Beta Bulge Bash ( was Silence! )

[oi_you_nutter]

ummm Bishops Finger

btw, thats a beer not a sexual act

[sterckxe]

Hi,

Now that the Panther Boys are feaverishly working towards getting COTA gold and out the door it was decided by the more lazy part of the beta-team that this would be a good time to go AWOL on them by taking part in a recce mission of the Ardennes. The official reason was to get a good feel of the terrain in preparation for the Bulge game but the real reasons varied from a chance to eat some Belgian fries to finding some new Karp fishing spots.

As base camp was near the Waterloo battlefield Friday afternoon was spend there. Everyone was truly amazed at how small that battlefield really is : 3 km wide by maybe 1.5 km deep. Climbing the 291 stairs to the top of the artificial hill erected at the site posed no major problems though Ray kept looking for an elevator sign.

Saturday saw us checking out some remains of the Westwall near Monschau - Dragon teeth and bunkers, a hike through the woods in Hollerath following Rollbahn A (the most northern of the 6th Panzer Army's roads of advance) a look at what this "Losheim gap" really is, and then Peiper's trail - following the exact route Kampfgruppe Peiper took from Germany to Stavelot with Andries "Final_Drive" Verspeeten as our expert guide. The final daylight hours were spend checking out the Panther in Grand Menil (it's big) and the King Tiger in La Gleize (it's even bigger)

Sunday we traveled to Diekirch in Luxemburg to visit the museum there. 3 hours passed in the blink of an eye - the stuff they've got there is simply amazing, displayed in an abundance bordering on the chaotic. Time for some Luxemburg fries (which turned out to be Dutch) and a drive through Wiltz got us to the war memorial in Bastogne. The museum there was a bit of a letdown after Diekirch, but it still had a nice selection of uniforms and vehicles. From the top of the war memorial it
became clear how small the Bastogne perimeter actually was and how close the Germans came to overrunning it.

The Recce team saw some personnel shuffles throughout the long weekend but consisted of :

Ray Wolfe - Panther Games beta and scenario designer
Mark-Jan "Grouchy" Luppens - Panther Games beta and map creator
Marc Schwanebeck - Matrix Games graphics designer
Andries "Final_Drive" Verspeeten - Panther Games West Front data design team
Jean-François "JeF" Lucas - Webmaster Unofficial Highway to the Reich website
Eddy Sterckx - Panther Games beta

A lot of pictures were taken and after some careful editing a selection was made :

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIn ... 2176742&f=

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[RayWolfe]

Damn! I thought I was doing the AAR? It was going to consist of one word: Wow!


Seriously, a big public thank-you to Eddy for his organisational, logistics and entertainment abilities.

Cheers
Ray

[Arjuna]

Those pictures are great. Now I have a real ( I hope ) shot of Ray and Eddy for inclusion in the game credits.[;)]

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna
Those pictures are great. Now I have a real ( I hope ) shot of Ray and Eddy for inclusion in the game credits.[;)]

Time to confess I think. The reason you've got that picture of my dog is because he's been doing all the testing, not I. He doesn't mind me taking the credit/blame for that but he insists on getting *his* picture in the credits [;)]

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[Arjuna]

Sure he does.[;)]

[RayWolfe]

Arjuna, I thought you were trying to project an image of team of svelte young men supporting this game. Pictures of fat old men lurking in the woods are not really good public relations. So stick with Eddy’s dog and my wolf and you won’t go far wrong.
Ray

[Arjuna]

Oh <G> Ray uou got me wrong. I'd crop it so you only saw your beaming smile mate.[;)]

[Punch]

I feel that, in the interest of the game being released sometime, I should remind you of the difficulty encountered when we tried messing with the credits photos while I was there [:'(]

Nice work on getting it done by the way [:)] Hopefully you'll have finished your much deserved holiday by the time I finish this semester [:)]

[Arjuna]

ORIGINAL: Punch

I feel that, in the interest of the game being released sometime, I should remind you of the difficulty encountered when we tried messing with the credits photos while I was there [:'(]

Nice work on getting it done by the way [:)] Hopefully you'll have finished your much deserved holiday by the time I finish this semester [:)]

Hi Daniel,

God knows I really need a holiday but alas the coffers are empty and Defence want me to start working for them asap ( read next week ).

