Ithikial_AU

Mmmm. Probably 'Colossal Cracks' with CMBN - CW Module. That was an awesome tank fight on an epic scale. ++++Spoiler++++ The moment I saw the company of Panthers take up position near the German edge as a last line of defense a little part of me died inside. Managed to get around behind them with some mad dashing and a smoke screen. ++++ Close behind may actually be from CMSF. During the British Campaign (can't remember the scenario name) - the mission to defend against the riot/militia assault onto the police station. Seeing my few British soldiers desperately try to cling on waiting to be relieved. Towards the end you dreaded any new sound contact.

It took time for the later entrants of the war to bring their forces up to speed and reform to fight a war in the 1940's. The Americans in North Africa did not outclass the Germans on the field, while the Russians had to throw a lot of weight at the Germans to come anywhere close to a victory. Things changed as the war progressed as the Allies learned and adapted to match their enemy. If they outclassed the German army in every campaign from 1942 onwards, then the Italian campaign should have been a pushover. The Russians never would have suffered a major defeat after Stalingrad. I think the allies seized more out sheer weight of Economic power they could stack up against the Germans from that point, rather than any one or two decisive battles. I can't deny the importance of Stalingrad and El Alamein to their respective theatres... but Europe as a whole? If you are talking about an entire ETO, then in my opinion that's still a little early given German actions on the East from in early 1943. Good discussion, like I'm back in Uni.

I wouldn't agree with the assessment that the Allies outclassed the Germans from 1942 onwards. Kasserine Pass, 2nd and 3rd Kharkov... not to mention there were some pretty close campaigns that turned into allied victories in 1942 and 1943 like say Salerno. You have to look at who had the strategic initiative which I think fully turned in favour of the Allies in July 1943 following Kursk and Sicily. From then on the Allies dictated where the major engagements would be fought and the Germans were always reactive rather than proactive. There will always be anomalies like the Battle of the Bulge but large scale German offensives like 1940-41 were well and truly out of the picture. I also agree with Kensal that launching Operation Barbarossa in 1941 doomed the Germans and set up their eventual defeat, though no one would have thought it at the time. I'd also add Hitler declaring war on America following Pearl Harbor was the second big mistake in 1941. It linked the Pacific and European wars, ensuring US involvement in the European theatre. Remember Roosevelt and Congress only declared war on Japan, which would have made it difficult to enter the European theatre until Hitler 'did it for him' on December 11, 1941. I'm sure the US would have eventually but there may have been a greater delay or more impetus domestically to deal with Japan first rather than Germany - but we'll never know. My two cents.

Looks interesting but can't commit due to the time frames. 1 or 2 weeks per round of PBEM is certainly doable but when time zones come into play it becomes impossible. Being on the other side of the world sucks.

Don't worry I know about HTHH but the idea was for something official to be made that linked directly into the individual applications, perhaps with more functionality or something.

I specifically said WW2 Combat Mission titles. I'll be happily returning to the modern era when Black Sea is released but the WW2 families are something special and somewhat linked. (At least in my book). I also think the British Paratrooper scarf is a brilliant idea. On top of that I think it would be great to have the option in the editor for British paratroopers to switch out helmets for the red beret. This would help distinguish them from the regular Tommy. Was also a great little bonus in the CMx1 days.

An 'Overview' Combat Mission Application which links to all other installed WW2 CM games found on the persons computer? Perhaps the main interface could be a map of Europe/North Africa with buttons over each theater to link to the other respective games in the collection. Therefore the user doesn't have to clutter his desktop with icons for whats up to 8 eventual base games. This would also be a chance to incorporate an official BF PBEM or mod organiser type feature into the mix. Of course no idea how to program anything remotely like this. Base Game Count: CMBN CMFI CM Bulge CM Ost Front 44 - 45 CM Ost Front 43 CM Ost Front 42 CM Ost Front 41 CM Afrika Ouch that will be an organisational nightmare for die hard PBEMers.

CM:"Nuts" CM: Snow and the River

For a forum of historical wargamers, it's amazing how bad some of us are at remembering recent history. BF have a brilliant track record for a software company and I'm willing to go with recent history to strongly influence my purchasing decisions. My personal experience, all the CM titles I've ever bought from BF have never disappointed, in fact most have surprised me with features I didn't expect. For example, CMAK gave me the ability to deploy Australian troops on a virtual battlefield, something I never thought I'd get the chance to do. The only things Steve and Co. could do to upset this in the near future would be: - Release a string of substandard / non-working products (which history suggests won't occur) - BF stops producing PC titles - or they sell out to Activision or EA which would probably turn Combat Mission into a First Person Shooter. Bring on Market Garden, Bulge, Black Sea and Ost Front!

