Mad Russian
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Posts posted by Mad Russian
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I thought I would share part of an email that Tom Grace sent me last night.
I have an amazing story to tell you. The area where we will be setting up Matt's room is carpeted. So for hygienic and ease of movement of Matts equipment we decided to have the carpet removed and an laminated floor put in. We were given some money by an radio station in Calgary in December and thought we use it to pay for this project. I had to get on this fast as the hospital equipment will be arriving soon so I went to the local flooring store. This store is own by a family living about a block away and they have a son who is friends with Matt and they are Christians as well. I found the flooring we wanted and they even dropped the price from $2/square foot to $1.50/square foot which I thought was great. I went home and phoned my wife to update her then after I hung up the phone rang. It was the flooring supply store. They had decided to donate the flooring to us and install it as well. (I was going to have our church organize a work party to help me put it in) I was flabbergasted as we are talking about an $1000 floor!!!! I went back to show them what pattern we wanted. I was so grateful and over whelmed that I could not control my emotions and tears were flowing. They have already delivered the material and will put it in on Wednesday. Let me tell you the whole thing amazed me!!! God really works in amazing ways!!
Well I hope to try out your operation. It may take a bit time if it is an large one. Does it matter what side I play. What is PBEM helper and where do I get it?
Well gotta get to bed. I have to move furniture tomorrow!!!!
Thank you for all your support for this family. God is good. We need but be faithful. Continue to keep the Grace family in your prayers. I believe that Matthew is scheduled to return home sometime in February.
Steve
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I was out of work and had dabbled in futures trading so I decided to give it a try for a year. I broke even. My broker says that puts me in the top 10% of the traders in the world. :cool:Originally posted by Carl Puppchen:Hey that is a great idea! I never would have thought of that. I don't usually think "out of the box"
My water assault will now be moved to the proper period.
Just for grins I looked at your profile and saw that you were a futures trader...
I work for the MERC in their technology dept.
I told him I needed to be in the top 9% to make a living at it...
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Yes, the TO&E calls for 6 75mm and 2 150mm guns at the regimental level. That would be 2 75mm guns per battalion.Originally posted by flamingknives:2 per infantry regiment, n'est pas?
The 75mm gun was the battalion level weapon.
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There are several facets to battlefield command.
1) The level of the commander.
2) The level of command and control.
3) The experience and training level of the organization.
4) The environment the situation takes place in.
Whether the program is a sim or a game affects each of these.
1) The level of the commander…
In a sim, the player is the commander, at whatever level the sim is set at. Everything else is abstracted.
In a game, the commander’s role is abstracted, and everything else is weighted to the degree of abstraction chosen by the dynamics of the game.
In CM the commander’s role is from whatever level the scenario has been built for. However many commanders there are, in the scenario, the player is every one of them. This has the positive effect of allowing the player maximum participation. The negative effect of this is a missing chain of command.
CM has not, in the past, modeled the chain of command other than to show it with order delay times. This is an interesting model. I can see the rational behind that design model but I think it leaves a great deal of the command structure out of the picture.
Let’s take a look at what the CM command structure is. It is built soley on the command of the lowest level units in the game, whether they are squads, gun crews or vehicles. While any battlefield commander could, and sometimes did, take command of troops in the field, there is a limit to this. Interestingly enough, CM is designed, with the highest ranking commander in the game, as a battalion commander.
If we look at the duties of a battalion commander in the CM battlefield we would find very little for him to do. They command a battalion. That means giving direction and support to the companies under his command, reporting to superiors on the progress and situation of his battalion, coordinating with neighboring units, etc...
Rarely would you find him walking out on the battlefield and taking direct command of the troops in the field. Different nation’s armies had different operational structures though, and the necessity is the mother of invention. So, at times, a battalion commander would become involved in leading troops. This wouldn’t be an ordinary everyday type of event. Battalion commanders of armored units would have a more active role in the fighting but would still have to command the battalion. They would rarely, if ever, take over direct command of a platoon.
