Sidekick

I'd add that you join a club and start a couple small games against some other players if you plan on playing human opponents by PBEM or TCP/IP eventually. most clubs have a space to note beginner staus or a training ground. You may get your butt kicked so hard you won't sit for a week but the experience is valuable and the thrill of those first battles unbeatable.I played by PBEM after playing the tutorial and a couple more games through to get the basics down and can still remember the tenseness of my first game, a small infantry attack on a town going uphill through the woods in the snow. I took each casualty personally and even remember one of the CO's names. <G> Plus in PBEM and TCP/IP you'll see tactics not employed by the AI which might help your overall understanding of the game. Most good players will gladly share some insights with you and lesser players will give you examples what not to do.

I also believe the removal of units (in effect disengaging)offers a much more realistic sim in a 20-60 minute tactical engagement. I've started to extend this consideration to all units using a formula based on success/loss in accomplishing the mission objectives. Damaged armor, shocked vehicles, units with low or no ammo would be withdrawn if in danger. But I've even withdrawn a whole platoon that faced a 150 dash across open ground in the face of a Churchill flamer and at least a Company of troops with only the possibility of grabbing a small objective flag which would only be recaptured in a couple of turns at the expense of the platoon. The only scenarios in which I would refrain from this are those where holding the ground at all costs might be the directive, and I would still consider the withdrawal of ineffectual units to be proper. Now in a boardgame I'd find this maneuver unfair but again CM is a different game and the preservation of troops adds something to the game IMO. I've tried to notify and check with my opponents on this policy and have found all in agreement so far. But as far as gamey is concerned, I would think opponents that demanded units to stick around and be destroyed or captured to be leaning in that direction rather than the other way around.

Let me add my kudos. I opened up 3 PBEM's of this scenario. a mirrored game and a second game as the Germans. My second game as the Germans is over and my mirrored match has a couple of turns to go. The 1st game ended in a draw and the other two are in draw status though there will be a victory in at least one of those I believe. The balance is very good plus the scenario develops extremely well due to the fine unit choices and careful terrain considerations of Wild Bill. This is my favorite so far and Henri you should give it another go as the other side for a whole different flavor.Part of my delight has been wathing all three battles unfold somewhat differently yet still seeing very close results. Wild Bill this is an all around winner.

It was odd and only happened once. All the sounds were missing completely except for when my opponent would send a chat message and and I got the sound cue for that. I tried the sound hotkey and sounds were on There was occurence in the game that preceded it. For one turn I could not move my units. I couldn't even hit go. I could change map view. Once the time for that turn had expired and the replay had run, I could move myunits but had no sound. The sound hasn't gone again and I've played two more full 20 turn games since. I've got my errorlog from the day I installed the patch if you need to see it. BTW, considering what you've added this is a more bugfree beta than other companies' updated and released products. Are you listening Microsoft?

2000 point QB medium map I'm thinking this may have been because of a drain on system resources. I'm running 1 Ghz,128 RAM, SB Live Value OEM, nvidia Geforce 1 32, i've an error log from installation of the patch if needed.

I strongly support the option for purchasing a standard oob for historical purposes. I hope it could be implemented where designers could modify them to fit certain battles or situations. Hope we also can opt for more scenario terrain and conditions and especially hope we could use predesigned maps. Thanks for the constant attention to your customers needs. Sam

If you are playing someone with ICQ, a sound cue could be sent by the player when he finished his turn. I imagine players with voice transfer programs could do the same. It would be nice to have a cue though. Any chance of this in the future, BTS ? Sam

Is it possible in the finished version or in a patch to add a sound cue that would inform the player when the opponent had completed his turn and the data was being sent? That way we can have a longer timer and can keep the game minimized w/o having to wait for the play. If there is one there already can somone tell me how to activate it?

I got a chance to breeze through a couple of pics and they were great. I'll look forward to viewing them in more detail. The minigolf shot put a chill through me. Nice pics and thanks for linking them. Sam

Bill, I've also got a double blind PBEM going and am pleased so far.There have been several surprises. Rather than proving a spoiler, I'll update you on things as we proceed. Sam

Just a few QB options: -actual allotment of purchase points for each category and side -option for pre-designed total unit purchases that could be chosen and plugged into the QB's via drag down menu. For example, if one wanted a historically accurate unit composition for a given time period, it could just be chosen off the menu - Adding to that, the ability for those designers to make these oob's where they could be added to a list for selection - use of designed maps for QB's - control of victory obectives for QB's, especially with an option for making QB's with no objective flags. -option for setting end games at prearranged victory conditions - option for reinforcements and/or parachute drops - more options for terrain used in QB'c (bocage,mud,water, etc) save option prior to purchase so battle could be distributed to an number of players for tournament play.

Please add me to any Multiplayer you can generate. I've not played this way in CM but it is my preferred mrethod of play in other games.

Another newbie available for frequent turn PBEM. Send me a note for play.