dieseltaylor

One wonders how much image is shaped by the Press reports both for home and enemy consumption. And I am just curious if there was favourable Press and leaks to make the Calais landing a believable story. And not forgetting the quality of the troops under command. And the subordinates. And the nature of the opposition which they faced. If someone served in Burma under Slim then thay may well feel that their value/effectiveness was never given the same exposure. Patton fired less commanders and lost less men than Bradley but I always think that this kind of data in isolation means nothing. Anyway an intersting piece on the unnecessary Hurtgen Forest .. http://www.historynet.com/battle-of-hurtgen-forest.htm

No matter how improbable something will always happen : ) Well done him!

JohnnyCanuck - the Technical Forum here seems to be populated by some very savvy members. I see it was a vido card/drivers problem a decade ago. And to be honest one suspects an unfortunate hardware mix rather than CMBB. Giving BF one last chance!??! : )

All very encouraging . I have an interest in physical geography and maps and I do think good maps make a hell of a difference to atmosphere for a game. It is easier to appreciate good maps when they are big so you can see how it hangs together, And of course there are those nightmare maps where bridges occur every 100 or 200 yards along a stream ..as if ..! I do have a copy of M Lays book "Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and the Vehicles that Used Them" which I recommend highly to anyone with an interest in maps/geography/travel. I look forward to seeing some quality maps - which to my mind can be genuine works of art. Tiger Valley is a masterpiece, Theike springs to mind for some cracking maps, but generally speaking all the attention goes to the scenario designer. Unfortunately not every map designer is a good scenario designer : ( - and vice versa. Perhaps we should look forward to partnerships like Rodgers/Hart etc. ... though I am not to sure that I would be keen on a Laural and Hardy product! All very encouraging . Edit. - I agree with Mikey D whole-heartedly. The most hateful thing to my mind is the symetrical map -"because it make the game equal" GRR! grumble.

The reason for larger maps/forces was to even out the Lady Luck factor. Particularly when bogging appeared in CMBB! Larger forces also meant you could have decent combined arms : ) Thanks for the warning on time required!!!! I will feel it a duty to do atleast one large map before I pop my clogs. Being familiar with France/ Normandy should help - those Allo Allo episodes will not be wasted : )

Sources???

Woods in Normandy - well apart from numerous orchards trees were actually planted for a reason and therefore any images of how dense and tangled woods are may need to be reigned back. Hiding from aircraft would be difficult unless they were fast moving and you were not moving and had some rudimentary camouflage. Hiding from Piper Cubs was of course much more difficult if they were loitering overhead. Though not relevant to Normandy, in France up until the 1950's over 100 chemicals were derived from trees . And amusingly I discovered this site which discusses cars running on wood! http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/01/wood-gas-cars.html

And what about Pfaust tripods?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_Force_Baum I had no idea he was so gung-ho [stupid] in this instance.

I am not sure that victims necessarily judge their fate on how they are actually killed. I think starvation and bullets as methods of killing are actually not a recommendation for Soviet Russia.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/119497684.html Waukesha is a very interesting place. In the whole of Wisconsin it is the only substantial place [over 50000 voters] where Prosser did better than 2 to 1 over his opposition. Have done a spreadsheet of the results from above and of all the major conurbations Prosser has done best here. Also the missing votes went to him by 3.2 votes for every one to his opponent. The average for Waukesha prior to the missing ballots being found was 2.8 in his favour. The highest polling area for Prosser in Wisconsin was Washington which gave him 3.1 Now forgive me for this but if I were collating voting figures as my job I would have a spreadsheet ready to fill in the figures as they came in. ANd if my highest voting area was missing you would expect to notice it - wouldn't you. Which comes back to wondering about exceptionally high voting in September. In no way am I saying it is impossible but outliers are often worth investifgating to establish why they are what they are ... and that also goes for under-reporting areas also.

An area I have carefully avoided so far but I must admit to being a little riled by the current voting scandal [potential scandal]. I do not care a hoot who wins but for a democracy the safety of the ballot box I rate very highly. Incidentally I assume this is getting a lot of coverage in the US...? Added - a more low-key report: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/119486574.html which is perhaps more measured in its reporting. And are the figures really out of line: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/119519294.html but

I am unable to read German so I suspect most of the resource provided I will not be able to read. However if what is said is true then I am encouraged that some of the German HQ was not stupidly loyal. Loyalty should be to the country and not solely to the Government in power. If the "traitors" connived to an earlier end to the war and less land going to the Russians then it is all to the good. Incidentally Rommel going off to a party does not rate very highly in my estimation of sabotaging the war effort. The weather conditions around the landing date were fairly unpleasant and the Germans may have mistaken the effects on landing possibilities as they had no experience of seaborne landings - other than the welcome party. Losing a war swiftly is actually perhaps not necessarily bad for the population even if it is bad for their leaders psyche. But then leaders go to war for lots of reasons - and a lot of time one is left feeling it is an ego thing.

