Timskorn

I'd be interested to hear strange, impressive and otherwise unique experiences you've all had in SC2 games (primarily H2H ones). Anyone annihilate you with an odd strategy or have you tried something completely funky and managed to pull it off? Any huge comebacks or utter miscalculations that turned an otherwise assured victory to defeat? I remember a game wayyyy back, playing against JJR, that I managed to bring his Axis navy into a trap and smack the living snot out of it. I thought his Navy was done for and figured to never see it return. Later I came to find out he managed to re-invest not only in rebuilding his entire navy but teched it up as well to come back and crush my complacent Allied navy....and still have enough juice for Russia and a victory.

Gotta love this place.

Has anyone happened to see World War II: When Lions Roared? Looks like it was a mini-series from 1994 about the Tehran Conference? Michael Caine as Stalin, Bob Hoskins as Churchill and John Lithgow as FDR. Any good? Recommended?

JJR just gets worried topics like these turns into Bunta worship. I think most people just happen to have these Nazi relics because that's what our grandfathers brought back. I doubt my mother's uncle brought the uniform home to goose step in it in front of the mirror. War loot, it happens. I enjoy being in the presence of history. It sets the imagination off. Whose hands made this flag? Who held it? What battle was it in?

I've always liked the idea of breaking down industry and production a little more. Nothing too complicated. However, with the way SC2 is designed that doesn't really fit in too well. We really control most of the war at a high level. We have an Army and we tell it to attack. We put research into Advanced Aircraft and just hope our scientists knows what that means. How this would work well within SC2 is to make these kinds of details optional, rather than necessary. For example, under Advanced Aircraft there are different paths you can take focusing on either jet or propeller based technology. So you could focus more on the short term benefits of making your ME-109's into FW-190's, or possibly taking a longer and riskier approach by focusing on developing the ME-163 or 262. Players who wish to fine tune that kind of research could do so, while newer players or those who don't want to mess with those details can simply invest in "Advanced Aircraft" and let the computer do the rest.

I wouldn't say we absolutely need it. Sounds like a nice feature though. Would help when attacking through the pass in North Africa.

Anyone have any, and if you do what is it and how'd it come into your possession? The only thing I have is a full sized Nazi flag my mother's uncle brought back with him. He was in the 82nd Airborne, but I'm not sure where he got this flag specifically. It's still got dirt stains and some holes in it but otherwise it's in great condition. Allegedly he had a lot of other stuff, but when he passed away his wife sold most of it. The two I remember specifically was a luger and a German tank commanders uniform.

Wow, artillery sounds pretty fun, and effective. Hopefully it won't bog things down too much when attacking though. While this isn't an RTS game by any means, I think this truth rings true though...balancing a game to favor attacking is the way to go. If playing defensive is typically the more effective route, you run into more boring/stalemate type games. I'm sure that's all been accounted for though, and artillery will just be another cool unit and strategy to persue.

Thanks for the info Blashy. I just think future iterations need more apparent feedback for all those people who like to jump in and just play. You'll be amazed how many mainstream reviewers do this, then rate a game based on their own ignorant experience with it. And, to a degree, it helps bring in casual players who will typically play a demo and determine if they'll purchase it from that. If they can't figure it out the first run through, their next step is usually "Uninstall".

This topic should be changed to "Ideas and Suggestions" and stickied. Here's something for HQ's: HQ’s are a perfect unit for added functionality. Right now they serve as supply wagons and help boost unit stats. The mechanics for manually choosing units for an HQ to supply aren’t readily apparent right now. Sometimes a unit is highlighted, but you can’t attach it to that HQ. Sometimes a unit not connected to an HQ isn’t highlighted and I’m not sure why I can’t connect them. HQ’s could also serve more of a feedback/UI role. On the drop-down menu for the HQ, a “Status” button could be used to give the player some plain English feedback on the condition of the units under that HQ’s control. For example, after selecting “status” a pop-up graphic appears of the General and a small summary of his assessment and recommendations. This could be based off of a lot of different factors, depending on how detailed HC would want it. You could measure the general fighting ability of those units based on the combined averages of the units’ stats, such as strength, supply, morale and experience. Out of five units, for example, two may be fully ready to fight, but he may say the other three aren’t prepared for heavy fighting. For “recommendations”, that would be a bit more difficult but if done well could be a good way to give suggestions to new players on when to throw the kitchen sink at them, stay defensive or fully retreat.

There is a trailer for it out. Watch it. I'm actually interested in seeing it. Plot seems to be around some missionaries going to a SE Asian island and getting roughed up by some local militia/terrorists. Enter Rambo. One shot shows him commandeer a .50 cal and blast a fool point blank with it. Looks a bit more rooted in the style of the first one, and not the over-the-top style of the last ones.

