Chops

Thanks Battlefront Team! I really appreciate your dedication to improving this fantastic sim.

The purpose of Baking a scenario is to create a dynamic environment. It allows you to have units moving, firing, etc...when the scenario starts. It is also the only way that I am aware of to activate IED's, VIED's for the AI side. I hope someone from Battlefront can answer this question: Is it possible to Bake a scenario that has AI plans? Everytime I try this, the AI does not move according to the AI plans. In fact the AI units don't move at all. Is this a bug? And to clarify, I am not issuing move orders during Baking to units that have AI Plans. Just activating IED's for example. Any information on this issue would be much appreciated. [ December 12, 2007, 07:34 AM: Message edited by: Chops ]

No luck getting the Following the Euphrates to open.

Rune, How do I send you a private email?

Rune, Count me in.

I have encountered the same problem, and am in the process of testing various parameters. I am wondering if Group 1 (the default AI group, selected by using the F1 Key) may be the problem. Im not sure, but it seems that if AI Group 1 has multiple units which are not in an assigned setup zone and scattered across the map, it may affect the other AI groups. I am working on a scenario in which the AI groups work fine prior to baking, but once the scenario is baked, the AI groups do not move. Also, has anyone else noticed that when assigning AI Group 2 with the F2 Key, A1 will actually show up on the unit? [ December 07, 2007, 12:57 PM: Message edited by: Chops ]

Steve, Thanks for the update. I really appreciate your willingness to communicate with the Forum. I am still thoroughly enjoying CM:SF, as I have from day one. Glad to hear you will be working on the modules. All the best, Chops

I would like to see this feature added also, in addition to tracking stats throughout a campaign. Being able to change a units name to whatever one wants, prior to the start of a battle or campaign would also add to the immersion factor. Thanks

Thanks John, So if I understand you correctly, the exit before/exit after times are relative to the Scenario start time. On another topic - I searched these Forums but have not been able to find an answer to the following questions: Do you know where I can upload a Scenario that I designed? Is Madmatt's Combat Mission HQ website going to be hosting Scenario's again? I checked out his website http://www.combatmission.com and it looks like it hasn't been updated in well over a year.

Does the time for Exit Before/Exit After begin with the start of the Scenario time (relative to the Scenario start time), or is it totally independent? I have found it difficult to get units to move from one Order to the next. I am aware of the restraints mentioned in the manual, but these units have not been under fire.

Absolutely yes. This is a very deep and complex simulation. I wish more people would recognize this and stop whining. You know that Battlefront will continue to improve this product, and we should support them as much as possible.

I would like to thank the Battlefront team for another amazing simulation. I am thoroughly enjoying this game, and am totally impressed with its depth, which becomes apparent each time I play. I am not having any significant perfomance issues. Here are my system spec's: Toshiba Satellite P105-S9722 Laptop Windows XP SP2 Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 4200 RPM Hard Drive Nvidia GeForce GO 7900 GS with 256 MB GDDR3 SDRAM Anti Aliasing set to 2x under the Nvidia settings Anisotropic filtering set to 2x under Nvidia settings Display 1280 x 960 Vertical Sync to OFF 3D Model Quality and Texture set to BEST AntiAlias/Multisample to ON The mouse view/movement can be a little slow at times, but not that bad. I did install the Windows Duo Core Patch, but it didn't really seem to make any difference. I have played the training campaign and several battles so far. I particularly enjoyed the Al Amarah scenario by George McEwan. Watching an Abrams tank blast away at the front of an apartment building with its main gun until it caused structual failure was unreal, let alone the fact that three "combatants" on the back balcony, were laying lifeless in the rubble. [ August 06, 2007, 06:34 PM: Message edited by: Chops ]

One more edit - the second video is new and shows Urban Combat.

Disregard - it is a compilation of previously released videos.

Video link is in the lower left corner of the page. http://www.gamezone.com/

Syria vs. Israel this summer - http://www.upi.com/International_Intelligence/Analysis/2007/07/09/analysis_rumors_of_syriaisrael_war/2584/

Deluxe Version ordered. $60 + shipping is a small price to pay for another outstanding Battlefront product. Thank you Battlefront for your dedication and extremely hard work during the 4 year development cycle. Congratulations!

