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Chelt

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Posts posted by Chelt

    Mac ATI patch

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    I'm trying to get CMAK/CMBB back up and running on my old PowerBook G4. Trouble is, that machine has the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics card, the one with the driver problem. ATI issued a patch that fixed the drivers, but I can't find the patch anymore.

    The troubleshooting page (http://www.battlefront.com/products/cmbb/troubleshooting.html#Mac) points to a page of the ATI site that no longer exists. It looks as if AMD deleted a lot of the old ATI support files after the companies merged.

    Does anyone have a copy of the patch for MacOS 9? I think that it was just an extension, maybe an associated control panel.

    (Post probably belongs in the technical support forum, but there are Russian thistles blowing around in there.)

    Thanks!

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    U.S. WW II German infantry weapon training film

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    There is something very strange about the narration on that piece.

    The speaker sounds like an American affecting a British accent, sometimes going Scottish, sometimes sounding more like a Mainer. He halts in awkward places, giving the impression that he has rarely read from a script. He lacks have the controlled tone that characterizes narration of the period.

    Last, the recording of his voice retains detail that I'd expect of a condenser microphone, not the then-common dynamic mics.

    What was Boat Two?

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    Group Think - What the hell were you thinking?

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Originally posted by Lt Belenko:

    A while back in work I attended a seminar on "Group Think". Basically it was an analysis of the Challenger disaster. Somebody said "Let's go in the freezing weather" The entire group nodded in concurrence. A few thought the cold could affect the O-rings on the booster rockets, but to conform to the "Group Think" they didn't speak up.

    The presenter in your seminar was, at best, passing on a counterfactual folk-history version of the Challenger disaster.

    The booster engineers DID speak up; managers discarded the warnings because they deemed the risks acceptable.

    This from an paper (by one of the lead engineers, published in Engineering Ethics journal) about the incident:

    "NASA and all the other interested parties, including the managers at Morton Thiokol, knew there were problems. So when the engineers gathered together their charts to make their recommendation the night before the Challenger launch, they went into the room to remind everyone in the chain of command what everyone already knew."

    And the engineers recommendation? They believed that NASA should hold the launch. That isn't exactly "keeping your mouth shut in order to conform to groupthink."

    http://www.onlineethics.org/CMS/profpractice/exempindex/RB-intro/RepMisrep.aspx

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    Cool Stryker-related animated battle sequence

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    The piece of writing behind that sequence was written by Spec. Colby Buzzell.

    The National Endowment for the Arts sponsored the "Operation Homecoming" project, creating a collection of soldiers' writing, then bringing the writing together in a book. Buzzell's story was part of that collection.

    The Documentary Group, funded by PBS and others, later made some of these writings into a "documentary" film of the same name. It's a strange film. The producers set about dramatizing the stories that are read on-screen, not by re-enacting them, but by animating them, or editing together still image sequences. The Men in Black sequence is one of the better ones, I think. In many of the others, the strength of the imagery overpowers the words, which are the "actuality" here.

    The film aired a few weeks ago as part of a PBS series about life after 9/11, America at a Crossroads. There are a few more videos on the PBS site, and the quality is (I think) better than the flash-video-player site's.

    The other films that are part of America at a Crossroads are worth viewing.

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    Major Bone... AI Planning Tools

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Quoth Battlefront.com:

    There are ways to coordinate Groups based on Time or Condition. The latter is not in yet but will be soon, I hope!

    Does this mean that a scenario designer can instruct a group of units to hold a position, but to withdraw if they take a certain level of casualties? So that engagements need not become mondo-battles-to-the-death?

    Is there any way to make the AI break off an attack if losses become too high?

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    Brutality in the Desert

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    Originally posted by Broompatrol:

    Under Roosevelt I don't think the labor unions would be very happy about POWS making munitions. And with Patton & MacArthur busy with the war there was nobody left to shoot strikers anymore even if strikes were illegal.

    The lack of POWs in American munitions plants is not, you know, a matter of domestic politics. The Hague 1899 and 1907 both forbid the employment of prisoners of war on activities related to military operations.
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    Too Many Strykers

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    This spake AdamL:

    I think that the US would simply line up their heaviest divisions along the main highways leading to the operational objectives. Then they would drive up them, with air support and artillery, just like the Stryker brigade, but division sized units minimum and nothing fancy operationally. Stryker brigades would fight tactically and never reach anything like operational depths.
    You can't talk about divisions as fixed formations comprising one kind of unit. Not anymore. Most of the regular army has gone over to the new brigade-based structure. There are divisions that mix heavy and Stryker brigades in garrison. When deployed in the field, a division might end up controlling just about any mix of subordinate units.

    The Stryker brigade is in my opinion, too lightly armored and not numerous enough in shear size to maintain combat power necessary to accomplish operational objectives outside of the screening task, which I feel it is particularly suitatable to. On defense, mobile anti-tank reserve. On assault they support the infantry-denser formations.
    There is no infantry-denser formation. The light infantry brigades have 8 companies of infantry; the SBCT has 9. A heavy brigade has 4.

    Why does so much of this discussion revolve around the truck itself?

    All this talk about the merits or faults of the Stryker vehicle ignores the infantry that these vehicles are ferrying around. Forget the hardware and think about the formation itself, for a moment. The brigade is a full-size infantry formation, with enough vehicles to lift its entire strength under armor, considerable direct fire support, and excellent communications. The wheeled APC/IFV is well tested. In the modern US Army, mounted infantry is not.

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    Too Many Strykers

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    It's interesting to compare the SBCT organization with the newer modular brigade structures.

