kingtiger

Dateimoerder, If you think three hellcats is an impossible barrier to overcome, just wait till all your heavy German armor in open ground gets diced, sliced and brewed up by the American air superiority. See Moon & Fionn's AAR's for play-by-play on this type of occurence. AAR's: http://combathq.thegamers.net/battle/battle.html Sincerely, Richard Kalajian

WOW. I downloaded the game Thursday evening. It has been played repeatedly and left running for about 38 straight hours. I woke this morning and gave the roller-ball a little nudge and whalla up comes the CM Discussion board. I read a few messages and notice that I had Combat Mission: Beyond Overloard in my system tray. The game I was playing was 0:32 into a turn. I surveyed the area and noticed one of my 88's was destroyed - that is why I probably went to bed. So I continued the turn and watched my hilltop 88 reload and then destroy a Sherman. I love the ESC key for quick game minimization. I have never had to reboot and I find this simply amazing. Every component on my system is overclocked to ridiculous speeds and I would not characterize my system as very stable to begin with. The stability I have experienced just doesn't seem possible. I think the only game that is at the same level of stability is "UNREAL". But keep in mind Unreal has millions and millions in revenue. Thanks again BTS for such a rock solid product. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian

Gary T, aid:. BTW anyone else find it difficult to hit those pesky HT's with bazooka's? Well, I think my bazookas and panzerschrecks hit-miss ratio is 0-70 (probably totally exaggerated - everything is still a blur having the CM Demo). The only hit came at about 30 meters from a panzerschreck on a Sherman. About hitting pesky halftracks with bazooka: They move quick and are usually 100 meters or more away from any Bazooka team. My guess is that the chance of hitting the halftrack at 100 meters is pretty slim. Chance of hitting the halftrack while moving must be near zero. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian

Ahh they make smart in New Zealand. I really like the leap-frog approach to moving troops forward. It never occured to me to implement a strategy to provide cover fire while advancing troops. On the other hand, thinking back on my other victories, I just kind of naturally advanced troops under cover fire. look forward to playing you sometime in PBEM. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian

Hagen, Hello. I will agree with Preacher, and also would like to emphasize that I wouldn't flame anything you say about CM. I would like to comment on 2 points you bring up. ________________________________________--- You said: There is little feedback from the game during the moves; nothing to tell me if what I am doing is effective or not. I have my various units shoot at an enemy, but I am given no indication if their fire is doing any good. (Yes, occasionally an enemy unit will drop down as if supressed but that's all) This is a real problem as in any game the player needs feedback to determine if what they are doing is working or not. Sure, if my tank blows up a building I know something happened, but short of that all that happens is a lot of fire moving back and forth. ____________________________________________ In real war, you typically don't know what type of platoons you are facing until the combat takes place for some time. CM is the first game that truly provides "Fog of War". CM only lets me see what would be seen or known in the course of battle. from a distance of 200 meters I may only be able to make out that the attacking group is an infantry platoon, I know litle of it's size, morale or attrition rate. After some exchange of fire and close observation, I may dtermine in fact that it is a platoon of eight soldiers and clearly two of the eight have died. this is the first demonstration of clean,clear and precise "Fog of War" to date. I can name dozens of games that provide some level of "Fog of War", but nothing to this effect. My guess regarding your frustration on this front is due to the newness of the CM form of "Fog of War". Many posts/discussions on this board have addressed your concern. It was known that some wargamers would not be comfortable without all the feedback. I was one! However, in my case, I spent months reading the posts in this discussion area, reading the AAR's and preparing myself mentally for the newness. Hopefully, you will be able to adapt. Some tips to help you with the feedback: watch the soldiers closely, they will provide other clues about being hit. An example is head will bob backwards. Another example is the arghh sound made immediately after being hit. My favorite is when the soldier cries "MEDIC". Let me comment on another briefly: ____________________________________________ You mentioned that the graphics are not up to 1999 standards. ____________________________________________ I am an avid player of games like Unreal, Halflife and System Shock 2. Typically those games have no more than 10 characters on screen at any one time. Consider the number of 3D characters within CM at any one time. Many discussions came up regarding the complexity of the graphics. CM determined that this is a reasonable level of detail and realism for graphics at this time. I would venture to guess that most wargamers are not also FPS(first person shooters) gamers. I am in the minority. In any case, when I saw the graphics in motion I was impressed. Keep in mind I own Half-life, System Shock 2 and Unreal. As far as standards for 1999 go, the last I checked CM clearly provides the best graphics for any realistic war simulation. Sincerly, Richard Kalajian

