sburke

spare change that has spilled down between the cushions of your couch? The ice cream truck playing jack and jill as it rolled down your street? Hair on the crown of your head?

wound that her dog had inflicted in his strangely claw toed appendage. He flinched as the dog then lifted it's leg and ...

Okay well it looks like this is one of those moments where some brave soul has got to be willing to sacrifice for the greater good. I'll do it. Yes damn it I said I will do it. If you guys will put together the fund I will visit every damn village, hamlet and crossroads in Normandy and document every 5 story I find assuming I am sober enough and not blinded from an overly long baguette poking me in the eye as my hand slips on the brie I was lathering on it. And if you so desire I will also go to Sicily and find folks to talk about old wooden fences from the 1940's. I will sacrifice my time for the good of the game. No need to thank me. So umm when is my flight getting booked?

In your opinion anyway, which is absolutely valid for you. Personally I have no issues whatsoever with the interface. So now we are down to a matter of opinion. The interface isn't broke, it just isn't the way you would prefer it. Those other issues you point out will NEVER go away. When they address the ones that actually deserve to be addressed we will simply find more for them to look at. It is a process and if you feel that the game has to be perfect before you feel you have your money's worth perhaps it is time to not purchase any games.

I think it is odd folks are worrying about a dang fence on one map. Maybe the map was part of a larger map and they shrunk it a bit as the extra space wasn't necessary here and would just slow down game processing. Good lord man. DT I think you need a couple kids that are nothing but trouble just to keep you busy. How much would you be willing to pay? I need to know how much effort I should put into this search so I get a decent return rate on my investment.

man we are never satisfied. 2 releases this year and possibly a 3rd on the way. Tons of new stuff in version 2 (hell does no one else appreciate the new mapping tools?). Patch for CMFI is out and still we weigh in with "darn BFC, if they would only do x they would be much better off". No offense guys but this is the most unappreciative whiniest place short of maybe facebook or reality tv. Okay maybe it is a bit hard not to take offense at that but we are talking $5 if you wait for the patch/module combo. 5 friggin dollars. Really? I spent that much on a coffee today. You are paying for a ton of work being done to CMBN to get it to match CMFI so they stay in step for continuing patches etc. Is it really that hard to think maybe that effort on BF's part is worth $5? Hell I'd pay $5 just to get the mapping tools in CMBN. Burke out.

Fixed that Thanks Bil Quick Battle AAR: Shermans vs Pz IVs, Not Your Fathers Combat Mission Bil Hardenbeger vs the Capt http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=95456

Can't take care of the sticky, but I could do this. Bookmark and if we keep adding new ones to the thread it should at least give us something to refer to. http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=106917

damn you LLF, i am gonna end up with still another install of cmbn for your ubber mods. lol

Not the first time this has been asked for, won't be the last. It may happen, but you'll have to be patient as it is a lot of work on the TAC AI and despite all the repeated claims that this should be easy, it isn't. Still, wishing for it can't hurt.

I hold matches up to my screen. It sets off the smoke alarm, but I just pretend that is the air raid warning.

lol I'm telling my mama, she is gonna come over and beat your a** ... as we descend even further into the sinkhole

Going to put this in both CMBN and CMFI forums. I went through and collected a bunch but by no means all. Please update with any you have that I missed CMBN Bois de Baugin - Elvis vs JonS Elvis http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=94495 JonS http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=94496 Bois de Baugin - Broadsword56 versus sburke http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=98975 Hamel Vallee - Broadsword56 versus sburke http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=104104 20 000 point Quick Battle DAR Dungeon Tiger vs Ian Leslie Dungeon Tiger http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105686 Ian Leslie http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105660 Hedgerow Hell Big Dork vs Penry Big Dork http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=106516 Quick Battle DAR hollister21 vs Yormsha hollister 21 http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=106586 Normandy AAR Mord vs DC Darknight Canuck http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105928 Erudeville German AAR The Wanderer http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=106562 CMFI Clearing the Niscemi Highway Normal Dude vs Bil Hardenberger Normal Dude http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=104905 Bil Hardenberger http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=104896 Villa Castelletti ME Mord vs DC Darknight Canuck http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=106799 Seizing the Windmill BigDork vs Tiresias Tiresias http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105937 BigDork http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105919 Buying the Farm BigDork vs Echo BigDork http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=106670

