Erwin

That is point blank range for an MG. If the enemy is that close, it's probable that the carbines would be used at that range for desperate self defense(?).

Thank you Kaunitz for the very informative (June 5 post) video re platoon formations and scouts! The video answered many questions I have had for years of playing WW2 CM games: 1) A platoon would be spread out covering about 150 yards when moving (either column or in various combat formations). 2) A typical 13 man squad would consist of two 2-man scout teams, a 2-man BAR team and a 5-man fire team and leader plus radioman/messenger. 3) Scouts would be dozens of yards and even a few hundred yards in advance (or on the flanks) so long as visual contact was maintained with the platoon (or squad) leader. This raises issues in the WW2 CM games. 1) We cannot split our 13 man squads in this way. 2) It's rare that the CM2 maps allow sufficient long distances for proper scouting tactics or platoon dispersion. Also around 1800 there is a pic of a tank called "Fury" - just like the movie. The other videos in the series are probably worth studying as well.

Useful. Thanks.

Looks great!

Another hilarious interpretation: "Warhammer 40k are ridiculous, over-the-top pastiches, created by people who were bored and angry under Margaret Thatcher, and channelled that rage into worlds where everyone is the villain, and hope has been extinguished for millennia." However it's a fun article and fascinating to read how a niche market has grown to be so mainstream and profitable. Perhaps there is hope for us hardcore wargamers and BF...

Yup. A silly attempt to blacken the cat's reputation regardless of color. The sample was tiny and in any case, more than half the cats didn't roam. So, the more accurate conclusion is that most cats do not roam, and NOT the alarmist interpretation that all cats are somehow dangerous to the environment because they all roam. And anyway what damage are they causing - it doesn't say. Maybe they are doing something useful like keeping down the rodent population. A wonderfully funny and silly example of ecology/green political correctness gone mad. "25 cats were originally outfitted with GPS trackers but only 14 continued to keep them on for the entire experiment. Some owners said that their cat would not move after being fitted with the tracker. If that was the case, they were quickly removed."

Related to this is the fact that in CM2 a sound contact is accurate. If one area fires at a sound contact in CM2 it is usually effective. In CM1 sound contacts were much more vague and area firing at a sound contact in CM1 was much less effective. Have wondered which method of simulating this is more accurate re RL.

For average gamer purposes that looks amazing. Hope the historical accuracy grogs don't put you off.

It's great to have the ability to create "realistic" battles easily. But, it's surprising that CM2 doesn't offer an "anything goes" option where one can easily create any strange mix of units one wants - like one could with the CM1 game. It doesn't stop anyone from playing as realistically as they want. But why restrict the option?

Thank you! (Might want to rename updated files XXX SF2.cam so they don't get confused with old versions.)

GBP... To be comfortable or to buy a house I reckon you'd need (well) over 100K GBP income. Hard to find anything much under 500K to buy. An ok house in a mediocre area may be in the 750K-1.5 million quid range. Nice houses in a good area are easily 2-4 million quid. Rents are equally high. Many lovely single family houses are being ripped apart into multiple apartments - maybe in the 300-500K range in a mediocre area. Also, very little offstreet parking in London means that areas where houses have been turned into multiple apartments are very frustrating to find a parking spot.

With the prices sm seeing in London (esp accommodation) you'd have to also have a 2nd job as a pizza delivery boy (or similar) to be able to afford to live here and teach at King's College lol. Can't see how anyone can live in London with a decent standard of living with much under 75K.

I thought it was common knowledge, but am sure I read accounts of transports getting lost or spooked and ordering jumps in the wrong location - if over open water that would be fatal for heavily laden troops. Right now Google is swamped with the usual celebratory stuff, so hard to find info.

Note that folks regards casualties as "very high", but at about 14,000 out of about 130,000 that's about 11% - and they would be nearly all combat troops as doubt there would be many rear echelon troops on the beach the first day. So, 10%+ casualties in a CM game is high.

So the file ddraw.dll does not replace anything, one just adds it to the folder where the.exe is located? If that's all there is to it, that's great! Thanks...

Impressive work, guys. 100% accuracy is less important than the feel and the visuals imo. "Verisimilitude."

Have always wondered about the pilots who dropped their paras over the ocean. Did they know they'd just killed them all. Or, would the crews assume they'd dropped them at the correct location. The article says that the crews and paras had all trained together so knew each other quite well.

As of that date it was the final one (of CM1).

Good to know. I kept some Win 7 machines just for that purpose. Contact Bootie re his new site for all the CM1 content. Can you provide simple crayon level step by step instructions on how to install the new "DirectDraw wrapper". I clicked on the link but was immediately lost as to what to d/l. Unfortunately, these days we have to be paranoid about downloading the wrong program.

You managed to get the correct onscreen dimensions using a widescreen monitor? How did you manage that?

It is interesting how putting things slightly out of focus can make them look better/more like RL. I think it may be that we are used to the slightly less sharp look of film vs the ultra crisp look of digital photography. Also RL has atmospherics - dust and haze which softens an image and its colors. The only place one sees digital crisp images and colors is in space where there are no atmospherics to interfere.

Good to see respect for the original CM games. For those who have never enjoyed them, they require less micromanaging and are therefore simpler but more entertaining than the more hardcore/detailed CM2 sim games. Also, in CM1 it's easy to play on huge maps (up to 8 Km x 4 Km in CMAK IIRC) with a regimental sized task force on each side.

Yes, this is what many folks keep forgetting/ignoring. However brilliant the game is, it still has many approximations and abstractions. Despite efforts to make something as realistic as practical, a game is still a game.

Totally understandable and who would disagree? But, we're talking about the economics of war. It's not viable to use $100,000 to kill one person when one has tens of thousands (or more) persons to kill. (Unless one gutted all other weapons platforms expenditures/purchases.) Overly expensive wars are what destroy empires.

It's cool to make the pics look as realistic/atmospheric as possible. But, on my monitor in the first pic, most of the side of the vehicle is black with no detail visible. So, there are pros and cons. Everyone's experience will differ depending on how one's nVidia settings are.