A plan for a massive 'To the Volga' AAR

[Lucas -FIN-]

I know many people must have tried this and I remember following one attempt until the fellow gave up after few turns when he realized he did not let the computer freely place units which basically ruined the game.

This is a massive operation. Probably many haven't even attempted to play it. I have a decent machine, but still moving a company sized unit in the setup phase takes some time. However, I'm determined to reach the banks of the Volga river if you wish me to make this AAR.

Now that I know how to use Image Shack it is possible to do a visual AAR. But before making any final decision about making the AAR I would like to ask you some advice on making an AAR. What information do you wish me to include in the AAR? What should be its structure? I want it to be as entertaining as possible and not just visually. I dont want it to lack any aspects some die hard CM fans would wait to see.

And -IF- I will take this challenge, it will naturally take a while to complete it. It will also take a while before anything is going to be posted here due to the preparations necessary. I also have my studies and some projects in process so there might not always be time to play. But as I said, if I will take the challenge, I'll do my best to complete it. My computer can handle the task.

So how is it fellas? Shall I go To the Volga?

[ January 17, 2008, 04:56 PM: Message edited by: Lucas -FIN- ]

[Philippe]

I think if you're really going to launch yourself on a project this large you'll have to forget about everybody else and simply make an AAR that you would want to read if it were written about a game that you weren't involved in. Keep this in mind: if it's a chore for you to write, it will be deathly dull for everyone else, so figure out how to amuse yourself first, and if people don't want to read it they can go look at something else.

Do a search for a thread I posted in the CMAK section of the forum last fall called Postcards from Italy.

The secret premise behind that thread was that AAR's might not be as interesting for other people to read as they are for people who were involved in the actual game.

So the trick was to try to reduce every entry to about five words or less, and to set up a screenshot that told it all without explanation.

In other words, I made the kind of AAR that I would like to read since I'm intolerant and have a short attention span: very few words, lots of pictures.

If you do go that route, or even if you just include a few pictures, try to keep this in mind:

the screenshots should try to look as much like movie stills as possible, so no visible bases, no flags, no location text, no damage messages, no targeting lines, no gridded terrain. The easiest way to get that effect is to simply hit shift Q before you start taking screenshots. And to get the exact shot that you want you will often have to run the movie over and over hitting the pause button at quarter-second intervals.

As for Image shack, thumbnails are a pain for two reasons: they take forever to load, and they're littered with advertisements which, as often as not, set off people's anti-virus alarms.

So if you want to be sure that people actually look at your hard work, put the full-size image directly into your posts. And remember to trim off the "shot by/on" text that will appear just under each message.

But most important, if you're going to make a lot of images, be sure to use good mods.

[ January 16, 2008, 06:10 AM: Message edited by: Philippe ]

[Cuirassier]

To quote someone responding to the previous attempt, you are nuts.

[Lucas -FIN-]

Philippe:

Thanks for the advices. Something more visual was indeed in my mind. As they say 1 image tells more than 1000 words. Although I still need to know how to post full images instead of the image shack thumbnails. (im a bit noob..)

Arent the mods usually higher resolution and making the game run more slow? That would be the least I needed in this particular case.

Cuirassier:

I know.

[Lucas -FIN-]

I really liked your Postcards from Italy AAR. A bit of tactical information (maps with advances, lines etc.) would have been cool, but it was very entertaining and felt like a movie.

[ParaBellum]

I'd say go for it. We've been waiting for a "To the Volga"-AAR since CMBB was released. The most important point Phillipe already mentioned: you really have to want to do it and enjoy the writing.

I did an extensive AAR a long time ago together with Master Goodale and enjoyed it immensely. You can take a look at it here, thanks to Teddy Windsor.

[Axel]

Lycka till Lucas

[Lucas -FIN-]

ParaBellum.. Excellent and most entertaining AAR! Completely the opposite of Philippes as it was mostly story with only little images. Both ways have their advantages. With more than the 5 words of text you can create a truly unique story around the characters taking part in the action. That keeps on the interest as much as the abundance of great screenshots with lots of visual action would.

Maybe I'll try to combine the two with a catchy story and lots of images. I must keep the scope in mind however. There are several regiments to command and keeping track on every single unit is impossible and would make the AAR too long and exhausting. Few units from each bigger unit can earn their place in the spotlight every now and then by proving them selves in battle. Also some important figures like leaders will naturally be kept track through the entire operation.

I intend to use as many pics as possible and minimize the size of the text columns between each image. That should keep the interest on. A clear structure of the text will also make the text easier to read.

But I STILL need to know how to add full images in the thread instead of the Image Shack thumbnail links. I would appreciate if someone helped me on that.

[Philippe]

When you're at My Images there will be a bunch of liitle squares on the screen.

Next to the little squares are some tiny letters.

The top letter is alway 'i'.

Click on it.

You'll get a pop-up with two sections of text.

The first section is lablelled full-size. There's a box for putting a check marker next to it.

The second section is labelled thumbnail. It also has a box for checking. In your case that is probably the one that's checked.

Check the box next to the text that reads full-size in bold letters.

The first section will be for forums, and that is what you want.

Experiment with it by posting an image here.

