busboy

I remember reading all of this guy's account when someone posted a link a long time ago. He was a tanker in the German army in active duty since Barbarrossa. So he saw bodies. It seems to me that the guy is describing a scene where all the enemy soldiers look like they just dropped dead. He says "what could have caused such damage to life but not equipment." He also says specifically that their lungs burst, though he does not explain how he knows this. Now if overpressure was the cause, would not the scene look like a mess? Would there not be craters, things blown out of place, ect? The guesses that I saw put forth on this issue is that perhaps a projectile contained liquid oxygen or something similar that got into the lungs of the men and caused their lungs to burst when it expanded back into a gas.

Greatest game of all time? Chess, no doubt. Computer/electronic game? Ohh, so many things. I always thought 1942 and 1943 were cool arcade games. My favorite game now is World War II Online. Far from perfect, but they're working hard to get it as close to war as you can come.

Also, if I recall right, the 37mm will be using a shell with explosives inside, so it'll pop after penetrating the armor, generally making a mess inside. The 45mm, on the other hand, uses solid shot as I recall.

We all have are tallents. Some of us are naturally born poor spellers. Some have dyslexia. While you're correct that those of us who do have one of those two problems shouuld work on it, and indeed get those "standard" things down, don't be pissed when some of us still botch up. I'm a piss poor speller. I used to do the loose/lose thing. That was mild, I used to spell "very" as "varry" and "helmet" as "helmate." I just am poor at it, I learn and fix some spellings, but others crop up. I understand the rant, but really, try to look past and see content before ignorance.

I've seen "regular" unitts come out chock full 'o conscripts too. (Late war German army...makes sense.)

Good tactic. The infantry in real life probably would have a ****fit if they knew, but good soldiers follow orders. And, well, its a real tactic. Its a cost-benefit thing...is sacrificing these men going to save more in the long run? In real war its harder, but the choices are the same.

Its been my experience that this happens when the tank is just trying to go from point A to point B and can't/doesn't want to go around. I saw this happen on bridges a lot in CMBO for example.

It all has to do with the interpretation of a symbol. When I see a confederate battle flag, I see the courage of the common Southern soldier that fought to save his home from what he saw as Northern agression. Most people see it and think "racist!" And, well, most of the folks who openly fly it ARE racists who use it to show their racism, that doesn't help the image any. The interpretation is true for any symbol. I wonder why we see the Swastica as such a "bad" symbol but not the Hammer and Sickle. They both were the symbols of evil. To add a bit to Swastica history, there was a shield discovered from aprox 200 A.D. that had swasticas on it. The shield was a Roman scutum. In addition, there are several mosaics from later Roman history that show soldiers with swasticas on their tunics. Sadly, whenever a Roman reenactor chooses to depict history from these later Roman eras as accurately as he can, he is met with the raised eyeborws of the ignorant. People should educate themselves on what they hate before they hate it.

I'd like to see some terrain accents thrown in, even if only for visual effect. Example: telephone polls. Don't have a "poll square" but be able to sort of plant them like foxholes or victory flags. Just one of those little things that would add dimension, I think.

You could allow them to land in the trees, but set a fairly high number of casualties to simulate busted limbs and such, but I like the neutral ground idea better.

Well, as far as the game is concerned, it looks at the casualties you inflicted. The first 4 in that squad are wounded or dead, you get, say 1 point each for them. However, the 4 you captured are more valuable, as they may have valuable military information, ect. You get, say, 2 points for each of them. You wouldn't get 3 points for first wounding a man, and then capturing him, nor would the wounded man "convert" into a captured. As far as the game is concerned, once they're a casualty to fire, they're out of the game, so they can't come back. If you'd like, think that the folks in that squad that were "wounded" were either evacuated by medics during the fighting, or that when the squad was captured, they were either dead or too wounded to be of any benefit as a prisoner, so the game doesn't give you points for them as such. Good question, I think. But considering the game just looks at the status of troops for points after the game, I think the game handles the question perfectly.

