Childress

Hi, Mick! You wouldn't be that dude from the CM1 days who used to to bombard my setup zones with Nebelwefers, advance your armor in amorphous blobs and insist (unbendingly) on Meeting Engagements on mirrored maps with Heavy Rain & Fog? The guy with the 'pwned again!!!' messages? Hell, yeah, I remember. Of course I could be thinking of an another Mick.

Ha, ha. A classic! And likely 100% true.

China set the bar very high with the opening ceremony of the 2008 games in Beijing. Every moment was spectacular, with awe-inspiring technical effects and masses of musicians and dancers performing in perfect unison. A bit totalitarian to be sure but I think the essence of spectacle. The English, on the other hand, thought that rather than a precisely choreographed multitude, it would be more Western, more individualistic, to have mobs shuffle about dressed as farmers, laborers, Suffragettes, National Health System workers, and children bouncing on beds. Result: pure mass confusion and incoherence. Unfortunately (says one of essentially Scottish descendance) the salient features of G.B. these days appear to be its teetering health system, its fondness for pop music, and its fashionably (and forcibly) randomized demography, which has so atomized this population that it is now apparently the law of the land that no two people of the same human subgroup may appear on stage at the same time.

Surely you're not implying, Erwin, that Great Britain is in the process of auto-dissolution via- top down- immigration policies?

The best part was the number on the National Health Service with all those juniors bouncing on their hospital beds. We need a similar extravaganza featuring ObamaCare (bandaged rappers?) in our next Olympics. Or the Super Bowl if we fail to acquire hosting rights.

Great minds think alike! But BF would all those U.S. Shock Force models just sitting around...unemployed. Except for the Shock Force game, of course.

Yes, it was an unlovely era. However declassified documents from Soviet archives and Venona project decryptions of coded Soviet messages confirmed the guilt of many of McCarthy's targets. Here's an unsavory tidbit concerning the man from Wikipedia: He later claimed 32 missions in order to qualify for a Distinguished Flying Cross, which he received in 1952. McCarthy publicized a letter of commendation which he claimed had been signed by his commanding officer and countersigned by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, then Chief of Naval Operations. However, it was revealed that McCarthy had written this letter himself, in his capacity as intelligence officer. A "war wound" that McCarthy made the subject of varying stories involving airplane crashes or antiaircraft fire was in fact received aboard ship during a ceremony for sailors crossing the equator for the first time.

Insiders- the Heavy Hitters- have been speculating the game will ship once Bil and Normal Dude finish their AAR.

Go ahead, John, change the subject. You're continually introducing 'war' topics on the Battlefront forums. And what's up with you and JonS? I'm trying to think of retort that has the opposite meaning to 'get a room'.

Yes, corporations are values neutral. This is new? If you're referring to the decimation of Indian tribes via non-acquired immunity to imported diseases, yes, that indeed happened. All densely populated countries exhibit higher resistance to germs than sparsely populated ones. But the notion that Small Pox was programatically used as a bio-weapon against Native Americans was based on single incident involving the British and has been exploded as a myth. By far the most important factors in the decline of the native population were: 1-(Inadvertently) spread diseases and 2- Intermarriage (e.g., my Powhatan ancestors). Death on the battlefield was way down the list. And, male nature being universal, the Indians were as ferociously addicted to war, violence, spoliation and environmental carelessness as their unexpected visitors. And they treated their womenfolk as chattel. Yes, use it or lose it. The end results can be benign or malign depending on the character of the invaders. On the negative ledger you have the Nazis, the Mongols, and, arguably, the Conquistadors. The colonization of America by the West was a net plus in my estimation. Or do you prefer, like Howard Zinn, that Europeans had remained in their over-stuffed lands and never colonized a vast, fruitful and largely empty continent? Latin/South American was densely peopled in the 15th cent. Not so N. America. Health, opportunity, a decent standard of living, cohesive families. Australian aborigines or American Indians *may* have eventually, on their own, developed the polio vaccine or personal computers. Somehow one doubts it.

