sburke

watch out using the fast command, it can burn your guys out real quick and in an advance to contact situation that can be particularly annoying. You don't want your guys going into a potential firefight worn out. Nail biting excitement here. Hat's off to both you and BD for this.

Same here. At one point San Francisco and Las Vegas were almost at war over finding palm trees for different projects (at the time they were lining the whole Embarcadero area of the waterfront with them) but they aren't native despite how many of em homeowners keep planting. And what a mess. I dug one out of my yard. Hate the damn rat/pigeon infested things.

Yeah that all comes down to what is set in the victory conditions. If there is no allowance for casualties, only objectives... But I am like you in that I could really care less about the victory screen other than seeing how my force held up compared to the enemy. Fortunately I don't do ladders or tournaments. I know I was entertained so I would consider this an unqualified success for both of you.

Heh, never count on the clock running over and if there is an objective, you gotta be on it. Take it from me who has twice given up VLs recently just cause I don't want to be bothered leaving guys to sit on their arse. Besides you were only outnumbered by around 4 to 1 at the end. It's just a scratch. Running away eh? Come back here I'll bite yer legs off! LOL

They surrender and now you have to feed them while they steal the rest of your supplies and sell them on the black market. Yep, you lost.

no use something bigger, like a tank.

Ha you can doctor them up anyway you want. Broadsword even went so far as to make one look like the old Sgt Rock comics. There have been a number of really cool shots people have toned up to look like old photographs etc.

Excellent Tiresias. Not sure how it will turn out but I applaud your daring. My first PBEM I had similar issues with artillery. The confusion worked out for me in the end, but still it caused quite a bit of nervousnes and frustration on my part. Best of luck on 3rd platoons counterattack.

Dang you guys certainly don't believe in farting around. 20 minutes and your hacking at each other like Godzilla vs Mothra.

It's friggin AAR lovers paradise on the boards these days Far F**kin out!

You must be making someone happy on keyboard purchases.

I was joking about all the work you and mord put into the UI pics and the unit specific markings, not the game play icons. Show off your stuff a bit.

Depends on your scale. LOL I wasn't trying for Western front 1944. I was figuring an OP layer of anywhere from a single regiment of the 82nd to maybe a corp level game. Anything beyond that to me is just too unwieldy for an OP layer. Personally I like the idea of a campaign centered around a single regiment trying to hold terrain till being relieved. I am figuring a number of months commitment by very few, not a labor of years by many.

That is actually a great idea LOL Something written somewhat tongue in cheek but with appropriate comments as to what to expect from units in different situations. On a more serious vein what would also I think help is if we had pics of terrain as it is supposed to be represented in CM. For example the heavy rock terrain is actually really low if you put it side by side with XT grass or crop 4. What I don't know is what it is supposed to represent. If I go at face value, it offers almost no concealment value whatsoever just some place to let your tank throw a tread.

I don't know of any game that has a decent map for this, but I have been thinking of an alternative history campaign for some time. The scenario is plausible and probably fairly easy to come up with a decent OB for both sides. I don't think you need an actual boardgame for an OP layer, just a map and OB. Premise is, MG never happens. Eisenhower does the right thing and tells Monty "Antwerp and the Scheldt first before any consideration can be made for a thrust to Germany". Third Army is therefore not quite as short of supplies, but Ike is still reticient about how far to let Patton go. However a crossing of the Moselle and siezure of Nancy is still desired so the plan is to drop the 82nd to sieze commanding terrain for the Moselle crossings and possibly isolate Nancy. Probable drop date maybe the night of Sept 4th (IRL the 80th ID attempted a crossing on the Moselle on Sept 5th.) So you have a whole mix of German units (92nd LW, 3rd PzGr, 3rd FJR and 553rd VG are all in the vicinity) as well as American Airborne and once the crossings are siezed American Infantry and Armor. Depending on the scale you want, your campaign could be the whole shebang or just the story of one regiment of the 82nd holding it's ground (or not) until link up.

Rev. Burke? Rotflmao You have no idea just how wrong that is.

Ha I was wondering if you ever found time to play the game. Nice screenshots except that I can't see your unit icons in the UI.

