Vitalis

I know that there isn't a big push for non-gamey play in this one, but since the scenarios are being created for us, I would recommend Fionn's rules of armor balance. That usually keeps everything pretty good. There is nothing worse than setting up a good combined arms unit to find out your opponant has chosen a platoon of Pershings or something. Vitalis

Yeah, If I pass the grade, I am most certainly interested in this one. Bring on the Tourney!!! Vitalis

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.... I will try that and see what happens.... Oh, and as for unbalanced, the Airborne has the numbers and once the initial phase fleshes out and works, it also has the reinforcements... It will work out well.

Ok, I've been making scenarios for a couple of months now, and this is the first time I have ever run into this problem. Here is the setup. Small map, terrain from left to right is as follows (generalizing here): Heavy Woods, open field, town. Allies start in the heavy woods and are attacking the German held town. Allied forces consists of 1 partially beat up company of American Airborne. German forces consist of 1 partially beat up SS Rifle Company and a couple of support elements. The parameters clearly list the Allies as the attackers, the ground is covered with snow, overcast sky, and time is December 1944. There is one large flag right in the center of town which is on the far right of the map. I just spent 30 turns waiting for the Allies to do something, anything at all. The never left the woodline. They never went after the flag, nadda, just kinda ran back and forth occasionally in the woods, but they never even moved forward a single yard. In fact, they appeared to fall back. What is going on here? Seriously, I have never had any problem with the computer just plain not attacking the flag before. Heck, if anything, the computer tends to forget all tactical sense what-so-ever and run straight for the flag regardless of terrain or how bad it is getting its ass kicked in a crossfire. Any help here would be appreciated... Vitalis

Ok, I have a crap video card, 8 meg AGP (My GeForce is on order) and I keep having problems if there are too many things on the map, e.g. trees, vehicles, men, smoke... etc. My display starts freaking out and getting flashing black spots and stuff and stuff. Generally I can fix this by escaping out and re-opening the window. I also turn off the trees and such. Now on to the question. Last night I changed my video settings from 24mil colors to 16mil colors figuring the lower setting would make CM easier to run for my card. Things actually got worse, I couldn't even load any games without my video card freaking out. I switched it back to 24mil colors and it went back to at least usable again. Can someone explain this to me? Thanks, Vitalis

Van_Gogh, Ok, I understand better now. And I know totally what you mean. And I actually have achieved two Total Victories as the Germans in this scenario as well while fighting against the AI. But again, I attribute it to freaky luck and just plain dumb AI tactics. My 75 in the pillbox had destroyed ALL the allied armor before my Panther showed up. The allied FO's did nothing but drop smoke rounds instead of using that awesome firepower to drop some serious arty on me. And their platoons travelled in packs and got wasted by several ambushes. Vitalis

I know there were only three made, but I would truly love to see this rolling across the Battlefield of some type of Leningrad scenario. I just want to see this bad-boy in ONE scenario, it would be AWESOME. http://www.track-link.net/gallery/gView.php?gid=119 Take care, Vitalis

Man, I really feel bad for the bad rep that the Pz IV gets. It was the backbone of the Panzer tank regiments, carried the burden for years (not enough Tigers to go around and the Panther had some early teething problems). The Panther was the only tank in German service to begin knocking the mighty Pz IV from its seat. It just gets over shadowed by its Big Cat brothers. The L/48 75mm was equal to what the Soviets and the Americans had, its armor was equal or better than the Sherman and equal to the T-34. It just wasn't better than those two tanks and didn't get the fame..... But it was the hard-core grunt that got the job done. Anyway, enough sobbing over my favorite tank. I must be the ONLY German armor fan that likes the Pz IV-H better than the Panther and Tiger series. Oh, and don't even get me started on the King Tiger, I hate those damn things Sorry bout the rant Vitalis

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/heu.htm#vk3001p The Porsche type 100 Leopard also known as the VK3001(P). Started in 1937 as a medium tank to replace the Panzer IV. Check out the link, very interesting reading considering in 1937 Porsche was going to arm this bad boy with an 88mm gun. Too cool. Ahhhh, Good old German superiority in design. Vitalis

Piece of Cake, It is a PzKpfw NbFz VI (Krupp) Picture was taken in Norway. Seems we hit the same websites Have a good one, Vitalis

I'm sorry, I just plain find this an unrealistic bug. If a person can cross the ford, a tank can cross the ford. Sure, the tank could stand a GREAT possibility of getting seriously stuck, but they CAN cross fords. That is why they have a listed "Fording Depth" in thier manufactureres information. Maybe a better solution would be to have different types of fords, like we have different types of terrain. Firm fords, soft fords, rocky fords. This would cover what areas are passable, and what areas aren't. But a tank an/or truck SHOULD be able to cross some type of ford. Vitalis

