Philippe
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Posts posted by Philippe
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Pull out your manual and read the Getting Started section. It has a section with a few sentences covering the intro movie. Pay particularly close attention to the note at the end of it (bottom of page seven) which tells you how to permanently disable the movie.
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Yes, it's back. I'd better hurry up and buy an external hard drive and a faster connection so I can download everything in case the unthinkable happens.
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A crash at cmmods is one of my worst nightmares. We're still missing things from the last one, and several multiples of what was there then have been added since. And at least one of the major players won't be able to reconstruct his work because he's migrated to a new computer.
I hope COH has copies of the files backed up in a safe place. I was installing mods to CMAK and CMBB one scenario at a time, a new vehicle model just showed up in a game I'm playing, and I'm starting to twitch. How can I send in my turn if I haven't updated the mod?
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The other thing that comes to mind, if it was France, took place at night, and involved paratroopers trying to secure a bridge, would be a scenario about Pegasus Bridge.
There's a scenario about Pegasus Bridge in the Sorted Scenarios for CMAK. The name of the scenario is very descriptive but not very original: Pegasus Bridge. It's in French (probably from Appui-Feu), but I haven't played it to see if, by any chance, it's a CMAK update of a similar scenario for CMBO.
If this doesn't do it for you, just go through the Normandy and France/Germany sections of the CMAK sorted scenarios until you find what you're looking for.
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I think the scenario being described is David Ingelet's Pirmosole Night, and it can be found in the Italian section of the sorted scenarios over at CMMODS. Go to cmmods.com, go to the CMAK section, go to designer search, go to Philippe_in_exile, not sure the next step but you probably need to click on other, and you'll see a list of about a dozen zip files which are a collection of older CMAK files sorted by theater. One of them has all the Italian and Sicilian files. Rename your old scenario folder and make a new scenario folder and unzip the Italian scenarios into it. If this isn't the one because it went by another name, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding it, providing it took place in Sicily or Italy, and not in France or North Africa.
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It's a little on the warm side this year, payback for having had what felt like a relatively cool August. September and October are really good months to visit New York, but be sure to miss the opening of the next U.N session, because that will burn through the little hotel space there is.
New York is the home of several world class art museums, and a contemporary art scene that rivals anything in Europe. The galleries have been shifing from their old locations, so if you're interested in that kind of thing your guidebooks may or may not be up to date. You can get some of it on-line, but when you get to New York any self-respecting gallery will have free copies of the Gallery Guide, which has very detailed area maps of the galleries and lists of which ones are having openings on which nights (cheap wine and sweaty cheese, though there are a few spectacular exceptions). Openings are not by invitation only, and are a good place to meet local artists, many of whom are single and female.
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Go to cmmods.com and do a search in the cmbb section under designer name Philippe_in_exile and look for something called sorted scenarios. You'll find over a thousand CMBB scenarios organized by time period. Most of these won't show up in SD II because most SD II scenarios post-date the great crash of the original Scenario Depot. Much of what is in the Sorted Scenarios came from the original Scenario Depot, and can be found nowhere else.
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Of course it works. And it's free. But it deprives you of the ego-reinforcing pleasure of casting aspersions on BFC in public -- so what use is it?
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You should also be aware of something called the Sorted Scenarios at cmmods. It's essentially a collection in multiple zip files of pretty much all of the scenarios from the old Scenario Depot, organized geographically (for CMAK) or chronologically (for CMBB). Quickest way to find them is probably to look under designer name Philippe_in_exile.
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The CMMODS search engine is your friend.
Mod packs are static, and tend to reflect one person's taste, which may be very different from your own.
It's far better to construct your mod look one scenario at a time. You'll discover, among other things, that you can make early Sicily look very different from mid- or late-war Italy, or Normandy or northern Europe, even when using the same exact units.
But you'll never know that you could unless you use the search engine.
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One of these days I'm going to load up that scenario and play it. The only problem will be that the only thing I will really want to do is to destroy one particular building located fairly close to the circle just over the bridge. That was the prison run by the French embassy in which I had the misfortune to have much of my early schooling (they even covered the windows with grey paint so you couldn't get distracted by looking outside). Last time I was in the neighborhood (over ten years ago) I was very pleased to notice that it had been converted into an Algerian Consulate. Sweet revenge.
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Phillipe,
Was it, by chance, "PANZER TACTICS German Small-Unit Armor Tactics in World War II," by Wolfgang Schneider? I believe someone mentioned that some time back, and I snatched up a copy from Amazon.com. I've yet to read it, as I've got so many on the list ahead of it, but I've looked at it quickly, and it looks like what you are asking about. There are a lot of really great photos too.
Heinrich505
Many thanks. That was exactly the book. From what I could see from the excerpt it isn't very readable cover to cover, but it will make a good reference book. "Meeting with the enemy" isn't readable either, but it has lots of little (mostly unintentional) gems if you can wade through the stilted prose -- and it was worth owning in spite of the bad writing.
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At some point in the last four months someone posted something about a book on the conduct of tank warfare by the Germans in WWII. The author is, I think, a retired German tanker (post WWII) who gave very extensive comments on what can be seen in the copious period photographs.
Unfortunately it's been a very hectic summer, and I can't for the life of me remember if the posting was in the CMAK, CMBB, or General Forum threads. And given the state of my attention span I can't even be sure if it was in this incarnation of the forum (I think it was) or from the one a couple of months back.
If anyone could help me out with this I would appreciate it. And I might even buy it (Amazon?) if I could only remember if I got around to buying Vassily Grossman's book first...
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There are a few Sealion scenarios in the "Other" section in the CMAK Sorted Scenarios at CMMODS. No attempt was made, however, to do anything comprehensive.
