Mailer

I used to hate the ACW also, until I learned more about it.

Yes, the ctrl-c key is very useful. Its good to crank it up when you want to view the whole battlefield from above. When I first starting playing, I wondered, "why are these men so big and these houses so tiny." They looked like giants. Then when I checked the hotkey screen, I was surprised to find I could adjust the size of men and units.

Carl, I'm looking for someone to play pbem in a semi-slow game (maybe two turns a day.) I have both cmbo and cmbb and am willing to play either. also, the reason infantry gets exhausted in cmbb after short running times, is that with the addition of the ADVANCE command, running simulates a hard SPRINT. Advance simulates those quick jogs between cover, etc. Use MOVE to get your men near the front, use ADVANCE when under enemy fire and engaging, and use run when you have to get somewhere (or away from somewhere) really fast. anyway, I've never played a human opponent, but have played a TON of singleplayer so I should make a good opponent.

The first scenerio I played actually was on Barbarossa to Berlin. It was street fighting in the center of Berlin, and every inch gained was hard fought. Before I knew it, my tanks were exploding in the streets and buildings were catching fire. My troops ran around, firing chaotically at everything that moved, and in the end, I took a bad defeat. Go ahead and dive into a difficult mission, you will probably learn that way faster than any other other.

Yes, I am definately looking forward to Combat Mission 2, and don't want them to slow down on that. Your idea about leasing the engine out to an independant group is a good one, though. Battlefront is a small company, not a bunch of corporate ceos with their hands tied around their balls, so they just might be able to pull something like that off. Combat Mission already has a HUGE modding community, they could probably put together a team right there, and with a low overhead like that, it would certainly have a good shot at financial success.

This might sound stupid,and well, it probably is, but what does everyone think about a CIVIL WAR or NAPOLEAN game using an engine similar to combat mission? I know, I know, many of you want to rip my face off for even suggesting it. I don't even know if your average WW2 gamer has any interest in Civil War/Napolean, but I think the world is hurting for a really new take on these periods. Civil War fans need a game that really gets them up close with the gunpowder, blood, and tears of the Civil War, and the combat mission engine is one of the first Wargames I've played that really brought the battlefield to life. Of course, the first problem is the time scale. Civil war battles lasted hours and even days, and in real time, well, you would be playing the battle of Gettysburg for months. So I think the time and distance scale would have to be more abstracted, and because of command and communication difficulties, I figure the turn phase would be MUCH longer than a minute. There would have to be a lot of other changes as well, but I think something at least SIMILAR to Combat Mission for Civil War/Napolean game could be really cool. Hex based gaming just doesn't bring the contrast of pagentry and savagry that a civil war game should. I have Civil War General 2 and both the Sid Meier Civil War games, but I need more, and I need it to be even better. Combat Mission is clearly one of the best Wargames EVER designed and I would like to see some of the philosophies of this excellent system applied to other wargames. So, start the onslaught of taunts and insults, I'm ready for them. Thanks, Mailer.

LOS, Yes, its showing correctly now. Don't know why it was showing all that screwball stuff before. Anyway, those look great. What are you doing that stuff in? There is a very definate Pacific Look to those images. EDIT- I mean, what is MikeT doing that work in? [ November 04, 2003, 03:30 AM: Message edited by: Mailer ]

Idiot that I am, I didn't warn about spoilers in my AAR. If I screwed up someones enjoyment of this excellent scenerio, I apologize. I have edited now to correct the oversight. Thank you, Mailer

HI ALL I did see that episode of Band of Brothers, which is why I played it. I remembered that they warned the English Tankers about the panzers, but they just pompously drove down the road and got brewed up anyway. But in the BoB series, I don't remember seeing so many Panzers so I wasn't expecting so many. Also, A Hell of A Licking IS the scenerio I played, and it came with my SPECIAL EDITION version I bought (I actually bought CMBB first and have just recently bought CMBO) Yes, I'm pretty certain you can resign command at higher levels without getting executed. They just don't treat officers the way they treat enlisted men. I Could be wrong though. Mailer

Tar, Huh?

