sparty

lol...hadn't considered that...I am better than the AI (future AI should note...I'm talking about 2017 AI...future AI remains our benevolent overlord) so that definitely makes me feel better. I may give it a go next Friday.

To be clear, I was offered another vehicle, but politely declined due to the poor outing I had. We were down to precious few AFVs and I felt like my taking over one of them would have been wasted when in the hands of a more capable commander it would be more effective. Everyone was incredibly nice and helped troubleshoot a few issues I was having. It was an overall good experience, but I don't want to feel that lost and useless when I join in because I'm competitive like other folks so I want to at least hold my own!

I'll definitely have to check that out. I'm a PIO so I often don't have control of my schedule (things happen) which makes it hard to commit. Where can I find more info the training sessions?

Thanks for the encouragement. I will definitely be back when I feel like I'm ready again. I have some new map reading, spotting, and positioning skills to practice in single player in the meantime!

Thanks for the fun introduction and tips. Got smoked quickly and then stuck around for another hour or so and watched before logging out. I clearly need a lot more single player practice before I'll be remotely useful in one of these... maybe another time!

lol. Good deal, then I think I'm ready. Finally tracked down and solved my button binding issue so I don't have to rely on an awkward keyboard hand position any longer.

SOLVED! It was the Logitech software, but I had to actually shut down the software and then it worked in game. Apparently making the Mouse Back button unassigned didn't do anything. Thanks for the help Ssnake. Just to be clear, I re-assigned the mouse button binding in SBPro to Mouse Back from Mouse Middle. My mouse has 5 additional buttons beyond Left and Right buttons. Hopefully if anyone else has the same issue, they can stumble on this and see they just need to exit the Logitech software completely.

My mouse has two separate buttons (one for forward and one for backward) The wheel is a separate button and a scroll that's unused by SBPro. I removed all mapping from the mouse in the Logitech application and tried again as well in case that was trying to override the game settings for some reason. I almost wonder if holding the mouse down is making it click once and it can't sustain the button press like a left or right click on this mouse. It'd be the same behavior in game I believe.

I have bound Dynamic Lead to my mouse back button but it seems to do nothing. Pressing and holding P still works like a charm, but...it's just no bueno with the mouseback on my Logitech M705. Anyone else have any success with that or run into an issue where a mouse button wasn't recognized? The game recognizes the mouse button because I have to press it to do the binding, but then in-game (Leo 2A5 & 2A4) it just doesn't work at all. Thanks for the help

I own MBT (and the WW2 origin Panzer). Both games are re-envisioning of earlier wargames published in the 1980s. In the case of both, there are Basics & Advanced games, but in terms of board wargames it's easily the best modern tank tactical game out there. I can't think of another that respects the armor, range, and weapon selection as well. You don't really memorize the charts at all (good on you if you can! lol), but the procedures that you go through become much quicker once you've played a few turns. They take a long time to play, as you might imagine, and finding an opponent willing to process a 50 page rulebook for a wargame can be a bit daunting as well. That said, if board wargaming is your thing...this is a great product.

I would expect nothing less and look forward to the downfall of our way of life. lol Since it's my first go, if I show up in TS maybe 40 minutes early will someone be there to ensure I can get connected to a server? I am comfortable with networking and dealing with my firewall, but certainly don't want to be a drag.

I'm going to give tonight a go...my first TGIF...be gentle...lol

Lol. Well put. I wasnt keen on sprites even when they were THE way all 3D graphic emulation was done.

IIRC you don't have to be online the whole time, just when you register. You would have to license computers separately though. That said, eSim would be able to track and control the number of licenses allowed per key.

Just out of curiosity, why the physical CodeMeter "Stick" solution when there's a CodeMeter software solution available? It would lower the price-point and prevent incidents where people have lost/broken/had one die/stolen by bandits with their stick!

Cool link, and I'll have to check it out more in-depth. I've been reading FM 17-15 and it's pretty useful as Panzer_Leader said.

