HarryInk

Ah... Peaveyyy on the BoB forum pointed out the issue. In scenarios I THINK the troops should rout to their friendly map edges (?). In QBs they go to default settings, regardless of what the imported map might say.

Sgt AA I think it's your computer and it loves you. 6km x 6km. Are you MAD man? Your CPU isn't worried about melting down, it's worried YOU will!!

But what was the name of the actual scenario?

Nah, the friendly map edge doesn't seem to define which direction they rout in. Not totally, anyway.

Oh, getting extra foxholes on the defence is not gamey, by a long shot. It's SOP for me. Set up a defensive position with fall back holes just out of LOS,then bring with rear half-squads up to the forward line in T1 before he draws LOS on me. That way the tea party lasts twice as long.

Thanks for explaining that Kingfish. I use 'em heaps but didn't understand the bitch about it. I use 'em cos doctrine says you advance to engagement with the smallest tactical unit. So, the forward squad of my platoons is usually split as scouts. I also use 'em to inflate numbers when traversing exposed ground, especially in feints. The full squads though deliver the big bangs, so when I need steady firepower I keep 'em whole. Haven't had anyone prise me apart with half-squads using the bug yet, so I suppose I haven't understood why it's 'gamey'.

Designed a couple of scenarios just to see troops rout FORWARD in to the enemy. Arrggh.. Especially in CMAK. In Nth Africa the Germans always rout westward? East Africa? Italy? (axis west:allied east) Crete? Do the rout directions change with the year?

Gods, all of yus.

OK, next question. Sorry to be thick, but can you expand on step 2 with GIMP, which I've DLd & set up. How do I set the colours & graduate them? STarted fiddling but it's too late to be coherent.

Do I worship thee, oh McAuliffe? Yeah verily thou art a great provider. All praise unto thee and thy cotton socks. Thanks mate. I'll fight my way through my next map project and throw questions up here after I've done the requisite cursing at my puter. Would you mind? First obtuse querie. The painting in GIMP has to be done by hand/mouse? Ja? Spose I can do that in Photoshop to?... [ June 28, 2006, 03:07 AM: Message edited by: HarryInk ]

Wonder if anyone has tips for using Mapping Mission. I find it's much better than the editor but I'm very crude at it. I don't understand getting it to import map stuff from a topo, for eg. Any tips... especially with generating the contours of a map (esp from an underlay)?

The idea of chequer-boarding set up zones is nice. Why not try a convention that 'cheques'(?) that have been interdicted can't be used in subsequent rounds, nor ones in advance of your own line. Troops isolated remain so. I know it's not perfect... Thanks for bringing up a good point. The option of putting SUZs way way back to avoid interdiction means longer marching forward to contact than most people might like (dunno about the AI - I tend to play people mostly so don't think of it's habits so much). However, I think a 10 turn 'march in' isn't such a bad thing, so I'd recommend way back zones. Make you think about buying trucks a bit more, eh!

