Yair Iny

Hi, After activating the license I am having a problem starting the game. The exact error I am getting is: "Could not initialze OpenGL graphics. Please update your OpenGL drivers." I have an HP nx9420 laptop with an ATI mobility x1600 card, running 32bit Vista. ATI do not offer drivers for this card, and send you to HP to DL drivers. HP's drivers are the same as what I already have installed. I would really appreciate help on this. Thanks [ July 28, 2007, 07:35 AM: Message edited by: Yair Iny ]

Rudel, et al. Firstly I agree that Lee is talking a whole lot of rubbish. However, I think the main reason that his proposals are not possible is simply because the Israeli public would not allow it. I for one, would refuse to serve in the reserves if the militray went around killing thousands of civilians indiscreiminantly and most everyone I know would too. Secondly, and this is Mr. Picky speaking, not me, Jordan IS formally at peace with Israel.

Actually, even though Israel eventually won the Yom Kippur war, it was a victory of sorts for the arabs, especially the Egyptians. Through their intensive preparation, strategic intelligence deceit, and realistic war aims, they were able to achieve the initial campaign goals. The IDF was truly rattled, thinking the Egyptians were out to destroy Israel (they were not, not in that war at least), and counter attacked frantically. It took about a week for the IDF to get a grip on itself and roll them back (especially through Sharon's audacious crossing of the Suez Canal), eventually handing them a decisive defeat. But for the Egyptians, who were until then humiliated and defeated in their previous wars with Israel, to be able to achieve a limited gain and hand the Israeli armored forces and air force a few painful blows (via the Sagger, the SA-6, and Shilka), it was a victory of sorts. The good thing, for both sides, is that it restored Egypt's pride in itself, enough to make a peace agreement with Israel. In fact, in the Israeli Air Force, they said, after the 1973 war, that the "Missile Bent the Airplane" and it wasn't until 1982, and the aforementioned destruction of Syrian IADS in Lebanon, that it was back to the "Airplane Bent the Missile".

Mr. Picky notes that Israel first destroyed Syria's IADS network in Lebanon, and only then did the Syrians, in panic, order their airforce to take the skies, only for 82 of their A/C to lose the skies shortly...

Funny read, that one. It was refreshing to find out that the wailing wall was located "provocatively" below the Al-Aqsa mosque, while its foundations were laid before Islam even begun... Oh well, let the nuts be nuts. Cheers

I am an Israeli who is very displeased with the hard line right wing stance taken by my government in the last 4-5 years of the palestinian uprising. However, I would ask you to consider this. Israel is very much more powerful militarily than her neighbours. Yet, those countries still exist on the map, and their populations have not been exterminated by the IDF. If the reverse were true, i.e. Israel's arab neighbours were significantly stronger militarily than she, how many weeks do you think Israel would last (barring the US coming to her aid)? I think most would agree that it wouldn't be a very long time, and no country wants to depend on another one for her defense from destruction. That is the reason Israel has (allegedly ) nukes. Cheers [ December 15, 2005, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: Yair Iny ]

Sure would be nice if someone from BFC, or Hunter, chimed in with their take on this. Or maybe they are also baffled by this. No disrespect intended, it's just that CMC is something I was hoping for a long time would come along, after playing ROQC a lot. And these new thoughts about the problematic interaction between CMC and CMBB are making me anxious about the viability of single player play.

Yeah, but then you would be missing the whole point of CMC in my opinion, that is, of adding an operational layer to CMBB, not being an operational game in itself. With all due respect to BFC and the developer, I doubt CMC alone is much of a match for the other operational level games around there. Its whole charm to me is the addition to CMBB.

That's not what I meant. I meant to say that if you play single player both in CMC and in CMBB (when resolving the tactical battles against the AI), you would now have a regular CMBB battle using the forces built in to the scenario from the CMC level. Now, the CMBB AI doesn't know it is fighting a CMC originated battle. As the AI plays now, it will go all out in attack or defense, without conserving forces, since there is nothing there telling it to do so (I am assuming the CMBB AI will not be changed in the new CMBB.exe). This will put the CMC AI, i.e. the "high level commander", at a disadvantage, since its "low level commander", the CMBB AI, doesn't know how to fight battles without taking unacceptable losses, unacceptable due to their effect on the operational level.

