Spookster

Just checked into the Scenario Depot CM:BO "Lists" department and noticed that each of the two most downloaded scenarios have been downloaded a few hundred times more than the any other. Both scenarios are pretty good player v. AI battles (I've tried one, liked it; the other is highly ranked, though I have not tried it) and fairly old. One starts with a number, so it come near the beginning alphabetically. So why is this odd, you ask? Well it seems odd to me that people would come to the Scenario Depot to download only two scenarios - no matter how good - and then not come back to play the others (some as highly ranked than those two.) Actually, I find it unbelievable. Can someone explain or should I just assume someone downloaded each of the scenarios a few hundred times to increase the number of downloads? :confused: -Atlas

Something sinister is cooking over at TH. The TH guys are trying to fix up an inter-ladder tournament, pitting teams against teams in a "gamey-reduced" format to excite the CM community. See below for the on-going debate. I wonder if this is possible? Who will pick up the gauntlet for CMHQ, BoB and Rugged Defense? Get it out: http://thforums.com/CMBO/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=viewthread&tid=46 Here is the rough outline... The Tournament House’s “Four Horseman” Invitational Purpose: A double-elimination PBEM CM:BO tournament between Tournament House, Band of Brothers, Rugged Defense and CMHQ. To make things interesting and add a dimension of realism, this is a Stryker Level Two Rarity tournament. Rules: (*=not set in stone) 1. Overall score (e.g. 51-49) will determine the winner of each game. The team with fewest casualties wins ties. Otherwise, losing bidder wins (see below.) Lastly, coin flip. 2. Each team will elect one GENERAL who will submit moves and coordinate discussion with other members of his team. Others may look at the CM files, but the General is responsible for submitting turns…and keeping discussions from leaking out. 3. All games are meeting engagements.(*) 4. All designed maps will be 1040x1040.(*) 5. A unique map will be designed before each round. It will be posted before each game for each team to examine. Other specifics, such as weather, the time of day, starting zone and ground resistance will also be included. The number of points designated for each round will also be announced at this time. 6. One Team, selected randomly, makes a BID to play a particular side (Axis or Allies). The other team may better that bid and win the right to play that side, or let the bid stand and let the other team play that side. The bid number is the additional tally over 50 that the winning bidder’s team needs to win the game. For example, if the winning bid was “2 Axis”, the German team’s necessary victory level is beyond 52. 7. Each General is responsible for sending the Tournament Director the unit selections for the game with the following provisions: a. Stryker’s Rarity Rules are in effect: Level 2.(*) b. No less than 40% and no more than 60% of points may be allocated to Infantry. (e.g. In a 2000 point game, the range is 800 to 1200 spent on infantry.)(*) c. No more than 20% may be allocated to ART.(*) d. All guns must be towed! If you buy a gun, make sure you buy an appropriate transport. e. Units may be Green, Regular, Veteran, Crack or Elite. 8. To make this tournament possible, we need, among other things: a. 5 1040x1040 unique maps (2 for the first two winner’s brackets and the first loser’s bracket, one for the second losers bracket, one for the first winner’s bracket versus loser’s bracket contest and an extra incase the winner’s bracket loses that game), designed by an absolutely trustworthy source. I volunteer, but will not be offended if someone else is nominated. b. AAR – the kind that Swamp and Von have generated would be nice. c. Finding Four teams.

Most impressive!

[ March 04, 2002, 06:16 PM: Message edited by: Spookster ]

bump

JasonC, This is what is getting you in trouble with the big boys. If you read this again, you will realize that you come across as terribly, terribly rude. People who reply to your often times rambling, never-ending posts should not be raked over the coals for taking the time to respond, no matter how ignorant you think they appear. Anyway, now that I have your attention, my advice to you is: 1) Be concise when you write. You tend to reinforce points that are apparent or discuss topics that are better expressed elsewhere. In many of your posts you go into great detail about something or other when all you need to do is list one of the myriad of WWII websites covering the topic (e.g www.onwar.com). It will save you and all those who slave through your lengthy prose mucho time. You are a good writer, and I would love to read what you are thinking, but LESS is MORE. 2) Do not be so rude when somebody challenges your opinion. That is to say, do not throw darts at your dedicated, though eye-sore, audience; they just may decide to stop reading your future posts when they see your name in the title. Cheers. Spookster, of Liverpool

I guess nobody has tried a MQB. Oh well, sorry to bother you.

About a year ago, some chap (cannot remember his name) posted a really neat idea that makes CM so much more interesting for those who want a real challenge. He called it: Modified Quick Battles. The idea was that one neutral "designer" would create a quick scenario by modifying a randomized map (to make the landscape more realistic). He would then place historically accurate troop mix for both sides, play the first turn (doing nothing) to creat passwords , he would then send out the scenario to each of the two players with respective passwords. The two players would receive an entirely unique scenario (which did not take long to create and was save incase others wanted to see it), a unique password (so that the other side could never see the troop disposition or types - i.e. they could never cheat) and the best CM experience imaginable. My friends and I did this once, and never looked back, playing MQBs exclusively until we completely ODed on CM. I am surprised to see that nobody else on this board has ever played a MQB - at least it is never mentioned. I highly recommend the experience. Cheers.

