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Section Leaders:
April Archive
18:25 EST THE ANNEX IS OPEN!!! Well truth be known, I just got impatient and felt like giving you guys a sneak peak! So follow the link over on the Nav-bar and check it out! To christen it you will find an exclusive Uniform Gallery which will eventually feature every uniform included in the game from 1944-45! Fresh up are the 1944 versions of the US Infantry and Paratrooper uniforms. Over here we have the weeks POTD Archive all set to go. Have a look at these archived goodies right HERE.
11:45 EST Good morning everyone. I just popped in throw up a new POTD for you. There should be a more substantial update later today with some more FINALIZED graphics for you to chew on. This time featuring some of the awesome variety of uniforms that await you in Combat Mission. Today's POTD pays homage to the master of the cinematic Mexican standoff, Mr. John Woo. If you have seen his movies that you will recognize this scene. See it up close and Hard Boiled right HERE. -Madmatt Saturday, April 29, 2000 18:15 EST I am not sure why (unless the fact that Netscape is a steaming pile of horse crap is a reason) but apparently users of various versions of Netscape were experiencing problems with this page loading correctly since yesterday. Some with 4.7 could and others couldn't. I have finally gotten the page to display again but I had to take down some of the new graphics that were recently put in. I will be doing a lot of testing on this throughout the weekend. Any problems with the page please bring immediately to my attention at mailto:mattf@thegamers.net Thanks! Today's POTD is also the first time graphics have been shown which are finalized. Check out those camo patterns on these Fallshirmjaegers. The sharpshooter in front even has a sniper scope on his rifle! This game is just incredible. See the full version HERE and be prepared for a barrage of new graphics in the days to come! -Madmatt 21:00 EST You know there is just something so invigorating about watching 3 hours worth of work and site updates getting flushed down the crapper because FrontPage is such a piece of SHIT! Ahhh... That feels better... As you may have noticed there are some new graphics peeking out tonight, well for those with IE at least!. These are some of effects that are also running over at 'The Annex' and gives you a sneak peak at the new look which will be coming here in the near future. The Annex itself is nearing completion and will be unveiled very soon as well. Max Molinaro has been a busy little beaver lately and we have his newest creation just ready to bust out over in his Private Gallery. Check it for yourself right through HERE. Halley's namesake may only come around every 76 years or so but luckily for you you won't have to wait so long to see a cool POTD. In tonight's celestial masterpiece we witness with our naked eyes a British Comet tank nudging up close to a building while a Challenger keeps watch from the rear. All this and its raining too. See for yourself HERE. If you like British tanks then be sure to pay the newest little Combat Mission site a visit as THE BUNKER was just presented with 6 all new exclusive pictures taken from the battle above. Just doing our part to be good web neighbors. Look for them in the days to come. By the way, the truth be known: The average period of Halley's orbit is 76 years but you can not calculate the dates of its reappearances by simply subtracting multiples of 76 years from 1986. The gravitational pull of the major planets alters the orbital period from revolution to revolution. Non-gravitational effects (such as the reaction from gasses boiled off during its passage near the Sun) also play an important, but smaller, role in altering the orbit. Between the years 239 BC and 1986 AD the orbital period has varied from 76.0 years (in 1986) to 79.3 years (in 451 and 1066). Ok, so I took a little Astronomy in college! -Madmatt 18:25 EST As I said earlier, while work on the new CMHQ-Annex proceeds things around here will be a little slow. But rest assured I haven't forgotten about you guys so tonight I give you a new POTD. Here we see another nice close-up of the average US grunt officer with his command in tow behind as they assault across this wooden bridge. Some people have asked about the Compass feature recently in the CM Forum so I made sure it was featured prominently. It's not overbearing at all and is really a benefit for those of us navigationally challenged. Of course if you really don't like it you could just go into the BMP directory and make that graphic transparent! See the full version HERE. Helping to fill the void while my attentions are elsewhere this week is Wild Bill and his awesome site located at http://wbr.thegamers.net. His Combat Mission specific area: Boots & Tracks has a ton of new features up including a After Action Report from a Beta scenario and an interview with the man most responsible for some of the awesome textures, Dan Olding. Dan has done some amazing work recently and you won't believe some of the detail that you are going to witness while playing. Pay old Bill and his rad group of Raiders a visit once your done tracking mud through here. One of the things I am hoping will most strike you as different about the 'Annex' is the look. While the basic layout is the same between both sites (the use of Nav bars etc..) I have tried to add a little military flair to the new site. Some of that flair will be making its way here as well in the coming days. We certainly hope you like the changes we have in store. -Madmatt 13:30 EST It's has been a rather slow news day so far. There is a new Combat Mission site though at http://www.panzershark.com/bunker called 'The Bunker'. Looks good so far and we welcome them aboard although they used a picture of mine from a POTD without permission, but I wont hold it against them. ;-) Let me know guys if you want a clearer picture and I will do one up for ya. In local news work continues to proceed on the 'Annex' site. To ease the pain of anticipation we offer to you a new POTD. I don't often feature just infantry in my pictures but this one struck me as having just the right blend of action and poetic beauty. That's an American grenade you