imported_John_M

Jason, Short Answer: No, I'm not. My religous/spiritual beliefs underwent a pretty serious overhaul in the last year and a half. This has set some of my past political attitudes directly at odds with my current program (of the 12 step variety). But, hey why don't you denounce that as well while you're at it. LOL! I think you've definately out-Stasi'd yourself bro. For someone who despises "commies" so much, you've certainly co-opted some of their absolute worst behavior. There ya go. That's basically it. Look you guys can keep talking about this if you want. I've seen about all of the BF forums that I care to. Thanks much to Soddball for the recommendation. I intend to check CMAK out soon. Later.

Um....ok. Yep, you found me out pal. That last post was all an elaborate ruse in my evil commie plot to subvert your forum. If it wasn't for you meddling kids and your talking dog I would have succeeded. Curse you and your wholesome, freedom-loving market economy ways! Cripes, I give up. Well, at least I gave it a shot. Have fun guys.

Soddball, My response earlier in the thread was hardly the paridigm of maturity. I'll reiterate that this is NOT a pissing thread. We're all here because we obviously enjoy the hell out of wargaming in general, and CM in particular. I hail from a small town in Oklahoma and the wargaming community here is....well there is no wargaming community here to speak of. People around here seem to have a severe attention deficit and find my interest in the genre incomprehensibly dry and boring. I started posting here in order to share my seemingly insane passion for (painfully accurate) wargames with other, likeminded individuals. If I wanted to hear baiting and politically motivated pogroms, my own immediate surroundings would be ample. Gotta love those red states. This is not a political forum. This is a WARGAMING forum. If any of you are curious about my political views, let me know and we can discuss it in private like a couple of mature adults. I don't want to see any member of this forum (including Jason) insulted or demeaned in any way. We are all passionate and imaginative people. We should stick with discussing what fuels those passions and stimulates our collective intellects. By the way, I haven't played CMAK yet. I'll admit I'm nowhere nearly as well versed in the North African/Southern European theater as I am with the Eastern Front or Northwestern Europe. How would you rate it in comparison with the other two games? Thanks for your feedback.

Pardon my ignorance, but what's monkeynews?

I think we were all pretty cranky during this one. You might have to specify on that. I really, really don't want this to turn into another 'who can piss on who the most and how often' thread. I just want to discuss aforementioned scenario. If you guys haven't played that one, perhaps you could recommend some you have played that you think I might get a kick out of.

Your 310 scenario is both informative AND a lot of fun. I would say that those are the two chief ingredients that make CMBB (all of the CMX1 games for that matter) such a great game. I think "gruesome" in this case is an absolute essential. I serves to accurately convey the very nature of the fighting depicted (close quarters with lots of SMGs), not only in this one scenario but in the entirity of the eastern theatre. To ignore such a facet is to be historically (and morally) dishonest. Not implying that you are either. I'm just explainig where the remark was coming from.

Point taken. The "glorious NKVD" remark was made jokingly. I recall being very specific about that. I don't "uphold" Stalin, or venerate murderous thugs. I believe I was quite specific about that as well. Anyways, I would very much like to confine my discussions to wargaming and ONLY wargaming. Thank you for your input.

I wasn't saying anything remotely positive about you as an individual rest assured. Nor was I adressing anything to you. Nor was I following you around. I simply stated that you designed an enjoyable scenario. I don't think any amount of propaganda could make you not look like a complete ass. Stalinist!?! Because I enjoy playing as the Soviets in CMBB? What are you basing this on? I posted because I wanted to hear from others in this forum. If you don't have anything positive to say....feel free to piss off.

Has anyone else played these? I played the first one in the series (310) the other day and absolutely LOVED it! It dealt with close quarters infantry fighting in northern USSR forest circa late 1941. I must say it was the most exciting, suspensful, not to mention gruesome CMBB scenario I've played in a while. I would highly recommend you guys download and play these. JasonC's designing talents in all their glory.

Yeah I just got through reading that myself. I'm a little sick right now. Gotta love girlfriends with colds. Despite Jason's reaction to my post, I take my (nonexistant) hat off to you guys for the way you dealt with those goons. I suppose I picked a rather poor time to make such a crack. It's principled, intelligent folks like yourselves that keep me posting here. I always despised the ridiculous, Cold War pro-Nazi bias that seems to reside in Wargaming communities and in the games themselves. At least that's always the impression I've walked away with. Everytime I start to think it's just me, one of those ass-clowns opens their piehole.

Um...well in that case I'm sorry if I offended you. If anything it was meant to ridicule the dogmatic (not to mention homicidal) outlook of such people. A simple "Hey dude that's not very funny" would have sufficed. I've read posts from plenty of others on this forum lampooning the Soviets in this manner, and none of those have incurred such reactions. As lame as my sense of humor happens to be, I deeply resent the implication that I derive some sort of levity from things like the Holocaust, slavery, and/or genocide. I assure you that is most certainly NOT the case. In the future please be upfront (aka MATURE) and ask me about my motives before assuming things about my character which are patently false. Please also answer my earlier questions or tell me you're not going to answer them. Either way give me the courtesy of a response.