Marlow, Sorry bout using the term "squeeze", old habit from teaching people to shoot. Not that it matters in this discussion one little teeny tiny bit, but in addition to competition shooting, I have also been schooled/trained in sniping, assault rifle 1 & 2, room/house clearing/CQB 1 & 2, Combat Handgun 1 & 2. If you know about schools like Gun Sight, then you know what I mean about "schooled/trained". We have one up here in Michigan that is a ball. And the instructors are good, all ex-military, all operators. But again, this has SQUAT to do with this discussion. As for the video, as with most tests or examples, it can be shot full of holes. Here is the setup that they did. And remember, this was done by amateurs in the security biz as a test video on different statistics of rounds and weapons. Some cool stuff in the vid, but anyway, here is the setup for the test. One Ma Duece, set up on a locked down tripod, aimed at the center of the Buick, verified by single round taps to make sure the weapon was on target. Then the firing started, an entire 100 round belt, no let-up on the trigger for the first seventy rounds or so, just Rock and Roll. The belt was was mixed hard ball and tracer, so you could plainly see where it was hitting and missing. Notice that I said he rocked out the first seventy rounds or so. He had to stop after that and reaquire the target. The weapon may have been locked down, but the tripod was jumping all over the place. Basically the machine gun was vibrating itself off of target. Now, I am not saying this is law for every machine gun, just what happened in this test by people I don't even know. The biggest decision that I have come to from reading all of these posts is that when creating a game, there has to be some generality boiled down from all the different training doctrine, all the real world facts, and all the special situations, because there are NO hard and fast rules, and discussions like this can go on forever with both sides being able to prove some correct information. But in the real world, we all know, nothing is certain. Of course the machine guns could use tweaking, so could everything else in the game depending on how far you want to take it. Just my .02 (again) Vitalis

Japs also got turned back at Midway before the amphib assault even started. Lost the naval battle, turned the invastion force around and went home. Vitalis

Believe me or not Van Gogh. Maybe it was a Major Victory, I know it wasn't a tactical, it was above that. I was happy about it, and it went the full 35 turns. So if it was Major instead of total, then my screw up. What ever. But it did happen. Very frustrating to sit there ten or so turns and watch these tanks hammer you into oblivion because you can't get your schreks close enough for a kill. The damn schreks were shooting like mad, but just like the Panther, seemed to have been trained at the Close Your Eyes and Shoot Acadamy of Berlin. Total pain in the butt.. Vitalis

That is exactly what I was trying to point out. A unit is very very hard to hit at any range. Machineguns are suppressive weapons. A squad that has suffered a few casualties should be suppressed, but not just waxed cause you are defending with a super bullet garden hose of death..... And when a squad is hiding, ducking, pulsing forward, they can be nigh on impossible to hit. CM did a good job when you think about the generalizations they had to encompass in the code. I am VERY impressed with the game. Vitalis

It makes total sense, though I totally understand the reasons why they had to do the machine guns the way they did. I like them and have no problem with them. They do damage fine, they tear up squads fine, had one last night rip into one of my squads from about 600 meters and screwed me up bad. All in all, I like them. But in a perfect world.... hehehehe we could have grazing fire. So, I was wondering, isn't the figure something like over 200,000 rounds fired by the US during WWII just to get ONE casualty??? Vitalis

I have read many posts here talking about how one simple tragedy can ruin or nearly ruin the game for you. I just encountered that last night. I am using the Gold Demo, I know I know, but it is all I have right now, and playing that scenario where the Germans have to defend against an American attack at the Zigfried Line. I was playing full Fog of War and Computer +3 experience. Stupid fricken Americans got a lucky hit on my 75mm pill box in the second minute of the game and knocked it out. THEN their reinforcements of five more tanks showed up in a few minutes and I had to sit and endure tank direct fire and arty pounding for 10 more rounds until my Panther and single fricken platoon of infantry showed up. sheesh, what a pain in the butt, I still managed an Axis total victory, but at an enormous cost in manpower and equipment. Horrific casualties. And it took FOREVER to hunt down those stupid Shermans, that Panther couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Beginning turn it arrived, it had an instant side shot on an exposed Sherman. Side shot, 380 meters, 60% chance to hit, Kill: Excellent. It missed every shot that turn and the Sherman hit the Panter SIX times. Thank the War Gods for thick frontal armor. rrrrrrrrrrrrr Was a pain in the butt game to be sure. Vitalis