see caught in mid-flight before it detonates amongst the fleeing German infantry. See the full version right through THESE doors. -Madmatt 21:45 EST Easter, the time of year where we celebrate one mans death by eating Ham, hunting for eggs and conning a cute little bunny rabbit outa some candy... Hmmm... Anyway things are going full speed at the 'Annex' but updates are going to be a little scarce here until that projects kicks off. I am hoping to have her ready by weeks end but don't hold me to it. Actually, YOU can hold me to whatever you want but I ain't opening it up until it's ready. For your passover delight we have a new POTD for you to gawk at. It's a nice action shot and which gives you an idea of some of hilly terrain you may face in Combat Mission. Check it out in all its glory HERE. The weeks POTD Archive is also now assembled and we are at (incredibly enough) the eleventh week of this feature! And to think I started this whole POTD business as I thought it would be an easy way to update the site! Heh! Visit the archive right through THIS. -Madmatt 19:00 EST As some of you may already know for some time now I have been working on a second Combat Mission site which would support this one. This site has been in extensive testing for over a month and the time is almost ripe to unleash it upon the CM Community. Many of you already know of some of its advanced features such as: Real Time Chat, The CM Ladder, Automated News Postings, Email Notification of News, Full News Archive Searches and many other cool things. So without further ado allow me to announce the forthcoming grand opening of the COMBAT MISSION HQ ANNEX!!! The CMHQA will be a sister site to this one but will be running on a separate server (no ad banners!!! Well, at least not yet!). It will not have duplicate information but all new areas including a Military Quiz area, a Humor section, and WW II photo archive called Pictures from the Front. Just a more laid back (if that's possible!) site where fun will be the order of the day. There is also a very good chance that the CMMC section will also be transferring to this new location as well in the near future. More on that as it develops. I will be also looking for people interested in scouring the globe for Combat Mission News as I can set up news posting accounts where you, the viewing public, can update the news yourself! If you are interested in becoming even more sycophantical than you already are then drop me a note HERE and we can talk about what and how it needs to be done. CMHQA will be opening its doors very soon and I will be sure to make the normal amount of noise about it! Ok, so what do we have for you here? Well we have a nice little POTD which shows you what an unidentified Tank Destroyer appears like. See for yourself HERE. Max Molinaro has awakened from his Ruppenzel like sleep and cranked out a fairy tale picture which is now in his personal gallery. See it by clicking HERE. -Madmatt 12:30 EST Can you tell that I like all the new Panther textures? Well there are three to choose from (one for each model in the game) so its hard for them to grow old. Today's POTD shows a G model (I believe) encountering some hefty odds. Sadly an off camera Sherman drilled an Armor Piercing round right through the back of his turret about 2 seconds after this picture was taken thereby ending, rather decisively, this little face-off. See the full version HERE. Ok, the other 3 articles in the series were a little dry (like a pint of gin!) but they were leading up to this. Fionn Kelly unleashes the tank armies of the Soviet Union upon the beleaguered German forces in part 4 of his life's work article on Soviet Tank Development. This time around we get into the Great Patriotic War with Germany and cover the years 1941-45. It's all in the Articles Section or you can be all lazy and pathetic and just use this LINK. You will also now find a PRINT
FRIENDLY native .doc format that you can click on that will give
you the black text on white background and also has the first 4 parts
all combined. See? We do listen to your comments! -Madmatt 12:30 EST Can you tell that I like all the new Panther textures? Well there are three to choose from (one for each model in the game) so its hard for them to grow old. Today's POTD shows a G model (I believe) encountering some hefty odds. Sadly an off camera Sherman drilled an Armor Piercing round right through the back of his turret about 2 seconds after this picture was taken thereby ending, rather decisively, this little face-off. See the full version HERE. Ok, the other 3 articles in the series were a little dry (like a pint of gin!) but they were leading up to this. Fionn Kelly unleashes the tank armies of the Soviet Union upon the beleaguered German forces in part 4 of his life's work article on Soviet Tank Development. This time around we get into the Great Patriotic War with Germany and cover the years 1941-45. It's all in the Articles Section or you can be all lazy and pathetic and just use this LINK. You will also now find a PRINT FRIENDLY
native .doc format that you can click on that will give you the black
text on white background and also has the first 4 parts all
combined. See? We do listen to your comments! -Madmatt Wednesday, April 19, 2000 12:45 EST As promised in the Combat Mission Forum, Here are TWO new POTDs for you to feast on. View picture 1 HERE and picture 2 HERE. -Madmatt 22:25 EST Things have been incredibly hectic around here lately but rest assured that all this chaos is all directed in support of Combat Mission and there are some very cool things in the works. Above in the POTD spot you will find another of the Hi-Res 1600x1200 shots. This one is taken of a little engagement between a few Panthers and a ton of US tank destroyers and Shermans. Check it out in all its High Resolution glory right through HERE. Continuing in our recent trend of focusing on Artillery, we offer up another helping of this tasty topic. This time around it comes courtesy of James Sulzen and his piece is entitled Artillery Practices by the Major Combatants of WWII. James goes into great detail about the methodologies and practices of all the big players. There is some really good info and insight to be found in this gem so check it out right in HERE.
