Blackcat
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Posts posted by Blackcat
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Sincere thanks to both players for some great entertainment and some lessons on how to play the game.
I look forward to the re-match.
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Mr. Altipueri, thanks for giving us a link to that fascinating paper. Lots and lots of interesting stuff. Dr Pieter Lieb's comparative analysis of SS and Heer divisions in Normandy ouht to ruffle the feathers of a few on this site - myth busters.
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Talking of names from the past who was the chap who made the "pissed him off on purpose to make him growl and show his teeth" comment and so sparked one of the most hilariously insane threads ever to enliven these boards? Was it Rommel122? Nice young lad, went into the USAF as I recall, wonder what happened to him.
Hamsters don't get much of a mention on the threads these days. Time was when hamstertruppen were all over the place.
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I don't think the game or the community is dying and am pleased to hear from Steve that sales are in line with expectations. However, it must be a bit annoying for a scenario designer not to receive any feedback on his loving crafted creation.
Though I don't download as many scenarios as I once did, this is largely because CMx2 scenarios/campaigns have a greater re-playability coefficient and, with the number of new releases and modules coming out, I haven't got to the end of those provided yet.
I would urge everyone to provide robust, but constructive, feedback to the scenario designers though. For myself I have sworn a great oath that as and when I meet Paper Tiger in the flesh I shall buy him a very large quantity of his favourite drink as a thank you for all the hours of entertainment he has given me. I shall then beat him to death with a haddock in recompense for all the hours of painful frustration his evil genius at positioning defences and creating AI plans has caused me (how does he know what I will do). Don't snigger, GeorgeMC, you are on the list too as are a few others.
Battlefront, and we the players, are very fortunate that the game has attracted such a bunch of talented people who give of their time and creativity to provide us with so many well designed and challenging scenarios. The least we can do is take a few minutes to provide some feedback.
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Fascinating stuff.
Normandy really was a bloody battle with casualty rates, particularly amongst the infantry, well up to WWI levels.
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The tweaks to tank spotting and how infantry weapons work have taken the game big step forward IMO. Things look much more realistic now. Advancing towards unspotted enemy is much more difficult because you can't immediately spot where the firing comes from. AT guns may keep firing several times before becoming spotted. Very good for the East front game.
Bit off topic there, old boy, and I have to say your post was a bit jarring - didn't actually expect to find someone actually talking about the game in a thread mainly about Tolkein's books.
Was Bored of the Rings the spoof with an elf character called "LegoLamb"? The heroes rode merino sheep and the bad guys rode flatulent pigs? If so that book must be about forty years old. I am surprised so many people remember it.
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In all my years of reading these boards I have been constantly amazed how rarely Steve gets seriously ratty. To be sure he blows up occasionally but only under extreme provocation and not half as often as I would or, I suspect, many other members would. He must have the patience of a saint on valium. If a new guest came into my house and started gobbing off to the other guests, not only telling them what an awful party I am throwing but actually telling lies about me, my values and behaviour then I would give him a smack in the mouth and throw him out the door.
If you are reading this, Superwoz, then know that BF do take reasoned argument and comment from their customers seriously and do change things as a result. The behaviour/capabilities of machine guns in the game is a case in point, it took time and a lot of effort by a lot of people but the last set of changes went a long way to address the faults (still a way to go, mind).
On another note, a fair few people seem to be complaining about the user interface. Am I the only one who doesn't get this? Granted I play exclusively WEGO and tend to take my time watching replays of the action and thinking out my next set of actions (a single turn can take me a whole hour) so slow and steady is my style. I also use the mouse for all commands and am of an age where I expect to have to learn how a game works. I do not expect a UI to take me by the hand and guide me through what I want to do. How could it? On the whole I find the UI does what it says on the tin. What am I missing?
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"Steve has already said its not on the list or even planned for inclusion on any list"
Mr. Flaming Picky, would like to point out that, as the issue is known and has been discussed and a decision made, along with a lot of other requested features, not to do anything about it, it therefore already exists on a list - the list of features that aren't planned for inclusion. I suppose it must also exist on the list of all requested features.
Thinking about it, if we change "list" for "set" then we could prove that CM is inconsistent and so get to a specialised version of Cantor's Paradox - that the number of features users would like to see included in the game is in fact larger than the number of features in the universe.
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A vote of thanks to Penry and BD for taking the time to provide a most entertaining AAR. Cheers chaps and well done.
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Mr. Emrys,
You are, as always, correct and reasonable in your comments. On the PIAT stuff, I was thinking less of the times C3K's men missed and more of the lack of kills when he did manage to hit. The two strikes on that AA beast and it could function afterwards seemed particularly unfortunate.
I'll also repeat a moan I have expressed many times over the years, that CM gunners seem incapable of learning from the fall of their shot. Time after time I see a round go over or under then the next shot at the same unmoving target goes further over or falls even shorter. Drives me up the wall.
