A.E.B

There's a visualisation that's going to make some therapist rich! That is truly, truly bent. I come from Sydney and I still say that that is truly, truly bent. At least I do my bit for public health, allowing you to knock the crust off each morning, which cannot be easy given your diet/level of socialisation. I must admit that I watch your verbal antics with rye amusement. It is like watching someone else's child chuck a tantrum in the supermarket. One of life's simple pleasures. I have decided that the root cause of your Australian fixation is the fact that you want to become one of us, though I must admit that when you live in Minnesota moving to Somalia or Chechnya must also seem appealing. I'm sure you picture yourself as a lifeguard on some sun drenched Aussie beach, far, far away from people who say ya'll. We're a regional superpower! A.E.B

Now that is just plain nasty, on so many levels! Oh Seanachi, how can anyone hate you? You are just so unworthy of hate. Not even Goat boy could maintain his hatred of you (and he hated so easily). Instead, like anyone you have ever known, he took his interest and his hatred and gave it to your betters. To we Australians you are like that family dog, you know the type - butt ugly, smelly, anti-social, mangy, incontinent - that you can't put down because the children will cry. So we Aussies don't hate you Seanachi. After all, every morning you wake from some beautiful dream (where you're winning at CM), look at the ceiling and croak "f~~k I'm in Minnesota!" That is punishment enough. Still true blue A.E.B [ October 14, 2003, 03:08 AM: Message edited by: A.E.B ]

Sniff! Sniff? What is that smell????!!!! Oh it's you Seanachai. I see that they have left the gate to the pool open again. Dear wannabe understudy to one of the four horsemen, I greet your arrival with the same joy that I'd greet a proposal of marriage from Courtney Love (that shotgun under the chin is just so inviting, eh Kurt). Normally I would hold a handkerchief to my nose and wait for you to leave, but today, dear Gnome, I have something to tell you. I have seen your future. While you await CMAK with cheese-baited breath, in the hope of being able to shoot Australians, you have overlooked a simple fact: you SUCK at CM! That's right; it's the Aussies who will be shooting you! Hundreds of them, thousands of them. Whole battalions of pixelated Aussies marching across the CMAK desert - each one lovingly modded - to put your hapless, cringing troops to the bayonet with the tradition cry of "too late chum!” That's right, a horde of bronzed men, Adonises in Khaki and a slouch hat, men who suck up hardship like real Aussie beer, men who laugh at danger, men who understand that rubbing lanolin on your skin has more than one meaning, Antipodean Gods even are coming to haunt your every dream and nightmare (much like a Crocodile Dundee movie). So sleep while you can, oh pickled gnome, for the Australians are coming. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi! A.E.B [ October 14, 2003, 02:43 AM: Message edited by: A.E.B ]

Saddly the on-screen graphics of CMBO, CMBB and CMAK are a generation out of date. Remember that Time Commanders is using the yet to be released Rome:Total War engine, not the Medieval:Total War engine. Basically that is the equivalent of using CMX4. I doubt that TV audiences would warm to 2D images giving a false 3D effect, abstracted vehicle sizes/locations, 3 man squads, etc. Basically, I can see the Wartime Command engine being used, but not the current CM engine. That said, BFC isn't making software for TV programs, so it is no loss to the CM community (though the exposure/advertising potential would be nice!). Please send all death-threats, fatwas and ex-communications to the above email address. Regards A.E.B

