76mm

We come from Moscow, of course! And not all of us think Normandy is cute, some of us think it is boring (bocage, meh). Wasn't too psyched about Sicily but am looking forward to Gustav as a nice warm up for Bagration.

Not sure how many are left, Battlefront would have to say, but I would guess that there are a fair few left...

Thanks for the kind words in the last couple of posts. Here is a link to a few excerpts from the book, so that people can get a better understanding of the content: http://www.vervecom.net/Excerpts.pdf Note that the footers in the attached excerpts (unlike in the book) reflect the wrong dates, it is a Word footer thing...the first excerpt describes Operation Husky, the rest describe actions in Italy, including one regarding the Gustav Line.

In theory, yes, this is possible, at least for a certain number of copies, although I'm not sure if I'll have time to mess with this at the moment. I will try to do a little research on this.

OK, I'll try to post a couple of excerpts in the next few days.

totally agree about the e-reader format, but there's not much I can do at this point. most of the content in the book is licensed from publishers and they did not grant me the rights to publish digital versions, and i am not about to go through the hassle of contacting them all again and then paying them more for the digital rights.

So what exactly is the trick? We have extra copies of the book..we have a game featuring two of the three theaters in the book...we have players that might be interested in the materials book...the price for the book has been reduced by half. No worries if you don't want to buy it, but what would you prefer that I do? I suppose I could have thrown away all of the CMAK books, printed up some new ones without North Africa, and sold them for $$$ as the "CMFI Companion"--would that be better?

