Bud Backer

Willy knows a bit of English. He visited the U.S. with his parents. His friend Hans never understood the joke "there once away a girl from Nantucket," because Willy changed it to "there once was a girl from Düsseldorf." Try to get naughty rhymes with Düsseldorf... Willy could never get it to work...

I'm presently without my computer as it's in for service, but I have several hundred screenshots so I'm working on the next several minutes of battle.

So to help readers I've taken one of the screenshots from the start of the battle. This lets you see, looking from the North toward the South, the general lay of the land without the comic elements. The Germans start in the Wood Lot in the lower left (NE) and the Americans start in the Southern Wood in the upper right (SW). The map is basically flat with the road slightly depressed compared to the surrounding terrain. The Wood Lot, Southern Wood, and the clump of trees with the Family Plot, are slightly higher than everything else. The orchard has a tall hedgerow on two sides, facing North toward the Wood Lot, and East. I hope this helps.

Thanks, Bil!

PanzerMiller, Thanks for the excellent feedback. I tried to almost always give the screenshots at least some view of what is in the distance, hoping it might make it easier for readers to follow the topography of the map as well as the location of events. Clearly, I need to give more open views to help with that. Good Point about level 1-2 views, thank you. I will be gradually introducing more expansive shots. The SitRep post was meant to clarify things a great deal, as were a the other 2(?) Broad views with labels, but I suspect the fact I made the map itself is working against me as a story teller; I just know the map so well that I can identify where I am instantly and that makes it seem very obvious to me where it is not to the reader. Maybe I should upload the actual map to the Repository, though that seems like a cop-out. The comic should let the reader know everything they should. Your suggestion of focusing on more specific individuals is one I thought of as well. I'm introducing that into the next segment. The difficulty I had with that (beyond simply fabricating a storyline that does not exist) is that this is a battle, and the actions are dependent of the exigencies of the situation rather than a heroic element. If someone could point me to Pnzerldr's work I'd like to see it.

I'm gearing up for the next segment of this CAAR, and I was looking for some feedback. Is the situation fairly clear? Do you have a sense for what is going on, where? Does it feel at all like a story?

Thanks! Glad you like it. I have already put together a PDF of the first 18 pages posted. It's...over 200 mb! I may need to change resolution on the PDFs compared to the jpgs...

Good idea - unless you suddenly have nothing else to do.... uh, yah right, like that's gonna happen!

Ian is correct, I have VP and everything else and I am showing 3.11

A 2v2 game is perfectly possible - I've seen even Steve mention it here, and it is being played right now at Few Good Men by two pairs of players. They do not use a GM/Referee to manage it. Each pair of players agrees what forces they wish to split for their team, and when one finishes giving orders, he saves the game, sends the file to his partner, who takes his turn, ends the turn and send to the opposing player 1, who moves what he wishes, sends the files to his partner, who takes his turn and sends back to their enemy player 1. There's a bit of care required so that everyone gets to see the replay, but from Ive seen, quite doable. Just give a nice dropbox shared by all 4 and should work fine. Each side can have their own respective password an so no one sees something they shouldn't. IF you want a company commander, that takes the concept further, but strictly speaking, its not required for this to work.

All right, folks... The last panel I posted of the comic wraps up the first 3 Minutes of the battle. I'm surprised at the relatively low casualties (famous last words!) on both sides. I think we are both being cautious, with moments of risk that upcoming panels will show are...well, risky. 27 minutes to go... Wish I could get paid to do this, I'm having a blast!

Your monster battle AAR was fantastic. No way I'd think about even PLAYING a battle that big let alone doing an AAR! I'm overwhelmed commanding larger forces in a campaign at FGM as it is. Great bunch, but they're more experienced than I am and it shows.

Thank you very much! I'm ecstatic that you enjoy this. I am working on the next few minutes of our battle now. Incredible to think everything that happened so far took only 3 minutes!

I should hope you won't! I love your AAR's. Doing this one has given me a stronger appreciation for just how much work you had to do for yours. They were fascinating and enjoyable. Your blogspot site is also great. Please do more!

What an awesome visual!

Thanks, Heinrich505! Good ole Kohl with his SeaMonkeys...now me, I'd take the submarine. Just sayin'...