-Madmatt 15:40 EST After my little DAM experience I decided to dig deeper into the Map Editor and find out what other goodies I could unlock. With some tweaking I discovered you could do THIS. That's 4 bunkers by the way in that POTD, 2 88mm and 2 75's, but there is nothing from stopping you from throwing in a MG bunker or two for good measure and building an entire interconnected bunker complex. Lines of sight seem to work correctly and the only problem with using something like this in your scenario design is giving the allies enough smoke to cover the assault!!! As the releases of Combat Mission draws ever close, I have been overwhelmed lately with some of the newest textures implemented. So I have decided to do up a new Screenshot Gallery just for you with 8 new incredible shots. These were taken at a breathtaking 1600x1200 resolution and then reduced slightly for the sake of speed. Interesting to note that on my system at least (P3 600, TNT 2 Ultra, NEC 21 inch monitor) the game proved to VERY playable even at this ungodly high resolution. Go through HERE to view these new pictures. I have also made mention to some cool game features or gone into some battle background for each picture as well. Enjoy! -Madmatt 22:00 EST One of the areas of Combat Mission that I think will be of the most surprise for people is in the Do Your Own (DYO) Quick Battle module. With just a few selections you can have a random battle all setup with as little or as much information as you want. There are some things that you have to pick ahead of time (point totals, time of year etc..) but you can still get a fun battle with a minimum of user interaction and have a great time. That's what I have been testing the most lately and to tell you the truth I have been having a blast!
Tonight's POTD was taken from a little American probing DYO I played today. In this shot we see a US M20 Utility Car as it just spots a German 'Light Gun'. This turned out to be in fact a quad 20mm and he wasn't alone! I will talking about this battle more in the nights to come as it was really special for many reasons. Also pay attention to the new American uniforms.. Nice detail! Click HERE to see it up close. The weekly POTD Archive has also been setup and is ready right over HERE as well. -Madmatt 11:55 EST Just managed to squeak this update in before the midnight hour and it's a good thing to as its got quite a kick to it! As in Artillery delivered Variable Timing (or VT for short) kicks! Jon Sowden and Tim Orosz (better known as the infamous 'rune') go into great detail about Artillery shells, their respective fusings and how best to ruin someone's day with them. Awesome article!!! Two Thumbs up... WAAAAYYYY Up right in into our Articles area over HERE. Tonight's POTD gives us a glimpse at the precise moment when at least two pairs of trousers became soiled. That shell shaped gray object just happens to be a bazooka round and its about to give that Pz IV driver an awful headache. See it up close right in HERE. -Madmatt 22:45 EST Some technical issues on my end have transpired to cut the update short tonight but we did manage to post Fionn Kelly's part 3 of his Soviet Tank Development Article. You can find it in the Articles section or just follow this LINK. -Madmatt 20:45 EST No DAM tonight but I got something pretty cool none the less. Many people have been crying out for a AAR based on the more recent Beta Builds. Well that is still in Fionn's capable hands but I got the next best thing. Today I was playing a randomized Do Your Own battle against the AI and it was quite simply amazing! Now you can't randomize everything at this point, you still have to pick the time of year, weather, point total, and overall map type but you can let the computer pick the rest and that's what I did. I choose a October '44 overcast day meeting engagement centered around a small village with me as Allies (although I didn't specify WHICH Allies). I got that and much much more! Check out page 5 in the Heroes Corner for a little battle summary and the newest inductee. Use this handy LINK to get right there. -Madmatt 21:30 EST Well it's about DAM time! I have done some tweaks on my DAM theme from last night and also threw in some Allied Fighter-Bombers that decided they wanted to party as well. See it all in the new DAM Again Special Event right in HERE. One more thing, that Dam has a name now. It's named for the winding little river it spans along the German West Wall. The River Hotte... That's right. HOTTE DAM!
