Paper Tiger

I don't know that it would be a bad move for them. The Fortress Italy title was very popular. And the early war campaigns would be very interesting for a lot of wargamers. Maybe interesting enough for it to be done in spite of the fact that there would be no American units in it. The Russian Front doesn't have any US units either and it's popular enough.

If I ever, (which means 'probably never') get the time to do this, I would like to rework the Tall Tamir missions of the Canadian campaign to use Brit Light Infantry as the core units. I was using these forces as stand-ins while waiting for the Canadians to arrive and I had a great time using them. When the Canadians finally did arrive, it was a Mechanised Task Force and so the missions all played out very, very differently.

Scimitars and Jackals shouldn't be facing off with Syrian mechanised or armoured forces all that frequently. Sometimes, demo missions just show off the new kit. I really LOVE the Jackals. They really come into their own in Infantry-centric missions on large maps as do the Scimitars.

LOL, I was just speculating what v3 might have although my post read like that. I I guess I should have used a modal of probablility. My bad.

Do you mean the briefing or the game interface? Some folks feel that the higher experience levels are too overpowered and will use Green troops in place of Regular or Veteran troops in a mission for better game-play. I don't know if that's what's happening in this mission because I've never played it. The AI is completely unreactive. It will not do anything to counter your moves unless the scenario designer has perfectly anticipated them and scripted the AI to do so. That's why some of us are hankering after AI scripting.

Probably not. http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=44136 I remember playing that particular scenario several times in a row and never managed to squeak even a minor victory as Axis. Nobody in that thread is asking for more time or complaining about the level of difficulty. They seem to appreciate the challenge and enjoy it for what it is.

Interesting point. I feel a diminishing lack of enthusiasm for old titles that are approaching the end of their development cycle when there is a new title to compete with them. There are no other wargames that really hold a candle to this one but each title faces stiff competition from its succeeding title. At the moment, CMBN's stiffest competition is CMFI. Once the v2 package for CMBN comes around, CMBN will no longer be at a disadvantage, at least until the next title comes along which sports the new v3 engine with fire, night-time illumination and AI triggers.

I have never played the Demo scenario but it sounds like you might be playing with Allies troops with low experience and equipment settings. That would explain why two of your javelins nose-dived and the next two hit as well as accounting for the lack of response you're seeing from your Scimitars in overwatch. If you have well trained troops sitting in well-equipped vehicles, the Sagger ambush is harder to pull off.

Scenario designers get screwed no matter what they do. 'There's not enough time for me to perform the mission. Booo!' Then they play missions that give them more time. Now it's 'The AI side surrenders before I have had time to put in my perfectly planned attack. Booo!'.

Wow. What an extraordinary post. . When it comes to fighting wars, yes, guilty as charged. apart from the disputable 'idiots' part, again, true... My father was born in 1940 so, yes, I'm very proud of what he did during the war and I would urge babies and infants to go out and do the same. BTW, I'm Scottish. What have I got to be nationalistic about?

When I went in to see 'Patton: Lust for Glory' in the cinema, I was very disappointed when the movie opened with the entire screen filled with the Stars and Stripes. But the 'BOO!' (I'm not American) hadn't escape my mouth before this tiny figure strutted out in front of it. My 'Boo' was transformed into a Hurra! Genius. I loved it. The cinema produces some wonderful surprises. 'Saving Private Ryan': the cinema is in darkness and we hear sombre bugle music. From the darkness emerges an enormous American flag. We pan out and we find it's flying in an American war cemetery and we follow an aged veteran and his family as they walk through the large number of white tombstones. Williams' music score here is extremely effective here and makes the scene almost unbearably moving to watch. Then, as he falls to his knees, overcome with grief in front of one particular tombstone, we move in to the veteran's face, the family and the background lost to him and us as the past overwhelms him. The camera focuses on his eyes and the veteran's face is transformed into Hanks' face. (I honestly thought that Hanks was the veteran) and we're on the approach to Omaha beach. That was brilliantly done. We don't need to say anything about what follows because we've all seen it and agree that it's the best bit of the film, if not the best battle scene in cinema's entire history. I don't like Hanks and he will spoil any movie for me. I don't think he's a bad actor and I know he is very popular but he just doesn't work for me. The 'chemistry' just isn't there. However, Hanks aside, I didn't really engage with any of the characters in the film except one: the doctor, Medic Wade, and that was solely because of his dialogue about him pretending to sleep when his mother came to his bedroom. I did that too when I was a child. I suspect that the 'mother' story is the girlie bit that sixxkiller is referring to. I felt that scene was a bit anachronistic as I'm not sure men of that generation were quite so forward about expressing their feelings. However, that one scene saved the middle section of the movie for me as it gave me someone that I could identify with. And he bought it too. Very sad. (Funny, but Woody Harrelson's death scene in 'The Thin Red Line' was equally moving for me because it was so intimate. Same with 'The Grey') For what it's worth, SPR doesn't even come close to making my top 100 movies of all time. I would have an extremely hard time choosing one of the following three for my number one of all time pick because they're all so damned good and I'd feel bad about passing over the other two. They are, in order of their release... The Godfather The Godfather 2 Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson) Note that I wouldn't have Godfather 3 or either of the following LotR movies in my top 100 either but the battle scene at Helms Deep is probably going to be my favourite battle scene of all time until I die. You'll note that all three have utterly stunning soundtracks. Music maketh the movie for me as it did in Helms Deep too. When I watch that scene I like to pump the volume up as high as it will go. edit to add: I think 'Band of Brothers' is superior to SPR too. But it's an HBO TV series and therefore we really get to know and like most of the characters. I also never saw it in the cinema (Das Boot was originally made for the cinema but I didn't see it there) and so I wouldn't rate it as a war movie.