Company commanders are closer to the fighting, and have the ability, and the capacity to command all the troops in their company. Normally, they command the company, and not a squad, or platoon.
Platoon commanders command their platoons directly. They are responsible for issuing almost all of the orders that a platoon gets during a day. It is his job to direct the men at the lowest level.
CM currently has two levels of commanders. The platoon commanders, who issue the commands directly to the squads or individual vehicles, and company commanders who intervene when things get out of hand. The battalion commander, in CM, is just an extra company commander as far as ability, and effect of his command position, is concerned.
2) The level of command control…
In a sim, command and control is set at the specific level being modeled.
In a game, command and control is often blended between several different levels of command.
The CM system is a good example of command and control that has been blended. It is a mixture of the chain of command without using it. You have battalion commanders that have exactly the same functions in the game as company commanders. You have a company commander that is a platoon commander with the added ability to control any unit on the map even outside his own company. You have a platoon leader that reports to no-one. All the command positions have been blended into the gamer.
3) The experience and training level of the organization…
Experience levels have about the same uses and functions in both sims and games.
CM has experience levels that are pretty well defined. The troops are more or less prone to suffer adverse psychological results, breaking, routing, etc… depending on the amount of experience and training they have received.
4) The environment the situation takes place in…
The sim and game both show the effects of the environment pretty much the same. There is terrain, it is either night or day, it’s in a rural or urban setting…and the associated problems for commanding troops that arise from the setting. Operations at night are harder to coordinate, fighting in a city is more complicated to get orders issued and thus the command range is shorter, those type things.
Command and control determination in CM is affected differently by the environment. Daylight or dark the command range is the same. However, urban and heavy vegetation situations like forests shorten the command and control range.
Real life Command structure.
Battalion commander controls a battalion of from 2 to 5 battalions.
Company commander controls a company of 2 to 4 platoons.
Platoon commander controls a platoon of 2 to 4 squads.
The CM command and control model.
So what is command and control in CM. The commands are all issued at the platoon level. If a battalion commander or company commander gives orders it is the same as the platoon commander.
I believe that, the order delay, was an attempt to add some command and control to the game, in a pretty simplistic form. And in a simplistic sort of way it does. I don’t believe it was ever intended to simulate the entire command and control model.
Here are some suggestions for modeling command and control in a more realistic fashion.
All commanders would have to be in command and control just like the squads of the current CM platoon. If they aren’t there would be adverse affects down the chain of command.
The battalion commander is currently always in command and control but a scenario option could be added where he might not be. The range of command and control could be worked out for all levels of command, just like it is now for the experience levels of leaders. Night needs to be a determining factor of that command range and it currently doesn’t seem to be.
So, what are the effects of command and control if we don’t just use the order delay? There are a lot of things that commanders do. One is to affect the morale of troops. The closer the battalion, or company commander is, to a platoon leader, or particular squad, the higher the morale should go. Up to certain level. No matter what the leadership rating for that leader is. “The Old Man is here!” is a powerful morale booster. So higher chain of command leaders should give an automatic morale boost if they are close at hand.
CM leaders give orders to move or fire. In real life those orders move downhill. The battalion commander orders the company commander to take the village. He then orders his platoons to secure his objective. The company commander doesn’t wake up one morning and say,” Today would be a good day to take that village.” Not on his own initiative he doesn’t. In CM you are all the leaders, and you decide who will do what, but even then, you should be in command range. If you aren’t, your invincible soldiers wouldn’t know what you wanted them to do. There should be a limit to ranges of offensive fire and movement. Offensive fire and movement is anything firing at or moving toward the enemy. NEVER would there be a limit to defensive fire. Any and all units will always defend themselves. But offensive movement or combat, without being in the command and control range of the higher commander, should be penalized. Here is where the delays start happening. Here is where you may not move or fire at all. The less experience the more delays just like CM does now.
I find it interesting that there are no bad leaders in the CM model. That the worst any leader can have in CM is a zero rating for the leadership qualities. I think that the command and control system should reflect bad leaders as well.