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"I think many reading this AAR made a huge error in believing you a "bloodthirsty impulsive" who ricocheted from one crisis to another"
And we were wrong? Seriously, C3K's biggest mistake in this AAR is, as pointed out above, his choice of fonts on some his pictures, especially the red coloured type face - I can't make that out at all.
Of course having lost his armour for no gains didn't help but he has been dreadfully unlucky with his PIATs
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Did you ever read that account - in Ambrose's "Citizen Soldiers" I think - of the officer who orders a newbie Lt to "take that house down at the end of the street" or some such. Whereupon the Lt promptly jogs down the middle of the street, knocks on the door and asks the grizzled Wermacht Sgt who answers if he and his men will kindly turn the house over to him. The commander is standing there watching like WTF!!! But it worked. It worked so well that the Sgt sends one of his men to round up all his guys in the rest of the village and once everyone has gathered around the Sgt becomes so exasperated with the Lt (who apparently doesn't know what the hell to do) that the Sgt basically starts ordering his men to stand here and the US men to stand there so that he can finally officially surrender. Talk about on the job training.
Hey Battlefront! How about modeling THAT behavior!
Zenomorph, yes it was in Citizen Soldiers and it was a farm house and the other Germans were in MG positions etc. that the "assaulting" troops had no idea were there in the surrounding country side. If memory serves that was also the occasion when the surrendering troops started to relieve their captors of their watches, wallets etc. and it was that chaos the prompted the German Sergeant to take control and get the surrender done properly.
Sometimes its hard to work out how we won.
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... he was still a great man ...
Wouldn't argue with that at all. Still don't suppose the chap understood Cricket though.
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the phrase "he had a good innings" seems to have been invented for him...
I doubt that, and if it had been he wouldn't have understood it, would he?
Mind you, I doubt that more of a small minority of people on this site would understand the term. Some of the English, a few Aussies perhaps, maybe the odd-kiwi (yes, Aussies, I know you are going to say all Kiwis are odd, so settle down), possibly one or two Septics, though they probably think we are talking about baseball and so miss the point completely.
Be that as it may, I am far from convinced that Giap was as good a general as he was a politician, and to compare him to Slim, Patton et al. is to compare apples with oranges.
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Three to one on (in pints) that Mr. Ken's close support tank goes the way of the rest of his armour.
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It is hard to picture another outcome with all those beautiful German long range guns and optics. He tried to get close fast
I think you are being a bit harsh on Mr Emrys' tongue in cheek comment. I thought rushing forward his tanks, that were armoured with papier-mache, against panthers and Jagd's before carrying out proper recce was fully in the traditions of British cavalry, and, true to those same traditions, he got slit up a treat. Bravo C3K, I say. Not many players would introduce role-play into an on-line AAR.
As an aside, it did cross my mind that C3K preferred to play infantry only fights and just dumped his tanks as soon as possible, but on reflection I decided that was silly. He could have just kept his armour back, and maybe advanced it when he knew what he was up against and when it might do some good.
Anyway, I am still cheering Mr C3K on and I remain convinced that he is still in line for a DSO (see my post up thread). I also think he has had the most appalling luck with his PIATs, in fact I seriously question whether that weapon system is modelled correctly in the game. We know in real-life the PIAT could take out a Panther when it hit, but not, in game, some much lesser vehicles.
Then there is the point that has aggravated me for years. A person firing a weapon that goes over, or under, will re-act accordingly and either lower or raise his sights. Yet still in CM we see this ridiculous effect where a shot that falls short/long is followed by a second shot that falls even shorter/longer. There was an example in a recent AAR, it might even have been one of C3ks; first shot over, second shot under, third shot ... even further short. How does that compute?
Anyway, go for it, Mr C3K, and know that I am rooting for you. The medals for your chaps are likely to be posthumous but you'll still get your DSO.
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"Tea I brew myself at the table"
This do it yourself nonsense seems to have crept over here and is one of the viler imports we have taken from the USA. On my one and only visit to a Starbucks I asked for a cup of tea and was handed a paper cup filled with hot water with a tea bag floating in it and pointed to a shelf where there a jug of milk. This was in central London and they charged the equivalent of three US dollars.
The method you describe Upfield's character using is very similar to that set out by George McDonald Fraser in his great memoir, "Quartered Safe Out Here" (surely one of the best descriptions of British infantry soldiering, and if you haven't read it you should), when he makes tea for his section during the 1945 Burma campaign.
In my time in the infantry we had a powdered instant tea in the compo (field ration) packs. Just sprinkle a sachet into a pint mug of boiling water, stir, and add condensed milk and sugar to suit ones taste. The resulting concoction was brick-red in colour and, in reality, quite disgusting, but in a cold dawn after a night patrol I have never tasted anything better.
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Mr. Augusto,
I took no offence. Indeed I had a little chuckle, but lacking Mr. Emrys' lightning wit, I was a bit stuck for a good reply.
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Cashiered? I'll probably be awarded the MC for this fight...
