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BluecherForward

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  1. Upvote
    BluecherForward got a reaction from c3k in Thank You For This Game!   
    I don't usually take the time to do something like this, but I just finished the battle "Chaos at Ferme Diedenhove" and I have to say it was the most enjoyable scenario that I have ever played in this series - and I like this series a lot. I don't know who the scenario creator was, but you captured more than just history in this scenario, you seemed to truly get the feeling of the "Battle of the Bulge" - the U.S. Army's largest battle (speaking as someone who as has spent a lot of time reading about the battle and touring the Ardennes battlefield). Naturally, all of the scenario creator's efforts would have not been possible without the developers, who stuck with this series to create an extraordinarily great tactical game of World War II. Outstanding job all around!
  2. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to Aragorn2002 in The Year Ahead Bone Post   
    But these facts are well documentated and widely condemned, aren't they? The mass rape of millions of women AND children (and not only in Germany, but also in 'liberated' Russia, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, the Baltic states and so on and so forth) and all the other attrocities of the Red Army are mostly ignored. It should be possible to condemn that without being accused of defending the attrocities of the Nazis. On the other hand, I guess it's just shame about making a pact with the devil in the name of freedom and justice to defeat another one.
    But I agree with Lethaface. Better let it rest. Especially on this forum.
  3. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to sburke in The Year Ahead Bone Post   
    Yeah whatever the Nazis did doesn't excuse atrocities on the other side.  You either stand for morality or you don't.  You can't stand for morality on just one side.
  4. Upvote
    BluecherForward got a reaction from Aragorn2002 in The Year Ahead Bone Post   
    Thanks for the straw man morality lesson - of course I agree with everything you point out. I hate the Nazis and what they did - more than you could possibly know.  The point of my original post was twofold - that films of the use of heavy artillery weapons in the streets of Berlin were pure propaganda produced after the battle was over and - secondly - that people need to be careful about glorifying the communist "liberators."
    I notice that you make no criticism of the comments above that make jokes about the systematic - and officially permitted - raping of an entire female population - including children. That tells me a lot.
  5. Upvote
    BluecherForward got a reaction from Aragorn2002 in The Year Ahead Bone Post   
    I hope you realize that scenes like these were filmed in Berlin after the battle was over - just wanton destruction for propaganda effect. Then, of course, there was the raping of nearly every women (regardless of age) and girl in Berlin. Can't look at scenes like this without getting sick thinking about the rest.
    I had a German teacher who I met up with in Berlin - long ago. She had been raised in Berlin, but did not know about the Soviet monument at Treptower Park (below).  I told her the story that the communists had circulated about the monument - that a Soviet soldier during the battle for the Reichstag had rescued a German girl wandering in the street and that this represented the Soviet Union leading "the new Germany" (communist East Germany) to the grand socialist future. My teacher, who was quite a reserved and dignified woman, did not hesitate in her response - and I will never forget it:
    "So when did he find the time to do that, in between raping her mother and her sister?"

     
  6. Upvote
    BluecherForward got a reaction from mjkerner in Fire and Rubble Update   
    I find the Washington Post and New York Times far more appropriate as they are already full of ...
  7. Upvote
    BluecherForward got a reaction from MOS:96B2P in Fire and Rubble Update   
    I find the Washington Post and New York Times far more appropriate as they are already full of ...
  8. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to kohlenklau in Fire and Rubble Update   
    Nice fur hats and quilted jackets! Reminds me of toilet paper that once existed...

  9. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to Vergeltungswaffe in Free eBooks from Osprey   
    Since a lot of people have more reading time than usual right now, Osprey is giving away 5 free eBooks a week for the next 4 weeks.
    Take a look here
  10. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to Aragorn2002 in Red thunder and Covid -19   
    So what? Just another opinion. Why does everyone always have to say and believe the same things?
  11. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to Aragorn2002 in Red thunder and Covid -19   
    Don't believe everything you read. The Russian fake news brigade is working overtime.
  12. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to Aragorn2002 in Red thunder and Covid -19   
    Perhaps you're right. Time will tell. Let's pray it won't get as bad as feared. Not taking any risks with my parents either. Only visit them to deliver their shopping, which I put in their barn without seeing them. Mother has half a long left, so ANY flue will kill her. But I still have severe hesitations about the economical measures. Something in the middle would be more wise, but as said, time will tell.
  13. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to Aragorn2002 in Red thunder and Covid -19   
    I'm not sure whether I believe him, to be honest. But I like to keep an open mind on matters, which seems to be getting more and more difficult. And no, all is not good and measures have to be taken. But a lockdown? Destroying our own economy for years to come? I have the strong feeling another 2008 is coming and this time perhaps even worse. The reaction on the situation is getting out of balance, that's what worrying me. And in 1918-1919 between 50 to 100 million people died. Among them many young people. Quite different from what's happening now.
  14. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to Erwin in Red thunder and Covid -19   
    If you think about it, logically the best way of handling this crisis is if everyone was infected.  Then there would be no reason to not go out and live normally and keep the economy going.
    30,000 people die from the flu every year and something like 70,000 die from traffic accidents and many more are seriously injured, but we don’t panic about that.
    If we focused on protecting the most vulnerable and let everyone else get sick for 2 weeks, our society & economy would probably be in better shape very much faster. 
    All we've accomplished so far is create panic buying and price gauging, the store shelves are empty, and ensure that the pandemic could last thru August (we're told) or longer.
  15. Like
    BluecherForward got a reaction from umlaut in Thank You For This Game!   
    I don't usually take the time to do something like this, but I just finished the battle "Chaos at Ferme Diedenhove" and I have to say it was the most enjoyable scenario that I have ever played in this series - and I like this series a lot. I don't know who the scenario creator was, but you captured more than just history in this scenario, you seemed to truly get the feeling of the "Battle of the Bulge" - the U.S. Army's largest battle (speaking as someone who as has spent a lot of time reading about the battle and touring the Ardennes battlefield). Naturally, all of the scenario creator's efforts would have not been possible without the developers, who stuck with this series to create an extraordinarily great tactical game of World War II. Outstanding job all around!
  16. Like
    BluecherForward got a reaction from danfrodo in Thank You For This Game!   
    Haven't seen the movie, but you have definitely perked my interest. With regard to coming out of the woods as it relates to this excellent scenario, I think this shot says it all. Cheers!

  17. Like
    BluecherForward got a reaction from Fizou in Thank You For This Game!   
    I don't usually take the time to do something like this, but I just finished the battle "Chaos at Ferme Diedenhove" and I have to say it was the most enjoyable scenario that I have ever played in this series - and I like this series a lot. I don't know who the scenario creator was, but you captured more than just history in this scenario, you seemed to truly get the feeling of the "Battle of the Bulge" - the U.S. Army's largest battle (speaking as someone who as has spent a lot of time reading about the battle and touring the Ardennes battlefield). Naturally, all of the scenario creator's efforts would have not been possible without the developers, who stuck with this series to create an extraordinarily great tactical game of World War II. Outstanding job all around!
  18. Like
    BluecherForward got a reaction from Freyberg in Thank You For This Game!   
    I don't usually take the time to do something like this, but I just finished the battle "Chaos at Ferme Diedenhove" and I have to say it was the most enjoyable scenario that I have ever played in this series - and I like this series a lot. I don't know who the scenario creator was, but you captured more than just history in this scenario, you seemed to truly get the feeling of the "Battle of the Bulge" - the U.S. Army's largest battle (speaking as someone who as has spent a lot of time reading about the battle and touring the Ardennes battlefield). Naturally, all of the scenario creator's efforts would have not been possible without the developers, who stuck with this series to create an extraordinarily great tactical game of World War II. Outstanding job all around!
  19. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to MikeyD in To buy or not to buy   
    There's no spending an hour issuing orders if you play REALTIME . CM is as easy or as intimidating as you make it, yourself. Take scenario design, for example. Some scenario designers spend months building giant real-world maps and meticulously researching historical units for historical battles. Others plop a farmhouse next to a country road and have at it with randomly selected forces (you can probably guess which one I am).
    One thing that hasn't been mentioned is how EDUCATIONAL CM is. Not just becoming intimately familiar with period weapons and their capabilities, or the reading details of historical battles at historical locations, there's also applying tactics straight out of field manuals.