Ok, my experience with full auto weapons is only that of an amatuer, but better than the average Joe In addition, I am also a competative shooter in both handgun and rifles. Now a person at 200 meters, just standing there is a difficult target, your front sight blade completely covers them and they are about as big as a pea. And this is with my standard M4 pattern rifle. Single Shot causes you to lose the sight picture momentarily, jumps completely off the target. Now mind you, that target is stationary, it is not moving, not running, nothing. So you say that you will just follow the target? B.S. A ten millimeter deviation at the tip of your barrel will be about a ten meter deviation at 200 meters. That is quite a difference. My geometry may be off here, but I am illustrating the point sufficiently. I have also had the priviledge to fire a Ma Duece (M2HB .50 cal), a PPSH, a M-60, a HK MP5K, and a full auto HK-91 (G-3). One squeeze of the trigger, or depression of the firing spoon and these babies are all over the place. Now, the MP5K was the nicest, followed by the Russian PPSH, but the 91, the M-60, and the M2HB were aweful. The M2HB was on a locked mount as well, and that baby was all over the place. I even have video of a M2HB on a fixed tripod being fired at a mid-70s Buick at 100 meters. It was a hundred round belt, the car was stationary on blocks. Bullets hit it from the front of the car to the back of the car (It was a side shot), went over it, went under it, and missed it wide in the front and the back. Granted, the car was swiss cheese, but only about 30 bullets out of a hundred hit the car. So, that was a 16 or 17 foot stationary object at 100 meters, a locked down fixed tripod, and only 30% of the bullets hit the target. Now run the same experiment with a man at that range. You won't be hitting squat, maybe one round if you are lucky. Machineguns are not man killers, they are suppressive weapons. The only beef I have with how machine guns are modeled, is the lack of suppressive action they have on the target. In the scenario that was run where a single squad charge the machinegun and only took 3 or 4 casualties, I have no problem with that, it is fairly (within a wide margin of reason) realistic. My problem comes with the fact that if a squad endures direct machinegun fire for 30 seconds, they should be suppressed and going NO WHERE. That is what machineguns are designed for. Just my .02 cents... Have a good one, Vitalis

That marine CMH winner that held off the Japs with a .30 cal was also the guy who the original G.I. Joe doll was modeled after. In a different subject, the Audie Murphy example was good, but if you have ever read To Hell and Back by Audie, you will see many different examples that will both support and condradict your example of his actions outside of Holzwihr. Audie took on several machine gun nests single handedly after his friend Brandon was killed. And never got a scratch. In the beginning of the book while they were still in Anzio his entire company made it across a set of railroad tracks under fire from a dug in machine gun squad. Only three or four were hit before the company even began to fire back and knock out the nest. Just a few different examples. Vitalis

When you have been playing CM for three days straight, little sleep, little food, not answering the phone. You ignore the way it is appearing in your dreams, the way your hands are beginning to shake, the way your head is spinning, the way you see little tanks and men whenever you close your eyes. And on the fourth morning you wake to a full blown seizure and spend the rest of the day in bed, shaking, twitching, and drooling.... (Sarcastically) I just LOVE having epilepsy. But, this is the fifth day, I am better now and firing up CM again!!!

Ok, while I am waiting to get my copy of the game, and am still messing around with the demo, how in the world do I use the Officers line of sight to spot for my mortar crews? I haven't been able to figure this one out yet. Thanks Vitalis

I agree, I was just thinking about that today, it would be great to play a mid "Kursk" style battle, tanks smashed everywhwere, fires burning, dead people that the buzzard squad hasn't picked up yet. I would also like to see a way to resupply troops. Vitalis

I'm currently running the demo I downloaded a few days ago and I am running into a few problems on the video aspect of the game. First, my system details 350mhz K6-II chip 8meg AGP graphics card 64meg SDRAM Windows ME (I know, I am returning to Win 98) When I play chance encounter, this problem is rare, but the other demo scenario that takes place on the Zigfried Line the problem is much more prevelent. It will start with flickering of trees and the terrain at the top of my screen suddenly repeating itself in long lines as I move around to view the board. This is usually followed by long flickering black squares appearing over the blocks of trees and other bit of terrain such as pill boxes and things. Also the horizon is a real pain in the but, often this is where the problem starts and then the horizen goes black or just repeats hundreds of terrain features over and over again. My usual fix is to hit <escape> and return to my desktop, then maximize the game again by hitting the button on the tool bar. But when I have to do this three or four times per round in the game, it is getting a little out of hand. I want to order the game real bad, trying to find ways to get the cash to do it in the next week, but if I am not going to be able to run any scenarios except the wide open ones, it isn't worth it to me right now, hopefully someone has an idea. Thanx in advance, Vitalis

No kidding, that would be a GREAT order. I just lost a StuG today because of that. The 3d graphics are awesome, but there is a very fine line about knowing where your vehicle is ACTUALLY going to sit. The StuG went a few feet too far in its ambush set up and instead of a nice hull down posture that I was looking for, the lower hull was exposed and got ripped next round by a Sherman. I am all for a command like that one.

Thanx all for your encouragement to buy. I will as soon as I have the money, mortgage and all that, getting in the way right now!!! But I have a question, I have checked out the mods and all of that, what will work with the demo and what will not? It may be a few weeks until I can order the game and I am already fiending for more more more. Again, thanx for all the help. Vitalis