kingtiger

Excellent site with over 350 US and German WW II armor model pictures. http://www.track-link.net/gallery/GermanyWW2.htm Richard Kalajian

K___Tiger, I think you have something. I have always thought German (Bavarian?) steel was superior. Fionn, Hopefully you can fill us in on this. Richard Kalajian

Joe Kernin @ CNBC put up a little poem on the web site as a Veterans day tribute. http://www.cnbc.com/commentary/commentary_full_story_stocks.asp?StoryID=8991#poem Richard Kalajian

Have you ever carried a Heavy machine Gun? Richard Kalajian

Even with my flashy high tek computer (lots of ram, fast processor, all the nifty stuff), full windows 98 SE install and all new drivers, Janes is one of the few games that won't run on my system. Richard Kalajian

Greg, Take some shrooms, head over to 528 W. Mifflin (center of the Mifflin street block party and my old home), pop over to the coolest looking, 2nd tallest state capitol in the country, walk over to the Flamingo for a quick foo-foo drink and a looksie at some of the worlds finest young ladies, frown as you pass by the Kiddie Korner (where all the rich kids gather and party), stop by H.C. White Library (a top rated pick-up spots in the world - Playboy magazine 1996), hop across the street to the Rat (student Union abbreviated name), grab some popcorn cuz it's all ya can afford and a pitcher-o-beer ($4) cuz ya need it to survive and look out over the Lake Mendota from one of the best looking three-tiered patios and say, "wow". AND today my friend would be a most fine day to do all that. Wish I was there. About the copies, I don't know. Richard Kalajian

Does anyone remember the Russian Tank (probably T34) reversing and rotating on foxholes in the snow/ice/tundra during a tank assault in the movie "Stalingrad"? Richard Kalajian

Interesting Home Page of a WWII 81 mm Mortar crew member and his recounts of the Battle of the Bulge, includes a German Diary (interesting read). http://www.eagnet.com/edipage/user/joanie/index.htm Richard Kalajian

All this conversation on blood. Yikes. I never liked blood. I remember an event when I was a very small boy. Well I was never really all that small, so I often played football with the neighbor boys. I was ruffed up running a 4-1 dive. That is basically give the football to Richard and have him run right up the gut so the bigger boys (older not larger) pound me. Well, I got just pummeled and everyone said, "allright let's play again later". An hour or so later one of the little girls(also not that small because I grew up in Wisconsin) screamed, "Richard, your arm is bloody". I said, "Uhh Uhh - looked and saw the blood from an hour ago and cried". Q: What do you call a 300 pound female Packer fan? A: Anorexic. Q: What do you call a Packer fan with half a brain? A: Gifted. Oh, and my brother and sister and I all have middle names after Green Bay Packer greats. Sincerely, Richard Taylor Kalajian [This message has been edited by kingtiger (edited 11-05-99).]

GMB OneShot, Ordering is done only through Battlefront directly. They have an ordering location on this site. Pre-Order now when the game is ready for shipping you'll get it right away. Richard Kalajian

Harold, Alas, through the heavy fog emerges Richard. A Halogen Light Bulb turns on in his little brain. He catches on. Great idea Harold. Richard Kalajian

Fionn, I would buy a JABO. Richard Kalajian

OK. The city was about four hexes away and I had my artillery 5 hexes away so that it could just hit the city and then I used my 3D Tiger Hex unit and my Two 3D StugIII Units and moved them three hexes to the edge of the city. Well it was like wham bam wow, and like I took the city with an armored onslaught.... Oh wait, what am I talking about, that's not Combat Mission, that's from one of those old hex-based games... I'm sorry. Actually, every moment is a great moment. I think my favorite Combat Mission moment was from someone elses game. It was a Panther getting knocked out by an airborne attack. Ricahrd Kalajian

