Canada Guy

Most places I have been to have great beer. Japan and Philippines also have some good beers. It's drinking the really bad ones (and Bud, though bad does not even come close to lucky Lager) and still having a smile on your lips that makes you a man.

Of course I joke but one of the last places I went to (I am looking at you, South Dakota) had Budweiser and coors lite for selection. Then I had to go to San Diego for business and I got spoiled. Beer and fish tacos for $8 at a place called El Pulpo. San Diego is now my favourite place in the states. (Sadly the beer was Mexican but the fish tacos were to die for - so I guess the food was also) Too bad we cannot get together and bring our worst beers. Here it would be a toss up between Lucky Lager or Big Bear nothing says class like 64oz (1.9 litres) of malt liquor Give me a nice Alexander Keith's any day or Original 16; decent price and good on a hot day.

Do not take BLSTK's assertion that he is a real Canadian to heart. You have to think that -40C is a wee bit chilly, think toques are a national hat, that Bunny Hugs are acceptable winter wear and that you drink Vi-Co and dip your bread into Saskatoon Berry Jam. You also have to be at most half something. (1/2 Sardinian, 1/2 Norwegian Sami). But the one thing we can all agree on is that most American beer tastes like crap.

JasonC, You seem like a very opinionated person. I happened to enjoy Forgotten Soldier. No, not totally accurate. Some would say more of a novel and not a memoir but an enjoyable read. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. I am sure that some parts were accurate. If you want a book that is hard to get through (unless you like talking about panzer tank transmission problems) is Panzer Gunner by Bruno Friesen. Now there is a difficult book to get through.

I do like the second set of icons but could we also get your integrated colour scheme with just the actual words as well. That way we have a choice and my brain does not have to figure out what I am looking at.

Normandy Weird vehicles and funnies French Partisans (though I am not sure if they were as active as on the Russian Front) Italy Other commonwealth (Indians, New Zealanders, Aussies etc) Russian Front Romanians/Bulgarians Finns Partisans

Lt Belenko Yes, I think I may have to find a humidor as my back yard wll not be in ready shape for about 2 months. Too much mud and snow still. But soon. Umlaut It was a balmy -52C here the other day (with wind) and my wife and I loved The Bridge and Smilla's Sense of Snow so ... Actually, I think you may have nicer weather in the winter than here. I have heard that Tromso in Norway has nicer weather than here in Winter and that is above the Arctic circle. The summers here though are absolutely lovely so maybe summer in Saskatoon, Canada and winter in Denmark. in 20 years when I retire, all the CMs will be released and I will just need a nice computer and a good cup of coffee.

My Friend bought me a Cuban cigar and then a week later my brother-in-law bought me another. I am waiting for Spring to come so I can give them a try. Nice weather, some scotch and these cigars should make for a pleasant evening. Umlaut, for some reason, I keep telling my wife I want to retire to Denmark. The weather I hear is nicer than here in Canada but she just laughs.

exactly. Its like cigarettes, I cannot stand the smell anymore unless it is Drum and then only in passing. I used to smoke cigarettes for a while ($1 in Japan and 25cents in China), but got back to Canada and they were $7 a pack. Said no thanks and quit. They are now $14/pack (That is a Canadian pack with 25 cigarettes in it) and now the smell drives me nuts. Nothing worse than a reformed smoker. Pipes though still hold a fascination. I get dispensation from my wife once a year (but only if out on the deck).

I still smoke a pipe on occasion (once a year) and I usually go to one of the specialty stores for my tobacco as as after a year it would taste like crap. Its one of those dying trades, like fedoras and false teeth. No one of my generation uses either (and I am in my 40s) and I and a friend are the only ones that puff on a pipe occasionally (not that I am advocating fedoras or false teeth, I am not a Alabama hipster)

Yes, a grizzled vet with 5 o'clock shadow and a cigarette hanging from his lower lip. Now that you think of it what about a pipe for the Brits? I am sure there are some pipe grogs around here. I think this is the correct demographic.

1. If ammo dumps now allow acquire by an adjacent unit, will trucks now also allow units to acquire when adjacent and not inside? I always thought it was a little gamey to always have to load your troops and then next turn acquire the ammo and then the get out of the truck. I would love to see an ability to acquire from the same or adjacent action squares. 2. Is it usually the release of the manual that indicates that the game is about to be released? I have not seen the manual put up on the website so I take that as an indication that it will not be released for at least another 2 weeks. I have a feeling that they are still tweaking somethings so the manual may change between now and release date. Any thoughts? I am still hoping for one or two surprises yet that will thrill us again. I think RT looks great and improvements are noticeable. Knocking off another few items on our wish list will just be icing.

