Hijacked thread? Was: Possibility for CM expansion pack?

[lewallen]

I posted this up earlier today, but somehow the thread has been destroyed, and has turned into the CMHQ Update-April 17 topic. So, here goes again...

I used to play Steel Panthers before I got into CM; if you're not familiar with SP, it's turn- and hex-based, and works on about the same unit scale as CM (smallest unit is one tank or one squad, hexes are 20m or maybe 25m IIRC).

Anyway, one of the campaigns that SP came with was a World War Three scenario, where Patton's Third Army took Berlin ahead of schedule and went from there directly into combat against the Russians. It was pretty interesting seeing Pershings and Jacksons going up against T34-85s and JSIIs and IIIs.

What I'm thinking is, since all the units you'd need to do that are in a CM format already (with CMBO or BB), how about Combat Mission: World War Three (or something), where US and British forces fight the Russians after VE-Day? If BTS wanted to be extra cool, they could make US, British, and Russian TO&E for up to about 1950, which would make the later model Pershings available, and the Brits would have Centurions (I think??); I forget what tanks the Russian forces would have around that time... the T-10??

And since the technology involved wasn't really any different from WWII (i.e. no guided missiles, etc), the CM combat engine should still be sufficient for correct modeling. And even if BTS didn't want to do new units, they could still do it pretty well with just the units available in 1945. For example the Easy Eight Shermans were still in wide-spread use in Korea.

So, just a thought. Comments?

~Sam

[Dirtweasle]

I would be interested in something like that as well.

[sturner]

Originally posted by lewallen:

I posted this up earlier today, but somehow the thread has been destroyed, and has turned into the CMHQ Update-April 17 topic. So, here goes again...

It was pretty interesting seeing Pershings and Jacksons going up against T34-85s and JSIIs and I forget what tanks the Russian forces would have around that time... the T-10??

~Sam

Into the 50's, they should have T-44's. That's a new chassis with the old T34/85 turrets. That's part of what rolled into Hungary in '54.

[ April 18, 2002, 12:49 AM: Message edited by: sturner ]

[Soddball]

And Centurions. If we go toe to toe against the commie brigade, I want Centurions.

[Jussi Köhler]

Sorry to break this to you, but I think the answer is no...

Tried to do a nifty link-thingy but this bloody Linux doesnt like my pasting...

Heres the link that discusses it to some degree.

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=023892

As I've understood it, its pretty certain that we wont see an add-on of any kind (incl. patches) to CMBO...

Jussi

[Dirtweasle]

I think you must have grabbed the wrong qoute... As interesting as Capt. Wacky's opinion might be, it's hardly offical...

Besides, I think Lewallen is asking for comments on an addition to CMBB focusing on a post WWII fictional encounter between the Western Powers and the Soviets.

[Captain Wacky]

[lewallen]

Originally posted by Dirtweasle:

Besides, I think Lewallen is asking for comments on an addition to CMBB focusing on a post WWII fictional encounter between the Western Powers and the Soviets.

That is what I had in mind. Am I correct in assuming that CMBB will have most or all of the terrain types that are in CMBO (i.e. hedgerows) in addition to the new ones that are CMBB specific? If so, the CMBB engine could model battles anywhere in the ETO including all of western Russia, so the front lines could go in either direction.

I keep thinking that the CM scale and idea would be great for almost any era, but anything that introduces guided missiles, night vision equipment, helicopters, etc., would involve a ton of work (I imagine along the lines of a whole new game to do it real justice), not to mention the system requirements involved with the size of the modern battlefield (for 1960s equipment, probably 6km on a side would be good, for modern, more like 10km or 12km?).

But I think the '50s units offers a good compromise between existing engine limitations and abilities, and some of the improvements in tank and weapon design that happened after WWII, some of which were directly due to German influence (for example, IIRC one of the first tanks the French produced after WWII was armed with a direct copy of the Panther's 75L70). Does anyone know when the Brits introduced the L7 105mm?

I'm even thinking that it would be cool if BTS could just add the existing Allied units to CMBB. They could even only make them available in the same time-span as they are in CMBO, sort of as a "power-user" addition to CMBB, which I would think would minimize the amount of work involved, unless they would have to be reformatted or redone somehow to transfer to CMBB. And even if no battles designed as Russian vs. American/British came with CMBB, we could at least make our own.

The logical extention to that would be to make it possible to put any country against any other country, as was possible in Steel Panthers, so you could do things like British vs. American, or maybe even make it possible to put the same country on both sides so you could have civil war situations (Steel Panthers had such a scenario). That's all pretty much a flight of fancy on my part, but it doesn't seem, at first glance, that it would be that hard to program, and it would add a lot of flexibility to the game...

~Sam