Hans

My wife thinks the maps are cool but hates the sound effects. She really hated it when I was playing close combat (before CM existed) which had a particular phrase, "The blood the blood" which drove her crazy. She doesn't understand at all when I mentioned that I was getting some favorable reviews on my scenarios. She looked puzzled, "you mean other people actually PLAY them"....oh the pain.

Counter-proposal on the bagpipes. If the Brits get bagpipes the Germans get the squealing from the pig (animal) selected for lunch that day. Sounds about the same

Aircraft are a maybe buy, good to keep the other guy honest - nothing causes a human player to buy AAA assets and keep them in the rear more than an earlier savage air attack. Air attacks can be deadly or nothing at all - they are a gamblers tool, which can often win or lose the game. If you've ever lined up your troops to move up a road and an aircraft comes in........on my first CMBO game that happened-the bombs and strafings turned a forminable column into flaming junk and got me hooked on the game.

Just wondering why they were left out?

I believe if you check with some of the Italian members of the CM community you will find that Italy has something similar to what you want. Overgrown stone walls would be very similar and have a specific name in Italian I believe. Many of the field walls in rural Italy are hundreds if not thousands of years old.

Let me add that I'm looking forward to the clash of French and Polish forces versus 1939/1940 German forces - that may come from CMx2! If we could only do Malaysia....

I seriously disagree - I have found that I LOVE bad armour, as someone else said by 44, the tanks are getting to deadly. give me crappy armour, weak arty and few planes....love those Italians! Which is why I like designing Spanish Civil War scenarios--reallllllly crap armour. I'm looking forward to the dust, maneuver and tactics

Do you have a link for that "armor march"?

From the Italian military info group... On the book of Cappellano, Le artiglierie del Regio Esercito nella II Guerra Mondiale, Parma 1998 I have found this data on the italian HEAT rounds named EP rounds (effetto pronto) in italian army: Guns 75/13, 75/18, 75/32, 100/17, 47/32: EP and EPS (effetto pronto speciale) rounds. Guns 65/17 and 75/27nEP, EPS and EPS mod. 42 The only data on penetration capability is on 75/18 round: 70 mm (sources Nicola Pignato) The 75 round was effective at 500m on the frontal armour of the hull of Crusader (30+20 mm) The 100 mm round was effective at 500 mm on the frontal armour of the crusader and on the turret armour(Tests perfomed in the conca of Sannu 19/3/1942) The 75/27 was capable of penetrate 30 mm but ineffective of penetrate the armour of T34 (45 mm at 40°). The 100/17 round was effective on the armour of the turret of soviet KV1 (75 mm a 75°) (tests perfomed in Deba, Poland 1942)

Well I did like the 6th Panzergrenadiers but still think the original Lilli Marlene with Dietrich would be best. A good compromise might be a descent instrumental version. I spoke to my 83 year old uncle-in-law who was a fitter in NA and not only did he state several songs to include Lilli Marlene but also several American swing tunes. However he did say that the broadcast from Belgrade often caused artillery in both German and Brits camps to shut down (he said the italians didn't seem to like the song and would continue to bang along) - the British would reply to that by hitting them during their dinner time.

Here are samples of the various aspects of Lilli Marlene http://www.history.eril.net/ww2/photos.htm

So be it friend I hope they have some artillery I can use for ATG's or I'll have less of a chance at surviving than scarcing a blind man with a ugly picture. Matilda's (shudder) : ]

I would add the need for a new "rocky" terrain, one that shows the whitish stone of the Med. area with scattered brush and trees. Lets not even think about date palms!

Building For that cramped medieval italian look we will need mods for buildings that are right next to each other plus I would think tall stone walls and terraces. Perhaps even a aquaduct and other classic aspects would be nice Really need a good olive tree orchard look also and vineyards (modified hedge) I would think.

Combined arms An interesting cultural system question. The briefing style has evolve (and gotten better in my opinion) as designers mature and get more feedback from players. Most designers are players themselves and we note different styles (that sucks, hey that is good) and we copy. Two destinctive types of styles are emerging in my humble opinion. "documenteers" lots of info, setting the mood and lots of background info versus "quick and dirty" the basics with little FOW. There are other variants of this but that seems to be what I've noticed but my sampling is unscientific to say the least! Hopefully when Cmx2 comes out you could have a button to select the type of briefing you want: Full background Quick and dirty or FOW (very little info except on your own troops)

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee

Arabic music grogs? I'm insulted sir (slap) I challenge you to tanks at 120 meters

Another LARGE vote for inclusion of the Spanish Civil war in CMx2 How could we leave out a war where the T-26 is meanest tank around! Seriously as I have looked into the SCW the more interesting it is. It would be a great addition to the CM system to include what was really the start of ww 2

CMAK suggestion Due to the very mobile nature of the war in North Africa may I recommend that artillery on both sides will need to shown - up to corps level. ie the heavier weapons will need to modelled as they will tend to be over run more often.

Well completely unexpected - excellent opsec there guys. Damn, I thought I had another year or more to gather info for Italian scenarios! Sorry to see no Spanish Civil War : ] Question: Are the South Africans and Indians going under the Brits? Greeks? Oh boy Italians on both sides French colonial troops ? Loooooooking forward to it.

Quinxi have you been eating old food again? Arabic music indeed! Some of the Classic and folk material is okay but the modern stuff sounds like a cat being tortured.

Oh goodie you guys are thinking well ahead of me, thanks Moon, now all I have to do is translate that into Spanish...

Recently I've become aware of how a number of CMBB lovers who are not native English speakers are struggling with scenario the descriptions in our scenarios. May I recommend that a feature be placed in the CM3 that would allow the briefing to be exported so they could be translated by one of the various free translation services on the net?

Hey the Italians should have their own thread. I recently found a group of Spanish CMBO/CMBB players who were having problems with the scenarios due to the language barrier. The game is the important aspect not which language it is discussed in Which gives me an idea for CMIII