit, ob die Sonne uns lacht, Ob heiter der Himmel oder finster die Nacht -- Bestaubt sind die Gesichter, Doch froh ist unser Sinn, ja unser Sinn: Es braust unser Panzer im Sturme dahin. Und sind wir dann alle zum Kampfe vereint, Mit donnerndem Motor heran an den Feind! Dann lasst den Kameraden Im Kampf nicht allein, ja nicht allein! So stosen wir tief in die feindlichen Reih'n. Und laesst uns im Stich dann das treulose Glueck, Und kehren wir nicht in die Heimat zurueck, Trifft uns die Todeskugel, Ruft uns das Schicksal ab, ja Schicksal ab, So wird uns der Panzer ein ehernes Grab. Can anyone translate? Nelson

Now now, Kampfgruppe was not the *first* computer wargame. That title would belong, I believe, to SSI's Computer Bismarck. If you are feeling nostalgic for those old 8-bit games, there is a site where you can download most of them along with Apple II emulators. Visit http://home.earthlink.net/~evin1/a2war/emul.htm A game my dad programmed for SSI back in 1980 is there. But to the "wargames that shaped the hobby" list you should certainly add the immortal Campaign for North Africa. What a dinosaur! Nelson

Thanks for all your positive comments. Thank my fine reporters too--they are the ones getting shot at while I am back here in a posh Manhattan office, smoking cigars and chugging bourbon. As these other people have noted, even if you're not playing in the CMMC you should give the paper a look. You can, after all, pitch in to the effort by writing letters to the editor or opinion pieces. And if Joe or Mace should meet an untimely demise, who knows, there may be an opening on the staff! Nelson

Pillar, No, I hadn't seen your site before but it does look quite nice! The Command Post Exercise of the CMMC has started. This is a trial period for the rules of the "real" CMMC. The stories in the Observer (especially the one on page 3) explain things better. If anyone has trouble with the file, please tell me about it and we will do what we can to fix it. Nelson

Gentlemen of the forum, The beginning of the Command Post Exercise of the Combat Mission Meta-Campaign is imminent. I invite you to read about it, and follow the progress of the campaign, in the CMMC Press Corps section on Madmatt's site. The exact link is: http://cmhq.tzo.com/CMMC/Press_corps/pcintro.asp My paper is a PDF file. It looks good but there may be compatibility problems so this is on a TRIAL basis. Some troubleshooting tips: 1. If the "F" does not appear in the headline that means you probably have an older version of Acrobat Reader. You can fix this by d/ling version 4.0 from the link provided. 2. If you have trouble viewing all the pages, try RIGHT-CLICKING on the link. Click "Save Target as" and download the file to your computer. When that is complete give it a go. I hope you all enjoy the issue! Nelson

I don't remember anything about the Germans using body armor in WWI; perhaps the cavalry wore a cuirass. Machineman, the "sturmtruppen" you spoke of were actually called "Stosstruppen" (literally, "thrusting troops"). They received special training in infiltrating or bypassing enemy strongpoints after delivering the short artillery barrage you spoke of. I think that was called a hurricane barrage. Has anyone played the old paper wargame "To the Green Fields Beyond"? It's about the battle of Cambrai--the first massed attack by tanks, but also the first time (to my knowledge) Stoss units were used in battle. Nelson [This message has been edited by Admiral (edited 09-18-2000).]