Dawg Bonz

What are the typical 'hang times' for mortar rounds? Playing a QB in the open desert and I got @ 9" 'hang time' = time till impact, on a 3" mortar at @ 400 meters. Is that about right? What are the typical sizes of the Iraqi mortars now in use? On TV they look very large = taller than a man.

Nice to scale map ropey. Looks very steep even for the most fit of virtual fighters. Will give it a go and report back to you. From the looks of things I can see why this was such a long and costly slog up to the Monastery. Thanks for Cassino Scenario work. "Never leave your mind so open your brains fall out." No problem. Just pick it up and dust it off. Things may look a little different but it is not just a brain ... it is an adventure!

Very Impressive Tanks! Your buildings look so good I am not sure I can blow them up. Sure looks like a hell of a lot of work. Thanks Tanks.

Thanks to the unofficial "Redwolf CM Bench" file, I now have a good idea now of what is CM fast. Her name is AMD ...and the lure of "The Dark Side" has me in its grip. When the AMD / PCI Express mobo's arrive ... with CMX2 I hope... "The Dark Side" will have its way with me.

KL- Amazing that with only 400MHz Macs we can still enjoy the CM games. I admit the fast 40 something second calculation times would make games much more zippy... 3 minutes more zippy! New / much faster computer soon I hope. Way past time for an upgrade.

My results: -Mac 8500 (1996) / Sonnet G4 400MHz -overaged not overclocked -576 MB RAM -3:39 average ! Do I win anything for being the slowest CM machine benchmarked?

SKELLEN, You have the same symptoms I have with "Small Operations, Storming Ashi-Shima" scenario file. This makes me wonder if there is not some problem with the file and Macs... not my old Mac. What it would be I have no idea. I too can run 'To the Volga' in CMBB... slowly... but it works. If Panzerman can't get it to work then something in the text file must be a Mac related 'no go' issue. Thanks, Robert

CMAK Version = 1.01 Ram = 187,568 K Limited to OS9.1 with this 'vintage' Mac. OS 9.2+ is impossible with this old machine. CM crashing is a very rare bird on this old Mac. I am at a loss to explain why I can see everything but issing move #1 orders causes the crash. Are you all having any problems with this scenario file and your Macs? Thanks, Robert

Mac system crash puzzle? Problem: Mac System crash during move #1 with CMAK scenario text file. Downloaded "Small Operations, Storming Ashi-Shima" scenario file from Scenario Depot. This comes through as a text file, "click.php". I set up with proper suffix for CMAK and am able to open the file in the editor & as an operation. When trying to play the scenario I confirm my set up, make moves for move #1 and hit go. Computer thinking appears on the screen and the entire computer freezes! Reboot required. I thought it was a Mac desktop problem or a file download problem. Ran Norton System Works. Rebuilt Desk Top. Crashed in same fashion. Downloaded two new browsers to see if the download application was the problem. Crashed in same fashion. Contacted Hans who graciously sent me a fresh "Small Operations, Storming Ashi-Shima" scenario file. Crashed in same fashion. This is the 1st time any scenario files have crashed the Mac. I really can't figure out what the problem is? No big deal, just curious as to why everything works till move #1 the computer freezes. Any suggestions welcomed. Thanks, Robert "Vintage" Mac 8500 with G4 400Mhz Sonnet enhancement. OS 9.1

Hey "Out of patience" Tony. I can understand your frustration. Have you considered buying / building a Gamming PC? CMBO, BB, & AK are all great games. I have purchased all three and must say these are pretty much the only Mac games I play now. Macs can be great computers. I have owned Macs since those funny little Mac Plus machines around 1984 or so. I am not poking salt in your OSX wound with this question about purchasing a different computer system. I am on a very ‘vintage’ Mac (OS9.1) as I write. With the low cost of PC parts and a little technical skill one can build a very CM capable Gamming PC for less than a new / old CM capable Mac. With the greater depth of PC games available than Mac games, this may be a wise ‘entertainment’ option. Upgrading a custom PC does not appear to be that difficult either. Building a Gamming PC is something to consider Tony. I am considering this ‘move to the Dark Side’ a/k/a building a low cost PC as hobby / learning project for myself. Moon & Steve’s replies are polite & accurate from what I know. I can only imagine how frustrated they must be as registered Apple Software Developers. The APPLE business decision frustrated plenty of Mac gammers but took money out of BFC’s pocket. That business loss is more than frustrating, IMO. Happy Gamming, Dawg Moon: "The new engine is more than just a port of the current CM games to OS X, it will be the foundation of a totally new game (or series of games) that won't have much to do with the current CM series." ….. Due out in 2005. Any more CMX2 hints? I should have my PC built by 2005 so I will be ready.

