Amazed newbie here

[Dazey]

I just got my hands on a copy of CMBO, and I just needed to say this is the most amazing WWII simulation I've ever seen.

I started the tutorial scenario, (without looking at the manual, i wanted to check how playable it was), then i started advancing the allied troops (quite randomly if you ask me ) and after a turn, one PzIV and maybe a MG suddenly appeared and opened fire on the men, and i just could do nothing about it! i started feeling so bad that i sent them to death i had to quit and start over, i really felt like they were MY men and that i was responsible for their survival.

Of course i'm aware of the fact that men die in wars, and it doesn't matter how many horrible scenes they show you in the movies, this awareness of the war is about sending someone to death.

So i wanted to congratulate the authors of CM for helping me broading my understanding of warfare, for achieving such a realistic experience. There's no more moving whole divisions up and down some hexes, now i also have to take into account that i'm not god, that i can't send my men to suicide situations, or as machiavelli wouldn't say... the end doesn't justify the means.

By the way, go Monty! just kidding

P.S: i REALLY love tiny scenarios.

[Guest Mike]

Another life lost to this insidious addiction!!

Oh the inhumanity of it all - wil it never end??

[Runyan99]

Originally posted by Dazey:

then i started advancing the allied troops (quite randomly if you ask me ) and after a turn, one PzIV and maybe a MG suddenly appeared and opened fire on the men, and i just could do nothing about it! i started feeling so bad that i sent them to death i had to quit and start over, i really felt like they were MY men and that i was responsible for their survival.

I sometimes experience the same feeling. If I am playing a fairly serious PBEM game and I make a costly mistake, I can get a little upset about it. The feeling is mostly self-reproch for playing badly, but there is also some reflection on the death and destruction I have caused my men. CM does a pretty good job of "immersion" on the battlefield, and with just a little imagination, you can easily sympathize with your men.

As a result, I try to take the best care of my digital soldiers that I can, and I pride myself on keeping casualties as low as possible. Sometimes even when I lose a scenario, I feel that I played well if I was able to inflict significantly many more casualties on my opponent than I lost.

[Bruno Weiss]

Now you get on out there sonny and start playing other folks, get that rush when somefink works you put together, and that low down feeling when all your plans are smashed, then you'll really know what it is like. Taint nothing like taking on another thinking, calculating, sneaky, person bent on destroying your force.

[Dazey]

Originally posted by Bruno Weiss:

Now you get on out there sonny and start playing other folks, get that rush when somefink works you put together, and that low down feeling when all your plans are smashed, then you'll really know what it is like. Taint nothing like taking on another thinking, calculating, sneaky, person bent on destroying your force.

sounds scary

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Mike:

Another life lost to this insidious addiction!!

Oh the inhumanity of it all - wil it never end??

Aye, he has been aCMilated.

[Warmaker]

A new fan for CMBO... and soon to be a mod slut.

[_Axe_]

Abandon all other hobbies, ye who enter here.

[Commander]

I have had this game for a year. I played CM only for the first six months. Tried a few other games (like Medal of Honor) but always come back to CM. There is nothing else like it!! Welcome to the addiction.

[Leeo]

Let's put it this way;

My wife hates this game.

[Agua]

Whatever happened to the CMBorg?

Enjoy it man. It's given me over a year and a half of enjoyment.

[sgtsayian]

lol, same here. I'am a really amazed newbie...I just played a quick game with Canadians and Volksturm, it was a Town map, I was the canadians as defenders...and I got my ass whopped! it was a pretty long battle though, I had a couple men left at the end of the battle but I kept making them fall back every so turns, this game is sooo damn amazing I can't get enough of it!

[Chad Harrison]

Originally posted by Dazey:

I just got my hands on a copy of CMBO, and I just needed to say this is the most amazing WWII simulation I've ever seen.

Put it down now, or forever surrender yourself to the obsession that has gripped us all . . .

[Dazey]

Originally posted by Warmaker:

A new fan for CMBO... and soon to be a mod slut.

this is SO true!

[_Axe_]

Originally posted by Commander:

I have had this game for a year. I played CM only for the first six months. Tried a few other games (like Medal of Honor) but always come back to CM.

What -- you don't like the realism of Medal of Honor? It's also a great history lesson. Cornelius Ryan and Max Hastings never mentioned anything about that one soldier who singlehandedly won the liberation of France.

