Vets only please. Others can read. . .

[Raze]

I'm not a Vet (dad talked me out of the Marines. Twice ). As a Veteran, I wanted to know how you felt about playing CM. I very much enjoy CM, but I didn't live it. If you don't mind sharing, what are your thoughts on the game?

Thank you for your time and sacrifice.

[Guest Babra]

It's great. I don't have to stay up for three days at a time, I don't have to touch anything nasty, it doesn't smell like poo-poo, and I can shower, smoke, eat, or get drunk at will while playing. I suppose I could even get an "in-call" for some service while playing TCP/IP too (I better get the full hour). I think all disputes should be settled this way.

[Raze]

Although I guess you could go without sleep a shower or a decent meal, just for old times sake.

[Jumbo]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Raze:

"The art of fighting without fighting..." <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Raze nailed it on the head for me.

You blow things up and no one gets killed or maimed. COMBAT MISSION in a MUCH more evolved incarnation should be how nations settle their disputes. (I'm certainly not suggesting that things should be like that old Star Trek show. No need for people to jump into machines to get zapped just to control populations if their side lost.)

Jumbo

[Triumvir]

Except that in arbitration, there'll always be the temptation to slip back into real war, because nothing seems to settle (note the seems) things more permanently than killing someone.

Force is the final option, and usually a very inefficient option.

[Splinty]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Babra:

It's great. I don't have to stay up for three days at a time, I don't have to touch anything nasty, it doesn't smell like poo-poo, and I can shower, smoke, eat, or get drunk at will while playing. I suppose I could even get an "in-call" for some service while playing TCP/IP too (I better get the full hour). I think all disputes should be settled this way.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Right on the money..

[Gyrene]

Not to be a party pooper, but I think that CM hits a little too close to home for someone with some hard combat experience to enjoy playing.

I feel guilty enough when a squad I send to rush a building gets decimated and my own time in combat is limited.

It does give a good overview of how squad level combat unfolds, though. To make it even more realistic BTS would have to crank up the Fog of War by about 200% and the moaning of your cyber buddies wouldn't stop when the "done" button comes up.

That would a big turn off for me an many others, I think the level of violence is fine as it is.

I agree with the not being dirty part. Plus you get to eat real food and you can put the war on hold.

Gyrene

[Username]

I was in the service and let me tell you something about poo. You think you all can talk it up big here about the poo and how it was flying back-and-forth real thick but I can tell you what the real poo is like. Thats cause I was, thats right, **** pumper detail private.

When a military unit goes out in the field, everyone has GOT to go. Sometimes real bad too.

Well, its not like the poo is going to jump outta them spot-a-pots by themselves you know. Thats where the real hero of this story, me, comes into play.

I drove the ****-pumper-detail truck.

Not only drove (blushing modestly) but also was number one guy on the hose too. Had the two stroke engine for the pump humming and was getting them poo's up in the hose real good when an unexpected turn of events brought the operation to a sucking halt. The hose was stalled and was not making its sickening lurch into further piles of loose ones when the real cause struck me.

Ditched grungies!

I immediately jumped into action and used a screwdriver to get the clamp off the hose. There they were! Firmly clogged up nasty into the pump was some battle worn 38 inch waisties (froot-of-the-loomers)! (I knew that guy too).

I mounted them proudly to the radiator of the unarmored **** pumper truck. Over objections from my commanding officer, I saluted those proud shorts that gave their all!

i should write a book I think sometimes..

Lewis

[Gyrene]

You drove the honeysucker? Wow, I'm in awe! Did you have to go to NBC school first?

I had many a "poop burning" detail in Somalia as Honeysuckers were a luxury not afforded to us.

I have many fond memories of the Saudi's version of the poop-sucker making his once-every-two-weeks rounds. Have you ever seen a pyramid of MRE by-products cresting over the rim of the hallowed plastic throne?

I remember in Camp Pendleton a civilian guy did that job and one time he took his kid along. "One day son, this will all be yours!"

Gyrene

[BloodyBucket]

I guess it all depends on your definition of veteran. I am coming up on my fifth idiot stripe on my sleeve and I don't consider myself a veteran, I have not been in combat.

My father had one-tenth the time in the military I have and is ten thousand times more qualified as a veteran. I have shown him the game, and he interested to a degree, but he is over eighty and the conversation goes like this:

"Those guys are too bunched up. They'll be dead in a minute."

