Carl Puppchen

I sent the turn to Jason C but haven't heard anything back yet. My PBEM opponent who has a 6 month newer PC than mine is running the turn at about 3 minutes 12 seconds, so 4-5 minutes isn't so bad.

Thanks for the thoughts so far. I did some research in the forum and upgraded my directX drivers to 9.0. Then I went out and upgraded my NVIDIA GE Force4 MX 440 graphics card up to the latest driver (5.30 I think). And then I re-ran my movie... and it took exactly 4 minutes! This is just an idea but maybe we should set up a "reference" turn in a scenario that people could download and run like a PBEM turn and if we said "30 seconds" was a good time, you could benchmark and see if your machine was up to snuff. Or if anyone wants to try running the turn that I am talking about, I could email it to you, just open it up and hit "go" (don't plot any orders) - see how long it takes vs. 4 minutes on my system and then I could try to figure out what my system is missing in comparison (or maybe my system is doing OK, I don't know). I am not saying 4-5 minutes makes a game too long to play - I played "our backs to the Volga" and that game could take forever to run a turn... I just want to know if I am getting the most bang for my buck out of my system and any ideas of where I could tweak something to improve performance is appreciated. I would assume key elements would be the graphics card, processor (P4 in my case) and the RAM. But that is just speculation [ February 06, 2004, 10:31 PM: Message edited by: Carl Puppchen ]

I have been playing the Operation "Tobruk - the Easter Battles" via email with a friend for a few weeks. This is a huge operation for the first german assault on Tobruk. Whenever it is my turn to create a movie, it takes a long time, longer than I ever noticed in the past (but that is probably because I usually don't play scenarios this large). I have 512 meg of RAM and a pretty new video card. I timed it and it took about 5 minutes 17 seconds of the blue bar creeping forward to create a movie. For xmas I received some Best Buy gift cards. So I picked up an extra 256 meg of RAM and made sure my PC could see it. Then I retried those turns. To make it more complex, since the first time I ran the 5:17 test I upgraded to CMAK 1.01, so I couldn't re-run that same orders phase, which means my test isn't really "apples to apples". In any case, I re ran my latest movie turn and it took about 4:00 minutes, which was better. The down side was that the movie from the 5:17 turn was over 1 meg and the movie from the newer turn was about 800k, so maybe there was just less action. When I run the turns and the blue bar is creeping up I don't see my PC swapping to disk so I assume it is a RAM issue. But I am not technical enough to know for sure, that is why I am posting on this forum. Best of luck and thanks to Battlefront for creating a great game like CMAK! You can bet your life I wouldn't wait 5 minutes + for a turn to process any where else.

Don't forget that CMAK 1.0 has taken out the backblast impact of shreks and zooks. I think this is one of the items that will be in CMAK 1.01, or at least lots of people are clamoring for it. This adds a significantly different challenge since shooting them in a building causes fires or suppresses your units and they can even start fires behind them if it is dry enough outside. If you know your guy is going to be suppressed that is all the more reason to wait until the tank is VERY close, since the tank will have a long time to train its turret on you and shoot. Best behavior is to set them up in rubble or woods. Don't forget about tank hunters. They can be setup with an armored covered arc. This is important and in my experience makes them more likely to use their weapons that you can't control thru the Tac AI. Also veteran or elite plays a big factor - try playing GD441026 Delaying Action a scenario where a few elite tank hunters take on late war Soviet tanks. I had a tank hunter team pump three direct hit fausts' into a tank before the "death clock" kicked in...

"Trusted" PBEM is a feature that they use in other battlefront games, from what I have been told. When the CMBB 1.03 patch was coming out I put in a post begging for trusted email and the moderator came out and flamed me for being unreasonable. The real solution is that trusted PBEM would be an option that you could setup when you start the game - if you know your opponent (like I do, I play one opponent 3 PBEM games at a time and am 100% confident he wouldn't cheat), and if you don't know your opponent that well, you could do the current cheat-proof mode. I can't imagine that this would be that big of a change - I have at least a little basis for this assumption since I am a project manager at a tech company - but am unfortunately thinking that they won't put this in.