  20. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to Bozowans in To buy or not to buy   
    If you ask on this forum you are gonna get some pretty biased answers.  
    Like a lot of grognard-style wargames, the CM games can be clunky and buggy at times, and they can be very difficult to get into. They are also challenging, slow-paced and extremely time consuming to play. I can easily spend an hour just issuing orders for a single turn, and one scenario might have dozens of turns. You have to micromanage every one of your units right down to analyzing all of their lines of sight and lines of fire, and sometimes you get a huge number of them. Some scenarios are small and easy to play, but some of them are enormous and daunting. At the beginning of a scenario, I can spend ages coming up with detailed plans and moves for every individual unit, and then once the scenario starts, I can spend even longer slowly having my units sneak around and scout ahead and get into their positions without ever seeing an enemy. With some of the larger scenarios, I can play them for hours without ever seeing any action or a single shot fired.
    Some people might find that kind of gameplay very boring, but the games do have an absurd amount of detail, depth, historical accuracy and so on. Once you get into them, you can play them for years, and there really aren't any other games like them out there. They are probably still up there with some of my favorite games of all time, and I still come back to them every now and then years later. 
    So whether these games are worth the steep price really depends on what type of game you're looking for. Like some others have said, download the demos. Unlike a lot of games these days, the demos for the CM games are very good and give you hours content for free. Every one of the CM games has a demo and I would suggest downloading all of them. I would suggest watching videos of it too. There are some really great video AARs out there that show off the game.
  21. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to Aragorn2002 in To buy or not to buy   
    To be honest I don't understand how any serious wargamer can hesitate to buy CM. There's nothing that comes close to these games. 
  22. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to General Jack Ripper in Question; Sherman armor sloping   
    You are not supposed to get shot in the side on purpose.
    Gotcha.
    The Sherman was designed with an armor basis intended to be immune to the 37mm PaK38 AT gun from all possible aspects (that being the standard issue German at gun in 1941 when the tank was designed). The side armor is thick enough to achieve this design specification without needing to be sloped in order to meet it's overall weight requirements. Later versions of the Sherman had reinforcing armor pieces welded over the ammo storage in the hull side, but generally speaking, you want that internal volume when your overall ETO command is asking for an ammo capacity of 90 rounds in each tank so you don't need to modify your design to make sloped armor. It's much easier to weld extra plates on at the factory instead of re-casting or re-welding the entire hull.
    I think the biggest consideration people need to keep in mind about the Sherman is that it was effectively a pre-war design, that was modified many times, but still in 1945 it was a pre-war design. Design of the M3 medium tank was finished on February 1st, 1941, and the order to design and build the M4 medium tank was given at the same time. The only real requirements for M4 was to be shorter in height than M3, to retain the M3 hull and chassis to the utmost extent, to have armor basis to defeat the existing AT Guns fielded by the Germans and Japanese, the addition of some type of AA protection (.50 cal), and the mounting of the 75mm main armament of the M3 in a larger rotating turret.
    This wasn't a tank that had a carefully considered design process stretching for a year or two, the Sherman went from T6 Prototype to M4 production tank in about five months.
  23. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to Bulletpoint in Just a thought-Combat Mission is so authentic and immersive we nickpick any blemish?   
    You know what? I write for a living. And when people tell me what's wrong with what I write, I take note of it. Because at the end of the day, I write for other people. Their opinion matters. Listening to feedback is part of what makes me a better writer.
    The same goes for producers of toaster ovens and computer games.
  24. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to Bulletpoint in Just a thought-Combat Mission is so authentic and immersive we nickpick any blemish?   
    My post was not a criticism of the game or the developers. It was just an attempt at answering your question: When people nitpick, or make suggestions, is that because people expect the game to be perfect?
    As I see it, no, people don't expect the game to be perfect. People comment because they like the game, notice things that could be better, and hope to see the game improve.
  25. Like
    BluecherForward reacted to Bulletpoint in Just a thought-Combat Mission is so authentic and immersive we nickpick any blemish?   
    I actually mostly meant about the graphics, which is one point that people have been "nitpicking" about.
    But there are games out there where trenches and foxholes are dug into the terrain, where tanks turn at the right speed and leave tracks, where the damage model is more advanced than in CM. Where you can order one or more vehicles to cross from one side of the map to the other by road, and they will do it automatically. Where there's an operational layer that means conserving ammo and resupplying troops becomes a factor. With larger maps that make long sight lines and engagement ranges more important, and where damage from each engagement carries over to the next.
    All those things have been suggested for Combat Mission as well, many times. Is that nitpicking? I don't know. But the contrast between the CM engine and what's possible today is getting pretty big. That's the only point I was making.
    I don't really want to make advertisement for specific games here on this forum, or start a boxing match.
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