Los, Looking forward to seeing it. Is that a link you put on your post or is it html code to show an image? It looks like a path to something but its not showing correctly. To anyone, Hey, I would like to get involved in a pbem session with someone. I've never played multiplayer Combat mission before and would really like to give it a try. I'll talk about my play style and skill level below and if I sound like a good match, I would love to play someone. 1. Skill level--I'm pretty good. I understand the combined arms philosophy employed in modern warfare and am fairly effective at using it in the game. I'm certainly not the best player and I do lose to the AI in singleplayer from time to time, but this is usually more because I am overly cautious and don't get all my objectives early enough. 2. I'm a semi-cautious player. I'm usually pretty careful with my units. That doesn't mean that I won't jump on an opportunity and risk it all from time to time, but I'm fairly prudent. 3. I'm a good defender and a decent attacker. I can hold my own either way. 4. Willing to play axis OR allies in either CMBB or CMBO, although my effectiveness varies with each nation. 5. I don't do gamey stuff. BUT, I won't cry about everything and say everything my opponent does is gamey either. I don't like cry babies. 6. I play the game seriously, but I'm looking for a fun challenge, not victory at all costs. That means I won't cheat or exploit and I expect my opponent to do the same. 7. I would like to start with a semi-slow game, maybe two turns a day or something. I'm flexible though, so that can be worked out if I find an opponent. 8. I'm a big fan of combined arms--healthy selection of infantry with a few tanks, armored vehicles, and a few support vehicles. I like big tank battles too and even infantry only, but prefer the force balance I initially described. Once again, I'm flexible on this. 9. I like most all terrain types, etc. Would probably like my first multiplayer NOT to be in DEEP snow and HARSH conditions, but once again, pretty flexible here. 10. Did I say no cry babies? 11. Random quick battle or pre-designed scenerio--either is fine with me. 12. I'm interested in these two minute pbem turns I've read about. Would gladly play this way or standard--flexible again. 13. Please be patient with me. I'm pretty good at this game, but never played a human before, and I might be in for a rude awakening. So if I end up getting creamed--sorry. I expect to do fairly well, though. 14. more than happy to play with any one from any nation, as long as you know enough English to tell me your email address. I figure we'll let our rifles do the talking. Despite a few loud mouth idiots here in America, most of us Americans like Europeans and people of other nations. 15. it MUST be a friendly game. I'm not looking to bust anyone's balls and I don't want mine busted either. I know I must seem like a prick listing a fifteen point description of who I want to play with, but I'm really just trying to make sure that I don't waste someone else's time. I'm a really patient guy, and at the very worst will make a polite opponent. At best, I'll give you a run for your money! thanks all, Mailer

I guess if I had thought about it, I would have remembered that the units only date back as far as 1941 in CMBB. I haven't played CMBB in a while because I actually bought that one first. I just recently got CMBO about two weeks ago so I'm playing a lot of it now. Yeah, I really would like to see an early war version, it would probably be called CM: Blitzkrieg and would include the invasion of Poland, France, etc. Maybe even a Hypothetical Operation Sea Lion. Korean war--you know, many of the units are so similar in the Korean War and WW2, that it would be quite easy to move the game into that territory. I wonder how difficult it would be to make a mod for the Korean war. One problem I do see is that air power played a REALLY important role in Korea, but this could probably be modeled in a fairly reasonable fashion. Is there any unique terrain in the Korean war that would be difficult to model with the CM engine? Someone above mentioned Gary Grigsby's Uncommon Valor--just thought I would confirm that this is an EXCELLENT game. And lastly, I bet most of you who have expressed a lack of interest in a Pacific Front version of CM will probably be in line with the rest of us to purchase it when its released. I mean, come on, you won't be able to resist. You'll see that copy of it sitting on the store shelves or available on the internet and it will look so damn good that you won't be able to stop yourself from shelling out the fifty bucks. I could be wrong, but I imagine that it would probably be a financial success for Battlefront. Thanks all, Mailer