Not that I pay much attention to others' opinions when it comes to movies, but the ratings tell you a lot about how successful some of these movies were. (From the International Movie Database) Saving Private Ryan - rating 8.6 by nearly half a million voters, 5 oscars - grossed nearly $482 million worldwide Apocalypse Now - rating 8.6 by nearly 250,000 viewers. grossed nearly S84 million worldwide The Thin Red Line - rating 7.6 by nearly 90,000 viewers, no oscars. Grossed $81 million worldwide A Bridge Too Far - rating 7.3 by nearly 25,000 viewers, 3 BAFTAs. Grossed around $51 million worldwide Das Boot (extended) - rating 9.2 by nearly 4,000 viewers. Grossed ($73 million original) That's about in line with my opinion, (although I'd rate 'Apocalypse Now' higher than SPR) with Das Boot, (extended) being my favourite too.

I was about 12 years old when that film was released and I remember how the mood of the film changed dramatically with that music. Previously, it was all rather patriotic and jolly. Then it became horrific. That short piece by Walton is permanently married to the image of some guy who jumps from his plane whose parachute fails to open and the camera tracks him fall all the way to the ground. That's how effective that piece of music was: 40 years later, I still see that in my head when I hear that music and it still makes me feel frightened. That piece certainly does not glorify war.

My apologies to you Peregrine. I wouldn't lump you in with the couple of self-styled moral crusaders who have been posting in this thread. I'd say that Bomber Command's strategy was one that should have produced results and ended the war but failed to do so. It wasn't unreasonable of BC to think that it would either and so my support for their attempt. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that it wouldn't work. In spite of defeat staring them plainly in the face at the start of 1945, the Germans just refused to surrender and this utter pig-headedness and crass stupidity meant that hundreds of thousands of Allied civilians in uniform, willingly or otherwise, had to sacrifice their lives to put an end to this insanity.

Why do some posters expect me to feel some sympathy for the 'poor' citizens of Nazi Germany for the rough handling they received at the hands of those nasty, horriible Allies? It's not going to happen, ever. I choose to wring my hands and mourn the deliberate extermination of 6 million Jews in Death Camps, the deliberate starvation of more than 3 million Russian POW (this particularly breaks my heart - no Geneva Convention on the Eastern front) and for the extermination and enslavement of the 'racially inferior' populations of the Nazi-occupied eastern territories, be they Poles, Slavs, Russians, or what. The Germans had lost the war at the end of 1944, never mind February 1945. But they still continued to fight on. With the allied soldiers already on their territories and the Russians poised to capture Berlin, blows like the bombing of Dresden should have forced any sane people to give up the fight. But it didn't. Instead, at least 100,000 Russian soldiers had to die in order to capture Berlin. Why should you expect the Americans, Canadians and Brits, etc, to sacrifice the lives of their citizens in uniform to save them? If they put on a uniform and go to fight tyranny, they should expect to pay the ultimate price and devastate the lives of their families, parents, wives, children, in order that you guys can sleep at night? If we'd developed a nuclear bomb in time, I'd have supported nuking Germany as well until they stopped.

Edit Double Post

No to the first and yes to the second. Sometimes you have to go to war. You have no choice in the matter. But that doesn't mean that you have to like it. It also means that you're going to get dirty and that you might have to do terrible things in order to survive. Good grief. Of course bad stuff happens to people without war. I'm not a simpleton, man. There are FOUR Horsemen of the Apocalypse, not one.