[Lurkur]

...start playing other folks, get that rush when somefink works you put together, ...

I suppose that it's theoretically possible for this to occur, but if you start playing people you will need to develop a somewhat perverse appreciation for entropy.

In the beginning, your plans will come apart at the drop of a hat. Enemy assets will appear exactly where you don't want them to be at the worst possible time. And don't forget the giddy prospect of really, really bad luck. In a current game I had both members of a BIG Arty FO team killed with a single shot by an oblivious tank using area fire on the building they were in.

So in the beginning frustration will be your prime mover. Then you will have the little wins, like knocking out an opponents übertank. Those little successes will keep you going until you develop your tactical sense. Victory will be that much sweeter when it comes.

Enjoy!

Lurk

[ August 23, 2002, 10:19 AM: Message edited by: Lurkur ]

[Dryfear]

I remember when I downloaded the demo. I played that Volkssturm mission over and over until I finally one it, by God!

I ordered the game, soon after, realizing that I could be playing many more missions, so why mess with the demo?!

[Bruno Weiss]

Lurkur wrote:

I suppose that it's theoretically possible for this to occur, but if you start playing people you will need to develop a somewhat perverse appreciation for entropy.

No theory about it. When all things come together correctly, it happens.

[BeauCoupDinkyDau]

Originally posted by Runyan99:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Dazey:

then i started advancing the allied troops (quite randomly if you ask me ) and after a turn, one PzIV and maybe a MG suddenly appeared and opened fire on the men, and i just could do nothing about it! i started feeling so bad that i sent them to death i had to quit and start over, i really felt like they were MY men and that i was responsible for their survival.

I sometimes experience the same feeling. If I am playing a fairly serious PBEM game and I make a costly mistake, I can get a little upset about it. The feeling is mostly self-reproch for playing badly, but there is also some reflection on the death and destruction I have caused my men. CM does a pretty good job of "immersion" on the battlefield, and with just a little imagination, you can easily sympathize with your men.

As a result, I try to take the best care of my digital soldiers that I can, and I pride myself on keeping casualties as low as possible. Sometimes even when I lose a scenario, I feel that I played well if I was able to inflict significantly many more casualties on my opponent than I lost.</font>

[WineCape]

Originally posted by Leeo:

Let's put it this way;

My wife hates this game.

That's way we call them the magnificent (for us) bastards (the wife)!

[Monty's Double]

And remember, to err is human, to Alt-A is unforgivable. Live with the guilt and you'll be a better person for it.

[Gyrene]

Bah, he'll be completely over it and down to only 2 or 3 PBEMs at time in 2 years.

Gyrene

[Sailor Malan]

On the subject of immersion, one of my early games (wont tell scenario to avoid spoiling) really caused me to fail my morale check.

I was playing the AI, and had a platoon of US halftracks. Approach a small village on a ridge. Stop the HT below the ridge, dismount, clear village. No problems (no enemy either!). Right, time to remount, HT forward. The next minute is frozen in my mind. As the 4 HT came up the ridge, and attempted to cross may be 40m of open ground, all four were taken out by a gun. I couldn't see it, and the horror as HT after HT just exploaded into flames.... I quite lost my nerve, and became really cautious! (Lost the scen...I was young and innocent I tell you). It really got to me there for a minute!

Later found the gun - 75mm AT @c700m, clear LOS, fairly easy shots (the HT were in los for some seconds, and as luck would have it, perfectly spaced to allow the gun to reload. Ah well, us PC Platoon commanders get to learn our trade without the body count you get in RL.

[Bruno Weiss]

Vader's Jester wrote:

I try to command my men as a real commander would. No suiside Jeep recon rushes.

Here here. I think that is one of the things that separate the feeling that it is a game from the immersion factor. It can be made into a game, by doing things that take advantage of the "system", but in so doing it lessens the overall feeling of immersion IMO. I try to look at each unit as an individual who does not want to die, and would not willingly go on some suicide mission.

[Len]

Gosh, I thought I was the only one whose day was ruined by watching a plan come unglued before I left for work, or alternatively, "YES!!", when a risky move works out........... .

Also, am I unusual in that my wife actually shows an interest in my battles?

(Mind you, we don't live together anymore, so maybe THAT helps..............lol).