Hi all I played the SP WWIII campaign up till the final battle, where Pershings revealed their inability to handle defending JSIIIs. An interesting hypothetical question. Actually, I suspect that the outcome of a USA v USSR conflict in the 1940s would be entirely dependent on where and when it started. I can see 4 different scenarios. 1. A limited German surrender 1944/45. This is where the German resistance succeeds in killing Hitler and overthrowing the Nazi regime. Germany surrenders to the Western Allies, who I turn attempt to force a settlement on Russia that stops Soviet expansion at the 1940 or 41 borders: thereby guaranteeing a free Poland. The USSR refuses. War ensues. I this scenario, the battered by still undefeated German forces joins the Western Alliance. Germany gains the logistical support of the USA at the same moment that the USSR loses it. The USSR may make common ground with Japan. In this scenario I believe that the USSR cannot win. The allies have immediate access to German production and technology, and Germany gains the logistic support of its dreams. Patton and Montgomery could fight beside Model and Guderian, Shermans and Comets beside Panthers and Tigers. Finland would fight on. The Russians would be forced to retreat back across territory already ruined by 4 years of war. The Allied/German advance would stall somewhere in the Ukraine due to extending supply lines, though amphibious operations could liberate the Baltic States. The Pacific War would take longer, as I am assuming the Europe first policy would still apply. Likely outcome: The USSR makes peace and returns to its 1922 borders. Poland restored to its 1939 territory. The communists lose in China. Japan survives until 1946 (if it allies with USSR), or changes sides to join the allies. 2. Germany is defeated. Allied and USSR forces are not within the zones of control decided upon at Yalta. One or both sides attempts to "hang-on" to the extra territory. War ensues. In this scenario, neither Germany nor Poland has much to offer either side. The Russians are exhausted post Battle of Berlin, but they have far more men and material on hand. Initially the Russians would have the upper hand, although the allied forces have the advantage in the air. However, it will take a while for this superiority to translate into domination. After a few weeks fighting, the Soviets will have used up their available supplies, but the allies will have been forced back maybe a 100 miles in places, but with a number of isolated forces still behind enemy lines being resupplied from the air. At this point superior Allied logistics coupled with air interdiction of Soviet supplies allows the allies to launch counterattacks. Soviet forces are cut off, and the bulk of the Soviet forces are forced back towards their supply. However, allied loses are heavy, and the allied advance also grinds to a stop. Likely outcome: a peace treaty that leaves the USSR with the Baltic States, Poland, Hungary and Rumania still in the Soviet camp. Germany mostly liberated, Austria and Czechoslovakia’s fate determined by the fighting. 3. Post WWII resumption of fighting. In this scenario both Germany and Japan have been defeated. The Western Allies have already begun their post WWII force reductions. Apart from the USA, all the other combatant's economies are in taters. USA has the A-Bomb; Soviets don't (pre-1949). An event like the Berlin Blockade triggers off a war. In this scenario, the aggressors (most likely the USSR) have taken steps to have adequate resources at hand for a sudden offensive. The victims (most likely the Allies) are taken by surprise AKA Korea. As long as the aggressor planned on a limited gains war, they could probably pull it off. While the USA still has the A-Bomb, it would be difficult to use it if the conflict only lasted a couple of weeks, and if the Soviets held sufficient POWs to take revenge upon. Likely outcome: The aggressor gets limited territorial gains (other half of Germany). The Cold War starts off a lot warmer this time around. 4. A 1950 offensive. Both sides have the bomb. Economic recovery has started in Western Europe, but disarmament by the Western allies has left them venerable to sudden attack. Communist China is now in the Soviet camp, and threatens European colonies in SE Asia. Likely outcome: Total Allied defeat in Europe without using the bomb. Otherwise its WWWIII with many European/Russian cities destroyed by nukes. Eventual stalemate once USA fully mobilises for war in Europe using surviving allied territory as a staging post. These scenarios/outcomes are JMO. Regards A.E.B

Hi all The inclusion of aircraft models could have a dual benefit. Not only could you look up and see that JU87 screaming overhead, but aircraft (both wrecked and unwrecked) could be included in historical scenarios, like the airfield outside of Stalingard being overrun in Dec42, or a SAS attack on an airfield in Tunisia for example. Regards A.E.B [ October 14, 2003, 11:29 AM: Message edited by: A.E.B ]

