The Commissar

Griffin, It appears they did not. Which is why I was asking why they did not, seeing as how that would of made the game look better in the ads. Im still waiting for an answer, though...maybe they didnt want to confuse people? ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

The story behind my name actually goes as far as one of my early childhood hobies with the Warhammer 40K miniature game. They had a unit for the Imperial Guard (an army type) called the Commissar, which acted sort of like a platoon leader, but also had a "nasty habit" of shooting deserters. The miniature itself looked extremely cool, so I adopted the name Tanaka, What do you mean by "Ground use" of airborne soldiers? I was under the general impression that "Airborne" were meant to be dropped to the ground, exploit openings and weak points, and generally help out the infantry by weakening enemy positions ahead of time. Now, again, I said I assumed that it would often happen that the grunts reached the airborne and fought together. Before a big ol' truck came and picked up the Airborne to drop into some other hostile region, that is. Overlord and Market Garden saw this sort of thing occuring. Paras exploited, grunts caught up, and they fought together for a time before being once again seperated. I dont think it was as uncommon as having a platoon of KT's, for example I am also not sure how much men were dropped on a usual Airborne mission. I was under the impression that it was usually in large groups. However, as I mentioned, Im not well read in the subject so I may be wrong. If so, do provide examples. Im interested in being more "historic" but never at the cost of personal enjoyment (ie: picking the same boring units all the time simply because they were "the most often used"). Anyhow, enlighten me. Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

Ouch, nice one! Ive had a reverse slop defense myself recently, and although it did not go as clean-cut as yours did (judging by the screenshot), it was easier going then most of my regular defenses. Too bad long hills dont appear often in QB's to be taken advantage of Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

I will say that from personal experience, low level and high level troops have their place. Lets take one of my recent games, for an example. It was a random unit experience, manual unit selection, with my Conscript/Green German forces on a Probe against British regulars. I was attacking a villageand it was rainy. My men were Combined Arms, his were all Inf. I expected lots of AT guns, so I bought a lot of Green SP guns (the highest quality I could get). The infantry were a mix of Green and Conscript. The game was overall brutal and quite close, with my Green SP guns demolishing my enemy completely and totally. I'd say they accounted for 65-70% enemy casualties on that battle. The accuracy and reload time dont suffer too much on Green SP guns I have found, and the large-calibered 150mm are just as damaging if they were Elite. My Wespes, with their 105mm performed admirably dspite their experience, firing on the run, reloading quickly, and despite the bad conditions bogging very little. My infantry was another story. In fact, they barely held. Despite my slight numerical advantage, my men would have been butchered without my SP guns. One terrible but often little-mentioned thing about Green/Conscript inf is that they run out of ammo VERY quickly. After 2 turns of a firfight between one of my Conscript platoons and an enemy position, my platoon was low. Green faired slightly better. Overall, I dont suggest you use Conscript infantry if you can help it. Greens are barely acceptable, with Regulars being your midline selection, good for most purposes and worth your investment. In another game, I observed the superiority enjoyed by Crack units over their Veteran counterparts. My opponent who was a good player and knew how to use his men had Crack soldiers, while I had Veterans. It was a ME. Let me tell you, I had only slightly more men then he had, and his Crack teams totally demolished my Vets. His men refused to break under the heaviest of barrages! His soldiers seemed to have had super-human endurance, despite costing only slightly more then my own men. So, if you have a choice between Vet and Crack, by all means choose Crack. Well, thats about it I guess. Hope it helped. Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

Are those new road wheels on the tank, or is it simply the fact that I never took a good look at a Stug's wheels? Looks good either way!

I always thought that Airborne units would be used with regular grunts. You know, after they were parachooted to some poor, bombed out part of Europe, they do their thing and the regular infantry catch up with them. Then again, Ill freely admit that Im no expert on American troop uses/placements (hell, not much with Germans either ). Either way, 'I' think its not too absurd, and if my opponent thinks otherwise, I tell him to eat a Rifle Grenade Seriously, if someone knows more then me on the subject, I expect the, to give me lectures on correct unit use if they expect me not to be 'somewhat' gamey. Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

I'm his evil clone Say, Duke, havent seen you about lately. Whats been up, you arent posting nearly as much. Busy busy busy? Cheers!