On this haunted Memorial Day, as we wait impotently for hundreds more American names to be etched on walls, and for tens of thousands more Iraqis to die, it occurs to me that this day should not primarily be a day of remembrance. Yes, we should and must honor the dead. But the best way to honor them is to embrace the humanity of those who are still alive. And bring them home. Those of us who do not believe in Bush's war -- and that is a majority of the people in the country -- owe those who have died in Iraq more than respect and memory. We owe them righteous anger. We owe them outrage over a president so desperate and delusional that he is willing to pay with their blood to delay his day of political reckoning. We owe them our continued commitment to end this futile war. For they are our comrades, too, even if we never shared a foxhole. You, Sergeant Smith, whose name will be on a sun-drenched wall someday. I know you. I've never met you, but I know you. Twenty years from now perhaps my son will find your name, tracing the words with his wondering fingers on a piece of warm marble. If we were to meet at a Memorial Day barbecue, we'd drink a beer together, and eat some ribs, and I'd play catch with your raw-boned gangly awkward son, and your daughter would chase my daughter around the table with a squirt gun. We'd talk about the weather and why the Suns got jobbed and what we're doing this summer. We're Americans, God help us. We share that lame, wonderful DNA. We're both strung up on that old USA charm bracelet, hanging with Chuck Berry and Joltin' Joe and "The Sopranos." But instead of sitting by the lake firing up the Weber, you're walking through a field in Iraq, and you're going to die. And we will never sit there together in the friendly awkwardness of the American dusk, listening to the sprinklers coming on. So this Memorial Day is for you, Sergeant Smith. You died in a pointless war, but we here highly resolve that you shall not have died in vain. In your name, we vow that our nation shall have a new birth of freedom. We pledge that we, the people, will reclaim our country. And we swear that we will never again send our brothers off to fight unjustifiable wars. Gary Kamiya

Your observation facilties are very impressive, wow!

Here is the link to the article - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070315/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_under_fire Here is a picture - http://www.antiwar.com/photos/stryker-burning2.jpg

