Col Deadmarsh

Well, we got people from San Diego and others from Pomona/Claremont area and others from da beach so why don't we meet in Orange County somewhere. That would seem to be about halfway for everyone. I don't know of any bars around there but maybe someone else does. Or, if you have a better area to meet at, I'm all ears. By the way, I have no problem meeting in Arcadia which seems to be the center of the universe for Southern California accoring to some people so that's always an option too.

I'd be scared to fly over there for a meeting. I might get drunk, spray paint some cars and come back with a caning.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Panzer Leader: Well, I would argue that the 20mm was a popular and well-liked gun in the German Arsenal. Besides the fact that it is a very common sight in WW2 photos, (trucks and HTs ALWAYS seem to be hauling them or 75 mm guns) it is also true that the Wermacht put this gun on many of its light vehicles, even the Pz IIL which was not produced until 1944, the gun was still the recon weapon of choice. I would like to see some figures on how many were produced, as well as info on the TO&E of 20mm guns. As far as the usage goes, any time a tank is subjected to 2 or more MINUTES of constant fire it will suffer damage. If I was in a sherman and heard 50+ rounds clanking off my hull you bet I would get outta there. I think it is modelled accurately.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yeah, I guess after 2 minutes of firing the enemy tank would suffer a gun or track hit. What puzzles me is why can't the tank see and hit the gun before then with a simple HE shot? Are these 20mm buried so far back in woods that they can't be seen?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Fieldmarshall: If I did that, Not only would I be a hippocrite, maximus would be put in front of a firing squad <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Any chance of that being televised? We could sell tickets, make some money, and donate it to Steve and Charles for CM2. [ 10-03-2001: Message edited by: Colonel_Deadmarsh ]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Fieldmarshall: Claremont---Near Arcadia to be exact<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Huh? As someone living in Arcadia, I can assure you that Claremont is nowhere near Arcadia--unless you consider 30 minutes away close. That's funny you used Arcadia as a location that everyone would know about. I talk to people in "the valley" who don't know where Arcadia is. Then I say, "It's near Pasadena." That usually clears things up.

I don't get it. How can a puny little gun like the 20mm flak take out Allied armor? At 500m, the numbers are 19mm penetration at 30 degrees and 24mm at 0 degrees. I can't even imagine one of these things taking out tanks from the side, let alone the front. How is this possible?

I wonder if it would be possible to just use a graphics program to show the maps and where the forces are on the maps. It seems to me that this could all be done using Photoshop or somefink. What do you think?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by The_Capt: Fionn makes some very good points. But I think there is one more factor..Luck. A good player has the ability to skew odds in his favour. Some do it instinctively and others know some "tricks". But the result is the same, in any given action the have a better chance of winning.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> When it comes to luck, I agree with what Lombardi said: "Luck is just preperation meeting opportunity."

We've seen a lot of threads where people name off additions or changes they'd like in CMBB but no one's talked about certain units costing too much or too little so I thought I'd start this thread just for that. My first gripe is that the flamethrower units costs a little too much. I think both the German and the Allied teams should cost around 30 points and each team should get 9 shots. (I never did understand why the Allies only got 6) If the Allies actually did carry less fuel in reality then how about lowering the Allied cost of a team down to 25 or so to compensate for the lack of ammo.

Deke, Troy, Reade, Capt--Send 'em over so I have something to do tonight. :cool: By the way, if anyone wants to start up a CAL game on Tourney House, lemme know. I'm pretty flexible when it comes to parameters so shoot me an email if you're interested.

Yeah, I have a Nvidia GeForce 2 MX and I get those "flashing polygons" too. There was a post in the tech forum awhile ago that said you need to mess with the voltage or something and that would clear it up. I was too lazy to do this though and I don't mind the problem too much. Here's some news though if you haven't alredy heard: ATI is coming out with a video card called RAdeon 8500 that is supposed to blow away the GeForce 3. In addition to faster speeds and more/better textures, it will also utilize FSAA which is the anti-aliasing effect. Now I just gotta save up that $400 to buy it...

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Leeo: Never listen to a thing COLONel_Deadhead has to say. NEVER! [ 09-27-2001: Message edited by: Leeo ]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Sexual frustration setting in, is it?

I'm a little disappointed that some of you Pengers and other mental masturbaters haven't taken this opportunity to delve into this expansive topic that Cap has put forth. Come on now, don't be shy. Step forward and offer your wisdom for others to learn by.

