Ultradave

Yes. There are never enough FOs to go around. In WW2 or today. In the 70s and 80s we never, not once, were full up to our TOE. And this was the 82d. You'd think if anyone would be, it would have been us. So the replacement FO would have to come from another unit nearby. In many cases the subsequent mission follows almost directly after the previous one. Yes, you may get some replacements or may not. But it makes it harder to get specialists, as opposed to cross attaching a reinforcing company from next door, for example. Maybe they could be replaced, maybe not. It's pretty annoying to permanently lose a someone like that, no doubt. An FO is not the only guy on the battlefield that can CFF. He does it better, but someone just has to fill in. Dave

Probably assumes his radio did with him. The assistant/RTO in an FO team would normally also be trained to call for fire, but if the FO's radio got shot to pieces, well, .... Protect your FO's. That's where the firepower is. (I may, of course, be biased). Dave

The only positive of this is that while there is a vocal "anti" minority in the House, the Senate seems to be in bi-partisan agreement that aide must continue. Dave

NVM. Not worth it. Dave

And yet, EVERY SINGLE BILL in Congress, from the moment written, is available to every US Citizen (for that matter, anyone in the world unless some country blocks it), on Congress.gov, free to read, download, print, full text and summary, status, votes in committee and floor. The fact that the general public has no idea is at least in part due to the general public making no effort at being informed. When presented with extreme claims of doom due to the potential passing of this or that bill by either party, or any news or social media post, the general public should go read the bill for themselves and find out. Dave

It shows they have binos and one of the SMG guys (at least) has them, so I'd say it's a scout/sniper team and the two SMG guys are spotters and protection for the guy with the sniper. Keep in mind that Rangers, besides scaling the cliffs at D-Day, or operating as an elite infantry unit, are also well trained and used for small, covert, behind the lines actions, raids and ambushes. That team could come in very useful for say, eliminating a sentry post, while keeping the main body of Rangers back a bit and less prone to early discovery. Just one real-life example. Dave

This isn't unique to game software. I just retired from a 38 year career in radiation shielding design. We use a mix of our own and commercial software. But even using commercial software, the incredibly detailed model of the submarine shielding is the key, and it takes a huge effort to make that model. Likewise, our home grown software has developed and evolved over decades to where it is today. Many times (always, really) shoehorning a new capability into this software ends up being MUCH more involved than we first expected. And we've been the recipients of the "It should be easy to add XYZ. Why is your estimate so high?" comments. Yeah, sure. We'll see. I can sympathize with Steve on this. Dave

I've been retired now for about a year and a half and I'm absolutely loving it. But I can't play CM all day. There are too many other things I'm really interested in. For example (not in order): * I'm 66 and been a competitive runner since I was 18. Lymphoma took a bite out of that but I'm back at it again and feeling good. But at this age I'm much slower and need more rest after pushing myself. * My model railroad * Amateur radio * Reading * Piano * Guitar * Things my wife and I like to do together (she's retired and has her own interests too). This should really be higher up the list * Other games (yes, there are others, haha) You guys wait until you retire. You'll see. I mean, still not having time for everything is a good problem because now "everything" is only stuff you WANT to do. The good news is I won't be bored in retirement! Dave

Oh, please. Russia violated the very agreement they signed to guarantee Ukraine's security. You think that Putin seriously meant that? You used the correct word - "bait" Dave

I think you guys are using Russia and Russians two different ways. One very literal, the other general and encompassing. Might be more of a language/usage issue than an actual disagreement? Dave

Article in The Times this morning speculating about a hard-line overthrow of Putin. But the interesting part after all here speculation about factions is the last paragraph, which maybe they should have expanded on a bit more. There's a paywall (I subscribe), but I think you get a certain number of free views? If not I'll see if I can figure something out. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pro-war-ultra-patriots-may-overthrow-president-putin-djd8j32gw Dave

I am a Mac user and beta testers. There will not be Mac versions on Matrix/Slitherene unfortunately. No tournaments or PBEM++ for Macs. But that is consistent with any other games as well. As for Parallels, YES, it will run. Will you like it? Possibly. I have a 2018 MacBook pro and using that I can run any scenario at Best resolution just fine. I've tried to use Parallels for Cold War during the PBEM++ addition and even with Between Two Farhbahns, performance was extremely poor. Jerky, halting movement, slow graphics redraw, for instance when you move the camera forward and farther scenery renders more detail - very slow and halting. Overall it was an unsatisfying experience. I run many other games and scientific computationally intensive software using Parallels, but CM just has poor performance. One caveat. My MacBook is a few years old. It's possible that on a new M1 or M2 its might do better. Also, mine does not have a separate GPU. That's a problem for CM in Windows, but it's not for a Mac, same processor. If you have a higher end Mac with a GPU, it will most likely work ok. Hope that helps you. Dave

Go back to a previous save before you hit ceasefire and go from there. You'll redo some amount but you'll be able to keep going. Dave

I'll second that. George's scenarios all have a couple things in common. Great, interesting maps, and surprises. This was H2H and we didn't *exactly* follow the brief on either side, but it was a lot of fun. I'll wager playing German against the AI, you'd be hit with a few things you didn't expect. That's just the way he makes them. Dave

And current events possibly.

Turn 87 now (so about 44 minutes of game time) and nary a glitch. Some burning tanks though. Dave

US campaign 1982 you'll have some. Kriegsburg later years ('81, '82) will I believe. I think there are some in the last couple scenarios of the US 1979 campaign too if I remember correctly. But really to get the real feel of Cold War conflict you want to experience life with M113s. Helps realize why we didn't want to fight a full out war Dave

Also known as "Recon by Death"

This is one of my pet requests. I would like the ability to call fire on a map coordinate, and if there is no line of sight, then it's a FFE mission and while it will hit the grid location accurately (after all, the FO and the FDC are using the same map, so the rounds should hit what he asked for), the effects will be unknown to the friendly side since there is no LOS. That's fine. It mimics reality. No need to get fancy with entering coordinates. The current FO call line works fine, just that inside the game a different behavior is used if there is no LOS from FO to target. This would allow firing on a tentative contact, for example, you know the enemy is expected to have armor, and you get a couple of sound contact behind a treeline or just over a rise, where you can't see. Doesn't need to be TRPs. TRPs main advantage is faster response time. For TRPs the battery FDC will have already calculated firing data, and needs only to send it to the guns. Dave

The "hole" or gap in the armor that allows small arms to take out a T-90 has been fixed and the patch is the one @BFCElvis is talking about. I'm not sure what the "overpowered armor" is. Can you describe? The missing armor is the only one I see in Mantis (the bug tracker). Dave

Soon Also, the fix will be a free patch update with installer, so really no need to wait. T90s aren't the only vehicles in the game Dave

Yes, your license allows you to install on either platform. It's as simple as downloading the full installer and entering your license number on startup. Be aware that if you are running Ventura on Mac OS X that CMRT is a bit cranky for some unknown reason. Shouldn't have to contact support unless something goes terribly wrong. If you have the email link still for the Windows all in one installer, the Mac installer is in the same place. If not, you can login to BF and under my account find the download. I'm not sure that takes you to the place where both installers are, but I *think* it does. Also, to bypass the Apple signed software security rejection (that BF doesn't participate in), when you run the installer, right click on it and select "Open" Accept all the defaults. When you start CMRT, do the same, right click and "Open". You will still have to say yes you want to run it. Be careful because the default is no, stop. You have to change the selection to run it. You only have to do this the first time. After that it remembers. The first time, it may take some time to start. Like minutes (it might not, but experience has been that it does, especially on Ventura). Just leave it, go make a cup of coffee, and come back. If you have any problems, then feel free to PM me. I'll be glad to help. Dave

We were taught at the time "If you can be seen, you can be hit. If you are hit, you are dead." Lethal indeed. The game demonstrates that quite well. Armor had not caught up to armaments, and IFVs/APCs are quite brittle on both sides, especially earlier in the period. I think it's a matter of taste. Like any of the other titles, if you are interested in the period, you will most likely have a lot of fun. Dave

Agreed. I'm having fun. Trying to spot the enemy tanks while not getting into a shooting match is a real challenge. (As the German in this one I'm not supposed to lose Panthers, so duking it out with IS-IIs is not recommended ) There is a lot of time on the clock, so time for careful approaches, and sniping when I do spot something. The map is great, a and with study, you can find covered approaches, at least once you've determined that there isn't anything in "that" treeline that could get you (or at least you hope so). I recommend this one for a different kind of challenge than a slugging match. Dave

"It's too quiet" was exactly how I felt when approaching the town. In fact, from playtesting, I think one of my pictures captioned exactly that made it into the BF tease announcement. Love the atmosphere of this one. Dave