"Pop, it is just a graphic representing 12 men in a 20 meter square area, it's not 3 men marching shoulder to shoulder."

"They are too bunched up and they are standing up straight. If you stand up like that your head will get blown off. They better start crawling. Anybody that stupid would be dead in a minute. Did I tell you about the professor who was a private in my squad who apologized to me for getting shot? I told him to get down and he didn't, and when he got hit he was very apologetic. Bastard got hit in the leg, I wanted to be him...."

So my thoughts on the game along this line are that I am very grateful it gets the old man to tell a few stories. He thinks it is silly and unrealistic, but he always watches, comments and sometimes I get to hear something I haven't before. He never talked about the war until he was very old.

[Michael Dorosh]

Veterans Affairs Canada recently redefined "veteran" (officially) as anyone who has served in the armed forces. I don't like it much, but I guess I qualify. How many years to an idiot stripe, incidentally? Up here we have to be in 12 years to get a long service/good conduct medal (in my case it was 13 because they are currently a year behind in engraving the names on them).

[lcm1947]

This is just a game. No comparison.

[BloodyBucket]

M. Dorosh asked:

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>How many years to an idiot stripe <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The idiot stripe/hashmark/service stripe represents four years, at least to the Marine Corps. I understand that the US army bestows one every two years, and a different shaped one for four. My knowledge of army uniform regs is shaky at best.

It would be interesting to have a peacetime service game called "Noncombat Mission: Beyond Tedium". I could comment on the realities of that simulation.

[ 04-28-2001: Message edited by: BloodyBucket ]

[sturmtiger101]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by lcm1947:

This is just a game. No comparison. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Ditto, that's what the man said, just a game. Albeit a very cool game, that is.

Eric

[Michael Emrys]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Username:

I drove the ****-pumper-detail truck.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Jeez, Lewis. It all falls into place.

I take back all the nasty things I said about you...well, some of 'em anyway.

Great story, BTW.

Michael

[Michael Emrys]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by BloodyBucket:

It would be interesting to have a peacetime service game called "Noncombat Mission: Beyond Tedium". I could comment on the realities of that simulation.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

For some reason, this comes close to being the funniest damn thing I've ever seen posted on this board.

Michael

[Gyrene]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> It would be interesting to have a peacetime service game called "Noncombat Mission: Beyond Tedium". I could comment on the realities of that simulation.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Turn five:

-Sent my mop and bucket team to the barracks hallway in hunt mode.

-My foxtail operator has run into a large ambush of ghost turds, he will need back up.

-My liberty squad has been waylaid when they stumbled into the control radius of the paint detail CO.

-Many of my squads are busy hunting for barracks beer leeches.

-Another of my squads has been eliminated for mis-identifying a Sgt Major as a Gunny. It will spend the rest of the game picking up cigarette butts from the parking lot.

Peace is hell.

Gyrene

[Michael Dorosh]

Well, I was in the Reserves during the Gulf War, and am happy to report that because of us brave guys in Alberta Militia District, not one Iraqi tank made it as far as Macleod Trail in Calgary.

No, no - no need to thank me.

I am looking forward to Paton's Gulf War mod, however, so I can relive those glory days. Hopefully he will marry up Gyrene's special rules-set to make it as complete a simulation as possible.

I still remember the guard at the gate of CFB Calgary, carrying a submachinegun without ammunition, and the Military Police at the local Armouries - both armed with sinister looking flashlights. You hardly knew there was a war on...

[Gyrene]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I still remember the guard at the gate of CFB Calgary, carrying a submachinegun without ammunition, and the Military Police at the local Armouries - both armed with sinister looking flashlights. You hardly knew there was a war on... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's why the US/Canada border is the longest unprotected border in the world! Any Russkie Commie Pinko Bastich Would Be Invader would get cut to tiny bits if they attempted to invade us via Canada!

A toast of Labatt's to out brave defenders of the North!

Gyrene

[Michael Dorosh]

And for you grogs, I back up the posts on here with historical evidence - from the book VIETNAM: THE OTHER WAR by Charles R. Anderson (author of THE GRUNTS). Bear in mind that most US officers spent 6 months of their tours in the rear, Anderson decided to leave his impressions of his time "in the rear with the gear" for posterity.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>

Even the act of refilling a coffee cup, if properly done, could consume as much as half an hour. First you had to let out a loud sigh and a sentence indicating some degree of fatigue with Vietnam or the job, something like "Je*** Ch****, it's hot today," or "Well, think I'll get me another cup of rotgut." That was a signal to everyone else in the hooch that the ritual was about to begin.

