Clubfoot

***more spoilin'*** Prevented? Indeed sir. Is "prevented with prejudice" a phrase which currently exists? It is now. My hard-boiled company of Canucks (and I took some real tough-guys up that damned shoreline!) were positively pasted during their probe up the water's edge! And the crew of the one gun I saw held their water until I was a mere 120m out. I'm still picking pieces of Canadian Rifleman off of my monitor. I've not often derived this much fun from being served up tar-tar fashion by the AI. The old 'puter handed me my ass on that beach! *** no more spoilin' *** Clubfoot.

Thanks for showing all this interest fellas, it drives us forward to completion when our forward impetus slows. I'm waiting to open the site until we've got enough content sorted and assembled for your perusal. Most of the actual mod work is finished, save the scenarios. I've only completed, tested, and tweaked five missions so far, but I believe MikeT's scenario momentum has been greater than mine to date. Pascal Di Folco is working on some now as well, (correct me if I'm wrong, Pascal). When the site is open, The major elements of the mod will be available immediately for download as well as other goodies. These will include but not be limited to : -assorted vehicle textures. -all terrain tiles including SSM tiles. -the interface conversion. -any completed and tested scenarios and ops. -Italians Attack! and possibly Vichy French force pack SSM's. -TwoShed's most excellent Mod Manager. -force restriction documents to help guide the hand of anyone wishing to craft DFDR scenarios. and more... I've recon that some of you are already making DFDR scenarios and that just plain rocks. When the site is up, we'll post any user-made scenarios and DFDR mods you send us (within reason, of course). To make our live's a little easier, it would be grand if your desert scenarios began with the prefix "DFDR-" and had the date which your mission takes place included first in said mission's description sentence. I'm sorry I can't give a definite date, but I'll say this. If you just paid your horrendous gas bill, the mod will be in your hands before you have to pay it again. Clubfoot.

*** vague spoiler *** I'm about halfway thru Little Stalingrad now and let me tell you... this one is a gruesome, infantry meat-grinder. And I love it. I'll not mention specifics so as not to spoil it for others, but Michael will understand what I'm saying when I utter these phrases together: Shoreline. Infantry gun. Oh, the inhumanity! Great job Michael. I'd highly recommend this op. to anyone who enjoys big (and I mean friggin' huge) infantry battles. The carnage is exquisite. This is better than Ray Liota eating his own brain! (It's also great to see a few people creating scenarios for DFDR already. Keep it up fellas, not long now!) Clubfoot. [This message has been edited by Clubfoot (edited 02-22-2001).] [This message has been edited by Clubfoot (edited 02-22-2001).]

Sgt Eagle, It's on it's way, check that funky ol' in-box tonight. I'd be interested in seeing your scenario as well. Clubfoot.

Maximus, The sand is simply a conversion of open ground. Most coastal and near inland areas had packed sand, gravel, or rock underfoot so the decision was made to have open ground remain open ground. If a scenario designer wishes softer earth to mire vehicles or impede movement, damp or wet ground conditions can be used. Or the handy wadi tiles which replace marsh could be employed. Clubfoot.

If you're interested, check out the scenario "Sheep's Clothing" at Manx's Combat Missions for my take on AT ditches. Simply a shallow (5m) recess painted with the rough tile. It's functional and aesthetically pleasing to boot. Clubfoot.

Michael, Your morale will be adversely effected immediately at the beginning of the next orders phase. It won't however effect your score towards victory in the AAR, other than depriving your enemy of kills. I imagine the effect on morale is due to the rest of your forces correctly viewing units exiting in such a manner as 'lost', even though they are technically 'alive'. Clubfoot.

Who doesn't love a good, wholesome, house to house, bloody-ass infantry blender?! I'll 'lab rat' for ya. Ship a copy to: melton1911@aol.com TIA. Clubfoot.

Training Schmaining! Just pick a battle with 'huge' as it's size (preferably an armor heavy affair), jump right in and get your ass kicked. It's always best to get that out of the way early on. But seriously, once you get the Uberdisk and choose a mission (I chose All or Nothing right out of the gate, ouch), play it over and over until you get a few satisfying results. This is really the only way to learn what works well for you and what doesn't. My personal favorite CM 'primers' would have to be Grafenwohr (by C. Lourenco) for infantry assault tactics and Wiltz (by WBW) for combined arms attack or defense tactics. You'll pick your own favorites soon enough however. Clubfoot.

Another tricky question: Is it possible to change the darker green color that appears on the sides of the map itself? Clubfoot.

Huzzah. If Manx didn't exercise a degree of 'quality control', we would all be much less tempted to point our browsers his way. Keep up the excellent work, Manx. Clubfoot.

I also exit crews, empty mortars, and even gun-damaged AFV's from time to time. It's worth a mention that you'll take a hit to your global morale (I think) with each exiting unit though. Not nearly as bad, however, as having the platoon in Sidekick's example pan-fried by that Churchill Croc. Clubfoot.

Red Dog is correct. The stormtroopers fought on all fronts including Italy, Africa, Russia, and all over Europe. Watch Stalingrad sometime. It's about a group of stormtroopers who at the outset of the film are stationed in the Med. and receive honors for their fighting in the battle of El Alamein. I also seem to recall a Schiffer military publishers book about the Sturmgruppen (don't remember where, however). Clubfoot. [This message has been edited by Clubfoot (edited 02-18-2001).]