    The Strykers have three maneuver battalions + a strong reconnaissance battalion. Artillery support is at the scale of 3x 155mm batteries; engineer support is just one company; service support includes only one distribution company and four forward spt co. They reflect a "pre-transformation" structure.

    The new HBCT and IBCT organizations have just two maneuver brigades, with correspondingly reduced artillery support. Battalions are square, with four companies each.

    What T/O changes would you make to the Stryker brigade so that they could better support CMSF's hypothetical invasion? Would you change anything?

    The trick in this question is that you may not change the equipment types; if it isn't currently issued to a Stryker brigade, you can't add it. (Maybe, if you must, you can add equipment that is already in service on LAV type vehicles - maybe.)

    Assume that you can get the money, the time, and the soldiers from the same magical place that the rest of the invasion is coming from. You can cleave to the brigade's role as defined in FM-3-21.31, or you can declare your own.

    [ March 13, 2007, 06:45 PM: Message edited by: Chelt ]

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    US Army historical document source

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    I've just discovered the US Army Heritage Collection Online:

    http://www.ahco.army.mil/site/index.jsp

    The site contains a vast number of historical documents, including manuals from the whole of the 20th century, in PDF form. There are also images and personal documents. It's a bonanza for any curious reader or serious researcher, though the interface is appalling.

    It's not immediately obvious how one narrows down a search to particular types of documents, periods, or collections. By way of example, here's how I searched for Coast Artillery manuals:

    - Go to http://www.ahco.army.mil/site/search.jsp

    - Click on the "search" button

    - Click on "advanced options"

    - Under "document fields," uncheck all boxes except for "Published Material"

    - Click on the "save changes" button

    - Under "title," enter your search terms, like "Coast".

    - Press the "Submit Search" button.

    - You get a listing of results.

    The site presents manuals as PDFs contained within a frame. If you know how, you can save these PDFs to your hard drive. Try control-clicking on a Mac, or right-clicking under Windows.

    The files contain watermarks that make them pretty much illegible. If you have a full version of Adobe Acrobat, you can select and then delete the stupid and unnecessary watermarks. (They're US Government documents, so they're in the public-freakin-domain.)

    [This is a slightly expanded cross-post from the Naval Fiction Board.]

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    Vilho Koskela - foreign equivalents?

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    I'm trying to think of fictional characters who are the equivalent, for their own countries, of Vilho Koskela for the Finns.

    In Koskela, we have a junior army officer from a working-class family; brave, resolute, and quiet. He comes from books that take a humanist point of view and a social realist style.

    Yossarian and Crouchback don't exactly fit. Not exactly brave, resolute, and anything but quiet. The best I can do for the Australians is Ned Kelly, and he was a real person. Must have been a noisy one too, clanking about in home-built boiler plate armor.

    Any suggestions?

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    Syrian TO&E thread

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    How about actually using OPFOR?

    Picture this – Combat Mission: Fort Irwin. The enemy drives visually-modified Sheridans. Want BMP-3s? No problem, just use M113s with bits of metal welded on. Everyone walks around wearing MILES gear. Cover is the same thing as concealment -- but every once in a while, an AI-controlled umpire unit walks around with a God Gun, dispensing hasty laser justice. Best of all, you get realistic respawns.

    The next module, Combat Mission: Sudbury, introduces British and Canadian forces. New challenges include preventing your troops from succumbing to nasty Tim Horton's baked goods, and orchestrating the efficient distribution of poutine among widely-dispersed outposts.

    Then, in, Combat Mission: Urban Warrior, a Marine landing force storms ashore in a fog-bound coastal California town. Here, the most deadly enemy unit is the Arrogant Humvee Driver, and its less-heavily-protected but more agile relative, the Distracted H2 Driver with Cellphone.

    For a return to historical models, there's Combat Mission: Louisiana Maneuvers. Everyone who thought that tank destroyers never got a chance in the original CM series gets the opportunity to settle the score. Take command of a provisional Tank Attacker force and smash those Red armored spearheads. Marvel at the details of faded tobacco signs on barns and the old glass-topped gas pumps in front of the general stores. Listen to the smooth drawl of the natives when your hopelessly-lost troops stop to ask for directions.

    Cold War gone hot? Combat Mission: Aggressor Force, whose Esperanto-speaking members wearing Circle Trigon insignia try to take over Kansas.

    Endless possibilities.

    [edit: silly English grammar.]

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    First Scenario Bone

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

    Company HQs facilitate intel moving up and down the chain, they act as a calming influence on shakey units (like CMx1), and can bring in support fire.

    That's sounding promising all right.

    But what about the bit in the weblog about the battalion command group and executive officer?

    Company HQ (mounted in Stryker), BN HQ and Fire Support Team (mounted in Stryker), and the BN XO (mounted in a M1114 Humvee)

    Does the XO count separately from the CO?
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    First Scenario Bone

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    My force consists of a Stryker Rifle Platoon (mounted), Stryker Engineer Platoon (mounted), Stryker Mortar Section (mounted), Company HQ (mounted in Stryker), BN HQ and Fire Support Team (mounted in Stryker), and the BN XO (mounted in a M1114 Humvee).
    So what's happening with commanders above company level, nowadays?
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    Honour in Combat

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    Originally posted by John Kettler:

    The Operations Research findings on this matter are emphatic, as described by Prof. R.V. Jones in THE WIZARD WAR. Most of the British bombers weren't putting their ordnance within 5 miles of the desired aimpoint.

    You take Dr. Jones' statement out of context. The five-mile figure applies to night raids early in the war, with crews navigating by dead reckoning and occasional celestial sights. Jones later describes a 1944 night attack, aided by electronic navigational devices and improved tactics, that put the bombs almost all into the same farmer's field.
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