WWB

You need to update your drivers. Chances are you are at the default windows XP drivers (12.40s IIRC) and need a major upgrade. Download the newest drivers from www.nvidia.com and follow their instructions, CM will work perfectly. Note that switching out to desktop might help to solve your problem in the meantime. WWB

When I used Win 95/98 over the years I reinstalled the OS about 50 times. Since I installed XP I've not needed to reinstall and in that time I replaced my Motherboard, CPU and RAM and only had to reset the HAL to make it work. XP is so superior to a Win 98/2K dual boot that it is amazing - XP isn't perfect, no OS is but 98 is really bad and dual booting a system adds unneccesary complication.</font>

Uh, is not the point of playing double blind to have both players never having looked at the battle before? WWB

NIC=Network interface card. Look for what looks like a big phone jack. I would advise getting a 4 port router, as they cost little more than the 2 port variety and will give you some expansion options. Routing should have no effect on speed--the internet is alot slower than the internal network for all intents and purposes. WWB

Benpark, can I have your baby? Awesome site.

Wow. They got the 5 together in one place, and the world did not come to a schreeching halt. BTS fix or do somefink! WWB

They were holdovers from early war days, about in normandy but not too standard. They were pretty much a waste, range was too short and not enough umph. WWB

Reseating probably depends on the drum. I am sure the finnish designed drum magezines for the suomi are the most wonderfully designed drums in the world, seatable in an instant, reloadable in seconds and light as a feather. Exactly how does two times the bullets weigh out to nearly the same? The weight of the magezine itslef is usually immatierial once it is loaded, because bullets are heavy last time I checked. You are too hooked on magezine pouches. Pockets work fine for holding 30 round box mags last time I checked. While I have no evidence, save anecdotal, I highly doubt, given avaliability, any trained german would go into battle with ~120 rounds for a SMG that could eat that in seconds. I have read a number of first-hand accounts, and dont recall anyone running out of ammo after the third clip. Marlow has a very good point--if drums were so great, why were they phased out of service? WWB

What made the MG-42 so great was that it did not suffer from these symptoms you mention that Ailed MG's did. No such thing as too spendy on Ammo. Thats flawed way of thinking, died during th American -Spanish War. We did'nt use Machine guns and the new rifles, because the American army thought it was a waste of ammo, and well aimed shots would be more effective then the "wasteful" high rate of firing new European weapons. Boy were they wrong, and found out the hard way. Luckily we had some dated Gatling guns laying around for that much needed ROF. Bullets are Lethal, the more bullets cutting through the air, the more dangerous that area is to move around or take aim or baiscly do anything. The MG-42 had no problem consistantly filling the air with deadly bursts of ammo. The German industry had no problem keeping up production of rounds for their guns until late war, when their factories were in flames from Allied bombing. Also as a side note, THe PPsH could sustain high volumes of fire for extended periods of time due to it's chrome lined barrel. A trend that Soviet small arms still use today.</font>

I would add, to the list of very important lend lease items, canned foodstuffs and especially waterproof telephone wire. Most of the best farmland in the USSR was under german domination from 41-43, making feeding the people more difficult than normal. As for the telephone line, well, it is either waterpoof or not, and Soviet QA standards did not lead to waterproof lines. WWB

Clear out your temp folder. WWB

Actually, no it does not. Too high a ROF and weapons get too spendy on ammo and become very hard to control. Not to mention jams and barrel overheating. Too low is also bad, but no WWII era SMG had that issue. WWB

What about reload time? Drums are a pain to reseat. Also, 70 round drums are not as insignificant in weight as you think. In addition, you are also presuming all ammo is in 70 round drums. Looking at photographic evidence, I see if anything more of the 30-40 shot clips for the PPsH at least. I doubt there is a reason why a finnish or soviet SMG gunner could carry nearly twice the weight in ammo than his german counterpart. And, at 300m, I would rather have a LMG 34 with a 250 round belt on it. I will be shooting you while you reload. You see, MG34s did have a very nice single shot feature on them, and could even be used as sniper weapons. WWB