A shocked crew is, quite simply, too frightened or too intelligent to unbutton after receiving near-miss AT or tank fire. Clubfoot.

They probably viewed the order as both ammo-depleting and virtually pointless. In their little digital brains, they weighed the damage they could do to the tank vs. the damage the tank would do to them once it discovered where they were firing from. And it would have if they had kept firing. just my .02 Clubfoot.

The Dragon figures are by far the best out there. They are also a helluva lot more expensive than the "Ultimate Soldier" dross. They also do personalities. I believe Dragon currently has a Wittmann figure available. You get what you pay for, however. I got the 'Gerhard' figure a while back (he's a Wehrmacht Panzerjager NCO)and the attention to detail is downright frightening. Even the stitches in their clothing are correct and period specific. If they're too rich for your blood, however, try Ultimate Soldiers 1:18 scale figures (the same size as the modern, little GI Joe's). They also have a nice range of vehicles and are pretty accurate. Just got the Panther with an escort squad from my wife for our Anniversary (she knows me too well). Clubfoot. [This message has been edited by Clubfoot (edited 02-18-2001).] [This message has been edited by Clubfoot (edited 02-18-2001).]

I'm not sure you could have taken that FIAT team, Black Five, those damned little foreign cars are pretty tough. jk, of course. Clubfoot.

Is the question then "What music brought on a change in your very concept of how music can affect you the way CM changed our outlook on what makes a damned fine strategy/tactical game?" ? If so, my response would have to be: Pink Floyd - Animals. Slayer - South of Heaven. Anything pre-90's from Corrosion of Conformity and Pantera. Clubfoot.

Murph, I'll admit that I do frequently use artillery fire for smoke. It's useful for covering large assaults (when the enemies main position of strength is known) as well moving weighty columns of men and armor in a surreptitious manner. The ability to move units past defensive firing arcs and directly into a defenders area of strength limits (a little) a defender's innate advantages. This also allows you to take advantage of turret and ground speed when playing as the Allies. For the clandestine movement I mentioned, my specific example would be bridge crossings. Smoke the hell out of a well covered bridge and move over and past it, often to positions of concealment on the other side of the bridge (play All or Nothing). The enemy will know you've made troop movements over said bridge, but when the smoke clears and there's nothing to see, he'll have no clue as to the strength of the force you've moved. just my own .02 Clubfoot. [This message has been edited by Clubfoot (edited 02-17-2001).]

Francesco, The info I based the scenario upon comes mostly from Otto Skorzeny's memoirs, "My Commando Operations", in which he states: "...As an interim measure we modified twelve of our Panthers to look like Shermans, so that we might be able to fool the young enemy soldiers from a distance and in conditions of poor visibility..." The assertion that the 150th's Panthers were disguised as M-10's is an Allied one. The point is moot, however, as he goes on to state that the intention was to make the Panthers look like "...a piece of Allied armor, any piece..." The later Allied opinion of the mocked up Panthers looking like M-10's simply proves he succeeded to a minor degree. Clubfoot.

Thanks for all the timely replies. Keep 'em coming! I must admit that our first choice for the mod's packaging scheme was TwoSheds Mod Manager. It's still my first choice (although I can't speak for MikeT). For those who have asked if the MM is worth checking out, as far as I am concerned, the answer is a resounding yes. For those who've had the "drive recognition" problem, it's fairly simple to fix. TwoSheds can elaborate if he so desires. I can also understand batch fluent individuals having an aversion to MM. I remember my own disgust at having PC's go "all windows" after feeling like a virtual resident of the DOS neighborhood for so many years. But I think that just may be a desire on some of our parts to make things more difficult than they need to be (myself definitely included). In all likelihood, DFDR will come Mod Manager compatible, but contain batch files for various optional installs/uninstalls as well. For those of us who are bandwidth challenged, it will also be broken into several smaller, more manageable .zip files (separated by type i.e. vehicles, terrain, sounds, scenarios, interface and so on). And as Sgt. Fred correctly assumes, the mod will be sizeable. At this point it stands at just over 50 meg unzipped. Keep the opinions coming though. I'd like to see some of the uninitiated be swayed toward TwoShed's Mod Manager.

The Sturmtigers 380mm breach load mortar will be a real blast but I'm also looking forward to the Tiger Elefant variant. Clubfoot.

I'm interested in hearing how you all implement the use of your mods. i.e. How many of you use TwoSheds Mod Manager? How many of you prefer mods with batch files for install and uninstall? How many of you just unzip everything into your BMP directory, simply overwriting what was there before. The DFDR mod will be available in a couple of weeks and we're trying to get a general consensus of the most popular methods of mod installation. TIA. Clubfoot.

Shameless bump.

Rommel, Try: http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/ After clicking on the entry graphic, click the 'History Department Maps' link. When the page loads, click 'Atlases'. You'll see a list of conflicts. There's a WWII European and Asian section. This is the West Point Cartographic department's section of the West Point M.A. website. Clubfoot.