Final Candidate build #1 is just about to go out now. [:)]

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna
... and Defence want me to start working for them asap ( read next week ).

Aha, so can we look forward then to a modern version of the Panther Games engine or will you be digging trenches for them ? [;)]

No need to point out that I'm incredibly nosey - I know that already [:D]

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[Txema]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

ORIGINAL: Punch

I feel that, in the interest of the game being released sometime, I should remind you of the difficulty encountered when we tried messing with the credits photos while I was there [:'(]

Nice work on getting it done by the way [:)] Hopefully you'll have finished your much deserved holiday by the time I finish this semester [:)]

Hi Daniel,

God knows I really need a holiday but alas the coffers are empty and Defence want me to start working for them asap ( read next week ).

Final Candidate build #1 is just about to go out now. [:)]

Hi Daniel,

God knows I really need a holiday but alas the coffers are empty and Defence want me to start working for them asap ( read next week ).

Final Candidate build #1 is just about to go out now.

Really? Are you going to work for Defence? What are you going to do???


Txema

[Neilster]

Getting back to beers and islands for a second, it would be remiss of me not to put in a plug for Tasmanian beers like Cascade (Australia's oldest brewery) and Boags.

It's the pristine water they're made from that makes them good IMHO. The Roaring Forties bring rain from deep in the Southern Ocean.

Anyway, the best beer is that one makes oneself. It's satisfying and cheap. Plus a lot of taste-testing is required. For quality control of course. [:'(]

Cheers, Neilster

[Arjuna]

ORIGINAL: Txema
Really? Are you going to work for Defence? What are you going to do???

I'm working under contract with the Australian Defence Simulations Organisation on their Joint Training and Command Centre. I'll be working on orders of battle and scenario development plus "other duties as directed". [:)]

[Marc von Martial]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna
"other duties as directed". [:)]

Hahaha, the latrine [;)][:D]

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

ORIGINAL: Arjuna
"other duties as directed". [:)]

Hahaha, the latrine [;)][:D]

We were all *thinking* that, but you're the only one stu^h^h^h^brave enough to actually post it - Congrats [:D]

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[goodwoodrw]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

ORIGINAL: Txema
Really? Are you going to work for Defence? What are you going to do???

I'm working under contract with the Australian Defence Simulations Organisation on their Joint Training and Command Centre. I'll be working on orders of battle and scenario development plus "other duties as directed". [:)]

Ha. What great great Public Service phrase, "other duties as directed". [:D] I've been out of the PS almost 10 years and a little less out of Defence Force Reserve, can't remember much out of either organization, but that phrase still rings loudly [:D]

[Neilster]

I expected to have to clean sh!tters when I was at recruit training. It didn't surprise me that I still had to do it whilst undertaking aerospace trade training. But to still have to do it when I reached a fighter squadron was a bit of a bastard. While most of the other junior guys cussed and darkly whispered mutinous things, I tried to see the funny side of it. I'd mock the recruitment ads that portrayed F-18s blasting through the sky on full afterburner etc with a gravelly voice imploring one to...

"Get out there...Join the Mach 2 world of the Air Force...Excitement plus....It's coooool..."

I'd say, "This is the exciting, Mach 2 world you always dreamed about fellas. Hey Macka...could you pass that toilet brush? No, by the handle you dickhead."

Strangely, they often didn't see the funny side of it.

The powers that be were eventually forced to hire civvies to do it due to a lack of personnel to actually service and maintain aircraft. The wonderful world of the military.

Cheers, Neilster