I intended to write next about Gettyburg (3 different versions) and walking the ground there which I have done twice, but I am having trouble with the Sid Meier game program so that will have to wait. My two home computers are BOTH FUBAR since the installation of Windows XP. Why two computers? Well my 3 almost 4 year old grandson, Sean Patrick Murphy (Himself), must have his own as must any well adjusted 3 year old, nest ce pas?
Anyone else having trouble with this latest version of Microsoft Genius?? I've heard it's not so great for home computers and best for businesses. Any input or suggestions would be most welcome!! Just got the latest issue of MWAN today and I find myself agreeing with Hal and Len Brewer on just about everything about WWII in this issue #116 so here goes with some of my thoughts etc. on this fascinating subject.
I was also saddened to see The Monk's Corner disappear, Hal. I always enjoyed his column because in addition to being well written, it almost always covered a subject I knew little if anything about. Perhaps he might consent to an occasional Special Guest appearance? While on the subject, I met an old friend of his last summer while sightseeing at the great Cathedral of York, England. He was a totally charming priest with a superb knowledge of wargaming and almost everything else. I enjoyed a long and very interesting conversation with him. Small world, isn't it?? I passed along this friend's best wishes to the Reverend Aelred Glidden which he graciously acknowledged with his blessing and thanks. Men like these are a dying breed which is sad especially now that they are really needed to bring sanity to this insane world of ours!!
I must confess (these wonderful priests get to you) that the other reason I'm not doing Gettysburg this issue is that while I can't get Sid Meier's version of Gettysburg and Antietam to play well on my machines, I can get COMBAT MISSION-BEYOND OVERLORD to run fairly well on my FUBAR master machine with the 3-D Video card. I can't play too many turns in a long or large game or it locks up. It is also slow to or totally rejects an immediate reload when you quit. I then have to give it a little rest. BUT WOW, WHAT A GREAT GAME!!! This game is really 3-D for any small unit or company size battle and up to battalion or even regimental size battles. The graphics are superb and may get better although they're pretty awesome now. I hope the designers take it easy with this great product. They might be able to make money for years to come on other fronts and extra scenarios, it's that far ahead of the art.
You can zoom in and out from an overview of the battle field in 2 D at level 7 all the way down to being adjacent or almost on top of individual soldiers or vehicles at level 1. These really nice graphic units are infantry squads or weapon teams represented by one,two or three figures like the miniature stands we are used to seeing on the miniature wargame table. They look GREAT and will run, crawl, fire with tracers etc. There is also excellent sound. The vehicles are individual. I have a small problem with this because there is no command control with vehicles as there is with infantry units. This game BLOWS COMBAT COMMAND COMPLETELY AWAY and I liked COMBATCOMMAND the Eastern Front and Invasion Normandy a lot and thought they were state of the art for a long time to come! WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you have a 3-D video card or can afford one, YOU MUST BUY THIS GAME! It is that GOOD!
This is a Tactical game as mentioned above with wonderful variety. This whole thing starts with D-Day and carries through to the end of the war but omits the June 6 beach scenarios, so no OMAHA, UTAH, GOLD, SWORD or JUNO landing scenarios are included. There is the usual create your own feature that you could use for these beach landings but I really don't want to see that again, "Saving Private Ryan" was Bloody enough (double entendre deliberate) for me. There are several airborne and paratrooper landing scenarios in the dark with the drops of the 101st Screaming Eagles and the 87th All-America Divisions' Paratroopers which recreate the confusion and mess that really happened to these great guys! Great fun if you enjoy total chaos and confusion plus lots of infantry small unit action. The game engine is very good. I don't yet know if it will let you play large battles or operations but I can't do it on my FUBAR machine and it isn't because I lack disc space! I have plenty available. If I can get the bugs out. I would rate the game engine Excellent. I will let you know as I continue to play this game and I will, best game I've played since Panzer General III-Scorched Earth!
You first select a battle or operation and the program gives you information (scouting reports and historical information). You then select whether you want either side to have more troops and/or want to give the AI an advantage. I usually give myself a 50-100% advantage at least the first time around until I see what I'm dealing with. It's also fun to play both sides of a given battle since you get to do the battle with both sides. I suggest playing both sides on the second or third try at the tutorial.You then select the side you wish to play or both and the battle or operation will load. This takes you to the battlefield.
I like to zoom all the way out and look around. You are now in the Setup phase. I then like to zoom in to the 3 setting. One is the biggest magnification and 3 is a good setting for most purposes. It gives you a view just a bit above the battlefield but everything is very visible as you scroll around. This takes a combination of mouse and arrows but you can learn it. I did and as you know, I'm not a great scroller but working on it. During the Setup phase you will often be able to move your units around for better concentration and command control. I'm still not sure if the way I do it is the best way. I usually concentrate toward the front of the allotted setup space so that I can attack ASAP but maybe I'm too aggressive.