It is a brutal scenario where the defender can setup in a keyhole position and you can't outflank them. This is usually a function of one board edge being used as an impenetrable flank. It brings to mind the scenario "Barkmann's corner" from the good ol' ASL days where a single panther threw a wrench into an entire attack by defending from a great location.

SMG's are nasty in close quarter fighting, especially cities. At close range the Russians blow away the Germans with their comparatively low firepower rifles. I have seen late war German SMG units use up their ENTIRE ammo load in a single turn, however. Mortars are good where ever there is good LOS. Seems strange to mix mortars and SMG units - mortars are usually back and in cover (best if with an HQ up front and they are out of sight) and the SMG units are usually right up front in the battle or in counter-attack positions behind the line where they can spring on the enemy at close range.

Have any of you played the famous avalon hill board game 3rd reich? They had a very detailed module for all the minor countries listed here to bring them over to the axis or allied sides. They had a large # of factors that impacted their leanings, including whether or not Russia occupied part of Poland and the baltics in their pact w/Hitler, etc... As far as Ireland - I can't believe they aren't mentioned as being Pro-Axis. I have British friends who swear to this day that the Irish helped German U boats in port (never proven). The Irish were neutral at best and never pro-British on anything. I realize this seems odd today and my wife is Irish but that is the way it was.

We are playing "knifefight in cucina" scenario and it started acting "funky" when we got to the + turns. After turn 15 my STG was "bailing out" for 2 entire turns without bailing, and my US opponent's forces that were next to my tank were locked into place. Has anyone else had this "+" turn activity? I have the movies and can make screen shots if this hasn't happened before. We have played many games w/standard turns and haven't notices these types of bugs.

Ummm don't kill me for this but don't forget about "The English Patient". They show the Germans taking Tobruk in 1942 and there do seem to be some semi-realistic support weapons around. Don't know about that aircraft he was flying but the AA gun seemed authentic.

The AI definitely does NOT always accept a cease fire. Sometimes when I am winning and it is getting boring I offer one (when I am on defense) and the AI usually does not take it.

This feature was also present in CMBB - was not present in CMBO. One benefit of pre-plotting is that even if your observer is killed the shells will still fall. It is often a good idea to use pre-planned barrages on observers with very long time delays, such as the Russians or the Italians.

My sister's husband's father worked on a camera crew right after WW2. The camera crew that took pictures of the nuclear weapons detonated out in the proving ranges. Amazingly, he is still alive in his late 70's and in pretty good health, still runs a boat shop. My father worked for the veterans administration for 40 years, retiring a few years back. They built the facility in Hines, IL which is massive (it has its own zip code) because one of the units that did the death march was raised out of Maywood. The survivors of the death march are the highest sort of people in the VA chain, when they talk people jump. Growing up I heard all of their horrible stories. One guy was a POW and ended up in Japan. When the war was over and they were liberated he went up to the officer that liberated them and borrowed his pistol. Then he walked around and executed all of the collaborators and gave him his gun back. These people went on to lead normal lives, get jobs, etc... and they complained very little. I always think of them when I watch Springer or something and all these people complain about how hard their lives are, while these death march survivors game home and went back to work with very little in the way of complaints. My dad also said that more Vietnam vets killed themselves after the war than died in the war. At least the WW2 vets came home as heroes.