While all of these posts about besta-testing jeeps are absolutely fascinating, please save them for a different thread. In the meantime, here is the list of sources for the CMAK Companion: ************************ INDEX OF SOURCES. A CAVALRYMAN’S STORY: MEMOIRS OF A TWENTIETH –CENTURY ARMY GENERAL by Hamilton H. Howze. Copyright © 1996 by the Smithsonian Institution. Used by permission of the publisher in excerpts 67, 68, 76, 81, 103, 108, 121, 133 &134. ALAMEIN by Jon Latimer. Copyright © 2002 John Murray (Publishers) Ltd. Used by permission of the publisher in excerpts 1, 10, 56, 57, 61, 62 & 63. BITTER VICTORY by Carlo D’Este. Copyright © 1988 by Carlo D’Este. Reprinted by permission of Don Congdon Associates, Inc. in excerpts 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89 & 96. BRAZEN CHARIOTS by Robert Crisp. Copyright © 1959 by Robert Crisp. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. in excerpts 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 41 & 42. DESERT DAWN: NORTH AFRICA BEFORE ROMMEL by David H. Lippman. Copyright © 1996 Europa Magazine. Used by permission of Europa Magazine in excerpts 5 & 7. DESERT WAR: THE NORTH AFRICAN CAMPAIGN 1940-1943 by Alan Moorehead. Copyright © 2001 by Alan Moorehead. Used by permission of Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA), Inc. in excerpts 2, 6, 8, 31, 40 & 53. INSIDE THE AFRIKA KORPS: THE CRUSADER BATTLES 1941-1942 by Colonel Rainer Kriebel and the US Army Intelligence Service, edited by Bruce I. Gudmundsson. Copyright © 1999 by Greenhill Books (Lionel Leventhal Limited). Used by permission of Greenhill Books in excerpts 22 & 50. KIWIS VS. TIGERS by Colin Smith. Published in Issue 24 of the Journal of The Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers. Copyright © 1996 by Colin Smith. Used by permission of Colin Smith in excerpt 132. LESSONS LEARNED IN COMBAT, NOVEMBER 7-8, 1942-SEPTEMBER 1944 by Headquarters, 34th Infantry Division (September 1944). Published by the U.S. Army Military History Institute. These materials are in the public domain and are reprinted in excerpts 93, 94, 95, 97, 104, 105, 106, 110, 111, 119, 120, 126, 131 & 135. MEETING THE FOX by Orr Kelly. Copyright © 2002 by Orr Kelly. This material used with the permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in excerpts 65, 69, 70, 71 & 79. OFFICIAL HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR 1939-1945: 28 (MAORI) BATTALION by J.F.Cody. Published by War History Branch, 1965. Used by permission of the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage in excerpts 15, 17, 72, 78, 123, 127 & 143. OFFICIAL HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR 1939-1945: BATTLE FOR EGYPT by Lt. Col. J.L. Scoullar. Published by War History Branch, 1955. Used by permission of the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage in excerpts 54 & 55. OFFICIAL HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR 1939-1945: THE RELIEF OF TOBRUK by W.E. Murphy. Published by War History Branch, 1961. Used by permission of the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage in excerpts 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 & 49. REPORT NO. 135, CANADIAN OPERATIONS IN SICILY, JULY-AUGUST 1943 by Historical Officer, Canadian Military Headquarters. Used by permission of the Directorate of History and Heritage, National Defense Headquarters (Canada) in excerpts 90, 91 & 92. REPORT NO. 165, OPERATIONS OF 1 CDN DIV AND 1 CDN ARMD BDE IN ITALY 25 NOV 43-4 JAN 44 by Historical Section, Canadian Military Headquarters. Used by permission of the Directorate of History and Heritage, National Defense Headquarters (Canada) in excerpts 98, 99, 100, 101 & 102. ROMMEL’S NORTH AFRICAN CAMPAIGN: SEPTEMBER 1940-NOVEMBER 1942 by Jack Greene and Alessandro Massignani. Copyright © 1994 by Jack Greene and Alessandro Massignani. Used by permission of Perseus Books Group in excerpts 3, 21, 27, 37 & 59. ROMMEL’S WAR IN AFRICA by Wolf Heckman, translated by Stephen Seago. Copyright © 1981 by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. in excerpts 4, 9, 11, 12, 20, 23, 30 & 52. SANTA MARIA INFANTE 351ST INFANTRY 11-14 MAY 1944, published by the Center for Military History. These materials are in the public domain and are reprinted in excerpts 112, 113, 114, 115, 115, 117 & 118. SEEK, STRIKE, AND DESTROY: U.S. ARMY TANK DESTROYER DOCTRINE IN WORLD WAR II by Dr. Christoper R. Gabel. Published as LEAVENWORTH PAPER No. 12 by the Combat Studies Institute (September 1985). These materials are in the public domain and are reprinted in excerpts 64, 66, 73, 74, 75, 107, 124 & 125. THE BATTLE OF ALAMEIN by John Bierman and Colin Smith. Copyright © 2002 by John Bierman and Colin Smith. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA), Inc. in excerpts 39, 51, 59, 61, 77 & 80. THE OPERATIONS OF THE 2ND BATTALION, 349TH INFANTRY (88TH INF. DIV.) IN THE BREAKTHROUGH AND PURSUIT TO THE PO RIVER, 15-25 APRIL 1945 (Personal experience of a Company Commander) by Captain Paul R. Behnke, Infantry. Published by the U.S. Army Military History Institute. These materials are in the public domain and are reprinted in excerpts 142, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148 & 149. THE ROCK OF ANZIO by Flint Whitlock. Copyright © 1998 by Westview Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Used by permission of Perseus Books Group in excerpt 109. THE STRUGGLE FOR CRETE by I. McD. G. Stewart. Copyright © 1962 by Oxford University Press. Used by permission of Oxford University Press in excerpts 13, 14, 16, 18 & 19. THE WAR NORTH OF ROME by Thomas R. Brooks. Copyright © 1996 by Thomas R. Brooks. Used by permission of Perseus Books Publishers, a member of Perseus Books, LLC in excerpts 122, 128, 129, 130, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140 & 141. ********************************

Guys, I'm sorry about shipping, it is unbelievably expensive but out of my control. If ever I do this again, I will obviously insist on digital rights so everyone will be able to download and read on their iPads... I would love to do something like this for CMx2 East Front but seriously doubt that I will have the time.

