General Jack Ripper

Seven days with no posts? Let me fix that:

...and to actually contribute to the topic, I think my next project will be The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece by Victor Davis Hanson.

Comparing Starship Troopers to The Forever War shows quite clearly the pre and post Vietnam attitude. I'm even fairly certain the character of Sgt. Cortez was a macabre reflection of Sgt. Zim.

There are very few maps you will ever see that cannot be crossed with a Move command in about ten minutes or so. Any battle you fight which has reinforcements showing up "in the rear" which need to "march to the front" are much, much longer than ten minutes. Take a breather every once in a while, you'll live longer. Set your Move order, then go off and fight with the rest of your force while you wait for the reinforcement to catch up, just like real life. I swear, people are grasping for any possible reason to be mad about anything these days. I want one faster than Fast, but also slower than Fast, with deliberately screwed up pathfinding called "Serpentine!"

Clearly, the new leader was too dumb to realize he should be suppressed.

That was Tom Sizemore. Tom Hanks is your squad leader who always gets shot first.

The difference between the technicals lies in the composition of their crew. Pickup trucks with weapons on them are the same as other pickup trucks with weapons on them, regardless of the credit score of the owner.

Oh god, I thought that was dead and buried by now... LET IT DIE!!

Indeed, it does seem the game manual is in need of a rewrite.

So... The Abrams tanks have absolutely nothing to do with the point being made. The engineers work would be exactly the same if the tanks weren't there. I care not for your analysis of my tactical acumen, because I found and dealt with the mines, and apparently you were unable to do so. How can you 'Mark Mines' if you haven't detected them yet? What game in existence allows you to activate a context-sensitive command when the context necessary for that command is nonexistent? Notice how no one is complaining about their inability to 'Acquire' weapons and ammo out of thin air? That's because it's self-evident one must be in a vehicle or next to an ammo dump to use it. WHY ARE PEOPLE MAKING AN ASSUMPTION THAT 'MARK MINES' WORKS DIFFERENTLY? You have to be standing near the mines to have it work, and in order to stand near the mines, YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHERE THEY ARE. The manual also makes it explicit that anti-tank mines do not harm infantry, so you can draw the logical conclusion that having infantry walk around and among the AT Mines will allow you to detect them without any possible risk. I would say the scenario is designed to hold your hand by telling you where the evil scary minefield is, and also give you all the tools you need to overcome the obstacle. Imagine for a moment the anguish you would feel, if the game DIDN'T tell you there was a minefield there! If there is any problem with marking mines, it is the ambiguous wording in the engine manual which makes it seem like 'Mark Mines' is a movement command, but by referencing the bolded spots of the game manual section quoted above (emphasis mine), one can easily see the technique by which one detects and marks an anti-tank minefield: Anti-tank mines cannot be set off by infantry on foot, Troops moving through minefields have some ability to notice the mines without exploding them. Engineers have the ability to mark known minefields. See? It's as easy as 1, 2, 3. Now just wait until you get to a scenario where you are told, "There may be some minefields somewhere," but are NOT told where they are, what type they are, or how large they are...

You know, you guys could just go play the darn game... Just sayin'.

That's gotta be one of the coolest jobs in the world, "Let's build a vehicle, then shoot at it all day!"

If the scenario designer allows you to, you can do it. There are ways of making a ceasefire victory impossible until certain conditions are met.

'Deploy Weapon' is a toggle switch. How hard is it to toggle a switch? It's either ON or OFF. Sheesh.

No. I deliberately said zero pack up time to simulate the ability to wheel the gun away. If you move one to four action spots and toggle the deploy weapon command to 'on', you will deploy the gun instantly after stopping. This is a known game mechanic.

I think it's intended to be an abstraction representing the ability to quickly move the gun instantly, but transporting it over any real distance would require some fiddling, at least to clear the gun and stow the ammo, etc. Remember, you can deploy machineguns over a short distance without having a setup time. So you could grab your russian mg, move it instantly (zero pack up time), move 4 action spots, and deploy instantly. So you can potentially be very mobile with it. But the gun is still heavy, and even being dragged you clear the gun and then have to emplace it, check your line of fire, then reload the gun before firing.

I've been looking for that forever after reading a magazine article quoting sections of it. Thanks.

Which ones are water-cooled, and which ones are air-cooled? Which are belt-fed, and which are magazine fed? Which are light enough to be man-portable, and which require multiple crewmembers? Which have an optional bipod, and which fire only from a tripod? There's a heck of a lot more questions to ask and answer here besides, "I don't get why a gun on wheels has a setup time."

Even something as portable as a BAR doesn't have a "0" pack up time.

When I was a kid, I used to sit right up close to the window on the T specifically to look down the older tunnels.

Wandering the back alleys of Boston reveals all sorts of interesting things:

It's the privilege you get from living for so long. I can't wait until my 60's, then I can be like Emrys.