sburke

However 1 second of runtime in Wego is actually 60 seconds. You better have planned right or it can be a painful 60 seconds whereas 1 sec of runtime in RT is just 1 sec. Live on the edge, play Wego.

same here, I'd also pay for a CMx2 Vietnam....then again I'd pay for a Cmx2 1980s Central Europe as well and of course all the existing plans for ww 2. Basically BFC has a customer here for as long as they want to keep cranking stuff out.

Gotcha, I think I was mis reading the intent then, sorry GaJ.

Am reading A Dark and Bloody Ground now. All I have to say is I am glad I am just playing a game. What these guys went through for real just leaves me speechless. I get pissed when I see a mortar round hit a team I just moved up and knock out 4 guys. Then I read this book and see Infantry battalions and regiments just melting away over the course of a couple days and I just wonder how these guys dealt with it. Makes me feel a bit unworthy to even game it, but I rationalize that by knowing their experience at least isn't getting forgotten and the sacrifice honored and that goes for the grunts on both sides. But back to the point, yeah the upper commanders would just keep pushing - you need to achieve obj x cause if you don't, some other unit is gonna get hammered now as their flank is wide open. Even Gen Cota commander of the 28th ID is reported to have collapsed from stress during the battle for Schmidt (possibly a result of complications with stress and diabetes - page 83, the description of the scene itself is well worth reading to get a feel for how brutal this campaign was) so I honestly don't feel setting taking an objective as the sole decision about victory is at all invalid. It may interfere with individuals perspective on "balance", but I am increasingly feeling that chasing after the "balance" concept is just inherently ahistorical. Now if you view CMBN as simply a game to play for points against an opponent (and that is not intended as criticism, it just isn't my play style) it is a whole other perspective, but asking for designers to take anyone's perspective but their own into account is a bit cheeky. :-P We are all free to design whatever we want even to the point of editing other's work.

What if your objective is to deny access to a bridge even at the cost of your entire unit. If you deny access to the bridge should your opponent get anything just for having tried? I think you can't set that standard on a scenario designer. Change the parameters if you want in the editor, but they are designing for a particular thought they have in mind, not for your perception or for tournament play etc. While I agree with you that you may feel kind of robbed, the point is not did you hurt the enemy, but rather did you achieve your objective. If your objective was that bridge and you didn't take it..well you lost. You didn't partially win. Now on the other hand if the defender was supposed to hold the bridge as long as possible but try to avoid their unit being destroyed, now you get into points for destruction, exiting units etc. It really depends on what the designer is projecting as the big picture that in turn decide the objectives and relative point value. As probably a really good example if we do an Arnhem bridge scenario I expect all points to be on that bridge. Casualty rates were a secondary consideration to who held that bridge at day's end.

I started to go back through this whole thread but having just read Clay Pigeons of St Lo, I kind of feel I don't need to. The book is a fairly respected if not an actual highly respected source to my knowledge and what he relates about the effectiveness of mortars (and to a lesser extent artillery in general) on both sides and a very common use of linear attacks on hedgerow positions unfortunately dovetails very well with the bitter experiences I have had in CMBN. Yeah it sucks to be on the receiving end, but that doesn't make the game portrayal inaccurate. If anything it argues that they got it right. I have yet to read a single citation by a combatant that says anything along the lines of "yeah they had mortars, but those things weren't usually that accurate". I expect if I ever verbalized that to a WW 2 vet they'd slap me upside the head. If players really hate them then in HTH games maybe you just need to agree not to have them, but to base the argument in "they are overly modelled", I'd really need some supporting evidence as everything I have read indicates that they made life a living hell. Now wait till we get the next set of modules - try reading "A Dark and Bloody Ground". You think it's bad now... MMMM Hurtgen battles.....ooooo...ouch.

Wild Billy Childish? Now there's a name for this thread.

+1 on this. If something could be run at the start to draw out unit organization and at least formation leaders it would make for a much simpler process to actually write an AAR, especially for larger battles.