Strontium Dog For game engine tips / AT FAQ check the CMBB thread. Topic: Tank hunter grenade effectiveness? Posted February 05, 2004 12:34 PM Nice movie Wicky. Was that a 37 meter toss? @ 111 ft. Pretty good pitch. An Assault Gun Yorker? Cheers, Dawg

Måkjager … " With the unit selected move the cursor quickly to the display side making the image rotate around the unit. Let it spin let it spin let it spin" Creative Måkjager! Could be marketed as "Screen Saver Mod" .. Mac Mercenary Mayhem? Just include the anti chair sync disclaimer. Misuse may cause you to see Ubërcabbage Wicky, "Cheers Dawg, the mods will still keep coming just as long as caffeine and nicotine flow through my cholesterol rich veins I am practicing with the new La Pavoni Europiccola so I can cover you caffeine requirements Wicky. No smokes but I got a Cuban buddy. As far as cholesterol, you know where to come for dinner my friend. Our city’s culinary capability is known world wide as a "cholesterol rich environment." Hope these technical suggestions helped you John in your ROW IV Mac rumble. Ciao, Robert

John, "…..a simple phone call can completely nullify a great deal of painstaking fire and maneuver plotting. Had to replot one turn three times." Been there, done that too. John I think Wicky has the correct remedy: Use the save command and set energy control panel to never sleep. This seems to diminish the problem to a very occasional occurrence now. I doubt the monitor is an issue. I am on a vintage Mac 8500 with a G4 – 400MHz upgrade. I have lost numerous brilliantly plotted, scenario-winning moves when I failed to ‘save’. Just kidding with my move hyperbole John. I had to laugh or raise my BP at the loss of my great game plans, frustrating loss and reboot. Good luck with your 400 MHz Mac G4 rented mercenary and RoW IV competition. Wicky, "I've only noticed it rarely in my regular games but the phenomena has happened a lot while working on the mods in single vehicle preview scenarios, especially when I wander off in a fit of artistic angst." Well Wicky, you must have developed some superior coping skills for your artistic angst as your recent flood of fine looking mods look poised and pleasing. Thanks for the fine art work Wicky.

Thanks for the heads up. I just got 3 "Re: E-mail account security warning." messages sent to my Mac ... deleted. Too bad the not so friendly folks doing the virus infection to COG can't find more productive use of their leisure time.

Never looked at this thread before. After a quick glance thought I would add this account. A quick 2nd hand note from an older friend (now deceased) who served US Navy WWII in the Pacific theatre on aircraft carrier. According to "Hal", Air Force pilots were not the only folks getting Amphetamines. Amphetamines were made available to some of the AA gunners on the carriers. Hal said he had several days of battle alert status and was using Amphetamines given to him and other gunners to maintain their edge and be alert. Unused tablets were not collected and destroyed. Hal said he felt better being "pepped up" as he did not want to miss any Japanese planes heading towards the carrier by being tired or sleepy. Cheers, Robert

Good point BaD JoKe about "of scoring a critical hit if thrown AFTER the tank has passed the AT-team" Snow Leopard, "I wonder if WWII era's boot camps use real ammo firing over and around soldiers as they doing assault drilling?" My father was in US Army Engineers WWII. One story I clearly remember was his boot camp find the booby trap in the house drill. Several people he knew lost hands, fingers when they moved to the ‘hot house’ in final training. These poor guys never saw Europe in battle. At least in his experience, everyone was a lot more attentive after these training accidents. Of course the instructors pointed out that with a full load, these injures would have been fatalities for the Engineer and others in his unit. Focused everyone on proper technique as you may only get one chance. And that ‘hot house’ (IMO) is not nearly as adrenaline pumping as running up to an angry tank with a bag of explosives with folks shooting at you! 86smopuim: Molotov 39m. I guess 39m @ 117 ft. is for game engine purposes. I have thrown a "Molotov" or reasonable facsimile (when younger and out of site of parental guidance) and no way I could hum that flaming explosive device 39m. Still impressive when it hits. BIG FIRE! * I do not endorse or recommend recreational or experimental Molotov pitching as ‘standard disclaimer’ "Misuse can cause serious injury or death." * Thanks again for the newbie AT FAQ Cheers, Robert

Thanks for the heads up Junk. Will look. Robert

Thanks again Wicky. Installed them all yesterday. Great looking winter mods! Your shermans with a dusting of snow are ready for Italian winter battle... and today's local weather. No snow but cold enough for it. Extra Espresso Dolce' ... Log on fire... Dawgs by feet... CM on the computer. Life is good. Ciao, Roberto

