Fetchez la Vache

The Ashes this year helped a bit. ;-) Anyway, we all know the English are best... as Messers Flanders and Swann put so succinctly: "The English, the English, the English are best: So up with the English, and down with the rest! It's not that they're wicked or naturally bad ... It's knowing they're FOREIGN that makes them so mad!" A poor riposte to "C'mon Aussie C'mon", but one does have to try to ones pecker up in times of crisis.

I did not overlook the fine fighting qualities of the Aussies I'll have you know. They just didn't get top two billing and then I got flustered and realised I'd stepped in a big pile of nationalistic doggy-doo without meaning to and started spouting other countries randomly as a way of popping smoke and retreating back through the thread. :-) And the Aussies are hard. I know, I grew up there. \o/

One more decade than you then Mr Bucket. ;-)

Internet forums are not a superior medium by which to appreciate the finer nuances of human discourse. I read that somewhere. Or cut and paste it. I forget. Chill. :-)

Once CMBN is out I intend to keep posting inane and simplistic questions on this forum just so I can get early experience of what it's like to be an old fart. For warm-up... What's realtime mode? Does it mean everyone on the internet can see me go to the toilet? How do I rotate the camera? I preferred the old style buttons you could click on to move it I thought that was a much better system and my old bones can't cope with all this fiddly mice things you kids get up to this day and age and anyway games like combat mission are meant to be played slowly and carefully just like a fine wine or a hot wom.... etc etc The water graphics make we want to 'go' the whole time. How can I turn the water off? Why can't I get my American soldiers to pick up use the MG42's? Shouldn't we be able to shoot Panzerfausts from buildings? Oops, I did the last one already... :-D

The delay was because the crew were putting on their goggles and making sure their towels were on the sun loungers. There you go. Vacuous remark and stereotyping put-down in one go. Next?

@Silverstars I knew I should have played CMSF more! I can see that CMBN is going to be a painful (re) learning experience. :-)

Excellent point, let me think about that...

Stuff published on this internet-thing I've got seems to be unanimous in the opinion that Panzerfausts shouldn't be fired indoors. Fairy snuff, I can see why although in practice if I had a ruddy great tank bearing down on me I reckon I'd find a way to shoot my PF out of a window. :-) However they were still used a lot in urban combat, so I think they should still be modeled in-game as being able to be fired from inside buildings when: 1) First floor only (firer pops outside to take quick pot-shot, then pops back in) 2) If building is destroyed (no walls to bounce back back-blast) I know this won't be modeled and no great drama really, I'm just thinking out aloud. Probably easier to just to split the squad and station one half with PF's outside...

Stick a banana up the exhaust pipe?

To me it's not about AA and air strikes. I agree with a previous posters who reckon all that would happen off-map. However I would like to have AA assets that could be placed and used in ground attack/defense. I don't particularly mind if it's not 100% historical since it's a game. CMBN provides us with a sandbox and that's some of the fun for me.

Thanks for posting. However at one point the OP mentions that you can't fire disposable AT weapons from buildings. Surely Panzerfausts were fired from within buildings since they were most deadly in urban combat?

I can't imagine it's going to be a problem which OSX you are running. I hadn't even considered for myself. I have a personal rule of never upgrading the Mac OS for the first 6 months since very often there are initial issues that require ironing out. So, personally speaking, I would plan for Snow Leopard and not worry too much about Lion for now.

History hasn't been kind to Montgomery, but I personally put it down to all stemming from personal issues. Probably a bit of hubris on his part, probably a bit of condescension on the US part. When things get acrimonious negatives get highlighted, positives are downplayed and facts become distorted. That's history folks. Did he deserve all the credit he took? No. Does he deserve all the opprobrium he has received since? No.

Never noticed there weren't any AA in the CMBN TOE list. Shame that. I like the 'sandbox' potential of games such as these and AA would be nice to have. Hopefully in later modules yes?

Renault tanks, Hummels and staff cars? "The Parisian Job". Okay, it was a Wespe, not a Hummel, that was used to engineer the traffic jam. And would need to work out how to have a separate skins for the tri-colour getaway Renault tanks. But it's do-able imo.

To be fair it is a bit early in the day to set up an operational level game using CMBN. However, to accentuate the positive, use that to spend a bit of time working out the game mechanics a bit more so there's minimal teething issues later on. Also maybe try out a much-reduced level game (say just 24 hours around St Lo) with a few players before expanding? The premise didn't look too complicated to me, I understood the operational level mechanics you were suggesting. However I wouldn't make it any more complicated, as I alluded to in your "Casualty" thread. Use the Admin to make the tricky decisions rather than trying to put numbers onto everything. Oh, and write up a good AAR. :-)

If you're asking with reference to your N'44 idea (nice btw), then I would suggest not having any such cut-off in the rules? The reason being that if one your Team Leader decides they want to fight with a poorly demoralised, unfit and under-strength unit, then so be it and it's up to the Tacitical Team Member to make the best of a bad lot in the circumstances. Sure you need rules governing morale/fitness/replacements, but I would suggest leaving as many decisions to the players themselves as possible. Although you'd need to somehow prevent players doing gamey things so things are taken to extreme. However that's where your Admin comes. *blows whistle* "Number 6, no you cannot try to delay an entire Amoured Brigade with 4 bailed crews, 2 arty spotters and a hamster. Stop being silly."

That's true, they had a few ad hoc amoured units, but they were effectively nullified in the first few days of the British counter-attack. After that it was game over for the infantry divisions. As you say they were poorly led at the top.

They invaded Egypt initially with infantry only. They had no chance. :-/

Quite right. Well said. I sincerely hope no-one thinks I am seriously trying to claim anyone one racial or social group makes a better soldier than another? If so, then they are mistaken and I apologise for any unintentional offense. I was trying to be a little bit light-hearted, in my normal way. :-( I have read accounts of (for eg) Canadian troops in Normandy and NZ troops in North Africa which cause me to regard them (rightly or wrongly) as generally being "good" soldiers. However that obviously means that I simply haven't read enough accounts about other troops. :-) Incidently, I just read a book about the Italian Armoured Divisions in North Africa which made me realise that I had been unfairly prejudenced about those soldiers in the past. They were very brave men fighting in those M13/M14 "Iron Coffins"...

*makes dash for the exit*

And then stand up and shout "BANG"!

Crap. *in best Cardinal Ximénez voice* And Gurkas... SO, the best Allied troops are Canadians, New Zealanders, Aussies, Scots, Gurkas and anyone from Dorset. Oh god, I'll start again...

Okay, I have to word this carefully... I have the book and thought it was good read. However I have also read (on the net mind you) that there are concerns "out there" that the book itself could be in fact largely fiction and does not represent a coherent series of events. I can't remember specific evidence for such a theory, although I do recall that a multitude of small inaccuracies (this "Steiner" is an example perhaps?) is one of the things people point to. I don't know either way. Does anyone have a better understanding of the arguments involved?