Just like in the current system a battalion or company commander could take personal control, but if they do, they risk putting other parts of their command, out of command and control. Which is what happens in real life. A commander can’t do ten things at once. If you are commanding an infantry platoon, you can’t be commanding a battalion. If the company commander is using his combat ratings, for the HMG at the crossroads, and he is out of command range of one of his platoon leaders, they should suffer for it.
If a commander takes control of units not assigned to him there should be penalties. If, for instance, Company A’s Commander takes over control of a platoon from Company B, those soldiers won’t perform as well for him as they would their own commander. The chain of command is important in battle.
I am not purposing a drastically new system, but instead, a modified one of the current model. Just extend what is already in place for squads/vehicles, and platoons, up through the levels of the chain of command as well. It should give a little better representation for command and control, while at the same time, keeping the options open to the player where his leaders go, and what they do. Who gets help and who doesn’t. It should be much more realistic, with just a few changes to the existing CM model. It certainly wouldn’t mean redoing the entire leadership and order model currently in place.
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Carl, you can put them there. Go get the boats then go back and change the theater. They will stay in the OOB.Originally posted by Carl Puppchen:Thank you. I see them. It appears that the germans get the boats in all months (or at least a bunch that I checked) in the Italian theater but don't get them in the east african, north african or crete theaters.
It would be nice if they had boats in the north african theater to simulate an assault on Malta. But I will take what I can get
It's as simple as that.
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They were there when I checked the July 1944 Italy theater. They are in the vehicles selections.Originally posted by Carl Puppchen:I was trying to create a non-historical scenario featuring an axis river assault about the time they could have perhaps attacked malta. The axis doesn't seem to have assault boats in this or any time frame in cmak. Is this true?
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You will find descriptions of the actions of the 200th Tank Brigade on pages 244,255-256,263,265Originally posted by Hans:Hi PC, I actually have that book and need to get to reading it. Have unfortunately sidelined the East front for the obscure battles of the west and Pacific - but it IS an excellent suggestion.
Hope this helps.
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What about the 200th Tank Brigades actions around Kharkov in the summer of 1943. There is a pretty good accounting of it in Glantz's From the Don to the Dnepr.Originally posted by Hans:I need to start planning that one as numbers 198 and 199 are starting to shape up. Any suggestions from this august body as to what it should cover?
If you need any help with information on them let me know.
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Check out any of the tiny, and small HSG scenarios, on the Scenario Depot. These are intentionally small unit fights.Originally posted by para:thnx for the advice guys...
anyone able to tell me about any good downloadable scenarios they have played, which might be good for someone of my limited experience...
thnx again
They were not designed with training in mind, but they are very competitive scenarios, and will allow you to practice. Most have versions that the AI will do at least a plausible job playing the opposing side.
The smaller scenarios allow you to play them more times and try different things in the same space of time.
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DP
[ January 07, 2005, 04:41 PM: Message edited by: Panther Commander ]
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What about the Tiger Battalions in Russia?
Almost every single Russian breakthrough that was stopped by these battalions alone. They surely will rank among the issues that changed the operations for months at a time in some cases.
The Tiger Battalions almost always operated singly. At times they supported other units and at times they plugged the gap by themselves.
They were spread across the entire theater, with just such a result in mind. If the Russians breakthrough, the Tigers were stop them, and they did far more often than not.
[ January 07, 2005, 04:42 PM: Message edited by: Panther Commander ]
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Originally posted by Michael Emrys:
The Germans thought it damaging enough to send one of their two Jadgtiger Battalions to the area.What makes a decisive contribution to an operation? Would the major deployment of troops alone be enough to influence the campaign? If so, then I think the Ludendorf Bridge would count. Neither side expected anything to happen there and when it did then both sides scrambled to adjust. I think that makes it decisive.
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As Carl has done, HSG also has several 2 player versions of our work. They can be found at both the Scenario Depot..
http://www.dragonlair.net/combatmission/
and The Proving Grounds...
http://the-proving-grounds.com/
Also, like Carl our's may not be the best that is out there, but we think it is pretty good. There are a lot of good designers doing some outstanding work. You will find several of these to fit your style of gaming when you start downloading a few.
