altipueri

Quite a lot of seemingly frail looking fences in fields near where I am in Devon - a bit bocage like in places with sunken roads still so narrow you couldn't turn a bicycle - have a er.. lost the thread... ah yes ..(!)... barbed wire strands as well, so if you went through it without cutting the wire by hand first, you would have fifty yards of wire pulling on fence posts and bars.

Two Shermans in line, front one KO'd, one behind sees and fires through front one. This game is still fun even though the AI infantry do make suicide charges.

Wasn't there the tale of General Bradley speaking to some GIs after hearing about German bullets piercing the half-track armour. "Oh no it's OK General, they just come straight through and rattle around a bit inside."

The Battered Bastards of Bastogne. Again. Well, I say "Nuts" to that. Unless they fix covered arc, moveable waypoints, and let me have all my unit bases on and ###king icons off. So there. Stick that in your breech and fire it. Etc......

Paint, as for the AI: "I only play these games man. I don't know what makes 'em work." Or some such.

Now we can have tank races with gambling. Tank Tote.

Which page in the manual tells me that on Basic Training the AI gets quick artillery as well as the human player and that therefore you should, as a beginner, not play on Basic Training level because it is actually harder? As far as I can see page 60 says quite clearly "Basic Training: This is the easiest setting."

Thank you for your replies. John, you appear from other posts to be experiencing some of the frustrations with CMx2 that I am. I have gone right back to the training missions - hence having the manual to hand, so as to give the game another chance with an open mind. On page 21 of the manual it says you can take the trucks for a joyride so I drove over the cabbage patch just for the hell of it. So childish, but finally gave me a smile even though the cabbages seemed pretty resiliant. Hence, got on to wondering whether tanks had keys.

Manual pages 161/162 shows 4 HEAT rounds in each of the halftracks - are these bazooka rockets for any passing stranger to help themselves to? Supplementary questions - do tanks have keys? And if so who keeps them - driver or commander? Any joy riding allowed?

Based on my experiences living in Rheindahlen (HQ British Army of the Rhine) 1970-73: a) If the Russians attacked any time there was snow on the ground it would be all over for BAOR in about 48 hours. If the Russians attacked any Wednesday afternoon or Saturday it would be all over in about 24 hours - absolutely impossible to get authorisation for anything because everybody is playing games at the sports ground. Question: 2012 UK readyness for whatever: Why is the car park at Cheltenham GCHQ empty on Saturdays and Sundays? Hint: Muslims take Fridays off, don't they?

I certainly did; it was all over the carpet, behind the radiator; some of it made it to the sink but the lumpy bits stuck in the plughole. I can't be bothered to push them down so I'll push off to the Club for a glass of champagne and leave a note for my batman to clear up the mess. That's what the objectionable little oik is paid for. PS I think the US term is "dog robber" - could be a good internet name

Always blowing myself up with rubbish grenade throws, especially playing Worms. "That was stupid"

Here's a bit for those who haven't heard of the PPA: On December ninth the PPA was in action. Here is Popski's report: [A party of the 27th Lancers] "was surprised by the enemy and surrounded in a farmhouse. They reported...that they would have to surrender if they were not relieved before the evening. A PPA patrol of five jeeps moved up the only approach.....With covering fire from a troop of tanks 600 yards away they drove up to the Germans who were well dug in [on] a canal bank and were two companies strong. In spite of heavy enemy shelling the patrol came to within 30 yards of the enemy and opened fire. The action lasted fifty minutes whilst our men in the farm were evacuated, 25,000 rounds were fired, and the Germans finally fled leaving eighty dead. By and extraordinary piece of luck the only casualty of the patrol was one man slightly wounded. No vehicle suffered serious damage." The casualty was Popski and the "slightly wounded" was a serious understatement. It was also incorrect. Yunnie's B patrol had come to the rescue, and "Gigi" and another PPA patrolman were also wounded, facts Popski included in "Private Army". Popski had taken one bullet through his right hand, and his left hand was blown off. He received a DSO and was evacuated, first to Rome, then to England. ....... I read somewhere years ago that about 100,000 bullets were fired for every death, and 5,000 anti aircraft shells for every plane shot down. Anybody got any more up to date or credible data than my memory or imagination?

Thanks to that remark I decided to fire it up and go right back to the beginning have an open mind. And... It's in Devon. Now that is a coincidence because I happen to be staying in Devon this weekend of the Jubilee. And.. Aah there's three bottles of milk been left outside the farmhouse by the milkman. Not sure why he left them by the window rather than the door though. Mrs Nelson will have to step outside to get them which will get mud on her slippers.. Yes, it is the attention to detail I like.

Sorry, I just vomited.

Unit bases can be turned on so I can see my er. Units Plays on laptop Quick battles work well Just spent an idle day variously playing Hearts of Iron, John Tiller's Campaign Series, Sid Meier's Gettysburg, and CMBO. What next. .... Hmmm ... A bit of chess and Go then an hour or so fishing followed by a barbeque, and then what... a book, a game, listen to Radio Paradise.... this recession has brought fantastic benefits by freeing up so much time. In fact time is the only enemy.

Oh come on girls, this thread is all a bit gushing.

I think Wombie sounds quite nice and should be adopted immediately.

Would Jerry Garcia play CMx1 or CMx2? Depends what he smoked I guess.

Poor chap. Perhaps they'll fling him back over the wall after they've voted for independence.

He's Scottish so he rightly isn't going to piss about with all that creeping through the grass lark. As with the often told story of Lord Lovat and his piper: "Lord Lovat's brigade was landed at Sword Beach during the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944. Lord Lovat reputedly waded ashore donning a white jumper under his battledress, with "Lovat" inscribed into the collar, while armed with a .45-70 Winchester underlever rifle. Lord Lovat instructed his personal piper, Bill Millin, to pipe the commandos ashore, in defiance of specific orders not to allow such an action in battle. When Private Millin demurred, citing the War Office regulations, he recalled later, Lord Lovat replied: “Ah, but that’s the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn’t apply.” I also seem to recall Lovat's men later decided to cross Pegasus Bridge nonchalantly strolling despite there still being snipers - a decision that cost them several men.

MD seems to have had some good points but, like Galileo, spouting unwelcome truths tends to upset the inquisition.

The game is just not fun any more. You have to be an expert or enthusiast (I'll avoid using the word fan) to enjoy the micromanagement of splitting squads, exact placement of troops, timing of artillery. Those who fall in this category - and I guess you can approximate to them by the frequency and content of their posts here - have got terrific value in terms of hours play for their fifty bucks. I think Battlefront saw a tail-off in sales from CMBO - CMBB - CMAK even though the game got better. Unless they can radically improve the enjoyment level for the non experts new to the game they will have a shrinking customer base. CMBO was so good at the time you could recommend it to anyone who vaguely thought about trying a wargame. CMBN you can't. It's more realistic, but it's a chore. Maybe Battlefront tried the iPad version as a way to get new recruits to the full game - I don't know, but there doesn't seem to be a huge number of threads on the iPad part of the forum.

I recall reading years ago that army medical officers were concerned about the number of head wounds to tank commanders. I tried to find the article again but can't at the moment. The difference in vision buttoned up must be huge and the chance of spotting even a firing AT gun will be nil if you are looking through the wrong vision block or just the wrong direction.

So how come people live in Hiroshima and Nagasaki now? (Google is your friend) Frankly, I'd drop one on the bloody Welsh.