tgra, Youa asked, "Anybody in the same position found areas of the game where their lack of knowledge has caused problems?" Lokesa brings up an excellent point about perceived knowledge many of us thought we had. This discussion board had many a discussion about various facets of battle field realities. One such topic was artillery. My conclusion, prior to Combat Mission, was that Artillery was useless. And that Tanks were basically unstoppable. Of course, having learned from wargames, the opposition could throw every it had against the tank and then possibly destroy it. These misconceptions came from very unrealistic wargames (most seem to be). So, over the last year, I prepared myself for the upcoming Combat Mission, I learned from this discussion board (many experts here with first hand knowledge) and read some books. Even though I basically understood what really worked and what didn't, I still expected the Tiger tank to walk right into town and clean house in Combat Mission. Here I am heading into a small town near Normandy, on August 6, 1944. Some 9 or 10 minutes into my advance, I had realized that all my preperations had paid off. The invincible German Wehrmacht (German Army) would dominate. The fatherland would remain all-powerful. I am the boss. Yeahh baby. Here comes the big daddy Tiger. You can see from my screen names I kinda like Tigers, and I must say still believed it was basically unstoppable. And then, enter the Hellcat. I hear Boom Bam Boom KaPow, I hear the god awful shell penetration sound and I realize then that I am not invincible. My Tiger and both Stugs were knocked out. My initial reaction (first two seconds) was no way, that can't happen - I am invincible. Two seconds later I remembered all I had been reading and everything I know now to be true about axis and allies armor and I laughed like a madman. I think wargames have inaccurately portrayed the things like artillery and tanks in the past. tgra, I think you are lucky to be able to learn the various WWII units while playing a War Game that accurately portrays the various units. Many of us that thought we knew what each unit did or didn't do, we will have to unlearn the misconceptions we picked up from other WWII games, and then learn correct unit function over time. You have the good fortune of learning it from Combat Mission. For your information: LOS = Line of Sight and refers to your units and the oppositions units to see each other. For example, your machine gun crew may have line of sight (LOS) on the oppositions infantry in the little Brick house and they have Line of Sight on the approaching tank and they have Line of Sight on the Forward Observer who is eerily too far forward. Check out Moon and Fionn's turn-by-turn detailed description of the battle as it happened in Combat Mission. You can learn a lot, I know I did. Go here: http://combathq.thegamers.net/whatsnew.html Make sure to select Battle Reports. From these battle reports, you can learn how to lead an elite well armored force directly into an artillery barrage followed by repeated attacks from the incredible airborn tank killer. (just kidding) Keep enjoying the game and you've got an easier road ahead of you than many of us. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian

Well I just stumbled onto something kinda wild. I was testing my Tiger and it was Blow'd up by a zooka, 10 seconds later the crew climbed out and fired on the zooka and killed one (I heard "Medic"). Then I hit Alt+Tab and I was in Reisberg, a scenario I was in yesterday, still running like a German-made clock. I had no idea you could be in the Combat Mission game multiple times. Richard Kalajian

Harold Jones mentioned way da heck up dis tread: Two things I'd like to see. 1. Multiple starting unit packages for a scenario. For example, in Reisburg the Germans get a couple of companies of infantry and 2 88's every time. Instead a scenario designer could set up maybe 3 at start units and assign a probability for each one. That way the forces controlled by each side would be somewhat variable. 2. Allow something similar for reinforcements. Sort of an if/then thing. If the Shermans arrive on turn 5 then the 3 hellcats scheduled to arrive on turn 7 don't show up, or something like that. Did anyone have a comment on this or did BTS say yes, no or on-list? Richard Kalajian

Harold, Lets say for example, the timer limited playback to five forward minutes (= playing through one turn five times forward). Someone could still hit pause every second and then scroll around, while paused, looking into each and every detail. Using the five minute forward-only playback timer could allow a player to stretch that into hours. Yikes. Hopefully I have described the problem clearly. If not just drop me a note, a post or an e-mail. And / Or call me a big-fat dumb hillbilly backwards village-livin brain-dead ice-cream eatin moron. Or whatever. Richard Kalajian

Scott, CDMag ratings: Panzer General 3D Assault 4 Stars Close Combat III 3.5 Stars East Front 2 Stars Hidden & Dangerous 3 Stars Ardennes Offensive 4.5 Stars Battleground Bulge 4 Stars Operational Art of War 4.5 Stars Operational Art of War II 3 Stars It will be interesting to see the preview from CD Mag. Richard Kalajian

Harold, That won't fix it either. People may hit play for 2 seconds and then pause, then scroll all over the screen and click on each and every friendly unit and click on each and every enemy unit. They would look for every single tiny little detail, a head moving backwards. I still can't imagine why. But they could stretch that five forward minutes into hours. Richard Kalajian

