Vadr
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Posts posted by Vadr
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Interesting discussion. Disclosure: I'm a volunteer veteran (Navy avionics tech and Army infantry). I served 10 years and I've been out of the military almost 20 years now.
To address the original point of the thread: There are two groups in our (American) society who are, imho, drastically underpaid: Teachers and Soldiers. I see nothing wrong whatsoever in increasing the various bonuses provided to the troops, and I'm especially in favor of weighting those bonuses toward combat arms. If I were President, my first act would be to ram a bill through congress doubling or tripling the pay for every American serving in the armed forces.
Does that make our troops mercenaries? I don't think so. Society has to reward an all-volunteer force somehow, after all. Else no one would serve. If, as Nidan alludes to, the bonuses enable the military to be more competitve with the civilian sector, I just don't see anything wrong with that.
When it comes to the "professional vs amateurs" discussion; the military I served in contained both. A hard-core of career officers and NCOs, surrounded by a larger group of short-term personnel. Perhaps not an ideal mix ala the Roman army, but certainly an adequate one.
Could those same things happen with conscripts? I am sure they could, but maybe the American public and press would be more understanding? Who knows.I think such things would happen far more often in a conscript force. I think any reasonable person understands that there are bad apples in every bunch, and isolated incidents such as Abu Ghraib do not reflect on the force as a whole unless such incidents are not properly addressed and punished by the leaders of the force. The punishments might be more draconian in a conscript force, and the public might expect them to be.
I do think an all-volunteer force is more susceptible to...cognizant of...public opinion, but my experience in the US armed forces was that the entire military mindset is firmly geared toward the military being subservient to civilian leadership and authority. I don't think that would change very much if we reinstituted the draft.
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That's a CMBO operation. You can find it at the scenario deport.
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Just recently finished it H2H and had a great time. I had the Americans and my opponent tried to stand back at long range and use his superior guns and optics. Didn't work out all that well for him. He eventually took the objectives, but the cost was high. Very high.
Can't really suggest any tweaks. As you say; it's a lot of fun if you like massive tank battles and lots of blowed-up armor.
The map gives the attacker a lot of different options. I'd call the replayability factor pretty good.
Make some more CMAK operations Iron Duke. "Counterattack at Sarrebourg" is still one of my all-time favorites!
<S>
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I always enjoy your ops Iron Duke. Please do keep turning them out.
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All first round scenarios complete. You slackers need to get with the program...
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Ok. Fair enough. The people seem to be speaking contrary to my opinion in the other thread so far, we'll see...Originally posted by Battlefront.com:Sorry folks.... PBEM is not all that important in the Big Picture. Period. You will never, ever be able to convince me otherwise. Never. So please... just stop trying because it is really old. We already KNOW that some of you are pissed at the mere mention of PBEM possibly being unusable... so repetition is only an annoyance not a new source of information that has any chance of influencing decisions we have yet to make.
Steve
BF42 has sold a lot more copies than CM I'm sure. I understand the commercial realities. I've enjoyed your games and appreciate your efforts. Wish you great success going forward.
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OK, Steve has said (here):
So let's please, please, please try to keep this short and sweet, and give the BFC guys some direct, simple feedback from the people who populate this forum. More, rather than less, roundly...We do think this Forum represents the CM community more-or-less roundly.If CMx2 is released without a PBEM option, would you:
A - Buy it
B - Not buy it
?
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Really? The first sentence quoted is the most interesting to me. I see that polls are disabled on the forum, but I shall attempt a small experiment, and pray your indulgence...Originally posted by Battlefront.com:We do think this Forum represents the CM community more-or-less roundly. The most vocal, however, tend to be the most hardcore. But when discussions are more laid back, the others tend to toss in their two bits. There are certainly more people that have said they would still buy CMx2 without PBEM than those who said they wouldn't.
Steve
As far as "laid-back" vs "hard-core"; anyone who frequents the Warbirds forums will tell you that I am at my most laid-back here. Hey, it's your game and you do what you wanna do. You've been hitting them out of the park so far with the CM series. I've been a big fan for a long time. I've bought copies for myself and bought copies to give to fellow grogs as gifts.
