Tripwire6

There is a free app called Stuff It Expander that should take care of the .rar files. It can be found at www.stuffit.com. Honestly, I very much prefer Winzip, but this is nice to have around for the oddball files.

I think a good commander needs to know when a battle isn't winnable. It's just not much fun that way. I'm a pretty competitive person. I can handle losing, but I don't like it. If I see a flat map with no tree cover (which seems to be 50% of the random maps), I know that my infantry is going to get stopped cold by machine guns. This is especially true if I don't have a lot of smoke. This is a fault of quick battles in my opinion. I think you should know the terrain and conditions before selecting your force or at least have the option. I want random terrain. I just want to be able to select a force to minimize the disadvantages. The problem that I have now is that it seems to generate at least half the maps perfectly flat with very little cover. I would need another 1000 points of artillery just to have enough smoke to think about getting across it. That hardly seems random either. It sounds to me like the patch will make things more random, not less. Give me some sparse staggered cover or usable terrain and I'll be all over trying to make it work and enjoy it. Otherwise, I would like to think that I'm smart enough not to make the attack or if the objective absolutely needed to be reached, I would bring more firepower. The "Kobayashi Maru" is mentioned in many episodes of the various Star Trek based shows. I think it was first mentioned in The Wrath of Khan. The basics is that the "Kobayashi Maru" is a test for the officers at Star Fleet Academy. It's an no possible win scenario used as a teaching tool to make the officers realize that you just can't win them all. Naturally, Kirk beat the scenario (by hacking in and reprogramming the test the night before). In the later movies it becomes a theme for Kirk that he just won't accept not being able to win. All in all it's one of the more compelling story lines within Star Trek.

I'm still too new to CMBB to have much of a firm opinion one way or another. So far though, it seems like it's up to the scenario designers to get the balance right. Random quick battles are a different prospect. Sometimes (vs. the AI) I take one look at the map and Alt-A out of it. I was glad to hear that there should be fewer completely flat random maps with the patch. Other times though, a quick battle becomes an outstanding and tense conflict with the outcome hanging in the balance until the very end. As far as what someone mentioned about "Isn’t it so that just as in real life it’s not always possible to win?" That's correct, but it really shouldn't be that way. If this was an operational level simulator, then it would be acceptable to identify a Kobayashi Maru (no win situation for you non-Trekies), pack it in for the day, and keep your losses low. However, with the scope of CMBB, a no win situation makes no sense. There is no live to fight another day. It's just a loss. Balanced or not, the verdict is probably still out, but I think it's up to the designers to make the scenarios enjoyable. - Tripwire6

*** Spoiler *** As I've said a few times now, Jaeger is a great scenario to play as the attacking Russians. Yes, the IS's seem very vulnerable to the German cats. I lost half my armor very early in the fight. I took two tanks around the left flank (from my perspective) and spread the remaining survivors out on the hill in the middle using shoot and scoot. These actually survived much longer this way. Considering the early disaster when I tried to slug it out, I still managed to take out the cats and get a minor victory. One last thing... with the turns winding down, there was one remaining cat in the left edge of the town. I timed my shoot and scoot perfectly and got a 90m broadside shot... and missed! DOH! Luckily my infantry somehow took this one out from surrounding buildings.

I'm sure given a few hours with a hex editor, you'll figure out the problem.

Jean-Pierre, My "Abrams" comment had to do with people mentioning modeling other wars with CM:BB, not your requests specifically. I feel that modeling other armor that isn't in the game would lead to using armor that shouldn't be available. As much as I think people go a little overboard here giving others grief about gamey aspects, I really hate things like trainers and hacking binary and what it does to the integrity of games. I'll take a few repeated graphics with great gameplay over perfect graphics but a cheatable game any day.

BulletHead, Thanks for the info. I'll look for your Golzow scenario. It might be that TCP/IP play would be more for me, but I'll probably still give PBEM a try. So that's what the Peng thread is for?! My lone venture to one of those threads had me convinced that it was just a place for people with too much time to pontificate endlessly about inconsequential drivel. It seems that I was right. Good point. I guess I'll just need to keep my fragile ego stoked by slaughtering Russian AI in Jaeger. - Tripwire6

Gamespot previewed it (which was what got me to buy it). I'm not sure if they ever did a review though.

I tend to agree with the people who say this would play hell with multiplayer games. Also, I'm guessing if this was ever possible, there would be M1 Abrams tanks ruling the European soil before the first day was over.

I received CM:BB on Friday. Over the weekend I played Iron Roadblock as a tutorial and Jaeger (great scenario! ) from both sides. I also played a few QB's against the AI. So, CM veterans, I ask you this. What scenarios would you recommend next against the AI? Also, what side should I play first. For example, Jaeger seems much better having the AI play the Axis and should be played that way first in my opinion. I'm sure this has been asked many times, but can anyone tell me a little more about getting started with Play By Email? I'll do some more digging and searches for info on these questions too, but here they are... How long does a typical game take? Is there any etiquette that I should know about? Where should a newbie look for opponents of a similar experience level? Thanks for any help! - Tripwire6

Just be careful with the Jaeger tutorial. Whoever did the writeup had a real problem with left and right that day. My recommendation would be to just play the scenario as the Allies and have fun with your own strategy. It's a great scenario playing the Allies vs. the AI Axis! It's maybe too easy the other way though.

I just got CM:BB in yesterday's mail. I only had time to try the tutorial mission, The Iron Roadblock, as the Allies last night. Today I decided to try the advanced tutorial, Jaeger, but I quickly closed the manual after realizing that they were having a problem with left and right (no! your other left!). I barely managed a minor victory playing the Soviets. After some of what I've read here, I consider that to be great for my first real scenario other than the demo missions. So much for no armor support! Those Tigers and Panthers really tore up my armor. I quickly learned how slowly the IS's reload. Shoot and scoot is your friend with those things. Oh, and as to why I replied to this thread... here's the results when I tried it again as the Germans. (with modified start positions) On to the next mission! - Tripwire6 [ October 12, 2002, 11:14 PM: Message edited by: Tripwire6 ]

Naga = Serpentine fantasy creature having a scaly hide Nagahide sounds much more interesting than naugahide (hyde?) to me. What's a nauga anyway and why is its hide prized for seat making?! [ October 11, 2002, 03:50 PM: Message edited by: Tripwire6 ]

Ahhh... I see... that must be what the line that says "All Items In Stock and Available For Sale!" means. Sigh! So much for using my reading skills today. Anyway, my order went in on 10/4. Hopefully I'll be playing soon. Thanks for the quick reply.

Does anyone know if CM:BB is shipping again in the US? Last I heard was that it was on hold until 10/04/2002. Also, is there any place on Battlefront.com to find this information? Thanks for any help.