herr_oberst

Very well, I shall tell your mother to go back into the house. You want a battle? Then lets get ready to return this Cesspool to its beginnings. For too long have the Peng threads been full of inane driven and totally devoid of challenge, gamey taunts, whining, and battle reports. Runeling, a setup will be on its way to you, and oh what a setup it shall be. Play for the honor of your house if you dare, but I declare a 'sig line' match. Winner chooses the losers sig line for a week.

On a sadder note, I was perusing some older threads (read: ancient) in the archives, and stumbled on this particularly nasty post by the Bard... 12/20/2000 at 12:57am I'd always wondered why that was such a bleak Christmas way back then... Well, while the cat is away, the Squire will play. A reprised Mormon Wife, whose significance is no doubt lost on the less tenured of the Cesspool... Oh, I'm sure the Just-stickier will come on bemoaning how no true Mormon wife was ever photographed in color, and how dealing with Mormon Wives should be left in the hands of those more experienced with them (yeech, now that's an unpleasant thought - are you quite sure you are in Chicago and not somewhere in Utah?) Joe Shaw, consider this your comeuppance. Your Squire awaits your bidding... although you might want to hire a food taster if you intend to have me fetch your food and drink...

*sheesh* How long you been saving that one up Boo??? Ever since perusing last month's Reader's Digest? Have any 'Humor in Uniform' snippets you'd like to get off your chest? Now's the time boy... "Oh boy, that was a good one... can't wait until I can spring this pitiful little quip in the MBT..." Drivel like that would make all the Olde Ones turn over in their graves... Hmm... perhaps there is some merit in that post after all...

Several 'it' moments... #1: Finding the initial CMBO Alpha AAR online, and watching that battle unfold, cursing Fionn and Moon for not posting turn updates as fast as I wanted them. #2: CMBO: Going down to view level 1 right behind my Tiger commander, and riding along as my pixeltruppen, Tiger and Stugs assaulted the town. #3: CMBO (several minutes later): Going up in flames right behind my Tiger commander when 3 Hellcats appeared on the ridge above, and blasted the Tiger.

*plucks a banjo string, eliciting a tense, high pitched tone just before the string breaks* Ayup, no slack around these parts...

Leave it to an old Peng post to make you feel almost... wistful. There, I've said it, and I know you were all thinking it.

There, fixed that post for ya...

Does the view through the trees remain consistent for a given player across loading? If so, it might be a one time 'orientation' or 'rendering' issue (i.e., does the game save the positioning of the trees for a given player view). If so, then that would just be additional data that needs to go into the save file / pbem file. If it changes each loading for every player, that has other implications (the view you had when you issued order may not be the view used when the engine calcs its results)... most unfortunate.

Years ago I worked on a project that attempted to determine the best path for attempting to "safely" remove nuclear waste from a proposed plant on Long Island (yes, this was the late '80s, early 90's). A project chock full of GIS mapping data, population densities, and risk analysis. Throughout the project, we all debated whether towing a trailer full of radioactive elements right down through the middle of Manhattan was a wise course of action. One of those typical "shortest route vs catastrophic risk" analyses. Unfortunately, that route was deemed one of the least desirable (on the plus side, there were an awful lot of lawyers in that area). I can now see that we erred greatly in our recommendation... if I had known then what I know today, I would have sent the disposal route straight past Stuka's new home for the win!

Agreed... one of the things I have to constantly remind myself is that while we all think of our brilliant point-and-click plans will work perfectly, what we are actually doing is offering suggestions to our troops. In good shape, not previously stressed, with reasonable cover, and relative parity, our pixeltruppen will perform the requested actions. Vary one or more of those factors from the desired state, and (as mentioned earlier here - or was it another thread?), you may well have a bunch of Uphams on your hands, refusing to do much of anything. Just last might, I was cursing the squad that couldn't manage to put down a solo MP40-wielding german in a trench. I watched in dismay as he dismantled the better part of the squad as they closed, then picked off the remaining "Uphams" as they broke and went face down at close range... it was a gambit, and I paid for it. To resurrect an old CMBO players sig line: "CMBO... all the frustration of golf without all the exercise!"

At the end of part 1, I hope that one soldiers mom wasn't watching... taking a hit right there center screen. Ouch! Cool video... next one needs more clankety things though

Sure, send it my way as well.

Hopefully Mad Mike requisitioned some bags of paint to throw in the general direction of the enemy (one of my favorite episodes, right next to the one with the old, crazed German WWI pilot who challenged Race to aerial combat in old biplanes!).