Tonight's quaint little POTD shows us some normal everyday checkpoint activity up top of the newly christened Hotte Dam. That's the RIVER Hotte by the way! We also get a real eyeful of some of the new kubelwagen textures right HERE. -Madmatt 22:55 EST Time and time again I get asked just how powerful the Map Editor really is. In a recent Forum message someone asked if it would be possible to get the Editor to simulate one of the Dams that crossed the Roer River. Well I got your DAM answer right through HERE. Introducing our newest Special Feature: DAM That's Awesome!
In tonight's POTD who says I don't know how to have a good time!?! Yup, that's me alright showing off in my Panther A. Nice texture eh??? See the whole momma right HERE. -Madmatt 21:10 EST Welcome to another Saturday night here at Combat Mission HQ. It was certainly with some unique tactics but its now all over and you watch the end game in the Riesberg After Action Report. Turn 21 to the Finale and now available right in HERE. Our POTD tonight comes by way of Max Molinaro who shows some important traffic safety lessons. View the full version by clicking THIS. Our weekly archive of POTD's is also ready and can be viewed using this LINK. -Madmatt 19:45 EST Welcome back! Seems the recent 'road' series of POTD's have been rather popular so with that in mind I give you THIS. Taking advantage of the poor weather, the assembled forces of the Third Reich move out toward an inevitable fate... By the way, there at least four separate unit types in that picture. Can you name them all? We also now have turns 16-20 (with movies and pictures) in the ongoing Riesberg After Action Report. Pick up where we last left off with Jason and Robert right through HERE. -Madmatt 18:35 EST Greetings fellow e-soldiers! Due to some things going on behind the scenes at CMHQ the update tonight will be rather anemic but rest assured that the weekend will be stocked full of goodies! But I wouldn't leave you completely empty handed. Read on McDuff for tonight's Blue Plate Special-o-Love! Last nights POTD touched on some of the intrinsic beauty that can be found in Combat Mission. A French countryside just beginning to be awakened with the golden beams of dawn. A flurry of activity as a men and machines begin to escape from the veil of sleep. It was pretty... It was scenic... It was a classic... IT WASN'T ME!!!! No, so I took the beauty of that scene and with my unwavering authority I twisted and manipulated the view to better fit my sense of aesthetic quality! Basically I snuck in some German Armored units at night and watched with evil glee as they blew the living crap outa those wussy Americans! Bwaahahahaaa!!!!! See my unholy creation in all its full might HERE. By the way, all those changes you see above (time of day, added German units, burning terrain/building) took mere minutes to add to the original scenario from yesterday. YES, the editor is THAT good! Of course, I had to blow up the American vehicles myself, but then, that was the fun part... Oh, and about that Wirblewind against infantry??? EVIL... ;-) -Madmatt 20:30 EST Welcome back to the Internets only Combat Mission Dojo! As that golden day in late May draws ever closer I am going to be getting more and more busy with my TESTER duties so don't be surprised if a day goes by without an update. Trust me, the effort I put forth now will pay off big once the game ships. I couldn't stay away from here if I had to so you won't notice many 'gaps'... Ok, now that that is out of the way lets dig in to tonight's offering. Fionn serves up part two in his IMMENSE series on Soviet Tank Development. He gets up to 1937 this time around and you too can become the life of your next party with the knowledge you gain after reading it right HERE. Today's POTD shows the beauty in Combat Mission is just not in its rendition of battles but in the 'total effect' of the European Theater of Operations. With the nightmare of the bocage finally behind them, a platoon of American infantry moves out into the shimmering dawn while passing a platoon of Tank Destroyers still slumbering under the watchful eye of a tree enshrouded French tavern. Wow! See it all HERE for yourself. -Madmatt 18:45 EST Getting back into the grove of things with the POTD's and tonight's shows quite a few textures that have improved dramatically since those by-gone days of the Demo. Check out the Panther, oh and don't forget the Marder III, Hmmm, the buildings look pretty damn good too! And then there is the smoke and fire! Oh forget it! It's all GOOD! See for yourself HERE. Our new After Action Report resumes with the third installment of Riesberg battle between Jason and Robert which now covers up to turn 15. Get into all the action, pictures and PBEM movies right in HERE. -Madmatt 12:15 EST Today is a double treat as not only is it a Saturday but also the beginning of a new month. And oh yeah, it's also about the lamest 'Holiday' in existence, namely April Fools Day. But we don't have any tricks for you here, just down and dirty death and killing! The show begins with out with our second installment of the new Riesberg AAR. It is now up to turn 10 and the fight is really starting to get going! Head on over to the After Action Report section right through HERE. The past weeks POTD Archive gallery is now ready and can be viewed, without reservations no less, right in HERE. Today's POTD is again culled from my Patton Museum pictures. An apt caption might be: 'Honest honey, it's just a fender bender!!!'. Check out this poor StuG III all nice and close right HERE. Still looking for last nights Friday update? Well stop it 'cause there wasn't one! -Madmatt
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