meditek

Hi Shrool, Thanks for the info.# As per usual, the problem solves itself. All to do with shortcuts as I discovered with a (belated) search! meditek

I bought CMBB in the USA and am now home in the UK. I installed the program onto my home computer after playing it on my laptop wnp. When I try and play it I get ... 'T.a.f.t.s. because openplay.dll was not found.' Openplay.dll is plainly visible where it should be. I have copied the Installer to my comp wtp. All quite weird... Any suggestions (please NO, the US version won't work cos it would upset the delicate Euro stomachs) meditek

I found them in the end! I wish I hadn't. BB is professional chess as opposed to amateur 'pub' chess and it's way off my miserable level. Bit like the difference between Fighter Ace and Warbirds IMHO. I fear this game will gather dust for me. Only hope people keep producing new scenarios for BO! Thanks all, meditek

Unfortunately I can't find Last Stand and on or two others on my list! Are they DL's somewhere? Thanks

I heard of those but I couldn't believe they really exist. So you play TacOps the rest of your time? </font>

oops a double [ November 27, 2002, 10:11 PM: Message edited by: meditek ]

Thank you all and especially the reading refs etc. I shall revert to the drawing board for a while! As you can see I'm very much a part time CM player. (Mostly I only play on my laptop whilst snowbirding in Florida cos my WW2 flying stuff is too heavy to carry), the thought of actually taking one of you on H2H terrifies me! I just wonder whether the Axis thrashers here play the game with the same enthusiasm when they play Axis...a Tiger shooting and scooting is pretty deadly! Ok, you do. Anyway, thanks for all the positive input. Did the Soviets worry about their losses btw? meditek

Hmmm, I'm not squashing the A1 except on the Axis side! Also, I am certainly technically incompetant but, apart from some Russian Commanders, the majority of them were too. (OK bit of a blanket statement). Frankly, I'm nowhere near good enough to risk a human opponent either.However, take say Jagermeister. I played Axis first and marmalised them, then, even knowing the layout of the Axis troops, got slammed as Russian despite popping my tanks up from behind cover. With the force of Axis arms available in this scenario Axis would have to be extremely badly handled to lose imho. Ditto that scenario where the Russians want to get warm and others. Only source of info I've read is 'Barbarossa' by Alan Clark and that was a year or two back so maybe my memory is faulty. Simplisticly, I thought it was a combination of the winter and the Axis armies being on too wide a front (fronts)that finished them. If Guderian had had full command things might have been different. Odd though, in CMBO I never played Axis as a matter of principle! Now, my principles seem to have reversed...maybe I don't want to win as Allied!! meditek meditek

I don't understand how the Axis lost 'cos each time I play them I get a major victory! When I play allies I get marmalised. My understanding was that the Russians were no great tacticians and in the end it was the winter and sheer weight of numbers that cracked the unprepared Axis. In good weather they were walked over. Seems that they get walked over in any weather in the game. I feel the fun factor has been seriously diminished by this imbalance but that's only an opinion. I don't feel the urge to stretch my brain conjuring up complex Allied tactics that were virtually never used in order to obtain a marginal victory. I would much prefer CMBO with the new graphics etc. meditek

Thanks, all seems quite logical but I still have suspicions being a paranoid sort of guy. meditek

Didn't spot that...must do a search before posting next time. meditek

In CMBO I noticed how oddly specific the results of being caught in a barrage could be. At the end it often seemed to have picked off my machine gunners, flamethrowers and mortars while the ordinary guys were far less effected. In other words the shells were not truly random but seemed to follow some of the internal game rules concerning fire in general. Is this true of CMBB? meditek

'Commissars' were a feature of the Russian army and leaving them out is a mistake. However, if they must be left out then their presence could at least be modelled by by making it a rarity for Russian soldiers to leave their alloted positions. They seem to be modelled the same as the Axis lot. meditek

shoot all retreating soldiers? meditek PS this game seems a lot harder than the old one! Still looking for the Stalin Organ rocket launcher..must be around in some scenario?

Problem Solved. Thanks to all you guys for the help and support. The problem was nothing to do with the drivers at all! A little voice suddenly whispered in my ear after spending all morning with drivers 'Try unloading the virus checker'. I did and it works. I don't have to disable anti-aliasing either. The virus prog is Trend-Micro PC-cillin. meditek Operating System(s) Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP Home Ver 5.01.2600 Service Pack 1 Processor(s) Model : Intel® Pentium® 4 Mobile CPU 1.70GHz Speed : 1.70GHz Performance Rating : PR1865 (estimated) Type : Mobile L2 On-board Cache : 512kB ECC synchronous ATC System Mainboard Bus(es) : X-Bus AGP PCI PCMCIA CardBus USB FireWire/1394 SMBus/i2c MP Support : No System BIOS : Dell Computer Corporation A06 System Mainboard : Dell Computer Corporation Inspiron 8200 System Chipset : Intel Corporation 82845 Brookdale Host-Hub Interface Bridge (B0-step) Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 100MHz (400MHz data rate) Installed Memory : 512MB DDR-SDRAM Memory Bus Speed : 2x 133MHz (266MHz data rate) Video System Monitor/Panel : Default Monitor Monitor/Panel : Default Monitor Monitor/Panel : Default Monitor Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go (Dell Mobile)28.35 [ November 23, 2002, 05:13 PM: Message edited by: meditek ]

Thanks. I have now re-installed the Dell 28.35's after cleaning out the old ones in safe mode and zapping the registry entries. No joy whatever, just the black screen with the version and main screen text. I have now tried 3 different driver versions, loadsa different settings and resolutions to no effect. I did (once) get into the game after changing screen res but when I exited and tried to return it was the black screen again. The confusing thing is that CMBO works fine which gives rise to the question 'How does the CMBB 3D engine differ from CMBO's'. I have a sneaky suspicion that it writes some duff info to the prefs file on exit or something. This is all very frustrating. meditek

It's a 64MB Geforce4 btw. Yep, alt/tab etc don't work. I'm scuppered. meditek

Hi, Game just won't run. Black screen 'cept for two boxes 'version' and 'main screen'. CMBO and any other game I've tried runs fine. It's set for 1600x1200 60mz, anti-alias disabled, nvidia 40.72's. I tried all the tricks. I've read a lot here slamming Nvidia but suspect it's the game's 3D 'engine'. Odd they won't take back the game once they've sold it, meditek

Impressive. Is this game a way of life? I fear the fun factor is somewhat diminished by the propensity of one's men to DISOBEY ORDERS. One can see the US influence because there is no way of tying them to a post and shooting the blighters. david

'fraid your earthlink address got zapped. In case you are still around here's the message i tried to send headed ' Attack on Monestery (sic) ' :- I'm a beginner but it is too easy to exploit the bugs with this scenario. I like the idea but all you have to do is eliminate the mechs and retire invisibly to the middle of the monastery then click the game out. Disappointing because it was a good idea. Pity the AI is fooled when it can't see the enema. david

Thanks but what is a VL? damn I must seem stupid. meditek

Hi All, May I make a plea for scenario designers to state the objectives a little more clearly. I've downloaded tens of them and most of the time haven't a clue from the associated blurb. In particular, those with 'Exit Areas' and no flags are particularly hard to decipher when all you get is a spiel about what happened once upon a time! OK, I'm new to this game and probably missing something obvious! Please forgive my stupidity. meditek