landser

Without a doubt they are, and certainly Alexa. A few years ago my mom called me and said she had an Alexa and did I want it? I said no way that's going in my house. She asked why and I said because it will probably spy on me. She laughed and said there's no way that's possible. But it is. I am anti-Apple, but more so for the way they conduct business than security and privacy concerns. But if it's targeting you while it is sitting on the table in front of you it wouldn't surprise me. Maybe my Android does too. That too would be unsurprising. I find myself on the fence over the issue because in many ways this is benign. It's a little creepy, but as I said earlier, why wouldn't I want advertising that is tailored to me? Why wouldn't I rather see guitars and fishing lures than women's shoes and high-end pottery ya know? But is it recording your conversations? Videos of you talking to friends or driving your car or sitting on the crapper? None of this would be surprising. The question is how far does it go and what is ultimately acceptable to each person?

He does have a point about the size of the font, I think. The rotating view is usually caused by a controller. If you have any gamepads or joysticks connected try disconnecting them. And, I think, the fact he joined in 2008 should be authenticating, not a reason to bash him. So he never made a post, so what? That date shows he's been interested in Combat Mission for a long time.

Well, of course

The high-level maps shots don't feature terrain relief, so it's difficult to make a proper suggestion, since I can't know about line of sight to and from the enemy positions as your forces move forward. But, based on what I do see I like option 2 better. That blocks the Nashorns right? I'll take my chances with my massed T-34s on the left in a straight up duel with the Mark IVs while denying the Nashorns fire from the quarter. Of course, in my experience, smoke doesn't last long enough and if those Nashorns unmask while you're embroiled in a fight with the other German armor you get caught in a bit of a crossfire. A successful duel on the left, and advance, will turn the flank on the Nashorns and without a turret they'll need to pivot to engage and present flanking shots (at least partial) to any overwatch you leave in position, assuming they have LOS to the enemy positions. Looks a tough nut, especially if all of this is open and there's LOS everywhere. Good hunting commander!

Wargaming addiction is but one ingredient in my gaming addiction cocktail. So I must reject the OPs entreaty, as this one-size-fits-all approach fails to address the multi-faceted problem of gaming addiction. A more holistic approach is clearly needed.

Superb AAR, enjoying it very much. Good hunting commander!

Interesting discussion. Yes, AT guns are short-lived in Combat Mission generally. To counter this my doctrine is to keyhole whenever it's is possible. No 'pak front' deployment, with fields of fire. Instead, it gets nestled where it has a very narrow avenue to shoot, the keyhole concept. This does not do much to protect it from indirect fire of course, but works wonders for survivability against other ground units. The catch is it's only possible sometimes. On many maps it might mean a flanking keyhole behind a stand of woods as an example, waiting for the enemy armor to pass that obstacle. This means inviting the armor past, or abreast, of your MLR. it also negates the range advantage most of these systems enjoy. You lose the ability to thin the herd from range using your AT guns. I've always struggled with AT guns in Combat Mission. Not only are they very vulnerable once they fire, I also find them difficult to place precisely where I want them due to the action squares mechanic I guess. And attempting to tow one in to position and get it all set up is usually an exercise in frustration. If my AT guns don't start deployed they almost certainly won't contribute materially to the ensuing battle. I remember playing the first battle in Kampfgruppe Engle. You start with a gun, I think already hooked to a Opel or whatever. I can recall wanting to get it set up at the base of the road that leads up the center of the map. There's a low hedge there to put it behind and it would have a perfect keyhole straight to the checkpoint halfway up the map. But what a fiasco, and I finally just gave up. I don't think it ever fully deployed (and I know the limber mechanics). As I recall it kept alternating between limbered and unlimbered and never fired a shot through the battle. If I have them as part of the scenario design I try to make the best use of them. But if I'm picking my forces I rarely will buy any. The reward doesn't justify the cost, usually.