DasNoogie I assume that by "capture an image" you are referring to screen shots? While this has been covered before, I know how hard it can be to search, so here it is again. * Get the required image on your screen * Press the print screen button * Open your paint program - you can use MS paint (comes with windows), adobe photoshop, corel or any other similar application. * In the application select new image. * Select paste or hit ctrl+v to paste the saved screen shot into the application. * Edit and save. I hope this helps. A.E.B

Thanks for the replies I have actually played a number (and reviewed them) of the scenarios available at the Scenario Depot. What I was hoping to find was any recent additions to the already excellent stock of scenarios to save going through A-Z again. So any new big battles (apart from the one mentioned above which I will check out)? Thanks A.E.B

Hi all I am looking for a scenario to play PBEM against an opponent who has requested a "big battle". I notice that a number of new scenarios have recently been released. Can anyone suggest a good large scale bloodfest? Thanks in advance A.E.B

To quote Nietzsche I am definitely a person who opposes all totalitarian ideologies - whether from the left, center or right of politics - because all such ideologies require enemies (racial, class, political), who are objectified as targets to be hated and destroyed. I am certainly not blind to the crimes against humanity committed by both the Nazis and the Communists. I also believe that many more individuals took part in these crimes beyond the normal suspects of the SS and the NKVD. The terrible logic of both the Nazi and the Communist systems where personified for me by the father of one of my parents friends. He was a Hungarian Jew who was sent to the death camps in 1944 when the Germans took full control of Hungry. He survived and returned to Hungary. In 1956 he worked for a newspaper that supported the uprising, and as a result spent 8.5 years in a Soviet labour camp. I also despise those who try to rehabilitate Nazism or who cling to Marxism/Communism in the believe that if these systems are given another go they'll get it right this time. I was sad when David Irving was banned from visiting Australia, not because I wanted to hear what he would say, but because I knew some of the people who were going to publicly expose the evil propaganda disguised as history his books contained. Such people need to be exposed. And people need to know exactly how sick and murderous extremist political ideologies really are. Only by doing so can we be assured that they can never rise to enslave mankind again. But in opposing Nazism and Communism, the danger is that you become what you are fighting. This is the trap that the Political Correctness movement has fallen into - they are intoleratant of intolerance. Once you yourself become intolerant, you wind up becoming what you are fighting. Hence the homophobic comments and the attempts to force others to comply with your viewpoint on what is ACCEPTABLE! made by reinald@berlin.com. At home I have items that display Nazi, Communist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Bhudist, and even Roman and Mongol symbols. I am not a believer or admirer of any of these systems of believe or governments. There are, however, items of great interest contained in all of the above. The methods of warfare practiced by both Germany and the USSR during WWII are worthy of study. What I am is deeply interested in history. It is the study of history, in all its aspects, that makes me immune to the ideologies of exclusion and hate. Displaying a swastika doesn't make you a Nazi, even on the internet. Displaying a swastika and then backing it up with hateful language and praise for mass murderers does. The strange thing is that in this case - if someone showed me the posts out of context - I would have picked - based on the attitudes displayed - reinald@berlin.com as being the Nazi, not eichenbaum. Let's all grow up: symbols only have to power that we give them. The Nazis put the Iron Cross and Swastika on their equipment, but the Nazis were crushed by better men. Remember that next time you play CMBB: the two great evils of Nazism and Communism were both eventually overcome, regardless of who had the nicer mods! And CM is just a game - it is the player who provides the motivation for playing it. Regards A.E.B

I believe that the idea that infantry keep a reserve of ammo is bourn out by the game itself. Infantry don't run out of ammo, they reach a state called low. A unit with a low ammo state rarely fires unless directly threated. So the ammo counter doesn't represent to full ammo load out of a unit. Regards A.E.B

I once destroyed two T34/76s with a Green Tiger: but I was firing at a KV. The rounds missed the KV and slammed into the T34s that were following it. I have never seen a AFV damaged by a round bouncing from another AFV in CMBB. I cannot comment on CMBO. Regards A.E.B

Andrew TF If the Germans used iron/steel reinforcing bars in their concrete, then adding rust streaks may be a way to "dirty" up the uncamouflaged version. Regards A.E.B

