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Bud Backer

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Posts posted by Bud Backer

    The Battle of La Ferme Dupont - A CAAR

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    OK this is seriously cool.You must stop this right now! No one is going to be able to meat this bar again for shear graphic presentation so you are hereby not allowed to put the rest of us to shame any longer.

    Careful now, I know where you buy groceries....

    'm kidding in case that was not obvious :)

    Ah, uh..ok. :P 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!

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    The Battle of La Ferme Dupont - A CAAR

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    Wow! This is really cool.  This is like a German version of Sgt. Rock (Lt. Warner).  I also like how you have the different locations on the farm labeled.

    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. :)

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    The Battle of La Ferme Dupont - A CAAR

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    Very creative and nicely done Bud. Sgt. Rock would be proud ;) . As a suggestion, I think you should try making the scroll box narrative text a little smaller by about two fonts to see how it looks. This would make the text boxes overall smaller too as an idea to cover up less of the graphics.

    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.

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    The Battle of La Ferme Dupont - A CAAR

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted · Edited by Bud_B

    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.

    1

    The Battle of La Ferme Dupont - A CAAR

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted · Edited by Bud Backer

    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.

    2

    Sniper Effectiveness

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    My snipers rarely hit anything....they just provide observation and a mild annoyance to enemy forces....."blam, ting!" miss...."blam, ting!" miss    repeat as necessary :)

     

    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. 

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    What are the conditions for "holding" an objective?

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    Well, I guess the proof should be in the pudding: If the enemy is unable to take back the place even though you have only a couple of crewmen there, then de facto you hold the objective.

     

    I assume this is tongue in cheek. :) I think that it can be a real pain to attempt, within the time limits afforded by a scenario or QB, to try to do a house to house (or other LOS limiting terrain) search of a victory objective. Or perhaps some of the maps I've played on have had insanely large objective areas. One can win by playing hide and seek, which hardly seems realistic after a point. 

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