whizbang

Sorry about the joke - but then I beleived Dimbleby when on April 1sr he ran a TV program showing Italian girls harvesting spagetti from the trees. However I do have good news for you. Apparently even if you format your hard-disc the police wih their right technicians can recover virually all the info tha was originally there. I know this to be true because we have had some fraud cases here in Chile where people have not just deleted but formatted their discs and the police have succesfully recovered all the incriminating emails. So take it round to your local Station and ask for their help. THIS IS NOT A JOKE I PROMISE

The move to NZ explains everything. If you had stayed in good ol' blighty you wouldn't have the problem. Your hard-disc has to go in reverse once you cross the equator, just like water flowing down a plughole.

For antone who wants (needs?)practice in street fighting this is an excellent scenario - not too big and full of surprises. It rates 8.39 on the reviewers scale and that score is well deserved. If anyone is interested I have just done an AAR with lots of good graphics and I would be happy to send it to anyone - probably in a group message since it has a nearly 3mega of zipped images. Just send me an email entitled Library and I'll do the rest. It's in WORD with links to full size screen images which should be downloaded to your desk top. You'll need to make sure your server accepts 3 megas otherwise I'll be bogged down with returned mail. Cheers

I bought it and read it. Lot of printing errors - I mean zillions. Some very good advice at the beginning but I found the Primer not especially helpful. The images are greyscale low definition screen shots and quite useless. At its price at the very least there should have been quality colour screen shots as in the AAR's at http://www.militarygameronline.com/boots_tracks/index.php?page=training. Hopefully the new edition will at least deal with the typos.

Although the title perhaps suggests otherwise, the purpose of my posting was not to imply that there were some simple tactics that one could adopt which would allow a player to beat the AI whenever he or she wanted. The whole purpose of the AAR’s that we have and are continuing to develop is to teach, with real examples, some of the basic tactics (and there are scores and scores of them) which will help less experienced players to hone their skills and develop a measure of self confidence at CMBB before launching into the world of PBEM’s. I could not agree more with Monty’s Double when he says that “Playing a human opponent forces you to think creatively, and that's something that never loses its appeal”. But many of us who are not experienced war-gamers need to walk before we can run. We need to get in the habit of carefully examining the terrain before we commit and place our forces. We need to get accustomed to keeping our squads together under the watchful eye of HQ. We need to learn how to be patient when attacking a well defended situation. Much of this is in the manual but a well written AAR, especially using a scenario that the reader may well have tried and failed to crack before, is likely to be not only a better learning tool but also more entertaining than thumbing through pages of text. I also suspect that I am not a lone wolf crying in the wilderness since I see that close to a thousand players have already taken a look at our AAR on Gefechtsaufklaerung.

Can I suggest that you also read and follow one or two of the tutorial AAR's at the Training Section of Boots'n'Tracks.

Some time ago – I’m not sure exactly when – but someone (I believe he was from Australia) posted a message claiming that if you went to his website you could discover how never to lose in a CMBB battle. Being a somewhat wet around the ears newbie I fell for the bait and then spent a few weeks trying to disengage from the multiple challenges I received from other members of his site. I now of course know that if you are playing a PBEM you better know what you are doing because there are some really experienced and wily players of CMBB out there. But what about playing against the AI? At first I lost too many battles through sheer ignorance of what to do, when, why and how. So then I bought the Strategy Guide and that certainly helped me understand at least some of the mistakes I was making. But I was still losing when I felt I should be winning and I also realized that changing the default conditions was not a viable route to take if I ever wanted to be at least a reasonable competitor. Luckily at this stage a more experienced player on the CMBB network (who prefers to remain anonymous) gave me some hints and mailed me an AAR. I had no idea then that an AAR was anything more than the final stats of a battle -llost, won or drawn. It was at that stage that I realized that well produced AAR’s could be the basis of valuable tutorials for newbies and intermediates, like myself, so that they could win - even against what seem at first sight like unbeatable odds. Of course I’m talking about beating the AI not about PBEM’s. The fact is that the AI, however craftily programmed, is to some extent predictable. Please bear with me because I am now about to give you the information hinted at in the subject title. Take for example the famous scenario The Iron Roadblock which is given as a beginner’s tutorial in the manual where all you have to do is press GO and your KV-I will give you a victory and, perhaps, reinforce your self-confidence. But what if you turn the tables and play the side of the AXIS. What then? At that stage a number of us keenly interested players decided to get together and start writing AAR’s for some of the more amenable scenarios (i.e. not too big but still challenging) such as The Iron Roadblock, Hill312, Death Ride of the 424th and Jaegermeister. Our techniques improved as we went along, not just in devising new ways (at least to us) for beating the AI if at all possible, but also in improving the presentation. Although pics may take time to download they can be both interestingly graphic and concisely informative with diagrammatic information superimposed over the print screen images. You can find some of these AAR’s at the Training Section of Boots’n’Tracks, at the moment in PDF format but are later to be converted to HTML with better definition images. We will continue to produce these AAR’s but we do need feedback from you the user, not only as to whether you find them helpful, but also how they could be improved and which other scenarios should be included. Our names and email addresses are there if you want to write directly or you can follow this posting and add your comments. And of course if you would also like to join the team we would be only too happy to welcome you. We are an internationally based group representing many of the combatant nations of ww2 although to date we have no Russians on the team.

Not sure what your needs are but you could try http://www.militarygameronline.com/insidemgo/modules.php?name=Sections&op=listarticles&secid=4 or if you are after training then http://www.militarygameronline.com/boots_tracks/index.php?page=training Cheers

If you were to read the AAR in the training section of Boots'n'Tracks http://www.militarygameronline.com/boots_tracks/index.php?page=training on the Iron Roadblock playing the Axis you would discover that that is just how it should be done. Mostly you will damage the gun, occasionally you will immobilize it and once the crew just panicked (too much noise) and just abandoned it.