Actually, I would like to see two related issues covered by the CMX engine. 1. Multiple story buildings: not just churchs, watertanks and flak towers, but also historically important buildings like the grain elevator in Stalingrad. 2. Localised damage to buildings. Currently damage to buildings is all or nothing: once the building collapses, the whole building goes. In reality, large buildings could lose entire sections and still not collapse. A tank may shoot the steeple off a church, but the rest of the building should remain intact. It would also be possible to have fires slowly spreading from floor to floor, or even building to building. Regards A.E.B [ July 21, 2003, 10:09 PM: Message edited by: A.E.B ]

AUSSIE BASHING!!!!!!! I once fought a drunk Kangaroo for money. And you lot think that we Australians are lacking in culture! Strewth! A.E.B

The Vodka fueled OT34 from hell! I think that tanks can be fanatics. I a current PBEM I have a T34 that has suffered multiple penetrations and lost its main gun. The sole surviving crew man still fires the MGs at passing German infantry and shows no sign of bailing. Regards A.E.B

Opps! Huge for an ATG - a landrover could just carry one on an overhead rail, but small for a plane. Regards A.E.B

During the Italian campaign there was a shootout between a German armoured column on the coast road and some destroyers. Maybe CMAK should model that! JasonC: There is no way a 75/L48 at 1500m could penetrate the hull belt of a Town class destroyer. Test firings show that....... Rexford: But temperature could have effected the density of the Sheffield plate, so effective armour protection could have been reduced by....... Regards A.E.B

Hi all I have often read, but have never been able to find real evidence, that AFVs and their crews were KOed by the concussion of HE type impacts or near misses. What I have discovered, but not evidence. The US Army redesigned the original M1 Abrams when it was estimated that the driver's head was to close to the armour, risking injury if the tank was struck by a large HEAT, HESH or HE warhead (this was modelled in the first M1 Tank Platoon game). The Australians built a large ATG system in the 1950s that was replaced by the more practical SS10/11 missile. This huge minature plane carried a 85kg HESH warhead, which could tear apart even a T10M without penetrating the armour. Aircraft bombs and Naval gunfire trashed small tanks and disabled larger tanks with the blast from near misses (hence the Tigers and Panthers on their sides/roofs in Normandy. In the book Tank verse Tank, during a battle in Italy M4s and Panthers fired HE at each other when they ran out of AP. Several tanks were lost to mechanical failures due to HE hits. I have read personnal accounts where German tank crews stated that Russian arty, occassionally fired direct, ripped external fittings off tanks, wrecked MGs and turret rings and - in the case of 122 and 152s, rip off whole turrets from Panzer IIIs and IVs. Crewmembers suffered injuries from objects (not armour flakes) flying around due to impact, or from being slugged against equipment or the armour (gunners looking through the sights were supposedly particularly at risk from head injuries). Also, the valve based radios were normally KOed by a HE blast. Is this concussion effect real, or is it on of these half-truths that have found their way into the historical record, so it is now treated as fact? I haven't witnessed many HE KOs in CMBB - apart from aircarft bombs - so I was wondering if the non-penertrating HE "shock" hit was modelled. I have searched, but could find no previous thread where this question was definitely answered. Regards A.E.B

Gaylord Focker said Corsia was sold by the Kingdom of Naples (or was it Piedmont?) to France one year before Napoleon was born, so he is French. Edited for more accuracy. 1768 The Treaty of Versailles - 1789 Integration with France Corsica, the only independent island of the Mediterranean, had nevertheless a flimsy army. France which had seen, at the expense of an ambiguous policy, its influence grow, in the Mediterranean in general and particularly in Genoa, found itself granted Corsica in 1768 by the Treaty of Versailles. The armed resistance opposed by the Corsica of Pascal Paoli The armed resistance opposed by the Corsicans of Pascal Paoli ended with their defeat at Ponte-Novo the 8th of May 1769. Three months later, the 15th of August 1769 Napoléon Bonaparte was born. Regards A.E.B [ June 22, 2003, 11:53 PM: Message edited by: A.E.B ]