My sister's husband's father worked on a camera crew right after WW2. The camera crew that took pictures of the nuclear weapons detonated out in the proving ranges. Amazingly, he is still alive in his late 70's and in pretty good health, still runs a boat shop. My father worked for the veterans administration for 40 years, retiring a few years back. They built the facility in Hines, IL which is massive (it has its own zip code) because one of the units that did the death march was raised out of Maywood. The survivors of the death march are the highest sort of people in the VA chain, when they talk people jump. Growing up I heard all of their horrible stories. One guy was a POW and ended up in Japan. When the war was over and they were liberated he went up to the officer that liberated them and borrowed his pistol. Then he walked around and executed all of the collaborators and gave him his gun back. These people went on to lead normal lives, get jobs, etc... and they complained very little. I always think of them when I watch Springer or something and all these people complain about how hard their lives are, while these death march survivors game home and went back to work with very little in the way of complaints. My dad also said that more Vietnam vets killed themselves after the war than died in the war. At least the WW2 vets came home as heroes.

My sister's husband's father worked on a camera crew right after WW2. The camera crew that took pictures of the nuclear weapons detonated out in the proving ranges. Amazingly, he is still alive in his late 70's and in pretty good health, still runs a boat shop. My father worked for the veterans administration for 40 years, retiring a few years back. They built the facility in Hines, IL which is massive (it has its own zip code) because one of the units that did the death march was raised out of Maywood. The survivors of the death march are the highest sort of people in the VA chain, when they talk people jump. Growing up I heard all of their horrible stories. One guy was a POW and ended up in Japan. When the war was over and they were liberated he went up to the officer that liberated them and borrowed his pistol. Then he walked around and executed all of the collaborators and gave him his gun back. These people went on to lead normal lives, get jobs, etc... and they complained very little. I always think of them when I watch Springer or something and all these people complain about how hard their lives are, while these death march survivors game home and went back to work with very little in the way of complaints. My dad also said that more Vietnam vets killed themselves after the war than died in the war. At least the WW2 vets came home as heroes.

Please give this thread a chance before you kill it. I am a long time CMBO / CMBB / CMAK player who goes way back with the AH games to Tobruk. Anyone on this forum is a military history buff and a good candidate for donating to the Aberdeen museum. If you donate now, you can get a tax deduction for the year 2003, and you can even do it by paypal, which is very convenient. At Aberdeen they have the WW2 weapons we talk about every day, from Matildas to 88mm guns to Panther tanks, sitting outside, rusting. The purpose of the campaign is to put a roof over these historic artifacts so they don't rot away and be lost, forever. Here is the information from their web site: "The Ordnance Museum Foundation, Inc. was formally incorporated in the State of Maryland as Charity #8849 in December of 1991 as a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation. Our status as such was recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as an authorized 501©(3) corporation in the Spring of 1992. This allows the Foundation to accept tax-deductible contributions. " The link to the museum can be found at http://www.ordmusfound.org/ I have no connection to the museum I just am a fan and visited and made a recent contribution. If you want to see my photos of tanks go here http://www.carlstumpf.com/CarlStumpf/combat%20mission/Aberdeen/Aberdeen%20Photos.htm