Just another comment about the trees. nVidia (graphics card maker of the geForce 256) has a utility for viewing a single tree in 3d with limbs and leaves and a few balls circling around it. A utility is available for viewing this one tree on current systems and varying the complexity of the tree, i.e., number of limbs, leaves, etc. With my TNT2 Ultra and 128 MB Ram and other stuff I could bring my system to a crawl where the three lights were barely circling the tree and the frames were very choppy. Keep in mind everyone this is one tree and 3 little light balls circling. Imagine 100's of 3D trees and all those AFV's and infantry, etc. Just not possible. Period. Picture of the tree: http://www.nvidia.com/GeForce256.nsf/htmlmedia/transform_and_lighting.html I can't find the tree utility. Richard Kalajian

I will assume PBEM or Multi-play tournaments will eventually take place making timers essential. I dislike pointing out a stumbling block for timers. People with faster systems will be able to scroll/zoom/pan/rewind/play faster for the same number of real-time minutes. Ouchh! Richard Kalajian

Richard Kalajian [This message has been edited by kingtiger (edited 11-03-99).]

HAL, I had/have a Viper 550 and remember two different software updates for that card. The last update increased my 3D specmarks rating by 33 percent. Here is a link: http://www.diamondmm.com/products/drivers/viperv550.html First uninstall incontrol tools 98 Key to the update, in case you haven't done it is: For Win 98 ---> Change VGA setting to Standard VGA. This is done in the Control panel...Display Properties..settings...advanced...adapter..change (then select next, select display a list of drivers...select show all hardware... then select standard display devices (first in list on left column)...select standard VGA in the riht column. After all this, say OK,OK,OK etc., but don't let the system reboot. Also uninstall incontrol tools 98, Then run the driver update. Worst driver update utility I have ever used. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian Richard Kalajian [This message has been edited by kingtiger (edited 11-02-99).]

Dude, I like your comment: I am sure you are the formost expert on your own opinion. Quite appropriate. During playback, like you I watch an overview and focus on a problem area. When I review the problem area I make some determinations on which units are in trouble or should possibly be advanced or withdrawn. In the orders phase, I select several units, issue an order or two, and move on. I rarely check all units. If the review screen you mentioned were present, then I would check each and every unit from that screen. If I see a unit with 3 or 4 casualties from the review screen, I'm gonna check it. If I see my 88 on the hill from the review screen is abandoned, then I know it won't be available a few turns down the road when I need it for some smoke cover. It just seems to me that the review screen will significantly reduce my chance of missing something (great built-in feature of CM). It (review screen) also makes it much easier for number crunchers to write down casualities from this screen and compare to previous numbers, knowing exactly how many casualties were taken in that turn. Yes the information is there, but it is also there on the battle field. If you need that information on the battle field you need to go down to each squad and check up or radio in. If you need to check it in CM, then you need to go down to each unit and check in, and then maybe for some people write it down. Sorry about the Cookoo comment, that was uncalled for and tactless. Lacking tact is a character flaw of mine. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian

TangoYankee, Your request is one that many want. I have no clue if it will ever get in, but the request as you describe it seems reasonable. Why would kingtiger not want it? One of my favorite occurences is going to a unit to issue orders and finding it isn't available, it's knocked out or gone. I think the unit overview/picklist would be a tool that would enable/empower me to quickly pick each unit and check it's status. And I know I would do it. But, CM in all it's current glory, leaves open the possibility that I won't check each unit. This is an aspect I really love. I remember your post under war Stories: First game ever: The Last Defense as Ger. Clicking on my overconfident Tiger sitting in scattered trees and wondering why all of a sudden it wouldn't respond. Oh, the Allies got tanks too. That sucks.... I have had similar occurences in the Reisberg scenario where I need smoke and go to my 88 on the hill, of course I am assuming that the gun is fine. I find that the crew is panicked or pinned. I always find this amazing, because I rarely bothered to check it's status either in the movies or in the few previous order-issuing phases. I think with the pop-up units list (pseudo OOB) with hot-pick for quickly moving to each unit either in playback or order-issue would empower me to easily check each and every unit on every turn, thereby reducing my chance of having missed something or overlooked something. Checking each and every unit is something I currently don't do. Just letting you know where I'm coming from. But, a future pop-up hot-pick unit list is not all that bad an addition and in terms of compromise, that seems fine. But, I have no say, only feelings and thoughts like everyone else. Hopefully for you, the pop-up OOB or some variant eventually makes it in. I presonally don't need it, but could live with any additions. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian