BloodyBucket

The adjustable rear sight and bayonet lug shouldn't be on the carbines used in Normandy. See what thanks you get for making the graphics so detailed? The Demo is better than bacon, BTW.

No, I want more Hollywood in the voice acting! The German voices should all be in heavily accented English, saying stuff like "Steiner! How do you reload?" and they should slap in plenty of sound bites from Curt Jurgens and Robert Shaw, and the Americans should feature more bits from Clint Eastwood and Damian Lewis.

I'm sure the sound mods are coming. I'd love to hear my tank commander chide me for broadcasting negative waves...

The demo takes a long time to download. Thanks for posting it! ;-)

I'm as excited as Charles Nelson Reilly was when he found out he was the secret square.

Having had the chance to fire both, I'd pick the M1A1 Thompson if I was trying to hit something at a distance. I believe the 9mm capability of the M3 was designed with using captured ammo in mind...Didn't the OSS order the majority of the 9mm weapons? IIRC they used Sten magazines with an internal mag well adapter. I think the practical difference between the two in game terms would be nil.

That's a lot of trouble and devious thinking just to try and find out that the game is shipping next Thursday.

It was called Squad Leader. It was played on a 30" CRT (Cardboard Real Terrainmap) and used a Nvidia six sided processor. The graphics were pretty crude by today's standards, and occasional you'd get a system crash due to a spilled drink or curious cat, but we still played it like crazy. Seriously, maybe you're thinking about TacOps?

I don't see a face. I do see something, but it's a family friendly forum, so I won't say what.

I checked for the demo. Nada. Mowed the front lawn, now I'm checking again. Zippo. There's still the back lawn...

Grass mods are out. Flower mods are hot. That's progress!

DOH! I read Si-mov and plugged in SciFi and Si-mov...

Starsoldier?

Emrys has captured the appeal of CMBO for me. Having grown up admiring my WWII vet dad, always keeping an eye on the TV guide for a decent war flick, and being an avid wargamer, I always hoped that somebody, someday was going to do a computer game from melded those three elements...The challenge and depth of a good wargame, enough authenticity to lend an air of serious history to it, and the drama of a great movie or story. I could see the faintest glimmer of it in arcade games like Commando!, and when Close Combat came out, I knew it was only a matter of time. CMBO nailed it because of the WEGO system and the ability to replay the turns. Yeah, there were times when you wanted to tell that squad you ordered forward to get a brain and act on it's own when the situation changed after you pressed the "go" button, but there were so many times looking at a turn where it played out like a plausible drama, it was addicting. The improved graphics of CMBN are certainly amazing compared to the old game, but I wonder if it's going to make that much of a difference when it comes to telling the story while reviewing a turn. The graphical abstraction of CMBO meant that you could pack a lot of stuff in there without bothering to make it work visually. The videos sure look impressive. I sure hope the storytelling element of the game is as strong as ever. I don't know if it's a game for seniors. It's more a game for boys trapped in an old guy's body.

The sounds are going to be mod fodder, so I doubt it will take long for alternate weapons and chatter sounds to arrive. Given the increasing lack of ear witnesses to the actual events, I wonder what would be more popular with the gaming public...A game that sounds like the films and shows we've seen about the war, or a game that re-created the actual sounds as closely as possible?

Errrr, no. I don't remember posting that. 'Course, I'm at the point where almost any claim of memory lapse made against me has to be given substantial credit.

Believe it or not, one of the things that flashed through my mind when I saw the first screen shots showing ground terrain details in CMBN, was "They are going to be debates on the forums about what flowers would be growing in July in the Bocage country..." Thanks for making my dreams come true.

That's a link to an American training film on German vs. American automatic weapons. It draws some pretty debatable conclusions and is obviously a propagandized confidence booster, but for the sounds it's great.

What? No Brits? No Snow? No flame? Great video comparison, BTW.

My refresh monkey has been unchained from the oars, and thanks you.

I'm married, so I'm used to it.

Up Front...ahhh, tactical warcards, what's not to love? Great game. Maybe the best of the micro tactical lot. I'm also a Patrol/Sniper/Tank SPI Simov vet, and also dabbled with Yaquinto's Close Assault and Soldiers from West End Games. Played all of the solitaire Ambush series games from Victory Games. I was a sucker for pretty any tactical game at that time. My personal vintage and story is much like yours, except I never moved to miniatures and I'm not selling the board game collection...yet.

Strictly anecdotal thoughts from my late father, a WWII BAR gunner in the 28th ID. I interviewed him about his experiences in Normandy, the Hurtgen Forest and the Ardennes on tape, and I came at the interview partly from the background of a wargamer familiar with the Germans had better small unit tactics argument. IIRC he thought German had an advantage with their light machine gun, especially on the defense on the small unit level that was only partially made up for by the Garand. He had a soft spot for the BAR but didn't think it measured up to the MG34/42, and the only reason they didn't use captured ones was they were "mortar magnets" and drew fire almost instantly from any nearby US soldiers and supporting arms. He also believed that the German methods for absorbing replacements and selecting officers produced better results than the US system. He held the US replacement system in particular disdain, saying "it wasn't designed by combat guys, and treated people as parts". He credited his own survival to random luck and being mentored by a WWI veteran NCO, who "actually tried to teach us something". He thought all the small unit German advantages were more than offset by air and artillery support, when available. He also thought that the quality of the units they'd face varied a lot, and the Germans were tougher on the defense than when attacking, in that when they defended against German attacks they often "mowed them down". He also thought that the Germans probably thought the same about Americans, and that in fact much of Infantry tactics boiled down to being willing to trade lives for real estate. He seemed pretty cynical about the whole thing.

I hear in CMBN infantry can easily take out that monster by tossing one of these from a distance and having it explode over the lightly armored engine compartment.....