dieseltaylor

It seems that rock type may allow for better foorings that mean levelling is not necessary. I owned a 1908 house where the back half of the house had a cellar but the front not as it was built on sloping ground. The underlying rock was Kentish ragstone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentish_Ragstone

And I can show you plenty of house that are deliberately built into the hillside so as to provide an undercroft for the animals or crop storage in winter. However you may prefer to look at the many picturesque Italian towns and see how they drop around the hillside. It is evident that Italian practice to accommodate the slope within the building. Unfortunately it is very hard to find photos that prove conclusively this. However this one does show a single building accommodating the slope: http://www.italianhousesforsale.com/comor/images/listing_photos/414_1casa640x480.jpg http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=old+italian+houses&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=old+italian+houses&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&id=CCAEF28AFEA31406EA460310623D3412A533D180&selectedIndex=131

The pictures chosen by JK are the extremes in terrace cultivation and one at least obviously in seacliff territory. Very illustrative though on how they can be. Incidentally I think there is a man in the picture and he is standing by a 6ft terrace - to the left and slightly up from the blue smudge. : ) In any event not all terrain was by any means as heavily terraced as the pictures shown. As for the lack of green sward its a black and white photo : ) Also the emphasis on vines has to be considered in the light of people who were often self-sufficient and may have a few sheep or goats, a cow, chickens, grow some wheat, and vegetables. With modern roads and cheap transport the supplying of cheap vegetables and flour made it unnecessary for the peasants to have subsistence crops and making your own wine would be a commoner use for the terraces. My gut feeling for Italy and France in the war years was that the countryside was still very much worked on a small scale. Similar scenery exists in the Azores and Madeira that I have seen. In the East it tends to be terraced for paddy fields. In all cases the need for controlling water run-off to avoid erosion seems to be deeply embedded. To the specific: http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/smallunit/smallunit-smi.htm the whole story is quite a read - though it does note short grass .... and some pics do indicate vineyards http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/smallunit/map-smi-02.JPG has some nice spot heights and contours I do wonder if Bill for lack of anyway to make terraces that obscured sight did use the long grass.

O/T The reliability of memory and people who lie. I am reading Churchill's Wizards and I think anyone here would find it a very interesting read - and ignore the Churchil bit - that is a title for sales. Its chock full of information. For instance this chap gets a mention: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Meinertzhagen Seriously misleading chap, and a possibly an out and out psychopath. Anyway 601 pages plus 20 pages on source notes, and a 20 page index. Lots of people and lots of facts running from 1914 to 1945. The best book about "The British Genius for Deception" I have ever read starting with helmets and camouflage in WW1 running through the inter war years until the kickoff for the big match and until 1945.

The Allies - However this is not quite true is it. I mean they may not have reported deaths but certainly they were making people ill. http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/167478.html And please note the willingness to test abroad. I have stripped out the mass killings as that is really genocide not eugenics. An interesting point is that in certain societies the killing of newborns is an accepted act if there are deformities etc. Quite understandably in primitive times when all bodies were needed to work for the survival of the people. Think Sparta for an extreme version.

For balance the US position, and apparently carried on into the 1970's. http://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/

OK JK which is the translation button!?

Lovely stuff on the terrain. Great to "walk" the road sections. It does confirm my memory of grass length not being particularly long in a Mediterranean type climate. Also that when designing maps sometimes it is better to go for the essence of the battlefield as the game engine really cannot provide all the detail that exists. The nailing of multiple vehicles with one shot ....... solid shot a given in certain circumstances but explosive filled AP. I suspect that the game does not model it but HE would be the shell of choice? BTW I am not reading Bill'sAAR so I can have a surprise with what happens next ; ). SO how close they were together etc I know not.

JonS. Darkly amusing but Very interesting reading which I have just skipped through but I did notice on the scan Funnily enough I expected something on the British regimental system and I believe eventually copied by the US as adding extra cohesion. As for Mowat neither library system can provide!! : ( Anyway this would be of interest to ME on US training and the 90th and why Divisions perform badly http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA506897

There is no doubt that chivalric acts and barbaric acts were carried out by people from all nations during wars. I don't see much point in banging on about the past other than to draw lessons from why wars are fought. In any population you will find a mix of numskulls, psychopaths and good people who may be persuaded what they do is necessary. The problems is perhaps the politicians who shape the "problem" to get some buy in for war. Without going into the whys and wherefores I am incensed that Tony Blair now has a personal fortune of £20M / $30M acquired after he stopped being Prime Minister. You might think that giving a major chunk to those who have suffered from his decision would be nice. Would nations go to war if it was the leaders who had to fight first ... or their children.