Nah, MCs are only awarded for acts of personal gallantry. For leadership you might get a DSO but only if you win an stunning victory or get badly beaten - giving a DSO to a defeated commander helps when dealing with the press afterwards (valiant action against all the odds, standard of leadership outside that which could normally be expected, etc. etc.).
So, looking at the state of play, I reckon you'l be in line for a DSO.
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All good points, Mr. Womble, I'd add one more: never use re-boiled water only fresh.
Mr. Agusto, don't be silly. Besides I very much doubt I shall ever return to the USA.
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"Every time I have had tea made by an englishman it has tasted awful. But perhaps they were merely playing a trick on me and serving the water they had washed their dirty socks in."
Nonsense, Emrys, absolute nonsense, piffle, tripe, rubbish.
An Englishman could not play such a trick on you as they don't wash their socks - they have people, usually female, to do that for them.
I was once stuck for six weeks in a Miami staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Brickell Avenue. In that whole time I never managed to get staff trained to make breakfast tea. One morning I would get a huge jug of boiled water with one tea bag in it, on others I would get a small jug with up to six tea bags, other days they would get the right amount of tea and water but the water was only tepid. Over several years of working in the USA from Washington DC, to El Paso, Texas, to Puerto Rico to the American Virgin Islands I never found anywhere I could get a nice cup of tea.
P.S. The Coffee was mostly crap too.
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Did you hire a guide?
I'm looking to go sometime in 2014.
Where did you stay?
Any recommendations?
Ted,
If you are considering using a guide I recommend a chap called Francois Gauthron. A native Norman, he is a really nice chap, extremely knowledgeable both of the battles and of Normandy generally. His English is excellent, though he has a bit of accent which I have never been able to place, sort of American but not quite (I am too English to have asked).
If you don't want, or your budget doesn't run to, a personal guide Francois will rent you an excellent GPS system, with an accompanying book. I beta tested an early version for him and I was surprised just how good it was and how easy to use. You simply choose the tour you want for that day and follow the directions on the screen, not only will it take you to all the main places but will also flag-up places on interest en route - that's how I first came to discover Deadman's Corner.
Francois is based out of Bayeux, where his charming wife Isabelle runs a very nice bed and breakfast place in a modernised 14th century fortified manor house in the middle of the town. We have stayed there and found it very clean, comfortable and very much to our liking. That said, be aware the place is very French (Isabelle doesn't speak English save for a few words). There is one big table for breakfast (fresh croissants, cheese, cold meats, fresh fruit flans, lovely country-style fruit conserves - no hot stuff at all so don't expect eggs and bacon) where all the guest eat together. It is a style of accommodation that some Americans seem to be uncomfortable with. Oh, and Isabelle, charming and attentive as she is, can't make tea worth a damn but as a Yank you probably don't know the difference anyway.
For more details of Francois see http://www.easytourgps.com/
P.S. Just to cover the no commercial advertising rule on this site: I have no interest financial or otherwise in the Gauthron's businesses, I merely honestly answer another posters questions.
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Thanks for sharing your photos, Mr. Jonzo, some very interesting stuff and what a shame about your card failure losing so many others.
As to the bocage view I think the fields were a lot smaller in 1944 than they are now, which would have made them even more scary and tough. There used to be on this site a chap from Normandy, whose pen name I have forgotten, but he was an expert on the bocage country. If he is still around he might contribute to our discussions.
P.S. I hope you found the Norman hospitality to your liking? How did you get on with the cider?
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I dunno. but I sometimes wonder if these AARs, conducted to supposedly show off the game, don't actually have the effect of putting off new players or even some of us old 'uns.
Don't get me wrong I thoroughly enjoy reading them. Big Bill has taught me a lot and C3K, Baneman and others have an engaging style that makes me laugh. However, each AAR always seems to highlight a problem in game design, that I have seen in my own games and put down to poor play, bad luck and so on but which I now realise are endemic and fundamental.
I mean, really, a target drives past a PIAT crew within their effective range and they neither hear nor see it? Or, in an earlier AAR, Baneman tries repeatedly to get an HMG team to set up behind bocage in such a manner that the gun, not just the supporting crew's rifles, can fire through and despite repeated tries still fails. AT guns on the defence that have neither moved nor fired are spotted and engaged at 1KM distance in a matter of seconds by a moving AFV. I could go on, but I am sure you get my drift.
AARs seem to highlight issues that in one's own games one might explain away and demonstrate that they are in fact flaws that can ruin a battle that one has devoted considerable time to and in doing so perhaps make one less want to play in the future.
WeGo TCP/IP - hurrrrah
in Combat Mission Red Thunder
Posted
My son sent me an email, "Dad, the new East Front combat mission is out and it has WeGo TCP/IP". So I dash to the site credit card number in hand only to find it has WeGo TCP/IP, but no replay. The card went back in the drawer and the game remains unordered.
Seems a bit odd that as super fast internet gets rolled out my favourite game series still can't offer the same facility it did in the days of dial-up modems. Such is progress.