How do I see things playing out? Now? The confidence of Western civilization has eroded, over the past 50 years, to the point that we'd probably- out of guilt- leave their stuff alone and spend billions in an effort to transform their land into Planet Switzerland. In healthier times we'd have, for example, appropriated Iraqi oil fields and exploited them to the max. We need the stuff. Native Americans hadn't even developed the Wheel. They were driving the Buffalo to extinction in their own neolithic way as they did Wooly Mammoths and Saber Toothed tigers before our arrival. Europe was over-populated and their turn to exit as custodians of a vast continent was written on the wall. Would the world be a better place if Australia was left in the hands of the Aborigines? Their life expectancy was probably around 30. No race holds the deed to their property in perpetuity. BTW, I, in the interest of full disclosure, have Indian, er, Native American ancestors on my father's side. Now, those French-Americans....

Yes, the best ones are parables. You're right. How about a film the depicts the insidious conversion of one's neighbors into dehumanized and conformist pods? One in which denial is rampant and that mirrors and, perhaps, justifies McCarthyism. I'm thinking of 'The Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. Both the 50s and 70s versions. If I sought to undergo flagellation by a horde of doctrinaire elites due to having been born in the US as a white man or having, in the past, committed capitalism I'd return to the university and finish that masters program.

Yeah, the greedy and militaristic white man tries to conquer the Na'vi tribe, aliens who have similar characteristics to African Americans and American Indians. They're oh so noble and pre-capitalist- at one with nature. In Hollywood fashion, the good whites, played by Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver, come to realize how evil the White Man really is and side with the natives. Sam Worthington even becomes one of them! Wow….heavy, man. Predictable propaganda in much the same Marxist spirit as Cameron's Titanic with its evil 1st class passengers vs the blameless prole from steerage.

Good news, John! Matt Drudge has been notified.

A bit o/t but according to Atkinson, the British, using Piats, were the first to use hand held AT weapons as a mouse-holing device at Ortona in late '43. But one assumes there will be no date restrictions in CMFI.

Excellent map, very atmospheric. I noticed you made virtually all the Allied units Elite and Crack. With high command and morale ratings too boot. No offense, but do you think this was wise? In the previous stand alone US scenario the player ends up with an army of Terminators or Audie Murphys and plays out in a most curious manner. I believe BF intended that such exalted ratings should be dealt out sparingly.

You could fire up a scenario vs the AI on a map with multiple starred objs and declare a ceasefire. Then check out the values on the battle summary screen.

I believe Reptiods, or 'Reptilians' in the U.K., feed on a variety of small vertebrate prey including birds, small mammals and fish, John. Not a mammal with the dimensions of JonS. They also reportedly eat the carcases of dead animals- if Wikipedia is to be believed. Jon's alive and kicking.

It's a never ending source of wonderment to me why vets who been in combat, who have 'seen the elephant', seek to re-live the experience on the computer screen. I'm not sure I would. Can someone explain the phenomenon?

Was that a pun? Good luck, necramonium (Element 57?). But I question the feasibility of recreating the enormous- and there were several- bridges in a convincing way using the existing graphics toolbox. Better leave it to BF as PT remarked.

Yes, that's what I brought away from the book: Italy was a war of dueling Forward Observers. One wonders if that will make a compelling game. Probably. Also, do the ptruppen tire faster when moving up slope? Exhaustion is a major theme. Inquiring minds....

I'm 2/3 the way through Rick Atkinson's book. A great read, as has been mentioned, but not especially for grogs. Those who crave minutiae on penetrations tables, MG ROFs or the armor resilience of the StuG IIIF/8- look elsewhere. The book inspired a few random thoughts: 1- Italy's mountainous terrain created a paradise for Forward Observers. 2- The campaign was a charnel house, uglier than Normandy, particularly for the Allies. They seem to have come off the worst, in terms of losses, in every major engagement. E.g., 55k at Cassino vs 20k for the Germs. 3- The Germans treated the locals abominably with their (mostly) unremunerated requisitions and press gangs. 4- Until mid-1944 most of the American and many British formations should be, in CM terms, rated Green. 5- Salerno and Anzio were close run affairs and most likely would have ended in debacle without naval gunfire support. 6- Many of the Allied commanders were acutely PR sensitive and suffered from overweening vanity. Clark, Montgomery and Patton- who added a psycopathic streak- come to mind. Kesselring comes off as a more impressive man. 7- The Battle of the Rapido River was a disgrace to American arms, showing a callous unconcern for the lives of GIs.

No one's posts amuse me me more than yours, Michael. With the possible exception of Redwolf when he's soaring on whimsy.

That 'sic!!' was just cruel.

...or not hiding. Or cowering.