There are quite a few different playstyles and I think a lot of the thread is directed around competitive play, ladders etc where points become more important. It isn't a style of play I am interested in, but I can understand the desire based on that style. I personally don't really care about the victory screen. I tend to be much more interested in the battle itself than the end result and prefer being able to look at a battle from the context of whether I achieved a tactical objective with a certain expectation I have a functioning military unit at the end.

Once you build up a resistance to mind altering drugs, if you really want to bend you mind you have to go to extremes. Now normally I might throw on Birds of Fire, Surrealistic Pillow, Animals or even The Grateful Dead at Fox Theater Atlanta 1977. Once in a while though you need to really go for the ... oh who am I kidding even completely whacked out of my mind I can't listen to that crap. Okay so you are stuck in an elevator with no means to hang yourself and they start playing Kenny G....

christ I looked at these and remembered I need to clean the rain gutters. LOL Really nice work. +1 to the idea of broken glass etc.

I sense something coming...unless of course the Feds have ordered BFC to keep this open in the event someone says something incriminating...oh wait we already did. For the record any involvement I MIGHT have had with illicit substances occurred outside the statute of limitations. You catch that officer O'Malley?

The US Third Army faced quite a few in the fighting around Nancy as part of the maginot line fortifications. That would fall into the same timeline assuming the M-G module isn't specifically about M-G, but the fall of 1944 in general. That would also then include the Huertgen bunkers.

LOL and in my time of touring around catching dead shows I couldn't think of many things I'd rather do less while tripping than playing video games. Watching Fantasia though, now that was a good one. Had a little trouble riding the train afterwards though, watching dirt float 2 inches off the floor of the subway car, then watching the ripples as I'd lifted my foot up and down only to realize I was sitting across from a cop... ahh those were the days.... Now it is just the occasional beer or glass of wine.

Wait, I thought we were discussing foxholes, not latrines. Though if we want to really get to realism - boys I want a latrine right there. And what the heck does that Saxon lying usurper have to do with this. Just cause he shows up on some dratted tapestry back there? Oh wait which side are we on here? Let me see the allies represent the French and English, but Godwin was Saxon, Saxony is in Germany..okay that seals it Godwin must have been a Nazis.

I put on a little Kenny G, light some candles, open a bottle of ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I'm running into the same issue. The only colums that are legible are Title, picture, battle type, description and environment. The column header for weather and temperature is illegible, but the content for the battles themselves is okay. What size monitor are you using? However considering it breaks out the battles from the campaigns it is a hugely successful tool for me. Thanks Mad Mike sir.

talk about a shi**y way to die....

Lottery= A tax on the math impaired.

Not off base, but as you noted for yourself, you are new to the system. I think what you may find is altering that time would result in the opposite effect as you improve your skills. It will start feeling too short. I have opted in the opposite direction in the PBEMs I have running. For example in one we went from 1 to 2 hours as it didn't allow for tactical recon. One thing I have found in CMBN is the need to slow down. Infantry fighting in the bocage can be brutally lethal and patience is definitely rewarded. There is also the possibility of imbalance in scenarios depending on play styles and skill that just can't be adjusted for by the designer. I have another PBEM going on right now of Die Ammis Kommen. We are 1:45 into the 3 hour game and I think on the offense I may need every minute of that. Part of that is due to arrival times of reinforcements but also if forced to rush, the attacker simply gets slaughtered.

The issue has been raised with BFC. Apparently the guys they contracted with to dig the foxholes are really short. The tall guys charged by the hour and were considered too expensive.

Oh no you don't, not that debate again!!

Rotflmao "Pirates are fun!" "Yeah but they are still the bad baddies"

Seriously, if asked to rate the following in order of priority, who would place the beach items first? Map/battle/Campaign Hill 112 Villers Bocage Falaise Gap a dozen more QB Maps A beach landing Vehicles/Weapons Landing craft and DD tanks Avre and Crocodile Flail Tanks French armor for the Germans 20mm AA guns for ground support

Is this the legendary V Bug?