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Go to cmmods.com and look for something called Sorted Scenarios under designer name Phillippe-in-exile in the cmbb section. You'll see half a dozen zips with over a thousand scenarios and operations.
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Just remember when you're thinking about this that in real life you don't know that a skirmish is going to last for exactly 32 minutes.
A variable turn ending, while not perfect, gives a bit more of that uncertain feel that is part and parcel of real life .
Another alternative would be for a designer to set a 100 turn limit on what are essentially thirty turn scenarios, the idea being that the battles would end by mutual consent rather than by reaching the turn limit. Most units would run out of ammunition somewhere around turn fifty or sixty, so there would be no point in playing to the bitter end.
That, however, prevents battles from being ended by interruption, e.g. one side suddenly gets a massive influx of supplies and reinforcements that make the basic premise of the scenario meaningless. This is one of the things that is supposed to get portrayed in an operation, but I've yet to hear that anyone is really happy with the way this is done.
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And Google, of course, will give you the same maps zoomed in a lot closer with satellite photos and ten meter contour lines (and even a photo of the eglise de Cintheaux).
Land ownership in Normandy is very conservative, so the satellite photos probably give a pretty good idea of the field layout in the 'forties. I was surprised at how rural the area apparently still is, even today. Then again, something like half of the population of France is engaged in agriculture, which may explain in part why they've always had an unemployment problem.
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And Google, of course, will give you the same maps zoomed in a lot closer with satellite photos and ten meter contour lines (and even a photo of the eglise de Cintheaux).
Land ownership in Normandy is very conservative, so the satellite photos probably give a pretty good idea of the field layout in the 'forties. I was surprised at how rural the area apparently still is, even today. Then again, something like half of the population of France is engaged in agriculture, which may explain in part why they've always had an unemployment problem.
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And Google, of course, will give you the same maps zoomed in a lot closer with satellite photos and ten meter contour lines (and even a photo of the eglise de Cintheaux).
Land ownership in Normandy is very conservative, so the satellite photos probably give a pretty good idea of the field layout in the 'forties. I was surprised at how rural the area apparently still is, even today. Then again, something like half of the population of France is engaged in agriculture, which may explain in part why they've always had an unemployment problem.
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Reading this made me more paranoid than usual, so I fired up cmbb just in case. No problems to report. Quite a relief, because I had realized that Microsoft and Trend Micro are constantly updating things in my computer. So weird sudden changes may be the result of hard disk bad sectors or software corruption.
I still can't understand why people get worked up about gridded terrain. It doesn't make the contours any easier to see, and it is horribly unrealistic looking.
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The game is only historically accurate to the extent that the individual scenario designer does his homework and uses his imagination.
There are some impressively researched scenarios out there, and there are some real howlers. The worst I've seen was an aberrant fantasy about fanatical Hitlerjuden (sic) defending Germany in the last days of the Reich. If someone's idea of scenario design is to set up two lines of fantasy vehicles, find another scenario to play -- you won't get any insights about WWII.
The underlying model is pretty good, but there are problems. Time is distorted and everything happens way too fast. The year only has three seasons and two underbrush states, which makes March and April scenarios a bit bizarre. Command and Control is handled oddly, but given the general acceleration of time it doesn't matter too much. While it's true that it takes time to explain your orders to someone -- hence the time delay -- even the most hyperactive multi-tasker can only give so many orders in the space of sixty seconds, and this limitation isn't modeled. And the suspension of disbelief goes out the window when you try to move a column of vehicles down a road). And indirect fire (as opposed to direct fire) seems strange at times.
The model seems to work pretty well for reinforced company actions in spite of all of that, in the sense that it will give you some insight into the underlying activity (which is what a model is for). It creaks when you increase the scale or increase the time-frame, because there are necessary activities that are very important in real life that simply can't happen the way the game was designed.
And remembering that it's a game is very important. CMBO was probably a bit more fun than CMAK and CMBB, mostly because it was more game-like. Reality, especially when you're dealing with something as nasty as war, can be pretty unpleasant.
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To find the Sorted scenarios you go into CMAK or CMBB, depending on what you're looking for. Then do a designer search under Philippe_in_exile, (or possibly a general search in the CMAK or CMBB section -- I haven't tried that but I'm sure it would work). You'll see a group of zips clumped together in each game. They shouldn't be too hard to find, and they're only a page or two back if you go through newest files and start working backwards.
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I'll start with the caveat that I probably don't know what I'm talking about.
That said, I was under the impression that the pristine transmission of text files had a lot to do with how invasive or useless the system defenses of certain service providers are. Or maybe it has to do with certain providers talking to certain other providers.
AOL used to be the worst, with the text file getting scrambled no matter what you did or who your opponents service provider was. Juno keeps the textfile semi-discreet, but I still haven't figured out how to download it into the correct place without having to manually rename and reclassify the file (which is a pain, but not as bad as a zip or a rar). I was playing someone a few months ago where the files wouldn't even get to him unless I zipped them.
There are a few people around here who actually know the answer to your question, and I hope this thread gets their attention because I'd like to know the answer (apart from Fascistically Intrusive Service Provider Protocols tm).
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And for anyone interested, the scenario in question is available at CMMODS in the CMAK section, look for the North African section of the Sorted Scenarios.
Attacking Bunkers and Pillboxes
in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin
Posted
Think about real life for a minute. They're in the pillbox, we're out here covering the back door. How often is someone going to sneak up to the back door and temporarily expose themselves to instant death when the guys inside are sure to open up with everything they've got at anybody who gets near their door? Once every two or three minutes sounds pretty realistic to me. Would you want to expose yourself every sixty seconds to toss in a grenade just to please the puppet-master?