jbertles

I especially like the "Camo Vest, Algae". The Germans clearly were paying a lot of attention to beachfront cammies

outdoor parties?

warning - computer-dope post... Ok, I have a dual chip G4 tower (mac of course) with (according to my system profiler) an NVDA GeForce4MX. I tend to run the 17" flat screen at 800x640 (which seemed plenty big for me). After searching and reading the downsampling threads, it is still not clear to me whether my beast is downsampling or is just muscling through. Any insights? [ March 09, 2003, 10:39 AM: Message edited by: jbertles ]

How can you tell if your computer is automatically downsampling (the scurvey dog!)?

In general I agree with Nippy - it depends on the map. You want sullen possession of ground - take Tigers. You want to grab territory - take T34/85s.

Stronghold Reduction - elite German paras with an unusual support group attack a stronghold on a ridge between two shallow streams. Single player (german) vs. AI. Thanks to CombinedArms for the nice review (my first) and of course to Admiral Keth for hosting the game. Enjoy! The Scenario Depot [ March 05, 2003, 10:55 PM: Message edited by: jbertles ]

15000 pts total. Hmmph, that's only (quickly tries to do math, gives up and gets calculator) 7 platoons of Panthers on the one side - but 25 platoons of T34s on the other!!!! The map would look like the floor of the kitchen in my old apartment when I'd turn the light on late at night...

Automatically scanning a peaceful bucolic country scene for lanes of fire, masking terrain, good ambush sites, etc.

Hey, I just happened on these charts after I was searching to find when SU-85s are available in central - thanks Mike!!

I think that ATGs fall into categories. One is the more-or-less stationary kill-you-from-a-mile-away ATGs - 88's, Pak 40s, certain Russian 76.2s and of course the powerful 57 ZIS. But I have become very partial to the other category - man-moved smaller ATGs and IGs- Pak 38s and 150mm IGs (to a lesser extent - 75 IGs), and Sov long 45s. Sure they die easy, but they're cheap. Moving 'em with ATs and trucks is usually a recipe for disaster - one tends to get greedy with covering ground. Instead, take the long view and run them (I admit - slooowwwlly) around the map looking for long views from wooded or scattered tree areaas. Then let 'em sit until some sucker comes into view - or as the situation develops, move them toward the action.

I personally don't see anything wrong with Russian players getting and using KV-Is. I do it, the AI does it, and my opponents have done the same. Sure, it's rough, but it does reflect the shock that Germans got when they first faced the KV (and T-34). So you have to scramble to find a work-around. KVs are vulnerable to side attacks by 50mm PaK38s if you can find a way to get a shot. PaKs are relatively fast even w/o ht or trucks towing them. And of course KVs are also vulnerable to captured 76.2 ATs, though they are expensive and slow. Finally, suppress the KVs! Use your ATR to keep the KV buttoned up (ATRs are really hard to see in woods) and just pepper it. It won't hurt the KV, but the plink-plink will keep the hatch closed so you can close in with your brave Pioneers and slink around for side shots with your AT guns.

Thanks gents, that answers my question. I went back to look at all my CMBB maps and sure enough they had all reverted to the lowest level. And thanks Zimorodok for the work-around. Looks like some soft ground in my future.

Has anyone notice some strange differences in map building in 1.02? I am building a mountainous map with river gorges which I hoped would rise in a way that simulates rapids coming down a slope. However, every time that I go back and look at the saved map, the river levels have reverted to a single level. In other words, each river reverted to its lowest level. If there is a 1 elevation square, the whole river reverts to the elevation. If there is a 2 elevation square, the whole river reverts to level 2. This also makes bridge building in mountain areas impossible, since the units refuse to try to cross the bridge. I've got saved files in case anyone needs to check it out.

-sigh- back to spanking the monkey before I can refresh the monkey...

I gotta disagree with the majority. The Soviet forces have one gigantic advantage which we (locked as we are in the CMBO/B universe) tend to overlook - speed and manueverability. The T34 was just so damn fast! and with those wide tracks had such incredible "crossability" - power to weight ratio. In CMBO/B we tend to play games that are on a very small tactical level, so I think that don't notice that huge advantage that speed and crossability would give at the intermediate tactical/strategic level. The other day I saw an atlas of WWII military history which had strategic maps which were all on the same scale (which was odd enough all by itself). What came out strongly was the gigantic distances covered by the Soviets in the last years of the war as opposed to the much smaller (though admittedly more challenging terrain-wise) distances covered by the Allies in Western Europe. The T34/85 was a magnificent vehicle - cheap, abundant, great gun (rotten optics), excellent armor sloping, speed and crossability. As for the Sovient infantry, the lack of a sufficiently kick-ass personal anti-tank weapon (Bazooka, Pzfaust, etc.) cripples them to an extreme degree. But give me T34/85s against Panthers ANYTIME over Shermans (inc. Fireflys) or any other US/UK tank.

ME 5/44, 3500+ points, bumpy terrain, dry/clear: take the village of Velikovsky. Starts w/recon and then reinforcements pour in. Yet another purely fictional scenario with no pathetic attempts at reality. Shred and destroy to yer heart's content, but not intended to be a slugging match: manuever is called for. Could be 2-player or vs. AI. If vs. AI, play the sov forces for more challenge. At The Scenario Depot. Thanks and a tip o' the hat to Admiral Keth. Comments/complaints/insults welcome! If you like it, try my other extremely fictional scenario, "Tankheavy" also at the Depot.

Wow, love those screen shots. Looks a little like my Santana black-light velvet posters from 1974. I run a dual-chip G4 mac (OS9) and sometimes my wife changes the color resolution (from thousands to 256) to play her tetris-type game while CMBB is sitting in the background. Whenever I go back to CMBB after she is finished the screen colors go all, like, Van-Gogh-ish. Moral: Don't change color resolution while CMBB is running.

Shape-shifting ability - 30 seconds or so. I want huge yellow duckies (jagdquackers?) enfilading the hapless T-34s. Or babushka APCs zipping across the map and unloading squads of little babushki infantry... Sweet.

combatmission.com is not currently accepting scenario submissions.

A straightforward armor/manuever strategy puzzler. Mid-43, hilly terrain, dry, clear. You (Russians) vs. AI (Germans). Take the town and kill the German armor (not necessarily in that order). Your mission, Mr. Phelps, should you choose to accept it, is at The Scenario Depot http://ns9.super-hosts.com/~dragonlair.net/combatmission/ Comments/critiques welcomed.

??? Never saw that...

2 hours away now, but gotta go. HNY, all!

Something that would make the QBs even more useable (understand, I got no real complaints: totally hopelessly addicted to this game....) would be the ability to select certain elements of the QBs and then let the computer pick randomly from those selections. For example, take Time: while I may not really care whether it is dawn, mid-day or dusk, I may really NOT want it to be night. It would be great to be able to put checks next to dawn, mid-day or dusk, but not check night; then let the computer choose from those. This goes for many of the other selections, including force types, terrain conditions, map selection menus, etc.

It's interesting because there was a thread in the general forum about creating a separate mod forum - which would severely cut down on the posts in the general forum. But I agree with PiggDogg that quite a few of threads on the general forum should really be posted here.

Thanks Toad, that did the trick. Let's see, free BBEdit Lite .... versus.... MS Word.... for $$$$.... that's a toughie.....