I would state that as we should look on War with abhorrence. War is the culprit here. The civilian casualties come about as a result of the war. War has been glamourised too much in the past. And with the way it's handled by the media nowadays, it makes for good TV too. The reality of war is horror. It has been that way in the past, present and will remain so for all time. Avoid war. Avoid civilian casualties.

War is immoral. Sad, but it's true. People do terrible things to each other during wars. It's never been like chess. I wish that it were too but I'm not naive and so don't expect it to. Civilians have always been targets in wars too. It's just that in the 20th Century, technological advances made them more vulnerable and effectively put them on the front line. I'm not scoring human rights violations. Just stating the obvious. You might want war to be 'good guys' versus 'bad guys' where the guys in the white hats never do anything wrong. That's Hollywood. It's never been like that. It's probably never going to be like that either. When you're in a fight for survival, you will probably be surprised at what YOU, the moral philospher, will be prepared to do to win. Oh, and moral =/= good. Hitler and some of the leading nazis were highly moral people. I've met some really obnoxious 'moral' people in my time who did no good for their community but felt superior anyway. I prefer to be a good person than a moral one any day.

Given that the Germans would have done exactly the same had they possessed the equipment to do so, who cares? Do you think they would have refrained from launching devastating 1000 bomber raids on London had they possessed the bombers to do so because it was immoral? The Dutch remember the terror bombing of their cities when the Germans violated their neutrality and invaded in 1940. The otherwise very highly cultured German nation decended into Hell in WW2. The Nazis were Evil and I don't use that label very often but in this case, I will because they wanted to enslave Europe and starve out the vast populations of slavs/poles etc in the East. There are no words to express how utterly horrific this all is. None. Further, seeing as how the Americans were so reluctant to let Mr Churchill drag them into a European war, bombing Germany from the air was the only way the Commonwealth standing alone was going to be able to hurt the Germans. And, between the wars, there was a school of thought that believed that fleets of aircraft would decide the outcome of future wars. The Brits pursued this doctrine as far as they could take it. So, yes, Bomber Harris did what he could to stop the Germans and bring about an end to the horrors that they, the Germans, inflicted on the world. Bravo!

I could see a way to do this in the game without the need for special models. If the mission is a Probe or Attack mission, defensive fortifications benefit from a camouflage bonus. In an Assault mission, we could assume that some preliminary recon has already taken place and so there is no camo bonus for fortifications.

While The Thin Red Line is a movie that is set in Guadalcanal during WW2, I don't feel that it's a war movie but rather, a philosophical study of the Human condition. Man is seen to be fighting some battle, interior or exterior, for glory or survival, while remaining utterly ignorant of the staggering beauty of his environment. Except in the case of our transcendental hero. Man never left the Garden of Eden. We still live there. We're just too wrapped up with the struggle to survive (life or death, economic or whatever) to appreciate it.

Has the gun been firing? There are a couple of tanks in your screenshot and, if the 88 has opened fire, the US, Green, 9-man squad with binoculars probably spotted the flash. It's appears to be late in the evening, 2040, and I suspect that the environmental conditions are less than perfect, although you don't appear to be playing with Shadows on so it's hard to tell, but I wouldn't be happy with that result either if the gun had not yet fired. I ask because I've called 'foul' over spotting incidents like this myself. Hey! Wait! I recognise that map so I know what the environmental conditions are. Glad to see someone has struggled through the revised campaign to the bitter (hopefully not too-bitter) end. But my original question stands. The 88 in question is on the edge of a forest behind tall bocage so it shouldn't get spotted until it has opened fire.

Regarding Japanese war movies, 'Tora Tora Tora' was interesting because the Japanese-directed scenes were so much more visually appealing than the US-directed scenes. Not submitting this as my favourite war movie though. Agreed that SPR was the most harrowing war movie of its time. Otherwise, most war movies suck balls as far as movie entertainment goes. The 5-hour TV version of 'Das Boot' is also my favourite, by a long way. It still sends shivers up and down my spine thinking about it and I was rooting for the Germans too! Now that accomplishment alone makes it an astonishing achiement in my book. But please, please, please do not mention the egregious 'U-571' movie <spits noisily> in front of any Brits or indeed any educated movie-goer. That was so offensive! The US contribution to WW2 was absolutely decisive but that was not one of them. There are plenty of other US achievements to honour in the cinema without stealing a British one and fobbing it off to gullible Americans as a US one and then adding a footnote at the end when most viewers have already left the cinema to avoid the rush.

Woo hoo! Now I would like that! Still gamey, like CMx2's explosions, but much, much better.