Interesting topic. There is so much ground to cover here so I'm only gonna touch on a few points: bringing out one's queen piece, intelliegence, and unbeatable battles. I like to think of CM as a game of chess in a parallel world. You have the same immense layers of strategy along with each unit having it's own strengths and weaknesses. Of course, in chess, some players win over and over again because they can rely simply on their own skill and not be subjected to the "luck factor." In CM, we know this is not true. Even the best laid plans can be spoiled due to a hit to a shot trap or a lucky arty strike. So, the most talented players in CM will always be atop the ladder or whatever ranking you choose to give them but for every game played, they still have a much greater chance of losing than that person's equal in the game of chess, simply due to the luck factor mentioned before. Speaking of chess, I like to relate the strategy of moving one's queen out on offense as being very similar to moving out one's queen piece in CM. In the movie, "Searching For Bobby Fischer," it was debated whether one should begin the game by moving out one's queen early to attack, or to keep it "behind the lines" and wait for an opportune moment well into the game to bring it out, thus keeping it safe until it's needed. I think this can be debated in CM too. In a 1000 pt. ME, do you order your Panther to crest that big hill in your back lines in the first few turns, giving him full range of anything that moves on the other side of the map, or do you keep him hidden and let your enemy move first, hoping the other person will move into a position where you can then spring the trap? It is a difficult question to answer because each has it's own advantages and disadvantages. If you move the Panther up to that advantageous spot, you may clear the way for other forces to move at will being protected from the Panther. You will also dictate where your enemy can move certain forces so as not to put his weaker units in a defenseless situation against your Panther. Then again, without doing recon first, that same Panther could be hit by an unseen AT gun in the enemy's back lines. I struggle with this question in every game: Do I move out my queen piece early? I touched on intelligence in the previous paragraph so I'll say a few words on that now. Unlike chess with it's own plethera of strategic layers, CM has one that Chess doesn't, and that's intelligence. I believe it's extremely important for one to know what his opponent has hidden. It is not enough to rush to the most desirable locations and wait for an attack. Probing the enemy's flanks to check for weak points is very important because it can allow one to advance with the known amount of support needed to take that enemy position without weakening one's other positions to the point where they cannot stand a counter attack by the enemy. By not probing, one is in the dark about the other's strength and therefore you don't know what you need to attack with to take that position. Therefore you commit too little and needlessly lose units or you commit too much and suffer an attack by the enemy on the other side who knows you don't have enough to defend where his numbers are. There are many more strategic layers like these that decide whether one is good at CM or one is one of the best. First off, one must know all the different strategies like these to give himself the best chance at selecting the right one for a given situation. Next, that person must use the correct tactics to implement the strategy. Finally, that person must know "when" to use the tactics because knowing "when" to strike is as important as knowing "where" to strike. These points and many others will allow that person to win over and over again in CM because the less skilled person does not yet posses this knowledge (or is too lazy to use it) which means that person has less weapons to use in the game. When the skilled player sees his opponent is not probing his flanks, he can allocate more men from that side to help fight in other battles while feeling safe that he will not be overrun on that weaker side. It's little things like this that allow one person to win over and over again. Capt, you had asked whether or not there is an unbeatable battle... Well, I believe from the onset of deployment, there are only advantages and disadvantages. Even the poor soul who is given the worst possible terrain in which to work with can still pluck a victory from his opponent if he is of the caliber which I spoke of previously. Although, after the first few moves, I believe a player can end up dominating the board. The advantages are not only that his opponent has lost a few key units or an advantageous position but that the psychological aspects of those losses so early in the game will take their toll in the end. When this happens, you may have planted the seed in your opponent's mind that this is an "unbeatable battle." This is a gargantuan topic and I only wish I had the time to explore all the other topics I wanted to talk about.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by GravesRegistration: I am Quite suprised that there is no talk about the "gameyest" Tactics in CM. It's a combination of the Psychic link that guns and tanks have on the map where they all turn and fire onto a single building. (often with units downstairs that no attacker can see) Now this wouldnt be so bad BUT the buildings are made of cardboard and popcicle picks ,with no cellars. (hell and they even explode)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Wow, we haven't had the cardboard building debate in a long time. In fact, I think I was the one who was initially flaming the fire on that subject cause I too thought the buildings were too flimbsy. Then again, I was coming over from Close Combat where as Matt put it, "the buildings were made with reinforced titanium." Since then I've grown accustomed to dealing with the fragility of structures in this game but I still agree that they should be a tad stronger--a tad mind you.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by D'arcy Montague: My buddy was telling me about some tourney house that had it's emphasis on balanced quasi-historical force selection and 'playing in the spirit of the game'. Such a site may have a blacklist like the one mentioned above. I'll try and find out the address. Personally I would love to swap from RD to something like that. It surely would make a nice change to not have to send one's frail Tommies up against Germany's seemingly endless supply of vet Pzr gnr motorised squads. Hell, if anyone thinks they know the ladder that I'm espousing as the untainted grail of CM virtue then please point me in the right direction. Hmm.. I expect that'll translate rather readily as - 'Go direct to 101 Wiseacre lane'.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> The CAL ladder is what you're looking for. It's located at www.tournamenthouse.com Look at the top left of the CM ladder page for the link. It is a smaller ladder (about 100 people) than the main CM ladder but it's lots of fun trying out the different styles of play that result in a more historical unit selection of WWII battles. I have to say though, since sticking with Panther-76 rules and Short 75 rules, I've been itching for an armor-heavy game so if there's any of you CAL people out there who wouldn't mind a deviation from the norm, give me a ring.

