Not been playing since CMBO. Where to begin?

[John Kettler]

Michael Emrys,

The stress I was subjected to by my boss's boss and HR at Hughes, at a time of hyper inflation, practically caused me a nervous breakdown. And a domestic assault practically as soon as I arrived in my new Rockwell job by my colleague and housemate, being in the wrong slot exposed to some ghastly stuff, coupled with tobacco smoke in my primary location, sick building syndrome, heavy EMF from unscreened early computer monitors and brutal overhead fluorescent lights were bad enough, but what really did me in was job stress primarily created by a crazed project leader run so amok even the guys who'd hired in with him went to the NASP program manager and the Director of Hypersonics to complain bitterly about him. We very nearly had a mutiny! Talking mass walkouts. Why? To recreate the excitement of his heyday in the Corps of Engineers when he worked 80 hour weeks for nearly three months, this maniac would withhold funding for analysis necessary for the Quarterly Review until two weeks before it! The supposed future of the company had gaping holes in the entrance areas to the trailers in which we worked, a leaking ceiling, a six month delay to get computers and no secretarial support.

And I who was all about defense, with a Platoon Sergeant brother in Scouts, sitting in a Bradley CFV eyeballing his counterpart in East Germany in the Meinengen Gap, and who would fight the Covering Force battle there (expected casualty rate 50% per SECRET Army studies) should war break out, was horrified to hear some of my colleague talk quite enthusiastically about offense. The various binds and stressors cost me four months of sick leave, massive debility, all kinds of agony, my economy and, post departure, major back problems.

As for the money, I have no idea how people supported families, for it was all I could do to keep a not all that pricey sports car payments and insurance made, a very small one-room bungalow in a duplex to live in, food on the table and some mad money to play with occasionally. I was, though, putting money into a 401K, which bought me time to recover somewhat after I left Rockwell. I used to love my jobs, but various factors turned them, at both Hughes and Rockwell, into themes and variations of Perdition. I think I did some excellent work and made a real contribution, but the price I paid continues to this day. I wouldn't wish the torment, misery and broken health that I went through on anyone--unless repeatedly provoked and attacked by that person! Glad you were spared all that, though I think RAND would've been far saner.

To come full circle, wargaming has been a generally wonderful experience. Over and above the fun, of which there's been much, it has taught me a lot of useful things about focus, rapid planning, improvisation on the fly, controlling my temper, not obsessing over a tree at the expense of noticing the forest (still working on that one), coolness under pressure, magnanimity in victory, graciousness in defeat and much more. Wargaming and gaming in general have greatly improved my social skills, my ability to assert myself, to get that friendships are ultimately far more important than winning. Hate losing, but don't hate the winner! Besides, much of the time it wasn't what he did, but what I did wrongly, foolishly or inadvertently, not realizing I'd set myself up as lunch on a platter. And with very little opportunity for face to face wargaming or gaming of any sort, I'm deeply grateful for our online community here. Sad or not as a life situation, this is my principal interaction with people. In this case, people all over the world I'd almost certainly never encounter from whom I learn something new every day; people who are generally supportive, are formidable opponents and force me to continually grow intellectually and as a person. Truly, my life wouldn't be the same without my almost daily interchanges with the (mostly) guys on the CM Forums! I'd say being here since January 2000 has provided a long enough period from which to draw solidly grounded conclusions on theses matters, wouldn't you?

To end this veritable essay on a lighter note, Dad would oft observe that the guys who couldn't hack Engineering School would slink over to Business School and become inept managers who were better paid than the engineers. I never went to Engineering School,  so consider myself exempt and was never a manager, either.  But if he really wanted to dismiss something, he'd liken it to majoring in Basket Weaving & Canoe Tilting! Yes, you may presume my wicked sense of humor came from him, though Mom got off the occasional deadly zinger herself.

Regards,

John Kettler

 

[MarkEzra]

No advice to give. Just wanted to say welcome home!

[Sublime]

No eed for thanks and im. Not discussing a regular pbem. Im talking about an open one. I.e  you can consult me on your force purchase whilst i will buy the most regular vanilla troops possible.

Then we will discuss the battle with me freely telling you what im doing and why and with what.

The aim isnt for you or me to win, it really could go either way in something like this, its to force you ito a battle of a size you.re comfortable with-( i find my sweet spot is a company of inf with a few reinforcing special teams and a few tanks with some arty no matter the time period)-for your first battle if you accept id suggest you take 3 platoons of infantry, a platoon of armor, a fo and an arty module of either 81mm mortars or low level arty like 105s or 25lbers or summat.

Feel free to ask me any questions  youll learn a lot more a lot more quickly.from people and over the years our community has come up with fantasti methods of play and ways to use to order system to in essence orchestrate a synchronized mass movement all at once involving dozens of units each generally individually ordered ( thinyou can click and drag and lasso units. Double clicking on a unit will highlight all the units in its platoon. Plus and minus cycle through units.if you hold shift and select units you can select multiples of your choice. Holding ctrl will remove units from ' the list ')

 

Try to learn quickly when its safe to very generally arrange your army and give it mass move orders and when your lead sciuts start encountering resistance is when what Sgt schultz used to call ghe sublime death star.

Id select every infantry unit and usually i pick assault first then the remaining units are just split if possible and provide cover but also bound with the assault team. Exceptions can and will.be made.for the odd squad with AT weapons or scouts.  The death star is becaude from his pov my units he could see would suddenly triple usually. (One squad would become 3 teams which also usualy began running in somewhat diff directions or w.e)

 

Edited June 8, 2016 by Sublime

[Lee_Vincent]

I found the transition from CMx1 to CMx2 to be relatively straightforward, and have almost never needed to consult the manuals except to better understand the artillery and C&C system.

As with CMx1, the UI displays the available options for each unit.

I didn't play Panzerblitz but played the hell out of Panzerleader . I was about 12 I think, plus a lot of other AH and SPI wargames of various eras such as 3rd Reich, Up Front, Luftwaffe, Arab Israeli Wars, The Russian Front, Guns of August, Jutland, The Next War, NATO, City Fight - and Squad Leader of course! Before that it had been miniatures since the age of about 8 using Wargames Research Group rules, Angriff etc.

Of course once I found CMBO it was a revelation! The whole series still is 

Edited June 11, 2016 by Lee_Vincent

[Abbasid111]

Ahh, The Next War, NATO, Cityfight, RedStar/WhiteStar.

I was an SPI junkie back in the day after being introduced to wargames by a high school history teacher. Then came miniatures. At least these days I don't have to spend hours painting to field an army!

[Pak40]

On 6/5/2016 at 8:23 AM, PanzerBlitz said:

Yes, I play World of Tanks, way way way too much, because it's quicker, easier, more seductive..

Have you ever played War Thunder ground forces? Way better than WoT IMO. But then again, I haven't played WoT since it first came out. It seemed like I was controlling go-carts with guns, not tanks.