willbell

Wanted: A turn from Seanachai. or Anyone interested in playing a CM PBEM game. Please be interested in the game. Please have an average level of intelligence, or at least an attention span. Please have some solid CM experience, or perhaps a solid grounding in the WWII art of war and tactics. Please have a modicum of social graces so we can have a little interesting dialogue mixed with the games. Do not reply if, you have been playing the AI really good and want to try a human opponent, think other players are always cheating somehow, get upset when the going gets tough, are dating a new girl and think you might be interested in getting to know her better, would like to spend an equal ammount of time playing CM and writing pointless, infantile, redundant, taunts, (insults about competency concerning CM battles will be embraced and applauded), dissapear instead of surrendering, are not interested in all that old WWII history stuff and just want to play the game. Acceptable, but not encouraged, the silent type. Hello, any takers? Will

Sorry, my evil twin grabbed the keyboard.

Oh for craps sakes. Have I entered Wonderland, or are you guys just stroking this guy in the most subtle way I've ever witnessed?

Oops, I had a small dyslexic moment on that last post.

Seanachai, I'm very happy about your bored intellectual friends snagging your short attention span (imagine poetry like Flinstone backgrounds). But I would greatly appreciate you, even admire you, if another turn, authored by Seanachai, came ot my inbox. I will accept your surrender, in lieu of auto-surrender, if you feel inclined to move on. willbell

Seanachai, What's up with the turn? My men are out here getting wetter by the day waiting to move on. Will

Here's a way to get a better feel for what WWII fox holes looked like. Get your cousin pregnant in the middle of the winter. Have her tell her pa, and hand him a shot gun. Stand outside with a shovel, with all but nine inches cut off the handle. When you can hear her pa hollerin' in the distance start diggin', fast! Then jump into your hole (fox hole). When he runs out of amunition, jump out and take a picture of your WWII style fox hole. You can dig the sump later.

Awards: Nobel Physics Prize (for inventing his doomsday machine) and Nobel Peace Prize (for not using it). ~Professor Farnsworth Stikky likes reading authors who write while on mushrooms.

If I see one more fricking complaint about the 3D resolution in CMAK, where there are hundreds of infantry and dozens of vehicles and tanks in a battle, compared to the models and resolution of those stupid WWII FPSs with a couple of dozen and men maybe ten tanks, I'm going to scream. I am going to throw Europa's fireballs into all your games, I'm going to write hundreds of posts about eating oily sardines and sour ham on Saturday and Sunday morning so all you sots blow chuncks on your keyboards. I'm going to meet your wives and girlfriends at supermarket fruit sections, seduce them, then on my way out tell them that you are doing their grandfathers. I'm going send you all Pokeman for Christmas. I'm going to start posting rumors that Hitler is still alive, the Italians really won WWII, Elvis was a spy for the Serbs. And, I will answer ten times to each technical question about WWII equipment with long, boring, detailed, yet ultimately pointless diatribes so that you get lost and start weeping every time you just want to find out what caliber of shell you are getting your butt whipped with. So Be Warned!!!! Or I might just complain to BF.

The Yahoos on this thread have no idea what is actually realistic when it comes to programing. Here is what I would like to see. Cows mooing on the sound track. Dead cows and horses. A mess hall where your troops can pick up extra energy points. Chickens running around in case the troops can't get to the mess hall. Little sailboats that are randomly scattered on bodies of water and can be use by troops lucky enough to run across them. Prostitutes. Some homes might still have a family in them where troops can get meals in case they cant' get to the mess hall. An option to play a what if game with Napoleonic Cuirassiers, Civil War veterans etc. A what if option where you can design your own tank for a battle. Maybe with laser canons? Each building should have it's own unique layout and texture, and an option in the editor to design your own european stone building. An option which will automatically build a city to match arial JPEGs. I'm pretty sure this shouldn't be to difficult. An option in the editor where you can build a whole battle, or war, and 20 or 30 people can play at the same time. A script that allows you to play on a wide screen. A version with a lot higher resolution and a bunch of extras for people that have access to super computers. The possibility that opposing units got into some booze and loose cohesion. A button that lets you alter the AAR in case it is really embarrassing. A larger variety of hats. A little closet at the back of some of the rooms (in the houses with complete detailed interiors) where if you go through the back you come out in a different game published by Sierra.

Update: This problem turned interesting. The Stug had to be redirected each turn, which took time. It was shooting to the East, and from the North came not one, but two T-34s which were restricted to the road they were moving down. In the road was a building and the Stug moved so it was between him and the T-34s. He just sat there banging away. Further South down the road I had a tank hidden with a keyhole view of the corner of the building. The T-34s must have thought the Stug was unaware of their presence so they just drove around the corner to blast it in the rear... right into the sights of the other tank. It was pretty cool.