I already got my thanks and it consists of an incredible amount of material we can expect from BF over the next year (and years after that). I swear it is like Christmas coming every few months. however if you are thinking of categories and candidates, I have a few to suggest. User Interface Artwork Jean-Vincent Roy 3D Models Dan Olding Animations and Models Cassio Lima 2D Art Dan Olding Mike Duplessis Marco Bergman Florian Schroeder Fernando J. Carrera Buil Christopher Nelson Michael Andersson Cover Art Jean-Vincent Roy Music Daniel Sadowski Konstantin Savin Constantin Cat Quick Battles Michael Andersson Mark Ezra Tutorial Christopher Nelson Stephen Grammont Campaign Designers Max von Bargen Christopher Nelson Jon Sowden Scenario Designers Kip Anderson Alan K. Davis Stephen Grammont Anthony Hinds Jon Martina Jari Mikkonen Christopher Nelson Kari Salo Peter Wenman Jurrie van der Zwaan Martin van Balkom

Honestly, I don't have a solid opinion about spotting in the game one way or the other yet. That is largely because I think it really depends on 2 things 1 The map 2 Your opponent In my battles with Broadsword, spotting has been really really difficult. A recent example is our Hamel Vallee battle where we both fought really hard for this wheatfield. What surprised us both was how difficult it was to spot units in it. Once they went to ground they vanished. You knew where they had been, but that was it. Broadsword was actually able to creep some teams up to the next hedgerow, but unfortunately I think they were really worn down by the time they got there and had little support. Fact is however they got really close with me having no clue they were coming. Playing the AI has it's own shortcomings. It is what it is and in the near term it isn't going to change. The AI doesn't think, it does what it is told. I have seen some very creative AI plans in a number of scenarios, but that is about as close as you'll get. The AI will never roll a Tiger up behind a wall then blow it down to catch some Churchills on the other side by surprise nor will it smoke the hell out of an immobile Tiger and close assault it. As to the Makin Island example I have to ask, what is the elevation difference for the tanks versus the Island. I would think theoretically there should be very little possibility of them seeing forces beyond the immediate beach regardless of foliage etc. Water level has to be some degree below land or there'd be no land.... LLF I know the detail level you go to in mapping so I feel stupid even asking, but what is the elevation difference for the Shermans relative to the main Japanese forces?

Some books Amazon just flagged that I might be interested in are I think potential examples for creating campaigns that are interesting and odd at the same time. Granted they aren't theaters we have available yet, but the ideas are thought provoking. Red Christmas - The Tatsinskaya Airfield Raid 1942 Soviet 24th Tank Corps advances toward Tatsinskaya to seize the airfield on Christmas Eve and cut off 6th Army at Stalingrad. Knight's Move - The Hunt for Marshal Tito 1944- On 25 May 1944 800 men of the 500th SS Parachute battalion descended on Drvar, a town behind enemy lines in north-western Bosnia; their aim was to kill or capture Tito. Airborne drop in Partisan territory.

I am of a similar bent, Sicily being more interesting but overall I have studied Italy a lot less than any other theater of WW 2. Just never grabbed my attention, but I have to say, I really really like CMFI. Why? Well I think mostly because it is so very different than CMBN that it is kind of like taking a break while still playing the same game. The Terrain is drastically different than CMBN or CW. Not just the fact that the scenarios are predominantly hilly, but the ground itself is different as well as the houses etc. The units are far different. No dreaded PzShk (which really sucks when you are the Germans). The Sherman is in it's element and you begin to understand why the Allies took so long upgrading. Other than a rare Tiger (really rare there being only a company on the island) there wasn't much for it to fear. The Italians while difficult to command are really interesting to try with. The scenarios. It may be simply I haven't played enough in CMBN and CW to appreciate them (which is probably true as I mostly play PBEM now- and you have no idea how odd that is for me to say that). I was helping to test CMFI however and ran through as many of the scenarios as I had time for and was really impressed. These guys have gotten really good. Yeah we'd all like more AI capability for single player, but within the limits of what they are working with there is truly some very creative, smart and challenging material here. If it were a financial decision and I had to choose, I'd likely wait for MG. However I don't think we have a very clearly defined time on that. If however buying one now and another module in say 3-4 months (yes I am still optimistic) is within your budget I'd say go for it. You won't be disappointed.

Friggin hysterical, hope you opened fire at point blank range... after they gave you the beer of course. Had a similar but slightly different ending story playing a game of capture (our version of tag) in the woods near our house. I was pretty adept at sneaking around and at one point was crawling up to free all our guys currently held at "base" I was within about 25 feet when two guys on the opposing team who were going out looking for more passed by not 15 feet away, I froze and one just happened to look my way. His face was priceless. It took a second to register what he was seeing despite me being in plain view. And yes the snow scene was something like that. It is a pretty good memory.

Fat chance. Even if they don't update CMSF and release a version 2 modern game, I am still likely to go back to it for a fix. I would pay all over again for them to update the game, but if they don't it will still have a place on my PC.

Small world. I later moved down to Roslyn VA before heading out this way. Yeah I have a lot of good memories of Tyler and the adjacent Ridley Creek State Park. Took my wife there about a year and a half ago during a snowstorm. We don't see snow here.. ever. She was thrilled, she had never had a decent snowfall in Beppu Japan so this it was like something out of a movie.

woot! Thanks for another AAR! Give em hell Tiresias!! oops sorry wrong thread Seriously, glad to see you guys going at it again BD.