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John Latimer in his Operation Compass book repeatedly states that in the desert Bren carriers were armed with both a Bren gun and a Boyes AT rifle at the same time and not seperately. There are pictures of carriers in there showing this, the Boyes is positioned in the hull port, and the Bren is on the top of the hull behind the driver. If this is usually the case as he says, it would be nice if BFC would include this as it makes a significant difference tactically, especially in the early war.

I dunno about the low ammo loadout of the 2" mortar in CMAK, but have read that in RL they were useful little devices in street fighting. Apparently they could be fired horizontally provided that the base was against a wall or somesuch, useful for making holes. Perhaps the loadout could be looked at, as I'd imagine the mortar rounds aren't much bigger than grenades, and guess 2 men could carry more than that. In CMAK you might want to consider my favourite use for them. The TAC-AI can't resist shooting at mortars, so march one out and watch as the enemy reveal their positions. A little harsh on the mortar team perhaps, but it is a use of a kind

Woo hoo! Thanks to all involved!

Oh god, we're screwed. Any chance I can exchange my disk for a BFC version?

Oh I say, well played sir!

Oh I say, well played sir!

Determinant will be overjoyed to hear that I currently have a Beda Fomm scenario in testing, and can mail it to him first when it is done if required. Unfortunately there are absolutely no Australians included, or matildas, 2 RTR is attacking the Pimple from the right direction, the weather is correct, and the topography is as near as possible. [Edit] Unsuprisingly rather than this nonsense where the Italians don't stand a chance as per above, this time it's the Brits who are up against it as a few cruisers try to delay 10th Army virtually single handed, a bit like history really. [ January 16, 2004, 04:31 PM: Message edited by: Pheasant Plucker ]

Determinant will be overjoyed to hear that I currently have a Beda Fomm scenario in testing, and can mail it to him first when it is done if required. Unfortunately there are absolutely no Australians included, or matildas, 2 RTR is attacking the Pimple from the right direction, the weather is correct, and the topography is as near as possible. [Edit] Unsuprisingly rather than this nonsense where the Italians don't stand a chance as per above, this time it's the Brits who are up against it as a few cruisers try to delay 10th Army virtually single handed, a bit like history really. [ January 16, 2004, 04:31 PM: Message edited by: Pheasant Plucker ]

Seconded. A status report would be much appreciated.

I'm currently playing a PBEm of that great new Tobruk Easter Battles operation, and using this mod (clear sky in this battle) alongside the well designed huge, open, arid map honestly adds a lot to the immersion. As you say, it now really feels like you are in the middle of nowhere (soon to become hell judging by those dustclouds rolling in behind a far off gentle slope ) I'm getting interested in East Africa, so could be be pasting the mountain bmps back in for a little while in due course :cool: But the classic North Africa '41 and '42 era will always be my favourite period, so distant horizons will be in my game much more often than not. Also to confirm to Lawyer that the Italian theater skies use different bmps to the desert skies, and are totally unaffected by the mod

That's great news Xerxes, I look forward to them. I just spent a couple of hours reading virtually all of the website I linked to on the last page, and now have got the bug to try to create something myself. Can a CMAK map reach up several thousand feet :confused:

Thanks Michael, I've recently found a couple more TOE websites which may well be old news to you guys but here they are just incase: Commonwealth, US and German here. Just about everyone here. (The webmaster is quite amusing in some of his articles as well). When I finally get around to building scenarios all of this stuff will be invaluable. Could it be worthwhile to make this thread a 'useful links' thread and paste it on the board permenantly? [Edit] Fix URL. [ January 08, 2004, 11:04 PM: Message edited by: Pheasant Plucker ]

Oooo, me sir me sir! I had a book when I was much younger called something like "The 10 Most Decisive Battles of WW2". I wish I still had it, or could remember the author, but he placed the battle of Keren (East Africa, Eritrea, Jan-Apr '41) in the top 3, right up there with Stalingrad! Perhaps another member of this board has the book. His reasoning was that unless the Commonwealth had managed to clear the Italians out of their bases in the mountains and on the coast, the Red Sea would be a virtual no go area for British shipping. Italian, and probably in due course German, air, light naval or submarine forces could have wreaked havoc on any large convoys sailing up the Red Sea unloading almost at Cairo. They would have been sitting ducks in the narrow confines, leaving the British with a choice of sailing around further and unloading at Kuwait, and then driving right across Saudi Arabia to Egypt, a huge and insurmountable supply problem, or attempting to run convoys direct to Egypt via the length of a hostile Mediterranean, and we all know how messy that got. He concluded that the free passage of the Red Sea in 1941 saved Egypt, and probably the whole British position in the Middle East. Thinking how close the see-saw battles in Egypt in 1941 were, FWIW I'd probably agree. One day when I have won the lottery, I will have time to sit down and attempt to make a CMAK operation around Keren. The troops who did the bulk of the fighting were the 5th and later 4th Indian divisions, with South African and some additional British help. They had to attack fortified positions on the top of sheer barren mountains, while outnumbered by some of the very best and well led formations in the Italian Army (the Savoy Grenadiers amongst others). Think Monte Cassino but without any cover, or any decent firepower, being available to attack the mountain tops with, all in a blistering heat. If the link works you should see a picture of Cameron Ridge, just one of many mountains to be cleared, obviously by the Camerons in this instance. There is a very good website here with a lot of info on the East African battles and later if you are interested. So I'm very happy that BFC have included this theater, because it gives us the chance to try fighting in a totally different type of terrain than the desert

