Silvio Manuel

I'm mainly into area impulse games (Breakout : Normandy, Monty's Gamble) and I've already pre-ordered Breakthrough: Cambrai... but I always have an eye out for new games... thanks for the tip, John~ If anyone here is up for a game of BKN or MGMG (preferably on Vassal), please send me a private message and we'll get a game going...

I've played paintball I think 3 times (full day outings), but the 1st two were much more memorable. I think the biggest variable in enjoyment for me was that for my 2nd game, I had bought my own mask which fogged up much less than the rented mask of the 1st outing. It's hard enough to see with a mask on; much worse, with one that fogs up in about 10 seconds once you're running around. 1st outing: rented all equipment, gun, mask, bought a modest supply of paintballs. Played about 15 on 15 in a forested setting (Coram Paintball, Long Island). Had some fun, but was very frustrated about poor visibility from fogged mask. Rented gun was not accurate and may have suffered from low ball velocity from clogs due to bits of dirt or pre-exploded paintballs. Or, the gun just sucked anyway (or had a weak cartridge). 2nd outing: had read a lot more about military tactics and what-not, and bought my own mask (but not gun... the mask was maybe $30, and guns are far more than that). bought about 2x the amount of paintballs, and 2 paint grenades. The first course we played that day was a 'capture the flag' course... there was a primitive small building in the middle, and the flag was hung just beyond that. Both sides are supposed to go in and get the flag and take it back to their base (or just shoot everyone on the other side to win). In the direction I was going, there was a small hill to the right about 30 yards away. So I decided to make a mad dash for it (I'm NOT fast!)... I got about halfway there before getting shot twice, once in the stomach, and once (painfully!) in the left nipple. Nothing like being overconfident with new tactical knowledge, and taking 10 steps before getting blasted in the nipple. BUT... we then reversed sides, and I took the left side, where there was a decent sized hill close to our left. I moved up there, didn't advance too far, tried to wait for a chance to make a difference, which was tough since I was having trouble with my shooting accuracy (crappy rental gun). After quite awhile, I was able to scoot quite far down the (relatively open!) course, as I guess the enemy were busy engaging other targets. I was able to get all the way into their back left corner, then started to work my way towards the middle... and ultimately ran up behind one enemy and 'surrendered' him from his 6'o'clock. Then in front of me were the last 3 enemy in the house, but facing away from me, shooting at my side's base. I should have just run at them full speed and yelled surrender from 5 ft away, but instead I opened fire, killed 1 of them, but one of the remaining 2 finally realized where the fire was coming from and turned and killed me. It could have turned out better, but that one battle more or less satisfied me for a lifetime of paintballing (considering I only played 3 times before giving it up).

It's too bad they didn't do more with the attack on Kashyyyk (the Wookiee planet) in Episode III. Kashyyyk is a planet of giant trees that are maybe thousands of feet tall. It's also one of the deadliest known planets. The Wookiees only dare live not too far from the tops of the trees in their tree(house) cities. The further down towards the direction of the planet's surface once goes, the deadlier the local wildlife is. No Wookiee has ever been known to see the surface and come back to tell the tale. They could have made the battle feature maybe somekind of special ops mission "far" down the trees... the creatures lurking down there could have been an arboreal equivalent of deep-sea anglers and other freaky fish of the deep.

Supposedly in the Star Wars canon, two bizarre things were about to happen, if the Rebels didn't blow up the 2nd Death Star. (1) The Death Star C.O. was under orders from the Emperor to fire the laser and destroy Endor the moment the Rebels brought down the energy shield, if they ever did. He decided to disobey that order. Supposedly the reason he did that is Vader had already thrown the Emperor down the shaft and thus killed him... and the Emperor has been force-influencing lots of important Imperial ship captains and pilots (not quite controlling, but still improving fleet performance quite a bit, like 20-30%) ... so when he died, the pilots didn't fly as well (contributing to the otherwise implausible failure to prevent the core's destruction)... and the Death Star CO grew a spine since he was no longer being force-influenced. (2) Remember IG-88, the droid bounty hunter? He supposedly had created a super computer virus that was already infecting the Death Star... he was just about to activate it and thus quickly take control over the entire Imperial computer system (including all ships!)... and in doing so he may have taken control of the Galaxy. So blowing up the 2nd Death Star prevented it! Ewoks: yeah they took some fallout I would think. No fun, that. That's a hell of a lot of fur for one to have falling out in clumps.

As a Yankee fan, this year I finally feel like I know what it's like to have been a Met fan for the last 13 years. Now that the glorious Rays have sealed the deal, I'm off to buy some champagne. GARZA? Who'd'uve thunk it?