Congrats on the new guitar! The Vox I saw was more like a 355 in that it had ebony board and block inlays, but yeah, shape-wise they're the same. I should stay away from this thread because I keep thinking about that hole in my collection, and talking about cool guitars like your Bobcat doesn't help, like, at all.

Cool, that the one that's sort of like an ES-355 with three pickups right? Pretty cool axe, the Guitar Center near me has one in three-tone burst, white guard, white pickup covers. Pretty striking.

Is it gear?

Good explanation Ales, but I'd make a minor correction in my case.... "The urge is directed by the belief that acquiring another instrument will make one appear to be a better player.

Gear Acquisition Syndrome, close! My pleasure to share the Ed King story. He was an inspiration.

Well I mostly watched Ed King play while I attempted to copy what he was showing me. He said I nailed the harmonics bit in Alabama! But yeah, I was just a kid and it was all surreal. I don't think I had even ever seen a a Gibson guitar in person before. It was magnificent. I saw the inlays and the body binding, and the full, mellow tone and that became my white whale. I would own a Gibson one day. It took 20 years and a good job, but I finally did it. More than one obviously His entire collection went up for sale at Carter's three years ago, soon after he passed. Some amazing pieces, including a '58 Les Paul known as Redeye. His Sweet Home Alabama Strat was sold too. Interestingly, Ed thought it was a terrible guitar!

That new guitarist was Steve Gaines, who mostly played a Strat. He was amazing. If you know the Skynyrd song called "I Know A Little" that's him. Great player who fit seamlessly in to the band. One of the things I admire about the band is how perfectly they weaved the three guitars in to the songs. It's beautiful. His life ended too early. His sister also died in that crash, backup singer Cassie Gaines. With this thread fully derailed, a little Skynyrd anecdote. When I was about 11 I went over to my Grandmother's house, a few doors down. As I entered I could hear her playing her piano, and someone playing guitar. As I came in to the room I could see a large man, with a long ponytail holding a beautiful red ES-345 hooked up to an old Vibrolux I think it was. Silverface for sure. My grandmom said I'd like you to meet Mr King, he plays guitar too and was in a band. She said something that wasn't exactly Lynyrd Skynyrd, but that's what she meant. This was Ed King! I was already a fan, and now recognized him from the cover of Pronounced. Ed freakin King man. He wrote Free Bird, Sweet Home Alabama and bunch of other classics. He said so you play too young man? I sure do Mr King. He said where's you guitar? Straight out the door full speed and I was back in a few minutes with that old Malibu. Turns out he lived nearby and had joined my grandmother's church and was now in her house practicing for the next service. Come on. He spent about 30 minutes with me, showing me the licks to Sweet Home Alabama, Needle and the Spoon and a couple others. Sadly, Ed King passed a few years ago, but his music lives on, and he made quite the impression on a very young me. And about the local stores, yeah, there's not much any more. Guitar Center and the internet have killed the mom and the pop. Thankfully, most online retailers allow returns if you're not happy for whatever reason. My Telecaster is a good example of how things can go a little wrong. I bought this guitar off the interweb. But I've never really taken to it. It has a very beefy neck, an ode to the old 50's Teles/Broadcasters. It's too big for me really. I noodle around with it from time to time, play slide on it mostly. But it's one that I didn't try first and sure enough, it was not perfect for me. Live and learn.

Great post Danfrodo and I agree, especially the point about how personal guitars are. Being made of wood means there's a surprising amount of variability from one to the next, isn't there? I also get some advice seekers, especially friends and family who want to buy a first guitar, for themselves or as a gift. I have lots to say, but deep down I know that how that guitar feels is the single most important part of the equation. So I'll still offer my advice, but with the caveat that the player should pick it up first. With online ordering being so popular this isn't done much anymore. But it should be. No, V's are not very ergonomic are they? The worst sitting-down guitar. They look cool, especially those Korina Vs with the ABR and pass through strings and I'm a fan of the headstock aesthetic. Never had much interest in those really. Actually I preferred the Explorer in the 'futuristic' guitar category. But that was mainly due to my love for Skynyrd, as Allen Collins played one often. I'm kind blown away by a kid these days wanting a Jag. That's pretty cool. But some guitars just speak to you. The most glaring hole in my guitar collection is semi/hollow body electric. Would like to add a 335/355 sort of guitar. Those sound amazing on a Princeton or twin reverb, ya know? Maybe some day.