Wow still serious money. I rely on the two local library systems and the second-hand bookshops. One of the advantages of a heavily populated area. On the nature of morale I was playing the intro scenario recently looking at the new commands and one of my squads got shredded over several minutes until just one was left - he was rattled!. I felt this perhaps a tad optimistic. The complaint about veterans becoming less willing to die is borne out by some unit memoirs I have. Its a matter that no one really wants to highlight in the mainstream. I am finding the more I learn of war and the stupidity with which most start the more of a pacifist I become.

On the scale of acts of unbelievable restraint in one of my readings I have a German horse battery being allowed to travel down a road between resting tanks - this AFAIR in Italy. I found that amazing verging on the unbelievable, and the trouble is its not the kind of thing that if true the tankers would report back on. I suspect that shooting horses was the main reason that no one could bring themselves to do the deed. Now all I have to do is find the darn book : (

Sounds a good guy.

Yes it is tragic bad timing. Should we get a replacement in? And apologies for setting off a fairly useless discussion on what is meant by House rules where the definition is more interesting than the content ...oh well. : ) In this break can I ask how many full games the forumites have played of CMFI. For me none as I don't have the game. So I cannot even test bunker and Elephant vulnerabilities

Tsk womble. You fail to notice the subtle distinction between explanations of terms used in the club, suggested behaviours, and "rules". The behavioural hints are not rules they are things to be considered as the norm and for people to be aware that may need to discuss if they wish to go outside them. They are not banned outright. However if you wish to call them rules feel free and perhaps I should have made clearer I was talking of CMx1 or CMx2 specific house rules. Now Fionn's Rules were rules that were very specific and in my opinion misguided. They were rules in the sense that you sought players who used his Rules. Effective if you do not have regular partners and wish to use a shorthand method for agreeing parameters. Gaming the parameters can be an art-form and you should be very wary of opponents who wish to decide on your force components. And then you get opponents who have things like so many uber-tanks, no mines!, no airplanes, symmetrical maps etc etc. who want to start a process of tit for tat what is allowed that you want and what they want.

We are great fans of pig cheeks. Prefer them much more than beef cheek. Free range pig cheek per kg £4.49 . Enough for three people for a couple of dollars equiv. and a few meals over. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/03/nigel-slater-pigs-cheeks-recipe

Just to say: Wikipedia

Well that is one thing about playing in a club. You do that stunt and you may find it hard ever to find a gamer willing to play. In the wild your feelings about that sort of behaviour in your game is not going to prevent him finding other players on the Web. We do have explanatory pieces on what playing blind means, early bombardment etc. as we do get noobies to the genre and to the club. A preliminary game to see that they can at least exchange turns regularly and understand about keeping opponents aware of possible enforced breaks like honeymoons etc. weeds out the unreliables. Another plus is that the exchange between scenario designers and players is good. One of the big benefits is for designers they can have the game played without wrestling with AI scripting , and get lots of feedback if it is tournament game. This is particularly useful in allowing "unbalanced" by design scenarios to be played. One side should win[!] all the battles but having multiple players provides meaningful results as the players on each side can have a pecking order. In the wild unbalanced scenarios really do not exist though in truth most warfare is about unbalanced battles. BTW The h2h program of GAJ's was started in WeBoB.

Yep Australian! : )

Blimey ME you buy expensive books! I was looking at other critical books of the UK performance post D-Day and I was struck by the higher considerations that meant you used sub-optimal tactics but that also conserved life. I am no fan of Montgomery but perhaps I need to read more of the high level stuff. As for the US 's suggested ability to be more effective at adapting to whats on the ground I am left with the feeling that with a very small officer class to command the citizen army more brains came through. Rather like Monash in WW1. Officers learn about the last war, new intake deals with the here and now. Also I suspect the newer officers included more technology savvy men.