Denwad … I know with some forward movement and a good under-arm throw I can lob my 20lb backpack about 10 meters. Yeah but could you lob a 20lb backpack about 10 meters when being shot at? Actually that is not a bad toss Denwad but could you hit a moving Hummer with the backpack lob? Good to know the CM game engine parameters from Walpurgis Night. Thanks for that data. This is the kind of game engine information that helps greenhorns like myself play a stronger game. No argument with Snow Leopard’s ranch hand bale toss distances either but I would speculate these 19-25 year old studs had not been in a firefight and were not being shot at when tossing bales of hay. That said, the firefight adrenaline pumping might loft that satchel, grenade bundle a lot further than under normal boot camp circumstances. Gunnergoz …. In reality, it was being run part way and tossed part way... Don't confuse wartime reality and physics with the representative, abstract simulation that is the CM game engine of present day… Well put and glad I never had to really put a satchel charge on a slow moving tank. Those soldiers must be an exceptional lot to take on that unit task. Cheers, Robert

All the allied shermans with a dusting of snow ready for Italian winter battles. Very cool looking mods! Thanks Wicky. Now a little fresh pasta with some fine Italian wine and… Life is good. Ciao, Roberto

Being a "newer player" I speak from experience. Jason’s infantry crossing open ground drill was an eye opener for me. It is not ‘rocket science’ but it was clear, simple and worked very well in my AI test scenario vs. 2 MG. I am not familiar with CM unit command nuance so the open ground drill is a novice confidence builder and helped me think more clearly about a sound method of attacking. Joachim’s comment that "Cover is a force multiplier." could not be clearer. I think this bears particular significance to novice players who think they MUST hide behind everything. Now I realize it is possible to thoughtfully advance units across open ground but I will still look for the best cover whenever possible. Walpurgis Night’s formation and pause suggestions are welcomed as well. The illustrations are much appreciated. The SchnellerHeinz screen pictures with German commands were interesting. Maybe CMX2 will allow multilingual screen commands as well as multilingual sounds. Thanks to you all.

Tank hunter grenade effectiveness?... ...... a relatively heavy grenade bundle or satchel charge could somehow manage to be lofted 28 or 30 meters. In reality, it was being run part way and tossed part way…… Test Proposal for tank hunter grenade effectiveness: Figure the weight of the average, WWII heavy grenade bundle or satchel charge. Fill a used back pack with similar weight stuff. ID a good tank like facsimile target… a HUMMER? Run part way and toss back pack with similar weight stuff. Repeat 10 times for an average. Adjust for extraneous factors…weather, morale, fitness, combat equipment and having a TANK possibly turning it’s turret in anger at you with associated infantry support with you as a target. Simple, no? Just joking about the Test Proposal but I would imagine it took a strong arm, luck, some distraction, suppressive fire with some major intestinal fortitude to hunt a tank on foot with a bag of grenades. My guess… 20 meters or less to get accurately close to the tank for a full KO.

Practiced the JasonC ‘infantry attack over open ground tactics’ drill. Me Vs AI in a 500 pt infantry attack across a virtually wide open 400 meters, going slightly up hill. The advance was into Axis forces of (2) MG 42 and (3) 50mm mortars and rifle squads hiding in scattered trees and woods with extreme FOW. The drill is simple: Frequent new orders. No long way points. Warriors being struck by bullets halt unless bullets only "alerted" or "ok". Move orders = Advance of 50-60m length. Hide at the end of Advance until ID range - 150-200m. Proceed to any available cover. Never bunch up squads. Halt forces that "sneak under fire" unless < 10m from cover, then let him crawl to cover. "Tiring" is ok, but if they reach "tired" halt and rest a minute. "Alerted" is OK, anything worse means halt for a minute, while somebody else advances to draw off the fire. Results for me: I won a victory in 20 moves! Never been able to accomplish this before. Thanks for the ‘drill’ advice JasonC. Cheers…

Thanks for your AI Training tips redwolf. I see what you mean about BIG artillery. Plenty of fun to see the big bore guns deliver significant virtual whacks! Jason was right, "Big arty annihilates." Now … practice, practice, practice….

Thank you RSColonel_131st & JasonC for the excellent advice. This is just what I was looking for. I was recently looking for some old posts in the JasonC anthology of tactics & strategy. Maybe someday JasonC will compile his CM principles treatise and publish it? Maybe a good time would be for the CMX2 release? One ‘bad’ novice habit (JasonC noted that I developed) was only playing AI with FOW set at partial. Bad mistake. I only recently started human opponent PBEM games. While the human opponent could not be a nicer fellow, has been very entertaining and contributive to my learning, my novice partial FOW error has made these ‘extreme’ FOW PBEM games formidable. I am retreating to playing AI with smaller battles at ‘extreme’ FOW. I am hoping that this remedial education and these essential posts will help me become a improved CM participant. Thank you RSColonel_131st for starting this thread.