Childress

FIFA! Update:

Red Thunder adds some new wrinkles, notably tank riders that, perhaps to BF's chagrin*, proved a boffo hit. My single issue is the period depicted. The war was essentially over at this point and you can't role play changing history. Perhaps a bit infantile as a take on an excellent game. One can make the same claim about Normandy but that campaign featured AMERICANS, always a guaranteed draw for the US market. Nevertheless an assiduous researcher can always dig up interesting battles from even the most unbalanced historical period of the war. Most of all there's the crucial consideration of using existing 3D models. *Apparently adding tank riders was a source of intense labor. Now everyone wants them for all the theaters

Re: V2s, von Thoma and Trent Park Wikipedia: General Crüwell remained a prisoner and on March 22, 1943, was intentionally placed with another POW, General Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma (captured in November 1942 while in temporary command of the Afrika Korps), who during the meeting disclosed intelligence regarding the V-2 rocket, i.e. surprise that London was not yet in ruins from German rockets being tested at a "special ground near Kummersdorf" he had visited. This led to the British investigating Peenemünde and following confirmation, carried out a bombing raid on the Peenemünde facilities[2] Von Thoma taken prisoner: On 4 November 1942, Thoma was captured by the British at the hill of Tel el Mampsra, west of El Alamein,Egypt. With his tank hit several times and on fire, Thoma dismounted and stood quietly amongst a sea of burning tanks and the German dead scattered around the small hill where he was taken prisoner by Captain Allen Grant Singer of the 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own). Rommel later opined that Thoma was probably seeking his own death in battle, while other staff officers quietly speculated that he had gone to the front deliberately to surrender. That evening, Thoma dined with General Montgomery at his headquarters to discuss the battle. B. H. Liddell Hart later recorded Thoma's reaction to Montgomery's revelations over dinner: "I was staggered at the exactness of his knowledge... He seemed to know as much about our position as I did myself." Thoma was then taken to the Pyramids of Giza by his captors, when he expressed regret that he would leave Egypt without seeing them.

Re: fire. Yes, CM1 had fire. And CM2 will eventually have that feature. However, I don't think you realize what goes into that. First of all CM2 has multiple terrain features, often in a single square. The complexity quotient has increased exponentially. And troops need to to be taught when it's time to exit a burning structure. Not so simple. And climactic conditions influence the nature of fire, how it spreads. In Wet conditions you'd get fewer flames and more smoke. Then there's the FPS considerations. You want your PBEM game to grind to a halt? Abstracted rooms? More unnecessary complexity. It sounds like you'd be happier playing Battlefield Hardline.

I think the Allied landing zones would have made a rather fat target, even given the imprecision of the rockets. The significant problem in lobbing V2 payloads onto to the beaches was once the battle was engaged how to separate the combatants?

I felt that the German generals' revelations about the V2 rocket program, the imminent deployment, was rather significant. Their gossip proved it was not a myth. Thanks to MI19 the British raised the priority of locating and destroying much of the installation delaying the timetable by several months. An fully intact V2 capability at the time of the Normandy landings doesn't inspire optimism.

image hosting without registration In one of Britain's more audacious espionage ventures captured German officers were interned at Trent Park as M19 surreptitiously recorded their hair-raising exchanges. A slick PBS production exceptionally well filmed, acted and produced. The story of how those conversations were recorded and how they can now reveal, in more shocking detail than ever before, the hearts and minds of the German fighter. In total, more than 100,000 hours of these secret recordings were made. Only now have they all been declassified, researched and cross referenced.

Agusto, it's no wonder you're struggling. I looked up the geographical co-ordinates under your nick. You're in Kabul.

Heh, rub it in. Are spelling bees even possible in countries outside the Anglo-sphere? English with its quirky, often irrational constructs uniquely lends itself to this kind of competition. A Spanish Bee? Unthinkable. Spanish is phonetic. As are most languages. Here's a Norman Rockwell print from 1918, "Cousin Reginald Spells Pelopennesus.". The winner's on the left: Admit it. You hate the insufferable, little twerp.

Damn you, Michael. You're indestructible. Welcome back.

Got the to finals of a regional spelling bee competition as a 13 yr old. Eliminated by VACCUUM. The failure haunts me to this very day. These days bees are ruled by- counter-intuitively- Asian-Americans.

I forwarded this to a friend. He emailed me back that he could never watch John Oliver, this 'stinking British leftist'. Maybe. But sorry, amigo, funny is funny. ,

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: FIFA and the World Cup (HBO) It's hilarious 'cause it's true.

I've noticed the thing with buildings. But forest canopies don't seem don't seem to exert an inhibiting effect. Maybe something to incorporate into the Bulge title?

The Hurtgen was so densely wooded that mortar teams- on both sides- had a helluva time finding suitable denuded patches from which to lob their bombs. Is this impediment simulated in CM?

LOL. Like that!

In the interests of strict realism the latter two Medal of Honor (or the British equivalent) winners should have they experience rated as 'unknown'. Their heroic feats were unexpected. But the player can, knowing their 'eliteness', deploy them to his maximum benefit. Gamey!

If, on opening a new user made scenario I discover that one entire side- normally my side- is rated Crack or higher that scenario is immediately deleted. Either the designer has an unrequited German (it's seldom the Allies) uber troop fixation or he's trying to force a certain narrative. And that's leaving aside the improbability that every man down to one's ammo bearers and truck drivers conform to that lofty standard. Note that experience inflation is NOT characteristic of BF's in-house scenarios. These guys know what they're doing.

Resolved. Deep within the depths of our psyches each one of us desires that the Nazis had defeated the Russians. Not necessarily that the Germs win WW2 (god forbid!) but that they crush those clod-hopping, Marxist, two-faced alcoholic communists with their commissars and their drabby uniforms. Panzers Marsch! Admit it! Debate.

I don't think so. Maybe some CM grog can chime in. You need some way to account for intermediate casualties: your average grunt sprains his knee, his pinkie is blown off, he's shell shocked. He can no longer contribute to the battle so doesn't classify as a 'yellow icon'. I submit these are the most common wounds registered as such on the company rolls. Keep in mind this proposal just amounts to chrome. The number of useless combatants removed from the present battle is all that matters. But chrome counts. Otherwise this topic wouldn't be recurring on a regular basis over the past five years.

How about this: Presently we have three classifications: lightly wounded (yellow icons), life threatening wounds requiring Buddy Aid intervention, and Dead. Then you add a 4th intermediate state: disabling wounds that leave the guy inert on the battlefield, but the victim is not under immediate threat of death. When the smoke clears he eventually crawls - or staggers off on his own power, or supported by his buddies. Seems plausible, if not downright common. The game operates on the numbers at battle's end and spits out a realistic ratio for the sake of immersion. O/T Question: why is that troops can harvest weapons from wounded soldiers but not dead soldiers?

I seem to recall, based on the Demo, that Shock Force featured a Routing routine. MIAs were designated by a red exclamation point. The Red Force was more prone to melting away than US troops, logically enough. That mechanic was present as a manual relic on the initial release of CMBN but not implemented. Could be wrong, though.

Firelock, those were some impressive posts.

That sound track truly gives meaning to the adjective 'portentous'.

But Battlefield Academy features a slick, in-house multiplayer server that's linked to an online ranking system. One suspects that's a huge draw.