I've been testing and using these a while and thought I'd put them out now in case anyone wants them. From the Readme file: The Italian theater skies are not altered by this mod. Available now at CMMODS.

The main problem is large terrain tile sizes in CMAK. We cannot get any small folds in the ground or little wadis for infantry to shelter in, therefore to give infantry a chance of being useful in the desert try a huge, rural, open map with small hills. This should give enough bush, rough, and small reverse slopes to approach an objective with a bit of careful thought. While small hills are not ideal for desert action, I think it is a fair compromise to deal with the terrain tile size problem.

Wow, this is great! Many thanks to all involved for the opportunity to play this pivotal battle in CMAK

Another anecdote regarding those tiny L3 tankettes. I just hit one in the side with three PIAT bombs in a PBEM and it has reversed away undamaged :eek: The effect of three bombs going off in something smaller than a family VW would be...erm...noticable IMO. If penetration lethality is made more realistic, then FWIW one caveat I would have is regarding Anti-Tank Rifles. These are already very powerful, I lose Cruiser tanks to them frequently. I cannot recall reading about them being so dangerous, so personally hope that very small AP rounds do not get a further boost in lethality.

Hi guys, I'm trying to create a balanced 2 player QB game in the Crusader period (Nov '41) so I was considering ruling out the 'I' tanks for the Brits. It made me notice that Valentine IIs & IVs are available for Crusader, can anyone advise if they were there historically?

I belive this post p*sses off non-Americans who have the CDV version, a faulty piece of untested software (no-one could have missed 100% TCP failure if it was actually tested), which can not do what it is advertised to do (I thought there were laws against making false claims). Have fun playing with yourselves Americans, it would have been nice if the rest of the world could have joined you

I belive this post p*sses off non-Americans who have the CDV version, a faulty piece of untested software (no-one could have missed 100% TCP failure if it was actually tested), which can not do what it is advertised to do (I thought there were laws against making false claims). Have fun playing with yourselves Americans, it would have been nice if the rest of the world could have joined you

I belive this post p*sses off non-Americans who have the CDV version, a faulty piece of untested software (no-one could have missed 100% TCP failure if it was actually tested), which can not do what it is advertised to do (I thought there were laws against making false claims). Have fun playing with yourselves Americans, it would have been nice if the rest of the world could have joined you

Rick Klien (aka Klink) has given me the OK to update his old CMBO V for Victory flag for CMAK. It replaces the grey '?' objective flag and is available at CMMODs. Thanks Rick!

I had planned to have my first TCP game this afternoon with a mate but have run into the CDV TCP bug which stopped us stone cold However it game me chance to finish this 8 bit mod, and I have now uploaded the bases and the open ground textures. The open ground mod is quite large but it can't be helped. My own system and a friends system are seeing massive increases in performance with all three mods running, and many thanks to HolzemFrumFloppen for reporting back as well I haven't touched the buildings yet as I was pretty bored by the time I had done this lot, so if a lot of buildings are around you may still get a lot of lag. I hope that other low/medium system users are getting results from this mod, meanwhile...back to turn 5 of my fallschirmjagers game, defending their Large map with Heavy trees and no Lag :cool: [Edit] Ooops, I don't think I clarified it, but the modified .bmp files are exactly the same size in pixels as the originals, so you won't be fighting inside the bonsai forests of Sicily. The file size is cut down by 2/3rds, but the image size (and seemingly the graphics quality) remains the same in game. [ December 26, 2003, 04:45 PM: Message edited by: Pheasant Plucker ]

Hi Charl. IIRC isn't Stellenbosch the place where all the failed British commanders in the Boer War got sent off to? Obviously also an ideal location for most of us here then. I think to be 'Stellenbosched' is still part of the British army lingo. One day I sincerely hope to get to visit your beautiful country. Unfortunately the nearest to South Africa I've been so far was when watching your national cricket team wiping the floor with my local county team, during their warm-ups to the test series in England earlier this year Merry christmas to you also.