Very niiiiiiice.

I think most of us want historic plausibility, but not to be straightjacketed. Could Germany have made four Aircraft carriers between 1939 and 1942? Maybe, maybe not...but if you want to in SC2 you can. Might not be smart, but we have the choice and it clearly affects other areas. Another area that can help out with the current units is added personalization, such as my example above. HC did a bit with that by adding the "Honors" button, but who really uses that? What if *I* could bestow the honors? Ie, medals, commendations and reduced upgrade costs? One of the many beautiful things about the first two X-Com games was its ability to get you attached to good soldiers. Outfitting them with the best equipment, designating them the tough jobs. Say the 3rd Panzer Division enters Paris. Right now they get the Paris (year) honor. What if you could designate medals/commendations to that unit which would give it a permanent morale boost of say, 5%? What about that unit that held onto Moscow after repeated air and armor attacks? Award them. Distinguish the unit. Seperate them from the rest for what they accomplished. On the unit graphic on the map, add a medal when they're honored. So when I see the 3rd Panzer Division rolling in with three medals on it, I'll know I'm facing some crack troops. You could even go so far as to adding additional graphic layers to the existing ones, based on unit medals/honors/commendations. That 3rd Panzer Division with 3 medals and 2 bars of experience? Give 'em some camo instead of just "grey". Or maybe when that US Corp. becomes experienced enough, you can upgrade them to a Ranger unit (with corresponding art) which gets a bonus vs. fortified positions. Bah, its late and now I'm spraying wildly from the hip. Always fun to "toss" ideas around, anyway.

Would be an interesting concept to have an "Army Builder", so to speak, when creating your military units. When creating an Army you could have sliders to designate it to have 75% green, 25% veteran troops or vice versa. Just increase the time it takes to bring the unit onto the field depending on how experienced it is. Not as cool as full-fledged "new" unit types though.

There's also the pressure to add more units to the game to increase its marketability. Gamers just like seeing a diverse set of units.

Didn't you know, Edwin is a wizard and has long wizard sleeves.

Edwin, I like those concepts but I feel, as SO says, the Engineer unit should be scrapped. Possibly in favor of an upgrade to existing units instead, such as AI/AT/M levels are currently represented on Army/Corp units. Units with engineering capabilities would be able to do the things you listed, and increasing their level would allow more options and/or increase their effectivess at doing such things (Such as rebuilding a city. At Level 1 Engineer, you can increase it by an additional 1 MPP/turn, but at Level 3 you can do it by 3).

'ol Quentin is hit and miss for me. He loves dialog and prides himself on his ability to write it well, so you'll get your classic one-liners out of this one I'm sure. Then we'll see if the rest of the movie holds up, or if our boys will be slicing Nazi's heads off with swords.

If it gets to level 5 you can mind control your opponents armies to fight for you. Then you must build Psi labs to train your soldiers to... ...eh, wrong game.

There may be a better way to simulate it, but right now in game terms it seems fine. I think with the WaW expansion we'll see less ability to instantly transport these troops anywhere on the map...and possibly give incentive to the Axis player to disrupt rail lines to the areas they wouldn't want to see the Siberians Op-move to. This is just another case of history vs. gameplay. I like that SC2 fines a good balance between the two. If a strict interpretation is can be both fun and balanced, great, but that can't always be the case in a game.

Fun game. Lasted until Nov. 18th, 1945. But only because I decided to fight to the last man. Probably last time I do that to anyone again. Playing as the Axis I almost feel like its part of the game if you find yourself in their historical (losing) position in 44, which is when the cards finally dropped for me. I knew I was done for, but, I set a new goal to see how long I could hold the Allies off.

I didn't like The Thin Red Line when I first saw it in theaters. I was expecting something similar to SPR, and the two couldn't be more different. I remember asking, "Can we get any more shots of birds and leaves?" It's now become one of my favorite war movies, but not because of "action" scenes, but of the toll it takes on the psychological and moral aspects of a man. Not to mention that it's pretty cool how Malick contrasts the natural world with the destruction caused by a man-made war. I enjoyed A Midnight Clear. It's not the greatest film but it's one I'd definitely watch again. Another film I liked was When Trumpets Fade (I think that's the name), which was an HBO made movie I believe set around the battle of the Hurtgen Forest. Only seen it once but looking to catch it again. Got Stalingrad on my Netflix queue.

I'll have to add in Downfall. Bruno Ganz turns in an awesome performance as Hitler. Fitting for me, as in my current game with JJR is right about the time of the film.

On the nights I have a free evening to play some games, I'd rather TCP/IP. PBEM is the most convenient though and you can have multiple games going at once.

I keep half-expecting a pre-order bulletin on battlefronts front page, but I'm sure they want Shock Force to have its run for a little while first before getting knocked down a notch.