A Chance Encounter

[freaky ol'man w/very long wings]

It's been almost three years with all their nights when almost by chance I happened to encounter the demo of the game.

I was downloading demos of games to wonder at the graphics of those which I could open and made work. CMBO was one of those demos and I'm not quite sure if it did work.

This is why I want to remember.

I believe what attracted me was the name,it was the name of a historical event, of a battle event, something I always been curious to know of, some. Maybe the description said it was 3D I don't recall.

I opened this demo as skeptically as with any other demo I'd been able to view.

Well, I did. In such a hurry to see if the thing would work, that I missed the artwork by clicking GO TO GAME fast.

I then click on Chance Encounter just for the thrill of it.

Something came out, a kind of landscape. Interesting, now I have to figure this out, I thought.

I could see something like half a tank and three stiff soldier-toy like figures. I just hit GO.

A message saying -Computer is Thinking- but nothing happened.

After that I expend quite a bit of time trying to figure out what had been DONE and how to shut down the blinking.

I hit GO twice more wanting to realize what the blue strip meant when nothing was really happening. It was high time to fuss around with the arrows.

F Arrow. It moves! I went towards some road and at an intersection, a house. Maybe that's were Grettel's live, I thought sardonically, because it looked like no beaches and not Normandy to me.

I tried the other arrows and soon I found myself

lost in some trees. I wanted to go back to were the tanks and the three dudes were.

When I finally did made it around I was surprised to find not just half a tank, but a few, plus several figures nodding their heads disaprovingly at me.

Shame on me, it seemed that they were waiting on me to do something for them, but what?

I went towards them and notice more of them to one side of the road by the trees.

I started circling around them, almost sniffing them, like a dog who smell something that fell by grace of the sky.

I was getting good at those arrows, you know, I wanted to scream "Look mom, no hands". This was my first time driving.

From there I think I click on the the other two small arrows and my exclamation was: "It flies too!"

So I went and started looking at the guys below, just a little. Then I decided to go and fly 3D.

I was having fun, when suddenly I saw some other guys behind a hill and at once I knew who they were, the enemy.

Of the other guys, of course, but wasn't I the one that chose Allies in a Holywood way? That was still to be seen. I went and look only to realize that they were as stiff as the other side, plus funny looking vehicles.

I leave it there at that time.

In my second try I found out that I could use the mouse to move the screen around and soon find myself clicking in the figures trying to make them move. I expend a good time before learning how to press the mouse and find the comands. When I got a tank to the intersection I saw the first firefight and the tank ended immovilized. The guy with the cap ended inside Grettel's house.

Amazing, you could see that she wasn't home.

The other guys didn't make it to Grettel's. The enemy did, though, or were very close. I saw them come in groups of three into the church behind and others made it to the wall in the other side of the wheat field. After that the Allies didn't make it nowhere.

I left the demo at that, I found the 3D experience very interesting but found it too dificult to deal with. It felt I thought, a bit stiff. I looked at the other scenario and indeed, the 3D rendering was very good and different from any other graphics, and yet I trashed it.

Time passed, I got a laptop and wanted to try some demos, check how the laptop did with graphics.

CMBO demo came to mind, this time I was curious of who made this kind of game, find in description, BTS.

Went to homesite and found out they have got a Gold Demo. Good, I thought, maybe this time it will really work.

It did,it seemed as if the ibook liked more games than books. This time the graphics were minimized but the rendering was untouched and I made sure everyone moved on.

They did and things started happening, like, your guys start shooting without being ordered, almost like saying, "We are moving now, don't look at us, look ahead!". This time they discovered the enemy before I did.

A tank I have send down the road gets blown out with everyone on it. It's on fire! four guys end up at Grettel's.

Other tanks which I send down through the grass, get bogged. One left behind, which I forgot to move and now I try to hide shyly, gets blown on fire without me noticing for a while. My thought after this was that the funny looking vehicles in the other side weren't funny anymore.

