My two Passions

[Tankertony]

Kameraden, Battlers, Old fighters, Men of the beer-guard-ens, Grogs!
For many, many years my two passions have been my family, and assualting disrupted units. Now the latter is in grave danger. I grew up on Squad Leader back in the 70's. When ASL came out I just prayed for the computer geeks to get on with it. When the Founders gathered a dozen years ago, they created a perfect game. Sorry, the basic system was perfect. It stood the test of time. Some from time to time would complain about realism, dynamics, etc. From what I know they moved on to Combat Mission and found happiness there, good for them.
First paragraph, p. 102, of my completely falling apart original EF manual, the great Eric Larsen clearly states the Founders intentions concerning game play (disrupt/assualt, etc.) I learned the Art, and it is an Art, from the best to ever play the game. My Master was BobP. Mastering the art is what truly seperates the elite from everyone else. It really is no secret. And its never easy, as some of us may make it look. Skill, patience, aggressiveness,...luck.
And now tanks can't even overrun artillery? I pray its a bug.
After downloading the official version two days ago I went to work. My first assault was a simple,... this is too painful to get into detail, but to make it brief all four assualts that turn failed. I said, this has gotta be a bug. My last assualt , I said to myself, ok, I'll just throw in the whole shebang, 3 full T34-85 plt against a totally battered and bleeding 2 str SS plt. Stopped cold. I started yelling at my wife. Then I get a pbem turn from a truly venerable old comrade who you would all know and he actually said that 'he was afraid to do any assualting' that turn. Tears came to my eyes, I literally wept. The icing on the cake was when moments later I got another pbem message from a comrade who simply gave up the game we had been playing for months, a size 10,
after he was unable to overun my lonely, exposed artillery battery.
With all due respect to the great, committed, comrades who developed the update, I love everything you've done. The new graphics, EXCELLENT, the new and expanded OOB's, its what I've been waiting for, the new sounds and scenarios and subs and trains...AWESOME! I was amazed at the fuss some put up about that stuff, hey, if you don't like it, don't play those scenarios. And remember, CM has great realism. But
messing with the assault/disrupt dynamic is not something you can turn off or avoid. It fundamentally changes the game, like replacing the wheel with the octagon, or getting rid of that pesky rudder on a ship. Well, I just hope this is some kind of error, and if it is, as Gilda would say,.....neeevvveeeermiiinnnd.

And if not, thank God I didn't throw away my Gold.

Tankertony>>>