Ultradave
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Posts posted by Ultradave
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If that game was a LP record I would have worn out the grooves. Really enjoyed it and there was nothing else like it except maybe the ASL board game.
For me, CM and all the modules provide me with more than I can handle right now so I think I've moved on.
I also spend time on OOTP baseball and my new obsession Command: Modern Naval Air Operations. I'm a long time Harpoon player, both miniatures and computer, so Command is a welcome new addition.
A few really really good simulations can quickly eat up a lot of my time.
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And, Battlefront just got all us Mac users back on board after a long dry spell
No idea how much of the sales that is - probably fairly small percentage. But we are enthusiastically embracing CM after being starved.
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...and the issue that BFC charges you double if you want to play on your windows desktop and mac laptop compared to people who have windows desktop and windows laptop.
Maybe that's a complaint from long time players going back to CMBO. If I recall, both came on the same CD back then.
But then I lost track for a long time as the Mac wasn't supported. Happy camper now!!
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OK, got it, on Mac, need to hold Ctrl when clicking on app to override security settings.
There's also a preference you can check to allow any executables (System Preferences/Security and Privacy/ General ). I have that set that way to allow all. I know where my software comes from and since I use this computer also for work using software from national labs (not on the recognized developer list at Apple :-) ), I got tired of having to remembering to ctrl click. Personal preference as to how much security you want.
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Then give me an example of any significant software product out there that has zero bugs in it before support is dropped. I'm curious to see what you can come up with.
Steve
So true. Before I retired we had software that was written originally in the early 60s by my predecessors to do radiation analysis (dose rates through shielding). Originally ran on an IBM 360 mainframe. Then Apollo workstations (pseudo unix) then HP-UX, then SGI(Unix), then Windows server, and then added Linux to boot. Along the way the capabilities and lines of code expanded a couple orders of magnitude. We used to joke occasionally after fixing some bug - "Well that's the last bug" Of course we'd find something else the next week. Still being used and supported.
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England got beaten by New Zealand at rugby today. Not wholly unexpected but you still feel like kicking the cat :mad:
I feel for you. My wife and I returned about a year and a half ago from living and working in England for 3 years. We became big rugby fans. Enjoyed the national teams and our local Barrow Raiders (Rugby League). Six Nations was always exciting.
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There don't appear to be any flickering shadows at all (MacBook Pro) Great improvement in graphics, especially in bigger maps, and also early mornings with long shadows. Great job!
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Break MY tank will ya'. Well take this!!!
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I hope you bought a lottery ticket :-)
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Ultradave"..."A fighter bomber low and fast has a split second many times to determine where to drop." I would not want to even vaguely resemble a possible target with a fighter bomber low and fast anywhere near me with a 500lb bomb!
Yeah, that's the idea. Make REAL sure the flyboys know where you are and where the bad guys are. :-)
Although I jest about the Air Force in my comments, I used to be a field artillery officer in the 82d Airborne, and as such, especially as a young 2LT FIST Chief, I LOVED the Air Force. What firepower at your disposal on the other end of that radio! The infantry CO I was attached to knew it to, and his instructions were that if he turned around and his elbow didn't hit me I wasn't close enough to him.
Just thought I'd add that in case we come across as insulting the Air Force in any way.
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Redwolf,
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CAS in WWII was USUALLY much further ahead of the troops. BECAUSE of the issue of fratricide.
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Ken
And things haven't changed much. Even today, you want plenty of room between you and the Air Force. :-) That's not a slam against the Air Force... it's just that they carry a big, big punch and you want to be well clear when they arrive. (at least when the subject is bombs, not rockets)
1. They are moving very fast and therefore dumb bombs have a large probable error that is football shaped, like naval gunfire. We were taught that you NEVER EVER want it coming in with the line of fire/drop the direction you are facing (coming over your head). Always from as much of a right angle to your line of view as possible. That way the error hits the bad guys.
2. 500lb bombs are big. That sounds silly but my point is that the destruction they cause is amazing compared to artillery and it's much more dangerous to be close than "danger close" artillery. For example the warhead of a 105mm is about 35lbs, a 155mm about 95lbs, and an 8" about 250lbs.
3. Hold your position until the air strike is over. Nothing is worse than having the situation on the ground change before the pilot(s) get there. Back in WWII I don't think there was much chance , if any, of communicating changes to the pilots on the way.
Obviously today's modern precision guided munitions alleviate some of this, however, the basic principles are still valid and there are plenty of uses for inexpensive dumb bombs. A fighter bomber low and fast has a split second many times to determine where to drop.
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That assumes they can get a shot off before being knocked out. Playing the In the Shadow of the Hill scenarios in series and the last one and the one before have left me with smoking wrecks of Churchills all over the battlefield.
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Getting back to the original question though about Civil War books. If you have read many histories and after that want something for more "flavor" and light reading, I recommend "The Killer Angels", by Michael Shaara, and the prequel and sequel by his son Jeff Shaara, "Gods and Generals" and "The Last Full Measure".
They may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I thoroughly enjoyed them. "The Killer Angels" was the basis for the movie "Gettysburg". Seems odd to say that but the books concentrate on several of the key characters of the campaign and the movie stayed true to that and followed that storyline.
They are definitely not histories as the events are real but the dialogue for the most part (except that which was accurately recorded at the time) is imagined. Imagined but quite plausible. So they are classed as historical fiction.