Going to put this in both CMBN and CMFI forums. I went through and collected a bunch but by no means all. Please update with any you have that I missed CMBN Bois de Baugin - Elvis vs JonS Elvis http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=94495 JonS http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=94496 Bois de Baugin - Broadsword56 versus sburke http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=98975 Hamel Vallee - Broadsword56 versus sburke http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=104104 20 000 point Quick Battle DAR Dungeon Tiger vs Ian Leslie Dungeon Tiger http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105686 Ian Leslie http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105660 Hedgerow Hell Big Dork vs Penry Big Dork http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=106516 Quick Battle DAR hollister21 vs Yormsha hollister 21 http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=106586 Normandy AAR Mord vs DC Darknight Canuck http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105928 Erudeville German AAR The Wanderer http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=106562 CMFI Clearing the Niscemi Highway Normal Dude vs Bil Hardenberger Normal Dude http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=104905 Bil Hardenberger http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=104896 Villa Castelletti ME Mord vs DC Darknight Canuck http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=106799 Seizing the Windmill BigDork vs Tiresias Tiresias http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105937 BigDork http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=105919 Buying the Farm BigDork vs Echo BigDork http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=106670

LOL Manhattan is an example of glacial scouring. Brooklyn is essentially a sand bar left from that and is why periodically you get sinkholes in the middle of the street. Google it... or better yet don't. Essentially a good part of the nothern hemisphere in one way or another is a result of Glacial scouring.

It just dawned on me I am helping derail this thread a bit. Sorry. Anyway back to Davidson's book. It is interesting in that you also see the political infighting on the Vietnamese side and how Giap develops plans for fighting the French. More of a political military history that while also describing the battles gives you some perspective of why the battles take place where and when they do. When I first picked it up I really wasn't sure what to expect. Coming from the US military I figured, well we will see. It is one side's perspective that at least wouldn't be full of just political rhetoic and no detail. I found it far more interesting than I'd thought it would be. I think he really does try to show a view from both sides, both good and bad and does so with a wealth of material.

I'd call foul and say you were stacking the deck in our PBEM

Well we may have to agree to disagree on some of this. The colonists that the French had to defeat to leave were their own creation of years of colonial occupation. The "domestic native allies" are generally those who had something to gain in the occupation of their own country. If it were us in a similar situation we would call them traitors. Civil wars are inherently the worst. Our own being a case in point. I can't say I have much sympathy when the Frankenstein creation of a colonial power turns out to not be under control and in fact a threat to the social political fabric of the home country whether that be French, Chinese, Russian or American colonial power. We always pay for the short sightedness of our policies. Financing Mujahdeen in Afghanistan against the Russians while blithely ignoring how much they hate us as if it will never come back to bite us. Backing a Saudi regime that is beholden to one of the most reactionary religious movements in the world is going to keep coming back on us. We know it and yet we keep pretending we have some plan to avoid it. Pakistan is probably the world's worst den of terrorism and yet we still (Republican or Democrat) have no idea how to handle that. There is a consistency to politics on all sides. Short term goals trumps long term reasoning and inevitably long term we pay far more and come up with again short term answers as fixes.

LOL, okay back on topic. I assume you saw the NY times article on Homs from your previous post? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/world/middleeast/syrian-soldiers-fight-rebels-and-fatigue-in-homs.html there are also articles today on the fighting in Aleppo and elsewhere. Seems a ceasefire couldn't even last the day...actually hours I guess if even that. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/world/middleeast/in-syria-cease-fire-for-holiday-falls-apart.html?ref=world

I kind of doubt that, but really who knows. Vietnam's involvement in Laos was a direct part of their strategy against the French. They didn't really give much of a crap about Laos itself. Sort of the same with the US. We used whomever we needed to in order to prosecute the war whether or not it was even legal by our own standards. The whole domino theory thing is a US construct that was more paranoia than any real plan. We credit our enemies with being far more organized than they were. I finished Berlin 1961 recently. Another interesting book and what is so fascinating is how badly everyone involved Kruschev, Kennedy, Adenauer and Ulbrcht mis understood each other and their motivations etc. I am convinced most human history is made up of us stumbling along blindly assuming things about others that are usually totally wrong. One of the things we missed completely is how badly the Soviets and Chinese hated each other. We viewed the Communist bloc as a monolith and by doing so made it stronger than it really was. Part of the problem in SE asia was simply a social political vacumn that was created as the French Colonial empire collapsed. Nature and politics both abhor a vacumn. The French were particularly inept at colonial empire building. If you look toward the War in Algeria you have another example of how badly they could screw the pooch. If you ever get to see it Battle of Algiers is a fascinating movie on the attempt to create an urban guerrilla force against the French. These guys would definitely be classed as terrorists then and now, but considering by one estimate I have heard the French killed 1 in 7 Algerians during that war it is not surprising to see things sink to that level. The whole of post ww 2 history is so messy simply because you have a social political crisis in the collapse of British and French colonial power with no one prepared to step in to maintain any real social economic order and the US and USSR using anything and everything to oppose one another. Africa in particular is still a long way from recovering.

