Childress

It never worked against US troops. That's true, they did. Your're right. But who will pay $55 for that game? CM: Pest Control?

Sublime: I can see that this could prove diverting, in a whack-a-mole kind of way, from the Allied side. But why should I, as the Axis commander, order an attack that never worked? I get points for my own slaughtered men? (silly) The game penalizes me if I refrain? (intrusive) The CM system can't model insanity*. Currently we have 'fanatic' squads. But they don't spontaneously coalesce into larger formations and hurl themselves, suicidally, into enemy lines. Unlike the desperate German attacks that occurred as the Reich crumbled, the Bonzai charge remained a feature during the entire war. And I have other reservations about the retail viability of the setting. Vietnam, too. There's a reason why most of the successful games on the Pacific War put the air and naval aspects front and center. These were interesting. You had sweeping maneuver. So thumbs up on CM:Korea and CM: Arab Israeli Wars (perfect fit, but it won't happen). Thumbs down on CM: Pacific War/Viet Nam. *"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein

I got that, mjk. BTW, Franz Stigel and Charlie Brown, the principals in A Higher Call, both died n 2008.

Bonzai attacks were an'operational' phenomenon?

Okay, I'm about 2/3 through this book. And it remains utterly compelling. But I will be posting some, perhaps, heretical opinions re the two protagonists.

Indeed. Saunders= Kerner? We have something in common, MJK. My older, half-sister's father was killed by a Kamikaze pilot at Leyte in 1944. Before she was born. Apparently the lunatic dived bombed into an ammunition dump. My mother always refused to visit his grave in Long Island because' there was nothing left of him'. She wasn't sentimental... Years later she married my father.

I wouldn't narrow my choices if I were you. Apps to reproduce the Windows 7 desktop in Windows 8 are all over the place. My 2nd laptop has W8, which is really designed for tablets, imo, however it loads significantly faster.

Cliff Notes version: German HT gunners are too vulnerable. But using HTs in aggressive manner is ahistorical and you're a gamey bastige if you do. So nothing matters.

Merkin Muffley? I heard he married a little woman and settled down in a Hobbit colony.

The greatest Banzai charge took place during the Battle of Saipan in 1944. They were prominent at Guadalcanal and many other 'marquee' engagements. These charges were the compulsive product of the lunatic Bushido ethos. Against U.S. troops they were nearly uniformly unsuccessful. From Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.https://www.google.com/org/wiki/Banzai_charge) The banzai charge can be considered one of the least efficient strategies used in the Pacific War in terms of Japanese-to-American casualty ratios. If present in a BF-type game the Japanese player would have to be compelled to resort to this tactic by some intrusive mechanism. One can already hear the moans arising from the forums. Kamikaze attacks were more productive. But the Bonzai charges were a persistent feature in the Pacific war. Nah.... Edit: Haha, MJKerner!

How do you handle Bonzai charges? Think about it...

Huh, George? Crews with good morale and binocs should make decent scouts. They often dismounted and performed some recon. But usually, istr, the commander only.

Yes, you could call it life altering experience. It hits you with the force of an 88 shell. But not lacking in interest for grogs either. Did you read it, John?

A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II. It's the most gripping- and moving- WW2 book I've read to date. And I've read dozens of 'em. Strategic bombing was a hellish job. And the German pilots come across as, frankly, great guys; brave, fun loving and chivalrous. http://www.amazon.com/Higher-Call-Incredible-Chivalry-War-Torn/dp/0425252868/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366842167&sr=8-1&keywords=a+higher+ground Blurb: Four days before Christmas 1943, a badly damaged American bomber struggled to fly over wartime Germany. At its controls was a 21-year-old pilot. Half his crew lay wounded or dead. It was their first mission. Suddenly, a sleek, dark shape pulled up on the bomber’s tail—a German Messerschmitt fighter. Worse, the German pilot was an ace, a man able to destroy the American bomber in the squeeze of a trigger. What happened next would defy imagination and later be called the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II. This is the true story of the two pilots whose lives collided in the skies that day—the American—2nd Lieutenant Charlie Brown, a former farm boy from West Virginia who came to captain a B-17—and the German—2nd Lieutenant Franz Stigler, a former airline pilot from Bavaria who sought to avoid fighting in World War II. A Higher Call follows both Charlie and Franz’s harrowing missions. Charlie would face takeoffs in English fog over the flaming wreckage of his buddies’ planes, flak bursts so close they would light his cockpit, and packs of enemy fighters that would circle his plane like sharks. Franz would face sandstorms in the desert, a crash alone at sea, and the spectacle of 1,000 bombers each with eleven guns, waiting for his attack. Ultimately, Charlie and Franz would stare across the frozen skies at one another. What happened between them, the American 8th Air Force would later classify as “top secret.” It was an act that Franz could never mention or else face a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would search for one another, a last mission that could change their lives forever.

I checked out the Wikipedia page. Curiously, for such a hazardous job, almost every one of the Badge recipients was long lived. Except for the unlucky Eugène Vaulot who was felled by a Russian sniper a week before the armistice.

Sounds great. But Battlefront will never stick their fingers in that hornet's nest. They don't want to end up like Salmon Rushdie. I'd buy any of their games except anything to do with the Pacific or Vietnam: slogs through jungles against often invisible enemies. And very few tanks..

... and prowling jabos. BF may have already fixed this small bug in time for Gustav Line- if it's a bug. This one doesn't approach the complexities presented by the MG/suppression issues.

To the best of my knowledge, AT guns already enjoy a concealment bonus- virtual camouflage- provided they haven't moved since Setup.

Right, based on a hunch. The fatigue parameters might be liberalized a bit. These are, supposedly, fit men. At times it feels like we're commanding a battalion of Governor Christies.

Thanks, Mr. Patton!

Crawling should be tiring. But not THAT tiring. They're wasted after 30m.

I did a test a while back: units will noticeably accelerate for the first 50m or so using Fast. They'll outrun soldiers using Quick. But, IMO, the various speeds and resulting fatigue could use some fine tuning. For example, I find Crawling/Slow excessively tiring and Quick too forgiving in that regard over distance.

That raised railway looks good- and authentic.

Good write up, SS. Something positive amid the general negativity and nitpicking... Re:RtM. I found the first mission, which used to be routine, has become a ****-buster with the new MG buff. If you're not careful...