Madmatt, Why dont you guys use mods in your previews? Don't get me wrong, those shots look good, but with some of the new stuff we got out, people would think the game looked photorealistic! Seeing as how the mods are free and easy to get, and the fact that you need to order the game by internet (so anyone playing the game will prob. have the net), you can just manetion that the shots are modified. The very mention of your community base would only convince people to buy the game more, IMHO. Just a suggestion, is all Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

Commissar, Ill said it many many times, and Ill say it as long as it needs to be said: Nothing beats M-18's in AT roles! Get a pack of the Cats to travel together, and you can bring down KT's as easily as a puny PZIV. It's all about coordination with them, so be careful. Allied infantry doesnt leave much to the imagination, but I usually get Rifle mixed with Airborne. For a large game, I'd get 2 Rifle platoons for 1 Airborne. Accordingly, I like to make my Airborne Vets as opposed to Reg Rifle, to take advantage of the Airborne superiority. Arty is nice and cheap, and Priests are a KILLER! Get at least two of them in medium/large games, so you can easily lay waste to any town/woods/foxholes/whatever the enemy is hiding in. They are great weapons, and rout enemy very quickly. Just keep the Germans off their back with your own tanks/M-18's. Hope that helped, Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

..."Luke, I am your father!" proclaimed the figure. "You got the wrong fantasy world, pal." replied Bauhaus nonchallantly, "This is the one where a bunch of goons gather round and make up stories where I die alot. Want to join me on this here tree?" "I'll...pass", replied the figure, slowly backing away and shifting his eyes left and right. "Say, what's that over there!" the figure yelled, pointing at something behind our hanging protagonist. Bauhaus, being the curious type, spun his hanging body to look at what the figure was pointing at. Finding nothing, he turned back around, but the figure was gone. "Damn, I thought I learned better back in the 1st grade" muttered Bauhaus angrily, "Maybe my brain is finally starting to leak?" Then Bauhaus realized that this was technically impossible, due to the simple fact that... ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back" [This message has been edited by The Commissar (edited 02-02-2001).]

Nope, looks like Im safe for now. The 16MB min is for CM2, not CMII. *whew*

"Bumpety-Bump-Bump!" - Trashcan Man, "The Stand"

..."The Peng Thread Polka"! And he began to play along, singing as he went: The Cesspool is a stinky old place, Not much, but I call it home, And when the grogs make me feel disgrace...

Sign me up as well. I said you might be troubled, but I dont refuse a good opportunity I'll take any forces available, really, no National preference. My e-mail: commissar81284@icqmail.com ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

I must disagree with Michael on the MBC. Although their selection is adequate, they send letter every 2 weeks which require you to respond to them or have them ship 2 books you did not want to you. Sometimes, even after I responded to my mail, they would still send the books, requiring me to pay shipping rates back. I dont suggest it unless you can deal with this sort of irritation for a minor price drop. Besides, amazon costs less anyway. Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

Chupacabra, Heh-heh, you caught me m8! Damn WW2 code names - why must they be so confusing?! On the issue of cold: Note that the arctic weather affected the Germans more then the Soviets. Soviet tanks were made to perform in Russia's conditions, while Panzers were not. Soviet tanks should freeze sometimes, but not nearly as much as their German counterparts. This could be handled like bogging in CM1. Every turn, your tanks stand a chance of breaking down due to cold. For infantry, it gets trickier. Troops fully exposed in the open, opposed to troops indoor and in foxholes/tranches should be more penalized, of course. Although I dont think reducing experience models troops reactions properly, something like this could be done: -Fatigue increases -Troops react slower -Troops panick faster -Every turn, you run the risk of suffering casualties to frostbite. Germans are more affected by this, as are their tanks. The casualty factors can be affected by thing like movement. Technically, if a person moves around, he isnt as cold as someone standing still. Tank who are functioning arent as lickely to freeze due to heat, as are humans. So maybe this could be taken into calculation as well. I think this would model things a bit more realisticly. Sure would present a challenge if your troops/tanks started dropping like flies, like in real life. *shudder* Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

