Count D'Ten

The only problem with your series that I see, is that the lettering is so, well, graphic designerish. I suppose a stencil font wouldn't make much sense either. It's just that the sign itself is so well beaten up, that the snappy calligraphy seems out of place. Maybe a Balkan veteran will have an opinion. Other the other hand, good work, and it it will be a mode well appreciated

Ah, but would there be anyone there besides other wargamers? Such as with engineers (or artists for that matter), many are fine within their science, but for a dinner party, with a mix of fields and social skills, dogmatists and dominators have to be considered carefully. The quality of the whole for all of the guests (and yourself) is key. A scrimmage "yes," a war "no" -- you want social art!

Belisarius for one. I see him being very interesting and attentive, without any need to dominant the conversation (most of the Great Commanders probably couldn't stop talking about themselves). Heck, it's hard enough guessing which wargamers would make decent dinner guests.

Thanks, junki. Tracing through I do find that the French light infantry (as shown in CMAK actually) are armed much like the Romanians (it was after all a French ally and was trained in the French style). I suspect the same for the Poles, but can't prove it yet. But I don't know for sure who was the military ideology-patron saint for the Czech's in the 30's. Hopefully even more will turn up.

The violence of some of the opinions on this topic alarms me. It's like being caught in a remote-control soccer riot. (Not that I've ever been caught in a remote-control soccer riot.) I think it's very hard to objectively separate a Great Captain from his/her time. Actually impossible, even if you could go back in time and start sewing different brains into various heads. That's why I tried to suggest "emulation." That's how we really vote. We find something that resonates in history and in us. Although intellectually I champion the Indirect Approach, what I love is making something out of nothing. I admire Rommel, for example, less for his maneuvers than for his ability to put bits and pieces together on the fly (while some of those bits were crack troops, some of the pieces were crack-ed troops). My own experience is more of the "how can I lead if no one will follow" variety. You can't judge a Captain apart from his context scientifically -- but we constantly do it emotionally. We react to, we flatter by imitation what we really admire. I admire much of Grant, but I find no excuse for Cold Harbor. His final win came from maneuver as much as attrition set it up. Sherman had only one Cold Harbor, Lee one, but Grant had real trouble finding the doorknob at that stage of his career. Hooker and Longstreet were good corps commanders with admirable strategic vision, yet neither succeeded when given independant command. Grant did. (Could Lee have succeeded as a Union commander would be a fun cross thread -- but not in this forum.) The other factor I've noticed across the wargame table, is that we don't even understand what WE do right, never mind a Great Captain. I've played Interloc -- he's much better than I am and believes it's because of his tunnel vision. Well, he was fairly easy to fake out strategically. But when the game started, he handled the basics with frightening effeciency. His talent wasn't in ignoring what we were up to, but in accepting the reality of the table and beating us with what little he had. Many is the captain who's out maneuvered a foe, only to find that his tactics and his tools can't follow through. A club I share with McClennan, several Austrians, and the all-too clever in general. Actually, that kind of cross thread is rather intriguing. Imagine Zhukov and Gudarian trading places? Or Patton and Manstein? How about DeGaul and Rommel? How much is the fisherman, and how much is the net? :eek:

CMBB is a great toolbox for creating late 30's "What If" wars. The Romanians switching sides late in the war make Czech 38's and Bofors ATGs available on both sides. Add captured equipment to bring early Russian armor in on the Axis side and you have a great start. But I haven't had much luck finding solid information on 30's Czech (and therefore Slovak) and Polish infantry organization and equipment. I don't even know how typical French infantry were armed and organized in 1940. Can the multilingual experts in this forum help? :confused:

Thank you. Will do. I didn't recognize your name until I took a closer look at the "spoiler." Just wanted to add for the public record that I've played and appreciated several of your games.

Hi Hans, I actually have the Spoiler, but not the other two. Since the demise of the Scenario Depot, it's been much harder to find things. Do you know what sites have these?

Hi John, I'm afraid I don't have the Milsom book, or library access to it (last I checked). Though I agree that the T-26S as described in various places fits the bill -- but the T-26S in the game is reduced to 15mm all around just like every other T-26 except for the T-26E ("shielded"). There are references to the Russians adding armor to older T-26's after their failure against the Japanese (the BT-7's with slightly better frontal armor faired better). I think the game designers followed that reference but not other references to the improved T-26S's -- not that either matters much in most battles. So -- maybe -- the game designers made a mistake there. It's not impossible, and they seem to have gotten so much else right (I also wish they'd have fudged together a stalking horse for the T-28 and T-35, but that's another story). You know, for a guy who isn't an expert, I sure talk alot. :eek: Sorry.

Hunter, I love the way you explain things -- clear, concise and friendly. I look forward to your manual, let alone the game.

Sorry, mangled that name. The game has it as the T-26E "Ekranirovanniy" tank. I've read that the term means "shielded" (i.e. "extra armor"). It's the only T-26 that can stand up to the Axis tanks, even briefly. Unfortunately, I've never been able to find anything on it outside of CMBB. I have found book references to T-26's with better, welded armor after the Japanese, and then there are comments in The Russian Battlfield site, but they don't appear reflected in the game. :confused: I'm hardly an expert.

