76mm

Strange question here: I've got a home-grown campaign and generate lots of 3km x 3km maps. Usually I start with the autogenerated map and extensively modify it so that it looks more realistic. This works great for most types of maps (ok, other than cities and villages), but I am unsatisfied with the "hill" maps, because they always result in too many small hills, with very broken lines of sight. I don't want to have to track down historical maps (for a fictional campaign), but does anyone have any tips for creating random hilly maps, which occasionally create dominant terrain features--long ridges, dominating heights, etc.? Wish the "hill" algorithm had a slider bar...

There seems to be a significant number of people that are very interested in the Eastern Front. Even though these people are a subset of all CM fans, with their new modular approach, Battlefront would be able to sell numerous modules covering the Eastern Front to each of these gamers--I would certainly buy them all. Given the time-scale and geography involved, I would think that if they were so inclined Battlefront could create dozens of modules just for the Eastern Front. The problem is that I don't think that they are so inclined and doubt that we'll get more than one or two modules, if the Eastern Front is addressed at all. For this reason I continue to hope that Battlefront will somehow license approved third parties to create or assist in the creation of modules.

I also cast my vote for the East Front!

--never mind, reread answer, thanks-- [ February 25, 2007, 05:40 AM: Message edited by: 76mm ]

I'm playing some CMBB games set in Dec 43 and want white-washed vehicles. I had white-washed vehicles for scenarios set in, say, Dec 42, but they don't seem to work any more. If I recall correctly, there are different vehicle skins for different time periods in the game (early war, late war, etc.). My question is how I can tell in CMMODs what period the mod is for; for instance, a mod might be called "WW Tiger early"...but is there an easy way to tell if it is an early Tiger model, or a early war skin for a normal Tiger model? Similar questions arise for the other vehicles. Hopefully someone can understand what I'm talking about--I need to download a fair number of mods and don't want to D/L the wrong stuff.

just sent it. should work for what you want to use it for; depending on the size of the campaign, there will be two main frustrations: 1) you've got to build units a platoon at a time (ie, a company will need to be three platoons + HQ); and 2) setting the CMBB games up based on the campaign DB, and extracting the CMBB results from the battle in inputting them into the DB, all have to be done manually, which is a drag. I've done this for some rather large battles, and it actually goes pretty quickly, but it is still manual. let me know if you need some tips, etc.

You should be able to just click on the Campaign Tracker File and it will then ask you to link to the Data file. Note that I've fixed some bugs in the Campaign Tracker file, so you might want to use the latest version, which I haven't bothered to upload to the website. I can e-mail you the latest version if you e-mail me with your address; mine is: games at vervecom.net Once the application and the date file are linked, you can start creating units a platoon at a time, with the unit availability, costs, etc. drawn from CMBB. The basic functionality is described in the manual. I have never used the file with Access 2003--hopefully it will work. I still use the program and really enjoy it--really gives some personality to the various units in the campaign because they progress (or degress) depending on their success or lack thereof. Finally, recall that the program does not do anything to generate battles for you--just tracks the units' status in the course of a campaign.

You can also print to pdf for free using ppf995 (at www.pdf995). works pretty well, and should greatly reduce file size.

Bannon: took a look for Takrouna. unfortunately I don't have those research materials anymore, but the account in the book does mention that Takrouna is 4 miles west of Enfidaville, along the Enfidaville-Zaghouan road; I found both of those towns on Google Earth and found what looks to be "the rock" sort of NW of Enfidaville (couldn't really figure out how to measure scale on Google Earth, so can't be sure). Check it out... If you need more info, the New Zealand history cited in the book is actually available on the Web, very cool.

Bannon, I'll have to dig out the books to tell you where Takrouna is--I don't recall. I will try to do so today. As to scenarios, BFC arranged for a number of scenarios based on the book to come out about the same time as the book, but I don't recall exactly which ones; I think you should find a list if you search the forum.

I second TC's comments; this sounds potentially interesting to me, but without additional info I'm not really up for signing up an intensive experience and only then finding out that it is not really what I had in mind...the forum posts above are helpful, but what exactly would I be doing?

dear AA: When I do a new build with the updated version, I will see if I can include foreign (ie, non-english) languages as well. I'm kinda busy right now but will try to do this soon. TMR

Sgt AA: I developed this program; sorry for the confusing verbiage on the download site, but apparently the Access Run-Time version causes problems for people that already have Access installed. Option 3 is what you should use; it is basically the same as Option 2 with a bunch of the necessary system files. If you think you'll spend much time working with the program, please let me know, because I've got an updated version which took care of a few bugs that I've come across when using the program.

Sigrun: lots of people still play this game, but as I mentioned in a previous post, most people interested in this kind of thing are already involved in Onion Wars or CMMC.

JasonC, thanks, I was hoping you'd weigh in. Two questions: 1) It sounds like neither the Russians nor the Germans made much use of ad-hoc ski units (ie, all the men in the regiment, etc., who knew how to ski) for winter raiding, patrols, etc. Is that fair to say? 2) any idea what the specialized soviet ski troops did during the summer months? typical light infantry, scouting stuff?

David, thanks for the response, makes sense. JK, thanks too for pointing out that ski troops are rather lame in CMBB, but the main thing I wanted to add them for was faster movement on the operational-level map.

Hi, Winter has fallen in my campaign game, and I need to add some ski troops for the Germans and Soviets. Historically, which types of units were generally ski-capable? Were ad-hoc ski units formed on an as-needed basis? I would guess that German mountain troops would be ski capable. What about battalion or regimental recon units? I would think that these commanders would be tempted to pull all the unit's skiers into one unit, but was this generally done? And what about the Soviets? Were ski troops common? It seems like every book you read about winter combat in Russia features legions of Russian ski troops, but this seems overblown... Any comments appreciated.

You might want to look at Onion Wars and CMMC before spending too much more time on this--their approaches are generally similar (although from what I can tell CMMC seems more formalized). It's possible that most of the players that would be interested in this kind of thing are already involved in them. And I wouldn't plan on using randomized maps unless to play on something that looks like it came out of a blender--using hand-made maps adds a lot to the battles (ie, no swamps on hilltops, etc.), although they can be pretty time-consuming to create.

CMC does all of that, and more, once it comes out. CAMPAIGN TRACKER also does the tasks you describe, with the, er, slight drawback that before and after each battle you've got to enter unit data to/from CMBB. It also allows for two sides, although it would be tough to have lots of different players enter data into the same master database. Anyway, if you proceed I've got several dozen 3 km x 3 km maps you're welcome to make use of. In any event, as you're coming to realize, what you're proposing is rather a chore.

Dear Sigrun: I'm pretty sure that the answers are "No" and "No". Nonetheless there are a couple of other on-going CMBB wars, including Onion Wars and CMMC (search forum). I also created an application called CAMPAIGN TRACKER which allows you to track all unit info, etc., but you've got to enter it manually, which is a huge drag. I can't figure out how to post a thread-specific link for my post describing CAMPAIGN TRACKER, but you'll find it with a forum search.

Brilliant idea, but wait, there's no smoke either...

Wow! Very striking pictures.

At last! I've been waiting for the wargame that allows my troops to perform their calisthenics and booze it up! And chickens made it in--bonus!

Haven't seen this topic raised--will we be able to play Blue-on-Blue, ie US vs. Soviet, or Brits vs. French? Sometimes fun to beat up on someone besides the Germans...

If it can't be pushed, does it totally block vehicle movement past it, or can other vehicles drive around? Or does it depend on the size/type of bridge?