Who's Roy? I don't for a moment think there was any chance of a coaltion type gov't, but by 1954 what chance was there of that anyway? The French had lost, bad. There was no local opposition that backed them. The idea of splitting Vietnam and having a vote was a farce even we didn't believe in. Our own President predicted Ho Chi Minh would get 80% of the vote. So instead we just ignored the UN treaty and the war continued only now it was us sitting in for the French. As a student of political history one of the things that fascinates me is when the myths that are created around leaders get deflated as you find out they are just normal petty humans. The leadership of what became the Communist party turned in their competition to French agents in Shanghai to eliminate the opposition before WW2. My point was more recognizing political realities. There was no reputable opposition. The forces we sided with in Vietnam were never going to create a viable gov't and were arguably far worse than the communists when it comes to any concept of political rights. They were a bunch of thugs who just killed each other when the infighting escalated. We could kick the NLF's ass from here till doomsday militarily, but we had nothing to offer to fill the political vacumn so it didn't matter. So instead we accept the reality on the ground and establish trade relations with the new gov't. We have our foot in the door, they hate China worse than us and we let time work for us. Yeah yeah I know, all pipe dreams, but it couldn't possibly have worked any worse than the path we chose.

LOL Couldn't resist Well it is slow going - a personal time factor not the scenario I am 1:36 into the game LOTS of time to go. So in repsonse to Erwin's suggestion I am gonna do major spoiler here. If you have not played the scenario I would avoid this post Okay you were warned First off my commander looked at Division's suggestions, furled his brow, balled up the offending document and tossed it under his command track. First company was ordered to trail some of the recon vehicles and skirt below the crest of the hill around toward the woods trail to Froitscheidt. He wanted the heavy weapons on the tracks close by to support first coy. These were PzGr, not those slogging infantry crawling along behind their wagons. So the plan was 1st Coy to move through covered terrain and thrust along the trail towards Froitscheidt. 2nd Coy meanwhile would take Kommerscheidt. 3rd Coy would be held back for the assualt on Schmidt. 1st Company Well so far the plan has gone well. 1st Coy took a few losses scouting the trail and encountered a dug in reinforced American Infantry platoon covering the clearing the trail crossed. After battering the Americans with artillery and then a little recon by fire that further suppressed them, the company mortars dropped smoke and the entire company rushed across the clearing. They took a few casualties but completely routed the American platoon capturing a few. The tracked vehicles then slowly made their way down the trail (we lost a couple vehicles to enemy recon and AT fire but the bulk of the company made it with little trouble). As it stands now the Company with the support of the tracked heavy weapons is smashing their way right into the middle of the American defense at Froitschiedt. American casualties are high and we have every expectation or achieving our objectives within an hour at most. 1st Company will then move around to flank Schmidt. 2nd Company breaking the initial defenses at Kommerscheidt was a bit difficult as hidden AT guns nailed 2 StuGs and a recon vehicle as we attempted to drive the American infantry from their defenses. There appears to have been about 2 platoons in Kommerscheidt. Both have been driven off with heavy losses and while 2nd Company did take some casualties, over all it is still very capable of offensive action. 3rd Company. During the fight for Kommerscheidt an American M10 platoon pulled up on the dominant hill in the area. We proceeded to shell the heck out of them hoping for whatever damage we could inflict. It didn't seem like much but did apparently cause them to have issues with their overall battle awareness. Their first casualty was to a Tiger that had started to bog while moving to a covered approach position. That vehicle was the only one with any possibility of slowing our next move. The Tiger and Marder platoons moved to the right of Kommerscheidt just beyond the minefield to a position where they could not be observed while they prepared for the next phase. 3rd company came following on their heels. All 8 armored vehicles moved up the slope just below the crest and then as one unit crested the hill on the flank of the American Tank destroyers. They never had a chance. All 3 TDs died in moments to volleys of 88 and 75 MM gun fire. Next phase is to consolidate our position on the high ground, eliminate the American infantry between Kommerscheidt and this position. Spot for additional enemy AT guns (at least one 76mm gun was spotted). 1st Company will continue to clear Froitscheidt while 2nd Company will prepare to join the attack on Schmidt with 3rd Company. With the high ground now under our control it should be only a matter of time before the Americans are driven from Schmidt. Okay spoiler over. This battle has been interesting so far. Actually very interesting, but it has also made me think a bit more about how much I really enjoy large engagements versus how much I think I enjoy them. This is not a critique of this scenario. It has been a lot of fun so far. period. However the battle for the trail crossing in and of itself was so much fun it could easily have been a scenario of it's own and considering how divorced it is from the main battle it really is a stand alone fight. There isn't a real connection between it and the main battle unless they do drive around to take Schmidt from the opposite flank. The same could be said for the fight at Kommerscheidt. I love catching all the detail so essentially I am watching 3 different battles and reviewing each one before I give them orders. It takes some real discipline especially when you get caught up in a forest fight in the dark to remember to go check the other battles before you end the turn to issue orders. vKleist and I are fighting a similar battle in CW the Mace and I suspect we are both kind of feeling the same way. Fighting battles that are so widely separated that they are not mutually supportive is basically.. well like fighting two scenarios at once. It isn't that they aren't interesting, it is just that you start to feel a little schizophrenic or like one of those guys who plays multiple simultaneous chess games.

