Russkly

Oh! I thought it perhaps just the tutorial where you can't move the MG42 that starts in the farm. That IS disappointing if you can't move HMGs. Russkly

Well, here we all are after what seems an interminable wait! Lots of interesting opinions on this forum about ToW with many people (inevitably) comparing this game to CM, which is patently isn't. I shall reserve comment until I've tucked into the campaigns, but I have encountered some frustration with the tutorial. In the defensive tactics scenario my AT guns always get wiped out early no matter where I put them and no matter how long I ask them to hold fire. The 50mm longs of the IIIJs just take them out before the 45s can even engage effectively. I've tried following the tactics/placement employed in the walkthrough, but to no avail. The tanks always overrun my position without the enemy infantry getting their uniforms dirty! It's no big deal, but are AT assets always going to be easy targets for AFVs sitting in the open; nice and big and juicy? Has anyone found a way of winning this scenario? Russkly

Tobruk was my first one too - 12th birthday present from an aunt in 1979. My best friend and I played it all through the ensuing school summer holidays - marvellous! Those IIIjs were absolutely lethal compared to the IIIhs, and a couple of Grants could hold up a tank assault for ages. And what about the 88s at any range against all the Cruisers?! Fond memories of highly-detailed and extensively-researched tactical-level wargaming, and I can't wait for my copy of CMAK to drop on my doorstep.

Please stop talking about fog - I have a Radeon.

Hate to press, but how does one know it's a P51H? I didn't know they loaded missiles onto Mustangs; on this site it's listed as a "lightweight version" (presumably for recce work?): http://www.smmof.org/p-51.htm Does this appear in a German unit's kill score in the AAR report if it shoots it down? Alternatively, given the discussion thread, maybe a US unit would get credit for shooting it down!

Thanks for the detailed reply, Moon. All is now clear and makes a lot of sense. I'm extremely happy to deal with BFC direct, because, along with IL2 FB and Operation Flashpoint, you have provided me with the best gaming experience since Avalon Hill's Tobruk and Squad Leader! I'm also glad that BFC's getting rightly big enough to serve its market directly on a global (or at least US/Europe) basis. Russkly

Hi Yossarian, It's a strange one - I remember that CMBB certainly was available in Europe only via CDV. even though there's the SS issue in Europe, I assumed this decision also related to logistical considerations. With CMAK it nows seems that BFC have a European supply chain established via a distribution centre in Ireland, so one can order either direct from BFC (presumably full US version with no SS restrictions) or via CDV. I would have imagined that the price ex-CDV would be higher due to them taking a slice, but from BFC it's USD35 + shipping (GBP20 + shipping) whereas from Amazon it's GBP16.99 + shipping discounted from GBP19.99. So no discernible price differential. I don't really understand why CDV remain a European distributor when BFC now ship direct. If retaining the distributorship for all 3 games was part of the contract, I'd have thought CDV would have wanted exclusivity in Europe. Fatuous argument really, but I'm interested...

Xerxes, Quick and naive question: What does "."?

I went with BFC. Don't like idea of distributors taking a cut - what value are they really adding anyway now that BFC have established their own supply chain for Europe? While we wait, I'm still enjoying the demo. Russkly

SPOILERAMA... = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Aircraft fired missiles at the Tiger...but missed! Fortunately everyone else surrendered a couple of turns later before the Tigger could take out anything more than 1 Greyhound. Then returned to strafe German troop positions just in front of the river. Good so far, right? Then returned later to take out the commander of one of my Greyhounds! I thought to myself, "I cannot imagine that German CAS really existed in Italy in 1944; but perhaps I'm wrong". Didn't consider it might be friendly fire. How do you know it is a P51?

Sorry, pmiranda, no fix. Apparently it's not a BFC issue but one concerned with ATi deciding not to include fog table emulation in their driver stuff (sorry, not very technical). Perhaps it's hard for them to fix. There's a whole host of threads on this topic, if you're interested: just search the technical forum under "radeon AND fog" or similar. Not sure if enough of us Radeon-users in the forum e-mailed our displeasure to ATi whether it would make any difference or not. They seem to respond well to the IL2 FB community. I cheat and play at view level 3, so a lot of the visual embellishments escape me anyway (ssshhh...don't tell the grogs)! Russkly

Units seem to panic/rout/break less readily - I've had green US infantry units take serious fire in the advance, suffer a couple of causalties and simply run for cover (albeit back in the direction they came from). Green Russian infantry units taking that sort of punishment in CMBB would be in unrecoverable bits. I love the AFV and tree graphics - noticeably better than CMBB, and the background mountains in the Italian scenario are magnificent. I didn't notice anything odd about the American voices, but then I'm English, so that's not surprising. I'll be interested to hear how the Brits sound when the full game comes out.