And here is the table of contents; the formatting for the page numbers is screwed up, please don't make me fix that! ******************* TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF MAPS. vi FOREWORD vii INTRODUCTION viii A/ ITALIAN AFRICA. 1 1/ THE FIRST SHOTS OF THE DESERT WAR. 1 2/ WAR IN THE DESERT. 3 3/ AN OPPORTUNITY…TO GO ‘SWANNING’ ABOUT. 5 4/ TWENTY ACRES OF OFFICERS. 7 5/ TOBRUK, A FORTRESS TOWN. 9 6/ COMPLETE VICTORY. 13 7/ THE BATTERY COMMANDER, HIS BATMAN, AND A COOK. 19 B/ ROMMEL’S AFRICA. 25 8/ ORANGES AND LEMONS. 26 9/ I THOUGHT WE WERE WINNING. 27 10/ HOPELESSLY INADEQUATE. 33 11/ OVER WE GO. 35 12/ WE’LL HAVE NO DUNKIRK HERE. 38 C/ CRETE 41 13/ FERVENT ANTICIPATION. 42 14/ THINLY ARMOURED PERAMBULATORS. 46 15/ CONFUSION, PANDEMONIUM AND WAR CRIES. 51 16/ SOLDIERS OF THE WHITE AND RED ROSE. 52 17/ A GLINT OF STEEL AND A RATTLE. 57 18/ AND THEN YOU RUN AGAIN. 61 19/ THE ‘RED PATCH’. 64 D/ ROMMEL’S AFRICA, CONTINUED. 71 20/ THAT TANK COULD REALLY TAKE IT. 72 21/ THE RULES ARE THE SAME. 76 22/ A NUMBER OF 88mm GUNS. 78 23/ QUITE A REMARKABLE TRAJECTORY. 80 24/ A WELL-TRAINED COW PONY. 83 25/ A TURRET-DOWN MIND 87 26/ YOU MAY BRRREW UP. 90 27/ EVEN THE ITALIAN 47MM GUN WAS EFFECTIVE. 91 28/ WHERE THE DICKENS HAVE YOU BEEN? 93 29/ WE SHED OUR LIGHT-HEARTEDNESS AND EAGERNESS. 97 30/ THE POINT OF A PIN. 101 31/ BEAUTIFUL TIMING AND WONDERFUL COOLNESS. 105 32/ 60 OR 70 MONSTERS IN SOLID LINE ABREAST. 107 33/ WITH LESS THAN USUAL CARE AND GUIDANCE. 119 34/ A WEIGHT AND QUALITY OF SUPPORT. 123 35/ A BRAVE AND RESOURCEFUL GERMAN OFFICER. 127 36/ A PANDEMONIUM OF VIOLENCE. 129 37/ LED FROM THE FRONT. 137 38/ MAKE IT SIMPLE, MAKE IT SIMPLE. 139 39/ TRUSSED UP LIKE A CHICKEN. 152 40/ A SHARK AMONG MACKEREL. 154 41/ I’LL SWAN ABOUT IN FRONT OF IT. 156 42/ THE MASTER RACE. 160 43/ A SERIES OF MISFORTUNES. 162 44/ POURING BY LIKE A FLOOD. 167 45/ NO MORE THAN A PASSING INCIDENT. 170 46/ A ‘PARADE GROUND JOB’. 171 47/ I THINK THOSE TANKS ARE HOSTILE. 177 48/ AN UNKNOWN BRITISH SOLDIER. 180 49/ IN FULL COMMAND AT ALL TIMES. 183 50/ THE FLATNESS OF THE DESERT. 185 51/ THERE ARE NO ENEMY FORCES IN YOUR AREA. 188 52/ ATTACK! 190 53/ GET OUT, AND GET OUT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. 192 54/ A POWERFUL, DEVASTATING BLOW. 198 55/ THE FIRE CAME FROM ALL DIRECTIONS. 202 56/ ONE HUNDRED PERCENT WAGNERIAN. 205 57/ BLISSFULL IGNORANCE. 207 58/ RISING AT DAWN TO MIX DOUGH WAS ‘BORING’. 209 59/ LITTLE TIME OR OPPORTUNITY FOR SWIMMING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 212 60/ SCOTLAND FOREVER AND SECOND TO NONE. 214 61/ A LONG WAY FROM LOCH TUMMEL AND LOCH RANNOCH. 218 62/ A ‘LAST MAN, LAST ROUND’ JOB. 222 63/ A SOLID WALL OF ENGLISH TANKS. 235 E/ NORTHWESTERN AFRICA. 243 64/ A SIGNIFICANT SUPERIORITY IN FIREPOWER. 244 65/ WHERE DID YOU AIM? 247 66/ COMPLETELY AT VARIANCE WITH DOCTRINE. 249 67/ THE SMALLER LUGER. 252 68/ HOW TO BE BOMBED. 254 69/ I WAS MAD. 258 70/ SOME COOLHEADED COLONEL. 262 71/ PROUD AFTER A GOOD DAY’S WORK. 263 72/ THE INTRODUCTION OF 10 PANZER DIVISION TO THE EIGHTH ARMY. 267 73/ TANK HUNTING. 271 74/ A HEAVY TOLL. 273 75/ DIESEL FUEL AND THREE INCH AMMUNITION. 274 76/ THE ARMY REALLY GETS AROUND. 277 77/ NONE OF THEM GOT THROUGH. 279 78/ LET THE BLOODY BLACK BASTARDS COME. 281 79/ SO I LOST MY JOB… 292 80/ WITH HIS REVOLVER AND KUKRI. 294 81/ A FINE BEGINNING. 297 F/ SICILY. 302 82/ A VERY DRAMATIC MOMENT. 303 83/ PLANS HELL! THIS MAY BE CUSTER’S LAST STAND. 307 84/ THE SEVEREST MEASURES. 309 85/ THE SAME RECOGNITION. 311 86/ PONTE PRIMASOLE 312 87/ SPLENDID FELLOWS. 314 88/ IT ALL WENT ACCORDING TO PLAN. 319 89/ FAILED AT A CRUCIAL MOMENT. 321 90/ NOTHING TO KEEP JERRY’S HEAD DOWN. 323 91/ THE BATTALION WAS OUT OF CONTROL. 325 92/ THE ONLY COHESIVE FORCE. 328 G/ SOUTHERN ITALY. 330 93/ CAREFUL PLANNING AND THROROUGH RECONAISSANCE. 331 94/ EXCESS LUGGAGE IN THIS TYPE OF WAR. 334 95/ A SIGH OF RELIEF. 336 96/ THE HAND SLOWLY TURNED. 339 97/ THE TACTICAL EMPLOYMENT OF HEAVY WEAPONS. 340 98/ BLESSINGS FROM THE GOD OF WAR. 341 99/ THE WORTH OF THE PIAT 344 100/ THE EFFECTS WERE IMMEDIATE. 348 101/ FIGHTING…HAD BECOME VERY BITTER. 352 102/ EVERY CONCEIVABLE USE. 358 103/ WELL, THE ARTILLERY FELL IN FRONT OF US FOR AWHILE… 360 104/ SHOCK ACTION. 360 105/ STREET FIGHTING. 360 106/ ZEROED IN. 360 107/ MEANINGFUL MISSIONS. 360 108/ WILLIE’S WORST WERFER. 360 109/ HERE COME THE BASTARDS. 360 110/ SILENT DEATH. 360 111/ THE FIRST ROUND ON ITS WAY. 360 112/ CONFUSION BECAME THE DOMINANT FEATURE. 360 113/ HAND GRENADES ANSWERED THE QUERY. 360 114/ BY INJUNCTION AND EXAMPLE. 360 115/ TO THE LEFT TIT. 360 116/ A MINOR CATASTROPHE. 360 117/ NO SUPPORTING FIRE WAS USED. 360 118/ COMPANY F NO LONGER EXISTED. 360 119/ PROPER ACTION WAS TAKEN. 360 120/ UPON THE FIRST RAYS OF SUNLIGHT. 360 121/ AMERICANO! 360 H/ NORTHERN ITALY. 360 122/ CONFUSION…A GOD OF BATTLE. 360 123/ WE WERE REALLY ENJOYING THIS WAR BUSINESS. 360 124/ UNFORTUNATELY, THE ORDNANCE TESTS WERE IN ERROR. 360 125/ OUT ON THE FORWARD SLOPE. 360 126/ LESSONS LEARNED. 360 127/ JERRY, OLIVE TREES, AND CEMETARY DISAPPEAR. 360 128/ CHIANTI COUNTRY TIGER COUNTRY 360 129/ THE WHOLE HILLSIDE OPENED FIRE. 360 130/ A BONA FIDE PRISONER OF WAR. 360 131/ HOLD AND CONTROL YOUR FIRE. 360 132/ AP SHELLS WITHOUT EFFECT. 360 133/ PURSUIT. 360 134/ IMPEDING GERMAN MOVEMENT. 360 135/ COUNTERATTACKING THE COUNTERATTACK. 360 136/ TAKE THE RIDGE AT ANY COST. 360 137/ WE MACHINE-GUNNED EVERYTHING. 360 138/ AN IMPRESSION OF IRRESISTABLE FORCE. 360 139/ THE LUCKIEST GUY IN THE WORLD. 360 140/ INFILTRATING THE LINE FORWARD. 360 141/ HOW CAN I ATTACK THE GOD-DAMN HILL? 360 142/ A NIGHTLY AFFAIR. 360 143/ EMPLACED AND MANNED BY KITCHEN PERSONNEL. 360 144/ BATTLE PATROL. 360 145/ A DECIDED BREAK. 360 146/ ON EVEN TERMS. 360 147/ THE FULL MIGHT OF ITS POWER. 360 148/ A SNARLING WHINE OVERHEAD. 360 149/ WE HAD GIVEN THE ENEMY HIS RUNNING SHOES. 360 150/ THE D-DAY DODGERS 360 ***************************

