dieseltaylor

I am not having a go at you Paul. I have often said here and WeBoB that players under-rate luck as it applies to real war and to the game. My pet hate is people who design symmetrical maps or play mirrored and insist that it is "fairer". Somehow the desire to make the game more chesslike is innate in some people and despite a lot of evidence that the Germans have greater weapons, greater purchase options, and cheapness they insist a game will be equal. Incidentally even buying something as simple as a German infantry gun could result in one battle the gun having 10HC, and the next person zero HC on purchasing the same unit. And despite some people telling me that having 10 more HE shells is fair enough I think they are talking ballocks in terms of tactical usefulness of said gun. And then Lady Luck will affect kills etc. And believe it or not commanders are not equal either!!! : ) I play it for fun, and I play it quickly. Playing a single game slowly with deep analysis one might feel aggrieved that all your deep thought is brought to nought by "luck". The answer IMO is to play it quickly so that you have more games for Lady Luck to spread itself. Either that or change the game to revise Luck - and I know which option is more open to the individual player : ) Paul this is not aimed at you - I have anti-luck merchants in WeBoB. I also play more games than 99% of players - reasonably badly so that people are happy to continue playing me : ) BTW for extreme in game luck at the end of a long game I managed in the penultimate turn to get a first-time hit on a Churchill XI with a 5% shot. Churchill XI's are worth 355points so from defeat to victory in one shot - but thats life. : )

As I know some people are very keen on this I thought this excerpt might be interesting: SWINGING THE SLEDGEHAMMER: THE COMBAT EFFECTIVENESS OF GERMAN HEAVY TANK BATTALIONS IN WORLD WAR II

From a website arguably the 88 was the only lucky bit but You can read it here - and the benefits of a go anywhere tank: http://www.northirishhorse.net/articles/13-4.html

I decide not to mail it to my father as I think he tried his best to be a good father and to reproach him for missing this would be bad form !? : )

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104130944 Book - lengthy excerpt and an interview with the author. Starts of examining the invention of derivatives - and implies an apparent time bomb. No wonder Jp morgan did so well out of it all.

CMBB is flawed. CMAK is the refined version of the product. Not without flaws but less than CMBB.

????????????????????????????/ Source? As far as I know the French take great efforts to avoid writing letters as French is particularly difficult with its endings. Not a problem when speaking but a nightmare when written.

So not Bredon Hill in Somerset then!

I thought I would throw that in as it is interesting. English is a wonderful creative language and when you consider the French have a paltry 100000 to play with, and the Germans just stick words together to make them longer .... it is fun we can pun, rhyme all the thyme, and adopt fun words from everywhere.

Cherchez la femme Meaning The translation from the French is "look for/seek the woman". It is used when a man behaves unusually or gets into a quarrel or other difficulty and the reason for it is sought. Origin 'Cherchez la femme' is sometimes mistakenly thought to refer to men's attempts to pursue romantic liaisons with women. In fact, the phrase, which is occasionally used in its loose English translation 'look for the woman', expresses the idea that the source of any given problem involving a man is liable to be a woman. That isn't to say that the woman herself was necessarily the direct cause of the problem, as in Shakespeare's Macbeth for instance, but that a man has behaved stupidly or out of character in order to impress a woman or gain her favour. The expression was coined by Alexandre Dumas (père) in the novel The Mohicans of Paris, 1864, in the form of 'cherchons la femme'. In John Latey's 1878 English translation, Dumas' detective, Monsieur Jackal, concludes that a woman must have been involved in the crime being investigated: "Where's the woman? Seek her." His opinion was later confirmed by a colleague: "Ah! Monsieur Jackal, you were right when you said, 'Seek the woman.'" The phrase was adopted into everyday English use and crossed the Atlantic by 1909. It was well enough known there by that date for O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) to use it as the title of a story - Cherchez La Femme, which includes this line: "Ah! yes, I know most time when those men lose money you say 'Cherchez la femme' - there is somewhere the woman." Dumas was, of course, the author of many popular novels, including The Count of Monte-Cristo, 1844, from which he earned a sizeable fortune. He had a bash at following in the footsteps of his eponymous hero when he had the lavish Château de Monte-Cristo built in 1846. Life copied art also in his ruinous attempts to attract women to the high life at the chateau. When biographers looked to see where all his money went, the only explanation needed was 'cherchez les femmes'. See also - other French phrases in English.

So an English county but farming in a similar way. Even allowing for some field amalgamation the concept of 75 -50 acre fields being average is more and more unlikely for Normandy in 1940. it would be lovely to find where this canard originated

Michael Oh he's real then!! Well it seemed so unlikely we did not want to put any pressure on you. : ) No please do contact him - this forum is always good for learning things.

