simovitch

How about a scottish piper unit with a corresponding .wav file? now that's flavor. (just remembering the "piper's lament" article from an old ASL annual).

try this link to the combat mission ftp site. You should be able to transfer whole folders of mods & cool stuff with one download. Please respect the copyright requests of the designers & artists. ftp://ftp.combatmission.com/ hope this helps

nice online source wicky. thanks

This is great stuff! Im playing team desobry tonight! thanks B&T. hey, junk2drive has made a good and admirable effort on some NW Europe interface bmp's but the greenwich longitude on his theater bmp is a little, uh, non-asthetic for me (no offense j2d). can he, or another modder come up with a better NW Europe theater bmp comparable to the italy/africa/crete stock bmp to add some flavor to the CMBO remakes?

this is heating up over nothing. yea, i took 3 years of german too and have been wargaming for over 30 years (i got my name on a American Lt. in KGP III for cats sake (thanks to my brother) the fact is, is that there were no tigers, and definitely no jagdpanthers along the Mederet during the timeframe of SPR (or ever). Great movie, but some ahistorical elements. i dont know who said what, but i would definitely have remembered seeing a jgpz V in SPR. if he said "jag" (or jagd of course...) he was probably referring to the open topped TD's, or even the pzgr's with the 'fausts. Now I gotta watch that scene to see who's right.

tigers X2 and panzers X2 eh? i wonder if spielberg was uninformed, or trying to recreate the common problem GI's had when they incorrectly or ambiguously identified enemy tanks. along the same lines; did he include tigers in the movie, knowing there were none in that part of normandy, but for the fact that "every tank was a tiger" (and every gun an '88) to most GI's. And so we see in the movie what the GI saw in his mind? or did he think that it was just "cool" to have tigers in the movie and only a few history buffs would catch the inaccuracy, or even care? my guess is the latter. sigh...

I remember him saying jag or jagdpanzer or something like that. It was a good movie effect coming from a GI. But I interpreted it as a reference to the open top TD's (marders) as apposed to the closed top tanks approaching. Interestingly, on the flip side ive read accounts where the germans called the US M-10, or any of our TD's "Jagdpanzers".

Not to spoil the fun, but besides the occasional converted French tractor-turned-assault gun, or maybe a bonifide "Marder", I believe the germans historically could at best only muster up a couple of old Renault tanks from pz bn. 100 during the time frame and location of Pvt Ryan. Maybe redoing one of the SPR scenarios with these tanks in the OB would be kind of an interesting situation? just a thought. simovitch

The cmbo "conversion" to cmak seems to be picking up pace and that is great news. I played HSG's "careful planning" last night and it was a tight, fun little firefight. I can live (albeit grudgingly) with the missing Pz VIB's Cromwells, etc. and even the Volksgrenadiers (by late 44 weren't they just inexperienced grenadier's with more SMG's and panzerfausts?). junk2drive and others - i've seen the Italian boot icon on the interface replaced with a france icon or the "cross channel attack" icon. - splendid! this adds a bit more credibility to the "conversion". question - Which mod on the cmmods database carries these icons? are there any more planned by any of you modders? also- great work on the building and other conversions junk. my favorite has always been panzertruppe's building from cmbo. looking forward to more. Hopefully this will accellerate the re-write of some of the better scenarios from cmbo (you know who you are) again great work HSG, junk2drive and the rest of you developers. simovitch

oh yea, Rodger MacGowan. You nailed it. simovitch

These winter mods look great - one thing I would like to see is someone adapt Thomas Klimisch's awesome ardennes winter terrain mods for CMAK. Once by accident i modded CMBB with his total terrain mod and it looked like it was almost a bmp for bmp swap. in my ignorance i ask... any chance this can be done? simovitch

these are very kibleresque. nice work. charlie, we know your out there, skulking about? simovitch

I'm kind of going off of fond memories of reading "the crucible of war": the raids by Straefer Gott in the early western desert years would seem to make for some great byte battles. the battle of Maleme airfield would be a good one too. imho simovitch

stoffel, I will try one or two (or all) of yours when I get back from my current assignment later this week, and good or bad I will post a review! simovitch

stoffel, yes I have downloaded all of McAuliffe's stuff from the getgo - top shelf stuff, as is most of the work by Dan B., Andreas, Wild bill and Moon. Rune and Franko are also worth mentioning, and there is probably a couple more designers out there that i'm forgetting. And thanks a heap for the review on the depot! Believe me, being the Leo that I am i check the depot almost daily for a review on my stuff, and I have tried to post a review for the games I have played that had no review. seems like the heyday of CMBO reviews petered out in mid '02. too bad... simovitch

Louie, I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest one of mine, "rollbahn A". big, historically accurate map and OB, and the forest provides for many opportunities for isolated battles to take place. just remember as germans to pay attention to the breifing, and you may just make it... simovitch