Then you had to stand up, move out from behind the desk, and walk across the room to get a cup. But more was involved here than simply reaching out and picking up your own cup. Not that a man would use anyone else's cup - never. To do that would be to defile a souvenir from another man's career, to break one of those unwritten hallowed traditions of the Marines, like hollering "welcome aboard" to the newest arrival on the dry, never-rolling, landlocked base. It just wasn't done.

Before picking up your own cup you were expected to turn all the other cups around and read the messages painted on them, to keep up to date on recent creations in military graffiti: "3d MPs - We Serve To Keep The Peace," "Death Before Dishonour - USMC - Silent Swift Deadly," "When I die bury me face-down, So the whole world can kiss my ass," "Marines never die, they just go to hell and regroup."

With that study completed, you pulled the tap on the big green urn and let about a quarter inch of hot coffee run into the cup. You then swirled it around to melt off the bottom the dried sugar from the previous cup, walked over to the door to throw the contents outside, and returned to the urn for a full cup. The preferred amounts of sugar and powdered cream were then added, and an excessive amount of attention was put into stirring the mess. On the way back to your own desk, you were expected to stop off at the desks of others and engage them in bulls*** conversation for no less than five minutes each. And you quickly learned that you should never offer to fill anyone else's cup - that would deny the other man the chance to kill his own time. After the ritual of filling the coffee cup was over, you were half an hour closer to dinner or the club or whatever it was you were looking forward to.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Guest Babra]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Username:

I immediately jumped into action and used a screwdriver to get the clamp off the hose. There they were! Firmly clogged up nasty into the pump was some battle worn 38 inch waisties (froot-of-the-loomers)! (I knew that guy too).

I mounted them proudly to the radiator of the unarmored **** pumper truck. Over objections from my commanding officer, I saluted those proud shorts that gave their all!

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Suddenly I like you. See, it's the "glorious" moments like that which the recruiters and the flag-wavers forget to tell wannabes about. They don't tell us that jobs like that have to get done every day. They use their glossy TV ads to show all these happy (refreshed-looking) guys enjoying cool outdoor fun, but, pending the invention of smell-o-vision, the prospective newbie is be unaware of what happens when 75,000 men go camping.

I hope you got a medal or somethin'

[Berlichtingen]

Combat Mission is a cool game, and, thank God, is nothing like actual combat

[Warphead]

I sit in front of a computer, sleep at home every night and when I spend the night elsewhere I have a nice dry place to sleep at least. I see no difference between being a member of batallion HQ and playing CM.

[ 04-28-2001: Message edited by: Warphead- ]

[Username]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Babra:

See, it's the "glorious" moments like that which the recruiters and the flag-wavers forget to tell wannabes about <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I went to Aberdeen a bunch of years ago. Visited the tanks rusting on the field on that base.

There were these two guys, in full gear there, patroling about the grounds. Every time a civvie got up on one of the tanks, they had to go over and chase them off.

I started a conversation with the thoroughly bored teen. He was in the service and hated every second he was serving. He refered to the tank guard duty as a **** detail. I told him about the pumper duty and made him laugh a little. He was puzzled why anyone that was in the service would give a **** about coming to see these buckets of old junk (tanks).

He had that listless, resigned demeanor that I probably walked around with back in my service days. Everyone commented on my attitude (bad, as they called it) back then. They were probably right.

Anyway. If anyone is in the service (I really dont give a damn about a thread for vets); make the most of your time. Take classes and save your money. This sounds corny, but you will look back and laugh at all the crap that is driving you batty. A few years is a short time and its up to you to get the most out of that time.

And if you are ever driving the Honeysucker express; wear old boots and bring gloves.

Lewis

[ 04-28-2001: Message edited by: Username ]

[CJMello]

Having served during peacetime I must say that performing maintenance on my weapons system or mopping the latrine within an inch of it's life are memories not brought to the surface by playing CM. Heck, I was A.D.A. and the only thing I shot down was a RCMAT. :cool:

I like the game very much.