Carl, I really like the Hetzer/Sherman photo you took in Belgium. That really shows great size comparison.
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Most Mod's come with a preview. You will know what you like when you see it. If there is a question look at both of their bmps.Originally posted by para:Hi all
New ere
ive got cmbb but not the special ed
what i want to know from you guys is this
1 is it possible to get a legal download of the mods disk only from the special ed.. i dont want to purchase cmbb again to get it..
2 there are so many mods out there that i have no idea which ones to get to make the game more realistic and graphically authentic... so i would appreciate if one or some of you guys would name specific mods that i should download... i know th sites i just aint that clever at distinguishing between the good ones and the bad ones..
all help and advice is greatly appreciated
There are no winter mods in the game so you can't go wrong with getting all of those. After a short time you will know which mod master you like best. More than likely it will be several because some of these mod's border on works of art.
Hope this helps, I was in your shoes a few short months ago. While not a mod fanatic, I do appreciate them and they do enhance my enjoyment of the game.
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Here is the latest update on Matthew Grace.
Matthew is continuing to improve slowly
and
is heading in the right direction which is great. He has only two
radiation
treatments left so he will be done on friday. The doctors here have
already
had a conference call with the doctors in Golden to set up Matt moving
to
the Golden hospital early in the new year. Our prayers have been
answered so
far.
We are planning to bring my two other kids back home right after the
new
year so they can go back to school. Wendy will go home with them for
two
weeks then we will switch. Thanks for your support during this
stressful
time. It was a great help to know that we had prayer and support from
all
over the world.
Thanks again
Tom
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Here is the latest update on Matthew Grace.
Matthew is continuing to improve slowly
and
is heading in the right direction which is great. He has only two
radiation
treatments left so he will be done on friday. The doctors here have
already
had a conference call with the doctors in Golden to set up Matt moving
to
the Golden hospital early in the new year. Our prayers have been
answered so
far.
We are planning to bring my two other kids back home right after the
new
year so they can go back to school. Wendy will go home with them for
two
weeks then we will switch. Thanks for your support during this
stressful
time. It was a great help to know that we had prayer and support from
all
over the world.
Thanks again
Tom
-
Here is the latest update on Matthew Grace.
Matthew is continuing to improve slowly
and
is heading in the right direction which is great. He has only two
radiation
treatments left so he will be done on friday. The doctors here have
already
had a conference call with the doctors in Golden to set up Matt moving
to
the Golden hospital early in the new year. Our prayers have been
answered so
far.
We are planning to bring my two other kids back home right after the
new
year so they can go back to school. Wendy will go home with them for
two
weeks then we will switch. Thanks for your support during this
stressful
time. It was a great help to know that we had prayer and support from
all
over the world.
Thanks again
Tom
-
Here is the latest update on Matthew Grace.
Matthew is continuing to improve slowly
and
is heading in the right direction which is great. He has only two
radiation
treatments left so he will be done on friday. The doctors here have
already
had a conference call with the doctors in Golden to set up Matt moving
to
the Golden hospital early in the new year. Our prayers have been
answered so
far.
We are planning to bring my two other kids back home right after the
new
year so they can go back to school. Wendy will go home with them for
two
weeks then we will switch. Thanks for your support during this
stressful
time. It was a great help to know that we had prayer and support from
all
over the world.
Thanks again
Tom
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Tell me where I can get cmak for $35 canadian dollars and I'll buy it.Originally posted by DEY:</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> Am I going to be spending $35 on misc. other crap trying to entertain myself while I wait all year for CMx2 to come out?"