More news about Syria - U.N. Report Sees Syrian Involvement in Hariri's Death By Robin Wright and Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, October 21, 2005; Page A01 A U.N. investigation has implicated senior Syrian and Lebanese officials in the assassination of Lebanon's leading reformer in a move that U.S. and European officials expect will generate new international pressure on the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad. In blunt language, the report by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis concluded that the Valentine's Day bombing of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others "could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials and could not have been further organized without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security forces." The report faulted Damascus for failing to fully cooperate with the probe and cited several officials, including Foreign Minister Farouk Charaa for attempting to mislead the investigation by providing false or inaccurate statements. Nevertheless, Mehlis said many leads now point directly to Syrian security officials. The findings have been eagerly awaited by U.S. and European officials. Along with a second U.N. report on Lebanon due in days, key members of the Security Council hope to use the findings to increase pressure on the Assad government to end years of meddling in Lebanon and to generally change its behavior both at home and throughout the region, including ending support for extremist groups. Mehlis concluded that the complex assassination plot involved several months of preparation and was conducted by a sophisticated group with "considerable resources and capabilities." Although the primary motive was political, some of the perpetrators may have been motivated by issues involving fraud, corruption and money laundering, he added. Syrian officials have repeatedly denied any role in Hariri's slaying. Earlier this week, Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha said, "We are absolutely categoric in saying we had nothing to do with Hariri." Messages to Syrian officials in Washington and at the United Nations were not returned last night. But Mehlis said the slaying followed a "growing conflict" between Hariri and senior Syrian officials, including Assad. Tensions came to a head during a 10-to-15-minute meeting between the two men on Aug. 26, 2004. The Syrian leader informed Hariri that he wanted to extend for three years the term of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a close ally of Damascus, in defiance of the Lebanese constitution -- a move Hariri firmly opposed. Mehlis's report included excerpts of interviews and statements about the meeting, including several by Hariri's associates and his son, alleging that the Syrian president threatened Hariri if he opposed the plan. Saad Hariri said his father told him that Assad said: "This extension is to happen, or else I will break Lebanon over your head." In a conversation between Hariri and a Syrian deputy foreign minister tape-recorded on Feb. 1, the former prime minister recalled the meeting with Assad as "the worst day of my life." Hariri then told the Syrian official that Lebanon would no longer be ruled from Syria. Walid Mouallem, the Syrian official and a former ambassador to Washington, warned Hariri that Syrian security services had him cornered and not to "take things lightly," according testimony given to the commission. Two weeks later, Hariri was dead. When the commission tried to follow up these leads, Syria refused to provide substantive information, Mehlis reported. Assad refused to be interviewed. And interviews conducted last month produced "uniform answers" that contradicted the weight of evidence, he added. The commission cited one witness's testimony that a white Mitsubishi with a tarpaulin over its flatbed was used as the bomb carrier and crossed into Lebanon from Syria three weeks before the attack. It was driven by a Syrian army colonel, the report said. The day before the bombing, the same witness said he drove a Syrian officer to the St. George area of Beirut on a "reconnaissance exercise" -- in the area where the assassination took place. The report listed several officials who witnesses alleged knew about or played an advance role in the assassination. They included Gen. Jamil Sayyed, Gen. Mustapha Hamdan, Gen. Raymond Azar -- senior Lebanese officials who have been arrested -- and Gen. Rustum Ghazali, Syria's most recent intelligence chief in Lebanon. The day before the assassination, the report said, witnesses allege that Ghazali met with the head of Hariri's protection detail, emerging "badly shaken." Another witness said Hamdan had accused Hariri of being pro-Israeli and had said, "We are going to send him on a trip, bye, bye Hariri." After Hariri's assassination, the witness was "strongly reminded not to discuss the conversation with anyone," the report said. The report also cited an allegation by one witness against Assad's brother-in-law, Maj. Gen. Asef Shawkat. The unidentified witness told the commission that Shawkat forced an Islamic militant, Abu Adass, to record a tape claiming responsibility for the bombing two weeks before it occurred, to create the misimpression that the attack was the act of a lone suicide bomber. Peppered with riveting detail, the report said Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials wiretapped Hariri's phone. But the 54-page report said the full picture would require a more extensive investigation, and called for the international community to help Lebanese authorities continue the probe. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan announced late yesterday that he will extend the Mehlis mandate to Dec. 15. The Bush administration said it would not immediately comment. "We intend to read and study it tonight very carefully and decide tomorrow in consultations with other interested governments what the next steps will be," said U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton. Diplomats expect the report to lead the Security Council to consider action, however. A second U.N. report on Lebanon is expected next week. It will focus on the implementation of Resolution 1559, which calls for the end of Syria's meddling in Lebanon and the disbanding of armed groups that are tied to Syria. To follow up on both reports, the United States and other nations have been discussing language for two resolutions that could be introduced as soon as next week to hold the perpetrators to account and add new pressure on Syria, according to U.S. and U.N. officials. Mehlis's probe included more than 400 interviews and reviews of more than 16,000 pages of documents. Among those interviewed was Ghazi Kanaan, the former Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon, who committed suicide last week. Mehlis warned that many Lebanese fear the international community may not follow through, leaving them vulnerable to the return of Syrian military and intelligence services and a revenge campaign. Recent bombings and assassinations have been carried out "with impunity," deterring potential witnesses from testifying, he said.

Combat Mission: Bush's Mother of All Lies Combat Mission: Make Love not War, Clinton in 2004 Combat Mission: Rummy and Rice not Playin Nice Combat Mission: Lick Bush and Dick in 2006