You can pretty much find a post on this forum that says anything you want. Trick is to not listen and find out for sure- get the demo. Even JK eventually broke down and bought the game. Resistance is futile....

When you get to a point that you don't care anymore about the battle or it finishes, open the map in the editor and find out what is there. It is a good thing to do for future reference. Learning the terrain variations in the maps is pretty critical and if you don't actually use the map editor much it takes a lot longer to learn.

np I don't think we'd get more than a turn in anyway. Have you read the following? It is a really good read. I think the US involvement in Vietnam was a huge mistake, but for slightly different reasons than you may usually hear. Anytime you see the world in black and white (or red and blue as the case may be) you miss the subtleties. I think the United States let it's paranoia and French stupidity allow it to miss probably our biggest opportunity to have altered the whole course of history in the cold war. The Vietnamese saw the US as natural allies during the war against Japan and if we had actually backed them in the negotiations in the 1950's to end the war we'd likely have ended up with a staunch ally against China. China invaded Vietnam pretty darn quickly after we were gone and is in current conflict with them over natural resources and Pacific territory (along with every other neighbor they have). And guess who is now their best buddy....us. 50 years of opportunity flushed down the toilet. Yeah it is all hindsight and maybe it wouldn't have worked or couldn't have worked considering the mindset, but we picked far worse and less reliable allies. http://www.amazon.com/Vietnam-War-The-History-1946-1975/dp/0195067924/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1351312307&sr=8-2&keywords=Philip+B.+Davidson Weaving together the histories of three distinct conflicts, Phillip B. Davidson follows the entire course of the Vietnam War, from the initial French skirmishes in 1946 to the dramatic fall of Saigon nearly thirty years later. His connecting thread is North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap, a remarkable figure who, with no formal military training, fashioned a rag-tag militia into one of the world's largest and most formidable armies. By focusing on Giap's role throughout the war, and by making available for the first time a wealth of recently declassified North Vietnamese documents, Davidson offers unprecedented insight into Hanoi's military strategies, an insight surpassed only by his inside knowledge of American operations and planning. Eminently qualified to write this history, Davidson--who served as chief intelligence officer under Generals Westmoreland and Abrams--tells firsthand the story of our tragic ordeal in Indochina and brings his unique understanding to bear on topics of continuing controversy, offering a chilling account, for example, of when and where the U.S. considered using nuclear weapons. The most comprehensive and authoritative history of the conflict to date, Vietnam at War sparkles with a rare immediacy, and brings to life in compelling fashion the war that tore America apart. We witness the chaos in Saigon when fireworks celebrating the Tet holiday are suddenly transformed into deadly rocket and machine-gun fire. We sit in on high-level meetings where General Westmoreland plans operations, or simply engages in some tough "headknocking" with subordinates. And in the end we learn that even the seemingly limitless resources of the U.S. military could not match the revolutionary "grand strategy" of the North Vietnamese. With its easy movement from intimate memoir to trenchant military analysis, from the conference rooms of generals to the battle-scarred streets of Hue, this is military history at its most gripping. A monumental, engrossing, and unforgettable chronicle, Vietnam at War is indispensable for anyone hoping to understand a conflict that still rages in the American psyche.