I did notice the video for the ammo dumps cut off about 1/2 way through. Was this intentional or is there more to the video that we did not see? Great videos by the way. It would be great to have one of the AARs played like this as well (at least from one of the sides)

I also use this mod and asked the same question. There was some information provided in another thread. You get so used to using them that I find it kind of difficult to go back to the vanilla picture icons in the game. I now find them distracting and confusing. I wonder if you can put tags on each of these icons in v3.0 so that you can now have brown for commonwealth, green for USA, Blue for Germans and then yellow for Italians (I cannot remember what the national symbol colour for Italy was). Also, I seem to recall a game (SPI?) that used national symbols for their pieces? I think it may have been for a Normandy game though but that was the first exposure that I had ever had to German military symbols. Longest Day The video is too small to make out but there is a reference to another game like it that may have the symbols. ----- Update: Sorry, only German symbols were used in that game and the other game used NATO symbols. I cannot find anything that used Russian symbols. Too bad but I am more than happy to use the Russian symbols (for immersion) if you ever do find them.

One question - what were the conditions for the Germans acquiring the PPSh? Was it German soldiers scrounging on the battlefield (including ammo) and then using them or was it more systematic (i.e. was it specific German units tasked with scouring the battle fields after the battle is complete and collecting and then assigning these weapons to German units)? If the former, then it may be worth some effort to have soldiers scrounge from others. If the latter, then there is no point in having the ability to scrounge in the game as the only way you could then get that weapon would be to have it assigned from the beginning. I also do not like the idea of being able to scrounge the exact weapon that I see lying around. Did it fall in some underbrush, was it damaged, is there any ammo that you can find for it? There must be some stuff that we do not have control over and some of these parameters are what I find make the game even more fun. A second question - will we be bringing back routing as I find that surrendering is a little more unhistorical?

I am a bit of a micro-manager but that is one of the reasons that I like some of the control taken out of my hands. I like that I cannot split Italian squads and one of the reasons I always liked the command delay. Yes, I know when a unit can move but there is nothing I can do about it and no amount of action on my part would change the situation. It required careful planning on my side to prevent a conscript unit to both be effective and not to get into too much trouble. Having not played CMRT yet, I am not sure how much restrictions have been placed on split Soviet troops. I would have liked them not to split but can understand that they needed to get onto tanks. Someone mentioned a while ago that one option would be to take some control out of your hands at times to reflect this. It appeals to me as it both reflects reality somewhat closer and again I have to plan further in advance but then the TacAI may have to be more efficient and that may be a while yet. This is all one big balancing act amongst different groups of customers. (Though I am very happy to see the command lines back again)

Good question, will there be ski troops eventually? I liked the in CMBB as they were faster in snow and they would be a must for the Finns.

Yes, and those are the ones I wish to replace. I really do not like the stock icons and have always replaced them with a mod that used the actual military icons for the home country (e.g. Allies - the X in the box to represent infantry Axis -the circle with the line sticking straight up). That is why I am looking for (or hoping someone is thinking of modding) the actual icons used by the Soviets in WWII. I did some searching but have not yet been successful.

Curious George, yes, I had that a few years ago. I have never used Last.fm though to listen to music that is why I thought it was strange (and it was on a work computer) that they new of my hobbies. The video was interesting though. As for the Icons, yes, red would be nice but what about the symbols? The Americans (and I think Commonwealth) used the X in the box to represent infantry and the German used the circle with the line sticking straight up. What about the Soviets?

On an interesting but totally unrelated note, I was listening to the music of Ennio Morricone on Last.fm and one of the suggested youtube videos was The German Infantry Squad In Action: A demonstration of minor Field Tactics Very strange.

I know that CMRT has not yet been released but what are the current plans for upcoming Mods? I know that we will probably have multiple skins for vehicles but there is one mod I would like. I currently have the unit icons modded to show the allied symbols for the allied side and the German symbols for the axis side. Is there a planned mod for the Soviets (as I am hoping that the German icon mod will work with CMRT and I will install). I would also like to see the Soviet icons in Red and not green. To me Brown = Commonwealth Green = American Grey/Blue = German Red = Soviet I though have never seen what symbols the Soviet military used to represent their units on maps. Did they use the standard Western allied symbols or have a unique set like the Germans did?

I understand the complexity of creating randomly generated QB maps but what about so e assist with the maps themselves. 1. A button to just generate elevations without anything else. Have 4 choices Flat River valley Hilly Steep 2. Button for trees Sparse Sparse but clumpy Thick but clumpy Forest With these 2 tools, my ability to create the maps just got a whole lot easier. This, i am hoping, is not like trying to create a random town or roads but it would go a long way.

What about 1. a Map Editor feature button that would just create realistic undulating elevations? This is one that I hate doing the most when I am playing in the editor. 2. And also an ability to create rivers like we do roads now with a drag button from one end of the road to another?

Sorry, I never re-installed CMA after my computer crashed. Does anyone remember what the UI looked like (or the differences) between CMA and CMFI? Perhaps this is the reason that none of the AARs are showing us the UI (or perhaps BF has one more surprise up their sleeve and want to wait for a complete version to show us).

I am wondering if the command structure will be reflected in 1. less HQ units and perhaps no leaders inherent in the squad itself. Reliant then upon the higher level HQ to maintain C&C. A loss (or out of contact) of a leader would then have a huge impact upon squad morale. 2. Longer wait times for arty to simulate the pre-planned attacks. I am not too knowledgeable about Soviet artillery doctrine but after reading the posts it appears that they did not have much low level access to artillery. Though like everything this got better as the war progressed.