JasonC, How dare you slander our gallant People's Commisariat of Internal Affairs! This defeatist attitude will not be tolerated comrade! Your facisist leaning views of our security forces must be liqidated. Please report to your nearest factory commitee or party headquarters for 'proletarian discipline'. Sorry, just figured I'd give you a little Bolshevik humor for your efforts. Perhaps the only thing that lags farther behind my CM skills are my jokes! Oh well, "Progress not Perfection" right? In terms of sheer mayhem caused, my all time favorite Soviet "small" arm has to be the Dshk38 Heavy MG. I consider this monster the most magnificent in the entire RKKA WWII inventory. Although in CMBB it just doesn't seem (to me anyways) to be paridigm of death-dealing viciousnesss that it was in real life. Is the gun undermodeled in the game? Also, could I (realistically) incude it within a company heavy weapons detail? If not, what command level exactly would it be subordinated to? Was this weapon primarily utilized in an AA, Anti-Vehicle, or Anti-Personel capacity? Also please inform me of the campaigns undertaken by Soviet Airborne and Naval Infantry/Marine forces later in the war. I've really been aching to create scenarios/ops involving these unit types that take place within the 1944/45 time frame. I would be most appreciative if you give me some suggestions. What are YOUR favorite weapons, troop types, and eras to wargame with? Once more thanks for your input!

JasonC, Many thanks for the excellent response. I apologize for the severely limited amount of info given. Your patience was indeed saintlike. Your knowledge of small unit infantry tactics is formidable indeed. Actually your response was everything I wanted and then some. I realize now that the order of my advance and the spacing of my squads has been completely innapropriate. I also think that I need to move my 152mm spotter further towards the German line in order to get a more accurate LOS on their forward positions. My first attempts utilized good bases of fire (from my MG teams and other 2 platoons), but I tended to sit back and plug away at the defending squads entirely too long. While this approach did tend to pin and eventually panic the defending squad, it also soaked up my ammo VERY quickly and oftentimes led to my forward squads incurring needless loses. Hopefully this new approach will alow me to overcome the initial contacts more quickly and efficiently, alowing me to better establish a footing to deal with the rest of their company. I do have some other random questions for you if you wouldn't mind. Could you explain how effective CAS is in dealing with infantry as opposed to vehicles? By CAS I mean fighter-bombers like the Il-2 or Yak-9, not Tac bombers like the Pe-2. How does the Soviet SG-43 Medium MG perform compared to the DP or Maxim MGs? Just how rare would they be in late war Rifle Companys? Do you know of any specific actions by NKVD troops? I don't mean 'Blocking Detachments' or SMERSH activity, but the actual RDs. I so, could you relate the composition of the units involved? Thanks again for your time and patience.

I know this is deviating a bit, but didn't small numbers of Mongolian volunteers appear early in the war? It would be cool to play a horde of irrate, hairy Mongoloids facing down your Panzertruppe. I was kind of bummed that BF didn't model the Soviet allied Mongolian or Czech troops. I know their contribution was very small, but still would have added some cool variety.

Jason, The scenario here is actually the first in a five part operation that I recently thought up. I intentionally set up each scenario with both sides being aproximately equal. The idea here was to test whether of not I could actually pull off some kind of tactical victory without having like, two guys left alive at the end of the op. The forces in question consist of: Red Army Guards Rifle Company '44 Company HQ (Veteran) 1 Platoon: HQ (Veteran), 3 Rifle Squads (Veteran) 2 Platoon: HQ (Veteran), 3 Rifle Squads (Regular) 3 Platoon: HQ (Veteran), 4 Rifle Squads (Regular) Ind. Maxim MG Team (Regular) Ind. Maxim MG Team (Regular) Spotter 152mm Gun-Howitzer (Radio)-(Regular) Wermacht Grenadier Company '44 Company HQ (Veteran) 1 Platoon: HQ (Veteran), 3 Grenadier Squads (Veteran) 2 Platoon: HQ (Veteran), 3 Heavy SMG Squads (Regular) 3 Platoon: HQ (Veteran), 3 Heavy SMG Squads (Regular) Ind. MG42 Heavy MG Team (Regular) Ind. MG42 Heavy MG Team (Regular) Spotter 105mm (Radio)-(regular) The Ground is DRY. The temperature is COLD. Weather patterns are set at mixed. All forces listed here are fit and at full strength. Bear in mind that this is merely the the first in a series of five battles. I've scheduled more troops, arty, armor, and (possibly) air support in later engagements. I do however consider this to be the most interesting, and challenging scenario of the pack. The operation is an Allied Advance, containing no specific objectives other than advancing to the end of the map while killing/routing as many facisti as possible, while of course trying to keep my Ivans as non-bullet ridden as possible. Incidentally I'm usually able to shell his line with planned prep. fire from my 152's at the outset with no counterbattery response. As long as I keep my forces well concealed during their adavance up to his positions (through those woods I mentioned), the arty threat is pretty much nil even as I'm annihilating his flank security. After this the German squads that break cover to relocate in response to my penetration are typically cut down by my Guardsmen, now situated in excellent cover (woods or large craters). Sorry but I'm not sure how to post a screenshot. If you or one of these other fine gentlemen could enlighten me, I'll certainly do just that. I don't require a doctoral thesis on WWII Red Army tactics, just general observations, opinions, and criticisms from superior CM players to a humble newbie. This might be my favorite wargame ever, but I still obviously have a long ways to go. Thanx again!