Just curious- what are your top 3 reason why you like it better than XP?

Vista is losing out because consumers like me are instead saving up money and waiting until Windows Mojave comes out

Howdy John, Thanks for the tip. Your link, however, just took me to a screen that says "Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms." Where you trying to lead me to search results for a specific set of terms, or was that just your roundabout way of telling me to 'do a search!'

Hello all, I'm hoping you could provide me with a few WWII movie recommendations. Mainly I'm looking for (in this order) movies regarding 1- Ground battles (as opposed to a heavy focus on the Air or Sea battles) in the Western and Eastern Fronts 2- Commando raids 3- N. Africa 4- Air battles 5- Sea battles I've seen (including all theaters): Saving Private Ryan Band of Brothers The Longest Day A Bridge Too Far Battle of the Bulge Bridge at Remagen Bridge on the River Kwai Midway Pearl Harbor Thin Red Line Flags of our Fathers Letters from Iwo Jima Hiroshima Sink the Bismarck Thanks~ -SM

Great - I will send a message to you through BGG

Hey Jason, Very cool - yeah I enjoy that site quite a bit as well. I post there as "5th_Para_Bde" Mostly I play Breakout : Normandy, and Monty's Gamble : Market-Garden (via cyberboard). but I just bought a whole slew of games that I either haven't played yet or just got this month (just became a BG addict, ha ha...) Storm Over Arnhem We the People Warplan Dropshot Paths of Glory The Third World War Bloody Kasserine AVL Monty's D-Day I'm only fully up-to-speed on BKN, MGMG, and SOA, but I would be eager for a game in any of these should you be interested.

JasonC - do you also post at BGG.com - if so I believe I have seen your (very well detailed and useful!) posts on the AVL forum. Cheers, SM

It was very odd to me when I realized that the same actor that plays The Chef in Apocalypse Now is the psycho neo-Nazi army/navy surplus store owner in the movie Falling Down with Michael Douglas... talk about 2 different characters!

Hmmm, I'll defer to them, didn't realize the match was for that cause.

Sure - email me and we'll discuss the particulars [ June 13, 2008, 11:56 PM: Message edited by: Silvio Manuel ]

I agree with you Andreas, it is a very fun scenario - very tense... I like that about the smaller ones.

Is this game conventional weapons only? Or are nuclear / bio / chem weapons also included?

Things were going fine for the 8th Air Force, until that bomber was shot down and the Krauts turned the nose section into the V-weapon "7 of 9"

But are the sounds ever "mis-identified" - i.e. you hear the "soft" 75mm/L48 sound when you should have hear the blamm of an 88mm/L56? It would seem to be suboptimal design if the players can always use sound to override visual mis-ID's.

I've never seen this discussed before. I thought that the leader only needed to be in range of his subordinate units for the combat bonus to apply. Nice to know, thanks </font>

I didn't realize at first... but they gave me both the CMAK quick guide AND the companion. Thanks BFC!

I just finally ordered CMAK plus the companion book. What finally did it is that I've been reading a lot about Operation OVerlord lately, and in particular the action of the British 5th Parachute Brigade in their efforts to secure the two bridges over the Orne at Benouville. From reading the Osprey book "Sword Beach and the British Airborne" I also took interest in the 1st 2-3 encounters where the Germans counterattacked at Le Port and Benouville. Anyhow, wanting to enjoy the enhanced features of CMBB, I have designed a scenario (which I'm playing against the horrendously-defending AI at present), a semi-historical one about the counterattack of elements of the German 716th ID (736th Inf Regiment)- the 1st Panzer Pioneer Company, plus a Panzerjager platoon, and heavy guns from the 989th Heavy Artillery Bn (150mm?) vs. the British Company B, 7th Battalion The Parachute Regiment, 5th Parachute Brigade. Since the British had NO heavy weapons in the first defense, which would make the scenario too unbalanced (maybe it would be better that way? except that the British drove them back historically), I gave them some heavy weapons. Well, I gave the Red Army units (to simulate the British, using Red army Cavalry and Airborne troops so at not to include too many PPsH SMGs) more support. Now that I will soon have CMAK maybe I will create this scenario (I have never created one before now) on CMAK, especially if God willing I can import the map.

That's probably it They may have had a few planes in that time/place but not enough to warrant them showing up in the scope typical CM company-to-reinforced battalion-game

Hmmm... it could be the month/weather/time of day The weather must be clear the time of day cannot be night Axis may not have planes in that part of the front in that month I wouldn't think that the type of battle (probe vs. others) would matter

Thank you JK