Ouch, MSBOXER. Ouch. I did not mean to imply that this topic was not of the highest CM theoretical value! I was just concerned that this angry thread not devolve into prolonged, awkward and unnecessary war of words between two otherwise well-respected members of this board, Aiken and Stalin. That being said...what the hey, I'm game for a little CM discussion redundancy! THE SOLUTION to the whole ME dippity doo-doo has already been mentioned above: MAKE THE DARN MAPS LONGER in CM2. Until then, the way we have been playing MEs is to require both sides to start in OPPOSITE CORNERS, 100m away from the side! It works. p.s. I'll light the match. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MSBoxer: Spookster, please give me your address and I will send the SWAT team over to rescue you from the terrorists that have taken you captive and forced you to read all three pages of a discussion that you find so distasteful I thought we were just having a nice theoretical discussion with opossing viewpoints, had I known that we were stinking up the place I would have lit a match!! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

TH is wide open, no-holds-barred, slug-fest where every weakness in the CM model is exploited to the fullest by the highest ranked players. If you want to PLAY CM and learn to master the GAME, then TH is by far the best. By far. Players from outside the TH "family" routinely get torched when playing against the top tier of THers. If you are, instead, interested in recreating a sense of WWII and simulating battles that are "more" historically probable, the members of RD tend to be a tad less "gamey"; however, you will still see the obligatory PzIV/70s, Jumbo's, US Airborne and Volks SMGers on occasion. I am unfamiliar with the other ladders. Good luck.

Long ago, the enlightened members of this message board determined the golden rule of QBs: ANYTHING GOES...unless you have an understanding BEFORE the battle. (See search.) I am not sure what the argument is here?! :confused: Mr. Aiken likes 'em towed, Stalin's Organ doesn't. If they cannot agree to "common rules" then they should not play each other. This intellectual pissing match over "towed/not towed" is starting to stink. Where's the lock? :eek:

Simple rule to prevent CM "gaminess": ANYTHING GOES...unless you have an understanding BEFORE the battle. p.s. It is quite bad-sportsmanship for the loser to cry "Gamey" after the fact. A better method of expressing indignation is to say something like, "Gee, I thought your tactic of buying all Volks SMG squads and rushing them across the board was most delightful. I particularly liked seeing all those 88mm Puppchen and 20mm Flak Guns..."

Over at Tourney House, where every player seeks to min-max out the ying-yang, we've discovered the following two powerful tactics vs. the gamey German truck AA guns: 1) The greatest counter to the Ak-Ak tactic is the .50 MG. They knock them out in droves. 2) Also, you might like to try placing an officer on a hill with a 3inch Mortar behind (and in command range.) When the Ak-Ak come a-calling, you unload. Good luck.

"The Germans first discovered the power of the 88 as an AT gun in North Africa; it had VERY high muzzle velocity (needed to get an anti-aircraft shell up to 30K feet) and was very accurate." ... Just one point: Actually, the 88 was used - with GREAT results - by forward German Panzer divisions against counter-attacking British and French armor during Spring, 1940. Still, I am not sure even if this is when the AT lethality of the 88 was truly "discovered" as I suspect that munition trials in Germany before the war revealed the gun's usefulness as a tank-killer. Cheers.

Many posts are sent to the General Forum (GF). Who actually goes to the GF to follow these banished works of prose? Also, why isn't the PENG thread - the most innane, off-topic, sophomoric post in the history of ALL message boards (this may actually be a compliment to the PENG writers) - sent to the GF?

JasonC, Interesting hypothetical. Yet, by pin-pointing one specific window of opportunity for a counter-attack (whereas the Allies had many, many lost opportunities - see "Steel Inferno" or "Decision Normandy" for examples), I think your post reveals how desperate the Germans really were in Normandy and how little of a chance they actually had of defeating the Allies in Normandy after D-Day. Have fun developing the scenario. Cheers.

Most CM games are played on small battle fields, removing many of the relative advantages of the JT. Good luck.

Ask someone to design a MQB (Modified Quick Battle) for you and your opponent. The designer will 1. create a random map via the editor 2. "brush-up" the map to help eliminate geographic inconsistencies (e.g. a pond on the slope of a hill) 3. select relatively equal and historically probable units for both sides 4. after generating passwords, play the first turn - doing nothing 5. send the game to both of you with the corresponding passwords. (Ignore step 4 and the passwords if both players want to play the scenario immediately.) If the designer who does this for you has any talent at all creating such MQBs, you will find the gaming experience most unique (especially if the designer adds a little story to accompany the MQB) and exceptionally entertaining. If you do a search on this board, I think you will find other references to Modified Quick Battles. Good luck.

This is definately a question you should ask your opponent. That being said...The top players at TH (the best players in world, in my opinion) generally acknowledge that the Volk's SMG are grossly undervalued in price for the amount of fire power they bring to the table no matter what the scenario (save, perhaps, a map void of any vegetation.) Play "Swamp" at TH to better understand what I am writing about. Good luck.

Thanks for the reply. I am sure there are some very good players in this tourney! It's just whenever I play Ghost358th (?), Swamp and the other top players at TH, I get absolutely smoked. I agree that they do min-max out the ying-yang, but man-o-man they can play. :mad: Personally, I intend on dodging those fellas for a while.

Great idea for a tourney! Question: Why are none of the elite TH Players in this tourney? Are they dodging you or are you dodging them? :confused: