Cranky

I've just been playtesting a friend's CM scenario - it depicts the hypothetical re-capture of the English port of Folkestone after the Germans hypothetically seize it during Operation Sealion, September 1940. We're trying to get it as realistic as possible - given that it's hypothetical. This battle has been wargamed many times, and yet I'm still having a bit of trouble finding out exactly what equipment was available to the Kiwis, and the exact order of battle that would've been likely. If anyone out there would like to contribute their knowledge, it would be appreciated. This much I do know: The New Zealand forces that were tasked with counter-attacking Dover and Folkestone were both part of 2nd New Zealand Division, and consisted of 2 formations: MILFORCE and 5th Brigade. MILFORCE (Brigadier Miles) "C" Sqn. Div. Cav. 32 A/Tk Battery "C" Coy. 21 Bn. MG Coy. PLUS British: 'C' Sqn. 8th RTR. 5th Brigade: (Brigadier Hargest) 21st, 22nd, 23rd Battalions. My questions: (1) What vehicles were NZ 2nd Div Cav equipped with? Carriers? (2) Where was the 28th (Maori) Battalion? - the 28th was an 'extra' battalion and was moved around 2nd NZ Div as needed - to me, it would've made sense to use these high-morale troops in the difficult attack on Folkestone... (3) What artillery assets did 5th Brigade have? I have seen mentioned 25-pounders, as well as French 75mm Field Guns. (4) What kind of tanks equipped 'C' Sqn. 8th RTR? - I'm guessing Matilda I, Matilda II and Mark VIB Light Tanks? PLEASE NOTE: as much as I appreciate ANY suggestions, be aware that I've already spent 7 hours on the internet reading the easily-available sources - so I'm really just hoping that one of you might have already studied this subject previously, and be able to add something I can't find easily. Many thanks in advance

I'm still playing CMBB and CMAK after years & years... They are fun, deceptively simple games with a lot going on under the hood, and are very rewarding when played against another human. The wide range of units and the powerful, easy-to-use Editor enable of lot of interesting variations. Eventually I will tire of it and move on, but not yet. When I do, there will be various new products waiting for me; e.g. CM:BN and the other CM2 games. This thought makes me happy

"used to asking humans for help". I'm pretty sure the responses on sites like Yahoo! Answers are posted by humans....I'm not sure I can vouch for those that post here at BFC....

go to START, then RUN, then type: dxdiag then click OK. You may get a prompt asking you if you mind if a check is done via the Internet to make sure your Signatures are OK - me, I just Say No to that Next it will display a 'Direct X Diagnostic Tool' which will enable you to fiddle about with Direct X if you so wish. The info you want is the last entry in the System Information displayed: DirectX Version: Just a thought for you: whenever I have a problem like that, I just make it a SIMPLE QUESTION, and Google it! You will find an Answers-type page easily. Try this in Google: how know direct x version Took me straight to Yahoo Answers Hope this helps.

File sent If anyone else needs a copy, send me an email and I will send you the Mighty Map Converter - its Neat! Thank you Pyewacket, wherever you are.....

It's NOT perfect - but it's pretty close. And BTW folks, did you know you can use it to convert a Battle to an OP and vice-versa? This is handy for when you suddenly decide that your project will work better in the other format - instead of having to re-do your map, you just convert it. Nice. Copy dispatched to Erwin.

And a Big Thankyou to rockinharry for sending me a copy of Pyewacket's Map Converter! Please Note: rockinharry tested his copy before sending it to me, and got an error message very similar to the error message that originally prompted me to ask if anybody had this prog. There is a nice easy solution, it turns out, and I now have a working Map Converter - nice I have sent this solution to rockinharry. Simply: if you get an error message when trying to run Map Converter, that mentions a missing file, do a google search for that file name plus the word 'missing'. You will quickly find a page that provides the file, together with simple instructions for 'installation' This is obviously a problem that is bigger than just Map Converter If anyone out there needs a copy of Map Converter, let me know. Oh, and by the way folks, I meant Depository