Let's try another tack. What commanders do you emulate? (Or if you were an actor, who would your peers type cast you as?) I like to model on Belisarius, Tilly, Soult, or Bradley myself. Good mechanics, working with what they had. And I rather liked what little I've read of Pavlov in WWII, it's just that you didn't get a second chance in that game. But my opponents usually say I act more like Christian of Anhalt or the ACW's Pope. (Their jealousy knows no bounds).

Ahh, just found this thread. Nice. The Polish R-35's were never committed -- which doesn't mean they couldn't have been. But I don't know whether they had the short barreled 37MM, as in the game in Romanian stock, or the long barreled, as with the H-39's that the Germans have in their CMBB inventory. One sad note in the proposed substitutions, is that the 7TP had 40mm armor max, far more than the generic T-26. Perhaps the T-26 Ektrnazy could be used for better defensive modeling? And the problems with the 45mm modeling have already been mentioned. Is there a way to defeat the bad 45mmm ammo and the command delays the game has built into the early war Russians? Too bad the Russians don't have enough captured German equipment to do the substituions the onther way. Then you could use the Romanian R-2 (which is really a Czech Lt-35) whose armor and gun I suspect are much more like the Polish 7TP. May all your hard work be rewarded, --CdT

Sorry, lost track of which forum I'd posted to. Very interested by the comments and the "Expansion" in the works -- though I really don't know what that would mean. For my own amusement, I tend to run Romanians as Poles in CMBB. I don't know what the early Polish TOE was like for infantry, but I imagine close to Romanians (a shortage of SMGs, etc.) I then use R-2's as being very similar to the Polish 7TP. (I also do Romanians as French using German Souma's and H39's.) The obvious problem in that I can't oppose them with Germans. So I was conducting an imaginary campaign against Russia in the late thirties. If only there was a magic tool for moving forces from Allies to Axis, etc. Ah well, the rigors of real-life.

What amazes me is how good (and inept) my friends are. Just because someone can beat you, doesn't mean they don't have glaring flaws too. Simply dividing up the battlefield works fairly easily. But trying to divide up, say by platoons, is maddening. The tactical AI already ignores you to a limited extent, but nothing like a human can. In a fluid battle, I tend finally to group my platoons into a coherent mass because it's easier than trying to time the rush on the woods with even the oldest friends. Such behavior would probably get me court-martialed though. But the ongoing discussions about what you see and what you think will happen next remind me of happy Saturdays pushing minatures and discussing life. (Still miss the potluck lunch though.)

Thought I'd add a spurious post just to keep this higher in the topic list. I can't believe we're about the only ones who've tried this. It's a decent way to work up a training game as well. The difference between the "real" and "unreal" turn movies can be startling. Makes one appreciate the part luck can play.

I didn't know that. I don't remember a hull MG firing on any "gun damaged" tank that I can recall. It had gotten to the point that I'd either run them off the board in a battle to save the points, or use them as decoys. Obviously my mistake. :eek:

I've often tried to simulate early French. I've always been more interested in Sedan than Stalingrad. Do you have any tips on setting up 1940's French QBs or even Operations in any of the CM games?

Sturm, You have a ton of good advice here, maybe more than you wanted. How is it going so far? Did working on the graphics help? On playing the game, does it help to think of them as real men with all the limitations (getting tired, getting scared, panicking)? What are you experiencing now? The more specific your comments, the more they can help get you up and running.

About to turn LVIII, in this reincarnation at least,

What you can get from this approach is a real sense of how random the results can be. You can look at the "unreal movie" and think "Gee, I'm good." Then you look at the real result passed on by your partner and discover everyone's dead. But it keeps the dialog going....

Kind of hard to imagine a Blitzkreig without some kind of Stuka effect. (He's looking up, not being critical). CdT

Sorry to be obtuse, :confused: but does that include the almost random straffing and bombing that does take place now in CMBB?

Things to improve: 1. Aide to help handle larger battles (for example I might have one company/battalion with AI Aide handling a force on my flank -- I'd see the edge of what the AI's doing, having to worry and adjust rather than trusting a map edge. Or I could command the whole show having the AI "carry on" while I concentrate on moving the critical sector.) 2. Multiplayer PBEM system (with limited intelligence/FOW) :cool: 3. Better AI with random personalities (or at least one that can attack). 4. Better multi-unit road movement (Whether it's MP's who can direct traffic or a "follow me" convoy officer, or a "keep to the road" order -- whatever works for you. Actually an MP or officer might be better. If they're killed the ability goes away.... :eek: 5. Some kind of random campaign maker that gives even a Quick Battle some context and an option to "continue" and see what happens next. Don't change- 1. PBEM 2. The WEGO system 3. Please

My thanks to both Redwolf and Schrullenhaft for their advice. As a writer/explainer myself I especially admire Schrullenhaft's explanation of the phenomena. It confirms what I had guessed at through tedious experiments. The geewhiz killer board I had put in to help solve the problem had only compounded it by having a long list of supported, but unusable, higher resolutions. It would be nice if the powers that be inserted an explanation into the FAQs. I can't be the only clueless upgrader on the planet. (I hope.)