altipueri

I usually play drunk. It's amazing how careless you can be with other mens lives.

I had to go to SW Scotland last year. with a couple of hours off I drove south of Newton Stewart to Garlieston - and discovered work on the Mulberry harbour was done there. Below - cribbed from a web article on the harbours (overall, not just Garlieston - The scale of the project was enormous and was in danger of over-stretching the capacity of the UK's civil engineering industry. From late summer of 1943 onwards three hundred firms were recruited from around the country employing 40,000 to 45,000 personnel at the peak. Men from trades and backgrounds not associated with the construction industry were drafted in and given crash courses appropriate to their work. Their task was to construct 212 caissons ranging from 1672 tons to 6044 tons, 23 pier-heads and 10 miles of floating roadway. Most of the concrete caissons were manufactured on the River Thames and the River Clyde in some cases using hastily constructed dry docks. The steel "Beetle" floats were assembled in Richborough, Kent, the concrete Beetles at Southsea, Marchward and Southampton and the pier-heads and buffer ramps at the Morfa site Hughes had used for the manufacture of his Hippo caissons. Trials continued to be run in the Garlieston area of the Solway, even during the manufacturing phase, on for example, the buffers.

Save and Reload or Rage Quit. Probably in equal quantity.

Do you play with the screen colours like your paintings?

I still don't believe the war was in colour.

Interesting. Much about tank commanders getting shot. Lots of indirect fire. Lots of shambolic goings on - much like when I play CM.

WEGO. It's in the CM DNA. If I want a fun click fest I play Sudden Strike. But for real operational class it is Command Ops.

Oh no I've been **** by the nanny state.

I went all the way down the right and blew the **** out of the krauts I recall. Killed Schrodinger's cat too.

Command Ops - Battles from the Bulge. It's a Matrix published game by Australian Panther Games- also has an Arnhem and Aegean version. Some say its the best AI of its kind.

Even hinting you like CMx1 and its scenario generator. Having CM1 in your name might draw flak too.

If your officer's dead and the sergeants look white, Remember it's ruin to run from a fight: So take open order, lie down, and sit tight, And wait for supports like a soldier. Wait, wait, wait like a soldier... Kipling , again. You've got me going now.

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, And the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains Kipling

Great site. Surprisingly short distances for some of the shots, and surprisingly many misses from what you may think would be a certain hit. Playing a game at home with a beer in the hand isn't quite the same as being there I guess.

Does the random map generator still work with the ETO mod - and is it an easy mod to install? I have a poor track record of installing mods (and patches) - if it's possible to install/unzip into the wrong directory I'll do it. In fact the only really successful mod I installed for a game was the Hellenic war mod for Medieval Total War - the first version - and so that must be ? 2005.

I'm on holiday with a netbook and couldn't resist a quick CMx1 battle. I know there are some issues that annoy people - such as the rush for objectives by the AI, but overall I still find this a great game for a quick battle.

Plays fine on my £180/$200 Asus netbook. Oh, sorry that's CMx1.

These modern bridges, just aren't built like the ones in my youth.

The game is turning into a sort of Space/Fantasy FPS where there's a core of regular players who know all the tricks and power ups and covered this and that and ""HA HA Blew you up NOOB"

I agree. It's rubbish at the moment.

Exactly, as your by-line says: "Kill 'em all. Let God sort out the innocent."

Compassion? From someone who plays a game about killing people. Let's have a new box on the UI so that just as you are about to blow up Fritz a message pops up saying "Fritz's mother worries about him, particularly since her only other son died at Stalingrad."

If you look at page 28 of Osprey's Panther vs Sherman : Battle of the Bulge which you may get if you Google "was Sherman gyro stabiliser used" You find some interesting stuff: Gyro was single axis only. Was useful for quicker laying of the gun - once the tank stopped. Due to crew attrition wasn't much used by late 1944 in some units. But more interesting still I think is a bit about the Sherman gunner having an additional periscope for general vision whereas the Panther gunner only had a narrow view telescopic gun sight. As a result, it took the Panther gunner about 20 to 30 seconds to engage after instructed by the commander, whereas the Sherman engagement cycle was considerably quicker. 20 to 30 seconds - that's almost half a turn - would seem like an age if you were watching thinking - why doesn't he shoot? Doesn't apply to ambush obviously.

Sad biscuits. I've never heard that phrase before. Is it a bit like what we Brits would call hard cheese? My money is on Vanir at the moment.

I thought the Sherman gun was fired by a foot switch. Could cause some fun if the commander said "put your foot down" without being clear whether it was driver or gunner he was addressing !