A canadian well pay well over $70 canadian dollars to buy the game from battlefront, with the difference in the exchange rate, shipping, then there is very likely that damn GST tax that I haven't even considered yet. And I for one I'm not paying that kind of money for any bloody game. </font>
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I play with extreme fog of war. I want to get as close to realistic as I can without bullets flying through the house.Originally posted by Talk'scheap:oh yeah i meant t-38, the 2xMG tankette.
yeah i havent played ever map in the game yet but this was one that i have been trying to beat for a long time. im still surporsed fog of war made such a difference because i thought it was supposed to make gameplay more challenging...
It does make it harder. My guess is that you are getting better in your tactics and unit excecution. It also makes it more rewarding when you win.
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That is certainly a very interesting result you got...there are no T-28's in the game...T-28's aren't tankettes either...they are infantry support tanks with multiple turrets...which is why they weren't included in the game.Originally posted by Talk'scheap:Wow. Just finished playing the Totenkof map with Extreme fog of war. I had no idea fog of war mattered when playing against the AI! - I got a TACTICAL VICTORY. Finally.
On top of that all 4 BT-7's made it unscathed! The BA-10's bit the dust however as well as one of the T-28 tankettes.
I imagine that you were talking about T-38's which are tankettes and are included in the game.
Just poking fun... :eek:
Good to hear that you have gotten your first victory under your belt. Another Guderian is born!!
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I certainly hope you feel better now...
I know I do... :cool:
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Don't worry about what the window says. If they are sitting on the trenches then they are in them.Originally posted by Canuckgd:OK, here's the "rookie question of the year" for you
. I'm setting up a new CMBB scenario and have added a bunch of trenches. Now I'm wanting to place some infantry in those trenches for the start of the scenario (I'm still in the Editor at this point). I place the squad on the trench symbol, but it's still shown as being in "scattered trees" (which is the terrain where my trench is located). Is there a way to actually place these squads such that they begin the scenario IN the trenches, or will they be assumed to be in the trenches once play starts? If I use the Dig-In command with a squad over top of a trench symbol, will that do it, or will they just dig a foxhole within the trench, thus ensuring they will probably never see the light of day during the battle because they'll be too busy climbing out of the cave I've just developed for them :eek: ??Thanks!
Glenn
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There are 1823 members at The Proving Grounds. The entire reason for TPG for being is to playtest scenarios. There are multiple PBEM's going every day and they are always looking for more players.Originally posted by cyborg:Does anyone know of a good site where I can meet people for PBEM action?
Not only can you find PBEM action but you can also give the game designers feedback if you like. If that's not for you then you will allow another playtester to give a reveiw from one of your PBEM fights.
Go here for all the PBEM games you can manage!
http://the-proving-grounds.com/index.html
See you there soon.
A Prayer Needed...
in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin
Posted
I thought I would share part of an email that Tom Grace sent me last night.
I have an amazing story to tell you. The area where we will be setting up Matt's room is carpeted. So for hygienic and ease of movement of Matts equipment we decided to have the carpet removed and an laminated floor put in. We were given some money by an radio station in Calgary in December and thought we use it to pay for this project. I had to get on this fast as the hospital equipment will be arriving soon so I went to the local flooring store. This store is own by a family living about a block away and they have a son who is friends with Matt and they are Christians as well. I found the flooring we wanted and they even dropped the price from $2/square foot to $1.50/square foot which I thought was great. I went home and phoned my wife to update her then after I hung up the phone rang. It was the flooring supply store. They had decided to donate the flooring to us and install it as well. (I was going to have our church organize a work party to help me put it in) I was flabbergasted as we are talking about an $1000 floor!!!! I went back to show them what pattern we wanted. I was so grateful and over whelmed that I could not control my emotions and tears were flowing. They have already delivered the material and will put it in on Wednesday. Let me tell you the whole thing amazed me!!! God really works in amazing ways!!
Well I hope to try out your operation. It may take a bit time if it is an large one. Does it matter what side I play. What is PBEM helper and where do I get it?
Well gotta get to bed. I have to move furniture tomorrow!!!!
Thank you for all your support for this family. God is good. We need but be faithful. Continue to keep the Grace family in your prayers. I believe that Matthew is scheduled to return home sometime in February.
Steve