Bergerbitz

I used to be mad for grand strategy games. One day I downloaded the CMBO demo and found that tactical games were not as down 'n dirty as I thought they would be. I never bought CMBO. I preferred to plink away at the demo scenarios. I am still tactically -uhm- deficient, but I enjoyed the demo enough to play it here and there. Then CMBB came out. It's the only game I have on the hard-drive right now. There isn't a day that goes by when I don't have a 25-turn QB before bed. It might grow on you like a field-grey fungus yet.

I agree the scenario depot provides a very useful resource for designers and those looking for scenarios. Feedback is always nice for those putting their works of art on the line -- whether negative (to provide learning and restructuring) or positive (to reinforce the designers good efforts). The problem with the scenario depot is it's rather unwieldy. I just tried to search for a collection of PBEM and 2-player scenarios and came up with nothing. What I like about the scenario packs is the scenarios are grouped by type -- PBEM compatibility, solo player compatibility, historical events, etc. Sure I have to take the time to select one out of the pack, but with the packs I know I'm in the right ballpark. Don't get me wrong, I like the scenario depot a great deal. One can have the most thorough lump of information available, but to limit it's searchability results in people going elsewhere. I beleive it is in the designers' best interests to make it easier for the users to support them. They want feedback? Then make it as easy as possible. It doesn't take many obstacles (imagined or real) for me to lose interest in responding to someone's efforts and I don't demand that others rise above their aversions to do so either. Its human nature. As for who has what rights...well, we all have the right to be here. What we do with our time and energy becomes privelege. I like El_Cid's scenario packs. Nice 'n' tidy. I probably won't personally e-mail him and thank him, though. I am a profoundly lazy man and I don't pretend to not be.

Yeee! You bike 28 miles a day? Where do you find that kind of time? I bike only 5 miles a day, five times a week. Each trip takes about 20 minutes. But to get back to the main point....I'd get tired with 80 lbs on my back, especially if it's a steep hill. I'd give myself about 30 seconds before getting at least a little wobbly in the knees. 28 miles a day...? ... ...phew...

Dang! Good shot! Lately, I seem to be causing a lot of real estate damage and wounding a lot of fellow soldiers rather than taking out pillboxes, minefields and enemy tanks.

Oh, CMBB is gotta be the best game in my collection..hands down.

Ooohh...Battles of Napoleon and Kampfgruppe on the C64... ...ah, the memories...of shuffling different coloured blocks that represented lines of infantry and cavalry . And the sounds...oh the cheesy sounds... (warm fuzzy feeling envelopes my being)

My God, but that must have been a lot of work. I deeply appreciate your efforts. Thank you.

I sure like those satchel charges -- they sure can clean out a house. The problem is I had a few cases in which German pioneers heaved one or two at some very bad moments. A green squad of German pioneers inside a light building decided to chuck a satchel at a Russian squad in a similar building only 20m away. The result was a very dead Russian squad, plus three collapsed buildings and 7 killed/wounded friendly troops who were in the building 20m away from the target. I chalked that incident up to the squad's green-ness and carried on. But, in another battle, the same thing happened with veteran troops. Haven't tried crack or elite yet. You might think this might prompt me to holler "BTS -- fix or do somefink!!", but I'm placing the blame on myself. Is the moral of the story to give pioneers plenty of room until their charges are used up? I have a feeling it is...

Yep...played this scenario again and used the same "pin-the-enemy-smoke-their-LOS-as-I-pound-through-the-right-flank" tactic as last time and I ended up with a tactical defeat. Hmmm.... ...oh, I told the AI to stick to scenario default. Off to try again. Wish me luck.

I managed to work out a draw (playing as the Germans) on that scenario. Had to move real fast to get it, though.

Methinks he doth not a manual or mayhap he is loathe read of it...what sayest thou, Horatio?

...he says he's Master God Ale but he reads like Peng...

I've noticed the usual number of threads MasterGoodale creates in a day has dropped significantly since this thread was (for lack of a better word) birthed. Coincidence? Divine Intention? Something I noticed while cutting my toenails with the good steak knives? Hm...ah...I dunno...(ouch, dammit)

I hear the dental and optical plans are pretty good...