Yes, SGs are nice guitars, always wanted one for the Cream-era Clapton and AC/DC vibe But the die was cast as a teenager. One of my jamming buddies had a SG and a Flying V. The SG didn't prove comfortable, but then again I rarely play standing up any more, so maybe I should add a SG to the stable. Well I really shouldn't, but my case of G.A.S is terminal.

Wow really? That's cool. What a neat little amp. I wish I had realized what I had, and not been suckered in by all the fancy bits on the Peavey. But I was young and visions of distortion and volume filled my head I guess. Nice amps you have. About the Gibson scale... I prefer it, but that's down to individual preference. And I knew you hadn't said this Ales, but the way I wrote my post made it seem like I did. Gibson SG eh? I like them for their looks and tone, but the balance is wrong for me, neck heavy (the ones I played). One of the worst stand-up solid bodies for me. Too bad, because they're cool guitars.

I don't want to derail the thread with a boatload of pics of my gear, but yeah, I've acquired quite a bit down the years. And I'll never pass up the chance to discuss fishing, Formula 1 or guitars haha. With apologies to Elvis, and since you asked about them, my amps are a bunch of Fenders and a Marshall. When I was a wee lad, about 10, I had been taking lessons using an old '65 Fender Malibu acoustic, but wanted to rock out. So I saved grass cutting money for a couple summers and bought a used '76 Strat, like Jimi or Clapton or Steve Gaines, ya know? I had a silverface Champ that was wonderful. 7 watts of all-tube tone. I traded that a year later on a 65-watt Peavey Bandit with all of it's push-pulls, and knobs and switches and Black Widow speaker. But that was a big mistake, that Champ was a tone monster. I still miss it. But to complete the set with the Strat I then bought a 100 watt Marshall 2203 JCM 800 half-stack. Fifteen years old and I was all set. It is viciously loud of course. That was 1983. Since then I haven't been shy, until I got married and had kids, and that all stopped. But I did enough damage before that to have Several Strats, a Tele, a PRS, the Les Pauls, a few acoustics. I keep meaning to take them all out and get some pics. I took those LPs out in the yard one summer afternoon. Natural sunlight makes guitars pop. Thanks for the compliments. The LP on the left is a 2001 Studio Plus in Desertburst (which has changed since then). The other one is also a 2001, a Les Paul Classic with ceramics and a slim profile neck in Honeyburst. It's a '60 reissue really, despite the hot pickups. Out of all my guitars, the Studio is my number one. The amp I use the most these days is a heavily modified Fender Blues Junior. The Marshall is a lot of amplifier, but years ago I bought an attenuator for it, so I can still play it cranked at reasonable volume. Without that, I'd never use it.

Not to put too fine a point on it but there were no '59 Goldtops The '59 Standard though, that's the thing. Gold top "Les Paul Model" was phased out in late '58, replaced by "Les Paul Standard" and went two-piece maple tops and sunburst finish. If you see any non-two-piece sunbursts they are refinished gold tops. The small hands crack was because of the shorter scale? I happen to love Gibson guitars and have several including LPs, so this thread is interesting. On one hand this sort of targeting is creepy. On the other hand why wouldn't I want advertising that is suited to me? I'll look at guitars all day, thanks very much. Here are two of them to give us more guitars to look at

Well then sure, if it isn't already possible in a decade old engine then it will never be. Horses? You want horses! Combat Mission doesn't do horses, man. I read what you wrote and I still agree with BG. What if we called it Mission: Combat instead? I think you're on to something

