MPK

"I was waiting for someone to bring that up. Anti-semitism was pervasive throughout German culture, military or civilian" And throughout American, British, Russian and French culture as well...

"I know someone who named their dogs Hitler and Himmler" ....and I know of an Axolotl named Albert Speer, and a Guinea Pig named Gobbles (could be Goebbels?).... I blame the History Channel and that damn "World At War" series... A whole generation poisoned...pets saddled with the Names Of Evil Men...

"Only if it's ID tag is an Iron Cross" Bro, can you get them in a Pet Size? I've GOTTA have one... We will have the whole awards ceremony and everything...he has earned it...an Ace, he has destroyed over 100 enemy Skinks...

My wife & I named our cat "Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich" because some friends had named their cat "Hitler"... Is this wrong?

They look neat... they do nothing.

Here, Herr Wittmann: http://www.cmmods.com/ great site, full of goodies... play around with the search tool, you will definitely find 2-3 sound mods... Warning: this site can eat your brain (in a good way, natch)... I spent 3 weeks 'winterizing' my forces...

Co-operative multiplayer as described sounds like a great idea... As well, the ability to have a three-sided battle might open up some interesting possibilities... A true multiplayer setup might allow you to assign formations to humans or AI's.

I played the CMBO demo for 6 months (amazed) before I needed to buy the Bundle Pack.. Been playing CMBB ever since. Mostly Ops, and mostly by PBEM. Love it. I've spent of lot of happy hours with the Editor... getting Not Much Done. My Five: (1) Night combat needs all the obvious features: flares, CDL & AA searchlights, illumination rounds, light from nearby fires etc (2) Field Engineering is far too limited: needed are mine-clearing AFV's (plough, flail, snake); and bridging (by pontoon and AFV-launched bridge). Amphibious vehicles (and troop landing) are missed by almost everyone. The same goes for paratroops, and glider assaults, and prepared demolitions. Fortifications need a total revamp: "Like-A-Vehicle" the bunker, pillbox, trench, foxhole, sangar, gun pit, tunnel, fortified house, Polish basement,submarine pen etc - these should all be able to hold a certain number and type of units, including guns and fixed flamethrowers, and should come in heavy (prepared defence)and lighter versions. (3) PBEM. I'll still buy the damn thing even if, but I'd only be playing with myself (4) Operations. I love 'em. Whether company-sized or bigger, they can only benefit from the announced terrain and Editor improvements...20-battle Op in a medieval town, anyone? (5) Can I save this one, and then complain bitterly when you don't put it in the game? Cheers & Best Wishes, Matt

Heya 76mm, Maps dispatched. Credit to: EasyCo

76mm, I have a QB map in my collection (from the Scenario Depot RIP) called 'Ukrainian Collective Farm" (can't recall offhand who made it, but can look it up)... I can email it to you for comparison with your own thoughts, if you like...

Macphail, you've never played any of the Operations? Really? It is true they can be grueling... me, I like gruel. The best of my current ones has been going 4 months...and that's at 2 PBEM turns a day... It's also fun to play vs the AI (the right Operation-eg you attack, the AI defends)and just chip away when you have a spare moment... Lots of cool things can happen in Ops...

Gotcha. Thanks to you both.

Mindful of how annoying it must be for Those Who Know when the same questions are asked and answered a zillion times, I've been searching the forums to find out a couple of things about Ops...but cannot find the answers... Is there an archive, offsite or otherwise, beyond the 'Anthology of Useful Posts" ? that might answer questions like: (1)Do repaired vehicles only return in the battle following a Night battle? (2)Is the chance of a vehicle returning increased if its crew are exited off the map, or do they merely need to survive? (3)How do the different levels of supply actually function? Any assistance appreciated, and violent flaming meekly tolerated... cheers, Matt

Promised I'd post when the battle ended- Result: (1)the map scrolled towards the attacker's end by about 120m (variable across wide map). (2)the setup zones were adjusted so as to allow me to resupply SOME cut-off troops, but not many. I didn't have overwhelming force, and my opponent was close by in the contested area of the map(like 75m away with 7+ AFV)or else I believe I would have made even further inroads. After the next battle, I should be able to reach the rest of my cut-off troops, and they too will be resupplied (assuming the rest of the 18th Panzer Div doesn't show up). As far as I can see, using PWTL in this particular Op has made for a more realistic experience. I enjoyed the added challenge.