I am not sure why Battlefront thinks that the U.S. or the United Nations or Nato for that matter, would want to restore the Syrian Assad government if it fell. From what I have read, including the following article it seems that it is a goal of the incompetent Bush Administration to remove the Assad government. Life Imitating Art - From the New York Times October 15, 2005 G.I.'s and Syrians in Tense Clashes on Iraqi Border By JAMES RISEN and DAVID E. SANGER WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 - A series of clashes in the last year between American and Syrian troops, including a prolonged firefight this summer that killed several Syrians, has raised the prospect that cross-border military operations may become a dangerous new front in the Iraq war, according to current and former military and government officials. The firefight, between Army Rangers and Syrian troops along the border with Iraq, was the most serious of the conflicts with President Bashar al-Assad's forces, according to American and Syrian officials. It illustrated the dangers facing American troops as Washington tries to apply more political and military pressure on a country that President Bush last week labeled one of the "allies of convenience" with Islamic extremists. He also named Iran. One of Mr. Bush's most senior aides, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that so far American military forces in Iraq had moved right up to the border to cut off the entry of insurgents, but he insisted that they had refrained from going over it. But other officials, who say they got their information in the field or by talking to Special Operations commanders, say that as American efforts to cut off the flow of fighters have intensified, the operations have spilled over the border - sometimes by accident, sometimes by design. Some current and former officials add that the United States military is considering plans to conduct special operations inside Syria, using small covert teams for cross-border intelligence gathering. The broadening military effort along the border has intensified as the Iraqi constitutional referendum scheduled for Saturday approaches, and as frustration mounts in the Bush administration and among senior American commanders over their inability to prevent foreign radical Islamists from engaging in suicide bombings and other deadly terrorist acts inside Iraq. Increasingly, officials say, Syria is to the Iraq war what Cambodia was in the Vietnam War: a sanctuary for fighters, money and supplies to flow over the border and, ultimately, a place for a shadow struggle. Covert military operations are among the most closely held of secrets, and planning for them is extremely delicate politically as well, so none of those who discussed the subject would allow themselves to be identified. They included military officers, civilian officials and people who are otherwise actively involved in military operations or have close ties to Special Operations forces. In the summer firefight, several Syrian soldiers were killed, leading to a protest from the Syrian government to the United States Embassy in Damascus, according to American and Syrian officials. A military official who spoke with some of the Rangers who took part in the incident said they had described it as an intense firefight, although it could not be learned whether there had been any American casualties. Nor could the exact location of the clash, along the porous and poorly marked border, be learned. In a meeting at the White House on Oct. 1, senior aides to Mr. Bush considered a variety of options for further actions against Syria, apparently including special operations along with other methods for putting pressure on Mr. Assad in coming weeks. American officials say Mr. Bush has not yet signed off on a specific strategy and has no current plan to try to oust Mr. Assad, partly for fear of who might take over. The United States is not planning large-scale military operations inside Syria and the president has not authorized any covert action programs to topple the Assad government, several officials said. "There is no finding on Syria," said one senior official, using the term for presidential approval of a covert action program. "We've got our hands full in the neighborhood," added a senior official involved in the discussion. Some other current and former officials suggest that there already have been initial intelligence gathering operations by small clandestine Special Operations units inside Syria. Several senior administration officials said such special operations had not yet been conducted, although they did not dispute the notion that they were under consideration. Whether they have already occurred or are still being planned, the goal of such operations is limited to singling out insurgents passing through Syria and do not appear to amount to an organized effort to punish or topple the Syrian government. According to people who have spoken with Special Operations commanders, teams like the Army's Delta Force are well suited for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering inside Syria. They could identify and disrupt the lines of communications, sanctuaries and gathering points used by foreign Arab fighters and Islamist extremists seeking to wage war against American troops in Iraq. What the administration calls Syria's acquiescence in insurgent operations organized and carried out from its territory is a major factor driving the White House as it conducts what seems to be a major reassessment of its Syria policy. The withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon earlier this year in the wake of the assassination in February of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, in Beirut led to a renewed debate in the White House about whether - and how - to push for change in Damascus. With no clear or acceptable alternative to Mr. Assad's government on the horizon, the administration now seems to be awaiting the outcome of an international investigation of the Hariri assassination, which may lead to charges against senior Syrian officials. Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor in charge of the United Nations investigation of the killing, is expected to complete a report on his findings this month. If Mr. Mehlis reports that senior Syrian officials are implicated in the Hariri assassination, some Bush administration officials say that could weaken the Assad government. "I think the administration is looking at the Mehlis investigation as possibly providing a kind of slow-motion regime change," said one former United States official familiar with Syria policy. The death - Syrian officials called it a suicide - on Wednesday of Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan of Syria, who was questioned in connection with the United Nations investigation, may have been an indication of the intense pressure building on the Assad government from that inquiry. Zalmay Khalilzad, the United States ambassador to Iraq, issued one of the administration's most explicit public challenges to Damascus recently when he said that "our patience is running out with Syria." "Syria has to decide what price it's willing to pay in making Iraq success difficult," he said on Sept. 12. "And time is running out for Damascus to decide on this issue." Some hawks in the administration make little secret of their hope that mounting political and military pressure will lead to Mr. Assad's fall, despite their worries about who might succeed him. Other American officials seem to believe that by taking modest military steps against his country, they will so intimidate Mr. Assad that he will alter his behavior and prevent Syrian territory from being used as a sanctuary for the Iraqi insurgency and its leadership. "Our policy is to get Syria to change its behavior," said a senior administration official. "It has failed to change its behavior with regard to the border with Iraq, with regard to its relationships with rejectionist Palestinian groups, and it has only reluctantly gotten the message on Lebanon." The official added: "We have had people for years sending them messages telling them to change their behavior. And they don't seem to recognize the seriousness of those messages. The hope is that Syria gets the message." There are some indications that this strategy, described as "rattling the cage," may be working. Some current and former administration officials say that the flow of foreign fighters has already diminished because Mr. Assad has started to restrict their movement through Syria. But while he appears to be curbing the number of foreign Arab fighters moving through Syria, the American officials say he has not yet restricted former senior members of Saddam Hussein's government from using Syria as a haven from which to provide money and coordination to the Sunni-based insurgency in Iraq. "You see small tactical changes, which they don't announce, so they are not on the hook for permanent changes," a senior official said about Syria's response. "They are doing just enough to reduce the pressure in hopes we won't pay attention, and then they slide back again." In an interview with CNN this week, Mr. Assad denied that there were any insurgent sanctuaries inside Syria. "There is no such safe haven or camp," he insisted. In this tense period of give and take between Washington and Damascus, the firefight this summer was clearly a critical event. It came at a time when the American military in Iraq was mounting a series of major offensives in the Euphrates Valley near the Syrian border to choke off the routes that foreign fighters have used to get into Iraq. The Americans and Iraqis have been fortifying that side of the border and increasing patrols, raising the possibility of firing across the unmarked border and of crossing it in "hot pursuit." From time to time there have been reports of clashes, usually characterized as incidental friction between American and Syrian forces. There have been some quiet attempts to work out ways to avoid that, but formal agreements have been elusive in an atmosphere of mutual mistrust. Some current and former United States military and intelligence officials who said they believed that Americans were already secretly penetrating Syrian territory question what they see as the Bush administration's excessive focus on the threat posed by foreign Arab fighters going through Syria. They say the vast majority of insurgents battling American forces are Iraqis, not foreign jihadis. According to a new study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, intelligence analysis and the pattern of detentions in Iraq show that the number of foreign fighters represents "well below 10 percent, and may well be closer to 4 percent to 6 percent" of the total makeup of the insurgency. One former United States official with access to recent intelligence on the insurgency added that American intelligence reports had concluded that 95 percent of the insurgents were Iraqi. This former intelligence official said that in conversations with several midcareer American military officers who had recently served in Iraq, they had privately complained to him that senior commanders in Iraq seemed fixated on the issue of foreign fighters, despite the evidence that they represented a small portion of the insurgency. "They think that the senior commanders are obsessed with the foreign fighters because that's an easier issue to deal with," the former intelligence official said. "It's easier to blame foreign fighters instead of developing new counterinsurgency strategies." Top Pentagon officials and senior commanders have said that while the number of foreign fighters is small, they are still responsible for most of the suicide bombings in Iraq. Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of United States Central Command, said on Oct. 2 on the NBC News program "Meet the Press" that he recognized the need to avoid "hyping the foreign fighter problem." But he cautioned that "the foreign fighters generally tend to be people that believe in the ideology of Al Qaeda and their associated movements, and they tend to be suicide bombers." "So while the foreign fighters certainly aren't large in number," he said, "they are deadly in their application." [ October 15, 2005, 01:58 AM: Message edited by: Chops ]

And one more thing..who or what in the hell is a Peng, and why is that name and associated nonsense all over the forum?

Matt/Battlefront, I will say it again here. You guys are fantastic! Your work is truly amazing and so is your business model. Thanks again for all of the great fun you have provided and will provide in the future! Chops