Bud Backer

I'll certainly consider it. It's a lot of work to give it sufficient detail, scope and make it interesting. I mentioned in my introductory post that I was reluctant to do a traditional one. Silly me, I thought this method would be less work! LOL

It's amazing what this game inspires!

Wouldn't that be cool? In the game seeing little text balloons popping up all over the place! I bet Steve is eager to try THAT coding!

Careful now, I know where you buy groceries.... Ah, uh..ok. I'll let them sell you some basic canned goods then. Haha Seriously, thanks for the compliment. I'm delighted that this isn't coming across as totally goofy or stupid!

Wow, high praise indeed from someone I admire. Your videos are stunning!

Thank you. I felt it was important to label things without making it look too intrusive. One of the problems I had with AARs posted here was keeping myself oriented. I'd like the comic to be fully self-contained with no additional explanation required. Not that I mind questions, of course, I quite welcome any discussion this project brings.

Thank you for the suggestion. Now that I experimented a little, I see that I can manage a slightly smaller font without sacrificing legibility. I'm redoing all the text now. Unfortunately I cannot repost the images already here, as I cannot edit my posts after a short while. Pity. Still the next items will look better. Thank you for that. The change is subtle and I hope will not be too glaring a change. I want to maintain a consistent appearance because it will look more polished.

OMG! Where did you dig this up? I love it!! I had sea monkeys when I was little (gosh, are we showing our age here?!?!) and I remember as a kid so badly wanting that submarine. Great choice of ads!!

I struggle greatly with balancing simplicity versus giving sufficient information. Just so that no one is confused I'll mention two things: 1) The Germans start all in the Wood Lot. The Americans all start in the Southern Wood. 2) If you know Operation Cobra, you might wonder why the Germans are in the north and Americans in the south. This is because this small German unit fled overwhelming forces and ended up choosing a direction it saw no enemy forces in. In a sense, its enabled it's own encirclement in that it's now been bypassed by Allied forces and hence, the Americans are approaching from what would normally be the German direction of retreat. As the map and text reference the compass I wanted to clarify why the Americans are on "the wrong end" of the map, so to speak.

Thanks, gents! I appreciate it. Kohlenklau is being a good sport and will only check here when I tell him it's ok. So no telling him nothin'! Everyone knows that you can click on the images to see them much larger and in more detail, right?

Some time ago I began my first foray into the editor to see what it worked like. I made a map, the smallest size possible (208m x 208m) and tried to give it a realistic, inhabited appearance. Kohlenklau and I have had a lot of fun battles that do not exploit the full points afforded by the Quick Battle generator. We decided to explore this little world I created, and see what happens if we limit points to 325 each, and show a chance encounter (meeting engagement in CMBN terms). I've always had a hankering to do an AAR, but Bil Hardenberger really set the bar very high - and the work involved was quite daunting. The magic of the iPad and the software for photo editing and layout that is available for it encouraged me to try. I'll admit I had to resort to Photoshop a bit but this is otherwise entirely a product of CMBN, Kohl's and my battle, and the iPad. Despite what seemed like a simpler course than following Bil's incredible work, I can tell you that for what is essentially a battle between two opposing platoons, it takes about a day of work per minute of battle to present to you what follows. It is shown from the German perspective, with the limitations and erroneous assumptions the man would be subject to. I do not write this with a global perspective because I don't know what Kohl is up to with his GIs. What is a CAAR, you ask? A Comic After Action Report. Done as best as I can as if you're reading a comic book or graphic novel. I hope you enjoy it.

That's very very useful to know. I may stop deleting them from the TO&E of my purchases in QB's!

Sounds a lot like my experience... And I tried to use them in a "sniper-ish" way, keeping them separate from the main force, using target arcs to keep them opening up like nutbars.. ugh.