No photos, no maps, no dates, no names... except for assorted Fahnrichs and Leutnants with common names like Muller and Schwartz and their units not identified...oh, and Admiral Canaris is constantly dropping in to check on his boys...and Der Fuhrer sends them telegrams every so often... "Konrat really sounds like somebody who threw together some cool stuff on Brandenburgers, Order castles, GD tough guys - you know all the boy-hero stuff - and put himself in it as a teen hero." I concur...I wonder if his South African book is as flexible with the truth...both are in the non-fiction lists... "even Black Hawk Down is referred to a 'highly realistic' and close to documentary" how bizarre...but I know what you mean. In Von Konrat's case, however, what is being claimed is not 'close to documentary' but 'this is what happened'....oh well, the book was only $AUD 2.00 We live and learn... regards, Matt

So...have I got this right? (I am afraid I do not speak German 'much well', but I get some of it) If all Brandenburger commanders are known, and Von Konrat's name does not appear, he either (1) changed his name after the war (2) adopted a nom-de-plume for his books (3) wasn't a Brandenburger. The last seems likely, but one would think that, given the book represents itself as non-fiction, that someone would have challenged this already... since 1970- if only because of the glaring errors of fact...and perhaps they have, before the rise of the internet...hence no online record... The publisher, Tandem, seems elusive, having gone (as publishers do) through various incarnations, including the Tandem-Universal Publishing Co. One would also think that a reputable publishing house, which Tandem seems to have been, would do a little basic fact- checking and editing...even my cat knows that the invasion of the Soviet Union took place in June, not July of '41... And I always thought Biggles was true As you say, Dandelion, a good story is a good story... Thank you for your knowledge and time... Regards, Matt

Will do, Bannon DC. Already looked at H2H version... mmm nice.

Dandelion... I'm not remotely qualified to discuss German order of battle during WW2 (or any other war, for that matter) but I do enjoy a mystery: von Konrat, Georg PASSPORT TO TRUTH, Star 39603/W.H. Allen & Co., 1977, 1st thus. Originally published in hardcover in 1972. "Newly appointed to the Ovamboland hydro- electric station, Georg von Konrat and his eight-year-old daughter were plunged into an area of the world largely shrounded in secrecy--black South Africa. Within hours of his arrival, the everyday atrocities and brutalities forced themselves onto von Konrat's awareness. With no specific political leanings, his job brought him into immediate contact with a political system his conscience could not tolerate. Branded as a 'nigger lover', hunted like an animal, obstructed and intimidated by the police and security forces, von Konrat abruptly found himself living a nightmare in which life and death precariously balanced each other. Then, together with his daughter, he made a daring bid for freedom across a country where mortal danger lurked around every corner." Paperback, 241 pages. G-VG w/moderate general wear. $7.50 [http://www.gusbooks.com/nonfic5.html] My copy of "Assault From Within" says 'originally published in South Africa by Howard Timmins, 1970' The same Georg Von Konrat? A Google search on '115th Prussian Marine' gives us: "World War 2 Talk > German Special Forces you also have the 115th prussian marine stormtroopers who were trained to ... But there is also the 115th prussian marine btn led by Georg von Konrat and ... www.ww2talk.com/lofiversion/index.php/t653.html - 33k - Cached - Similar pages" Perhaps their source is...Mr Von Konrat hmmm...

For that matter, if any Yumans out there want to playtest Bannon DC's Op and ruleset with me, send me an email(address in profile) ....

"Some mail programs or ISPs can cause problems with large text files" Yep. I think that's exactly his problem. Thanks to you both, Redwolf and Schrullenhaft, for your explanations... Problem sidestepped by him opening an new, different email account. cheers, Matt

Also thank you, Mr Dorosh- For what it's worth, Von Konrat makes the connection between the Brandenburgers and the GD clear from the very beginning...it is to the GD that the 115th Prussian Marine are assigned at the beginning of Barbarossa, in his account...

A sideline: Before I posted my initial query, I searched the forum, and there is a brief thread about "German Marines"... Von Konrat's unit (he was the CO, supposedly the youngest captain in the German Army in 1941)was called the 115th Prussian Marine... this seems to have been the usual camouflage tactic to disguise the very secret and special nature of the unit...although they did intens- ively train him in amphibious ops...

Thanks very much, Dandelion... I was hoping to mine Von Konrat's book for scenario ideas, and to be fair to him, it's full of great stories...it just needs a good editor... I'm not at all averse to long posts and I may take you up on your kind offer in the future, if that's OK... Thanks, Matt

Bannon DC, does the AI version of 'Bleeding & Mopping Up' allow for playing the Soviet side? If it does, I'll playtest it with pleasure...

No_one wrote: "If it's an assualt operation,it may work,but you need to make sure to do it with "over-kill".What I mean by that is that you need to send alot of troops up to link back up,and hopefully the enemy will not be close by.You will have to completely affect the setup zones so as to regain ground.Understand what I am saying? " Yep. And it is an Assault Op...the battle (6th of 10)is almost over (we are in Extra Time) to be followed by a non-combat Night turn...I'll post when I see the setup zones... As Bannon DC makes clear, PWTL is just one face of a concept: play around with the game, and tailor rules to fit SPECIFIC scenarios. Years ago, when I spent all my time playing 'Duke Nukem 3D' (this was in the early Triassic era) my buddy and I used to play 'Angry Co-op'-which meant that you started the game in co-operative mode, kill all the Aliens, then turn on each other... the 'G' key in co-op mode enabled you to see the other guy's POV... now, when you're hunting each other, that can be a lot of fun...we both used tricks like looking at the ground as we ran along, so no back- round terrain features would ID our position... The point? it's your game now, have fun. [Alternate analogy: in chess, not everyone plays the en passant rule... you have to agree on it...]