dan/california

Loose the squirrels of war on whoever is holding this thing up. The insurgent suicide squirrels are particularly viscous by the way.

Steve, it only going to get worse until you get the module out!

That can only be answered by the immediate release of an Iranian Module. That way they can fight back.

It is really not that complicated. Person A asked programmer B how long it would take to write the installer exe. programmer B says 4 days. Person A says the game code is fixed, start writing. Programmer B spends ~4 days writing an installer exe. It goes haywire in some spectacular fashion. Programmer B says to person A, "about that four day estimate". Person A says "^^&*&(^()^$$#**(%". Programmer B says well yes I already said "&&*%%**%$%" when I realized that I actually have to write at least two programs and a supervisory program to tell an individual customers machine which one to run. Person A says "^^&***$$#U*%%*". Programmer B has already gone back into his code writing trance and person A might as well be on the Mars. Person A's mood is not improved by this. Oh yeah, and there was this little hurricane related problem too. We will like it when it gets here. Meantime do everything you can to be a few point ahead with your significant other, because you are certainly going to be in the hole after you have spent two weeks not looking up from your computer when it does come out. I am proceeding out into the garage to take my own advice.

I know exactly who's shoe it should be parked next to if this ^^&$&*$$$ module doesn't get here quick.

There was some mention of a "suprise" a while back. Is it still a suprise?

"is this for real?" implies I know where my salt shaker is. "science fiction" implies I am sprinkling this particular snail madly in the effort to expedite natural selection. Snails that don't melt are deemed to have evolved.

I can't spell in English, You want me to spell in German?

"At least give them a chance to ruin the world as you know it." But that would violate our (BFC customers) policy of preemption.

It is talking about UAV sensors that sound like science fiction, and would be utterly game changing. http://www.slate.com/id/2200292/

And please , please, pretty please can I have the Marines module??? SOON?

While you are at it,, can I have that MK19 gunner?!!!

If I have one crew with a casualty can I have them bailout and reman the vehicle with another crew that has lost its vehicle but is intact? I never got around to trying that. And trust me, I have lost a lot of vehicles. Can I do this with tank crews just because one tank is out of ammo? Can I please get Michael Wittman and his plus 5 rating to man my lead tank in the Marines' campaign?

Why not just have them route to a safe place to make clear that they got out and then just fade away like other routing troops. The probability of them being truly combat effective can't be that high. The game does not allow them to fill out other crews, does it? If Michael Wittman is on your side the scenario is going to be very short. Painful or the other side and short, that is. I seem to recall something about his tank almost single handedly taking out an entire armored column. He would equate to about a +5 in leader effectiveness slot. I don't think Charles really allowed for that.

I guess that you could argue that the 155 might be servicing other targets for other observers. BUT, when the FO calls his own battalion's mortar platoon, which is tasked solely in his control it seems that rounds would be on the way in 90 seconds plus flight time. It certainly seems that this would be the case in for the the second, third, and so on request in the same thirty minute period in even a hastily pre-planned operation. Any old arty/mortar guy's want to comment?

The delay is just long enough to make the Marines Module seem really cheap. Please note this answer is not authorized by BFC in any way.

Charles would immediately be routed to the NSA or the boffins that that tickle radars with such delicate precision that it thinks every thing on the screen is 30 degrees clockwise from its real position, and twice as far away. That is if the radar is allowed to realize anything is there in the first place. Steve on the other hand....

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/09/video-little-dr.html#more It would solve so many problems involving bad people hiding in buildings.

But would you want to wait six more weeks for the Marines module to just get bridges? Especially when several scenario designers have proved that you can do pretty good ones now with a little work. George Mc's Cry havoc comes immediately to mind.

Blowing that reactor to small pieces, without the Syrians even launching a missile to my knowledge, certainly can't be seen as an endorsement of their air defense capability.

Can it do all of this fast enough to disrupt the M1's targeting system? My understanding is that it only takes a very short laser pulse in the couple of seconds before the trigger is pulled for the Abrams' targeting system to do it thing, and the smoke won't matter once the round is on the way. TOW and Javelin don't use lasers so it shouldn't matter at all for them. It seems it would actually be far more effective against late model Russian missiles like AT-13 and AT-14 that depend on laser guidance, since even the fastest missiles take lot longer to get down range than a main gun round. Most Hellfire missiles use laser guidance but my success with them would indicate that every tank back to T55s has effective countermeasures.

The CO-Play feature, when ever it actually gets done will go long way to address at least the Command and Control issues. I expect lots of threads to the effect of " Thats not what I meant you &^*&*%*&%*%$##". Hopefully continued engine improvements over time will bring some of the other issues more in line. I do think it gets across the basic nature of some of the tactical challenges on the modern battlefield, at least in a general way.

The first thing the game has absolutely convinced me of is that The U.S. needs to build some IFVs on M1 chassis, lots of things kill Abrams, seems like everything out there kills Bradley's. Secondly the Javelins fire and forget is absolutely required for Bradleys in high intensity combat situations. The project to do that should be restarted immediatly. More generally I have just been shocked and amazed at how quickly even a 40 year old T55 can ruin an entire mechanized companies whole YEAR if it pops up in the correct position and you don't have any anti-tank pointed that way. The basic tank vs infantry question come down to terrain. In good terrain, and in the absence of overwhelming artillery, infantry with modern toys are extremely expensive to dig out. With long lines of sight and enough mortar support they just vaporize. If you want to simulate good overhead cover just don't give the other side very much artillery at all. it is the same effect on total artillery effectiveness. If I was a battalion commander I would buy and give away cases of scotch in the pursuit of more mortar ammo. With targeting drones it has to be even more valuable. I am very curious how artillery delivered smoke is going to change the balance in many situations.

Other Means, that is absolutely hilarious, almost fell out of my chair laughing. The particle physics types do admit that if they don't find the Higgs that they have to chuck most of their current theory and start over, so even a negative is significant.

I guess I should take this opportunity to thank the people that run CMMODS, and the designer George Mc in particular. He has absolutely proven to me that their is a mech company out there somewhere that goes to bed every night THANKING GOD that I am not their commander, and therefore they are still alive to pray.