MG42s were a weapon to be feared. But then again so was any well sited, emplaced and supplied MG. Post-war studies found that the 1200 rounds per minute was overkill. For example, the germans still use a version of the venerable beast (MG3) but they have toned down the ROF to a mere 800 rounds a minute. A rate suprisingly similar to most modern MMGs for some odd reason. Also, having spoken to a few people who have fired both MG34s and MG42s, albeit not in anger, all perfered to shoot the MG34. They found it alot easier to keep on target, and a far more accurate weapon in general. The only disadvantage was there was an extra step or two involved in changing the barrel. The MG42 (or 34) can be called the best MG of WWII for reasons besides high ROF. Things like being able to use the same weapon as an assault MG, light MG or tripod-mounted HMG are great features. That feature along with quick changing barrels (something no one else figured out) put them both well ahead of the pack. In fact, the main reason for the replacement of the MG34 was not due to its low ROF (~800 RPM IIRC) but due to high production costs. The MG42 was made out of stamped, rather than machined parts, and could be made in greater quantities at lower cost than its predecessor. Regarding SMGs, 900 RPM is great, if you can feed it ammo, the barrel does not melt and you can manage to control the thing. Those 200 extra rounds you speak of would not exist, because both SMGs would have ran out of ammo long before. The PPsH was a great weapon, but for reasons well beyond ROF. Reasons like ease of use and maintenence and rock-solid reliability. I do agree that the germans get alot by MG undermodeling in CM, but that has more to do with doctorine and TO&E. German infantry tactics revolved around the MG, especially on the defensive. And while manpower in german infantry battalions steadily dropped, the number of HMGs held pretty steady at 12 per battalion, even if the organization was shifted about somewhat. OTOH, allies get hit hard too, especially the americans. They deploy a rather high number of MGs, which were nearly as effective at discouraging charges by SMG toting infantry as an MG42. Remember, when one is on the recieving end, one finds that 650 RPM coming downrange is scary enough. WWB [edited because I had not yet ranted enough] [ July 17, 2002, 01:11 AM: Message edited by: wwb_99 ]

1) Who have you been listening to? I would suspect they have seen nothing tangiable. 2) You will see the light after 9/20. WWB

Guys, to get the link to work, click on it then delete the ending comma. Gotta stick spaces in there rexford. WWB

Operations have issues in CMBO, especially regarding startlines and such. The only one that kind of sort of works is the 0 or 80m setting, everything else puts things way out of wack. Anyhow, for views, you can set the battle window size up to the maximum the program can handle. The reason they are different is so that you can have maps bigger than the game can display at one time. The lack of MEs is an issue, but it can be worked around. One way is to make a destroy type operation, a second is to setup an assault type with 50% or so of the map required. Yes, one side will have foxholes, but those will be irrelevant if you start the sides at the far ends of the map. 30 turn limit per battle is hard, as is the 20 battles. I find that more than 3 or 4 is too many, especially with the reinforcement limits. You only have six total slots (on map, 5 reinforcements) so you are very limited in terms of how much you can manipulate forces, especially over a long operation. The number of units is limited, but then again RAM is limited and they all need somewhere to go there. CM was designed to simulate reinforced company sized engagements, not reinforced brigade sized battles. WWB

I think the division was 41 pattern originally. Anyhow, would it be worth making separate voices for one out of 300 or so divisions? In game terms, they are a rather hardy, veteran infantry unit. Just as those SS units would be various flavors of SS infantry of the appropriate quality. WWB

You can do AT ditches with the map editor, using either slopes or impassible tiles or both. WWB

Story with the SS is they were the best and the worst of the Wehrmacht. The 12 named panzer divisions were among the best. The variety of foreign and police units were generally among the worst. WWB

To add to Andreas' post: IIRC, some of those formations (at least Das Reich) came in as reinforcements after Barbarossa got going. From what I can tell, all were motorized infantry formations, and some were only brigade sized. IIRC, there was an SS Motorized Bde. that fought near Velikye Luki in 42-3, and I am sure there were many others. WWB

Alsatian: Email me details and it might get done. I have done a fair amount of research, and the SS Panzer Korps seems to not have had a number at that time. As for re-taking the city itself, that was almost entirely LAH. After the Battle's "The 4 Battles of Kharkov" mag has picture of a very interesting map, showing the varios KGs of LAH's routes through the city. Get it if you can, it is worth the $10 or so. Too bad CM cannot handle 10 story apartment blocks. . . WWB

WRT to penetration, the 50l60 and 75l24 with HEAT were pretty similar at ranges where you could expect to hit something with the short 75. I think the big difference is that if you hit something with a 75mm HEAT round it had a much more likely chance of being instantly out of action. 50mm just did not have enough KE to clearly kill a T34 on the first hit. And when you were outnumbered like the germans were, you needed first hit kills. But the IIINs were not built with an anti-armor role in mind, but a 'keep infantry off real anti-armor tanks role.' This is evidenced by their early employment--as supporting tanks to tigers. WWB

Well, at least you admit you a whiner. I would chill out--the hack to fix this issue appeared mere days after the CDV version hit the streets last time around, from what I understand. Someone with the same motivation but possessing the skills to put their money where their mouth is will tackle the issue in short order. WWB

I, and the CMing public, has highly reccomended my Too Little, Too Late, avaliable at the scenario depot (first link in my sig). Just about everything in the second link is first rate, head to head stuff. Best thing to do is go to the Depot and look for battles highly rated for PBEM and balance. WWB