I think they were considering a more modern version. IE: After WW2. Think Cold War "NATO vs. Warsaw Pact" type of war. ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

Capt. Canuck, Yub, that battle is largely believed to be the "last cavalry charge". While this could be true on the Cav only, unsuported large scale charge, its not the last use of Cavalry. Cossaks continued their operations, but were usually present in smaller numbers. If anyone else has any more stories of battles containing horses as fighting units, pls post them. Maybe this cause isnt lost yet Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

Rick, What the others say about the distinction between CM2 and CMII is correct. Some stuff picked off the "Graphic" post by Gunny Bunny, said by Steve himself. Steve mentioned that many of today's "high tech" effects would probably be included in CMII. These are not possible in the current engine. CMII would have a minimum of 32MG VRAM to run (Steve, if Im mistaken, feel free to wallop me with something heavy ). CMII will be a long way from now. Probably 2 years or more. By then, you should have ample time to sufficiently upgrade your machine. Hope that helps. Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

I searched om google.com about cavalry use in WW2, and among many useless Armor links, found this: "THE KORSUN SLAUGHTER (USSR February 16/17, 1944) During a violent blizzard on the night of Feb.16, five divisions of General Hube's 8th Army, including the 5th SS Division 'Viking' and the Belgian Volunteer Brigade 'Wallonie', made a last desperate bid to break out of the Russian encirclement around the towns of Korsun and Shandrerovka in the lower Dnieper west of Kiev. At 4am, forming up in two columns of around 14,000 each, they flocked into two parallel ravines in the surrounding countryside, and where the two ravines met, the troops then emerged into open country and headed out towards Lysyanka. There, disaster struck as the Soviet troops, under General Konev, were waiting. Soon after 6am, the slaughter began. Soviet tanks drove into the German columns crushing hundreds under their tracks. Fleeing in panic, the troops were then confronted by units of Cossack cavalry who started hacking them to pieces with their sabres, hands were lopped off of those who approached with their arms raised in surrender. There was no time to take prisoners and the carnage continued till it was all over. In the short space of three hours, over 20,000 German soldiers lay dead. Another 8,000, who had fled the scene, were rounded up during the next few days and taken prisoner." Source: http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres.html This piece backs up my previous statement of Cossaks mounted troops being used in conjunction with armor and infantry. Ill try to find more. Wish I had a good book or two on the subject - any of you Grogs got any suggestions? Here's a clip from this webpage: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~rarjet/redcav/sovcav.html "Between 1939 and 1941, the Red army drastically reduced its reliance on cavalry due to aviation's devastating effect on cavalry and the ability of airplanes to due many jobs traditionally performed by horsemen. In WWII, Budennyi commanded all Soviet mounted troops, and found new uses for horse cavalry. Although they would still make occasional mounted attacks on disorganized or unprepared troops, the tactics usually involved riding horses to a pre-chosen battle line, then dismounting and fighting as infantry. Also, to avoid detection and attack by aircraft, the cavalry moved mainly at night or in bad weather, and avoided known roadways." This gives us some ideas. Horses handled like living vehicles (which they are, sorta). Use them to maneuver around an enemy position quickly, dismount, and fight as Inf. I could see some stats applied along these lines: *DISCLAIMER* The following is purely opinion and SUGGESTIONS. I realize Charles and Steve are busy guys with a game to produce, so if they have no time, I accept this. Just going to have to wait till CMII - Cavalry would not bog down (seeing as horses dont have tracks and Cossaks are "born in the saddle"). - Hitting mounted troops would be easier then regular infantry because of the size of the horse. - In rough terrain, there would be a chance of horses breaking their feet, thus rendering some useless. A virtual "roll of the dice" factored by the experience of the unit would determine if such casualties are suffered. - When men dismount the horses, the player cannot command them, since they have no driver. Thus, "park" your horses somewhere safe - Horses panick easier under heavy fire, getting hit more and all. Again, all my opinion. Sorry for the long rant! Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back" [This message has been edited by The Commissar (edited 02-01-2001).]