I like my battles like Lepanto. A ruse to gain a local advantage. BTW a tactic in CMx1 which I experimented and used on assaults was smoke barrages to screen off sections of the battlefield. On one map I decide on five sequenced barrages to allow me to move my mobile troops into the enemy back area. I did lose some to mines but I think it ended up an honourable draw. The map was such that any other attack looked a loser but this offered the chance of victory. Smoke was very popular in WW2 for a reason. Getting the right weather is a consideration. In a club situation I would give the attacker the choice of time of attack ! And the weather conditions.

Chops -I have played several hundreds of CMx1 and seen lots of people with frankly crackpot views on why their tweak of the game was an improvement - don't waste your time. ! : ) As for in-house rules I am fundamentally against them as they are difficult to enforce and can have unintended consequences. My position has always been that if the game has a problem area then scenario designers should design to negate it or its effects. For instance assault boats created horrendous problems in CMx1. House to house fighting I think is a problem for both versions in play and in design. I used to belong to WeBoB where there are around 100+ gamers .... and you get bounced out for being naughty. http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=109460 CM2 World War 2 is also played. I took leave of absences last year for a variety of reasons but one of them was the original CMBN was not good at all. I thought it better for the club if I did not broadcast my feelings there. CMBN V2 is actually hugely better. I may go back to find reliable partners. GAJ being one.

Seems the cost model is wrong/out-of-control. However I have never actually played most of the games mentioned in the thread. My gut reaction is that the sale price is too low. But as in all markets you have to work out your price point. So if that is lowish then the game ceases to be a labour of love and becomes a commodity. Designers I imagine start to begrudge the demands that they feel are placed on them. Disenchantment and the realisation they are trapped in a particular job market may follow. Now its a moot point whether the designers/producers actually try to do too much - and then release prematurely because thats the slot. That may be a management thing. However that is small beer to the funding problem. In olden times authors got patrons to subscribe for the book and I was wondering if that might still work. Obviously the US Army, and the Australian Army might be viewed as potential or actual patrons. However there desire may rate realism over enjoyment. Crowd-funding or a subscription model? As you can tell I am musing on the fly. Personally I think some games are modern works of art - and I include the possibility that this applies to board and computer games. The trouble is there is a lot of dross before you find the good stuff. BF hit a major seam with the original CMs. I have inherited CNA, Campaign for North Africa, all 9 foot of map and the individual pilot logs. Hugely realistic -probably - but a huge turkey and you have to wonder what SPI were thinking of when they decided to do it. Vanity? Deathwish? However reverting to current times I wonder whether there is mileage in trying to dress potentially dour games with a little fun. Say for BF CMBN was introduced with a circuit ... and people honed their driving skills on it and reported the time. A nice little filler whilst awaiting a turn perhaps. Or realising that your 1.31 seconds was not that clever when others were cracking 1.15. : ) Throw in some hills for people to appreciate the effects of slope, and perhaps a cross country course ...... Any way you get the drift - trying to put fun into the game whilst learning the ropes. If this seems to be drifting from the economics of game selling I rest my case on the basis that if people enjoy the game they play more and tell more of their mates. I never play reaction games but the Borderland series is so seriously funny and sufficiently cartoonish that killing mammals is acceptable and I like to play. I am not suggesting that being funny is always the right approach just that in a world with lots of competing objects for time you need as many hooks out for punters as you can get. Is being cheerful that keeps me going : )

Do you keep track of the shells fired? I would like to know when the Brummbar has to be careful etc. I think it is a great shame the loadouts are not varied. It is surprisingly easy to forget to take a tank of bombardment ..... ANyway this is getting quite exciting

I think we tend to assume no penetration means no result however in RL coming under fire from an ATG you could not locate, or being worried about immobilisation or flank shots probably did have a deterrent effect. Depending on orders you might bull it out or decide on another route. A general rule being you do not find ATG's singly would also be a consideration. And side on a Sherman would be penetrated at 500m+. Actual kills of Shermans by 50mm is surely a function of range and position so in close country or town then I am sure the 50mm could be dangerous US Intelligence Bulletin report 1943 http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/50mm/index.html to give some feel to the matter http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/50mm/index.html The interesting thing in game terms is really how well can they be hidden compared to alternative ATG's