I see that Combat Missions is down and CMHQ doesn't have a mod for the Lynx. Does anybody know where else I can get one?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tanaka: Hi, The M20 has 12.2 hp/ton, the M18 has 20 hp/ton... So, the M18 has almost 70% more acceleration then the M20, theoretically the M20 needs 70% more space to reach 55 mph. Do a map with 2 parallel paved roads that you will se more or less that.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I had no idea that kind of stuff was modeled in the game. I assumed that each vehicle was modeled the same for simplicity's sake--that's cool they went the extra mile to make it that realistic.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Seanachai: Sigh. Consider, and apply your question, in terms of terrain, as already suggested? Not compare a wheeled vehicle's performance to a tracked vehicle's performance without also mentioning the terrain conditions? Contemplate that a figure such as 55mph is the vehicle's top speed under perfect road conditions, not the real world speed of taking it's restricted suspension system into account and measuring it against what it could do cross country while neither breaking down nor turning its crew into anchovy paste? Answering your question as a complete non-Grog, are you seriously this confused by a common sense concept, or just trying to make conversation because your bus home is late?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> No, I'm just trying to frustrate pretentious, know-it-all's like yourself who can't answer a simple question. It appears I have succeeded.

Is it just me or does the M20 Utility Car run slower than it's top speed of 55mph? I swear that when it gets up to full speed that it's nowhere near as fast as a Hellcat which I believe has the same top speed. What do I have to do to get this thing to run at 55mph? Bore out the pistons? Take off the headers? Remove the restrictor? What?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Juju: You might want to try the foxhole/crater mod I made (it's at manx's site). while not perfect, they at least have a hint of 3Dee-ishness. More than the originals anyway...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> You did a good job on those. They look pretty good for what little you had to work with. I hope BTS makes something in CM2 that looks more 3 dimensional though.

I like the new gun rack but why are the colors on the info screen so muted? The directional arrows aren't quite as important but I can barely even make out the outlines of the guns in the info window. Someone should work on making things clearer here in this window as they were in CM1.

Dammit! I forgot to watch it! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Are they gonna show reruns during the week of the first episode?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Enoch: To shed some more light on this mystery it is my game against the Colonel that he is talking about. Actually, it was not my plain vanilla M4 that took out the Hetzer but my M10. Both were sitting on top of a hill about 20m above the Hetzer at 256m range. The M4 bounced a shot off the front armor of the Hetzer less than a second before the the M10 killed it. If you stop the movie you can see the two shells coming in at the Hetzer. Without watching the movie in very slow motion it would be easy to miss this and mistake which tank got the kill. So, I think this solves some of the mystery in this case. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ah, I didn't see the other tank fire at him. I'll have to go back and look at that.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by dragonwagon: Hmmm, back in my Squad Leader days that would be known as a critical hit(I know some of u know what I'm talkng about)the round has struck a vunerable part of the tank such as the vision slot or maybe bounced off of the bottom of the manlet or something of that matter. Anyway sometimes when you think everything is gonna go your way it doesn't. That's one of the wonders of battle which this game can show you all to well sometimes.Never underestimate what may happen. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I always wondered if such things were modeled. Of course we know about the shot trap but you get a message when that happens. I'm not sure if these "freak things" that are a part of real life are modeled in the game. It's possible that it was merely the fact that the Sherm was at a slightly higher elevation than the Hetz which lessened the degree of the slope. Either that or the fact that it was a frontal-side hit but I've yet to find out if these exist either.