I thought it would be helpful if I posted the foreword, written by the battlefront team; while it was written with CMAK in mind, I think it still holds true with CMFI and Gustav Line: ********************************* FOREWORD From the very beginning, one of the main goals while developing the Combat Mission wargame series has been to create the most realistic combat simulation available on the commercial market. We knew that we had reached that goal when we saw people quoting historical accounts on our discussion boards when discussing tactics and strategies for the game. "Combat Mission: Afrika Korps" introduces the Mediterranean Theater to the Combat Mission series. From Egypt and Tunisia to Crete, Sicily and Italy, it covers a vast territory and most of the duration of the Second World War. During these campaigns, strategies and tactics evolve, new equipment is deployed, even the nations at war come and go. There simply is no better "strategy guide" for such a deep game system than a collection of real historical accounts, memories, episodes and snapshots as Tom has put together in this book. Not only will you find a colorful and exciting background to the places and periods that the game covers, you will also learn about how the actual commanders fought their battles, facing the same tactical challenges that the player does when firing up a Combat Mission QuickBattle. If there is one book and one book only you'd want to buy about tactical combat in the Mediterranean Theater, then this is it. It covers small unit actions in all of the Mediterranean campaigns, depicting everything from the early battles in the desert to the final showdown in Northern Italy. Describing actions involving infantry, armor, airborne, artillery, and other arms of the British, U.S., German, Canadian, New Zealand, Italian, Indian, Australian, and South African armies, the book has pulled together the best accounts of tactical combat from more than two dozen sources and is the essential background companion to the game—and to the Second World War in the Med in general. Tom has done a great job of capturing all of the drama and atmosphere of the campaigns in the Mediterranean, from the exhilaration (or exhaustion!) after a successful mission to the tragedy of lost comrades-in-arms to the humorous incidents which inevitably occur in combat. Watch out, it's next to impossible to put down the book once you've read the first page! Martin & the Battlefront.com Team ********************