The big question to me though, is how this will all play out in single player mode. The AI in CMBB fights pretty much all out, and while a human player can understand the broader concept, the AI is unaware of the need to conserve its forces. This might lead to a situation where the operational level is unduly affected by the AI aggressiveness, reducing the appeal of CMC in the single player world...

I see (I think) a lot of similarity between this model of a 2 axis advance - theatres and engine capabilities, with the Airborne Assault series. Highway to the Reich (covering Market Garden) is a great game, but now Conquest of the Aegean will offer new features as well as a new theatre. Thus, CotA will cost around 50$ but the new features will be available later as an upgrade to HTTR for around 20-30$. Similarly, if say the first CMx2 game is a Normandy invasion theatre, and doesn't have Coop play, I would be glad to pay 50$ for say the next release which would be e.g. a Kursk battles (not just the defense ) theatre and enabling coop. Then I would be happy to pay 20-30$ to get coop in the Normandy invasion theatre. So, if BF can make this work (and as a software R&D guy myself, I know it is very difficult to achieve reliably), it would be a great business model for them. They could be genarating upwards of 100$ per release what with the new theatre and a couple of upgrades for previous two favorite theatres bought by each loyal customer. Only hope is that they release them in a (much) higher rate than the Airborne Assault games. Cheers

What's "HistWar"?

Steiner14, If one has the opportunity to take unlimited clear text and encrypt it using a symmetric key based algorithm (i.e. not a one-time-pad type), and he knows the algorithm, then it is very possible to find the actual key. Now since, BF would be wrong to base their security on hiding the algorithm (it is always easier to figure out the algorithm than the key), then if they are really concerned with people decrypting the files, they would indeed be wrong to allow people to create unlimited cleartext. Seems to me, though, that there wouldn't be too many people with the will and the means to brute-force crack the key for the PBEM encryption, so if other benefits are seen by BF in keeping an open format, then they would be better off doing so.

Steiner14, If one has the opportunity to take unlimited clear text and encrypt it using a symmetric key based algorithm (i.e. not a one-time-pad type), and he knows the algorithm, then it is very possible to find the actual key. Now since, BF would be wrong to base their security on hiding the algorithm (it is always easier to figure out the algorithm than the key), then if they are really concerned with people decrypting the files, they would indeed be wrong to allow people to create unlimited cleartext. Seems to me, though, that there wouldn't be too many people with the will and the means to brute-force crack the key for the PBEM encryption, so if other benefits are seen by BF in keeping an open format, then they would be better off doing so.

To be sure, I don't mean Highway to the Reich as in the boardgame, but rather the PC game by Panther. It does go down to company level, but its command system allows corps level battles to be played without overwhelming the player.

JC, Have you tried Highway to the Reich? Seems to fulfill your requirements rather well.

In my experience, if you need to use ADVANCE in order to get your troops moving forward you are "pushing" them too hard anyway. You should stop moving and consolidate your forces to fire back at the enemy (the defender, I assume). I save the ADVANCE for specific situations like attacking known positions under covering fire etc. For everything else I use MOVE. If your forces are too far to engage the enemy, then he is too far to do you much harm. Just HIDE the shaken and pinned squads until they recover and in the meantime fire at the enemy. See JC's posts re advancing over open terrain. You don't need ADVANCE to do it. Cheers

