altipueri

Yes, but if they hadn't purchased all the products people would say "Oh, you haven't even bought it so you don't know what you're talking about" etc. And, by the way - re another post above, what's a "furphie" ? Is that an Americanism? Well Grandad,..........

I can shower in less than a minute, so no problem.

Where is John Kettler on all this?

The truth sometimes hurts. CMx2 is more of a simulation and less of a game than CMx1. I play both, plus Hearts of Iron, and AGeod games, often at the same time. In fact, even while posting this Canada has invaded Denmark trying to mess up my fourth Reich in HOI3 playing on my other PC as we speak. Well actually one of several PCs. You can't rule the world with just one PC these days you know.

Blimey, a reply direct from the Guvnor. That's a bit embarrassing. Now what? OK SOLD

I'm too dim to understand that reply. Time for bed. I've had a few beers and why not?

This makes it obviouse I'm too stupid to play this game. What about 2.01 ? Is that going to be another few bucks ? Why not just have a game and update it? I'm fabulously rich, can easily afford everything, but loath having to work out whether I'm five bucks better off upgrading my CMBN 1.11 then add on or bundle or whatever. So, NO SALE. Yet.

Come on Jim. Our lads was pretty hard in them days.

Manuals are for girls.

I thought the main lesson from Chappaquiddick was "Don't drive across narrow bridges when you're pissed."

c ! Plus a bit more to post; and I have had quite a bit more now too!

I had a business meeting this morning with someone called Richard Simmons - when I saw this thread I thought "Surely that guy doesn't mess around playing wargames." And I hope he doesn't know I do.

I don't usually play RT - see other thread. But I thought I would have a go at Cats And Dogs in RT. Anyway, all was going well, so I went downstairs to make a cup of tea as we Brits do, leaving the war to get on with itself (one advantage of RT I had rather forgotten about) when I came back to my horror one of my crews had bailed out and was sitting around doing nothing when they should have been taking pot shots at the enemy. I realised I had pressed the space bar, and intending to tell him to "open up" I had accidentally hit "bail out" - and could I get them to bail back in? No. So I shot them for cowardice. Was that a bit harsh do you think?

Who wrote these words: "Combat Mission is not a video game. It requires thoughtful strategy and tactical skill to overcome the enemy while preserving one's own forces and achieving the mission objectives." ""It is our opinion that pure "real time" works only at a very small scale, where there are perhaps just a few soldiers under a player's command. It does not work well at the scale of a full company or battalion, which is the level simulated by Combat Mission." Hint: CMBO manual page 16. I think one of the consequences of the CMx2 attempt to have both WEGO and RT in one game is that battlefields are smaller and the number of units involved is limited. Maybe there has to be a divorce - some scenarios WEGO only others RT only, or if not only but "best played as RT (or WEGO)" I just loaded up a CMBB scenario "Approach to Sevastopol" - the battlefield is some 2500 yards long and there are 30 vehicles - half tracks and Stugs at the start line. Anyway, OT, one effect of this thread is that I popped into my local game shop to see what was in and came away with a secondhand copy of Sudden Strike for 50p (you never know when that CD is going to get corrupted) and a brand new - still in its cellophane wrapper Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 for £3.50. This comes with 200 page printed manual "Yay" but also is of interest because it is the last version of flight simulator in which you can fly between the Twin Towers because it came out before 9/11. Time for tea.

RT is for the quick fingered. WEGO is more balanced to the extent that you and I can take one, five, or fifty minutes to plan our moves - press the button and Fate takes over. Youth and energy versus age and guile. If I want a WW2 RT blast I play Sudden Strike.

You pansies in armoured personnel carriers. We Brits didn't bother with them until about 20 years after the war.

My feeling is that the killing of TCs is about right but that spotting while buttoned is too good. Re half-tracks wasn't Gen Bradley take aback when he asked some troops about the half-track being penetrated by MG42 bullets and the reply went along the lines of "Oh, it's OK General, the bullets just come through and rattle around inside a bit."

Does that mean that a forward observation officer obscured from the view of a sniper by a tank would not be obscured by the tank because the LOS rule ignores the tank?

True enough. I've never known the AI do a "rage quit" as I do when my favourite tank gets blown up. What the hell; it's only a game.

Just checked number of scenarios and operations/campaigns on my PC CMBO 92 11 CMBB 60 10 CMAK 61 7 CMBN 20 5 The CMx1 was the CDV 3 pack version 1.12E CMBN is 1.11 For reasons too ancient and complicated to remember or explain I have 3 copies of CMBO and two each of CMBB and CMAK and I recall the single pack games had fewer scenarios, although one of the CMBO came in a large box with printed manual and a second CD with additional scenarios. Needless to say I haven't played them all,, but I've got to save some for my retirement.

That's why I like wargames that have a good random scenario generator - each game is different. With a wargame that has a limited number of scenarios no matter how much you try not to cheat youself "black intelligence" tells you that anti-tank gun is at the end of the road on the right. That was why for me the CMx1 random scenario generator was (is) so good. The scenario I played mentioned in the original post - now if I go back and play it again this evening I know roughly what the enemy had and where it emerged from - so sure I can do better. Fortunately of course it's only myself I'm fooling, which doesn't matter.

I'm down in my seaside retreat in Devon* (where the sun actually shone today) and I have only an old XP laptop and a dodgy internet connection. So I played a CMBO scenario called Schwarxwald Bridge (should be a sed where the x is but the laptop key doesn't work anymore!). Anyway, it was short (13 turns) and intended for H2H but the scenario designer said if playing against the AI give it two turns without doing anything. So I did. With predictable consequences. But in CMBN I can't give the AI a chancewithout getting blasted. So how many of you can give the AI a few free turns? * For US people this is where many US troops massed before D-Day. (And my little mum, then 18, was a warrant officer in charge of a 3.7" anti-aircraft gun - later in action near Brussels in December 1944).

Do random QBs work like they did so excellently in CMx1 or is it still a pain to set up a quick game?

Absolutely brimming over with it dear boy. With a smattering of condescention to boot. Or should that be condensation? "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography"

I seem to recall reading some cases in the Battle of the Bulge where the ToT ("Time on Target") was slightly out and the leading US tanks and half tracks got hit by their own artillery. But generally for the era it was pretty effective - charging straight into a village that was being shelled - hoping the guns would stop just as you got there.