Where to start..... I think the highpoint for Germany was the period between the defeat of Poland and the invasion of France. Given the apparent "friendship" between the Soviet Union and Germany, Britian and France were faced with an impossible task if they had to take the war to German (France invaded about 30 km into Germany during the Polish Campaign but promptly decamped back to the "safety" of their Fortifications). If Hitler had simply gone on the defensive, and diverted resources from the army to the Navy and Airforce, Britian and France would have been trapped in a war they didn't want and which they couldn't possibly win. Therefore the most likely outcome would have been a diplomatic settlement that left Germany with its gains. On Operation Sealion, the Germany Staff did do extensive planning, but then that's what military staffs do. The air/sea assault on Crete used some of the details that had already been worked out for Sealion. Given the crippling losses suffered by Student's parachute army, and the almost total destruction of the seabourne element by the Royal Navy despite German/Italian air superiority, it is probably lucky for Germany that they didn't put Sealion into operation. The experience of Sealion, Crete and Deipe also convinced the German High Command that a seabourne/airbourne invasion into the teeth of prepared defenses was suicidal. Therefore, though Britain wasn't defeated, it also couldn't challenge Germany on continental Europe, and therefore was "contained" as a threat. I have also read (in Brute Force I think) that the Germany Staff didn't initially underestimate the Russian armed forces, and that their initial invasion plans revolved around a thrust to Moscow with an invasion army that had 2 more armoured divisions, 10 more infantry divisions and 500,000 tons more supplies than the force that actually undertook Barbarossa. However, constant arguments between different branches of the German government, and reports on the quality (or lack of) of Russian forces in Poland, coupled with Hitler's obvious desire for a war to settle matters in the east, led to a downgrading of Soviet capabilities to a level "do-able" by the available German forces. Regards A.E.B

I know that cannister ammunition was utilised both in Korea and in Vietnam as a method of breaking up Human Wave assaults, and as a method of stripping cover. However: * Cannister shells have a very short range compared to HE ammunition. * Cannister shot damages rifled gun barrels. * Cannister is far more effective when fired from a shorter barrelled/lower velocity gun (think a 12 gauge compared to a .308 hunting rifle). The following are the only references to cannister in WWII that I could locate. Marine use in Pacific Finish site re captured soviet 37mm and 45mm ATGs Another Finnish site on WWII ATGs And that's about it. Cannister was fired from the guns of UN Shermans, Pershings and Centurions in Korea. In Vietnam I believe that cannister was not widely issued due to accelerated wear to the rifling of tank guns, but the crews made their own cannister rounds anyway. Against exposed, massed infantry cannister is like firing at 12 gauge at a flock of birds. It is far less lethal in those infantry are prone or have cover. All I could find. A.E.B

Hi all In a current PBEM (my opponents will have to guess which one) I suffered what may be the greatest failure in Forward Observer history. I had a 105mm Spotter hidden in a treeline. A large soviet force - tanks + HTs with infantry riding and on foot - had cracked my first infantry screen and was engaging the second. I had called the 105s at about 700m range, but was down to 250m by the time the first shell arrived - I had a clear LOS the whole time and could adjust fire. The first spotting round landed on the tree directly above the FO team , killing the two men instantly! Can anyone top this disaster? Regards A.E.B

Firstly. Thank you Jwxspoon, MikeT and everyone else involved for keeping CMMOS alive. As I now have a better idea of what is involved, I hope that everyone who downloads and uses these mods to enhance CM appreciates just how much time and effort you guys put it. Secondly. I recommend the Tutorial Pack. If I could figure it out and use it, anyone can. No more waiting for the update - make your own! Thanks again A.E.B

Me Me Me Me Me! MikeT, you were going to email it, but I can wait until it is publicly available. Regards A.E.B