Questions.

[Oldbones]

I have been playing against some of you guys for a year now, and its brilliant.
 Right now it appears that the rate of game results has rapidly increased, is this normal for the end of the year ?

Question 2.
I bought CS ME  last night, after the download, it went in to a different part of my files, and of course I have to apply the update. Do you guys have ME in the same set of files as WF,EF II and RS or is it separate?

I had a quick look at ME, but it was very late,  so its sort of the same, but so very different, I will play with it for a while and you never know I will  maybe even play a real game, Mark might give me a few lessons and help with this.


I have had a good year doing this and look forwards to more.

[Big Ivan]

Oldbones,

Question 1: IMO the rate of games reported is based a lot on the weather. As the weather starts to turn into winter there is a greater chance of games being completed and reported. Another reason could be that Campaign Series Vietnam is coming out soon so a lot of the players are sharpening their skills in anticipation for that game being released.

Question 2: MY CS Middle East is a separate install from John Tiller's Campaign Series. They are both in the same folder in my rig under "Matrix Games". But both of them run on an entirely different engine. What I mean is JTCS(EFII,WF and RS) run on its game engine(executables) and CSME runs on its separate engine(executable). They are not connected all is one under the same executable.

CSME is vastly different in play and graphics from JTCS. You will find as you play CSME that through the years the weapon systems, tanks especially, become more deadly and powerful as one gets into the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. True too, the anti-tank weapons like TOW and Saggar become more deadly and towed AT Guns disappear entirely. There is a good scenario that kind of shows this called "Humbling of the Tank". You can experience the power of modern anti-tank weapons.


There is also the addition of helicopters which change the battlefield entirely!! Some helos transport troops while others are tank busters. Whole different idea than WWII.

In modern warfare the saying goes if it can be seen it can be almost instantly killed. That wasn't the case in WWII for the weapon systems had not advanced that far yet. 

Hope you enjoy both games as much as I do!

Big Ivan

[Oldbones]

I have been reading the manuals, lots of similar things, and lots more new things.
Is the AI more intelligent in ME than it is on the older games, WF,EFII and RS?
is the battles, any thing like the WWII stuff we/I have been playing.
Is it the same when playing against a human, as far as saving files etc.
I feel like I manage reasonably well with the older game, is the transition onto the new style easy.

[Big Ivan]

"Is the AI more intelligent in ME than it is on the older games, WF,EFII and RS?"

I believe it is. You can adjust the A/I like in JTCS to make it audacious, cautious or shifting(shifts between the two). Good news is my understanding if I read correctly the A/I will be way better in the Vietnam game when it comes out.

"is the battles, any thing like the WWII stuff we/I have been playing."

Early on; 1940's and early '50's yes. But when you get into the 1960's and beyond the weapon systems are so much better. Tanks are there but they can be destroyed quite easily sometimes. Since they are usually a high point value item you have to be careful with them. There is also a new function added call "Recon Spotting". Recon units can perform spotting to see what is in front of them by expending action points. In JTCS recon was usually done by death. In other words you found out where the enemy was after he shot at you and in most cases killed your recon unit. Now in CSME recon units can spot out to visibility range and because of that have a higher survivability!

"Is it the same when playing against a human, as far as saving files etc."

Yes but in CSME there are sub folders which save ongoing and played games in a folder called "Saves". Also there is a folder called "Scenarios" where all the files associated with scenarios are stored. This is a big advantage because unlike JTCS all your files are not in one big folder, the game folder. This new feature keeps thing separate which is nice.

"I feel like I manage reasonably well with the older game, is the transition onto the new style easy. "

I've been playing the original East Front since 1998 when it first came out. A few years later when they came out I jumped right into West Front and Rising Sun. The transition? Yes in general I found it easy. But at first I went with a couple of smaller scenarios just to get the feel of the game. Also very important are the Bootcamp scenarios and Teaching scenarios. They walk you through various aspects of the game and some of the new things that are in CSME. They are very well done. If you want to learn from scratch go through a couple of those against the A/I. You'll get a good feel for the game!

Hope this helps Oldbones and good luck!

If you have any more questions please post. Myself and other CSME veterans are always happy to help!

Regards,

Big Ivan (John)

[Jason Petho]

One thing to keep in mind with the tranistion to the later wars is that the helicopter model in Middle East was in its infancy. You'll find that with Vietnam, the helicopter model has changed significantly (which makes sense, as Vietnam has far more helicopter operations).

These changes will be included in an UPDATE for CSME after CSVN is released.

Thank you for your support, Oldbones, it is appreciated!

[Oldbones]

I have played a couple of the training scenarios now, very impressive. British SAS takes the airfield, very easy to do.
So the mechanics of the game are straight forwards as far as I can see. Course the SAS, who dares wins !
I haven't come across any helicopters or planes yet, find out about that when I get around to it.
Another one I did was a small town, which I had a couple of tanks and 3 platoons to hold the town and try and take the other half that was under the control of the enemy.
The main thing is so far it appears to be a lot less units to archive the goals. EF II taking a small town approx. a mile square, doubt if three platoons would be enough.
The air field scenario 4 squads of SAS to take an airfield, In RS where there are airfields to take, you wont likely get a situation where 4 squads /platoons would be enough.
One other thing I noticed, when the enemy tank was sitting on a hex side which was lower than the hex it was facing, it looked to be sitting at an angle, exsposeing its belly as it went up the gradient, might have been my eyesight, but I though of defensive tactics I would use as soon as I saw that.
All in all a whole new game, and whole new way of competing against others who do this for a hobby.

You fellows that have made this, it is us who own you a thankyou,