Yikes, I don't blame you! I wanted to point out a couple of other things: 1) Note that while much of the material in the CMAK Companion covers North Africa rather than Sicily or Italy, the price has also been reduced over the years, so is now $10 rather than the original $20. 2) Here is a thread with comments/reviews from 2004 (when it was published), it might be helpful for anyone on the fence: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=50720&highlight=cmak+companion

Many moons ago when CMAK came out, I put together the "CMAK Companion," a collection of historical tactical accounts from the Mediterranean theater, including North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. The goal of the CMAK Companion was to help bring the game to life by providing historical accounts of the types of battles that featured in CMAK. Anyway, we still have some copies in stock, so I thought I would mention the book given the impending release of Gustav Line. While the book is 436 pages long, the first 270 pages cover North Africa, about 22 pages cover Sicily (10 accounts), and 143 pages cover Italy (57 accounts). For Sicily and Italy, there is a pretty good mix of accounts from US, British, Canadian, South African, New Zealand, Maori, and other troops (unfortunately not many German). If you enjoy CM games, I think that you'll really enjoy the CMAK Companion, particularly if you're interested in the Mediterranean theater. Maybe some forum members who bought it in the past could post their thoughts? I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. Unfortunately, there is no a digital edition, and there will not be one, because most of the content is licensed from other publishers, who did not grant digital reprint rights. The book is sold in the Battlefront store, although I note that the links to the table of contents, list of sources, etc. seem to be dead: http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage_bfc&product_id=89&category_id=23&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26

I think that the game, module, pack, and upgrade system is great. I only have two wishes: 1) there would be a way to use maps created in one game to be used in another (I know they might have different terrain but that could be dealt with in various ways); and 2) you allow selected third parties to create packs as well, to create some niche content.

