Count D'Ten

Very interesting, but I'm not sure I follow. Combat losses, for example, are only part of the total cost. (Have you ever driven a British sports car?) We'd need to know whether PIV's were more reliable in the field on the one hand -- and compare the real tank attrition on the Eastern and Western fronts on the other, factoring in that even simple mechanical or logistic breakdowns are lost to a rapidly retreating army. Great post however, given me lot to think about.

"Go, tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, That here, obedient to their laws, we lie." The wargamer as compost?

Thank you, Hunter.

Now this, I'm still interested in. I hope even dopes like myself can figure out how to set up the game and that you grognards come up with some snappy scenarios. Besides being beaten up by the Germans, little campaigns over multi-lingual counties are always possible (given time almost inevitable) with Czech's and especially Hungarians. Hmm, could construct a decent Commie foe out of Romanians using captured equipment. There really are some great, late thirties possibilities!

Thank you very much, Rob.

I have to go with 2051, unless Rumsfeld, who I hear is looking for a gaming spot, is hired to help out, in which case the release date will be tomorrow. The initial price will be rather low, but the subscription to the bug fixes and updates will be both expensive and addictive.

They keep secrecy may be as a method of keep the comunity quiet enought. Some times you need it to work without additional stress. </font>

It depends on the scenario. German armor isn't everywhere and even AT guns were scarce. Play them early war against Romanians or German infantry. Defensively, they need good locales they can back out of after the first shot and set up again, drawing opponents into flank shots. Offensively, bring the survivors forward to support your infantry (and not where the AT guns are -- that's what the mortars are for). Odds are always bad, but any success is a testimony to your generalship and an embarrassment to your opponent.

Ah, false hope is better than none...

We have enough of those threads. Please. </font>

Nothing stays still, let alone a market. The audience is committed CMBB gamers. But without the buzz of a new game, there are fewer every day. Complaining on this forum is still a sign that some haven't totally given up, or more correctly, found something new, different, or at least tangible. I'm currently playing something far more primitive, but at least it's there. (And at least, for a time, I still check the threads ....)

I assume that's because the airplane AI can't see anything else. I wonder if sending some poor fool out to draw fire helps the AI find better targets?

Plus it's free, playable my email, and coming out soon. Looks like we're all going to be Hungarian history buffs shortly.

Treebeard will be right pissed if that were to happen. The last thing you want in the middle of a pbem is to have the Ents emerge out of the forest to step on your men.

It's sent. It seems to open correctly in my 1.03 editor. Assuming gremlins don't appear :mad: :eek: :confused: in the file transfer it should work fine. If there's a problem, I'll reopen, resave, and resend as a Hail Mary play. (Much like I handle my T-26's on the attack.)

Well, the guy who first talked me into playing CM games passed away while we have been waiting. For us older (read "ancient") gamers, there is something of a biological clock ticking...

Oh well, Andreas. That's too bad. Could you recap briefly what you were going to change? I'll play around with a version for my own amusement. I do not pretend to have the knowledge or skill or the necessary dedication to do a decent scenario (or even to play test one knowledgeably), but I do like experimenting. (Arming the nuns, for example, with yogurt-filled gloves, and giving every fifth a wooden shoe, that kind of thing.)

I enjoyed the discussion and am glad you pulled it out. Kind of like listening to two CMBB titans quarrelling in the clouds. Flashes of lightening, the roar of thunder.... but will any rain fall for us poor part-time peasants and our stunted crops? Do you have any plans to revise some of the early war scenarios based on present understanding and scholarship? I liked the "21st Army" and would enjoy seeing it tweaked to play again. (I'm most intrigued by the first months of the war.) Or has that already been done somewhere?

I enjoyed the discussion and am glad you pulled it out. Kind of like listening to two CMBB titans quarrelling in the clouds. Flashes of lightening, the roar of thunder.... but will any rain fall for us poor part-time peasants and our stunted crops? Do you have any plans to revise some of the early war scenarios based on present understanding and scholarship? I liked the "21st Army" and would enjoy seeing it tweaked to play again. (I'm most intrigued by the first months of the war.) Or has that already been done somewhere?

Jason, Admirable stuff. What little I know bears you out on OB and tactics. And I learned a lot I didn't know. While I enjoy CMBB, I only play wargames from time to time. I wish there was a vast database of scenarios for us duffers that included historical accuracy data. Or are there sites I just don't know about? I won't comment on the sociology of wargamers. Although I've played for forty-five years, I've only gotten to know a few well.

Nice, and HE certainly seems happy about his job. Points out how nice it would be to have a set of rear area vehicles to overrun.

For some reason, hopeless situations have always appealed to me. Holding the line for just a little while longer, hoping that the people behind me were doing something useful with the extra day, hour, minute. So I've always wondered what it would have been like to command a Russian brigade in the first days of the war. That's the one I'd try first....

The book _Stalin's Folly_ gives some nice thoughts from the Russian side. It raises again the idea that had not Germany attacked, then Stalin would have next year. His goal was a weakened Bolshevised Europe, not a strong Facist one. While the scale of the war defies my ability to imagine, perhaps the Leningrad idea would have worked. A short war, followed by a political settlement, would have preserved the German Army from Winter and not exhausted its allies. It would have gutted the Red Army, yet not given the Russians the chance to work things out. The Germans could have re-equiped to handle KV's and T-34's better. They might have captured the Leningrad tank works almost intact and been manufacturing KV's of their own until more Prussian models were available. The short war, though, would have been followed by a longer war while Stalin was either purging his generals or being purged by them. The question was whether there was a Jason C in the wings, more pragmatic if less loyal, waiting to take on the Reform. A further question. Has anyone seen a study on the effects of Stalin attacking first? Would the results have been the same, or would the Russians had been able to carry it out with some success?

Okay, but does anyone know what the game developers are planning to do?

For some reason the graphic design font looks really nice in Italian.