StellarRat

To certain point that is true, however, since the acceleration is a squared function the amount of stress on the walls and rifling of the barrel goes up much faster than the corresponding increase in shell velocity. Eventually, the rifling or barrel is damaged. It is much more practical to add length to the barrel and give the expanding gas more time to accelerate the shell. As a side note: A lot of modern guns are smoothbore. This allows a more velocity because there is no drag on the shell from the rifling and you don't have worry about ripping the rifling out of the barrel by forcing a shell down it too fast. [ October 07, 2002, 07:26 PM: Message edited by: StellarRat ]

You can control some of these factors with shell weight, the burning speed of the propellant, and strength of the barrel too. But I agree with your general statement, longer barrel more velocity, shorter barrel less velocity.

Well, in this case the Russians were pretty far away and there was plenty of Hungarian infantry around the pillbox that was still capable of defending. Personally, I don't know why anyone would abandon those nice thick concrete walls when they are under small arms fire. In fact, if I was an infantry unit I'd probably try to move into the pillbox and fire from there. Now, if engineers or some type of heavy weapons were closing in/firing then I could see running away when the ammo ran dry (possibly before even ). Also, I see no reason why the crew can't continue to fire from the pillbox with their own weapons.

Why is that "gamey"? They would still have their personal weapons and the enemy might not know they're out of ammo. And it is possible that they might be resupplied after the battle (unless they're surrounded.) A squad with no ammo would still count and the crew of the pillbox was seven men.

OK, it's not a bug, but it's stupid. By the way, I read the manual twice, but did not remember that passage, however, I'm sure it's in there if you guys say so. [ October 06, 2002, 02:14 PM: Message edited by: StellarRat ]

I believe that changing barrels was/is a very quick operation for a trained crew. Don't think it should take more than one turn.

I was playing the Hungarians on defense in a QB. The Russians attacked and my pillboxes w/MGs mowed them down in hordes. But, then as soon as the pillboxes ran out of ammo the crews abandoned them and ran out into enemy fire taking casualities for no reason. They would have been much safer staying and fighting from the pillboxes with their small arms rather than abandoning. The crews hadn't taken any casualities until they abandoned. Also, at the end of the game the two pillboxes were listed as destroyed. I think these might be bugs or at the minimum something that needs to be tweaked in the AI for more realism. [ October 06, 2002, 01:51 PM: Message edited by: StellarRat ]

I've gotten Finns the last 3 out of 4 random battles I've played as Axis. Seems a little odd to me too, but I'll track it and see if it's just a lucky or unlucky streak.

I'd like to see them revise the engine to get rid of borg spotting, add a roster function, and the other things that people want then release a combined WW II Europe (CMBO & CMBB ) game using the new engine. BFC has already stated that they don't feel qualified (from a historical knowledge perspective) to do a Pacific front game. After that, I'd be much more interested in Korea through Modern than the minor fronts in WW II.

"A no win situation is a possibly every Captain must face" - James T. Kirk

I've been able to win a couple as the Germans. The key is to spend most of your time and units shooting and only move a few unit when the enemy is well pinned. I seem to do best with three units shooting and one unit moving.

Someone probably has a keyboard remapping driver/program you can download. Also, if you own a programmable keyboard you can change a lot of stuff without too much trouble. With the right software the mouse wheel can also be programmed to send a certain keystroke depending on which way you spin it (like + and -).

I thought they were useful in CMBO, but a little tricky to use. Haven't tried them in CMBB yet.

I have read real life accounts where artillery was way off the mark (usually due to a mistake by the FO.) I wouldn't imagine that this should happen very often though. If I remember right didn't Squad Leader have a roll on the dice where your first shot actually landed off the map? I don't know if BFC is purposely trying to simulate blunders or if it's bug though. [ September 25, 2002, 05:07 PM: Message edited by: StellarRat ]

CMBB is more fun for me then CMBO because of the increased realism. Is it more fun then going from the other wargames available at the time CMBO was released to CMBO? No. That first jump from regular wargames to BTS games was incredible. So far, I haven't seen anything that rivals CMBO yet and BFC is already a generation ahead of that with CMBB!

At the level of complexity CMBB is at the AI has hard time against the human brain (for anyone that is an experienced wargamer.) The best games are really human vs. human. If you want really challenging AI battles tell the computer to choose 3 or 4 times your number of points (if you're defending.)

It's here now! But I'm stuck at work for the next 5 hours! Oh well, gotta pay for the game somehow.

Yes, I think the Germans were the first to start using cluster bombs. This is probably a very primitive version of what we use today, but I'm sure still very deadly. Now, if my game would just get here I could find out for myself! GRRRR!

They've had some rather bizzare problems since they got the new BBS software a few months ago. I lost entire thread I started once. It turned out that it had an ID number that was later duplicated by another thread, so the BBS brought up the last thread under that ID. I'm starting to get the feeling that this only happens when there is heavy posting going on. My programmer sense tells me that there is a timing/record locking issue somewhere in the BBS software and/or the database that stores the messages, so that when the traffic is heavy duplicate ID's are assigned occasionally. These types of bugs are really hard to find because they are very difficult to duplicate, BTW.

OK, I averaged about 15 - 22 sec for thinking and generating the movie (the blue bar?) combined. It took about 5 secs longer once the shooting started. Running an Athlon 2100 XP with 768 Ram and Geforce 4 Ti 200 128. However, I also had the internet (with modem connection open) and two messengers plus virus scan running while I was doing this.

I noticed my desk chronometer runs backwards while I read your posts too. Hey, does that mean you actually know how the game will end before you start? Or that you can't really play a game because they actually never start? Hmm... [ September 19, 2002, 12:41 AM: Message edited by: StellarRat ]

Why don't you buy a real computer instead of that pocket calculator you call a PC and quit whining...? Besides, I have serious doubts that you can complete your turns in 26 seconds, so think about how your poor PC feels while it's waiting for you. [ September 19, 2002, 12:37 AM: Message edited by: StellarRat ]

Something with a few PZ IV's and some T-34s, and a little infantry and arty.

I don't believe those numbers for France. Unless it's because half the country is unemployed so the ones that are working work extra hard to support the others. Also, Americans may work harder, but we generally have/want more stuff so that makes sense. If I didn't want any material goods other than food and a place to live I could get by on a LOT less money (hence less working hours.) [ September 15, 2002, 09:16 PM: Message edited by: StellarRat ]

It did say quite clearly on the pre-order page that you would be charged right away, but the game was not shipping until 9/20.