You release CMX2 with anything that remotely resembles the current AI, and without PBEM, and it'll fall flat on it's face in the sales department. Moreso will fall CMX2A...and CMX2B. I am not without some experience in the field of game marketing and design.
You have created not only a great game, but a great market niche. You abandon either at your peril. That's meant as friendly advice.
MHO, YMMV. I am only one customer, and I only vote with one wallet.
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If there's no PBEM, I won't buy it or play it.
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3 Down: 2 to go
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SentOriginally posted by Ace Pilot:Thanks, I'd appreciate that. In order to avoid any perception of favortism, I will not edit any AARs. I'd appreciate it if Vadr, Sleekit, and Malakovski could send me revised AARs with amended headers.
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One suggestion: it would be nice to be able to read other players' AARs for battles we have finished before the end of the tourney. I finished Maleme this week and am not likely to remember much by June... </font>Originally posted by Malakovski:</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Ace Pilot:
If anyone has any suggestions regarding AARs...
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Hey! HEY!Originally posted by Kingfish:...quietly shifts Walpurgis Nacht to group 2...
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...and for those of us who do not require zipped files; it creates just one more hoop we have to jump through...Originally posted by dieseltaylor:Once you mark a game as requiring zipping it will automaticallly do that on completion of each move, and send it until altered , or the game ends : )
Sounds like a great tool, please pay attention in it's use.
[ February 15, 2005, 05:14 PM: Message edited by: Vadr ]
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1 down. 4 to go. Game results and AAR sent.
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All games moving forward and some are quite well along.
GaJ, I haven't heard from you since Thursday. I resent 006 to you; am expecting 007.
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ROFLMAO!Originally posted by jbertles:...a man with a manifesto, and a sneaky slider...
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Hey I was just kidding about the curve-ball with the demo charge; it really was a splitter...
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Emphasis: happily (tho I'm sure that will change)Originally posted by Grimthane:Not that I'm in a hurry or anything. Vadr is happily bombing the merry hell out of me, so I should be glad your games are quiet.
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At the risk of stating the obvious; it doesn't seem to be making life easier for everyone...But then... shouldn't you be using it anyhow, and making life easier for everyone?
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^ He sent me a file called pbem.pbm. try renaming it pbem(or whatever).zip and opening it up. it's got directory structure in it, drill down to the file and cut-n-paste it wherever you need it.
C'mon GaJ; get with the prgram here...
Man that was funny. Don't worry ken, I'm sure you aren't the only one to make that mistake (just the only one to post here about it).Sincerely,Captain Unconscious
Games in progress with all opponents. I hate RoW scenario designers.
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All briefings in, all setups out.
What's that sound I hear?
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From the website linked above:
For Excel users (full version only): The tables will initially show up as being blank. You need to *Select All* and choose a font or font color for the page to make the text visible. -
I'm a Vet Sergio. I understand why I only got the Allied briefing. Just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed any other briefings or saved games that had been sent out.
No more concept of the Citizen Soldier in the US Military
in General Discussion Forum
Posted
Having served in two branches, and in two vastly different fields, I can only agree with you up to a point. In the Navy, where I served in a technical billet, some of the junior officers were not, imho, 'top-notch' (tho many were). OTOH, with a few notable exceptions, the infantry officers I served with were excellent. Competent soldiers and good leaders who took their jobs very seriously. Maybe I was just lucky, but 2 out of 3 company commanders I served under, and most of the junior LTs (after they had aquired some line experience) were men I would stack up against anyone.
Further, I think Emrys nails it by pointing out that the senior NCOs are the backbone of any service.
It was before my time, but my understanding is that officers were not drafted in the Vietnam war. Only enlisted. Furthermore, no senior NCO will become such simply because he was drafted (obviously).
When I served in the Army in (West) Germany, my feeling was that my infantry company would probably sustain something along the lines of 40-50% casualties on first contact with the Soviets, but the remaining 50-60% would be an effective unit.
I came in contact with conscript/draftee troops from several NATO countries during my time in the service. I was not impressed with any of them. The Italians leap instantly to mind. While they had many top-notch officers (or so it seemed to me), the draftee Privates were to a man nearly worthless.