Pfft, CMBB takes place in the Boer war where Germany invades South Africa only to discover to their horror that the communist Zulus have high velocity spears and sloping hide shields. Eventually the Germans are driven all the way back to Berlin by the Zulu hordes. The only nation that ever seemed to resist the Zulus were the tenatious Finns. They replied with tremendous guts at the hostile invasion of the Zulus, ambushing their war parties countless times, outnumbered, and out gunned, they fought with whatever was at hand (often arming their men with captured Zulu spears) and used features of the terrain to beat them back. Or, if your paper wants the title of the war in the Zulu tounge, it would be: "Hicuna-tuna-muckula-*click click SNAP*-Hfala" Translation, "the Great Patriotic Foraging Party." (apologies to anyone who speaks Afrikaans...I know its not one of those "clicking languages.)

There are some famous examples of Racoons being used as mascots in the American Civil War. I also don't know about Racoons being smarter than dogs, I seem to recall the order of brain capacity to go human, dolphin, simian, and then canine. I could easily be wrong though. I'd agree that killing 'em would be a bit extreme, though if you were able to it would be the most direct method. If you like inhumane, I've got a method that a farmer taught my family for rabits. I am not a farmer, nor have I done this, so don't get pissed at me. The fellow noted that if you caught a live rabit and wanted to get rid of the rest, all you had to do was take the rabbit, tie up his back feet with bailing wire, and dangle him in the mile radius that you never wanted to see rabits in again. The rabbit will scream murder until it dies its awful death, but it will freak out every rabit around. Its cruel, but if you're a farmer, its practical. Now I doubt you could do that to your buds there, but I bet it would work. It looks like traps are the way to go, either home made of some sort, or go buy some. But, for the cost of the traps, you might be able to hire a professional to capture them. (and then release them 5 miles away, only to have them come right back to your poarch.) BTS, I'm sure you'll probably move this when you see it, but FWIW could it stay here for comic releaf and good will until this gentleman gets his problem fixed? I mean, c'mon! He's given us pictures too! This can be a hoot! (not for him maybe...) I figure if Peng can get top billiing, we can bend the rules once... But, of course, its ya'll's board. Good luck friend!

I have contributed to its next failing...muhahaha! Good stuff. Thanks.

Very brief follow up to illustrate the point: "Difficulty: Hard Playing through the single player mode, you will come to discover that the computer-controlled opponent hardly ever makes a tactical mistake. In fact, it is near impossible to try to anticipate your opponent’s next move while the computer does a great job of anticipating yours. Seems unfair? It is." To most of us, this is a terrific joke! Compared to a walking mushroom in Mario, no you can't accurately perdict the AI. However, the AI isn't just moving troops around trying to get from point A to point B, its trying to fight as best as its bot mind knows how. So, to anticipate it, think of it as a combatant. Realize that it is TRYING to anticipate your moves. I think this is a key illustration of this fellow's lack of background in the field. Also, it seems quite clear that the attention to historical detail (gun penetrations, unit availability, ect) is lost on this fellow. To raise the question again, how much does he know about the Eastern Front?

I agree its a case of different strokes for different folks, but it is a bit sad that someone who "plays games" is considered capable of adequately reviewing "all games." To use Kwazy's above reference, I don't care much for the idea of BF1942. I think its a joke, a bunny-hop shoot 'em up with a WW2 theme. However, I am sure it is quite fun. That doesn't mean I'd thrash its accuracy in a review, but I know that some folks would find it a blast. Another example is WW2OL. I LOVE WW2OL because it strives for such accuracy. However, some people hate it because of things like bad graphics or time it takes to get into a fight. (There's plenty of people I've seen here lately that comment on these points.) Well, I don't mind less-than-Quake graphics because I know its needed for the scale of the game, and for lots of other issues...I just realize that "hey, its supposed to be a war!" So, obviously WW2OL isn't for everyone. That is valid and true. However, a quake player is not the person to be reviewing it. That is the case at hand. I guess reviewers need to be experts at all fields, or be completely neutral in every regard. Either way is impossible. I kinda have to agree that anyone who complains about lack of a soundtrack has got his priorities mixed up. (I wonder if he realized that the intro song is a piece of classical music? Refering to it as "stirring intro music" kind of implies...no.)

Pretty good trick! Post an angelfire link and watch it go down! Unfortunately, it'll be "aprox. 2 hours" before anyone else is able to see it.

Whoops, you're right. However, torsion bar suspensions are outgrowths of the Christie suspension if I understand right. I just make the mistake of using the two terms interchangably.