If you play the Germans and are selecting for points the STG III F and G series are a good all purpose weapon - they are MG armed, have good HE capability, and can stand-off well against the Allied tanks (less so the late war Russian). Note that if you buy them in platoon you receive 3 units with an HQ that often provides a fighting bonus (as well as reducing the per-unit cost). German fighting doctrine for TD's stressed that these units should operate as a platoon, not as single TD's, whenever possible. The Hetzer TD's are also a good buy, they have a smaller profile than the STG III F and G models, better front slope armor, and the same 75mm gun. They have less HE rounds, however, so are less effective against infantry. The 76mm Marder is a substantially less effective weapon. It has a high profile, which means that it is quickly spotted, and is open topped, which means that it must fear even small caliber mortars. These TD's die quickly and should be avoided in favor of the STG series or Hetzers whenever possible. Although I enjoyed building the Nashorn model when I was a kid, I find this to be a not-very cost effective weapon in CMBB / CMAK. The 88mm gun is awesome and can kill anything it can see except perhaps a late model JS series but these are also high profile, open topped and very slow vehicles, with very thin armor. In a post above a reference was made to the JadgTiger - I think that the reference should have been to the JadgPanther because it seemed that the reference was more in the 1944 Normandy time frame - but either the JadgTiger or the JadgPanther are awesome weapons. The JadgPanther has the Panther chassis with its strong armor and fast speed, combined with the high velocity 88mm gun of the late model Tiger (King Tiger). These weapons can dominate the game, with their only flaws being a slow turning radius and (relatively) weaker side armor. The JadgTiger fears no one except maybe a late model JS series - their 128mm gun takes out most any Allied tank at any range and is great for infantry, as well. Their major disadvantages are their SLOW speed and high profile. Their most likely adversary is air attack where their heavy armor can be pierced from above. The Elephant is a rare vehicle but it is armed with the same 88mm gun as the JadgPanther and the Nashorn and has very heavy armor. It lacks MG for self defense and is also very slow, along with having a high profile. On defense in cover it is a VERY dangerous TD, on offense its slow speed makes it marginally useful. Employing TD's on the attack usually turns out poorly, with the exception of the STG series, which make pretty effective all around vehicles for the price. Attacking with Marders or Nashorns is to be avoided at almost all costs. Best of luck tank hunting! All of the posts above r/e "key hole" positions are right on the money - you want to shoot and scoot. I would also emphasizing purchasing weapons in platoon strength (generally 3 units) for all round protection and a lower per-unit cost.

Didn't it say April 1941 on the cover of the old Avalon Hill Afrika Korps game.... where they "broke his sword"?

This is a great thread, and one I have put a lot of thought into. I play a lot of CM and always play the Germans, my main competitor always plays the allies. The main thing I was looking forward to in CMAK vs. CMBB is the fact that the dreaded Soviet 122mm and 152m assault guns wouldn't pre-emptively level all of the likely defense points from long range. The US forces have mostly 75mm HE or artillery but neither of these options puts a dent in buildings as fast as the large caliber Russian guns. Even though artillery is plentiful for the western allies direct SP gun fire takes down buildings much faster than less accurate artillery fire. As noted, the best defense is to setup behind the building or in a less likely place and move up after the building has been rubbled. I agree 100% with the suggestion that rubble should spread over a larger area and slow / hinder the progress of tanks and wheeled vehicles. This (realistic) change would make the "pre-emptive" leveling of strongpoints a less appealing option.

I apologize if this question has already been asked and answered but I was wondering why CMBB forbids setup of guns in rubble. This prohibition results in guns having a short life in city combat - usually setup on a street or occasional patch of trees and dying quickly. In ASL they used to let you setup guns in rubble and even put small caliber AT guns (less than 75mm, I believe) in buildings and even upper stories! Is this a realistic prohibition?

In this thread multiple people noted how good the Jadgpanther looks. Here is my favorite photo just block out the picture of me - since I always play the Germans and this tank has saved me so many times I am giving it the respect that it is due JadgPanther Photo

I played the tractor works from the base cmbb scenario packs and my rocket spotter came down on himself AND my last, servicable PZ IVG. OUCH. Needless to say I lost that game. They say rockets aren't very accurate, this is a good case of that.

I play quick battles to practice or pull down scenarios from web boards that are specifically built as playable vs AI and save all of the "good" scenarios (esp. RUNE scenarios) for play against a human opponent. Neither me nor my opponent plays them first. It is a lot more fun that way!

I just bought my copy online. Shipping in the US was $7. Glad to patronize battlefront. I would even pay extra for trusted email, but no one is asking...

My simplest newbie tip would be to keep your units in command, including AT Guns and Mortars. It is difficult in the heat of battle when men are advancing and retreating to do this, especially since a smart opponent and the Tactical AI targets leaders. Units fight much more effectively when they are in command. Look for the green bar next to them to let you know that they are in command radius, which varies based upon the "star" power for that leader. If you are moving forward, pause and wait for your stragglers to catch up, or leave a leader in the back that can come up and rally your panicked and routed soldiers. And don't forget to leave behind leaders to stay with your direct fire MG's and AT guns / howitzers when you push forward on the attack.