[Nelson1812 over at Band of Brothers recently brought this process to my attention. His original post is here ] Old timers might know this but it's new to me!: 1. Find or generate a HUGE QB map. If it were me, I'd then plant sufficient VLs to stop the computer auto-generating any more at the rear of each side's territories. (roughly equivalent to the points in either side, I think) 2. Set up an ME between a soviet exploitation column and a german counter-attack. 3. When the game ends, save the final map (off the AAR screen) and put it in your 'quick battle maps' folder. 4. Set up a new QB, this time a probe, for whomever got the upperhand in the ME. Select new troops. When you get to the map details, select the saved map from the QBMaps folder and say YES to 'import troops'. 5. You'll find the old troops in situ fully resupplied with ammo (though holding their casualties) PLUS you'll get however many new ones you've choosen for the Probe. Maybe a good idea to agree to some rough rules (eg. no 'reinforcements' deployed within 300m of any old troops?) 6. Fight this battle out and repeat steps 3-5 except that you set the next fight as an ATTACK. 7. Try it again with an ASSAULT....or another attack if #6 failed. What you could get is a series of battles where elements from a German division attempt to bottle up/smash the soviet breakthrough before it becomes yet another established salient/bridgehead. Or, the soviets trying to overrun hasty German defences. Passing through the categories allows defenders to start laying in trenches and pillboxes etc after the initial bouts with only foxholes. At this time I haven't tested this process enough to do anything but theorise the idea of what would make a great series of fights. 8. A variation on all this is to just redo the ME over and over. Much less character, I'd suggest but you do get to try the same tricks over the same terrain in a very bloody series of battles. This has all the charms to burnt hulks and smashed buildings from earlier fighting littering the battlefield. Moreover, troops at the front can't redeploy wildly as they often can in Operations. I think it could also give you a really different shift in your CMing from the usual pin-rush to a different reading of terrain and objectives that focus on terrain, enemy and the integrity of your battleline (after all, a breakthrough exposes those VLs way back at the head of your communications route or, even better, sections of your command being isolated and reduced). At step #3 you'd have to agree not to pick over the final map analysing enemy survivors etc. etc. unless you seriously want to compromise the FOW in the next battle. If you can keep that moment secure, it's amazing how little holds how much ground, simply on the basis that neither side really knows how much is 'there' and frets the enemy line into existence! Anyway, if you fight a mate whom you trust and feel like a different spin in your CMing, this method has to be a candidate for producing a series of great battles, no?

Ta.

The only other thing I know is to cut down your horizon to 1000m so there are less graphics for the puter to chunk through. How was your trip, Chee-Yan? Go anywhere special?

I was meaning you couldn't bring the car to north fitzroy. Up at Pukka you'd prolly be a GOD!!

What a bugger, Z. They ended up putting us on Green 12. I texta'd it onto a picture I had propped up on a table near the entrance that had a tank cartoon on it. I get the impression the bowling club makes it up a little. Next time we can meet a little earlier somewhere down on Brunswick St so we don't miss each other? Or ring the mobile... Anyway, sorry you had a dud part in your evening. Sounds like the rest of it should have kicked up.

My god that is a purdy car. You'd have to take the bike. Can't leave something that pretty out on the street for a dickhead to side-swipe.

Goodoh, you're coming to Pukka. That'll be brilliant!! What the f(&^ is an Impala??

Excellent that Rob was hammered. I got to bowl better than him! hehe Otherwise I'd be f*&^%ed. And most excellent to meet Agent Smith who whipped out his laptop to introduce me to an array of gaming addiction I wouldn't dare have previously dreamed of! Was ace to see Mace again. Bulletrat, tsk tsk. And Zalgiris, is work more important than lawn bowls? *arch eyebrow* Fellas, I'm keen to meet again late March. Same format (cos it's easy and silly). Like to see Chee Yan and Hunter. If I can figure how how to put a pic up on my webspace, I'll post a happy pic. They're never pretty but they excite curiousity, don't they?

Oh yair. The list looks like HarryInk, Mace, Bullrat, Zalgiris, VonJake, Jim (all CMers) and two friends of mine driving in from Syndey sometime or other during the evening. They'll prolly enjoy the amber & relaxation after 8 hours on the road, I expect.

IS TODAY. SEE YOU ALL AROUND 7PMish in the club house. We'll move out for the bowls/futher chat/drink bit @7.30, okie doke?! Erm... I'll cartoon up a tank like Mace suggested. Also, after 7.30 we'll be out on the green booked for Harry Harrison. [ February 02, 2006, 08:22 PM: Message edited by: HarryInk ]

Exzellent news, my friends. Friday's forecast is for fine and 25. Perhaps a cardigan while you roll yon bools?

MOnday bump.

Monday bump. A couple of mates coming down from Sydney are going to join us for the bowls. They're not CMers but that'll just mean us CMers can sit around and sledge 'em while they play and we swap ol' battle stories!!