Hellcats as assault vehicles: I used two hellcats to retake objectives and totally obliterate the remaining German forces. They move out quickly, the machine guns were effective and the approach of a tank really disturbed two groups of machine gunners in one case and three platoons of infantry in another. I suspect that my high morale had something to do with the willingness of the cats to run into close quarters for combat. the other factor was the well-coordinated counter-attacks. Strategy: I found that having everyone in the village hide, drawing the German armor into town made for easy pickins when the hellcats arrived. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian

The last time I played the Last Defence scenario I rushed all three tanks and all halftracks along the road to the left. i was able to position everything behind structures. I used the Tiger to knock out two hellcats and hold it's position waitijng for the last to make a bad move. Then, I rushed three halftracks towards the left into the wheat fields hoping to draw fire from the last remaining hellcat. As predicted the Hellcat hunted these units and I turned my Stug using hunt mode up the main road around the bridge area. The Stug turned aimed and eliminated the last remaining Hellcat. Lost one halftrack, but saved the tanks. A little gamey, but the Hellcats do not present a significant advantage to the US. It was interesting prior to watching execution. I watched from the Hellcats position and it had no view of anything prior to movement. Lesson: When the objective is to take the town, sometimes it may be a better idea to rush it, then to sit back and pick away. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian

Bill I will field a couple. 1) In the first scenario I defended the town as the Americans. The German tanks were way off on the map edge. I never ordered a unit to attack the AFV's, Yet, somehow three were destroyed or disabled. What happened? ANSWER: 3 M18 Hellcats showed up and chose those juicy german armor targets, shot and destroyed them. That is exactly what you or I would do if we showed up on top of a hill overlooking a raging battle. We would identify key targets and eliminate them. 2) I order a unit to target another unit and then it starts firing om another unit often at some distance away. Why? ANSWER: In general, with command and control, you issue a command to control your troops, they will follow the command. In real warfare that only goes so far. Much of war is fought by individual actions, bravery and initiative. When a juicier target presents your unit may take initiative and target the new enemy. Possibly the current target was suppressed and a new target was firing on your unit in question or any other unit. Maybe the new target just appeared and had a higher percentage of being hit, i.e., out in the open. In any case, it is accurate. Hope this helps. Sincerley, Richard Kalajian

Actually I have been stormed by a forward observer. It was rather cute actually, the poor fellow stormed in to the building sat down and gave my men a big look with his binoculars and took a bullet. However, it was near the end of the game and the computer was just looking for points. He couldn't know I was inside. I like to keep men near the back walls in objective buildings. If my situation was as desperate as his I may have ordered and FO to get that ?(question-ed) objective. Remember in war, you see all sorts of weird things. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian

Bouis, That was my identical configuration prior to replacing those three video cards with just a TNT2. Anyways, pop the top, pull those voodoo-2's out and play some CM. If your set-up is confusing the game, then it will be well worth the effort. when you want to restore the 2 Voodoo-2's just reinsert them and windows will restore the drivers. It will be truly plug and play and you will be way OK. Richard Kalajian