They probably do more than most books on the Civil War to try to get across a feeling for the thoughts and motivations of many of the main military characters of the war.
I would read these though, after having read a few of the real historical books.
Hope that's helpful.
Dave
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Ultradave, I stand corrected and appreciate that. To clarify the now period I was speaking of in my above post was concerning the banter on Western Maryland, Colorado and the constant bickering of California and not including the 11 states of Rebellion. I would imagine that the prohibition was added, probably around the time they re-entered the Union (4 July 1868 for NC). Also, North Carolina does have a petition to secede from the Union dated 2012.
Again, thanks.
I didn't mean it to come across as a correction as I realized you were talking about earlier times. Sorry if it seemed that way. Just thought it was an interesting tidbit. I didn't know it until that petition came about as it was pointed out to those petitioners, something like, nice effort but it's unconstitutional :-)
Not related to anything Civil War-ish, and at the risk of being too political, NC politics today has gone off the deep end, so I wouldn't put much store in anything that comes out of here lately :-).
There was also a move from some town in the western part of the state that tried to establish an official religion for town/city/county meetings. Their argument was something like the state is not required to recognize federal rulings on the 1st Amendment and that federal courts are not authorized to decide what is Constitutional. Civics class, anyone? It didn't get very far, other than in the press where it was widely ridiculed.
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... There is nothing written above that takes away the legal right of the state to secede in 1846, 1860, 1861 or now. ...
Interestingly, though, where I live in North Carolina it actually IS prohibited to secede now. The prohibition was added to the state constitution after the Civil War.
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I have a spot for 105s but it's more because it's what I used to do than any tactical reason :-) And it was long enough ago that we did all the calculations with "charts and dart" - no GPS and computers, so I feel like I know exactly what's going on behind the scenes.
Of course, same goes with 81mm mortars because early on I was an FO, but my branch was FA.
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That animated Civil War site is amazing. And that's not the only thing there either. I can see much time spent there - thanks for mentioning it. I had no idea it existed.
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For some reason my experience is that I lose my AT guns to the first one or two rounds from a Sherman. Maybe my bad luck.
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Thanks ME. Yes the other night I wanted a TD to protect a main road in a town. I knew their were tanks a long way off and an hour of battle to go.
Streams of troops were rolling down the street and I wanted to engage light without specifically targetting. I wanted to save the long range HE and AP for later when I sallied into the open space beyond the town.
A "Target Light Arc" button is what you need it sounds like. :-)
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I also recommend Shelby Foote's THE CIVIL WAR - A NARRATIVE
Foote writes like the novelist he mainly was, however, the 3 volume books are filled with detailed descriptions of all of the major and most minor engagements, even some of the more obscure ones out West. It took him something like 25 years to write the books. Each of the 3 volumes is longer than the previous so as the war drags on in 1865 you feel it will never end, which is probably true to life :-) They are something like 900, 1100 and almost 1500 pages. But he writes with a style that gives you the uncanny feeling that he was there listening to the conversations he's relating, or that he was an eyewitness to the action described. Very, very well written. I've heard comments that it is sympathetic to the South. I'm not sure I agree with that. I've read a number of Civil War histories and this seems quite even handed to me.
Also, Douglas McPherson's BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM, shorter (1 volume) Plenty of detail I think for what you say you want, and it won't take you a full year to read it.
Both of these are available as large format paper cover books so you can get them at reasonable prices. My lovely wife gave me the boxed hardcover set of Shelby Foote's history one year for Christmas.
(You can tell I'm more of a fan of Foote).
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Okay, I DLed and installed it, but when I click on the icon to run it, nothing happens. Absolutely nothing. I don't think my iMac has a fan or was meant to. BTW, it's a very thin design, not much more than an inch and a half front to back. If they got a fan in there in addition to all the other stuff that has to fit into that space, it must be a very interesting design.
Michael
No different than a laptop. My MacBook Pro has a fan that really gets going with heavy graphics use, and it's less than 1" thick. Amazing what they can cram in there. I've had the back off to install more memory and there is NO extra space in there.
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Personally, I was in the field artillery. We had the best way to enter buildings. Turn it to rubble first.
And of course being FA meant not having to worry much about vaulting walls. :-)
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Real time with the scenario I chose seemed still to be within the realm of realism. The original plt that arrives I micromanaged until the reinforcements arrived. After that the original plt was pretty much on it's own (because of the situation this worked ok), and I took over as Company Commander with the other two platoons and support. Those all stayed close enough that the company cdr could reasonably direct traffic on the fly.
A single inf co. or something roughly that size would be a great size for real time.
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I almost always play a minute at a time, but after reading this discussion I just played MG Out on a Limb in real time. It was a blast (no pun intended). With just a company of 82d Airborne to control, it was very manageable. And being able to quickly halt a squad or team when something unexpected happens was nice, rather than (sometimes) having them continue along a path that is now no longer a banner idea.
I did pause a few times, mostly when reinforcements arrived, or I was looking for a good spot to place a mortar team. But other than that I just kept playing. I managed to win too, after almost blundering into disaster and quickly recovering to regroup.
(I'm purposely being very vague since it's new and many probably have not played most of the scenarios).
Anyway, I'm a convert at least for small actions. I'll have to see what I think for a larger scenario and map.
Dave
Is CM dying?
in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy
Posted
I'm asst commissioner of a long running online league that has a few openings. Anyone here has shown they have good taste :-).. PM me if you are interested in an online league