Agent Smith

Tory I posted the article the day it went online (feb 11). No real need to look for the article, as the post here constitutes the entire text. Only thing missing was a close up of the business end of the big ugly one. Given you live in the same time zone, perhaps we ought to do some pbem to unlock those fantastic maps in the extras folder. A.

Posted this from Melbourne Newspaper, The Age,, (www.theage.com.au) A little wordy, but it may be of interest to some... Army set to get 60 'big, ugly tanks' By Mark Forbes Defence Correspondent Canberra February 11, 2004 The M1A1 Abrams tank that the army wants to buy. The Defence Force has recommended a "big, ugly tank" for the army that should be in service by early next year, army chief Peter Leahy has revealed. Military sources said the United States-built Abrams had been selected. Cabinet's National Security Committee was expected to approve the purchase of 60 tanks for about $600 million within a month, the sources said. General Leahy told a defence seminar that it would be improper to discuss the tank choice because it was before the Government, but said he would like "the big ugly one" - a description taken by those present as a reference to the 68-tonne Abrams. General Leahy said tanks were essential to "harden" the army as part of its transition to a more mobile, flexible force Iraq and other recent conflicts had shown that tanks were essential to protect troops. "It would be irresponsible to the point of immorality to risk the lives of Australian soldiers by exposing them to this threat in the complex and ambiguous environment which will now prevail on the battlefield without adequate protection," he said. He said tanks were at the core of a new approach to warfare brought on by the changing threats symbolised by the war on terror. "Warfare has become unpredictable, diffuse, highly lethal and diverse," he said. "Now a wide range of actors, from criminal gangs, through issue-motivated groups, to terrorists with global reach means violence has proliferated, dispersed and become more deadly. "While professional mastery of conventional war fighting is the vital component of capability, state-on-state and force-on-force battle is likely to recede." Over the next decade, Australia's military was more likely to face Iraqi-style insurgent opponents than a conventional army, General Leahy said. "The most efficient and safest way to enhance our combat weight and protect our soldiers is through the replacement of the ageing Leopard tank by a more robust main battle tank which will rebalance the combined arms team." General Leahy attacked critics of the planned tank purchase and said he had looked for a manoeuvrable, mid-weight, well-protected tank. "Frankly, it's not there. So what we need to do is to respond to the current threat environment . . . where protection is, quite frankly, achieved by heavier armoured vehicles." He said the rest of the army would be computer networked and asked to develop the skills of elite Special Forces troops. "We have expanded our Special Forces but we're also looking now to make our conventional forces more capable and, perhaps in the future, more like the Special Forces."

Thankyou for the ongoing encouragement gentlemen. (There have been a small number of delays beyond my control.) I have about 4 or 5 dialogue screens left to mod...as soon as it's ready I'll announce to one and all. J.J. I Agree with you about those german graphic unit mods. I have played a number of games with them. I particularly liked the yellow Italian units, nice contrast. The unit mod incorporated in my set, has changed the colour balance slightly to this effect, making the countries a little more distinct.

I agree completely with your comments here Liam, playability without smoke and mirrors allows the game to become a classic, much in the tradition of Tacops for eg.

M I S T E R K U R T 8 8.......... W E L C O M E B A C K SC 1 is the reality, there is no SC 2. :cool:

I agree HiC, I sampled some soundtrack from the movie Dragonheart, probably raises issue of copyright, but the emotive orchestral stuff certainly evokes a sombre and portentious mood for what is about to unfold in battle. Music mods are as good as any graphic tweak. A.

re: immeadiacy of reply. Email ain't always that quick, re: cpx's an' stuff. The tacops lobby on ICQ usually sits pretty quiet; and the combat mission space is filled with CMAK or CMBB crew.

TAR, You appear fortunate enough to be running a mac. I browse my mailing list through an opera webbrowser checking net mail at netscape. My solution would need to be pc based. regards A

I have a couple of key buttons to timber, then I'll post up a zip file onto otto's site (feb 9 approx). Can e-mail directly to anyone interested working on files too. It would be good to make this a collaborative effort amongst the SC community.

The only sound mod I made is to the intro sound. Everything else left as is.

An honour to here from you JJ. Yes. At the moment these files only reside on my hard disk, I'm not sure which site they should be put on. I'm hoping that rather than post as a finished mod, users can offer further suggestions. There have been numerous unit mods, but little in the way of interface. regards A

I realise that the mailing list ensures that discussion topics stay on track and for tacops users only, rather than the occasional browser; BUT. Having to wade through quote after requote of text to get to the kernel of the post is extremely tiresome. I too agree with the major's call of the "less is more" position. Question 1. Could someone please suggest which e-mail program can read this text in a clearer format, (if at all possible?) Or do I just have to live with crappy fonts and too many message headers and footers. Question 2. Given the ease of this board Just why is this forum so underutilised? regards A

I've been dabbling with giving SC a bit of wood! It's a work in progress, but if anyone is interested in trying it out please note below where I can post/ store/ reside the bmp and wav files. regards A

Given that whenever a upcoming CPX is offered, much discussion and email ensues regarding the starting times, re: timezones. Would it be too much to stick with UCT/ GMT. (maybe even swatch beat time!?). At least that might give some of us living in Australia some chance of getting into the action; rather than viewing replays. regards Agent S.

Perhaps this thread could evolve into a discussion on rather obtuse strategies that have or have not worked, and illicited some quirky ai responses. for example, declaring war on spain after U.S. entry into war and landing troops there, while axis expects French D-day. What do you all think? :cool:

Interesting notion Comrade Trapp. More hours to spend on a worthwhile strategm. :cool: