dieseltaylor

JC As we tend to disagree of the value of heroic acts in the overall scheme of warfare what is your take on this: I think we can agree that the war would still have ended the right way but the effort and deaths that may have been caused if the Germans had broken through would have been considerably more. I always feel that you think these heroic acts are almost an irrelevance to the result but I always believe that you should look at it in shorter time frames to establish if the benefit is really there.

Thanks This is scary! web page

As in normal life the proportions of doers and sheeps seems right to me. Thanks for locating the item for me. Yes accepting SLAM might be an error but the rebuttals were very well rsearched and highly illuminating - in information aswell as the quality of some writers. JC - I am of course interested in your view as opposed to Dupuys but I do not now which 45 battles were chosen for their survey. I doubt they were all Normandy so there seems little point in us discussing it. I share your overall view of the Normandy campaign. Dupuy's conclusions may not be based on actual damage done, as measured in tanks, but the inability/disinclination to move immediate reserves during daylight thereby compromising the German attack/defence. I do not think I will in the near future have a chance to research further but I certainly know that most PBI felt very depressed by enemy planes taking an interest in them.

the Army's view .... Busting the Bocage: American Combined Arms Operations in France 6 June--31 July 1944 by Captain Michael D. Doubler

It seems to me that "bocage" is in the same league as "Tigers!". What is truly bocage would sneer at Honey's and I am getting the strong impression that to Americans and Canadians hedges were a different matter to the wooden or barbed wire they saw at home and bocage seemed to them to be the French word for hedges and small fields. The real bocage hedge would be say x ft of bank interwoven with the root systems of plants for hundreds of years topped with a 6ft hedge by say 5ft wide. You can see the same thing in Devon even these days lining roads which have gradually sunk deeper beneath the hedge. Anyway here is Zaloga I will try and find some genuine bocage hedge pictures : )

Darn! I was incensed at a scenario called Bocage something as bloody Honey's were coming through hedges. Those damm things required more than a Honey to work them. They required serious charging room and did not do the crew much good. A serious flaw in Cmak as the converse that tall hedges [other than bocage] would defeat a Panther are bogus.

Any thoughts?

Fascinating discussion. The slaying of Bonn by Nutter was superb. The number of useful troops seems very reminiscent of a British report to the War Office from Italy which unfortunately I cannot locate at the moment. The basic contention was that about 20% of a force was fit for fighting with a proportion totally useless and the balance would be adequate for defence. No doubt someone wull recall it.

JonS I am not sure if you are implying that the guns could only fire broadsides? I had assumed that ships could fire forward without knowing it for a fact : ).perhaps blast effects are a possible reason. Anyway with the C turret I had thought that you would yaw ,fire, and then straighten up until the turret was loaded again. This would of course also allow for blast effects to be shed away from the main superstructure.

JonS I am not sure if you are implying that the guns could only fire broadsides? I had assumed that ships could fire forward without knowing it for a fact : ).perhaps blast effects are a possible reason. Anyway with the C turret I had thought that you would yaw ,fire, and then straighten up until the turret was loaded again. This would of course also allow for blast effects to be shed away from the main superstructure.

Nelson pics

Nelson pics

I remember this tale but I am afraid it had more to do with treaty restrictions I believe .Having said that fi you have to come within treaty restrictions you could still change the design, but if you have a battleship supremacy over your likely opponents it is odds on you will be pursuing them. And as for crossing the T having a preponderance* of guns upfront means you can make someone pay for it. * always thought it should be a battleship name : )

I remember this tale but I am afraid it had more to do with treaty restrictions I believe .Having said that fi you have to come within treaty restrictions you could still change the design, but if you have a battleship supremacy over your likely opponents it is odds on you will be pursuing them. And as for crossing the T having a preponderance* of guns upfront means you can make someone pay for it. * always thought it should be a battleship name : )

Really nice prize, very impressive.

So presumably if it was not square on to the small house it would have had a greater chance of seeing the target. : ) Speaking as a man whose pixeltruppen have killed a Sherman head on at 201 metres I believe in war all things are possible. At aptly the game thrives on the fact that nothing is ever 100% guaranteed. Of course 14" naval shells would be guaranteed to leave large holes in the ground.