Ordered mine on October 16th or so but I used a money order. I kinda lost my visa about ten years ago while sucking out the septic tank and have been too lazy to get another one. Never really needed it. I'm thinking it'll take a few more weeks before it gets to Saskabush. ..sigh..

I have a PIII 450 with a GeForce MX400 64 MB video card. The motherboard I have only has AGP 1.0, but the CMBB demo runs fairly smooth at 800x600 resolution. The good part is I'm forewarned of any heavy enemy action when the turn calculations take a little longer. ...not that I can do anything about it when the game is playing out the turn...

Yep....lost a PzIIIm on the second turn due to bogging. It was the command tank on the right flank. It still sits 325 metres from the trees after passing turn #25 now. I just chalked it up to a thrown track, transmission troubles or some other reason that just plain happened to combat vehicles of the era. It's covering the rear pretty good....

Hmm...looks like Osprey has at least one book about the Eastern Front. It's aptly titled "Ostfront - Hitler's War on Russia 1941-45" Authored by Charles Winchester (hey,isn't he the snooty guy from MASH?) The ISBN is: 1-84176-066-8 The reading is quite light in this one, but there are loads of photos and illustrations, some of which are by the venerable Ron Volstad. Hey, I might have another one... (dig) (rummage) Ah..here we are... "Frontsoldaten" by Stephen G Fritz, published by the Univserity of Kentucky Press. ISBN 0-8131-0943-4 This one is a very personal look at German soldiers through letters and diaries. From what I remember there are a lot of Eastern Front references in this one. Good, good book.

My favourite side? ...hmmm... The shiny side! Of the CD, that is...

Anh? More bones? Egads...for months there was virtually nothing, just scraps of this and that... ...now... .... I'm feelin -ah say- feelin a bit tingly all over, son. ...burning with anticipation, that is.

I just got home from work (a long frigging week, too) and I just saw the freshly-thrown bones... ...and I wept. I wept with joy as I beheld the screesnhots. I wept with pain for the longing of what I so badly want to purchase. i wept like a blind man, suddenly stricken with sight and witnessing his first sunset. I wept as a young bride would barely choking out an "I do" to her Mr. Right. Oh, how I wept as I clicked through the screenies and read Germanboy's AAR. Then I popped a beer and pulled my weepy ass together. OMG!! I'm -a- lookin forward to this hyar game!!! (snork..snuff...)

See..what I'm thinking is the longer CMBB takes, the better. I'm aiming to pay for it with my returned empty beer bottles. At 5 cents apiece I'll be needing about 1800 of them. I guessed the CMBB price to be about $90.00 Canadian, with our tremendous exchange rate and shipping costs. World Cup is coming too, so that goal of 90 bucks in empties may not be too hard to reach. I'll need some help from my buddies though... See? It's all -urp- scientifically -hic- planned. ....fart...

I'm thinking I should cash in my empty beer bottles. I should have enough for CMBB. Hm...I could empty a few more bottles before July...

CMBB will be released on a sunny day after so much itchy anticipation. A flurry of short, brief messages will be seen here sortly after the release. Some may proclaim the game as the Second Coming (and indeed it just may be). IT ROCKS will be seen in 24-point type with the accompanying emoticons. Some of us will post messages that sound like groans of satisfaction, of achieving higher victories and gaining ground. Some will give hasty reports of human wave after human wave crashing against the sides of some great grey colossus. Panzerfausts ready, erect against the swollen tide of Bt-7s and T-34s. Then silence. For such an unusually long time the board will be silent. A few more messages. IT ROCKS may appear once more before we dive into the fray, aching for more. Largely unread, the post will grow old and lie forgotten. Ignoring the boards, we'll dive back in. Into the sweaty fray. Orders will be issued, outcomes observed with unblinking eyes. Hands will again grasp mice like drowning men's last straws. Screens will be gazed at like first, lost loves coming back and asking us for one more time. Will there be tears? There may be. There may be cries of passion, of "NO NO NONONO" or "YESYESYES...oh guh-GOD yuh-YES!!!" as formations thrust across sun-baked steppes, plunge into soft earth, hold their ground as fires blaze and spread. Fingers will absently trace the silent "o" of open beer bottles as the beer grows forgotten and warm. And oh... ..oh... ...oh... ...oh, I can't wait for CMBB. .... ..dammit. Got my tongue stuck in the beer bottle again. Gotta go.