The wrong type of customer is one who buys without understanding what they're buying. Think of the people who bought ARMA / ARMA 2 thinking it was Call of Duty for example. Those are the people that then campaigned all over the place that ARMA was a terrible series. They didn't positively contribute to the community at all, they whined, complained, and generally caused discord where none existed prior to their arrival. Agreed. I would hope that the thrill of blowing stuff up would be an attractive point for this game. That's not the wrong kind of customer though. Again, absolutely true. The issues comes in when they're NOT posting here, but rather everywhere else (wargamer.com, ign, metacritic, blogs, etc.) about the disappointment because they didn't do anything to research whether or not the game would actually be what they thought! I absolutely agree. Those are the RIGHT kinds of customers. The difference is between people who whine and complain about the things that they expect the game to be that are so far outside of what it's intended to be and people who come into it knowing what they're getting into and then sticking around whether silently or as a content contributor. You want the latter. The former are folks who will just get people riled up with outlandish critiques of the game. If you want to see that happen go check out the CMSF forums from shortly after CMSF launched. People expected some kind of Call of Duty Modern Warfare RTS and instead got a much deeper and subtle game that they weren't prepared for and made all kinds of crazy statements about the developers, the game, and the series in general. Not only did it go on there, but it went on inside YouTube comments, and generally everywhere else the game was promoted or mentioned. It really created a bizarre undercurrent of discontent that wasn't representative of the game or the majority of its fans. In short - Yes customers are good. Not all customers are a good thing.

I appreciate all the great responses!

As someone who has lurked for 2 years always getting close to buying this, but never pulling the trigger I can tell you a few things: 1 - Price wasn't the barrier. Once you buy in and get your first upgrade you're back in the realm of an Xbox 360 or PS3 game. Given the incredible depth of the game I hardly think the price is out of line. In terms of the overall market...I'll pay $125 for this unique package far quicker than I'll hand over $50 to HPS Simulations for a repackaging of a John Tiller game! They're both great, but give me a little something...ya know...for the effort... 2 - Breadth was something that delayed me. I was actually waiting for more playable vehicles and non-sprite infantry. I can't tell you why...but those sprite infantry always looked so tacky to me that I couldn't do it. It was just totally out of place. If the whole game had been sprite based...I might have gone in for it, but with the 3d modelling and everything else it just seemed lame. 3 - The biggest question, for me, was "If I buy this...can I figure it out?" I still don't know the answer to that question, but after seeing many more videos on YouTube and reading through the forum I think I can do it. Not well....but I think I can handle it. SB looks great and yes...the 640 version is what actually took me to get off my duff and buy. Seeing the game on shelves is going to attract the wrong customers. Lower prices are going to short-change the developers' efforts. Wider promotion is going to attract more critique than praise. Ultimately this is a niche product. That's a great thing because you end up with folks who genuinely want to be around it and see it succeed. It actually reminds me of when Big Time Software got the boot from Hasbro from Electronic ASL and morphed into Battlefront Software to finish and release CMBO. The people who were around throughout the transition were committed and loved that product. When it went on sale wider... BFC lost some of their focus and spent a lot of time defending their games. Since then their attitudes have been MUCH more prickly. I'd hate to see that happen here.

I have finally taken the plunge. I've done quite a bit of research on here and just want to make sure I'm good to go! 1 - Ordered the game only (Manual & DVD on backorder until 2/12 IIRC) so I'm just awaiting my dongle right? 2 - Mouse is a perfectly acceptable control vs a joystick. Seems like most say it's preference and there are plenty of pros & cons either way I go. 3 - Start with the tutorial for a single vehicle and once competent work out from there. 4 - Fridays are drop in TGIF nights and all are welcome regardless of skillset, though basic understanding and skill is expected. Now...for the new guy questions.... 1 - Is it still preferable NOT to start with either the Leo or M1? I've read differing reports on this. Any advantage or disadvantage to starting with one of the big boys? 2 - When it comes to upgrade time, I don't need to order a new CodeMeter stick, the upgrade license will provide some kind of functionality to upgrade my license? 3 - Is the printed manual worth it? If it's the same as the PDF version, I kinda feel like my iPad near me will be sufficient. It seems like the real advantage would be access to the key charts which are already available in handy download format from the site. 4 - Are there any key maps, etc. that I should be downloading to make sure I can participate? Any good training scenarios that help track a variety of skillsets to help determine proficiency with multiple or even a single AFV? --- Thanks for reading and responding. I'm thrilled to have finally taken the plunge.