TrailApe

That description of that particular appendage was used in our SLR stoppage drills, "hook, cock and look - use you stinky finger! (you clicked up a lever that kept the breech parts back as part of the process to find out why the rifle wasn't blatting out 7.62)

hmmm - considering the British forces were so inept, possibly the US forces might have absorbed some of the lessons the Brits had learned before they caming charging to the rescue (lets face it the Brits were so crap it's amazing they hung on long enough for the US to save them). Even if the lesson to take on board was how NOT to do it, surely following all those high level tactical blunders there would have been an impressive pick list on what to avoid? After all it was the same enemy the Brits had been blundering around with for the last couple of years - or here's a thought, perhaps after the first few cock ups the US started listening to their (apparently) uber crap allies, who despite being so woeful, had managed to keep an army in the field against Rommel and his mates. Just a thought.

And then watch the US forces do the same. Yes, almost impossible to replicate.

'Most' implies 'not all', therefore there could have been a few WO3's knocking about in Normandy. Apparently the rank was not abolished until 1947.

Actually - that's just reminded me of why the CW forces didn't need a rifle grenade. Each section had a proffessional cricketer in it that could hit a wicket from Deep Cover Point with a mills grenade, so rifle grenades were superfluos. The Commando mag once had a story based around a bloke that was a pro-cricketer and therefore could do absolutely wizard things with a pineapple.

Only works if its strong tea with condensed milk and two sugars. .

Spam? Ha - the Uber-Killer was Tinned Pilchards. The cans were deadly when thrown and the contents were the stuff that started Medieval Plagues.

To those that have not had a childhood dominated by 'Commando', 'The Hotspur' and 'The Victor' comics, some of these phrases - and the artwork of a few of the CW Scenarios - might not be of any significance. "Donner und Blitzen"! was always a good one - though as a 8 year old I always wondered what two of Santy's reindeer were doing with the 3rd Riech (and where was Rudolph?)

One of the facets of this game is that you can give an order tor pixeltruppen, but as in real life, they may ignore or disobey you. For example "Hide" - if your troops are of good morale and well trained (elite/veteran/etc) they will hold fire on an advancing enemy until the last minute. And because they are well trained, whilst hiding they won't fidget, drop weapons, stand up and relieve themselves on the nearest tree and thus will not be as spotted as soon as a bunch of green incompitent nitwits who empty a couple of mags in the general direction of the enemy (who is out of range), give away their position and then cower dribbling with funk at the bottom of their trench. Same as Assault/Move/Quick etc - if you send your lads into a kill zone, they soon loose interest in what you want them to do and it may take a while before their moral improves and they trust you enough to listen to what you are telling them. Once you have got the hang of the controls my one BIG piece of advice would be to exercise patience. This is not a clicky zoomy game and banzai charges don't get you far in Normandy. Have fun and welcome to the Legion of the Lost Weekends.

I think your thinking of Leeds fans. They're as micey as a box of cod. (Them being Yorkshire n'all ) Seriously though, the Footie fans seem to have got their act together and are not as bad as they used to be - although there will always be the lunatic/dissafected fringe that will use big events like European and International games to try something tricky.

I find the game totally unplayable - the West Riding Division and no Sheffield accents, no Leeds accents? I'm taking this matter further and will be contacting my Member of Parliament.

One of the mandatory elements that was required in a request for fire was 'Description' So "Fire Mission Brigade - Lone Sniper in Tree"* would probably not get the resouurces * although this was a few years ago on the Sailsbury Training area (it was a shoot primarily to expend what ammunition was left after 3 days firing - the paperwork surrounding handing back arty ammo is a right pain). It raised a chuckle in the various CP's and amongst the various HeadSheds who had gathered to observe the last afternoon of firing.

It's not that I'm a total plonker, it's just that I'm trying for perfection. Since CMSF came along seem more personal, but even more so when it's your own team so to speak. Well - they're Scots - but I'm playing it as if they have a few English in their ranks, so casualties are hurting me. Now if they were Man U fans I'd send them forward in human waves, but you just can't be sure can you?

Quick - gimme a grid for them! I'm re-running the third one (for about the umpteenth time it seems) so any advanced 'intelligence' from recce'ing (cheats or otherwise) is gratefully accepted.

Perhaps to create a 'centre of excellence'? It must have been no fun for these MMG soldiers - taken away from your own supply line and farmed out to an unfamiliar unit. This is not borne out in 'Accidental Warrior' by Goeffrey Picot. He ended up as the Mortar Platoon officer in Hampshires in 50 Div and seems to have been with the battalion constantly, either as a full platoon, which seemed to be the norm or the mortars being split up into pairs and allocated out to the various companies. I'll check tonight to make sure these were 4.2's (they might be 3")

And once you have ran through the CW scenarios, get into the designer andload up the stock games and replace the US forces with Brits/Poles/Canadians and then you have a whole new bunch of games. Whilst the CW forces don't have the organic firepower, they do have other aces up their sleeve - even as basic as swapping out a jeep for a Bren Carrier - instand mini armour! And if you are feeling particularly creative, swap the vanilla Germans with SS - although you will have to re-create the AI moves.

Any battle that takes Britain out of the war. Can you imagine what resources the Germans would have been able to free up if their cities and centres of production were not gettiing flattened by night and day? Just think of all those 88's! And on a side note - by what factor would the formation of a German stategic bomber force have made the Soviets life uncomfortable during 42-45? Please understand that I'm not a fly-boy and have no particular axe to grind, but I reckon the RAF/USAF were putting the equivalent of a couple of divisions each over the Riech every day and night.

oodles of Arty

is that the 1812 'plans' or a bit later?

It had been unlimbered and I just told them to move. Being to super switched on cookies that ALL gunners are, they just got on with it. i think we need to play around in the editor before we get the full picture.

Well, just did a quick test and my 17lber is trundling across the landscape - to be fair though its flat as a pancake. JonS - that 12 hours thing - surely thats dug in with cover - now I know the light gun is a mere young'un when compared to the 17lber, but even taking into account we had to the wheel off and spin the barrel to bring it into action we could be set up in all respects ALTHOUGH NOT DUG IN in about 5-10 minutes - cam net up, ammo set out, gun set in centre of arc and aiming points registered. However digging a gun pit - by hand - would bring it into the 12 hour period, possibly more depending on the ground. (obviously different types of gunnery involved here - Field vs A/Tank)

Yes I can see where you are going but I don't think that your point is relevant. We are not talking about a gun pull of 200 metres here racing against 6 or 12 or 18 other guns, we are talking about relocating one gun - although I'm not sure how far as Para didn't specify. All I was pointing out was that it is physically possible to manually beast the 17lber . Now why BF has (apparently) made that impossible MAY be associated with your point - ie a gun comes associated with a shedload of stores and that before you have to take account of the ammo. Personally I reckon its to do with the 'You are in battle - so no tank-riders' situation, and I agree, only a nutter would drag big lumps of metal around the fields if the enemy approach was imminent.

No ammo, only the sights as the layer had to set the sights as the last act of the race. I only did it in internal competitions within the regiment, although other members of our battery got around quite a bit doing the gun pull, not sure what rules they had to adhere to. Good fun but ridiculously competitive - lots of minor injuries after one.

Remeber it's on wheels - and if you can lift it to the point of balance, its not that each man has 1000lbs to lift. Part of the gun stores will be drag ropes, and the hubs will have little hooks on them, so a few guys lifting and the rest pushing/dragging. Also you can get help from spare bods around. Should be do-able.

Aye - well remember it often took Engineers with demo charges to punch holes through the bocage, so 75mm might not have the desired effect. Keep trying though!