costard

The Russians and French took a bath on the invasion of Iraq - both had quite a few billions in contracts already in place that were declared null and void once Saddam's government fell (I have no clue as to what China's exposure was). Both countries manufacture arms, though, so the losses would have been ameliorated with the escalation to armed conflict in the region (and elsewhere). You could look at it from Standard Oil's point of view - they've paid for the right to exploit these resources two or three times now, getting the US taxpayer to foot the bill this time around is (was) a sensible commercial strategy. The fact that they've mis-estimated the risk equation (again) is just par for the course for most corporate boards over the last decade.

JonS, I guess I could read a little more carefully... if I weren't such a nuffnuff.

Ooh, ooh - and the raised heart rate from the nicotine means that the calories from the donut are burned quicker, so you can do both. Tobacco is your friend.

Nice one Jon. The sciencedaily link doesn't specify the degree of heat required to get the formation of the nasties, nor does it say whether these are a byproduct of the processing required to get the HFCS in the first place (my suspicion - a bleach, preservative or catalyst left over as a "harmless" additive, expensive to eradicate from the end product.)

The leopard doesn't change his spots - and why would you mistake the meaning of the man in the suit? It's all about muscles, M'sewer Emrys. Tat doilies - that doesn't sound dirty enough to be something to worry about, unless I've stumbled upon some bizarre slang for a deflowering ceremony.

I'm just back from the pub, Loeffe, so take this as you will: I'd try re-installing, then re-patching, the game. I can't see that any other way of finding the fix (if there is one) is going to be easier. As always, comments from the peanut gallery welcome

My reading is that the air war over Britain was understood and planned for by the UK as far back as 1936. This is why money was put into development and production of the Spitfire and Hurricane and the training of the Air Reserve when very little else was fully funded. As for amphibious ops - the Brits have always had some practice with the form, from the receiving end (Norse, Viking, Saxon, etc) and in attack (the Napoleonic Wars). As late as the 1980's the lesson was again learned when the Atlantic Conveyor was sunk in the Falklands with most of the heavy lift troop helicopters on board. The difficulty of the terrain meant that most of the subsequent major troop movements were carried out by landing craft.

The mute flute.

Unfortunately, no. So make sure you have a VDU for the Javelin before you grab the missiles. This is something we might expect to be changed for the next family of CM, if we put enough effort into the begging, bribing and grovelling.

I've found I more often get the impulse to shoot my own men when they fail to execute orders as given; rampant frustration taking toll on my forebearance. I'm not too worried about prisoners going back to their own side - it tells me where my opponent has troops inside my lines.

Insurance disclaimer sez you can't break sumfink already broke. The idea of helping the neighbours cope with the the hornet's nest you stirred up is predicated by a wish to help anyone at all, ever. Particularly if you live half a world away. If your populace is denying you the taxes to spend because they selfishly refuse to be employed, well, guess who has landed in the ****? Good thing the Afghanis don't vote in the US elections.

Heh, or an Apache involved in some behind-the-lines-blue-on-blue gets taken out by an SAS squad.

I think it's about being the difficult, but right, thing to do. That doesn't mean it is difficult or right (more like impossible and wrong), but it's the thought that counts. Look at it this way - your military, the people who survive and stay in, is keeping it's pool of operational experience through a generational change in personnel.

Yep - if you can only manage 160 for a first innings you can't expect to win. Good result for the series.

I've marked 7.62 target shoots - a crack as the bullet goes overhead (mostly due to my being in a pit, if you're in the open it's far less noticable) followed by the boom of the rifle 300-900 metres away. If you figure the bullet is aimed at you, drawing a line between it's impact (dust) and yourself and extending it back gives a direction - but I can't see you doing it by sound alone.

wot, two wooden legs making a fire, sort of fing? Sounds more like Joe's metier.

In the days of sail cannon had a special round for felling masts - I urge BF to include the special "chain-shot" round. Say two or three per tank.

It's how he attracts females. Seems to work - he even gets a shot at the occasional vertebrate.

It's true - we're all superlative sailors. But the knottiness of our heads is due to the annual rutting displays, where we line up in teams and run headlong into each other. It's a young man's sport, the elders are on the sidelines scoring. The display is more of a stimulus than a selection process you see, though if you survive to be an elder you do get to score.

She's messing with your mind, Aff. Take the kids to the Hunter to learn how to make good wine and eat good food.

Attack of the willie-willies.

Alright! I'll give it a go: hope you're right. Thanks!

g'day Ole. I know what you're getting at - many times I've wished for a markup pin to jam into the terrain. However, I think this feature would detract from the game, in that it would exacerbate the problems of God spotting and make the game easier to play. How is this a bad thing? Well, the idea of a game is to pit yourself against another player, human or AI, take part in a contest. Skills need to be learned and developed to enable the player to "get into" the game and it is this that makes up the greater part of the enjoyment of the game ('splody things, an expanding technical knowledge base and the imagined lamentation of the enemy's womenfolk make up most of the rest). To include the in-game labeling or marking of the terrain would take the need for some of this developed skill (memory or some sort of logic process) away and, in my opinion, lessen the value of the game. Now, if you're talking about a *real* battleground management system, where intelligence is collated, evaluated and plotted - fer sure, markups are a wonderful tool. You see this being simulated with the CMSF's use of the marker icons, "?" etc. By the way, it is possible to save a screenshot of movement orders (in WEGO) to keep as a reminder of plans - particularly useful when your PBEM opponent is reluctant to send a turn more often than twice a month or so - but it is far easier to do in CM1 because you can have ALL the movement orders showing; CM:SF only shows a platoon's movement orders. Maybe a tweak here for CM:Normandy? my $0.02. Cheers.

Thanks for that Joe - you made my day.

Kids do ok here - lawyers and taxmen get short shrift. Nobody is keen to apologise for MeatEtr's sense of humour, but at least he has one. Viva la republique!