Bud Backer

Great Stuff, Ian. Now if only you can get signatures to work?

All great questions. I'm looking forward to more discussion on all this.

Interesting, Rinaldi. I don't want to derail your AAR thread, but this isn't the first time I've seen ATGs have a poor showing. I think this may warrant a good discussion of its own, but thank you for your detailed reply.

I find it disconcerting just how ineffective ATGs are in CM. You've demonstrated this several times in this battle alone. Good for you, I'm happy you're winning. But... I know that some argue they are just a Pain and bad replacement for tanks, but they were used, and used effectively in this war. Are there only specific, narrow parameters where they are usable in game? I'd have thought a defence like we're seeing here would be it...

There is a parrot nailed to that tree in the foreground...Don't you see it?

I went through much of it when I discovered it, but he has added more since then, and I wasn't experienced enough to appreciate fully everything at that time so I have to re-read it all. It's a treasure-trove of info.

"No chance" is perhaps too strong, but I don't think I've seen it on any list of priority improvements. Steve has already said they have to work that out for 4.0 so it's not like there is anything yay or nay carved in stone. However there are other things that likely have been asked for more, for longer, that will be higher priorities. You do have a workaround, however. Use the editor instead of making a QB. As long as you are doing this for PBEM, you don't have to worry about AI plans or anything fancy, just pick the map you like, buy the forces for your side (which at that point can be mixed nationalities) and send it to your opponent, and having him buy his. Each of you deploys and you play it as a scenario rather than as a QB. As long as you trust your opponent not to peek, it's only a moderate more work than a QB and gives you what you're looking for.

I think this is discussed on Bil's blog here: Trees and Cover

That first shot...wow! You tweaked that to blur the background, didn't you?

Fixed that for you: My guess would be to not use them at all at the current time and wait for when they are needed I think the real commander would want ideal conditions for their use - we all do because we don't want to send men to their deaths needlessly. However, we never get ideal conditions, and there will be times when the battle shows a need for a particular unit and then we have to evaluate is it suicide (sending trucks down a wooded enemy road really is crazy and gamey) or is it risky but necessary. By all means don't throw them away frivolously, but when the time comes that they will make a valuable contribution use them.

Hartwich, I can also suggest looking at @Bil Hardenberger's Beta AAR for CMRT. I think it illustrates good tactics, as well as just how plausibly the game simulates WWII combat. BETA AAR It's also an entertaining read.

Great reference posts, Macisle. I liked those Armchair General vids so much I saved them so I can watch them even when offline in my iPad. Lots of good materials in your links!

I really doubt you'll want to go back. I never played CMx1 but I am quite certain the CMx2 experience will convince you to stick with it. And remember you have a lot of knowledgeable players here who can help you if you ask the right questions, and potential PBEM partners too. Good luck and have fun!

Hey, dude, I was just kidding with the guys; the points really are irrelevant. if you're looking at operational battles, you really should look up the campaigns that Kohlenklau set up in CMFI, CMRT, CMBN. Several members here play in them. Perhaps that's what you are looking for.

Correctamundo... it's the default amount. Frivolous waste of time idea: Shall we start complaining that new members get a +10 bonus over existing members and that's not right and we should all get +10 bonus rep? ... Kidding...

Boot Camp is not virtual, AFAIK, its a way to run full Windows OS on a Mac. To my knowledge, it provides the necessary drivers and likely the type of partition that Windows will require (NTFS?). I might be misremembering but I think @Buzz runs both on his Mackintosh.

Still a victory, even a minor one, is pretty neat, you know?

All of those new avatars look pretty nice. Great choices!

Not at all! Just for you - from a WIP CAAR... I call this Smoke & Dust - the RCN bombards Sicily

Heh. The undying power of Python

I believe that is attributed to Josef Stalin.

Sublime, thanks for answering my question.

Like any rating system it is very open to abuse and misinterpretation of its significance. And can be used as a method of passive bullying.

The left (AOA 1) is apparently very lightly defended. I've got the perfect position to fire on the town from the Western Woods (KT 2). The intention is to use the force there to either turn the flank of the German defenders and roll them up toward the east, where the big fight is taking place, or force the defenders to displace westward to deal with this threat. If that happens, it will ease pressure on my eastern force, and I'll cut them down with the fresh forces on the west. That's the theory...

I see the quotes are restored in all posts. That's awesome, thank you. Two old functionalities that I can see are still outstanding: - post count - used to see in each thread the number of the individual post - each post would be numbered and that number would be on the right, making it easy to reference someone by saying go to thread X, and look at post # 143. That # is gone. - Signatures, as previously mentioned.