Whoops! Sorry, Kingfish! The 'd' isn't even close to the 'g' on the keyboard! Thanks to you and to Highlife for your help. I can see the Stalingrad campaign is going to keep me occupied for a good while. Sean

Hi WWB, Sorry to bother you, but could you please point me to precisely where I can find a CMMOS compliant winter camo mod for German vehicles and guns? I've searched combatmissionhq.com (both CMMOS and non-CMMOS compliant pages) and found many camo mods but no winter ones. Am I missing something obvious? Apologies if I'm being obtuse! Thanks in advance for your help. Sean

Kindfish and WWB, Thanks for your help. Russkly

Thanks to you all, guys! I wonder why gamestop.com doesn't highlight the bonus mods and scenarios in their online blurb about CMBB? This forum is the most helpful and most mature I've come across.

Hi guys, I'm trying out the Stalingrad pack and wondered if there is an order in which the scenarios and operations should be played in order to recreate the chronology of the campaign. The readme lists them only in alphabetical order. Furthermore, I notice in "Der Manstein kommt!" that the German vehicles do not have winter camo whereas the infantry does. Is this correct historically or do I need mods? I did try the CM Mod database, but there were no winter mods for IIIJs, IVGs, etc. Am I missing something? Should I just buy the Retail version?! Thanks for your help, Sean

I'm looking to buy the CMBB Retail from the US as I did with CMBO (well worth it for the mods included), because it's not available in Europe. That's the much-vaunted global economy for you. Not! I bought the CMBO Retail from gamestop.com, but I've had a look at the website for CMBB and, although there is a funny new marking on the box, the blurb talks about "50 exciting scenarios". I know the retail version has loads more than that. Am I being dense, or would gamestop.com ONLY have access to the Retail version (hence "Retail" rather than direct from Battlefront/CDV)!? Basically, is the version being offered by gamestop.com the Retail one? Wow, that took a while to get out!

Hi Tom, Has your site gone now? I was trying to download Rshew Forest from The Scenario Depot, but the link didn't work, so I tried TCMHQ and that didn't work either. Hope you're okay! Russkly

Major Gregg, Could I have it too, please?! sean.russell2@btinternet.com Many thanks, Sean

Thanks, Moon - ordered and on the way!

Thanks, Moon. Tried Gamestop, but they don't have the SE (at least not yet). I'll try other sites such as EB. Not sure how many will ship to the UK though, since many are funny about that (I believe for reasons of credit card authorisation rather than infringement of distribution rights). If I can't get hold of the SE, is there an 'ultimate' list of CMBO mods that are considered the 'best' selection? There are simply so many out there, and very few packs such as MadMatt's. I will search the forum, but I imagine a search around "mods" will provide a weekend's reading in itself! Thanks again for your help, Moon. Russkly

Have to ask the question: When will the Special Edition hit UK/Europe? I ask because I've just re-installed CMBO having recently finished Ambrose's "Band of Brothers". I'm now having a nightmare trying to remember which mods I had installed previously and should download again to make CMBO look/sound almost as good as CMBB (which, funnily enough, has never really captured me emotionally as CMBO did - theatre of ops perhaps?). The SE would solve this problem for me!

I've seen a few threads in this forum discussing the whited out or blocked text in CMBB. I have a Radeon 9700 (non-pro) with Catalyst 3.2 drivers and have also experienced this problem. Turning off anti-aliasing (AA) and anisiotropic filtering (AF) as recommended makes it work okay, but the trade-off in graphical quality is such a shame - ignoring the flickers and the blocked-out text, the game looks just fantastic with AA and AF on. Is there any way to enjoy these superior graphics settings without having to re-install older drivers as also suggested? I play other games (IL2: FB & OFP), and these games are unbelievably good with 3.2 + AA/AF on. Please help, it's SO beautiful with AA/AF! Russkly