Steve says Gustav will be the last module for CMFI, see Post #216: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=108136&page=22 But there will be additional content via packs...

Sorry, there is no online version and there will not be one, it's a provision of the movie contract... haha, just kidding. Actually, the rights granted by the various publishers to reprint their materials did not extend to digital versions.

I prepared the "CMAK Companion", with accounts of many tactical actions in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, and it does not seem like the .50 cals were used very extensively in a ground combat role. In account #117, it mentions that 6 .50 cals were taken from the battalion's AT platoon to support a night attack. Other accounts, however, suggest that HMGs (and not just .50 cals) were considered "excess luggage", and that LMGs were much easier to handle and just as good with firepower (Account #94); this unit apparently kept all of its HMGs in the unit supply train and only used them at Anzio, and even then this NCO thought that LMGs would have done just as well. Another NCO, a machine gun section leader, complained that rifle unit commanders "are not thoroughly acquainted with the tactical employment of heavy weapons" and that his HMG section was often "forgotten entirely or neglected" by the supported rifle units. The only other accounts that I noted that involved .50 cals were about: (i) a TD crewman who exposed himself (with fatal results) to fire the TD's .50 cal at waves of attacking Germans; and (ii) toward the end of the war in Italy, a US unit suppressing a German unit prior to an attack apparently wanted to give its non-combatants a good time: "even the .50 caliber machine guns were brought up, emplaced and manned by kitchen personnel."

Don't agree with that; not sure what you do for a living but I have to draw conclusions from seeming correlations every day. Sure, sometimes they're wrong, but you have to work with the data you have. That said, I agree that these facts are not exactly a rock-solid basis to draw conclusions from. In any event, given that CMFI presumably required fewer resources to produce than CMBN, lower sales figures still could represent a very satisfactory result, and only BFC is capable of drawing that conclusion, so if they're satisfied then that's that.

Phil, First, re the "sales figures"--you certainly have facts about sales that we don't, and that's fine, it is your business. But the facts that we do have access to--patch downloads--would seem to be correlated to some extent with sales, and thus certain conclusions, albeit tentative, can be drawn from them. That is how his opinion about sales can be seen as potentially valid. And your undisclosed facts about sales would presumably be "the truth", but since we aren't aware of such facts, we can be expected to put some weight on the facts to which we do have access. If such conclusions are incorrect, OK, that's fine, but I don't see a justification for the type of vitriolic response that I have seen in this thread. Second, re the MG thread: first, the fact that beta testers say that will report something to you does not mean that you are actually considering an issue. Moreover, some of the posts from betatesters (I think since I don't know who they are), seem to indicate that they don't see any problem at all (and perhaps there is not, but things seem off). Therefore, it would have been most helpful if a dev would have taken two minutes to post something like "yeah, we're looking at this and will come back once we've drawn some conclusions", but there has been nothing of the sort as far as I am aware. While I'm sure that your efforts on tech support and other issues are helpful, I do think that that a 57 page thread deserves some kind of acknowledgement from devs.

Frankly I wonder if they are not a bit too "intimate" (would not be my choice of words, but...); even if someone is not the programmer of a game they might--*gasp*--have something valid to say about it. You may or may not agree with Redwolf's opinion, but I don't think that justifies relying on Phil or Steve's comments as "the truth" about the game. Also, I find it odd, and rather disappointing, that there is a 57 page thread about potential serious problems with MG fire in the game, with nary a response from the devs, and yet they hop into a thread questioning sales results on the first page.

A 49 page thread about a serious game issue and without a single response from BF, and they're not in denial? Uh, OK... I would call CMBB's morale system realistic, not punitive, and sales were probably high because of it, not despite it (although I agree that the scope and setting helped as well).

Have the devs said anything about partisans? I would guess they'd be in one of the Bagration modules?

I also agree with JasonC's comments (and Killkess' and Lanzfeld's and so on...). It's a little sad when a boardgame "feels" more realistic than a state of the art computer game.

Good news and bad news! The good news is that according to Battlefront's announced plans, you'll probably eventually get all of that! The bad news is that its not going to to in one game, or at the same time, or in chronological order! My biggest concern is that so far, I'm just not having that much fun with CMx2; not sure yet if it is the theaters so far or the engine, but am hoping that the Russian Front with a tweaked engine will do the trick...

Steve also seems to be saying that more will be done with "packs" instead of "modules" so that's good news too (I guess).