Oops more. Unfortunately you will have to extract the possible from the dross. And a Spanish recreation of the accident ... apparently : ). However it does look very low-speed and unlikely to result in serious injury.

His honeymoon was 1910 so tank warfare would not have been uppermost in his mind : ). However even for an infantryman the idea of dozens of barricades per kilometre one might consider. His voice - not too bad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg_aBN6wE80 but just to check it is really him this is a genuine clip However I did also find this clip which relates to the political shenanigans after the event - worth watching and reading:

There was a call for longer games and people designed operations to simulate longer battles. But the operation side was a bit SNAFU'ed. I fought BotrytisII about 4 times and that was lengthy and serious points [designer WineCape]. Using PBEMhelper in Trusted mode that 60 turn game could be comfortably played in two weeks. That is a turn morning and night. And in any event a 4km*4km does not require the action to start at baseline. And importantly it does mean you can start with reinforcements on-board and then drive where you will without the teleporting approach of CM*1

Dickhead? A member with a brain? Of course we need a Rumblings of War! And one with the new glossy CM2 underpinnings .... which I confidently expect will be won by a beta-tester : ). I imagine a 2012 series would be better than a 2011 rush-job. The flipside of that is I imagine there are quite a few unplayed scenarios in existence at this very moment. It does occur to me that to ease admin some of the work could be devolved through the clubs. On our own I suspect WeBoB could field 40 eager players in May! Normal rules to apply for all but sub-administered to possibly 3 or 4 groups and a Battlefront one for the unattached. Alternatively it could be restricted to previous players but that would seem to be the small option in terms of expanding the PBEM playing population.

Unfortuantely for that line of argument it would have been a suicidal argument to put to the populations who had been fighting, or occupied by the Axis powers. Rather galling to have two fruit loops on the prowl in the shape ofMacArthur and Patton had he lived to put out this message. Assuming of course that it is true. The career of the people named does suggest that they were part of the insiders club.

You have to say the owner must have been slightly annoyed when the TV station burnt down! http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/britains-oldest-working-tv/236869/

Blimey no one emntioned it to me before!! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3869117/General-George-S.-Patton-was-assassinated-to-silence-his-criticism-of-allied-war-leaders-claims-new-book.html

fugazy - Gen Patton actually honeymooned in France pre-wars and I understand travelled through Normandy and definitely visited Mount St. Michel so at least to one senior commander the nature of that part of France should not have been that surprising. Part of the British forces in 1940 retreated to Cherbourg to be evacuated ... but I suspect they were in a hurry to catch the ferry. : ).

ME not 34 breaches but 34 hedges to breach. From Lt. Belenko links here I have extracted a couple of compelling points regarding artillery and casualties: http://www.btinternet.com/~ian.a.paterson/battles1944.htm#Normandy Incidentally the brigadebox.jpg in the linked article can be saved and if you blow it up you can easily see the density of hedges. Though it is not topographical if you look at where the streams run you can guess where the high and low ground is. I am not sure what the gridlines mark - possibly they are one kilometre squares, or possibly one mile. All those orderly trees are most likely to be in apple orchards as in Normandy cider production would be for home drinking plus some cash sales. Anyone know what the scale is?

Its lovely to see all the lurkers are prepared to come out of seclusion for a decent WW2 game : ) I will mention the club I belong to, WeBoB, devoted to CM WW2 which remained with the true faith and never allowed CMSF to darken its doors. Hopefully the Battlefront Forum for opponents will spring into life here and there will be plenty of good gaming. WeBoB was originally formed to cover the problem of unreliable opponents who bailed or went AWOL for months. I hope you are all lucky with your opponents you find on-line and enjoy good banter with your opponents. For a non-ladder relaxed club WeBoB does exist. Well - relaxed once you have joined; and maintain a game, or be involved in a game each quarter. People who bail on games or cheat* get shown the door! *I know of only one certifiable cheat that got caught at WeBoB but it did lead us to asking for some extra ID as he was repeatedly trying to re-join. He was later thrown from another club. http://www.webandofbrothers.de/ And for rare visitors here remember you can e-mail other members through the BF profile

Who cares as the game engine will be indifferent to either sides feelings as what is nonsensical. Anyway are not ladders terribly passe for true players!

Ah yes repeating a calumny for extra mileage - a well-known gutter press activity!!! Only kidding Ron : ) I don't think that as abuse goes this is actually much. I speak as a habitual defender of JK's right to post. Also in a way it is a back-handed corroboration of unpopular views are not necessarily wrong and mainstream theories are not always supported by true science.