I don't remember where I got with that first laptop battle. I didn't care, I only knew that this 3D demo experience had just began.

In my second laptop try, I finally finished one game. It was a tactical victory.

Hell, I thought, I didn't even knew I was being tactical. Maybe I did press the target comand too much.

What had been a chance encounter did become an engaging aquaintance, about a zillion games later.

That and going to the forum just to try to find out how to unboog a vehicle, bad mistake.

I mean, for someone who is fond of reading like me. Well, sometimes it beats newspapers and magazine racks.

Like everyone, I started normal, until I was up to two hundred percent! and full of FoW.

Minimal, tactical, major, even one total victory. What a looser, I thought.

I have gone the full vicious circle and done the eternal return over and over.

Try Mortar= Go to Forum. Try leader= go to forum. You name it.

And later, just go to forum, someone may slip their tonge and solve all your riddles.

Like, what is IMO? Well you got to know the phraseology, I guess, no matter if you still get beaten by the AI.

The AI. No matter if you send in a human wave of bazooka guys and tanks, the AI beats you.

My friend, the AI. It had turned me into a die-hard or at least a Russian.

So, I learned the hard way and more. As experienced by many, the AI still has a lot to tell us.

My chance encounters soon turned into encounters of the third kind.

I have gotten pretty good I thought, until I found out one of those surprises you are prone to experience only in CM, when playing against the AI. The Wounded Soldier.

It happened when moving three squads through the woods, a scream was heard saying something like "Stumpfuhrerhole!" or what sounded more like "I'm wounded!". Infantry sounds? That was the last I saw of my squads.

The next ocurrence was the Biafra Child.

This time it was one squad, a zook and a HQ with Stealth bonuses.

They went again into Grettel's all ready to party. Before going in I saw someone there that looked like too large a head but a frail tiny body.

It couldn't be Grettel, I thought, because it looked black with no golden locks.

I went closer to see if it wasn't one of those uber MG's. It was not, it was a Biafra kid, the starved kind you know?

"It just a kid", said the leader with stealth, "C'mon men!".

I also stop paying attention, later, when I went to fetch the guys wondering why they were taking such a long time to move into the church, they were gone.

This time I only find the "DoughBoy", little head and all body.

Next time, I say to myself, avoid even the cows!

It was high time to move on, this time I have decided to retire and move.....To Plomville.

PS. characters Wounded Soldier and Starving Kid taken from sci-fi short story that inspired "The Terminator".

"I have seen ships burning off the constelation of Orion..." Replica in the rain, "Blade Runner".

[ August 27, 2002, 06:32 PM: Message edited by: freaky ol'man w/very long wings ]

[Nidan1]

A loverly little story, probably something we have all experienced at one time or another. What can really be an eye opener is playing a head to head game with someone who really know how to play this thing All of those freaky liitle quirks that you mention are actually designed to work that way. Our little CM fantsy world with little manevolent moving things and shooting things is actually a pretty damned good representation of the horrors of the WWII battlefield, as actually experienced by our fathers and grandfathers. CM can be a little piece of hell sometimes if you really think about it. One of mans darker endeavors, but which sometimes brings out in men all those hidden things we all dont like talking about. Getting too serious here, please dont pile on me guys, just found freaky old man's little story intriguing.

[Michael Dorosh]

What a well written piece! Brings back memories for me too. I actually played the demo and deleted it, not to come back for several months because I too just hit the GO button and had no idea what else to do!

Good writing from both of you.

[Stoffel]

odd,

the same thing happened to me too,I really had no idea what I had to do.

It took me several tries later with the gold demo to figure it out

left me 4 years later with a lot of cm buddies to play with.

Hope to see you friends all with CM 2

[Prinz Eugen]

Originally posted by Stoffel:

Hope to see you friends all with CM 2

You bet !

Jääkärit RYNNÄKKÖÖN !!!!

[Boo Radley]

Now this is funny. I can imagine that most of us had the same experience with the demo.

