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GillFish

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Everything posted by GillFish

  1. I second Sonars “Battleground Europe” recommendation. I have three: “Hill 112”, “Operation Epsom” and “Operation Goodwood”. I find them concise, with good photos of the terrain. The focus is on specific operations, not on the overall campaign. Maps could be better (always the case), but are better than most and are good enough to follow the narrative. Look for them used on Amazon.
  2. From the German perspective: The Germans in Normandy” by Richard Hargreaves and “D-Day – Piercing the Atlantic Wall” by Robert Kershaw (Amazon has a thorough review on D-Day). “Germans” is written from an individual soldiers viewpoint, but spends some time explaining the disappearance of the Luftwaffe and navy. “D-Day” focuses on the first six days of the invasion.
  3. Since both Balkowski and Reynolds were mentioned in this post, I’d suggest “Eagles and Bulldogs in Normandy” by Michael Reynolds, a comparison between the British 3rd and the American 29th Division performance during the opening days of D-day. Good maps and appendix.
  4. JonS, Thanks for the extensive reply. I did notice that Hastings and D’Este had differing opinions about Montgomery, and that Hastings explicitly mentioned England’s manpower shortage. At the time I thought Hastings must have written his book much later than D and therefore had fresher information available, but the copyrights on both books are within one year of another (D 1983, H 1984). I’ll keep an eye out for the Patton bias if I re-read the book; I’m afraid I’m too casual of a reader to pick up on such subtleties. Thank’s for attaching the booklist; some interesting titles I’ll have to look up. At the risk of hijacking this thread, may I recommend Adrian Goldworthy’s “The Punic Wars” and Donald Kagan’s “Peloponnesian Wars” to augment your interest in ancient history (which is about the extent of my ancient warfare library)? Back to lurking now....
  5. JonS I'm curious about which of D'Este's conclusions you find debatable. Can you list one or two? This request is not meant to be belligerent, I'm just genuinely interested. Also, is there a more current campaign book you can recommend (besides Beevor's, which I've heard is a re-hash of existing sources). I personally am waiting for Rick Atkinson's third book in the Liberation Trilogy. Thanks P.S. That's the same Beevor review I'd read.
  6. Just wanted to say thank you for an entertaining AAR. The reasoning behind your deployment was well described and the accompanying screenshots were excellent. Great location for the 88’s!
  7. Actually, this is James Blake Miller, aka the "Marlboro Soldier" and he returned home. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/29/MNGMHGVCEV1.DTL
  8. Anthon, RO = Red Orchestra, an online WWII FPS. http://www.redorchestragame.com/
  9. 'PZ VIE (early) aka "Tiger"': that line alone was worth a good chuckle. Congrats on your new son. I’m guessing you’re not going to be posting for a while: the first 3 months are tough (diapers, sleep deprivation, feeding bottles, oh my!) .
  10. Saw this one and had to go back and read the other four. Thanks for the laughs and please keep them coming.
  11. Was mann hier alles lernen kann: eine Motte die wie ein Kolibri ausschaut. Wer haette das gedacht.
  12. Bestimmit schon oefters gehoert, aber das sind richtig schoene Photos. Reist Du beruflich oder als Hobby?
  13. If I remember correctly, someone posted a map of the Cherkassy Pocket breakout which was included with Douglas Nash's book "Hell's Gate". Does the link to that post still exist? My copy of the book just arrived, but without any map. A search didn't turn up anything. Of course, my memory could be failing ....
  14. MikeyD, I don't worry about my platoon commander's opinion (with my skills their lifespan is rather short); it's when the High Command starts to take an interest in my ineptitude that my nights become restless.
  15. Two questions, same flavor: will some form of the infamous ‘split-squad’ command still exist? i.e. can I send two men forward to scout for my unit? Second question: can my tank commander exit his vehicle to scout ahead?
  16. Zveroboy, You may know this already, but it looks like Stackpole is re-releasing 'Grenadiers' in April. Found info here: http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?isbn=0811731979
  17. The King of Beers, so I was told many years ago, can’t copy write/ trademark ‘Budweiser’ in Europe because the name belongs to a beer brewing region in the Czech Republic. Thus the absence of Budweiser in France. More info here: http://www.budvar.cz/index.html No guess about Starbucks.
  18. Dave, My philosophy isn't so much "play until I win", it's more like "this blew up in my face, so let's try something else". The reason I re-play the games is to figure out what works and what doesn't. In jargoness this translates as "refining my tactics in a risk free environent". Yes, the surprise is gone after the first game, but knowing what’s out there still doesn’t mean I can effectively counter it (although the intelligence certainly helps). Perhaps I should restate my original question as ‘How many gamers enjoy playing against the AI and find it a challenge?’. There’s gotta be some of you out there.
  19. How often do you play a given scenario before winning? After reading many of AAR and posts on this board I'm left with the impression that just about everyone playing CM:BB but me is a junior Manstein or Guderian, capable of winning every game on the first try without breaking a sweat. Me, I'm just a guy who has read a bunch of WWII related books, but is no way an expert. It usually takes me three tries to win a given scenario and I consider myself lucky if I get a draw on the first try. For example, in my first attempt at 'Jaegermeister', I managed to take control of the village, but lost all my armor in the subsequent tank duels. In my second attempt, I lost 20% of my initial armor allotment before the village assault even started due to an ATG and, I believe, a hidden panzerfaust. For my third attempt, I think my tanks are going sidestep the town completely and leave the assault to the support guns and infantry. So back to my original question: how many tries does it take you to get a result better than a tie? For the really honest players, here's a second question: have you ever replayed or reploted a catastrophic turn hoping for a better result?
  20. ACTOR, I was hoping you'd be hosting again. Count me in.
  21. I EMailed Amazon my questions. Here's hoping they correct their product information in a timely manner.
  22. Is the version of CM:BB on Amazon the special edition, or the regular version. I'm confused because I don't recognize the publisher 'Global Software Publishing' and there appears to be a price difference, nor is the product description adequate. Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000BV1LI/qid=1063237428/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-4536296-8705710?v=glance&s=videogames&n=507846
  23. Currently conquering the known world in Medieval: Total War (muha-ha). Recently picked up Ghost Recon, which looks quite interesting. Regarding WWII tank sims: I played and enjoyed Panzer Elite for years before abandoning it for CM:BO.
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