I think every scenario designer has their own underlying reason for devoting their time to the craft. Some strive for the perfect balance against AI or 2 player, others for strict re-creation of a historical moment in time (i.e. good scenario or bad, this is how it was...). Others i've noticed go for the laugh, and a few others produce pure wastes of time with no public merit whatsoever, except they apparently just wanted to say that they produced something, anything... It's all good fun for designer and player alike. I purchased CM because I saw that not only could I create a 3d battlefield that i could zoom and pan around in, but I could also put some tanks and soldiers in it too! I am a land surveyor and an engineer and I have the tools at home to accurately digitize, if you will, a topographical map into a CM landscape rather easily. For years I wanted to see what the woods trail looked like that the 12SS drove on in it's drive to elsenborne ridge. i finally saw it on a recent trip to Belgium, but to have a "flyover" of the area via CMBO was a treat (for me). So the result is my scenario "Rollbahn A" on the depot(review, anybody???) historically accurate OB and map, but probably a real turkey to play. but I posted it anyway. In retrospect I could have made it more balanced and fun ala Jim Harrison, but I would have made myself lose the "historical" label, and that was not a price I wanted to pay. Simovitch

I think CMBO is a great game, with hours of replayability. Im still going stron after 6+ months. CMAK is in my destiny as well as possibly CMBB. I cut my e-teeth on panzer general/PG2 (dropped ASL like a sack of potatoes) moved on to east/west front (has their merits) and finally stumbled on to CMBO. Nothing though compares to the heady days of the 70's staying up all night playing the AH classics like 3rd reich, 1776, bulge, russian campaign, etc. etc. if you were/are lucky enough to have a ftf player (as I did) the experience of physically moving stacks of counters around is, i feel in some twisted way superior to the virtual battlefield, at least on the operational/strategic level. I have recently managed to reel in my brother and childhood boardgame opponent (and a former employee of Avalon Hill designer/graphic artist) to the grasp of CMBO, and he's totally hooked. He even had an ASL american leutenant counter named after him (for real). how grognard is that? I know for sure that his heart lies with the old boardgames and the hours spent playing them are dear. my point is that maybe some of you younger folks could check out some of the better boardgames out there (GMT games has all the old and best personell of the industry) and give them a try. here's a choice for all you bulge fanatics (you know who you are) designed by my old ftf buddy: awsome bulge game shameless plug? well, uh... happy gaming to all.

There was a thread of posts in the CMBO discussion board a few weeks back where this same topic was discussed... click here There seems to be many different levels of what the gamer/designer would considered historical, semi-historical, or fiction. IMHO rune's suggestions provide a very good general approach for the designer. There seems to be just as many gamers out there that could really care less than there are those who would take the time to challenge the designers choice of labelling a scenario as historical. simovitch

Herr Klutz, Check out The Combat Mission Scenario Depot at this link: http://ns9.super-hosts.com/~dragonlair.net/combatmission/ simovitch

yes, the East Front terrain would be difficult to model, considering the vastness, and the limited map availability. The Ardennes is a relatively small area which I have put under a microscope for years now. This attributed to my gnats-ass position on accuracy, a position from which I will take a few steps back. (incedentally my map-analretentiveness is a result of my profession which is Land Surveying and Civil Engineering...) I have actually played quite a few "historical" scenarios of CMBO that I had very little information on, terrain and otherwise, and enjoyed them greatly. In fact the less I know, the more willing I am to accept that the scenario is "historic" when it is labelled as such, increasing my enjoyment. I have noticed, especially lately in the CMBB (don't own yet...) scenario descriptions, that designers are more and more likely to qualify the historical accuracy of their scenarios. That is wonderful, and perhaps this qualification is all that I can (should) ask for. simovitch

I think the town was Honsfeld. there are some famous photos of the intersection of the town where some 801st gunners lay in the gutters at the main intersection of town. I am impressed and humbled at the knowledge on this board.

andreas, The game provides for the designer to designate the scenario as fictional, semi historical and historical. My point is that the designer should use these designations with some discretion. If you are going to make the leap from "semi-historical" to "historical", you should at least have an accurate map and done some research with reliable sources. Granted, even Hugh Cole's "Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge" mentioned Tigers at Rocherath, which has since been proven inaccurate by Danny S. Parker and others. And Cole's source is considered by many as difinitive. Once the first turn begins in a historical scenario all bets are off, of course. then the historical simulation becomes a tool to investigate alternative (fictional) strategies using the game engine, the very heart of conflict simulations! simovitch

dandelion, you bring up many good points (as usual). Some of your design issues would cause me to throw in the towel as well. Even "historical" ASL's KGP was realistic, but still abstracted realism. Historical maps though, and that was important for me. It is the essence of CM that demands more realism for me, I think. I dont want to see farther beyond that ridge than that poor dogface did back in black '44, so to speak. Hey, you got shermans? says here that you didn't have any shermans! "Kelly's Heroes" was a great movie because (among other things) it had the right arsenal for the time period. "Battle of the Bulge" sucked mainly (among other things) because they were using Korean war tanks. ugh! does anyone remember a story in an old issue of the Avalon Hill General called "The Ultimate wargame"?. it was back in the 70's, around the time SL first appeared, I think. 3 semi trucks pull up in front of this guy's house carrying the units for this game he ordered. "IT" was the name of the game as I recall. anyway he stumbled through the rulebook for months through such rules sections as "paratroop readiness phase" where a unit's straps and gear are checked. you get the picture... I dont care so much about the exact composition of the troops, just the relative size and quality. Map is important. Fictional or "what if"'s are fine, for what they are. What it comes down to really is that it should be the scenario designer's responsibility to justify his historical/fictional labeling in his briefing. simovitch

Moon, Im glad you didn't take offense. funny thing is, the McKinley's Battalion scenario kept coming up on my topical Bulge searches on the internet a few months back. That is how I found out about CMBO, and it was the main reason I purchased it (which I am glad I did). Hats off to the developers of CM! :cool: