sburke

WTF is wrong with you? You didn't include CM at all.

Ahh my friend, you have apparently not discovered the straw! To those folks who say "My God, champagne through a straw? That's sacrilege!" I say pshaw, not if it interferes with CM! Hands free drinking to play uninterrupted!

Maybe I missed something but how do we know what it was clearly doing? Has Tiresias given you any indication of what he had been doing with his armor? For all I know it sidled over there hoping to line up a shot down the road from further back and was not in LOS/LOF prior. And thanks for the AAR, nice to see several of these going on right now. This forum needs more.

I personally can not imagine a world without Monty Python. The music is all bonus. Just yesterday I had to play for a coworker the village idiot skit. Absolutely brilliant.

Actually you do notice something different as your game improves without the "distractions."

or their gums, I think lack of proper food can make your teeth fall out.

No opinion yet on the opening ceremonies, but anytime you can piss off N Korea is a success.

whereupon they will be modded to look like Daniel Craig.

Very cool. LOL I had forgotten about that Map glad you were able to get anything out of it. Looking forward to seeing your scenario - good luck

woohoo!!! CM:Fulda Gap right after space lobsters? (Hey even I am not stupid enough to get in the way of the game you'd prefer to do).

Have some great stories of Chinese contributions to local development in Africa that once they get what they want turn out to not be such a great contribution.

Well sad thing is Americans have this knee jerk reaction in lumping communist political ideology with Marxism and have only a cursory understanding of how little there is of any systemic view of what constitutes communism even amongst the communists. Politics is politics communist politicians are no more nor less corrupt than politicians in capitalist socities, they just don't have to waste as much time trying to convince anyone they aren't corrupt. It is efficiently corrupt, or corruptly efficient. Hell I'd have to consider myself a Marxist because I actually agree with the theory of dialectical materialism - The universe is an integral whole in which things are interdependent, rather than a mixture of things isolated from each other. - The natural world or cosmos is in a state of constant motion: "All nature, from the smallest thing to the biggest, from a grain of sand to the sun, from the protista to man, is in a constant state of coming into being and going out of being, in a constant flux, in a ceaseless state of movement and change." --Friedrich Engels, Dialectics of Nature. - Development is a process whereby insignificant and imperceptible quantitative changes lead to fundamental, qualitative changes. Qualitative changes occur not gradually, but rapidly and abruptly, as leaps from one state to another. A simple example from the physical world is the heating of water: a one degree increase in temperature is a quantitative change, but between water of 100 degrees and steam of 100 degrees (the effect latent heat) there is a qualitative change. "Merely quantitative differences, beyond a certain point, pass into qualitative changes." --Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1. - All things contain within themselves internal dialectical contradictions, which are the primary cause of motion, change, and development in the world. It is important to note that 'dialectical contradiction' is not about simple 'opposites' or 'negation'. For formal approaches, the core message of 'dialectical opposition / contradiction' must be understood as 'some sense' opposition between the objects involved in a directly associated context. That is probably true, but I promise you this. If you release CM:Avatar I will buy it.

Noob when do we get an actuall CM AAR off this I'm loaded with popcorn and on the road and need some CM entertainment.

He is right Mord. It is redundant. However something like this would be more appropriate Not Mord nor am I Noob or JonS or frankly almost anyone else excepting maybe sburke

Is that why you guys seem to be completely uninterested in a 1970/80s version of Cmx2 or would that be a mis characterization of your level of interest? As to Avatar I am just tired of a very stale plot where the colonial aggressor hero changes sides and has to lead the barbarian indigenous people to victory because they can't seem to get their act together. They are proud, honourable etc etc etc they just need a better leader who understands their opponent better. It is one of the reasons I like CJ Cherryh's work. Meetings between different cultures/species (Foreigner series, Downbelow Station etc although her Faded Sun Trilogy wasn't too far off that same storyline) are a lot more complicated just probably wouldn't make for a good mass market film.

That's actually quite depressing to think about.

Funny cause I have been second guessing myself on this since writing that. The number of incidents I am running across during MG where American Paratroop unit leaders at company level did stupid s**t like walking around with binocs or nice big officer rank emblems showing was fairly surprising and they paid the price. One was documented in BoB where the company CO was walking out on the road checking out the village ahead when he got shot in the throat (he survived). I was frankly surprised to see that much of it in veteran outfits. I like the idea, I am just not sure that it is really appropriate. :confused:

Here is a suggestion to benefit all members of the player community - change the name of this stupid thread.

LOL I am staying out of the overall debate, but again going back to my current source, September Hope. It becomes really hard to define exact tactics as most of them were theoretical. Troops generally had to figure it out on their own in the specific situation they were in. In Nijmegen apparently moving through backyards was excessively difficult so troops were forced to move from building to building via the street. At one point someone figured out to blow holes between them with a Bazooka (which then goes back to should a bazooka be able to be fired from in a building, but if we could I doubt we would use it for this. It would have to have been pretty darn dangerous). I have no answers as to whether they should or should not be able to. As to firing from within a building the troops that finally were able to reach the buildings on the traffic circle facing the bridge were now under direct fire from various high caliber weapons and found that being in those positions turned out to be a bad idea. Net answer - I can't say that I know very well defined doctrine for street fighting that troops really applied. The variables and experience vary greatly- so I work with what I have and JonS guys kicked my men's a**es until I flanked them and found them now exposed on the back wall.

If you pre ordered, you'll see an email and of course the obligatory scream of "I am Dling!" on the forum from folks who got the email and were told to keep their mouth shut.

rotflmao so much in one little sentence - touche!!!

LOL dunno, but I am betting it'll make you like CMBN even more

yeah and then you had to go infect me with that bug. Part of why I enjoy playing against humans is the uncertainty. I know they will react to my movements. I know the AI will react to my units, but not my overall battle plan. It will not reinforce based on what I do. That being said I am learning a LOT about what the designers have to go though. I have been given the opportunity to help Beta test CMFI (no I do not yet know the secret handshake, but I have learned the sign for "hey biatch, more coffee- stat" and have learned to appreciate a few things. 1. we are all beta testers, we just might not think of it that way. All of our responses are listened to by these guys and appreciated. Problem is we do not give enough feedback to scenarios. I am not talking a rating system, that would not be particularly helpful. They need more info. Not simply is it hard, easy, stupid, interesting etc, but how did it feel? Do you feel drawn in, did you feel you had options, did the scenario generate the kind of tactical/emotional situation that the designer was going for etc Did you feel there was enough time (and don't keep asking for no time limits, they would if they could, but the AI HAS to have a time frame.) What did you think of the briefing, the tactical maps, the map itself etc etc 2. They are getting really really good. Twice I have had situations where I would have sworn BF had included triggers when the AI counterattacked and gave me a bloody nose forcing me to have to reorient my plans. Once it completely stuffed me causing a tactical defeat. (that was a particularly hard battle for me to rate. I had screwed up and my pixeltruppen paid for it. When I ceasefired the amount of casualties I had at the confrontation point was depressing) All this portends well for the future for those who play only against the AI and those who don't because we feel that loss of the unexpected from non human play. While I am sure it will never replace HTH play for me, after all I have new friends and wider plans like campaigns, still it gives me more options now when my opponents take vacation, which they may be able to do without me whining. Last item. I know Broadsword really well and I understand the map comment, but I do not want it mis interpreted. The designers are doing really good historical/semi historical and fictional maps. The new tools will hopefully make that easier as they have time limits they are working against and changes in the game while they are testing scenarios that affect their maps. I have to say these folks really impress me at what they create especially given the chaotic conditions they create in. I think folks will be really impressed with what they find in CMFI. I know I have been and it isn't a theater I have a high interest level in. I am also learning to appreciate the work already done in CM CW and CMBN base scenarios/campaign especially now that I have a better understanding of the process these guys have to go through. JonS and I have played 2 scenarios HTH of the Shadow of the Hill series and the maps are extremely well done and have a major impact on the flow of the battle as well as being artistically compelling. vKleist and I are now fighting in CW The Mace and both of us were really floored when we opened the scenario and of course there is one of my all time favorites from the base game, Bois de Baugin. For the beta/design team it is hard, really hard. Creating a map/scenario/campaign in the finished product is far easier than doing so while the product is still under development. That isn't meant as a caveat. The maps stand on their own quality period. I think for Broadsword and I there was some unfortunate feeling generated specifically from the QB maps. Honestly we really hated them. I think that however is an issue of the past. The future of this series is really really bright. Yeah I know folks say this probably about everything in the current generation, but for me THIS is the golden era for wargaming.

LOL I estimate mine as follows Pre CMBN - 100% solo vs AI (CMSF) Post CMBN- 80% PBEM, 20% solo VS AI (when I'm waiting on turns).

LOL I'll second that. If I tried to play that way my spouse would be a little PO'd as would my job. Seeing as your attention is over here Steve, I'll field this same question I tossed out on another thread. The Version 2 upgrade, are you planning on a DL only or disc? Just curious.