L4Pilot, You have a wonderful idea, but I also must warn you, out of good intention for your sanity : It will be hard, slow work generating a map for every battle your players will be involved in, as is telling each commander what they see, maintaining the whole thing, making players abide by the rules, etc. I advise you to seek help from someone of like mind to yours to help you run the thing. Its going to be difficult by yourself, I assure you. Of course, if you have a lot of free time and are willing to work hard for the benefit of your players, I wish you the best of luck. I am running a small campaign myself between several members of the Grognards Club on a fantasy map drawn up by myself. With only 10 players overall, and 12 CM maps to fight over, Im still going slow and had to do lots of work. With a campaign the likes of which you hope to run, the number of players will be several times larger, you'll need to make maps continuously, and will be in a bit of a hassle throughout. Take my warning to mind. I wish you the best of luck, and hope you succeed! Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

LOL, you know me well Bruno Personally, I feel the Cossaks played some crucial roles in battles in the early East Front. Although horses are not commonly modeled in WW2 war games, and are not glorified in historical documentaries as are Armored divisions, they did play a role. Para Bellum, You misunderstand the situation and the use of the horse. Cossaks were some crazy muthas (you'd have to be one to charge a a machine gun mounted on a horse and armed with a sabre!), but they werent suicidal. Cossaks would usually work in accordance with infantry and armor, and on harassing missions, en league with partisan divisions. I'd love to see a battle in CM2 where an rear line German collumn advancing to the main lines is intercepted by partisans and Cossaks. Would be some hard fighting there, I tell you what I would love to see the horse modeled, but as many said, its not simple. However, Steve saying "it's on the bottom of the list" doesnt meant "it's out so dont even bugger us!" Here's hoping, anyway. ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

Karch, Can't you buy an upgrade for your RAM? Im sure you can find someplace that sells an 8MB chip for Max users. For BTS to appeal to the lowest common denomenator is as damaging as appealing to its highest. If the games stands where it is, people will criticize it. Go to this web site: www.pricewatch.com Then, find the "Memory" list and click on "System". Scroll ALL THE WAY down the list that pops up, and you will see "Memory for iMac". Ive found that pricewatch has very nice prices which are certaintly affordable, even to the cheapest Mac user Hope that helped. Cheers! ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

Michael, PCG is an overall desent magazine. In some cases, they will give a buggy game a higher score then it deserves if it is revolutionary (ie - Shogun, B-17, some other I cant think of right now). They will always mention the bugs though, so Im not too concerned about the quality of their publication. ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"

Wildman, Not exactly. Maneuver warfare would be to use the reserve while the battle is progressing to get in behind the enemy force and cut off his lines of retreat/communication/supply. These days, the later two (comm and supply) really cannot be cut in most cases, due to radios and air transport via helicopter. Lines of retreat, however, are always present and should be accounted for if you wish to achieve a total instead of simply decisive victory over a given enemy force. Yet better, dont engage the enemy at all, but use your force to capture his factories, towns, and supply routes to starve his army and demoralize his people. I believe this is what Sun Tzu meant when he said to win without fighting is the mark of a great general. You should take steps to damage the enemy without actual battle between your forces. All you say is completely true in CM's scope. However, as Ive said in the above responce, true maneuver warfare performed to perfection, would involve you destroying the enemy's will/ability to fight by maneuvering around his fighting forces and into his soft and (hopefully) unprotected underbelly. A single CM battle really cannot do justice to this. ------------------ "...Every position, every meter of Soviet soil must be defended to the last drop of blood..." - Segment from Order 227 "Not a step back"