Also a RoW moment. I am playing the end half of "Loaded for Bear" That is the game is halfplayed for us and the players finish it off. I read the briefing and note the Russians get some tanks to the rescue so play accordingly. After many turns have passed I realie the briefing is for the whole game and I ain't getting no more. Of course if I had checked what I started with on board to what I thought was coming later ..... hindsight is wonderful.

Stalin Are you saying you an do fast and trusted mode by manual incrementing as per your post? I hope I have understood you correctly .... : ) Mudslinger Re-reading your original post I am beginning to suspect that possibly the problem might be that you are not installed in the default directory. Please check where you have it IS listed in the default directory. I had sort of assumed it updated itself or something when it searches for the exe. file when first installed. On reflection I do not see any reason for my assumption : ). If it is not there either amend that part of the program or more quickly just rename your CM directory to one of the defaults and see if it changes it : ) Fingers crossed. I dimly remember the troubles I had with it about 4 years ago : ) but in the light of how much time and effort it saves me I think it is by far the best thing other than CM itself ... It is a great shame more people do not use it. edit spelling

Have you got the manuals mentioned previously? Fast mode will not work without the f5 working as the process wraps all the moves up in VBS. to make it all work. However I am sure this can be overcome. BTW can you test your f5 key to make sure it is not duff for kick-offs : ) Do you have a no-cd loaded or is your machine looking for it? Is the game already running in background [loaded] or do you always start from Helper?

I see what you are saying : ) However nost battles are ME's or scenarios and what was a true complement would rarely ever be seen. But then in the case of recon you would expect them to be split up over a wider area than most units. I believe the British recon would go about in pairs - on the basis one would report back why the other failed to return : ) In ME's you occassionally find people who wish to fight light forces ... two recon screens meeting so you could end up with a fistful on the field. I suppose what I am saying is that regardless of real life complements playing Combat Mission means you almost invariably play with only fractions of the units. However it is always nice to know the correct answer : ) I am sure the infois out there but I have not been able to find it this morning!

If you talk Concord through the Italian map site ....can you send me the instructions also. I have no pressing need - its just I like maps. : ) [i have failed on my first breif attempt but no worries]

Nice idea but the AI has its limitations so it would not really provide a reliable answer. Humans can play stupid or clever and this is what makes balancing tricky. Also it is bad form to "script" a game so that it would always deliver the same result. Players should have some options available them how to play their hand. Those scenarios that have great acclaim are normally those where the players have several choices. This could be through troop mix, terrain, weather etc. If you work backwards from the worlds worst imaginable scenario - Facing King Tigers at 2000 metres without any hills or woods with T34/76's you can then build back as to how the situation could be improved. Gullies, fog, woods, airpower, more troops, hills etc. Every one of these items added makes the game play differently as it adds more choices. Its my theory and I am sticking to it : )

Really you are aking a very big question here : ) First off Wkipedia gives a quick rundown on the tank , production numbers, and usage as a recon tank. It adds the highly significant not much used after 1941. As in all armies the stuff that could not cut it on the front disappeared into the rear areas. In this case the Germans probably had a few too : ). Early war Russia was not a motorised society with very few paved roads outside big towns. Horses for them and the Germans were very important. Particularly so given the effect of General Winter on the terrain. Motorised transports became more common for both sides as the war progressed - excepting the final throes of the Reich. So as to a specific answer - it depends what date you are asking about ....

It was a great laugh and thank you to all the organisers. I only wish that serious RL had not got in the way of writing up my AAr's. Congratulations of course to the worthy section winners .... and even the runners up : )

Yes keep the same name and allow it to increment with the mouse click and pressing F5.You are going to find this makes a hell of a difference : ) Incidentally I found my opponent was starting the game with first turn 000. It seems to prefer 001. Also names such as: "dieseltaylorAxisvsMerkinMuffleyAllies003" really are way too long : ) and make it fall over. However 19 seems to work fine