PYEWACKET'S MAP CONVERTER NEEDED Hello All - I just went to use my copy of Map Converter, and found that it has become corrupted - probably in my last computer changeover. Does anyone out there have a copy of this great little prog, or know where I might obtain it? May I suggest that a copy be made available for download from the Suppository, and perhaps from The Scenario Depot as well? It's a VERY useful tool for scenario designers. If Pyewacket can be found, his permission should be asked, of course, but his website has long since disappeared, and he was always willing to supply his Map Converter to anyone that wanted it. For all I know, he lurks here, under a different name

"Maybe its an iphone app" It is: http://mashable.com/2009/12/05/augmented-reality-iphone/

Thanks for that link, Paul - although I must confess I've already got it I've read a LOT of stuff about Tarawa, and watched a lot of documentaries.... At the end of the day though, one has to make the battle playable and fun....the real battle was anything but fun - a brutal nightmare for everyone concerned... Compromises have to made in order to make it work within CMAK... Playtesting so far indicates that it's both challenging and fun, and I think captures the essence of the real battle.....

And now I see from my other thread - the Japanese voices one - that you've already seen my Tarawa project. Like you, I've tried using sound files from other games without much success. I'm fairly confident that I can put together a reasonable Mod Package for the Pacific and also for Manchuria - a little bit of imagination from players is required...or suspension of disbelief? If anybody wants to be involved in either project, feel free to email me: ant2man <at> iinet.net.au

LOL - that's classic, j2d - I myself am the person formerly known as 'Antman' If you would like to see some of your great Pacific mods on display in an upcoming project of mine, check this out: http://webandofbrothers.yuku.com/topic/13260/Modding-Voices-in-CMAK-Beach-Red As I say there, you and the other Mod Authors will get full credit once the Scenario is finished.... Thank you for all your work - I've been slowly Modding CMAK with various people's Mods to get a Proper Pacific flavour.... For example, IIRC any Wooden Fences are by Juju Best Fence Mod around )

No worries - there was a bunch of Pacific Mods done for CMAK - by Junk2Drive and others - that are truly awesome. Interested parties can find these at the Mod Warehouse.... Everyone I'm sure will be playing CM:BN pretty soon, but I'll still be fiddling with CM1 for a while.....I've always been a bit Slow....

"....and the Germans and Italians as Japanese" Hey Paul, I'm really interested in your CMBB Mods - I've been working on (yet another) Scenario depicting a battle between the Japanese and Russians in Manchuria - 1938. I found a bunch of great mods for CMAK that convert Italians into Japanese - and even some sound mods for CMBO, that have Japanese voices and I've been slowly & painstakingly making these work in CMBB....or trying to..... I don't suppose you could tell me where to find your mods? Are they at the Mod Warehouse?

Correction: The LVT/Priest Kangaroo can carry a Squad + a 1- or 2-Man Team Or two Teams, as long as each is 6 men or less Just thought I'd make that clear

"...though you'll still have tracks" Thanks, Wicky - that's exactly the kind of thing I wanted to know, disappointing though it is. I have that LVT Mod - it IS great - available from the Mod Warehouse. The base vehicle was the Priest Kangaroo, which means the LVT can carry a Squad + a Team - nice

I've been working on a few scenarios for CMAK and CMBB lately where I wanted to do something a little bit 'different'. One involves a clash between British and German forces in East Africa in WW1, and another depicts actions during the Russian Civil War. Both of these scenarios involve vehicles used as riverine craft, which after much playtesting turns out to work pretty good. I'd like to make the transformation complete by having mods that make the vehicles look like boats. I've never done any Modding myself, so I'm not sure what's possible. Would anyone care to offer an opinion, or even volunteer to have a crack at it? The river monitors I have in mind are pretty simple ships with a single turret - it seems to me that modding CM tank BMP's wouldn't be too hard - but what do I know? ANY ADVICE OR HELP GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED

That's great, Johnny - thanks so much.