There's no particular reason why a RG can't KO a tank. Like all other marginal AT weapons (ATR's, German 37's vs T34's, etc) it needs the right circumstances - which are not "freaks of nature".

A great big Bravo for this book. I have always wanted a book that compiled personal battlefield recollections, especially those that describe the tactics used. I made the Courier, typewriter connection immediately, and loved it. One criticism though, this book needs some heavy editing. As mentioned above, it is easy to loose the narrative thread. I understand your desire to keep the feel of the authentic, first person story telling. But good editing can keep the reader on track and maintain the authenticity (not an easy task of course).

I'll throw my two bits in with the experienced guys. The entire nature of my games changed when I started utilizing the formation doctrines you can pick up by reading these threads. I will ad this, don't go crazy with split squads, they are shakey. After experimenting I figured out that these guys were using them in a limited way, and still in close support by the following squads, for early peeks at the enemy. Also, the wedge formation can't be too extreme, everyone should be in support range. It's the mobility of jeeps and APCs that count. You can race an infantry unit to different places where they can walk up to the fire zones for a look. Here is a cool APC job. There is an open space with only light arms fire, ie, the enemy is on the verge of leaving. The APCs can get your reserve squads through quickly, all fresh and happy.

Yep, no cupola and small ammo load. But, with direction, it has now knocked out all the big stuff and is working over the MGs one at a time. And now I have pulled up some more equipment, and seeing as that Stug has kept the T-34 at bay by it's mere presence, we are ready to rock n roll. Thanks for all the info, I am now more prepared to use all this German equipment in the future.

StugE. Don't recall the caliber (blast is 45), and no MGs on it. Have to admit the lack of MGs surprised me. This turn I targeted the armored car, which recieved four or five rounds. Guess it's condition. It seems to be ponderously searching for the next enemy MG, I'll help it. I am now begining to recall a thread similar to this. I think it's definitely a problem with sight while buttoned. I just have to use it as it is. There was a T-34 that sat and watched for a couple of moves (the Stug has a building on it's flank) and then dissapeared. Guess it thought there wasn't much it could do.

A Zook would be quick and handy then. Well, there you go. I understand a heck of a lot more now than when I joined this thread. Now if only they would model this in CM. Seems way more practical than sewer movement.

The brandmauer thing is interesting, but beyond my scope of knowledge. I only know what I've picked up in my reading. The reference to attic movement could very well have referred to a certain locality not in Germany, and/or, maybe a bazooka could penetrate a single stone wall, I just assumed they were referring to wood. In fact, if the brandmauer were in fact just for fire protection it might have been a very light stone wall. climb up in an attic Joachim and find out would ya.

GJK, All good questions, but moot in this instance. Except for one point. I assigned one MG bunker the previous turn, and in that turn he moved on to the next bunker, then hit some infantry. On the current turn I assigned no targets. Did the assignment on the previous turn effect this one? Hmmmm. Sergei, Good point, although everything is in clear view and not far away. It seems like buttoned up Shermans perform better. As for unbuttoning, well my friend, as perfect a little shooting gallery as I have found myself in, the tank is surrounded by angry little MGs in clear view in top stories. Everything can't be perfect. This might be one of the rare times when I use infantry fire suppression in support of a tank. Or should I use patience and reduce the MGs one at a time?

I searched, but found no results for, German tanks getting stupid. Am I the only one with this problem? I have one tank that took one shot at a location I pointed to, but has been moving in front of infantry but not firing. Another is acting similarly. Another tank is set up real nice, looking into a cul de sac full of stuff. It took out the two MG bunkers without being prompted, but on the next turn just sat there watching a little armored car frantically trying to escape (kind of funny actually, unless it starts firing on my infantry which is moving up on the assumption the tank would take it out). There are also five or six MGs it could be taking out, not to mention infantry, but it's just sitting there. The hatches are closed on both and they are not shocked (just a little dim). Any suggestions?

Considering how seldom a small dust cloud ends up completely behind a hill I would say the recode wouldn't be worth the effort. But it would be nice if they showed up only when in LOS, not continually like buildings do. As for all the other ideas, I say let's not depart from the game philosophy. It's not realistic, it's fun. It does have a sense of realism to it, but it is also dramatic, and your different moves seem to result in a lifelike result. Afterall, a truly realistic game could only be seen through one pair of eyes.

Kobal2 said, I will have to agree, you are. Will

Sorry, Kobal2, you aint no longer the lone Frenchie here.

Nearly all of them had attics. Flat roofs were not very common since they leaked easily.

A common technique that seems to have solved this problem, and is not modeled in CM, was to use a bazooka in the attic where only wood separated the buildings. I have read accounts of urban fighting on the western front that discuss getting through adjoining walls, a common building practice in Europe back then. The walls were stone, so blasting through could be a time consuming with unpredictable results (think about it). The attic technique was arrived at my trial and error, but eventually became a standard practice. This is my understanding at least.