Fantastic! Can anyone explain why? Or is it "simply our's not to reason why, our's just to do or die"?

Since I first posted this topic I have discovered, quite by chance, another use for splitting squads. If you need to RUN from cover to another cover if you run a split squad you are much less likely to be spotted than if you run the the entire squad. Of course it will take you twice as long. I have found this particularly useful when setting up a right flank attack in Hill 312 where there is precious little cover rather than the conventional but probably not the best left flank route.

I asked because Mark Walker in his Strategy Guide suggests in the Hill 312 tutorial that when you meet opposition you should split the squad and send one to make a surprise attack on the flank of the enemy while you keep them engaged with the other half. As a result the enemy will then panic. I thought I was missing something. Sending a small scouting force makes sense especially if they are likely to be eliminated. I hate doing that but I guess commanders in real life have to do so. Ah well its only a game.

This will take you to the training section http://www.militarygameronline.com/boots_tracks/index.php?page=training But there others here http://www.militarygameronline.com/insidemgo/modules.php?name=Sections&op=listarticles&secid=4 Sorry I should have done so before Andrew

Reading the Strategy Guide I was encouraged to split my squad and send one half in one direction and the other elsewhere. However it's not possible to split the HQ whicch means one half goes off without the quintessential guidance from el jefe. Could someone please explain to me when it is desirable to split a squad and why. Is it just to disperse your forces or is there some more aggressive reason? Thanks

Having recently completed 4 AAR's (mostly designed for newbies like myself to overcome apparently impossibly difficult scenarios without softening the conditions) I am curious as to who reads these AAR's and if they find them useful. I know that hundreds visit those that are published (by B&T) but do they read them and what do they get out of them. There are also other AAR's published of a different kind which relate an experience for others to benefit from that experience. Who reads those and what do they look for. In other words could we please have some feedback.

The address for that AAR is http://www.militarygameronline.com/insidemgo/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=199

I have just completed an AAR for 2nd Panzer Advance (which you can find at The Scenario Depot) The AAR will shortly be posted at Boot's Tracks. I suggest you try the scenario first - which is relatively short and straightforward - and then, when it's posted head over to Boot'n Tracks.

I've only played CMBB and have found that the PIVG is an absolutely superb fighting machine equal and superior to T-34's. I have not tried it against the Sherman but will do so by substituting Shermans for T-34's in 2nd Panzer Advance and report back.

Usually the tell-tale sign of aircraft coming is your ackack pompoming away ( a quite distinctive sound) or your tanks firing their MG's in the air pointing in the direction of incoming, then the sound of the plane, then its shadow and then your tanks going up in smoke as the bombs hit. I have lost tanks to bombs, rockets and cannon. They sometimes miss the tanks but hardly ever miss a sitting AA vehicle. But of course you are right - they never seem to hit your enemy just you.

Does this exist? If not could I make a plea for the AI to include keeping platoons in formation especially tanks. It would save a lot of unnecessary micromanagement and I suspect it would well be within the capabilities of the pexisting game engine.

It could be although on every previous occasion the AA has been destroyed on the first bombing run by the IL-2 and the tanks on subsequent attacks. In this case not even the AA was attacked. Still that unpredictability is the beauty of the game.

posted November 29, 2002 10:06 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I am absolutly clueless as to how you play this game. I was in the same boat when I started and although I found the beginners tutorial of some help it was very limited and the move to jaegermeister was too complicated. (Remember that many of us newcomers are more used to wielding a joystick or a mouse). Luckily Nolloff threw me a lifeline and since then I have written a new tutorial 2nd Panzer Advance available at http://ns9.super-hosts.com/~dragonlair.net/combatmission/ which teaches how to manage a couple of tank platoons and WIN. If you don't succeed at first there is a 'walkthrough' which I am more than happy to send to anyone who requests it at drew@andrewmuir.com. Obviously there is no such thing as walkthrough in this game because the laws of chance apply but it's the next best thing. Cheers.

posted December 01, 2002 08:58 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- posted December 01, 2002 08:58 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- so when i will buy a plane it will come to the map anytime it will want to? hm thats weird,i thought i will have plane in the air at the corner of the map and then i will order him to destroy something and return to home Normally the plane will arrive any time after you set it . For example if you put it as reinforcement One to come 10 minutes after the start you can then expect it no sooner than that. It will make three or four runs attacking the enemy but you have no control over it. Imagine you get on the blower to the airport and shout "Oi we need help!!" that's about as realistic as it will get. But don't forget you have to buy it first laddie - if you don't pay you don't get.

Curiou that. For various reasons I have been replaying 2nd Panzer Advance. Normally I expect to lose two or three tanks either knocked out or immobilised by the IL-2, but most recently when I was preparing an AAR the IL-2 passed overhead for the initial recon run but never returned to attack. At that time all my tanks were engaging enemy infantry except the AA vehicle. It could explain it but why not attack the AA vehicle which is normally the first to go. By the way if anyone wants an AAR on this short scenario mail me at drew@andrewmuir.com and I'll send it. I'ts approximately 1.3 megas and contains numerous screen prints. It's a beginner's scenario but has been tested by someone other than me who said the plane (IL-2) was too damaging?

I've just been notified that my scenario for tyros has just been posted at the depot called 2nd Panzer Advance. You can try your hand there at avoiding the attentions of a Sturmovik IL-2.