And immediately let me say I am talking direct fire! On Tuesday I had some friends over. Though having played CMBO they never graduated to the improved games so I thought I would get them excited and they simultaneously played the Germans In Tiger Valley. Actually it is a crime to play TV against the AI but I wanted them to get hooked. Anyway one of them nailed a Honey[M5] at 2726 metres. I think that is the longest I have ever seen. My personal record I think is 2001 m with a Valentine shooting a StugIII - in terms of undermanned gun very good going - the secret is to not to shoot them in the front!

That is a worrying new bot working there ME said earlier

Crumbs! I had forgotten about how bad NO must have been. I am now wincing at just the thought of the smell. Yeeugh! I,ll have breakfast later today.

I was toying with things like a "nose for news" but this is the article http://www.freep.com/article/20090513/NEWS07/90513015?imw=Y

Actually I am reasonably familiar with France : ) and would agree totally that Le Havre is not bocage country. I was just marvelling at an efficient use of armour! You suggest the terrain is similar to '44 which I think is possibly a little misleading as I doubt very much that any fields have been made smaller in the last 65 years and that many have been made larger to make best use of tractors etc*. The field in the centre has a marked change of colour in a square area and looks highly suspect. The imposition of the road may well have lead to some more field amalgamations. I would be grateful at your thoughts on the average size of a bocage field given my disagreement with the oft stated average of 50 to 75 acres - which I believe derives from Ambrose - though he may be repeating information from the US army. Just out of general interest I thought this might help people appreciate why fields were small. . Wikipedia article on acres - worth a read It should be noted that Normandy is not a great arable area now but in previous times the farmers would be self-sufficent and would have cereal, vegetable, livestock, orchards etc out of necessity and sell surplus into local markets. *The Compact Tractor Bible By Graeme R. Quick if you look this up in Google yuo get excerpts from the book which are very interesting as in time to mow an acre using different small tractors.

I thought anyone looking from NZ would see it as northwest Europe : ) Interesting though - I consider Southern Europe to be south of the Alps and Pyrenees and a line carried through Macedonia to Turkey. militarily speaking though Jon I think you got it right : ) The reason for the mass sinkings does seem interesting - and also how many actually got ashore

The standard of groggery seems to be slipping - or is that just modernists frequent CMSF? : ) The Wiki article is very interesting and thorough: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DD_tank

Two write brother! There are thought to be a million words in the English language and I would suspect that a misspelling is very probably another word with a proper meaning that you have never heard of. He looked at the pyx/pics . He moved the bales/bails. The idea that spelling does not matter - though apparently a widely held view by illiterates - is plane deft.

http://shock.military.com/Shock/videos.do?displayContent=187107&page=2 [quoteFound this from a Canadian report (CMHQ 184) written about the capture of Le Havre in Sep 44, in which comments about the crocodile were made and I quote " Two British divisions, the 49th (West Riding) and the 51st (Highland) Divisions were assigned to its reduction and the 79th Armoured Division under General Hobart was afforded a first large-scale opportunity to practise the armoured assault-team technique which formed part of the inspired conceptions which had led to the setting up of that novel formation. Flails, mounted in "Crabs" to thresh a path through the 19 Report No. 184 minefields, "Avres" with their bombardment "Petrards" and miscellaneous equipment to bridge and overcome the miscellaneous anti-tank obstacles and "Crocodiles" to bring terror to the hearts of the defenders, constituted a redoubtable trio which carried all before them. Despite very bad going and by virtue of great gallantry by Crab, Crocodile and Avre crews alike, the formidable fortifications were over-run and the lives of many infantrymen were saved. The enemy condemned the "Crocodiles" as unfair and un-British and one officer prisoner reported that a whole platoon caught in the open had been burned to death. A "Crocodile" commander who witnessed this episode, one of the few occasions throughout the campaign when the enemy stood up to flame in the open without instantaneous surrender, has described the horror of the blazing, shrieking, demented Germans. Some of his crew were physically sick at the sight. (Sir Donald Banks, Flame Over Britain, p.111"]

And the correct reply will be "Bog Off"

So should the US made more use of the Funnies ideas whilst in the UK? The "not invented here" syndrome? How many crocs do you need to flame a hedgerow? I would have thought one per field sufficient. The Brits had quite a few 95mm Close Support tanks on D-Day. I am making an assumption that the reason for the 95mm was it was a very destructive LV shell compared to anything else. I am not sure how many Sherman 105mm were available in June /July.

Well if they go BANG then they really will be diffused : ) Sodding idiots.

BTW Kingfish I had a lot of family and computer trouble but I hoping a play test can occur this Tuesday. Range and accuracy not being important for the AVRE and Crocodile - anywhere within 10 metres probably being scary enough. And if I read my accounts right suppressive fire along all hedges etc was the norm so a single target accuracy a no-no. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/69/a2730269.shtml