MORE FTP SITES: Primary Download Sites: ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/3dfiles/games/cmbd.exe http://ftp.telepac.pt/pub/3dfiles/games/cmbd.exe ftp://ftp.battlefront.com/pub/demos/cmbd.exe Mirror Sites: (24 Hours For New Files) ftp://ftp.epix.net/pub/3dfiles/games/cmbd.exe ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/3dfiles/games/cmbd.exe ftp://ftp.saix.net/pub/3dfiles/games/cmbd.exe ftp://ftp.iol.it/3dfiles/games/cmbd.exe http://www.task.gda.pl/pub/games/3dfiles/games/cmbd.exe

I have noticed some of the following regarding artillery: 1) Right click on your artillery spotter and select TARGET or WIDE TARGET. I have enjoyed both. 2) I also like to get my artillery to run, behind a tank isn't all that bad and then halt and target. 3)Mike D, you mentioned LOS being required. I wish I knew, so much is going on that I often use the artillery spotter / mortar spotter to target areas not within LOS. My guess is that his results in nothing being fired. ****-- Per Charles below, "Forward Observers can call in artillery without LOS, but it will be considerably less accurate. " ---*** 4) Personally I like to target machine gunners with my artillery, especially when in buildings. Hope this helps, Sincerely, Richard Kalajian [This message has been edited by kingtiger (edited 10-29-99).]

Hi all, I would like to comment on the user interface. We (you'inz and I) all saw the pictures of the screens with the user interface in them prior to release. My expectations were exceeded Big Time. I have read about the user comments related to shortcomings in this interface. I must say, when comparing this interface to other games and war games in particular, it is quite intuitive, fast and truly a pleasure to work with. I remember last night (or was it this morning) starting the "Last Defense" scenario, I saw in front of me a big mama Tiger. Shortly thereafter the interface entered my mind. I said, "Oh god, now what". That was the last time the user interface entered my mind. BTS, I must say you have truly outdone yourself with this game. The interface provides tremendous power and is super-simple at the same time. Thanks again. Oh yeah and one other thing, I would also like to mention that this demo is easily worth the $45 cost for the game. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian

After back to back last-defence major victories I....played as Allied...and all three hellcats brewed up upon arrival. Doesn't look good for the Lion King. Without so much as scratching a Stug or Tiger. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian

Combat Mission is a 1-2 player, turn-based, simultaneous-execution 3D simulation of WWII tactical warfare. It combines unparalleled game depth and ease of use with a true 3D environment. The move to the 3rd dimension is not just to look cool, rather it it improves the accuracy of the simulation. Think of the world around us - it's all 3D. True 3D LOS, 3D spotting, 3D terrain, and 3D trajectories are a lot more realistic than 2D approximations, so that is what CM delivers!

My skills are average at best. Against gamers on this site, I am well below average. As the Germans I attacked the American held town. Early on I had several lucky strikes with the Stugs and the Tiger. The Americans missed with several bazooka teams. Miracle after miracle shot (exageration) pinned, pummeled and then destroyed these teams with few casualties. I was within two turns of all objectives with morale at 98% and victory at 40%. With all the Bazookas gone for the most part and infantry and a couple machine gunners within open site I felt victory was well within reach. Suddenly three M18 Hellcats appeared on the scene. Bam - Stug destroyed, wham bam, tiger immobilised, after several direct hits, bam thwoosh bye bye halftrack. My heart sank. Luckily I pegged two of the hellcats with my Tiger. Time went on and the remaining Stug was quickly destroyed by the remaining Hellcat, along with a Halftrack. After some brilliant strategy, agressive attacking and more luck, I managed an AXIS Major Victory. I must say that Combat Mission is significantly better than it was made out to be. I can't believe I actually played a game. Now I'm thinking I should take a few months off of work and just play CM. Sincerley, Richard Kalajian

http://combathq.thegamers.net/cmdemo.html Good Luck & Good Hunting....Whheeeeeee Heeew! richard

