StieliAlpha

Gents, I just uploaded my updated music splash collection to GaJ's. For CMBN it includes some "universal" songs, such as "Lilli Marleen" and "It's a long way to Tipperary" and some Bristish Regimental Marches. All together 20 songs to choose from. They play during scenario loading. Just copy the song you want to "Z" and rename to "music splash".

Gents, I just uploaded and new splash music collection to GaJ's. New for CMFI are "Fratelli dell Italia" and "Il Piave", as well as some British Regimental Marches. They play during scenario loading. Just copy the song you want to "Z" and rename to "music splash".

Gents, I just uploaded a new collection of splash music files to GaJ's. It includes a some "universal" German music, some Russian marches, some British Regimental marches and new for CMFI "Il Piave" and "Fratelli dell Italia". All together now 20 songs to choose from. They play during scenario loading. Just copy the songs you want to "Z" and rename to "music splash".

Perhaps it helps as reference: The complete CMBN bundle, including V3.0, has about 10 GB. That is only one module more than CMFI + GL. So, I would expect a similar size.

No, that is just physics. Or better "static", to be precise. Limbered, the 88 is only stable in the direction of the main beam. If you try to fire perpendicular to this line, you need stabilizers to avoid tipping. That's why they have those foldable beams on the sides.

The Europa series has Regiments as base units and more than half a dozen maps. I have seen it once set up, while visiting Second Chance Games in Liverpool. Whoah! It was a huge beast.

Is it? A few years ago, a moaning went through German magazines, recognizing quite embarrassed that Bundeswehr folks in Afghanistan were just not as physically fit as the US guys. ;-) But you are probably right, to say that "unmovable" guns in CM are more a technical issue. Though I do not miss them much. Even in CM x1 I rarely moved my small AAs.

Does anybody know or have a mod, that gives unit markers a better visibilty? My brother, the poor guy, is having a hard time to spot his pixel troopers. I know Bill Hardenbergers mod, but that one is not really helping. I think, I once saw a mod with brightly coloured markers, but can't quite remember.

Yes, yes. There is indeed nothing better than CM on the tactical level. But I thought you might be interested to learn about the Eastern Front on a strategic level, too. E.g., in "War in the East" the smallest unitis in play are Brigades, largest Army Corps, if I am not mistaken. The size is 10 miles per hex and one turn represents a week. Needles to say: To play through from 1941 to 1945 in weekly turns is a pretty big undertaking. Obviously quite different from CM, with completely different challenges. But you must know, if you like it.

And, if you are interested in different, more strategic game scales, look at the Matrix Games web site. They have various games, including Gary Grigsby's tremendously detailed, grand strategic game "War in the East", covering the East Front from the beginning.

Ok, 4+4 is 8. Plus my 5 is 13min. Still more than considerable in a 30min battle. In 5mim you cover about 1000m at 15kp/h. Sounds fast and far for a small battle. I am not saying, that moving big guns is not possible. But I still think the frequency would be insignificant in CM scale. I guess to relocate big guns requires a time frame of Hours. Say, it would make sense to move a battery of 88s, if you knew that you would need them in an hour in a new location. One other thought: Germans and Russian during Bagration were probably not like well trained, well fed and rested US Army guys. And while we talk anecdotes: in my "final basic training" test in the Bundeswehr, it took me more than 5min to make a 20mm AA ready. Then the trainers stopped the exercise and concluded, that I "principally know" how to do it.

Well, considering a second time: 5min to pack up, say 2min to hook up, say 5min to move on the battlefield and then vice versa. Equals 19min for a short move. Not very helpful in most scenarios.

Ooops, wrong button. I quickly checked Wikipedia. They state 2.5min as set up time for the 88. Let that be wrong by 100% and we are talking 5min. A risky maneuver, but still well within a scenario time frame. I remember to have read, that the 88 was used in North Africa as mobile tank defense. That would support the idea, if true.

Thanks, Kohlenklau. BTW, do you intend to release your campaign as individual scenarios, too. Though I collected something like 65 now, incl the original CMFI and GL scenarios, there is a certain lack.

Congratulation and good choice! There is no better tactical game series around. And re to your timer question: Well, in the real world you normally do not have all the time in the world, too. One usually one has to accomplish something in a given time frame. It starts with simple tasks like being at work in time. The idea is the same as in CM: Identify the objective, plan, act. And usually: Adapt your plan to what happens out there...