I agree with you BornGinger, I think it would be a compelling focus for a Combat Mission game. SteiliAlpha is splitting hairs over what the word conflict means, but I get what you are saying. One of the things I think would make it a neat twist in the series is what you touched on with your last post. and that's command and control. How a commander gets the word to those that need it. Co-ordinating movement and other orders would be unlike anything we have now, post-radio. In this set up things like force concentration takes on a new meaning, as it's not just an aspect of combat power, but would have a direct effect on the formations' ability to achieve cohesiveness with the surrounding units. And right, how would it be done? What happens to your plans when your rider is gunned down and the company on the far left flank never gets the word to move out? I think it would be a very interesting and fun twist on the CM formula. It would put a sharp emphasis on the commander's ability to control his forces, and to get all his pieces working in concert despite many factors actively working against it. Flags? Bugles? Riders? Smoke signals? Haha. Battlefront would need to re-embrace the concept of command delay, but I think it would make for compelling command-level play. I think both Scourge of War and Grand Tactician (both recommended above) are good suggestions. Grand Tactician is done by the same dev who did Seven Years War, which was a promising title that never fully convinced me. It's a one-man band in that studio (still?) and progress seems slow. Grand Tactician was removed from the oven a little early in my view, and needs more time to bake. There is again a lot of promise here, more so to me than just about any other Civil War game, in that it's not a history replicator/duplicator, but a game with more of an emergent and dynamic feel to it. It's ambitious, and maybe too much so, but I think if he is able to pull it off it will be a good one. Conceptually I really like it. Now the mechanical and system sides need to match that vision. It needs polish. I hope he pulls it off. On the battlefield I think the American Civil War would fit really well with Combat Mission and WEGO. I think of titles I play like TW Napoleon or the Fall of the Samurai expansion for Shogun 2, tactical combat in the gunpowder era, and I can envision it in Combat Mission. The rifle ranks, the smoke, the maneuver, the cannon booming. Grapeshot, cavalry raids. TW Napoleon, especially with Darth Mod, really does an excellent job of capturing the essence of this type of combat and I think it would work great in Combat Mission. But would it be popular, and enough to justify it's development? I can't answer that, but from a suitability standpoint I like the idea.

I don't find any of the first four items gamey but sound tactical game play. You counter your speculative fire with potentially giving up the spot on your own unit to the enemy, and expenditure of ammunition. Number 2 for example is just solid tactics, recon by fire, and you hope to either have them shoot back, dislodge them or suppress them. I do this sort of thing all the time. It's why I buy MG teams.

Of course. So simple isn't it? Top advice mate. Agreed I've made the same point, to make a base game and all modules plug seamlessly in to that. Make them all play with one another. So if a player wanted to do the Tigers vs Abrams thing mentioned before they could do that. Make a new campaign system that works the same way for all modules and everything dovetails seamlessly together. One patch updates the whole thing. Engine upgrades get applied globally. I'm sure Battlefront has considered exactly this, but of course pulling it off is another matter. Not a thing for CMx2, but I'd be surprised if CMx3 didn't at least start with this concept in mind.

I won't criticize the lack of diversity through the various titles that comprise Combat Mission. I talked in another thread how the historical nature of what they are portraying ties the devs hands to a degree. And I like the Combat Mission formula from a battle perspective. It really is a delight on the battlefield. WEGO's brilliant. But until Battlefront commits to a campaign overhaul and gives us something akin to an operational and tactical level hybrid campaign system and campaign generator I doubt I'll drop any more cash on it. Like most here I've spent a lot of money on it, and I don't complain. I'm willing to pay for stuff I think is worth it, and Combat Mission has been worth it. But I'm at the stage now where I have a bunch of titles and they give me the base CM experience and I am no longer tempted by the newer releases. SF2 is my most recent. I have zero expectation that I'll ever see the sort of campaign system I think the wonderful tactical engine deserves, and that's fine. But that's what would bring me back to purchasing CM products I think. Never say never, but I no longer desire to see new units, maps or modules as they are. I want a new campaign system. Simple as.

Great presentation WimO. More of this please