LongLeftFlank

They still default to the same height as all the other water tiles on the map though. So you end up with tiny streams in massive ravines.

Thanks, Erwin. I hope you'll be as productive a playtester for this map as you were for Joker 3. And as to feeling "sorry" for me -- well, I'm able to earn a reasonable living using roughly the same personality disorder as I'm applying here for pleasure. But enough chit-chat; here's another fidelity check. I decided to build out a stretch of the Vire river bank due west of the railway station. While using the 1947 Mosquito shot as authoritative, I also drew on a contemporary photo embedded in Google Maps: After a couple hours of the aforementioned obsessive tweaking, here's my version (sorry about the low res patch in the background -- I had to dial my settings way back to get the map to preview): A lot of the tweaking had to do with the angle of the river banks. This stretch of the Vire is 3 squares wide (~24m) and using 3 pure Water tiles gives a very steep "cliff" embankment which is an inhospitable surface for the vegetation that should be growing right down to (and sometimes into) the water. Using one Water tile with a Deep Ford on each side gives me a pretty authentic angle (you can be the judge). For long "straight" stretches of river, I also occasionally mix it up by using a couple of Shallow Ford or Water tiles instead -- this makes the riverbank look more natural. The next step was getting the right vegetation on the bank. Here's my secret sauce, for those interested: 1. Most adjacent tiles are Light Forest, with occasional patches of Heavy Forest, XT Grass, Marsh (plus Shallow Ford water adjacent) or other (weeds, etc.) 2. About half the riverbank tiles also contain a "gapped" Bocage, Low Bocage or Hedge object placed at a random angle so as to look like a naturally growing bush or thicket and authentically inhibit LOS. 3. The Vire was a "working river" (canal) until the early 20th century and had a towpath on both banks. Although these were disused and overgrown by 1944, most of the regrowing trees were (and are still) relatively small. 4. I haven't laid the hedgerows on the bordering fields yet, so except for the chapel at Bahais (center), the areas away from the Vire still look a little barren.

Low-res shot of La Germainerie la Meauffe, showing the primary American axes of advance: along the Vire, Route 3 and the rail line. Most of the building and farm complexes in town are now done and I'd shortly like to start building a "prelude" scenario (Baker Co. 1/119's fight to secure this area on June 18), using a submap.

La Caillourie, one of those little Norman hamlets on the banks of the Vire whose rooftops are barely visible above the bocage.

Put [img ] pic.jpg [ /IMG] around the images (delete those extra spaces) and we can see then without clicking links

Careful... Just to spite you, they'll have all the voices done by Dick Van Dyke!

Really? I've found brush to be worthless for concealment purposes.

Good discussion here and if you haven't fought Broadsword's la Nicollerie map yet, you definitely should. I personally think of it as CMBN "as it oughta be", but your own MMV. One real revelation as I flesh out my le Carillon monster map (building farmsteads and their immediately surrounding terrain -- slowly) is that there is a wealth of natural dead zones and blind spots, both natural (irrigation ditches and wider stream draws) and manmade ( like rail cuts and embankments). A smart attacker will seek these out, but a smart defender will mine, defilade and TRP them! Definitely a critical and challenging third dimension missing from many of the "pooltable" maps.

Actually, I was kind of disappointed it went away so easily, since I was looking for a way to synthesize a hovering helo gunship in CMSF using a suitable light AFV (TOWs for Hellfires, etc.). Other than as an OBA module that is.

Ever notice th' funny sound those new zippers make, Willie?

Had flying Ali-Babas in CMSF too. Iirc, if you select a unit on a rooftop and then flip the camera view tomax elevation then back again, theunit floats. The bug goes away if you save and reload

CMBN did add a couple of little barn objects less than 1x1 in size, so it's clearly feasible... Just tricky to make work, I expect, for reasons you cite and maybe others too. As to the issue of excess personnel hanging around outside, all the better, since you wouldn't want units of more than 3 entering in the first place.

An intermediate-sized bell tower (distinct from the 8 floor cathedral spire) is sorely missed, just as minarets were conspicuously missing from CMSF. The small square building type is an imperfect substitute for either, owing to its carrying capacity.... A 3 man MG or FOO team is about all you'd expect to fit in a church tower. I thought BFC could work up a special "bunker" type fortification (these are basically an immobile vehicle) with a multistory "turret" but they have other priorities.

Unless his last name is Scott or Uhura, he's a goner. And I don't see no earrings.

Nah, the British don't need help from the Yanks to handle this one. Captain Hurricane is on the job!

Ah yes, the famed SPW 1968 Wodstuckhippistonerwagen, affectionately dubbed "Herbi" by its crews, when they weren't too stoned. Main armament consisted of rear-facing 120mm nitrous oxide dispenser. Whose Thomas Pynchon mod are you using?

* Shakes his head and goes play Zero Wing.

Your typo reminds me of a tale from my Lonely Planet backpacker days. One night early in the monsoon season I was riding a motorbike in Northern Thailand. The tarmac roads were wet but still warm from the sun which seemed to make them irresistible to hordes of tiny yellow frogs. So there I am, driving through the paddies watching one frog after another take a magnificent leap in my headlight to land perfectly in front of my tire -- Pop! Pop! Pop! for miles on end, grossing me out the entire way. So if we are indeed reincarnated, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm coming back as in the next life. Selah!

Wait -- isn't Kampfgruppe an ersatz combined arms formation of multi-battalion size roughly analogous to the US "Task Force" . Combat Commands were permanent regiment-sized formations within certain US armoured divisions.

Steiner14, I don't intend to click these links in light of your past record on this board, but they wouldn't by any chance happen to be yet another attempt to deny, justify or whitewash brutal Nazi crimes, would they?

The one I always get hung up on is the difference between brigade and regiment. I believe that in all WWII armies regiments were nearly 100% dependent on their parent divisions for all forms of support including arty (other than company-level mortars) armour, supply, etc. Distinct from battalions, Regimental command staffs were large enough to plan and execute their own operations,drawing on higher echelon support as needed. Brigades in contrast, while also comprised of battalions were more like mini-divisions in that they were organized and staffed to function without a parent division. I'll let others build on / refute that though.

Playing defence plus personnel shortage plus totalitarian regime collectively increase the chance for "heroic" outliers (although you also have mass surrenders which didn't occur much for the Allies after 1942). Superior German equipment also plays a role in the case of tank "aces", though secondary IMHO. The USAAF could afford to pull their top ace, Dick Bong, out of combat and make him a test pilot. In contrast, there's a reason Adolf Galland's memoir is titled "The First and the Last"

Rokko -- No sarcasm intended. I'm no uniform grog -- just seen a lot of photos and tend to go by what I thought I saw.... until I don't :b And as to haircuts, after a couple weeks in the field I'd think your average Tom would be lucky to get a shave in, much less the old "short back and sides" (aka "high and tight" for the Yanks). Happy to be proved wrong though.

Ah yes, I see what you mean.

And harking back to one of the perennial "Will There Be A PTO Mod" threads, these Para helmets fitted with a coarser web pattern should do well enough for the Japanese.