Once you have setup your units, you click done and Issue Orders. A right click brings up an order menu which also is available in the Setup phase with less choices OR you can use Hotkeys. Use of the Hotkeys with my broken left arm was hard but I'm now using them more and it's easier. You must now issue orders to your units and hope they carry them out. You can order them to move 4-7 diffferent ways, fire different ways, embark or disembark vehicles almost anything you can imagine. When you have issued orders to all your units, you click done. The AI then thinks which may take a while if you'vedone well(maybe 30 seconds or more) and the turn commences. AWESOME!!!
You now watch 60 seconds of action which you cannot control or alter!! All the defensive fire and other actions are randomized by the program. You can't see ALL the action BUT not to worry. The program now stops and you can replay any part or all of the previous turn's action to your heart's content! Is that great or what? You can zoom in and out, watch any unit as close up as you want or zoom out to 3 or 4 to get the whole picture. This is really FUN! I am just now learning to zoom in to the 1 setting to watch individual units perform. The action is very realistic. The troops often ignore your stupid orders in favor of self preservation. Unlike table top, there is a random element that really makes this game GREAT FUN!!! Not that table top isn't, but no rule lawyers etc. just fast action!!
One thing I don't care for much is that after you have pretty much wiped out the opponent the game continues a bit too long for my taste. I can live with it because it's such a great game! Faults-Yes but wait till you see it. It is almost as beautiful as a great miniature war game plus no setup or tear down! Now if I could get a wall sized screen for the computer and/or an interactive mode, well it Boggles the imagination, What? If they come out with a laptop with a good 3-D card that I can plug into my 60 inch TV, well who knows? If you know of one, please let me know!
The good news if you invest in a state of the art 3-D video card is that you can enjoy not only this game but also Panzer General III-Scorched Earth (Eastern Front 4*out of 4) and Panzer General III-Assault (Western Front 3*out of 4 , 4* if you learn to play it very well) not to mention Panzer Elite which puts you in the turret of a tank but is very hard to play unless you really know how these vehicles work. David Pentland told me about Panzer Elite which is another great game that I have not been able to find the time to learn to play well. I did have a lot of fun taking a platoon of Tiger Its into the field against Stuarts and Shermans which were tougher than expected. In case you don't know, David Pentland is a Superb WWII artist whose works you will see in Military magazines e.g. World War II and look for the Cranston Fine Arts advertisement. I have 4 of his original oils. They are beautiful!!! Get some of his stuff if you can, the prints are nice but the canvas editions are quite reasonable and gorgeous! Framed, you can hardly tell the difference.
Back to Combat Command. There are 43 assorted battles which cover June 1944 to the end of the War in 1945 in Germany. There are also 9 operations each of which contain several battles that are connected. For example, there is a single battle for Villers Bocage which covers Wittman's lone Tiger against the Desert Rats for 10 turns and he then gets reinforcements as do the British. The Brits bring up more Cromwells and some Sherman Fireflys that can take on your Tigers nose to nose and always succeed in doing considerable damage to your armor if you play the Krauts. This is a great scenario and you will find it isn't easy to duplicate Wittman's famous victory. There is also an operation called Villers Bocage which takes in the whole action of that fateful day, not just Wittman's charge to glory.
The tutorial is excellent and fun to play. It will teach you the basics. You get infantry and two Shermans in a meeting engagement just off the beach toward a key crossroads where you encounter German infantry with two Mark IVHs. Your Shermans and troops can defeat this German force but it's not easy. The key is knocking out their panzers while preserving yours and the Shermans are the equal of the Mark IVH so it isn't hopeless by any means. Remember the only Panzer Division available in Normandy on D-Day and until June 12 when Wittman and the SS Tiger Battalion arrived was the 21st Panzer Division which was understrength and had no heavy armor.
The 12th SS Panzer also came up somewhere in between with a Panther Battalion and more Mark IVs. But both SS units suffered heavily from the Jaboes while on the march and were not full strength when they arrived. These units were not yet acquainted with the overwhelming superiority of Allied airpower which they had not had to contend with in Russia! I played this tutorial many times with never the same results. I finally decided to play with a 50% increase in the American troops and this will give you victory most of the time. I don't like to LOSE (who said that-Captain Kirk-which movie?), especially to an AI!
