WWB

Argh! Knew I forgot something. Its on the fix list. Nice site yourself . . . WWB

Shameless group promotion-- Try The Kursk Pack from Boots and Tracks. WWB

A few comments here: The DB thing has been in the works for a while but has been rolled out a bit ahead of schedule due to current circumstances. In any case, I consider it late beta software and am all ears in terms of comments and suggestions. Also, as of right now about 90% of B&T's cmbb battles are in there. We are working on getting everything else in there, but, for now, enjoy. Enjoy. WWB

Make sure you are not running it in Win98 compatibility mode. That has been known to cause issues. WWB

Make sure you are not running it in Win98 compatibility mode. That has been known to cause issues. WWB

It might or might not be a bug--switching battle window resets alot of things in operations. I would pick a value and stick with it. Once in play, it will only matter for units which are off map--they will move up. There are also some cool things that can happen when the battle window moves in battle. Like padlocked fortifications (but not pillboxes IIRC) that are padlocked off the battle window will appear when the operation gets there. As for fixes, this is not a game killing bug and BFC has announced that 1.03 is the last patch for CMBB. Now, they could do something in CMAK . . . WWB

Matt will usually replace scratched CDs. Email him at matt@battlefront.com. WWB

Not quite doing something wrong as not doing something. You need to hit the backslash (\) key to switch sides to multi-select in CMBB. WWB

Echoing what Rune says--LSAH (as well as the rest of the SS Panzer Korps) were considered the cream of the crop. They had also been bled white in the winter's fighting--LSSAH nearly single handedly re-took Kharkov for example. By the spring they were very understrength and had to be nearly completely rebuilt. What this should translate to in CM terms is fit, green-reg units for the most part, with veteran leadership and lots of bonuses. WWB

Which drivers are you using? The 44.03 release largely fixed these problems AFAIK. WWB

Do you have the resolution set properly--most 17" LCDs display at 1280x960. If you have the resolution set lower they will not be nearly as crisp. I have seen CMBB on a number of screens. It looks fine on a poperly tuned LCD. By far the best picture was on a 20'x16' screen with a massive digital projector. WWB

I have had the SB Live! 5.1 and the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, both on the same speakers. Overall the TB is sounds a little cleaner and has had fewer driver issues, but as far as quality goes they have been nearly identical. The TB does more work on the card itself, so it probably has an advantage in framerate dependant operations, like FPS', but for CM a $25 SB Live! will do the job. WWB

Look in the Operations list--it is an operation not a single battle. WWB

In a strange turn of events, a number of cmbb fanatics ended up, well, drinking beer in myrtle beach thanks to JWXSpoon. Then I decided to behave like a soviet infantryman: W00t! W00t! WWB

I have seen this nuke bug too. Never could consistently recreate it. I think it has something to do with a bomb exploding just off map but I cant prove it. Was kind of cool when I saw it--20 blocks of stalingrad upped and exploded. WWB

CMBB will not work in OSX since the classic rave extensions are not of a high enough version to play nicely with the code. You will need to boot into OS 9.2.2 with the classic rave extensions disabled to play (Mac users please correct me if I misstate the case). WWB

Other issue--rarity. Who knows what effect variable rarity had on the prices you did not see? WWB

I think that looking at force point values is the absolute wrong thing to do in scenarios--they really do not matter. Point values represent the comparative value of units without taking into account many of the other tools designers have. One can do alot with force placement, timing, ground state and weather conditions to tweak balance. I have even designed a few rather well-liked battles where the attacker had less points than the defender. Regarding the 2 battles I designed mentioned above [spoilerS]: . . . . . . . . . . . . A Morning at the Zoo: This was the first CMBB scenario I designed, and the balance is likely off after the patches. Especially key is that variable endings got alot shorter since the early beta days. Those 22 turns led to 35 turns of fighting. In addition, the attacker has some very nasty firing positions that can dominate the entire field as well as toys the defender cannot counter too well. Moreover, many of the defending troops are in a weakened state--somethign point values do not note too well--and are deployed in rather extended positions. Katukov Strikes Back: First and foremost, this battle was never, ever intended for multiplayer play. The briefing notes this very clearly. It was inteneded to be a fun, 15 minute gore-fest where a noobie could sit down, play with a couple of tanks and say "OMFG! Look at the T34 blow up.!" On a side note, I think there are some stylistic differences in our tastes. I keep things short and nasty, with a clock ticking down dramatically. I intentionally force players to commit in the first few turns rather than letting them spend 20 turns doing recon. WWB

Bingo. I took an informal survey over at Band of Brothers a while back. There was a very clear majority for the 25-35 turn range of battles, and a very clear dislike of anything longer than 45. Not only that, but I do have to test these things and get them tested by others. With 35 turns, the turnaround is manageable. Much longer and you really slow the process down. Aside from that, I dont like playing long, slow battles. So I rarely will design one. WWB [Edit: Making subject and predicate match in number is kewl] [ June 02, 2003, 07:53 AM: Message edited by: wwb_99 ]

But those flags are NOT dynamic. They just become typical static flags. WWB

IIRC, those catylits had some issues with cmbb. WWB

Nevermind, If you are using WindowsXP and the native ZIP decompression, that is likely the issue. It does not like some forms of zip files. Download winzip. WWB

1 is tricky. Bottom line is AI has problems without flags. As for 2, only place the units you want to apper in battle one. For the rest use reinforcements rather than placed units. If you want reinforcements to appear when the map reaches a certain point, use a location based reinforcement flag. But dont rely upon them solely--things can get ugly if they are never triggered. Note that padlocked fortifications will stay in map locations, IIRC. WWB

It does not, aside from the KO points which get added by default should one trigger the reserves. AFAIK that is . . . WWB

I happened to go to Budapest back in 2000 and did visit the military museum. The only one I know of there is the Hungarian National Military Museum in the Buda castle complex. IIRC, it is on the very NW corner of the place. When I was there, they had a very cool exhibit. Wrapping around the museum they had a historical progression of weapons starting with the bronze age up to the current era. There was a World War II room as well. One thing to note: all national military museums are propaganda of some sort and quite clearly national shrines. If the Hungarian one were to be believed, WWII did not start until the soviets crossed the Hungarian frontier. There are also a few very cool military sites in the region, although they are more 16th-17th century Ottomans vs. Austrians things. The first, merely a day trip from Budapest, is Eger Castle. An interesting museum and definitely a shrine, it marked the High Water Mark of Turkish incursion into Europe. It is an amazing site--12th century castle on top, proto-modern tunnel complex below. I also highly recommend the local wines, purchasable fresh from the keg for $2 a liter or so. The other interesting site is over in Austria. In a little town called Graz there is a complete 15th century armory. And I really mean complete, to the point that one could equip a 5000 man strong 15th century army. Hope this helps. WWB