I have no idea how BF is planning to tackle the Bulge & '45 Family of games, but from my reading of these forums and how BF did Italy I'm guessing it's going to be something like this... - CM: Bulge (not a module but a new base game which I'm guessing will be US forces focused) -> Oct '44 - May 45'. - CM: Commonwealth Forces Module - Packs, upgrades and juicy stuff to follow. Also it would be more accurate to say after MG is released that CMBN is June 44 - Sept 44'. Don't think geography think dates. But who knows, I'm looking forward to whatever BF releases with the CMx2 engine. :cool:

Already gave the thumbs up over the FGM. Good to hear another Aussie doing Youtube vids. You've definitely got the better okka accent out of the two of us.

Pic number 43, that's a lot of MP44's. Looking great!

Can I just give you my credit card details and you just add a few things to my account every couple of months. The chance to get other minor Commonwealth Nations and the Free French into CMFI would also be brilliant. Terrain packs if possible so we can design up airfields, ports, industrial areas etc would still be at the top of my personal wish list. It's not how you blow something up, but what you're blowing up that's important! Still liking this new direction your guys are going down.

M1 Abrams... which had a flux capacitor installed and got up to 88 miles per hour! (While being struck by lightning therefore generating the 1.21 gigawatts). My vote goes with an M18.

Curious, do these 'uncut' large maps at least find their way at least in part into the QB map folder for release? Mapping, especially large 1km x 1km or bigger maps is quite an undertaking. Would be sad for all that work to not see the light of day in some form.

You're welcome. All credit to Aris and other Mod authors though.

Um... a few things. - If it takes a a long time to find multiple definitive sources it's probably not true. - In all my readings on World War 2 over the years I've never seen it extensively discussed. - The History Channel is no longer what it used to be... The Germans did do drug testing during the war years, but widespread use on front line troops to improve performance. Yeah don't think so.

Very pretty!

Or make it possible for scenario designers to select from a handful of different background sound files to suit the situation. For example, an isolated engagement with no combat background noise vs a raging battle going on nearby if your mission is part of a bigger operation. Definitely not essential in my book but would help a little bit with the narrative designers are trying to get across with their scenarios.

Looks great JonS. So how long until release? Thanks for all your hard work with this series.

Some of the research I was doing for a possible 'Joe's Bridge' scenario suggests members of the Guards Division started to have doubts and noticed Germans defenses stiffen in the first week of September as they entered northern Belgium and approached the Dutch border. The fighting to take and hold Joe's Bridge was tight and dogged resistance south in Heerpelt was evidence of this. Enough concern to pass it along up the chain of command to Horrocks and above, probably not, but doubtful the Guards Division themselves expected the drive to Arnhem to be a simple affair.

So in short don't aim for the scripted Hollywood retelling of events? Shame you've had to slice and dice part of this scenario. When constructing scenarios as part of the official release design group are their hard limits set in place on things like size, to account for consumers hardware and advertised system requirements of the product? When testing larger scenarios would you try to aim to get testers with different PC specs to see how much of a performance hit consumers are likely to get on a mid or low end system? Still loving this series and would be a great PDF manual when it's done! Keep up the great work.

That would be the plan but with your work on CMFI still ongoing I think there is little point in putting it together just yet. Whenever you declare 'Okay I'm done with CMFI for now' will be the key for me to get started. This sort of happened by default with CMBN after you went through the CW module. The problem is with CMFI complete - is it back to CMBN once Market Garden is released?

From someone who has had to write home to Pixeltruppen mothers more than once with the excuse "Jimmy took that hill as ordered, but the Company CO forgot he had a planned arty barrage to come down upon it a couple of minutes later..." StratAI is not always guaranteed by a human player. Quick question. More about reserves rather than AI plans but is there any way for designers set an 'exit' time for off map support? ie. Your 105mm howitzers will be needed elsewhere after the first thirty minutes and no longer available. If a scenario author wanted to have a 'use it or lose it' factor involved with off map support.

I think it wouldn't be worth it as most vehicles destroyed would have a few holes in it and not much else. Not everything explodes when destroyed. What would be more aesthetically pleasing (in my opinion) along this line of thought would be the ability for map/scenario makers to place 'long dead wrecks' as terrain pieces which can look more shot up, burnt to a crisp, tracks lost etc. Would help show time so to speak as a battle flows back and forth over an area. They would also be great improvised cover pieces and also possible terrain based victory locations. This can in part be done already in the editor so it's the reason I think it's never going to happen. This is along with the crashed aircraft/glider terrain pieces on the never ending wishlist.