I first downloaded it about a year ago from "Happy Puppy", I think. When I got to the set-up screen for "Chance Encounter", I had no idea what to do. I tried to move my tank up near the crossroads, but nothing happened. I screwed arpound with it for a few minutes and then figured that the game just didn't work properly on my computer so I deleted it.

Several months later I downloaded it again in the hopes that somehow it had fixed itself.

Nope, still can't move the tank to the crossroads. But then my hand slipped while moving the mouse and the tank moved to another area within the dashed off zone.

Suddenly, I had an epiphany!

After I cleaned myself off, I started moving things around and after I hit "GO", it all became clear.

Now I spend all of my free time in front of the computer, my family and friends never see me and my once bronzed skin looks albino-ish with a tinge of green.

Life's great, aint it?

[freaky ol'man w/very long wings]

Thanks everyone for your response. I believe this is "once in a life time experience" we all share.

And the game is excelent.

[Dschugaschwili]

Am I the only one here who has read the readme file before starting the game? :confused:

I had no problems getting into the game at all.

Dschugaschwili

[Cpl Carrot]

There are two types of people in the world. Those who dive right in and those who test the water first

[Michael Emrys]

Originally posted by Dschugaschwili:

Am I the only one here who has read the readme file before starting the game? :confused:

I had no problems getting into the game at all.

Since it is my habit, I probably did. Usually with a game, I not only sit down and read all the rules, I try to visualize how they will all work together to create different effects.

Michael

[wodasini88]

A sticker my dad has on the garage door:

"Warning Real Men dont read instructions"

[Michael Emrys]

Originally posted by wodasini88:

A sticker my dad has on the garage door:

"Warning Real Men dont read instructions"

Does he spend a lot of time replacing broken parts?

Michael

[freaky ol'man w/very long wings]

Good point about the "read me file", but I guess that's what made you miss "the experience".

The story is the "read" for those who missed such "file".

I hope you don't ask us to read the Manual too. That's why there is the Forum. LOL.

[Chad Harrison]

Last night I had a few minutes after calculus and statistics, but before bed. So, naturally I fired up CMBO. And what did I see? Chance encounter!! So I fired up the original battle that hooked me on CMBO. The funny thing is, I remember the AI being a lot harder before!!! Still a great scenario and hearing this story only brings back memories from long ago . . .

[Shosties]

It's strange... I got the knack of the interface pretty quickly and got a tactical victory first time out... even had some Shermans left at game end! Then of course came the replays, checking out the forum for advice, trying out different tactics. Then those M4s really started going "WHOOOOSH". It never fails, when playing with no experience and all "gut" I don't do too badly. Then I get get some experience and things go to hell.

[Chad Harrison]

Originally posted by Shosties4th:

It's strange... I got the knack of the interface pretty quickly and got a tactical victory first time out... even had some Shermans left at game end! Then of course came the replays, checking out the forum for advice, trying out different tactics. Then those M4s really started going "WHOOOOSH". It never fails, when playing with no experience and all "gut" I don't do too badly. Then I get get some experience and things go to hell.

What, someone hid a lighter under your shermans? Dont feel too bad, happens all the time. Tanks should be keep in hull down positions at all times! Those are the winning tools of CMBO if used correctly (along with infantry ofcourse).

Chad Harrison

[Commander]

...The funny thing is, I remember the AI being a lot harder before!!! Still a great scenario and hearing this story only brings back memories from long ago . . .[/QB]

Same for me with Chance Encounter. I noticed the AI has gotten weaker over the past year.(I didn't even try driving the Sherman through the trees this last time) Its ok, all my pbem opponents are getting better and better...

[Chad Harrison]

Originally posted by Commander:

Same for me with Chance Encounter. I noticed the AI has gotten weaker over the past year.(I didn't even try driving the Sherman through the trees this last time) Its ok, all my pbem opponents are getting better and better...

When I first bought this game, I thought the AI was sooo tough and it was great! Now . . .

[ August 29, 2002, 12:23 AM: Message edited by: Chad Harrison ]