Hi Fuser Thanks for the Sherman mods. Perfect as ever! But I have a question nevertheless: Do I need to select "muddy" or "dusty", or will they both work, if put them at the same time into the Z folder?

Ah, thanks. I missed that one indeed.

I admit, I never played QBs to date, but the idea with the data base of pre-selected QBs sounds good to me. The "buddy idea" seems a little complicated.

Where did you read the Bulge announcement? I couldn't find it in any of the recent threads.

In case anybody is interested to see the Italian Front from a different perspective: GMT will release their new "No Retreat: Italian Front" probably in the first quarter of next year. Great, grand strategic, board game series. For Italian Front the scale is 20km per hex, 1 month per turn and Division or Corps per counter. That makes for nice, quick, smooth flowing wargames with low unit density. In their East Front game they had just 70 units to cover the complete war. As a goodie for us CMFI fans, a little "Invasion of Sicily" scenario is included.

The WSIM computer game dates back to the veeeery old times (early 90s or so) and was crap. Came out too late, after lot's of trouble and was even at that time not up to date anymore.Later there were two versions of "Age of Sail" in John Tillers Battleground series, which were quite ok but no big hits either. BUT: - There is a nice WSIM online game on www.youplay.it. Graphics are poor WSIM style, the rules are quite simplified WSIM rules and it has a very active community. Very good "Beer and Bretzel" online game, if you need a change. Quick, challenging, very competetive games. One on one or multiplayer. - and there is "Velmad" at www.velmad.com. Absolutely BRILLIANT online game. A very much improved WSIM, with vastly improved graphics (but certainly not up to todays standards), quite detailed rules and a GREAT communication system (within one scenario, the players communicate with flag signals. If the receiver obeys is a different question.) The biggest drawback: The english speaking community faded away quite a while ago. Today it is virtually only Spanish speaking.

Hi John I investigated a little further. And the RAL question is, indeed, less than clear. A question widely discussed in different stakeholeder groups. It seems everybody struggles with confusion. From modellers to AFV collectors to train grog's. To start with RAL never was a clear definition. The system provides tables and specifies: This colour is RAL 7015 slate grey. Unlike the NCS system, RAL does not specify how a colour is composed. Only how it shall look like. Clear is: The colour numbering system changed around 1940. Before that the code was named "840 B", basically just the number under which the standard was published. It included 40 colours, named 1 to 40. Important to note, at that time only the number was standardized. Not the colour name. Around 1940, the system changed to the 4 digit numbers which have today. But again, the names have not been standardized. After the war some names were changed (obviously nobody wanted to read "Feldgrau" or "Panzergrau" anymore. E.g., RAL 8017 was "Red brown" before 1945. Nowadays it is called "Chocolate brown". My personal favorite is RAL 7028 "Dark yellow", which was actually more like khaki. Fits nicley, because the 7xxx series are grey colours. To make it a little more complicated, it seems the "offical tank colour" was "Dark yellow according to sample". That is the sort of yellow which we know from CMAK and CMFI. But it never was a RAL colour. Further some colours were deleted from the RAL list. E.g., my favourite RAL 7028 does not appear in todays lists anymore. So, what we can say the RAL table of today is certainly not the RAL table of the '40s. Back to the technical side discussed earlier: It seems, indeed, that the colours were delivered to the front as powder or paste, designed to be diluted with as many dulites as possible. Water, petrol,... Note: This was because the camouflage was normally applied by the combat units, not in the factories already. Though there have been exceptions, of course. You can imagine that the result was less than uniform. Here are some more interesting links: This one about RAL 7028: http://www.militaerlacke.de/lack/1kkunstharzlacke/wehrmacht/ral7028dunkelgelb.php This Wikipedia article includes a RAL table (you can find it elsewhere, too), with some notes about where the colours were used, what changed when,etc. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAL-Farbe And here a nice discussion of some AFV guys, trying to figure out the "RAL issue". Very interesting, because it shows samples of old RAL tables: http://www.network54.com/Forum/47207/thread/1344357686/In+Tomas+Chory Ah, with reference to CM, I forgot to mention that the computer can not show RAL colours anyway. At best something which looks similar. So, to answer your brothers concern again: Don't worry. What looks ok and nice is probably good enough.

Don't know, why this topic kicks me on. Probably because it is such a nice technical issue. Hi John I found two sites, which may be interesting for you in regard to this topic. This one with the offical history of the RAL institute: http://www.ral-shop.com/ral-history/ And this one from a forum of "bunker nerds" (or should I say: Grogs? ;-) ). They discuss a very similar topic: http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=149691