Louie, Ah, I see. You're saying that your primary interest in the theater revolves around planes, naval, etc that isn't modeled in Combat Mission, and that personally, you're not much into the sort of terrain and engagments that occured on the ground and is modeled by the combat mission system. In that case, Pacific Front may not be for you. I do think that there probably are a number of people who do like these engagments though, so hopfully they will reconsider. Louie the Toad, have you ever played Gary Grigsby's Uncommon Valor? This game simulates the Naval Combat in the South Pacific and is REALLY good. If you haven't played it you should give it a try. Thanks for all the responses. Mailer

oh, and although someone said in another thread that Talonsoft's Rising Sun was missing something the other two titles had--I have to say that Rising Sun was a very compelling game. The scenerios were very good, and well designed. There were some tense engagments in the Operation Shoestring Campaign. (Gaudalcanal) Like the time the Japanese stormed my base at night. My boys had been making good progress at Guadalcanal, but during the night, Jap boats managed to land tons of infantry on the island, and they came in hard. It went like this-- A flare went up and machine gun fire started pouring out of the nearby jungle. "Banzai!" they cried out and they charged the paremeter. My boys opened up with machine gun fire, but they couldn't see anything so they just fired at the muzzleflashes in darkness (yes, this is modeled in the game.) I ordered a flare to be fired above the jungle, but it was a dud and my guys still couldnt see anything. By then a wave of Japanese had crossed the field under cover of darkness and it was face to face fighting between them and my men. They broke through my forward line and were charging through my encampments. By now I had some flares up in the air, so the night was lit up and there were japs and americans all intermixed, engaged in brutal close combat. "BANZAI!" More charged through the break in my line and were running willy nilly into my encampment. But by now my boys on the front line were pulling it together, and my reserve units were getting organized and really bringing fire to bear on the enemy. More Flares went up. The Japanese were losing steam, their push into my ranks was devestating, but costly to them as well. I got some morters into postion and soon I them pinned. The fighting reached a crescendo, and finally, the japs broke, they turned and fled back toward the jungle, taking heavy fire the whole way. When the dust cleared, I was awarded a marginal victory. It was just another night on the Pacific front. So, what I'm saying is that Rising Sun offered plenty of great gaming moments just like the other two in the series, and i think the same could be said of a combat mission venture into pacific territory. Mailer

oh, and although someone said in another thread that Talonsoft's Rising Sun was missing something the other two titles had--I have to say that Rising Sun was a very compelling game. The scenerios were very good, and well designed. There were some tense engagments in the Operation Shoestring Campaign. (Gaudalcanal) Like the time the Japanese stormed my base at night. My boys had been making good progress at Guadalcanal, but during the night, Jap boats managed to land tons of infantry on the island, and they came in hard. It went like this-- A flare went up and machine gun fire started pouring out of the nearby jungle. "Banzai!" they cried out and they charged the paremeter. My boys opened up with machine gun fire, but they couldn't see anything so they just fired at the muzzleflashes in darkness (yes, this is modeled in the game.) I ordered a flare to be fired above the jungle, but it was a dud and my guys still couldnt see anything. By then a wave of Japanese had crossed the field under cover of darkness and it was face to face fighting between them and my men. They broke through my forward line and were charging through my encampments. By now I had some flares up in the air, so the night was lit up and there were japs and americans all intermixed, engaged in brutal close combat. "BANZAI!" More charged through the break in my line and were running willy nilly into my encampment. But by now my boys on the front line were pulling it together, and my reserve units were getting organized and really bringing fire to bear on the enemy. More Flares went up. The Japanese were losing steam, their push into my ranks was devestating, but costly to them as well. I got some morters into postion and soon I them pinned. The fighting reached a crescendo, and finally, the japs broke, they turned and fled back toward the jungle, taking heavy fire the whole way. When the dust cleared, I was awarded a marginal victory. It was just another night on the Pacific front. So, what I'm saying is that Pacific Front offered plenty of great gaming moments just like the other two in the series, and i think the same could be said of a combat mission venture into pacific territory. Mailer