MPK

Sorry- query was directed to no_one, but feel free to reply iffen you know the answer...

BTW, Talk'scheap, I searched for Nightcrawler's sound mod at cmmods...no such a beast (no Nightcra- wler in the designer's list... Would be under another name? e.g Astrocat?

I miss all the games I've played and enjoyed... but you can't go back...with the exception of "Larry Vales: Traffic Division" and "Larry Vales: Dead Girls Are Easy" which were and are such crude games that they are still playable today

"Be a good boy and back-up those files.You'll be happy that you did,or you will regret it if you dont" So true...I just Tarkus' Dark Steel Mod to my PBEM buddy, with the identical stern warning, repeated twice...we can't stress this enough, people

Far be it for me to open this ancient can of worms, but..(too late) That Close Combat game? years ago? it had burning wrecks that unexpectedly brewed up as your infantry walked by... I'd like to see that again. In the future.

Yet more light dawns... What about the destroyed vehicles? Is it possible?

Ah-ha! I get you. That's how it works. Thanks, Junk2Drive... I've seen your name there...it seems like different modders have their specialties? AndrewTF for infantry...is he aka Astrocat?

After 3.75 years of playing CM, I've finally discovered Cmmods (I know, I'm really slow- witted)and am having a lot of fun tinkering with the game's appearance. Much appreciation for all the hard work, people: Great Stuff... Just grabbed neat Telogreika jackets for my troops, and am wondering where the white smock snowsuits can be found (for my German friends as well) ??? As well, are there any Destroyed Vehicle Mods? e.g blown off turrets, colander appearance etc Perhaps there is a technical reason why this is impossible...if so, cest la guerre.

Sorry, what I meant to say was: (on subject) I don't care where or when the 1st module is set, as long as it has more cool stuff, and extra war.

Whenver I get stressed out thinking about what Battlefront could and should do FOR ME,I calm myself by getting out some old war-games rules... the Wargames Research Group 1925-1950 set for example... I'm not the only one who spent days moving tiny 1/285th scale tanks around a sand table, I tell you what. Some people still do it. The whole huge Battalion-level fight (all arms)ran on 6-sided dice, measuring tapes and reference tables...you had to move the miniatures yourself...every bloody tiny squad and determine LOS with a long ruler... Then along comes CMBO, which does all this, with3D graphics and sound, and even lets you do a kind of Operational series of battles... And these Battlefront guys dont just grab abstracted penetration tables off somewhere else, but design friggin' new algorithms... After playing CMBB for 3 years, my wish list for CMx2 relates more to the little things that need to be done to this series to continue to make it as realistic as possible... Night fighting and field engineering come to mind right off. When they say they are going to put more depth in, I'm pleased.

and in related news... "The greatest altitude from which anyone has bailed out without a parachute and survived is 6,700m. This occurred in January 1942, when Lt (now Lt-Col) I.M Chisov (USSR) fell from an Ilyushin 4 which had been severely damaged. He struck the ground a glancing blow on the edge of a snow-covered ravine and slid to the bottom. He suffered a fractured pelvis and severe spinal damage" [Guinness Book Of Records, 1978]

"So what is LILO?" 'Down here' a Lilo is an inflatable cushion bed that is a lot of fun in the pool... I would imagine that having one strapped to your body might protect you not at all when jumping from 100 ft... There is an old, oft-repeated urban myth (sometimes it features the Ghurkas, but insert the tough, elite troops of your choice) that goes like this: The Ghurkas are told that they will be making an airborne landing from very low altitude... The Ghurka NCO's ask their British officers "How Low?" and are told "200 ft"... They go into a huddle...and then come back and say "We'll do it...but it has to be from 100 ft"... the Officers are aghast: "Don't you realize," they say, "Your parachutes won't open at that height"...the Ghurkas look equally astonished..."Oh, we get parachutes, do we?" boom boom...or splat splat.

Thanks Michael- "I can use my own regiment as an example - the Calgary Highlanders landed in Normandy in July 1944 with a full strength of 800+ officers and men. In 10 months of campaigning (with a long break at Christmas), they suffered 430+ fatal casualties - that's half the battalion killed - and 1600+ wounded. In other words, the battalion turned over at least twice. And if you look at the rifle companies, who accounted for 400 men of the battalion, and who suffered the majority of the casualties, well, the fighting strength of the battalion probably turned over 3 or 4 times." -Bartov suggests (by omission) that only the Germans suffered such decimation, and therefore came up with a typically German solution.... Advanced Nihilism. The soldier's letters he uses to support this argument are overwhelmingly those of tertiary educated young men... I myself was totally full of **** at that age...