There are two additional tutorials you can play that are fun. One finds you with a company of engineers to defend a bridge in the face of an oncoming German Recon column. I got creamed the first two tries but learned to pull all my troops back to the bridge ASAP and then managed to hold on by the skin of my teeth. Sorry, couldn't resist that, we dentists have to have our bad jokes. The other is a fire and movement battle that is still giving me fits. I have to attack an American anti-tank defense with infantry support that is dug in on good ground. I am still stymied by this one. The answer is probably good use of smoke and artillery but I have yet to master these tools. There is something for everyone here. Big or small, infantry fighting in towns (Aachen), paratroopers landings, Hurtgen Forest. Armor battles- Villers Bocage, Barkman's Corner, the new American heavy tank vs the Tiger I and II. Yet, I have only scratched the surface of this magnificent game. More on Combat Mission as we go along. I think I'm going to be playing this one for a long time!
On to WWII Movies
I totally agree with Hal about "Cross Of Iron", 4* out of 4. Set in the Kuban Bridgehead in late 1943, a good cast with James Coburn, David Warner, James Mason and Maximilian Schell. The weapons, uniforms and equipment are perfect with the possible exception of the Russian planes which look like LAG-7s to me but I'm not sure. The T-34/85s are great and real. Fortunately this movie was filmed in Hungary, I believe, which still had the T-34/85 as their main battle tank when this film was made in the 1960s. You will love this film which by the way is out on DVD. I just picked up a copy in DVD a few months ago at Media Play!
I place "Saving Private Ryan" in the same 4* class. Perfect authenticity is the name of the game. Are those real Tigers and if so where did they get them? They even have the Tiger cough and distinctive sound right. Amazing. but consider the achievement of Sam Peckinpaugh as "Cross Of Iron" was made almost 40 years ago. It has taken this long to see it's equal. The books are superb if you can find them. Willie Heinrich wrote at least two novels? on WWII on the Eastern Front. They are "Cross Of Iron" and "The Crack Of Doom". Another great Book on the Eastern Front is "Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sager. Authentic books by the poor bastards who fought there and survived. Also at 4* is "Gettysburg" (the collector's 4 hour VHS version which may not be available) which unfortunately was cut to 3 hours for theater release. The four hour uncut version fills in all the holes in the standard release. Get a copy if you can find one!You're not getting mine! If you have never read the "THE KILLER ANGELS" (the book Gettysburg is based on) then you MUST buy a copy and read it. It is one of the best books I have ever read. The other two books by Shaara's son are also quite good and a movie of "Gods and Generals" is currently in production.
I like "Tora, Tora, Tora" and "Midway" at 3 1/2 *. They are both great movies with authentic weapons for the most part. The Anti-Aircraft weapons are better than what they actually had in 1941-42, I think. Open to correction here. But I love the casts and the portrayal of the Pacific Wars' most important battles. Lots of others like "A Bridge Too Far", "The Longest Day"(colorized), "Battleground"(colorized)" and "Stalingrad" (German film in color, dubbed in English) very harsh. I have not seen "Winter War" or the earlier "Stalingrad" version which are both available from Belle And Blade.
I also like "The Thin Red Line" at 3*. Try this one at home on a big screen TV with the close caption ON. It really improves when seen several times this way. I give "Pearl Harbor" 3* mostly for the battle scenes. Spitfires vs ME 109s and Dornier bombers. P-40s vs Zeros, Kates etc. and the Doolittle raid to boot. Great stuff . But also keep in mind that this was what life was like in that time period. The best history professor I ever had was Dr. Grattan, a PHD from Harvard who taught us that people must be judged by the times and morals in which they lived!! So perhaps "Pearl Harbor" should be a little higher.
Other favorites at 3* are "In Harm's Way" with the Duke, "Battle of the Bulge" with a great cast (Robert Shaw-one of my all time favorite actors in the Jochen Peiper role, Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews, Ty Hardin, George Montgomery, Danno[Helen Hayes' boy from Hawaii 5-0] etc. but almost worth buying for a great scene of the young panzer commanders singing "Panzer Lied" There are tons of other movies at 3 or 2 1/2 *. Go to the internet to belleandblade.com. You won't believe how much stuff they have available. You can beat some of their prices on occasion at Media Play or Amazon so first browse heavily your local Media Play. I have been amazed at some of the stuff I've found there. I got a DVD of "A Walk In the Sun", a superb black and white movie made in 1947 about an American platoon mission from the Salerno landings to a German held farmhouse a ways in land for about $10. The actors will amaze you as they're so young! Dana Andrews, Huntz Hall, Lloyd Bridges, John Ireland to name a few.You get the idea.
Well, so long for now. Back to Combat Mission which by the way is only available on the internet at battlefront.com!! See you next time.
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© Copyright 2002 Hal Thinglum
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