Childress

Since we're going O/T.... Do you really believe auto racing rivals ancient chariot racing as a spectator event? If a Roman or Greek was found frozen in a northern ice floe and re-animated he'd find the former low voltage compared to the drama and carnage of the Circus Maximus- still the largest (300,000+), and, likely, noisiest, stadium ever built. And, with a good seat, you get to watch the whole damn race unlike Formula 1.

That works. And simple. They should avoid 'buttoned' and 'unbuttoned' which will lead to eye strain. That and the graphical affiliation of split teams are at the top of my list.

Here's a simple update that will speed of game play in armor-centric engagements: denote on the vehicle graphic at the bottom of the screen whether it's buttoned up or unbuttoned. Instead of having to jump to the movement command panel.

What kind of explosion do we get when an OT-34 gets brewed up?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/inside-the-armys-spectacular-hidden-treasure-room Remember that ending scene out of Indiana Jones where the Ark of the Covenant is boxed up and wheeled through an endless government warehouse? It exists...

BF will surely add captured tanks with the appropriate markings and coloring in an update. How hard can it be?

Huh? Is that like counterfactual? For example, what if a southern sympathizer travels trough a time warp and provides Robert E. Lee's army with modern assault rifles. Does he win the Battle of Gettysburg? Or, if Cleopatra had been ugly as an asp, would she have bedded Julius Caesar AND Marc Antony, the two most prominent stud muffins of the Republic? If the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna hadn't rejected the young Hitler twice and crushed his artistic aspirations? We're talking about a minor literary sub-genre here.

Frankly, the player's ability to track LOS from a waypoint node might well be described as gamey. That's an aid any army of the period would die for.

That, yes.

In the video the jet has the effect of a liquid nerve agent like sarin gas. Common sense suggests that enemy near the window would be roasted. The survivors flee and jump out windows as the flames then spreads eventually consuming the building and tuning it to cinder. One can understand that simulating a ground/terrain fire that spreads, based on combustibility, the time of year and the velocity and direction of the wind is very challenging. Surely depicting a burning structure would be simpler.

Yeah, seemed rather extreme.

When the OT34 fires are the flames subject to Fog of War? Or are they visible to both players regardless of where it opens up? Inquiring minds...

Visibly they can't jump over. They'd risk empalement. If they knock the fences down, a la vehicles, they leave a FOW clue for the enemy. Or, do they slowly 'filter' through, exposing themselves to opportunity fire? This is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

Hehe. I was concerned about the pointy tips- and the height. Leapable(sic)? The current animation seems inadequate for the job. Engineer required?

Those fences look a bit too tall to leap over. Do the grunts knock 'em down?

The Swiss are the highest quality people I ever met. Ten years ago a friend and I were visiting Geneva. He left his wallet, stuffed with cash and irreplaceable documents, on a train seat. Sweating bullets he appealed to the Railway office. The wallet was returned an hour later intact.

Who will break into smaller teams under 3.0. Agreed that it's one of those subtle elements that lifts CM over other wargames. When they get around to fleshing out the Ambush routine- which doesn't seem complicated to implement- it will raise the game to another level. Then they can abolish the nonsensical Vehicle Hide command. (yes, it's a pet peeve)

Against the idea: ugly. BF cares about aesthetics more than you realize. But any player aids, like Commands lines, are okay if they can be toggled off.

So... one assumes that air assets will arrive on their own timetable not necessarily at the beginning of a battle. Or they won't show up at all. Will ground/air co-ordination expand for the Western armies later in the war?

Very eloquent. Gets my vote. But the Nazi regime enjoyed genuine popular support for quite a while. Communism never won much affection among the masses. Few wish to die for the Surplus Value of Labor. Realizing this Stalin denominated the conflict 'The Great Patriotic War' and commanded the church bells to peal. It worked- sort of. Enthusiasm for the Soviet elites likely peaked around the time of Gargarin's flight. And straight downhill thereafter.

Bil, two questions: 1- Your Soviet squads appear rather spread out. BF says they put strictures on Russian command flexibility, i.e. severe penalties for being out of visual range. Is this a concern? 2- You appear to favor Quick when advancing your AFVs rather than Fast. Is this due to spotting considerations? Great stuff, by the way.

How many computer war games provide a nimble and convincing opponent on offense anyway? They're rarer than hens' teeth.

I find it interesting that the imposition of slavery or virtual serfdom seems most characteristic of aristocratic or absolutist regimes. Or totalitarian, if you will. Certain fibers or crops like sugar or cotton are, of course, being labor intensive, more amenable to mass forced labor. But slavery never really took hold in the north eastern American colonies unlike the more aristocratic South. Immigration in the former was more middle class in character. Spanish expansion in the New World was Crown driven. Retired Conquisatadors litigated for titles.

The Spanish- and Portuguese- were even more thoroughly murderous. And tended to enslave the native populations. Starting with Columbus. We Anglos, or at least a regional segment of us, already had slaves. There was not an inconsiderable number of American Indians in the South who owned Black slaves. I will say this: the Conquistadors were the toughest, most intrepid and resourceful invaders the world has ever seen. If there existed a measuring device such as a Cojones Grandes Scale these guys would break it. The conquest of Mexico by Cortes and his slender band of warriors is the most mind-blowing film never made.

Erwin, You're referring to the Fort Pitt incident of 1763. The British commander, Lord Amherst, discussed by letters (which are extant) the possibility of infecting the besieging natives with smallpox contaminated blankets. It's unknown whether the plan was carried out successfully. Smallpox was already raging among the Indians in North America. That and a host of other infectious diseases to which the natives had no genetic defense had already begun drastically reducing South American indigenous populations two hundred years before. Thanks to the Spanish who, by the way, were far more ruthless in other aspects than English colonists. Wiki: Numerous other diseases were brought to Native American tribes, including measles, scarlet fever, typhoid, typhus, influenza, pertussis (whooping cough), tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria, chickenpox and sexually transmitted diseases. Including syphilis, which was originally thought to be endemic in the Americas, but recent scientific research has now shown it originated in Europe. Each of these diseases brought destruction through sweeping epidemics, involving illness and extensive death. Many Native American tribes experienced extensive depopulation, averaging 25–50 percent of tribal life lost due to disease. Additionally, singular tribes also neared extinction after facing severely destructive spread of disease. There was indeed a holocaust. But largely an inadvertent one. Cheers.