Thanks, Michael... "The GD WAS shattered again and again - some figures from Spaeter are on my GD site. This was common to all units of all armies, though, if they were in action long enough". Bartov uses this shattering & rebuilding of GERMAN units to support his contentious point: that the Wehrmacht in the end MUST have been sustained by ideology and harsh discipline because the 'primary groups' that most authorities believe are the bedrock of an army's ability to fight (personal loyalties at the platoon-company-bn level) were destroyed... Given that near-total destruction and repeated rebuilds of formations isn't just a German experience, what sustained other nation's troops? Interested in any informed comment... Thanks again, Matt

Just finished rereading Omer Bartov's "Hitler's Army"... I would be grateful if those people on this forum who have done serious research into the subject could post on whether or not the casualty figures Bartov gives for his example formations (18th Panzer, 12th Inf and GD) are as he says- i.e that such formations were decimated time & again and rebuilt almost entirely from scratch... Thanks in anticipation, Matt

"MPK, seek professional help, now." Do you know how much that COSTS? $150 per hour...and a 50-minute hour at that... I prefer this forum...as therapy. "LINE is effective if a telephone link in good repair exists. Telephone lines are assumed to run in a straight line between two handsets or between a handset and an exchange, or from either of these to a off-table destination via a specified point on a land table edge. They can be surface or buried. Dice if either has been within an area fire beaten zone or a surface line crossed by tracked or half-track vehicles since last used. A score of 1 indicates that a buried line is broken, 2 that a surface line is. Line is laid or checked to find a break at DELAY speed, repaired in GAP mode." 'Wargames Rules For All Arms Land Warfare 1925-1950' - Wargames Research Group.

"...and anybody who is about this needs to take up a sport." Tried it...didn't take. Not complicated enough. Seriously, line communications (represented by thread) were an important feature of WWI and WW2 wargames played on a tabletop with miniatures during the mid- to late- 20th century...old graybeards may remember this era...(this was before home computers, my children).

I'm one of those sick persons that really enjoy spending two days setting up a defence-in-depth on a huge operational map...and for this reason (and because it would be more realistic) I would like to be able to specify buried and surface telephone lines and exchanges on the map. Because I'm really ill, I would also like to see those lines possibly cut by tanks or arty fire, and then I'd like to have to find the break and repair it under fire... Quite apart from the obvious effect on FO's that use line, whole sectors of the map might stop feeding me information... that'd be cool (this assumes new, Borg-less CM engine, natch) At present the only real disadvantage of using non-radio FO's is their slow movement, incompatibility with transport, and long delay times... Battlefront, let's make it even harder... Yes, I do play as the Soviets.

"An HQ is daft as it will not make much difference other than the enemy will spot the HQ from a much greater distance and try to kill it - waste of an HQ" If your sharpshooter doesn't plan to wander, an HQ (Hiding nearby) can give him quite an edge...HQ Combat bonus makes him more accurate, Stealth bonus makes him almost invisible... even when he shoots.

"What would constitute airborne cavalry? Could that be bicycles?" Could it perhaps be motorcycles? Did the Soviets have the parachutist's folding motorbike like the West?

'This would be an effective anti-tank weapon due to stickiness' Of course every combatant nation in WW2 had their own version of the treat-that- turns-into-a-bomb; the French with their Hollow Charge Croissants (applied with a pointed stick to the belly armor of charging Panzers)and the Yanks with their great love of vaudeville came up with the Proximity Fused Hot Dog...

That's very helpful & interesting... Much appreciated. BTW I had not previously known that Tukhachevsky was an ardent proponent of airborne forces... I hope there is a biography of him out there somewhere (in English, my Russian's pretty rudimentary). I guess I can choose from 1940 or 1941 brigade TOEs, since one might argue that a particular brigade in 1941 might be either reorganized or be about to... Thanks to you both, Matt

Thanks Jason... "But actual combat air drops, they just left it behind"... why? lack of transport aircraft/gliders? Given that my scenario idea is defiantly ahistorical- a battle between Sov Airborne and Rumanian frontier troops during the annexation of Bessarabia- I figured I might use the full range of equipment available to the Airborne Brigade whether or not such was the actual practice... I know this is wrong, and I'm trying hard to change... Seriously, Mollo ['The Armed Forces of WW2', Orbis, 1981] lists a Frontier Division for the Rumanian army, and I am wondering if these were better-quality troops, as is sometimes the case with units tasked with border security... If anybody can shed light on this, or has other pertinent information, please post... Thanks again, Matt

"Ice cream truck. This is something that must be hardcoded to the CMx2 engine" Jagged Alliance 2 had an Ice Cream Truck... you could fit six armed-to-the-teeth mercenaries in it... Of course the need for such a vehicle will vary from theatre to theatre... Very useful in North Africa, somewhat redundant during Eastern Front winters...

Thanks Zveroboy; The site is down at this moment; I'll check it out later (or buy the book). Zaloga mentions a "Paratroop Tank Bn" of 50 T-38's for 1940... I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere that light howitzers (of the Mountain Gun type)were part of the Soviet Airborne Brigade TO&E and would be surprised if this were not so... But then, I am often surprised...