There are some threads floating around that argued the point to my satisfaction, but I was suprised mysef. A torsion bar suspension is superior to a horizontal volute system like the Sherman has. However, what I seemed to recall seeing was the T-34's off road handling was not as good as it could have been. Perhaps it was that the springs of the suspension didn't have enough give and the ride was rough? Someone will recall the thread or have sources to back it up. I will add that it wasn't until the M4A3E8 that Shermans had comperable ground pressure to the T-34s. The duckbills added to the tracks of Shermans didn't work as well as one fat track.

Under no circumstances will the 37mm guns pierce the KV-1. You're going for gun damage and an immobalization when you rush it.

I like WW2OL... War isn't about instant action. But even that was funny! Bravo! You're missing the l33t d00d FPS players bunny-hopping with the infantry and pistol sniping tanks, thus exploding them with a single shot.

Really? Thats the only part of the manuel I skipped! Heh, "German sucesses on all fronts is related to their astounding skill of pinning enemy tanks against features of the terrian with swarms of obsolete tanks of their own..." (edit) Heh, silly. No it don't! (/edit) [ October 17, 2002, 09:36 PM: Message edited by: busboy ]

Brian, CMBB is not inherently ment to be fair. Its ment to be as accurate as possible. Its up to the scenario designers/QB conditions to make it either "fair," "realistic" (which I would argue as the REAL definition of fair), and "gamy." As for the Chaffee being equal to the T-34? The Chaffee was a light tank, its armor was rather inferior. You can compare the two, but its inaccurate. Its much more useful to compare the T-34 with the Sherman. As it has been noted, the Sherman's guns (for AP) are equally or even more effective. It has been noted by some here that the Sherman actually had better off road performance than the T-34, its protection can be considered rather equal, and then the Sherman is a much more reliable vehicle to top it off. The difference between the T-34 and the Sherman seems to be in the time they appeared. If the British had lend lease Shermans in France, 1940 (which is a historic impossability, but this is rhetorical) then the "T-34 shock" we're discussing would instead be the "Sherman shock." The Sherman and the T-34 were the tanks that soldiered the Allies to victory. But they weren't all powerful.

Spoiler warning, just in case... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I just thought I'd come back and give my account of this mission. It was the funniest mission I've played in either CM yet. You fellas apparently have had a bit of trouble with it...I got VERY lucky. He KOed one of my PzKw IIs as the slew of tanks bum rushed it, but after that I apparently damaged his gun. After that I parked 6 tanks point blank behind him and watched the ricochets, then he tried to run. Here's this KV-1 hauling ass across the forrest clearing with 6 panzers following it bouncing shots of its back turret while I frantically try to set up my 88s which have just arrived. As its gun was damaged, I just drove them into the middle of the clearing, kept 'em on the road, and figured that he couldn't hide that way. Eventually I honestly had to pinned him against the forrest with tanks that were out of ammo, and then an 88 finished the job. It just looked like something out of a Shriner's circus, I expected to see 50 clowns pile out of the KV! That is, until I ordered the 88 to keep firing on the KV until it blew up... Clearing the infantry by the flag was very easy. The Russians seemed to want to stretch their legs with all of my firepower comming at them...as I said I lost only one PzKw II. So, I certianly didn't win due to skill, but to luck (and perhaps guts.)

Well, you can always disable your computer's sleep mode. As for the crash problem, the only other suggestion I have is to take another hour out of your life and reinstall the entire game. (don't hurt me!) I remember back in CMBO if my MOD system cut a BMP or two, it might cause a crash when I'd launch a mission that needed a certian BMP. I suffered from game crashes for a long time until I figured out that I had squeezed a file so full that it cut out a bunker BMP. Therefore, everytime I went to load a mission with a bunker in it...pfft! The catch here is, the program would crash after trying to launch the mission (in other words, while the graphics were loading.) It sounds to me like your program is crashing before that point. If I misunderstood, though, a corrupt BMP might be your problem. I don't think its likely. See if a reinstallation doesn't fix it. If it doesn't, drop me an e-mail at "busboy@integtechnology.com" and I'll send you my working copy of that scenario. If that works, then somehow your scenario file was corrupted. If not, then somehow there's something in the program. With your credentials, you obviously know more about these operations than I do sir, but maybe my few years of Mac CMing might help. Best of luck!