Hensworth

Thanks, Scipio. If I was left in any doubt that BFC thinks I'm a whimpering idiot because I think that the distinction between the SS and, for example, the Wehrmacht is necessary on ethical and historical grounds, that has now been cleared up. For those of you who might wonder why it is so important to recognize the existence of the SS as a separate, criminal organization, here's a little reminder : SIR DAVID MAXWELL FYFE, Transcripts Of The Trial of German Major War Criminals, 214th day, august 29th 1946. Now, who really believes that obscuring their existence by lumping them in with the rest is the right way to deal with this ?

MikeyD, This is dead serious. CDV have exclusive distribution rights for Europe. By the terms of their own agreement, Battlefront are not allowed to sell the game to European customers. Be advised that the version of the game produced by CDV is not the same as the original : all references to the SS have been removed as required by German law. There are also some fears that patches for the CDV game may lag behind.

I'm surprised not to find Hiram and his bag of pop corn in here yet...

Rocks !!! Real, honest to god, palpable (well alright, not quite), full bodied rocks !!! Ah, but there's no moss or little tufts of grass on them. Modders, battle stations !!! Are they doodads ? Do they provide COVER ? Is it the end of the troublesome 'rough' tile ? [ August 08, 2002, 02:41 AM: Message edited by: Sgt_Kelly ]

I must be doing something wrong... For my first battle, I ended up with a 2000 point defense against Waffen SS armor with nothing but my company and 3 105 mm FO's. No armor, no AT guns. I tried to set up my zooks in ambush (which is a waste of time with greenies, but I had to do SOMETHING to try and please the brass) and waited in trepidation. The zooks all missed and died. I stayed on the map as long as I could to inflict maximum casualties with the arty but in the end had to pull everything off. -5 across the board, one squad captured due to the autosurrender. Needless to say no confirmed kills. -17 favor . I'm confused about the auxiliary forces. The die decided that I would get an armor attachment. This inflated my current force size by having to add 200 pts, causing me not to receive any auxiliary forces at all ! Is this correct ?

If you want to see what ATGs can do, play the 106 Brigade scenario in the Lorraine pack. ATGs suffer the same problem as the German übertanks in CM:BO : they have to engage at a range which is significantly below the ideal. An 88 shooting at your herd of Allied tanks from over 1 km away is a nightmare. Because you won't see it and it will pop one tank after the other. Even if your tanks do spot it and fire back, chances are you'll take a lot more casualties before they land a shell near enough to silence the bugger.

Alright then. Flank *HUG*. (You want to avoid frontal beer breath with these fat cats, it can't be penetrated...)

Just download the latest CMMOS version from Combat Mission HQ. It has all the rulesets already included.

I used the Tiger's prime talent : stand and shoot till everything burns. I parked Wittman behind the houses near where you start off to protect his flanks. The AI blindly drove tanks and HT's at the flag near his position (be sure you are controlling the VL, that way the AI will try to take it off you) which meant a duckshoot for a crack Tiger. When the reinforcements arrived I moved the infantry in the buildings, from where they scattered and broke the English infantry. I sent 2 Tigers towards the left flank on the curving road (pick your moment : side armor is exposed !). This setup a nice crossfire making sure that anything that dared to venture beyond the safety of the town got waxed instantly. I didn't bother going for the flag in the town but killed all the tanks around it from long range (still from the startup position), thus making sure it was undecided at the end of the battle. I lost 1 Tiger and the PzIV.

Hey Dizee. I got the shock of a lifetime when I saw that monster right in the middle of Hamburg. As you said the platforms around the top make it especially ugly. I was amazed to see that they're actually using it. I guess it would be even more ghoulish to leave a big block of concrete like that standing empty in the middle of town though.

The problem is that the game can't take the tactical value of buildings, rivers, hills and other terrain features into account. Thus, the front line is always a near-straight line driven right across the map (sometimes you will get a small bump where a substantial force penetrated deeper into enemy territory, but nowhere near the kind of salient such a penetration would realistically create). When you set no man's land to 0, you will minimize the ground lost through the redrawing of the front. But it still won't bulge to include any forward positions you may have taken. Furthermore, you'll be half-solving one problem and creating another. With no man's land at 0, you'll have the completely ridiculous effect of units finding themselves at knife point with the enemy right from the word go (especially against the AI, which tends to setup its troops in a straight line along the front in operations).

I guess it will be up to the map designer to use the available terrain types to create a realistic landscape. It was already possible in CMBO to create the kind of terrain you describe. I don't see why it should be less so in CMBB.

We need to get you in rehab. If a hill and some trees are enough to start you thinking of a CM scenario... Ah, sod it, go make the bugger !

I knew I wouldn't get away with that...

I didn't follow that particular thread. Rest assured that I personally consider your reputation fully redeemed by this gracious act of brotherly love, if it was tarnished in the first place. I've got your e-mail.

Care for a TCP/IP engagement, Michael ?

Since the other thread has already devolved into the realms of the ridiculous, I would like to re-iterate my request for someone to buy and ship me my untouched version of CM:BB. I am prepared to pay something on top for anyone willing to take the trouble.

The irony of fate... You would have thought we made sure Germany was through with telling the rest of Europe what to do in 1945... So, guess I'm looking for a middleman. Any takers ?

A trick to help you keep disciplined about issuing orders is to set a fixed sequence in which you will deal with units (or groups of them). At the start of the fight when everything is still pretty organized, I usually work from one end of the map to the other. When engagements start to develop, I set a fixed sequence in which I will deal with them every turn. I even observe this while watching the movies to make sure I haven't missed out on any details of local importance.

Don't worry, I don't post that many pictures :cool: .

Doesn't make any difference. Just pick whatever takes your fancy and learn as you go. Try to pick the ones that were designed to be played v. the AI. They have good lists at the Scenario Depot (which you are already familiar with). Then get into human v. human as soon as possible, that's when the real fun starts !

I hardly dare to voice a note of criticism here, but those wheeled vehicles are starting to look so good that those octagonal tires are letting them down.

Nope, grey means no AAR received. Personally the AAR part of a tourney is half the fun for me. I love finding out how my opponents viewed their battles against me, or how someone else managed to achieve a much better score on some scenario. It seems this can't be said of every tourney player. Despite the fact that AAR's played a relatively important role in this tourney, many people didn't bother. This has sort of nullified the efforts of other players since it only starts to get interesting when you get a relatively complete set of AAR's. Treeburst, maybe something to consider when you decide on the importance of AAR's in future rounds / tourneys.

Doesn't matter one jot. The game only uses the BMPs that are installed on your own computer. How your opponent visualizes the movie turns has no influence on your side of the game.