I've been working for quite some time on a CMAK Op that recreates the US Marine landing on Tarawa Atoll, November, 1943. I've assembled a bunch of other people's visual mods that give a proper Pacific look to the game. AMTRACS, Palm Trees, Japanese Flags...and so on. Some details of my project here, with screenshots: http://webandofbrothers.yuku.com/topic/13260/Re-Modding-Voices-in-CMAK-Beach-Red?page=-1 I have also found a bunch of Japanese voices in WAV format that were done for CMBO. I would like to use them in CMAK to complete the transition to the Pacific. CAN anyone direct me to a list of the WAV slots in CMAK? I need to replace German and Italian voices with Japanese ones. Once this is done, the other scenarios that have been done for the Pacific - several great ones by Hans come to mind - will be rendered much more realistic, and this may encourage other designers to produce new Pacific War scenarios - I myself have a number of ideas, including the battle for Hong Kong, as well as Australian and American troops in New Guinea. I hope to make a Pacific Mod Package available - perhaps via the Mod Warehouse - that can be downloaded and applied to a copy of CMAK to create a full Pacific War Experience. The original authors of these Mods will be given full credit for their work.

"The number of battles per operation only goes up to 20, but the battle number you can assign reinforcements to arrive on goes up over 100" Skarg, I just had to go and test that, and you know what? You're right! I went as far as Battle #701 before my mousing finger got tired. That's CRAZY, Man.... I didn't know that - I wonder what exploits exist with that wrinkle? And does it cause a problem using battle slots beyond 20, as you suggest it does? Interesting....thanks for that

Several Strategic-level boardgames of The Great Patriotic War feature railroad conversion, most notably (for me, 'cause I played it for years) Panther Games' 'Trial Of Strength'. It is actually an enormous problem to reload the freight, and is avoided whenever possible. Containerisation changed many things: not just maritime transport : a brief reflection on the reality of what is involved in loading a 50+ car freight train will reveal why it made more sense to convert the rail lines. Article discusses such efforts: http://www.feldgrau.com/articles.php?ID=9 Consider also (as Feldgrau article does) Armoured Trains and Railway Artillery - you are NOT going to rebuild 'Karl' and "Dora' on to new, different-gauge chassis....

'hadn't saved any earlier versions, so took a few hours' solemn break' LOL - I know that feeling - "Breathe, be Calm - there's nothing you can do about it...don't smash computer in a rage..." In my fairly extensive fiddling with the Editors in CMBB and CMAK, I've noticed a lot of subtle and sometimes non-reproducible bugs - it's very hard to say what might be causing your problems - so SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. And I reiterate: SAVE. As I mentioned above, a map that won't PREVIEW won't play either, so you can use this fact to test your map without having to exit the Editor. I'm pretty sure that you can't schedule reinforcements for any battles beyond 20....might have been something else? Good luck with it.

I'm running XP, but I have noticed a few things over the years that seem to render Operations non-functional - generally it has been that the map is too big in one direction. There also seems to be an issue with too much water. The only way I know to recover from such problems is to revert to a previously saved version of the map and tinker with it until it loads OK. A sure sign that an Op has 'gone bad' is that when you press PREVIEW in the Editor, it won't display it, instead you get a dull beep. This stuff finally taught me to Save my work constantly - I hope you did Perhaps others can shed more light. One possibility that occurs is to try loading the map into Pyewacket's Map Converter - just maybe if you convert it to CMAK or convert it to a CMBB Battle and then convert it back? That's an utter long shot - just a wacky idea, I have no idea if it would work. I have Map Converter if anyone needs it. email: ant2man <at> iinet.net.au

Thanks so much for all your replies - I've been locked out of the BFC Forums for 2 weeks or so by that 'Admin Has Banned Your IP Address' thing I was lucky enough to find a fellow CM player online (at WeBob) who had only recently driven out into the Libyan desert to look at WW2 battle sites. He sent me some photos which very much confirm what people have been saying here. http://webandofbrothers.yuku.com/ Look in the Forum 'Scenario Discussion', and the Thread 'The Western Desert in the CMAK Editor' for the pics and discussion. The same WeBob member also provided me with the URL of a website maintained by a Libyan General who has an interest in Rommel and WW2 history - it's well worth a look: http://www.rommelinlibya.com/ Thanks again to everyone for their help - cheers, Matt

Thanks, Kingfish, for that tip - When I said "Soft Sand - Soft Ground tiles" I really meant: ARE THERE AREAS OF SOFT SAND IN THAT AREA (that would represent a greater chance of bogging, as the Soft Ground Tiles in CMAK do?) thanks, Matt