Oren, I for one feel that there is a lot to do with your post and these fora. Day in and day out, there are posts here about the good old Landser boys, and the brave SS panzer divisions, who really had nothing to do with the Nazis and were just patriotic Germans who were defending their fatherland. While of course some (or even quite a few) of the Germans serving in the Army were not Nazi supporters, the participation of the German army in mass murders of civilians is well documented. So I guess you were trying to say, let's remember, as we revel in re-playing this war, some of the more somber outcomes. However, I have to say you made a mistake posting this here. You will get no respect from people in these fora, who appologize about hijacking someone's thread about the calibre of an AT rifle, but obviously enjoyed diverting yours to a serious, deep discussion of Firefox. Sorry, but your post count just isn't high enough. As to some of the more serious responses you have received here, you must understand this. Young Germans are (rightly) sick of carrying blame for what their grandparent did. They are also disgusted (once again rightly so) by Israel's actions in the occupied territories. And finally, they (and many others) are also disgusted (once again, rightly so) by the manipulative use of the Holocaust by Israel to justify her unjust actions. Well, what better way to combine both sentiments (getting rid of the blame and anger at Israel), by equating what Israel does and what the Germans did. It is just the same, isn't it?

JC, while I appreciate the charitable nature of your response (IMHO, in line with the charitable nature of your contributing your knowledge around these fora), I think MikeyD's and others' comments, which could benefit from a less high browed attitude, are nonetheless valid. Those who know nothing of history, especially that of a global effect on the world today, or of their own country, have little to offer in terms of an opinion of contemporary issues. The only way to benefit from history is to know it, then to act on it as it applies today. If we ignore the mass murder of Armenians by the Turks we invite a Holocaust on Jews, Gypsies, etc. If we ignore the Genocide in Roanda, we invite murder in Darfour. Or on less dramatic terms, consider an American who knows nothing about Nixon, dealing with a Presidential corruption scandal. Those who don't know history are missing an important tool in dealing with today's reality, so yes, there is a civic obligation to be aware of the past. Just my two bit opinion...

Bonxa, thanks and hope to see you there soon!

Hi Albion, A battalion will do just fine, I was put off by a question in the application form asking whether I play 4000 pt battles, that's about a regiment's worth. I will take your advice and give it a go. Thanks!

Hi Bonxa, I went over to the CMMC site too and am a bit unclear about something. If you chose to play the role of a tactical commander (i.e. not only a staff position) how big are the battles? I am personally a bit overwhelmed by battles larger than about 1500-2000 pts at most. Is this sufficient to take a tactical role or would I be better off being staff only? Thanks in advance

Steve, You know this means you're gonna have to make the maps usable in printable form (i.e. with elevation markings, etc.) With high realism level, the only way the player, i.e. the supreme commander, can see the overall known disposition of enemy forces, is by drawing them with a grease pencil on a printed map, by his Intelligence officer updating the map from the individual unit reports... Just the thought of it makes me drool! Maybe I should hibernate until the end of 2005 so that I can wake up and buy CMx2 immediately. Cheers P.S. edited for spelling mistakes so the terrorists don't win

Robert Oleson, in his excellent single player campaign rules system, has something very similar to this. In his campaign there is a higher level of point called "Favor" which you carry from mission to mission and which you can use to upgrade your forces etc. One of the mission types he thought up is a raid mission, in which your forces have to infiltrate the enemy's setup zone and destroy certain objectives, then they have to exfiltrate. You gain favor for having occupied the flags during the middle of the raid, but lose favor for still occupying them once the mission is over. Steve, you might want to give his campaign rules a read, they are very innovative and add a whole new layer to CMBB/AK. Might have some ideas there that can be useful for CMX2. RobO: hope you don't mind me suggesting this, I just thought that a discussion of CMX2 features would be left missing without considering your work.

While I agree with the views expressed here about the unrealistic nature of being able to determine LOS from every point, I still find the current situation wanting. Now, if we had a view of the map with topographic height lines then as far as I am concerned, CM could do away with level 1 from a non occupied point. The only merit I see for it's existence, is the need to evaluate the map for avenues of approach and etc. This is necessary since the level 6-9 views are practically useless for terrain evaluation. In RL, a commander would have a topographic map, but would not be able to find the lovely nooks and crannies in the terrain that make for great hull down positions without actually stepping in the place. Just my two cents. Cheers