Randy Myers

Sorry, I just realized that I might have sounded like I was flaming you. Apologies in advance.

I'm sure that if you contacted the nice people who made the game that you bought *directly from them*, they could verify who you were and work out some arrangement.

It seems to be taken for granted that a modern infantry squad or platoon is far more combat effective than one operating in previous eras, such as World War II. However, how much of this is actually true when considering one squad or platoon in isolation (that is, lacking air support, AFVs, and other such factors)? A M-16, for example, has a far higher rate of fire than a M1 carbine, but how does this actually translate into combat effectiveness? Likewise, a modern SAW is probably more accurate than a BAR or MG-42, but is this difference really that substantial?

It seems to me that it would be possible to obtain a reasonable facsimile to the formula used by BTS to compute point values for the various units in the game by using straightforward linear algebra least-squares techniques on the value-unit relationships. This task is made significantly less difficult since some kind persons have taken the time to collect the information into an Excel spreadsheet. The question that I am posing is if there would be substantial objections to my doing this and releasing the results; would the using the valuation formulas be too gamey or mechanical?

John Erickson's _Road to Stalingrad_ and _Road to Berlin_ series are also excellent operational level descriptions of the conflict on the Eastern front.