Well, below you'll find links to the remaining Turns (36-41) and also a few links to the German and US debriefing pages and the endgame screen. This is an emergency solution for the time being. The AARs will appear (in a much prettier form and quicker to download) on the TGN site soon. Allied turn 36 www.battlefront.com/aar/AlTurn36/Turn36.htm Axis turn 36 www.battlefront.com/aar/AxTurn36/Turn36.htm Allied turn 37 www.battlefront.com/aar/AlTurn37/Turn37.htm Axis turn 37 www.battlefront.com/aar/AxTurn37/Turn37.html Allied turn 38 www.battlefront.com/aar/AlTurn38/Turn38.htm Axis turn 38 www.battlefront.com/aar/AxTurn38/Turn38.html Allied turn 39 www.battlefront.com/aar/AlTurn39/Turn39.htm Axis turn 39 www.battlefront.com/aar/AxTurn39/Turn39.html Allied turn 40 www.battlefront.com/aar/AlTurn40/Turn40.htm Axis turn 40 www.battlefront.com/aar/AxTurn40/Turn40.html Allied turn 41 (final) www.battlefront.com/aar/AlTurn41/Turn41.htm Axis turn 41 (final) www.battlefront.com/aar/AxTurn41/Turn41.htm End game screen (score) www.battlefront.com/aar/Endgame/Endgame.htm German debriefing www.battlefront.com/aar/Endgame/Conclusions.htm US Debriefing www.battlefront.com/aar/Endgame/USDebriefing.htm I hope you enjoyed reading the AARs and following our game as much as we did playing it and writing it all up. Fog of War is lifted officially now and I am sure Steve will make up a thread for discussion and questions. Thanks everybody!

Twas the nite before xmas and all through the web, not a demo was stirring, not even a mouse. Whilst all the little CM fans were nestled in bed, I snuck into the house and stole the demo and some beer. Richard Kalajian

Father of 4, I must be a mystic or psychic. It is easy to predict and event you already know has happened, but it makes me look really smart short term. Richard Kalajian

I would like to quote Bill Gates in response to some of the comments above. Mr. Scoop88 you have clearly demonstrated that the MAC is better than the PC, Fionn you have clearly pointed out the weaknesses on PC based platforms ala Windows. Kingtiger what the heck kinda name is that - are some sorta Lion King. "Anyways, it just doesn't matter that the MAC and MAC OS is better - you just don't get it" - I know Bill said this in response to Job's comments similar to those you both mentioned above. I don't really know waht it means, but ... Keep in mind also, Intel and Microsoft will be part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average some day. Hey Scoop, I have seen that multi-processor thing, it also appears that the applications (Word, excel, etc.) Load and run better than they do on a PC. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian

kingtiger@mediaone.net

Ben, Yes you are right. I surfed and I saw. Mac has many upgrades. Richard Kalajian [This message has been edited by kingtiger (edited 10-26-99).] [This message has been edited by kingtiger (edited 10-26-99).]

Nothing against MAC, but why not INTEL or AMD? 1) G4 cost is $2,200 2) Intel PIII 450 (overclocked to 540 Mhz), w/128 MB Ram, 18 GB & GeForce 32 MB Rocket Video Card is about $1,200. Save a thousand dollars and buy 30 software titles. Add a world class IIYama 19" monitor for $540. 3) In 12 months, keep the IBM-Compatible spend $325 and get an 800 Mhz processor and spend $300 and get new world class video card. Toss the G4 and pay thousands for a G5. Why has the entire world not caught on to this simple formula? Just a slam on MAC. Sorry about the slam. I just researched MAC upgrades and they look reasonable. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian [This message has been edited by kingtiger (edited 10-26-99).]

I have loaded MPlayer on three separate occasions. Each time I have an uneasy feeling as the MPlayer wizard scans my drive and sends needed files to my drive. The feeling of uneasiness grows into nausea as I once again begin to experience performance, lock-up and a host of other wild problems. I know, I know, lots of you out in WWW have no problems with MPlayer, I'm just supporting FooBar's postition. Sincerely, Richard Kalajian