I hope you're planning on doing an AAR about a game against a human being rather than the AI.

[Lucas -FIN-]

And how do I get to 'My Images'? (please be patient with me..)

[Philippe]

Go to google.

type in Image shack.

click on Image shack hosting.

[What follows only works if you've been there before and registered].

Just under the big organge frog at the top of the page you'll see a thick orange bar.

There's stuff written on it.

ToS/Tools/FAQ/My Images and a bunch of other stuff.

Click on My Images.

[Lucas -FIN-]

Oh.. I searched the CM forum for that..

Yes I have posted one image here previously.

[Philippe]

THERE not here.

[Lucas -FIN-]

Ihantala Victory (testing)

(image removed)

[ January 17, 2008, 04:57 PM: Message edited by: Lucas -FIN- ]

[Lucas -FIN-]

finally got the idea

[Philippe]

Great. Now start working on your mods. Right off the bat I can tell that you're using out of the box flags, and that will never do. You need to get the ShepJuju flag pack at very least. That probably means paying a visit to Mark Gallear's website, which you can find through Google.

[Lucas -FIN-]

A list of some decent mods, which work well together and won't slow down the game too much, would be über cool. I don't have any experience of CMBB mods (used some in CMBO only). Downloading partial mods is dull. The entire set must be renovated if any.

[Lucas -FIN-]

I downloaded the flag pack.. All my terrain, vehicles, buildings, troops and backgrounds are still default though.

[Philippe]

Your first stop is to go to cmhq at combatmission.com and download and install all of the cmbb cmmos material. If you're ever at a loss for what to use, there's usually a better version of it in cmmos.

Once you've got that up and running you can start with DD's terrain.

Then go to cmmods and download every tank, gun, and truck that shows up in your scenario. If you can't find something German in the CMBB section, it is probably in the CMAK section (they're almost interchangeable). Always go for Mikey D, Uncle Tgt, and mchlstrt first when choosing mods. (I'm mentioning these names because I think you'll need them for the period you're covering). Pat has done some great work as well, and you will probably end up using his trucks.

Get the Andrew T Fox uniforms from cmmods -- it has the most recent versions.

Get my minefield markers from cmmods and my barbed wire from the fortification pack that I just posted in the cmak section. You can ignore my Little Semiotics mod because you're not going to show any flags (apart from the ones that appear at the bottom of the screen). Make sure you get Mikey D's Rubble.

If there's going to be snow on the ground you really should look at Gurra and Uncle Tgt's terrain mods. And if you're going to have a snow environment you'll have to decide whether your vehicles should be freshly whitewashed (Dey), losing their whitewash (Uncle Tgt), or just snow-covered (DavidI).

There are some great hidden unit marker mods, but you can ignore them because you don't want them to show up in screenshots.

Undaunted's sky mods are an absolute must.

Playing around with all of this and figuring out what you really need to use should take you about a month.

[Lucas -FIN-]

Sounds like a task, but I'll do my best. Still, I hope the high resolution mods wont make it slower..

[Lucas -FIN-]

I made a little Flavour-image at the first post. This will be included in the actual AAR thread too.^

[Lucas -FIN-]

Philippe:

I tried to get a friend to play this with me. I could still try to convince him to play this at summertime, but i doubt it. It will most likely be against AI, but there will be enemies behind every corner anyway, so what's the difference This map is mass chaos..

**UPDATE!!**

My friend has accepted the challenge after all! So you will see a human vs. human game.

[ January 18, 2008, 08:10 AM: Message edited by: Lucas -FIN- ]

[Lucas -FIN-]

There could be three separate threads for the AAR.

One with the Axis AAR (myself)

And one with the Soviet AAR (my friend)

And finally one for comments in order to keep the actual AAR's more clear.

We will aim for similar style and structure in our AAR's. We would both naturally stay out of each others threads until the operation is finished. But this would enable other people to follow the game as it progresses (it will take time to be finished).

[Lucas -FIN-]

I'm really not getting that CMMOS thing. I Figured it would be some sort of a mod organizer/list. But I don't have any idea how it works. I usually just downloaded a mod, replaced the images at the bmp file and thats it

WHat the heck are the rulesets I am supposed to download from the CMMOS?

[Philippe]

You start with a clean install of CMBB. There shouldn't be any mods in the bmp folder.

Do a search for the Mike T tutorial on how to use cmmods. It's very useful. But you're going to have to read the readme files.

Rulesets are the instructions to the cmmos program to switch different bmp options in and out of the bmp folder. The program can't work without them.

The two best places to read up on cmmos are at the cmhq site and at various places in cmmods. You should also do a search here for a link to Mike T's tutorial.

The US CDV Special Edition that's mentioned higher up in this forum comes with a few standalone mods and a lot of cmmos material. It's not expensive, and the US version doesn't have wafflegrenadiers and dummed-down text (it's just like the Battlefront version). You can buy it through any number of on-line retailers, I would recommend Chris Dean at Naval Warfare Simulations (and I hope I don't get in trouble for saying that) but there are plenty of others.

I'm not really the person to ask about the inner workings of cmbb cmmos, so your best bet is to find the source material and spend some time studying it. Mike T doesn't come around as often as he used to.