Yeah, and while you're playing the Germans, play just ONE German... Barkmann. You get to drive and command the Panther, that's it! No fair moving or issuing orders to the crunchies. Tons of fun.

I stand (well, sit) corrected... Marco was the mod guy, wasn't he?

Or the players who resort to 'gamey' tactics will find opponents somewhat scarce in supply. 'Gamey' tactics are a point of discussion between opponents. If you find a particular action or set of actions 'gamey', there's nothing wrong with getting a gentleman's agreement with your opponent before starting the scenario or QB. Back in the CMBO days, there were a nice set of 'Rules of Engagement' (IIRC, they were referred to as 'Marco's Rules', which dealt with the purchase side of things to ensure relative parity for QBs, voluntarily adopted by opponents. I don't know if those have been re-created for CMBN. Of course, if you're in the mood, there's nothing wrong with an all armor big cat and heavy/jumbo slugfest (as long as the map doesn't resemble a pool table)... If you're refereeing a bigger operation, it would be best to 'set the ground rules' early, but creative players will always try to push the edges. What's gamey? Final turn 'jeep/kubel' rushes to a victory locations (exploiting the game clock)... Shelling opponent setup areas turn 1 (just bad form)... Cherry-picked units (rarity points deal with this quite well)... Just the fact that we have map edges in the game is unrealistic, but something that we know is a limitation, and everyone leverages. I don't need to extend my covered arc to the right if I'm moving up the right side of the map, or my HMG is positioned at the edge of the map.

Probabilities aside, I have had a 'shrek team land a top hit on a Sherman from 230 meters on the third try while playing 'Barkmann's Corner', a great little scenario. For real fun, imagine yourself as ONLY Barkmann. You can't touch or change the infantry placement or actions... it's just you and your Panther. Try that one for fun, fun, fun.

Yes... Hiram, off to the deep recesses of the 'pool with you... and take your little niblet friends with you... and do try and keep the noise down as you enjoy your 'private time'... Ugh, just saying that makes me want to wash.

Well, not quite a waltz... Major Victory aside, it cost a fair number of good men... Courage and Fortitude (and Patience) indeed! 1: Engenders a new respect for just how long a reach an AT gun can have. B: Splitting teams is de rigeur for coordinating a decent assault, and mind which weapons end up in which split group. 3 7/8: Offered a reminder of how badly I suck at getting my heavy weapons into effective positions. Were I to try that first battle a second time, I'd do a lot differently, but the game is still afoot. Can't say as I like to first look at that bridge map... gonna be a bugger to cross all that territory...

Call Seattle and Chicago and tell them to hide all the sheep and small housepets?

If Boo can do it, so can you! (Hmm... have to talk to Steve about licensing that particular remark as part of CM marketing...) Seriously, if you're new to Battlefront games, or an old hand that skipped the whole modern era set of CMSF, then expect to take your lumps. Very similar games, but the nuances are different. And unlike most anything else out there. Battlefront games have the reputation of being a thinking man's game... they are. In short, you'll fare far better if you do think, and learn, and read up on period tactics. If you plan to advance your pixeltruppen from A to B, get your camera down and follow that path... where are you vulnerable? Can you interdict the line of sight with smoke? Can you lay suppressive fire on any unfriendly unit positions? What terrain can you use to your advantage? My first "Road to Berlin" attempt was going smoothly until my lead Shermans crossed the hedge gap by the farm entrance, and it was downhill from there. But expect to replay your first scenario a couple of times, many scenarios have multiple AI plans, and won't play out the same every time. Even if you encounter the same AI plan, I'd expect you to perform better than the last time. Barkman's Corner can be great fun, and good for iterative play. Winning is fun, winning with near zero losses is even more fun!

One of the things I love about the new game... all the detail. You could have just posted the first pic... "Oooo, that's gonna leave a mark..." "Sorry, make that 4 marks..."

And here I was thinking that your witty reparte would be something along the lines of: "I'm not a mamby-pamby girlie-man, but my pixeltruppen play like one in CMBN."

How do I play the game??? With a bottle of Lagavulin. It works equally well to toast the victories, and drown the sorrows, so I really win either way.

I'm pretty sure we could find a used copy of "Boo's Clues" out there on Amazon or somewhere for a good deal less than $20... might be a bit of a scratch and dent sale, but it's not like we think he'll actually use it...